17-A FLOATING PIECE OF DYNAMITE

A FLOATING PIECE OF DYNAMITE It had been a terrible day. I had come to Egypt to get a scoop, but I was going home empty-pawed! I looked at my watch. HOLEY CHEESE! It was already five o'clock in the morning. The sun was rising on the horizon. What an amazing sight! Now I understood why the Egyptians worshiped the sun. They gave it several names: Ra, Atum, Amon. They even built obelisks to honor the sun. I took several pictures. Then I packed my things. It was time to head back home to New Mouse City.

I said good-bye to the professor, who unfortunately could not remember anything about his invention. Oh, well. It wasn't every day a mouse got to see a real Egyptian pyramid, I told myself, I climbed onto my camel and galloped to the airport. Just as I was pulling up to the plane, my cell phone rang. It was Grandfather William. "Grandson!" he squeaked. "You're not thinking of flying back, are you? You're BLEEDING me dry! Have you forgotten my little lesson in saving money already? You'll come back by boat!" I groaned. I wasn't really in the mood for a long boat ride, but Grandfather had his mind made up. "Go to the harbor!" he barked. "I've already booked your return ticket." I galloped all the way to the harbor, where I discovered that Grandfather

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had bought me a ticket on a cargo ship. It was called the Dynamiter. I climbed on board. For some reason I had a funny feeling about that ship. I soon found out why. It was packed with deadly EXPLOSIVES! One wrong move and we'd be fried mice! It was a horrible journey. No luxury cruise for this mouse, that's for sure. I was stuck on a rickety old ship with sticks of dynamite as bunkmates. Yes, once again Grandfather William had cut costs to the tailbone! The captain of the ship was a rodent named squeaky Kaboom, but everyone

called him Boom for short. He was a gray-furred mouse with a long scar on his snout and drooping whiskers. Boom loved to tell awful jokes. His great booming laugh could be heard day and night. Whenever he saw me, he would slap me on the shoulder and squeak: "Be careful with MATCHES, Stilton! We're a floating piece of dynamite here! Hey, why are you so PALE? Ha-ha, ha-ha!" I could hardly believe I was stuck on this rattrap of a ship for one whole month! Why,

oh, why had I wanted to go to Egypt?! It was bad enough that I never got the story from Professor Spitfur, but now, to top it off, I was seasick. You see, I'm really not a sea mouse. I'm a land mouse at heart. I spent most of the journey home curled up in my bunk, shivering. Even my whiskers felt nauseous! I could not wait to get back home to New Mouse City.