3 The Case of the Killer Tree

Chapter 3 THE CASE OF THE KILLER TREE "Cheese Louise!" exclaimed Judy. "It is climbing!" meep… "Drewd and Oody getting ride on stick insect," said Thudd. "Rain forest got lotsa insects that look like stick, look like twig. Got insects that look like leaf, too." "Weird-a-mundo!" said Judy, jiggling on the back of the skittering bug. meep… "Good disguise for prey animal," said Thudd. "Look like stuff around it. Disguise called camouflage. Hard for predator animal to find prey animal that got camouflage."

"Camouflage, shamouflage," said Judy. "We could get bounced off this bug any minute. Call Uncle Al again, Thudd." "Okey-dokey," said Thudd. There were three rows of buttons on Thudd's chest. All of them glowed green, except the big purple button in the middle. Thudd pressed the purple button. It blinked three times and went dark. meep… "Unkie not answer," said Thudd. "He's probably on some super-secret project," said Andrew.

Judy groaned. "Let's get off this stupid bug as soon as it stops," she said. "We'll look for a safe place and wait till Uncle Al calls us." As the stick insect skittered up the tree, Andrew noticed that the tree trunk looked like a tangle of fat snakes. "This is a super-strange tree," said Andrew. meep… "Strangler fig tree," said Thudd. "Strangler!" said Judy. meep… "Fig tree gotta strangle other tree to grow," said Thudd. "Start when bird eat strangler fig fruit. Bird fly. Bird poop. Fig seed fall into treetop. Seed sprout. Roots grow down to ground. Get big, big, big! Strangle tree underneath. Roots turn into trunk for strangler fig." "Wowzers schnauzers!" said Andrew.

"Meat-eating plants! Killer trees!" "Weird-a-mundo!" said Judy. All of a sudden, part of the gray-brown tree trunk above them seemed to whip around. It was scrambling toward them! Andrew squinted. He made out a lizardy head with fearsome spikes at the top. A row of spikes ran down its neck. "Yaaaah!" screamed Judy. "Holy moly!" yelled Andrew. Eek! squeaked Thudd. "Forest dragon lizard! Eat stick insects!"

The creature's neck was puffing out. Its mouth opened—a pink-purple cave surrounded by small, sharp teeth. Their stick insect turned away from the forest dragon. Then it was still as a statue. Judy gave it a little kick. "Get going! Giddyap! That monster is going to eat you!" But the bug didn't move. Suddenly Andrew was getting soaked. His eyes were burning. His nose filled with a peppermint smell so strong, it hurt to breathe. "Blurf!" yelped Andrew. "Aaaack!" hollered Judy. An awful spray was shooting from the back of the insect's head—and blasting the lizard's face! The lizard shook its head. In an instant, it sped down the tree trunk. The stick insect scurried higher up the tree trunk. "Eck-uh! ECK-UH!" Judy coughed. "It smells like peppermint, but it's awful!"

meep… "This bug called peppermint-stick insect," said Thudd. "Peppermint smell make lotsa predators go way!" Just then, the big purple button in the middle of Thudd's chest started to blink. meep… "Unkie!" said Thudd. "Finally!" said Judy. Thudd's purple button popped open and a beam of purple light zoomed out. At the end of the beam floated a see-through purplish Uncle Al. Uncle Al's shaggy hair always looked like he had just pulled a sweater over his head. His face crinkled into a smile. "Hey there!" he said with a wave. "Hey, Uncle Al!" said Andrew. "I'm away from my laboratory at the moment," continued Uncle Al. "Oh no!" said Judy. "It's not Uncle Al. It's just his answering machine!" "Your message has reached my Hologram Helper answering machine," said Uncle Al. "If