Where was I ta go? A few thoughts ran through my mind. Strong Mad was intimidating, but he wasn't very quick. The KoT's castle was fratafied, but The Chort could bite straight through bricks. I quickly dacided that the only safe place was with The Cheat.

I checked out the fields, but to no avail. All that was there was a ball off blue fur, rolling across da field like a tumbleweed. He wasn't in the KoT's grill either. All I found were some charred poetry. Apparently, The Cheat was usin' them fer kindlin'. I was gettin' desperate when I got to Hamstray's house.

When I walked into the livrang room, I found him watchin' T.V. in the crisper drar, mutin' it off and on. I ran up ta him.

"The Cheat! The Chort! He's back! You gotta...we gotta...he was...explorsion! Couldn't alarm!"

"Meh meh meh meheh meeeeeeh!"

He was right. We were ready. This time we wouldn't be taken unawares. But still I was nravous. Nobody else knew.

"Meh, meh meh meheh!"

"Fer sure! We gotta get the word out!"

I strated to dial the phone, but there wasn't a tone.

"Meh."

I concured. The Chort was ahead of us. He had already knocked out our alarm and the telephone lines. But we could still reach our friends by foot! We set orf to rally the trorps.