CHAPTER TWELVE
There was a pond in front of me. It was really fun sticking my hands in it and watching the water move around. One splash, and it was all over the place! Some other people were playing in it too. One of wasn't a kid, because whoever it was had these really huge hands, but I wasn't worried. In fact, that person played just the same as the rest of us. I wasn't at all worried that the hands were going to hit-
SLAP!
What? Where did the water go? Why was I back in the trailer?
Was I just...hit on the cheek?
"Brat!" Ratmeat shouted, "You're too much trouble! Clean up this dump, from top to bottom!"
"Yes Sir," I said, bowing my head. That usually got him to calm down.
"Hmph." Ratmeat said, "A fat lot of good you've done for us. Worst long-term investment I've ever made."
Those were some of the usual insults. I've heard them so much that I could repeat them in my sleep.
"What are you waiting for? Get going!" Ratmeat said, pushing me out the trailer door. "You can start with the outside!"
I obediently picked up a broom-it was conveniently at my feet-and started sweeping the grass. After a while of cleaning while getting nowhere, since the grass and dirt are always dirty, Ratmeat poked his head out the trailer and scowled.
"That's enough time." He said, walking out of the trailer while rolling up his sleeves, "I'm going to whop you something good, you no-good lazy brat!"
I jerked awake.
"-another dead end. Come on, back we go."
Wuh? Where was I?
"Come on, Louie." Uncle Donald said, and I could feel the vibrations of his voice against me, "Don't get left behind."
Oh. So I was with Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald, not Ratmeat. What a relief! Uncle Donald was still carrying me, so I must have fallen asleep with him holding me.
Wait.
How the heck did I do that?
I've fallen asleep in some pretty strange places before, but never on an adult. I opened my mouth to ask Uncle Donald to put me down, but closed my mouth instead. Because actually, this was pretty comfortable.
The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook was lying on top of me, so I picked it up again. This book is amazing! It has a whole wealth of knowledge in it. It had already taught me a lot of skills which I could use the next time I didn't have anything to eat or needed a place to sleep.
Although, come to think of it I always had all my meals with Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald around, and I haven't slept on the floor in a while...
"Aha! This is the right way." Uncle Scrooge said, and all of us turned the corner.
"Looks like we found it, lads!" Uncle Scrooge continued.
There was a blank wall in front of us.
"How'd we find it?" Louie asked.
"Yeah," Dewey added, "It's just a blank wall."
"Aye, but did ya notice?" Uncle Scrooge said, walking up to the wall and searching it over with his hands, "This is the only wall that doesnae have a thing on it."
"You're right," Uncle Donald said, "Every other wall had a picture or something on it."
"Which means that we've found the right one!" Uncle Scrooge said, pressing on the wall.
It moved back a little, revealing a small niche containing a box.
"Open it, Uncle Scrooge!" Louie said.
"Wait a second," I said, jumping out of Uncle Donald's arms, "Don't touch it! There's a trap."
I opened the Woodchuck's Guidebook and turned to one of the pages. "See? It looks exactly like the one in this picture. If you want to get it out of the wall, you have to properly unlock it first."
"Good lad," Uncle Scrooge said while rubbing my head, "Why don't you boys give it a go?"
"Um, ok." I said. Dewey and Louie walked up to me, and the three of us looked at the book together.
"Looks like we have to unlock it by pressing this stone here." Dewey said, pointing at the book, "We need to press the right stone in the wall."
"But before we can unlock that one, we have to press this another stone to unlock the one we need." Louie said.
"And we'll need to press this one to unlock that one." I finished.
"So," Louie said, "We need to press three stones in the right order. But how do we know which stones?"
"Huey, turn to page 245." Dewey said, "There should be something there about how to tell which stones are part of a trap."
"Right!" Louie said, "Because the three stones we need were made with the trap, so they should be different from the other stones. Like, there might be airflow behind them and so they grow lichens or stuff on them that aren't on the other stones."
"Okay, but that still doesn't tell us the order we need to press them." I said, turning to the right page.
"Let's examine the picture a little more." Dewey said. "Once we know which stones are part of the trap, we should be able to figure out which to press based on the mechanism."
The three of us poured over the book while Uncle Donald and Uncle Scrooge sat down nearby. Finally, we narrowed down which three stones to press, and each decided to press one of them.
"Here goes!" Dewey said. He nodded at me, and I pressed the first stone.
Nothing happened. Dewey pressed the second stone, and still nothing happened. Finally, Louie pressed the third stone, and that time we all heard a small click.
"Did it work?" Louie asked.
"One way to find out." Dewey said, "One of us has to reach in and grab the box. It should come right out now."
"But if we failed, there's still a trap." Louie said.
"I'll do it." I said, and slowly, carefully, I plucked the small box from the wall.
It came out into my hands, and the three of us waited. I don't think I was breathing.
Nothing happened. What a relief!
"You did it, Huey!" Louie said, slapping my back for some reason.
"Here Uncle Scrooge," I said. The Uncles were standing right behind us now-when did they get so close?-so I passed the box over.
"Here, why don't you open it lad?" Uncle Scrooge said.
With the box still in his hands, I carefully lifted the lid. Inside it was a small stone tablet.
"That's it?" Louie asked.
"That's exactly what we've been looking for." Uncle Scrooge said.
He lifted up the tablet and looked at it.
"Wait, that's the treasure?" Dewey asked.
"Not exactly," Uncle Scrooge said, "It's written in the ancient language of the Drakes."
"What's it say?" I asked.
"It says, Those Drakes who seek that which we have hidden, go to the head of the mighty. When you are at the head, remember your children. Then you will find the way to the Forgotten."
"What does it mean?" Uncle Donald asked.
I opened up my mouth, but didn't get the chance to say anything.
"It means that the treasure isn't here after all." Uncle Scrooge said, placing the tablet back in the box. "Looks like we'll need to go back to the hotel to do some research. Or maybe we can go back to Duckburg. What do you say, lads?"
"Well, it sounds like it might be far from here, so maybe we should head home." Dewey said, "But can we stay in the Mansion for a while?"
"Dewey!" Uncle Donald said. "Don't ask your Uncle that!"
"It's just, I'd feel a little safer in a place with security cameras." Dewey explained.
"It's alright by me." Uncle Scrooge said, tucking the small box somewhere into his pocket, "I've got a few extra rooms. What d'ya say, Louie? Huey?"
"Alright." Louie said, "Let's go home."
"Me too." I said, "I like your hotel better than the one here, Uncle Scrooge."
"My hotel? Which one?" Uncle Scrooge said.
"The one you live in."
There was silence, and then my brothers started laughing.
"That's not a hotel!" Dewey said, chuckling.
"That's really his house!" Louie added, laughing.
"Oh." I said, but I really didn't get why they were laughing.
So that was a house, and not a hotel. Well, maybe Uncle Scrooge lived there with some other people.
"That's right!" Dewey said, calming down, "Uncle Scrooge lives in that big house all alone. It is big enough to be a hotel. Uncle Scrooge, why don't you rent out any of the rooms?"
"I prefer me privacy." Uncle Scrooge said, rolling his eyes. "Come along, lads. Let's head back."
We took a few steps, and I was just about to ask Dewey how Uncle Scrooge could live in that big place all alone when a cell phone rang.
I shivered, and jumped right behind Uncle Donald. A ringing cell phone was never a good thing.
"Hang on lads, this is important." Uncle Scrooge said, pulling a phone out of his pocket and answering it. "Hello? Yes...yes...what?...well then, fire them. And find him as soon as possible."
Without saying goodbye, Uncle Scrooge hung up the phone. "Bad news, lads." He said, kneeling down to our eye level, "I don't want to tell you this, but you should know. That was the chief of police. It looks like they caught Ratmeat, but he's escaped again."
Dewey gulped, and I hung my head.
"So," Uncle Scrooge said, "We'll make sure to catch him again. He'll never touch any of you ever again."
"Right." Uncle Donald said.
"So," Uncle Scrooge finished, "We're going to focus on getting back to Duckburg and figuring out the meaning behind our clue."
"I know what the Forgotten means." I said, trying to be helpful.
"What?" Uncle Donald asked.
"The Forgotten. It's on the stone, and it means the Robots." I said. "Ratmeat always called robots the Forgotten. If we saw any machine that moved by itself, he called it the Forgotten. I didn't know the real word was 'robot' until Dewey and Louie told me."
Uncle Scrooge, Uncle Donald, Dewey and Louie all looked at me.
"What is it?" I asked. Did I do something wrong?
"Huey," Uncle Scrooge said, "Has Ratmeat ever talked to you about the lost civilization of the Drakes?"
"No." I said, "Why?"
Dewey spoke up. "Then why does he call the Robots the Forgotten? No one does that, ever."
"So." Uncle Scrooge said, "The question is, how is Ratmeat connected ta the Lost Treasure?"