The Missing Mongoose Read online

  CAN YOU WORK OUT

  WHAT THE WHISPERING VOICES

  WERE SAYING?

  You will find some hints at the back of the book.

  Chapter Five

  Once they were safely outside, Coco and Alberta crouched for a moment in the shade of a huge bush covered with white flowers, waiting for their heartbeats to slow down. Alberta was just about to ask Coco what he intended to do next, when she felt something slap against her shoulder.

  ‘Che!’

  ‘What is it, prima?’ asked Coco, startled. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s very strange, Coco,’ said Alberta, slowly, ‘but I think that flower just hit me.’

  She pointed to the middle of the bush, where a long, fluffy white flower was flapping about in the air. It moved, as though it was about to slap Alberta again. She leaned forward and grabbed it, giving it a yank.

  ‘Great carrots, Alberta!’ said Coco, in astonishment. ‘That’s not a flower—’

  ‘It’s a tail!’ declared Alberta, pulling it right out of the bush.

  It was a tail! A thick, fluffy white tail. And at the end of the tail something else emerged from the green depths of the leaves.

  There stood the missing mongoose.

  ‘Engomoi’soma! We’ve found you at last!’

  Coco threw his arms around the little lost creature in delight.

  ‘Qué raro!’ said Alberta. ‘What on earth was it doing in there?’

  The mongoose squirmed out of Coco’s embrace, his eyes glinting and alert.

  ‘Euyouweuuuuuu!’ came the sound of a long, drawn-out yawn.

  The bush moved again. Now something else was pushing its way out of the green thickness. Not something. Someone. A small brown, black and white guinea pig, with a face that was annoyingly familiar.

  ‘Hello,’ said the little guinea pig, brushing the leaves and loose blossoms from his fur.

  ‘Vos! Otra vez!’ spluttered Coco in disbelief.

  Ernesto! That same supremely irritating little guinea pig who seemed to be at the bottom of every mystery they were called in to solve!

  ‘What are you doing here?’ said Alberta, when she found her voice.

  ‘Me?’ said Ernesto. ‘I was at a trip to the Zoo with my kindergarten.’ He sneezed. ‘But then I got lost!’ And his eyes began to fill with tears at the memory.

  ‘Yes, well, you’re found now,’ growled Coco, because he knew what Ernesto was like once he started crying. ‘But what were you doing hiding in the bushes with the missing mongoose?’

  ‘Um, let me think,’ said Ernesto, scratching his head. ‘Well, we looked at some monkeys, that’s right, and then we looked at some bears, and then we stopped for morning tea, that’s right, and we sat down on the grass, that’s right, and then I was just about to eat the special churros that my abuela always packs for me. That’s my favourite and—’

  ‘Get to the point!’ barked Coco.

  ‘I was about to eat it,’ continued Ernesto in a wounded voice, ‘when this mean little mongoose with a white tail hopped over, grabbed it, and ran away. So I ran after him. And he ran and I ran and he ran and I ran and he ran and I ran and he ran and I ran and—’

  ‘Yes, yes, we understand,’ said Alberta. ‘Then what happened?’

  ‘We came to a hill and the mongoose was a little bit slow and I was a little bit fast and I grabbed his tail. And he screeched and he scratched and I was about to get my churros back when I heard the chimes of the clock, you see,’ said Ernesto. ‘It was eleven o’clock, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong—’

  ‘Please!’ said Coco. ‘My head! It was eleven o’clock, so what?’

  ‘Eleven o’clock is my nap time, of course,’ replied Ernesto, as though it was obvious. ‘I always have my nap then. So I lay down under this bush for a nice little sleep. But I didn’t let go of that mongoose, no way. I hung on tight. So now I am awake,’ he finished, ‘I would like my churros, please.’

  Ernesto looked around expectantly. Unfortunately there was no sign of the churros, except perhaps a few grains of sugar on the smug lower lip of the no-longer missing mongoose …

  ‘Never mind that now,’ said Alberta. We must get you back to your kindergarten teacher. She will be so worried about you!’

  ‘Yes, well, much more importantly,’ said Coco, who had managed to slip the collar over the neck of the white-tailed mongoose before he could get away again, ‘we must tell the Zookeeper of our success!’

  Suddenly the air was thick with a chopping noise and flying leaves. Alberta raised her claw to shield her face.

  ‘I THINK YOU’LL BE ABLE TO TELL HER RIGHT AWAY, COCO,’ she shouted. ‘SHE’S COMING DOWN IN THAT HELICOPTER!’

  Coco turned in amazement. There was the Zookeeper, in all her spectacular beauty, hopping out of a helicopter that had just landed next to the Chimpanzee Chateau. She was surrounded by television cameras and a variety of wild animals who were interested to see what was going on. The blades of the helicopter slowed down, and the noise dropped.

  ‘Señor Coco!’ said the Zookeeper in excitement. ‘We spotted you from the search-and-rescue helicopter. You found him! You found Velma!’

  She rushed over and covered the mongoose with kisses.

  ‘Did you say Velma?’ said Coco, taken aback.

  ‘Isn’t Velma a girl’s name?’ asked Alberta.

  ‘Not amongst mongooses,’ replied the Zookeeper, tickling Velma under his chin. ‘Surely everyone knows that.’

  ‘So what is the meaning of Engomoi’soma?’ asked Coco, bewildered. ‘The word on the inside of the collar?’

  ‘Oh, that!’ The Zookeeper smiled, her head to one side. ‘I’m afraid the letters fell off somehow and got stuck back on again in a hurry, all mixed up. They should say “I’m a mongoose”. It’s just to remind him, you know – he does get confused at times.’

  ‘I want my churros!’ demanded Ernesto, very definitely.

  ‘Aren’t you gorgeous?’ said the Zookeeper, smiling sweetly down and patting Ernesto’s head. ‘You must be the little boy I’ve had all the phone calls about. Your teacher and your abuela are wondering where you got to!’

  Coco was about to inform the Zookeeper that Ernesto was in fact not gorgeous at all, when he noticed a pair of guinea pigs in dark purple hats at the entrance of the Chimpanzee Chateau, each carrying a large purple sack.

  ‘I thought you closed the Zoo to the public?’ he said to the Zookeeper with a frown, gesturing at the purple strangers. ‘Who are they?’

  The Zookeeper glanced up at where he was pointing.

  ‘Oh, that is the delegation from Helsinki,’ she explained. ‘They are only in the city for one day, so I allowed them to stay. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but now we’ve got our mongoose back, there’s no harm done.’

  ‘Ha!’ replied Coco. ‘Don’t be so sure!’

  He had suddenly remembered something from his days in the Police Academy, about the strange language he’d overheard in the Nocturnal Nook. He plunged towards the purple-hatted pair.

  They dropped their sacks in shock, and tried to bolt, but it was too late. Coco held them tight, one in each claw.

  ‘I arrest you both for kidnapping,’ Coco cried, ‘in the name of the glorious police force of Buenos Aires!’

  Chapter Six

  Coco had done it again! He had captured the heartless kitten kidnappers, masquerading as members of the Helsinki delegation. Inside those purple sacks were helpless leopard kittens, snatched from their nursing mothers in the Cats’ Cradle, to be sold on the international market for outrageous sums of money.

  The President declared a day’s public holiday and there were fiestas and fireworks lasting long into the night. A State dinner was held in the Casa Rosada and the President herself pinned yet another shiny medal on Coco’s red sash.

  Naturally Alberta attended the ceremony, and they had a marvellous evening of fine lettuce and fountains of iced water. They danced till the sun rose.

  ‘You mu
st be so proud, Coco,’ said Alberta as they sat resting after a particularly active tango. ‘Look at that medal!’

  ‘Yes, although they still seem to be having problems spelling my name,’ said Coco. ‘I wonder why they find it so difficult?’

  ‘Ah well, Coco,’ said Alberta, who also found it difficult, ‘good spelling is not as important as a good heart, is it?’

  ‘Claro, of course you’re right, prima,’ said Coco. ‘Now, I was thinking, perhaps tomorrow we could go to the waterfalls at Iguazú for a picnic—’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Coco,’ said Alberta, ‘but I cannot stay tomorrow. In fact, I’d better get going as soon as possible. I have a picture at home that needs hanging.’

  Coco looked glum. Alberta was always rushing away.

  ‘But you will come back, won’t you?’ he said, his voice filled with hope.

  ‘Of course, primo, as soon as there is another emergency,’ replied Alberta. ‘You know where to find me. But now I’d best be off.’

  And with that she picked up her brown paper bag and scurried into the moonlight, down the long avenue, away from the palace.

  It was a pity, thought Coco, watching her go, that his cousin lived so far away. For himself, he knew he could never leave Buenos Aires. He sighed and went and stood on the plaza outside the Casa Rosada, staying there until the sun rose high in the sky, humming the ever-comforting words of his favourite tango …

  CAN YOU CORRECT THE SPELLING

  OF COCO’S NAME?

  CLUES FOR PUZZLES

  IT ALL ADDS UP

  This is an addition puzzle. There are a lot of numbers but it’s not hard. You will work it out by trying different combinations of numbers to add up.

  One combination is:

  19+

  72

  88

  94

  ___

  273

  I wonder if those are the buses Coco and Alberta took? But there are other solutions. How many more bus combinations you can find?

  ANAGRAMS

  An anagram is when you take all the letters in a word and mix them up to see if you can find another word or words.

  For example, if you mix up the letters of ALBERTA you can get the words REAL BAT or even ABLE RAT. (Hmm, I don’t think she’d like either of those!)

  So in this puzzle, you just need to mix up all those letters on the collar of the mongoose to find out what it should say.

  Here’s a hint: it makes three words – and don’t forget the apostrophe.

  After you’ve worked it out, why not try mixing the letters of your own name around, and see what you come up with?

  MONDEGREENS

  The weird whispering voices are speaking in something called ‘mondegreens’. This is when you hear a word, and you think it is another word that sounds the same but can mean something completely different!

  The word ‘mondegreen’ comes from a poem:

  ‘They have slain the Earl of Murray, and they laid him on the green.’

  If you heard this out loud you might think it says:

  ‘They have slain the Earl of Murray, and the Lady Mondegreen.’

  A simple way to work out the guinea-pig mondegreen conversation is to read it aloud to yourself or another person. What do the words sound like?

  For example, when the guinea pig says, ‘eye no’, it sounds like he doesn’t want any eyes on his dinner plate.

  But say it out loud.

  ‘EYE NO!’

  Now do you know?

  NUMBER NAMES

  This is a very strange zoo – instead of using words, all the animals are identified by numbers. The first number is the name, and the second number is the kind of animal.

  I wonder if you can help Coco and Alberta crack the code and write the animal’s name on the right collar?

  351073 the 5181

  318808 the 338

  3773516 the 35006

  312217 the 733

  Hint: Try turning the page upside down. Look – the 3 becomes an E. What letters do the other numbers turn into? Aha!

  Can you write Ollie the Egg in the same way?

  GLOSSARY

  abuela (ah-bway-lah) grandmother

  a ver (ah vair) let’s see

  Casa Rosada (cah-sa rose-ah-dah) the Pink House, the palace of the President of Argentina

  che! (chay) hey!

  churros (choo-ross) a kind of long doughnut

  claro (clah-roh) sure, of course

  empanada (em-pah-nah-dah) a little meat pie

  Iguazú (ig-wah-soo) a place of giant waterfalls on the border of Argentina and Brazil

  otra vez (oh-trah vess) again

  prima (pree-mah) girl cousin

  primo (pree-mah) boy cousin

  qué raro! (kay rah-roh) how strange!

  señor (sen-yor) Mr or sir

  señorita (sen-yor-eet-ah) Miss

  vamos! (bah-moss) let’s go!

  vos (voss) you

  zoologico (zoh-oh-lo-hee-coh) zoo

  HELP COCO (AND ALBERTA)

  Every afternoon from his office high in the Obelisco, Coco sees a floating pineapple and hears a terrible sound. Is he being haunted?

  CRACK MORE CASES!

  From his office high in the Obelisco, Coco has intercepted a mysterious message that could only mean one thing – or could it?