Gerald heard the crunching sound of something walking along the gravel path.
An enormous stone dinosaur was lumbering toward him!
"It can't see me," Gerald told himself. "I'm not afraid."
As the dinosaur passed, Gerald reached out and touched it.
The moving statue turned toward him, but Gerald was suddenly afraid.
He took off and ran toward the castle.
Gerald spotted the open window of the treasure room.
He climbed up to the window, using the vine that clung to the castle.
Once inside the room, he turned and looked outside.
In the moonlight he could see that the goat-boy statue was back underneath the willow tree.
Nothing moved outdoors.
"This is very strange. Maybe I'm dreaming."
He shut the window and removed the key from the door lock.
Outside the treasure room, he locked the door again.
Then he put the key in its hiding place and crept along the corridor.
He wandered through the castle, opening doors and feeling safe because he was invisible.
At last he came to a door with light shining under it.
Gerald hesitated for a moment before flinging open the door.
"Hey!" cried a voice from within the room.
Gerald flattened himself against the wall as a man sprang to the door.
The man flashed a lantern into the corridor.
"It's all right," the man said.
"It was only the door swinging open."
"Close that door!" growled another voice.
That was fine with Gerald.
He had already seen enough.
A gang of burglars was taking silver out of two large chests!
They had picked the door's lock and now their tools lay on the floor.
"Hurry up!" one burglar said.
Gerald ran down the corridor.
What should he do?
He hurried outside.
Through a window he saw Mabel and her aunt having a delicious supper.
He took out his notebook and pencil and wrote:
You know the room where the silver is?
Burglars have picked the lock and are stealing the silver.
Send a man for the police. A friend
P.S. This is not a joke.
Gerald looked hungrily at Mabel's supper.
He tied the note to a rock with his shoelace.
Then he threw the rock through the window.
Mabel and her aunt jumped up, shrieking in surprise.
Mabel picked up the rock, and her aunt read the note.
"Nonsense!" said the aunt. "Of course this is a joke."
"Please," wailed Mabel. "Send for the police like he says."
"Like who says?" snapped her aunt.
"Whoever wrote the note," moaned Mabel.
Gerald realized he must do something more.
"Send for the police at once,"
he called out in his manliest voice.
"You'll only blame yourself if you don't."
"Auntie, please wake Bates right away," begged Mabel.
"Oh, all right." Mabel's aunt finally went off to get one of the male servants.
Bates was not happy to be woken up.
But after reading the note, he went to the police on his bicycle.
By the time the police arrived, the burglars and the silver were gone.
Gerald had a long night.
It was late when he crept into bed, exhausted and cold as stone.
The next morning Eliza the maid went into Gerald's room.
"Wake up! It's a beautiful day!"
She opened the curtains at one window and turned to call him again.
But his bed was empty.
"I wonder where he is."
She opened the curtains at the other window.
But this time when she turned around, she screamed.
Gerald was lying in the bed!