READ ALL THESE
NATE THE GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES!
NATE THE GREAT
NATE THE GREAT GOES UNDERCOVER
NATE THE GREAT AND THE LOST LIST
NATE THE GREAT AND THE PHONY CLUE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE STICKY CASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MISSING KEY
NATE THE GREAT AND THE SNOWY TRAIL
NATE THE GREAT AND THE FISHY PRIZE
NATE THE GREAT STALKS STUPIDWEED
NATE THE GREAT AND THE BORING BEACH BAG
NATE THE GREAT GOES DOWN IN THE DUMPS
NATE THE GREAT AND THE HALLOWEEN HUNT
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSICAL NOTE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE STOLEN BASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE PILLOWCASE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSHY VALENTINE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE TARDY TORTOISE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE CRUNCHY CHRISTMAS
NATE THE GREAT SAVES THE KING OF SWEDEN
NATE THE GREAT AND ME: THE CASE OF THE FLEEING FANG
NATE THE GREAT AND THE MONSTER MESS
NATE THE GREAT, SAN FRANCISCO DETECTIVE
NATE THE GREAT AND THE BIG SNIFF
NATE THE GREAT ON THE OWL EXPRESS
NATE THE GREAT TALKS TURKEY
NATE THE GREAT AND THE HUNGRY BOOK CLUB
AND CONTINUE THE DETECTIVE FUN WITH
OLIVIA SHARP
by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Mitchell Sharmat illustrated by Denise Brunkus
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PIZZA MONSTER
OLIVIA SHARP: THE PRINCESS OF THE FILLMORE STREET SCHOOL
OLIVIA SHARP: THE SLY SPY
OLIVIA SHARP: THE GREEN TOENAILS GANG
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 1989 by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Illustrations copyright © 1989 by Marc Simont
Extra Fun Activities copyright © 2005 by Emily Costello
Extra Fun Activities illustrations copyright © 2005 by Jody Wheeler
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Visit us on the Web! randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
eBook ISBN 978-0-385-37676-1
Trade paperback ISBN 978-0-385-73695-4
Library binding ISBN 978-0-385-90637-1
Paperback ISBN 978-0-375-84548-2
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
For Fritz,
who loved to greet
all the ghosts and goblins
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
First Page
Extra Fun Activities
About the Authors
My name is Nate the Great.
I am a detective.
Tonight I got into trouble.
Tonight I was locked in a haunted house
with my dog, Sludge.
I was in big trouble.
There were no pancakes there.
I was on a case.
A Halloween case.
It started about an hour ago.
My dog, Sludge, and I were
looking out our window.
We were waiting for witches and clowns
and Draculas and princesses
to ring our doorbell.
Suddenly I heard a scratch at the door.
A loud scratch.
I went to the door
and opened it.
Someone was standing there
in a long dress, a bonnet, and shawl.
It was Little Red Riding Hood’s
grandmother,
carrying a Trick or Treat bag
in her big teeth.
His big teeth.
The grandmother was Annie’s dog,
Fang.
I, Nate the Great, did not think
that Halloween was a scary holiday.
Until now.
“Where is Annie?” I asked him.
“Does she know you’re out alone
on Halloween?”
I did not wait for an answer.
I dropped some treats into Fang’s bag.
He wagged his tail and
went down the walk.
I closed the door behind him.
Sludge crawled out from under a chair.
I said to him,
“Be brave on Halloween.
We do not believe in
ghosts and goblins.
Or grandmothers with big teeth.”
Sludge went back to the window.
The doorbell rang.
I opened the door.
Annie and Rosamond were outside.
They were both dressed as
Little Red Riding Hood.
And they were each carrying a basket
covered with a red cloth.
“Your grandmother was just here,”
I said to both of them.
“I know it,” Annie said.
“This is Fang’s first year
out alone on Halloween.”
“I put some treats in his bag,” I said.
“And now I’ll give you some
for your baskets.”
“My basket is already heavy
with treats,” Rosamond said.
“I can’t carry any more.”
“Mine isn’t full yet,” Annie said.
She lifted the napkin from her basket,
and I dropped some treats inside.
“I am finished with Trick or Treating,”
Rosamond said.
“I came here to ask
for your help.”
“What kind of help?”
“One of my cats, Little Hex,
is missing,” Rosamond said.
“He hates Halloween.
Every year he tries to hide.
But this year I can’t find him.”
“Where are your other three cats?”
I asked.
“Perhaps Little Hex is with them.”
“Oh no,” Rosamond said.
“Every Halloween
Super Hex, Big Hex, and Plain Hex
go to the old haunted house
on the next street and help to haunt it.
But Little Hex is too scared,
so he hides.”
“Wait until tomorrow,” I said.
“Halloween will be over,
and Little Hex will come out
of his hiding place.”
“But he might be really lost,”
Rosamond said.
“I’m so worried
I can’t eat any of my treats.
Please help me.”
“Very well. I, Nate the Great,
will take your case.
Tell me, when was the last time
you saw Little Hex?”
“He was following Annie and me,”
Rosamond said.
“Where did you go tonight?” I asked.
“First I put on my costume,”
Rosamond said, “and then I went to
Annie’s house.
Little Hex followed me there.”
“Annie finished dressing up Fang.
She sent him on his way.
Then Annie and I went to
Claude’s house. He gave us some
cookies.
We put them in our baskets.
Next we went to Esmeralda’s house.
She gave us her special
Halloween biscuits.”
“Was Little Hex still following you?”
“Yes,” Rosamond said.
“Then Esmeralda asked Annie and me
to help her get into her gorilla costume.
So Annie and I stepped into her house.
And Little Hex did too.
Annie and I helped
Esmeralda become a gorilla.
The three of us started
to leave Esmeralda’s house.
That’s when I noticed
that Little Hex was gone.”
“Then he’s probably still
in Esmeralda’s house,” I said.
“No, we looked everywhere
in her house,” Annie said.
“Was Esmeralda’s door open or closed
while you were helping her
with her costume?” I asked.
“Open,” Annie said.
“So Little Hex probably
escaped outside,” I said.
“It is hard to find
a small black cat in the dark.
But I will go out and hunt for him.”
“Oh, thank you,” Rosamond said.
“I will go home and wait
for you to bring him back.”
Rosamond and Annie left.
I wrote a note to my mother.
I got a flashlight.
Sludge and I went out into the night.
I saw two pirates ahead of us.
“Excuse me,” I said, “have you
seen Rosamond’s cat, Little Hex?”
The pirates turned around.
They were Finley and Pip.
“We have just started
on our rounds,” Finley said.
“And all we’ve seen
are a dancing artichoke and a robot.”
Sludge and I walked
up and down the street.
We saw more pirates.
And monsters and kings
and artichokes.
But we did not see Little Hex.
Where could he be?
“What would a scared cat do
on Halloween?” I asked Sludge.
Then I had an idea.
Perhaps Little Hex wasn’t scared
anymore.
Perhaps I should be looking
for a brave cat
and not a scared one.
“Perhaps this year
Little Hex is learning how to haunt,”
I said to Sludge.
“I, Nate the Great,
don’t believe in haunted houses.
But we must go to that old house
and hunt for Little Hex.”
Sludge did not look happy.
But we walked to the old house.
It looked haunted.
It looked like every ghost
who had ever haunted anything
was haunting this house
on this night.
Sludge and I crept up the front steps.
They creaked.
I knew they would.
I knocked on the door.
It creaked.
I knew it would.
I opened the door.
It squeaked.
I knew it would.
I stepped into the house.
Sludge slunk in.
I called out,
“Super Hex, Big Hex, Plain Hex,
Little Hex, any Hex, are you here?
You have one minute to show your
faces. Then Sludge and I are leaving.”
I started to count the seconds.
“One, two, three, four …”
SLAM!
The door shut behind us.
I tried to open it.
It was stuck.
“There must be another door,”
I said to Sludge.
I flashed my flashlight around.
I saw cobwebs, and old furniture
draped with white sheets.
I heard clinking and clanking
and shrieking.
“Is that you, cats?” I shouted.
I saw three pairs of eyes
glowing at me in the dark.
Cats’ eyes.
They belonged to Super Hex, Big Hex
and Plain Hex.
Then they disappeared.
I flashed my flashlight
all over the house.
The three cats were gone.
But how did they get out of the house?
How could Sludge and I get out?
I heard more clinks and clanks
and shrieks.
The cats had left,
so what was making
those ghostly noises?
I, Nate the Great,
now believed in haunted houses.
We had to get out of here!
I found another door.
It was locked.
I tried windows.
They were locked.
“There must be a way out,” I thought.
“The cats got in and got out.”
I kept looking.
And then, in front of me
I saw a ghost!
I don’t believe in ghosts,
so how could I see one?
But it was creeping toward me
dressed in a white sheet.
And suddenly I knew
I had solved the case.
Little Hex must be under that sheet,
learning how to haunt.
I lifted the sheet.
Sludge was huddled under it.
He was hiding.
I unwrapped him.
He led me to another room.
He found a hole.
It was small.
But he dug in it, making it bigger.
It was big enough for us to crawl into.
It led to the outside.
We were free.
“Good work, Sludge,” I said.
We walked down the street,
away from the house.
We were happy to do that.
“Little Hex was not
in the haunted house,” I said.
“We are back to looking
for a scared cat.”
Did I have any clues?
Pancakes help me think.
Bones help Sludge think.
We went home.
We ate.
I thought back.
The last time Rosamond saw Little Hex
was when he followed her into
Esmeralda’s house.
Then he was gone.
Esmeralda and Annie and Rosamond
had searched Esmeralda’s house.
But they could not find Little Hex.
So he must have gone out
into the night.
Alone.
But why would he do that
when he was scared of Halloween?
Sludge was scared of Halloween, too.
He had hidden under a chair
in my house and under a sheet
in the haunted house.
Perhaps Little Hex was hiding
under something.
But where?
“We must go where Little Hex
was last seen,” I said.
Sludge and I went
to Esmeralda’s house.
She was there,
eating from her bag of treats.
“I am looking for Little Hex,” I said.
“He isn’t here,” Esmeralda said.
“Rosamond and Annie and I looked all
over this house.
Want some of my trea
ts?
My bag got too heavy to carry
around.”
I stared at Esmeralda’s treats.
Suddenly I remembered something.
I remembered lots of things.
I remembered clues.
“I have no time for treats,” I said.
“I must go to Rosamond’s house
right away.”
Sludge and I rushed
to Rosamond’s house.
She was lying on a sofa.
She was still wearing her
Little Red Riding Hood costume.
She looked strange in it.
Rosamond looked strange in everything.
“I was just at Esmeralda’s house,”
I said. “She was eating
some of her treats.”
“I’m still not hungry,” Rosamond said,
pointing to her covered basket
on a table. “I’m too sad to eat.”
“I think I know where Little Hex is,”
I said.
“Where? Where is he?”
Rosamond clutched her red cloak.
I, Nate the Great,
walked over to Rosamond’s basket.
I lifted up the red cloth that
was on top of it.
And there was Little Hex,
fast asleep in the basket!
“It’s Little Hex!” Rosamond cried.
“Yes,” I said. “I, Nate the Great,
say that you’ve been carrying him
around ever since you left
Esmeralda’s house.”
“I have?”
“Yes. He must have crawled
into your basket at Esmeralda’s house
while you and Annie were busy
helping Esmeralda become a gorilla.”
“But how could he fit inside?”
Rosamond asked.
“Where are the treats I collected?”
“There are a few left in the basket,”
I said. “Little Hex probably ate
most of them
and took their place
under the napkin
and hid there.
Sludge hid under a chair
Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt Page 1
