by Thea Stilton
If there are two Dimitris on the train, that explains
everything! One twin was with Zelda, transcribing her
memoir, while the other ran into Pegy and Nicky.
111
Peggy stepped on one twin’s paw while the
other Dimitri was with Zelda, scribbling
down her memoir!”
Nicky still wasn’t completely convinced.
“But the night the thief tried to steal the
Veil of Light, Dimitri was
arguing
with Pablo in the corridor —”
“He did that on purpose!” Pam interrupted.
“Remember what Pablo Picamouse said? He
While Pablo was busy with Dimitri in the corridor,
Dimitri’s twin tried to steal the Veil of Light!
112
said that it was Dimitri who started the
argument! At the time, we didn’t believe
him because he kept
screaming
his snout
off. But Pablo was telling the truth: It was
actually Dimitri who started the squabble.
He was trying to distract everyone
while his twin stole the Veil of Light!”
“It all fits!” Paulina agreed. “It also helps
explain the other robberies by the Cat
Burglar: No one has ever been able to catch
him because they were looking for just one
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thief, when actually there were two. That’s
how Dimitri and his twin have been able to
create the perfect alibi and throw the
INVESTIGATORS
off their trail.”
The Thea Sisters spent a few moments
reflecting on this incredible discovery.
Each mouselet thought through the details.
Had the mystery really been solved?
“There’s still one problem,” Colette said at
last. “How did the other Dimitri get on board
the Orient Express without being seen?
Where has he been hiding all this time?”
There was a long pause while the mouselets
thought it over.
“The trunks!” Paulina suddenly exclaimed,
making the others jump.
“The trunks?” Violet asked.
Paulina nodded. “Zelda had six trunks
loaded onto the train, not five like Dimitri
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said. I’m sure of it, I counted them myself!
And I’ll bet that the sixth trunk is in
Dimitri’s cabin. That’s where he’s hiding his
twin!”
A GAME OF CHESS
All the pieces of the puzzle were coming
together. But Violet raised one last question.
“Only one of the twins went to
Peleş
Castle
. The other must have stayed on the
train so he wouldn’t be discovered. But
there’s something I don’t understand. He had
the whole night to open the safe and steal the
painting, but instead he
waited
until
everyone was back on the train to do it!”
“Mumbling mufflers!” Pamela exclaimed.
“That really is strange!”
“It can’t just be by chance,” Paulina
observed. “The
Cat Burglar
doesn’t
leave anything to chance.”
Violet nodded. “It’s like a game of chess.
There’s a reason behind each move.”
Violet’s words created a powerful image in
the mouselets’ heads: the Cat Burglar
and INSPECTOR RATT locked in an
intense chess match!
Nicky, Colette, Paulina, and Pam all
turned to Violet — she was the Thea
Sisters’ resident chess expert. But she was
too busy thinking through different
moves for kings, queens, rooks, and pawns
to notice their anxious glances.
Suddenly, she lit up: “Of course! It’s a
surprise attack!”
The other mouselets looked at her in
confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘surprise attack’?”
Paulina asked.
“You move a piece, pretending to
threaten
your opponent, but you’re really opening the
way for another of your more
DANGEROUS
pieces,” Violet explained. “Your opponent
focuses on the immediate damage and doesn’t
realize that you’ve begun a fatal attack on
another front!”
“So if I’m following your train of thought,”
Colette squeaked slowly, “the Cat Burglar
has stolen the painting to distract
Chief Inspector Ratt.”
“That’s right,” Violet agreed. “If he forces
the inspector to investigate a less important
theft, then he’s free to
attack
the Veil
of Light!”
“Easier than stealing cheese chunks from a
mouseling,” Nicky said, shaking her snout.
Then she sprang to her paws. “Well, what
are we waiting for? Let’s go
warn
the
inspector! There’s not a minute to waste.”
“Just a moment,” Colette said. “We still
think the Veil of Light is being kept in
the last train car, right? So wouldn’t it be
better if two of us kept an EYE on that car
while the others go find the inspector?”
Everyone agreed. So the mouselets
separated. Nicky, Paulina, and Pamela ran
to alert Inspector Ratt, while Colette and
Violet scurried toward the last car. They
were ready for a
showdown
with
the unstoppable thief!
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A SHADOW ON THE
ROOF
As Nicky scampered down the deserted
corridor, she was distracted by
the view outside the window. The Orient
Express was crossing the Danube River
valley, passing over flat countryside. But
suddenly, something on the ground
below caught her eye.
The shadow of the moving train was
visible on the ground next to the tracks. But
there was something else there. . . .
“Mouselets,
look
!” Nicky shouted.
“He’s up there!” She had spotted the shadow
of someone scurrying across the train’s roof!
“It’s him! The
Cat Burglar
!” Pamela
exclaimed.
Paulina agreed. “Who else could scale the
roof of a moving train?”
“He must be going after the Veil of
Light!” Nicky cried. “We have to find out
how he got up there.”
Within a moment or two, the three
mouselets had discovered a
window
in the ceiling that allowed access to the roof.
A rope kept it partly ajar.
Nicky turned to Pam. “Give me a paw, and
I’ll follow him up there!”
“No, Nic!” Paulina warned her. “It’s too
dangerous
!”
“I know, but this is an emergency. We can’t
let the Cat Burglar escape! Besides, I’m in
better shape than the mouse who ran up the
clock. I can do it!
I’ll hold on tight to the
rope the thief used. You go get the inspector
while I follow him onto the roof.”
“I’m coming with you! It’s safer if
we’re both up there,” Pam declared. She put
out her paws, ready to boost Nicky up.
“I’ll go get Inspector Ratt!” Paulina agreed.
“But wait for us before you do anything. . . .”
Nicky had already scrambled up, and
Paulina boosted Pam up after her. There was
no time to waste!
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Nicky and Pam tried to move very carefully.
They were
terrified
, but they knew
they had to act quickly or the thief would
escape with the precious Veil of Light.
When Pam popped her head outside the
trapdoor, the strong wind created by the
fast-moving train knocked her flat.
For a moment, the
mouselet
thought
she would be blown away like a balloon!
But Nicky was right next to her, ready to
catch her. “Hold on to the rope and stay
low!” she shouted.
Between the hiss of the wind and the
clanking of the train, the noise was deafening,
making it difficult to communicate. The two
A CHEESE-CURDLING
CHASE!
124
mouselets stayed CLOSE together as they
tried to get their balance. It took them a few
minutes, but finally they both managed to
MOVE
forward.
Nicky took the first step, and then the
second. Soon she was able to move at a steady
pace. She proceeded cautiously, one
paw after the other, toward the back of the
train. She didn’t dare raise her snout for
fear that she’d lose her balance, but
moving like this, she could hardly see her
whiskers in front of her nose!
Pamela followed her step by step. She was
so low to the ground she was practically
crawling
.
Eventually, Nicky stopped to catch her
breath and take a look around. She and Pam
hadn’t been able to catch the thief: The roof
of the train in front of them was empty.
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“Oh no, he’s escaped!” Nicky whispered.
She was sure that the thief had already
dropped down into the last car. At that very
moment, he probably had his
dirty
paws
on the Veil of Light! Or maybe he
was outside the last compartment, going
snout-to-snout with Yusuf.
But Nicky was certain of one thing: The
Cat Burglar
had no idea that they were
onto him. The element of surprise is our only
advantage, she thought. And she figured that
Violet and Colette would probably already
be inside the compartment with Yusuf.
So she screwed up her courage
and continued moving forward, in spite of
the train’s jerks and jolts. A few
minutes later, she and Pam had struggled all
the way to the last car.
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While Paulina rushed to find the inspector,
and Nicky and Pamela tried to REACH the
last car from above, Colette and Violet made
their way to the door of the last train car. As
usual, Yusuf was guarding the entrance,
completely barring the door.
The two mouselets begged him:
Yusuf glared at them, scowling. “NO ONE
GETS IN! This car is reserved for the staff.
I’ve told you this before,
mouselets
!
How many times am I going to have to repeat
myself?”
Colette tried to be patient. “It’s very
NO WAY IN!
“
open the door!”
“Please! The thief is inside!”
important, Mr. Yusuf! The thief is stealing
the Veil of Light right now, we’re sure
of it!” she explained
calmly
.
“No one is allowed through here!” the
guard replied STUBBORNLY.
So Violet stepped forward and brought out
her secret weapon: one of Grandpa Chen’s
proverbs (although actually she had just
129
invented it at that very moment!). “My
grandpa always says, ‘Those who
wish to be good
guards must
not lose sight of
the object they are
watching’!”
Yusuf didn’t move a whisker.
“That means that you need to go inside to
see if the gown is still in its place!” Colette
cried impatiently. “While you’re standing
here guarding the door, the
Cat Burglar
has probably come in through the window or
something,” she added.
Little did Colette know that her prediction
was coming true at that very moment!
Yusuf lowered his eyes to look at the
frantic snouts of these two strange
mouselets. Violet and Colette had a moment
130
of hope: Were some doubts scratching
through the guard’s tough armor?
But it was not to be. “Orders
are orders!” Yusuf replied,
staring off into empty
space again.
The two
mouselets
sighed in frustration. There
was nothing they could do!
A HIGH-TECH TRICK
While Violet and Colette were pleading with
the unmovable Yusuf, Nicky and Pamela
had reached the roof of the last train car.
“Oh, my goodmouse!” Nicky cried. “Look
at this, Pam! The thief cut an enormouse
hole
in the roof!”
Pam crawled over to her. “The thief did
this?!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah . . . ,” Nicky said, still hardly able to
believe her EYES. “Like a hungry cat
opening a tin of sardines! But how?”
The answer was right in front of them. A
few feet away lay a red box with a small tube
sticking out of it. The box’s label read
LIQUID NITROGEN.
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Nicky and Pam scrambled over to examine
the box. “It’s a portable generator
with liquid nitrogen for a laser cutter,” Nicky
exclaimed. “I didn’t think these came in such
small sizes.”
“Wow!” Pamela said. “These things cut
through slabs of metal like a knife through
cream cheese. This thief is more than just an
acrobat — he’s also super tech savvy!”
133
The two mouselets leaned over carefully to
peek inside the hole. Below them, a mouse in
a black bodysuit was working close
to a case that held the Veil of Light. A dark
hood
covered
his snout.
“It could be Dimitri or another young,
athletic rodent,” Nicky squeaked quietly.
If the thief had raised his EYES,
he would have seen Nicky and
Pamela watching him from a
bove.
But he was focused on his
task: attaching a harness to
the glass case.
Suddenly, he noticed the
reflections of the two
mouselets on the panes of
glass in front of him. The
thief almost jumped,
but then he STOPPED
himself. He didn’t want Nicky and Pamela to
know that he had noticed them. He didn’t
have time to worry about two nosy
mouselets!
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Meanwhile, Paulina had scurried along the
entire length of the Orient Express in
search of Inspector Ratt. He wasn’t in Peggy’s
cabin. She asked everyone she saw, but no
one could help her — until she ran into . . .
Dimitri, the Thea Sisters’ number one
suspect!
Paulina stopped and looked at his paw. It
was still red!
Dimitri asked her politely, “Is everything
all right, miss? You seem upset.”
Paulina tried to think quickly: The
twin with the burned paw was just steps
from her, while his brother was in the middle
of stealing the Veil of Light! She had
to do something. But what?
ONE DOWN!
136
“I’m looking for Inspector Ratt,” she
responded, a bit hesitantly. “It’s urgent!”
Dimitri looked her up and down. “I heard
he went back to the safe. Maybe I could
give you a paw?” he said in an amused
squeak.
Paulina grabbed his paw, pretending to be
more tired than she really was. She couldn’t
let him slip away!
“Actually, I’m a bit out of breat. . . . ,”
she panted. “And I can’t quite remember the
way to the safe. Would you be so kind as
to accompany me?” she asked.
“Uh, okay . . . ,” said Dimitri.
Together, the pair headed toward the
safe, where they found the inspector
and the train conductor.
By this point, Paulina had regained her
courage. She
pushed
Dimitri into the
compartment in front of her.
