Peril at Price Manor by Laura Parnum

Author:Laura Parnum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

20

Sluggish Creatures

Argyle peered through the small window in the door of the humidor. With Mrs. Danworth and Mrs. Paprikash trapped inside, he was able to really observe their behaviors. There were now six tredecapuses wriggling around amid the boxes of cigars in addition to the original two still clinging to Mrs. Danworth and Mrs. Paprikash.

“These things must really like Dad’s stinky cigars,” he said.

Paisley and Halle stopped their nervous pacing and joined him at the window. The creatures on the two women had enlarged once again and were preparing to replicate for a fourth time.

“Check this out,” he said, playing with a small control panel on the door. “When I turn the temperature and humidity up, the creatures get really sluggish, but when I turn it down, they’re more active. They must prefer the cold. Some species of fish can only reproduce in certain temperatures.”

“So let’s make it really warm in there,” Halle said. “Maybe that’ll stop them or at least slow them down.”

“But not too warm,” Paisley warned. “We don’t want Mrs. Danworth and Mrs. Paprikash to get dehydrated. You know how Mrs. Danworth always insists we drink plenty of water when it’s hot out.”

Argyle adjusted the temperature to a balmy seventy-eight degrees. As the temperature rose, one of the creatures slid down from a shelf and flopped onto the floor. Its tentacles waved limply from side to side.

“I could watch these things all day,” he said, fascinated. “If only it would roll over, I could get a look at its underside. It would be good to know if there’s some kind of mouth or appendage on its belly. Hopefully they’re not using their hosts as lunch.”

Paisley frowned and started pacing again.

But at the mention of lunch, Argyle’s empty stomach reminded him of how hungry he was. If only he’d saved that last granola bar he’d found in the snack drawer in the study.

“So . . . now that these two and their tredecapuses are contained, maybe we could think about getting those sandwiches?” Argyle suggested.

Halle turned away from the humidor. “Forget it. We’re still in danger. There’s a tredecapus loose in the prop room, your governess could wake up and come after us at any minute, and now we know your dad’s been . . .”

“Tredecapized,” Paisley finished.

“Right. And he could be anywhere in the house,” Halle said.

Argyle sat down at the pinochle table. Now that he was aware of his hunger again, he realized his legs had begun to weaken.

“Wait a minute,” Halle said. “We could call my mom at the flower shop! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place? In fact, that should be in the rules: Call for Help. We could even call 911. Where’s the phone?”

“Dad has a phone,” Argyle said, “but he keeps it in his pocket.”

“Do you have a house phone?”

“No. The staff all have cell phones, but they probably have them in their pockets as well, and I sure don’t want to get close enough to search them.”

Halle turned back to the humidor window.

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