Mrs. Wofsey was in one corner talking to a group of students and their parents. She caught my eye and waved. I could tell she was worried about what might happen in the next hour. So I gave her a thumbs-up sign.
I checked my watch. Fifteen minutes had pa.s.sed. Time for me to move to my new post by the gorilla cage. Before I left the building, I saw Mrs. Wofsey give a few instructions to the guys in the gorilla suits, then slip out the side door.
I pa.s.sed Howie, who was taking, over my position at the party. He had put on a pair of dark sungla.s.ses and didn"t even say hi as he walked by. He did pretend to scratch his head, and I noticed him wiggling a few fingers in my direction. I nearly laughed out loud.
Seconds later I heard feet pounding behind me. It was Logan. "This is it," he hissed. "I think Chester"s making his move."
"Don"t run," I replied. "He"ll think something"s up."
Immediately Logan slowed to a walk beside me. "Sorry, I got a little carried away," he said. "Claudia followed Chester to the employees" locker area, where he changed out of his blue blazer into green pants and a green shirt."
"So he"d look like the plant crew,"
"You got it," Logan said. "He"s wearing a hat and sungla.s.ses. Claudia said she wouldn"t have known it was him except for the way he walks, with his feet turned out like a duck."
"Way to go, Claud," I murmured. "Where"s he now?"
"Alan spotted him at the golf carts. Chester made sure no one was around, then hopped in a cart. Alan said it looked as though he were heading for the primate enclosure."
Now I wanted to run. "I hope Dawn can handle it," I said. "She"s the one on duty at the gorilla cage, right?"
Logan nodded. We were both jogging now. We couldn"t help it. Chester was about to let the gorillas loose and we wanted to be there in time to stop him.
Dawn was at her post, pretending to listen to the information kiosk in front of the gorilla cage, when we arrived. She smiled and waved, then strolled over to greet us.
"He"s in there," she said barely moving her lips.
I was holding a little plastic gorilla that I"d been handed at the party. I pretended to show it to Dawn, who acted as if it were the greatest prize she"d ever seen. "Have you seen Claud?" I asked.
Dawn nodded casually toward the emu en- closure, where Claudia, wearing a baseball cap and sungla.s.ses/ stood pretending to Watch the big bird. She had slung a camera around her neck, and she raised it to one eye. Then she spun and faced the gorilla cage.
"A camera!" Logan whispered. "All right, Claud. We"ll catch him in the act."
"Hold it." I clutched Logan"s arm. "Who"s that weird person next to Claudia?" We watched as a person in a baggy jumpsuit, a big floppy hat, and sungla.s.ses bent down to look at one of the flowers lining the walkway.
"It"s not Chester," Dawn mumbled under her breath, "because he"s inside the gorilla cage."
Logan moved casually to stand in front of the gibbons. That gave him a clear shot of the action inside the cage. I remained on the other side of the primate enclosure, ready to shout for help, if necessary.
Suddenly, there was movement all around me. The bushes just outside the gorilla cage quivered. I couldn"t see a face but I recognized a camping hat. Alan was in there, hiding.
The weird person in the jumpsuit and floppy hat moved swiftly past and around the corner of the primate enclosure. Claudia sprang forward from her position by the emu pen, snapping as many pictures as she could get.
"The gorillas!" Dawn cried. "They"re escaping. What do we do?"
Alan sprang out of the bushes. "I"ll head them off at the pa.s.s."
Logan ran for Alan. "Are you nuts? That male gorilla weighs four hundred pounds. He could crush you like a peanut."
Suddenly the side door of the primate enclosure burst open. Mr. Chester came running out in his janitor disguise, followed by the strange person in the jumpsuit, and the two gorillas.
"All right, Chester, freeze!" a female voice bellowed.
Mr. Chester stopped with one foot in the golf cart, and one out.
"Mike! Curtis!" the woman in the jumpsuit ordered. "Get him!"
Then a truly amazing thing happened. The two gorillas that had escaped out the side door of the primate enclosure stepped forward and grabbed Mr. Chester.
"What the - " Mr. Chester"s words choked in his throat as the tallest ape removed his gorilla head.
"Wow!" Claudia sprang forward with her camera. "It"s Mike in disguise!"
The other gorilla took off his head and shook his wet hair. Sweat was pouring down his face. "Whew," Curtis said. "It"s like a sauna in here."
Then came the biggest surprise of all. The person in the coveralls removed her hat and sungla.s.ses. "Well, Mr. Chester," Mrs. Wofsey said. "I see we"ve caught you red-handed."
"Wait a minute." Mr. Chester looked from the guys in gorilla suits to the now empty cage, and back to Mrs. Wofsey. "You haven"t caught me doing anything."
Mrs. Wofsey turned to Claudia. "Did you get the shot of Mr. Chester leaving the gorilla cage standing open?"
Claudia nodded. "I got several pictures of that, plus a few of him putting on his disguise and taking the vet"s golf cart. I got them all." "Mr. Chester, with the help of these young people," Mrs. Wofsey said, "I can prove that you not only tried to set our gorillas free, but you also let the giraffe out of its corral and tried, unsuccessfully, to aid the gibbons in an escape. Now, you can deny it, and make this a long, drawn-out process. Or you can give me your resignation right now, along with a letter confessing your crimes and vowing never to work for any zoo or wildlife center again."
Mr. Chester"s shoulders slumped. "It"s not fair. I should have had that position. I put in fifteen years here. I was in line for it. The job was mine."
"I"m sorry you feel that way," Mrs. Wofsey said, signaling for Mike and Curtis to usher Mr. Chester over to the front office. "But I think these stunts prove that perhaps you really aren"t cut out for a job like this."
We watched Mike and Curtis lead Mr. Chester away. Then Alan asked the question mat all of us were dying to ask. "Where are Mojo and James?"
For the first time since we"d begun the stakeout, I saw Mrs. Wofsey smile. "Why, at the party, of course. They"re the guests of honor. Early this morning Mike and Curtis moved them to the holding pen by the front office, making sure, of course, that Mr. Chester knew nothing about it. Then Mike and Curtis, being good sports, volunteered to take their places."
Dawn shook her head. "They really fooled me."
"That"s because they made sure to keep themselves slightly obscured from the public," Mrs. Wofsey explained. "But you also must remember that Mike and Curtis have been working with and observing these animals for quite awhile. If anyone could imitate gorilla behavior, they could."
"Wow," Logan said. "I"m impressed."
"Instead of standing around here talking about the gorillas," Mrs. Wofsey said, "let"s go see them. I would like to treat you all to a gla.s.s of gorilla punch and a giant piece of banana cake."
"Before or after the gorillas have had their pieces?" Logan asked, grinning slyly at Alan.
"Before, of course," Mrs. Wofsey replied.
"Whew!" Everyone sighed with relief.
Mrs. Wofsey shook her head. "I don"t under - "
"It"s a long story," Dawn said. "We"ll explain at the party."
Chapter 15.
"Alexander Kurtzman won the contest?" Claudia gasped. "But that"s not fair. I mean, he is so uncreative. He carries that briefcase and is so, so - "
"Dull," I finished for her. We were sitting in Claudia"s room, waiting for the Friday BSC meeting to start. "But he had Shawna Riverson on his team. She"s certainly creative."
"Yeah," Kristy muttered. "I"ll bet Shawna cheated and looked information up in the encyclopedia. How else would they be able to do a fifty-page report on the lions?"
"I wish Alan hadn"t cheated," I murmured. "We had a good idea, and a cute t.i.tle - Fins, Furs, and Flippers."
"But I thought we were only supposed to pick one animal and study it," Dawn said. "I mean, we only watched the gorillas - along with every other eighth-grader at SMS."
I waved one hand in the air. "It didn"t matter anyway. After we found out that Alan had cheated on the emu, he confessed to cheating on the bears and seals, too. So we threw the whole thing out and studied Tigger."
"Tigger?" Kristy asked. "When did you do that?"
"All last weekend," Dawn answered for me. "Can you imagine having Alan Gray and Howie Johnson spend every second of the day watching you? I don"t know if Tigger will ever recover."
I folded my arms stubbornly. "Well, it was the best I could do as a last-minute subst.i.tute project. Anyway, none of us won and none of us gets to go to Aqua World."
"Now just a minute," Kristy said, raising a finger. "I wouldn"t say that n.o.body won. Did you see the newspaper this evening?" Kristy held up an article she had dipped from the paper. Mallory read the headline out loud. " t.i.ttle Babar - free at last!" "
I clapped my hands together. "That"s terrific news. When did it happen?"
Kristy scanned the article and said, "It seems that our Elephant Walk did a lot to raise money and interest in Babar"s plight. A wealthy contributor stepped forward and, with his donation, plus the money we and the Free Babar campaign raised, there was enough to transport Babar to a new home."
"Where is he?" Dawn asked. "Can we go visit him?"
"This says he"s going to be at a wildlife preserve in Sarasota, Florida," Kristy replied.
"That"s a little far to ride our bikes," I kidded Dawn. "And I don"t think the bus line stops there."
"Sarasota," Claudia mused, finishing off the last of the Oreos in her shoe box. "Warm and sunny. Just- perfect for a little fellow from Africa."
Claud"s dock changed from five-twenty-nine to five-thirty and Kristy officially called the meeting to order. But before we could even begin, Jessi suddenly bolted to her feet.
"Hey!" she cried. "I just thought of something. Remember when Matt asked Mojo who freed the emu, and Mojo made the sign for food?"
We all nodded expectantly. "Yes?"
"Well, Mojo might have meant Mr. Chester, since he was the one who always fed the gorillas."
"But Howie was the one who accidentally let the emu out of the cage," I pointed out.
"Oh," Jessi sat down again. "But I still think Mojo knew that Mr. Chester was rotten."
"Like the food," Claudia cracked. "Did you taste that banana cake at the gorilla party? It tasted like gorilla drool and really old bananas. Ew!"
That made everyone giggle.
Even though none of us won the trip to Aqua World, things weren"t so bad after all. The Elephant Walk had been a success. And even though Kristy and Stacey hadn"t spoken during the entire walkathon, they hadn"t fought, either.
My group didn"t win the extra credit but (miracle of miracles) we did get an A-. And so did Logan"s group. I think it may have had something to do with the good word Mrs. Wofsey put in for all of us. She was extremely grateful for our help in catching Mr. Chester. To show her grat.i.tude, she gave each of us - Logan, Dawn, Claudia, Howie, Alan, and me - lifetime pa.s.ses to the Bedford Zoo.
So Logan and I are planning a trip to the zoo next weekend with Alan and Howie. Not!
About the Author.
ANN M. MARTIN did a lot of baby-sitting when she was growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. She is a former editor of books for children, and was graduated from Smith College..
Ms. Martin lives in New York Qty with her cats, Mouse and Rosie. She likes ice cream and I Love Lucy; and she hates to cook.
Ann Martin"s Apple Paperbacks include Yours Turly, Shirley; Ten Kids, No Pets; With You and Without You; b.u.mmer Summer; and all the other books in the Baby-sitters dub series.