Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden

if someone had snatched the flute away. The rats were amazed.
    ‘I didn’t think that was going to happen,’ Rags said, still shaken, and gulping away the last of his tears.
    ‘It certainly did the trick,’ Bags agreed, wiping his nose with the back of his paw and sniffing.
    Gradually they started to recover and feel better again. They quickly decided that Rags would be the one to climb up the ivy and look for the letterbox. Rats are very good at climbing, and once he set out, he moved swiftly up the wall, while Bags watched from below.
    ‘I’ve found it!’ Rags shouted down. ‘There’s a hole in the wall here, a narrow rectangular hole. I’m going to climb in and see what’s there.’ His head, then his body, then his bum and finally his tail disappeared into the ivy-covered wall and Bags wondered excitedly what Rags would find. Might it even be the Green Marvel itself?
    After what seemed to him to be hours, but was only a matter of minutes, a whiskered snout popped out, high up in the ivy.
    ‘There are two notes this time. Which one should I bring?’
    ‘Both of them, you twit! Throw them down to me here and I’ll look after them.’
    The snout disappeared again, and a fewseconds later a paw appeared, holding two folded squares of fragile yellowed paper which it tossed down. Bags caught them neatly, and before long Rags climbed out of the letterbox and was descending through the shiny green leaves of the ivy.
    ‘We’ll take these to Georgiana tonight and see what they say, but when we get back to the house I vote that we have a little snooze for a while,’ Bags said.
    ‘Good idea! I’m exhausted. That was almost too much excitement for one day!’ 

24 A Surprise for Jasper
    When he had finished working that day, Jasper stumped upstairs to his room, feeling tired and irritated. It was early evening by then and already there was a full moon, low and huge and silvery. Jasper noticed it, but he paid it no heed, it meant nothing to him. Jasper only valued things that other people valued because they couldn’t have them. For that reason he had no interest in wild flowers or birds or the stars or any of the other beautiful things in the world which are there for everyone to enjoy.
    His body was aching from all the weeding and hoeing. He’d always known that MrsKnuttmegg didn’t like or trust him, but he didn’t like to be told it to his face. Oh, if only he could find the Green Marvel and leave this house, with its dotty owner and its nasty cook. For how much longer will I have to put up with all of this? he wondered.
    And what about those miserable rats? They were more trouble than they were worth, as far as Jasper was concerned, but when he did finally leave he was going to take them with him. Even in jail rats were useful to frighten other prisoners, and although he would be rich and powerful once he found the necklace, he would still want to be able to scare the pants off people. What annoyed him here was that he had no way of controlling the wretched creatures. As soon as he had money, one of the very first things he was going to buy was a cage to keep them in. He’d go back to feeding them very little too. Be harsh and show them who’s boss: that was the best way to treat animals as far as Jasper was concerned. Where were they,anyway? What were they doing right now? He stood listening carefully, and heard a little snore coming from the dressing table.
    He crossed the room on tiptoe, gently pulled out the top drawer and there were the rats. They were both tucked up in their sock sleeping-bags, with their heads resting on the rolled-up vest. They seemed to be smiling in their sleep, and Jasper could see their tiny fangs. Ugh, what hideously ugly creatures they were, with their dull fur and weird little ears.
    But then, as he looked at them with extreme dislike, Jasper noticed something. They were lying with their front paws out over the tops of the socks, and each rat was clutching a small square of