The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

Occasionally, Violet and Klaus would speak to each other, but mostly they were silent, lost in their own thoughts.
         “If we had any kerosene,” Violet said, around noon, "I could make Molotov cocktails
    with
    
     these bottles."
         “What are Molotov cocktails?” Klaus asked.
         “They're small bombs made inside bottles,” Violet explained. “We could throw them our the window and attract the attention of passersby.”
         “But we don't have any kerosene,” Klaus said mournfully.
         They were silent for several hours.
         “If we were polygamists,” Klaus said, “Count Olaf's marriage plan wouldn't work.”
         “What are polygamists?” Violet asked.
         “Polygamists are people who marry more than one person,'” Klaus explained. “In this community, polygamists are breaking the law, even if they have married in the presence of a judge, with the statement of 'I do' and the signed document in their own hand. I read it here in Nuptial Law. ”
         “But we're not polygamists,” Violet said mournfully.
         They were silent for several more hours.
         “We could break these bottles in half,” Violet said, “and use them as knives, but I'm afraid that Count Olaf's troupe would overpower us.”
         “You could say 'I don't' instead of 'I do,'” Klaus said, “but I'm afraid Count Olaf would order Sunny dropped off the tower.”
         “I certainly would,” Count Olaf said, and the children jumped. They had been so involved in their conversation that they hadn't heard him come up the stairs and open the door. He was wearing a fancy suit and his eyebrow had been waxed so it looked as shiny as his eyes. Behind him stood the hook-handed man, who smiled and waved a hook at the youngsters. “Come, orphans,” Count Olaf said. “It is time for the big event. My associate here will stay behind in this room, and we will keep in constant contact through our walkie-talkies. If anything goes wrong during tonight's performance, your sister will be dropped to her death. Come along now.”
         Violet and Klaus looked at each other, and then at Sunny, still dangling in her cage, and followed Count Olaf out the door. As Klaus walked down the tower stairs, he felt a heavy sinking in his heart as all hope left him. There truly seemed to be no way out of their predicament.
         Violet was feeling the same way, until she reached out with her right hand to grasp the banister, for balance. She looked at her right hand for a second, and began to think. all the way down the stairs, and out the door, and the short walk down the block to the theater, Violet thought and thought and thought, harder than she had in her entire life.
    that
    
     the performance of The Marvelous Marriage had begun, and it seemed too late to do anything to foil Count Olaf's plan. On the other hand, however, they were fascinated, as they had never been backstage at a theatrical production and there was so much to see. Members of Count Olaf's theater troupe hurried this way and that, too busy to even glance at the children. Three very short men were carrying a large flat piece of wood, painted to look like a living room. The two white-faced women were arranging flowers in a vase that from far away appeared to be marble, but dose up looked more like cardboard. An important-looking man with warts all over his face was adjusting enormous light fixtures. As the children peeked onstage, they could see Count Olaf, in his fancy suit, declaiming some lines from the play, just as the curtain carne down, controlled by a woman with very short hair who was pulling on a long rope, attached to a pulley. Despite their fear, you see, the two older Baudelaires were very interested in what was going on, and only wished that they were not involved in any way.
         As the curtain fell, Count Olaf strode offstage and looked at the children. “It's the end of Act Two! Why aren't the