I swallowed hard as the man began walking slowly toward us.

“On the whole,” I said to Chester, “I think I might have preferred oral surgery.”

The giant, it turned out, was none other than Dr. Greenbriar. And while his anger was great, the rest of him was no bigger than usual. He had seemed like a giant only because of the way his shadow fell from the doorway.

“I don’t understand it,” he mumbled as he rounded us all up and returned us to our bungalows. Howie, thinking quickly, had covered Rosebud’s bones and collar with loose dirt. “How do you fellas keep getting out? I think it must be Daisy. She’s such a scatterbrain. I’m going to have to speak to Jill about her. Oh, what a nuisance!”

He sighed and it grew into a yawn. What was he doing here in the middle of the night anyway?

From our bungalows we watched him retreat into his office. The light stayed on for a long time. I don’t know about anybody else, but I was wishing Ditto’s blanket were off so she could report on what was happening in there.

“Psst.”

I looked up. The Weasel was outside my cage. “Meeting at Hamlet’s when the light goes out,” he whispered. He scurried off and I heard him repeat the message to Howie and Chester and then watched him slither across to the bungalows opposite to tell the others.

I began thinking about everything that had just happened. Talking bones, secrets, murder, escape. Boy, I thought, why couldn’t the Monroes send us to a place with normal social activities? Volleyball, maybe, or bingo.

“Chester,” I called softly through the wall of my bungalow.

“Yes, Harold?”

“What do you think?”

There was a pause before Chester spoke again. “I think we are in danger, Harold, that’s what I think. Until we discover the secret of Chateau Bow-Wow, no one here is safe. Any one of us could wake up like Rosebud, nothing but a pile of bones. So whatever you do, stay awake, Harold. Stay awake, keep alert, be ever vigilant because . . .”

I don’t remember the rest of what Chester had to say. I had fallen into a deep sleep.