Donnie was wrong. It wasn’t Jet who had let go of his branch—it was Bruce. And not because he got bored, but because several small, hard objects had struck him in the back of the head. “OW!” he bellowed, falling to the ground.

“No!” cried Chuck, as Bruce’s branch slotted back into position, and the door to the temple slammed shut.

“Nuts!” exclaimed Bruce.

Chuck and Jet dropped down beside him.

“What is it, Bruce?” asked Chuck.

Bruce rubbed his head and looked at the objects on the ground around him. “Nuts, like I said.” He picked one up. “Someone’s throwing nuts at us.”

“Shaolin surprise!” cried a voice, as three monkeys sporting orange robes and spiky hairdos leaped out of the surrounding trees.

“I am Brother Bataar, and this is Turbold and Kamil,” said the tallest of the three, nodding to the monkeys on his left and right. “We are the Shaolin Monkeys, protectors of this temple.”

“Ha! You haven’t done a very good job of protecting it! Two of our friends are already inside,” Jet pointed out.

“Insolent mongoose!” cried the monkey named Turbold.

“Jet, be quiet,” Chuck said. “We mean you no harm. We are merely here to—”

“Silence!” Brother Bataar commanded. “Shaolin troop, let us show them how we fight!”

Turbold aimed a flying kick at Jet, catching him off guard and sending him barging into Bruce. Jet sprang back onto his feet, responding with a cry of “Ninja-boom!” and a powerful roundhouse kick. Turbold blocked Jet’s attack and spun around to hit him again, but Jet ducked and rolled out of the way.

Nearby, Bruce took on Kamil, who seemed to have an endless supply of nuts, each nibbled into a sharp point. The monkey warrior threw them at the burly meerkat with the speed and force of bullets.

“Hey, stop that!” shouted Bruce.

“You cannot take it?” cried Kamil.

“No, I just think you’re wasting perfectly good food,” Bruce replied.

Meanwhile, Brother Bataar jumped up on his paws and catapulted himself at Chuck. Chuck bowed, so that the monkey flew straight over him. Then they both spun around and stood face to face.

“The ground you are standing on is ours,” said Brother Bataar.

“Then I will take my leave,” replied Chuck. He leaped into the air, twisting his body and swinging his tail at the monkey. Now it was Brother Bataar who had to dodge the attack. Chuck landed on the ground and aimed again, this time catching the monkey’s legs and bringing him crashing down. Within seconds, Brother Bataar was back on his feet and preparing to strike.

“Please, listen! We are here to protect the Eye of the Monkey,” said Chuck.

“As are we,” replied Brother Bataar, launching himself at Chuck once more.

Nearby, Turbold jumped in the air and attempted to clap his paws around Jet’s head. Jet dodged and knocked Turbold off his feet.

“I see you are familiar with the Drowned Rat style of combat,” said Jet. “Unlike your hairdo, it’s very fashionable at the moment.”

“I am an expert in martial arts, but I do not care for fashion,” replied Turbold. “Victory never goes out of style.”

“Let’s see how you look clothed in defeat,” Jet snarled, attacking with his claws.

Turbold ducked. “Perhaps that’s an outfit that would look better on you.” He rolled into a ball and bowled himself at Jet, who jumped out of the way.

“I’m not sure how long we can go on like this,” said Chuck, aiming a punch at his opponent.

“You are tired?” sneered Brother Bataar.

“No, but I can’t listen to anymore battle banter from those two. Can we call a truce for a moment?”

Brother Bataar paused. “OK. Shaolin brothers, withdraw,” he commanded. The other two monkeys jumped into formation behind him.

“You say you are the guardians of this temple,” said Chuck. “Who gave you this great honor?”

“We are from a secret Shaolin temple in the Himalayas. For hundreds of years, our elders have picked the finest warriors to come here and stand guard over the temple and the precious Eye of the Monkey,” Brother Bataar replied.

“Finest warriors, ha!” cried Jet.

Chuck shot Jet a warning glance. “Please continue,” he urged Brother Bataar.

“We keep a constant watch over the entrance to the temple,” the monkey explained.

“Then why did you allow my friends to enter before attacking?” asked Chuck.

“We knew that in dealing with you, the temple would eject them,” replied Brother Bataar.

At that moment, a roaring sound filled the clearing.

Brother Bataar grinned. “Ah, here they come now.”

“Whoooahhh!” came a cry.

The waterfall suddenly gushed as though someone had turned a tap on to full power. Riding the crest of the wave were Donnie and Smo, clinging to an inflated rubber dinghy, and screaming at the tops of their voices.

They crashed down into the pool below with a mighty splash, but soon surfaced and paddled to the shore.

“Now, that’s what I call a ride!” said Donnie, climbing out of the dinghy and giving himself a good shake.

“I haven’t had that much fun since I got lost in a field of sugarcane in Goa and had to eat my way out,” Smo agreed.

Turbold gasped. “The Delhi Llama! I’ve read your book. You once beat the great bare-knuckle fighting bear of Bombay.”

“Oh, he was just a teddy bear really,” Smo said with a smile.

“You see, your friends have been successfully ejected. The Eye of the Monkey is impossible to steal,” said Brother Bataar, bringing them back to the point.

But Donnie shook his head. “The jewel has gone.”

“Impossible,” said Kamil.

“We keep a constant watch from these trees and check on it every evening at dusk,” said Brother Bataar.

“Well, someone has snuck in and taken it since you checked on it last, for I can confirm that the Eye is no longer there,” said Smo. “You have my word as a disciple of the great Shaolin Monkey warrior, Brother Li-Luv that it was not us.”

Brother Bataar bowed. “Then I believe you. But how is this possible?”

“You say you check on the jewel every evening,” said Chuck. “What if the thief observed what you were doing? Could they have waited until after you had checked on the Eye, then entered the temple and taken it?”

“Impossible,” said Turbold. “We would have seen them.”

“But even if someone could have gotten in without us noticing, the Eye was kept well out of reach,” said Brother Bataar.

“Donnie, did you find any clues inside the temple?” asked Chuck.

“There was a rope at the bottom of the statue in which the emerald was hidden,” said Donnie.

“But the statue is designed to be unclimbable,” said Kamil. “Everything slopes down—the ears, the nose—there is no way of attaching anything to it.”

“Then, what was the rope used for?” asked Jet.

“I can think of only one answer: the Indian Rope Trick,” Donnie replied.

“What’s that?” asked Bruce.

“It’s an amazing trick. A magician takes an ordinary rope, conjures it to stand on its end, then climbs up it,” said Donnie.

“Oh, that sounds good. I like magic tricks,” said Bruce. “My favorite is the one where they saw the lady in half.”

“But the Indian Rope Trick is a myth,” said Chuck. “No one has ever actually done it.”

“Except for—” began Turbold.

“Hold your tongue,” snapped Brother Bataar. “We will take our leave of you now.”

“If you have a suspect in mind, you should tell us,” said Chuck. “We could work together.”

Brother Bataar shook his head. “This is a matter of pride for us. If the Eye has gone missing on our watch, we must retrieve it ourselves, otherwise we would never be able to show our faces in the Shaolin temple again. Shaolin Monkeys, come!” The three monkeys leaped into the trees and disappeared.

“Well, they seemed nice,” said Bruce.

“Nice?” said Jet. “They just ambushed and attacked us, listened in on Donnie’s ideas about the rope, and then ran off without telling us what they know.”

“Yeah, but they had cool spiky hairdos and I liked their orange robes,” said Bruce.

“The mention of the Indian Rope Trick clearly meant something to them,” said Chuck. “Smo, have you any idea who could perform such a trick?”

“I’m afraid not, but I do know someone who might know,” replied the llama. “He is my trusted contact in Agra—the one who informed me that someone had found out about the jewel’s location in the first place.”

“We must go to him at once,” said Chuck. “Bruce, you come with me and Smo. Jet and Donnie—follow those monkeys.”