Gordon ran to catch up with the others. They were on their way to the waterfall to sniff again, really, really carefully.
“Your mother is alive,” Gordon puffed.
“If we can trust the fox,” said Buffy harshly.
“I trust him,” said Gertrude. “And I feel sorry for him.”
Gordon settled on a rock beside the falls. Sune sat next to him. After all, they couldn’t do much else while the mice were sniffing around for evidence.
“Shall we have a little cake?” Gordon began to open the backpack. “I have almond dreams, sugar tops and strawberry whirls. Which do you want?”
Sune couldn’t choose. He knew he didn’t want a sugar top, because you had to wash your face and hands afterwards. Hmm. Maybe strawberry…
He was about to say so when Gordon zipped the backpack up again.
“No, probably we should save the cake till we’ve found Buffy’s mother,” he said.
Sune looked at him, wondering what he meant.
“It is always good to have a little reward,” Gordon explained. “First we find her mother and then we have cake! It makes us think faster and more wisely.”
“Are we thinking out where she is?” Sune asked.
Gordon nodded. He felt they knew enough now to figure out where she was. Just by thinking.
“Hmm.” Sune leaned his head in his hands like a real thinker. He sat perfectly still for a moment.
“It’s hard to think,” he said. “Can’t you help me?”
“Well, here are a few questions. Are her mother and siblings alive?”
“Yes,” said Sune.
“Are they far away?”
“No,” said Sune. “There’s sometimes a whiff of them here. The fox said so.”
“Where are they, then?”
Sune stood up and looked in all directions but saw nothing.
Then Buffy and Gertrude came back. They sat down, disappointed. There were no clues to be found.
Sune had an idea.
“Maybe I could write a poem, the way police officers do.”
“Why not,” said Gordon. “You might as well. Maybe you can catch a thought that is inside you.”
Sune thought for a long time. Everyone looked at him. At last he said:
Where is the cave
where we can find our knave (our rat)?
“Knave! Rat!” Buffy exclaimed. “My mother’s not a knave-rat, she’s the cutest mouse there is.”
Sune blushed. “I couldn’t find another rhyme…”
“Aha,” said Gordon, “but you don’t have to rhyme in these poems. Try to catch your thought again. There’ll be cake!”
Sune said:
Where is the cave
at Cave Island?
The island was called Cave Island, so there must be a cave on it, otherwise it would be strange. They had gone around the whole island, though, and hadn’t seen the slightest trace of a cave.
“Bravo,” they all told Sune, who blushed again.
“We are getting close to something important,” said Gordon. “We should not look for a mother. We should look for a cave that is protected from foxes. Where is she? Where is the cave, Sune?”
Sune sat like a thinker again, with his head on his hand. And then he used both hands. He began breathing fast as if he were angry or about to lift a heavy weight. He squeezed his eyes shut.
“Thinking is hard work,” said Gordon.
Sune stood up. He said in a clear voice:
The fox is afraid of just one thing.
His coat gets wet in water.
Sune breathed out and sat down. The others thought carefully about the poem.
“Yes!” they all exclaimed. “You’ve thought it out, Sune!”
“Can I have cake now?” he asked. “The strawberry whirl?”
“As soon as we’ve found her...”
Where exactly would the cave be, they all wondered.
Gertrude got up. She took Buffy’s hand and pulled her along; they went straight towards the creek, straight to the waterfall.
Beside the creek was a narrow outcrop of rock where you could walk without getting your feet wet. The two mouse police went right into the waterfall. The curtain of water poured down over them.
And then they disappeared.
