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By Eve Titus
Illustrated by Paul Galdone
(c) 1971 by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone
2
Off to the Orient!
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At dawn London was blanketed by fog, and we could scarcely see our paws before our faces. By stealing rides, we reached Dover, then crossed the English Channel as stowaways on a steamer.
In France we boarded the boat-train for Paris, arriving in a downpour. Soaked to the fur, we called on Inspector Antoine Cherbou of the policemice.
Told of our mission, the Inspector arranged to join us, along with the famous General Garmize.
When the Simplon Express left Paris that night, four mice were aboard. Carrier pigeons had spread news of our plans, and as we sped across Europe on one crack express train after another, many well-known mice joined our party.
Our accommodations were often luxurious, but whenever people entered, we had to scamper off to the baggage car.
Lord Adrian, historian of the International Society of Mouse Mountaineers, boarded at Geneva. He was a famed hunter of sharks, those horrors of the deep. With him came Tillary Quinn, author and adventurer, Dr. Arthur Howard, a geologist, and Dr. Julian Wolff, a medical mouse. And so it went, until our party numbered twenty.
One night we reached Turkey. All were asleep but Basil and myself, and we stepped out for some air.
Waiting on the platform were Young Richard, an American scientist, and the archeologist Dr. Singh Lha. Two Turkish workmice stood behind them, bearing a large, bulky object. They unwrapped it to reveal a painted vase.
"A clue to the pygmy cats!" said Dr. Lha. "It was found on a site I am excavating, here in Turkey."
"Amazing! Astounding! Astonishing!" cried Basil. "Painted here are pygmy cats in Oriental robes and turbans, carrying bamboo chairs in which sit King Elyod and Queen Nairda, mouse rulers of ancient times. But Elyod and Nairda were Europeans, not Orientals--how strange!"
I, too, was mystified. Every schoolmouse knew of Elyod the Good. About two thousand years ago he ruled Euphoria, a mouse kingdom near Athens, Greece. His court had been a center of learning, where all the great mouse minds of the time gathered.
Ancient Euphorians set sail, seeking a short route to India. Sixty mice embarked--the King's son, Semloh the Poet Prince, the Queen, and many nobles.
Cheering throngs lined the waterfront to wave farewell to their beloved rulers. Alas, the farewells were final--of all who sailed that fateful day, not one mouse returned!
Historians believed that a violent storm had wrecked the ship and drowned everyone aboard.
Basil's voice broke into my thoughts. "Can it be that the mice did not drown, but were cast ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean?"
He paced to and fro, thinking deeply.
"Suppose the pygmy cats lived on the island, cats who had never seen mice. Would they not have welcomed the castaways? As for King Elyod, an island paradise is every mouse's dream, and there was a challenge too--could mice rule cats? Elyod took up that challenge. The painting on the vase proves it. But why was the vase discovered in Turkey, in the Near East, so far from the Far East?"
He gripped Singh Lha's paw. "Thanks for bringing the vase--I've memorized the painting. If I solve the mystery surrounding Elyod and the pygmy cats, cat and mouse history will be rewritten!"
The train moved slowly, then picked up speed.
Waving to Singh Lha, Basil, Young Richard, and I swung aboard.
