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And then another male voice piped up,“You’re right, Alec. They’re going to kill us if we don’t escape.”

I abruptly removed my ear from the crack and stared at the others.“Uncle Alec isn’t here to save us,” I said after a moment. “He’s also a prisoner, and is talking about getting killed if he can’t escape!”

My statement was met with wails of dismay, and then Harriet was next to press her ear to the wall and listen. After a moment, she nodded.“Max is right. Uncle Alec is a prisoner here, along with a couple of other people whose voices I don’t recognize.”

“Looks like you were right,” Harriet told Clarice. “This is some kind of prison.”

“Of course I’m right,” Clarice growled. “I’ve seen enough prisons to know I’m in one, princess.”

Harriet frowned, for she hates to be called a princess, except by Brutus. She bit back a sharp retort. This wasn’t the time to bicker and fight amongst ourselves. We needed to figure out how to escape this place, or else we might perish, just like Uncle Alec!

So we moved back to the entrance through which we’d dropped down, but as no light came in through there, it was obvious it had been sealed shut by now. And there was still that dog to contend with. There were no windows or other entrances except the one door, but that wasn’t a potential avenue of escape either, as it looked very sturdy. I directed my gaze upwards. That red-brick arched ceiling was high and out of reach, although there was a small opening… And that’s when an idea struck me.

“Have you ever seen those human pyramids?” I asked.

“The ones where a bunch of people all stand on top of each other?” asked Dooley.

“That’s the one. Why don’t we try the same, and then one of us slips through that opening up there, and runs home to warn Odelia?”

“Hey, that’s a great idea, Max,” said Brutus.

I’d recently pulled the same stunt when Dooley and I were locked up in Leonidas Flake’s big house, and Dooley had managed to reach an air vent. We’d used plush animals that time. This time we had something even better: real live animals!

“So you go stand over there, Max,” said Harriet, immediately taking charge.

“Why do I have to be at the bottom?” I asked. I’d secretly hoped I’d be the one to escape through that hole up there.

“Because you’re fat, Max,” said Brutus, with his customary lack of tact. “And big fat cats need to be at the bottom, with the lightest ones near the top of the pyramid.”

“I’m not fat,” I said. “I’m—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Clarice. “We’ve heard it all before. Stop arguing, will ya? We don’t have time for this nonsense. All fat cats gather over here!” she shouted, and compelled by the sheer force of her personality everyone did as they were told. Soon she and Harriet were working together, herding the others, constructing the pyramid with word and gesture. I was at the lowest rung, as indicated, and even though I said I wasn’t feeling well, and had recently undergone an invasive medical procedure, no one paid any mind to my protestations. On top of me stood Brutus, who wasn’t big but strong, paws pressing painfully into my neck, and then layer after layer other cats piled on top of that.

I have to say that cats are the perfect creatures to form a pyramid. Humans may be flexible and strong, but cats are even more so. Of course I couldn’t see what went on above my head, but as far as I could ascertain things were going swimmingly, as at some point loud cheers rang out and apparently some lucky bastard had managed to reach the top and had escaped through that hole I’d found. I would have pointed out that the credit was all mine, but no one was listening, and besides, by then the weight on my shoulders was such that I was starting to know what a bottom pancake feels like, all the other lucky pancakes piled on top and pushing it down onto its plate. Not a very pleasant sensation!

“Well done, you guys!” said Clarice, clapping her paws. “You can come down now.”

Gradually the pyramid was disassembled, and finally I could breathe again.

“Great job, Max,” said Brutus, giving me a painful slap on the exact spot where his left paw had made a big impression. I winced.

“So who is the lucky one who made it through?” I asked.

Brutus gave me a confused frown.“Why, don’t you know? Dooley, of course. He’s the lightest. They elected him unanimously and he heroically accepted to be the messenger.”

I gaped at the cat.“Our Dooley?”

“How many other Dooleys do you know, Max? Of course our Dooley.”

“But… nobody asked me!”

“It’s fine, Max. Dooley will save us all,” said Harriet.

“Oh, my,” I said, as I plunked down on the dirty, wet floor. “And what if they catch him? Or what if he gets stuck and can’t get out? Or what if—”

But then Harriet placed her paw on mine.“He’ll be fine, Max,” she said. “Trust me.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t so sure.

“He’ll be fine because he wants us to be fine. He wants you to be fine. His best friend.”

I gulped a little.“That’s what worries me. That he’ll take too many risks, and make the wrong turns, and that I won’t be there to help him.”