With the Frogs Page 2

  meep … “Purple-button time,” said Thudd.

  Thudd had three rows of three buttons on his chest. Each button glowed bright green except for the big purple button in the middle. That was the emergency button for calling Uncle Al.

  Thudd pressed the big purple button. It blinked three times and went off.

  Andrew pointed left. “There’s a lily pad a couple of feet away. We can paddle to it and wait for Uncle Al.”

  Using their hands as oars, Andrew and Judy rowed the GNAT toward the lily pad.

  “Yeoouch!” cried Judy, struggling to pull her hand out of the water. “Something’s got my arm! HELP!”

  Andrew undid his seat belt and leaned over to see. Thudd crept out of Andrew’s pocket, scurried over Judy’s lap, and looked down.

  Just below the water, an insect hung upside down. Four of its prickly legs gripped Judy’s arm.

  meep … “Backswimmer bug!” said Thudd. “Swim upside down under skin of water. Breathe by trapping air bubble in special hairs on body.”

  Andrew grabbed Judy’s arm. “When I count to three, yank!

  “One … two … three! Oooomph!”

  With the yank, Judy’s arm came free. But the GNAT flipped over and dumped Andrew and Judy into the water.

  Eek! squeaked Thudd as he plunked into the pond.

  “Blurf!” sputtered Andrew, coming up for air.

  “Blaaargh!” Judy half coughed and half sneezed.

  Andrew scooped Thudd up and put him back in his pocket. “It’s a good thing I gave you three coats of Protectum,” said Andrew. “Your brain chips won’t get soggy.”

  He turned to Judy. “Now aren’t you glad you were wearing a Wannabee?” he asked. “That bug could have chomped your arm off.”

  “I’m not glad about anything!” said Judy.

  “Come on,” said Andrew. “Let’s flip the GNAT over and try to fly it.”

  Andrew and Judy tugged and pulled, but the GNAT was bigger than they were and heavy with water.

  All the while, they could hear the croaking of the frogs. Underwater, things were poking them.

  One of the GNAT’s wings slipped and the GNAT quickly sank.

  “Uh-oh,” said Andrew. “Guess we’ll have to swim to the lily pad.”

  “Swim.” said Judy. “It’s hard to even stay afloat in this stupid Wannabee.”

  Andrew shrugged. “We don’t have much choice,” he said. “Unless you want to hitch a ride on that!” He pointed to a giant bug swimming toward them.

  It looked like a cockroach. Its back was covered with white bumps.

  “Aaaaaaack!” said Judy.

  meep … “Giant water bug!” said Thudd. “Male giant water bug. Female water bug glue eggs onto back of male water bug. Male take care of eggs till eggs hatch.

  “Giant water bug ferocious. Eat anything. Catch fish. Eat tadpoles.”

  Andrew treaded water quietly till the giant water bug passed by. “He doesn’t seem interested in eating us,” said Andrew. “Let’s get to the lily pad before he changes his mind.”

  Andrew dog-paddled toward the lily pad. Judy pulled ahead of him. She was captain of her swim team at Benjamin Franklin Junior High.

  All around them, long-legged water striders skittered over the pond. One of their feet brushed against Andrew’s face.

  “Oofers!” said Andrew. “These guys have fuzzy feet!”

  meep … “Feet fuzz spread bug’s weight over lotsa water,” said Thudd. “Help bug stay on top.”

  Andrew and Judy paddled through a herd of small, round beetles spinning in circles.

  “These bugs are crazy,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Called whirligig beetles,” said Thudd. “Whirling make beetle hard for fish to grab.”

  As they got nearer to the lily pad, they swam past a giant mound of shiny beads. Each bead was the size of a pea. The beads seemed to be made of clear jelly.

  Andrew got close enough to see wriggling, comma-shaped creatures inside some of the glistening beads.

  “These lumps are alive!” said Andrew.

  meep … “Frog eggs!” said Thudd. “Eggs of yellow-legged frog. Frog eggs turning into tadpoles. Tadpoles hatch out of eggs soon.”

  “Holy moly!” said Andrew. “The yellow-legged frogs aren’t disappearing at all! When these eggs hatch, there’ll be thousands of them in this pond!”

  meep … “Noop! Noop! Noop!” said Thudd. “Lotsa eggs not hatch. Lotsa animals eat frog eggs and tadpoles. From one hundred frog eggs, one frog grow up, maybe.”

  They had almost arrived at the lily pad when a ripple shoved them away, then another and another. Two inches away, a long, centipede-like creature reared up from the pond like a cobra. Needle-like fangs curved from the sides of its round, flat head.

  It looked like it had escaped from a nightmare.

  WHAT A HORRIBLE BABY!

  In front of the creature was a gigantic bug with pinching claws. It was a battle of fangs and claws as they slashed and struck at each other.

  “Holy moly!” Andrew panted. His heart was beating like a bongo drum. “It looks like a horror movie!”

  He swam against the ripples as fast as he could toward the lily pad.

  meep … “Diving beetle larva attack adult diving beetle,” said Thudd.

  “Aaaaack!” screamed Judy. “What a huge, horrible baby!”

  meep … “Larva baby bigger than adult beetle!” said Thudd.

  “Adult beetle hungry and fierce, fierce, fierce!” said Thudd. “Larva baby hungry, too. And super fierce! Also called water tiger.”

  Judy reached the lily pad first. She climbed up onto the smooth green leaf and held a hand out to Andrew. Andrew climbed up and sat down next to Judy.

  “Ugh!” said Judy, dragging her hair back from her face. “I used to think of ponds as peaceful places. I’ll never think of them that way again.”

  They watched as the beetle and the larva battled on. The larva dragged the beetle underwater.

  Then the beetle reared up and clamped a claw on the larva’s head. The larva’s tail slapped the water.

  With the larva’s head in its jaws, the beetle dove underwater. Then it came up again—at least its rear end did. It spread its wings and folded them as it dove back down.

  meep … “Diving beetle collecting air under wings,” said Thudd. “Like air tank for scuba diver. Can stay underwater lotsa minutes. Maybe hours.”

  Suddenly Thudd’s purple button began to blink. It popped open and a purple beam zoomed out. At the end of the beam appeared a see-through hologram of Uncle Al.

  “Hey, guys!” said Uncle Al. “What’s with the purple-button emergency? You’re supposed to be safe at home.”

  When Uncle Al visited Andrew and Judy by Hologram Helper, he could hear them but he couldn’t see them.

  “Hi there, Uncle Al!” said Andrew.

  “Hiya, Unkie!” said Thudd.

  “You won’t believe the trouble we’re in!” said Judy.

  Uncle Al’s fuzzy eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead. “What’s going on?” he asked with a frown.

  “Um, we’re at the pond near the cabin,” said Andrew.

  “You’re at the pond!” said Uncle Al. “I told you not to leave the cabin! The pond is an awfully dangerous place for bug-sized kids!”

  “We wanted to help you find out why the frogs are disappearing,” said Andrew.

  “Good golly, Miss Molly!” said Uncle Al. “That’s a very brave thing to do, but you should leave that to me.

  “I want you to go back to the cabin right now!”

  “That’ll be hard to do,” said Andrew. “The flying machine I invented, the GNAT, got us here. But it sank.”

  Uncle Al shook his head. “SpongeBob SquarePants on a sugar cookie!” he said. “I’ll get there as soon as I can, but it will take a while. The roads are bad here. I had to take a horse trail to this mountain lake.”

  Andrew nodded. “We’ll just hang out on this lily pad till you come ge
t us,” he said.

  RHUUMMMMM … RHUUMMMMM … RHUUMMMMM …

  Uncle Al cocked his head. “I hear frogs,” he said. “They’re bullfrogs, I think.”

  “Yoop! Yoop! Yoop!” said Thudd.

  Uncle Al’s eyes grew dark. “Bullfrogs have enormous appetites for, um, insects,” he said. “And you guys are the size of—”

  Suddenly a huge brownish green lump lunged through the air and plopped down on the lily pad. The lily pad sank, water splashed, and Andrew’s stomach flip-flopped as he bounced into the air.

  TIME FOR THE SCHNOZZLES

  Andrew plopped headfirst into the water.

  When he bobbed to the surface, he saw what had tossed him—a bullfrog that was now sitting on a rock.

  Andrew squinted at the frog. In its mouth, something was waggling. Andrew heard a faint but familiar scream. Judy!

  “Holy moly!” said Andrew.

  Eek! squeaked Thudd.

  “What can we do?” asked Andrew. “That frog is a thousand times bigger than we are!”

  meep … “Throw mothballs at frog mouth!” said Thudd.

  “I thought mothballs were for bugs and snakes,” said Andrew.

  meep … “Snake got special organ in mouth for smelling,” said Thudd. “Frog got same kinda organ. Mothball smell confuse snake. Confuse frog, maybe …”

  “Judy’s got mothballs, too,” said Andrew, pulling mothball chips out of his pocket.

  “Judy!” he yelled. “Grab the mothball chips in your pocket. Toss them into the frog’s mouth!”

  Andrew aimed and threw his mothball chips as hard as he could. Andrew saw Judy shoving something into the frog’s mouth.

  Suddenly the frog opened its mouth and Judy jumped out.

  “Are you okay, Judy?” shouted Andrew.

  “I’m covered with frog spit!” she yelled, splashing frantically toward a thick clump of cattails.

  The next instant, the bullfrog was zooming over Andrew’s head like an airplane!

  meep … “Bullfrog see something else to eat!” said Thudd.

  Andrew swam after Judy toward the cattails.

  “The cattails are growing very close together,” said Andrew. “They’ll keep most things out. We’ll be safer in there.”

  Andrew had just about caught up to Judy. They were swimming through a swarm of whirligig beetles. Each one was spinning like a little top.

  Andrew felt a sudden rush of water from below. A splash washed over him. He blinked—and everything went black!

  The next thing Andrew knew, he was in total darkness. His head banged into something hard. Am I in an underwater cave? he wondered.

  Water was up his nose. He held his breath.

  A second later, Andrew felt like someone had shot him out of a water pistol. As he sped along, the water almost dragged his pants off. After a few seconds, he slowed down and paddled quickly to the top.

  “Blurf!” he blurted, blowing water from his nose.

  “Over here, Bug-Brain!” Judy yelled from close by.

  meep … “Fish trying to eat whirligig beetles,” said Thudd. “Gulp down Drewd and Oody, too.”

  “It wasn’t so bad,” said Andrew. “The fish let us go.”

  meep … “Bad! Bad! Bad!” said Thudd.

  “Cuz fish come back again.

  “When fish grab whirligig beetle, beetle spray nasty stuff. Not taste good.

  “Fish spit out beetle. Then fish grab beetle again. Beetle spray again. Fish spit out again. Fish keep catching beetle till beetle got no more nasty stuff to spray. Then fish swallow beetle.”

  “The fish will come back to get us again when it comes back for the beetles!” said Judy, splashing toward the cattails.

  Andrew shook his head. “Maybe not, if we can get away from these whirligig bugs and into the cattails,” he said. “But to be safe, we’d better put on the Schnozzles. There’s one in the pocket of your Wannabee, Judy.”

  “Humph,” grumped Judy, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of black goggles with a nose attached and a mustache underneath.

  Andrew had invented the Schnozzle to breathe and communicate underwater. The earpieces of the Schnozzles could pick up a person’s thoughts and send them to anyone else who was wearing a Schnozzle. It could also send them to Uncle Al’s Hologram Helper.

  Andrew and Judy shoved their noses into their Schnozzles and stretched the bands over their heads. From one of his pockets, Andrew pulled out two tiny wire spirals and slipped them over Thudd’s antennas. With these, Thudd could pick up thoughts from the Schnozzles, too.

  Not a moment too soon. In an instant, the fish had gobbled them and a mouthful of whirligig beetles up again. A few seconds later, it spit them out. Then it happened again.

  When the fish spit Andrew and Judy out of its mouth this time, the water looked gloomier. And when Andrew looked up, the surface of the water seemed far, far away. They were deeper in the pond now.

  That fish will gulp us again before we can get to the top, thought Andrew. Maybe this time it’ll swallow us. We’ve got to find a place to hide.

  Andrew looked around. A jungle of greenery rose up from below. He spied a tangle of fuzzy-looking plants. Little green bean-shaped sacks bubbled out from their stems.

  That looks like a good place to hide, thought Andrew. He dove quickly into the shaggy stems and huddled close to one of the green sacks.

  “Noop! Noop! Noop!” squeaked Thudd.

  But it was too late. Instantly one of the little bean-shaped sacks popped open. Before Andrew knew it, his top half had been sucked inside!

  PLANT FOOD!

  Eek! squeaked Thudd. “Drewd inside meat-eating plant! Carnivorous plant! Called bladderwort!

  “Stuff inside bladderwort turn Drewd into goo! Then bladderwort absorb Drewd goo!”

  “Yowzers!” hollered Andrew, struggling to get himself out. His skin was beginning to itch and tingle. “I think it’s starting to eat me!”

  Andrew felt something yanking his legs.

  Judy was trying to drag him out. But the plant wasn’t giving him up.

  She let go of Andrew’s legs. Through the wall of the sack, Andrew could see Judy like a blurry shadow. She was pulling something from her hair.

  Suddenly the sack opened! Andrew pulled himself out.

  “What did you do?” asked Andrew.

  “Used one of my trusty hairpins,” said Judy, pushing it back into her hair. “Let’s get out of here!”

  They swam into a tangle of smooth water-lily stems.

  Andrew looked around. “Where’s that fish?” he asked.

  Judy pointed up. Andrew could see the silvery belly of the fish near the surface. It was eating eggs, the eggs of the yellow-legged frog.

  meep … “Fish called rainbow trout,” said Thudd. “Lotsa years ago, these kindsa fish not live in this pond.

  “Few years ago, fisherman put baby trout in pond. Want big trout to catch later. But rainbow trout eat lotsa frog eggs.”

  “Maybe that’s a reason the yellow-legged frogs are disappearing from this pond and others, too,” said Andrew.

  Judy nodded. “Fishermen stock the ponds with trout,” she said. “But they don’t realize that the trout will eat up the frog eggs.”

  “We’ll tell Uncle Al,” said Andrew.

  All around them, strange, shadowy things were swimming, rushing, wriggling—and eating other things.

  A tube-shaped creature with long, stringy tentacles was clinging to the water-lily stem beside Andrew.

  A tiny creature with fuzzy antennas and one eye in the middle of its head brushed one of the tentacles. In a flash, the tentacle wrapped around the little animal. The other tentacles joined in. Together, the tentacles stuffed the one-eyed creature into the hole in the middle of the tube-shaped creature.

  “Woofers!” said Andrew.

  meep … “Predator animal called hydra,” said Thudd. “Relative of jellyfish.

  “When prey animal touch tentacle of hydra, h
ydra tentacle shoot out stingers. Stingers got hooks to trap prey. Stingers got poison to stun prey. Then tentacles drag prey into stomach to eat.”

  Just as Andrew was thinking what to do next, a huge bug as long as a pinkie finger swam by. It dashed after a tadpole. Suddenly the front of the bug’s face flipped forward! There was a pair of jaws at the end. The jaws caught the tadpole and drew it into its mouth. Then it jetted away.

  meep … “Dragonfly catch tadpole!” said Thudd.

  Judy shook her head. “Dragonflies don’t live underwater, dummy!” she said.

  meep … “Baby dragonfly,” said Thudd. “Called nymph.”

  “That’s no baby,” said Judy.

  meep … “Dragonfly nymph is baby,” insisted Thudd. “Can’t lay eggs. Can’t make baby dragonflies.

  “Nymph live underwater for long time. Maybe seven years.

  “Nymph get big, big, big! Shed too-small exoskeleton. Called molting. Grow bigger exoskeleton. This happen lotsa times.

  “Then nymph change into adult. Can lay eggs. Have babies.

  “Adult dragonfly live short time. Two months, maybe. Enough time to find mate, lay eggs.”

  Judy shivered and huddled closer to the water-lily stem. “It’s not safe on the surface and it’s sure not safe down here,” she said. “What on earth can we do?”

  Andrew looked into the murky water below. He could make out the blurry outlines of plants and rocks.

  “Let’s go to the bottom of the pond,” he said. “We can hide under a rock until Uncle Al comes to get us.”

  “Cheese Louise!” said Judy. “Who knows what’s down there. It could be worse!”

  Andrew spied a huge, ghostly-looking larva perched on a nearby water-lily stem. It was perfectly still.

  As Andrew looked more closely, he could see that it wasn’t a live larva at all. It was just an empty shell.

  “Wowzers!” said Andrew. “There’s a giant bug skeleton with nobody in it!”

  meep … “Exoskeleton of water tiger,” said Thudd.

  “Super-duper pooper-scooper!” said Andrew. “It’s really scary-looking. We can get inside and camouflage ourselves.”