Villain's Lair Read Online Free PDF

place he could think to hide was in Rosie’s thistly, thorny mountain of weeds.So he dived in and covered himself quickly, then made a peephole through the weeds.
    Sticky did the same.
    They both held their breath.
    They stayed stick-still.
    Then in walked the villain himself.
    The dastardly, demented Damien Black.

Chapter 7
THE DASTARDLY, DEMENTED DAMIEN BLACK
    Damien Black was taller than Dave expected. Per-haps that was because he was looking up at him from among thistly, thorny weeds on the ground, but nonetheless, he seemed both taller and oilier than Dave expected.
    By oily I do not mean deep-fried.
    By oily I mean slick.
    Slippery.
    Shifty in a way that only dastardly, demented villains know how to be.
    And although he was talking, it was
not
to himself, as dastardly, demented villains are prone to do. Oh no. He was talking to the Bandito Brothers. Two of them, that is. The third one, Tito(the one who was big like an ox and had a head full of rocks), was in a cell in the dungeon, tied up and awaiting his fate as dragon dinner should his brothers fail to satisfy Damien’s demands.
    â€œIt must be him,” Damien was saying. “And he’s probably with some fool who thinks he can rob me. That annoying lizard doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut! Yakety-yakety-yak, all the time. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s yakety-yakking.”
    For some reason, this caused the two Bandito Brothers to begin yakking:
    â€œBut that’s a good thing, right, Mr. Black?”
    â€œHow else would you ever find him?”
    â€œHe’s little!”
    â€œJust a lizard!”
    Through the weeds, Dave watched the two Bandito Brothers trail behind Damien Black. He was now glad Sticky had told him that Pablo looked like a rat and smelled like a bat (not thathe could smell him through the musty, thorny, thistly weeds, but he
could
see that he was small-boned with a pointy nose and a scraggly mustache) and that Angelo was scar-faced and scary and ugly and hairy (although the hair was not so much on his head as it was on his arms—a fact Dave couldn’t ignore, as Angelo was wearing a dingy oversized shirt with the sleeves ripped out).
    What Sticky had neglected to tell him was that the brothers also wore bandoliers of ammunition crisscrossing their chests. And that their boots had spurs. And that their teeth were capped here and there in gold.
    â€œShut up, you fools!” Mr. Black commanded. “If that lizard is here on his own, why do I need you?”
    â€œTo catch him?”
    â€œYes, Mr. Black. To catch him!”
    â€œWe’re the only other ones who know what he looks like!”
    â€œAnd he does not know we are working with you!
    Damien Black stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face them. “You are
not
working with me. You are doing as I say so your brother doesn’t die a slow, agonizing death!”
    â€œHe’s not really our brother!”
    â€œAnd we keep telling you—we would do what you say anyway!”
    â€œWhy do you think we followed you here?”
    â€œWe hate that lousy lizard.”
    â€œHe’s creepy!”
    â€œHe’s sneaky!”
    â€œHe cheated us!”
    â€œBetrayed us!”
    â€œDouble-crossed us!”
    â€œDuped us!”
    â€œSo we’re happy to help you, Mr. Black.”
    â€œVery happy.”
    Hearing this made steam shoot out of Sticky’sears. (Not that it actually
was
, it just felt that way to the lizard.) He wanted to push through the weeds and shout, “You rotten
rateros! You
betrayed me.” But he was so mad, so incredibly mad, that he held stick-still and vowed on his little gecko life that he would strip Damien Black and those
bobos
banditos of the power ingots. He would get them, and through Dave, he would then get his revenge! Indeed, he would!
    Dave, on the other hand, did not like what he’d heard. Was
he
being duped? Was Sticky playing him for a