A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room Read Free Page A

lined up on the shelves, and all three children, Klaus especially, looked forward to reading up on the creatures in the Reptile Room. "This is an amazing place," Violet said finally, breaking the long silence. "Thank you," Uncle Monty said. "It's taken me a lifetime to put together." "And are we really allowed to come inside here?" Klaus asked. "Allowed?" Uncle Monty repeated. "Of course not! You are implored to come inside here, my boy. Starting first thing tomorrow morning, all of us must be here every day in preparation for the expedition to Peru. I will clear off one of those tables for you, Violet, to work on the traps. Klaus, I expect you to read all of the books about Peru that I have, and make careful notes. And Sunny can sit on the floor and bite rope. We will work all day until suppertime, and after supper we will go to the movies. Are there any objections?" Violet, Klaus, and Sunny looked at one another and grinned. Any objections? The Baudelaire orphans had just been living with Count Olaf, who had made them chop wood and clean up after his drunken guests, while plotting to steal their fortune. Uncle Monty had just described a delightful way to spend one's time, and the children smiled at him eagerly. Of course there would be no objections. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny gazed at the Reptile Room and envisioned an end to their troubles as they lived their lives under Uncle Monty's care. They were wrong, of course, about their misery being over, but for the moment the three siblings were hopeful, excited, and happy. "No, no, no," Sunny cried out, in apparent answer to Uncle Monty's question. "Good, good, good," Uncle Monty said, smiling. "Now, let's go figure out whose room is whose." "Uncle Monty?" Klaus asked shyly. "I just have one question." "What is that?" Uncle Monty said. "What's in that cage with the cloth on top of it?" Uncle Monty looked at the cage, and then at the children. His face lit up with a smile of pure joy. "That, my dears, is a new snake which I brought over from my last journey. Gustav and myself are the only people to have seen it. Next month I will present it to the Herpetological Society as a new discovery, but in the meantime I will allow you to look at it. Gather 'round." The Baudelaire orphans followed Uncle Monty to the cloth-covered cage, and with a flourish-the word "flourish" here means "a sweeping gesture, often used to show off-he swooped the cloth off the cage. Inside was a large black snake, as dark as a coal mine and as thick as a sewer pipe, looking right at the orphans with shiny green eyes. With the cloth off its cage, the snake began to uncoil itself and slither around its home. "Because I discovered it," Uncle Monty said, "I got to name it." "What is it called?" Violet asked. "The Incredibly Deadly Viper," Uncle Monty replied, and at that moment something happened which I'm sure will interest you. With one flick of its tail, the snake unlatched the door of its cage and slithered out onto the table, and before Uncle Monty or any of the Baudelaire orphans could say anything, it opened its mouth and bit Sunny right on the chin. 
    Chapter Three
    I am very, very sorry to leave you hanging like that, but as I was writing the tale of the Baudelaire orphans, I happened to look at the clock and realized I was running late for a formal dinner party given by a friend of mine, Madame diLustro. Madame diLustro is a good friend, an excellent detective, and a fine cook, but she flies into a rage if you arrive even five minutes later than her invitation states, so you understand that I had to dash off. You must have thought, at the end of the previous chapter, that Sunny was dead and that this was the terrible thing that happened to the Baudelaires at Uncle Monty's house, but I promise you Sunny survives this particular episode. It is Uncle Monty, unfortunately, who will be dead, but not yet. As the fangs of the Incredibly Deadly Viper closed on Sunny's chin, Violet and Klaus watched in horror