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girl?’ he asked, curling his lip as he said the words.
    â€˜I’m Emily,’ Emily said. ‘Emily Eyefinger.’
    â€˜I thought she might come in handy,’ the professor said.
    The general looked Emily up and down and then his curled lip turned into a smile.
    â€˜Emily Eyefinger? Did you say Eye finger?’ he laughed. ‘Does she have an eye on her finger ? Ho ho ho ho ho! That’s funny. An eye on her finger! Can you imagine that?’
    The general laughed another big general’s laugh.
    Without saying a word, Emily held up her eyefinger and stared the general straight in his face. Then she blinked her eyefinger eye.
    â€˜Great bombs and bullets!’ the general cried. ‘It’s a real eye! On your finger! I thought your name was a joke. I’m terribly sorry. I’m so embarrassed. And generals aren’t ever supposed to be sorry or embarrassed.’
    â€˜Don’t worry,’ Emily said, ‘and I promise not to say anything about your name.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜Slimantrim?’ Emily said. ‘Your name is Slimantrim and you’re slim and you’re trim.’
    The general look down at himself.
    â€˜So I am. I’ve never noticed that before,’ he said. ‘What a hoot!’
    Suddenly the general turned serious, the way generals do.
    â€˜Follow me,’ he ordered.
    He opened a door to a huge room. The room was filled with metal boxes with flashing lights and switches on them. Wires ran around the floor like spaghetti. At the front of the room was a row of desks with keyboards and screens.
    â€˜This is one big computer,’ the general explained. ‘We’ve added so many bits and bobs that it now almost fills the whole room. I can’t tell you what it does because it’s top secret but let me just say that the whole world depends on it. And now mice havegot into it and it’s doing funny things. Yesterday it almost started a wa – ooops, I almost gave away a secret. Anyway, the mice are chewing the wires.’
    â€˜Are you sure of that?’ asked Professor Mousefinder.
    â€˜They must be because things are going wonky. We’ve put out poison and tried to squish them in mousetraps. We’ve done everything to try to kill them.’
    â€˜K-k-k-kill them!’ the professor cried. ‘You tried to kill mice!’
    â€˜Yes, of course. You are a mouse exterminator, aren’t you?’
    â€˜No, I’m not a mouse exterminator ! I’m a mouseologist ! I’m a scientist who studies mice. I love mice! And so should you! So should everybody! Mice are man’s – and woman’s – best friends. How do you even know there are mice in there? Have you seen them?’
    â€˜We’ve seen mouse droppings. If there are mouse droppings there must be mice dropping them. If they were rabbits there would be rabbit droppings.And if they were horses there would be horse droppings. These are mouse droppings.’
    â€˜What kind of mouse droppings?’ Professor Mousefinder asked.
    â€˜I don’t know. Mouse mouse droppings.’
    â€˜Mouse mouse droppings? There is no such thing as a mouse mouse. There are lots of different kinds of mice. May I see the droppings?’
    â€˜I threw them away.’
    â€˜You what?! You could never be a mouseologist. Turn off the computer and I’ll have a look inside.’
    â€˜We can’t turn off the computer because if we do the whole world might … Oh, goodness, I almost told you another top secret secret. Anyway, we can’t turn this computer off till the new one is built and that won’t be for months.’
    â€˜Okay,’ the professor said, ‘open a panel and I’ll go in to see if they’re doing any damage.’
    â€˜Go in?’ the general said, opening a panel. ‘No person could fit between the cables and gizmos. Besides, it’s much too dangerous. You’d