A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

wretched things Gunther had said. "I don't know," he said. "He's told us so many haunting secrets, Violet. So many awful schemes--all the treachery he has done in the past, and all he's planning to do in the future. It's all here in this notebook--from V.F.D. all the way to this terrible auction plan." "We'll have plenty of time to discuss everything," Klaus said, "but in the meantime, let's get you out of this cage before Gunther comes back. Violet, do you think you can pick this lock?" Violet took the lock in her hands and squinted at it in the gloom. "It's pretty complicated," she said. "He must have bought himself some extra-difficult locks, after I broke into that suitcase of his when we were living with Uncle Monty. If I had some tools, maybe I could invent something, but there's absolutely nothing down here." "Aguen?" Sunny asked, which meant something like "Could you saw through the bars of the cage?" "Not saw," Violet said, so quietly that it was as if she was talking to herself. "I don't have the time to manufacture a saw. But maybe ..." Her voice trailed off, but the other children could see, in the gloom, that she was tying her hair up in a ribbon, to keep it out of her eyes. "Look, Duncan," Isadora said, "she's thinking up an invention! We'll be out of here in no time!" "Every night since we've been kidnapped," Duncan said, "we've been dreaming of the day when we would see Violet Baudelaire inventing something that could rescue us." "If we're going to rescue you in time," Violet said, thinking furiously, "then my siblings and I have to climb back up to the penthouse right away." Isadora looked nervously around the tiny, dark room. "You're going to leave us alone?" she asked. "If I'm going to invent something to get you out of that cage," Violet replied, "I need all the help I can get, so Klaus and Sunny have to come with me. Sunny, start climbing. Klaus and I will be right behind you." "Onosew," Sunny said, which meant "Yes ma'am," and Klaus lifted her up to the end of the rope so she could begin the long, dark climb back up to the Squalors' apartment. Klaus began climbing right behind her, and Violet clasped hands with her friends. "We'll be back as soon as we can," she promised. "Don't worry, Quagmires. You'll be out of danger before you know it." "In case anything goes wrong," Duncan said, flipping to a page in his notebook, "like it did the last time, let me tell you--" Violet placed her finger on Duncan's mouth. "Shush," she said. "Nothing will go wrong this time. I swear it." "But if it does," Duncan said, "you should know about V.F.D. before the auction begins." "Don't tell me about it now," Violet said. "We don't have time. You can tell us when we're all safe and sound." The eldest Baudelaire grabbed the end of the extension cord and started to follow her siblings. "I'll see you soon," she called down to the Quagmires, who were already fading into the darkness as she began her climb. "I'll see you soon," she said again, just as she lost all sight of them. The climb back up the secret passageway was much more tiring but a lot less terrifying, simply because they knew what they would find at the other end of their ersatz rope. On the way down the elevator shaft, the Baudelaires had no idea what would be waiting for them at the bottom of such a dark and cavernous journey, but Violet, Klaus, and Sunny knew that all seventy-one bedrooms of the Squalor penthouse would be at the top. And it was these bedrooms--along with the living rooms, dining rooms, breakfast rooms, snack rooms, sitting rooms, standing rooms, ballrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and the assortment of rooms that seemed to have no purpose at all--that would be helpful in rescuing the Quagmires. "Listen to me," Violet said to her siblings, after they had been climbing for a few minutes. "When we get up to the top, I want the two of you to search the penthouse." "What?" Klaus said, peering down at his sister. "We already searched it yesterday,