Chapter FIVE

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That night after Stephano's arrival was quite unpleasant. Stephano used his threatening knife to chop up vegetables for dinner. And when the children, Monty, and Stephano had dinner in the Reptile Room, Stephano hogged most of the food to himself, while rubbing his knife onto Violet's knee the entire time. That night, Stephano sat on a chair in the hallway, preventing the Baudelaire's from going into Uncle Monty's room to warn the herpetologist of his disguise, and began cutting jagged chunks of wood off a fallen branch he found in the garden.

He did the exact same thing the very next day.

However, on the day after that, something much different happened. Stephano was in the middle of listening to an audiobook on CD that morning, when Uncle Monty called to the children to come out and see him in the garden.

"What do you need Uncle Monty?" asked Violet

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"What do you need Uncle Monty?" asked Violet.

"I'm so sorry I put you three children in danger," said the herpetologist. "I just figured out what you were trying to tell me."

"That Stephano is an imposter?" Klaus asked.

"Yes," said Monty, "after all, I'm not some half-witted banker, or someone from High Court."

"Gib!" Sunny shrieked, which meant, "let's call the police!"

"My sister thinks we should report Stephano to the authorities," Violet said.

"I don't think we should." said Uncle Monty. "We need to figure out what Stephano is up to first."

"How?" Violet asked.

"We just need to keep our eyes on this man," said Uncle Monty.

He was definitely right about something. He knew Stephano was imposter. However, what he was wrong about was that Stephano was a spy for the Herpetological Society, instead of realizing that Stephano was really Count Olaf in disguise.

"And as the children and Uncle Monty walked up to the door, a brass reading lamp suddenly dropped from the window, and hit Monty on the head before shattering.

"Uncle Monty!" Violet exclaimed.

Remember what I said, reader. Monty does die, so you should close this story immediately, before catching another glimpse of this page.

However, Monty did survive the drop the brass reading lamp, and looked up to see Stephano poking his head out of the window. "So sorry," Stephano said. "I was re-arranging this lamp, until it slipped out of my hands, and onto your head, sorry."

Stephano closed the window, and the children turned to Monty.

"That was no accident," Violet said.

"I suppose Stephano doesn't like me," said Monty. "Anyway bambini, it's best to get back to work, were going to see another film by Gustav, tonight."

"What's the name of it?" asked Klaus.

"Well it depends what's showing at the theater," said Monty. "Now lets prepare for our expedition to Peru, Violet need you to make sure the snake traps our working in case any of the specimens escapes from their pens, Klaus, I need you to research the terrain of Peru so we can navigate through the jungle with ease, and Sunny, I need you to slice enormous length of rope into small workable pieces."

"Okay," said the Baudelaires in unison. They didn't seem to worry about Stephano anymore.

"Then let's get to work!" the herpetologist cried.

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