“Blake looked around and gulped. He'd forgotten about the mess on the floor. Chamber pot shards, hisshaving kit, a towel or two..."I... ah..." It seemed to him that it was far easierto lie for the sake of national security than it was to hisolder sister."Is that a bar of soap stuck to the wall?" Penelope asked."Um... yes, it appears to be.”

“From the way Blake was looking at me, I for the feeling he'd finally figured it out. Maybe that was one thing about him that had changed. But it had taken him too long.”

“I couldn't bring myself to ask Matka why they had taken him. She pretended that he'd gone away on business. I pretended I knew nothing. My brother and sister believed the lie. There were so many lies that we had to live with...and secrets.”

“Max?” said the Gasman. “Are those, um, rats?”Lovely. “Yes, those do appear to be either rats or mice on steroids,” I said briskly, trying not to shriek and climb the walls like a girly-girl.”

“I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”

“Tribe cats are named after the first thing their mother sees, but I thing this would lead to a lot of kits being named 'wall of cave', 'side of cave' and 'floor of cave”