The Cat

The year is 1935. The place is Hollywood.

The Los Angeles newspapers call him The Cat. He steals at night.

Tonight he is at a house in the Hollywood Hills. The people in the house are having a party. They cannot see or hear The Cat. He is on the roof.

'I need to get to that window,' he thinks.

Minutes later, he is making a hole in the window.

The Cat opens the window and gets into a bedroom. He listens, but everything is quiet in the room. The only noise is the party.

'Now I must find the jewels!' he thinks.

It only takes him a minute or two to find them.

'I can get hundreds of dollars for these!' he thinks.

Moving quickly, he puts them into his bag and leaves. Next day, at Starshine Studios, Zak Wakeman is making a movie.

The star of the movie is Natalie Nevons. She begins to act.

'OK, Natalie,' Zak says. 'Act very afraid. You want to get out of the building. You look up... you can't see Brad. But Brad, you can see Natalie, and you're waiting for her...'

'OK!' says Zak. 'Now bring on the stand-ins.'

The stand-ins are Nathan and Bud. They do all the dangerous things in the movie, all the stunts. Nathan is Natalie's stand-in, and Bud is Brad Poole's stand-in.

'Good luck, Nathan!' says Natalie.

'Thanks, Miss Nevons,' says Nathan.

Brad says nothing to Bud.

'OK!' calls Zak. 'Begin to climb up the building, Nathan.'

The two stand-ins begin to act. Nathan climbs out of the window and up onto the roof of the building.

Bud is waiting for him.

'At first you don't see Bud, Nathan!' calls Zak. 'Now you do! And Bud, you try to stop Nathan, but he gets away.'

Nathan quickly gets away from Bud and runs across the roof of the building.

Bud runs after him.

Natalie Nevons is watching them.

'I can do that,' she thinks. 'Nathan is very good, but I don't need a stand-in.'

'OK, everybody,' calls Zak. 'We are beginning again in twenty minutes.'

'I like your hair, Nathan!' says Bud, laughing. 'It's very nice. You're very pretty!'

Nathan is angry, but he says nothing. He does not like Bud.