They saw a stained-glass light fixture that dangled from the ceiling. They saw a large oil painting of two snakes entwined together that hung on the wall. But where was Dr. Montgomery?

“Hello?” Mr. Poe called out. “Hello?”

“Hello hello hello!” a loud voice boomed out, and from behind the door stepped a short, chubby man with a round red face. “I am your Uncle Monty, and this is really perfect timing! I just finished making a coconut cream cake!”

TWO

“Doesn’t Sunny like coconut?” Uncle Monty asked. He, Mr. Poe, and the Baudelaire orphans were all sitting around a bright green table, each with a slice of Uncle Monty’s cake. Both the kitchen and the cake were still warm from baking. The cake was a magnificent thing, rich and creamy with the perfect amount of coconut. Violet, Klaus, and Uncle Monty were almost finished with their pieces, but Mr. Poe and Sunny had taken only one small bite each.

“To tell you the truth,” Violet said, “Sunny doesn’t really like anything soft to eat. She prefers very hard food.”

“How unusual for a baby,” Uncle Monty said, “but not at all unusual for many snakes.

The Barbary Chewer, for example, is a snake that must have something in its mouth at all times, otherwise it begins to eat its own mouth. Very difficult to keep in captivity.

Would Sunny perhaps like a raw carrot?

That’s plenty hard.”

“A raw carrot would be perfect, Dr.

Montgomery,” Klaus replied.

The children’s new legal guardian got up and walked toward the refrigerator, but then turned around and wagged a finger at Klaus.

“None of that ‘Dr. Montgomery’ stuff,” he said. “That’s way too stuffy for me. Call me Uncle Monty! Why, my fellow herpetologists don’t even call me Dr. Montgomery.”

“What are herpetologists?” Violet asked.

“What do they call you?” Klaus asked.

“Children, children,” Mr. Poe said sternly.

“Not so many questions.”

Uncle Monty smiled at the orphans.

“That’s quite all right,” he said. “Questions show an inquisitive mind. The word ‘inquisitive’ means—”

“We know what it means,” Klaus said.

“‘Full of questions.’”

“Well, if you know what that means,” Uncle Monty said, handing a large carrot to Sunny, “then you should know what herpetology is.”

“It’s the study of something,” Klaus said.

“Whenever a word has ology, it’s the study of something.”

“Snakes!” Uncle Monty cried. “Snakes, snakes, snakes! That’s what I study! I love Snakes, all kinds, and I circle the globe looking for different kinds to study here in my laboratory! Isn’t that interesting?”

“That is interesting,” Violet said, “very interesting. But isn’t it dangerous?”

“Not if you know the facts,” Uncle Monty said. “Mr. Poe, would you like a raw carrot as well? You’ve scarcely touched your cake.”

Mr. Poe turned red, and coughed into his handkerchief for quite some time before replying, “No, thank you, Dr. Montgomery.”