James and the Giant Peach Read online

  'Be quiet and let the boy speak!' said the Ladybird. 'Go on, James.'

  They all moved a little closer to him. There was a longish pause.

  'Go on!' they cried frantically. 'Go on!'

  And all the time while they were waiting they could hear the sharks threshing around in the water below them. It was enough to make anyone frantic.

  'Come on, James,' the Ladybird said, coaxing him.

  I... I... I'm afraid it's no good after all,' James murmured, shaking his head. 'I'm terribly sorry. I forgot. We don't have any string. We'd need hundreds of yards of string to make this work.'

  'What sort of string?' asked the Old-Green-Grasshopper sharply.

  'Any sort, just so long as it's strong.'

  'But my dear boy, that's exactly what we do have! We've got all you want!'

  'How? Where?'

  'The Silkworm!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper. 'Didn't you ever notice the Silkworm? She's still downstairs! She never moves! She just lies there sleeping all day long, but we can easily wake her up and make her spin!'

  'And what about me, may I ask?' said Miss Spider. 'I can spin just as well as any Silkworm. What's more, I can spin patterns.'

  'Can you make enough between you?' asked James.

  'As much as you want.'

  'And quickly?'

  'Of course! Of course!'

  'And would it be strong?'

  'The strongest there is! It's as thick as your finger! But why? What are you going to do?'

  'I'm going to lift this peach clear out of the water!' James announced firmly.

  'You're mad!' cried the Earthworm.

  'It's our only chance.'

  'The boy's crazy.'

  'He's joking.'

  'Go on, James,' the Ladybird said gently. 'How are you going to do it?'

  'Skyhooks, I suppose,' jeered the Centipede.

  'Seagulls,' James answered calmly. 'The place is full of them. Look up there!'

  They all looked up and saw a great mass of seagulls wheeling round and round in the sky.

  'I'm going to take a long silk string,' James went on, 'and I'm going to loop one end of it round a seagull's neck. And then I'm going to tie the other end to the stem of the peach.' He pointed to the peach stem, which was standing up like a short thick mast in the middle of the deck.

  'Then I'm going to get another seagull and do the same thing again, then another and another -'

  'Ridiculous!' they shouted.

  'Absurd!'

  'Poppycock!'

  'Balderdash!'

  'Madness!'

  And the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, 'How can a few seagulls lift an enormous thing like this up into the air, and all of us as well? It would take hundreds... thousands...'

  'There is no shortage of seagulls,' James answered. 'Look for yourself. We'll probably need four hundred, five hundred, six hundred... maybe even a thousand... I don't know... I shall simply go on hooking them up to the stem until we have enough to lift us. They'll be bound to lift us in the end. It's like balloons. You give someone enough balloons to hold, I mean really enough, then up he goes. And a seagull has far more lifting power than a balloon. If only we have the time to do it. If only we are not sunk first by those awful sharks...'

  'You're absolutely off your head!' said the Earthworm.

  'How on earth do you propose to get a loop of string round a seagull's neck? I suppose you're going to fly up there yourself and catch it!'

  'The boy's dotty!' said the Centipede.

  'Let him finish,' said the Ladybird. 'Go on, James. How would you do it?'

  'With bait.'

  'Bait! What sort of bait?'

  'With a worm, of course. Seagulls love worms, didn't you know that? And luckily for us, we have here the biggest, fattest, pinkest, juiciest Earthworm in the world.'

  'You can stop right there!' the Earthworm said sharply. 'That's quite enough!'

  'Go on,' the others said, beginning to grow interested. 'Go on!'

  'The seagulls have already spotted him,' James continued. 'That's why there are so many of them circling round. But they daren't come down to get him while all the rest of us are standing here. So this is what -'

  'Stop!' cried the Earthworm. 'Stop, stop, stop! I won't have it! I refuse! I - I - I - I -'

  'Be quiet!' said the Centipede. 'Mind your own business!'

  'I like that!'

  'My dear Earthworm, you're going to be eaten anyway, so what difference does it make whether it's sharks or seagulls?'

  'I won't do it!'

  'Why don't we hear what the plan is first?' said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.

  'I don't give a hoot what the plan is!' cried the Earthworm. 'I am not going to be pecked to death by a bunch of seagulls!'

  'You will be a martyr,' said the Centipede. 'I shall respect you for the rest of my life.'

  'So will I,' said Miss Spider. 'And your name will be in all the newspapers. Earthworm gives life to save friends...'

  'But he won't have to give his life,' James told them. 'Now listen to me. This is what we'll do...'

  Twenty-one

  'Why, it's absolutely brilliant!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper when James had explained his plan.

  'The boy's a genius!' the Centipede announced. 'Now I can keep my boots on after all.'

  'Oh, I shall be pecked to death!' wailed the poor Earthworm.

  'Of course you won't.'

  'I will, I know I will! And I won't even be able to see them coming at me because I have no eyes!'

  James went over and put an arm gently round the Earthworm's shoulders. 'I won't let them touch you,' he said. 'I promise I won't. But we've got to hurry! Look down there!'

  There were more sharks than ever now around the peach. The water was boiling with them. There must have been ninety or a hundred at least. And to the travellers up on top, it certainly seemed as though the peach were sinking lower and lower into the water.

  'Action stations!' James shouted. 'Jump to it! There's not a moment to lose!' He was the captain now, and everyone knew it. They would do whatever he told them.

  'All hands below deck except Earthworm!' he ordered.

  'Yes, yes!' they said eagerly as they scuttled into the tunnel entrance. 'Gome on! Let's hurry!'

  'And you - Centipede!' James shouted. 'Hop downstairs and get that Silkworm to work at once! Tell her to spin as she's never spun before! Our lives depend upon it! And the same applies to you, Miss Spider! Hurry on down! Start spinning.'

  Twenty-two

  In a few minutes everything was ready.

  It was very quiet now on the top of the peach. There was nobody in sight - nobody except the Earthworm.

  One half of the Earthworm, looking like a great, thick, juicy, pink sausage, lay innocently in the sun for all the seagulls to see.

  The other half of him was dangling down the tunnel.

  James was crouching close beside the Earthworm in the tunnel entrance, just below the surface, waiting for the first seagull. He had a loop of silk string in his hands.

  The Old-Green-Grasshopper and the Ladybird were further down the tunnel, holding on to the Earthworm's tail, ready to pull him quickly in out of danger as soon as James gave the word.

  And far below, in the great stone of the peach, the Glow-worm was lighting up the room so that the two spinners, the Silkworm and Miss Spider, could see what they were doing. The Centipede was down there too, exhorting them both frantically to greater efforts, and every now and again James could hear his voice coming up faintly from the depths, shouting, 'Spin, Silkworm, spin, you great fat lazy brute! Faster, faster, or we'll throw you to the sharks!'

  'Here comes the first seagull!' whispered James. 'Keep still now, Earthworm. Keep still. The rest of you get ready to pull.'

  'Please don't let it spike me,' begged the Earthworm.

  'I won't, I won't. Ssshh...'

  Out of the corner of one eye, James watched the seagull as it came swooping down towards the Earthworm. And