Читать книгу Fing - David Walliams - Страница 16

To his relief, Mr Meek found a candle and a box of old matches halfway down the stairs. His hands trembling uncontrollably, he passed them to his wife, who struck a match and lit the candle.

STRIKE!

The flickering light illuminated shelves and shelves of dusty old leather-bound books. The LIBRARY vaults were a treasure trove of titles that were ancient, obscure and bizarre. There were thousands of books down there, all of them long out of print.

One by one, Mr and Mrs Meek pulled the books from the shelves. With just a candle to read by, they searched the millions upon millions of words for any reference to a “FING”. Just as they were about to lose all hope, Mr Meek thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

“What was that?” he whispered.

“What was what?” she asked.

“Something moved.”

“Maybe it was a rat? I hate rats.”

With the candle, Mrs Meek illuminated a dingy corner of the vault. Indeed, something was moving underneath a pile of old newspapers.

RUSTLE! RUSTLE! RUSTLE!

She pushed her husband towards it to investigate further.

“Go on!”

“I am going! I am going!”

“Lift up the newspapers and see!” suggested Mrs Meek.

“No, after you.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! Let’s not start all this again.”

Reluctantly, Mr Meek lifted the old damp sheets of paper. To his surprise, all that was underneath was a book.

“It’s a book!”

“Books can’t move,” she replied.

“This one did.”

“What is it called?”

Mr Meek peered down to study the spine.

The title sent through him.

“It’s called

THE

MONSTERPEDIA.”