Читать книгу Harry the Poisonous Centipede’s Big Adventure - Lynne Banks Reid, Tony Ross - Страница 6
ОглавлениеHarry was carried, dangling and twisting, for some distance. Then there was a change.
Harry was used to the dark. He lived underground, and he was a night-creature, so he liked darkness.
And, except for that one time when he had been in a Hoo-Min’s home, he had never been indoors. But that one time had made such an impression that when the sudden brightness came, and the smells all changed, and the natural night-noises stopped, Harry knew immediately that he was once again in a Place of Hoo-Mins.
The most frightening place in the world.
He heard terrible, loud, un-understandable noises. They were Hoo-Mins’ voices, but he didn’t know that. He just knew he’d never heard anything like them. They were so loud they hurt his ear-holes.
Of course he couldn’t know what they were saying. But you can know, because I’ll tell you.
A little boy’s voice said, “Look, Dad! I got another one!”
And a man’s voice said, “Good for you, son! I told you you’d catch one with the thread if you were patient.”
“Is there a spare jar?”
“Yes. Your mother washed out a big pickle-jar. Put him in here.”
And Harry felt himself going down. Down and down. But when his forty-two feet touched something, it wasn’t lovely friendly soft earth. It was something hard and cold.
The loop was still round his middle. It was tight. It hurt him and scared him. But then there was a snapping sound and he felt the pull of the loop go slack. It was still there, around him, but at least it wasn’t pulling any more.
The thread had been cut.
He tried to flee. He thought he could escape because he couldn’t see anything in his way. But as he ran forward, he banged his head.
He turned and ran the other way. After a very few steps, he banged his head again!
He turned sideways and ran. He found he was running in a circle. Every time he tried to turn out of it, he bumped into something – something he couldn’t see.
He stopped, and touched the barrier with his feelers. It was weird. He could feel it but he couldn’t see it. It was under him and all around him. It was like hard air.
He tried to climb it but it was too slippery. His little claw-feet couldn’t get a grip on it. He slid back.
“He can’t get out of there,” said the man. “But put the lid on just in case. I’ve punched a hole in it so he can breathe.”
The little boy said happily, “I’ve got two centipedes in my collection now!”
A shadow fell on Harry, down in the bottom of the hard-air place. It was the lid going on, but he didn’t know that. He crouched down till his tummy touched the cold stuff.
Harry had never heard a Hoo-Min talk before. But he began to guess that was what was happening. He could see them now, two of them, a big one – huge, enormous, vast, gigantic, the biggest live thing he’d ever seen – and a not-so-big one which was still huge, enormous, vast and gigantic to Harry. He was terrified. If he could have understood their speech he would have been even more terrified than he was.
A great big horrible face appeared on the other side of the hard-air wall. Harry turned his back so as not to see it.
The big man said, “Now you take care he doesn’t get out. And don’t dream of touching him. They’re very dangerous. He’s a nice big one, though, isn’t he? Not as big as the one that bit me, though! That was twice his size.”
The man didn’t realise he was talking about Harry’s mother!
“I hate the things!” the man went on with a shudder. “Take him to your room, quick, before I tip him on the floor and squash him to a pulp!”
“I think he’s great,” said the boy. “Almost as good as my yellow scorpion.”
“You know what your mother thinks about all those creepy-crawlies in the house. Just don’t let him out of the jar.”
“Of course I won’t,” said the boy scornfully.
Then Harry saw a big pinky-brown THING wrap itself around the hard-air place. He looked down, and his weak little eyes could see the ground (it was a table, actually) sinking far away below him as the boy picked up the jar. It was awful, because Harry felt as if there were nothing underneath him to stop him falling.
He knew – he knew for certain – he was going to get his wish for a major adventure. And he wished with all his little centipedish heart that he was safely back in his home-tunnel.
