'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
then suddenly it was so close that he could see its small black eyes and its curved beak, and the beak was open, ready to grab a nice piece of flesh out of the Earthworm's back.
'Pull!' shouted James.'
The Old-Green-Grasshopper and the Ladybird gave the Earthworm's tail an enormous tug, and like magic the Earthworm disappeared into the tunnel. At the same time, up went James's hand and the seagull flew right into the loop of silk that he was holding out. The loop, which had been cleverly made, tightened just the right amount (but not too much) around its neck, and the seagull was captured.
'Hooray!' shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, peering out of the tunnel. 'Well done, James!'
Up flew the seagull with James paying out the silk string as it went. He gave it about fifty yards and then tied the string to the stem of the peach.
'Next one!' he shouted, jumping back into the tunnel. 'Up you get again, Earthworm! Bring up some more silk, Centipede!'
'Oh, I don't like this at all,' wailed the Earthworm. 'It only just missed me! I even felt the wind on my back as it went swishing past!'
'Ssshh!' whispered James. 'Keep still! Here comes another one!'
So they did it again.
And again, and again, and again.
And the seagulls kept coming, and James caught them one after the other and tethered them to the peach stem.
'One hundred seagulls!' he shouted, wiping the sweat from his face.
'Keep going!' they cried. 'Keep going, James!'
'Two hundred seagulls!'
'Three hundred seagulls!'
'Four hundred seagulls!'
The sharks, as though sensing that they were in danger of losing their prey, were hurling themselves at the peach more furiously than ever, and the peach was sinking lower and lower still in the water.
'Five hundred seagulls!' James shouted.
'Silkworm says she's running out of silk!' yelled the Centipede from below. 'She says she can't keep it up much longer. Nor can Miss Spider!'
'Tell them they've got to!' James answered. 'They can't stop now!'
'We're lifting!' somebody shouted.
'No, we're not!'
'I felt it!'
'Put on another seagull, quick!'
'Quiet, everybody! Quiet! Here's one coming now!'
This was the five hundred and first seagull, and the moment that James caught it and tethered it to the stem with all the others, the whole enormous peach suddenly started rising up slowly out of the water.
'Look out! Here we go! Hold on, boys!'
But then it stopped.
And there it hung.
It hovered and swayed, but it went no higher.
The bottom of it was just touching the water. It was like a delicately balanced scale that needed only the tiniest push to tip it one way or the other.
'One more will do it!' shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, looking out of the tunnel. 'We're almost there!'
And now came the big moment. Quickly, the five hundred and second seagull was caught and harnessed to the peach-stem...
And then suddenly...
But slowly...
Majestically...
Like some fabulous golden balloon...
With all the seagulls straining at the strings above...
The giant peach rose up dripping out of the water and began climbing towards the heavens.
Twenty-three
In a flash, everybody was up on top.
'Oh, isn't it beautiful!' they cried.
'What a marvellous feeling!'
'Good-bye, sharks!'
'Oh, boy, this is the way to travel!'
Miss Spider, who was literally squealing with excitement, grabbed the Centipede by the waist and the two of them started dancing round and round the peach stem together. The Earthworm stood up on his tail and did a sort of wriggle of joy all by himself. The Old-Green-Grasshopper kept hopping higher and higher in the air. The Ladybird rushed over and shook James warmly by the hand. The Glow-worm, who at the best of times was a very shy and silent creature, sat glowing with pleasure near the tunnel entrance. Even the Silkworm, looking white and thin and completely exhausted, came creeping out of the tunnel to watch this miraculous ascent.
Up and up they went, and soon they were as high as the top of a church steeple above the ocean.
'I'm a bit worried about the peach,' James said to the others as soon as all the dancing and the shouting had stopped. 'I wonder how much damage those sharks have done to it underneath. It's quite impossible to tell from up here.'
'Why don't I go over the side and make an inspection?' Miss Spider said. 'It'll be no trouble at all, I assure you.' And without waiting for an answer, she quickly produced a length of silk thread and attached the end of it to the peach stem. 'I'll be back in a jiffy,' she said, and then she walked calmly over to the edge of the peach and jumped off, paying out the thread behind her as she fell.
The others crowded anxiously around the place where she had gone over.
'Wouldn't it be dreadful if the thread broke,' the Ladybird said.
There was a rather long silence.
'Are you all right, Miss Spider?' shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
'Yes, thank you!' her voice answered from below. 'I'm coming up now!' And up she came, climbing foot over foot up the silk thread, and at the same time tucking the thread back cleverly into her body as she climbed past it.
'Is it awful?' they asked her. 'Is it all eaten away? Are there great holes in it everywhere?'
Miss Spider clambered back on to the deck with a pleased but also a rather puzzled look on her face. 'You won't believe this,' she said, 'but actually there's hardly any damage down there at all! The peach is almost untouched! There are just a few tiny pieces out of it here and there, but nothing more.'
'You must be mistaken,' James told her.
'Of course she's mistaken!' the Centipede said.
'I promise you I'm not,' Miss Spider answered.
'But there were hundreds of sharks around us!'
'They churned the water into a froth!'
'We saw their great mouths opening and shutting!'
'I don't care what you saw,' Miss Spider answered. 'They certainly didn't do much damage to the peach.'
'Then why did we start sinking?' the Centipede asked.
'Perhaps we didn't start sinking,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper suggested. 'Perhaps we were all so frightened that we simply imagined it.'
This, in point of fact, was closer to the truth than any of them knew. A shark, you see, has an extremely long sharp nose, and its mouth is set very awkwardly underneath its face and a long way back. This makes it more or less impossible for it to get its teeth into a vast smooth curving surface such as the side of a peach. Even if the creature turns on to its back it still can't do it, because the nose always gets in the way. If you have ever seen a small dog trying to get its teeth into an enormous ball, then you will be able to imagine roughly how it was with the sharks and the peach.
'It must have been some kind of magic,' the Ladybird said. 'The holes must have healed up by themselves.'
'Oh, look! There's a ship below us!' shouted James.
Everybody rushed to the side and peered over. None of them had ever seen a ship before.
'It looks like a big one.'
'It's got three funnels.'
'You can even see the people on the decks!'
'Let's wave to them. Do you think they can see us?'
Neither James nor any of the others knew it, but the ship that was now passing beneath them was actually the Queen Mary sailing out of the English Channel on her way to America. And on the bridge of the Queen Mary, the astonished Captain was standing with a group of his officers, all of them gaping at the great round ball hovering overhead.
'I don't like it,' the Captain said.
'Nor do I,' said the First Officer.
'Do you think it's following us?' said the Second Officer.
'I tell you I don't like it,' muttered
the Captain.
'It could be dangerous,' the First Officer said.
'That's it!' cried the Captain. 'It's a secret weapon! Holy cats! Send a message to the Queen at once! The country must be warned! And give me ray telescope.'
The First Officer handed the telescope to the Captain. The Captain put it to his eye.
'There's birds everywhere!' he cried. 'The whole sky is teeming with birds! What in the world are they doing? And wait! Wait a second! There are people on it! I can see them moving! There's a - a - do I have this darned thing focused right? It looks like a little boy in short trousers! Yes, I can distinctly see a little boy in short trousers standing up there! And there's a - there's a - there's a - a - a - a sort of giant ladybird!'
'Now just a minute, Captain!' the First Officer said.
'And a colossal green grasshopper!'
'Captain!' the First Officer said sharply. 'Captain, please!'
'And a mammoth spider!'
'Oh dear, he's been at the whisky again,' whispered the Second Officer.
'And an enormous - a simply enormous centipede!' screamed the Captain.
'Call the Ship's Doctor,' the First Officer said. 'Our Captain is not well.'
A moment later, the great round ball disappeared into a cloud, and the people on the ship never saw it again.
Twenty-four
But up on the peach itself, everyone was still happy and excited.
'I wonder where we'll finish up this time,' the Earthworm said.
'Who cares?' they answered. 'Seagulls always go back to the land sooner or later.'
Up and up they went, high above the highest clouds, the peach swaying gently from side to side as it floated along.
'Wouldn't this be a perfect time for a little music?' the Ladybird asked. 'How about it, Old Grasshopper?'
'With pleasure, dear lady,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper answered, bowing from the waist.
'Oh, hooray! He's going to play for us!' they cried, and immediately the whole company sat themselves down in a circle around the Old Green Musician - and the concert began.
From the moment that the first note was struck, the audience became completely spellbound. And as for James, never had he heard such beautiful music as this! In the garden at home on summer evenings, he had listened many times to the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the grass, and he had always liked the noise that they made. But this was a different kind of noise altogether. This was real music - chords, harmonies, tunes, and all the rest of it.