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 touchyou,’ 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. theremust have been ninety or a hundred at least. and to the travellers up on top, it certainly seemed asthough 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 captainnow, 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! tellher to spin as she’s never spun before! our lives depend upon it! and the same applies to you, missspider! hurry on down! start spinning.’

二十一

“啊，简直太棒了！”听完詹姆斯对自己计划的解释，绿色老蚱蜢说。

“这孩子可真是个天才！”蜈蚣宣称道，“现在，我到底可以穿着靴子啦。”

“哦，我要给啄死了！”蚯蚓哀怨起来。

“你当然不会给啄死的。”

“当然会，当然会给啄死的！而且，他们冲我扑过来的时候，我连看都看不到，因为我没有眼睛。”

詹姆斯走过去，轻轻搂住蚯蚓的肩膀。“我不会让他们碰到你的。”他说，“我答应不叫他们碰到你。不过，咱们得快一点儿了！瞧瞧下边！”

这时，仙桃周围的鲨鱼，比以前更多了。由于鲨鱼的缘故，海水沸腾起来。至少得有九十条或者一百条鲨鱼。而且，对于顶上的游客来说，看起来，仙桃自然是越来越往水里沉下去。

“各就各位！”詹姆斯喊着，“快一点儿！一会儿都不能耽搁啦！”现在，詹姆斯成了船长，大伙儿也晓得这一点。他们愿意照他的吩咐去办。

“除了蚯蚓，其余的人都到甲板下面去！”他下达了命令。

“明白，明白！”他们热烈地响应着，一面急急忙忙走进了通道入口，“过来！抓紧时间！”

“还有你—蜈蚣！”詹姆斯喊道，“赶快到楼下去，叫蚕儿马上干活！跟她说：‘拿出以前没有拿出来的劲头儿吐丝！我们的生命全靠这个了！’你也是这样，蜘蛛小姐！快下去，马上吐丝吧！”