Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea Read Online Free Page A

to bite someone?”
    There was a silence.
    “Well you’d better bloomin’ well FIND ‘EM!” he shouted, and went stamping off.
    There followed a half-hearted attempt to locate the fugitives, but it was soon givenup, because the foreman started bellowing at them to “GET BACK TO WORK!”
    After that things quieted down a bit and the centeens emerged from their hiding places and started creeping around, keeping close to straight-up-hard-things, looking for each other.
    Harry found Josie first. She came rushing up to him, in a state.
    “Oh, Hx!” she crackled. “I’m so glad you’re all right! I was so scared! I thought for sure we’d be stopped!”
    Harry was only grateful she didn’t mention anything about how the centeenshad promised her they’d look after her and not let anything bad happen.
    “Let’s find Grndd,” he said.
    They soon did. But they got a shock.
    “Grndd, you’re hurt!” Josie crackled.
    George had been hit a glancing blow by a bunch of bananas that had been hurled at him. Two of his back segments weren’t working. He was dragging them along. The other two could see he was hurting badly and he couldn’t move very fast at all.
    He kept saying things like “It’s not so bad, I’m all right,” but they could see he wasn’t. They hustled him under some bigthing and got into the middle of it where it was dark and there was a nice damp place on the ground. The ground, of course, was not proper ground. It was something hard and cold and unyielding. You couldn’t possibly dig in it. Harry had already noticed this. Not to be able to dig was a very serious matter.
    “We’re in a Place of Hoo-Mins,” he said solemnly. “And we’ve got to get out of it to where we can find a tunnel. Or make one.”
    They lay under the big thing all day. They managed to get a bit of sleep, at least Harry and Josie did. George hurt too much. Centipedes aren’t like dogs or cats, which can lick their hurts to help them heal. They just have to stay as still as possible and hope their bodies will get better by themselves. Luckily all bodies try their best to get better, and by the time night came, George was feeling – well,not as bad as before. He could move his injured segments a bit. But he didn’t feel like doing any running, that was for sure.
    At night the market went quiet for a few hours – all the Hoo-Mins went home and the lights were turned out and the big doors were locked. The centeens crept out at last and Harry and Josie quested round about while George stayed still.
    “We should go that way,” reported Harry, pointing with his feelers. “I can smell earth, and there’s a long hole we can get through.” He meant the crack under one of the doors.
    “Can you manage, Grndd?” asked Josie anxiously. “We can help you.”
    Which is what they did. Harry and Josie went either side of George and theykind of nudged him along. But it was very slow.
    “Perhaps you should leave me,” George crackled after a while.
    “Are you crazy?” said Harry. “We’ll make it. Just keep your good legs moving.”

6. Snacks in a Cold-hard.
    At last they crawled through the long hole and felt themselves in the no-top-world, which meant in the open. They sensed there was some earth nearby and that instantly made them feel much, much more centipede.
    Harry went off exploring for a short time, and then came back. “I’ve found a lot of lovely soft earth,” said Harry. “Let’s dig a bright-time nest.”
    He didn’t dare mention eating. He knew the others must be as hungry as he was.He couldn’t smell anything familiar in the way of food. Perhaps they didn’t have any proper food in this strange place.
    They were soon crawling up on to a loose pile of soil. To Harry’s relief, the minute he and Josie started to dig, a number of tiny ants came rushing out. They were all much smaller than the ones the centeens were used to, but – “So what! Grab them!” said George. Harry had his work cut out. The