Page 36 of James and the Giant Peach

'It's a Sea-serpent!'

'It's a Prock!'

'It's a Manticore!'

Three firemen and five policemen fainted and had to be carried away.

'It's a Snozzwanger!' cried the Chief of Police.

'It's a Whangdoodle!' yelled the Head of the Fire Department.

The Centipede kept on grinning. He seemed to be enjoying enormously the commotion that he was causing.

'Now see here!' shouted the Chief of Police, cupping his hands to his mouth. 'You listen to me! I want you to tell me exactly where you've come from!'

'We've come from thousands of miles away!' the Centipede shouted back, grinning more broadly than ever and showing his brown teeth.

'There you are!' called the Chief of Police. 'I told you they came from Mars!'

'I guess you're right!' said the Head of the Fire Department.

At this point, the Old-Green-Grasshopper poked his huge green head over the side of the peach, alongside the Centipede's. Six more big strong men fainted when they saw him.

'That one's an Oinck!' screamed the Head of the Fire Department. 'I just know it's an Oinck!'

'Or a Cockatrice!' yelled the Chief of Police. 'Stand back, men! It may jump down on us any moment!'

'What on earth are they talking about?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said to the Centipede.

'Search me,' the Centipede answered. 'But they seem to be in an awful stew about something.'

Then Miss Spider's large black murderous-looking head, which to a stranger was probably the most terrifying of all, appeared next to the Grasshopper's.

'Snakes and ladders!' yelled the Head of the Fire Department. 'We are finished now! It's a giant Scorpula!'

'It's worse than that!' cried the Chief of Police. 'It's a vermicious Knid! Oh, just look at its vermicious gruesome face!'

'Is that the kind that eats fully-grown men for breakfast?' the Head of the Fire Department asked, going white as a sheet.

'I'm afraid it is,' the Chief of Police answered.

'Oh, please why doesn't someone help us to get down from here?' Miss Spider called out. 'It's making me giddy.'

'This could be a trick!' said the Head of the Fire Department. 'Don't anyone make a move until I say!'

'They've probably got space guns!' muttered the Chief of Police.

'But we've got to do something!' the Head of the Fire Department announced grimly. 'About five million people are standing down there on the streets watching us.'

'Then why don't you put up a ladder?' the Chief of Police asked him. 'I'll stand at the bottom and hold it steady for you while you go up and see what's happening.'

'Thanks very much!' snapped the Head of the Fire Department.

Soon there were no less than seven large fantastic faces peering down over the side of the peach - the Centipede's, the Old-Green-Grasshopper's, Miss Spider's, the Earthworm's, the Ladybird's, the Silkworm's, and the Glow-worm's. And a sort of panic was beginning to break out among the firemen and the policemen on the rooftop.

Then, all at once, the panic stopped and a great gasp of astonishment went up all round. For now, a small boy was seen to be standing up there beside the other creatures. His hair was blowing in the wind, and he was laughing and waving and calling out, 'Hello, everybody! Hello!'

For a few moments, the men below just stood and stared and gaped. They simply couldn't believe their eyes.

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