'Good heavens!' he said. 'I know what this is! I've come to the stone in the middle of the peach!'
Then he noticed that there was a small door cut into the face of the peach stone. He gave a push. It swung open. He crawled through it, and before he had time to glance up and see where he was, he heard a voice saying, 'Look who's here!' And another one said, 'We've been waiting for you!'
James stopped and stared at the speakers, his face white with horror.
He started to stand up, but his knees were shaking so much he had to sit down again on the floor. He glanced behind him, thinking he could bolt back into the tunnel the way he had come, but the doorway had disappeared. There was now only a solid brown wall behind him.
Eleven
James's large frightened eyes travelled slowly round the room.
The creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.
Creatures?
Or were they insects?
An insect is usually something rather small, is it not? A grasshopper, for example, is an insect.
So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog. You could hardly call that an insect, could you?
There was an Old-Green-Grasshopper as large as a large dog sitting directly across the room from James now.
And next to the Old-Green-Grasshopper, there was an enormous Spider.
And next to the Spider, there was a giant Ladybird with nine black spots on her scarlet shell.
Each of these three was squatting upon a magnificent chair.
On a sofa near by, reclining comfortably in curled-up positions, there were a Centipede and an Earthworm.
On the floor over in the far corner, there was something thick and white that looked as though it might be a Silkworm. But it was sleeping soundly and nobody was paying any attention to it.
Every one of these 'creatures' was at least as big as James himself, and in the strange greenish light that shone down from somewhere in the ceiling, they were absolutely terrifying to behold.
'I'm hungry!' the Spider announced suddenly, staring hard at James.
'I'm famished!' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
'So am I!' the Ladybird cried.
The Centipede sat up a little straighter on the sofa. 'Everyone's famished!' he said. 'We need food!'
Four pairs of round black glassy eyes were all fixed upon James.
The Centipede made a wriggling movement with his body as though he were about to glide off the sofa - but he didn't.
There was a long pause - and a long silence.
The Spider (who happened to be a female spider) opened her mouth and ran a long black tongue delicately over her lips. 'Aren't you hungry?' she asked suddenly, leaning forward and addressing herself to James.
Poor James was backed up against the far wall, shivering with fright and much too terrified to answer.
'What's the matter with you?' the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked. 'You look positively ill!'
'He looks as though he's going to faint any second,' the Centipede said.
'Oh, my goodness, the poor thing!' the Ladybird cried. 'I do believe he thinks it's him that we are wanting to eat!'