twenty-eight

one by one, the travellers came out again on to the top of the peach and gazed carefully around. themoon was still shining as brightly as ever, and there were still plenty of huge shimmering cloud-mountains on all sides. but there were no cloud-men in sight now.

‘the peach is leaking!’ shouted the old-green-grasshopper, peering over the side. ‘it’s full of holesand the juice is dripping out everywhere!’

‘that does it!’ cried the earthworm. ‘if the peach is leaking then we shall surely sink!’

‘don’t be an ass!’ the centipede told him. ‘we’re not in the water now!’

‘oh, look!’ shouted the ladybird. ‘look, look, look! over there!’

everybody swung round to look.

in the distance and directly ahead of them, they now saw a most extraordinary sight. it was a kind ofarch, a colossal curvy-shaped thing that reached high up into the sky and came down again at bothends. the ends were resting upon a huge flat cloud that was as big as a desert.

‘now what in the world is that?’ asked james.

‘it’s a bridge!’

‘it’s an enormous hoop cut in half!’

‘it’s a giant horseshoe standing upside down!’

‘stop me if i‘m wrong,’ murmured the centipede, going white in the face, ‘but might those not becloud-men climbing all over it?’

there was a dreadful silence. the peach floated closer and closer.

‘they are cloud-men!’

‘there are hundreds of them!’

‘thousands!’

‘millions!’

‘i don’t want to hear about it!’ shrieked the poor blind earthworm. ‘i’d rather be on the end of a fishhook and used as bait than come up against those terrible creatures again!’

‘i’d rather be fried alive and eaten by a mexican!’ wailed the old-green-grasshopper.

‘please keep quiet,’ whispered james. ‘it’s our only hope.’

they crouched very still on top of the peach, staring at the cloud-men. the whole surface of thecloud was literally swarming with them, and there were hundreds more up above climbing about onthat monstrous crazy arch.

‘but what is that thing?’ whispered the ladybird. ‘and what are they doing to it?’

‘i don’t care what they’re doing to it!’ the centipede said, scuttling over to the tunnel entrance. ‘i‘mnot staying up here! good-bye!’

but the rest of them were too frightened or too hypnotized by the whole affair to make a move.

‘do you know what?’ james whispered.

‘what?’ they said. ‘what?’

‘that enormous arch – they seem to be painting it! they‘ve got pots of paint and big brushes! youlook!’

and he was quite right. the travellers were close enough now to see that this was exactly what thecloud-men were doing. they all had huge brushes in their hands and they were splashing the paint onto the great curvy arch in a frenzy of speed, so fast, in fact, that in a few minutes the whole of the archbecame covered with the most glorious colours – reds, blues, greens, yellows, and purples.

‘it’s a rainbow!’ everyone said at once. ‘they are making a rainbow!’

‘oh, isn’t it beautiful!’

‘just look at those colours!’

‘centipede!’ they shouted. ‘you must come up and see this!’ they were so enthralled by the beautyand brilliance of the rainbow that they forgot to keep their voices low any longer. the centipede pokedhis head cautiously out of the tunnel entrance.

‘well, well, well,’ he said. ‘i‘ve always wondered how those things were made. but why all theropes? what are they doing with those ropes?’

‘good heavens, they are pushing it off the cloud!’ cried james. ‘there it goes! they are lowering itdown to the earth with ropes!’

‘and i’ll tell you something else,’ the centipede said sharply. ‘if i‘m not greatly mistaken, weourselves are going to bump right into it!’

‘bless my soul, he’s right!’ the old-green-grasshopper exclaimed.

the rainbow was now dangling in the air below the cloud. the peach was also just below the level ofthe cloud, and it was heading directly towards the rainbow, travelling rather fast.

‘we are lost!’ miss spider cried, wringing her feet again. ‘the end has come!’

‘i can’t stand it!’ wailed the earthworm. ‘tell me what’s happening!’

‘we’re going to miss it!’ shouted the ladybird.

‘no, we’re not!’

‘yes, we are!’

‘yes! – yes! – no! – oh, my heavens!’

‘hold on, everybody!’ james called out, and suddenly there was a tremendous thud as the peachwent crashing into the top of the rainbow. this was followed by an awful splintering noise as theenormous rainbow snapped right across the middle and became two separate pieces.

the next thing that happened was extremly unfortunate. the ropes that the cloud-men had beenusing for lowering the rainbow got tangled up with the silk strings that went up from the peach to theseagulls! the peach was trapped! panic and pandemonium broke out among the travellers, and jameshenry trotter, glancing up quickly, saw the faces of a thousand furious cloud-men peering down athim over the edge of the cloud. the faces had almost no shape at all because of the long white hairs thatcovered them. there were no noses, no mouths, no ears, no chins – only the eyes were visible in eachface, two small black eyes glinting malevolently through the hairs.

then came the most frightening thing of all. one cloud-man, a huge hairy creature who must havebeen fourteen feet tall at least, suddenly stood up and made a tremendous leap off the side of the cloud,trying to get to one of the silk strings above the peach. james and his friends saw him go flying throughthe air above them, his arms outstretched in front of him, reaching for the nearest string, and they sawhim grab it and cling to it with his hands and legs. and then, very very slowly, hand over hand, hebegan to come down the string.

‘mercy! help! save us!’ cried the ladybird.

‘he’s coming down to eat us!’ wailed the old-green-grasshopper. ‘jump overboard!’

‘then eat the earthworm first!’ shouted the centipede. ‘it’s no good eating me, i‘m full of bones likea kipper!’

‘centipede!’ yelled james. ‘quickly! bite through that string, the one he’s coming down on!’

the centipede rushed over to the stem of the peach and took the silk string in his teeth and bitthrough it with one snap of his jaws. immediately, far above them, a single seagull was seen to comeaway from the rest of the flock and go flying off with a long string trailing from its neck. and clingingdesperately to the end of the string, shouting and cursing with fury, was the huge hairy cloud-man. upand up he went, swinging across the moonlit sky, and james henry trotter, watching him with delight,said, ‘my goodness, he must weigh almost nothing at all for one seagull to be able to pull him up likethat! he must be all hair and air!’

the rest of the cloud-men were so flabbergasted at seeing one of their company carried away in thismanner that they let go the ropes they were holding and then of course down went the rainbow, bothhalves of it together, tumbling towards the earth below. this freed the peach, which at once begansailing away from that terrible cloud.

but the travellers were not in the clear yet. the infuriated cloud-men jumped up and ran after themalong the cloud, pelting them mercilessly with all sorts of hard and horrible objects. empty paintbuckets, paint brushes, stepladders, stools, saucepans, frying-pans, rotten eggs, dead rats, bottles ofhair-oil – anything those brutes could lay their hands on came raining down upon the peach. onecloud-man, taking very careful aim, tipped a gallon of thick purple paint over the edge of the cloudright on to the centipede himself.

the centipede screamed with anger. ‘my legs!’ he cried. ‘they are all sticking together! i can’twalk! and my eyelids won’t open! i can’t see! and my boots! my boots are ruined!’

but for the moment everyone was far too busy dodging the things that the cloud-men were throwingto pay any attention to the centipede.

‘the paint is drying!’ he moaned. ‘it’s going hard! i can’t move my legs! i can’t move anything!’

‘you can still move your mouth,’ the earthworm said. ‘and that is a great pity.’

‘james!’ bawled the centipede. ‘please help me! wash off this paint! scrape it off! anything!’

二十八

游客们一个一个鱼贯出来，来到仙桃顶上，小心翼翼地盯着周围。月亮，像以往那样洒满了清辉，到处仍然堆着不少闪闪发光的云山。不过，云彩人却不见了踪影。

“桃子滴水了！”绿色老蚱蜢望着桃子边沿，喊道，“上面满是窟窿，四处都滴着桃汁！”

“正在滴水哪！”蚯蚓喊，“如果桃子滴水，那咱们肯定会沉下去的。”

“别傻啦！”蜈蚣对他说，“这会儿咱们又不是在水里头！”

“哦，瞧呀！”瓢虫叫道，“瞧呀！瞧呀！瞧呀！瞧那边！”

所有的人一下子转过身去，瞧了起来。

远处正前方，他们瞥见了最最不可思议的景象：一种弧线，一种巨大的弯弯曲曲的东西，中间高得擦着天空，两头又耷拉下来，支撑在有沙漠那么大的两片云彩上面。

“喏，那到底是什么玩意儿？”詹姆斯问。

“是座桥！”

“是切成两半的大圆圈！”

“是块倒着放的大马蹄铁！”

“要是我说错了，就别让我说了，”蜈蚣咕咕哝哝地说，只见他脸色煞白，“那上面不是爬满了云彩人吗？”

接着，又是一阵可怕的沉寂。仙桃飘得也越来越近了。

“是云彩人！”

“有好几百个哪！”

“有好几千个！”

“有上百万个！”

“我不想再听啦！”可怜的盲蚯蚓尖叫起来，“我宁愿 被放到鱼钩上当鱼饵，也不愿再跟那些可怕的生物作对啦！”

“我宁愿叫墨西哥人用油炸着给吃掉！”绿色老蚱蜢一副哭哭啼啼的样子。

“请安静一点儿！”詹姆斯小声说，“现在，可是我们惟一的希望了。”

他们在桃顶上，一边盯着云彩人，一边不声不响地蹲了下来。云彩的整个表面，实际上都挤满了云彩人，再往上看，还有好几百个，正在那个怪物一般的弧形上爬来爬去。

“可那到底是什么东西呢？”瓢虫悄悄地说，“他们又在干什么呢？”

“他们干什么，我才不管哪！”蜈蚣迤逦歪斜地朝通道入口爬着，说，“我不待在上面了！

回头见！”

然而，其余的人都怕极了，或者说，都给吓糊涂了，一动也动弹不得。

“你们知道是怎么回事儿吗？”詹姆斯问。

“怎么回事儿？”他们说，“怎么回事儿？”

“那个巨大的弧线—看起来，他们正在给它刷漆哩！他们拿着油漆桶，还有大大的刷子！

你们瞧呀！”

詹姆斯说得没有错。这会儿，游客们离得近了些，足以看清楚云彩人干的正是这个。他们手里拿着巨大的刷子，正在疯狂地往那个大弧线上甩着油漆。事实上，整个弧线很快就披上了最最壮观的色彩，有红的，有蓝的，有绿的，还有黄的和紫的。

“是条彩虹呀！”大家立刻说道，“他们正在做一条彩虹哩！”

“哦，不是很美丽吗？”

“就瞧瞧那些颜色吧！”

“蜈蚣！”他们叫道，“你得上来看看彩虹！”他们望着彩虹的亮丽，简直入了迷，再也不记得压低声音说话了。蜈蚣小心翼翼地把脑袋探出了通道入口。

“嗬！嗬！嗬！”他说，“我一直琢磨着这些东西是怎样做成的哩。可怎么有那么多绳子呢？干吗用那些绳子呢？”

“老天哪！他们是在把彩虹推出云彩呀！”詹姆斯叫道，“瞧，彩虹动了！他们用绳子把彩虹系到云彩下面啦！”

“我还可以跟你再说句话，”蜈蚣尖刻地说，“如果我没有弄错，那我们就要撞到里面去了！”

“上帝保佑，他说得对啊！”绿色老蚱蜢大喊起来。

现在，彩虹正挂在云彩底下。仙桃也正好比云彩稍微低一点，而且，不偏不倚，正朝彩虹飞过去，速度也快多了。

“咱们算完啦！”蜘蛛小姐搓着脚，哭喊道，“到了世界末日了！”

“这我可受不了！”蚯蚓哭起来，“跟我说说，到底是怎么回事儿？”

“我们会错过去的！”瓢虫嚷道。

“不，不会的！”

“会，会的！”

“是啊！是啊！不会的！哦，我的老天哪！”

“你们大伙儿给我站稳了！”詹姆斯高声叫道。突然，只听“砰”的一声巨响，仙桃碰到了彩虹的顶端。接着而来的，是一种可怕的断裂声，巨大的彩虹从中间裂成了两半。

接下来发生的事十分不幸：云彩人把彩虹系下来所使用的绳子，跟从桃子到海鸥之间的丝绳绞在了一起！仙桃缠了进去！上面的游客们惊慌失措，乱作一团。詹姆斯·亨利·特洛特急忙抬头，望见云彩人那上千张愤怒的脸，正在云彩边上朝下瞧着自己。由于脸上满是长长的白毛，那脸颊几乎不成形状：没有鼻子，没有嘴巴，没有耳朵，没有下颌。在每一张脸上，所能见到的只是眼睛。两只小小的黑眼睛，透过毛发，不怀好意地闪闪发光。

接着，便发生了最最可怕的事情。一个云彩人，一个起码有十四英尺高的毛茸茸的庞然大物，突然站起来，在云彩边上朝外跳了一大步，想抓住仙桃上面的一根丝绳。詹姆斯和朋友们望见，他在上空飞越着，胳膊伸到前面去抓最近的那根丝绳，也望见他抓到了丝绳，手脚并用地紧贴在上面。然后，他双手倒替着，缓缓地，缓缓地开始顺着丝绳往下爬。

“老天！救命啊！救救我吧！”瓢虫哭喊道。

“他想下来吃我们哩！”绿色老蚱蜢哀声说，“跳下去吧！”

“那么，就先吃蚯蚓吧！”蜈蚣说，“吃我没有什么好处。我就像鲱鱼一样，到处都是骨头！”

“蜈蚣！”詹姆斯吼叫道，“赶快！快咬断那根丝绳，那根他正顺着爬下来的丝绳！”

蜈蚣急忙奔了过去，用牙齿叼住了丝绳，喀嚓！嘴巴一咬，丝绳便折断了。在高高的上空，立刻便望见一只海鸥离开了别的海鸥，脖子上拖着一根长长的丝绳腾空而去。高大的毛茸茸的云彩人呢，却拼命抓住丝绳一头，悻悻地喊叫着，咒骂着。只见他越飞越高，飘荡着穿过洒满月光 的天空。詹姆斯·亨利·特洛特快活地望着云彩人，说：“老天哪！他几乎根本就没有重量，因为，一只海鸥就能那样拉起他来！他想必只有毛发和空气！”

望见同伙这样给带走，别的云彩人哑然失色，一下子松开手里的绳子。当然喽，那彩虹的两半，也就碰到一块儿，摇摇晃晃，往地下坠去。这样一来，就放开了仙桃，只见它飘荡着躲开了那片可怕的云彩。

然而，游客们却并没有脱离危险，悻悻的云彩人一蹦一跳，沿着云彩追赶着他们，用各式各样可怕的硬东西狠命地朝他们砸来。空油漆桶啦，油漆刷子啦，梯子啦，凳子啦，炒锅啦，煎锅啦，臭鸡蛋啦，死老鼠啦，头油瓶子啦，等等等等，凡是那些野蛮的家伙能弄到手的，都雨点似的朝仙桃上丢。一个云彩人提起一加仑稠糊糊的紫色油漆，来到云彩边上，照准蜈蚣倒了过来，一下泼了个正着。

蜈蚣生气地尖叫起来。“我的腿！”他叫道，“腿都粘在一块了！我走不了路啦！眼皮也睁不开，看不见东西！还有我的靴子，都给弄坏了！”

不过，那时候，人人都在躲着云彩人丢过来的那些东西，谁也顾不上蜈蚣。

“油漆快干了！”蜈蚣呻吟道，“快变硬了！腿动不了，什么都动不了啦！”

“你还是能动嘴的呀。”蚯蚓说，“这可真是天大的遗憾。”

“詹姆斯！”蜈蚣责骂着，“请帮帮我的忙吧！把油漆冲下去！刮下去！怎么弄都行！”