Glow-worm goes aroundthe World

Timothy Ley

For Miranda, who shines.

c©Timothy Ley, Mandy Emett-Ley, Miranda Ley &Alexander Ley, 2009

Contents

1 Glow-worm 3

2 The Spider and the Frog 7

3 Off We Go! 13

4 The First Adventure 21

5 The Fishing Rod 27

6 Glow-worm and the Scientist 35

7 Carl 47

8 Over-land 59

9 The Mysterious Magician 77

10 The Curious Cloud 93

11 The Genuine Genie 111

12 Time to Go Home 129

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2

Chapter 1

Glow-wormGlow-worms are not like or-dinary worms. Sometimeswhen they grow up they turninto fireflies. Sometimes theyturn into spiders. Sometimesthey just stay as glow-worms.And in the dark of the nightthey glow.

This glow-worm was sobright that he glowed in theday as well!

He was so bright that he taught himself to read. Thisis something that most worms, even bookworms, can’t do.

Once he’d learnt how to do it, Glow-worm became agreat reader. He read. . . and he read. . . and he read. . . untilhe had become fascinated by the world and all its wonders.He was particularly interested in books about human ad-ventures and discoveries.

Humans, it seemed, had been everywhere and done al-most everything. And they were just animals really. Biganimals (compared to Glow-worm) and clever ones, some-times, but they were still animals. They didn’t even knowhow to glow, and yet they had achieved so much. Humans

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had even managed to sail around the world.If they can do it, thought Glow-worm, so can I.Of course before he could sail around the world he

would need a boat. Glow-worm didn’t know of any an-imals that possessed such a thing, so he would have tobuild one himself.

Glow-worm designed his boat, and decided to name itthe good ship Glow-boat. To build it he gathered togetherone hundred and fifty-four small nuts (to build the cabin),one banana leaf (to build the hull), two twigs (to build themast), one lost, human-sized pocket handkerchief (to useas a sail), one very small bird’s nest (not a crow’s, eventhough it was to build the crow’s nest) and finally an oldapple core (to use as an anchor).

All of these bits and pieces came together to make avery little boat, so it would have been easy for you or meto build it. But it was very hard far Glow-worm becausehe was so small. In fact, to him it seemed he was buildinga magnificent ocean-going yacht, and he was building itwithout any experience, or indeed any hands. But he hadenthusiasm, he had vision, he had ingenuity and, above

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all, he had brains. So after many days and nights of hardwork, he had finished.

The good ship Glow-boat was ready to set sail.By the time he had finished it, Glow-worm discovered

he was very tired. As it was quite late in the evening, hedecided to have a good night’s sleep before he set off on hisvoyage. Tomorrow morning, weather permitting, he wouldset sail.

One more sleep, and then the greatest voyage of animaldiscovery ever undertaken would begin.

It would make history.

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6

Chapter 2

The Spider and theFrog

Later that night almost allwas calm at the little land-ing stage where the goodship Glow-boat was moored.I say almost all because infact there were some animalsawake, and three pairs of eyeswere peering at the little shipand wondering.

The eyes were almost hidden behind three blades ofgrass, but they were peering so intently that three bladeswere never going to be enough to conceal them.

One of the pairs of eyes belonged to a small green frog.Not a very clever small green frog, but a very good naturedone just the same.

The other two pairs belonged to a slightly sinister look-ing white spider. The spider was fairly cunning, but eventhough he looked a bit sly he was every bit as good naturedas the frog.

Both animals were a little down on their luck, and hadbeen for some time. They were cold; they were hungry;

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they were tired; and, had it been raining, they would havebeen wet too. So there was something very attractiveabout a shiny, new, animal-sized yacht sitting moored tothe side of a stream.

“Let’s go inside,” said the frog, hopefully. “Even ifthere isn’t any food, there are bound to be beds. Maybecomfy ones. Maybe very comfy ones. We could have. . . ”he shivered with anticipation. “We could have. . . a sleep!”

This sounded reasonable to the spider. But. . .“It looks like the kind of ship that humans build,” said

the spider. “But human ships are always either humansized or toys. This one isn’t either of those things.”

“No,” said the frog, “it’s the right size for us. Isn’t thatlucky!”

“Lucky?” said the spider. “It’s odd. Very odd. I thinkwe should stay away. It could be dangerous.”

The frog was disappointed. “But what about the beds?Couldn’t we go in and have a sleep, but carefully?”

It was dark. It was quiet. It was very tempting.“All right,” said the spider, “we’ll just go and have a

quick look. But if there’s anything suspicious or out of theordinary we leave straight away.”

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“Hooray!” shouted the frog, and he leaped from theirhiding place and ran helter-skelter towards the mysteriousboat. As he ran he shouted: “Can’t catch me!” and “lastone to the beds is a scaredy-fly!”

Across the grass and through the pale shaft of moon-light the animals ran, first the frog then, more cautiouslythe spider. At the bank of the stream, where the littleboat was moored the frog paused briefly, then leaped intothe air (he was a good little leaper) and landed squarelyon the deck. He was ready for bed.

“I’m the winner!” he cried.But what had he won? To the spider, following closely

behind, things still didn’t look right.“I’m still not sure about this,” he said.But already the frog was exploring the boat. He hopped

here and there, up and down, around the deck (which wasa leaf) and over the anchor (which was an apple core) andfinally towards the cabin (which was made of nuts).

The spider crept behind him. “That’s very odd,” hethought. “There’s everything here a human could want —but it’s all really small.”

“That’s cool!” shouted the frog. “There’s everythinghere a human could want — but it’s all really small!”

“We’ve got to get out of here right now,” declared thespider. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it isn’tnatural.”

“Oh come on,” said the frog, “where’s your sense ofadventure?”

“I don’t know,” said the spider, in a voice dripping withsarcasm. “Maybe I dropped it somewhere when we cameon board.”

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“Don’t worry,” declared the frog cheerfully. “I’ll find itfor you. Maybe it’s in here?” and with that he hopped atfull speed into the mysterious nut-cabin.

“No!” cried the spider, but it was too late. The froghad disappeared inside.

Cautiously, and a little bit reluctantly, the spider fol-lowed after him.

Inside everything was very cosy and, again, very com-plete. The spider, after his eyes had become accustomed tothe gloom, was amazed by the attention to detail. Therewas a little table and a little chair; a little book case andlittle books; a little desk on which was spread out a (not solittle) map. The spider didn’t know what a map was for,but he did know it was something to do with humans. Yethere was one placed inside a tiny room where no humancould possibly fit.

There was a little telescope, and even a little compass(although this was actually a magnetised needle hangingfrom a piece of cotton, so it didn’t look that little to thespider). There was a little cupboard (the door was closed,so the spider didn’t know what was in it). There was alittle writing desk on which was a little log book, a tinypot of ink and a very delicate little quill pen.

Finally, against one wall of the cabin just under thelittle window was a comfy looking little bed. In this bed,snoring happily, was the frog. He had found what he waslooking for, and had achieved his ambition. He was havinga sleep.

With a big sigh the spider lay down beside him. Heknew he would never be able to wake his friend up now, andhe couldn’t abandon him in this mysterious (and perhapsdangerous) place. So he would just have to stay with him,

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and hope that nothing bad happened. Of course, he wouldtry to stay awake, just in case.

Two minutes later he too was fast asleep, and snoringhappily.

During the night he dreamt that a glow-worm cameon board, cast off and sailed the little boat out to sea.Curiously, the frog had exactly the same dream.

And even more curiously, this was what actually hap-pened.

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Chapter 3

Off We Go!The very next morning Glow-worm got up early. Todaywas the day, the day on whichthe great voyage was to be-gin. This was the day onwhich animal history wouldbe made. But no matter howexcited he was, Glow-wormwas determined to do thisproperly.

Without fuss, and without fanfare the great explorerleft his home and squirmed his way down to the dock. Soit was that almost no-one saw him depart. Glow-wormthought it was better not to make too much fuss abouttelling anyone. If something went wrong, and he had toturn back before the voyage was completed, no-one wouldknow. But if he waited until he had completed the voyage,then announced his success he would become a hero.

So, while almost everyone else was sleeping, Glow-wormslipped away. Only the early bird, who always got up atfirst light in the hope of catching him, saw Glow-wormleave.

“Where’s he off to?” he thought.

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Thus it was that the good ship Glow-boat sailed away.It passed up the creek with its captain at the helm, andinto the stream. Down the stream it sailed with only somesnails as witnesses.

From the stream it sailed into the river, and from theriver, via the harbour, into the sea. In the harbour weremany other boats, and some of the people in them wereawake. But the good ship Glow-boat was so small thatnone of them noticed it.

At the helm of his mighty vessel, Glow-worm sang forpure joy. It was the beginning of the great adventure, theadventure that would prove once and for all that animalsreally were as good as humans. His only regret was thathe was on the great voyage alone. Perhaps it would havebeen nice to have a crew, for company.

Of course, as it turned out he need not have worried.Because he was not alone. Two deeply asleep animals werein the cabin.

In fact, they weren’t quite as deeply asleep as they hadbeen. The rocking of the boat now that it was out amongstthe ocean waves was making it hard to lie still. The frogopened one eye. Then he opened the other.

Through the little porthole he could see the slightlycloudy sky. It was rocking up and down. In his vague sortof way the frog wondered why.

He decided to go outside and see why the sky was rock-ing. After all, in his limited experience, it usually didn’t.He climbed out of bed, being careful not to wake his friendthe spider, and tried to open the door.

But it wouldn’t open! This was because, at exactlythe same time, Glow-worm was on the other side of thedoor trying to open it too. They were pulling against each

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other.“Oh bother,” said Glow-worm, who needed to check

his charts.“Oh dear,” said the frog. “I think I’m in trouble.”He pulled again. Again, nothing happened. Again he

found himself worrying.Should he wake the spider? The spider had said they

shouldn’t come on board. Perhaps he had been right. Thefrog swallowed nervously.

Then he had an idea. Perhaps he should push insteadof pull.

So he pushed.Of course, since Glow-worm was on the other side pulling

at the same time the effect was doubled. This time thedoor opened all right. In fact it shot open!

The frog, who had been putting his whole weight on thedoor, flew through, tripped over Glow-worm, and landedin a very surprised heap on the deck.

“Hello,” said Glow-worm, a little surprised.“Eek!” said the frog, a little terrified.The frog decided to go. It was way too scary on this

boat, in spite of the bed. He was off. With one bound heleaped over the side of the boat to where he knew the bankof the stream to be.

Splash! The bank of the stream had disappeared. Thefrog was now very wet (which he didn’t mind) and verysalty (which he did).

“Glug. . . glug. . . glug. . . help!” he said.At this, the spider woke up, and very awake he was

too. With a slight tangle of legs (for he had quite a few ofthose) he raced to the side of the boat and saw the frog,sinking slightly in the ocean. He had never seen the ocean

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before, but he was a wise enough spider to know what itwas.

“Uh oh,” he said. Then he saw Glow-worm for the firsttime.

“Hello,” said Glow-worm cheerfully. “By the way, don’tpanic.”

At once the spider panicked, and leaped over the sidetoo, even though part of him knew this was a very sillything to do.

Splash (again)!“Glug. . . glug. . . glug. . . help!” said the spider and the

frog together.Fortunately for the two soggy animals, Glow-worm had

equipped his ship with life belts that were just the rightsize for the two accidental stowaways. He tossed these outto the stricken animals and slowly reeled them in.

Of course, as the spider realised afterwards, he couldhave simply spun a web to save himself and his friend, butin the panic of the moment he simply didn’t think of it.Glow-worm couldn’t spin a web, but on the other hand he

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never panicked.Once Glow-worm had rescued his two visitors, he wrapped

them up in warm, fluffy, animal sized towels (made by acousin of his who was a silk-worm), and gave them somenice, sustaining dead flies to munch on.

“I’m Glow-worm,” he said, when they had stoppedtrembling. “Who are you?”

“I,” said the spider, “am a spider.”“And I,” said the frog, who had not really understood

the question, “am not.”“Yes yes, I can see that,” said Glow-worm. “What I

meant was, what are your names?”The spider and the frog looked at one another. “The

spider and the frog?” they both suggested.Glow-worm shook his head disapprovingly. “That won’t

do. If animals are to match human beings in this world,then they must do as humans do and give themselvesnames. You,” he said the the spider, “will be Sydney,and you,” he said to the frog, “will be Freddy.”

“Wow,” said Freddy, as if all his birthday presents hadcome at once, “I have my very own name!”

“Hang on,” said Sydney suspiciously. “If animals neednames, how come you’re called ‘glow-worm’? That’s nota name.”

“It is if you spell it with a capital G,” said Glow-wormhappily. “And I do.”

At this, Freddy’s eyes lit up, and he realised he was inthe presence of an animal of unusual sagacity and knowl-edge. He was truly impressed.

Sydney frowned. He thought this was one of the silliestthings any animal had ever said. “Okay, so you have aname. Sort of. But what are you doing on board this

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mysterious boat?”“Simple,” said Glow-worm. “This is my boat. I built

it.”At this, Freddy’s eyes opened wider, and Sydney’s frown

deepened.“You built a boat? A boat just like humans make?

And in it, you have actually sailed out to sea?”Glow-worm nodded enthusiastically, and Freddy’s eyes

popped a little bit further out.“Okay,” said Sydney. “Why?”“I’m going to sail around the world, just like the hu-

mans have done. You can come with me, if you like, andbe my crew. What do you think?”

“What do I think? It’s insane!”

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“Wow,” said Freddy, who looked like his eyes shouldhave fallen out by now. “Can we really come with you?Really? Wow! Oh Sydney, can we stay? Please? Prettyplease? I’d really like to sail around the world.”

Sydney glowered. “You want to sail around the world?”“Yes please!” said Freddy.“Do you actually know what the world is?”“No idea,” said Freddy, happily. “Please can we sail

around it?”“I’m not going,” said Sydney. “It’s impossible, not to

mention dangerous. Glow-worm, will you please take usback to dry land.”

“Of course I can take you back,” said Glow-worm, “butFreddy can stay if he wants to.”

Freddy jumped up and down (which was an impressivesight, for he was a very good jumper) and clapped hishands. “Hooray! I’m going to sail around the Word!”

“World,” Glow-worm corrected him, happily. “I willteach you how to read a chart, and you can be the navi-gator. But first we’ll take your friend back home.”

“Yes boss!” cried Freddy, the light of devotion gleam-ing in his eyes.

The spider, from now on always to be called Sydney,looked from his hopelessly stupid friend to his hopelesslyclever new acquaintance and buried his head in several ofhis arms. Left to their own devices he was sure Freddyand Glow-worm would both end up drowned or eaten bysomething. Without someone practical to look after themthey were doomed, and there was only one practical animalhe could think of in the near vicinity.

He was very fond of the frog. He had been looking afterhim for a long time.

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“Okay,” he said, and he could hardly believe what hewas hearing himself say. “If you must try to sail aroundthe world then I’d better come with you. I think it’s astupid thing to do, but I’m going to come too.”

“That’s the spirit!” cried Glow-worm, “and don’t worry.If humans can do it, then we can do it too.”

“Hooray!” said Freddy. “By the way, do you thinkwe’ll be back in time for lunch?”

The epic voyage had begun.

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Chapter 4

The First Adventure

Across the billowing waves thegood ship Glow-boat sailed, it’screw of three safe aboard. Fora long time they followed thesame routine; Freddy up in thecrow’s nest watching for land,Glow-worm and Sydney pacingthe deck. Glow-worm was lostin thought, picturing his heroicfuture in all it’s glorious detail;Sydney was merely lost in anxi-ety. Nothing bad had happenedto them yet, but he was sure itwas only a matter of time.

And so the first day of the voyage wore on. From hisvantage point in the crow’s nest, Freddy watched for anysign of land. Then, without warning, something appeared.

“Land who! Land how! Land woo! Or whatever.Land!” he cried.

At once, Glow-worm and Sydney ran up to see whathad happened. Sydney (who was good at sticking to things,being a spider) crawled up the mast and had a look at what

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Freddy had seen.“Ah,” he said. “Right.”He didn’t know what to say. Freddy was so excited

about his first glimpse of land, that Sydney really hadnot the heart to tell him it wasn’t land at all. It was anabandoned bird nest. It had clearly fallen out of its tree,and was now drifting out to sea. It wasn’t a very impressivebird nest. In fact, it was falling apart.

“Look!” cried Freddy with joy. “Is it an island? Or acontinent!”

“Er,” said Sydney.“It’s an island,” declared Glow-worm, who had finally

joined them.“What’s it called?” said Freddy.

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“Freddiland,” said Glow-worm. “It was named after itsoriginal discoverer.”

“Freddiland,” said Freddy, happily. “What a coinci-dence!”

With a minimum of fuss, Glow-worm prepared to dis-embark. First he lowered the apple-core anchor, then, us-ing a piece of string, he secured the ship to the bird nest.

It wasn’t much of an island, being barely bigger thanthe good ship Glow-boat itself, but it was their first, soGlow-worm was determined to make the most of it.

Together, the three explorers went ashore and planteda flag of conquest (the flag was basically a picture of Glow-worm). The next thing to do was to explore, which giventhat the island was so small was never going to be difficultto achieve.

There was, however, one important discovery to bemade.

“Lunch!” said Freddy.And so it was. It seemed that this bird nest in floating

out to sea had carried a small colony of flies with it, andthey were buzzing around dreamily in the sea breeze. Syd-ney, who was feeling peckish, began to spin a quick web tocatch some.

“I can do better than that,” said Freddy. He stuck outhis tongue.

Now, when a frog sticks out its tongue it’s not a rudegesture. Nor is it a delicate little licking of the lips. Afrog’s tongue is very, very long. Much longer than the frogis tall, as a matter of fact. It is also sticky. When a frogsticks its tongue out it is dinner time.

Freddy’s tongue shot out and caught a fly. Then hereeled it in with a smug look on his face.

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Meanwhile Sydney had finished his web. “Only one ata time?” he said, looking at his friend. “Let me show youthe efficient way.”

Two flies managed to get stuck in Sydney’s web. In arelaxed manner he sauntered up the web to eat them.

Glow-worm watched his crew fondly. “Shore leave,” hethought to himself. “What a good idea.”

So Sydney and Freddy enjoyed a well earned meal,while Glow-worm kept watch over the slowly disintegrat-ing island (or rather, bird nest) that had been their firstport of call. But eventually it was time to go.

The animals returned to the good ship Glow-boat, Glow-worm (of course) leading the way.

“Raise the anchor,” Glow-worm ordered.Freddy ran to obey. He grabbed hold of the anchor

string and pulled with all his might.Nothing happened.Freddy pulled once more, straining his froggy-muscles

as much as he could.Nothing continued to happen.“It’s stuck,” said Freddy.Sydney came over to help. His arms weren’t as strong

as Freddy’s, but on the other hand he had a lot more ofthem, so his help should have made a difference. It didn’t.

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Nothing happened just as much as it had before.“I wonder what you’re doing wrong?” said Glow-worm.

He came over to help.The combined strength of all three animals pulling on

the anchor string did make a difference. At last the anchorstarted to move. However, it seemed to be a lot heavierthan it had been.

“Maybe it’s tangled up in something,” said Sydney.“Let’s pull harder.”

So they did. They pulled, and they pulled, and nowthe anchor really was moving. In fact, it was moving sofast they didn’t need to pull it any more.

With a terrific splash, what should have been the an-chor shot out of the water. But it wasn’t the anchor anymore; now it was an enormous fish (well, it seemed enor-mous to the three little animals) with tremendously big,sharp teeth. It was on the end of the anchor string, and itwas not happy. It flew through the air, and came crashingdown on the deck of the good ship Glow-boat. At once,Glow-worm, Sydney and Freddy took cover, as the giantmonster thrashed about, trying to get free of the anchorstring and the boat. For a moment, Glow-worm was wor-ried that the monster would shake the boat to pieces, andat one point it looked as if the thrashing of its tail might

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even squash one of the crew. Fortunately, even Freddy wassensible enough to keep out of its way.

Then, with one last heave of its vast, scaly body, thegreat fish rolled off the deck and into the sea. A terrificsplash followed, which drenched all three explorers andeven washed out the cabin, so that Glow-worm’s sheetsand charts remained damp for several days. The explorerssat stunned on the soggy deck, and thanked their luckystars that nothing worse had happened to them. Sydneylooked at Freddy. Freddy looked at Sydney. They bothlooked at Glow-worm.

“Hm,” said Glow-worm, “maybe having an apple-coreas an anchor wasn’t such a good idea.”

They had survived their first encounter with the terrorsof the deep. The epic voyage could continue.

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Chapter 5

The Fishing Rod

The good ship Glow-boat sailedon for many days. AlwaysGlow-worm looked ahead, star-ing through his home-made tele-scope. His enthusiasm for thevoyage was undiminished, butSydney and Freddy were start-ing to get nervous.

Eventually, days turned into weeks, and the ship sailedon through high seas and low, through storm and calm,through terror and boredom and all the usual things youfind when you have an adventure on the high seas. Glow-worm enjoyed it all, and even Sydney and Freddy managedto take it in their stride. But there was a problem.

The supply of flies from their adventure on Freddislandhad long since run out, and neither Sydney nor Freddywere designed for a diet of salad. It was tricky. Their onehope was that soon Glow-worm would lead them to landand the cheerful buzzing of flies.

Of course, with Freddy on look-out they were facedwith another problem: the only island Freddy had so far

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seen was a bird’s nest; so this was the sort of thing he waslooking out for. Thus it was that several perfectly goodand interesting islands were passed by: Glow-worm andSydney were asleep; Freddy judged these land masses asfar too big and scary to be of interest to them.

But eventually, a land mass appeared that was so vasteven Freddy had to pay attention to it. And, once again,he was the only one who saw it.

As always, he was in his look-out spot at the top of thecrow’s nest staring out to sea and dreaming of blow-flies,when suddenly there was a bump.

“What was that?” said Freddy to himself.He grabbed his telescope (Glow-worm had made him a

telescope of his own more suited to his large, froggy eyes)and squinted through it. He couldn’t see anything. Andthis was odd, because just for once he was actually holdingthe telescope the right way round.

“Oh well,” he said, “I must have imagined it.”He turned round to make himself more comfortable,

and nearly jumped out of his skin at what he saw.There, on the other side of the good ship Glow-boat,

was an entire world: miles and miles of it, consisting ofgolden beach followed by thick forest. It ran all the wayalong what Freddy now assumed to be the edge of the sea,finally disappearing over the horizon. The ship had runashore somewhere — different.

Freddy mopped his brow with relief. “Oh, it’s just theedge of the world. Good thing there’s another world rightnext to it, or we would have fallen off.”

Then he had another thought. “I wonder if we haveto go around this world, too?” This made him a littleanxious.

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Then he had yet another thought. “I wonder if thereare. . . flies in this world?”

At this moment, Glow-worm and Sydney came on deck.“What was that bump?” said Sydney. “Did we hit

something?”Glow-worm stared at the amazing sight of land in huge

quantities. “Wow,” he said. Then he looked up at Freddy.“Freddy, you’re on look out. Why didn’t you call us?”

“Oh, it’s not an island or anything,” said Freddy hap-pily, “it’s just the end of the world.”

Sydney rolled his eyes.Glow-worm helped Freddy down to the deck and ex-

plained. Slowly.“Oh,” said Freddy. “So this is land. Now I get it.”But there was still one important question to answer:

where were they? The animals went into the cabin toconsult the charts.

According to Glow-worm’s calculations they were inthe middle of the Sahara dessert. This didn’t seem rightto him, though, because of all the trees.

“Let me have a go,” said Sydney. Glow-worm had beenteaching him how to navigate, and he was getting quitegood at reading the maps.

Sydney came to the conclusion that they were in theHimalayas.

“No,” said Glow-worm. “This land isn’t quite tallenough.”

Eventually Glow-worm came to a decision. “This,” hedeclared, “is the New World.”

Before long, the good ship Glow-boat washed up onthe shore. With the help of a friendly beaver, the ship waspulled up away from the high-tide mark.

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“Thank you very much!” said Glow-worm.“My pleasure,” said the toothy animal, and it disap-

peared into the trees.

The animals disembarked, planted the official Glow-worm flag, and their leader made a quick speech.

“I claim this land in the name of, er, whatever theother place was called. You know, the one we came from.Thingy.”

“May someone or other bless it and all who sail on it,”added Sydney.

“For he’s a jolly good fellow,” said Freddy, and saluted.

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Plans for exploration of the New World needed to bemade, plus the good ship Glow-boat needed a new anchor.The explorers wouldn’t always be able to rely on a beaverto turn up when they needed help with the ship. Glow-worm decided they should split up to search. If they werevery lucky, that way they would end up with three anchors.So off they went.

Glow-worm and Sydney set off in opposite directionsalong the shore, while Freddy began to explore the forest.This turned out to be a little bit frightening. Because ev-erything in this forest was really big. The trees (of course)were big. This wasn’t that unusual — Freddy was a smallfrog, so all trees seemed big to him. But these trees werereally big.

The grass was big too. The grass at home (probablythanks to the sheep) was quite short. This grass wasn’t.Very soon Freddy was surrounded by giant stems, andcouldn’t even see the ship any more. Then there werethe pebbles.

Freddy was used to pebbles. He was a frog, so he hadbeen born in a pond where there were lots of pebbles. Butthese ones were huge. Twice normal size, in fact. Big.

It was hardly a surprise that Freddy started to feelrather small.

But then he saw his first New World fly, and he cheeredup at once. It too was twice normal size.

Out popped a long froggy tongue, and the fly disap-peared. Freddy chewed, swallowed and sighed. That wasnice. Now he was ready to conquer anything.

So it is with people and frogs that too much confidencecan be a dangerous thing. Freddy, poor thing, was aboutto come unstuck.

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As he walked along, quite full of himself, he suddenlycame across a stream. It looked very cool and inviting, andFreddy hadn’t been for a swim (in fresh water anyway) forages. He hopped in and swam and swam. It was very nice,and he went down nice and deep.

Suddenly, he saw a length of line dangling into the wa-ter, and on the end of it was a large metal hook. Theperfect anchor! But first he would have to untie it fromthe line.

At once the eager young frog swam over to it and setto work. He held onto the hook and started fiddling withthe wire.

Of course, it is very hard for frogs to untie things, be-cause they don’t have thumbs. Glow-worm could havemanaged it, because he was very clever. Unfortunately,Freddy was only very keen. The anchor remained thor-oughly tied up.

“Hm,” thought Freddy. “What would Glow-worm do?”At this moment he noticed a dark shadow creeping up

on him from the depths. It was a pike. A very big one.And as it looked at Freddy it did the pike equivalent oflicking its lips.

“Eek!” said Freddy, and cleverly climbed up the lineout of the water. He was safe. Or was he?

Suddenly a shadow fell across him; a human shapedshadow cast by a twice normal sized human boy wearinga backwards baseball cap, a white T-shirt and very baggyshorts. To the little frog he seemed terrifying.

The line Freddy had climbed up was attached to a fish-ing rod, and the fishing rod was attached to this gigantichuman boy. Then the boy said something even more ter-rifying.

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“Live Bait!”“Eek!” said Freddy as he made a desperate attempt to

escape. He dashed back down the line into the safety ofthe water. Then he remembered the pike.

As the great (and extremely nasty) fish jaws turnedtowards him, Freddy ran back up the line to the safety ofthe air. Then he remembered the boy.

As the great (and extremely pudgy) fist reached outto grab him, Freddy dashed back down the line into thesafety of the water. Then he remembered the pike (again).

Back down the line Freddy ran. Then up. Then downagain — in fact this could have gone on forever, exceptthat Freddy couldn’t. He was getting tired. Pretty sooneither the pike or the boy was going to get him.

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Fortunately for Freddy, it turned out to be the boy thatfinally caught him, and the boy was getting a bit tired offishing now, especially as his bait wouldn’t keep still.

In desperation, Freddy tried one last trick to scare theboy away: he puffed himself up to twice his normal size.

“Cool!” said the boy. “I’m going to keep you.” Andhe stuffed the inflated frog into his bait bucket.

Freddy was trapped!

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Chapter 6

Glow-worm and theScientist

While Freddy was having hisadventure with the fishing rod,Glow-worm had an adventuretoo. He had followed the shoreline until he came to a garden,running down to the edge of thebeach. This garden was full ofvegetables and flowers, and lit-tle apple trees.

Being a very thorough explorer, Glow-worm began ex-amining the plants, and so engrossed was he that he didn’tnotice something creeping up behind him.

This something was very tall, very thin and wearing alab coat. It was a human scientist, every bit as focused asGlow-worm himself. Unfortunately the thing this scientistwas focused on was Glow-worm himself!

Carefully the scientist crept up on Glow-worm, a but-terfly net in one hand and a jam jar in the other.

Before the adventurous worm knew what was happen-ing, he was scooped up in the net and whisked into thejam jar. At first, Glow-worm was surprised, and a little

35

dazed at the suddenness of his capture. Soon, though, hebecame aware of his captor.

There was a huge face staring at him through the glassof the jar; a huge, white haired, moustached and bespec-tacled face. It looked puzzled.

“Amazing,” said the voice of the human scientist. “Thisglow-worm has a glow visible in daylight. This is trulywonderful! Also, it appears to be wearing a hat. I mustdiscover its secrets.”

Eagerly the giant scientist ran inside, with his treasuredprize.

The house in which the scientist lived was so extraor-dinary that Glow-worm, looking around in wonder, forgotto be afraid. It was clear that, in some respects at least,this scientist was a kindred spirit.

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“Wow,” he said to himself. “I must get myself some-where like this. Smaller, of course.”

The place was vast, but single storey, and ramshackle.Its high ceilings were lit by bare light bulbs covered incobwebs. And it was dark. Glow-worm quite liked thedark, but this wasn’t why he liked this place so much.

Oh no. He liked it for the things it contained. Andthere really were a lot of these.

Bookshelves, and thus books, were everywhere. Thefloor was covered in interesting looking tomes, some tech-nical, some not (some even with pictures!) And wherethere was space between the books, there were scientificinstruments, retorts, test tubes, pipettes, micrometres andall sorts of things. Glow-worm had tried to make minia-ture versions of many of these things (usually out of twigs,and not very successfully), so he was excited to see the realthing.

The next hallway led to a room equally full of booksand glass instruments (and what looked like the remainsof a model train set), but in other respects it was not quiteso comforting. For in the centre of this room were severalsets of metal shelves, and arranged upon these shelves, inindividually labelled little jars, were dozens and dozens ofcaptive glow-worms.

Glow-worm was shocked. It was a glow-worm detentioncentre. Worse, all these interesting books were too big tofit in any of the jars, so the prisoners weren’t even able toread.

With an enthusiastic flourish, the human scientist placedGlow-worm’s jar on the very top of the central set ofshelves. He then pulled a tiny little light meter out ofhis pocket and pointed it at Glow-worm. He stared at the

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dial in wonder. “Extra-ordinary! Just like a little lightbulb!” he cried. “I must telephone Professor Crumb! Hewill know what to do.”

For a moment the scientist gazed wistfully into the dis-tance. “A chair at the Smithsonian. . . the Nobel prize. . . acover story in Celebrity Gossip Magazine. Anything is pos-sible! Now, where is that telephone?”

Suddenly he was gone, rubbing his hands together anddreaming of the reaction of the scientific world when theydiscovered Glow-worm.

But Glow-worm, trapped in a jar on the top of a shelf,was not happy. This human might have an interestinglibrary, but he was clearly no friend to glow-worms. Hewas endangering the voyage and that, to Glow-worm’s wayof thinking, would never do.

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Of course, he was not alone. There were others here,other prisoners like himself. He called out.

“Hello! What’s going on here? Can anyone hear me?How do I get out of here?”

Several voices answered, sleepily. “It’s not dinner timeyet, New-worm. Go back to sleep.”

Glow-worm peered as best he could out of the jar to seewhat his companions looked like, but it was hard. Theywere curled up in their own little worlds, and they wereclearly a dull lot, for even in the gloom of this room it wasonly just possible to see their glows.

“Where am I?” Glow-worm called again.The worm in the jar nearest to him raised a sleepy little

head, and scowled. “New-worm,” he said, “the rule in thishotel is that everyone sleeps until dinner time.”

“Right,” said Glow-worm. “Then what?”“Then we eat.”“Right. Got it. Then what?”“Then we go back to sleep.”“Is that all?” said Glow-worm.One of the other worms spoke up. “Pretty much. Un-

less the human wants to dissect one of us. Sometimes hedoes that.”

Glow-worm was horrified. “And you don’t mind?”Other worms were awake now, and listening to the con-

versation. A rather portly one, who filled his jam jar mostimpressively, said: “I don’t mind. I’ve never been dis-sected, of course, but it can’t be that much worse than go-ing to sleep. Probably not as good as being fed, of course.”

“It’s a nice place,” said the worm who had spoken first.“Regular meals; regular sleep times; only occasional dis-section.”

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This wouldn’t do at all. “I’m not being dissected,” saidGlow-worm, firmly. “And I’m not living a life of just eatingand sleeping.”

“What else is there?” said the portly worm.“There’s escape, for one thing,” said Glow-worm.“What’s that?” said several of the worms together.“Watch,” said Glow-worm, “and learn.”By now the scientist had found his telephone. It was a

particularly old one, with a ragged looking and thoroughlytangled cord. The scientist rushed into the room with it,dragging the cord behind him. In its journey through thehouse the cord had collected a volume of EncyclopædiaBritannica, a glass retort and a stuffed iguana. The col-lection came clattering into the room after him.

Placing the telephone onto the shelf beside Glow-worm,the scientist searched his pockets for his notebook.

“Where is that telephone number?” he mumbled tohimself, then: “ah! That’s the one.”

Eagerly he dialled the number, hands trembling as hedid so, then listened for an answer. He fiddled with thetelephone cord, wrapping it around his fingers in a waythat looked very unhealthy.

“Hello,” cried the scientist. “Is that Professor Crumb!Ah, excellent! I have discovered the most remarkable an-imal, a glow-worm with a glow visible by day. A veryactive little fellow, too. Found it crawling about my gar-den. Most unlike usual glow-worms. Might even be a newspecies.”

“Don’t forget to mention that it was wearing a hat!”said Glow-worm.

Glow-worm was not the first animal ever to learn tospeak human, however most other animals that have done

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this have never been able to make themselves heard byhumans. The humans just don’t listen. Glow-worm, how-ever, had not merely learned how to read, write and speakhuman, he had also learned how to project his voice. Hecould have been, had he wished, a public speaker. He wasalso an accomplished mimic and a first class ventriloquist.

“I wasn’t going to say anything about the hat,” saidthe scientist, then he realised where the voice had comefrom. He stared at Glow-worm, open mouthed.

“Go on then,” said Glow-worm. “Tell him it can talk,too.”

The scientist’s open mouth opened wider.“Oh all right,” said Glow-worm, “I’ll tell him.”Glow-worm, imitating the scientist’s voice perfectly,

projected into the telephone: “It is also wearing a hat,

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and can talk. It appears to be extremely handsome anddignified.”

Glow-worm couldn’t hear what the scientist’s colleaguehad to say about this, but he could see the scientist turnpale.

“No no,” said the scientist, “I didn’t say that. Really,it wasn’t me.”

“No,” said Glow-worm in the scientist’s voice. “It wasthe pink elephant. I forgot to mention this elephant before.It’s got a hat too, but it can only speak with the aid of amegaphone. It offered to do my laundry for me.”

The scientist was deathly white now, his Nobel prizedreams dissolving around him. “I didn’t say that!” hecried into the phone, almost in tears now. “There is nopink elephant. It was the Glow-worm — it’s throwing itsvoice. . . hello? Professor Crumb? Are you there?” Therewas a clicking noise from the telephone. Professor Crumbhad clearly lost interest.

With a terrible wail, the scientist dropped the phone.Then he stared at Glow-worm, first in wonder, then withanger. “How,” he cried, “how is it possible?”

“It’s not,” said Glow-worm cheerfully. “You’re just go-ing mad.”

This suggestion stunned the scientist. He looked hardat Glow-worm. What the worm had said, or seemed tohave said, was dangerously close to being a logical expla-nation. Not a very nice one for the scientist, mind you.He looked hard at his own hands. Then he spun around,and ran out of the room.

Very sensibly, he had decided to go and take his bloodpressure.

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Alone now, apart from the (rather complacent) otherspecimens, Glow-worm turned his mind to escape. Thejam jar he was imprisoned in was far too solid for himto break out of, but it was only sealed with a thin pieceof cloth and an elastic band. The same was true of theother specimen jam jars. Probably this was to enable theanimals inside to be able to breathe without the scientist(who didn’t seem to be a very practical chap) having todrill holes in an actual jam jar lid. This gave Glow-worman idea.

He had always thought that, theoretically, if he couldconcentrate really hard he could make his glow bigger andstronger, and actually make it heat up. If he could make itheat up enough, he might be able to burn his way throughthe cloth seal.

Carefully he inched his way to the top of the jar, andbegan some serious glowing. He glowed, and he glowed,straining as hard as he could.

“Do you mind turning that light down?” called out theportly worm, “some of us are trying to sleep.”

Glow-worm ignored him, and glowed all the harder.Eventually, he began to smell a burning smell. Then a

little dark ring began to appear in the cloth just above hisglow. The plan was working!

One last strain of his glow-muscles, and a hole beganto appear. At last, the hole was big enough for him to passthrough. Glow-worm sighed with relief, relaxed his glowdown to normal levels and crawled out.

“What under earth do you think you’re doing?” criedthe portly worm, who had been watching Glow-worm sus-piciously.

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“I’m off,” said Glow-worm. “Would you and your friendslike to come too?”

“Are you offering to feed us?” asked the portly worm.Several of the other worms had woken up now, and werelistening to the conversation in a vague, dreamy sort ofway.

“No,” said Glow-worm. “Any food you’ll have to findyourself.”

“What about sleep?” said one of the other worms.“Would we get some sleep?”

“Well,” said Glow-worm. “You’d get some — but thething with adventures is you can never guarantee thesethings.”

“Can we take our jars with us?” asked another worm.This was starting to seem a bit silly to Glow-worm.

“Of course not,” he said. “Now, do you want to come ornot?”

“No jars?” said the portly worm. “Finding our ownfood? No guarantee of sleep? Why under earth would we

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want to go with you?”“Well,” said Glow-worm, “you won’t be dissected, for

one thing.”“So?” said the portly worm. “That’s still better than

anything you have to offer.”“Mad,” thought Glow-worm.“All right,” he said, “I’ll leave you here. I’m going to

sail around the world.”“Mad,” thought the other worms, then they went back

to sleep.Carefully, Glow-worm made his escape, inching across

the room as quickly as he could. Suddenly the door opened,and there before him was. . . the scientist!

“You’re out of your jar!” he cried. “How is that possi-ble?”

“It’s just your imagination,” said Glow-worm, still hop-ing to bluff it out.

But the scientist didn’t look puzzled any more. Helooked angry.

“I don’t think you’re a figment of my imagination,”he said. “But I’m going to find out what you are.” Hereached down and grabbed the escaping explorer. “Time,”said the scientist, “to do some dissecting,” and he thrustGlow-worm deep into his trouser pocket.

This didn’t suit Glow-worm’s plans at all, but at leasthe now knew what to do. If his glow could burn its wayout of a jam jar, it could burn its way out of a scientist’strouser pocket. He concentrated, he strained, he heavedand he glowed. Before long there was a distinct smell ofsomething burning.

“Odd,” said the scientist, “I must have left the toasteron.”

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Glow-worm concentrated harder. The scientist’s pocketbegan to smoke.

This time the scientist said: “Ow,” then he said: “mytrousers are burning!”

As Glow-worm plopped out of the hole he had made inthe pocket, he saw the giant scientist running off in searchof water, a thin stream of smoke coming from under hislab coat.

“Bye,” said Glow-worm, being just a little bit cheeky,then he crawled off to find his way out, and back to thegood ship Glow-boat.

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Chapter 7

CarlWhile Freddy was beingmenaced by a giant fishing-boy, and Glow-worm was ru-ining the career of (and es-caping from) a sinister scien-tist, Sydney had an adven-ture too. His was perhapsless dangerous than the otheradventures, but no less in-teresting for that. And, asit turned out, this adventurewas very important to thevoyage as a whole.

It happened like this. Sydney crawled on, looking foran anchor or information (or both), when he started to feela bit peckish. One or two nice, fat, juicy flies would makehim happy. But first he had to spin a web.

The best webs, as it happens, are in bushes. Lots of fliesfly past bushes, and a hungry young spider, like Sydney,loves nothing so much as a nice thick bush (to attract theflies), with a couple of bare twigs or branches sticking out(to spin a web between). So when he saw a very bushy(orange) bush with two ivory coloured and completely bare

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branches sticking out in front, he felt very pleased withhimself.

Now, if Sydney had known a bit more about the coun-try he was in, he might have been a little suspicious of abig, orange bush, with leaves that looked a lot like hair,and two branches that looked a lot like horns. But every-thing in this new world was strange to him, and it neveroccurred to him that this was anything other than a bush.So he began to spin his web.

It wasn’t a particularly good web (Sydney was a lit-tle out of practice), but it was good enough. The localflies, Sydney knew, didn’t stand a chance. As soon asthey drifted towards the bush, they would be caught in hissnare, and soon after that dinner would be served.

Time to wait. The next question was, should he waiton the web (and possibly frighten the fly off) or wait inthe bush (and risk giving the fly a chance to escape beforehe could get to it). It was a tough decision. In the end,Sydney decided on the bush.

So Sydney sat in the bush, and waited. Then he waitedsome more. Then he yawned, and waited a bit more. Then,of course, he fell asleep.

It was the delicate vibrating of the bush that finallywoke him up. He looked, and saw that a fly had indeedbeen caught in his web. But what had made the bushvibrate?

“Oi,” said the bush. “Wee creepy-crawly. I thinkyou’ve caught one. Now, you can get this sticky muckoff my face and clear off.”

Sydney jumped. It was a talking bush! Surely that wasimpossible? Had he been Freddy, he would have simplyassumed that talking bushes were perfectly normal here

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and gone about his day. If he had been Glow-worm hewould have been excited about discovering a mystery tosolve.

But being Sydney, he just became very frightened.“Aargh,” he said. “Er, sorry. . . I didn’t mean any of-

fence, er, honestly. I’ll go. I’ll take my little snack, clearup my web and go. Please don’t be angry, there’s a nicebush.”

The bush laughed. “That’s a new one,” it said. “Bush?Do you think I’m a bush then, wee creepy-crawly?”

This puzzled the spider. “You mean you’re not?”“Och no. I’m a coo. I’m a muckle coo.”Sydney was not completely satisfied with this explana-

tion. “You’re a what?”

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The bush sighed. “It’s the accent, isn’t it? Look, Idon’t usually talk to creepy-crawlies, a coo has his dignity,after all, but I’ll tell you my life story if you’ll clear thismuck off my face. What do you say?”

This seemed reasonable to Sydney. So he started clean-ing up his web (after putting the fly somewhere safe forlater). As he cleaned, he started to notice some interest-ing things about the bush.

Firstly, what had looked like twigs before now lookedrather like horns: big, long horns.

Secondly, what he had taken to be hairy looking leaveswere in fact hairs.

Thirdly, this bush (if that is what it was) had legs.It wasn’t a bush at all. It was a bull. A very big, very

hairy orange bull.When it said coo what it meant was cow.“You’re a cow!” he said. “You’re a big cow!”“Aye,” said the big cow. “That’s what I said. I’m a

muckle coo. From Scotland”Scotland? Sydney didn’t have a brilliant grasp of ge-

ography, but this sounded wrong to him.“But what are you doing here?” said Sydney.The hairy bull snorted. “I was about to tell you. Now,

do you want to hear my life story or don’t you?”“Yes please.”“Then shut up,” said the hairy bull. “Now then. I was

born a long way from here, way across the big sea in thehighlands of the bonny land of Scotland. Where I comefrom, all coos are big, bushy if you like, and proud. Andwe do, I grant you, look a bit different to the coos in otherplaces, them being funny little short haired, short horned,big eyed, rather stupid things. So you see, we highland

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coos are different. And being different was the problem.”“Why was it a problem?”“I was coming to that, wee creepy crawly. My herd

belonged to a human who was a bit strapped for cash.Cash is something humans seem to like getting their handson, a bit like food is to us except that it tastes awful. Sowhen this other human came along and offered to buy usall, he agreed. The other human bought us all, me, mybrothers and sisters, all my wives and shipped us out tothis enormous great place. Seems he wanted to make afilm.”

“A. . . what?” said Sydney.“Human pictures that move. Bit ignorant, aren’t you

wee creepy-crawly? Aye, moving pictures. Seems he wantedto include us in his film. Said we’d be playing the partsof buffalo in a film about the Wild West. Seems we werecheaper than the real thing, and he was the kind of humanknown as a cheap-skate.”

“A buffalo?”“Aye. Humans round here keep calling me a buffalo

because they think I’m a bison.”Sydney was puzzled. “Then why don’t they call you a

bison?”“No idea. Anyway, here I was, with my whole family,

trapped in this place where the grass is all brown and un-pleasant, not like the tasty green stuff we have at home.We started filming, and basically we didn’t have much todo except stand around or be chased by humans on horses.I don’t know what that was all about, but at least thehorses seemed to be having a good time. Eventually thehumans finished nearly the whole film, except for one bitthey only needed one of us for. So my family was sent

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home, and I wasn’t.”“That’s a bit rough,” said Sydney.“It certainly is, my wee creepy-crawly friend. I had one

scene to do: a death scene. I’m not a bad actor, if I do sayso myself, but it’s not really what I want to do with mylife. I’m more for the quiet, retired, ruminant existence, ifyou know what I mean.”

Sydney didn’t, but he nodded thoughtfully anyway, soas not to give offence.

“Anyway,” said the bull, “film over, what do you sup-pose happened next?”

“What?”“Nothing. Not a thing. They stuck me in a barn with

a few bails of hay, and expected me to hang around justin case they need me again.”

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Sydney was shocked. “That’s a bit rude,” he said.The bull snorted. “You’re telling me. Too rude. So I

said to myself, nuts to this, I’m off, and I left. Broke out,headed for the coast.”

“You’re trying to get home?”“I am. There’s supposed to be a herd of my kind up

North somewhere, but home is where I really want to go.”“Across the ocean?”“Aye, well, when I figure out how. That’s the plan,

anyway.” The bull sighed deeply. “Not working too wellat the moment, though.”

This bull was obviously upset. Plus he was a traveller.He made Sydney think, and what Sydney thought wasGlow-worm.

“I’ve crossed the ocean,” said Sydney.“Oh aye?” said the bull. “Came on a human ship, did

you?”“No no,” said Sydney, as casually as he could. “I’m a

crew member on an animal ship. The captain is a glowworm, and we’re sailing around the world.”

The bull looked surprised, as well he might, even underall his hair. “Wee creepy crawlies like you? Sailing roundthe world? By yourselves?”

“I know it sounds odd. I thought it was impossiblemyself, at first. But we’ve come a long way. Glow-worm,that’s our captain, well, he’s a bit eccentric. But he’sclever. He’s very clever. He might be able to help you.”

“Are you saying I can come with you?” said the bull.Sydney wasn’t, of course. The bull was, not to put to

fine a point on it, rather too large for the good ship Glow-boat (unless he’d wanted to eat it). But Sydney felt sorryfor the bull, so he could hardly say no, could he? “Well,

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I’d have to check with Glow-worm first, of course.”“Right,” said the bull, cheerfully, “let’s do it then.”So off they went, Sydney hanging from the bull’s horn

and telling him which way to go.“My name’s Sydney, by the way,” said Sydney.“Oh aye? I have a name too. I’m Carl, Carl the Coo.”Thus it was that Carl the highland cow came, more or

less, to join Glow-worm’s crew. Before they reached thegood ship Glow-boat, however, they had one more littleadventure.

As they made their way through the trees they heardthe sound of something large (although not as large asCarl) crashing through the bushes.

“Sounds like a human chasing something,” said Carl.Sydney, who hadn’t a clue what it sounded like, said

nothing. He was, however, quite surprised at what he sawnext.

It was Freddy, running and hopping along for dear life,with a human sized fishing hook over one shoulder and ahuman sized human running after him.

“Odd,” said Carl, “humans don’t usually chase frogs.Funny looking frog too. Very green.”

“He’s a friend of mine!” cried Sydney. “We must savehim!”

Carl shrugged his enormous hairy shoulders. “Okay,”he said, and he put down his head and bellowed.

The human sized human chasing Freddy was, of course,the fishing boy. If you remember, the fishing boy hadcaught Freddy and stuffed him into his bait bucket. In thebait bucket were all the fishing boy’s spare fishing hooks.They were exactly the sort of things Freddy needed to useas an anchor for the good ship Glow-boat.

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Back in his pre-world travelling days, Freddy wouldhave been too terrified to think by this stage. But now,after associating with Glow-worm, he was too terrified todo anything else. So he thought and he thought and hethought, and as soon as the fishing boy opened the bucketto take a look at his prize Freddy grabbed a hook, leapedout and ran for his life.

“Hey, live bait,” called the angry fishing boy, “comeback!”

The boy was a very big boy, and Freddy was a verysmall frog. Normally Freddy, an expert hopper, could haveoutrun the human and escaped easily. But carrying theheavy hook he was a lot slower than usual.

It was just as the boy was about to catch him againthat the really strange thing happened: a big orange bush

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suddenly turned into a giant monster and roared at theboy. Even stranger, from on top of the monster came afamiliar voice.

“Freddy, up here, quick!” It was Sydney.Freddy stopped in surprise. “What are you doing on

top of a bush-monster?”“He’s not a bush monster, he’s a bull.”“Oh, I see. What are you doing on top of a bull?”“Stop asking silly questions, and hop up here. His

name’s Carl, and he’s our friend.”So Freddy hopped. He didn’t know how Sydney had

come to acquire this strange new acquaintance, but whenyou are being pursued by an angry fishing boy (who wantsto use you as live bait) having a giant, hairy, horned friendwho can roar like a monster is a good thing.

The fishing boy stopped chasing Freddy and stared inhorror at Carl!

“Aargh!” he cried. “It’s a buffalo!” and he turned tailand ran. He crashed through bushes, splashed through thestream and disappeared into the trees.

“Hello,” said Freddy. “I’m Freddy.”“Hello,” said Carl, “I’m Carl.”“Why did he call you a buffalo?” asked Freddy.“Because he thinks I’m a bison,” said Carl.“Oh,” said Freddy. “That makes sense.”“Does it?” said Sydney.United at last, the two small animals told each other

of their adventures, and Carl told his life story again (forFreddy’s benefit).

When they had all finished, Freddy said: “I wonderwhat Glow-worm’s been up to?”

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“Let’s find out,” said Sydney, and with their giant newfriend to protect them the animals made their way backthrough the trees, down towards the beach and to the goodship Glow-boat.

The captain himself had just arrived.“Hello there,” said Glow-worm, gazing in admiration

up at Carl. “You’re a highland cow, aren’t you?”“I am that,” said Carl, “most animals round here don’t

know that. You are a clever wee beasty, aren’t you?”“I have my moments,” said Glow-worm, modestly.And so the animals introduced each other, and Carl

was formally sworn in as a member of the crew. After thisCarl mentioned something that had been bothering him.

“Your wee boat,” he said, glancing suspiciously downat the little collection of leaves and nuts, no bigger than

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his foot, in which his new friends planned to complete theirvoyage. “Well, your wee boat is a wee bit, well, a wee bitwee, isn’t it? Will it do?”

“Yes,” said Glow-worm, “but don’t worry. Thanks toFreddy we have an anchor again.”

“It’s not that,” said Carl, “it’s more that I think itmight be a little small for me. How am I going to comewith you?”

“Don’t worry,” said Glow-worm cheerfully, “I’ll thinkof something!” And with that, he crawled off to bed.

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Chapter 8

Over-landThe next morning the an-imals woke up bright andearly. Carl had found a warmspot to sleep near some tastybushes — not as tasty as theyummy green grass of home,but not bad all the same.Sydney and Freddy had sleptpoorly; Sydney was worriedabout how they were going totake Carl with them on boardthe good ship Glow-boat ;

Freddy was having nightmares about enormous fish andeven more enormous fishing-boys. Glow-worm slept like alog.

When he awoke, his first task was to check on his crew.“Everyone here?” he said. “All present and correct?

Jolly good. Let’s go then!”Sydney was still rubbing the sleep out of one of his

pairs of eyes, and Freddy was trembling slightly.“What about Carl?” said Sydney.

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“Aye,” said Carl, “what about me? How’re you goingto include me in your voyage?”

“By thinking laterally, or rather, upside down.”“Oh,” said Freddy. “I see.” Then he added: “What

does that mean?”Glow-worm unpacked his favourite chart, and started

studying it. “Simply this,” he said. “We can travel overland for a little while. That way, instead of Carl having toget on board Glow-boat, Glow-boat can get on board Carl.”

The other animals looked at each other. Then they alllooked at Carl. Carl looked at Glow-worm.

“Aye,” he said. “I suppose that could work. What dowe do after that?”

“Think of something else!” declared Glow-worm withgood cheer. “I’m always full of good ideas.”

Carl nodded, but he still looked a bit dubious.“Alright, mighty land cruising non-bison,” said Glow-

worm, with gravity. “Pick up the good ship Glow-boat,and let us begin the next stage of our journey!”

Carl shrugged his enormous shoulders. “Okay,” he said,“why not?” Then, with a mighty heave of his great hornshe tossed the little ship onto the top of his head. “Whichway, captain?” he asked.

“Inland,” said Glow-worm. “In the direction of therising sun.”

So that was what they did.With the good ship Glow-boat mounted on the head of

huge, hairy, horned Carl there was little danger from otheranimals. The main problem was humans. Faced with oneor two, the animals had nothing to fear — one or twohumans would simply run away. But lots of humans mighttry to capture Carl, and then they would all be in trouble.

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So Glow-worm, Sydney, Freddy and their fake buffalomade their way through quiet, unfrequented pathways un-til they passed out of the trees and into the open plains.Sleeping under the stars they refreshed themselves until itwas time to walk on.

From the plains they passed into the desert, which wasnot so much fun. Carl suffered from lack of grass, and theyall suffered from lack of water.

After many weeks of travelling, they paused to admirea vast canyon the likes of which even Glow-worm had notimagined.

“That is awe-inspiring,” said Glow-worm, who was awe-inspired.

“Wow,” said Sydney.“Ooh er,” said Freddy.“We’ve got bigger ones than that in the highlands,”

said Carl.

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They moved on, and again water (and grass) becameplentiful, much to the relief of everyone. On they travelled,through the hills and the mountains, into cool new forestsand towards the coast once more. Here they hit a problem.

“You think we should avoid people, don’t you?” saidCarl.

“Yes,” said Glow-worm. “I think that would be best.”“And what do you call that?”“It’s a city,” said Glow-worm. “A huge city. A mas-

sive city. It stretches from horizon to horizon, and it liesbetween us and the coast.”

“So it’s a problem,” said Sydney. “It’s an impossibleproblem.”

“Not at all,” said Glow-worm. “It is a challenge.”The city was still some distance away, but already it

was becoming hard to hide Carl — there just weren’tenough trees or bushes anywhere. As they got close tothe road, things became even more challenging.

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“Let’s find somewhere to hide,” said Glow-worm, andwe can have a rest and a think.”

“How’re we going to get past the city?” said Sydney.“That’s one of the things we’re going to think about,”

said Glow-worm.“And if we do get past, how’re we going to find the

harbour?” said Sydney.“That’s another of the things we’re going to think about,”

said Glow-worm.“And if we do find the harbour, how’re we going to get

Carl across the ocean?”“That too is something we’re going to have to think

about,” said Glow-worm. “Actually, we might have tohave a really big think. If you need me, I shall be in thecabin. Thinking.”

As it turned out, thinking wasn’t necessary after all.While they were resting and thinking Freddy (who wasreally only capable of resting) fell asleep and Carl (whowas very tired after walking for hundreds and hundredsof miles with a boat on his head) fell asleep too. Sydneystayed awake to think about all their problems, but in theend had to give up. He couldn’t think of any solutions, sohe fell asleep too.

In the little cabin, curled up in bed, Glow-worm toowas asleep. He did a lot of thinking while he was asleep.Something would come to him, he was sure of that.

And something did come to him. It wasn’t the idea hewas expecting. It was a thing. It was several things, infact. Several human things.

He woke to feel Sydney shaking him. The spider lookedworried.

“What’s up?” said Glow-worm.

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“I think we’ve been spotted,” said Sydney.

“What makes you think that?” said Glow-worm.Sydney showed him.Surrounding Carl, who was still sitting nervously be-

hind a small bush with the good ship Glow-boat on hishead, were people. Lots of people.

Some of the people had cameras (some of the camera’shad the letters TV written on them); some of the peoplewere wearing uniforms with the words City Zoo printed onthem, and these people had big nets. Some of the peo-ple (and this made even Glow-worm a bit nervous) werecarrying guns.

“Whoops,” said Glow-worm. “I think we overslept.”They were also surrounded by cars and small trucks.

Glow-worm had thought the bush they were hiding behindwas far enough from the road for them not to be seen. Hehad clearly got this wrong.

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Someone, driving along, had spotted them, and stop-ped. He had phoned someone else, who had come along tosee too. Meanwhile another person driving along had seenthem, stopped and phoned someone else. While this washappening yet another person had phoned the police, whohad phoned the zoo.

A few people seemed to have phoned the televisioncompanies and the newspapers as well.

This whole process would seem to have repeated itselfseveral times, for now, looking down from his boat on topof a cow, Glow-worm could see a veritable ocean of people.

There were big people and small people, girl people andboy people, old people and young people, official peopleand unofficial people, police people and zoo people, armedpeople and scared people.

All the people with cameras were taking photographs.All the television news people were making films of them-selves. The people with nets and zoo uniforms were edgingcloser, and the people with guns were trembling slightly.

“Look!” cried a voice in the crowd, “I think the buf-falo’s seen us.”

“Nobody move!” shouted the chief zoo-person, andeveryone with a gun moved.

A dozen or more gun barrels were now pointing atCarl’s head and the good ship Glow-boat.

“Right,” said Glow-worm. “Here’s the plan: run forit!”

So Carl ran. He put his head down, bellowed for effect,and ran as fast as his hairy legs could carry him.

Several hundred people screamed, and tried to get outof the charging bull’s way. Several guns fired simultane-ously. No-one was hurt (which was lucky), but several

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people were severely embarrassed (which was not).“Which way?” panted Carl.“Follow the road!” said Glow-worm. “Head for the

buildings.”“Why?” said Carl.“Why not?” said Glow-worm.And so Carl the highland cow, still with a boat on his

head (containing three passengers) bolted down the free-way towards the vast buildings of the great human city.Around him vans and cars and buses (and one very sur-prised looking cyclist) swerved to avoid the mighty horns.With no time to read the road signs (or to make sure hewas on the right side of the road) the mighty bovine gal-loped along.

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Car horns bellowed, tyres and brakes squealed and po-lice sirens blared. There was a whole convoy of irate andangry humans following by now, and for every car Carlcaused to swerve off the road or bump into another carthe convoy got longer. No-one was having any fun, ex-cept possibly Glow-worm who stared in fascination at allthe wonders around them. All the humans were shouting(or even screaming), and even the ones who weren’t angrylooked scared enough to be dangerous.

Close behind came a van from the zoo, with two net-wielding humans hanging precariously from its side.

“Drive it towards the harbour!” one of them cried.“Good idea,” said Glow-worm to Carl, “let them drive

us towards the harbour.”Carl wondered briefly why the humans wanted to drive

him to the harbour, but there was no time to worry aboutit, so he did as he was told and ran on.

Past news stands and shop fronts, under the shadowsof skyscrapers, past the museum and through the financialdistricts Carl ran, becoming more and more tired as hedid so. All the time he tried to work out which way thehumans wanted him to go, so that he could go that waywithout them having to do anything to him.

As he and his passengers ran through a park in whichthere was an enormous fountain and lots of beautiful, shadytrees, Carl heard Glow-worm say: “what a pity we can’tstop to explore.”

But of course, they couldn’t, so Carl ran on.They passed a tour bus pulling up outside a department

store. All the human tourists leaped from the bus, tookphotographs of them, then leaped back into the bus.

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Suddenly they were within sight of water, and headingdown to the harbour. There was a reception committeeof armed policemen and news photographers waiting forthem.

“What now?” said Carl.Glow-worm thought. “If we were human, I’d say we

should put our hands up.”“No hands,” said Carl. “Any other ideas?”But no ideas were forthcoming, so the animals waited.

The sun shone on the glimmering water of the harbour,and boats of many shapes and sizes bobbed up and downbefore the buildings. Strangely, Glow-worm felt as if thewater was calling him. He was anxious to be off.

“I have a plan,” said Carl. “I’ll try to toss your weeboat into the harbour, then I’ll distract the humans whileyou slip away. That way you can get on with your voyage.”

“But what about you?” said Sydney.“Och, I’ll be all right. The worst they can do is put me

in another film. I can live with that.”“But we were going to take you with us!” said Sydney.“Aye, well, that was never really going to happen, was

it?”Meanwhile Glow-worm was scanning the harbour. Some-

thing had attracted his attention. There was a particu-larly interesting boat, a boat with a particularly interest-ing smell and particularly interesting letters on its side.

“Can anyone other than me read what it says on theside of that ship?” asked Glow-worm.

Freddy had been trying to learn to read, one alphabetletter at a time. So far he had got as far as A is for Apple.“Er,” said Freddy. “Does it say Apple?”

“No,” said Glow-worm.

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“Er, does it say some other sort of fruit?”“No.”“Er. . . ” said Freddy.

Sydney interrupted. “Why doesn’t Glow-worm tell uswhat it says, since he obviously wants to?”

“It says,” said Glow-worm, “Taronga Zoo; that’s inSydney, Australia.”

“Oh aye,” said Carl. “Is that good?”“I think,” said Glow-worm, “that you should edge slowly

towards it. Slowly, mind you. We don’t want the humansto get nervous and shoot you. I think the two zoo humanswith the net came from that ship. I wonder if they’ve gotany friends on board?”

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It wasn’t at all clear to Glow-worm’s colleagues whathis plan was, but they did as he said anyway. Carl edgedslowly towards the boat. The crowd of humans stirred.

“Stop that buffalo!” shouted one of the policemen.“No no,” said one of the zoo humans (the shorter, fatter

one), “that’s actually the way we want it to go. Try todrive it on-board.”

Unfortunately the humans were nervous. Fortunatelythough, they were not nervous enough to shoot, at leastnot quite. The two zoo humans and the braver of thepolicemen crept towards Carl, holding their nets and gunsout in front of them. Carl walked slowly away from them,in the direction of the zoo ship.

This ship was quite large, with a big deck. The deckwas very deep, however, and there were crates on board.There was one very small cabin, and towards this Glow-worm cast his eye.

Carefully, the adventurous worm threw his highly trainedvoice in the direction of the ship, saying, with a perfectNew World accent: “Come ashore and help us for a minute,please,” he said.

The two zoo humans with the nets looked at each other.“Who said that?” said the short fat one.“You did,” said the tall thin one.“Did I?”The third zoohuman appeared from inside the cabin of

the boat, net in hand. He was older than the other two,with thick glasses and slightly scraggly grey hair. He randown the gang plank towards them, squinting a bit.

Glow-worm threw his voice again. “Good work,” hesaid, sounding exactly like the short, fat zoo human. “Helpus drive the buffalo on board, then cast off the boat.”

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The new zoo human squinted at his colleagues. “Areyou sure about that?” he shouted.

“What?” said the first two zoo humans.“Yes!” said Glow-worm.The new zoo human shrugged his shoulders. “Okay,”

he said. He came towards Carl tentatively, holding his netout protectively in front of him. But he need not haveworried. Carl was surprisingly easy to drive on board.

“Quick,” said Glow-worm, “untie the boat and castoff!”

“Shouldn’t there be someone on board?” said the zoohuman.

“I’m on board!” said Glow-worm.So the zoo human shrugged his shoulders again, and

untied the boat.At once the engines started, and the ship pulled away

from the harbour.On the shore the three zoo humans stared at each other,

then at the departing zoo boat.“Who’s driving the boat?” said the short, fat zoo hu-

man.“You are,” said the old zoo human. “Aren’t you?”“How could I be driving the boat if I’m right here?”This was a good question. At once, the three zoo hu-

mans ran around in helpless circles. The Chief of Policeapproached them.

“Well done, men. Thank you for saving us from themad buffalo. Excellent work.”

As the Chief of Police walked away to address the crowdof spectators, the tall thin zoo human hissed in his col-league’s ear. “What about the boat? We’ve lost the boat!Not to mention the animal.”

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The short fat zoo human scowled at him. “Then let’shope nobody notices. Come on. Let’s get to the zoo. Ineed a coffee.”

And so, the good ship Glow-boat, mounted on a cowriding on a stolen zoo boat, sailed away from the NewWorld. On board, Carl, Sydney and Freddy were jubilant.

“Well done, Glow-worm!” said Sydney.“I knew you could do it!” said Freddy.“Aye, very impressive,” said Carl. “You certainly are

a clever wee beasty.”“Thank you all very much,” said Glow-worm. “Just

one question: who actually is driving the boat?”The animals looked at each other. They looked at the

cabin. They looked at each other again.“We’d better investigate,” said Glow-worm.“Well don’t look at me,” said Carl. “I can’t get into

that wee cabin.”Carefully Carl put the good ship Glow-boat onto the

deck, and Glow-worm disembarked.“Right,” he said, “I’ll just go and explore. Anyone

want to come too?”Sydney and Freddy looked at each other. “Is it safe?”

said Freddy.“No idea,” said Glow-worm, cheerfully. “That’s part

of the fun!”“I’ll come,” said Sydney, reluctantly.“I’ll stay here,” said Freddy, “to, er, look after Carl.”Carl gave him a look.“Right,” said Glow-worm, “let’s go and meet the pilot.”

He crawled off, through the open door of the cabin.Pausing briefly to count his legs (just in case) Sydney

followed him.

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There were really only two rooms inside the cabin, andone of them was the wheel room. The door to this roomwas tightly closed. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the gapat the bottom of the door was easily big enough for the twosmall animals to crawl through. Once again, Glow-wormled the way. Once again, Sydney counted his legs beforefollowing.

They passed under the door, and there an extra-ordinarysight met their eyes.

“G’day, mate,” said the pilot.

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It was a kangaroo. It was a tall, cheerful looking greykangaroo.

“Name’s Skipper,” said the kangaroo. “Saw your ad-ventures on the dock. Fancy a lift?”

Glow-worm was impressed. An animal after his ownheart. With Sydney’s help he swung up onto the ship’swheel, so he could look Skipper in the eye.

“Hello,” said Glow-worm. “I’m Glow-worm, and thisis Sydney. Interesting to see a kangaroo driving a humanboat. From what I’ve read, that’s quite unusual.”

“Not the humans’ idea,” said the kangaroo. “I’ve beenlocked up in this ship for ages; they’ve been taking meto their local zoo. I was planning a prison break anyway,then I was going to take over the boat and steer it backto Australia. You blokes gave me the perfect diversion.Cheers for that, by the way.”

“But how do you know how to drive a boat?” Sydneyasked.

“Kangaroo dreams,” said Skipper. “Cool, isn’t it?”“Australia,” said Glow-worm, thoughtfully. “That’s

roughly the right direction. Can we come with you? We’regoing around the world.”

“Feel free,” said Skipper. “I’d appreciate the com-pany.”

“Jolly good,” said Glow-worm. “Come on deck, andmeet the others.”

And so Glow-worm’s crew expanded once more — henow had a spider, a frog, a highland cow, a kangaroo andtwo ships (one pre-loved). As the new ship, now to beknown as Glow-boat II, sailed away from the New World,the travellers had one more wonder to see.

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It was a statue. A giant statue of a woman, holdingsomething aloft. The statue was standing on an island,and since it was growing dark as Glow-boat II sailed past,the animals were able to see the giant statue light up. Thething she was holding up in the sky began to glow.

“Good grief!” said Glow-worm, suddenly. “She’s hold-ing a Glow-worm!”

“That’s odd,” said Freddy, “isn’t it?”“No,” said Glow-worm. “It is a sign. We have been

given a sign. It proves we’re going to be successful.”And no one could argue with that.

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Chapter 9

The MysteriousMagician

The good ship Glow-boat IIsailed on across the easternsea, its crew, for the mostpart, content. Carl and Skip-per were perfectly happy, aslong as they had food tomunch on, and fortunatelythere was a lot of that on

board. Glow-worm was a little concerned that using ahuman boat they had simply borrowed was cheating. Hethought that perhaps they should re-launch the originalGlow-boat and have the two ships sailing as separate ven-tures. But nobody agreed with him.

Only Freddy was really unhappy. In fact, he was feelingrather left out. Wasn’t he the hero who had found theship its new anchor? Yet this act of heroism had hardlybeen mentioned. Of course, they hadn’t needed the anchorsince, but that was hardly the point.

Freddy had once been Sydney’s best friend. Yet nowSydney seemed to spend most of his time talking to Carl,or Skipper. Almost as if he had forgotten about his froggy

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pal.As for Glow-worm, he spent his time studying charts

and checking the position of the Sun, none of which madeany sense to Freddy.

So Freddy felt a little lonely, and lonely frogs are sadfrogs.

Meanwhile Glow-worm declared that they had reacheda part of the world known as The Mystic East. He alsodeclared that they should probably try to find land, asthey were nearly out of food.

The problem was Carl. Even more than Skipper, Carlhad a big appetite. Plus, he had two stomachs to support(he was very proud of that fact). So what had seemed likea lot of food when they first borrowed Glow-boat II wasnow diminishing rapidly. The crisis came at breakfast timeseveral weeks after the animals had left the New World.

“Feeling a wee bit peckish this morning,” said Carl toSydney (who was in charge of the food). “Fancy somehay.”

“Ah,” said Sydney, nervously. “Do you?”“Aye. Lucerne please. That’s my favourite.”“Er, sorry. No Lucerne left.”“Okay then. Orchard-grass please.”“No, sorry. Out of stock.”“Timothy?”“Um, well. . . ”“Och man, what have you got?”Sydney looked a bit embarrassed for a moment. “Straw?”“Straw? Yuck. Oh well, better than nothing. Straw

please.”So Sydney gave him straw for his breakfast. In fact he

gave him all the straw in the hold. Both pieces.

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Carl was shocked. “More please.”“Sorry. That’s it.”“Oh. . . ” said Carl, suddenly very nervous.“Good morning mates,” said Skipper, bounding up to

Sydney. “Where’s my morning straw?”“Er,” said Sydney. “It’s in Carl.”

This presented a problem. Very soon, both of Carl’sstomachs were rumbling. Glow-worm summarised the prob-lem as briefly as he could.

“Carl is a ruminant,” he said. “Which means he needsto eat nearly all the time to survive.”

“So,” said Sydney, “from Carl’s point of view, runningout of food is a very bad thing.”

“Absolutely,” said Glow-worm.“I’m hungry too,” said Skipper. “Carl ate my break-

fast!”“I’m sure you are,” said Glow-worm. “But you can

survive for a few days without breakfast; Carl can’t.”“Couldn’t he have some of our food?” said Freddy.

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“What? Eat flies?” said Carl. “You are a stupid weebeastie, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” said Skipper. “Get real.”“Don’t be silly,” said Sydney.“Freddy,” said Glow-worm, “both Carl and Skipper are

herbivores. They can’t eat insects.”From that point Freddy, who had only been trying to

help, kept quiet.“We must find land, and we must find it quickly,” said

Glow-worm. “According to the charts, there are no islandsfor hundreds of miles.”

“Oh great,” said Carl, over the sound of his rumblingstomachs.

“But,” said Glow-worm, “according to ancient and un-reliable legends of the Ottoman Empire, there are Mysteri-ous and Dangerous islands in these parts, homes to Geniesand other magical beings.”

“Hang on,” said Sydney, “that’s all nonsense, surely?”“Oh yes, probably,” said Glow-worm, cheerfully, “But

beggars can’t be choosers. So we either give up now, andbid farewell to our friends Carl and Skipper, or we set sailfor the Islands of Legend. No choice really, is there?”

So the intrepid Glow-worm and his crew set sail for themysterious Islands of Legend.

It took two days of hard sailing across troubled seasbefore Glow-boat II reached land. During that time Carl’sstomachs rumbled more and more, and his tongue startedhanging out. Skipper’s stomach started to rumble too, andhe started muttering things about how he should neverhave let Carl and the others come on board.

There was even a time when the crew started to doubtGlow-worm’s ability to find land at all. Truth to tell, even

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Glow-worm himself started to be worried.Throughout all this time, Freddy remained silent. He

was just a little bit too sad to speak. But nobody noticed.Eventually, however, land appeared: a sinister, dark

island dominated by a tall, dark, craggy mountain. Therewere storm clouds gathered about the peak of the moun-tain, and it was an altogether scary place. But there wasgrass on the lower slopes of the mountain, and that waswhat they were after.

“Perfect,” said Glow-worm.“Let me at that grass!” cried Carl, and as Glow-boat II

reached shore, he and Skipper leaped overboard and ran(or hopped) for the patches of green. Sydney went too,just in case.

Glow-worm went back to his charts, to double checkfor islands. If this really was an undiscovered island hewanted to name it. And that would mean thinking of aname, preferably one with the word glow in it. Freddyapproached him cautiously.

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“Can I help with anything?” said the frog.Glow-worm looked at him. He thought of the struggles

Freddy was having with A is for Apple. Then he lookedat the charts. Even he was having trouble with those.

“I don’t think so, Freddy,” he said. “Why don’t yougo and, er, play on deck?” Glow-worm turned his back onFreddy, and went back to the charts.

Poor Freddy. Nobody needed him, or so it seemed. Sohe decided to leave. Here, on this mysterious and scaryisland, he would leave the crew. Probably, no-one wouldmiss him; and if they did, if it made them sad, then thatwould serve them right.

So Freddy packed all his possessions (there weren’tmany of these) into a little parcel which he could carryon his shoulder. Then, checking that no-one was watching(they weren’t — Glow-worm was checking his charts, Syd-ney was off with Carl and Skipper, checking out the grass)he slipped quietly ashore, and made his way from the ship.Perhaps here, on this island, he would find someone to ap-preciate him.

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He walked a long way, up a mysterious path on the mys-terious mountain. And there he did, indeed, find someonewho appreciated him, although perhaps not quite in theway he was hoping.

Some distance away, in the middle of a patch of what hadbeen tall grass, Carl had managed to eat his fill.

“Och, that’s nice,” he said.“Quality tucker,” said Skipper, greatly relieved.“Nice flies, too,” said Sydney, who’d been having a

little snack himself.Satisfied, and no longer hungry, the three animals headed

back to Glow-boat II, where they found Glow-worm confi-dent and cheerful. They asked him why.

“I believe this island to be unknown, and therefore un-named,” he declared. “Therefore we have the right toname it. So I declare that this island shall henceforth beknown as the island of Glow-grass.”

“That’s a daft name,” said Carl. “I think it should becalled Carl Island.”

“No way,” said Skipper. “El Skippo, that’s the name.”“Excuse me a moment,” said Glow-worm, slightly dis-

gruntled. “Who’s in charge of this expedition?”“Me!” declared Skipper, cheerfully.“No you’re not!”“Well, I’m in charge of the boat, anyway.”“The boat,” declared Glow-worm with dignity, “is not

the expedition.”The animals argued on; and none of them noticed that

someone was missing.

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* * *

Meanwhile, the missing someone was exploring the island,and already beginning to regret his decision to leave. Therewasn’t much for a young frog to enjoy up this mountain,apart from the occasional fly. But Freddy didn’t want toadmit defeat just yet. Maybe further up the path therewould be something for him.

Rounding another bend, Freddy came upon a cliff face.Not a little cliff face that a frog might have hopped over or(at a pinch) climbed up, but a great, big cliff face. Freddylooked up. Way too high to climb. Freddy looked back, tosee how far he’d come from the ship, but he had gone toofar around the mountain, and Glow-boat II was long outof sight.

Suddenly he noticed that he wasn’t alone beneath thecliff face. There was also a human standing and studyingthe rock. At once Freddy became afraid. He’d had a fairbit of experience with humans during his time with Glow-worm, and it hadn’t inspired him with confidence.

Something about this human made Freddy even morenervous than humans usually did, and that was sayingsomething. This human was very tall, with dark hair, darkeyes and a long, dark moustache. He was wearing a long,dark red robe decorated with symbols of stars and moons.On his head he wore a Chinese-style hat, very broad andvery mysterious.

The most sensible thing to do, Freddy decided, was tosneak away before the human noticed him and did some-thing nasty. He was just about to do that when the humanturned and looked at him.

“Hello little frog,” said the human.

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Freddy didn’t move.“Aren’t you going to say anything?” said the human.Freddy cowered. He had little experience of talking to

humans, only of running away from them. But there wasone question even Freddy had to ask.

“How come you can speak animal?” said Freddy.“I have studied all the old texts — some very old in-

deed. I have studied under ancient masters, and learnt athousand and one magical arts. I am a magician.”

“A. . . a good magician?” said Freddy, hopefully.“I am a master of the Dark Arts,” said the human. “My

name is Hieronymus Krulp, and I am a Wicked Magician.”“Oh dear,” said Freddy.“Do not be afraid, little frog,” said the Magician, bend-

ing down low to get a better view of Freddy, “or at least,do not be too afraid. I have need of you, and if you dogood work for me, then I may even reward you.”

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This sounded very odd to Freddy. What possible usecould he be to a wicked magician, except possibly as aningredient in some magic potion?

“What,” said Freddy, “would happen if I said, no thankyou, I don’t want to work for you?”

The Magician raised himself up to his full height, andfrowned ferociously. His eyes flashed green for a moment.

“Then,” he said, “I would turn you into a. . . ”Freddy’s little froggy heart was racing. “Into a. . . what?”Krulp the magician frowned even more. “Hmm,” he

said. “If you were human I would turn you into a frog, butsince you are a frog already. . . I have it! If you do not obeyme then I will turn you into a human being !”

Freddy screamed with terror. Then he stopped. “Hangon a minute,” he said. “That’s not possible, is it? Youcan’t to that.”

“Oh can’t I?” said Krulp. “Very well, if you require ademonstration of my power. . . ”

At once, Krulp’s eyes flashed green again. He raisedhis hands to the skies and glowered at Freddy. Mysticincantations poured from his lips, and Freddy, watchingnervously, suddenly began to feel a little queer.

He started to feel taller. He started to feel a little lessmoist. He started to feel a little bit hairy. He started tofeel as if he was wearing clothes. He started to feel as if histongue was just a little stumpy thing, and that his fingersand toes were losing their webbing. Worst of all, he startedto feel decidedly warm blooded. Not a pleasant feeling atall for a proud young frog.

Strangely, Krulp seemed to have shrunk. He was nowonly a head taller than Freddy. This at least was an im-provement, although it further enforced in Freddy’s mind

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the thought that he had indeed turned into something.Freddy looked at his hands. They were human hands.

Freddy felt his face. It was a human face.By our standards, Freddy was not a particularly ugly

human. From certain angles he would even have lookedquite handsome. But to his froggy way of looking at things,he had turned into a monster. He looked at his handsagain.

“Oh no,” he cried. “I’m the wrong colour!”Krulp handed him a small make-up mirror. “Do you

like it?” he said.“Like it?” screamed Freddy. He continued to stare at is

new reflection in the mirror. Tentatively he reached a handto the side of his head and touched his new ears. “Yuck!”he said. “Please change me back! I’ll do anything!”

“Jolly good,” said Krulp. “If you promise to do thisjob for me, then I will turn you back.”

“Okay, okay,” said Freddy. “I promise. Whatever it is,I’ll do it.” He had another look at the ears, and shuddered

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again.“Good,” said Krulp. “But mark this, little frog: if I

have to transform you again it will never be possible tochange you back. You will be human forever. Do youunderstand?”

“Er, probably not,” said Freddy. “Understanding’s notreally what I’m good at.”

Krulp scowled. He explained again to Freddy, this timeslowly.

“Okay,” said Freddy. “Now please change me back.”Krulp waved his hands in the air, and his eyes flashed

green again. Freddy felt himself shrinking, and his skinmoistening. Suddenly the wicked magician was a giantagain, and Freddy’s new flippy-flappy fleshy ears were gone.Freddy looked at his hands and feet. They were green,webbed and sticky again. He was back.

Suddenly the giant hand of the magician scooped himup, and lifted him up to eye level.

“Now,” said Krulp, “it is time to begin your task. Inthis mountain, this dangerous and magical mountain, thereis a secret object of great power and peril. Only I can useit, for only I know enough of magical arts. But I need youto get it for me.”

“I managed to find an anchor once, so I’m quite goodat finding things.”

“Shut up and listen. It is hidden in a vast cave whichlies before us in this cliff face.”

“But why do you need me? Why don’t you go and getit yourself?”

“Observe!” Krulp pointed to a little crack in the cliffface. It was only just wide enough for a small animal, likeFreddy, to fit through.

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Freddy didn’t particularly like caves. “It’s not. . . darkin there, is it?”

“Of course it is!” shouted Krulp, “it’s a cave.”So Freddy the frog embarked upon his scariest adven-

ture yet. Through a crack in the wall of the mighty cliffof the mysterious island he went, into the vast (and, ofcourse, terribly dark) chamber beyond. In the dim lightfrom the tiny entrance he could see almost nothing; but hecould feel a vast space before him, and an immense weightof rock suspended above his head. All in all, rather spooky,really.

“Er,” called Freddy, “what am I looking for?”“A vessel,” came the voice of Krulp from outside. “A

jar, or a lamp or a bottle. It will be sealed. What everyou do, do not break the seal. Only I have the power tomaster the forces within.”

“So I’m looking for a bottle, but I mustn’t take the topoff?”

“Yes.”

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“Right. Er, it’s a bit dark in here. Is it all right if Ijust wait by the entrance until it gets a bit lighter?”

“What? It’s not going to get lighter! It’s a cave! Justgo into the cavern and find that vessel!”

Suddenly Krulp grabbed a stick and thrust it into thehole, pushing Freddy into the darkness, and over the edgeof a precipice that he hadn’t even seen.

“Ooh er!” said Freddy, as he fell into nothing.The nothing was very dark. Freddy flailed around for

a hand hold, or even a rocky surface he could cling to.Eventually he found one, and managed to stick to the wallof the chamber.

“Er, I’m in now,” called Freddy.“Good,” said the voice of Krulp from outside. “Now

find that vessel. I am eager to possess it!”“I’ll get on to it straight away,” said Freddy. Then he

added: “Boss,” as an afterthought.All he could see in this vast, dark world was the en-

trance of the cave, revealed as a tiny dot of light highabove him. Even worse, he was starting to feel peckish.

Suddenly a shadow flew across the dot of light. Freddyacted on instinct, and his instinct said:

flying thing = fly = breakfast .

So out flew his incredibly long and incredibly sticky tongueto intercept the flying meal.

As always, his aim was true. Freddy’s marvellous tonguehit its target and stuck fast. This would have been verygood news if the flying thing had indeed been a fly.

Unfortunately the flying thing was not a fly. It was abat, and just as big as he was.

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Startled, the bat flew away from the entrance into thedeep dark of the cavern, dragging the unfortunate frogwith it. Freddy felt his fingers and toes lose their grip onthe wall, then he was being pulled, by his tongue, into thedeepest darkness he had ever not seen.

Frantic, he tried to pull his tongue in. This had theeffect of dragging him closer to the mysterious flying thing,until he felt himself clinging to a small, furry body beneaththe spread of two, large, flapping leathery wings.

At this point he realised that what he had caught wasnot a fly. In fact, it wasn’t clear whether he had caught it,or it had caught him. He began to be terribly afraid.

He wasn’t the only one. “Who in Cave are you?” saidthe bat.

But Freddy, clinging on for his life, had nothing to say.

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* * *

Back at Glow-boat II all was not well. Carl and Skipper,who had been hungry for so long, were now complainingthat they had eaten too much, and that they didn’t feelwell.

“I did tell you both to pace yourselves,” said Glow-worm.

“We did,” said Skipper. “I paced myself with Carl.”“Aye,” said Carl, “and I paced myself with Skipper.”“Honestly,” said Glow-worm, “that’s the kind of silly

thing I’d expect Freddy to say. By the way, where isFreddy?”

Everyone looked at Sydney. Sydney looked back, puz-zled.

“Wasn’t he with you?” he said to Glow-worm.“You know, I can’t remember. Anyone seen Freddy?”They all looked. Glow-worm and Sydney looked in the

good ship Glow-boat ; Skipper checked Glow-boat II ; Carlchecked the shore. But there was no sign.

“All his things have gone,” said Sydney, “and there’s anote.”

“What does it say?” asked Glow-worm.“A is for Apple,” said Sydney.“He has gone,” said Glow-worm, gravely.“Why would he go?” said Carl.“Do you think,” said Sydney, “that I might have been

neglecting him a bit?”“It is time,” Glow-worm declared, “to mount a rescue

mission. There is not a moment to lose.”

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Chapter 10

The Curious CloudIt was time to rescue Freddy.Glow-worm organised histroops into single file, withhimself leading the way (aswas only right), then Carl(as the biggest and strongestmember of the crew), thenSkipper(as rear guard, be-cause he had the biggestfeet). Sydney hung from aweb he had spun between

Carl’s horns and, armed with a special pair of multi-nocula-rs that Glow-worm had made for him, served as the lookoutfor the expedition.

“Which way do you think he would have gone?” saidSydney.

“Forwards,” said Glow-worm. “He would do what Iwould do, and head for that mountain.”

“Why?”“Because it’s there! Come on, crew. Follow me.”It was a long and arduous trek for all the animals: for

Glow-worm, because he was small and insisted on lead-ing the way; for Carl and Skipper because they had much

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longer legs than their leader, but still had to walk behindhim; and for Sydney because he was worried about hisfriend. How could they find so small a creature as Freddyamongst all this space? But Glow-worm, confidence un-daunted no matter how tired he became, pressed on.

After a while they reached the rocky and winding pathup the great mountain that Freddy himself had taken.They hunted around for any frog foot prints that mightgive them a clue, but they couldn’t see anything.

“Any sign of Freddy from up there?” Glow-worm askedSydney, as he was still riding on Carl’s horns.

Sydney looked all around. “No, nothing. Are you sureFreddy came this way?”

“Of course,” said Glow-worm. “Freddy is a traineeexplorer, and this mountain is the single thing most worthyof exploring. He must have come this way.”

“But Freddy isn’t clever enough to do any real explor-ing. . . ”

“Nonsense. Or at least, he isn’t clever enough to realisethat he isn’t clever enough, which comes to the same thing.Now, we must go where Freddy would have gone. We mustgo up.”

Carl and Skipper stared up at the bleak, winding pathas it climbed up the bleak, cloud shadowed mountain.They thought of how long it would take if Glow-worm ledthe way. They looked at each other. They looked at Glow-worm.

“Here mate,” said Skipper, scooping Glow-worm up inhis paws and popping him onto Carl’s back, “have a lift!”

“Hey,” said their disgruntled leader, “what are you do-ing?”

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“Och, that’s all right, wee Glow-worm,” said Carl. “Noneed to thank me,” and before Glow-worm could protestany further, he headed off up the path at something ap-proaching a gallop.

“Wow,” said Skipper, struggling to keep up, “you’rekeen.”

As Carl hurtled up the path, Sydney kept looking forsigns of his friend. There was nothing. Still, he was amazedat the pace Carl was setting.

“It is a little known fact,” said Glow-worm, resignednow to being a passenger, “that cows and bulls find iteasier to run uphill than downhill.”

“Really?” said Sydney.“Yes. I think it’s something to do with the fact that

their heads are lower than their bottoms.”Even though he had wanted to lead the rescue mission,

Glow-worm had to admit that they were making betterprogress now. Only Skipper, whose head was not lowerthan his bottom, had any cause to complain as he tried tomatch the furious pace set by Carl.

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Up into the clouds the animals rose, along the sinisterpath until they came to a cliff face. The path carried onaround it, but standing before the cliff face was a man,a strange man staring so intently into a hole in the rockthat he didn’t notice them coming. Given the sheer sizeand speed of Carl, this in itself was rather odd.

“Oh no,” whispered Sydney, “a human. How are wegoing to get past him to look for Freddy?”

Glow-worm watched the strange human carefully. “Idon’t think we need to,” he said. “Look at his clothes.He’s wearing magician’s robes. You don’t see a lot of thatsort of thing these days.”

“So?” said Sydney, wishing that just for once Glow-worm would explain things clearly.

“Well,” said Glow-worm, “magicians are interested infrogs, aren’t they? Let’s see what he’s up to.”

But it was too late for secrecy. The human had realisedhe was being watched, and spun round to face them. Ofcourse, it was Krulp, and he was amazed at what he saw.

“A whole menagerie!” he said in fluent animal. “Ahighland cow and a kangaroo? You two aren’t native tothis island. How did you get here?”

Most of the animals were terrified — a human whocould speak animal! Glow-worm, of course, took it in hisstride.

“Hello,” he said, from the back of the quaking Carl,“I’m Glow-worm. How do you do?” Of course, Glow-wormcouldn’t resist showing off, so he said this in human.

Now Krulp looked impressed. “A clever animal? Youmight well be useful to me, especially since my previousemployee failed me. I have a job for you.”

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Carl and Skipper were huddled up together in fear, andSydney was hiding behind Glow-worm, but they need nothave worried. Krulp only had eyes for their leader.

“You’re a magician, aren’t you?” said Glow-worm.“Well spotted,” said Krulp. “I am Krulp the Magnif-

icent, Master of the Dark Arts!” He raised himself up tohis full height, which was fairly impressive. “I have needof your services.”

“Sorry,” said Glow-worm, “I don’t need a job right now.Thanks for the offer. Where’s Freddy?”

Krulp scowled. “Who is Freddy?”“He’s a frog. He’s a friend of ours, and we’re looking

for him.”

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Krulp laughed. “Your friend was working for me, buthe failed me. He is now lost in the abyss. But you, cleverworm, will help me. You and your spider friend will gointo this tiny cave, and bring me the mystic bottle that lieswithin. You must not open it, for the power it containswill destroy any lesser being. You will bring it to me, andyou will do it now!”

Glow-worm scowled. “I hope you haven’t hurt Freddy.That would upset me, and I really don’t like being upset. Ialso don’t like being pushed around, and I never like beingbullied.”

Krulp looked less than impressed. “Are you trying tosound threatening, little worm?” he said. “Because if youare. . . ”

But now Glow-worm had had enough. “Let me ex-plain,” he said, this time in animal, for the benefit of Syd-ney, Carl and Skipper. “You have done something to ourfriend; he is missing; it is your fault. Now you are tryingto bully me. . . ”

At this, Carl’s ears pricked up. “He did what? He’sgot Freddy?”

“That’s right,” said Glow-worm. “And I for one wouldlike him back.”

Krulp was furious. “You pathetic, insignificant worm!”he growled.

“Yes,” said Glow-worm. “That’s me. Apart from theinsignificant part, of course. And the pathetic bit.”

Carl was beginning to snort. He glowered at Krulp,and lowered his horns. “You’re starting to get a bit pushythere, my wee mannie. You’d better watch your mannerswhen talking to Glow-worm, or I’ll. . . ”

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“You’ll what?” sneered Krulp. “Remember, I am Mas-ter of the Dark Arts, and as such have the power to controlyou by Mighty Enchantment!”

“Oh aye?” said Carl, getting ready to charge, “thenenchant this!”

Unfortunately for Carl, Krulp did. The evil magi-cian raised his hands, muttered several sinister spells, andpointed at Carl. “So, you like to associate with small ani-mals, do you Cow? Then become one yourself!”

At once the mighty bull began to shrink, and the lookof surprise on his face made Krulp laugh.

Now Carl was no bigger than Glow-worm and Sydney.“That’s odd,” said Glow-worm.“What do you mean, odd?” squeaked Carl.“It’s up to you now, Skipper,” said Glow-worm, “get

him!”“What?” said Skipper.

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“You’re a kangaroo. You can box. Use Queensburyrules, of course, but quickly, before he can do anything toyou too.”

Skipper swallowed nervously. “You mean, fight him?”But it was too late. Krulp waved his hands at Skipper,

muttered his mystic words, and watched as the kangarooshrank down to the size of a mouse.

“Now,” said the triumphant Krulp, “you are all small;small and powerless.”

But Glow-worm was not to be intimidated that easily.“Small? Yes! Powerless? No.” He concentrated as hardas he could until his glow became very hot indeed. Sydneyand the miniature Skipper and Carl backed away in casethey got burned. The ground around their leader startedto steam.

“Impressive,” said Krulp. “But not impressive enough.A little shower should cool you off.”

Again the mysterious magician waved his hands, mut-tered darkly, and pointed at Glow-worm. Suddenly a little

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silver jug appeared above Glow-worm and began to pourcold water over him. For a moment the steam intensified,then it stopped altogether. The magical water continuedto pour.

Glow-worm sneezed. He was lost for words.Krulp laughed again. “Not so confident now? I thought

not.” He turned to Sydney who tried, unsuccessfully, tolook as if he wasn’t there. “And what are you going to tryto do to me, spider? I notice that you are not poisonous.Are you going to offer resistance?”

Sydney shook his head vigorously. “No, no,” he said,quickly, “I’m pretty sure I surrender.” He put as many ofhis legs in the air as he could manage without falling over.

Carl was fuming. “Och, you can’t just give up,” hesqueaked. “Can’t you spin a web over him, or something?”

Sydney told him to shush.Krulp reached down and picked Sydney up. “At least

one of you has some sense,” he sneered as with his otherhand he scooped up the soggy Glow-worm. Carl and Skip-per he left where they were. “You will now find me thatbottle! If you are successful, I will restore your compan-ions to their proper size. But if you fail me I will step onthem! Their fate lies with you.”

The very small bull and the very small kangaroo trem-bled.

Krulp looked at Glow-worm. “To help you in yourquest I will remove the enchantment from you alone.” Hemuttered two words (Glow-worm couldn’t quite hear whatthey were) and the magical watering can disappeared. “Butremember, little worm, I can restore it at any time I please!”

Stepping towards the cliff face, Krulp thrust Sydneyand Glow-worm into the tiny opening. “Know this,” he

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said. “I will not tolerate failure! Your pathetic friends arecounting on you! You have one hour. Then I will begin tostep!”

Inside the tiny cave opening things looked grim. Glow-worm and Sydney could see (thanks to Glow-worm’s glow),that the cave itself was vast. Sydney couldn’t imaginefinding anything in such a huge place.

“Something’s wrong,” said Glow-worm.Sydney looked at him. “Er, yes. I know.”“Something’s not right,” Glow-worm said again.Sydney sighed. “Come on,” he said. “Lets get away

from the entrance. That human’s probably watching tomake sure we do as we’re told.”

“As we’re told,” said Glow-worm, suddenly happy again.“That’s what’s wrong!”

Sydney looked at him carefully. He couldn’t see any-thing to be happy about. “Jolly good,” he said, slowly.“What do we do now?”

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“We have two things to find,” said Glow-worm. “Abottle and a frog, not necessarily in that order. Then wewill see what we will see! Follow me!” Glow-worm crawledto the edge of the chasm, and peered into the gloom. “Onsecond thoughts,” he said, “we will need your web to getdown. I’ll follow you.”

So Sydney span a web and together the two animalsdescended into the darkness.

“Can you make your glow a bit brighter?” said Sydney.“Not without burning the web, and that wouldn’t be a

very good idea.”“But where are we going?”“Down! We don’t need to be able to see to do that!”Further down went Sydney and Glow-worm, into the

unknown. All was quiet around them, save for the oc-casional sound of dripping water. It was unnerving. AllSydney could see was himself and Glow-worm and the endof the web. There was no sign of the ground, and now nosign of the entrance tunnel high above them. He hopedthey wouldn’t run out of web before they reached the bot-tom!

But he did not need to worry. Before very long theoutlines of rocks became visible beneath them, and soonthey were standing on firm ground.

“Is this the bottom?” said Sydney, nervously.“No idea,” said Glow-worm, cheerfully. “Let’s explore.”Sydney watched as Glow-worm crawled off into the

gloom, then quickly ran after him when he remembered hewas taking the light with him. Not that there was muchto see. This cave was definitely on the grim side.

“I’m a little disappointed,” said Glow-worm, “I’d haveexpected there to be all sorts of wonders down here, given

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that a magician is interested in it.”“Really?” said Sydney, who, not for the first time,

didn’t know what his friend was talking about.“Yes,” said Glow-worm. Then he chuckled to himself.

“I wonder where the wonders are?”Sydney gave him a look. “You’re not . . . enjoying your-

self, are you?”“It’s an adventure, isn’t it? Of course I’m enjoying

myself!”“But Krulp . . . and the magic . . . and what he’s done

to Carl and Skipper . . . not to mention poor Freddy.”“Yes, Krulp’s a bit of a problem I agree. But he’s only

human. I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

But thinking of something would have to wait. Glow-worm and Sydney had found Freddy. In fact, they’d al-most bumped into him. The reason they hadn’t heard him

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was that he wasn’t making any noise, and the reason hewasn’t making any noise was that he was asleep. Freddy,of course, could sleep anywhere, so they weren’t entirelysurprised.

They were, however, delighted.“Freddy!” cried Sydney, racing forward to hug him

with as many arms as he could manage.The little frog woke up with a start. “Is it morning?”

he said, vaguely. “The sun seems to have come up.”“It’s not the sun,” said Glow-worm. “It’s me!”Now Freddy understood, and suddenly became terribly

happy, and very excited. He gave both his friends a hug(several, in fact) and danced for joy.

“You’re here!” he cried. “You’ve found me! You’vecome to rescue me! Hooray!”

“Delighted to see you again,” Glow-worm said. “I hopeKrulp didn’t give you too hard a time.”

Freddy shuddered at the mention of the evil magician’sname. “He . . . he turned me into a human!”

Sydney was shocked, and nearly tripped over himselfin horror. If Krulp could do that, then surely nothing inthe world could stop him.

Glow-worm merely chuckled. “Did he really? Howclever of him.”

Sydney and Freddy looked at him, puzzled.“So,” said Freddy, his confidence fading a little, “you’re

going to get me out of here now . . . aren’t you?”“After we find the bottle,” Glow-worm said.“What bottle?” said Freddy.Sydney rolled his eyes. All of them.“The mystical and magical and, apparently, terribly

dangerous bottle Krulp wants us to get for him.”

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“Oh yes,” said Freddy. “Now I remember.”“That’s what Krulp wants,” said Glow-worm. “So,

let’s look for it.”Sydney was flabbergasted. “You’re not going to give it

to him?”“Well,” said Glow-worm, “that depends what it is when

we find it. We have to find it first.”“Maybe Nagle can help,” said Freddy.“Who’s Nagle?” said Sydney, worried that his friend

might have been in the dark too long.“I’ll introduce you,” said Freddy, and at the top off his

froggy lungs he called out: “Nagle!”

For a moment all was silent. Then, as if from far away,the animals heard a strange, rhythmic squeaking noise.Suddenly there was a leathery flapping from within theirmidst, and a bat flopped out of the air and landed at theirfeet.

“Hello Freddy,” said the bat. “You’re not hungry again,are you?”

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“Hello Nagle,” said Freddy. “These are my friends Syd-ney, and Glow-worm.” He turned to Sydney and Glow-worm. “This is Nagle,” he said. “He’s . . . ”

“A bat?” said Glow-worm, “Yes, I can see that.”Freddy turned back to Nagle. “Sydney and Glow-worm

are a spider and . . . ”“A glow-worm?” said Nagle. “Yes, I can hear that.

How do you do?”The animals exchanged greetings.It turned out that after being thrust into the cave and

trying to catch what he, mistakenly, thought was a fly,Freddy had found himself hanging from a bat. The bat’sname, it turned out, was Nagle and he was actually quitea nice bat. So Freddy had found a friend who had beenable to look after him in the total darkness of the cave.

He was still very glad that Glow-worm (and his glow)had turned up though.

But now it was time for Glow-worm to ask the question.“Have you seen a bottle?” he asked.

“Seen?” said Nagle. “No. Heard? Yes. I’ve got goodhearing, I have. It’s just over there. I’ll take you to it, ifyou like.”

Sydney whispered to Glow-worm: “How do you hear abottle?”

“It’s something called sonar.” said Glow-worm. “Butthis is probably not the best time to explain it.”

He led them to a small hollow in the cave floor. Lyingthere, right in the middle, was a small bottle.

If it was magic, it was very unimpressive.“It’s a lemonade bottle,” said Sydney. “A really small

one.”

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“Yes,” said Glow-worm, “it would have to be small orwe’d never get it out of the cave.”

“But lemonade? I thought it was supposed to be mag-ical?”

“Well, perhaps its something to do with the bubbles,”said Glow-worm. “Nagle, are there any other bottles around?”

“Nope. And believe me, I know this cave inside outand backwards. This is the only bottle. Its been here aslong as I have.”

“Then it must be the one. Let’s open it!” said Glow-worm. “Could someone with limbs please give me somehelp?”

“Hang on,” said Sydney. “Didn’t Krulp say it was dan-gerous?”

“He certainly did,” said Glow-worm, “and he’s proba-bly right. Traditionally, this sort of story involves a genie,you know. But something tells me it will be a lot less dan-gerous if we open it than if Krulp does. Who’s going tohelp me?”

“I’m game,” said Nagle.

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Sydney and Freddy looked at each other. “Okay,” theyboth said, with a certain amount of reluctance.

Together, the four animals tackled the top of the littlebottle. It was a screw-top, but it hadn’t been opened fora long time, so it wouldn’t move. Eventually, Glow-wormdecided to use his glow to heat the bottle-top up a bit. Itwas metal, so he thought this should make it expand.

Finally, the top came off. There was an ominous hissingsound from the bottle.

“Now,” said Glow-worm. “If I’m right, we’ll be havinga visitor . . . ”

The hissing sound from the bottle got louder, and thebottle itself began to shake. What looked like steam beganto pour out of the top, and the hissing turned into a roar,much to the alarm of the animals. Sydney, Freddy andNagle all tried to hide behind each other, but Glow-wormwatched in fascination.

A cloud of smoke, or steam was forming above the littlebottle, a cloud that looked almost like a rain cloud. In thedepths of the cloud was the shadow of a face, a cloudyface (of course) and fairly vague, but a face non-the-less.It was, indeed, a curious cloud.

It spoke, which was even more curious, and said: “Hello.”

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Chapter 11

The Genuine GenieAt the sound of a talking cloud,Sydney, Freddy and Naglescreamed.

Glow-worm merely looked puz-zled. “‘Hello?’” he said. “You said‘Hello’?”

“Er, yes,” said the cloud.“But. . . aren’t you a genie?

Shouldn’t you be offering me threewishes, or something?”

The cloud looked embarrassed. “Oh yes,” it boomed.“That’s right. Sorry, I forgot. I’ve never done this before,you see. Let me start again.” The cloud made a throat-clearing sound, which was very odd given that it didn’thave a throat, and said: “Your wish is my command, OMaster.” Then he added, in a slightly smaller voice: “pro-vided that what you wish for is a small shower.”

“What?”“Or drizzle. I can manage drizzle. I can even do heavy

rain, provided I don’t do it for too long. Otherwise I haveto go back in the bottle to lie down.”

Glow-worm was puzzled. “Are you sure you’re a ge-nie?”

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“Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, I live in a bottle andgrant wishes, don’t I?”

“As long as the wishes are something to do with rain?”The cloud looked a little bit embarrassed.Glow-worm gave him a look. “You’re a rain cloud,

aren’t you?” he said.The cloud looked even more embarrassed. “Oh, all

right. I admit I used to be a rain cloud, before I became agenie.”

“But you are a genie now, are you?”“Oh yes. Well, in training, anyway. I’m doing a corre-

spondence course.”“A correspondence course?”“Yes,” said the cloud, happily. “And I’ve nearly fin-

ished lesson one.”The other animals were becoming interested now. Freddy,

in particular, was beginning to sense a kindred spirit.“I’m learning something too!” he said. “I’m learning

to read!”“Really?” said the cloud or genie. “How’s that going?”“A is for Apple,” said Freddy, with pride. “I’m going

to have a go at another fruit next year.”“Oh yes,” said the cloud or genie. “That was a hard

one. I’m doing B is for Box at the moment. That’s mucheasier. It’s not a fruit, of course.”

Sydney sidled up to Glow-worm, and whispered: “Thisgenie’s a bit, well, pathetic, isn’t he?”

“Slightly less magical than I’d hoped, yes. Let’s findout more about him.”

The intrepid Glow-worm approached the genie onceagain. “Excuse me, Genie. But what actually is lessonone?”

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The genie looked embarrassed again. “I’m not sup-posed to tell you until I’ve got it right,” he said. “It wouldlook bad if I granted you a wish, and then couldn’t actuallydo it. How about some scattered showers?”

“No thank you.”“Or a heavy mist?”“Not at the moment. Why don’t you go back to chat-

ting to Freddy?”“That’s me,” said Freddy, happily. “And I am inspired

by your example.”“I’m Sydney,” said Sydney.“And I’m Nagle,” said Nagle.While the cloud or genie was being entertained by the

enthusiastic young frog, Glow-worm and the other animalsgathered round to discuss what they were going to do next.

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“Right,” said Sydney. “We’ve got the bottle. Now wecan give it to Krulp, get Carl and Skipper back to theirproper sizes, and get out of here.”

“Oh no we can’t,” said Glow-worm firmly. “We’re go-ing to teach Krulp a lesson.”

To Sydney, this seemed like a very bad idea. He wasquite convinced that Krulp was the most dangerous thingthey had encountered on their voyage so far, and that thebest thing to do would be to get away, very fast. ButGlow-worm was staring at Nagle. More particularly, hewas staring at Nagle’s ears.

It wouldn’t be long before Krulp started to wonderwhat had happened to them, Sydney thought. If theydidn’t get back soon, Carl and Skipper would be in bigtrouble. “There’s nothing we can do,” he said, hopefully.

But Glow-worm remained thoughtful. “I wonder whyKrulp needed us to help him, when Nagle already livesin the cave. He’d be much better at finding mysteriousbottles, given that he knows his way around, and he’s smallenough to get out through the entrance. Look how quicklyhe found the bottle for us!”

“Maybe he doesn’t know Nagle’s here,” suggested Syd-ney.

“Oh he knows,” said Nagle, with pride. “He’s had afew attempts at talking me into helping him, but I won’tdo it. Never trust a human, that’s my moto.”

Sydney was impressed. “Krulp has tried to get youto help him, and you didn’t? Weren’t you afraid? Whatabout his magic powers?”

Nagle strutted, just a little bit. “Oh, he can’t do any-thing to me. I know a few things, I do. I’m way too cleverfor a mere human magician.”

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“Hmm,” said Glow-worm. “You’re also blind as. . . well,a bat.”

Nagle scowled. “Your point, Wormy?”“Nothing,” said Glow-worm. “Just thinking out loud.”“Listen, mate,” said Nagle, who was now a little miffed,

“I may be blind, but I’ve got sonar; that’s way better thaneyesight. I can find my way around by sound, using justmy ears. My ears can out-perform your eyes any day. Idon’t just get sounds, you know, I get shapes! I can hearshapes round corners. Can you see round corners? I don’tthink so. Can you see in the dark? Nope. Eyesight isover-rated. A big pair of ears and a decent sonar system,that’s what you need.”

Glow-worm looked at Nagle carefully. “I wonder. . . ”he said, to no-one in particular.

“I can hear more than you’ll ever see,” said Nagle, whowas still feeling got at. “I can hear every corner of thiscave. You and your glow, all depends on light, doesn’t it?

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Well light makes shadows, and shadows get in your waywhen you’re trying to see. I’m not bothered by shadows.Shadows. . . ”

“Shadows,” said Glow-worm, thoughtfully, “make yousee things that aren’t there.”

“Right,” said Nagle. Then he looked puzzled. “Hangon, are you agreeing with me?”

“Probably,” said Glow-worm.“You reckon my hearing’s better than your eyesight?”“Absolutely. Or, at least, it is at the moment. I think

our eyesight has been getting us all into trouble.”Now Sydney was getting curious. “What do you mean?”

he said.“I mean,” said Glow-worm, “that Nagle has given us

the clue we needed.”“Has he?”“He has. And now I think I know how to deal with our

friend Mr. Krulp!”“Oh yes?” said Sydney, carefully. “How’s that, then?”“First things first,” said Glow-worm. “The genie must

be told what has been happening.”It was time to let the genie know what was going on.

Glow-worm approached it with confidence, while Sydneyand Nagle held back, more than a little bit baffled by thewhole business. Freddy, meanwhile, was still chatting tothe genie. They had discovered, it seemed, a mutual inter-est in water.

“Please may I interrupt?” said Glow-worm, politely.“Right ho,” said Freddy, cheerfully.“Yes, master,” boomed the genie. It waited eagerly for

its first command, hoping, no doubt, it would be somethingwet.

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Glow-worm explained to the genie all about the evilKrulp, and what he had done, and that it was time toteach him a lesson. Then he gave the genie his first order.“Genie, can you wait down here for a few minutes while Igo back outside, and then come when I call?”

“To hear is to obey, oh shining clever one.”“Jolly good. Are you allowed to tell little white lies?”“If my master asks me to, I can.”“Excellent! When I call you, I might ask you to do

something. It won’t involve rain, so you probably won’tbe able to do it. Just pretend to do it, all right?”

“Er, yes. I think I understand.”Glow-worm scratched his head with the tip of his tail.

“I think that’s everything,” he said. “Nagle, could you giveSydney, Freddy and me a lift back up to the cave entranceplease?”

“Sure,” said Nagle. “It will have to be one at a time,though.”

So Nagle carried the other animals, one at a time, up tothe cave entrance. Through the tiny opening in the rockwall they could see daylight once again. Outside, theycould hear Krulp threatening and menacing his unfortu-nate hostages. Glow-worm became angry.

Once everyone was assembled, he said: “Right then,everyone, let’s go! Nagle, do you want to come out withus to confront Krulp?”

The bat looked around nervously. “Er, that’s okay. I’llwait here as, um, backup,” he said.

“Can we stay and be backup too?” said Freddy.“No,” said Glow-worm. “Come on, team. Time to

settle with this sinister human.”

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Resolute, the heroic worm led the way out of the darkand dismal cave. Slightly less resolute, Sydney and Freddyfollowed him. They emerged, blinking, into bright sun-light, to see Krulp, looking even bigger than they remem-bered, towering over Skipper and Carl.

Trembling, the two reduced captives called to theirfriends. “We’re over here!” they said.

Krulp glowered down at Glow-worm and his friends.“Just in time,” he thundered. “Another minute, and Iwould have crushed your pathetic friends!”

“Really,” said Glow-worm, casually. “Lucky for us yourwatch is slow, then.”

“Yes! Er, what did you say?” said Krulp. He looked alittle surprised. Clearly, Glow-worm’s relaxed manner wasnot what he had expected.

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Sydney and Freddy looked at each other nervously.“Does Glow-worm know what he’s doing?” whisperedFreddy.

Sydney just stood and stared.Krulp was glowering again. “ Where is the bottle I sent

you to fetch?”Glow-worm looked at Freddy. “Freddy, have you got

it?”Freddy looked like he was about to panic. “No!”“Sydney?” said Glow-worm, casually.Sydney shook his head. He didn’t dare to speak.Glow-worm laughed. “Whoops,” he said to Krulp, with

a chuckle. “Looks like we forgot it.”

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“You forgot it!” thundered Krulp, and he seemed togrow several feet.

“We forgot!” Glow-worm thundered back, in a voiceexactly like Krulp’s. Then he laughed.

Krulp seemed to shrink again, slightly non-plussed.“Little worm,” he said, “do not cross me. Remember whathappened to you last time?”

Glow-worm looked puzzled for a moment. Then hesmiled again. “Do you expect me to be quaking in myboots? Well, that’s not going to happen. No legs, yousee.”

“Very well!” screamed Krulp, “don’t say I didn’t warnyou!” He waved his hands, and glowered at the animals.He pointed at Freddy, and his eyes flashed fire. “Becomehuman!” he said.

At once, Freddy started to grow; his fingers lost theirwebbing, his skin lost it’s sheen and two large ears beganto project from the side of his head. Understandably, hestarted to cry.

Krulp turned to Sydney. Again, his eyes flashed. “Spi-der,” he said, “you shall be wrapped up in a web of mycreation!”

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A huge web began to form in the air around Sydney,so that he couldn’t possibly escape. “Help!” he squeaked.

“Oh dear,” said Glow-worm cheerfully. “Looks likeyou’ve defeated us again. It must be time for one lastfutile gesture of resistance.”

“Er, what?” said Krulp. Suddenly he was looking lessconfident. The evidence of his eyes said Glow-worm wasdefeated, but Glow-worm’s manner said something elseagain. “What would be the point of a futile gesture?”

“No point,” said Glow-worm. “That’s what futile means.Didn’t you know that?”

Krulp started to look nervous. “Before you can do that,I will. . . ”

“Hush for a moment,” ordered Glow-worm. “I haven’tmade my futile gesture yet.” He turned to Carl. “PleaseCarl, will you put your head down and charge Krulp?”

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Carl squeaked with terror. “You can’t be serious? I’monly three inches tall!”

“So? Charge him anyway.”“No!” thundered Krulp, backing away. “That will

achieve nothing!”Glow-worm sighed, and rolled his eyes at Krulp. “Of

course it will achieve nothing. It’s a futile gesture. We’vebeen though that. Carl, off you go.”

“No,” screamed Krulp, backing away even more.“Really?” said Carl.“Really,” said Glow-worm, positively grinning at Krulp.“If you dare to try,” said Krulp to Carl, “I will crush

you!” Strangely enough, he seemed to be looking aroundfor an escape route.

“Er,” said Carl, “he says he’ll crush me if I try. . . ”Glow-worm sighed. “If I make it impossible for him to

crush you, will you please charge him?”Carl looked puzzled. “I guess so. . . ”“You can’t do that!” said Krulp.“Oh yes I can,” said Glow-worm. Then he turned to

the cave entrance and called: “Genie!”Krulp turned white as a sheet. “You opened the bot-

tle!”There was a rushing, roaring, windy sound from deep

within the cave. The rocks began to tremble, and thegenie rushed from his hiding place, and formed itself intoa huge, luminous cloud, hovering above them all. It lookedso much more impressive in the daylight.

“Yes, master?” said the genie to Glow-worm.Krulp panicked. He waved his hands at Glow-worm,

and his eyes flashed. “A torrent of water will pour downupon you, and drown your glow forever!” he screamed.

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Water began to pour down on Glow-worm from no vis-ible source: tidal waves, monsoons and floods. Amazingly,Glow-worm simply ignored it all.

“Genie,” said Glow-worm, “please make Carl impervi-ous to Krulp, so that Krulp cannot possibly crush him.”

“Yon cloud can do that?” squeaked Carl.“Oh yes,” said Glow-worm, and winked at the genie.“Er. . . ” said the genie, “Okay. I’ve done it.”“Right,” said Glow-worm, with immense authority. “Ch-

arge!”The tiny Carl charged.“No!” screamed Krulp, and he turned on his heels and

ran.This was very surprising to all the animals except Glow-

worm. Even more surprising, given how short his legs nowwere, Carl covered the distance between himself and Krulpvery quickly. He caught him and, head down, struck theback of Krulp’s heel.

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It looked very odd to the animals. It looked as if Carlcouldn’t possibly do any harm, yet as soon as Carl hit hisheel, Krulp flew through the air, did several cartwheels,and landed, in a folded, robe covered heap further up thepath.

“Oh look,” said Glow-worm gaily. “Not such a futilegesture after all! Okay Carl, charge him again!”

“No!” cried Krulp, cowering on the ground. “Please!Have mercy! Call him off! I surrender!”

Carl hesitated, and looked puzzled. “Er, I think he justsurrendered. . . ” he said.

“So he did,” said Glow-worm. “Okay Carl, leave himalone — provided he does as he’s asked.”

“But. . . ” said Carl, “I’m little. . . Why’s he so scared?”Glow-worm laughed. “You’re not little,” he said. “You’re

still full size. You just think you’re little.”“Eh?” said Carl.“Krulp hypnotised you.”“He what?”“He looked you in the eyes, and you looked into his.

That way he tricked you into thinking he could do magic,making you see things that weren’t there. He tricked youinto thinking you’d shrunk. It’s called hupnosis. It’s agood trick. But it’s still just a trick.”

The other animals looked at each other. Sydney closedhis eyes, and tried to walk through the web that sur-rounded him. It melted into the air as he did so. “Well Inever,” he said.

Skipper and Carl looked at each other, and realisedthat they were in fact their normal sizes and always hadbeen.

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Krulp lay still on the ground, and trembled. “How didyou know?” he said.

“Well,” said Glow-worm. “You had me fooled at first,I admit. But once I was inside the cave, I wondered whyyou couldn’t just come in and get the bottle yourself. Afterall, if you could magic a bull and a kangaroo to the sizeof me, then surely you could magic the cave entrance tobe big enough for you to get through. So either you weretoo stupid to realise you could do it, or you couldn’t do it.And you aren’t stupid, are you Mr Krulp?”

Krulp sighed. “Neither, it seems, are you,” he said.Glow-worm blushed. “I try not to be,” he said.“But you couldn’t have been sure,” said Sydney.“I was once we’d met Nagle. If Krulp’s power worked

on all of us, why wouldn’t it work on him? Answer: be-

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cause he’s blind! He couldn’t see Krulp’s eyes.”“So Krulp couldn’t hypnotise him!”“That’s right.”Sydney was impressed. So were Carl and Skipper.

Krulp looked miserable.“So, it was all a trick,” growled Carl.Skipper growled too, something kangaroos don’t nor-

mally do. “Fooled by a human in a funny hat,” he said.“How embarrassing.”

Meanwhile, Carl was staring at Krulp and glowering.He snorted steam from his nostrils. Now that he was fullsized, Krulp was starting to look very small in comparison.

“What do you want to do with yon wee mannie?” saidCarl. “Do you want me to charge at him again?”

Krulp tried to hide under his robes.

“Er, no thank you,” said Glow-worm. “Still, we mustthink of something to do with him. We can’t just let himwander off and cause more mischief.”

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“I’ll never do anything wrong again,” said Krulp, hope-fully. “I’m a reformed character. . . ”

Glow-worm laughed. “Dear Mr Krulp,” he said, “you’renot trying to trick me again, are you?”

Krulp glowered.Meanwhile, another problem presented itself.“Excuse me,” said Freddy to Glow-worm. “Now that

you’ve put everyone else back to normal, please could youturn me back into a frog?”

Sydney sighed. “Freddy,” he said, “you are a frog.”Freddy looked down at his hands, which still appeared

to be human. “No I’m not.”“It was a trick!” said Sydney. “You were never really

turned into a human.”Freddy looked at his hands again. “Yes I was,” he said.

“See? And Krulp said I would be stuck as a human foreverif he changed me again, and he did, so I am.” Freddystarted to cry again.

“Oh dear,” said Glow-worm.To everyone else, the news that Krulp was simply trick-

ing them had broken the hypnotic spell. But for Freddy,who never was very quick on the uptake, it hadn’t had thesame effect.

The sinister Krulp laughed. “You may be a very cleverworm,” he said, “but only I can restore your friend torights. Give me the genie, and I will consider doing so.”

“What do we do?” said Sydney, dangerously close topanic. “How do we save Freddy?”

Krulp laughed again, the look of triumph slowly comingback into his eyes. Sydney looked at Glow-worm. Carl andSkipper looked at each other, then at Glow-worm. Freddylooked at his hands. He looked very unhappy.

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Meanwhile, Glow-worm simply looked annoyed. “Right,”he said. “So much for Krulp being a reformed character.”

Glow-worm thought for a moment. Then he lookedaround carefully. Finally, he looked at Freddy, and smiled.

“Freddy!” he cried, suddenly. “Look behind you! There’sa fly.”

“Where?” cried Freddy. He span around, spotted thefly, and in an instant his long froggy tongue shot out,caught the flying snack and pulled it in.

At once, he was a frog again.At that moment Krulp knew, if he hadn’t known it

before, that he had finally and completely met his match.

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Chapter 12

Time to Go HomeSomething had to be donewith the would-be evil ma-gician. There was much dis-cussion amongst the animals,sitting dejectedly on the sideof the mountain.

To Glow-worm, it seemed that the matter was becom-ing urgent. It was getting late in the day, and they reallydid need to get back to the ship before nightfall. Carl hadsuggested keeping Krulp as a pet, which was an amusingpossibility in some ways. But the human was not the sortof creature Glow-worm could trust, and he really didn’twant any non-animals becoming involved in his voyage andspoiling things.

Other suggestions were:

1. Pushing Krulp off the cliff (Carl again)

2. Letting him go (Sydney)

3. Turning him into something (Freddy, who really didn’tunderstand what was going on)

4. Eating him (Nagle, who had joined the others onceit became clear that Krulp was no longer dangerous)

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5. Getting him to teach them hypnosis, so that theycould play hilarious tricks on their friends when theygot home (Skipper)

But in the end, it was the genie who solved the prob-lem. Somewhat shyly, he drifted over to Glow-worm andwhispered:

“Pardon me, master, but now might be a good time totell you about lesson one of my correspondence course.”

Glow-worm was puzzled. “Really?” he said.“Yes. You see it was called: ‘I Want to go Home’:

Travel By Magic for Beginners.”Glow-worm gave him a look. “What, exactly, does that

mean?”“I can send him home. I can send anyone home, if it

comes to that. But in the case of Mr Krulp, I can sendhim back where he came from.”

“By magic?”“Yes, master.”Krulp overheard. “No, wait, you can’t send me back

there! I owe people money.”“You be quiet,” said Glow-worm.“Please!” begged Krulp, on his knees now. “Let me

come with you! I can help you, give you the benefit of mywisdom and experience. I’ll be loyal. I promise I will nevergive you any reason to doubt my loyalty.”

Glow-worm’s mouth dropped open. He looked at thegenie. “Okay,” he said. “I’ve had enough of this. Sendhim home.”

“Your wish is my command! Oh, goody. I’ve alwayswanted to say that.” The genie moved to hover over Krulp.“Return,” he boomed. “Return, oh creature, to the place

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or dimension from whence you came!”“Don’t you dare. . . ” said Krulp, but it was too late.

Already the genie was beginning to glow — somethingmagical was about to happen.

There was a rumbling; there was a grumbling; there wasa sudden chill in the air and the sinister smell of sulphur.And then. . .

It started to rain.

It only rained a little bit, directly above Krulp’s headand only above Krulp’s head; and the genie looked as if itwas straining to make even this happen. But still, it wasraining, and the indignant look on Krulp’s face was price-less. Soon his robes were soaking wet, and the brightlycoloured moons, stars and magical symbols imprinted onthem began to run. Soon the robes were a messy purplecolour, as if they had been coloured by a very small childwith a very large paint set.

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Worst of all, Krulp’s magnificent hat began to dissolve.Clearly, it was only papiere mache.

“You really are a fake, aren’t you Mr Krulp?” saidGlow-worm, with a laugh.

Krulp sneezed. He had nothing to say, and indeed helooked a very sorry sight. All the animals were laughingat him now, and only the genie looked equally miserable.

“I’m very sorry, master,” said the genie. “That wasn’tquite right.”

“That’s okay,” said Glow-worm. “Just try again, there’sa good chap.”

The genie tried again. There was a flash of lightning,and a very small thunder clap.

“Ouch,” said Krulp.“Oops,” said the genie. “Third time lucky.”He tried again. There was a flash of light, and suddenly

Krulp disappeared.That is to say, only Krulp disappeared. His robes and

his hat (what was left of it) remained in a soggy heapunderneath the genie.

The would-be wicked magician had finally been senthome. Admittedly, he had been sent home in the nude,which would no doubt prove very embarrassing for him,but this didn’t worry Glow-worm a great deal.

“Well done,” he said to the genie. “That’s got rid ofhim.” And it was true, for there was no longer any signor sound of the evil magician. Even Nagle, with his super-sensitive hearing could detect nothing of him.

“Right,” said Glow-worm, “let’s get back to Glow-boatII and cast off. We’ve spent far too much time here al-ready.”

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He, Sydney and Freddy turned to go, but Skipper andCarl hung back. They were looking at each other.

“Just one, quick, wee little question, if you don’t mind?”said Carl. “Would yon wee smoky thing be able to sendme home?”

“And me,” said Skipper. “Never signed up for thisadventure in the first place, and I’m not designed to bean ocean goer. Or a mountaineer. And I definitely don’tlike encounters with creepy humans who can speak animal,whether they’re really magical or not.”

This was not a possibility that had occurred to theothers. Glow-worm, however, was quick to make the mostof it.

“So,” he said, “you want to go home. Fair enough.That means the rest of us will be able to go back to theoriginal Glow-boat, and bid farewell to Glow-boat II.”

But Sydney and Freddy weren’t listening. Now theywere looking at each other.

“We could go home too,” said Sydney.

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“Could we?” said Freddy, eagerly. “Could we really?No more adventures? Back to where it’s safe?”

“Yes,” said Sydney, “all of us.” He looked at Glow-worm. “Couldn’t we?”

“You could, if you wanted to,” said Glow-worm. “Icouldn’t. I haven’t finished going around the world yet.”

“But Glow-worm. . . ”“It’s all right. I shall be quite able to manage by myself.

That was my original plan, after all.”Carl looked relieved. “Och, I’m glad it’s not just me.

I’d have felt a bit bad if it had just been me. But since weall want to do it, that’s okay. Wee cloudy fellow? Can yousend me and my pals home?”

The genie shimmered a bit. “I can only do you one ata time,” he said, “and I’ll need my master to tell me to doit.”

All the animals looked at Glow-worm. He nodded hishead, slowly. “Of course,” he said. “If that’s what youwant. Thank you all for your help. I shall miss you.”

“Your wish,” said the genie, “is my command.” Heturned to Carl. “Stand very still,” he said, “just in case.”

So it was that Carl the Highland cow (standing verystill) and Skipper the Kangaroo (trembling, ever so slightly)were sent home, using all the magic that the genie knew.It was a sad farewell, but even Glow-worm had to admit itwas the right thing to do. Taking a large bull on a voyagearound the world was not an easy thing to do, even witha big enough boat. Even Skipper had been hard to feed.So really, there were no regrets.

Now it was time to send Sydney and Freddy home. ButSydney was still worried. He just didn’t feel right aboutleaving their leader alone.

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“Please come with us,” he said to Glow-worm.“No thank you,” said Glow-worm. “I am not going

home by magic. I am going home by boat. You two cango home by magic, though, if you like. It’s perfectly allright with me.”

Sydney and Freddy looked at each other. They sighed.They couldn’t abandon Glow-worm now, even if they wantedto. They had been with him since the beginning, so theywould have to stay with him until the end.

“All right,” said Sydney. “We’ll stay with you. We’vecome this far, so we might as well go the rest of the way.”

Glow-worm was delighted. He glowed even more thanusual. “You’re sure?”

Sydney and Freddy sighed. “Yes,” they said. “We’resure.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Glow-worm, cheerfully. “Nowthen. What about Nagle?”

Nagle was looking sleepy. He wasn’t used to staying upall day. “Eh?” he said. “What about me?”

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“Do you want to come with us?”“No. I want to go back to my cave, please. I need a

rest. I’m not used to working these long hours. Nice tomeet you, Freddy. Nice to meet the rest of you, too.” Witha big yawn, Nagle opened his leathery wings and flappedaway.

Now there was only the genie to worry about.“Shall we take him with us?” said Sydney. “It might

be useful to have a genie around, even one who can onlydo one piece of magic and make it rain.”

“No,” said Glow-worm. “It wouldn’t be right. If wehave magical help on the voyage, people might think we’dcheated. I think I will offer the genie his freedom.”

At this, the genie looked alarmed. “No,” he cried, “notthat! I haven’t finished my correspondence course yet!They’ll kick me out if I’m free!”

“Why would they do that?”“Because I wouldn’t be a real genie then. Please don’t

do that.”“We could put him back in his bottle,” suggested Freddy.

“He’d have more time to study that way.”Glow-worm looked worried. “He’d also be available for

the next Mr Krulp who came along, and I really don’tlike that idea at all. No, I think if the genie must have amaster, I’d rather it was me.”

The genie looked relieved. “Oh, thank you master.What is your command?”

Glow-worm thought. “I think,” he said, “that it mightbe better if you finish your studies first. Take as long asyou like; take hundreds of years if you want to. Then I willhave thought of some commands for you. Some big ones,so you better prepare yourself.”

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The genie shivered with excitement. “Ooh,” it said.“Thank you master!”

“And in the meantime,” said Glow-worm, “you cankeep Nagle company.”

“Your wish,” said the genie, with joy, “is my com-mand!” At once he disappeared in a puff of smoke, orat least in a splash of drizzle.

Everyone was gone now, except for the three animalswho had started the voyage together. Sydney and Freddyboth looked rather sad. But Glow-worm was happy.

“Right,” said Glow-worm. “Now that everyone else issorted out, let’s go home.”

And they did.

It wasn’t a straightforward job to get Glow-boat launchedagain. For a long time it had been parked on board Glow-boat II as (more or less) luggage, and the three remainingmembers of Glow-worm’s crew were all very small ani-mals. But Glow-worm was ingenious, and by virtue of hisextreme cunning, a pulley system rigged up by a combi-nation of a (large) number of small pebbles, some straw,

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a very complicated spider’s web and a strong and willingfrog, Glow-boat was returned to the ocean. The three ex-plorers returned to their posts, Glow-worm made a speech,and they set off on the last leg of their journey.

Off they sailed, through high seas and low, under sunand stars, always steering a true course. Sydney completedhis studies of navigation, and could now steer the boatjust as well as Glow-worm, and even Freddy made someprogress in his efforts to learn how to read.

“B is for square thing” he declared, happily.“Good try,” said Glow-worm.Eventually, after another month at sea, Freddy sighted

land. It looked vaguely familiar to Glow-worm.“That’s funny,” said Freddy. “Glow-worm seems to

know where we are.”It was a while before the other animals realised what

it meant. Sydney got it first.“It’s where we started from, Freddy! It’s home! Glow-

worm did it. He’s sailed around the world!”But Freddy didn’t quite get it. “It can’t be home,” he

said. “We haven’t turned round yet. How could we gethome without turning the boat round?”

Sydney explained about the world being round.“Like a dinner plate?”“No. Like a ball.”Freddy thought about this. “It can’t be. The sea would

fall off the bottom.”Glow-worm tried to explain about gravity.“Oh,” said Freddy. “Now I understand. Now it makes

sense. I suppose it must be very sticky gravy? And tothink, I never knew the sea was made out of gravy.”

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Sydney and Glow-worm stopped trying to explain. Itwas time to steer the boat back into it’s own harbour.

“What will you and Freddy do now that the voyage isover?” Glow-worm asked Sydney.

Night was closing in, but the moon and stars were com-ing out, so the animals could still see what they were doing.

“I don’t know,” said Sydney, “I haven’t really had timeto think about it.”

“You could stay with me,” said Glow-worm, “and bemy assistants.”

“Why will you need assistants? You’ve done what youset out to do, you’ve sailed around the world. Aren’t yougoing to go back to being an ordinary glow-worm now?”

Glow-worm gave him a look. “I don’t think so.”“Then what are you going to do?”“Keep exploring, of course!” Glow-worm looked up at

the stars, glowing down on him. He glowed back. “World’swithout end,” he said, dreamily. “I’m sure we’ll find some-thing to do!”

And Sydney didn’t doubt it for a moment.

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