Read Online Harry the Poisonous Centipede Goes to Sea by Lynne Reid Banks - Free Book Online Page A

captives from their flowerpots into a box – a box with a sheet of glass on top, so that they could be studied.
    “Let’s put the one on the seed tray into the box first, before it digs its way out,” she said, swiftly summing up the situation. She lifted flowerpot and seed tray together and quickly emptied them into the cardboard box.
    Nothing came out (except compost).
    “Oh, no!” she said. “It’s gone!”
    And now she was scared. Because it’s one thing to have a poisonous centipede trapped under a flowerpot, and another thing to have it running around loose, who knows where. So she started crackling – sorry, I mean saying – some rather unkind things to the Hoo-Min about being careless and silly.
    The Hoo-Min waited till she’d finished and then said, “Well, don’t panic, because I know where it is. It’s behind these pots.” Which is certainly where Harry had been – but he wasn’t there now.
    The Hoo-Mins moved every pot and seed tray and bag of compost and tool in the greenhouse, but they didn’t find Harry. At last the Hoo-Min – rather bravely, I must say – lay down on the ground again and started poking about with a long stick into the dark corners.Which is where Harry said he was going to hide. But he wasn’t there now. Can you guess where he was? The safest place?
    Yes! Right. While the Hoo-Mins had been searching down the far end of the greenhouse, he’d decided the best place was in the tunnel leading to their underground nest, so he’d rushed into that, and he was down there feeling the vibrations of those big feet on concrete and earth. Waiting for his chance to be a Hero.

16. The middle of the dark-time
    In the end, the Hoo-Mins had to give up the search.
    Mrs Hoo-Min did a trick with the sheet of glass, slipping it under the other two flowerpots and tipping George and Josie into the cardboard box. Then she put the glass on top and the Hoo-Mins peered down at the two centipedes through this glass lid. Mrs H was absolutely amazed by how big they were.
    “How on earth did they get here?” she said. “Where could they have come from?”
    “Either they escaped from some collection, or they stowed away in some shipment from a tropical country,” said her mate. “You hear of creatures travelling in crates of fruit sometimes.”
    “Poor things! So far from home. They must be cold here.”
    “Oh, come on,” said the Hoo-Min. “You’ll be worrying about them missing their mothers, next. Let’s take them into the house and have a good look at them.”
    But this was too much for Mrs H.
    “Excuse me! They’re not coming into the house!” she said. “They can stay out here.”
    “Oh…But I’ve got all my books and equipment in my study—”
    “No.”
    “Well. Maybe you’re right. Just look at the size of them! Look at those forcipules!”
    “Those what?”
    “Forcipules,” the Hoo-Min repeated proudly. “That’s the scientific name for their poison-pincers. I wouldn’t like to get a nip from one of those!”
    “Exactly,” said Mrs H firmly.
    The two Hoo-Mins stayed in the greenhouse for a long time, looking at George and Josie through the sheet of glass. The Hoo-Min proudly told his mate quite a lot about this particular kind of centipede. He knew their Latin name right off by heart.
    “These amazing creatures, my dear, are not just common-or-garden centipedes. They are scolopendromorphs. Skolo – pendro – morfs. Or, if you prefer, you can call them scolopocryptops.”
    “Skolo – poc – rip – tops!” repeated Mrs H. “That makes them sound a bit like dinosaurs!”
    “Dinosaurs?”
    “Yes! Tricerotops, those sorts of names! Oh, isn’t this exciting!”
    “Do you realise that centipedes have been on this planet nearly as long as dinosaurs? Much longer than us humans. I really can’t wait to look them up on the Internet!”
    Meanwhile Harry was under the Hoo-Mins’ feet, and George and Josie were under their faces. Harry was safe enough, and in a