Страница 24 из 40
"Sounds like our fairy. When did it happen?" Bess asked.
Mr. Six repeated the question into his walkie-talkie.
"Five minutes ago," Ke
"All right, pal, I'm on the 6 line coming up on Spring Street. I need to jump to the F line at Broadway-Lafayette."
"Thanks for the warning," Ke
"Ke
"Cobweb is lucky you guys are going to catch him," Mr. Two said, as he helped everyone back into their seats. "If we caught him down here we'd teach him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. The tu
"Like anyone else would want them, half-breed," Moth sneered.
"You'll be singing a different tune when we strike it rich down here," Mr. Four said as he scratched his sideburns. "There's diamonds down here somewhere. I can smell 'em. All we have to do is find them."
Mr. Six raised his hand for quiet and held his walkie-talkie to his mouth. "Ke
The car was suddenly diverted again and whipped through the next tu
"I got him!" Mr. One shouted over the loud speaker.
Everyone raced to join him at the front of the car. There, flying directly in front of the train, was Cobweb. He turned back to look at them and Sabrina saw his face. It was angry and desperate. His wings began to beat even harder and he zipped ahead into the tu
"He's getting away, fool!" Moth cried. "Can't you make this thing go faster?"
"You got it!" One shouted.
The train car zipped through the tu
Cobweb was almost impossible to catch. He could easily switch to a different tu
Just as they seemed almost on top of the fairy, there was a loud thump on the roof of the car.
The dwarfs looked at one another with serious expressions.
"What?" Mr. Canis growled.
Mr. Four held his finger to his lips urging him to be quiet. After a few seconds, there was another loud thump.
Mr. Five looked to the roof. "Uh oh."
"What's uh oh?" Gra
"Yahoos," Five replied.
"Yahoos? What's a Yahoo?" Daphne asked.
"Dirty lunatics that keep invading our tu
"You mean Gulliver? The Gulliver from
Gulliver's Travels?"
Sabrina asked.
"The same. He felt sorry for the little heathens and tried to civilize them by bringing them to the United States. They took over the Bowery and were happy enough playing in punk rock bands and working in coffee shops-you know, being worthless slackers-but now the neighborhood is being taken over by boutiques and health food stores. So they're in search of new turf and have been eyeing the tu
There was another loud thump and one of the glass windows shattered. A thick, hairy hand reached into the car from outside. Mr. Six swatted at it. "Dirty, stinking slackers. Go find another neighborhood. Haven't you ever heard of Brooklyn?"
Then the entire train started rocking back and forth. Loud hooting and hollering could be heard, followed by more of the frightening pounding on the train.
"They're trying to derail us!" Mr. One shouted from his conductor seat. "If they keep rocking this train we're going to jump right off the tracks and slam into the wall."
"That's bad, isn't it?" Daphne asked the little men. They all nodded.
"I've got an idea!" Mr. Two said. "But you're not going to like it. Let's slam on the brakes." The rest of the men stared at him.
"You're right, we don't like it," Mr. Six said. "We'll just derail ourselves."
"That's the idea!" Mr. Two cried. "We whip the car into South Ferry Station and then slam on the brakes."
"South Ferry is the end of the line, you imbecile!" Mr. Five shouted. "If we can't stop we'll crash."
"Even if we can stop, the train will probably catch on fire," Mr. Three cried. "The brakes can't handle the strain."
Another window shattered in the back of the train car.
Mr. Two shrugged. "It doesn't look like we have much choice. We can slam into the wall and get mangled in twisted metal or save ourselves but possibly die a fiery death."
"You fools ca
"No can do, buddy," Mr. Six said. "We're in a tu
"Grab onto something, people," Mr. One said over the loudspeaker. "Sorry we don't have any seat belts." The dwarfs scurried over to seats and hugged them tightly. The girls and their friends looked at one another in disbelief.
Mr. Six shouted into his walkie-talkie. "Ke
"Two minutes," Mr. Six replied. "Two minutes?"
"Just do it, Ke
Daphne wrapped her arms around Gra
"South Ferry is the last and final stop on this train!" Mr. One said over the loudspeaker. Then he raced out of the conductor's room, climbed up onto one of the seats, and reached for a red cord on the wall. A sign above it read EMERGENCY BRAKE.
Mr. Hamstead wrapped his arms around Bess and pulled her to the floor.
"You go
"I hope this hurts!" Mr. Six shouted to the Yahoos on the ceiling just as Mr. One pulled the brake cord.
Chapter 7
A loud, metallic screech filled the air. Sabrina was jolted forward but managed to grab the center pole as she soared past. Still, the forward momentum of the car nearly pulled Sabrina's arms out of their sockets.
Just then, the darkness of the tu
"Everyone off!" one of the dwarfs shouted. Sabrina couldn't be sure which one it was through the smoke. "This thing is going to go up in flames."
Mr. Two and Mr. Five helped Sabrina to her feet and hurried her onto the station platform, where everyone else was gathered. Puck's cocoon floated out of the car behind Sabrina.
Moth grabbed the cocoon's string and whirled around to confront the group. "You lost Cobweb, you fools," she cried.
"Shut your trap, Princess," Mr. Three said. "You're not so big that I can't put you over my knee."