Mr Gum and the Goblins (8 page)

Suddenly he was falling,
falling,
falling
through pitch black . . . And Polly was falling,
falling,
falling
with him. Together they fell,
fell,
fell
. That bit wasn't too bad – but then they
landed,
landed,
landed
. And it
hurt,
hurt,
hurt
.

‘OOF!'
said Friday as he landed on a hard stone floor.
‘YUMK!'
he exclaimed as Polly landed on top of him.
‘CHURP!'
he added, just because he felt like it.

‘W-what happened?' asked Polly in confusion, but then Mr Gum's bloodshot eyes appeared far above, glaring down at them.

‘You've fallen down the old abandoned well,' grinned Mr Gum. ‘I knew that was gonna happen,' he lied. ‘It was all part of me ingenious plan, probably.'

‘Yeah,' said Billy William, appearing at his side. ‘An' now we're goin' down our tunnel with all them goblins, an' soon we'll be runnin' things!'

‘Yeah,' agreed Mr Gum. ‘An' here's a thing, O'Leary. When we go down that tunnel, we're gonna do a brilliant song, with yodelling an' everythin'. An' you're gonna miss every
incredible second of it!'

‘Oh, no!' wailed Friday. ‘How can this be happening? HOW? It's just not fair!'

‘Right,' said Mr Gum, affectionately kicking Billy William as hard as possible in the shins.
‘Let's get goin', me old Burger Wizard. We got songs to sing an' tunnels to go down!'

And then they were gone, and Polly and Friday were left alone in the dark.

*featuring a special burp solo from Livermonk the goblin