Page 82 of The Secret Christmas Library
‘Mirren,’ he said. ‘Would you like to do the honours?’
‘No chance,’ said Mirren. ‘I’ve seenIndiana Jones. That thing isfizzingwith snakes.’
Jamie laughed, surprised. ‘Living on what, exactly?’
‘Other snakes! They’recannibalsnakes!I’m not doing it!’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ said Esme. She pulled off her gloves, just as Theo hissed loudly and she started. ‘Stop it,’ she said. ‘I mean it.’
‘Let’s drop a stick down,’ said Jamie, ‘if you guys are really that scared.’
‘What’s the use in that?’ said Mirren. ‘They’re cannibal snakes. They’ll eat it or have sex with it or both.’
Jamie shone his torch into the hole. ‘See. No snakes.’
‘Yeah, obviously they’ve gone quietnow.’
‘I’ve got thin wrists,’ said Theo, rather annoyed he had to own up to this. ‘I’ll put my hand in.’ He looked at them. ‘Would your grandfather booby-trap it, though?’
Esme and Jamie looked at each other, and Jamie shook his head decisively.
‘He was eccentric . . . and unhappy . . . but he wasn’tcruel. Not deliberately.’
Theo rolled up his sleeve and stuck his hand all the way down into the middle of the pineapple. They watched him as he groped around.
‘ARGH! SNAKES!’ he shouted, his hand dropping and his shoulder heading down to the stone as he suddenly got pulled in. Mirren gave a small shriek before he burst out laughing and she gave him the V-sign, even as he very carefully brought up . . .
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ said Esme. ‘Seriously. Grandfather. GIVE IT A REST!’
‘He wouldn’t have put a valuable book out here in the wind and the weather,’ said Jamie, taking a worried glance at the clouds.
Theo had withdrawn another wrapped pile of letters, thickly encased in wax paper, presumably to protect them from the elements.
‘We live like this now,’ he said ominously. ‘Tramping about, picking up old rubbish.’
‘It’s not rubbish!’ Jamie and Mirren said at the same time.
‘What if there are forty-five clues,’ said Theo. ‘I bet they’re all just school reports.’
‘Come on,’ said Mirren. ‘This is great! Jamie, your locket was right!’
Jamie carefully closed the pineapple’s crown back over. ‘I know,’ he said, shaking his head.
Esme looked up. ‘Oh, crap,’ she said.
First one snowflake, then another. Then, suddenly a thicket. They headed forward, instinctively, but the snow came down thicker and thicker.
‘Hang on,’ shouted Jamie. ‘We have to reverse the instructions to get out.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ said Esme. ‘We’ll find it!’
But Esme was dangerously wrong. She charged off down a promising-looking passage – only to hit a thick dead end, just as Mirren had. Visibility was so bad, they lost sight of her.
‘Can’t we follow our own footsteps back?’ said Theo.
And indeed, that would have been an excellent idea, had the snow not been covering every trace of their paths the second they stepped onwards.
‘ESME!’ hollered Theo.
