22 Along the Corridor
‘Well, well, well,’ sighed Mr Willy Wonka, ‘two naughty little children gone. Three good
little children left. I think we’d better get out of this room quickly before we lose anyone
else!’
‘But Mr Wonka,’ said Charlie Bucket anxiously, ‘will Violet Beauregarde ever be all
right again or will she always be a blueberry?’
‘They’ll de-juice her in no time flat!’ declared Mr Wonka. ‘They’ll roll her into the de-
juicing machine, and she’ll come out just as thin as a whistle!’
‘But will she still be blue all over?’ asked Charlie.
‘She’ll be purple!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘A fine rich purple from head to toe! But there you
are! That’s what comes from chewing disgusting gum all day long!’
‘If you think gum is so disgusting,’ said Mike Teavee, ‘then why do you make it in
your factory?’
‘I do wish you wouldn’t mumble,’ said Mr Wonka. T can’t hear a word you’re saying.
Come on! Off we go! Hurry up! Follow me! We’re going into the corridors again!’ And so
saying, Mr Wonka scuttled¹ across to the far end of the Inventing Room and went out
through a small secret door hidden behind a lot of pipes and stoves. The three remaining
children – Veruca Salt, Mike Teavee, and Charlie Bucket – together with the five
remaining grown-ups, followed after him.
Charlie Bucket saw that they were now back in one of those long pink corridors with
many other pink corridors leading out of it. Mr Wonka was rushing along in front,
turning left and right and right and left, and Grandpa Joe was saying, ‘Keep a good hold
of my hand, Charlie. It would be terrible to get lost in here.’
Mr Wonka was saying, ‘No time for any more messing about! We’ll never get anywhere
at the rate we’ve been going!’ And on he rushed, down the endless pink corridors, with
his black top hat perched on the top of his head and his plum-coloured velvet² coat-tails
flying out behind him like a flag in the wind.
They passed a door in the wall. ‘No time to go in!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Press on! Press
on!’
They passed another door, then another and another. There were doors every twenty
paces or so along the corridor now, and they all had something written on them, and
strange clanking noises were coming from behind several of them, and delicious smells

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