The Recipe
I hope you haven't forgotten that while all this was going on I was still stuck behind the
screen on my hands and knees with one eye glued to the crack. I don't know how long I had been
there but it seemed like for ever. The worst part of it was not being allowed to cough or make a
sound, and knowing that if I did, I was as good as dead. And all the way through, I was living in
constant terror that one of the witches in the back row was going to get a whiff of my presence
through those special nose-holes of hers.
My only hope, as I saw it, was the fact that I hadn't washed for days. That and the never-
ending excitement and clapping and shouting that was going on in the room. The witches were
thinking of nothing except The Grand High Witch up there on the platform and her great plan for
wiping out all the children of England. They certainly weren't sniffing¹ around for a child in the room.
In their wildest dreams (if witches have dreams), that would never have occurred to any of them. I
kept still and prayed.
The Grand High Witch's dreadful gloating song was over now, and the audience was clapping
madly and shouting, "Brilliant! Sensational²! Marvellous! You are a genius, O Brainy One! It is a
thrilling invention, this Delayed Action Mouse-Maker! It is a winner! And the beauty of it is that the
teachers will be the ones who bump off the stinking³ little children! It won't be us doing it! We shall
never be caught!"
"Vitches are never caught!" snapped The Grand High Witch. "Attention now! I vont
everybody's attention for I am about to be telling you vot you must do to prepare Formula 86 Delayed
Action Mouse-Maker!"
Suddenly there came a great gasp⁴ from the audience. This was followed by a hubbub⁵ of
shrieking⁶ and yelling, and I saw many of the witches leaping to their feet and pointing at the platform
and crying out, "Mice! Mice! Mice! She's done it to show us! The Brainy One has turned two
children into mice and there they are!"

分享到：