Chapter Four

Chapter Four
Crunch

"You've made me so happy said Mr Silverkrunk. "Now I have a new addition to my collection.

William looked at him from inside the cage.

"Now I can begin, with the glueing stage. The beautiful thing is, I don't have to do anything at all. You see, my little machine here is a fully automated Cathcing and Gluing Machine. So I can just sit back and watch. I might get myself a nice glass of brandy.

"I do hope it doesn't hurt, he continued.
"Of course, it might be a tiny bit painful when it sticks your eyelids together. Or when its seals your mouth shut. Or when it sticks your little fingers to the insides of your ear holes. When your nose holes are entirely filled with nice Gruncher's glue. And he put the glue into the long thin handle of the brass cage, and pressed ON.
"But it will be over very quicky.

William stood there. William was quite distracted by the way Mr Silverkrunk's eyes were flashing green. She had never seen him look so excited.

"This is a whole new addition to my collection.

What happened next happened very fast.

First, William tripped over herself. Levers flew,
Teeth gripped. Glue glued, And claws crunched. There was a tearing sound, and then

When William stood up, something very odd had happened.

Mr Silverkrunk was hanging upside in his sitting room. He was hanging by one leg from one of the giant levers of the machine, while the other one was briskly, and liberally coating him with Gruncher's glue.

His toupe sat in a little heap on the floor.

In one swift movement it had started glueing Mr Silverkrunk to himself . The third lever was also tying him up with string, and hands of the fourth and the fifth lever, having nothing else to do, clapped and cheered on the efforts of the other levers.

"STOP! For god's sake stop! Have some compassi-

But his words were silenced as the machine dolloped a big lump of glue over his lips. His face went blue, like a very old, very ugly monkfish.

William didn't know what to do. She stood very still, while Mr Silverkurnk, now unable to speak, stared at her, while his face got redder and redder and redder. Then she gently opened the door to the cage. And then she ran.