‘Hey!’ shouted Grandpa Joe. ‘They’re going to hook up with this brute who’s tied himself around us!’
‘And tow us away!’ cried Charlie.
‘To the planet Vermes,’ gasped Grandma Josephine. ‘Eighteen thousand four hundred and twenty-seven million miles from here!’
‘They can’t do that!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘We’re doing the towing around here!’
‘They’re going to link up, Mr Wonka!’ Charlie said. ‘They really are! Can’t we stop them? They’re going to tow us away and they’re going to tow the people we’re towing away as well!’
‘Do something, you old fool!’ shrieked Grandma Georgina. ‘Don’t just float about looking at them!’
‘I must admit,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘that for the first time in my life I find myself at a bit of a loss.’
They all stared in horror through the glass at the long chain of Vermicious Knids. The leader of the chain was coming closer and closer. The hook, with two big angry eyes on it, was out and ready. In thirty seconds it would link up with the hook of the Knid wrapped around the Elevator.
‘I want to go home!’ wailed Grandma Josephine. ‘Why can’t we all go home?’
‘Great thundering tomcats!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘Home is right! What on earth am I thinking of! Come on, Charlie! Quick! Re-entry! You take the yellow button! Press it for all you’re worth! I’ll handle this lot!’ Charlie and Mr Wonka literally flew to the buttons. ‘Hold your hats!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Grab your gizzards! We’re going down!’
Rockets started firing out of the Elevator from all sides. It tilted and gave a sickening lurch and then plunged downward into the Earth’s atmosphere at a simply colossal speed. ‘Retro-rockets!’ bellowed Mr Wonka. ‘I mustn’t forget to fire the retro-rockets!’ He flew over to another series of buttons and started playing on them like a piano.
The Elevator was now streaking downward head first, upside down, and all the passengers found themselves floating upside down as well. ‘Help!’ screamed Grandma Georgina. ‘All the blood’s going to my head!’
‘Then turn yourself the other way up,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘That’s easy enough, isn’t it?’
Everyone blew and puffed and turned somersaults in the air until at last they were all the right way up. ‘How’s the tow-rope holding, Grandpa?’ Mr Wonka called out.
‘They’re still with us, Mr Wonka, sir! The rope’s holding fine!’
It was an amazing sight — the Glass Elevator streaking down toward the Earth with the huge Transport Capsule in tow behind it. But the long chain of Knids was coming after them, following them down, keeping pace with them easily, and now the hook of the leading Knid in the chain was actually reaching out and grasping for the hook made by the Knid on the Elevator!
‘We’re too late!’ screamed Grandma Georgina. ‘They’re going to link up and haul us back!’
‘I think not,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Don’t you remember what happens when a Knid enters the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed? He gets red-hot. He burns away in a long fiery trail. He becomes a shooting Knid. Soon these dirty beasts will start popping like popcorn!’
As they streaked on downward, sparks began to fly off the sides of the Elevator. The glass glowed pink, then red, then scarlet. Sparks also began to fly on the long chain of Knids, and the leading Knid in the chain started to shine like a red-hot poker. So did all the others. So did the great slimy brute coiled around the Elevator itself. This one, in fact, was trying frantically to uncoil itself and get away, but it was having trouble untying the knot, and in another ten seconds it began to sizzle. Inside the Elevator they could actually hear it sizzling. It made a noise like bacon frying. And exactly the same sort of thing was happening to the other one thousand Knids in the chain. The tremendous heat was simply sizzling them up. They were red-hot, every one of them. Then suddenly, they became white-hot and they gave out a dazzling white light.
‘They’re shooting Knids!’ cried Charlie.
‘What a splendid sight,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘It’s better than fireworks.’
In a few seconds more, the Knids had blown away in a cloud of ashes and it was all over. ‘We’ve done it!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘They’ve been roasted to a crisp! They’ve been frizzled to a fritter! We’re saved!’