Young Sherlock Holmes_ Red Leech - Andrew Lane [92]
The monstrous creatures were edging closer and closer now, from all directions. Sherlock, Matty and Virginia edged backwards, towards the nearest wall. Their options were progressively being closed off by these freakishly intelligent reptiles.
‘What’s that smell?’ Matty asked, his face wrinkling up. Sherlock could smell it too: something like rotted meat. If those creatures really did swallow their prey whole and then spend weeks digesting it then the smell was probably part of them.
‘Sherlock,’ Virginia said in a too-controlled voice, ‘what do we do?’
‘Thinking,’ Sherlock said, and he was. He was thinking as fast as he’d ever thought in his life.
The creature on their right took a few steps closer. Matty bent down and picked a stone up from the ground. He lobbed it at the creature. It didn’t move as the stone hit the wall beside it and bounced off. No fear, no caution, nothing. It just didn’t care. After a few seconds it took another two steps, legs splayed out to either side of its body.
The creature to their left hissed, head held up as it sampled the air. The other two hissed as well. Sherlock wasn’t sure if they were communicating with each other, or just making noises designed to cause their prey to freeze in terror.
The distance between the reptiles and the three of them had almost halved now, taken up gradually by the reptiles making small steps. No rush, no sudden attack, just a progressive and intelligent process of backing their prey into a corner where they could be eaten at leisure.
And Sherlock couldn’t think of any way of stopping them.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
‘What about the water?’ Matty whispered, as if the reptiles might hear and understand him. ‘Couldn’t we get in the pond and wait them out?’
‘I think they’re partly amphibious,’ Sherlock said. ‘Look at those feet. They’re webbed. They can probably swim better than we can.’
‘I can’t swim,’ Virginia said suddenly.
‘I take it back,’ Sherlock said. ‘They can definitely swim better than we can.’ He looked around desperately, hoping there might be something lying about that might help, but apart from rocks and bushes there was nothing.
The reptiles were getting closer now, and the stench of rotting meat was becoming almost too much to bear.
‘Oh, I dunno if it helps,’ Matty said, ‘but I got this from that bloke’s jacket pocket.’
Sherlock turned to see that Matty was holding the small, two-barrelled pistol.
‘It’s a Remington Derringer,’ Virginia said. ‘Pa got me one, once, but I lost it.’
‘How the hell did you get that off him?’ Sherlock demanded.
Matty shrugged. ‘I live off my own resources,’ he pointed out. ‘Pickpocketing is one of them.’
Sherlock looked from the gun to the advancing reptiles and back again. ‘Two lead balls, three creatures,’ he said. ‘Not good odds.’
‘It increases our chances,’ Virginia added.
‘It just means that one of us gets killed and eaten rather than all three of us, and that’s not an acceptable solution.’
‘You got a better idea?’ Matty asked.
‘Actually,’ Sherlock said, ‘I have.’ His gaze scanned the walls. ‘How did they get these things in here? I doubt they walked them along the plank. Too much chance of them getting hurt when they fell.’
‘You think there’s a gate or door or something?’ Matty demanded.
‘It seems logical. All we need to do is look for it.’
Sherlock considered the approaching reptiles more closely. ‘They’re slower than us,’ he pointed out, ‘but they’ll wear us out eventually’ His gaze skipped over the rocks. ‘Look, if we’re fast we can climb above them, then jump over their heads and get behind them. Then we can look for the way in. They can’t