9 A Tangled Web

Chapter 9 A TANGLED WEB The ant bent its head toward them. They stared up at its giant clipper jaws. "It could bite right through the Um-bubble!" said Judy. Ahwooo! Harley yowled. "Back into the tub, mister!" Mrs. Scuttle yelled. Her voice sounded close. The ant tapped the Umbubble with its hairy black antennas. meep… "Ant antennas smell us!" said Thudd. "Can tell if we taste good!" The ant's jaws were spreading open! Andrew and Judy were frozen in terror when they heard the flap of the shower curtain against the tub.

"What's that on the ceiling?" they heard Mrs. Scuttle say. "I just got rid of one yesterday!" Suddenly the sponge was moving. Water oozed out of it! The ant wagged its enormous head, then skittered off the sponge and back into the drain. "Look!" said Andrew. A curved pink wall appeared next to the Umbubble. It was so high they couldn't see the top. It was covered with ridges that looked like the rows of a plowed field. meep… "Thumb!" said Thudd. He pointed to the strange ridges. "Fingerprints!" A waterfall tumbled over the Umbubble as Mrs. Scuttle squeezed the sponge. Soap bubbles popped up everywhere!

Andrew and Judy watched the tub getting farther away. The sponge, with the Umbubble stuck to it, was going up! "Sit, Harley!" came Mrs. Scuttle's rough voice. "I'm going to get rid of that thing once and for all!" They saw one of Mrs. Scuttle's humongous feet in a flip-flop. She had stepped onto the edge of the tub. "What is she going to—" Judy started to say. "I'll get you!" yelled Mrs. Scuttle. Suddenly they were hurtling toward Mrs. Scuttle's ceiling! "EEEIIIIIY!" Mrs. Scuttle howled. There was a tremendous thump, like a mountain falling into a valley. Then there was a softer

thump. It was the sponge falling back into the tub. But the Umbubble was swinging like a circus trapeze from the ceiling! "We're dangling from a rope!" said Andrew. meep… "Spider web!" said Thudd. "Look!" Andrew and Judy looked where Thudd was pointing. The corner of the bathroom ceiling was a jumble of crisscrossed spider webs. "Cheese Louise!" said Judy. "We just escaped getting gobbled by an ant. Now we could end up as a spider snack!" Andrew looked around. "I don't see a spider," he said. "Maybe it's just an empty web. Maybe Mrs. Scuttle clobbered the spider." Judy and Andrew heard more thumping sounds below. Through the open shower curtain, they could see Mrs. Scuttle sitting on the bathroom floor, pounding her fists on the tiles. Harley was trying to lick her face. "She must have slipped off the edge of the tub when she threw the sponge," said Judy.

"Uh-oh," said Andrew, looking at the tub below. "We're hanging right above the drain. If this spider web breaks, it's slime city for us." meep… "Spider silk strong, strong, strong!" said Thudd. "I know," said Judy. "My parents led a tour to an island near Australia. The spiders made webs so strong that people made fishnets out of them." "Wowzers!" said Andrew. "I'll bet I can use spider silk in one of my—" "Andrew!" yelled Judy. She pointed to a fold in the shower curtain. It was twitching….