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into the cave. He was naked except for a dirty little piece of cloth around his bottom.
    Sophie was on the table-top. The enormous partly eaten snozzcumber was lying near her. She ducked behind it.
    The creature came clumping into the cave and stood towering over the BFG. ‘Who was you jabbeling to in here just now?’ he boomed.
    ‘I is jabbeling to myself,’ the BFG answered.
    ‘Pilfflefizz!’ shouted the Bloodbottler. ‘Bugswallop!’ he boomed. ‘You is talking to a human bean, that’s what I is thinking!’
    ‘No no!’ cried the BFG.
    ‘Yus yus!’ boomed the Bloodbottler. ‘I is guessing you has snitched away a human bean and brought it back to your bunghole as a pet! So now I is winkling it out and guzzling it as extra snacks before my supper!’
    The poor BFG was very nervous. ‘There’s n-no one in here,’ he stammered. ‘W-why don’t you Heave me alone?’

    The Bloodbottler pointed a finger as large as a tree-trunk at the BFG. ‘Runty little scumscrewer!’ he shouted. ‘Piffling little swishfiggler! Squimpy little bottle-wart! Prunty little pogswizzler! I is now going to search the primroses!’ He grabbed the BFG by the arm. ‘And you is going to help me do it. Us together is going to winkle out this tasteful little human bean!’ he shouted.
    The BFG had intended to whisk Sophie off the table as soon as he got the chance and hide her behind his back, but now there was no hope of doing this. Sophie peered around the chewed-off end of the enormous snozzcumber, watching the two giants as they moved away down the cave. The Bloodbottler was a gruesome sight. His skin was reddish-brown. There was black hair sprouting on his chest and arms and on his stomach. The hair on his head was long and dark and tangled. His foul face was round and squashy-looking. The eyes were tiny black holes. The nose was small and flat. But the mouth was huge. It spread right across the face almost ear to ear, and it had lips that were like two gigantic purple frankfurters lying one on top of the other. Craggy yellow teeth stuck out between the two purple frankfurter lips, and rivers of spit ran down over the chin.
    It was not in the least difficult to believe that this ghastly brute ate men, women and children every night.
    The Bloodbottler, still holding the BFG by the arm, was examining the rows and rows of bottles. ‘You and your pibbling bottles!’ he shouted. ‘What is you putting in them?’
    ‘Nothing that would interest you,’ the BFG answered. ‘You is only interested in guzzling human beans.’
    ‘And you is dotty as a dogswoggler!’ cried the Bloodbottler.
    Soon the Bloodbottler would be coming back, Sophie told herself, and he was bound to search the table-top. But she couldn’t possibly jump off the table. It was twelve feet high. She’d break a leg. The snozzcumber, although it was as thick as a perambulator, was not going to hide her if the Bloodbottler picked it up. She examined the chewed-off end. It had large seeds in the middle, each one as big as a melon. They were embedded in soft slimy stuff. Taking care to stay out of sight, Sophie reached forward and scooped away half a dozen of these seeds. This left a hole in the middle of the snozzcumber large enough for her to crouch in so long as she rolled herself up into a ball. She crawled into it. It was a wet and slimy hiding-place, but what did that matter if it was going to save her from being eaten.
    The Bloodbottler and the BFG were coming back towards the table now. The BFG was nearly fainting with fear. Any moment, he was telling himself, Sophie would be discovered and eaten.
    Suddenly, the Bloodbottler grabbed the half-eaten snozzcumber. The BFG stared at the bare table. Sophie, where is you? he thought desperately. You cannot possibly be jumpelling off that high table, so where is you hiding, Sophie?
    ‘So this is the filthing rotsome glubbage you is eating!’ boomed the Bloodbottler, holding up the partly eaten snozzcumber. ‘You