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The Gremlins Complete Text

How he found the landing field he never knew. Nor did he know how the engine kept going, or how he himself managed to remain sufficiently conscious to regain control. What he did know was why he landed in the plowed field about a hundred yards short of his goal and turned over on his back.

He saw exactly what happened. He saw the gremlins in their thousands lined up all around the edge of the landing field, and he saw them watching him and waiting their chance. He saw them, at the last moment, when it was too late to do anything about it, pick up the complete field and carry it away on their shoulders, running faster than the wind. Because they were all athletic types, they were little white running shorts with a blue stripe down one side; instead of regulation suction boots they had on spiked patent-leather running shoes. They ran for a hundred yards and stopped, and the chief athletic gremlin said,

"Mind your toes, down she goes. Mind your toes, down she goes. One-two-three, down!" And they dropped it and ran away into a near-by wood.

When Gus landed, the runway was still a hundred yards away.

Stuffy, watching from the distance, knew exactly what had happened.