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Often in the forest you can see Rotton stumps glowing with a blue or green
light. It looks as if the stump itself was glowing, but it is really the
light of the bacteria. In the same way Rotton fish thrown away on the shore
glow. Often you can see the same light in the carcases of animals."
Here the Professor hesitated, ran over to a barrel and throwing the lid
off it noisily shouted cheerfully:
"Supper, supper, my dears! Supper and then bed!"
In the morning the Professor set out on a scouting expedition. He
returned only at nightfall and brought a coil of spider's web cord. He then
sat at the entrance of the cave late into the night twisting thick ropes out
of the spider's cord. When they were all about to go to sleep he announced,
turning to Valya:
"To-morrow you and I will go to our ship! It's time to launch her in
the water. . . . Karik is getting better and we should very soon be able to
continue our journey."
Next day the old man woke Valya before dawn. They breakfasted on honey.
Then he slung the rope over his shoulder and set out with Valya to
start work.
The oak leaf lay in the old place.
The Professor threw the rope down near the leaf.
"But now," said he, "let's go to the stable for our cart horse."
Then he led along the bank, bending down to the ground, looking under
the rocks.
Beside a big grey rock he went down on all fours, looked for a long
time into a dark hole under it and then sat back and threw a handful of sand
into the hole.
Something stirred beneath the rock.
"A famous steed!" announced the Professor, getting up. "If only he
doesn't kick we'll soon launch our ship."
"What is there? Is it under the rock?" asked Valya, in a whisper.
"A wild horse!" joked the Professor. "A horse with six legs. Now come
on, little Valya, you must help me!"
He dragged the spider's web rope to the stalk of the leaf, wound it
around the stalk and with an effort dragging the rope over his shoulder he
pulled the knot tight.
"Excellent!" he muttered.
Dragging the other end of the rope over the ground he walked with it
away from the leaf. When the rope was stretched full length he tied another
loop in the other end of it. Then he dragged four short logs of wood and
stood them on end like ninepins stand when you are playing skittles.
Lightly hammering the logs with a stone the old man drove them a little
way into the earth. He knocked one of them with his foot.
The log fell down.
"Fine!" announced the Professor.
He picked up the fallen log and stuck it in its former position.
Valya was watching him with curiosity but could not make head or tails
of what he was doing.
"Can I help you?" she asked at length.
"Not at all, not at all! I can manage!"
He lifted the loop of the rope, dragged it to the logs and carefully
laid it on top of them.
The loop now hung above the ground resting on the carefully balanced
logs.
"Well, there's the horse's collar ready," said the old man. "Now let's
go and find the horse! Have you ever harnessed horses?" he asked, jokingly.
"No," Valya acknowledged frankly. "I have never harnessed a horse!"
"Marvellous! Nor have I. However, that's no great misfortune."
The Professor picked up a long stick from the ground and held it out to
Valya.
"Come! Take hold of this!"
Then he found an even longer stick for himself and putting it over his
shoulder, commanded:
"Follow me !"
With long strides he led Valya to the big grey rock.
Near to the rock he stopped, drove the end of his stick into the
ground, and putting one foot forward, said:
"Now listen attentively. Just here under the rock there is the Carrabus
larva hiding itself from the light of day. Now the Carrabus is a vicious
beetle which lives on insects. This larva, like its parents, also lives on
insects. By day it sits quietly under a rock, but at night time it goes on
the hunt. It is extraordinarily strong! A regular tigress - nothing less!"
"I am frightened," whispered Valya, looking at the Professor with eyes
wide with fear.
"Quite unnecessary!" replied the old man. "Just listen. Now then, we
must drive the Carrabus larva from under the rock and chase it into our
horse collar. Once it is there it will pull our ship to the lake. I think we
can manage the insect quite easily, only we must not be frightened."
"But will it suddenly bite?"
"Of course it will bite, if we get careless!"
"Then how are we going to drive it?"
"Just this way: to begin with we'll chase it out from under the rock
and then you will stay on that side of it and I on this. As soon as it
starts to come out you prevent it from crawling to the right whilst I
prevent it crawling to the left. We can drive it straight into the loop. Now
are you ready? Get a bit further away."
Valya ran a little way away. The Professor shoved his stick under the
rock and started to twist it about like a poker in the fire.
"Aha! it's coming! it's coming!"
A huge monster with a long body started to crawl out from under the
stone straight towards Valya. She hit it with her stick on its back. The
Carrabus quivered and turned towards the Professor. He tapped it on the head
with his stick.
Then the monster, moving on all six legs, crawled straight towards the
oak leaf but on the way there suddenly stopped.
The old man ran up to the insect and gave it such a whack on its back
that it shuddered and started to turn around where it was.
"Valya, drive it, drive it!"
Valya struck the Carrabus a stroke on its side.
"Now, now! Get on! Get on!"
Thus, step by step, they moved towards the oak leaf, driving the larva
ahead of them.
At last the monster's head was level with the loop. The Professor hit
the logs with his stick. The loop fell over the head of the Carrabus. The
old man threw his stick down, seized the rope with his hands and pulled with
all his strength. The loop tightened. Then he picked his stick up again and
ran up to the head of the insect.
"We're off!" the old man shouted.
The leaf tumbled. Raising a cloud of dust it then slowly moved towards
the bank.
The Carrabus turned from side to side, but each time bumped up against
a sharp stick. The travellers would not allow it to turn away either to the
right or to the left.
At last it became more peaceful and dragged the heavy leaf to the lake.
It crawled along, glancing at the Professor and Valya with huge eyes
quite unable to follow what these terrible two-legged insects armed with
long sticks wanted.
"The chestnut grey horse! A champion," shouted Valya, with delight.
"Not a chestnut grey horse but a Carrabus Cancellatus," said the
Professor, sternly. "Carrabus is a genus of beetle of the family Carabide;
Cancellatus is its name!"
The Carrabus larva dragged the oak leaf to the water's edge, but here
it became quite crazy. It made a dash suddenly along the edge in one
direction and then abruptly turned around and dashed off towards the bank.
The Professor and Valya ran, shouting, after it and hit it with their
sticks on the head, sides and back.
How long this struggle would have continued it is difficult to say.
However, it finished quite unexpectedly: running past a huge cliff, the
Carrabus stopped and then disappeared under the cliff.
"Phew!" puffed the old man. "Well, that's the Carrabus! 1 am afraid it
didn't like us."
"But how are we to unharness the Carrabus?"
"Very simple!" replied the Professor, untying the rope from the stalk
of the leaf. "Although it's a pity to throw away such a fine rope, there is
nothing else to do! Come on. We have done enough to-day, don't you think? We
must go and have a bit of a rest."
Leaving the leaf on the shore, the travellers returned home. After
dinner Valya recounted to Karik how skilfully they had dragged the oak leaf
to the shore with the help of the Carrabus larva. Karik listened to her with
envy,
"Eh! What a pity I wasn't there," he sighed. "I would have got it to go
straight into the water. You should have tugged at the loop."
"It is easy to advise," said the old man, "but you should have been
working on the job as Valya and I were."
He put his hand to his whiskers, wiped the honey off his beard and got
up.
"To-morrow we must set out quickly on the expedition. But to-day until
evening comes we must drag the barrels of honey on to the shore, find
clothes for ourselves, get the mast, sails and ropes ready. In other words,
there's plenty to do."
He took an armful of silkworm hair from the ground.
"Come on, little Valya!" he said, turning to the mouth of the cave.
All day long the Professor and Valya worked on the shore of the lake.
Valya platted cords out of the hair, and the old man wandered about looking
for a mast.
At last he returned. On his shoulders there lay a long, dry grass mast.
That evening the leaf was launched in the water.
The Professor hammered a hole in the centre of the leaf with a sharp
stone, drove the mast into the hole and afterwards smeared a thick layer of
clay on the floor around the mast and announced:
"To-morrow the sun will dry up the clay and our mast will be fixed to
the ship as firm as you like."
The Professor gazed at the ship, thought for a bit then took a long
cord from Valya's hands and went up to the end of the leaf. Here he threw a
loop over the stalk and pulled it with all his strength.
The leaf quivered, its end lashed in the water and then lifted a
little.
Then the oak leaf became quite like a ship.
It rocked with its nose high above the water.
"It's like a goose sticking its neck up."
Valya started laughing. "Now if only there was a sail to put up!"
"There will be a sail too," retorted the Professor. "We'll make it out
of some sort of petal! Only it is surely not worth putting it up now! It's
already too late in the day. And what's more it would dry out in the sun and
become like leather."
The old man drove a sharp stake into the ground and fastened the hair
rope to it.
"There we are, everything is fine!"
Valya went along the rope to the bow of the ship and with a piece of
shell started to draw something on it.
"What are you up to?" demanded the Professor.
"I want to give our ship a name!" said Valya.
"What have you decided to call it?"
"Take a look at it!"
Valya jumped down. The Professor went up closer and wrinkling his eyes
made out in big letters on the bow: CARRABUS.
"Not bad!" he said, approvingly.
* * * * * *
Next day the travellers sewed clothes from petals, and then in the
evening Valya and the Professor rolled the barrels of honey on to the ship.
Karik was already up. He walked about holding on to the side of the
cave with his hands and wanted all the time to try and help the Professor
and Valya, but the old man stopped him.
"Lie down, take it easy," the Professor grunted at him. "You should
rest for another two or three days. We can manage without you."
This annoyed Karik greatly, but he didn't start to dispute it. He lay
down on his bed, turned his face to the wall and made it appear that he was
asleep, although he himself was stealthily watching the other two.
"All right," he thought. "You'll go off and I'll do half the work here
without you. Afterwards you'll jolly well have to thank me."
As soon as ever the Professor and Valya had gone out of the cave lie
jumped up, seized one of the barrels and started to push it towards the
mouth.
He had already rolled it out of the cave when an accident happened. A
round stone turned over under his foot. Karik flung up his arms and fell
forward with his body on the barrel. The barrel tilted over as a result of
this violent impact. He quickly clutched the edge of the barrel, but losing
his balance fell to the ground.
The barrel rumbled down beside him. The lid flew off'. The thick
gruel-like honey spread out over the ground.
Karik got up. Shaking the dust off himself he gazed perplexedly at the
overthrown barrel.
"That's a fine way to help!"
The honey puddle crept in all directions like liquid dough. Karik moved
out of the way, looked around and, finally waving his hands hopelessly,
hopped back on one leg into the cave.
* * * * * *
It was already dark by the time the Professor and Valya returned. Karik
heard their voices in the distance. He quickly buried his head in the hair
pillow and pretended to be asleep.
"Oy, whatever is this?" shouted Valya, stopping at the entrance to the
cave.
Karik stuck his fingers in his ears and screwed his eyes tight shut.
"Oh, I can't move!" shouted Valya. "My feet are stuck in the ground."
The old man dashed to her aid, but he had no sooner reached her than
his own feet got stuck in the sticky honey.
"What can it be?" he wondered.
Sinking in up to the ankles he managed to reach Valya with difficulty
and stretched out his hand to her.
"Give me your hand!"
Valya gave a hand. He stepped back and pulled her towards himself.
Valya swayed and almost fell: her feet were fast stuck in the thick honey.
"Stop," she yelled, "I am quite stuck! Like a fly in the jam."
"Don't worry, don't worry," muttered the Professor, and took a breath.
He dragged Valya out of the honey with a great effort, took her in his
arms and moving his feet with difficulty started to stagger towards the
cave.
Under his feet the honey sucked, champed and sighed as if it was alive.
The mess clung to the feet like very heavy sticky clay.
At last the old man got clear of the puddle. Setting Valya down on the
ground in front of the entrance to the cave, he started to take the honey
off his feet with a thick stick and then he helped Valya to clear herself.
"Eh, Karik!" shouted the Professor, looking into the cave. "What
happened here?"
Karik buried himself still deeper in his mattress.
The old man and Valya looked at each other silently.
"Well, it's clear," said the Professor, going into the cave, "that this
is certainly something that Karik contrived! And what's more he is not
asleep! He is listening to everything! But he is ashamed to look us in the
face. Eh, Karik!"
Karik cautiously turned his head and opened one eye. Then he saw, right
by his side, Valya was looking at him. He hastily screwed up his eye and
snored very loudly.
"He's asleep!" Valya started to laugh.
The Professor put his head from side to side but said nothing.
The travellers went to bed.
A little while after dawn Karik heard, through his sleep, some sort of
noise. He got up from his crumpled mattress and went to the entrance.
Through the chinks between the rocks he saw the terrace in front of the cave
in the pale light of the morning.
On this terrace huge winged monsters were crawling about just in front
of the cave.
Karik recognised them. They were flies. Bustling around the puddle of
honey they jostled each other, flew upwards with buzzing noises and then
swooped down to the honey once more. Every minute more and more flies
arrived.
The loud noise awakened the Professor and Valya. The old man said
something, but the children could not hear a single word. The flies were
buzzing so loudly that their ears rang just as if powerful aeroplane engines
were running right beside them.
It was quite impossible to drag the remaining barrels of honey over to
the ship. The flies might knock the travellers off their legs and even kill
them. They were crowding at the entrance, had started to peer into the cave
and were thrusting their long snouts through the chinks between the rocks.
They crawled over the rocks which were blocking the entrance and under the
weight of the flies the rocks started to shake.
The travellers gazed in fear at their barricade. It had only to fall
down and the hordes of flies would burst in - then they would be - goners.
However, towards evening the flies crawled away to their night quarters.
"They've gone away !" Valya announced joyfully. "They haven't gone
away," said Karik, listlessly. "To-morrow they'll be back and once more
they'll try and get into the cave. I know them! They can scent the barrels
of honey!"
"Let's block up the entrance better!" proposed Valya.
"Nonsense!" said the Professor. "Sit another whole day trembling - I
should thank you!"
"But what can we do?"
"Attack!" announced the old man, "attack and not defend."
He seized one of the diatom baskets, took a firefly egg from the tray
and holding it high above his head as a torch, ran out of the cave.
"Where are you off to, Professor?" the children shouted.
"I'll be back directly. In a minute I'll give them a treat, the
blackguards!"
The blue light twinkled in the darkness and disappeared.
"Where is he off to?"
"I don't know! He must have thought up something."
Late that night the Professor returned to the cave very contented and
cheerful. He put the basket down on the floor and, panting a little still,
said: "There! I've brought the mines! To-morrow the flies will find a
minefield."
The children rushed to the basket.
"Mines?"
"That's better!"
Karik put his hand into the basket cautiously and drew out a grey lump.
His face fell.
"Some mines! Nothing but Rotton old clods. Simply dried mud. These can
hardly be mines?"
The Professor started to laugh.
"You don't like them?" he asked. "Don't worry! You just see what
they'll do to-morrow. A charge of gun cotton wouldn't do better."
He extracted the lumps from the basket, divided them into two heaps.
Having pushed the smaller lumps to Valya, he said:
"Pick them up, Valya, and come with me!"
Ladened with mines, the Professor and Valya went out of the cave.
"Lay your mines aft around the entrance!" Karik heard the Professor
saying.
The battle with the flies - Extraordinary sails - It sees with its feet
- A bug plays the fiddle - On board the bumble bee
The children jumped out of their crumpled, scattered beds. Rubbing
their eyes they looked around in alarm.
"Karik, what was that?" .
"I don't know."
"May be someone in our minefield?"
The usual blue light glimmered in the cave. The dark roof hung low
above the head. In the corner along the wall white stout barrels stood in
rows.
"Clop! Clop! CLOP!" Explosions sounded beyond the wall.
The Professor got up from his hair mattress, yawned widely and rubbing
his sleepy eyes with his fists said:
"Aha!.. . they are working. .. . My mines are working. . . ."
The old man with the children following him went up to the barricade
blocking the entrance to the cave.
Through the chinks between the rocks the morning light was peeping in.
The yellow sand of the terrace in front of the cave was ablaze with
sunlight. The puddles of upset honey shone like liquid gold. The white
barrel still lay there on its side.
The travellers had to screw up their eyes, the light was so intense.
"It's going to be a wonderful day!" said the Professor, looking at the
clear, almost polished blue of the sky.
"But what a lot of flies there will be!" sighed Valya. "Even more than
yesterday."
"That's nothing to worry about!" The Professor calmed her and rubbing
his hands announced: "Very soon there will be fewer! Decidedly fewer!"
"Why fewer?"
"Well, didn't you hear my mines exploding?" asked the old man, looking
surprised.
"I heard them," said Valya, "but the flies apparently don't worry about
your mines at all. Over there the mines exploded right amongst the flies but
they had no effect."
"Wait a little!" the Professor calmly stroked his beard. "There is no
hurry! The flies are not killed at once by my mines. After a piece has stuck
into the fly, it will crawl around for five or six hours and then it begins
to die in a very interesting way. Oh, this is well worth seeing!"
"And these flies are already wounded?"
"Certainly!" replied the old man confidently. "Because the explosions
started, if I mistake not, at earliest dawn."
Valya pulled a rock out of the barricade and sticking herself into the
observation post so formed started to watch the terrace.
Huge, hairy flies wandered past the rocks. They went up to the honey
pool, thrust their snouts into the honey and jostled one another.
One of them - large with white body - sat on the overturned barrel. The
barrel rocked. The fly flew up alarmed and circled around, gazing at the
barrel from above with huge protruding eyes. Then it cautiously came down
and alighted beside the barrel.
And then suddenly it reared up and staggered . as if drunk. Its legs
bent under it. It fell to the ground, flopped its heavy head on the sand and
started to die. Only its wings spread widely out still quivered slightly.
"That's number one!" shouted Valya.
"And that's not the whole business either!" said the Professor. "Wait
and see what will still happen to it."
After a little while the Professor and the children went up to the
barricade again.
On the terrace in front of the cave several flies had now fallen. Some
of them were still alive - they moved; others lay with their wings spread
out and their heads drooping to the ground. They were covered with something
white just like hoar-frost. But from the body of the fly lying by the barrel
there rose up a long, thin stem with a round little hat on the top of it.
"What ever is that?" asked Valya. "It looks like a mushroom."
"That's just what it is - the Empusa fungus."
Suddenly the little hat of the fungus broke off and fell to the ground.
"A new Empusa has ripened!" said the Professor.
"What a comic word - Empusa!" snorted Valya.
"Hardly comic, is it? At any rate, it has never seemed comic to me. I
have kept the company of the Empusa for a long time now. It's an old
acquaintance of mine. A parasitic fungus. . . . One of the most useful fungi
to mankind. . . . It kills flies.
Now that new Empusa which has just fallen on the ground will explode as
soon as ever a fly gets near to it and it will sprinkle the fly with
splinter seeds; the seeds grow up, kill the fly and throw off new mine fungi
destined to destroy more flies."
"But if the flies do not make an appearance?"
"Then the Empusa will not explode !"
"Well, suppose it is a bee and not a fly which comes near it, will the
Empusa go off or not?"
"It will not go off."
"You mean the Empusa won't explode when a bee comes near?"
"These ones won't. But bees also have their own parasite-fungus. It
gets into the hives and ruins them. Now naturally such fungi are not useful
but actually extremely harmful."
"Clop!" sounded again on the terrace.
The Professor stuck his head out and said:
"There are another five flies ready ! They'll soon stretch out their
legs."
And in fact the whole terrace was soon strewn with flies' corpses.
The pathway to the lake was free.
* * * * * *
After dinner the Professor decided to go off along the shore to see his
famous Carrabus. Was it still there? Had the wind torn it adrift? Had it
capsized?
He collected a coil of spiders' cords, threw it over his shoulder and
sticking a sharp stone in his girdle went to the entrance.
"Now Valya, come on! I hope you will help me?"
"Certainly I'll help, if only. . . ."
"If only what?"
"If there are no more flies on the terrace."
"There are none and there won't be any," answered the old man.
"But new ones? Won't they fly up."
"Very unlikely. Even if they did fly up they would be done for right
away. You see our whole terrace is now mined with Empusae."
Valya comforted, moved off to the entrance.
"But what about me?" Karik leaped up from his bed.
"Why shouldn't you lie there? Get yourself right! We can manage without
you to-day."
"Without me!" Karik was offended. "Now, do you even know what a main
sheet is? or what the mizzen is? or the jib? or a topgallant sail?"
"Well, well," laughed the Professor. "We have got a sea dog here."
"Neither a dog nor a sea dog but I do understand something about
ships?" replied Karik, with pride. He had learnt these nautical terms from a
sailor friend of his.
The old man waved his hand. "If it's like that, you had better come.
You won't be able to do anything. Only be careful - don't injure your bad
leg."
The travellers went out of the cave.
"A real massacre!" said the Professor, picking his way between the dead
flies.
Valya carefully made a wide arc round the flies, looking sideways at
the corpses. Although the flies were dead, yet . . . all the same it was
better to keep well away from them.
"Stop!" shouted Karik suddenly.
The Professor and Valya quickly looked towards him.
Karik stood near a huge fly which lay with its wings spread wide apart.
"What is it, Karik?"
"Look," answered Karik, lifting a transparent wing of the fly with both
hands. "A sail! Do you see?"
"I see! Of course, I see!" rejoiced the old man.
He went over to the fly and having moved its taut, stretched wing,
said:
"It will make an excellent sail! We'll use it!"
Taking the sharp stone out of his girdle, the Professor got up on the
fly and with a strong blow cut off the wing.
The wing fell at Karik's feet.
"One is too small," said Karik, lifting up the wing and examining it.
"This would only do for a jib. But we shall need a sail for the mainmast."
"Why not for the mainmast too?" said the Professor.
And he started deftly cutting off wings with his sharp stone and
throwing them down. The children collected the wings in a heap. At last
Karik said:
"That should surely be enough!"
They quickly made a stack of wings one on top of the other:
the wings rumbling just like drums.
The Professor attached his cord to the bottom wing and threw it over
his shoulder and hauled the heavy load after him to the beach.
"There, you see," said Karik, cheerfully, steadying the wings with his
hands. "I, of course, knew beforehand what sails would be necessary. I had
only to look at these and I saw what could be done with them."
"Good enough! Good enough!" laughed the Professor. "Pat yourself on the
back! But you had far better hold on to those wings and see that we don't
lose half of them on the way."
The travellers dragged the heavy load to the beach.
In the quiet inlet the famous Carrabus was lying at her moorings. Her
curved bow was reflected in the still, calm, blue water. Her sides at their
lowest point were practically level with the surface of the lake. Around the
tall mast stood the white barrels of honey.
"A real ship," said Karik, "it only wants sails now."
"And sails she will have very soon," responded the old man.
Having pulled the flies' wings on board the ship the party proceeded to
rig her.
Karik clambered up the mast.
"Come on now! Give me one of the wings and the cord!" he shouted from
aloft.
The work went ahead furiously.
The Professor handed up the wings. Karik lashed them to the mast, one
above the other, and soon the whole mainmast was hung with transparent
sail-wings.
The wind started to play on the wings.
The sails of the Carrabus started to flap.
Then suddenly the stake to which the mooring rope was fastened started
to crack and broke off.
"Oh, dear!" shouted Valya.
The Professor without saying a word jumped into the water.
"What's happened?" asked Karik, from aloft.
No one answered him. Then he, having stuck his head between two wings,
saw that the old man was standing up to his waist in water and purple in the
face with exertion was towing the ship towards the shore.
"Did the rope come adrift?" he shouted down.
"Yes and no ! A wasp bit through the stake!"
"A wasp?" he asked. "Why is it such a fool as to eat a reed cane?"
"It certainly is no fool," said the Professor, winding the mooring rope
round a thick stump. "The wasp does not eat reeds, it makes paper out of
them for the construction of its nest."
Valya opened her eyes wide.
"Wasps know how to make paper?"
"Yes. They and mankind have both learnt how to make paper from wood
pulp," replied the Professor, and gave the children a whole lecture on
wasps, wood pulp and on the ancient, long-forgotten discoveries.
"There was a time," he continued, "when paper was prepared only from
rags. The scientist, Jacob Christian Sheffer, who lived a hundred years ago,
when investigating the lives of insects learnt from them how to make paper
from wood pulp. It was when he was examining a wasp's nest on one occasion
that he noticed that it was made of a material which resembled cardboard. He
observed the work of the wasp. It was then that Christian Sheffer discovered
that the wasps chew pieces of wood into pulp and from this pulp prepare
excellent paper.
"But at the time of Shelter's discovery no one paid any attention to
it.
"Fifty years passed. Another scientist, Keller, reminded people of the
discoveries of Sheffer and reminded them just at the right time. Paper was
in great demand and the supply of rags was insufficient. . . . So they tried
to make paper like the wasps out of wood pulp. . . . To begin with, nothing
came of it but afterwards the methods were improved and success followed.
Since that time the bulk of the paper we use is prepared from wood pulp.'
"Oh," said Valya, having endured the lecture. "This means that there
must be wasps about. Let's be quick in going home."
"It certainly is high time to go home," agreed the old man.
The travellers returned to the cave.
* * * * * *
In the morning whilst it was yet hardly light they rolled the last
barrels of honey on board, transferred their mattresses and brought their
firefly eggs with them.
One egg Karik lashed to the top of the mast like a steaming light.
He now hustled about more than the others.
Running along the ship he shouted in a real sea captain's voice.
"Heh. You on the poop! Haul in the sheets!"
"But what is the poop?" asked Valya, timidly.
"Why, where you are standing - that's the poop. It's the same as the
stern. Heh! Haul in the sheets. Ship's boy!"
"But what are the sheets?"
"Sheets - those ropes."
"And is there any reason," asked the Professor, "why the stern should
not be called the stern and the sheets should not be called - ropes?"
Karik only laughed.
"Well, call them what you like. But I shall in future call ants'
cocoons ants' eggs."
The Professor clenched his hand.
"No, no, not eggs, cocoons! I'll somehow master your nautical
gibberish, only please don't call cocoons eggs."
Karik again started to throw his weight about.
"Let go the falls," he shouted in a thunderous voice. "Topmen to their
stations. Up ensign!"
The Professor cast off the mooring rope and coiled it neatly in the
stern. Valya hauled in the sheets.
The Carrabus was now ready for setting sail.
"It would be the proper thing," thought Karik, "to fire a salute from
our guns before leaving harbour."
Unfortunately there were no guns.
Karik went from one end of the ship to the other, moved the barrels to
correct the list of the ship, inspected his crew and spat overboard.
It was a moment of triumph.
Karik raised his hand. .
"Attention !"
The crew returned their captain's gaze.
"Course south-west! Full speed ahead. Shiver my timbers and splice the
mainbrace!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" barked the Professor at the top of his voice,
cheerfully winking at Valya.
Valya slackened the sheets. The wind started to fill the sail.
The Carrabus pitched slightly, rolled her mast from side to side a few
times as if considering whether she would set out or stay in harbour and
then slowly started to move away from the shore.
"Full speed ahead!" shouted the brave Captain.
. . . The wind blew.
White horses now started to top the waves with foam. The ship rolled
and swept along on the waves. Warm spray beat in the faces of the sea
voyagers. The fine ship heeled over and cut through the water.
Around the Carrabus strange living things kept popping up everywhere.
They overtook the ship, leaped out of the water and frisked about like
dolphins.
One creature resembled a rabbit but with stag's antlers, and quite
transparent swam for a long time beside them and would not leave the
travellers' ship.
It was possible to examine this devoted attendant of the good ship
Carrabus in some detail as its insides could be clearly seen through the
transparent envelope of its body.
"What is it?" asked Valya.
"It is a very ordinary Sida crystallina," answered the Professor, "one
of hundreds of water fleas."
Valya hit the water flea on the head with a stick. It disappeared.
Abeam crossing the track of the ship something very like a submarine
was surging along. The creature was swimming under water, but its tracks
could be seen on the surface. This creature very nearly collided with the
Carrabus, but at the very last minute turned suddenly to starboard and
quickly disappeared deep down in the water.
"What was that?" whispered Valya, frightened.
"That, now," replied the old man calmly, "was a very common snail. The
pond snail!"
"A water snail?"
"Ay, ay!"
"How does it get through the water?"
"Well, that question," said the Professor, smiling, "was one of the
most difficult to solve; however, it has been answered brilliantly. The pond
water snail travels, strange as it may seem, head downwards, stretching out
its solitary leg it exudes through it a mucous or slime on the surface of
the water. This trail attaches itself to the foam on the water and is
carried along with it as if attached to a raft."
"But in this case it can't see."
"It sees splendidly. Because its eyes are in its foot!"
"Pretty hot stuff that!" Karik was excited.
"Mm - yes!" gruff-gruffed the old man. "Is there anything to be
surprised at? We have already met queer animals which have no mouths and
animals which hear with their legs, but now you are surprised by a creature
which sees with its foot. But all these are dull trifles compared with what
I could tell you about strange creatures. These animals, all of them, live
beside us. This is no fairy story by Andersen or Grimm. These creatures are
found in the best, the most marvellous story of all which is . . . Life.
However, I am so often giving you lectures that I am afraid you will begin
to think that I didn't come to fetch you home but to teach you biology..
Let's sing something for a change, my dears !"
Now this proposal really did upset the children. The Professor's
stories, although at times somewhat boring, it was, quite possible to listen
to, but the old man's singing . . . the only person who wouldn't voice a
protest against this would be a deaf mute. Therefore, Karik and Valya,
frightened that he might actually start singing, started to question him
about anything and everything they could see. But the Professor kept on
trying to break off and start singing.
"Now, then," he said, coughing to clear his voice, "let's strike up. Ha
hur! Ha hur! Something like the Forward March. . . . Thus."
"Oh, look, look !" shouted Valya, hastily. "Whatever is that under the
water? So big, isn't it?"
The Carrabus was sailing over some sort of striped object which lay on
its side like a sunken ship.
The Professor glanced over the side and said good humouredly:
"Well, that, my dears, is the former food of mankind - Mussels. There
was a time a very great while ago when these mussels were for mankind what
bread is for us to-day. But to-day we look upon this former bread with
disdain."
"I don't think," replied Karik, "that mussels would be nicer than
bread."
"You are right there," agreed the old man, "but all the same it is a
great pity that such a huge source of food should be wasted. Why, it would
be possible to collect hundreds of thousands of tons of these mussels."
"But whatever for if no one will eat them?"
"In Germany, for example, they collect them, boil them in huge
cauldrons and ..."
"Do they really eat them?"
"No. They feed the pigs on them. The pigs are said to get fat quickly
and their flesh becomes exceptionally tender and is of delicious flavour."
For a short time the conversation then lapsed but as soon as the
children heard the ominous coughing - this meant the Professor had decided
to start singing - they quickly started to ask him any sort of question.
Several hours passed in this way.
The Carrabus hurried on under full sail. But as the sun rose so the
wind dropped.
The ship then moved lazily through the oily swell, barely rolling. The
sails hung down. The Captain grew melancholy.
The voyagers sat on the gunwale of the ship and dangled their feet in
the cool water.
Water insects were cutting here and there across the waves.
They wove their way in and out of the water weed forest which rose from
the dark bottom of the lake.
Valya stretched herself on the deck. With her head hanging over the
side she gazed at the swirling foliage rising from the bottom.
At last the under water forest came to an end. The bottom was now grey
and hilly. On the slopes of the underwater hills there wriggled and moved
about gigantic red snakes. There were so many of them that the bottom
appeared red.
"I say! What a lot of them! And what are they?" asked Valya.
The Professor bent over.
"Culicidae Derguna . . . or in simple language the larvae of the
Derguna gnat. . . . . Excellent food for fish. The favourite food of all
small fry."
"Why are they called Dergunas?"
"Just because they are always pulling with their feet twisting about."
"That means that all gnats are Dergunas because they all pull things
about with their feet. I never knew this before."
"No," said the old man, "only one sort of gnat is called Derguna. The
other gnats have different names."
"What?" Karik was surprised. "Surely there are not a whole lot of
different gnats. I thought gnats were all one sort."
"Oh, no, there are hundreds of different sorts! Why, just in one
district alone there are gnats that pull themselves along, gnats that push
themselves along, bearded gnats, long-nosed gnats, malaria gnats or
mosquitoes, feather-whiskered gnats, amphibian gnats, ordinary midges. Then
we also have snow midges."
"White?"
"No! They are called snow mosquitoes because they live on the snow."
"Surely mosquitoes can't live in winter?"
"Life does not come to a halt either in summer or winter," replied the
Professor. "In summer one lot of insects crawl, jump and fly, in winter
another lot. For example, just around here you come across snow fleas, snow
worms, snow spiders, ice flies, wingless gnats, and many, many other living
creatures."
"Do all the gnats bite?" asked Valya, looking at the larvae of the
Derguna in some apprehension.
"The larvae do not bite. Yes, and the full-grown Derguna does not bite
human beings or living creatures. Anyway, what do the bites of our gnats
actually amount to?"
"Nothing! twiddle twaddle! A mere trifle!" he gruff-gruffed.
Then he stroked his beard and said smiling:
"Now on the Island of Barbadoes gnats do bite; that is to say, I am
telling you they really do bite!"
"What happens? Does it hurt terribly?" whispered Valya.
"It's painful all right. . . . For instance, this happened. In the town
of Vera Cruz a young woman became unconscious. It was thought that she was
dead. Her face was like wax and she herself was as cold as ice. Well,
naturally, they put her in a coffin, but they stood the coffin out on the
verandah."
"Well, what happened then?"
No sooner than night had fallen gnats started to fly about the
verandah. They swarmed thickly on the corpse and proceeded to bite her so
savagely that she awoke, pushed the lid of the coffin off; yes! and ran out
into the street in her shroud with the coffin lid in her hands."
"And she didn't die any more?" asked Karik.
"No, she lived right up to the very day other death," replied the old
man with a grin.
Suddenly Valya leaped up and shouted:
"Oh, look, there is something from Barbadoes swimming along here. Oo,
ooee !"
Beneath the water on one side of the ship a long, grey-coloured animal
with a huge head was jerking itself along. Having blown itself out until it
could contain no more the creature contracted itself and shot out a stream
of water behind it. As a result of this stream it moved forward just like a
rocket.
"The larva of a dragonfly!" said the Professor.
"That's what we should use instead of a motor," said Karik,
thoughtfully.
The Professor started to smile.
"The larva of the dragonfly has been using it long enough but we have
only just been able to make a jet-propelled aeroplane and the jet-propelled
submarine has yet to prove itself practical. This dragonfly submarine is a
most dangerous craft. It will attack a small fish and devour it. And any
fish, however small, is by comparison with us a regular whale."
"There is a mother dragonfly!" announced Valya. "Look! Where is she
crawling to?"
With her wings pressed to her back the goggle-eyed dragonfly, clutching
the stem of a water weed, had started to crawl down under water with her
huge head pointed towards the bottom.
"What is she up to?" demanded Karik in amazement. "Does she want to
drown herself?"
Valya gazed after the dragonfly, thought a little and said undecidedly:
"Evidently she wants to pay a visit to her larva. She is lonely, so she
goes to pay a visit. Very simple, actually !"
The old man started to laugh.
"But there is an explanation still more simple and actually more
correct," he said. "The dragonfly is going beneath the water in order to lay
her eggs."
"But what an awful creature she is!" said Valya.
"What's up with you? She is very beautiful!" retorted the Professor.
"It is not without reason that the Germans give her a poetic name - Wasser
Jungfer, or water nymph; whilst the French call her Mademoiselle, or
literally translated, my young Lady or Miss."
Waves now started to roll across the lake. The sails started to hum.
Astern the wake of the ship had started to gleam.
"All hands to their stations!" bawled Karik.
"Aye, aye, sir!" sang out the old man.
Once again the ship was making way rapidly.
Karik climbed up the mast.
The Carrabus sailed along, tacking between flat green islands which in
fact were the fleshy leaves of kingcups or water lilies.
At last the Carrabus sailed out into open water.
Karik shielded his eyes with his hand. Far away across the blue lake
which was sparkling in the sun he could see the misty outline of the shore.
The shore had almost disappeared below the horizon. Clouds lay like
mountains of cotton wool above the blue flat stretched ahead.
When Karik had looked for some time he spotted on the horizon a minute,
slender, pin-like excrescence. At the top of this something was waving very
much like a red feather.
"There it is! There's our landmark! Alter course to starboard! Good,
good! Another point to starboard. Haul in your port sheets, you landlubbers!
And again! Helm amidships ! Steady on your course!"
"Helm amid-ships! steady on the course," bawled the Professor, in
reply.
The Carrabus now surged on her straight course for the shore.
Suddenly all around things started to sing, to sing, and sing.
The water sang, the sky sang.
Karik looked around in consternation and hastily clambered down the
mast on to the deck.
The old man, screwing up his eyes thoughtfully and cocking his head on
one side, listened to the amazing music.
It sounded as if thousands of violins and flutes were playing one and
the same song, a simple melody but quite attractive.
The Professor sighed.
"That must have been how the sirens sang around the ship! when the
Odyssey of legend was sailing the seas."
"Are they sirens singing now?" demanded Karik.
"No," said the old man, "sirens are the mermaids or the beautiful women
sailors have seen in their fancy amongst the foam of the billows. They
light. It looks as if the stump itself was glowing, but it is really the
light of the bacteria. In the same way Rotton fish thrown away on the shore
glow. Often you can see the same light in the carcases of animals."
Here the Professor hesitated, ran over to a barrel and throwing the lid
off it noisily shouted cheerfully:
"Supper, supper, my dears! Supper and then bed!"
In the morning the Professor set out on a scouting expedition. He
returned only at nightfall and brought a coil of spider's web cord. He then
sat at the entrance of the cave late into the night twisting thick ropes out
of the spider's cord. When they were all about to go to sleep he announced,
turning to Valya:
"To-morrow you and I will go to our ship! It's time to launch her in
the water. . . . Karik is getting better and we should very soon be able to
continue our journey."
Next day the old man woke Valya before dawn. They breakfasted on honey.
Then he slung the rope over his shoulder and set out with Valya to
start work.
The oak leaf lay in the old place.
The Professor threw the rope down near the leaf.
"But now," said he, "let's go to the stable for our cart horse."
Then he led along the bank, bending down to the ground, looking under
the rocks.
Beside a big grey rock he went down on all fours, looked for a long
time into a dark hole under it and then sat back and threw a handful of sand
into the hole.
Something stirred beneath the rock.
"A famous steed!" announced the Professor, getting up. "If only he
doesn't kick we'll soon launch our ship."
"What is there? Is it under the rock?" asked Valya, in a whisper.
"A wild horse!" joked the Professor. "A horse with six legs. Now come
on, little Valya, you must help me!"
He dragged the spider's web rope to the stalk of the leaf, wound it
around the stalk and with an effort dragging the rope over his shoulder he
pulled the knot tight.
"Excellent!" he muttered.
Dragging the other end of the rope over the ground he walked with it
away from the leaf. When the rope was stretched full length he tied another
loop in the other end of it. Then he dragged four short logs of wood and
stood them on end like ninepins stand when you are playing skittles.
Lightly hammering the logs with a stone the old man drove them a little
way into the earth. He knocked one of them with his foot.
The log fell down.
"Fine!" announced the Professor.
He picked up the fallen log and stuck it in its former position.
Valya was watching him with curiosity but could not make head or tails
of what he was doing.
"Can I help you?" she asked at length.
"Not at all, not at all! I can manage!"
He lifted the loop of the rope, dragged it to the logs and carefully
laid it on top of them.
The loop now hung above the ground resting on the carefully balanced
logs.
"Well, there's the horse's collar ready," said the old man. "Now let's
go and find the horse! Have you ever harnessed horses?" he asked, jokingly.
"No," Valya acknowledged frankly. "I have never harnessed a horse!"
"Marvellous! Nor have I. However, that's no great misfortune."
The Professor picked up a long stick from the ground and held it out to
Valya.
"Come! Take hold of this!"
Then he found an even longer stick for himself and putting it over his
shoulder, commanded:
"Follow me !"
With long strides he led Valya to the big grey rock.
Near to the rock he stopped, drove the end of his stick into the
ground, and putting one foot forward, said:
"Now listen attentively. Just here under the rock there is the Carrabus
larva hiding itself from the light of day. Now the Carrabus is a vicious
beetle which lives on insects. This larva, like its parents, also lives on
insects. By day it sits quietly under a rock, but at night time it goes on
the hunt. It is extraordinarily strong! A regular tigress - nothing less!"
"I am frightened," whispered Valya, looking at the Professor with eyes
wide with fear.
"Quite unnecessary!" replied the old man. "Just listen. Now then, we
must drive the Carrabus larva from under the rock and chase it into our
horse collar. Once it is there it will pull our ship to the lake. I think we
can manage the insect quite easily, only we must not be frightened."
"But will it suddenly bite?"
"Of course it will bite, if we get careless!"
"Then how are we going to drive it?"
"Just this way: to begin with we'll chase it out from under the rock
and then you will stay on that side of it and I on this. As soon as it
starts to come out you prevent it from crawling to the right whilst I
prevent it crawling to the left. We can drive it straight into the loop. Now
are you ready? Get a bit further away."
Valya ran a little way away. The Professor shoved his stick under the
rock and started to twist it about like a poker in the fire.
"Aha! it's coming! it's coming!"
A huge monster with a long body started to crawl out from under the
stone straight towards Valya. She hit it with her stick on its back. The
Carrabus quivered and turned towards the Professor. He tapped it on the head
with his stick.
Then the monster, moving on all six legs, crawled straight towards the
oak leaf but on the way there suddenly stopped.
The old man ran up to the insect and gave it such a whack on its back
that it shuddered and started to turn around where it was.
"Valya, drive it, drive it!"
Valya struck the Carrabus a stroke on its side.
"Now, now! Get on! Get on!"
Thus, step by step, they moved towards the oak leaf, driving the larva
ahead of them.
At last the monster's head was level with the loop. The Professor hit
the logs with his stick. The loop fell over the head of the Carrabus. The
old man threw his stick down, seized the rope with his hands and pulled with
all his strength. The loop tightened. Then he picked his stick up again and
ran up to the head of the insect.
"We're off!" the old man shouted.
The leaf tumbled. Raising a cloud of dust it then slowly moved towards
the bank.
The Carrabus turned from side to side, but each time bumped up against
a sharp stick. The travellers would not allow it to turn away either to the
right or to the left.
At last it became more peaceful and dragged the heavy leaf to the lake.
It crawled along, glancing at the Professor and Valya with huge eyes
quite unable to follow what these terrible two-legged insects armed with
long sticks wanted.
"The chestnut grey horse! A champion," shouted Valya, with delight.
"Not a chestnut grey horse but a Carrabus Cancellatus," said the
Professor, sternly. "Carrabus is a genus of beetle of the family Carabide;
Cancellatus is its name!"
The Carrabus larva dragged the oak leaf to the water's edge, but here
it became quite crazy. It made a dash suddenly along the edge in one
direction and then abruptly turned around and dashed off towards the bank.
The Professor and Valya ran, shouting, after it and hit it with their
sticks on the head, sides and back.
How long this struggle would have continued it is difficult to say.
However, it finished quite unexpectedly: running past a huge cliff, the
Carrabus stopped and then disappeared under the cliff.
"Phew!" puffed the old man. "Well, that's the Carrabus! 1 am afraid it
didn't like us."
"But how are we to unharness the Carrabus?"
"Very simple!" replied the Professor, untying the rope from the stalk
of the leaf. "Although it's a pity to throw away such a fine rope, there is
nothing else to do! Come on. We have done enough to-day, don't you think? We
must go and have a bit of a rest."
Leaving the leaf on the shore, the travellers returned home. After
dinner Valya recounted to Karik how skilfully they had dragged the oak leaf
to the shore with the help of the Carrabus larva. Karik listened to her with
envy,
"Eh! What a pity I wasn't there," he sighed. "I would have got it to go
straight into the water. You should have tugged at the loop."
"It is easy to advise," said the old man, "but you should have been
working on the job as Valya and I were."
He put his hand to his whiskers, wiped the honey off his beard and got
up.
"To-morrow we must set out quickly on the expedition. But to-day until
evening comes we must drag the barrels of honey on to the shore, find
clothes for ourselves, get the mast, sails and ropes ready. In other words,
there's plenty to do."
He took an armful of silkworm hair from the ground.
"Come on, little Valya!" he said, turning to the mouth of the cave.
All day long the Professor and Valya worked on the shore of the lake.
Valya platted cords out of the hair, and the old man wandered about looking
for a mast.
At last he returned. On his shoulders there lay a long, dry grass mast.
That evening the leaf was launched in the water.
The Professor hammered a hole in the centre of the leaf with a sharp
stone, drove the mast into the hole and afterwards smeared a thick layer of
clay on the floor around the mast and announced:
"To-morrow the sun will dry up the clay and our mast will be fixed to
the ship as firm as you like."
The Professor gazed at the ship, thought for a bit then took a long
cord from Valya's hands and went up to the end of the leaf. Here he threw a
loop over the stalk and pulled it with all his strength.
The leaf quivered, its end lashed in the water and then lifted a
little.
Then the oak leaf became quite like a ship.
It rocked with its nose high above the water.
"It's like a goose sticking its neck up."
Valya started laughing. "Now if only there was a sail to put up!"
"There will be a sail too," retorted the Professor. "We'll make it out
of some sort of petal! Only it is surely not worth putting it up now! It's
already too late in the day. And what's more it would dry out in the sun and
become like leather."
The old man drove a sharp stake into the ground and fastened the hair
rope to it.
"There we are, everything is fine!"
Valya went along the rope to the bow of the ship and with a piece of
shell started to draw something on it.
"What are you up to?" demanded the Professor.
"I want to give our ship a name!" said Valya.
"What have you decided to call it?"
"Take a look at it!"
Valya jumped down. The Professor went up closer and wrinkling his eyes
made out in big letters on the bow: CARRABUS.
"Not bad!" he said, approvingly.
* * * * * *
Next day the travellers sewed clothes from petals, and then in the
evening Valya and the Professor rolled the barrels of honey on to the ship.
Karik was already up. He walked about holding on to the side of the
cave with his hands and wanted all the time to try and help the Professor
and Valya, but the old man stopped him.
"Lie down, take it easy," the Professor grunted at him. "You should
rest for another two or three days. We can manage without you."
This annoyed Karik greatly, but he didn't start to dispute it. He lay
down on his bed, turned his face to the wall and made it appear that he was
asleep, although he himself was stealthily watching the other two.
"All right," he thought. "You'll go off and I'll do half the work here
without you. Afterwards you'll jolly well have to thank me."
As soon as ever the Professor and Valya had gone out of the cave lie
jumped up, seized one of the barrels and started to push it towards the
mouth.
He had already rolled it out of the cave when an accident happened. A
round stone turned over under his foot. Karik flung up his arms and fell
forward with his body on the barrel. The barrel tilted over as a result of
this violent impact. He quickly clutched the edge of the barrel, but losing
his balance fell to the ground.
The barrel rumbled down beside him. The lid flew off'. The thick
gruel-like honey spread out over the ground.
Karik got up. Shaking the dust off himself he gazed perplexedly at the
overthrown barrel.
"That's a fine way to help!"
The honey puddle crept in all directions like liquid dough. Karik moved
out of the way, looked around and, finally waving his hands hopelessly,
hopped back on one leg into the cave.
* * * * * *
It was already dark by the time the Professor and Valya returned. Karik
heard their voices in the distance. He quickly buried his head in the hair
pillow and pretended to be asleep.
"Oy, whatever is this?" shouted Valya, stopping at the entrance to the
cave.
Karik stuck his fingers in his ears and screwed his eyes tight shut.
"Oh, I can't move!" shouted Valya. "My feet are stuck in the ground."
The old man dashed to her aid, but he had no sooner reached her than
his own feet got stuck in the sticky honey.
"What can it be?" he wondered.
Sinking in up to the ankles he managed to reach Valya with difficulty
and stretched out his hand to her.
"Give me your hand!"
Valya gave a hand. He stepped back and pulled her towards himself.
Valya swayed and almost fell: her feet were fast stuck in the thick honey.
"Stop," she yelled, "I am quite stuck! Like a fly in the jam."
"Don't worry, don't worry," muttered the Professor, and took a breath.
He dragged Valya out of the honey with a great effort, took her in his
arms and moving his feet with difficulty started to stagger towards the
cave.
Under his feet the honey sucked, champed and sighed as if it was alive.
The mess clung to the feet like very heavy sticky clay.
At last the old man got clear of the puddle. Setting Valya down on the
ground in front of the entrance to the cave, he started to take the honey
off his feet with a thick stick and then he helped Valya to clear herself.
"Eh, Karik!" shouted the Professor, looking into the cave. "What
happened here?"
Karik buried himself still deeper in his mattress.
The old man and Valya looked at each other silently.
"Well, it's clear," said the Professor, going into the cave, "that this
is certainly something that Karik contrived! And what's more he is not
asleep! He is listening to everything! But he is ashamed to look us in the
face. Eh, Karik!"
Karik cautiously turned his head and opened one eye. Then he saw, right
by his side, Valya was looking at him. He hastily screwed up his eye and
snored very loudly.
"He's asleep!" Valya started to laugh.
The Professor put his head from side to side but said nothing.
The travellers went to bed.
A little while after dawn Karik heard, through his sleep, some sort of
noise. He got up from his crumpled mattress and went to the entrance.
Through the chinks between the rocks he saw the terrace in front of the cave
in the pale light of the morning.
On this terrace huge winged monsters were crawling about just in front
of the cave.
Karik recognised them. They were flies. Bustling around the puddle of
honey they jostled each other, flew upwards with buzzing noises and then
swooped down to the honey once more. Every minute more and more flies
arrived.
The loud noise awakened the Professor and Valya. The old man said
something, but the children could not hear a single word. The flies were
buzzing so loudly that their ears rang just as if powerful aeroplane engines
were running right beside them.
It was quite impossible to drag the remaining barrels of honey over to
the ship. The flies might knock the travellers off their legs and even kill
them. They were crowding at the entrance, had started to peer into the cave
and were thrusting their long snouts through the chinks between the rocks.
They crawled over the rocks which were blocking the entrance and under the
weight of the flies the rocks started to shake.
The travellers gazed in fear at their barricade. It had only to fall
down and the hordes of flies would burst in - then they would be - goners.
However, towards evening the flies crawled away to their night quarters.
"They've gone away !" Valya announced joyfully. "They haven't gone
away," said Karik, listlessly. "To-morrow they'll be back and once more
they'll try and get into the cave. I know them! They can scent the barrels
of honey!"
"Let's block up the entrance better!" proposed Valya.
"Nonsense!" said the Professor. "Sit another whole day trembling - I
should thank you!"
"But what can we do?"
"Attack!" announced the old man, "attack and not defend."
He seized one of the diatom baskets, took a firefly egg from the tray
and holding it high above his head as a torch, ran out of the cave.
"Where are you off to, Professor?" the children shouted.
"I'll be back directly. In a minute I'll give them a treat, the
blackguards!"
The blue light twinkled in the darkness and disappeared.
"Where is he off to?"
"I don't know! He must have thought up something."
Late that night the Professor returned to the cave very contented and
cheerful. He put the basket down on the floor and, panting a little still,
said: "There! I've brought the mines! To-morrow the flies will find a
minefield."
The children rushed to the basket.
"Mines?"
"That's better!"
Karik put his hand into the basket cautiously and drew out a grey lump.
His face fell.
"Some mines! Nothing but Rotton old clods. Simply dried mud. These can
hardly be mines?"
The Professor started to laugh.
"You don't like them?" he asked. "Don't worry! You just see what
they'll do to-morrow. A charge of gun cotton wouldn't do better."
He extracted the lumps from the basket, divided them into two heaps.
Having pushed the smaller lumps to Valya, he said:
"Pick them up, Valya, and come with me!"
Ladened with mines, the Professor and Valya went out of the cave.
"Lay your mines aft around the entrance!" Karik heard the Professor
saying.
The battle with the flies - Extraordinary sails - It sees with its feet
- A bug plays the fiddle - On board the bumble bee
The children jumped out of their crumpled, scattered beds. Rubbing
their eyes they looked around in alarm.
"Karik, what was that?" .
"I don't know."
"May be someone in our minefield?"
The usual blue light glimmered in the cave. The dark roof hung low
above the head. In the corner along the wall white stout barrels stood in
rows.
"Clop! Clop! CLOP!" Explosions sounded beyond the wall.
The Professor got up from his hair mattress, yawned widely and rubbing
his sleepy eyes with his fists said:
"Aha!.. . they are working. .. . My mines are working. . . ."
The old man with the children following him went up to the barricade
blocking the entrance to the cave.
Through the chinks between the rocks the morning light was peeping in.
The yellow sand of the terrace in front of the cave was ablaze with
sunlight. The puddles of upset honey shone like liquid gold. The white
barrel still lay there on its side.
The travellers had to screw up their eyes, the light was so intense.
"It's going to be a wonderful day!" said the Professor, looking at the
clear, almost polished blue of the sky.
"But what a lot of flies there will be!" sighed Valya. "Even more than
yesterday."
"That's nothing to worry about!" The Professor calmed her and rubbing
his hands announced: "Very soon there will be fewer! Decidedly fewer!"
"Why fewer?"
"Well, didn't you hear my mines exploding?" asked the old man, looking
surprised.
"I heard them," said Valya, "but the flies apparently don't worry about
your mines at all. Over there the mines exploded right amongst the flies but
they had no effect."
"Wait a little!" the Professor calmly stroked his beard. "There is no
hurry! The flies are not killed at once by my mines. After a piece has stuck
into the fly, it will crawl around for five or six hours and then it begins
to die in a very interesting way. Oh, this is well worth seeing!"
"And these flies are already wounded?"
"Certainly!" replied the old man confidently. "Because the explosions
started, if I mistake not, at earliest dawn."
Valya pulled a rock out of the barricade and sticking herself into the
observation post so formed started to watch the terrace.
Huge, hairy flies wandered past the rocks. They went up to the honey
pool, thrust their snouts into the honey and jostled one another.
One of them - large with white body - sat on the overturned barrel. The
barrel rocked. The fly flew up alarmed and circled around, gazing at the
barrel from above with huge protruding eyes. Then it cautiously came down
and alighted beside the barrel.
And then suddenly it reared up and staggered . as if drunk. Its legs
bent under it. It fell to the ground, flopped its heavy head on the sand and
started to die. Only its wings spread widely out still quivered slightly.
"That's number one!" shouted Valya.
"And that's not the whole business either!" said the Professor. "Wait
and see what will still happen to it."
After a little while the Professor and the children went up to the
barricade again.
On the terrace in front of the cave several flies had now fallen. Some
of them were still alive - they moved; others lay with their wings spread
out and their heads drooping to the ground. They were covered with something
white just like hoar-frost. But from the body of the fly lying by the barrel
there rose up a long, thin stem with a round little hat on the top of it.
"What ever is that?" asked Valya. "It looks like a mushroom."
"That's just what it is - the Empusa fungus."
Suddenly the little hat of the fungus broke off and fell to the ground.
"A new Empusa has ripened!" said the Professor.
"What a comic word - Empusa!" snorted Valya.
"Hardly comic, is it? At any rate, it has never seemed comic to me. I
have kept the company of the Empusa for a long time now. It's an old
acquaintance of mine. A parasitic fungus. . . . One of the most useful fungi
to mankind. . . . It kills flies.
Now that new Empusa which has just fallen on the ground will explode as
soon as ever a fly gets near to it and it will sprinkle the fly with
splinter seeds; the seeds grow up, kill the fly and throw off new mine fungi
destined to destroy more flies."
"But if the flies do not make an appearance?"
"Then the Empusa will not explode !"
"Well, suppose it is a bee and not a fly which comes near it, will the
Empusa go off or not?"
"It will not go off."
"You mean the Empusa won't explode when a bee comes near?"
"These ones won't. But bees also have their own parasite-fungus. It
gets into the hives and ruins them. Now naturally such fungi are not useful
but actually extremely harmful."
"Clop!" sounded again on the terrace.
The Professor stuck his head out and said:
"There are another five flies ready ! They'll soon stretch out their
legs."
And in fact the whole terrace was soon strewn with flies' corpses.
The pathway to the lake was free.
* * * * * *
After dinner the Professor decided to go off along the shore to see his
famous Carrabus. Was it still there? Had the wind torn it adrift? Had it
capsized?
He collected a coil of spiders' cords, threw it over his shoulder and
sticking a sharp stone in his girdle went to the entrance.
"Now Valya, come on! I hope you will help me?"
"Certainly I'll help, if only. . . ."
"If only what?"
"If there are no more flies on the terrace."
"There are none and there won't be any," answered the old man.
"But new ones? Won't they fly up."
"Very unlikely. Even if they did fly up they would be done for right
away. You see our whole terrace is now mined with Empusae."
Valya comforted, moved off to the entrance.
"But what about me?" Karik leaped up from his bed.
"Why shouldn't you lie there? Get yourself right! We can manage without
you to-day."
"Without me!" Karik was offended. "Now, do you even know what a main
sheet is? or what the mizzen is? or the jib? or a topgallant sail?"
"Well, well," laughed the Professor. "We have got a sea dog here."
"Neither a dog nor a sea dog but I do understand something about
ships?" replied Karik, with pride. He had learnt these nautical terms from a
sailor friend of his.
The old man waved his hand. "If it's like that, you had better come.
You won't be able to do anything. Only be careful - don't injure your bad
leg."
The travellers went out of the cave.
"A real massacre!" said the Professor, picking his way between the dead
flies.
Valya carefully made a wide arc round the flies, looking sideways at
the corpses. Although the flies were dead, yet . . . all the same it was
better to keep well away from them.
"Stop!" shouted Karik suddenly.
The Professor and Valya quickly looked towards him.
Karik stood near a huge fly which lay with its wings spread wide apart.
"What is it, Karik?"
"Look," answered Karik, lifting a transparent wing of the fly with both
hands. "A sail! Do you see?"
"I see! Of course, I see!" rejoiced the old man.
He went over to the fly and having moved its taut, stretched wing,
said:
"It will make an excellent sail! We'll use it!"
Taking the sharp stone out of his girdle, the Professor got up on the
fly and with a strong blow cut off the wing.
The wing fell at Karik's feet.
"One is too small," said Karik, lifting up the wing and examining it.
"This would only do for a jib. But we shall need a sail for the mainmast."
"Why not for the mainmast too?" said the Professor.
And he started deftly cutting off wings with his sharp stone and
throwing them down. The children collected the wings in a heap. At last
Karik said:
"That should surely be enough!"
They quickly made a stack of wings one on top of the other:
the wings rumbling just like drums.
The Professor attached his cord to the bottom wing and threw it over
his shoulder and hauled the heavy load after him to the beach.
"There, you see," said Karik, cheerfully, steadying the wings with his
hands. "I, of course, knew beforehand what sails would be necessary. I had
only to look at these and I saw what could be done with them."
"Good enough! Good enough!" laughed the Professor. "Pat yourself on the
back! But you had far better hold on to those wings and see that we don't
lose half of them on the way."
The travellers dragged the heavy load to the beach.
In the quiet inlet the famous Carrabus was lying at her moorings. Her
curved bow was reflected in the still, calm, blue water. Her sides at their
lowest point were practically level with the surface of the lake. Around the
tall mast stood the white barrels of honey.
"A real ship," said Karik, "it only wants sails now."
"And sails she will have very soon," responded the old man.
Having pulled the flies' wings on board the ship the party proceeded to
rig her.
Karik clambered up the mast.
"Come on now! Give me one of the wings and the cord!" he shouted from
aloft.
The work went ahead furiously.
The Professor handed up the wings. Karik lashed them to the mast, one
above the other, and soon the whole mainmast was hung with transparent
sail-wings.
The wind started to play on the wings.
The sails of the Carrabus started to flap.
Then suddenly the stake to which the mooring rope was fastened started
to crack and broke off.
"Oh, dear!" shouted Valya.
The Professor without saying a word jumped into the water.
"What's happened?" asked Karik, from aloft.
No one answered him. Then he, having stuck his head between two wings,
saw that the old man was standing up to his waist in water and purple in the
face with exertion was towing the ship towards the shore.
"Did the rope come adrift?" he shouted down.
"Yes and no ! A wasp bit through the stake!"
"A wasp?" he asked. "Why is it such a fool as to eat a reed cane?"
"It certainly is no fool," said the Professor, winding the mooring rope
round a thick stump. "The wasp does not eat reeds, it makes paper out of
them for the construction of its nest."
Valya opened her eyes wide.
"Wasps know how to make paper?"
"Yes. They and mankind have both learnt how to make paper from wood
pulp," replied the Professor, and gave the children a whole lecture on
wasps, wood pulp and on the ancient, long-forgotten discoveries.
"There was a time," he continued, "when paper was prepared only from
rags. The scientist, Jacob Christian Sheffer, who lived a hundred years ago,
when investigating the lives of insects learnt from them how to make paper
from wood pulp. It was when he was examining a wasp's nest on one occasion
that he noticed that it was made of a material which resembled cardboard. He
observed the work of the wasp. It was then that Christian Sheffer discovered
that the wasps chew pieces of wood into pulp and from this pulp prepare
excellent paper.
"But at the time of Shelter's discovery no one paid any attention to
it.
"Fifty years passed. Another scientist, Keller, reminded people of the
discoveries of Sheffer and reminded them just at the right time. Paper was
in great demand and the supply of rags was insufficient. . . . So they tried
to make paper like the wasps out of wood pulp. . . . To begin with, nothing
came of it but afterwards the methods were improved and success followed.
Since that time the bulk of the paper we use is prepared from wood pulp.'
"Oh," said Valya, having endured the lecture. "This means that there
must be wasps about. Let's be quick in going home."
"It certainly is high time to go home," agreed the old man.
The travellers returned to the cave.
* * * * * *
In the morning whilst it was yet hardly light they rolled the last
barrels of honey on board, transferred their mattresses and brought their
firefly eggs with them.
One egg Karik lashed to the top of the mast like a steaming light.
He now hustled about more than the others.
Running along the ship he shouted in a real sea captain's voice.
"Heh. You on the poop! Haul in the sheets!"
"But what is the poop?" asked Valya, timidly.
"Why, where you are standing - that's the poop. It's the same as the
stern. Heh! Haul in the sheets. Ship's boy!"
"But what are the sheets?"
"Sheets - those ropes."
"And is there any reason," asked the Professor, "why the stern should
not be called the stern and the sheets should not be called - ropes?"
Karik only laughed.
"Well, call them what you like. But I shall in future call ants'
cocoons ants' eggs."
The Professor clenched his hand.
"No, no, not eggs, cocoons! I'll somehow master your nautical
gibberish, only please don't call cocoons eggs."
Karik again started to throw his weight about.
"Let go the falls," he shouted in a thunderous voice. "Topmen to their
stations. Up ensign!"
The Professor cast off the mooring rope and coiled it neatly in the
stern. Valya hauled in the sheets.
The Carrabus was now ready for setting sail.
"It would be the proper thing," thought Karik, "to fire a salute from
our guns before leaving harbour."
Unfortunately there were no guns.
Karik went from one end of the ship to the other, moved the barrels to
correct the list of the ship, inspected his crew and spat overboard.
It was a moment of triumph.
Karik raised his hand. .
"Attention !"
The crew returned their captain's gaze.
"Course south-west! Full speed ahead. Shiver my timbers and splice the
mainbrace!"
"Aye, aye, sir!" barked the Professor at the top of his voice,
cheerfully winking at Valya.
Valya slackened the sheets. The wind started to fill the sail.
The Carrabus pitched slightly, rolled her mast from side to side a few
times as if considering whether she would set out or stay in harbour and
then slowly started to move away from the shore.
"Full speed ahead!" shouted the brave Captain.
. . . The wind blew.
White horses now started to top the waves with foam. The ship rolled
and swept along on the waves. Warm spray beat in the faces of the sea
voyagers. The fine ship heeled over and cut through the water.
Around the Carrabus strange living things kept popping up everywhere.
They overtook the ship, leaped out of the water and frisked about like
dolphins.
One creature resembled a rabbit but with stag's antlers, and quite
transparent swam for a long time beside them and would not leave the
travellers' ship.
It was possible to examine this devoted attendant of the good ship
Carrabus in some detail as its insides could be clearly seen through the
transparent envelope of its body.
"What is it?" asked Valya.
"It is a very ordinary Sida crystallina," answered the Professor, "one
of hundreds of water fleas."
Valya hit the water flea on the head with a stick. It disappeared.
Abeam crossing the track of the ship something very like a submarine
was surging along. The creature was swimming under water, but its tracks
could be seen on the surface. This creature very nearly collided with the
Carrabus, but at the very last minute turned suddenly to starboard and
quickly disappeared deep down in the water.
"What was that?" whispered Valya, frightened.
"That, now," replied the old man calmly, "was a very common snail. The
pond snail!"
"A water snail?"
"Ay, ay!"
"How does it get through the water?"
"Well, that question," said the Professor, smiling, "was one of the
most difficult to solve; however, it has been answered brilliantly. The pond
water snail travels, strange as it may seem, head downwards, stretching out
its solitary leg it exudes through it a mucous or slime on the surface of
the water. This trail attaches itself to the foam on the water and is
carried along with it as if attached to a raft."
"But in this case it can't see."
"It sees splendidly. Because its eyes are in its foot!"
"Pretty hot stuff that!" Karik was excited.
"Mm - yes!" gruff-gruffed the old man. "Is there anything to be
surprised at? We have already met queer animals which have no mouths and
animals which hear with their legs, but now you are surprised by a creature
which sees with its foot. But all these are dull trifles compared with what
I could tell you about strange creatures. These animals, all of them, live
beside us. This is no fairy story by Andersen or Grimm. These creatures are
found in the best, the most marvellous story of all which is . . . Life.
However, I am so often giving you lectures that I am afraid you will begin
to think that I didn't come to fetch you home but to teach you biology..
Let's sing something for a change, my dears !"
Now this proposal really did upset the children. The Professor's
stories, although at times somewhat boring, it was, quite possible to listen
to, but the old man's singing . . . the only person who wouldn't voice a
protest against this would be a deaf mute. Therefore, Karik and Valya,
frightened that he might actually start singing, started to question him
about anything and everything they could see. But the Professor kept on
trying to break off and start singing.
"Now, then," he said, coughing to clear his voice, "let's strike up. Ha
hur! Ha hur! Something like the Forward March. . . . Thus."
"Oh, look, look !" shouted Valya, hastily. "Whatever is that under the
water? So big, isn't it?"
The Carrabus was sailing over some sort of striped object which lay on
its side like a sunken ship.
The Professor glanced over the side and said good humouredly:
"Well, that, my dears, is the former food of mankind - Mussels. There
was a time a very great while ago when these mussels were for mankind what
bread is for us to-day. But to-day we look upon this former bread with
disdain."
"I don't think," replied Karik, "that mussels would be nicer than
bread."
"You are right there," agreed the old man, "but all the same it is a
great pity that such a huge source of food should be wasted. Why, it would
be possible to collect hundreds of thousands of tons of these mussels."
"But whatever for if no one will eat them?"
"In Germany, for example, they collect them, boil them in huge
cauldrons and ..."
"Do they really eat them?"
"No. They feed the pigs on them. The pigs are said to get fat quickly
and their flesh becomes exceptionally tender and is of delicious flavour."
For a short time the conversation then lapsed but as soon as the
children heard the ominous coughing - this meant the Professor had decided
to start singing - they quickly started to ask him any sort of question.
Several hours passed in this way.
The Carrabus hurried on under full sail. But as the sun rose so the
wind dropped.
The ship then moved lazily through the oily swell, barely rolling. The
sails hung down. The Captain grew melancholy.
The voyagers sat on the gunwale of the ship and dangled their feet in
the cool water.
Water insects were cutting here and there across the waves.
They wove their way in and out of the water weed forest which rose from
the dark bottom of the lake.
Valya stretched herself on the deck. With her head hanging over the
side she gazed at the swirling foliage rising from the bottom.
At last the under water forest came to an end. The bottom was now grey
and hilly. On the slopes of the underwater hills there wriggled and moved
about gigantic red snakes. There were so many of them that the bottom
appeared red.
"I say! What a lot of them! And what are they?" asked Valya.
The Professor bent over.
"Culicidae Derguna . . . or in simple language the larvae of the
Derguna gnat. . . . . Excellent food for fish. The favourite food of all
small fry."
"Why are they called Dergunas?"
"Just because they are always pulling with their feet twisting about."
"That means that all gnats are Dergunas because they all pull things
about with their feet. I never knew this before."
"No," said the old man, "only one sort of gnat is called Derguna. The
other gnats have different names."
"What?" Karik was surprised. "Surely there are not a whole lot of
different gnats. I thought gnats were all one sort."
"Oh, no, there are hundreds of different sorts! Why, just in one
district alone there are gnats that pull themselves along, gnats that push
themselves along, bearded gnats, long-nosed gnats, malaria gnats or
mosquitoes, feather-whiskered gnats, amphibian gnats, ordinary midges. Then
we also have snow midges."
"White?"
"No! They are called snow mosquitoes because they live on the snow."
"Surely mosquitoes can't live in winter?"
"Life does not come to a halt either in summer or winter," replied the
Professor. "In summer one lot of insects crawl, jump and fly, in winter
another lot. For example, just around here you come across snow fleas, snow
worms, snow spiders, ice flies, wingless gnats, and many, many other living
creatures."
"Do all the gnats bite?" asked Valya, looking at the larvae of the
Derguna in some apprehension.
"The larvae do not bite. Yes, and the full-grown Derguna does not bite
human beings or living creatures. Anyway, what do the bites of our gnats
actually amount to?"
"Nothing! twiddle twaddle! A mere trifle!" he gruff-gruffed.
Then he stroked his beard and said smiling:
"Now on the Island of Barbadoes gnats do bite; that is to say, I am
telling you they really do bite!"
"What happens? Does it hurt terribly?" whispered Valya.
"It's painful all right. . . . For instance, this happened. In the town
of Vera Cruz a young woman became unconscious. It was thought that she was
dead. Her face was like wax and she herself was as cold as ice. Well,
naturally, they put her in a coffin, but they stood the coffin out on the
verandah."
"Well, what happened then?"
No sooner than night had fallen gnats started to fly about the
verandah. They swarmed thickly on the corpse and proceeded to bite her so
savagely that she awoke, pushed the lid of the coffin off; yes! and ran out
into the street in her shroud with the coffin lid in her hands."
"And she didn't die any more?" asked Karik.
"No, she lived right up to the very day other death," replied the old
man with a grin.
Suddenly Valya leaped up and shouted:
"Oh, look, there is something from Barbadoes swimming along here. Oo,
ooee !"
Beneath the water on one side of the ship a long, grey-coloured animal
with a huge head was jerking itself along. Having blown itself out until it
could contain no more the creature contracted itself and shot out a stream
of water behind it. As a result of this stream it moved forward just like a
rocket.
"The larva of a dragonfly!" said the Professor.
"That's what we should use instead of a motor," said Karik,
thoughtfully.
The Professor started to smile.
"The larva of the dragonfly has been using it long enough but we have
only just been able to make a jet-propelled aeroplane and the jet-propelled
submarine has yet to prove itself practical. This dragonfly submarine is a
most dangerous craft. It will attack a small fish and devour it. And any
fish, however small, is by comparison with us a regular whale."
"There is a mother dragonfly!" announced Valya. "Look! Where is she
crawling to?"
With her wings pressed to her back the goggle-eyed dragonfly, clutching
the stem of a water weed, had started to crawl down under water with her
huge head pointed towards the bottom.
"What is she up to?" demanded Karik in amazement. "Does she want to
drown herself?"
Valya gazed after the dragonfly, thought a little and said undecidedly:
"Evidently she wants to pay a visit to her larva. She is lonely, so she
goes to pay a visit. Very simple, actually !"
The old man started to laugh.
"But there is an explanation still more simple and actually more
correct," he said. "The dragonfly is going beneath the water in order to lay
her eggs."
"But what an awful creature she is!" said Valya.
"What's up with you? She is very beautiful!" retorted the Professor.
"It is not without reason that the Germans give her a poetic name - Wasser
Jungfer, or water nymph; whilst the French call her Mademoiselle, or
literally translated, my young Lady or Miss."
Waves now started to roll across the lake. The sails started to hum.
Astern the wake of the ship had started to gleam.
"All hands to their stations!" bawled Karik.
"Aye, aye, sir!" sang out the old man.
Once again the ship was making way rapidly.
Karik climbed up the mast.
The Carrabus sailed along, tacking between flat green islands which in
fact were the fleshy leaves of kingcups or water lilies.
At last the Carrabus sailed out into open water.
Karik shielded his eyes with his hand. Far away across the blue lake
which was sparkling in the sun he could see the misty outline of the shore.
The shore had almost disappeared below the horizon. Clouds lay like
mountains of cotton wool above the blue flat stretched ahead.
When Karik had looked for some time he spotted on the horizon a minute,
slender, pin-like excrescence. At the top of this something was waving very
much like a red feather.
"There it is! There's our landmark! Alter course to starboard! Good,
good! Another point to starboard. Haul in your port sheets, you landlubbers!
And again! Helm amidships ! Steady on your course!"
"Helm amid-ships! steady on the course," bawled the Professor, in
reply.
The Carrabus now surged on her straight course for the shore.
Suddenly all around things started to sing, to sing, and sing.
The water sang, the sky sang.
Karik looked around in consternation and hastily clambered down the
mast on to the deck.
The old man, screwing up his eyes thoughtfully and cocking his head on
one side, listened to the amazing music.
It sounded as if thousands of violins and flutes were playing one and
the same song, a simple melody but quite attractive.
The Professor sighed.
"That must have been how the sirens sang around the ship! when the
Odyssey of legend was sailing the seas."
"Are they sirens singing now?" demanded Karik.
"No," said the old man, "sirens are the mermaids or the beautiful women
sailors have seen in their fancy amongst the foam of the billows. They