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the spider was beginning to move.
"Ka-ari-k!" - She shouted.
Her voice carried along the curve of the roof and died away.
"Ka-a-ri-k!" shouted Valya, still louder. She was just about to jump
into the water and swim after her brother but at that moment Karik
reappeared in the dark hole.
"What are you shouting about?" he asked angrily.
Seeing Karik alive and uninjured, Valya became calm. She gave her hands
to her brother and, helping him up on to the spider, asked:
"Well, what did you find? Is there any sort of door?"
"No. It is the same sort of den as ours," answered Karik, shrugging his
shoulders.
"Is there anything living in it?"
"Nothing."
Karik sat down with his knees up to his chin and clasped his legs with
his arms.
"And there is no door?"
"No!"
"But suppose we dive under the wall, Karik?"
"Under the wall?"
Karik bent and, hanging his head, started to stare at the dark waters.
In the depths of the water he could dimly see the slimy bottom of the
pond. Silvery spider threads stretched from the slime to the edges of the
under-water den, making it impossible to dive out.
"We must dive under the wall," repeated Valya. "But do you see that?"
And Karik pointed with his hand at the net stretched under the water,
preventing either exit or entry to the prison. Certainly not! To dive into
that would be terrible.
"There must be some door!" said Karik. "How did we get in here
otherwise?"
Valya now began a sort of panting noise.
Karik peered at her and then quickly seized her hand.
"Valya! what's up?"
Valya sat there very pale with her mouth wide open, holding her throat
with her hands.
"I can't breathe," she croaked, "there - there's not enough air."
"All right, all right!" Karik muttered in confusion. But he did not
know how to help his sister, and in fact he himself felt a dragging in his
chest which tugged at his ribs till they hurt. "I can't get enough air
either," panted Karik. He breathed faster and faster, his ears began to
sing, his heart beat as violently as if he was running up a steep high
mountain. The damp, heavy air filled his lungs, making breathing more and
more difficult. Something had to be done.
"Don't be frightened!" he panted, touching Valya with his hand.
"We'll get out somehow!" And once again for the hundredth time he
started to examine the under-water prison.
Karik's head started to go round. He bent over, scooped up the stagnant
water, splashed it on his face. Suddenly his arm stopped in mid-air.
He had spotted two enormous green eggs on the slimy bottom to which
they were attached at one end. One of these eggs started to move and slowly
came free of the mud and floated upwards striking the edge of the
under-water den disappeared upwards somewhere. In the same way the second
egg floated up and disappeared.
Karik stretched out a hand to Valya and said with a trembling voice.
"Frogbit buds? Do you see?"
He had made no mistake, they were the "winter buds" of frogbit - a
water plant.
Karik had seen these many times when he was in the big world and now
recognised them without special difficulty.
Frogbit - a creeping water plant - travels about lakes and ponds all
the summer blown by the wind from bank to bank. Its roots like strawberries'
runners obtain nourishment direct from the water. At the end of the summer
young shoots appear with runners. They rise out of the surface of the water
and break into leaves resembling a heart as one sees drawn in pictures.
In winter the frogbit plant is frozen in the ice and perishes. But
before this it succeeds in strewing the bottom with its amazing winter buds.
All the winter the buds - looking like green eggs - remain on the
bottom. But as soon as there comes a day sufficiently warm they become blown
out with gas and one after the other float up to the surface of the water,
and once again become water creeping-plants.
It was these seeds that Karik had spotted.
Seizing Valya by the hand, he spluttered.
"Listen! These things rise like corks. We must dive and hold on to one
of them. They will then carry us up."
"But the web? Look at all its ropes under water."
"All the same we must try. Now dive. Quickly!"
Just at this moment a gigantic green egg was stirring on the bottom.
There was no time to think. The seed came away from the black mud and
started to float up.
"Dive!" shouted Karik.
Valya summoned all her strength. Having taken a deep breath she shot
off the spider and disappeared beneath the water. Karik watched her dive
under the wall, seize the huge frogbit bud with both hands, and disappear
upwards with it.
Karik dived after his sister. Opening his eyes beneath the water, he
made for another green torpedo. It started to move. He put his arms and legs
round the broad slippery sides and at once began to spin round. After
turning round several times the torpedo started suddenly to move upwards
through the mass of water above.
To Karik holding his breath there seemed to follow an age of floating
upwards, boring as it was through the water. Another moment and his heart
would have burst from lack of air, but as luck would have it the green
torpedo suddenly bobbed out of the surface of the water.
Blinded by the clear light, with the hot rays of the sun beating on his
face, Karik floundered in the water and breathed - at last. At last he could
breathe easily. Great lungfuls.
Beside him, Valya was floating gulping in the clean fresh air with the
same greed.
"Ah, Valya," Karik shouted again, "you're alive and breathing."
"I am breathing!"
"The main thing is, don't be frightened of anything," said the happy
Karik. "Don't get depressed, don't whimper and, above all, don't cry. If you
and I can succeed in getting away from such a terrible spider - well, it
means we should succeed in finding our way home."
The poor children had no suspicion of what they had still to survive in
this unfamiliar world and what dangers they had still to face on their
journey homewards.
Daring navigators - Strange passengers - Karik and Valya penetrate a
watery jungle - The search for food - The children find berries- - But then!
RAISING THEIR HEADS ABOVE WATER THE CHILDREN LOOKED ALL around them.
Everywhere as far as eye could see there seemed to stretch the blue sheen of
the water, and it was only in the west where now the sun was setting there
appeared the serried top of a dark bank of forest.
Above the forest clouds were rolling.
"We must get ashore somehow," said Karik, "and then make for home."
"Can we ever get to the shore, do you think?" asked Valya, eyeing the
distant bank.
"Certainly we can get to the shore," said Karik, perkily. "We must make
use of these things. Climb on to your bud!"
The children clambered on to the green torpedoes.
Karik shouted:
"Row with your feet."
The children started to paddle with their feet trying to get into
motion, but the buds just bobbed about and did not move.
"Stop!" shouted Karik. "Come over to me. We'll row together."
Valya swam to her brother. The frogbit bud was now loaded so that more
than half of it was under water.
"Row!" commanded Karik.
The children keeping time together pulled their arms through the water
like oars. The bud wobbled and then started to move slowly forward.
"We are going ahead!" shouted Valya.
"Full speed ahead!" ordered Karik.
At first the bud went from side to side, to the right and then to the
left, but soon this matter was put right.
Cutting the water with its sharp nose, the green torpedo sped towards
the shore like an ordinary boat. The children drove it forward
energetically, labouring with their arms.
In the distance ahead something panted and struck the water not exactly
like a plank of wood nor like oars of a boat. The nearer the children got to
the shore the more distinctly could these noises be heard and then quite
beside them something roared.
"Qua-a-a-ha-aha-ha," came the sound across the water. Valya trembled
and nearly fell off the bud.
"Whatever is that," she whispered, stopping rowing.
"A frog! It must be a frog. Just an ordinary frog. But bigger than a
five storeyed house. Don't be frightened!"
"Yes," said Valya thoughtfully. "Just an ordinary one - but even a fly
could eat us, let alone a five-storeyed frog."
"Don't fret," Karik comforted his sister. "A frog like that will never
notice us."
Valya became silent.
The children were now rowing towards inlets which could be seen cutting
the line of the shore.
Bright green glistening islands seemed to rise up out of the water.
They rocked slightly as if they were rafts moored at buoys. It was necessary
to keep a sharp look out to prevent running into one of them.
"What do you think that is?" asked Valya, pointing at one of the
islands.
"I don't know," answered Karik, undecidedly, "must be some sort of
leaves - surely water weeds."
Now to the right and now to the left of them round animals with smooth,
polished backs like motor-car bodies rose suddenly out of the water. They
were in fact as big as motor-cars.
Stretching out their wings the creatures flew upwards and then just as
suddenly plunged back into the water, raising a fountain of spray.
On the surface of a broad channel between two islands the children saw
a brown striped monster with long, bent legs. It hurried backwards and
forwards sliding over the water on its round, podgy body.
On the back of this podgy-bodied brute there were sitting five little
reproductions of the beast only much smaller.
The little ones sat there quite calmly.
From time to time the striped brute fished something up out of the
water. Then the little ones in one wink slid off into the water, and in a
trice climbed back again. In their paws they clasped pieces of some sort of
food which they quickly devoured.
"Another sort of spider!" groaned Valya, stopping rowing. The seed
stopped and lazily rocked in the waves.
"And on its back are its young," said Karik. "We had better wait a
little. They have our permission to move on!"
But at that moment another similar spider shot out from behind one of
the islands. It was the very same brown and also had stripes. There were
young ones moving on its back too.
The spiders hurled themselves at each other.
They were wolf spiders, beasts preying on the surface of the water.
They jerked each other savagely. The little spiders were thrown like
tops into the water. Whilst the big spiders were fighting the little ones
skidded about the water in confusion, coming together into a cluster and
then separating in all directions.
Then suddenly the battle finished.
One of the spiders started to sink in the water. The spreading ripples
reached the young ones and rocked them up and down.
They bobbed on the waves just like ducklings without feathers.
"Now the young ones will fight each other," breathed Valya. But the
young ones seemed hardly interested in the fight. They fussily charged about
the surface of the water, one following the other, tumbled head over heels,
and then suddenly they all made a rush for the victorious spider and,
jostling each other, nimbly climbed up on its back.
Karik and Valya looked at each other.
"What do you think of that!" exclaimed Valya. "Will it throw the
strange young spiders off its back or not?"
But the wolf spider did not even notice that it had twice the number of
passengers aboard.
It rested calmly on the water with its long legs apart waiting whilst
the youngsters settled themselves down. When they were all, to the last one,
seated it moved off as if nothing had happened and quickly vanished amid the
labyrinth of islands. The children rowed on further. "Interesting," said
Valya, thoughtfully. "What's interesting?"
"It is interesting what those little spiders were eating." Karik
shrugged his shoulders. "Some sort of rubbish !"
Valya sighed. She was remembering that she had not eaten anything since
the day before - no breakfast, no lunch. So she said.
"Maybe it isn't quite rubbish. To begin with, maybe it would taste
nasty, but then one would get used to it - and it would be all the same.
Then one might get very fond of it."
It was time for the evening meal.
The children grew thoughtful.
What would be happening at home now? Granny would undoubtedly be laying
the table. Mother had said yesterday:
"Dinner to-morrow will be a special one. You mustn't be late."
"What do you think there is for dinner at home to-day?" asked Valya.
"I believe it is cold soup and onion and egg pie."
Valya swallowed the water her mouth was making.
"Or maybe it's hot soup with pork or ham or sausages in it. Then for a
second course beefsteak with onions and roast potatoes. What would you like
most to eat?"
"I?"
Valya thought a little and said:
"I could eat a crust of bread and a little cheese."
"I would prefer a beefsteak," said Karik, "only a big one, like a
plate. And masses of potatoes and a green salad and afterwards I believe I
should have little difficulty with a whole pie and some strawberry tart.
Then ..."
Valya stopped rowing. She turned to Karik and asked:
"But what are we going to have for dinner to-day?"
"To-day it will not be convenient for us to have dinner."
"But then what for supper?"
"It is not really convenient for us to have supper to-day."
"Then breakfast?"
"We cannot have breakfast."
"What will be convenient?"
"Nothing," said Karik, grumpily. "The most convenient thing is not to
think about it."
Valya sighed.
"Come on, row! Let's get to the shore as quickly as possible!" shouted
Karik. "We'll find something ashore."
"It would be nice to find a strawberry. It would be ten times as big as
us. Certainly would be as big as a haystack. Do you know we only need one
berry and we could make a hole in it and live in it. Then we could just eat
the walls and the ceiling."
"Don't chatter." Karik frowned. "Row up and we shall see when we get
there."
Valya became silent.
With their arms and legs swinging in time, the bud spurted towards the
shore with a bow wave in front and long widening tracks like whiskers in the
water stretching away behind.
The shore grew nearer every minute.
Higher and higher rose the forest out of the water, and it seemed as if
it was floating to meet the children.
"Row as hard as you can !" shouted Karik.
"I am going full speed ahead," panted Valya.
The bud flew forward like an arrow. Within an hour a huge reed forest
had risen up before the young travellers shutting out the sun. A heavy cold
shadow covered the water and the water itself in the shade by the forest was
chilly unlike that in the sun beyond.
The bud sped on between huge bamboo-like trunks which rose straight out
of the water and disappeared into the sky itself.
"Row gently!" commanded Karik.
"But why?"
"There is some animal here! Can you hear?"
The children stopped rowing.
Karik put his finger to his lips.
Looking at each other apprehensively the brother and sister silently
listened to the unpleasant sound which was proceeding from within the
forest.
The curving trunks swayed, rubbed one another and made loud scraping
noises. In the dark recesses of the forest which breathed coldness and damp
some animal noisily splashed about, something else jabbered and whined
menacingly.
The forest stood like trees in a flooded -field. Through the clearings
glistened the blue background beyond which the wall of trees rose thick and
solid.
On the surface of the water between the reed trunks strange,
quick-footed animals moved hither and thither and in pursuit of these there
hurried other animals bigger and more terrible. When they overtook their
prey they pulled it to pieces and immediately devoured it.
"Ye-e-es!" Karik whistled softly.
Valya understood him without further words.
Looking at her brother, in fright she whispered:
"We must go back? Now."
"Back where?" muttered Karik, and thinking a little. "We must get to a
shore where there are none of these brutes. Let's go and look for another."
They betook themselves back into open water and drove the bud along the
edge of the reed forest now and then looking around and endeavouring all the
time to get further away from it.
"Do you know what !" said Valya. "I propose that this bank be called
'Nightmare Jungle'."
"That's just stupid!" said Karik.
"Why stupid?" Valya was offended. "All travellers give names. I have
been reading about this in Jules Verne."
Karik did not answer. Looking at the reed forest past which they were
moving, he whistled some very melancholy tune.
"Or else," said Valya, "it could be called 'The Forest of Bloodsome
Mystery'."
"All right, all right!" barked Karik, "watch your rowing!"
The reed forest gradually receded and soon had completely disappeared.
To the right there now stretched a desert-like shore covered with yellow
stones which glittered in the sun.
It was so hot that all living creatures seemed to have hidden and must
have been sheltering under leaves and stones, and the children now rowed on
without meeting any sign of life.
The way was clear.
Karik grew happier.
"Now that shore," he said, pointing with his hand at the stony waste,
"I would call the 'Cape of Good Hope'."
"Why Gape? I don't see any Cape."
"That is unimportant," answered Karik, steering the bud towards the
shore, "as we explore it we are sure to find a Cape sooner or later."
"But I. . . ."
"I am going to beach the bud!" yelled Karik, splashing water in Valya's
face. "Ready !"
The children gave one final paddle with their arms and the green
torpedo stranded on the stony shore.
With the violence of the bump the bud turned over. Karik and Valya
found themselves suddenly in the water, but quickly jumped up and catching
hold of the projecting yellow cliff scrambled ashore.
The rocks were hot from the sun. Valya sat down on one only to leap up
again.
"What's the matter? Did it bite you?" grinned Karik. "What are you
going to call that rock?"
He put up his hand to shield his eyes like the peak of a cap and gazed
around himself.
"Do you know what . . . .?"
"What?" replied Valya, timidly.
"These rocks are just sand. When we were big it seemed minute, but now
each grain of sand has become like a rock for us."
"What then?"
Karik sighed and said.
"They say that in Africa they cook eggs by burying them in the sand. I
am afraid we may get cooked without being buried!"
He touched a rock with his hand and shook his head.
"No, we cannot sit down here. We must go on further."
The children returned to their green torpedo and the bud once again set
out on its travels.
"I propose that this shore be called - " said Valya.
" 'Hot Bottom'," interrupted Karik, and laughed loudly.
Valya was cross.
Knitting her brow, she sat paddling furiously with her arms and legs.
Karik also became silent.
How long the children drove the torpedo along the bank they neither of
them could tell, but their arms and legs became very tired.
"If only you knew how much I wanted something to eat," Valya said,
breaking the long silence.
"I know," Karik sympathised. "The two sides of my tummy are sticking
together."
"It would be grand," said Valya, "if we could catch something and cook
it on those rocks."
"What in particular?"
"Oh, something - a butterfly - dragonfly."
"Do you think they would taste all right?"
"Of course! If you cooked them they'd taste all right."
"But I could eat something raw," confessed Karik. "A butterfly, only we
could never kill it."
Talking thus they reached a shore covered with grass forest.
Up from the grass forest there was rising the sultry steam of a
summer's day. Here and there stood gnarled trunks of trees resembling the
monster trees of the tropics - the baobab tree - which Karik and Valya had
seen at the pictures.
"There will be berries here!" shouted Valya. "I know there are always
berries in a forest. Let's get ashore quickly."
The bud came to rest on the sloping shore. The children jumped ashore
and, stumbling now and then, ran in to the forest.
In the forest it was stiflingly hot.
The trees smelt of swampy grass. There was no bark on their shiny
trunks.
The rays of the sun penetrating through the thick vegetation made odd
yellow patches on the ground.
The ground under foot was damp and sticky.
"Now!" cried Valya, pushing her way through the undergrowth of the
forest. "Who will be the first to find our dinner!"
"All right!" said Karik, "look for it, but don't get too far away or we
shall lose each other."
Shouting and hallooing to one another the children made their way
through the forest keeping a sharp look-out on all sides.
On the way they stopped here and there and pushed great leaves on one
side to see if there were berries underneath. They climbed up the grass
trees to look for berries. But nowhere could they find a berry.
"What an awful forest!" Did it mean that they must die of hunger?
Suddenly the children heard a dull noise.
They stopped.
Karik raised his hand.
"Did you hear?"
"Aha," Valya nodded. "It's water. Apparently it's the noise of a river.
Come on! There are sure to be berries by the river. That I know !"
Valya ran on.
Karik dashed after her.
"Not so much noise!" he shouted. "It may not be a river but some sort
of frog breathing!"
He caught hold of Valya's hand.
The children made their way in the direction of the noise, listening at
each suspicious rumble.
Piles of fallen trunks covered with a layer of dried mud barred their
way. Dry leaves stood up like walls and when the children were trying to get
round one leaf it fell on them, and they only just managed to wriggle out
from underneath it.
At last Karik and Valya came out at the foot of a high hillock. They
dashed up to the top of this and there suddenly felt cold air in their
faces.
Right ahead water was flowing noisily.
Parting the undergrowth with their hands they saw in front of them a
stream.
The stream was almost a river. Bubbling and foaming it ran amongst the
stones twisting now to the right and now to the left, leaping downwards in
noisy waterfalls.
"I see something," shouted Valya.
She wrenched her hand out of her brother's grasp and knocking him aside
dashed off ahead.
"Vally! Stop! Come back!"
But Valya was already hidden amongst the trunks of the trees.
"Come on! Come on!" Karik could hear her calling. "Hurry up! Here are
the berries. Such huge ones too. Do hurry, Karik!"
Karik ran towards his sister's voice. "Vally!"
"Here! Here!"
Valya was standing under a tall tree and with her head flung back, she
pointed upwards with her finger. Karik ran up beside her. "Berries? Eh?"
"Yes ! there you are! Huge ones!"
High above the ground there hung pressed to the trunk of the tree dusky
fruit as big as beer barrels. Full of juicy flesh, they hid in the shadow of
long narrow leaves. "Well!" Valya's eye flashed.
"What do you mean, 'Well'? Up you go!" shouted Karik, and dashed to the
tree.
With their arms and legs around the trunk the children swarmed up the
tree, not letting the dusky fruit out of their sight - first Karik and after
him Valya.
The trunk swayed slightly and the leaves shook. Below at the bottom of
a steep slope the river foamed noisily.
Valya looked down.
"Oh! suppose we fall - how awful!" she said.
"Keep climbing," ordered Karik from above, "we won't fall."
Nimbly shifting their hands and feet, they at length reached the
tempting fruit.
Karik stretched out his hand, but suddenly all went dark before his
eyes and his hands slipped.
"What are you up to?" Valya managed to ask, and at that moment she felt
a deafening noise in her ears. Her head started to swim.
With their arms waving and turning head over heels the children plunged
violently downwards straight into the swift and boisterous stream.
The strong current seized them and sweeping them round a rock carried
them off towards the rumbling waterfall.
The battle in the cave - It had ears in its legs - The extraordinary
trees - The Professor becomes a pilot - An unexpected meeting
THE PROFESSOR EDGED BACK TO THE SIDE OF THE HOLE. AS HIS eyes became
used to the darkness he saw in the depth of a dark cavern a huge head with
long whiskers.
"Good gracious, a regular hussar! What on earth is it?" he
gruff-gruffed, quite perplexed.
A broad, bulging shield covered the head and the front part of the
monster. From under the shield there poked out short but very broad legs
with teeth on them. The Professor could at once see that it was quite beyond
him to fight with this creature. It could kill him with a single blow of its
foot. For all that he resolved that he would defend himself.
He pressed his back against the cold, damp side of the dungeon, keeping
the wasp sting in front of him.
The creature began to stir. The great stiff body, which might have been
made of bone rings, started to move forwards. Earth fell noisily from the
sides of the cavern.
"Is it possible to attack it from behind?" flashed into the Professor's
mind.
But the monster's back was well protected. Two webbed wings folded side
by side covered the huge carcass with a strong armour.
"But whatever is it? What can it be?"
The Professor stood on tiptoes, stretched his head and suddenly spotted
two spears with sharp edges which were dragging on the ground like two
tails. He gasped with fright.
"An underground cricket! The mole-cricket!"
The mole-cricket noisily shifted itself in the cavern. Raking itself
forward on the earth it moved nearer and nearer the Professor.
"Feeds on the larvae of insects and earth worms," recollected
Professor; "no doubt it would not object to eating me!"
Looking around helplessly, he cautiously edged away from the dark
corner of the cavern, trying to keep as far as possible from the
mole-cricket.
"Must get round it!" mused the Professor, moving along the wall towards
the rear of his enemy.
The mole-cricket turned. It raised its feelers as if smelling or
listening.
The Professor held his breath.
The mole-cricket dropped its feelers and clumsily scraping its
spade-like feet hurled itself at him.
The Professor shot back into his former place. "No! it's not so easy to
deceive a mole-cricket underground.
It feels just as much at home there as a fish does in water. No!
No use running away! I must fight!"
He stopped and lifted up the bottom of the spear, let the point fall
forward and then steadied it ready for battle. He edged along with one elbow
pressed against the wall behind him.
Then suddenly he felt his elbow was in space.
He quickly turned around. Immediately behind him gaped the entrance of
some sort of dark recess.
The Professor took a deep breath.
Where did this tunnel lead to? Who had dug it? Was any new danger
lurking here? But there was no time at that moment to think it out. . . .
"To hide, to get away, to dig deeper into the earth," hammered in his
mind, and without thinking it all out, he plunged into the hole.
Stumbling and hitting himself painfully against a rock, he threaded his
way in pitch darkness, feeling with his hands.
The hole appeared a lengthy one, sometimes dropping downwards, then
rising upwards, then turning to the right, then abruptly twisting to the
left and all the time becoming narrower and narrower.
It was necessary for him to bend now and in places to crawl on all
fours dragging his spear after him.
But all this was a trifle. The Professor was ready to put up with all
these discomforts. He would readily have agreed to crawl all day long even
on his stomach.
"If only I could get away from the cursed cricket. If I could only hide
- anywhere!" he muttered, shivering with fright.
However, it appeared that it was impossible to get away from the
mole-cricket.
It was relentlessly following in his tracks, and the Professor could
clearly hear the rising noises of the chase in progress behind him.
When he had first dodged into the tunnel the mole-cricket stopped, felt
the walls of the cave with his feelers and then became dead quiet as if
thinking, "where has this strange and agile worm hidden itself?"
Those feelers had then again moved restlessly. They felt the floor,
walls, ceiling, and quickly discovered the entrance to the hole.
The mole-cricket shoved its head into the hole, breathing heavily.
"Is it here or not?"
The creature stopped for a little, stamping its legs, and then thrust
its enormous body with great decision into the hole and, rapidly burrowing
through the earth, crawled along the tunnel.
The mole-cricket moved forward as rapidly as a hot knife cuts butter,
pushing its body through the crumbling earth and boring its way with
unbelievable rapidity.
The Professor could soon hear behind him by his very back jerky
breathing, and suddenly the wiry feelers of the mole-cricket touched him on
the shoulder. Then again they felt his arms and slid across his face.
The Professor yelled. Turning round as quickly as he could he jabbed
the spear into the feelers and crawled away, twisting like a worm.
The rough walls of the narrow tunnel scraped his sides, shoulders and
elbows.
The tunnel had now become so tight that it was with great difficulty he
managed to move forward at all.
What with the mouldiness and dampness it was suffocating.
The Professor was bathed in perspiration. His heart thumped. His arms
and legs shook.
The further he went the more difficult was it to make any headway along
this tightening underground pipe. However, the Professor now noticed that
the mole-cricket was dropping behind and thus allowed him a ray of hope that
he might be safe.
More and more remote became the sound of the chase. The mole-cricket
stopped somewhere far back.
"Saved! It has gone away!" the Professor breathed thickly.
Pressing himself forward on his elbows and knees he slid along exerting
every effort and suddenly his head ran into the earth.
Further than this it was impossible to go. The tunnel had ended in a
blind-alley !
The Professor started to shake bodily.
"A certain death? But who will then save Karik and Valya?"
With sweat dripping he felt here and there in the dark, but everywhere
his hands met a solid earth wall.
What could he do? He was sitting in the hole just as if he was in a
trap. Behind him the mole-cricket was coming up, and in front of him was a
blank wall.
What could he do in such a hopeless situation?
The Professor felt as if ants were running over his body. His arms and
legs grew cold. His mouth became dry.
"No! No!" he said, with decision, "we shall yet see who is who. You are
a great strong animal but I am a man. I will fight you and I will be the
conqueror."
An hour ago he could have crushed the mole-cricket with a finger, but
now he would have to gather all his strength for the fray and he could not
say with any certainty how this battle would end.
He turned back and pressing his back against the earth wall of the
blind-alley held the spear in front of himself.
"I'll hit it right on the nerve point under the eyes," said the
Professor to himself loudly.
At that moment a thought flashed into his head which made his flesh
creep.
"How shall I get out if I kill the cricket? It will just cork up the
hole with its great carcass. How could I move such a monster?"
There was no time to think this out.
Louder and louder grew the underground noise. The cricket was now quite
close.
A minute passed and then another.
"Get back! get back!" roared the Professor, waving the spear.
The earth broke away with a rumble. Along the walls of the tunnel there
came scraping noises. The sinuous feelers of the cricket were seeking for
him. In the darkness they felt his head and shoulders. Twisting his body he
threw these live, knotted cords off and started to rain blow after blow on
the head of the monster with his spear.
"There! Take that! and that, and that!", he shouted hoarsely.
The cricket did not expect such an attack. Backing, it slid away.
"Aha! Aha!" yelled the Professor, courageously throwing himself on his
enemy.
The cricket put out its feelers. The Professor struck at them with his
naked fist, and scolding loudly hunted the creature back along the tunnel.
He did not cease to hit the cricket on the head with the spear, trying
to stab the nerve centre with its sharp point. But suddenly the creature
pulled its head back under its shield and the spear made no impression on
this horny covering.
The monster stopped. Obviously the spear no longer worried it. The
Professor knew then - the battle was lost.
Moving with its broad feet the cricket now advanced to attack. The
Professor had to retreat.
Waving the spear he slowly backed to the end of the tunnel until he
felt the solid wall behind him.
"Now we're done!" he thought.
He shut his eyes tiredly and ducking his head dropped in a heap on the
floor.
Suddenly he heard a noise above his head. The ceiling of the hole
cracked as if someone was drilling through from above. Earth fell on his
head.
The ceiling fell down. A blinding light flashed for an instant into the
hole and the Professor saw far away a fragment of blue sky, but almost at
once something like a huge pod came down into the tunnel from above,
shutting up the opening.
"What is this?" shouted the Professor, and seized the pod in his hands.
The pod trembled and commenced to go up again quickly.
The Professor realised just one thing :
This pod was going out - back up to where it was all sunny - and he
must get out of the earth back to the sun with it.
He held tightly on to the pod with his arms and legs and suddenly like
a cork he flew out of the earth.
The sun blinded him. He screwed up his eyes.
"Saved ! Saved !" He was now laughing hysterically.
But he had not succeeded in letting go with his arms when some strange
force flung him upwards and then dropped him down again, then upwards again,
and once again down.
The Professor bounced up like a ball and fell again.
He simply must get free of this jumping pod. The Professor let go.
Twisting in the air he dropped to the ground and rolled head over heels
amongst the stones.
The shock was so great that he lost consciousness for an instant.
When he came to the first thing he saw was a great green animal. It was
standing not far from him with long legs studded with sharp points - spurs.
On the ground lay a thick pod-like tail considerably longer than the green
animal itself.
"Aha!" The Professor raised himself on his elbows. "I see. It was that
tail I was holding on to. A most kindly tail! A magnificent tail."
Hearing the voice of the Professor the creature turned a flattened head
with a huge mouth towards him and moved feelers of immeasurable length.
"What family do you belong to, my saviour?" he now enquired politely.
The green animal, covered as it were with shining enamel, moved its
feet.
"Of course it's you !" shouted the Professor. "You heard me with your
feet? There you are! It's quite clear. You are a green grasshopper. Well,
anyway, thank you my friend! Thanks for pulling me out of an awkward jam, a
very awkward jam."
The grasshopper once again moved its feet. The narrow listening slits
on its front legs turned towards the Professor. The grasshopper could
clearly hear him.
Then the meaning of his recent experiences became clear to the
Professor.
At this time of year the female grasshopper bores holes in the ground
in order to hide its eggs. In spring the grubs of the grasshopper are
hatched out of these eggs. They make their way up on to the surface of the
earth and begin to feed on caterpillars, butterflies and flies.
It was the good fortune of the Professor that a female grass-' hopper
had bored into the earth just above the very place to which the mole-cricket
had driven him.
But the grasshopper had not succeeded in laying eggs. Having touched
the egg-laying tail of the insect the Professor naturally gave the poor
creature a great fright, and for that reason she had quickly pulled her tail
out of the ground.
"Forgive me, please," he burbled cheerfully. "I am sorry I interrupted
you."
The grasshopper jumped up, and spreading wings which glittered in the
sun it vanished in the greenery of the grass forest.
"Goodbye! Safe journey!" the Professor shouted after it and waved his
hand.
He was now alone. He stood there looking around and stroking his grey
beard.
"But where have you got me to, my green steed?" he muttered. "Where is
the pond now? How do I get to it? Should I go left or right?"
Around him rustled the forest. It was only now, however, that the
Professor noticed that this was not like the grass jungle.
Here the trees were not bamboo-like but their long slightly-curving
stems stretched upwards like gigantic candles.
The Professor looked up at their tops and blinked his eyes with
amazement. There at a dizzy-making height enormous white hats rocked
quietly. Each tree stood like a long flagstaff on the top of which a white
hat had been stuck.
"What are these?" he wrinkled up his eyes. He went closer to the stems
and then stopped suddenly as if rooted to the spot. Before his very eyes a
white feathery cloud had been ripped off the top of one of the trees and had
suddenly disappeared, It seemed to melt into the air.
The Professor shrugged his shoulders. He could not understand it.
The wind came up in a gust from behind him and immediately some more
white tops became separated from their stems and slowly floated away in the
air.
From somewhere above him there fell suddenly at his feet a heavy
elongated kernel.
He bent over to look at it.
From one end of the kernel there projected a long thin whipcord at the
end of which a feathery parachute was quivering.
"Ah that's what it is !" the Professor exploded. "But, of course, it
is! . . . Why didn't I guess it at once?"
He nimbly ran to the very highest stem and throwing his head back
examined it from top to roots.
"There you are! Excellent! You are just what I want to-day."
He then tightened his spider's web costume, scraped his feet on the
ground and jumping upwards clasped the stem of the tree.
The stem was thick. He could only just get his arms and legs around it.
Immediately he had done this he felt the palms of his hands and his knees
sticking to the stem.
"Never mind. Never mind," he muttered. "Once I get half-way up things
will be easier."
Moving his arms and legs in turn with difficulty, breathing heavily and
bathed in perspiration, the Professor climbed the stem like a fly on sticky
paper.
To begin with, the ascent was very difficult but the higher up he got
the thinner became the stem and the easier it was to make progress. The wind
swayed the tree and with the tree the Professor also swayed, not daring to
look down at the ground.
But here at last was the top of the tree - the white feathery crown.
The Professor put out his hand preparing to make his way from the stem
on to the crown of the tree, but suddenly something soft slid along his arm.
He pressed himself to the stem. Around him unexpectedly wings started
to beat and the air hummed. Dancing winged creatures were moving just before
the Professor's eyes.
He ducked his head with fright.
"They will eat me! I am sure they will eat me, the ruffians!" he
thought mournfully, and then taking another quick look at the creatures he
became calm at once.
"Oo, what a coward I am !" he sighed with relief.
Stretching their long thin legs in the air the creatures went round the
tree. Their transparent wings ornamented with fine tracery were all a
quiver.
Their long tails brushed against the Professor's face and slid over his
body.
"Mayflies!" he grinned. "Nothing more than Mayflies!" and seizing the
sappy leaves of the crown with his hands he calmly drew himself up on to the
head of the amazing tree. The Mayflies only at first glance appeared giants.
In actual fact they were but little bigger than the Professor. What made
them appear giant size was that behind them there fluttered long,
thread-like tails. On some of them these resembled a fork and on others the
two legs of a pair of compasses. These tails were about twice as long as
their bodies.
"See how they dance!" observed the Professor. "Does it mean that it
soon will be getting dark?"
And paying no further attention to the winged dancers he clambered up
on to the very crown of the tree.
There was no reason to fear the Mayflies. These insects have not even
got a mouth. Their life is so short that they don't have to worry about
food. They come into the light in order to dance the one dance of their
life-time.
In a happy dancing ring they. circle tirelessly, waving their little
wings and then when the summer dusk commences they fly down to the surface
of the water, lay their eggs and never themselves do they rise again from
the water. At this time of year the bodies of Mayflies cover the surface of
rivers with a reddish carpet.
The current carries away millions of these harmless beings, whirling
them along between steep or sloping banks. But not a single Mayfly reaches
the mouth of the river. They are all eaten on the way by fish or birds.
Who could envy a Mayfly? After two years' growth, it emerges and flies
around dancing for one single day, and is then eaten up! Fancy coming into
our world just for that!
Surrounded by a ring of Mayflies the Professor stood on the crown of
the tree which was like a dome. The whole of its swaying surface was covered
without exception with dark glistening kernels, a pliant stalk with a
parachute at its tip rose upwards from each kernel. These rustled above his
head like an orchard in spring.
From time to time one or another of the kernels trembling and swaying
would break away from the dome and hang for a minute above the tree. A gust
of wind would fill the parachute and the kernel would float away in the air
following its feathery parachute and its stalk.
The Professor felt the stalks with his hands and set to work. He
selected ten or so of the biggest parachutes and tore them off the kernels.
His hands were then filled with clusters of umbrellas with feathery clouds
at their tips. The parachutes were straining upwards lifting him off the
crown of the tree, and he had to exert every effort to keep his position.
Then he quickly tore off another pair of parachutes and in high spirits
he jumped up and hung suspended in the air. For some time he hung with his
feet dangling, but as soon as the wind blew the parachutes rustled happily
above his head. A current of air took hold of the Professor and bore him
away over the forest.
"Magnificent! Simply magnificent!" He laughed as he swayed in the air
like a pendulum. "I certainly never expected to fly on the down of a
dandelion."
The strange trees with white hats now appeared from the immense height
as ordinary dandelions. The forest seemed now like ordinary meadow grass.
The Professor looked around himself in all directions. Everywhere there
stretched grass jungle or sandy wilderness.
Far away on a high mountain he suddenly spotted a very tall column at
the top of which waved a huge red flag.
"Aha! my landmark!" the Professor smiled contentedly. Even further away
and more to the right there stretched a wide blue expanse of water.
"And there is the pond! Excellent! Now I know the direction."
The wind shook the feathery parachutes. Plunging through the air the
Professor flew over forests and fields watching keenly beneath him.
"Ka-ari-k!" - She shouted.
Her voice carried along the curve of the roof and died away.
"Ka-a-ri-k!" shouted Valya, still louder. She was just about to jump
into the water and swim after her brother but at that moment Karik
reappeared in the dark hole.
"What are you shouting about?" he asked angrily.
Seeing Karik alive and uninjured, Valya became calm. She gave her hands
to her brother and, helping him up on to the spider, asked:
"Well, what did you find? Is there any sort of door?"
"No. It is the same sort of den as ours," answered Karik, shrugging his
shoulders.
"Is there anything living in it?"
"Nothing."
Karik sat down with his knees up to his chin and clasped his legs with
his arms.
"And there is no door?"
"No!"
"But suppose we dive under the wall, Karik?"
"Under the wall?"
Karik bent and, hanging his head, started to stare at the dark waters.
In the depths of the water he could dimly see the slimy bottom of the
pond. Silvery spider threads stretched from the slime to the edges of the
under-water den, making it impossible to dive out.
"We must dive under the wall," repeated Valya. "But do you see that?"
And Karik pointed with his hand at the net stretched under the water,
preventing either exit or entry to the prison. Certainly not! To dive into
that would be terrible.
"There must be some door!" said Karik. "How did we get in here
otherwise?"
Valya now began a sort of panting noise.
Karik peered at her and then quickly seized her hand.
"Valya! what's up?"
Valya sat there very pale with her mouth wide open, holding her throat
with her hands.
"I can't breathe," she croaked, "there - there's not enough air."
"All right, all right!" Karik muttered in confusion. But he did not
know how to help his sister, and in fact he himself felt a dragging in his
chest which tugged at his ribs till they hurt. "I can't get enough air
either," panted Karik. He breathed faster and faster, his ears began to
sing, his heart beat as violently as if he was running up a steep high
mountain. The damp, heavy air filled his lungs, making breathing more and
more difficult. Something had to be done.
"Don't be frightened!" he panted, touching Valya with his hand.
"We'll get out somehow!" And once again for the hundredth time he
started to examine the under-water prison.
Karik's head started to go round. He bent over, scooped up the stagnant
water, splashed it on his face. Suddenly his arm stopped in mid-air.
He had spotted two enormous green eggs on the slimy bottom to which
they were attached at one end. One of these eggs started to move and slowly
came free of the mud and floated upwards striking the edge of the
under-water den disappeared upwards somewhere. In the same way the second
egg floated up and disappeared.
Karik stretched out a hand to Valya and said with a trembling voice.
"Frogbit buds? Do you see?"
He had made no mistake, they were the "winter buds" of frogbit - a
water plant.
Karik had seen these many times when he was in the big world and now
recognised them without special difficulty.
Frogbit - a creeping water plant - travels about lakes and ponds all
the summer blown by the wind from bank to bank. Its roots like strawberries'
runners obtain nourishment direct from the water. At the end of the summer
young shoots appear with runners. They rise out of the surface of the water
and break into leaves resembling a heart as one sees drawn in pictures.
In winter the frogbit plant is frozen in the ice and perishes. But
before this it succeeds in strewing the bottom with its amazing winter buds.
All the winter the buds - looking like green eggs - remain on the
bottom. But as soon as there comes a day sufficiently warm they become blown
out with gas and one after the other float up to the surface of the water,
and once again become water creeping-plants.
It was these seeds that Karik had spotted.
Seizing Valya by the hand, he spluttered.
"Listen! These things rise like corks. We must dive and hold on to one
of them. They will then carry us up."
"But the web? Look at all its ropes under water."
"All the same we must try. Now dive. Quickly!"
Just at this moment a gigantic green egg was stirring on the bottom.
There was no time to think. The seed came away from the black mud and
started to float up.
"Dive!" shouted Karik.
Valya summoned all her strength. Having taken a deep breath she shot
off the spider and disappeared beneath the water. Karik watched her dive
under the wall, seize the huge frogbit bud with both hands, and disappear
upwards with it.
Karik dived after his sister. Opening his eyes beneath the water, he
made for another green torpedo. It started to move. He put his arms and legs
round the broad slippery sides and at once began to spin round. After
turning round several times the torpedo started suddenly to move upwards
through the mass of water above.
To Karik holding his breath there seemed to follow an age of floating
upwards, boring as it was through the water. Another moment and his heart
would have burst from lack of air, but as luck would have it the green
torpedo suddenly bobbed out of the surface of the water.
Blinded by the clear light, with the hot rays of the sun beating on his
face, Karik floundered in the water and breathed - at last. At last he could
breathe easily. Great lungfuls.
Beside him, Valya was floating gulping in the clean fresh air with the
same greed.
"Ah, Valya," Karik shouted again, "you're alive and breathing."
"I am breathing!"
"The main thing is, don't be frightened of anything," said the happy
Karik. "Don't get depressed, don't whimper and, above all, don't cry. If you
and I can succeed in getting away from such a terrible spider - well, it
means we should succeed in finding our way home."
The poor children had no suspicion of what they had still to survive in
this unfamiliar world and what dangers they had still to face on their
journey homewards.
Daring navigators - Strange passengers - Karik and Valya penetrate a
watery jungle - The search for food - The children find berries- - But then!
RAISING THEIR HEADS ABOVE WATER THE CHILDREN LOOKED ALL around them.
Everywhere as far as eye could see there seemed to stretch the blue sheen of
the water, and it was only in the west where now the sun was setting there
appeared the serried top of a dark bank of forest.
Above the forest clouds were rolling.
"We must get ashore somehow," said Karik, "and then make for home."
"Can we ever get to the shore, do you think?" asked Valya, eyeing the
distant bank.
"Certainly we can get to the shore," said Karik, perkily. "We must make
use of these things. Climb on to your bud!"
The children clambered on to the green torpedoes.
Karik shouted:
"Row with your feet."
The children started to paddle with their feet trying to get into
motion, but the buds just bobbed about and did not move.
"Stop!" shouted Karik. "Come over to me. We'll row together."
Valya swam to her brother. The frogbit bud was now loaded so that more
than half of it was under water.
"Row!" commanded Karik.
The children keeping time together pulled their arms through the water
like oars. The bud wobbled and then started to move slowly forward.
"We are going ahead!" shouted Valya.
"Full speed ahead!" ordered Karik.
At first the bud went from side to side, to the right and then to the
left, but soon this matter was put right.
Cutting the water with its sharp nose, the green torpedo sped towards
the shore like an ordinary boat. The children drove it forward
energetically, labouring with their arms.
In the distance ahead something panted and struck the water not exactly
like a plank of wood nor like oars of a boat. The nearer the children got to
the shore the more distinctly could these noises be heard and then quite
beside them something roared.
"Qua-a-a-ha-aha-ha," came the sound across the water. Valya trembled
and nearly fell off the bud.
"Whatever is that," she whispered, stopping rowing.
"A frog! It must be a frog. Just an ordinary frog. But bigger than a
five storeyed house. Don't be frightened!"
"Yes," said Valya thoughtfully. "Just an ordinary one - but even a fly
could eat us, let alone a five-storeyed frog."
"Don't fret," Karik comforted his sister. "A frog like that will never
notice us."
Valya became silent.
The children were now rowing towards inlets which could be seen cutting
the line of the shore.
Bright green glistening islands seemed to rise up out of the water.
They rocked slightly as if they were rafts moored at buoys. It was necessary
to keep a sharp look out to prevent running into one of them.
"What do you think that is?" asked Valya, pointing at one of the
islands.
"I don't know," answered Karik, undecidedly, "must be some sort of
leaves - surely water weeds."
Now to the right and now to the left of them round animals with smooth,
polished backs like motor-car bodies rose suddenly out of the water. They
were in fact as big as motor-cars.
Stretching out their wings the creatures flew upwards and then just as
suddenly plunged back into the water, raising a fountain of spray.
On the surface of a broad channel between two islands the children saw
a brown striped monster with long, bent legs. It hurried backwards and
forwards sliding over the water on its round, podgy body.
On the back of this podgy-bodied brute there were sitting five little
reproductions of the beast only much smaller.
The little ones sat there quite calmly.
From time to time the striped brute fished something up out of the
water. Then the little ones in one wink slid off into the water, and in a
trice climbed back again. In their paws they clasped pieces of some sort of
food which they quickly devoured.
"Another sort of spider!" groaned Valya, stopping rowing. The seed
stopped and lazily rocked in the waves.
"And on its back are its young," said Karik. "We had better wait a
little. They have our permission to move on!"
But at that moment another similar spider shot out from behind one of
the islands. It was the very same brown and also had stripes. There were
young ones moving on its back too.
The spiders hurled themselves at each other.
They were wolf spiders, beasts preying on the surface of the water.
They jerked each other savagely. The little spiders were thrown like
tops into the water. Whilst the big spiders were fighting the little ones
skidded about the water in confusion, coming together into a cluster and
then separating in all directions.
Then suddenly the battle finished.
One of the spiders started to sink in the water. The spreading ripples
reached the young ones and rocked them up and down.
They bobbed on the waves just like ducklings without feathers.
"Now the young ones will fight each other," breathed Valya. But the
young ones seemed hardly interested in the fight. They fussily charged about
the surface of the water, one following the other, tumbled head over heels,
and then suddenly they all made a rush for the victorious spider and,
jostling each other, nimbly climbed up on its back.
Karik and Valya looked at each other.
"What do you think of that!" exclaimed Valya. "Will it throw the
strange young spiders off its back or not?"
But the wolf spider did not even notice that it had twice the number of
passengers aboard.
It rested calmly on the water with its long legs apart waiting whilst
the youngsters settled themselves down. When they were all, to the last one,
seated it moved off as if nothing had happened and quickly vanished amid the
labyrinth of islands. The children rowed on further. "Interesting," said
Valya, thoughtfully. "What's interesting?"
"It is interesting what those little spiders were eating." Karik
shrugged his shoulders. "Some sort of rubbish !"
Valya sighed. She was remembering that she had not eaten anything since
the day before - no breakfast, no lunch. So she said.
"Maybe it isn't quite rubbish. To begin with, maybe it would taste
nasty, but then one would get used to it - and it would be all the same.
Then one might get very fond of it."
It was time for the evening meal.
The children grew thoughtful.
What would be happening at home now? Granny would undoubtedly be laying
the table. Mother had said yesterday:
"Dinner to-morrow will be a special one. You mustn't be late."
"What do you think there is for dinner at home to-day?" asked Valya.
"I believe it is cold soup and onion and egg pie."
Valya swallowed the water her mouth was making.
"Or maybe it's hot soup with pork or ham or sausages in it. Then for a
second course beefsteak with onions and roast potatoes. What would you like
most to eat?"
"I?"
Valya thought a little and said:
"I could eat a crust of bread and a little cheese."
"I would prefer a beefsteak," said Karik, "only a big one, like a
plate. And masses of potatoes and a green salad and afterwards I believe I
should have little difficulty with a whole pie and some strawberry tart.
Then ..."
Valya stopped rowing. She turned to Karik and asked:
"But what are we going to have for dinner to-day?"
"To-day it will not be convenient for us to have dinner."
"But then what for supper?"
"It is not really convenient for us to have supper to-day."
"Then breakfast?"
"We cannot have breakfast."
"What will be convenient?"
"Nothing," said Karik, grumpily. "The most convenient thing is not to
think about it."
Valya sighed.
"Come on, row! Let's get to the shore as quickly as possible!" shouted
Karik. "We'll find something ashore."
"It would be nice to find a strawberry. It would be ten times as big as
us. Certainly would be as big as a haystack. Do you know we only need one
berry and we could make a hole in it and live in it. Then we could just eat
the walls and the ceiling."
"Don't chatter." Karik frowned. "Row up and we shall see when we get
there."
Valya became silent.
With their arms and legs swinging in time, the bud spurted towards the
shore with a bow wave in front and long widening tracks like whiskers in the
water stretching away behind.
The shore grew nearer every minute.
Higher and higher rose the forest out of the water, and it seemed as if
it was floating to meet the children.
"Row as hard as you can !" shouted Karik.
"I am going full speed ahead," panted Valya.
The bud flew forward like an arrow. Within an hour a huge reed forest
had risen up before the young travellers shutting out the sun. A heavy cold
shadow covered the water and the water itself in the shade by the forest was
chilly unlike that in the sun beyond.
The bud sped on between huge bamboo-like trunks which rose straight out
of the water and disappeared into the sky itself.
"Row gently!" commanded Karik.
"But why?"
"There is some animal here! Can you hear?"
The children stopped rowing.
Karik put his finger to his lips.
Looking at each other apprehensively the brother and sister silently
listened to the unpleasant sound which was proceeding from within the
forest.
The curving trunks swayed, rubbed one another and made loud scraping
noises. In the dark recesses of the forest which breathed coldness and damp
some animal noisily splashed about, something else jabbered and whined
menacingly.
The forest stood like trees in a flooded -field. Through the clearings
glistened the blue background beyond which the wall of trees rose thick and
solid.
On the surface of the water between the reed trunks strange,
quick-footed animals moved hither and thither and in pursuit of these there
hurried other animals bigger and more terrible. When they overtook their
prey they pulled it to pieces and immediately devoured it.
"Ye-e-es!" Karik whistled softly.
Valya understood him without further words.
Looking at her brother, in fright she whispered:
"We must go back? Now."
"Back where?" muttered Karik, and thinking a little. "We must get to a
shore where there are none of these brutes. Let's go and look for another."
They betook themselves back into open water and drove the bud along the
edge of the reed forest now and then looking around and endeavouring all the
time to get further away from it.
"Do you know what !" said Valya. "I propose that this bank be called
'Nightmare Jungle'."
"That's just stupid!" said Karik.
"Why stupid?" Valya was offended. "All travellers give names. I have
been reading about this in Jules Verne."
Karik did not answer. Looking at the reed forest past which they were
moving, he whistled some very melancholy tune.
"Or else," said Valya, "it could be called 'The Forest of Bloodsome
Mystery'."
"All right, all right!" barked Karik, "watch your rowing!"
The reed forest gradually receded and soon had completely disappeared.
To the right there now stretched a desert-like shore covered with yellow
stones which glittered in the sun.
It was so hot that all living creatures seemed to have hidden and must
have been sheltering under leaves and stones, and the children now rowed on
without meeting any sign of life.
The way was clear.
Karik grew happier.
"Now that shore," he said, pointing with his hand at the stony waste,
"I would call the 'Cape of Good Hope'."
"Why Gape? I don't see any Cape."
"That is unimportant," answered Karik, steering the bud towards the
shore, "as we explore it we are sure to find a Cape sooner or later."
"But I. . . ."
"I am going to beach the bud!" yelled Karik, splashing water in Valya's
face. "Ready !"
The children gave one final paddle with their arms and the green
torpedo stranded on the stony shore.
With the violence of the bump the bud turned over. Karik and Valya
found themselves suddenly in the water, but quickly jumped up and catching
hold of the projecting yellow cliff scrambled ashore.
The rocks were hot from the sun. Valya sat down on one only to leap up
again.
"What's the matter? Did it bite you?" grinned Karik. "What are you
going to call that rock?"
He put up his hand to shield his eyes like the peak of a cap and gazed
around himself.
"Do you know what . . . .?"
"What?" replied Valya, timidly.
"These rocks are just sand. When we were big it seemed minute, but now
each grain of sand has become like a rock for us."
"What then?"
Karik sighed and said.
"They say that in Africa they cook eggs by burying them in the sand. I
am afraid we may get cooked without being buried!"
He touched a rock with his hand and shook his head.
"No, we cannot sit down here. We must go on further."
The children returned to their green torpedo and the bud once again set
out on its travels.
"I propose that this shore be called - " said Valya.
" 'Hot Bottom'," interrupted Karik, and laughed loudly.
Valya was cross.
Knitting her brow, she sat paddling furiously with her arms and legs.
Karik also became silent.
How long the children drove the torpedo along the bank they neither of
them could tell, but their arms and legs became very tired.
"If only you knew how much I wanted something to eat," Valya said,
breaking the long silence.
"I know," Karik sympathised. "The two sides of my tummy are sticking
together."
"It would be grand," said Valya, "if we could catch something and cook
it on those rocks."
"What in particular?"
"Oh, something - a butterfly - dragonfly."
"Do you think they would taste all right?"
"Of course! If you cooked them they'd taste all right."
"But I could eat something raw," confessed Karik. "A butterfly, only we
could never kill it."
Talking thus they reached a shore covered with grass forest.
Up from the grass forest there was rising the sultry steam of a
summer's day. Here and there stood gnarled trunks of trees resembling the
monster trees of the tropics - the baobab tree - which Karik and Valya had
seen at the pictures.
"There will be berries here!" shouted Valya. "I know there are always
berries in a forest. Let's get ashore quickly."
The bud came to rest on the sloping shore. The children jumped ashore
and, stumbling now and then, ran in to the forest.
In the forest it was stiflingly hot.
The trees smelt of swampy grass. There was no bark on their shiny
trunks.
The rays of the sun penetrating through the thick vegetation made odd
yellow patches on the ground.
The ground under foot was damp and sticky.
"Now!" cried Valya, pushing her way through the undergrowth of the
forest. "Who will be the first to find our dinner!"
"All right!" said Karik, "look for it, but don't get too far away or we
shall lose each other."
Shouting and hallooing to one another the children made their way
through the forest keeping a sharp look-out on all sides.
On the way they stopped here and there and pushed great leaves on one
side to see if there were berries underneath. They climbed up the grass
trees to look for berries. But nowhere could they find a berry.
"What an awful forest!" Did it mean that they must die of hunger?
Suddenly the children heard a dull noise.
They stopped.
Karik raised his hand.
"Did you hear?"
"Aha," Valya nodded. "It's water. Apparently it's the noise of a river.
Come on! There are sure to be berries by the river. That I know !"
Valya ran on.
Karik dashed after her.
"Not so much noise!" he shouted. "It may not be a river but some sort
of frog breathing!"
He caught hold of Valya's hand.
The children made their way in the direction of the noise, listening at
each suspicious rumble.
Piles of fallen trunks covered with a layer of dried mud barred their
way. Dry leaves stood up like walls and when the children were trying to get
round one leaf it fell on them, and they only just managed to wriggle out
from underneath it.
At last Karik and Valya came out at the foot of a high hillock. They
dashed up to the top of this and there suddenly felt cold air in their
faces.
Right ahead water was flowing noisily.
Parting the undergrowth with their hands they saw in front of them a
stream.
The stream was almost a river. Bubbling and foaming it ran amongst the
stones twisting now to the right and now to the left, leaping downwards in
noisy waterfalls.
"I see something," shouted Valya.
She wrenched her hand out of her brother's grasp and knocking him aside
dashed off ahead.
"Vally! Stop! Come back!"
But Valya was already hidden amongst the trunks of the trees.
"Come on! Come on!" Karik could hear her calling. "Hurry up! Here are
the berries. Such huge ones too. Do hurry, Karik!"
Karik ran towards his sister's voice. "Vally!"
"Here! Here!"
Valya was standing under a tall tree and with her head flung back, she
pointed upwards with her finger. Karik ran up beside her. "Berries? Eh?"
"Yes ! there you are! Huge ones!"
High above the ground there hung pressed to the trunk of the tree dusky
fruit as big as beer barrels. Full of juicy flesh, they hid in the shadow of
long narrow leaves. "Well!" Valya's eye flashed.
"What do you mean, 'Well'? Up you go!" shouted Karik, and dashed to the
tree.
With their arms and legs around the trunk the children swarmed up the
tree, not letting the dusky fruit out of their sight - first Karik and after
him Valya.
The trunk swayed slightly and the leaves shook. Below at the bottom of
a steep slope the river foamed noisily.
Valya looked down.
"Oh! suppose we fall - how awful!" she said.
"Keep climbing," ordered Karik from above, "we won't fall."
Nimbly shifting their hands and feet, they at length reached the
tempting fruit.
Karik stretched out his hand, but suddenly all went dark before his
eyes and his hands slipped.
"What are you up to?" Valya managed to ask, and at that moment she felt
a deafening noise in her ears. Her head started to swim.
With their arms waving and turning head over heels the children plunged
violently downwards straight into the swift and boisterous stream.
The strong current seized them and sweeping them round a rock carried
them off towards the rumbling waterfall.
The battle in the cave - It had ears in its legs - The extraordinary
trees - The Professor becomes a pilot - An unexpected meeting
THE PROFESSOR EDGED BACK TO THE SIDE OF THE HOLE. AS HIS eyes became
used to the darkness he saw in the depth of a dark cavern a huge head with
long whiskers.
"Good gracious, a regular hussar! What on earth is it?" he
gruff-gruffed, quite perplexed.
A broad, bulging shield covered the head and the front part of the
monster. From under the shield there poked out short but very broad legs
with teeth on them. The Professor could at once see that it was quite beyond
him to fight with this creature. It could kill him with a single blow of its
foot. For all that he resolved that he would defend himself.
He pressed his back against the cold, damp side of the dungeon, keeping
the wasp sting in front of him.
The creature began to stir. The great stiff body, which might have been
made of bone rings, started to move forwards. Earth fell noisily from the
sides of the cavern.
"Is it possible to attack it from behind?" flashed into the Professor's
mind.
But the monster's back was well protected. Two webbed wings folded side
by side covered the huge carcass with a strong armour.
"But whatever is it? What can it be?"
The Professor stood on tiptoes, stretched his head and suddenly spotted
two spears with sharp edges which were dragging on the ground like two
tails. He gasped with fright.
"An underground cricket! The mole-cricket!"
The mole-cricket noisily shifted itself in the cavern. Raking itself
forward on the earth it moved nearer and nearer the Professor.
"Feeds on the larvae of insects and earth worms," recollected
Professor; "no doubt it would not object to eating me!"
Looking around helplessly, he cautiously edged away from the dark
corner of the cavern, trying to keep as far as possible from the
mole-cricket.
"Must get round it!" mused the Professor, moving along the wall towards
the rear of his enemy.
The mole-cricket turned. It raised its feelers as if smelling or
listening.
The Professor held his breath.
The mole-cricket dropped its feelers and clumsily scraping its
spade-like feet hurled itself at him.
The Professor shot back into his former place. "No! it's not so easy to
deceive a mole-cricket underground.
It feels just as much at home there as a fish does in water. No!
No use running away! I must fight!"
He stopped and lifted up the bottom of the spear, let the point fall
forward and then steadied it ready for battle. He edged along with one elbow
pressed against the wall behind him.
Then suddenly he felt his elbow was in space.
He quickly turned around. Immediately behind him gaped the entrance of
some sort of dark recess.
The Professor took a deep breath.
Where did this tunnel lead to? Who had dug it? Was any new danger
lurking here? But there was no time at that moment to think it out. . . .
"To hide, to get away, to dig deeper into the earth," hammered in his
mind, and without thinking it all out, he plunged into the hole.
Stumbling and hitting himself painfully against a rock, he threaded his
way in pitch darkness, feeling with his hands.
The hole appeared a lengthy one, sometimes dropping downwards, then
rising upwards, then turning to the right, then abruptly twisting to the
left and all the time becoming narrower and narrower.
It was necessary for him to bend now and in places to crawl on all
fours dragging his spear after him.
But all this was a trifle. The Professor was ready to put up with all
these discomforts. He would readily have agreed to crawl all day long even
on his stomach.
"If only I could get away from the cursed cricket. If I could only hide
- anywhere!" he muttered, shivering with fright.
However, it appeared that it was impossible to get away from the
mole-cricket.
It was relentlessly following in his tracks, and the Professor could
clearly hear the rising noises of the chase in progress behind him.
When he had first dodged into the tunnel the mole-cricket stopped, felt
the walls of the cave with his feelers and then became dead quiet as if
thinking, "where has this strange and agile worm hidden itself?"
Those feelers had then again moved restlessly. They felt the floor,
walls, ceiling, and quickly discovered the entrance to the hole.
The mole-cricket shoved its head into the hole, breathing heavily.
"Is it here or not?"
The creature stopped for a little, stamping its legs, and then thrust
its enormous body with great decision into the hole and, rapidly burrowing
through the earth, crawled along the tunnel.
The mole-cricket moved forward as rapidly as a hot knife cuts butter,
pushing its body through the crumbling earth and boring its way with
unbelievable rapidity.
The Professor could soon hear behind him by his very back jerky
breathing, and suddenly the wiry feelers of the mole-cricket touched him on
the shoulder. Then again they felt his arms and slid across his face.
The Professor yelled. Turning round as quickly as he could he jabbed
the spear into the feelers and crawled away, twisting like a worm.
The rough walls of the narrow tunnel scraped his sides, shoulders and
elbows.
The tunnel had now become so tight that it was with great difficulty he
managed to move forward at all.
What with the mouldiness and dampness it was suffocating.
The Professor was bathed in perspiration. His heart thumped. His arms
and legs shook.
The further he went the more difficult was it to make any headway along
this tightening underground pipe. However, the Professor now noticed that
the mole-cricket was dropping behind and thus allowed him a ray of hope that
he might be safe.
More and more remote became the sound of the chase. The mole-cricket
stopped somewhere far back.
"Saved! It has gone away!" the Professor breathed thickly.
Pressing himself forward on his elbows and knees he slid along exerting
every effort and suddenly his head ran into the earth.
Further than this it was impossible to go. The tunnel had ended in a
blind-alley !
The Professor started to shake bodily.
"A certain death? But who will then save Karik and Valya?"
With sweat dripping he felt here and there in the dark, but everywhere
his hands met a solid earth wall.
What could he do? He was sitting in the hole just as if he was in a
trap. Behind him the mole-cricket was coming up, and in front of him was a
blank wall.
What could he do in such a hopeless situation?
The Professor felt as if ants were running over his body. His arms and
legs grew cold. His mouth became dry.
"No! No!" he said, with decision, "we shall yet see who is who. You are
a great strong animal but I am a man. I will fight you and I will be the
conqueror."
An hour ago he could have crushed the mole-cricket with a finger, but
now he would have to gather all his strength for the fray and he could not
say with any certainty how this battle would end.
He turned back and pressing his back against the earth wall of the
blind-alley held the spear in front of himself.
"I'll hit it right on the nerve point under the eyes," said the
Professor to himself loudly.
At that moment a thought flashed into his head which made his flesh
creep.
"How shall I get out if I kill the cricket? It will just cork up the
hole with its great carcass. How could I move such a monster?"
There was no time to think this out.
Louder and louder grew the underground noise. The cricket was now quite
close.
A minute passed and then another.
"Get back! get back!" roared the Professor, waving the spear.
The earth broke away with a rumble. Along the walls of the tunnel there
came scraping noises. The sinuous feelers of the cricket were seeking for
him. In the darkness they felt his head and shoulders. Twisting his body he
threw these live, knotted cords off and started to rain blow after blow on
the head of the monster with his spear.
"There! Take that! and that, and that!", he shouted hoarsely.
The cricket did not expect such an attack. Backing, it slid away.
"Aha! Aha!" yelled the Professor, courageously throwing himself on his
enemy.
The cricket put out its feelers. The Professor struck at them with his
naked fist, and scolding loudly hunted the creature back along the tunnel.
He did not cease to hit the cricket on the head with the spear, trying
to stab the nerve centre with its sharp point. But suddenly the creature
pulled its head back under its shield and the spear made no impression on
this horny covering.
The monster stopped. Obviously the spear no longer worried it. The
Professor knew then - the battle was lost.
Moving with its broad feet the cricket now advanced to attack. The
Professor had to retreat.
Waving the spear he slowly backed to the end of the tunnel until he
felt the solid wall behind him.
"Now we're done!" he thought.
He shut his eyes tiredly and ducking his head dropped in a heap on the
floor.
Suddenly he heard a noise above his head. The ceiling of the hole
cracked as if someone was drilling through from above. Earth fell on his
head.
The ceiling fell down. A blinding light flashed for an instant into the
hole and the Professor saw far away a fragment of blue sky, but almost at
once something like a huge pod came down into the tunnel from above,
shutting up the opening.
"What is this?" shouted the Professor, and seized the pod in his hands.
The pod trembled and commenced to go up again quickly.
The Professor realised just one thing :
This pod was going out - back up to where it was all sunny - and he
must get out of the earth back to the sun with it.
He held tightly on to the pod with his arms and legs and suddenly like
a cork he flew out of the earth.
The sun blinded him. He screwed up his eyes.
"Saved ! Saved !" He was now laughing hysterically.
But he had not succeeded in letting go with his arms when some strange
force flung him upwards and then dropped him down again, then upwards again,
and once again down.
The Professor bounced up like a ball and fell again.
He simply must get free of this jumping pod. The Professor let go.
Twisting in the air he dropped to the ground and rolled head over heels
amongst the stones.
The shock was so great that he lost consciousness for an instant.
When he came to the first thing he saw was a great green animal. It was
standing not far from him with long legs studded with sharp points - spurs.
On the ground lay a thick pod-like tail considerably longer than the green
animal itself.
"Aha!" The Professor raised himself on his elbows. "I see. It was that
tail I was holding on to. A most kindly tail! A magnificent tail."
Hearing the voice of the Professor the creature turned a flattened head
with a huge mouth towards him and moved feelers of immeasurable length.
"What family do you belong to, my saviour?" he now enquired politely.
The green animal, covered as it were with shining enamel, moved its
feet.
"Of course it's you !" shouted the Professor. "You heard me with your
feet? There you are! It's quite clear. You are a green grasshopper. Well,
anyway, thank you my friend! Thanks for pulling me out of an awkward jam, a
very awkward jam."
The grasshopper once again moved its feet. The narrow listening slits
on its front legs turned towards the Professor. The grasshopper could
clearly hear him.
Then the meaning of his recent experiences became clear to the
Professor.
At this time of year the female grasshopper bores holes in the ground
in order to hide its eggs. In spring the grubs of the grasshopper are
hatched out of these eggs. They make their way up on to the surface of the
earth and begin to feed on caterpillars, butterflies and flies.
It was the good fortune of the Professor that a female grass-' hopper
had bored into the earth just above the very place to which the mole-cricket
had driven him.
But the grasshopper had not succeeded in laying eggs. Having touched
the egg-laying tail of the insect the Professor naturally gave the poor
creature a great fright, and for that reason she had quickly pulled her tail
out of the ground.
"Forgive me, please," he burbled cheerfully. "I am sorry I interrupted
you."
The grasshopper jumped up, and spreading wings which glittered in the
sun it vanished in the greenery of the grass forest.
"Goodbye! Safe journey!" the Professor shouted after it and waved his
hand.
He was now alone. He stood there looking around and stroking his grey
beard.
"But where have you got me to, my green steed?" he muttered. "Where is
the pond now? How do I get to it? Should I go left or right?"
Around him rustled the forest. It was only now, however, that the
Professor noticed that this was not like the grass jungle.
Here the trees were not bamboo-like but their long slightly-curving
stems stretched upwards like gigantic candles.
The Professor looked up at their tops and blinked his eyes with
amazement. There at a dizzy-making height enormous white hats rocked
quietly. Each tree stood like a long flagstaff on the top of which a white
hat had been stuck.
"What are these?" he wrinkled up his eyes. He went closer to the stems
and then stopped suddenly as if rooted to the spot. Before his very eyes a
white feathery cloud had been ripped off the top of one of the trees and had
suddenly disappeared, It seemed to melt into the air.
The Professor shrugged his shoulders. He could not understand it.
The wind came up in a gust from behind him and immediately some more
white tops became separated from their stems and slowly floated away in the
air.
From somewhere above him there fell suddenly at his feet a heavy
elongated kernel.
He bent over to look at it.
From one end of the kernel there projected a long thin whipcord at the
end of which a feathery parachute was quivering.
"Ah that's what it is !" the Professor exploded. "But, of course, it
is! . . . Why didn't I guess it at once?"
He nimbly ran to the very highest stem and throwing his head back
examined it from top to roots.
"There you are! Excellent! You are just what I want to-day."
He then tightened his spider's web costume, scraped his feet on the
ground and jumping upwards clasped the stem of the tree.
The stem was thick. He could only just get his arms and legs around it.
Immediately he had done this he felt the palms of his hands and his knees
sticking to the stem.
"Never mind. Never mind," he muttered. "Once I get half-way up things
will be easier."
Moving his arms and legs in turn with difficulty, breathing heavily and
bathed in perspiration, the Professor climbed the stem like a fly on sticky
paper.
To begin with, the ascent was very difficult but the higher up he got
the thinner became the stem and the easier it was to make progress. The wind
swayed the tree and with the tree the Professor also swayed, not daring to
look down at the ground.
But here at last was the top of the tree - the white feathery crown.
The Professor put out his hand preparing to make his way from the stem
on to the crown of the tree, but suddenly something soft slid along his arm.
He pressed himself to the stem. Around him unexpectedly wings started
to beat and the air hummed. Dancing winged creatures were moving just before
the Professor's eyes.
He ducked his head with fright.
"They will eat me! I am sure they will eat me, the ruffians!" he
thought mournfully, and then taking another quick look at the creatures he
became calm at once.
"Oo, what a coward I am !" he sighed with relief.
Stretching their long thin legs in the air the creatures went round the
tree. Their transparent wings ornamented with fine tracery were all a
quiver.
Their long tails brushed against the Professor's face and slid over his
body.
"Mayflies!" he grinned. "Nothing more than Mayflies!" and seizing the
sappy leaves of the crown with his hands he calmly drew himself up on to the
head of the amazing tree. The Mayflies only at first glance appeared giants.
In actual fact they were but little bigger than the Professor. What made
them appear giant size was that behind them there fluttered long,
thread-like tails. On some of them these resembled a fork and on others the
two legs of a pair of compasses. These tails were about twice as long as
their bodies.
"See how they dance!" observed the Professor. "Does it mean that it
soon will be getting dark?"
And paying no further attention to the winged dancers he clambered up
on to the very crown of the tree.
There was no reason to fear the Mayflies. These insects have not even
got a mouth. Their life is so short that they don't have to worry about
food. They come into the light in order to dance the one dance of their
life-time.
In a happy dancing ring they. circle tirelessly, waving their little
wings and then when the summer dusk commences they fly down to the surface
of the water, lay their eggs and never themselves do they rise again from
the water. At this time of year the bodies of Mayflies cover the surface of
rivers with a reddish carpet.
The current carries away millions of these harmless beings, whirling
them along between steep or sloping banks. But not a single Mayfly reaches
the mouth of the river. They are all eaten on the way by fish or birds.
Who could envy a Mayfly? After two years' growth, it emerges and flies
around dancing for one single day, and is then eaten up! Fancy coming into
our world just for that!
Surrounded by a ring of Mayflies the Professor stood on the crown of
the tree which was like a dome. The whole of its swaying surface was covered
without exception with dark glistening kernels, a pliant stalk with a
parachute at its tip rose upwards from each kernel. These rustled above his
head like an orchard in spring.
From time to time one or another of the kernels trembling and swaying
would break away from the dome and hang for a minute above the tree. A gust
of wind would fill the parachute and the kernel would float away in the air
following its feathery parachute and its stalk.
The Professor felt the stalks with his hands and set to work. He
selected ten or so of the biggest parachutes and tore them off the kernels.
His hands were then filled with clusters of umbrellas with feathery clouds
at their tips. The parachutes were straining upwards lifting him off the
crown of the tree, and he had to exert every effort to keep his position.
Then he quickly tore off another pair of parachutes and in high spirits
he jumped up and hung suspended in the air. For some time he hung with his
feet dangling, but as soon as the wind blew the parachutes rustled happily
above his head. A current of air took hold of the Professor and bore him
away over the forest.
"Magnificent! Simply magnificent!" He laughed as he swayed in the air
like a pendulum. "I certainly never expected to fly on the down of a
dandelion."
The strange trees with white hats now appeared from the immense height
as ordinary dandelions. The forest seemed now like ordinary meadow grass.
The Professor looked around himself in all directions. Everywhere there
stretched grass jungle or sandy wilderness.
Far away on a high mountain he suddenly spotted a very tall column at
the top of which waved a huge red flag.
"Aha! my landmark!" the Professor smiled contentedly. Even further away
and more to the right there stretched a wide blue expanse of water.
"And there is the pond! Excellent! Now I know the direction."
The wind shook the feathery parachutes. Plunging through the air the
Professor flew over forests and fields watching keenly beneath him.