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dark entrances of their ant hill. The long white eggs seemed to float above
the heads of the black ants.
"Why are they dragging these eggs about?" asked Valya.
The Professor shrugged his shoulders.
" I suppose it is because it's going to rain," he answered. "They
usually hide their cocoons or eggs as you call them and close all the
entrances and exits to their nests before rain comes. But we mustn't waste
time, whilst the ants are busy with their own affairs we must try and get
across the valley. Also, my dears, we must seek some comfortable refuge
where we can shelter from the rain."
The travellers started to climb down. But they had hardly taken a
couple of steps when they heard a sort of confused but increasing noise.
The Professor stopped.
"Is that the rain?"
He looked at the sky.
It had grown dark and thundery clouds were covering it. The grassy
jungle was still as if it had been hushed. But there was no sign of rain.
"What is it making the noise?"
The travellers looked about themselves cautiously. The children watched
the Professor uneasily as he listened attentively to the rising noise,
stroking his grey beard.
I "Strange, very strange!" he gruff-gruffed. "I don't like this noise,
my dears."
The Professor and the children hid themselves behind grass trees.
"It's as if someone were running!" said Karik, cautiously looking from
behind a thick trunk.
The noise came nearer and nearer. They could now distinguish the
trampling of rapidly moving feet. It seemed as if a herd of frightened
cattle was stampeding towards the children.
The tops of the distant hills became wreathed in something like smoke.
It was a cloud of dust engulfing them.
"I see them!" shouted Valya. "There! There they are! Look! They're
coming! Oy, however many are there?"
On the distant ridges of the hill there had now appeared a host of dark
points.
To begin with they spread along the ridges and then suddenly started to
spread down the sides of the hills.
The hills became darkened. Great hordes of some sort of animals were
sweeping downwards like an avalanche and soon the whole valley was moving as
if it were alive. All the time from behind the hills there emerged more and
more new columns.
"Red ants !" shouted the Professor.
He had made no mistake.
These were huge red ants. Their strong bodies shone like copper. They
were twice as big as the black ants. And what a vicious war-like appearance
they had !
Without any pause the stranger ants flung themselves in assault upon
the ant hill belonging to the back ants. They grappled hold of the beams
with clutching feet and soon a living stream flowed along the galleries.
The owners of the ant hill rushed to meet this vicious attack. A bitter
struggle ensued on the galleries.
The red ants, like a band of hungry dogs, fell upon the peaceful
cowherd ants, killed them and threw them down from the galleries.
They attacked the ant hill from all sides. The cowherd ants defended
themselves desperately.
They perished in hundreds bravely defending every entrance to their
home. But the forces were too unequal.
The red ants clambered over the bodies of the mutilated black ants and
pushed forward step by step until at last having swept aside their small
opponents they hurled themselves noisily into the interior of the ant heap.
All along the galleries dead ants were being thrown down.
Below at the edge of the ant heap a small group of black ants was still
bravely battling with their red foes.
But the battle was already won.
The red ants had destroyed the black ants and they now started to
pillage the ant heap.
The victors dragged white cocoons out of the tunnels and hastily ran
down the galleries to where beneath there jostled a disorderly noisy crowd.
They were like bandits who after destroying a house were dragging the goods
away in sacks.
"Whatever are they up to?" asked Karik, quite perplexed.
"Don't you see?" whispered the Professor in reply. "The red ants have
captured the cocoons of the black ants, their children in other words.
They'll carry off these cocoons to their own ant hill and when these ants
come out they'll make them their slaves."
"What?"
Karik jumped up as if he had been stung.
"And why haven't you done something about it? These slave owners are
busy robbing, and here we are sitting with our hands folded?"
He seized a stone from the ground and swinging it around flung it
violently at a group of the bandits, who were dragging white cocoons out of
the ant hill.
"Hit them! Valya, what are you looking at? Can't you pee? What awful
parasites!"
Lumps of earth and stones now flew amongst the red ants. Without
thinking of the danger the children darted from behind the trees.
"Fire!" ordered Karik. And two stones whistled into the crowd of
bandits.
The Professor, becoming frightened, seized the children by the arms.
"Stop! You lunatics! What are you doing? Do you want them to attack
us?"
"Well, let them!" frowned Valya. "Let them attack us ! We'll soon show
them what happens to people who make slaves."
"We can't fight them!" scolded the Professor.
"That remains to be seen," answered Karik, pugnaciously, still firing
stones at the ants.
The children had worked themselves up to such a pitch that they could
not be restrained.
"What about you?" Valya shouted at the Professor. "Aren't you ashamed
to stand there with your hands folded? Come on, help us!" and she shoved a
stone towards him.
But the Professor waved his hand and stepped on one side.
He sat down on the edge of the precipice and swinging his legs in the
air started to count the ants which had been hit by the children.
At that moment one of the children deftly hit an ant plumb on the head.
The ant staggered and slowly, just as if it was thinking hard, it started to
fall forward. At that moment a second stone whistled at it, hitting it on
the chest. The ant dropped and lay still. The cocoon fell out of its
clutches and rolled down the hill. Another of the bandits ran up to it.
"See if you can hit one !" Valya shouted.
The Professor, quite unexpectedly to himself, bent his arm back and
threw a stone at the ant.
Just then the bandit ant was making for the cocoon. It was on the point
of seizing it with its claws when the stone thrown by the Professor hit it
on the claw. The ant turned and fell on one side, spun around and made off"
limping.
"Aha, you don't like that!" grinned the Professor, and bent over for
more stones.
A third ant had already reached the cocoon. Having seized it the ant
quickly made off towards his gang.
"Nonsense," roared the Professor. "I won't let you have it!" At that he
fired a stone so precisely that it knocked this ant out also.
The cocoon now rolled away off to one side. "Mow them down!" yelled
Karik. "It is no use just hitting odd ones like that. Oh, if only our scout
troop was here we'd soon show these slave-makers . . . what blackguards.
Come on, all together. Give them a volley!"
Heavy stones crashed over amongst the ants.
"Hurrah, they are running away !" cried Valya cheerfully.
She bent over to pick up another stone and suddenly saw in front of her
a fearsome ant face. It had got up the cliff unnoticed and was upon her.
She seized a lump of earth, swung it upwards and brought it down on the
ant's head, screaming as she did it.
"Help, help! Come quickly!"
The ant staggered but made on towards the brave girl.
"They are here! Come on!" she screamed.
The Professor and Karik dashed over to her.
The Professor gave orders.
"You attack at the side, I'll be in front! Hit it with stones!"
"Ya-ya-ya-yah!" shouted the children, and fearlessly hurled themselves
at the ant.
The Professor hit it full force in the eye with a stone.
The ant shuddered, staggered and helplessly started kicking its feet
about. Karik struck it in the back and Valya jumping in closer hit it with a
stone on the head. The ant fell heavily to the ground.
"Hurrah !" yelled Valya.
With her stone raised high above her head she stood there red in the
face with the exertion and beaming with pride at the Professor and Karik.
It was, however, too early to celebrate.
Down in the ravine a whole horde of fierce ants were streaming over to
the help of the bandit. They were running along, agile and muscular and the
sun glinted on their red shining sides which sparkled like some sort of
copper armour.
The grassy jungle shook with the heavy beat of ants' feet.
"Valya, Valya! Lookout! Come back!" yelled Karik.
Valya turned.
"Oy! a hundred of them!" she cried out. "No! more than that and they
are climbing up! They're coming up!"
The hordes of ants were swarming up the sides of the ravine,
"We must run for it!" barked the Professor.
He seized the children by the hands, they dashed off together not
caring where they went, jumping over holes and stumbling against rocks.
The wind sang in their ears: fe-e-ew!
With thunderous tread the ants charged behind them, gaining all the
time on the unfortunate travellers.
Now, now! another minute and they'll catch up, seize and tear the
Professor and the children in pieces.
Panting from the pace at which he had run, the Professor looked over
his shoulder at the ants, and then at the children. Would they be able to
keep going?
"We cannot get away!" the thought made the Professor cold with fear.
"We cannot possibly escape them !"
What could be done? Must he and the children all perish?
No, it was unthinkable!
Suppose he were to stop and hold the ants. Maybe the children would be
able to hide somewhere whilst he fought the beasts.
He pretended to stumble accidentally and stopped.
Seeing this the children also stopped.
"Run on! Run on!" he waved with his hands.
Karik and Valya ran on, but after a few steps they stopped again.
"For goodness sake why don't you run?" shouted the Professor angrily.
"Run on. What's stopping you?"
"A river! Here is a river!"
"Where?" .
The Professor bounded towards the children. In front of them was a line
of low hillocks.
Behind the hillocks a river showed blue shimmering in the sun.
"Can you swim that?" the Professor panted at the children, breathing
heavily.
Karik and Valya looked at each other and both together answered.
"Rather!"
"Of course we can swim it!"
"Come on! We're saved!"
The Professor ran up to the cliff edge of the river. "Dive in!" he
shouted, "and swim across!" and throwing up his arms he plunged off the
cliff into the river, yelling.
"Follow me."
Not hesitating a moment, Karik and Valya both dived after him.
The cold water took their breath away. Karik bobbed up like a cork and
looked hastily around.
Ahead, blowing and snorting like a seal, swam the Professor.
His bald head shone in the sunshine like a polished billiard ball. With
speedy strokes Karik and Valya swam after him. But apparently he could not
see them. He twisted his head back and raised himself out of the water for a
second looking around.
"Ahoy!" he shouted. "Where are you?"
"Here!"
"Here!"
"Don't stop!"
Karik and Valya threshed the water with their arms. Making every effort
they tried to overtake him, but he was quite clearly a master swimmer. The
distance between him and the children increased every minute. He reached the
other bank whilst the children were still in the middle.
Valya cried out something. So he turned back and swam alongside the
children.
"Well! how are things?" he asked with some anxiety. "You are not too
tired! Can you make it?"
"We'll make it!" Valya just managed to bubble back.
Karik turned his head back; he was no longer afraid - the ants could
not swim.
There on the bank they were crowding, running down the side to the very
edge of the river, bending down to the water's edge, feeling it with their
feet, just as if they had decided to try and swim - then immediately drawing
back.
Not one of them could make up its mind to plunge into the water.
Worn and weary the travellers dragged themselves up the opposite bank
and staggering with tiredness made their way to some flat rocks.
The children sank on to the rocks.
"There's war for you," said the Professor, bending his head down and
wringing the water out of his beard.
Karik and Valya didn't reply.
They gazed at the opposite bank where the ants were running backwards
and forwards.
"And ants don't swim?" asked Valya, wiping her face with her hands.
"No! These do not swim!" The Professor comforted the girl.
"But," said Karik, taking a deep breath, "but I read somewhere that
they held on to each other, made a floating bridge and got across rivers
like that."
"True enough!" nodded the Professor, "but there are not enough of them
here to make such a bridge. Generally speaking. . . ."
He broke off to gaze anxiously at the heavy thundery clouds, and he
turned abruptly from the bank.
"There is another danger threatening us, my dears. Very soon a pretty
drop of rain will start to fall. Hoo-oo-. We must hide ourselves somewhere,
the sooner the better."
Valya started grinning.
"Surely we are so wet already we have nothing much to fear?"
"You forget," barked the Professor, "that the first drop of rain would
knock us off our feet and the next drops would beat us into the earth. We
had jolly well better look around for some hidey hole where we can shelter
during the rain."
The travellers had not got much further before the sky darkened, a cold
wind rustled the tops of the grassy jungle and odd drops of rain could be
heard drumming on the leaves.
These were just the first drops.
"Quicker!" ordered the Professor, "follow me, my dears!"
He rolled down a steep slope and jumping up ran on.
The children plunged after him.
Their blue dresses fluttered in the wind. Their umbrellas shook and
their long handles bent like bows.
Suddenly the Professor turned abruptly to one side.
"Here we are, children!" he shouted, running towards a high grey cliff
which stood out of the valley like a skyscraper.
On top of this cliff there lay an enormous dark brown mass, like a hat.
In the distance it looked just like a giant peaked cap.
The Professor ran up to the foot of this strange cliff and throwing his
head back started to examine it.
"Well! well! this is marvellous, isn't it?" he said, wiping his face
with his hand.
Karik and Valya ran up to him and both started:
"What is it?"
"Don't you recognise it?" smiled the Professor. "Take a good look at
this marvel!"
The cliff stretched high into the sky and the higher it went the
narrower it became.
Right on top at the height of a two-storied house there hung a circular
spongy-looking roof. It projected like the brim of an immense hat protecting
them from the rain. The dark shadow of this roof covered the top half of the
pillar cliff.
"A mushroom!" yelled Valya.
"Of course it is - a mushroom!" laughed the Professor.
"Which sort is it?" asked Karik. "A White mushroom, a Shaggy cap, a Fly
catcher or a Blewit?"
The Professor opened his mouth to reply but heavy rain started to beat
down. His voice was drowned in the roar of the torrent.
Neither the Professor nor the children had ever seen such rain before.
Huge balls of water whistled and howled through the air, falling
crashingly upon the earth. Pieces of earth were thrown up just as if a shell
had exploded. Before the mud had time to settle hundreds more water shells
howling and crashing buried themselves in the earth, throwing it up,
scattering it, and splashing.
Streams of water spread over the earth. Soon a turbid watery curtain
shut the travellers off from the rest of the world.
The air suddenly became much cooler.
Shivering and resting first on one leg and then on the other the
Professor and the children were like geese standing on ice.
An icy blast of wind came from the side and drenched the travellers
with cold spray.
"Go-oo-old!" Karik's teeth were chattering.
"Nasty, my dear, nasty!" gruff-gruffed the Professor, and wriggled his
shoulders with the cold. "We shall get quite numb like this. We must find
the sheltered side of the mushroom. Now come on. You, Karik, go round to the
right and you, Valya, to the left. Assembly point is here. Try and find
whether there is not a better place than this. Now quick march!"
Their teeth chattering with the cold, the children ran around the base
of the giant mushroom.
Valya rounded a thick projection of the cliff and the wind shifted to
her back and then fell away.
Behind the projection all was calm.
Underfoot there were dry sticks and twigs. The earth was warm. Stamping
her frozen feet, Valya felt them at once getting warmer.
It was the very driest and warmest place under the mushroom but was
somewhat dark. A little way above the ground the thick skin of the mushroom
had split and a piece of it hung down like a canopy roof overshadowing the
ground.
Valya got under the canopy.
"Here we are ! Come on here !" she shouted. "I have found a tent!
Here's a tent! Come round to me!"
The Professor and Karik soon appeared from different sides of the
mushroom.
They were at once delighted by the roomy nook with its canopy.
"Not at all bad!" said the Professor, looking round. In such a pavilion
they could clearly wait until the rain was over in tolerable comfort.
He rolled some thick short stems of dried grass under the canopy and
the travellers sat down and. made themselves comfortable.
"I propose," said Karik, brightening up, "that this refuge for
travellers should be named 'Valya's Wonder Tent'!"
"I have no objection!" declared Valya, clearly most taken with Karik's
notion.
"Well, well!" said the Professor. "All we need now is a nice cup of tea
and - "
But he didn't have a chance to say what he would like with his tea.
Something heavy fell on to the roof of the wonder tent and rolled rumbling
over their heads. Then twisting and curling itself in loops a fat white
snake with a black head swung downwards in the air. It fell heavily on the
ground, started to turn around and wriggle towards the travellers' feet as
if it were about to attack them.
The children darted to the Professor and hid behind his back.
But the Professor himself was also retreating in alarm. The snake was
about twice as big as he was and much fatter. It bent its black head down to
the ground and working it like a drill twisted and turned until at length it
had disappeared under the ground.
"Ah, that's it!" muttered the Professor.
The travellers had not recovered from this shock when white snakes
started to rain down from above and bury themselves in the earth.
The children began to run away.
"Where are you going? What's the matter?" shouted the Professor.
"Stop!"
He grabbed them by the arms.
"The snakes!" whispered Valya.
"Snakes! Rubbish! Those are not snakes, my friend, they're just
ordinary larvae, midge larvae."
"Midges?"
"Certainly! Fungus midges. Do you see?" the Professor pointed with his
hand to the mushroom roof; "do you see how they have eaten away the
mushroom? Oh you need not be afraid of them, my friends! They don't even
notice you. They are much too full of their own worries. Whilst the soil is
wet and soft they must hurry to work themselves as deep as possible into the
ground so as to turn into chrysalises.
The children became calmer.
The party once again seated themselves in the wonder tent and huddled
together.
The storm raged around the mushroom. The grass forest bent under the
force of the water. The rain drummed with such force on the mushroom roof
that it sounded like a continuous roll of thunder above their heads.
The Professor and the children every so often looked up with alarm and
then involuntarily tried to bury their heads in their shoulders.
Suddenly Karik shouted:
"There's another one! Ooch, what a big one! Look then! It is coming
down on us."
Above them along the fleshy underside of the mushroom hat there crawled
lazily some sort of naked, fat animal. It was like a tightly stuffed,
dirty-looking mattress. The back of this monster was glossy as if it had
been smeared with grease.
"What's that?" demanded Valya who, taking no chances, was hiding behind
the Professor's back.
"A slug!" replied the Professor very calmly. "A very ordinary snail
without a shell."
"Will it also fall on us?"
"Oh, no!" The Professor started to laugh. "That one won't fall! Don't
worry! He's stuck on tight."
"Is he another wrecker?"
"What, a slug? Shame on you! The slug is the mushroom's best friend. He
certainly destroys the mushrooms, but by that means he gives them a new
life."
"How is it possible to be destructive and useful at the same time?"
The Professor stroked his beard and replied in a leisurely way:
"The slug swallows pieces of mushroom in which there are spores -
mushroom seeds. These spores pass through the stomach of the slug and fall
finally on the soil where they take root. You would not have many mushrooms
but for the slugs."
"There you are, Valya," grinned Karik, "we called our shelter 'Valya's
Wonder Tent': we must call the mushroom roof 'The Slug's Hat.' "
Valya was about to say something witty when the Professor raised his
finger in warning and listening to something said with some agitation:
"What's that? Do you hear?"
The travellers got up.
Through the noise and rumble of the gale they could hear a dull roar -
somewhere quite close it seemed, as if the sea was breaking against cliffs.
The noise as if of breakers became closer every minute and grew louder
and louder.
"Can it be thunder?" whispered Valya, listening.
Suddenly there was a roar and whistle. From somewhere unknown there
swept a torrent of water and from all directions foaming streams broke in
from this muddy sea.
The Professor and the children stood upon a small island pressed
closely to the stem of the mushroom.
The water dashed past them sweeping everything out of its way, breaking
the grassy trees or bending them to the very ground.
The mushroom stood like a tower on the island, but the water rose and
rose, threatening to submerge not only the island but the towers-It was
already splashing their feet.
"Somewhere near here there must be a river flowing," said the
Professor, "and in all probability it has flooded over its banks and here
you are. . . ."
He waved his hand helplessly.
"Will the water wash us away?" asked Valya uneasily. The Professor
didn't answer.
Knitting his brow he silently looked down at his feet and worked his
blue, frozen fingers.
The water continued to rise - like dough. It threatened clearly to
sweep the travellers away off the island and to carry them into the jungle,
and there to drown them in some deep ravine.
Having looked at the Professor it dawned on Karik that their guide
could see no way of saving them.
"Listen," said Karik with decision, touching the cold hand of the
Professor. "I don't think our position is so terrible."
"What do you suggest?"
"We must climb up the mushroom!" answered Karik. "Yes, yes,"
gruff-gruffed the Professor absent-mindedly. "Let's try and climb up."
But having examined the round thick stem of the mushroom which rose
vertically into the air he sighed and shook his head: it wasn't possible to
climb up the mushroom.
"No, it won't work, my dears," he said, rapidly winking his eyes. "We
cannot climb that."
"What about the roof of this wonder tent?" asked Valya, looking at the
hanging strip of mushroom skin. "Would it hold us?"
The Professor looked upwards.
"Marvellous!" he rejoiced. "My goodness, that's a wonderful idea.
Quickly, my dears! It's simply grand!"
He helped the children get up on his shoulders. From his shoulders they
were able to scramble on to the roof of the wonder-tent - first Valya, then
Karik.
Valya got down on her knees, hung her head over the edge of the canopy
and stretched out her hand to the Professor.
"Give us your hand !"
The Professor just blinked his eyes good-humouredly. "Well, what are
you up to?" shouted Valya. "Nothing, nothing! I'll stay here," said their
guide. He knew that the children had not the strength to pull him up, and in
any case the roof would probably not stand the extra weight.
The water, however, still continued to rise. It had already flooded the
island on which the mushroom stood and was lapping over his feet.
The wind was blowing cold.
Grey-leaden waves were rising in the water. These waves, started to
break against the stem of the mushroom spraying the Professor, already
shaking with cold, from head to foot.
What could he do? Swim?
But where to? Would he ever reach dry land when he was already numbed
and frozen. Yes, and how could he leave the children alone?
He stood, with his teeth chattering, gazing at the stormy lake
surrounding him, in deep depression.
The water was up to his knees by now. The strong current was already
clutching at his legs, but he pressed his back against the cold slippery,
mushroom stem.
Logs came floating towards him. They jostled him and painfully hurt his
knees.
His legs were soon covered with deep scratches.
The water now reached to his waist.
He stood, with his lips, frozen with cold, tightly clenched, trying
just to think of nothing.
The water rose higher and higher.
"The children will have to find their own way home alone," drummed in
the Professor's mind.
After the flood - In search of a night's lodging - Valya finds the
forest hotel - The Professor attacks the landlord - The first night in the
new world
"CLIMB UP HERE!" SHOUTED the children, anxiously looking down at their
guide from above.
"Don't worry! Don't worry!" replied the Professor, who was now quite
blue with the cold.
With her neck craning forward and her mouth open, Valya on the point of
tears gazed at the Professor. Karik, knitting his brows, bit his lip. and
turned away. He could not in any way help his guide and could not bear to
watch the kind old man perish before his very eyes.
"My friends," said the Professor, "if anything happens to me do not
forget the landmark. You must hurry to get to it. The only possible way for
you to get home again I have already described to you. There is no other way
for you."
Neither of them answered him but both children started to look wildly
from side to side. It looked as if they hadn't even heard him. But their
eyes were filled with tears. The Professor prepared to die. And undoubtedly
he would have died before nightfall had not the rain suddenly ceased. So
suddenly that a great silence descended upon them.
Ragged clouds were still sweeping across the heavens but clear sky had
started to show. A huge red sun could be seen sinking behind the hills.
Odd drops of rain still fell noisily on the roof of the mushroom but a
cheerful summer evening warmed by the sinking sun had now set in and a warm
mist started to rise from the ground.
All around the Professor the waves sparkled. They were red like the
disappearing sun and at the same time violet like the evening sky.
In the turbid flood logs were floating and turning this way and that
way. Grass trees came past torn out by the roots.
The Professor stood with his legs wide apart and pushed the wet,
slippery logs aside with his numbed hands. They kept on coming at him as if
they were alive.
The water started to fall.
A huge tree floating past the mushroom seemed to shake itself in the
waves and slowly came to rest aground. The Professor quickly clambered out
of the water and stood with his frozen feet on the wet trunk.
"It's all over!" Shouted Karik with joy. "The water is going down.
Going down!"
Valya was clapping her hands. "Look, there is dry land. Can we get
down?"
Their guide worked his shoulders in a chilly way and stepping first on
one foot then on the other he coughed hoarsely and replied:
"Yes, yes, climb down. We must be going."
The children nimbly made their way to the ground.
"Oy, you're absolutely frozen!" said Valya, turning to the Professor.
"Let's run. We shall soon get warm running."
"Good idea," he nodded his head. "But let's see first which way we
should run. Now then Karik, you, my dear, climb up a tree and have a look
for our landmark."
"Right you are, Professor !"
Karik dashed to a tall trunk covered with short, sharp, pointed
branches. Clinging to these giant prickles he rapidly made his way up the
tree.
The tree rocked.
The leaves poured a floor of cold water on him just as if they were
gutters.
Karik shivered and pressed himself to the trunk, but immediately
afterwards shook himself like a dog and went on climbing.
At last he made the top of the grass tree.
It bent under his weight and he slowly rocked backwards and forwards
turning his head now to the right and now to the left.
Below him as far as eye could see stretched forest, forest, forest. It
was no longer, however, as it had appeared formerly. All the trees were
sloping to one side as if they were half cut down.
Big leaves could be seen bending under the weight of great globes of
water which looked as if they were made of crystal glass. The rays of the
setting sun were reflected by them, which gave their surface a purple hue.
The whole forest flamed with a thousand such reflections.
Shaking with the cold, Karik twisted around the slippery, wet tree top
and looked the other way.
Far in the west he could see a solitary mast. From its top there hung a
limp flag.
"There it is!" he shouted, waving his arm towards the forest.
"We must go that way. Over that side !"
"O.K.! We can see!" Valya yelled from below.
Karik rapidly climbed down to the ground. The travellers started off on
their journey and were soon deep in the heart of the grass jungle.
* * * * *
The forest was quiet. Every so often a water globe would fall to the
earth with a rumble and slosh, then, once again, there would be complete
silence.
There was not a single living creature to be seen or heard. A sleep of
death seemed to have fallen on everything, just as it did in the story of
Sleeping Beauty.
"What's happened to them all?" demanded Valya.
"Who do you mean?"
"Why, all - the wild animals."
"The insects? They're somewhere around!" answered the Professor
shivering. "They've hidden themselves."
"Are they asleep?"
"They are drying themselves !"
Their guide rubbed his frozen hands vigorously and increased his pace
of walking.
"All those who fly," he continued as they went along, "and all those
who jump are now sitting waiting for the sun to dry them, when they will be
able to start running and jumping and flying once again. In this way they
wait patiently every morning for the rising sun, sitting in the grass
covered with the heavy dew."
"That's fine !" grinned Karik. "They can dry themselves out for a whole
year and I shouldn't be the least bit sorry."
"We certainly seem quite alone in the forest at present," said Valya.
"But what does frighten me is that when we lie down to sleep they will
attack us in the night. I am not frightened now."
* * * * *
The children became cheerful.
They talked incessantly as they went along and then started to play
some sort of game chasing each other through the forest, calling to each
other and hiding behind the great trunks of the grass trees.
Karik ran on far ahead whilst Valya bravely poked her nose into every
crevice and peered into every hole. She wanted to see what the monsters of
the grassy forest looked like after the rain.
The Professor watched them with growing anxiety and at last said rather
crossly: "You mustn't think, my dears, that all the insects will now sit
peacefully waiting for sunrise. It has only got to get really dark and all
the ruffians of the night world will come creeping out of their holes and
crevices. These night ruffians are much more fearsome than the day-time
ones. Generally speaking, I don't advise you to poke your nose into every
crack."
The children looked at each other.
"We," hesitated a subdued Valya, "we didn't know about the night ones."
They now held hands and followed behind their guide, neither dropping
back nor running ahead.
The sun sank.
In the forest it now became quite dark and in some way particularly
silent.
The dark trees rose up around the travellers like a wall. Away up above
their tops the wind now started to make a mournful sound. At odd intervals
heavy drops of rain fell on the ground with the thud of a falling rock.
It became difficult to make their way in the dark.
The Professor and the children more and more frequently bumped against
trees or stumbled and fell.
"Wait a minute," said the Professor, stopping. "Here we are wandering
about when it is clearly time to look for a lodging place for the night. I
think we had better spread out and sweep the wood like a chain, but
naturally not losing each other."
'"It's so dark," whispered Valya. "We may easily get lost."
"We'll call to each other."
"What have we got to do?"
"Well, we must carefully look for some sort of a comfortable cranny.
Whoever finds a suitable place for a night's lodging must shout. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" answered Karik and Valya together.
The travellers dispersed in different directions. Valya went along a
broad stream. Further on her left was Karik, and beyond him the Professor.
"Keep a careful look-out!" came the voice of the Professor.
"Coo-ee," shouted Valya.
"Coo-ee," replied Karik.
Suddenly it seemed to Valya that something quite close to her moved.
She started running, but at once heard hasty steps behind her.
She stopped and hid behind a tree. She was becoming scared.
"Coo-ee," she yelled.
"Ahey! ahey!" came back two voices from quite near her amid the trees.
The Professor and Karik were quite near. Valya became calmer and once
again resumed her walk but once again she heard behind her cautious steps.
"Who is that? Who is there?" Valya jerked out, and not waiting for an
answer dashed ahead into a dark thicket.
She ran on stumbling, fearing to stop and not daring to look around.
Suddenly in the darkness a high wall rose up. In her flight Valya all
but collided with it, luckily she stretched out her arms in time.
Her hands met a cold mass of rock.
"Coo-ee," she shouted.
"Coo-ee," Karik at once replied.
Breathing heavily, Valya started to move along touching the rocky mass
with her hands. The ground beneath her feet became muddy. Her feet stuck in
the clay.
After going a few steps she stopped. In front of her lay a big broad
puddle.
"I'll go around the other way," thought Valya, and turning sharply
retraced her steps. She got to the dry ground and feeling the granite mass
with her hands started to go round it the other way, but had only taken a
few steps when she suddenly felt her hand go into space.
She stopped.
In the dark she could make out the black entrance to some cavern.
"Here we are !" shouted Valya. "Come quickly! I've found it!"
"Where are you?" yelled back Karik, running out of the trees.
"Here! Over here! I've found it!"
Karik looked at the rocky mass and then at Valya, and then said
angrily:
"What are you shouting for? That is a rock. A big rock. Do you think we
can shelter under a rock?"
"Inside it," replied Valya. "Just look here." She pushed her brother
towards the wide, dark entrance which led into the interior of the rocky
mass.
Karik stepped back a little from the rocky mass, stopped, put his arms
akimbo and started to examine it with the eyes of one who might be about to
purchase it as a residence.
"H'm, yes!" Karik gravely nodded his head. "That's not bad! Quite a
hotel!"
It appeared to be a long block of granite rather like a cigar.
It lay amidst the trunks of huge bamboo-like trees. Some fairy story
giant must have been carrying it and dropped it here. It was practically
suspended in mid-air. You could put your hand between it and the ground.
Karik made a trumpet of his hands and yelled:
"Professor! Professor! We have found a place."
"Goo-ee, I am coming. Coming!"
Karik turned to Valya. Patting her on the back, he said:
"Excellent young woman! This is like an aeroplane hangar made of rock.
. . . We should certainly be able to lodge in it for the night. . . . Let's
try and get into it."
At the very entrance to the cavern there was a stump of a tree cast up
against it by the flood. Karik clambered on to this and started to gaze into
the darkness beyond.
"It's a pity we haven't got a match," he complained. "I can't see a
thing."
He stretched out his hands and started to move forward into the cave.
"What's it like?" Valya was impatiently waiting behind him.
Suddenly Karik sprang backwards and came spinning like a top over the
wet stump of the tree.
With one bound away from the cavern he grasped Valya by the hand and
quickly sat them both down behind a tree.
"It's occupied! There's something in the hole," he whispered. "Huge!
terrible!"
At that moment two enormous feelers poked out of the cavern followed by
a round black head. It turned first to the right, then the left, and slowly
withdrew again into the hole.
"Did you see that!"
"Oo hoo! What whiskers! They were its whiskers, weren't they?"
"Yes, feelers, of course. They all have feelers here."
"We must get hold of the Professor."
"Coo-ee," yelled Karik.
"Coo-ee," came back the voice of the Professor. "Where are you? How am
I to get to you?"
"Here! here!"
"Over here !"
There was a noise of rustling leaves, heavy steps and a cough.
Their guide appeared from behind some trees.
"Well, what luck? You've found something."
"We've found something."
"We've practically found it."
Valya pointed to the cavern.
"I found that," she said proudly.
The Professor went nearer and poked the rocky wall with his stick.
"I recognise it. Very successful. Simply marvellous! Just the very
thing we needed. An excellent hotel for travellers like ourselves."
The Professor got up on the stump and gazed into the cavern.
"Stop! Stop!" screamed Karik, and seized him by the arm.
"What's up? What's happened?"
"The hotel is occupied. Something is already in it. Got there before
us."
"Enormous, it has . . . oh it's really terrifying!" whispered Valya.
"Don't worry! don't worry!" replied the Professor quite calmly. "I know
this lodger quite well. . . . It's an old friend of mine. . . . It won't
take us more than a minute to get it out of that."
The Professor went back around the puddle and came to a stop near the
narrow end of the rocky mass. Squatting down on his heels he felt the rock
with his hands.
"There we are! There we are!" The children heard him exclaim.
"Just as I thought." Muttering something under his breath the Professor
jumped up and dashed off into the depths of the forest.
"Where has he gone?" asked Valya.
"I don't know."
"Where are you off to. Professor?" shouted Valya.
"Stay where you are. I'll be back in a minute," came his voice through
the darkness.
The minute passed but the Professor didn't come back. The children
could hear his steps and mutterings but what he was doing in the forest was
difficult to guess.
At last he reappeared.
"Here I am!" he shouted, dragging behind him a long pole.
Having dragged the pole up to the rocky mass he once again felt the
surface of the rock with his hands and having found a round hole pushed the
sharp end of the pole into it.
Karik and Valya watched every movement he made, but neither of them
could understand what he was up to.
"It looks as if there'll be a fight," said Valya.
The children bent down and searched on the ground with their hands.
Karik got hold of a heavy club. Valya found a rock and firmly grasped it in
her hand. Now they were ready to go at any moment to the help of the
Professor.
"Now, my dears. Just move on one side!" said their guide, straightening
himself up.
The children not hurrying moved away from the cavern and stood holding
hands.
"And now," grinned the Professor. "Just watch how this huge and
terrible creature will take to its heels."
He twisted the pole to the right and to the left, then thrust it deep
into the narrow crack and then started to use it just like a poker in a
fire.
The monster then began to get restless.
A black head covered with spines stuck up out of the main entrance to
the cave and rocking dropped down again.
"Come on now!" shouted the Professor, throwing his full weight against
the thick end of the pole.
The giant shuddered as if stung, moved out of the entrance, producing
three pairs of legs, then proceeded to drag out behind it a long jointed
body and made off towards the stream.
The children had hardly been able to observe the details of the monster
before it went over the edge of the bank and fell with a dull splash into
the water. The rapid current at once seized it and it immediately
disappeared in the darkness.
"That was very neat!" grinned Karik. "It won't creep into a strange
hotel another time."
"That's fine!" gruffed the Professor good humouredly. "We won't go into
details now as to who seized the territory - whether it took ours or we took
its. In any case it didn't argue with us."
"What!" Karik guessed. "You mean we have taken its own personal house
from this giant?"
"Something like it!" replied the Professor, "but it's too late now to
repent. Yes, and it is not worth while in any case. Now, my dears, let's
prepare our sleeping quarters. Collect twigs and leaves and little branches.
Pile them by the entrance."
The work became fast and furious in the dark.
The Professor and the children dragged together leaves, roots and
stumps of grass trees.
It wasn't at all an easy job.
It took two of them to drag a single leaf, and a blue petal from some
flower proved almost beyond the capacity of the three of them.
The Professor started to shout.
"Now, now, make haste! Valya, don't walk in the water! Karik, give up
that leaf! You can never lift it. . . . Now help me to drag these twigs!"
All the same he was contented now. He had feared that they would have
to spend the night under the open sky and now they had had this unexpected
luck.
"Ah, my dears," he said, with some solemnity, "how very fortunately
this day has turned out for us. Really, we seem to have been born with
silver spoons in our mouths, as they say in England. Just wait till we get
into this refuge and you will yourselves see how lucky we are. . . ."
"What about the flood?" exclaimed Karik. "B-r-r-r! It is terrible even
to think of it. There wasn't much silver spoon about that."
"The flood. That certainly was our darkest hour. However, we were not
drowned and, my dears, it did us a useful turn. In fact, but for the flood,
I do not know where we should have spent the night and what might have
happened to us during the night - it was the flood that deposited the Caddis
fly larva on the bank of the stream, together with its rocky home."
"And it did not even defend itself!" said Valya. "So huge and yet so
peaceful."
"What! the Caddis fly larva peaceful?"
The Professor laughed.
"Well, it could hardly be described as peaceful," he continued, "under
water there is nothing it fears. This greedy ruffian attacks small crabs,
the larvae of insects and not infrequently devours its own children."
"A sort of brigand!"
"A very real brigand. Just think how it sets out to hunt. How
marvellously equipped it is - the villain is clad like a knight in strong,
impenetrable armour. But what a knight! Knights have helmets, breastplates
and chain armour, but this gentleman drags around a regular fortress."
the heads of the black ants.
"Why are they dragging these eggs about?" asked Valya.
The Professor shrugged his shoulders.
" I suppose it is because it's going to rain," he answered. "They
usually hide their cocoons or eggs as you call them and close all the
entrances and exits to their nests before rain comes. But we mustn't waste
time, whilst the ants are busy with their own affairs we must try and get
across the valley. Also, my dears, we must seek some comfortable refuge
where we can shelter from the rain."
The travellers started to climb down. But they had hardly taken a
couple of steps when they heard a sort of confused but increasing noise.
The Professor stopped.
"Is that the rain?"
He looked at the sky.
It had grown dark and thundery clouds were covering it. The grassy
jungle was still as if it had been hushed. But there was no sign of rain.
"What is it making the noise?"
The travellers looked about themselves cautiously. The children watched
the Professor uneasily as he listened attentively to the rising noise,
stroking his grey beard.
I "Strange, very strange!" he gruff-gruffed. "I don't like this noise,
my dears."
The Professor and the children hid themselves behind grass trees.
"It's as if someone were running!" said Karik, cautiously looking from
behind a thick trunk.
The noise came nearer and nearer. They could now distinguish the
trampling of rapidly moving feet. It seemed as if a herd of frightened
cattle was stampeding towards the children.
The tops of the distant hills became wreathed in something like smoke.
It was a cloud of dust engulfing them.
"I see them!" shouted Valya. "There! There they are! Look! They're
coming! Oy, however many are there?"
On the distant ridges of the hill there had now appeared a host of dark
points.
To begin with they spread along the ridges and then suddenly started to
spread down the sides of the hills.
The hills became darkened. Great hordes of some sort of animals were
sweeping downwards like an avalanche and soon the whole valley was moving as
if it were alive. All the time from behind the hills there emerged more and
more new columns.
"Red ants !" shouted the Professor.
He had made no mistake.
These were huge red ants. Their strong bodies shone like copper. They
were twice as big as the black ants. And what a vicious war-like appearance
they had !
Without any pause the stranger ants flung themselves in assault upon
the ant hill belonging to the back ants. They grappled hold of the beams
with clutching feet and soon a living stream flowed along the galleries.
The owners of the ant hill rushed to meet this vicious attack. A bitter
struggle ensued on the galleries.
The red ants, like a band of hungry dogs, fell upon the peaceful
cowherd ants, killed them and threw them down from the galleries.
They attacked the ant hill from all sides. The cowherd ants defended
themselves desperately.
They perished in hundreds bravely defending every entrance to their
home. But the forces were too unequal.
The red ants clambered over the bodies of the mutilated black ants and
pushed forward step by step until at last having swept aside their small
opponents they hurled themselves noisily into the interior of the ant heap.
All along the galleries dead ants were being thrown down.
Below at the edge of the ant heap a small group of black ants was still
bravely battling with their red foes.
But the battle was already won.
The red ants had destroyed the black ants and they now started to
pillage the ant heap.
The victors dragged white cocoons out of the tunnels and hastily ran
down the galleries to where beneath there jostled a disorderly noisy crowd.
They were like bandits who after destroying a house were dragging the goods
away in sacks.
"Whatever are they up to?" asked Karik, quite perplexed.
"Don't you see?" whispered the Professor in reply. "The red ants have
captured the cocoons of the black ants, their children in other words.
They'll carry off these cocoons to their own ant hill and when these ants
come out they'll make them their slaves."
"What?"
Karik jumped up as if he had been stung.
"And why haven't you done something about it? These slave owners are
busy robbing, and here we are sitting with our hands folded?"
He seized a stone from the ground and swinging it around flung it
violently at a group of the bandits, who were dragging white cocoons out of
the ant hill.
"Hit them! Valya, what are you looking at? Can't you pee? What awful
parasites!"
Lumps of earth and stones now flew amongst the red ants. Without
thinking of the danger the children darted from behind the trees.
"Fire!" ordered Karik. And two stones whistled into the crowd of
bandits.
The Professor, becoming frightened, seized the children by the arms.
"Stop! You lunatics! What are you doing? Do you want them to attack
us?"
"Well, let them!" frowned Valya. "Let them attack us ! We'll soon show
them what happens to people who make slaves."
"We can't fight them!" scolded the Professor.
"That remains to be seen," answered Karik, pugnaciously, still firing
stones at the ants.
The children had worked themselves up to such a pitch that they could
not be restrained.
"What about you?" Valya shouted at the Professor. "Aren't you ashamed
to stand there with your hands folded? Come on, help us!" and she shoved a
stone towards him.
But the Professor waved his hand and stepped on one side.
He sat down on the edge of the precipice and swinging his legs in the
air started to count the ants which had been hit by the children.
At that moment one of the children deftly hit an ant plumb on the head.
The ant staggered and slowly, just as if it was thinking hard, it started to
fall forward. At that moment a second stone whistled at it, hitting it on
the chest. The ant dropped and lay still. The cocoon fell out of its
clutches and rolled down the hill. Another of the bandits ran up to it.
"See if you can hit one !" Valya shouted.
The Professor, quite unexpectedly to himself, bent his arm back and
threw a stone at the ant.
Just then the bandit ant was making for the cocoon. It was on the point
of seizing it with its claws when the stone thrown by the Professor hit it
on the claw. The ant turned and fell on one side, spun around and made off"
limping.
"Aha, you don't like that!" grinned the Professor, and bent over for
more stones.
A third ant had already reached the cocoon. Having seized it the ant
quickly made off towards his gang.
"Nonsense," roared the Professor. "I won't let you have it!" At that he
fired a stone so precisely that it knocked this ant out also.
The cocoon now rolled away off to one side. "Mow them down!" yelled
Karik. "It is no use just hitting odd ones like that. Oh, if only our scout
troop was here we'd soon show these slave-makers . . . what blackguards.
Come on, all together. Give them a volley!"
Heavy stones crashed over amongst the ants.
"Hurrah, they are running away !" cried Valya cheerfully.
She bent over to pick up another stone and suddenly saw in front of her
a fearsome ant face. It had got up the cliff unnoticed and was upon her.
She seized a lump of earth, swung it upwards and brought it down on the
ant's head, screaming as she did it.
"Help, help! Come quickly!"
The ant staggered but made on towards the brave girl.
"They are here! Come on!" she screamed.
The Professor and Karik dashed over to her.
The Professor gave orders.
"You attack at the side, I'll be in front! Hit it with stones!"
"Ya-ya-ya-yah!" shouted the children, and fearlessly hurled themselves
at the ant.
The Professor hit it full force in the eye with a stone.
The ant shuddered, staggered and helplessly started kicking its feet
about. Karik struck it in the back and Valya jumping in closer hit it with a
stone on the head. The ant fell heavily to the ground.
"Hurrah !" yelled Valya.
With her stone raised high above her head she stood there red in the
face with the exertion and beaming with pride at the Professor and Karik.
It was, however, too early to celebrate.
Down in the ravine a whole horde of fierce ants were streaming over to
the help of the bandit. They were running along, agile and muscular and the
sun glinted on their red shining sides which sparkled like some sort of
copper armour.
The grassy jungle shook with the heavy beat of ants' feet.
"Valya, Valya! Lookout! Come back!" yelled Karik.
Valya turned.
"Oy! a hundred of them!" she cried out. "No! more than that and they
are climbing up! They're coming up!"
The hordes of ants were swarming up the sides of the ravine,
"We must run for it!" barked the Professor.
He seized the children by the hands, they dashed off together not
caring where they went, jumping over holes and stumbling against rocks.
The wind sang in their ears: fe-e-ew!
With thunderous tread the ants charged behind them, gaining all the
time on the unfortunate travellers.
Now, now! another minute and they'll catch up, seize and tear the
Professor and the children in pieces.
Panting from the pace at which he had run, the Professor looked over
his shoulder at the ants, and then at the children. Would they be able to
keep going?
"We cannot get away!" the thought made the Professor cold with fear.
"We cannot possibly escape them !"
What could be done? Must he and the children all perish?
No, it was unthinkable!
Suppose he were to stop and hold the ants. Maybe the children would be
able to hide somewhere whilst he fought the beasts.
He pretended to stumble accidentally and stopped.
Seeing this the children also stopped.
"Run on! Run on!" he waved with his hands.
Karik and Valya ran on, but after a few steps they stopped again.
"For goodness sake why don't you run?" shouted the Professor angrily.
"Run on. What's stopping you?"
"A river! Here is a river!"
"Where?" .
The Professor bounded towards the children. In front of them was a line
of low hillocks.
Behind the hillocks a river showed blue shimmering in the sun.
"Can you swim that?" the Professor panted at the children, breathing
heavily.
Karik and Valya looked at each other and both together answered.
"Rather!"
"Of course we can swim it!"
"Come on! We're saved!"
The Professor ran up to the cliff edge of the river. "Dive in!" he
shouted, "and swim across!" and throwing up his arms he plunged off the
cliff into the river, yelling.
"Follow me."
Not hesitating a moment, Karik and Valya both dived after him.
The cold water took their breath away. Karik bobbed up like a cork and
looked hastily around.
Ahead, blowing and snorting like a seal, swam the Professor.
His bald head shone in the sunshine like a polished billiard ball. With
speedy strokes Karik and Valya swam after him. But apparently he could not
see them. He twisted his head back and raised himself out of the water for a
second looking around.
"Ahoy!" he shouted. "Where are you?"
"Here!"
"Here!"
"Don't stop!"
Karik and Valya threshed the water with their arms. Making every effort
they tried to overtake him, but he was quite clearly a master swimmer. The
distance between him and the children increased every minute. He reached the
other bank whilst the children were still in the middle.
Valya cried out something. So he turned back and swam alongside the
children.
"Well! how are things?" he asked with some anxiety. "You are not too
tired! Can you make it?"
"We'll make it!" Valya just managed to bubble back.
Karik turned his head back; he was no longer afraid - the ants could
not swim.
There on the bank they were crowding, running down the side to the very
edge of the river, bending down to the water's edge, feeling it with their
feet, just as if they had decided to try and swim - then immediately drawing
back.
Not one of them could make up its mind to plunge into the water.
Worn and weary the travellers dragged themselves up the opposite bank
and staggering with tiredness made their way to some flat rocks.
The children sank on to the rocks.
"There's war for you," said the Professor, bending his head down and
wringing the water out of his beard.
Karik and Valya didn't reply.
They gazed at the opposite bank where the ants were running backwards
and forwards.
"And ants don't swim?" asked Valya, wiping her face with her hands.
"No! These do not swim!" The Professor comforted the girl.
"But," said Karik, taking a deep breath, "but I read somewhere that
they held on to each other, made a floating bridge and got across rivers
like that."
"True enough!" nodded the Professor, "but there are not enough of them
here to make such a bridge. Generally speaking. . . ."
He broke off to gaze anxiously at the heavy thundery clouds, and he
turned abruptly from the bank.
"There is another danger threatening us, my dears. Very soon a pretty
drop of rain will start to fall. Hoo-oo-. We must hide ourselves somewhere,
the sooner the better."
Valya started grinning.
"Surely we are so wet already we have nothing much to fear?"
"You forget," barked the Professor, "that the first drop of rain would
knock us off our feet and the next drops would beat us into the earth. We
had jolly well better look around for some hidey hole where we can shelter
during the rain."
The travellers had not got much further before the sky darkened, a cold
wind rustled the tops of the grassy jungle and odd drops of rain could be
heard drumming on the leaves.
These were just the first drops.
"Quicker!" ordered the Professor, "follow me, my dears!"
He rolled down a steep slope and jumping up ran on.
The children plunged after him.
Their blue dresses fluttered in the wind. Their umbrellas shook and
their long handles bent like bows.
Suddenly the Professor turned abruptly to one side.
"Here we are, children!" he shouted, running towards a high grey cliff
which stood out of the valley like a skyscraper.
On top of this cliff there lay an enormous dark brown mass, like a hat.
In the distance it looked just like a giant peaked cap.
The Professor ran up to the foot of this strange cliff and throwing his
head back started to examine it.
"Well! well! this is marvellous, isn't it?" he said, wiping his face
with his hand.
Karik and Valya ran up to him and both started:
"What is it?"
"Don't you recognise it?" smiled the Professor. "Take a good look at
this marvel!"
The cliff stretched high into the sky and the higher it went the
narrower it became.
Right on top at the height of a two-storied house there hung a circular
spongy-looking roof. It projected like the brim of an immense hat protecting
them from the rain. The dark shadow of this roof covered the top half of the
pillar cliff.
"A mushroom!" yelled Valya.
"Of course it is - a mushroom!" laughed the Professor.
"Which sort is it?" asked Karik. "A White mushroom, a Shaggy cap, a Fly
catcher or a Blewit?"
The Professor opened his mouth to reply but heavy rain started to beat
down. His voice was drowned in the roar of the torrent.
Neither the Professor nor the children had ever seen such rain before.
Huge balls of water whistled and howled through the air, falling
crashingly upon the earth. Pieces of earth were thrown up just as if a shell
had exploded. Before the mud had time to settle hundreds more water shells
howling and crashing buried themselves in the earth, throwing it up,
scattering it, and splashing.
Streams of water spread over the earth. Soon a turbid watery curtain
shut the travellers off from the rest of the world.
The air suddenly became much cooler.
Shivering and resting first on one leg and then on the other the
Professor and the children were like geese standing on ice.
An icy blast of wind came from the side and drenched the travellers
with cold spray.
"Go-oo-old!" Karik's teeth were chattering.
"Nasty, my dear, nasty!" gruff-gruffed the Professor, and wriggled his
shoulders with the cold. "We shall get quite numb like this. We must find
the sheltered side of the mushroom. Now come on. You, Karik, go round to the
right and you, Valya, to the left. Assembly point is here. Try and find
whether there is not a better place than this. Now quick march!"
Their teeth chattering with the cold, the children ran around the base
of the giant mushroom.
Valya rounded a thick projection of the cliff and the wind shifted to
her back and then fell away.
Behind the projection all was calm.
Underfoot there were dry sticks and twigs. The earth was warm. Stamping
her frozen feet, Valya felt them at once getting warmer.
It was the very driest and warmest place under the mushroom but was
somewhat dark. A little way above the ground the thick skin of the mushroom
had split and a piece of it hung down like a canopy roof overshadowing the
ground.
Valya got under the canopy.
"Here we are ! Come on here !" she shouted. "I have found a tent!
Here's a tent! Come round to me!"
The Professor and Karik soon appeared from different sides of the
mushroom.
They were at once delighted by the roomy nook with its canopy.
"Not at all bad!" said the Professor, looking round. In such a pavilion
they could clearly wait until the rain was over in tolerable comfort.
He rolled some thick short stems of dried grass under the canopy and
the travellers sat down and. made themselves comfortable.
"I propose," said Karik, brightening up, "that this refuge for
travellers should be named 'Valya's Wonder Tent'!"
"I have no objection!" declared Valya, clearly most taken with Karik's
notion.
"Well, well!" said the Professor. "All we need now is a nice cup of tea
and - "
But he didn't have a chance to say what he would like with his tea.
Something heavy fell on to the roof of the wonder tent and rolled rumbling
over their heads. Then twisting and curling itself in loops a fat white
snake with a black head swung downwards in the air. It fell heavily on the
ground, started to turn around and wriggle towards the travellers' feet as
if it were about to attack them.
The children darted to the Professor and hid behind his back.
But the Professor himself was also retreating in alarm. The snake was
about twice as big as he was and much fatter. It bent its black head down to
the ground and working it like a drill twisted and turned until at length it
had disappeared under the ground.
"Ah, that's it!" muttered the Professor.
The travellers had not recovered from this shock when white snakes
started to rain down from above and bury themselves in the earth.
The children began to run away.
"Where are you going? What's the matter?" shouted the Professor.
"Stop!"
He grabbed them by the arms.
"The snakes!" whispered Valya.
"Snakes! Rubbish! Those are not snakes, my friend, they're just
ordinary larvae, midge larvae."
"Midges?"
"Certainly! Fungus midges. Do you see?" the Professor pointed with his
hand to the mushroom roof; "do you see how they have eaten away the
mushroom? Oh you need not be afraid of them, my friends! They don't even
notice you. They are much too full of their own worries. Whilst the soil is
wet and soft they must hurry to work themselves as deep as possible into the
ground so as to turn into chrysalises.
The children became calmer.
The party once again seated themselves in the wonder tent and huddled
together.
The storm raged around the mushroom. The grass forest bent under the
force of the water. The rain drummed with such force on the mushroom roof
that it sounded like a continuous roll of thunder above their heads.
The Professor and the children every so often looked up with alarm and
then involuntarily tried to bury their heads in their shoulders.
Suddenly Karik shouted:
"There's another one! Ooch, what a big one! Look then! It is coming
down on us."
Above them along the fleshy underside of the mushroom hat there crawled
lazily some sort of naked, fat animal. It was like a tightly stuffed,
dirty-looking mattress. The back of this monster was glossy as if it had
been smeared with grease.
"What's that?" demanded Valya who, taking no chances, was hiding behind
the Professor's back.
"A slug!" replied the Professor very calmly. "A very ordinary snail
without a shell."
"Will it also fall on us?"
"Oh, no!" The Professor started to laugh. "That one won't fall! Don't
worry! He's stuck on tight."
"Is he another wrecker?"
"What, a slug? Shame on you! The slug is the mushroom's best friend. He
certainly destroys the mushrooms, but by that means he gives them a new
life."
"How is it possible to be destructive and useful at the same time?"
The Professor stroked his beard and replied in a leisurely way:
"The slug swallows pieces of mushroom in which there are spores -
mushroom seeds. These spores pass through the stomach of the slug and fall
finally on the soil where they take root. You would not have many mushrooms
but for the slugs."
"There you are, Valya," grinned Karik, "we called our shelter 'Valya's
Wonder Tent': we must call the mushroom roof 'The Slug's Hat.' "
Valya was about to say something witty when the Professor raised his
finger in warning and listening to something said with some agitation:
"What's that? Do you hear?"
The travellers got up.
Through the noise and rumble of the gale they could hear a dull roar -
somewhere quite close it seemed, as if the sea was breaking against cliffs.
The noise as if of breakers became closer every minute and grew louder
and louder.
"Can it be thunder?" whispered Valya, listening.
Suddenly there was a roar and whistle. From somewhere unknown there
swept a torrent of water and from all directions foaming streams broke in
from this muddy sea.
The Professor and the children stood upon a small island pressed
closely to the stem of the mushroom.
The water dashed past them sweeping everything out of its way, breaking
the grassy trees or bending them to the very ground.
The mushroom stood like a tower on the island, but the water rose and
rose, threatening to submerge not only the island but the towers-It was
already splashing their feet.
"Somewhere near here there must be a river flowing," said the
Professor, "and in all probability it has flooded over its banks and here
you are. . . ."
He waved his hand helplessly.
"Will the water wash us away?" asked Valya uneasily. The Professor
didn't answer.
Knitting his brow he silently looked down at his feet and worked his
blue, frozen fingers.
The water continued to rise - like dough. It threatened clearly to
sweep the travellers away off the island and to carry them into the jungle,
and there to drown them in some deep ravine.
Having looked at the Professor it dawned on Karik that their guide
could see no way of saving them.
"Listen," said Karik with decision, touching the cold hand of the
Professor. "I don't think our position is so terrible."
"What do you suggest?"
"We must climb up the mushroom!" answered Karik. "Yes, yes,"
gruff-gruffed the Professor absent-mindedly. "Let's try and climb up."
But having examined the round thick stem of the mushroom which rose
vertically into the air he sighed and shook his head: it wasn't possible to
climb up the mushroom.
"No, it won't work, my dears," he said, rapidly winking his eyes. "We
cannot climb that."
"What about the roof of this wonder tent?" asked Valya, looking at the
hanging strip of mushroom skin. "Would it hold us?"
The Professor looked upwards.
"Marvellous!" he rejoiced. "My goodness, that's a wonderful idea.
Quickly, my dears! It's simply grand!"
He helped the children get up on his shoulders. From his shoulders they
were able to scramble on to the roof of the wonder-tent - first Valya, then
Karik.
Valya got down on her knees, hung her head over the edge of the canopy
and stretched out her hand to the Professor.
"Give us your hand !"
The Professor just blinked his eyes good-humouredly. "Well, what are
you up to?" shouted Valya. "Nothing, nothing! I'll stay here," said their
guide. He knew that the children had not the strength to pull him up, and in
any case the roof would probably not stand the extra weight.
The water, however, still continued to rise. It had already flooded the
island on which the mushroom stood and was lapping over his feet.
The wind was blowing cold.
Grey-leaden waves were rising in the water. These waves, started to
break against the stem of the mushroom spraying the Professor, already
shaking with cold, from head to foot.
What could he do? Swim?
But where to? Would he ever reach dry land when he was already numbed
and frozen. Yes, and how could he leave the children alone?
He stood, with his teeth chattering, gazing at the stormy lake
surrounding him, in deep depression.
The water was up to his knees by now. The strong current was already
clutching at his legs, but he pressed his back against the cold slippery,
mushroom stem.
Logs came floating towards him. They jostled him and painfully hurt his
knees.
His legs were soon covered with deep scratches.
The water now reached to his waist.
He stood, with his lips, frozen with cold, tightly clenched, trying
just to think of nothing.
The water rose higher and higher.
"The children will have to find their own way home alone," drummed in
the Professor's mind.
After the flood - In search of a night's lodging - Valya finds the
forest hotel - The Professor attacks the landlord - The first night in the
new world
"CLIMB UP HERE!" SHOUTED the children, anxiously looking down at their
guide from above.
"Don't worry! Don't worry!" replied the Professor, who was now quite
blue with the cold.
With her neck craning forward and her mouth open, Valya on the point of
tears gazed at the Professor. Karik, knitting his brows, bit his lip. and
turned away. He could not in any way help his guide and could not bear to
watch the kind old man perish before his very eyes.
"My friends," said the Professor, "if anything happens to me do not
forget the landmark. You must hurry to get to it. The only possible way for
you to get home again I have already described to you. There is no other way
for you."
Neither of them answered him but both children started to look wildly
from side to side. It looked as if they hadn't even heard him. But their
eyes were filled with tears. The Professor prepared to die. And undoubtedly
he would have died before nightfall had not the rain suddenly ceased. So
suddenly that a great silence descended upon them.
Ragged clouds were still sweeping across the heavens but clear sky had
started to show. A huge red sun could be seen sinking behind the hills.
Odd drops of rain still fell noisily on the roof of the mushroom but a
cheerful summer evening warmed by the sinking sun had now set in and a warm
mist started to rise from the ground.
All around the Professor the waves sparkled. They were red like the
disappearing sun and at the same time violet like the evening sky.
In the turbid flood logs were floating and turning this way and that
way. Grass trees came past torn out by the roots.
The Professor stood with his legs wide apart and pushed the wet,
slippery logs aside with his numbed hands. They kept on coming at him as if
they were alive.
The water started to fall.
A huge tree floating past the mushroom seemed to shake itself in the
waves and slowly came to rest aground. The Professor quickly clambered out
of the water and stood with his frozen feet on the wet trunk.
"It's all over!" Shouted Karik with joy. "The water is going down.
Going down!"
Valya was clapping her hands. "Look, there is dry land. Can we get
down?"
Their guide worked his shoulders in a chilly way and stepping first on
one foot then on the other he coughed hoarsely and replied:
"Yes, yes, climb down. We must be going."
The children nimbly made their way to the ground.
"Oy, you're absolutely frozen!" said Valya, turning to the Professor.
"Let's run. We shall soon get warm running."
"Good idea," he nodded his head. "But let's see first which way we
should run. Now then Karik, you, my dear, climb up a tree and have a look
for our landmark."
"Right you are, Professor !"
Karik dashed to a tall trunk covered with short, sharp, pointed
branches. Clinging to these giant prickles he rapidly made his way up the
tree.
The tree rocked.
The leaves poured a floor of cold water on him just as if they were
gutters.
Karik shivered and pressed himself to the trunk, but immediately
afterwards shook himself like a dog and went on climbing.
At last he made the top of the grass tree.
It bent under his weight and he slowly rocked backwards and forwards
turning his head now to the right and now to the left.
Below him as far as eye could see stretched forest, forest, forest. It
was no longer, however, as it had appeared formerly. All the trees were
sloping to one side as if they were half cut down.
Big leaves could be seen bending under the weight of great globes of
water which looked as if they were made of crystal glass. The rays of the
setting sun were reflected by them, which gave their surface a purple hue.
The whole forest flamed with a thousand such reflections.
Shaking with the cold, Karik twisted around the slippery, wet tree top
and looked the other way.
Far in the west he could see a solitary mast. From its top there hung a
limp flag.
"There it is!" he shouted, waving his arm towards the forest.
"We must go that way. Over that side !"
"O.K.! We can see!" Valya yelled from below.
Karik rapidly climbed down to the ground. The travellers started off on
their journey and were soon deep in the heart of the grass jungle.
* * * * *
The forest was quiet. Every so often a water globe would fall to the
earth with a rumble and slosh, then, once again, there would be complete
silence.
There was not a single living creature to be seen or heard. A sleep of
death seemed to have fallen on everything, just as it did in the story of
Sleeping Beauty.
"What's happened to them all?" demanded Valya.
"Who do you mean?"
"Why, all - the wild animals."
"The insects? They're somewhere around!" answered the Professor
shivering. "They've hidden themselves."
"Are they asleep?"
"They are drying themselves !"
Their guide rubbed his frozen hands vigorously and increased his pace
of walking.
"All those who fly," he continued as they went along, "and all those
who jump are now sitting waiting for the sun to dry them, when they will be
able to start running and jumping and flying once again. In this way they
wait patiently every morning for the rising sun, sitting in the grass
covered with the heavy dew."
"That's fine !" grinned Karik. "They can dry themselves out for a whole
year and I shouldn't be the least bit sorry."
"We certainly seem quite alone in the forest at present," said Valya.
"But what does frighten me is that when we lie down to sleep they will
attack us in the night. I am not frightened now."
* * * * *
The children became cheerful.
They talked incessantly as they went along and then started to play
some sort of game chasing each other through the forest, calling to each
other and hiding behind the great trunks of the grass trees.
Karik ran on far ahead whilst Valya bravely poked her nose into every
crevice and peered into every hole. She wanted to see what the monsters of
the grassy forest looked like after the rain.
The Professor watched them with growing anxiety and at last said rather
crossly: "You mustn't think, my dears, that all the insects will now sit
peacefully waiting for sunrise. It has only got to get really dark and all
the ruffians of the night world will come creeping out of their holes and
crevices. These night ruffians are much more fearsome than the day-time
ones. Generally speaking, I don't advise you to poke your nose into every
crack."
The children looked at each other.
"We," hesitated a subdued Valya, "we didn't know about the night ones."
They now held hands and followed behind their guide, neither dropping
back nor running ahead.
The sun sank.
In the forest it now became quite dark and in some way particularly
silent.
The dark trees rose up around the travellers like a wall. Away up above
their tops the wind now started to make a mournful sound. At odd intervals
heavy drops of rain fell on the ground with the thud of a falling rock.
It became difficult to make their way in the dark.
The Professor and the children more and more frequently bumped against
trees or stumbled and fell.
"Wait a minute," said the Professor, stopping. "Here we are wandering
about when it is clearly time to look for a lodging place for the night. I
think we had better spread out and sweep the wood like a chain, but
naturally not losing each other."
'"It's so dark," whispered Valya. "We may easily get lost."
"We'll call to each other."
"What have we got to do?"
"Well, we must carefully look for some sort of a comfortable cranny.
Whoever finds a suitable place for a night's lodging must shout. Agreed?"
"Agreed!" answered Karik and Valya together.
The travellers dispersed in different directions. Valya went along a
broad stream. Further on her left was Karik, and beyond him the Professor.
"Keep a careful look-out!" came the voice of the Professor.
"Coo-ee," shouted Valya.
"Coo-ee," replied Karik.
Suddenly it seemed to Valya that something quite close to her moved.
She started running, but at once heard hasty steps behind her.
She stopped and hid behind a tree. She was becoming scared.
"Coo-ee," she yelled.
"Ahey! ahey!" came back two voices from quite near her amid the trees.
The Professor and Karik were quite near. Valya became calmer and once
again resumed her walk but once again she heard behind her cautious steps.
"Who is that? Who is there?" Valya jerked out, and not waiting for an
answer dashed ahead into a dark thicket.
She ran on stumbling, fearing to stop and not daring to look around.
Suddenly in the darkness a high wall rose up. In her flight Valya all
but collided with it, luckily she stretched out her arms in time.
Her hands met a cold mass of rock.
"Coo-ee," she shouted.
"Coo-ee," Karik at once replied.
Breathing heavily, Valya started to move along touching the rocky mass
with her hands. The ground beneath her feet became muddy. Her feet stuck in
the clay.
After going a few steps she stopped. In front of her lay a big broad
puddle.
"I'll go around the other way," thought Valya, and turning sharply
retraced her steps. She got to the dry ground and feeling the granite mass
with her hands started to go round it the other way, but had only taken a
few steps when she suddenly felt her hand go into space.
She stopped.
In the dark she could make out the black entrance to some cavern.
"Here we are !" shouted Valya. "Come quickly! I've found it!"
"Where are you?" yelled back Karik, running out of the trees.
"Here! Over here! I've found it!"
Karik looked at the rocky mass and then at Valya, and then said
angrily:
"What are you shouting for? That is a rock. A big rock. Do you think we
can shelter under a rock?"
"Inside it," replied Valya. "Just look here." She pushed her brother
towards the wide, dark entrance which led into the interior of the rocky
mass.
Karik stepped back a little from the rocky mass, stopped, put his arms
akimbo and started to examine it with the eyes of one who might be about to
purchase it as a residence.
"H'm, yes!" Karik gravely nodded his head. "That's not bad! Quite a
hotel!"
It appeared to be a long block of granite rather like a cigar.
It lay amidst the trunks of huge bamboo-like trees. Some fairy story
giant must have been carrying it and dropped it here. It was practically
suspended in mid-air. You could put your hand between it and the ground.
Karik made a trumpet of his hands and yelled:
"Professor! Professor! We have found a place."
"Goo-ee, I am coming. Coming!"
Karik turned to Valya. Patting her on the back, he said:
"Excellent young woman! This is like an aeroplane hangar made of rock.
. . . We should certainly be able to lodge in it for the night. . . . Let's
try and get into it."
At the very entrance to the cavern there was a stump of a tree cast up
against it by the flood. Karik clambered on to this and started to gaze into
the darkness beyond.
"It's a pity we haven't got a match," he complained. "I can't see a
thing."
He stretched out his hands and started to move forward into the cave.
"What's it like?" Valya was impatiently waiting behind him.
Suddenly Karik sprang backwards and came spinning like a top over the
wet stump of the tree.
With one bound away from the cavern he grasped Valya by the hand and
quickly sat them both down behind a tree.
"It's occupied! There's something in the hole," he whispered. "Huge!
terrible!"
At that moment two enormous feelers poked out of the cavern followed by
a round black head. It turned first to the right, then the left, and slowly
withdrew again into the hole.
"Did you see that!"
"Oo hoo! What whiskers! They were its whiskers, weren't they?"
"Yes, feelers, of course. They all have feelers here."
"We must get hold of the Professor."
"Coo-ee," yelled Karik.
"Coo-ee," came back the voice of the Professor. "Where are you? How am
I to get to you?"
"Here! here!"
"Over here !"
There was a noise of rustling leaves, heavy steps and a cough.
Their guide appeared from behind some trees.
"Well, what luck? You've found something."
"We've found something."
"We've practically found it."
Valya pointed to the cavern.
"I found that," she said proudly.
The Professor went nearer and poked the rocky wall with his stick.
"I recognise it. Very successful. Simply marvellous! Just the very
thing we needed. An excellent hotel for travellers like ourselves."
The Professor got up on the stump and gazed into the cavern.
"Stop! Stop!" screamed Karik, and seized him by the arm.
"What's up? What's happened?"
"The hotel is occupied. Something is already in it. Got there before
us."
"Enormous, it has . . . oh it's really terrifying!" whispered Valya.
"Don't worry! don't worry!" replied the Professor quite calmly. "I know
this lodger quite well. . . . It's an old friend of mine. . . . It won't
take us more than a minute to get it out of that."
The Professor went back around the puddle and came to a stop near the
narrow end of the rocky mass. Squatting down on his heels he felt the rock
with his hands.
"There we are! There we are!" The children heard him exclaim.
"Just as I thought." Muttering something under his breath the Professor
jumped up and dashed off into the depths of the forest.
"Where has he gone?" asked Valya.
"I don't know."
"Where are you off to. Professor?" shouted Valya.
"Stay where you are. I'll be back in a minute," came his voice through
the darkness.
The minute passed but the Professor didn't come back. The children
could hear his steps and mutterings but what he was doing in the forest was
difficult to guess.
At last he reappeared.
"Here I am!" he shouted, dragging behind him a long pole.
Having dragged the pole up to the rocky mass he once again felt the
surface of the rock with his hands and having found a round hole pushed the
sharp end of the pole into it.
Karik and Valya watched every movement he made, but neither of them
could understand what he was up to.
"It looks as if there'll be a fight," said Valya.
The children bent down and searched on the ground with their hands.
Karik got hold of a heavy club. Valya found a rock and firmly grasped it in
her hand. Now they were ready to go at any moment to the help of the
Professor.
"Now, my dears. Just move on one side!" said their guide, straightening
himself up.
The children not hurrying moved away from the cavern and stood holding
hands.
"And now," grinned the Professor. "Just watch how this huge and
terrible creature will take to its heels."
He twisted the pole to the right and to the left, then thrust it deep
into the narrow crack and then started to use it just like a poker in a
fire.
The monster then began to get restless.
A black head covered with spines stuck up out of the main entrance to
the cave and rocking dropped down again.
"Come on now!" shouted the Professor, throwing his full weight against
the thick end of the pole.
The giant shuddered as if stung, moved out of the entrance, producing
three pairs of legs, then proceeded to drag out behind it a long jointed
body and made off towards the stream.
The children had hardly been able to observe the details of the monster
before it went over the edge of the bank and fell with a dull splash into
the water. The rapid current at once seized it and it immediately
disappeared in the darkness.
"That was very neat!" grinned Karik. "It won't creep into a strange
hotel another time."
"That's fine!" gruffed the Professor good humouredly. "We won't go into
details now as to who seized the territory - whether it took ours or we took
its. In any case it didn't argue with us."
"What!" Karik guessed. "You mean we have taken its own personal house
from this giant?"
"Something like it!" replied the Professor, "but it's too late now to
repent. Yes, and it is not worth while in any case. Now, my dears, let's
prepare our sleeping quarters. Collect twigs and leaves and little branches.
Pile them by the entrance."
The work became fast and furious in the dark.
The Professor and the children dragged together leaves, roots and
stumps of grass trees.
It wasn't at all an easy job.
It took two of them to drag a single leaf, and a blue petal from some
flower proved almost beyond the capacity of the three of them.
The Professor started to shout.
"Now, now, make haste! Valya, don't walk in the water! Karik, give up
that leaf! You can never lift it. . . . Now help me to drag these twigs!"
All the same he was contented now. He had feared that they would have
to spend the night under the open sky and now they had had this unexpected
luck.
"Ah, my dears," he said, with some solemnity, "how very fortunately
this day has turned out for us. Really, we seem to have been born with
silver spoons in our mouths, as they say in England. Just wait till we get
into this refuge and you will yourselves see how lucky we are. . . ."
"What about the flood?" exclaimed Karik. "B-r-r-r! It is terrible even
to think of it. There wasn't much silver spoon about that."
"The flood. That certainly was our darkest hour. However, we were not
drowned and, my dears, it did us a useful turn. In fact, but for the flood,
I do not know where we should have spent the night and what might have
happened to us during the night - it was the flood that deposited the Caddis
fly larva on the bank of the stream, together with its rocky home."
"And it did not even defend itself!" said Valya. "So huge and yet so
peaceful."
"What! the Caddis fly larva peaceful?"
The Professor laughed.
"Well, it could hardly be described as peaceful," he continued, "under
water there is nothing it fears. This greedy ruffian attacks small crabs,
the larvae of insects and not infrequently devours its own children."
"A sort of brigand!"
"A very real brigand. Just think how it sets out to hunt. How
marvellously equipped it is - the villain is clad like a knight in strong,
impenetrable armour. But what a knight! Knights have helmets, breastplates
and chain armour, but this gentleman drags around a regular fortress."