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"You mean he is sitting in it like in a tank?" asked Valya.
"No, not quite," replied the Professor, "because the tank driver is
carried by his tank. Whereas this creature drags its tank with it."
Valya gazed at the rocky mass and shook her head.
"My word, what a weight!"
"Not all of them have such heavy houses," said the Professor. "Where
there are reeds growing, small pieces of dead reed fall to the bottom and
these creatures make their houses inside these pieces of reed; but when the
bottom is sandy or rocky they construct houses out of crab shells and sand.
Besides these, you come across them using houses made of simple leaves which
have fallen into the water."
"But why do they have two entrances to their house, one big and one
small?"
"In order to allow the water to circulate freely through the house."
"But why let it in?"
"How do you mean, let it in?" puzzled the Professor. "Of course the
house is always full of water, and if this was not frequently changed the
walls would get covered with moulds and the fortress of this ruffian would
be taken by the assault of millions of bacteria. Bacteria thrive in stagnant
water, it is just as necessary to them as air is to us."
"But how cunningly you managed to get it out!" exclaimed Karik,
admiringly.
"Oh, that wasn't my invention," replied the Professor, modestly. "I
remembered how as children we used to deal with these creatures. You just
poke a straw in at the back door and the creature would look out of his
front door. You wriggled it about and the creature fell out into the palm of
your hand."
"What did you do it for?" asked Karik, surprised.
"We used to fish with them. They are the most excellent bait."
"Fish?" questioned Karik, "but it would jump off; how could you attach
it?"
The Professor smiled.
"You are not much of a fisherman, are you? Wait until you start the
craze."
"Oho !" Karik waved his hands. "Why, I would sit fishing for a month if
I could."
"Well! are you a successful fisherman?"
"No," acknowledged Karik, humorously. "Somehow I don't have any luck."
"There you are. Now I am telling you. You should try fishing with the
larvae of a Caddis fly. I do not know any better bait for a hook than this
particular larva."
"I must try it."
"But what happens to the Caddis fly larva now, without its case?" asked
Valya. "Will it die?"
"It won't die," replied the Professor, heartlessly. "Whilst we have
been talking, in all probability it has already built itself half a house.
You needn't worry, it won't perish. It will grow up and then turn into a
flying insect."
"It - into a flying insect?"
"Just so," said the Professor, dragging a rose-coloured petal along the
ground. "It will turn into an insect very like a moth. By the way, the
Caddis fly doesn't only fly. It can run about quite well, both on land and
on the water. When it is time for it to lay eggs it goes down under the
water and then fastens its spawn eggs to water plants."
The Professor took a look at the mountain of twigs, leaves and petals
which they had dragged together during their conversation and said:
"That'll do. We have so filled up the entrance that we can hardly get
into the cave ourselves. Let's climb in."
Karik and Valya did not need a second invitation. They clambered over
the heap of twigs and made their way into the semi-darkness of a low
passage.
At the very end of this it was just possible to see the light coming
through a narrow chink.
The children went forward in the darkness feeling the walls with their
hands. Their feet sank in what appeared to be a soft, delicate carpet.
The walls were of the same softness and silkiness. Karik raised his
hand and felt the ceiling. "It is just as soft," he marvelled.
The children reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of a
round hole.
Cold wind whistled round their legs.
"We must stop up this window!" said Karik. "Mother never let us sit in
a draught."
He turned and fetched a soft petal, crumpled it up and pushed it firmly
into the hole.
"It won't blow now," said Valya, "but it makes it very dark. Let's go
back."
The children returned to the mouth of the cave where the Professor was
arranging the twigs, leaves and petals.
"Well! What do you think of it? Does the house please you?" asked the
latter. "Do you think we can live in it?"
"It is carpeted all over, carpets everywhere," said Karik, cheerfully.
"This creature did itself pretty well !" few "Not at all bad!" agreed the
Professor. "By the way, these carpets are not quite so simple. If anyone
tries to pull the creature out of its house it catches the carpets with its
claws and then no effort can make it budge. However, we must attend to our
business, my dears. Help me to close the entrance or else some unexpected,
uninvited guest may wander in upon us in the middle of the night."
He succeeded with the help of the children in tumbling a heap of roots
into the entrance, and on top of them laid twigs and on the twigs laid
petals.
They had now got a real barricade. There was only a narrow chink at the
top of it through which the blue light of a moonlit night filtered.
"Excellent," said the Professor. "Now nothing can get at us. Make
yourselves .comfortable, my dears. Have a good rest."
The children found a suitable spot in the angle of the wall, stretched
themselves out on the downy carpet and huddled ever so close to each other.
The Professor lay beside them.
The gallant travellers now became still as they listened to the night
wind moaning sadly outside their house and heard the dismal creaking of the
grass trees.
From above, from the wet leaves, heavy drops of water fell on the roof
as if someone was emptying a huge bath again and again.
It was warm and dry in the little house. The Professor and the children
were stretched out full length. The carpet beneath them was soft as if made
of down. But they could not sleep.
This was their first night in the new world, so completely strange to
them, in which during the course of one day they had endured so much and
encountered so many dangers.
Through the chink above the barricade the night sky could be seen and
this sky was full of huge stars.
Valya lay there with open eyes. She gazed fixedly at a bluey star which
hung above the entrance to the cavern.
This star was as big as a full moon, but now and then it twinkled.
It was just like lying in bed at home and seeing swaying outside your
window some cheerful great moon-like street lamp.
Valya recalled the rumbling squeaks of the trams, the hoarse, angry
hooting of the motor-cars, and the rapidly-moving beams of light which came
through the window and chased each other on the bedroom walls.
She closed her eyes.
For a moment it seemed that she was in her own warm bed at home and
could hear these familiar noises of the street.
The door to the neighbouring room was closed but a yellow streak of
light shone under the door.
In the dining-room mother was washing up the dishes. Plates and cups
chinked and teaspoons jingled.
Having washed up the dishes, mother brushed the crumbs off the table
and covered the table with a clean white tablecloth.
Valya sighed.
She remembered the crumbs of cheese which remained on the table after
lunch and she swallowed the water her mouth was making.
Ah! if only one of those crumbs of fresh tasty cheese was in the cave.
The one crumb would be sufficient for Karik, the Professor and herself, and
after they had breakfasted there would be some over.
And Valya again sighed.
But perhaps they would have to stop in this strange world for ever now?
Would they ever get home? Would they ever see mother again?
"Mother will certainly cry," said Valya, quietly to herself.
"She will cry," agreed Karik. "She certainly will cry."
The children started to think. What would mother be doing now? Maybe
she was lying fully dressed on the bed and would raise her head from the
pillow at every rustle, listening, listening. Were the children coming?
On the table covered with a napkin would be the supper left out for
them. The clock would be ticking quietly in the dining-room. In her dark
corner the cat would be lying asleep.
Tears sprang to Valya's eyes. She quietly wiped them away with her fist
and frowned deeply.
"No! I won't cry!"
Outside the little house the midnight wind moaned.
The travellers lay, each of them thinking of the big world in which
they so lately lived.
"It's all nonsense!" sighed the Professor noisily. "It is not possible
for us never to get back. We'll get back, my dears. Don't get downhearted!"
Karik and Valya did not reply. They already were deep in sound, healthy
sleep.
Then the Professor yawned pleasantly, turned on his side, put his fist
under his head as a pillow and started to snore deeply.
* * * * *
The travellers slept so soundly that they never even heard the torrent
of rain which beat down upon their house once again.
A cold awakening - The Professor entertains the children to omelette -
He opens a dressmaking establishment - The Andrena bee - The Professor and
Karik vanish
It was almost as if milk was being poured over the silent forest
filling the ravines and valleys.
The tops of the trees were now engulfed in the fog and now struggling
above it.
The morning coldness and damp made its way into the cave through the
chinks of the barricade, and it soon became as chilly within as it was
already cold without.
The children turned in their sleep restlessly and drew their knees up
to their chins, but despite all this they could get no warmer.
At last Karik could stand it no longer, jumped up, rubbed his sleepy
eyes, shivered in a chilly fashion and then started to examine the sloping
walls with amazement. They were silvery white exactly as if they were
covered with hoar frost.
He touched them.
"No, it is not frost. It's - a carpet. A silvery carpet. Br-r-r!
co-o-old!"
Valya was lying on the floor on the carpet rolled up in a ball. She had
her knees up to her closed eyes and was clasping her head with her hands. In
her sleep she quietly groaned and sobbed.
Karik started jumping up and down on the one spot trying to get warm,
then he ran along to the end of the corridor.
He began to feel a little warmer. He turned back and did a somersault
once, twice, thrice and came down on Valya's feet.
"What is it? What's up?" screamed Valya, jumping up. "Are they
attacking us?"
Shaking and shivering, she stood there gazing at Karik with sleepy,
frightened eyes.
"What's the matter?" Karik was surprised. "It's only me. Wake up. You
are absolutely frozen - quite blue. Come on, let's wrestle. You'll soon get
warm. Here we go!"
He jumped towards Valya and dancing around her tried to pull her about.
"Get away!" Valya pushed him hard. As he fell to the ground he held on
to his sister, and they both rolled on the soft downy floor.
Valya sobbed.
"Go away! No one is fighting you and you mustn't fight."
"Oh, you touch-me-not snail! I only wanted to warm you up."
"And I only want to sleep !"
"All right, go to sleep," snapped Karik.
Outside someone was moving, knocking against things, coughing and then
suddenly started singing:
"Where did you dine, sparrow hen?
In the zoo with the lion in his den -
I found he left quite a bit -
And I drank with a seal in her pit."
It was the Professor; very, very out of tune.
"There you see," said Karik. "Everyone is up and singing, but you are
still wallowing in bed - "
He ran to the entrance and shouted.
"Professor, where are you?"
"Here! here! Get up, my dears, breakfast is ready."
"What is there for breakfast?"
"A magnificent omelette."
"An omelette?"
Oho! this was more interesting than being frozen, and Valya was soon on
her legs. She seized Karik by the hand. "Let's go!"
The children pushed aside the twigs and leaves which had blocked up the
entrance to the cavern and burst out into the fresh air. But no sooner had
Valya got out than she at once started to clamber back.
"Whatever is it, Karik? Where have we got to?" she whispered croakily,
holding Karik's hand tightly.
There was no earth or sky or forest to be seen.
In the air there floated a cloud of glittering bubbles. The bubbles
twisted around, collided with one another, slowly descended, and then once
more were wafted upwards.
A snowstorm of chalky white bubbles was swirling around them.
"Professor," shouted Karik. "Whatever is all this? What is it that is
swirling around?"
"Fog," replied the voice of the Professor.
He was quite near the children but they could not see him.
"You don't mean that an ordinary fog is like this?" said Valya.
"Yes, my little Valya. This is an ordinary fog but as we usually only
see it like this under microscope."
The Professor's voice sounded muffled as if he was down in a deep hole.
The children stretched out their hands trying to catch the bubbles, but
they only broke and trickled cold water along their fingers.
"Well, where have you got stuck now?" came the voice of the Professor
through the turbid fog. "Hurry up, I have got something here more
interesting than a fog."
Karik and Valya, proceeding cautiously, headed towards the voice of the
Professor.
"Have you got lots of omelette?" shouted Valya.
"If you hurry there may be a little left for you to try - you'd better
come quickly before I have eaten it all."
Through the fog a queer light flickered.
"A fire!" yelled Karik.
Could the Professor have lit a wood fire? But where did he get the
matches from?
Valya dashed towards the fire in great spirits.
"A camp fire, a real fire ! We have got a camp fire!" she shouted.
Before them, weaving through the clouds of fog bubbles, there danced
the flames of a camp fire.
A tall column of greenish flame rose to the very tops of the dark, wet
forest.
The Professor was squatting by the logs. He was tending the brushwood
which was crackling in the fire, using a thick stick as a poker.
"Hurrah!" cheered the children in unison. They ran up to the fire and
holding each other's hands started to dance some sort of a wild dance.
"Hop-la!" yelled Valya, jumping.
"Hop-la-la-la," bounced Karik, red in the face.
"Quieter, quieter!" The Professor tried to stop them. "You will break
the dish in pieces. Far better sit down and eat!"
The ashes gave out such heat that it was quite impossible to stand near
them. All the same there was not much wood burning. Valya seized an armful
of brushwood and made to throw it on the fire, but the Professor stopped
her.
"It is not necessary, the omelette is cooked."
"But the fire. It is going out."
"No it won't go out - sit down, my dears, and have breakfast." With
that he placed before them just on the ground a huge white dish with
irregular edges; it was full to the brim with a steaming omelette.
Without waiting further invitation the children greedily set to.
Having burnt themselves and blowing from time to time on their fingers
they swallowed mouthful after mouthful.
Valya became bright red in the face. Karik's nose was glistening with
perspiration. The Professor was the only one who did not hurry his eating
but used a piece of folded petal as a spoon.
The children had not got half way through the omelette before they felt
stuffed full.
"Well," said the Professor, wiping his beard with a tuft of petal. "I
hope you are satisfied now!"
"I'm more than that," grinned Karik. "My tummy is over stretched."
"And mine is very tight, too," said Valya.
"Excellent! Splendid!" smiled the Professor. "I am jolly glad the
omelette pleased you."
"But whatever did you concoct it out of?" questioned Valya.
"Obvious what one uses for an omelette - eggs," interrupted Karik.
"That's simple. But how did you get the fire alight. Where did you find
the matches? And again why does the fire rise in such a column? Why is the
flame green? And why does the fire burn without twigs?"
The Professor threw some twigs on the fire and arranged them with his
poker, cheerfully winking at the children.
"You thought I spent a lazy night. Not at all. All night long I ate
fried ham with green peas, hot pies, beefsteaks, soup, fruit tarts. But
unfortunately all these dishes were only dreams. I awoke as hungry as a
wolf. Well, I jumped up and ran around looking for something to eat. I was
afraid to go very far away from our palatial residence. You can see what the
fog is like. I could not see more than two paces. I would get lost at the
best or fall over some precipice or other. What could I do? Wait for the
dawn or take a chance on it. I thought and thought and decided to build a
fire. As luck would have it I found two flints in the forest last night.
Those came to my rescue. I collected dry twigs, piled them in a heap and set
to work."
"Like a pre-historic man!" whispered Valya.
"Exactly," smiled the Professor. "But I'm telling you that it's no
light work. I had pretty well tortured myself before I succeeded in getting
the sparks to start a fire. I now appreciate much better how very
uncomfortable our forebears must have been."
"But all the same why is the flame green?" asked Valya.
"Why? Just because it is burning gas. Ordinary marsh gas-methane -
which forces its way out of the earth in numerous places. I was lucky. I
started the fire accidentally in a place where there was a quantity of the
gas below the surface of the earth. Even the omelette came out of the fire!"
Valya exclaimed.
"Came by itself?"
The Professor looked at Valya, gravely stroked his beard and continued:
"Just as the fire started to burn up, something near me began to make a
noise, and suddenly a strong blast of air blew me off my legs. All around me
the air whistled as if I had accidentally uncorked a hurricane. It was a
bird. The hurricane was caused by its wings. The fire must have frightened
it off its nest."
"It was not burnt?"
"No, it flew away," answered the Professor. "I then started to look for
its nest. And it turned out that it had not been sitting so quietly for
nothing."
"You found it?"
"Of course - and it was out of this nest I got the egg."
"It wasn't a crow."
"No, by its markings it is the egg of a hedge sparrow - white with
speckles. Have you ever seen the eggs of a hedge sparrow. They are not much
bigger than a big pea. But I had a tolerable job moving it. I rolled it in
front of me like a barrel but I had to rest at least ten times on the way.
But it was even more difficult to break the shell. For a whole hour I
hammered at it with stones. At last it broke suddenly and I was nearly
drowned in the white of the egg. . . . Fortunately, I just managed to jump
aside."
The Professor looked at the children smiling. "Well, the rest was
simple. The white poured itself out and the yolk I cooked on the shell,
using the shell as a frying-pan."
Karik leant over to Valya and said something in her car. Valya nodded
her head approvingly.
"Certainly say it."
Karik rose and gathered his forget-me-not shirt about himself and with
his arms in suitable positions made a little speech, smiling in a superior
way.
"On behalf of two pioneers of the Froonzensky detachment I beg to thank
you for the delicious omelette and the fire!"
The Professor bowed.
"My dears, in actual practice it is possible even here in this
lilliputian world to exist, and to exist in moderate comfort. Just wait
until we have got a little more accustomed to things and see how cosy we can
make ourselves."
"What?" asked Karik, with alarm in his voice. "You don't think that we
shall never get home and shall have to stay like this?"
"No, I don't think that," replied the Professor, "but we must, however,
be prepared for the very worst. Our landmark might be blown down by a storm;
or, perhaps worse, some curious fellow might take the plywood box home to
examine it more carefully. After all, anything might happen."
"And what then?"
"Nothing particular," the Professor shrugged his shoulders. 'We should
live in the grass as Robinson Crusoes and, my dears, we should be much
better off than the real Robinson Crusoe. He had to start up his own farm
himself, but we have it all handy. Milk, eggs, honey, scented nectar,
berries, meat, are all awaiting us. We can live with very little trouble in
summer but we shall have to store things for the winter; we can dry
bilberries, strawberries, mushrooms, and store honey, jam, bread. . . ."
"Bread?"
"Why, certainly. We have only to sow one grain of wheat and we shall
have a harvest which will last us for a whole winter."
"But where can we get meat from?"
"Oh, we'll eat insects."
"Insects? You can't eat insects, can you?"
"Well, think! Even in our big world plenty of insects are eaten.
Locusts, for instance. Locusts are eaten roasted, smoked, dried, salted and
pickled."
The Professor recollected something, smiled and continued:
"When the Caliph Omar-ben-el-Kotal was asked what he thought of
locusts, he answered, "I would like a whole basket of these good things to
myself. In fact, my teeth are quite ready for them. . . ."
In olden days, whenever locusts descended in their clouds on Arab soil
the price of meat fell in Baghdad. By the way, they make the most delicious
cakes - locusts rolled in flour and cooked in butter."
"Phew! Horrible!" Valya made a face and spat out.
"May be horrible to you!" coughed the Professor. "It is just that you
are unaccustomed to such food - nothing else. We eat lobsters, shrimps,
crabs and even crayfish, which live on dead bodies. Not only do we eat them
but think them luxuries. Now, Arabs look on those who eat crabs and crayfish
with disgust."
"As well as locusts," he continued, "people eat other insects. In
Mexico many natives collect the eggs of the striped water bug; they call
them 'Hotle,' and consider them the very daintiest of dishes. Those who know
think not badly of cicadas or crickets. The same cricket about which the
poet of ancient Greece - Anakreon - sung."
The Professor cleared his throat and raising his arm above his head
said:
"How blessed art thou, my tiny cricket,
Hiding like God in every thicket."
He thoughtfully stroked his head.
"But the more simple-minded Greeks, prosaic no doubt, baked these
god-like crickets in butter and ate them with relish. Even such insects as
ants sometimes fall into the hands of the cook. They used to serve meat and
fish in ant sauce in France. The Indians, by the way, very much like the
umbrella ants. They cook them slightly salted in a frying-pan, or indeed
they eat them raw."
"Does anybody eat beetles?" asked Valya. "They are the most disgusting
things to me."
"In Egypt," the Professor replied, "they make a special dish out of
beetles. Women eat it who wish to get fatter."
"I can see it will be all very jolly," said Karik. "Everything will go
swimmingly. . . . We shall make sausages from butterflies, we shall have
barrels of salted dragonflies. We must build a store house right away. We
can hang the hams and the sausages from the ceiling and stand barrels of
pickled plant lice along the walls."
"What about the ants?" asked Valya. "They are acid!"
"We'll make pickles from the ants. No, better still, we can make
mustard from them."
"Splendid!" the Professor stroked his beard. "Simply splendid!" he
nodded gravely. "As you can see, my dears, your future prospects are very
good. And if by any chance we are not able to get home again we shall at any
rate live here better than any Robinson Crusoe ever did."
"That is all very good," said Valya, "but if we freeze to death in the
winter all these hams and pickles will be useless."
"Don't worry about that," the Professor assured her soothingly, "we
shall find a cave with gas laid on, or in any case we can take the gas where
we like with pipes made from rushes and reeds."
"Of course." said Karik. "Marsh gas will provide us with heat and light
and . . . I say. Professor! Do you think we could build a whole lot of
factories and workshops? . . . ."
"I am afraid not, my dear," smiled the Professor. "But we might be able
to train some of the insects."
"Hurrah!" shouted Karik. "We shall be able to fly and take pleasure
trips across the lake."
"We shall make them do all sorts of things," rejoiced Valya. "Dig
tunnels, make canals and . . . in fact, generally work for us."
"Oh, yes," added Karik. "We can plough, using caterpillars, make the
beetles prepare wood for us, and fly to our factories on dragonflies."
"It would be rather a good idea," sighed Valya, "if we could build the
same sort of houses for ourselves as the Caddis fly which we could carry
around with us."
"What a brain-wave!" Karik waved his hand. "I have already said you
were a snail and a snail's house you should have, of course!"
"But how shall we cover ourselves?" asked Valya.
"The Professor will invent a powder," replied Karik, and turned to
their guide, "You will invent a powder, won't you, Professor?"
"Oh dear no - I can't produce any powders," the Professor started
laughing. "But in spite of that I hope we shall not come to a bad end. Even
without a powder! You see, my dears, I am a biologist. I am pretty well
acquainted with the ways of the world which now surrounds us and this
knowledge is more useful than my chemicals. . . . And now, Karik, put a
little brushwood on the embers. It's much nicer when there are some twigs
crackling in the fire."
Karik brought an armful of firewood, threw it on the green flames,
stretched himself full length and gazed thoughtfully at the fire.
They were all of them silent.
The twigs and leaves crackled merrily. Smoke rose in a column to the
sky.
The travellers sat by the fire and each of them sank into daydreams.
There was no reason to hurry.
Until the fog had cleared, it was impossible to move on. For how should
they know which way to go. Where was the landmark?
In front of them or behind them?
"Well," said the Professor, "as we have nothing to do I propose to sing
a song."
The children looked at each other in alarm.
"Anything else you like but not this," was the expression on their
faces. The only people who could possibly be at rest when the Professor was
singing were the inhabitants of a cemetery. To anyone who could hear him his
voice was about as pleasant as jabs of a sharp stick.
With his eyes screwed up from the smoke and his face covered with his
hands, Karik rolled over on his side away from the smoking embers and
hastily started to question the Professor, who was clearing his throat ready
to sing.
"Tell us, Professor, how ever did you guess what had happened to us and
how did you manage to find us?"
"Very simple," said the Professor, fortunately for the children rising
to the bait. "You had drunk half a glass of the liquid. This I noticed at
once."
"But. . . ."
"Yes, there was a but," grinned their guide. "You had drunk the liquid,
that was certain, but where had you then disappeared to? Why, I crawled
about the floor for a whole hour with a magnifying glass in my hand, but
devil a trace. Do you understand? Not a single clue. This - "
"This meant we had flown away!" said Valya.
"That is too hasty a conclusion," the Professor stopped her.
"But we had flown away all the same," insisted Valya.
"Nevertheless, I had no foundation for thinking this until the
photographer Schmidt's dog found your pants and threw himself at the
window-sill. . . . Then suddenly I remembered that when I came into the
study there had been a dragonfly on the window-sill. Also I could have sworn
that I heard tiny voices shouting, "Here we are! Here!"
"Yes, yes. . . . That's what we shouted."
"At the time I thought I must have been mistaken, but afterwards
thinking it all out I realised things: the dragonfly had carried off the
ruffians, and if I was to save them I must hurry to Oakland, to this pond
which is in the so-called "Rotton marsh."
"But why here?" asked Karik, "the dragonfly might have carried us to
some wood or a field. . . ."
"Not very likely," smiled the Professor rather condescendingly.
"Dragonflies live near water. They lay their eggs in the water, . they are
born in water, the larvae of dragonflies live in water, and the dragonflies
themselves usually hunt near water. Occasionally in pursuit of some victim
the dragonfly will fly away from its usual hunting-ground."
"But what a long way," said Valya. "Why, we are more than ten miles
from Oakland."
"That's a mere trifle for a dragonfly. It can fly fifty to sixty miles
an hour and ten miles is just a short stroll for it."
"Well, then you came to the Rotton marsh - "
"Yes," continued their guide, stroking his beard, "knowing that sooner
or later the dragonfly would return to its usual hunting-ground, I decided
to go to Rotton marsh. Lucky for us all this is the only pond near our town.
The next is a very long way off so I knew quite well where to look for you.
Well, that's all. But now - " the Professor cleared his throat, "Let us sing
a little, my dears."
"Stop!" shouted Valya.
"Why, what's the matter?" said the Professor, in some alarm.
"Don't you want to hear what happened to us?," pouted Valya.
"Oh, yes, indeed, of course I should be most interested to hear your
story," muttered the Professor. "Come on, tell me, it will be most
interesting."
He put an arm round the shoulders of each child and stretched his feet
towards the fire. Karik and Valya started to vie with each other in telling
him what had happened after they had drunk the magic liquid.
As he listened to the children the Professor understandingly nodded his
head and untiringly chipped in with:
"Quite right. . . . I quite understand. . . ."
"And we quite understand everything now," Karik at last said. "At least
there is one thing I don't understand."
"Yes! What is it?"
"How was it that in the den of the under-water spider we breathed quite
easily at first and then suddenly nearly suffocated?"
"Very simple," replied their guide. "Judging by your story, my dear, I
think you fell into the clutches of an Argyroneta spider. That is what the
under-water spider is called. The name means 'Silver thread.' The spider is
also called the ' Silver spider.' It builds its nest under water. This nest
is like a diving bell - a bell in which divers sit and are lowered beneath
the surface of the water. But this bell is no bigger than a nutshell. It is
held and prevented from floating by being attached to the spider's web which
is also fastened to under-water plants."
"Oho!" interjected Karik, "we only just got through that web."
"But the air?" questioned Valya. "How does the air get into it?"
"The spider brings the air into its bell from the surface of the pond.
It rises to the surface and turns its belly, which is covered with fine
hairs, upwards into the air. These tiny hairs are what holds the air. When
the spaces between the hairs is filled with air the spider pulls its web on
to its belly and carries its balloon of air just like a skirt down into its
den. By the way, as well as the air a whole lot of water midges travel under
water in this 'suitcase'."
"Does the air last it long?"
"No," replied the Professor. "Such a supply doesn't last long. The den
gets stuffy - as you found out for yourselves. Usually this under-water
silver beast of prey makes several journeys to the surface of the pond
getting fresh air for itself. If you sit quietly and wait patiently on the
bank of a pond you can very often see the Argyroneta or silver spider
replenishing its store of air."
"How can you recognise them?" asked Valya.
"These silver spiders," replied their guide, "are like balls of
quicksilver with black dots on them. . . . You see them most often around
water plants. They bob up belly upwards and head down. They remain on the
surface for a few seconds and then slowly sink below the surface. At first
glance they seem the most harmless of beings, do these spiders. But in
actual fact the Argyroneta is a vicious beast of prey which fears nothing
either at the bottom or on the surface of the pond."
"Why did it hang us up to the ceiling and not eat us up?" questioned
Valya.
"Yes, yes. That is interesting," said Karik.
"Lucky for you the spider was full," replied the Professor. "For this
reason it hung you up, 'for a rainy day' . . . much the same as do foxes,
squirrels, mankind, many birds. There is nothing very remarkable in this. It
would have gobbled you Up the first day that the cold or heat had made all
its usual prey hide themselves."
"Aha! I see," said Valya. "Our spider was full but the spider next door
was not so well provided and that is why it broke in - in order to eat us."
"Oh, no!" said their guide. "The intruder was . . . . Do you know
what?"
"I know," shouted Karik. "It's enemy."
"No," smiled the Professor. "The one who came in was . . . was its
bridegroom."
"Its bridegroom? How do you know that?" the children marvelled.
"These spiders," explained the Professor, "always build their
under-water dens side by side; the spider fastens his den to that of the
lady spider. Then he bites his way through the walls and pays a visit. . .
."
"Which," interjected Karik, "would ordinarily be called a brawl."
"Yes, sometimes the bride gets angered by something and she throws
herself at the bridegroom and eats him up and sometimes the bridegroom,
having overpowered his bride, eats her up, but most often the bride meets
her bridegroom affectionately and they begin to live together very
peaceably."
The Professor got up.
"It seems to me," he announced, "that it is high time for us to get out
again. Come on, we must collect our goods and chattels."
He rummaged in the bushes and pulled out a splendid leather satchel.
"Oy!" Valya opened her eyes wide, "Where did you buy that?"
"I didn't buy it," smiled their guide. "I obtained it in the form of a
gift from one of the Tardigrades - the Bear Animalcule. . . . While you were
asleep I cut a bit off and, as you see, it makes an excellent satchel."
"Ha, ha!" Karik was nodding his head, "a Bear animal attacked us and
you killed it and skinned it."
"Nothing of the sort," replied the Professor. "An animalcule couldn't
attack us. This one is a very minute creature not more than a millimetre in
size - and I did not attack it."
"But the satchel is made of skin?"
"The satchel. My dears, you see the Bear Animalcule has its family by
means of eggs, and in order that no one should devour the eggs, it takes off
its skin and puts the eggs in it just as if it was a suitcase."
"But doesn't it die?" questioned Valya.
"No."
"Like snakes !" said Karik. "They also change their skins."
"Yes," nodded the Professor. "Only snakes just throw away their old
skins, but the Bear Animalcule has found this excellent use for it. . . ."
"What did you do with the eggs?"
"I threw them away; they, unfortunately, are not edible."
The Professor opened the satchel and put into it the dish made of egg
shell and the remains of the omelette which he carefully wrapped in the pink
petal of some sort of flower.
* * * * *
The wind was now blowing freshly.
The fog began to get thinner. The wind carried it like smoke over the
fields, flinging it down in the hollows and ravines.
The Professor covered the embers with earth.
"Well," he said, "we should be off. Get ready, my dears."
"But we are ready." Valya jumped up.
"Here!" their guide said gruffly, examining first Valya then Karik, and
after thinking a little, added:
"You want to dress yourselves better."
"How can we dress ourselves better?" asked Valya, examining her
forget-me-not frock, which had got crumpled during the night, was torn and
hung down in tatters.
"Why, in the same sort of suit as I have," rejoined the Professor. He
threw off his shoulders his crumpled cloak and underneath was a silvery suit
made of spider's web.
It was only then the children remembered that he had this strange
silvery suit on when he had first appeared to them, but they had not paid
any attention to it then. Now they examined the costume as if it was the
first time they had seen it.
"Oh! Isn't it lovely! What is it made of?" asked Valya.
"Out of spider's web."
"I'd like one of those," said Karik.
"Me too, please!" shouted Valya.
"Come on," said Karik. "Only yesterday I saw a spider's web near here."
"Oh, no," grinned the Professor. "I wouldn't stand for you taking a web
off a spider and nor would the spider. We'll get your suits at another shop.
Come on, follow me!"
And their guide quickly stepped over to the Caddis fly's house.
The children ran behind him.
The weak morning light barely lit up the interior of the Caddis fly's
house, but nevertheless it was now possible to see that walls, floor and
ceiling were lined with a thick dense layer of silken cord resembling a
spider's web.
"There are your suits," said the Professor. He went up to one of the
walls and took a grip with his hands.
"Heave ho!" he shouted, and pulled the lining towards himself. The
walls started to split.
"Eh, we have got you!" he shouted still louder.
The lining came away in strips like damp wallpaper.
He threw some pieces to each of Karik and Valya.
"Undo these parcels of 'spider's web' and clean the clay off" them."
The children started to knead the pieces with their hands< The dried
clay crumbled and fell off in lumps. Karik found an end and started to
disentangle it.
The silken cord of the lining curled down in even turns, and soon Karik
and Valya found a silvery pile of unravelled webbing had grown up at their
feet.
"Well, it is long enough!" said Karik, unwinding his apparently endless
cord.
"There are even longer ones," laughed the Professor. "The thread of the
silk worm, for instance, can be pulled out a couple of miles."
He bent down, picked up the end of the silvery cord and held it out to
Valya.
"Dress yourself."
"In a cord. How can I put it on?"
"Like this. . . ."
Their guide made a loop in the cord, threw it over Valya like a lasso
and then taking hold of her shoulders he twisted her round and round in one
direction.
The cord in the heap shook and quickly ran up and wound itself round
Valya as if she had been a reel.
"Grand! lovely!" rejoiced the Professor, looking at Valya. "Tough, warm
and comfortable. Look! Now for you, Karik."
But Karik had himself already fastened the end of the webbing around
his waist and started to spin round quickly - quickly like a top.
In five minutes the children were both dressed in long silver jackets.
"There we are! that's that!" said their guide. "Now you take a walk
around our house and meanwhile I'll change my clothes too."
The children went out.
The fog had completely cleared.
Around them stood the damp forest. Huge drops of water were lying on
the grass trees exactly like crystal balls.
Just as Karik and Valya came out of the entrance the first rays of the
morning sun started across the tops of the trees. Then suddenly thousands of
different coloured lights began to flash, sparkle and flame.
It was so surprising that the children shut their eyes and took a step
back.
For a few minutes they just stood silently with their eyes screwed up
gazing at the strange forest lit up with sparkling balls.
"If only we could show mother this!" said Valya at length.
Karik sighed.
"Mother is making coffee now!" he sniffed.
"The milk girl has already been," added Valya sadly.
"No," Karik shook his head. "It's too early, the milk doesn't come till
seven."
"And what is it now?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. . . . Do you know what, Karik? Let's
climb this tree and see whether there are some green cows there." , "We'll
climb it."
The children ran up to a tree something like the famous baobab tree and
started to scramble up it when their guide poked his head out of the cave
and shouted: "Labour in vain, my dears."
"Why?"
"You will not find a single green cow to-day."
"Where are they?" Karik was mystified. "Didn't you say yesterday that
plant lice feed on every tree?"
"That was yesterday," replied the Professor. "Yesterday in the
day-time, but yesterday evening we had the rain and naturally it washed all
the plant lice away. . . . Now I am ready. Let's be going!"
The children turned to the Professor and, having looked at him,
suddenly started laughing in a friendly way.
"What's up?" he looked at himself in some confusion.
"Oy! You do. . . ."
"You haven't half dressed yourself!" laughed the children.
The Professor stood there completely wound up in silky cording from his
neck down to his heels. The whole remains of the webbing which had been in
Caddis fly's house he had wound about himself, around his stomach, on his
shoulders and around his neck.
"You look like a cocoon!" said Valya, shaking with laughter.
Their guide grinned.
"Well, you yourself, you don't look like a butterfly? And you, Karik,
are like a small caterpillar standing on its hind legs. . . . Come on, my
dears."
"But where are we going?"
During the night water had flooded all around them. It was only
possible to proceed in one direction. From the Caddis fly's house there
stretched a narrow strip of land covered with thick green bushes.
Their guide threw his sack over his shoulders and announced:
"We must first of all, clearly, get out of this swamp and then we shall
see what we can do. Forward!" and waving his hand he struck up:
"Forward! the bugles blow.
Battle most glorious.
Forward! with eyes aglow
The children victorious."
* * * * *
The dense growth of the grass forest was hushed. Heavy balls of water
hung above the heads of the travellers - they had to proceed very cautiously
to avoid being knocked down by falling drops.
In the deserted and echoing forest the fall of these balls of water
made a noise like the explosion of a bomb. One drop fell right on them.
"Ay!" Valya gave a scream, as she tumbled over.
"Oo-ouch!" roared Karik, finding himself thrown sideways.
"Don't worry, that's nothing! A morning shower bath is very useful!"
laughed the Professor, as he got up from the ground.
But the sun had now risen well above the forest. The hot rays were
toasting the ground. It started to steam. Vapour wrapped the grass jungle.
It became stifling like a steam bath.
About mid-day the travellers came to the edge of the forest.
Through the occasional gaps between the trees, yellow hills now
appeared.
One of the hills reared itself above the ground in a sharp peak,
looking like a sugar mountain which had been gilded at the summit.
"There you are!" announced their guide. "We should be able to see our
landmark from the top of that height."
"Let's run," shouted Valya, and darted on ahead exclaiming, "I name
this peak 'Golden View'."
The Professor and Karik ran after her.
However, "Golden View" peak was not as near as it appeared. The
travellers were puffing hard and wiping their faces by the time they reached
the foot of it.
"Now for the view!" Karik chirped up.
It was an ordinary hill of yellow rocks, for the strange rocks that had
shone as if they were made of gold were just very ordinary sand.
Clutching on to the sand-rocks with their hands, the travellers started
to make their way up to the top of "Golden View" peak.
The sun by now was high in the sky.
Hot waves of sultry air were flowing over the surface of the earth like
transparent air-rivers.
Roastingly-hot rocks burnt their feet and kept slipping away from under
"No, not quite," replied the Professor, "because the tank driver is
carried by his tank. Whereas this creature drags its tank with it."
Valya gazed at the rocky mass and shook her head.
"My word, what a weight!"
"Not all of them have such heavy houses," said the Professor. "Where
there are reeds growing, small pieces of dead reed fall to the bottom and
these creatures make their houses inside these pieces of reed; but when the
bottom is sandy or rocky they construct houses out of crab shells and sand.
Besides these, you come across them using houses made of simple leaves which
have fallen into the water."
"But why do they have two entrances to their house, one big and one
small?"
"In order to allow the water to circulate freely through the house."
"But why let it in?"
"How do you mean, let it in?" puzzled the Professor. "Of course the
house is always full of water, and if this was not frequently changed the
walls would get covered with moulds and the fortress of this ruffian would
be taken by the assault of millions of bacteria. Bacteria thrive in stagnant
water, it is just as necessary to them as air is to us."
"But how cunningly you managed to get it out!" exclaimed Karik,
admiringly.
"Oh, that wasn't my invention," replied the Professor, modestly. "I
remembered how as children we used to deal with these creatures. You just
poke a straw in at the back door and the creature would look out of his
front door. You wriggled it about and the creature fell out into the palm of
your hand."
"What did you do it for?" asked Karik, surprised.
"We used to fish with them. They are the most excellent bait."
"Fish?" questioned Karik, "but it would jump off; how could you attach
it?"
The Professor smiled.
"You are not much of a fisherman, are you? Wait until you start the
craze."
"Oho !" Karik waved his hands. "Why, I would sit fishing for a month if
I could."
"Well! are you a successful fisherman?"
"No," acknowledged Karik, humorously. "Somehow I don't have any luck."
"There you are. Now I am telling you. You should try fishing with the
larvae of a Caddis fly. I do not know any better bait for a hook than this
particular larva."
"I must try it."
"But what happens to the Caddis fly larva now, without its case?" asked
Valya. "Will it die?"
"It won't die," replied the Professor, heartlessly. "Whilst we have
been talking, in all probability it has already built itself half a house.
You needn't worry, it won't perish. It will grow up and then turn into a
flying insect."
"It - into a flying insect?"
"Just so," said the Professor, dragging a rose-coloured petal along the
ground. "It will turn into an insect very like a moth. By the way, the
Caddis fly doesn't only fly. It can run about quite well, both on land and
on the water. When it is time for it to lay eggs it goes down under the
water and then fastens its spawn eggs to water plants."
The Professor took a look at the mountain of twigs, leaves and petals
which they had dragged together during their conversation and said:
"That'll do. We have so filled up the entrance that we can hardly get
into the cave ourselves. Let's climb in."
Karik and Valya did not need a second invitation. They clambered over
the heap of twigs and made their way into the semi-darkness of a low
passage.
At the very end of this it was just possible to see the light coming
through a narrow chink.
The children went forward in the darkness feeling the walls with their
hands. Their feet sank in what appeared to be a soft, delicate carpet.
The walls were of the same softness and silkiness. Karik raised his
hand and felt the ceiling. "It is just as soft," he marvelled.
The children reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of a
round hole.
Cold wind whistled round their legs.
"We must stop up this window!" said Karik. "Mother never let us sit in
a draught."
He turned and fetched a soft petal, crumpled it up and pushed it firmly
into the hole.
"It won't blow now," said Valya, "but it makes it very dark. Let's go
back."
The children returned to the mouth of the cave where the Professor was
arranging the twigs, leaves and petals.
"Well! What do you think of it? Does the house please you?" asked the
latter. "Do you think we can live in it?"
"It is carpeted all over, carpets everywhere," said Karik, cheerfully.
"This creature did itself pretty well !" few "Not at all bad!" agreed the
Professor. "By the way, these carpets are not quite so simple. If anyone
tries to pull the creature out of its house it catches the carpets with its
claws and then no effort can make it budge. However, we must attend to our
business, my dears. Help me to close the entrance or else some unexpected,
uninvited guest may wander in upon us in the middle of the night."
He succeeded with the help of the children in tumbling a heap of roots
into the entrance, and on top of them laid twigs and on the twigs laid
petals.
They had now got a real barricade. There was only a narrow chink at the
top of it through which the blue light of a moonlit night filtered.
"Excellent," said the Professor. "Now nothing can get at us. Make
yourselves .comfortable, my dears. Have a good rest."
The children found a suitable spot in the angle of the wall, stretched
themselves out on the downy carpet and huddled ever so close to each other.
The Professor lay beside them.
The gallant travellers now became still as they listened to the night
wind moaning sadly outside their house and heard the dismal creaking of the
grass trees.
From above, from the wet leaves, heavy drops of water fell on the roof
as if someone was emptying a huge bath again and again.
It was warm and dry in the little house. The Professor and the children
were stretched out full length. The carpet beneath them was soft as if made
of down. But they could not sleep.
This was their first night in the new world, so completely strange to
them, in which during the course of one day they had endured so much and
encountered so many dangers.
Through the chink above the barricade the night sky could be seen and
this sky was full of huge stars.
Valya lay there with open eyes. She gazed fixedly at a bluey star which
hung above the entrance to the cavern.
This star was as big as a full moon, but now and then it twinkled.
It was just like lying in bed at home and seeing swaying outside your
window some cheerful great moon-like street lamp.
Valya recalled the rumbling squeaks of the trams, the hoarse, angry
hooting of the motor-cars, and the rapidly-moving beams of light which came
through the window and chased each other on the bedroom walls.
She closed her eyes.
For a moment it seemed that she was in her own warm bed at home and
could hear these familiar noises of the street.
The door to the neighbouring room was closed but a yellow streak of
light shone under the door.
In the dining-room mother was washing up the dishes. Plates and cups
chinked and teaspoons jingled.
Having washed up the dishes, mother brushed the crumbs off the table
and covered the table with a clean white tablecloth.
Valya sighed.
She remembered the crumbs of cheese which remained on the table after
lunch and she swallowed the water her mouth was making.
Ah! if only one of those crumbs of fresh tasty cheese was in the cave.
The one crumb would be sufficient for Karik, the Professor and herself, and
after they had breakfasted there would be some over.
And Valya again sighed.
But perhaps they would have to stop in this strange world for ever now?
Would they ever get home? Would they ever see mother again?
"Mother will certainly cry," said Valya, quietly to herself.
"She will cry," agreed Karik. "She certainly will cry."
The children started to think. What would mother be doing now? Maybe
she was lying fully dressed on the bed and would raise her head from the
pillow at every rustle, listening, listening. Were the children coming?
On the table covered with a napkin would be the supper left out for
them. The clock would be ticking quietly in the dining-room. In her dark
corner the cat would be lying asleep.
Tears sprang to Valya's eyes. She quietly wiped them away with her fist
and frowned deeply.
"No! I won't cry!"
Outside the little house the midnight wind moaned.
The travellers lay, each of them thinking of the big world in which
they so lately lived.
"It's all nonsense!" sighed the Professor noisily. "It is not possible
for us never to get back. We'll get back, my dears. Don't get downhearted!"
Karik and Valya did not reply. They already were deep in sound, healthy
sleep.
Then the Professor yawned pleasantly, turned on his side, put his fist
under his head as a pillow and started to snore deeply.
* * * * *
The travellers slept so soundly that they never even heard the torrent
of rain which beat down upon their house once again.
A cold awakening - The Professor entertains the children to omelette -
He opens a dressmaking establishment - The Andrena bee - The Professor and
Karik vanish
It was almost as if milk was being poured over the silent forest
filling the ravines and valleys.
The tops of the trees were now engulfed in the fog and now struggling
above it.
The morning coldness and damp made its way into the cave through the
chinks of the barricade, and it soon became as chilly within as it was
already cold without.
The children turned in their sleep restlessly and drew their knees up
to their chins, but despite all this they could get no warmer.
At last Karik could stand it no longer, jumped up, rubbed his sleepy
eyes, shivered in a chilly fashion and then started to examine the sloping
walls with amazement. They were silvery white exactly as if they were
covered with hoar frost.
He touched them.
"No, it is not frost. It's - a carpet. A silvery carpet. Br-r-r!
co-o-old!"
Valya was lying on the floor on the carpet rolled up in a ball. She had
her knees up to her closed eyes and was clasping her head with her hands. In
her sleep she quietly groaned and sobbed.
Karik started jumping up and down on the one spot trying to get warm,
then he ran along to the end of the corridor.
He began to feel a little warmer. He turned back and did a somersault
once, twice, thrice and came down on Valya's feet.
"What is it? What's up?" screamed Valya, jumping up. "Are they
attacking us?"
Shaking and shivering, she stood there gazing at Karik with sleepy,
frightened eyes.
"What's the matter?" Karik was surprised. "It's only me. Wake up. You
are absolutely frozen - quite blue. Come on, let's wrestle. You'll soon get
warm. Here we go!"
He jumped towards Valya and dancing around her tried to pull her about.
"Get away!" Valya pushed him hard. As he fell to the ground he held on
to his sister, and they both rolled on the soft downy floor.
Valya sobbed.
"Go away! No one is fighting you and you mustn't fight."
"Oh, you touch-me-not snail! I only wanted to warm you up."
"And I only want to sleep !"
"All right, go to sleep," snapped Karik.
Outside someone was moving, knocking against things, coughing and then
suddenly started singing:
"Where did you dine, sparrow hen?
In the zoo with the lion in his den -
I found he left quite a bit -
And I drank with a seal in her pit."
It was the Professor; very, very out of tune.
"There you see," said Karik. "Everyone is up and singing, but you are
still wallowing in bed - "
He ran to the entrance and shouted.
"Professor, where are you?"
"Here! here! Get up, my dears, breakfast is ready."
"What is there for breakfast?"
"A magnificent omelette."
"An omelette?"
Oho! this was more interesting than being frozen, and Valya was soon on
her legs. She seized Karik by the hand. "Let's go!"
The children pushed aside the twigs and leaves which had blocked up the
entrance to the cavern and burst out into the fresh air. But no sooner had
Valya got out than she at once started to clamber back.
"Whatever is it, Karik? Where have we got to?" she whispered croakily,
holding Karik's hand tightly.
There was no earth or sky or forest to be seen.
In the air there floated a cloud of glittering bubbles. The bubbles
twisted around, collided with one another, slowly descended, and then once
more were wafted upwards.
A snowstorm of chalky white bubbles was swirling around them.
"Professor," shouted Karik. "Whatever is all this? What is it that is
swirling around?"
"Fog," replied the voice of the Professor.
He was quite near the children but they could not see him.
"You don't mean that an ordinary fog is like this?" said Valya.
"Yes, my little Valya. This is an ordinary fog but as we usually only
see it like this under microscope."
The Professor's voice sounded muffled as if he was down in a deep hole.
The children stretched out their hands trying to catch the bubbles, but
they only broke and trickled cold water along their fingers.
"Well, where have you got stuck now?" came the voice of the Professor
through the turbid fog. "Hurry up, I have got something here more
interesting than a fog."
Karik and Valya, proceeding cautiously, headed towards the voice of the
Professor.
"Have you got lots of omelette?" shouted Valya.
"If you hurry there may be a little left for you to try - you'd better
come quickly before I have eaten it all."
Through the fog a queer light flickered.
"A fire!" yelled Karik.
Could the Professor have lit a wood fire? But where did he get the
matches from?
Valya dashed towards the fire in great spirits.
"A camp fire, a real fire ! We have got a camp fire!" she shouted.
Before them, weaving through the clouds of fog bubbles, there danced
the flames of a camp fire.
A tall column of greenish flame rose to the very tops of the dark, wet
forest.
The Professor was squatting by the logs. He was tending the brushwood
which was crackling in the fire, using a thick stick as a poker.
"Hurrah!" cheered the children in unison. They ran up to the fire and
holding each other's hands started to dance some sort of a wild dance.
"Hop-la!" yelled Valya, jumping.
"Hop-la-la-la," bounced Karik, red in the face.
"Quieter, quieter!" The Professor tried to stop them. "You will break
the dish in pieces. Far better sit down and eat!"
The ashes gave out such heat that it was quite impossible to stand near
them. All the same there was not much wood burning. Valya seized an armful
of brushwood and made to throw it on the fire, but the Professor stopped
her.
"It is not necessary, the omelette is cooked."
"But the fire. It is going out."
"No it won't go out - sit down, my dears, and have breakfast." With
that he placed before them just on the ground a huge white dish with
irregular edges; it was full to the brim with a steaming omelette.
Without waiting further invitation the children greedily set to.
Having burnt themselves and blowing from time to time on their fingers
they swallowed mouthful after mouthful.
Valya became bright red in the face. Karik's nose was glistening with
perspiration. The Professor was the only one who did not hurry his eating
but used a piece of folded petal as a spoon.
The children had not got half way through the omelette before they felt
stuffed full.
"Well," said the Professor, wiping his beard with a tuft of petal. "I
hope you are satisfied now!"
"I'm more than that," grinned Karik. "My tummy is over stretched."
"And mine is very tight, too," said Valya.
"Excellent! Splendid!" smiled the Professor. "I am jolly glad the
omelette pleased you."
"But whatever did you concoct it out of?" questioned Valya.
"Obvious what one uses for an omelette - eggs," interrupted Karik.
"That's simple. But how did you get the fire alight. Where did you find
the matches? And again why does the fire rise in such a column? Why is the
flame green? And why does the fire burn without twigs?"
The Professor threw some twigs on the fire and arranged them with his
poker, cheerfully winking at the children.
"You thought I spent a lazy night. Not at all. All night long I ate
fried ham with green peas, hot pies, beefsteaks, soup, fruit tarts. But
unfortunately all these dishes were only dreams. I awoke as hungry as a
wolf. Well, I jumped up and ran around looking for something to eat. I was
afraid to go very far away from our palatial residence. You can see what the
fog is like. I could not see more than two paces. I would get lost at the
best or fall over some precipice or other. What could I do? Wait for the
dawn or take a chance on it. I thought and thought and decided to build a
fire. As luck would have it I found two flints in the forest last night.
Those came to my rescue. I collected dry twigs, piled them in a heap and set
to work."
"Like a pre-historic man!" whispered Valya.
"Exactly," smiled the Professor. "But I'm telling you that it's no
light work. I had pretty well tortured myself before I succeeded in getting
the sparks to start a fire. I now appreciate much better how very
uncomfortable our forebears must have been."
"But all the same why is the flame green?" asked Valya.
"Why? Just because it is burning gas. Ordinary marsh gas-methane -
which forces its way out of the earth in numerous places. I was lucky. I
started the fire accidentally in a place where there was a quantity of the
gas below the surface of the earth. Even the omelette came out of the fire!"
Valya exclaimed.
"Came by itself?"
The Professor looked at Valya, gravely stroked his beard and continued:
"Just as the fire started to burn up, something near me began to make a
noise, and suddenly a strong blast of air blew me off my legs. All around me
the air whistled as if I had accidentally uncorked a hurricane. It was a
bird. The hurricane was caused by its wings. The fire must have frightened
it off its nest."
"It was not burnt?"
"No, it flew away," answered the Professor. "I then started to look for
its nest. And it turned out that it had not been sitting so quietly for
nothing."
"You found it?"
"Of course - and it was out of this nest I got the egg."
"It wasn't a crow."
"No, by its markings it is the egg of a hedge sparrow - white with
speckles. Have you ever seen the eggs of a hedge sparrow. They are not much
bigger than a big pea. But I had a tolerable job moving it. I rolled it in
front of me like a barrel but I had to rest at least ten times on the way.
But it was even more difficult to break the shell. For a whole hour I
hammered at it with stones. At last it broke suddenly and I was nearly
drowned in the white of the egg. . . . Fortunately, I just managed to jump
aside."
The Professor looked at the children smiling. "Well, the rest was
simple. The white poured itself out and the yolk I cooked on the shell,
using the shell as a frying-pan."
Karik leant over to Valya and said something in her car. Valya nodded
her head approvingly.
"Certainly say it."
Karik rose and gathered his forget-me-not shirt about himself and with
his arms in suitable positions made a little speech, smiling in a superior
way.
"On behalf of two pioneers of the Froonzensky detachment I beg to thank
you for the delicious omelette and the fire!"
The Professor bowed.
"My dears, in actual practice it is possible even here in this
lilliputian world to exist, and to exist in moderate comfort. Just wait
until we have got a little more accustomed to things and see how cosy we can
make ourselves."
"What?" asked Karik, with alarm in his voice. "You don't think that we
shall never get home and shall have to stay like this?"
"No, I don't think that," replied the Professor, "but we must, however,
be prepared for the very worst. Our landmark might be blown down by a storm;
or, perhaps worse, some curious fellow might take the plywood box home to
examine it more carefully. After all, anything might happen."
"And what then?"
"Nothing particular," the Professor shrugged his shoulders. 'We should
live in the grass as Robinson Crusoes and, my dears, we should be much
better off than the real Robinson Crusoe. He had to start up his own farm
himself, but we have it all handy. Milk, eggs, honey, scented nectar,
berries, meat, are all awaiting us. We can live with very little trouble in
summer but we shall have to store things for the winter; we can dry
bilberries, strawberries, mushrooms, and store honey, jam, bread. . . ."
"Bread?"
"Why, certainly. We have only to sow one grain of wheat and we shall
have a harvest which will last us for a whole winter."
"But where can we get meat from?"
"Oh, we'll eat insects."
"Insects? You can't eat insects, can you?"
"Well, think! Even in our big world plenty of insects are eaten.
Locusts, for instance. Locusts are eaten roasted, smoked, dried, salted and
pickled."
The Professor recollected something, smiled and continued:
"When the Caliph Omar-ben-el-Kotal was asked what he thought of
locusts, he answered, "I would like a whole basket of these good things to
myself. In fact, my teeth are quite ready for them. . . ."
In olden days, whenever locusts descended in their clouds on Arab soil
the price of meat fell in Baghdad. By the way, they make the most delicious
cakes - locusts rolled in flour and cooked in butter."
"Phew! Horrible!" Valya made a face and spat out.
"May be horrible to you!" coughed the Professor. "It is just that you
are unaccustomed to such food - nothing else. We eat lobsters, shrimps,
crabs and even crayfish, which live on dead bodies. Not only do we eat them
but think them luxuries. Now, Arabs look on those who eat crabs and crayfish
with disgust."
"As well as locusts," he continued, "people eat other insects. In
Mexico many natives collect the eggs of the striped water bug; they call
them 'Hotle,' and consider them the very daintiest of dishes. Those who know
think not badly of cicadas or crickets. The same cricket about which the
poet of ancient Greece - Anakreon - sung."
The Professor cleared his throat and raising his arm above his head
said:
"How blessed art thou, my tiny cricket,
Hiding like God in every thicket."
He thoughtfully stroked his head.
"But the more simple-minded Greeks, prosaic no doubt, baked these
god-like crickets in butter and ate them with relish. Even such insects as
ants sometimes fall into the hands of the cook. They used to serve meat and
fish in ant sauce in France. The Indians, by the way, very much like the
umbrella ants. They cook them slightly salted in a frying-pan, or indeed
they eat them raw."
"Does anybody eat beetles?" asked Valya. "They are the most disgusting
things to me."
"In Egypt," the Professor replied, "they make a special dish out of
beetles. Women eat it who wish to get fatter."
"I can see it will be all very jolly," said Karik. "Everything will go
swimmingly. . . . We shall make sausages from butterflies, we shall have
barrels of salted dragonflies. We must build a store house right away. We
can hang the hams and the sausages from the ceiling and stand barrels of
pickled plant lice along the walls."
"What about the ants?" asked Valya. "They are acid!"
"We'll make pickles from the ants. No, better still, we can make
mustard from them."
"Splendid!" the Professor stroked his beard. "Simply splendid!" he
nodded gravely. "As you can see, my dears, your future prospects are very
good. And if by any chance we are not able to get home again we shall at any
rate live here better than any Robinson Crusoe ever did."
"That is all very good," said Valya, "but if we freeze to death in the
winter all these hams and pickles will be useless."
"Don't worry about that," the Professor assured her soothingly, "we
shall find a cave with gas laid on, or in any case we can take the gas where
we like with pipes made from rushes and reeds."
"Of course." said Karik. "Marsh gas will provide us with heat and light
and . . . I say. Professor! Do you think we could build a whole lot of
factories and workshops? . . . ."
"I am afraid not, my dear," smiled the Professor. "But we might be able
to train some of the insects."
"Hurrah!" shouted Karik. "We shall be able to fly and take pleasure
trips across the lake."
"We shall make them do all sorts of things," rejoiced Valya. "Dig
tunnels, make canals and . . . in fact, generally work for us."
"Oh, yes," added Karik. "We can plough, using caterpillars, make the
beetles prepare wood for us, and fly to our factories on dragonflies."
"It would be rather a good idea," sighed Valya, "if we could build the
same sort of houses for ourselves as the Caddis fly which we could carry
around with us."
"What a brain-wave!" Karik waved his hand. "I have already said you
were a snail and a snail's house you should have, of course!"
"But how shall we cover ourselves?" asked Valya.
"The Professor will invent a powder," replied Karik, and turned to
their guide, "You will invent a powder, won't you, Professor?"
"Oh dear no - I can't produce any powders," the Professor started
laughing. "But in spite of that I hope we shall not come to a bad end. Even
without a powder! You see, my dears, I am a biologist. I am pretty well
acquainted with the ways of the world which now surrounds us and this
knowledge is more useful than my chemicals. . . . And now, Karik, put a
little brushwood on the embers. It's much nicer when there are some twigs
crackling in the fire."
Karik brought an armful of firewood, threw it on the green flames,
stretched himself full length and gazed thoughtfully at the fire.
They were all of them silent.
The twigs and leaves crackled merrily. Smoke rose in a column to the
sky.
The travellers sat by the fire and each of them sank into daydreams.
There was no reason to hurry.
Until the fog had cleared, it was impossible to move on. For how should
they know which way to go. Where was the landmark?
In front of them or behind them?
"Well," said the Professor, "as we have nothing to do I propose to sing
a song."
The children looked at each other in alarm.
"Anything else you like but not this," was the expression on their
faces. The only people who could possibly be at rest when the Professor was
singing were the inhabitants of a cemetery. To anyone who could hear him his
voice was about as pleasant as jabs of a sharp stick.
With his eyes screwed up from the smoke and his face covered with his
hands, Karik rolled over on his side away from the smoking embers and
hastily started to question the Professor, who was clearing his throat ready
to sing.
"Tell us, Professor, how ever did you guess what had happened to us and
how did you manage to find us?"
"Very simple," said the Professor, fortunately for the children rising
to the bait. "You had drunk half a glass of the liquid. This I noticed at
once."
"But. . . ."
"Yes, there was a but," grinned their guide. "You had drunk the liquid,
that was certain, but where had you then disappeared to? Why, I crawled
about the floor for a whole hour with a magnifying glass in my hand, but
devil a trace. Do you understand? Not a single clue. This - "
"This meant we had flown away!" said Valya.
"That is too hasty a conclusion," the Professor stopped her.
"But we had flown away all the same," insisted Valya.
"Nevertheless, I had no foundation for thinking this until the
photographer Schmidt's dog found your pants and threw himself at the
window-sill. . . . Then suddenly I remembered that when I came into the
study there had been a dragonfly on the window-sill. Also I could have sworn
that I heard tiny voices shouting, "Here we are! Here!"
"Yes, yes. . . . That's what we shouted."
"At the time I thought I must have been mistaken, but afterwards
thinking it all out I realised things: the dragonfly had carried off the
ruffians, and if I was to save them I must hurry to Oakland, to this pond
which is in the so-called "Rotton marsh."
"But why here?" asked Karik, "the dragonfly might have carried us to
some wood or a field. . . ."
"Not very likely," smiled the Professor rather condescendingly.
"Dragonflies live near water. They lay their eggs in the water, . they are
born in water, the larvae of dragonflies live in water, and the dragonflies
themselves usually hunt near water. Occasionally in pursuit of some victim
the dragonfly will fly away from its usual hunting-ground."
"But what a long way," said Valya. "Why, we are more than ten miles
from Oakland."
"That's a mere trifle for a dragonfly. It can fly fifty to sixty miles
an hour and ten miles is just a short stroll for it."
"Well, then you came to the Rotton marsh - "
"Yes," continued their guide, stroking his beard, "knowing that sooner
or later the dragonfly would return to its usual hunting-ground, I decided
to go to Rotton marsh. Lucky for us all this is the only pond near our town.
The next is a very long way off so I knew quite well where to look for you.
Well, that's all. But now - " the Professor cleared his throat, "Let us sing
a little, my dears."
"Stop!" shouted Valya.
"Why, what's the matter?" said the Professor, in some alarm.
"Don't you want to hear what happened to us?," pouted Valya.
"Oh, yes, indeed, of course I should be most interested to hear your
story," muttered the Professor. "Come on, tell me, it will be most
interesting."
He put an arm round the shoulders of each child and stretched his feet
towards the fire. Karik and Valya started to vie with each other in telling
him what had happened after they had drunk the magic liquid.
As he listened to the children the Professor understandingly nodded his
head and untiringly chipped in with:
"Quite right. . . . I quite understand. . . ."
"And we quite understand everything now," Karik at last said. "At least
there is one thing I don't understand."
"Yes! What is it?"
"How was it that in the den of the under-water spider we breathed quite
easily at first and then suddenly nearly suffocated?"
"Very simple," replied their guide. "Judging by your story, my dear, I
think you fell into the clutches of an Argyroneta spider. That is what the
under-water spider is called. The name means 'Silver thread.' The spider is
also called the ' Silver spider.' It builds its nest under water. This nest
is like a diving bell - a bell in which divers sit and are lowered beneath
the surface of the water. But this bell is no bigger than a nutshell. It is
held and prevented from floating by being attached to the spider's web which
is also fastened to under-water plants."
"Oho!" interjected Karik, "we only just got through that web."
"But the air?" questioned Valya. "How does the air get into it?"
"The spider brings the air into its bell from the surface of the pond.
It rises to the surface and turns its belly, which is covered with fine
hairs, upwards into the air. These tiny hairs are what holds the air. When
the spaces between the hairs is filled with air the spider pulls its web on
to its belly and carries its balloon of air just like a skirt down into its
den. By the way, as well as the air a whole lot of water midges travel under
water in this 'suitcase'."
"Does the air last it long?"
"No," replied the Professor. "Such a supply doesn't last long. The den
gets stuffy - as you found out for yourselves. Usually this under-water
silver beast of prey makes several journeys to the surface of the pond
getting fresh air for itself. If you sit quietly and wait patiently on the
bank of a pond you can very often see the Argyroneta or silver spider
replenishing its store of air."
"How can you recognise them?" asked Valya.
"These silver spiders," replied their guide, "are like balls of
quicksilver with black dots on them. . . . You see them most often around
water plants. They bob up belly upwards and head down. They remain on the
surface for a few seconds and then slowly sink below the surface. At first
glance they seem the most harmless of beings, do these spiders. But in
actual fact the Argyroneta is a vicious beast of prey which fears nothing
either at the bottom or on the surface of the pond."
"Why did it hang us up to the ceiling and not eat us up?" questioned
Valya.
"Yes, yes. That is interesting," said Karik.
"Lucky for you the spider was full," replied the Professor. "For this
reason it hung you up, 'for a rainy day' . . . much the same as do foxes,
squirrels, mankind, many birds. There is nothing very remarkable in this. It
would have gobbled you Up the first day that the cold or heat had made all
its usual prey hide themselves."
"Aha! I see," said Valya. "Our spider was full but the spider next door
was not so well provided and that is why it broke in - in order to eat us."
"Oh, no!" said their guide. "The intruder was . . . . Do you know
what?"
"I know," shouted Karik. "It's enemy."
"No," smiled the Professor. "The one who came in was . . . was its
bridegroom."
"Its bridegroom? How do you know that?" the children marvelled.
"These spiders," explained the Professor, "always build their
under-water dens side by side; the spider fastens his den to that of the
lady spider. Then he bites his way through the walls and pays a visit. . .
."
"Which," interjected Karik, "would ordinarily be called a brawl."
"Yes, sometimes the bride gets angered by something and she throws
herself at the bridegroom and eats him up and sometimes the bridegroom,
having overpowered his bride, eats her up, but most often the bride meets
her bridegroom affectionately and they begin to live together very
peaceably."
The Professor got up.
"It seems to me," he announced, "that it is high time for us to get out
again. Come on, we must collect our goods and chattels."
He rummaged in the bushes and pulled out a splendid leather satchel.
"Oy!" Valya opened her eyes wide, "Where did you buy that?"
"I didn't buy it," smiled their guide. "I obtained it in the form of a
gift from one of the Tardigrades - the Bear Animalcule. . . . While you were
asleep I cut a bit off and, as you see, it makes an excellent satchel."
"Ha, ha!" Karik was nodding his head, "a Bear animal attacked us and
you killed it and skinned it."
"Nothing of the sort," replied the Professor. "An animalcule couldn't
attack us. This one is a very minute creature not more than a millimetre in
size - and I did not attack it."
"But the satchel is made of skin?"
"The satchel. My dears, you see the Bear Animalcule has its family by
means of eggs, and in order that no one should devour the eggs, it takes off
its skin and puts the eggs in it just as if it was a suitcase."
"But doesn't it die?" questioned Valya.
"No."
"Like snakes !" said Karik. "They also change their skins."
"Yes," nodded the Professor. "Only snakes just throw away their old
skins, but the Bear Animalcule has found this excellent use for it. . . ."
"What did you do with the eggs?"
"I threw them away; they, unfortunately, are not edible."
The Professor opened the satchel and put into it the dish made of egg
shell and the remains of the omelette which he carefully wrapped in the pink
petal of some sort of flower.
* * * * *
The wind was now blowing freshly.
The fog began to get thinner. The wind carried it like smoke over the
fields, flinging it down in the hollows and ravines.
The Professor covered the embers with earth.
"Well," he said, "we should be off. Get ready, my dears."
"But we are ready." Valya jumped up.
"Here!" their guide said gruffly, examining first Valya then Karik, and
after thinking a little, added:
"You want to dress yourselves better."
"How can we dress ourselves better?" asked Valya, examining her
forget-me-not frock, which had got crumpled during the night, was torn and
hung down in tatters.
"Why, in the same sort of suit as I have," rejoined the Professor. He
threw off his shoulders his crumpled cloak and underneath was a silvery suit
made of spider's web.
It was only then the children remembered that he had this strange
silvery suit on when he had first appeared to them, but they had not paid
any attention to it then. Now they examined the costume as if it was the
first time they had seen it.
"Oh! Isn't it lovely! What is it made of?" asked Valya.
"Out of spider's web."
"I'd like one of those," said Karik.
"Me too, please!" shouted Valya.
"Come on," said Karik. "Only yesterday I saw a spider's web near here."
"Oh, no," grinned the Professor. "I wouldn't stand for you taking a web
off a spider and nor would the spider. We'll get your suits at another shop.
Come on, follow me!"
And their guide quickly stepped over to the Caddis fly's house.
The children ran behind him.
The weak morning light barely lit up the interior of the Caddis fly's
house, but nevertheless it was now possible to see that walls, floor and
ceiling were lined with a thick dense layer of silken cord resembling a
spider's web.
"There are your suits," said the Professor. He went up to one of the
walls and took a grip with his hands.
"Heave ho!" he shouted, and pulled the lining towards himself. The
walls started to split.
"Eh, we have got you!" he shouted still louder.
The lining came away in strips like damp wallpaper.
He threw some pieces to each of Karik and Valya.
"Undo these parcels of 'spider's web' and clean the clay off" them."
The children started to knead the pieces with their hands< The dried
clay crumbled and fell off in lumps. Karik found an end and started to
disentangle it.
The silken cord of the lining curled down in even turns, and soon Karik
and Valya found a silvery pile of unravelled webbing had grown up at their
feet.
"Well, it is long enough!" said Karik, unwinding his apparently endless
cord.
"There are even longer ones," laughed the Professor. "The thread of the
silk worm, for instance, can be pulled out a couple of miles."
He bent down, picked up the end of the silvery cord and held it out to
Valya.
"Dress yourself."
"In a cord. How can I put it on?"
"Like this. . . ."
Their guide made a loop in the cord, threw it over Valya like a lasso
and then taking hold of her shoulders he twisted her round and round in one
direction.
The cord in the heap shook and quickly ran up and wound itself round
Valya as if she had been a reel.
"Grand! lovely!" rejoiced the Professor, looking at Valya. "Tough, warm
and comfortable. Look! Now for you, Karik."
But Karik had himself already fastened the end of the webbing around
his waist and started to spin round quickly - quickly like a top.
In five minutes the children were both dressed in long silver jackets.
"There we are! that's that!" said their guide. "Now you take a walk
around our house and meanwhile I'll change my clothes too."
The children went out.
The fog had completely cleared.
Around them stood the damp forest. Huge drops of water were lying on
the grass trees exactly like crystal balls.
Just as Karik and Valya came out of the entrance the first rays of the
morning sun started across the tops of the trees. Then suddenly thousands of
different coloured lights began to flash, sparkle and flame.
It was so surprising that the children shut their eyes and took a step
back.
For a few minutes they just stood silently with their eyes screwed up
gazing at the strange forest lit up with sparkling balls.
"If only we could show mother this!" said Valya at length.
Karik sighed.
"Mother is making coffee now!" he sniffed.
"The milk girl has already been," added Valya sadly.
"No," Karik shook his head. "It's too early, the milk doesn't come till
seven."
"And what is it now?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. . . . Do you know what, Karik? Let's
climb this tree and see whether there are some green cows there." , "We'll
climb it."
The children ran up to a tree something like the famous baobab tree and
started to scramble up it when their guide poked his head out of the cave
and shouted: "Labour in vain, my dears."
"Why?"
"You will not find a single green cow to-day."
"Where are they?" Karik was mystified. "Didn't you say yesterday that
plant lice feed on every tree?"
"That was yesterday," replied the Professor. "Yesterday in the
day-time, but yesterday evening we had the rain and naturally it washed all
the plant lice away. . . . Now I am ready. Let's be going!"
The children turned to the Professor and, having looked at him,
suddenly started laughing in a friendly way.
"What's up?" he looked at himself in some confusion.
"Oy! You do. . . ."
"You haven't half dressed yourself!" laughed the children.
The Professor stood there completely wound up in silky cording from his
neck down to his heels. The whole remains of the webbing which had been in
Caddis fly's house he had wound about himself, around his stomach, on his
shoulders and around his neck.
"You look like a cocoon!" said Valya, shaking with laughter.
Their guide grinned.
"Well, you yourself, you don't look like a butterfly? And you, Karik,
are like a small caterpillar standing on its hind legs. . . . Come on, my
dears."
"But where are we going?"
During the night water had flooded all around them. It was only
possible to proceed in one direction. From the Caddis fly's house there
stretched a narrow strip of land covered with thick green bushes.
Their guide threw his sack over his shoulders and announced:
"We must first of all, clearly, get out of this swamp and then we shall
see what we can do. Forward!" and waving his hand he struck up:
"Forward! the bugles blow.
Battle most glorious.
Forward! with eyes aglow
The children victorious."
* * * * *
The dense growth of the grass forest was hushed. Heavy balls of water
hung above the heads of the travellers - they had to proceed very cautiously
to avoid being knocked down by falling drops.
In the deserted and echoing forest the fall of these balls of water
made a noise like the explosion of a bomb. One drop fell right on them.
"Ay!" Valya gave a scream, as she tumbled over.
"Oo-ouch!" roared Karik, finding himself thrown sideways.
"Don't worry, that's nothing! A morning shower bath is very useful!"
laughed the Professor, as he got up from the ground.
But the sun had now risen well above the forest. The hot rays were
toasting the ground. It started to steam. Vapour wrapped the grass jungle.
It became stifling like a steam bath.
About mid-day the travellers came to the edge of the forest.
Through the occasional gaps between the trees, yellow hills now
appeared.
One of the hills reared itself above the ground in a sharp peak,
looking like a sugar mountain which had been gilded at the summit.
"There you are!" announced their guide. "We should be able to see our
landmark from the top of that height."
"Let's run," shouted Valya, and darted on ahead exclaiming, "I name
this peak 'Golden View'."
The Professor and Karik ran after her.
However, "Golden View" peak was not as near as it appeared. The
travellers were puffing hard and wiping their faces by the time they reached
the foot of it.
"Now for the view!" Karik chirped up.
It was an ordinary hill of yellow rocks, for the strange rocks that had
shone as if they were made of gold were just very ordinary sand.
Clutching on to the sand-rocks with their hands, the travellers started
to make their way up to the top of "Golden View" peak.
The sun by now was high in the sky.
Hot waves of sultry air were flowing over the surface of the earth like
transparent air-rivers.
Roastingly-hot rocks burnt their feet and kept slipping away from under