Karik perched himself on the wing and tried to tear it away from the body. But the wing was too strong. Then he jumped on the head of the dragonfly and knocked its eyes with his heels. "0-ooch, what huge eyes! Look, Val! Aha!" Valya timidly stretched out her hand and touched an eye which was as cold as if it had been moulded out of crystal glass. "Dreadful things!" The dragonfly certainly had wonderful eyes - huge and protruding like glass lanterns. Covered with thousands of even facets, they seemed to be lit with bluey-green light from within. These strange eyes looked at both Karik and Valya at one and the same time, and indeed were looking also at the courtyard, at the sky, at the ceiling of the room and at the floor. It seemed that in each eye there shone a thousand separate greenish eyes, all of which were watching attentively like a hawk. In front of those enormous eyes, on the very edge of the head, were three more small brown eyes, and these also attentively followed the children. "Do you know," said Valya, "it is alive in spite of everything. It's watching, Karik, don't you see?" "Well, what about it?" "You must kill it again. It will suddenly come to life. Do you know what dragonflies feed on?" "On grass or the sap of flowers, I should think," said Karik, rather uncertainly. "I don't really remember. Why?" "I was afraid that if it came to life it might eat us. Who knows what it really does eat. It would be better for us to kill it once again." Valya was getting down in order to get away from the dragonfly when there appeared to be the noise of some explosion in the room. Then there sounded regular heavy thuds. "What is that?" Valya stood stock-still. "That . . . hurrah! It's - the Professor. He is coming!" shouted Karik at the top of his voice. Valya hastened to occupy her former place. The door banged. A wave of air from the window struck them. A man-mountain with a beard like a stack of white flax came into the study. Then Karik and Valya screamed with all their strength. "Professor!" "Professor!" The man-mountain stopped. The palm of a hand the size of a dining-room table shot upwards and stopped at a twisted, shell-like ear out of which there protruded tufts of grey hair as big as drawing pencils. He looked all around, listened carefully and shrugged his shoulders perplexedly. "Professor! Pro-fess-ess-or!" Karik and Valya shouted together. The man-mountain sighed noisily. In the rooms everything buzzed. The children were both very nearly thrown off the dragonfly into the stone courtyard below. "He-ere we are! Over here!" The man-mountain stepped towards the window. "Hurrah!" shouted Karik. "He has heard us!" The man-mountain stopped. "Come here! Here we are! Here! We are here!" screamed the children. The man-mountain came over to the window. But suddenly the dragonfly started to move. It started beating its mica-like wings, raised a cloud of dust on the window-sill and then - with Karik and Valya on its back - it swooped away down into the blue airy ocean. "Hold tight!" screamed Karik, clutching Valya by the neck. CHAPTER III Adventures in the airy ocean - The gluttonous aeroplane - The unwilling parachutists - After the big splash - The submarine prison - In the clutches of an eight-eyed monster THE DRAGONFLY FLEW ON, ITS TRANSPARENT RIGID WINGS BEATING as noisily as if they had been made of sheet iron. The wind they met seemed like elastic, it plucked at their hair and whistled shrilly in their ears. It beat in their faces and blinded their eyes. It became difficult to breathe. Clinging desperately to the dragonfly, gripping it with their arms and legs, the children rode on in mortal fright. "Karik!" shouted Valya amid the howling of the wind. "How can I hold on, it's pulling me off - pulling me down - the wind!" "Shut up! We'll fall off!" screamed Karik, and nearly choked in the wind. The wind was blowing so hard that it seemed that it would either tear the heads off the children or sweep them away. They bent down to the very back of the dragonfly but that did not help. "Lie flat, Vally!" shouted Karik, stretching himself out full length. Valya followed his example. "How's that?" shouted Karik, "better now?" "A little!" And certainly the blast of the wind seemed to have lessened at that moment. It was even possible to open their eyes and look around. Not raising her head, Valya shouted, "This if too awful'" Amid the noise of the wind, Karik could only hear one word, "awful." He turned slightly back and said as loud and calmly as he could: "Its all right, hold on tighter!" The dragonfly hurried on, smoothly swooping up the sides of aerial mountains and then rapidly plunging down again. "Oy, Karik," screamed Valya, "it's like an American switchback." But Karik didn't hear. He was watching attentively the way in which the dragonfly's mica-like wings worked. The two front wings stood out in the air practically motionless. Their movement could barely be seen. From time to time they curved, now up and now down, and then the insect either flew lower or higher. By these wings it directed its flight. At the same time they supported it in the air. The rear wings on the other hand flashed like propellers. They droned and roared as they quickly cut through the air and, flinging it behind them, drove the dragonfly ahead. Then the rear wings started to lift upwards until they stood vertically on edge like a sail. The wind now blew evenly along its back. The dragonfly was noiselessly floating in the air like an aerial yacht. "Oh, how interesting!" whispered Valya, "they should build an aeroplane like this." Karik looked sideways at his sister and sniffed with displeasure. Her lightheartedness was making him angry. "Sit tighter and shut up!" he commanded. But Valya could not sit silently. How indeed could she be silent. Past them like trains coming to meet them huge winged beasts bore on their way swirling the children with gusts of air. They flew past so quickly that it was impossible to grasp what they were. Birds? Bees? Dragonflies? Valya every now and then shouted. "What's that one? What is it? You saw it, Karik?" They as near as anything collided with something as big as an aerial-tank - a beetle. It was all adorned with gold and purple colouring and shone so blindingly in the sun that it was impossible to look at it. The beetle flew straight at the dragonfly. A collision seemed inevitable. But suddenly the beetle without even turning around started to whirl backwards at the same speed. "It is going backwards!" screamed Valya. "It can actually fly backwards. Do you see?" Suddenly underneath the wings something buzzed and sang. I From somewhere below there came plunging a round striped animal. With hairy feet drawn up against itself it was hurrying, droning in the opposite direction, changing direction, now this way, now that. The greenish wings of the animal shone in the sunlight, bursting into rich green and blue flames. "Whatever is that?" asked Valya. "A fly! Only very big! Like under a microscope !" The distance between the fly and the dragonfly became less and less. Now even Valya could recognize the fly. It was as big as the fly on the poster "Beware of flies - they spread infection." But Valya had not succeeded in remembering what infection it was that flies carried when the fly swerved aside and plunged down somewhere. The dragonfly turned its great head just as if it had been on a spindle. To the right, to the left, upwards, downwards flashed its huge, bluey-green, glassy eyes and then it shot after the fly. "Oh!" screamed Valya, seizing Karik by his foot. "Hold on!" answered Karik. Then started a series of steep turns, sudden plunges and rises. Following the fly, the dragonfly now fell like a stone, now described loops, now slid sideways, and at last flew up to the fly and stretched towards it huge pincer-like claws covered with spikes. The fly turned over and whirled on to its back, feet upwards. It stretched its legs threateningly trying to push off the dragonfly's pincers. However, this did not help the fly. The dragonfly caught up with it. The pincers closed. zz zz zz beat the wings of the fly. The pincers clicked like scissors. Clip! Clop! And down towards the ground slowly spinning in the air there dropped the wings and feet of the unfortunate fly. Again the strong hard pincers closed. They crumpled, crushed and flattened the fly into a sort of cake and then thrust it into a broad dark mouth. Karik and Valya silently gazed at one another and gently sighed. So that was what dragonflies fed on. "You said, 'The sap of flowers'! " croaked Valya. She was terrified. For if the dragonfly gorged on such big flies then Karik and Valya would be just swallowed as a joke and not noticed. The children became very quiet. Far ahead there appeared huge coloured wings. On the ends of the wings there were dark, velvet-like splashes. On the edges there stretched an even stripe just like a hem. The wings danced a id jumped in the air supporting a flexible cigar-shaped body, like a striped airship. Long whiskers with knobs at the end trembled and reached now upwards and now downwards. On flying closer the children saw on the wings beautiful scales covered with coloured powdery dust. The wings whirled aimlessly in the air and fluttered like a sail in the breeze. But then the rainbow-like creature saw the dragonfly. It began to get nervous, hesitated in the beat of its wings, then, closing them, started to drop headlong downwards. However, it did not succeed in evading the dragonfly. The latter darted after it, hit it in flight with its chest, flung it On one side and, when it turned over in the air, the dragonfly seized it, turned its own head and, having torn off the wings, devoured it in an instant. And once again the dragonfly hurried on like an aeroplane: its powerful wings hummed and overhead the wind sang incessantly. "What was that?" asked Valya. "A butterfly!" shouted Karik, above the noise of the wind. "It must have been a butterfly!" The dragonfly was evidently very hungry that day. It quickly overtook and swallowed another fly, yet another butterfly - this time white and blue splashes - and then a gnat. "What a glutton," yelled Karik. Valya only shrank into herself, feeling chilly. Clouds were passing across the sky. From time to time they shut out the sun and then the ground was covered with cold blue shadows. The children noticed with astonishment how strangely the dragonfly behaved when clouds crossed the sun. No sooner was the sun shut out than the dragonfly became somehow limp and slowly, like a glider, swooped downwards. But directly the sun peeped from behind the clouds, {he dragonfly became lively. A light beat of the wings - and it soared upwards and once again started to hunt. "Karik," shouted Valya. "Do you see what is happening to it?" "Yes, yes!" Karik nodded his head. He also noticed something else. On coming into the stream of the sun's rays the body of the dragonfly expanded and became hard and smooth. But as soon as there came the cold shade from the clouds it contracted and became wrinkled like a balloon which has been punctured with a pin. What caused this effect the children did not know, and they were quite unable to understand the strange behaviour of the dragonfly. The hunt continued. The dragonfly devoured flies, butterflies and gnats without tiring. If the children had decided to give their living aeroplane any name, a better name1 than "Death to gnats and flies" would ., certainly be hard to think of. In chasing after a white butterfly the dragonfly made a steep turn. Valya slid from the back of the winged glutton and would have undoubtedly fallen to the ground had not Karik seized her foot. But Karik himself could barely hold on to the dragonfly. "Help!" shouted Valya. "I ca-can't," yelled Karik. Valya hung down from him like a heavy weight. It was vain for him to clutch the smooth, springy sides of the dragonfly. His hands grew stiff. His fingers slipped. With the despair of one about to perish, he hooked his chin under the wing of the insect and put one arm around the springy body of the glutton. But to pull back was quite beyond his strength. "No! I can't do any more," screamed Karik. He hastily peered downwards. Far below as if in a fathomless abyss there floated underneath the blue surface of an immense lake. Green rushes stuck out of the water crowding along the shore. The white cups of water lilies stood out as if they had been glued on to the blue background of the lake. The dragonfly made a sharp, rolling turn. A powerful blast of air hit Karik in the chest, his hands slipped for the last time along the smooth sides of the dragonfly. He shut his eyes. His heart throbbed and then stood still. There was nothing under his legs! He was falling! With the wind whistling in their ears the children plunged downwards. "Ee-ee-ee," squealed Valya. "Ah-ah-ah," screamed Karik. As they fell they turned somersaults. Several times sky and earth changed places. Sky. Earth. Sky. Earth. Oo-ouch! With great fountains of spray the children plunged into the water like shells and sank like stones to the bottom. Having struck the bottom with their feet they bobbed back to the surface like corks. They struck out desperately with their hands and feet. Stunned by the fall, having swallowed a lot of water, they circled around in one place unable to imagine what had happened. Karik came to, first. "Must swim to the shore quickly.'" he shouted, spitting out water. "Where is the shore?" choked Valya. Karik turned his head to one side where, far away, could be seen a high green wall of forest. "Do you think we can ever reach it?" asked Valya. "Of course we shall be able to swim there!" said Karik, confidently, "but we must not hurry. Now directly you feel tired - tell me! We'll rest on our backs. Come on, swim after me!" Thus they swam towards the shore, splashing, spitting and blowing. Suddenly Valya yelled out: "Look! What is that? It is coming right after us." A strange sort of animal was sliding over the water on half-bent legs. "What is it?" "I don't know!" whispered Karik, with his head back between his shoulders. "Will it bite?" "I don't know. " The animal slid along like a skater on the ice getting nearer to the children every minute. "But this - isn't like the dragonfly, is it?" questioned Valya, in a whisper. "I don't know - but we must prepare for anything . . . if it attacks, dive as deep as you can." With its long legs widely separated, the animal whisked along the mirror of water, cleverly manoeuvring in its course through the water weeds. The skate-floats of its feet left a wave track which was hardly noticeable. "Yes, it is . . . it's a water skater," shouted Karik. "That's what it is! An ordinary water skater, only much bigger." The giant water skater was approaching with unbelievable swiftness. The brown body, covered on the underside with whitish hairs, rocked slightly as it moved. Great globe-like eyes fixedly gazed at the children. When turning sharply, the water skater flung its rear legs backwards and sideways, dragging them behind, pulling them first to the right and then to the left. It was clearly using them as a rudder. The water skater now came rushing straight at them. "Ah ee!" screamed Valya. The water skater bent its head back raising a long spear-like snout, sharp as a needle. It was covered with what appeared to be rust but was brown, dried, blood. Its tip quivered, just as if it was on a steel spring. "That is what it kills with !" screamed Valya. The water skater jerked nearer and raising its front legs aimed its spear straight at Valya. At that moment Karik seized his sister by the hand and dragged her under water. The children dived down. Where a moment ago Karik and Valya had been swimming there now remained a few ripples and small bubbles. The water skater perplexedly looked around with its globe-like eyes. It couldn't understand what had happened. One moment its prey was under its very nose and next. . . . What did it mean? The water skater once more looked around and then, pressing its snout against its white waistcoat, hurried on sliding along the watery film. Blowing and spitting the children bobbed up to the surface again. "Where is it?" Valya was breathing heavily. "Oo-ouch! Don't know!" replied Karik, quietly, "apparently it has skated away." "Where to?" "Come on to the shore now!" Karik grew angry. "Swim and don't talk!" For some time the children swam silently looking cautiously from side to side. "Oh ! What is this?" Valya had got caught in some tangled net under the water. She tugged once, but it held, she tugged harder but the net seemed to put out feelers and it wound them round her left leg up to her knees. Valya tried to help with her right leg, but numbers of fine, strong threads wound themselves round this leg too. "Now what's up with you?" Karik turned towards his sister. "Nets!" yelled Valya. "Something has caught me! There is a net under the water! . . . Karik snorting, turned back and stretched his hand out to Valya. "Here! Catch hold!" But no sooner than he had caught Valya by the hand than he felt that his legs were in fetters. The children were soon thrashing the water with every bit of strength they could muster. The water bubbled round them like a boiling kettle. "Oh! Oh!" whimpered Valya, "I can't do anything. I can't." "Harder! harder! Don't give in!" But it was all useless. The children could not move from the spot. Strong clinging nets entangled now not only their legs but their bodies and were dragging them down . . . under the water. Next minute the water closed over their heads with a quiet splash. Choking and bubbling, the children were dragged deeper and deeper. Then suddenly from somewhere strong hands slid over their arms and legs, tore them out of the nets and squeezing them tightly dragged them down, down into the dark depths. The children were swallowing filthy, warmish water. Before their eyes there started to float yellow, spotted circles. In their ears a singing started. Gently, gently, a ringing commenced: "Te-ee-ee-ee-eet!" Another second and they would have been suffocated but, just then, something threw Karik and Valya violently upwards and their lungs were suddenly filled with air. Having breathed deeply several times, Karik opened his eyes. He could see the wet frightened face of Valya. She had her mouth wide open, was struggling to say something, but nothing but water came out. The children were dangling in the air. A huge hairy paw held them high above the water. It was now possible to breathe, but above their heads instead of the friendly blue sky and jolly sun, there hung a dark vault covered with mould. Black sinister walls rose from the water. Valya started to cry. "Now, now! What's the use?" said Karik, mournfully. "Everyone has to die some time. Don't cry, Valya." But he started to sob himself, and Valya cried all the louder. The dark water started to bubble. It appeared to be raising itself into a lump. The lump split open and slowly there appeared a fat, dripping carcass. Streams of water ran off its huge rounded sides. Then beside the monster there appeared hairy legs and at last the children saw through their tears - a giant spider ! It was rocking in the water looking at the children with cold, wicked eyes. Eight small, unwinking, snake-like eyes gazed at the children, noticing their every movement. Karik and Valya tried to tear themselves away but the spider squeezed them so rightly in its claw that they could not even cry out. The eight-eyed monster turned the children upside down and then quickly turned them back again and started to whirl them about. Everything went dark about them, their ears sang. Karik and Valya lost consciousness. CHAPTER IV Professor Enotoff goes into another world - The problem of a simple spider's web - The first hunt - The coat of armour and the spear - The trap - The Professor in danger PROFESSOR ENOTOFF STOOD AT THE TOP OF A GREEN HILLOCK. His white trousers were smeared with tar and clay. His tie stuck out sideways. A crumpled hat sat on the back of his head revealing a red and perspiring forehead. Dry twigs were sticking out of his beard. In one hand he held a small plywood box. In the other, a long thin pole. At the end of this pole a red handkerchief was tied, which fluttered in the breeze like a flag. "Oo-oof!" puffed the Professor, looking around. "This appears to be the place." Below at the foot of the green hillock a quiet, sleepy pond was shining in the sun. The water-lilies on the blue motionless surface hardly stirred. Beyond thick clumps of reeds fish were rising. The Professor put the box on the ground and stuck the pole in beside it. "Now we must begin," he sighed, and having thrown his hat on to the ground started to tear out grass with both hands. Having torn out a whole armful he carefully covered the plywood box with grass then went up to the pole and thrust it in deeper, then pulled it from side to side. The pole stood up firmly. "Excellent," said the Professor to himself. Thrusting a hand into his pocket, he pulled out a small round bottle. Silvery bubbles were rising from the bottom colliding and bursting. He then undressed, throwing his clothes carelessly on the grass and opened the bottle with the silvery liquid. "I think this should be quite sufficient," he said aloud, looking all around. Then he sighed sadly and, throwing his head back, drank the contents of the bottle in one gulp. "Well, that's that," he muttered, and, with a swing of the arm, threw the empty bottle into the pond. For a little while he stood thoughtfully gazing at the broad circles which were chasing each other on the surface of the water close by. Then he walked down towards the pond and . . . melted as it were into nothing. There, where quite a large man had been standing a moment ago, was now just a pole sticking up with a small red flag on it. Around the foot of this pole were strewn a crumpled coat, waistcoat, trousers, shirt, boots and striped socks. * * * * * What had become of the Professor? Having swallowed the liquid he had stood for a while and then started to move step by step in his bare feet. Soon everything around him had started to change in a miraculous fashion. The grass had shot up with amazing swiftness. Each blade had grown up, ballooned out, becoming all the time thicker and taller. Hardly had a minute passed before a thick forest was rustling around him. Shining green trunks surrounded him on all sides. Each tree was like a gigantic bamboo. High above the tops of the trees huge cups were swinging - red, yellow, blue in colour, scattering over the forest a golden powder from which there came a spicy, intoxicating smell. "Well, well!" said the Professor, wiping his hands. "I knew it would be like this. This grass forest, of course, puts one in mind of the tropics." In this extraordinary forest there was neither the shade nor quiet of a pinewood, nor was there as in a birch wood the murmur and rustle of leaves. No, this was a peculiar forest. It gleamed green and sunny. Bare glistening trunks rose from hillocks or disappeared into ravines. A blue lake was shining and streams could be heard quietly gurgling. The silence was now and then broken by strange rustles. It seemed as if somewhere quite close beside some beast was stalking the Professor. The going was difficult. Sharp leaves scratched his body. Every few minutes he fell into some hole. The sun was baking and it seemed to the Professor that he was taking a walk in an oven. The surface of the earth in the forest was like a battlefield torn up by artillery shells. In the thick undergrowth here and there hung sticky nets and he had to be very careful getting around these traps. "Spiders' work," muttered the Professor, forcing his way through a thicket. Now and again he stopped and stood for some time watching with curiosity the skilful work of this forest weaver. But in particular he examined attentively the countless blobs which were liberally scattered all over the web. He naturally was aware that it was not the net which caught the insects but these tiny, sticky blobs. The wings and legs of an insect stuck to them just as if the blobs had been carpenters' glue, after which the insect was an easy prey for the spider. The Professor knew all this a long time ago, but it is one thing to know and another thing to see it all with ones' own eyes. Thus a whole hour passed, but he had quite forgotten where he was and why he was there. It seemed to him that he was back in his study bent over a microscope and in front of him his old acquaintances were passing, one after the other. But what a microscope ! You can hardly see a whole spider at once through the eye-piece of a microscope. Certainly not. A microscope just allows one to see the eye of the spider, or a tip of its legs, or its claw resembling a comb, or the blob in its web. But here in front of the Professor was sitting the whole spider, big as an ox, and it was possible to see at one and the same time all its eight eyes, two jaws, eight legs with comb-claws, as well as its soft distended belly. But what pleased the Professor most of all was that the spider was alive and was hunting. Under a microscope, even the most perfect microscope, it was impossible to see how a spider hunted its prey, but now the Professor was able to watch this from arm's-length. The spider was hunting. It hid itself, huge and soft, near the spread-out web from which there stretched directly to it a sentry thread. The spider sat like a fisherman on the bank and waited. There, there! the thread was shaking and the spider hurled itself on its prey, drove its poison-carrying beak into it, killed it, and sucked the blood out of it. The Professor gazed at the spreading net and forgot everything else in the world. Suddenly in the air above his head something buzzed like a shell from a gun and crashed into the net with a whine. The net shook and danced up and down. "Aha," snorted the Professor, "that's a fine one." In the net a huge-winged animal struggled, twisting and floundering. It was bigger than the spider, certainly longer; transparent wings covered with veins bent into an arch trying to tear away from the sticky blobs of the web; but tearing away from such a net was not so simple. "A wasp! Ah, yes, the very thing," announced the Professor to a class which was not there, and walked right up to the net. The spider resting on its comb-like feet quickly slid across the web, combing it with his feet as one does one's hair. He ran around the wasp once, and then again, and then cautiously started to creep up behind it. The wasp lunged out with its sharp sting. The spider leaped back and began to run around the wasp. It had only to start approaching the wasp when the latter would twist its striped body around and threateningly stab with its smooth sharp sting. The spider tried to come upon the wasp from the back and from the sides, but each time the sharp sting flourishing like a spear met him. "Curious, very curious!" muttered the Professor, watching the wasp and spider fighting. At length after useless and fruitless endeavours the spider had to give up the battle with its dangerous prey. Describing a wide circle, it fussily ran around its web shaking it and making the wasp jump about as if it were in a cradle. The wasp struggled more furiously. Running around the wasp the spider then hastily broke thread after thread. At length the wasp enveloped in web crashed down on to the ground on the edge of a ravine. Helplessly floundering and becoming more and more entangled it rolled down to the bottom of the steep slope, and after it clattered stones and earth. "Ha, ha! Now that is excellent," rejoiced the Professor. "That just suits me." He ran to the edge of the ravine and looked down. At the bottom of the ravine the huge wasp struggled and twisted, covered with web. It twisted its striped body rocking on the ground trying to get clear of the web, but the web clung to its wings, feet and head all the more closely. The Professor hurried along the edge of the ravine carefully looking at his feet. He was after something. At last he found a big rock with sharp corners. He could not possibly lift it. It was several times as big as himself. But as luck would have it, it was hanging over the edge of the ravine. It just needed a good rocking and a shove and it should fall down to the bottom of the ravine. The Professor got a good foothold and started to try and shake the rock. It wasn't at all light work. The rock stirred and shifted like a Rotton tooth, but for all that it held firmly. The Professor puffed like a steam engine. "You're going. You're going," he muttered, shoving the rock with his shoulder. "You're moving, that means you will fall." Only five minutes before he had expected to give this stone one shove and it would fall but now it appeared not so simple. "We will rest a little," he said, breathing heavily and wiping his perspiring face with the back of his hand. He sat down on the stone. Almost immediately above his head the spider was scurrying backwards and forwards making a new web. On the underside of the spider he could see four mounds distended like wine skins. "Spinnerets," the Professor remembered. Each of them was considerably larger than the Professor's head. He could see without any microscope hundreds of holes in the spinnerets, out of which were oozing drops of thick liquid. These stretched out like threads dragging behind the spider and came together in a thick rope with shining blobs on it. In a few minutes the spider had finished the repair of the torn net and having immediately attached to it a sentry thread went off to the edge of the web in a comfortable corner. "And what am I up to?" the Professor angrily jumped to his feet. He summoned all his strength, pressed his shoulder to the rock and his feet to the ground. "Now we'll get you !" Push. "Hah, hah! We'll give it to you! Ho, ho! There!" The rock swayed, hung over the ravine as if thinking, and suddenly with a rumble and roar crashed downwards raising a thick cloud of dust. When the dust settled, the Professor shouted loudly. "Hurrah!" The rock lay at the bottom of the ravine. Under it the crushed wasp waggled, convulsively straightening its legs. Its long striped body now compressed itself and now expanded like the bellows of a concertina. "Good! very good!" said the Professor, wiping his hands. After a little thought he lowered his feet over the edge of the ravine and, holding on with his hands to roots and protruding stones, he began cautiously to climb down to the bottom. When he got to the wasp it no longer moved, the Professor kicked it with his foot and touched it with his hands - the wasp did not stir. "There we are !" he said, and whistling something unrecognisable, calmly set about his work. He had to work a whole hour before he succeeded in pulling its long spear-like sting out of the wasp's body. "A capital weapon!" he said, wiping the sting-spear with his hands. With such a spear it would not be so terrifying wandering in the grass jungle looking for Karik and Valya. In case of an attack the Professor could not only protect himself but actually set about anything that might think of eating him. Now it became necessary to think about clothes. Whatever else might happen the Professor was quite unprepared to journey through the wood naked. Skilfully wielding the sharp spear he cut the spider's web in which the wasp was entangled, carefully cleaned it from sticky blobs and wound it around himself until its soft silky rope fitted tightly around his body. The suit was not very beautiful but it would be very hard-wearing. "Just as if I was in armour!" said the Professor, looking at himself in his new apparel with great delight. Throwing the spear on his shoulder he jauntily set off on his journey. Tramping across the pitted earthen floor of the forest from time to time he stopped and as he was deciding on his path he listened. Sometimes having heard a noise he hid himself behind one of the huge green trunks looking anxiously from side to side. Such precaution was not unnecessary. The grass jungle teemed with monster animals. Rattling like sheets of iron, dragonflies flew over more like aeroplanes than simple insects. Jumping over the tops of the trees green grasshoppers zoomed past as big as motor buses. Between the trunks there slid striped caterpillars shaking the undergrowth with their bodies. They were so big that they gave the impression to the Professor of something like a goods train passing through the forest. Now and then stamping their feet centipedes ran past. Any of them might squash the Professor into the ground with one foot. He had neither the time nor the inclination to fight with these animals of the grass jungle. He decided to go into battle only if one of these monsters attacked him. He travelled on towards the lake which showed blue through the gaps in the trees. As he went from tree to tree he looked with interest at the huge flowers, trying to guess their names. But now he found he could not say with any certainty which of the flowers was a daisy, which a buttercup or marigold. All the flowers were so immense that many of them conveyed nothing at all to the Professor, which amused him. "Now that, for example," he sighed, looking at a blue ball resembling a stork's nest. "What is that called in our world?" But who was there now to answer the Professor's questions? Above the top of the forest quietly rocked pink jars, gigantic yellow stars, red globes, blue baskets. Out of the red globes tubes of beetroot red were sticking, like the prickles of a hedgehog. "What on earth is that?" the Professor puzzled and, suddenly hitting his forehead with his hand, he shouted laughingly - "Clover! Ordinary red clover!" Beside the clover flowers there swung in the wind, shaking and dancing, lilac bells. They were lit up by the sun, and the ground under them also seemed lilac. "Now I do know you?" said the Professor, happily. "Some poetry has actually been written about you." And he sang at the top of his voice: "My tender little Harebells, Who bathe the steppes in blue, Your gaze seems full of deep spells With its dark, mysterious hue." "You can gaze at me as much as you like," grinned the Professor, "but if one of your "dark, mysterious" flowers gets torn off and falls on me, I'm a gonner." Thus did the Professor observe with great interest a new and unfamiliar world as he picked his way through the grass jungle, stopping every so often to rest. Soon there was revealed before his eyes the smooth surface of a lake stretching away without bounds. The water sparkled in the sun like a gigantic mirror. "This must be it," said the Professor, thoughtfully and holding his spear more firmly he quickened his steps. He came out of the grassy forest. Across his path there was running a long narrow ditch filled to the edges with brown water. The Professor took a run, jumped and cleared the ditch quite easily, but as he landed he felt the ground sliding away under his feet and opening up. He gave a cry and with his legs waving in the air vanished into a dark hole. Having fallen to the bottom he quickly picked himself up and started to walk around. Over his head far away was the blue sky. A weak light lit up the walls of the hole which appeared thickly matted with roots. Immediately in front of him the Professor could see the mouth of a dark tunnel. He bent down, The tunnel breathed at him dark and cold. "That's that," said the Professor. He turned away from the tunnel and started to climb the hanging wall of the hole, getting grips for his hands and feet in the roots. He had practically reached the top and -it remained only for him to stretch out his arm and the sun would once again have been shining on his head, but at the very moment when his head was appearing out of the hole he spotted right in front of him the hideous snout of some sort of monster. "Excuse me," hiccupped the startled Professor, and hastily ducking his head disappeared back into the hole. The monster, his great feet moving, approached the hole. The Professor's eyes met the eyes of the monster. "A beetle," he almost shouted, "a dung-beetle." Beside the beetle he saw an immense grey pear-shaped object. The beetle turned to the pear-shaped object and set about shoving it towards the hole. The Professor had not succeeded in remembering the Latin name for the beetle, when the grey pear toppled over the edge of the hole and shut out the sky. It was now pitch dark in the hole. The Professor, frightened, quickly clambered up the side of the hole and tried to push the pear away with his shoulder and head, using every ounce of his strength. He tried to work his way out of the dungeon, but all in vain. The pear would not budge. He shoved harder, but at that moment the beetle was pressing on the top of the pear with such violence that the pear drove down into the hole like the cork in a bottle. The shock flung the Professor downwards. Earth came crumbling down on his head and a sharp stem hit him a painful blow in the chest. "Ow!" he croaked and, rubbing his injured chest, he made to get up. Suddenly he realised he was not alone in the darkness of the hole. He hurriedly gazed around. Behind his back something rustled as if it was slowly and cautiously stealing up to him. He felt around with his hands. His fingers touched his spear. He grasped it tightly, and quickly jumping to his feet pressed his back to the wall. "Ts-z-a-a-k" Something sounded right beside him. The Professor heard breathing - hesitating breathing. He started to wave his spear in front of himself and then hoarsely shouted. "Who is it? Who is there?" CHAPTER V In the Spider's lair - The battle in the under-water prison - Valya finds it stuffy - A vagabond vegetable - Karik finds a way out KARIK BECAME CONSCIOUS. HE OPENED HIS EYES AND THEN suddenly it all came back to him. He remembered how he had flown with Valya on a dragonfly. He remembered th