roof
that it sounded like a continuous roll of thunder above their heads.
     The Professor and the children every so often looked  up with alarm and
then involuntarily tried to bury their heads in their shoulders.
     Suddenly Karik shouted:
     "There's  another one! Ooch,  what a  big one! Look  then! It is coming
down on us."
     Above them along the fleshy underside of the mushroom hat there crawled
lazily  some  sort  of  naked,  fat  animal. It was like  a tightly stuffed,
dirty-looking  mattress. The back of  this monster was glossy  as if  it had
been smeared with grease.
     "What's that?" demanded Valya who, taking no chances, was hiding behind
the Professor's back.
     "A  slug!" replied the  Professor very calmly. "A  very ordinary  snail
without a shell."
     "Will it also fall on us?"
     "Oh,  no!" The  Professor started to laugh. "That one won't fall! Don't
worry! He's stuck on tight."
     "Is he another wrecker?"
     "What, a slug? Shame on you! The slug is the mushroom's best friend. He
certainly  destroys  the mushrooms,  but by that means he gives them  a  new
life."
     "How is it possible to be destructive and useful at the same time?"
     The Professor stroked his beard and replied in a leisurely way:
     "The  slug  swallows  pieces of  mushroom in which there are  spores  -
mushroom  seeds. These spores pass through  the stomach of the slug and fall
finally on the soil where  they take root. You would not have many mushrooms
but for the slugs."
     "There you are,  Valya," grinned Karik, "we called our shelter 'Valya's
Wonder Tent': we must call the mushroom roof 'The Slug's Hat.' "
     Valya was about  to say something witty  when  the Professor raised his
finger  in  warning  and listening to  something said  with  some agitation:
"What's that? Do you hear?"
     The travellers got up.
     Through the noise and rumble of the gale they could hear a  dull roar -
somewhere quite close it seemed, as if the sea was breaking against cliffs.
     The noise as  if of breakers became closer every minute and grew louder
and louder.
     "Can it be thunder?" whispered Valya, listening.
     Suddenly there  was a roar  and  whistle. From somewhere unknown  there
swept a torrent of water  and from all  directions foaming streams broke  in
from this muddy sea.
     The  Professor  and  the  children stood  upon  a small island  pressed
closely to the stem of the mushroom.
     The water dashed past them sweeping everything out of its way, breaking
the grassy trees or bending them to the very ground.
     The mushroom stood like a tower  on the  island, but the water rose and
rose, threatening  to submerge  not only the  island but  the towers-It  was
already splashing their feet.
     "Somewhere  near  here  there  must  be  a  river  flowing,"  said  the
Professor, "and in  all probability  it has flooded over its banks  and here
you are. . . ."
     He waved his hand helplessly.
     "Will the  water  wash us  away?" asked  Valya  uneasily. The Professor
didn't answer.
     Knitting  his brow he  silently  looked down at his feet and worked his
blue, frozen fingers.
     The water  continued to rise  -  like  dough. It threatened clearly  to
sweep the travellers away off the island and to carry them  into the jungle,
and there to drown them in some deep ravine.
     Having looked  at the  Professor it dawned on  Karik  that  their guide
could see no way of saving them.
     "Listen," said  Karik  with  decision,  touching the  cold  hand of the
Professor. "I don't think our position is so terrible."
     "What do you suggest?"
     "We   must  climb  up   the  mushroom!"  answered  Karik.  "Yes,  yes,"
gruff-gruffed the Professor absent-mindedly. "Let's try and climb up."
     But having  examined  the round thick  stem of the  mushroom which rose
vertically into the air  he sighed and shook his head: it wasn't possible to
climb up the mushroom.
     "No, it won't  work, my  dears," he said, rapidly winking his eyes. "We
cannot climb that."
     "What about the roof of this wonder  tent?" asked Valya, looking at the
hanging strip of mushroom skin. "Would it hold us?"
     The Professor looked upwards.
     "Marvellous!"  he  rejoiced. "My goodness,  that's  a  wonderful  idea.
Quickly, my dears! It's simply grand!"
     He helped the children get up on his shoulders. From his shoulders they
were able to scramble on to the roof of the wonder-tent - first Valya,  then
Karik.
     Valya got down on  her knees, hung her head over the edge of the canopy
and stretched out her hand to the Professor.
     "Give us your hand !"
     The Professor just blinked his  eyes good-humouredly. "Well,  what  are
you up to?"  shouted Valya.  "Nothing, nothing! I'll stay here," said  their
guide. He knew that the children had not the strength to pull him up, and in
any case the roof would probably not stand the extra weight.
     The water, however, still continued to rise. It had already flooded the
island on which the mushroom stood and was lapping over his feet.
     The wind was blowing cold.
     Grey-leaden waves  were  rising  in the water. These waves,  started to
break  against  the  stem  of the mushroom spraying  the Professor,  already
shaking with cold, from head to foot.
     What could he do? Swim?
     But where to? Would he  ever reach dry land  when he was already numbed
and frozen. Yes, and how could he leave the children alone?
     He  stood,  with  his  teeth  chattering,  gazing  at  the stormy  lake
surrounding him, in deep depression.
     The water was up  to his knees by  now. The strong current  was already
clutching at  his legs, but he pressed his back against  the cold  slippery,
mushroom stem.
     Logs came floating towards him. They jostled him and painfully hurt his
knees.
     His legs were soon covered with deep scratches.
     The water now reached to his waist.
     He stood, with  his lips, frozen  with  cold, tightly  clenched, trying
just to think of nothing.
     The water rose higher and higher.
     "The children  will  have to find their own way home alone," drummed in
the Professor's mind.


        CHAPTER X


     After the  flood - In  search  of  a night's  lodging - Valya finds the
forest hotel - The Professor attacks the landlord - The  first  night in the
new world


     "CLIMB UP HERE!" SHOUTED the children,  anxiously looking down at their
guide from above.
     "Don't worry! Don't worry!"  replied the Professor, who  was now  quite
blue with the cold.
     With her neck craning forward and her mouth open, Valya on the point of
tears gazed  at the Professor. Karik, knitting his  brows,  bit his lip. and
turned away. He could not in  any way  help his guide and  could not bear to
watch the kind old man perish before his very eyes.
     "My friends,"  said the Professor, "if  anything  happens to me  do not
forget the landmark.  You must hurry to get to it. The only possible way for
you to get home again I have already described to you. There is no other way
for you."
     Neither of them answered him  but both children started to  look wildly
from side  to side. It looked as  if they hadn't  even  heard him. But their
eyes  were filled with tears. The Professor prepared to die. And undoubtedly
he would have died before nightfall  had  not the  rain suddenly  ceased. So
suddenly that a great silence descended upon them.
     Ragged clouds were  still sweeping across the heavens but clear sky had
started to show. A huge red sun could be seen sinking behind the hills.
     Odd drops of rain  still fell noisily on the roof of the mushroom but a
cheerful summer evening warmed by the sinking sun  had now set in and a warm
mist started to rise from the ground.
     All around the  Professor the  waves  sparkled.  They were red like the
disappearing sun and at the same time violet like the evening sky.
     In the turbid flood  logs were floating and turning  this way  and that
way. Grass trees came past torn out by the roots.
     The  Professor  stood  with his legs wide  apart and  pushed  the  wet,
slippery logs aside with his numbed hands. They kept on  coming at him as if
they were alive.
     The water started to fall.
     A huge  tree floating past the mushroom seemed  to shake itself  in the
waves and slowly came to  rest aground.  The Professor quickly clambered out
of the water and stood with his frozen feet on the wet trunk.
     "It's  all  over!" Shouted  Karik with joy. "The  water is  going down.
Going down!"
     Valya  was clapping her hands.  "Look, there  is  dry land.  Can we get
down?"
     Their guide  worked his shoulders in a chilly way and stepping first on
one foot then on the other he coughed hoarsely and replied:
     "Yes, yes, climb down. We must be going."
     The children nimbly made their way to the ground.
     "Oy, you're absolutely frozen!" said Valya, turning  to  the Professor.
"Let's run. We shall soon get warm running."
     "Good idea,"  he  nodded his  head. "But  let's see first  which way we
should run. Now then  Karik,  you, my  dear, climb up a tree and have a look
for our landmark."
     "Right you are, Professor !"
     Karik  dashed  to  a  tall  trunk  covered with  short, sharp,  pointed
branches. Clinging to  these giant  prickles  he rapidly made his way up the
tree.
     The tree rocked.
     The leaves  poured a  floor  of  cold water on him just as if they were
gutters.
     Karik  shivered  and  pressed  himself  to  the trunk,  but immediately
afterwards shook himself like a dog and went on climbing.
     At last he made the top of the grass tree.
     It bent under his weight  and he slowly  rocked  backwards and forwards
turning his head now to the right and now to the left.
     Below him as far as eye could  see stretched forest, forest, forest. It
was no  longer, however, as it  had  appeared  formerly. All  the trees were
sloping to one side as if they were half cut down.
     Big leaves could  be seen bending  under the  weight of great globes of
water  which looked as  if  they were made of crystal glass. The rays of the
setting sun were reflected by them, which gave their surface a purple hue.
     The whole forest flamed with a thousand such reflections.
     Shaking with the cold, Karik twisted around  the slippery, wet tree top
and looked the other way.
     Far in the west he could see a solitary mast. From its top there hung a
limp flag.
     "There it is!" he shouted, waving his arm towards the forest.
     "We must go that way. Over that side !"
     "O.K.! We can see!" Valya yelled from below.
     Karik rapidly climbed down to the ground. The travellers started off on
their journey and were soon deep in the heart of the grass jungle.

     * * * * *

     The forest  was quiet. Every so often a water globe  would fall  to the
earth  with  a  rumble and slosh, then, once  again, there would be complete
silence.
     There was not a single living creature to be seen or heard.  A sleep of
death seemed to  have fallen on  everything, just as it did in the  story of
Sleeping Beauty.
     "What's happened to them all?" demanded Valya.
     "Who do you mean?"
     "Why, all - the wild animals."
     "The  insects?  They're  somewhere   around!"  answered  the  Professor
shivering. "They've hidden themselves."
     "Are they asleep?"
     "They are drying themselves !"
     Their guide rubbed his  frozen hands vigorously and increased his  pace
of walking.
     "All those  who  fly," he continued as they went along, "and  all those
who jump are now sitting waiting for the sun to dry them, when they  will be
able to start running and jumping and flying once again.  In  this  way they
wait  patiently every morning  for the  rising  sun,  sitting in  the  grass
covered with the heavy dew."
     "That's fine !" grinned Karik. "They can dry themselves out for a whole
year and I shouldn't be the least bit sorry."
     "We  certainly seem quite alone in the  forest at present," said Valya.
"But  what does  frighten  me is that when we  lie  down to sleep  they will
attack us in the night. I am not frightened now."

     * * * * *

     The children became cheerful.
     They talked  incessantly as  they went along  and then  started to play
some sort  of game chasing each  other through  the forest,  calling to each
other and hiding behind the great trunks of the grass trees.
     Karik ran on far  ahead whilst Valya bravely poked her nose  into every
crevice  and peered into  every hole. She wanted to see what the monsters of
the grassy forest looked like after the rain.
     The Professor watched them with growing anxiety and at last said rather
crossly: "You  mustn't think,  my  dears, that all  the insects will now sit
peacefully waiting  for sunrise. It  has only got to get really dark and all
the ruffians of  the night  world will  come creeping out of their holes and
crevices.  These  night ruffians are much  more  fearsome  than the day-time
ones. Generally  speaking, I don't advise  you to poke your nose into  every
crack."
     The children looked at each other.
     "We," hesitated a subdued Valya, "we didn't know about the night ones."
     They  now held hands and followed behind  their guide, neither dropping
back nor running ahead.
     The sun sank.
     In  the forest  it now became quite  dark and in some  way particularly
silent.
     The dark trees rose up around the travellers like a wall. Away up above
their tops the wind now started  to make a  mournful sound. At odd intervals
heavy drops of rain fell on the ground with the thud of a falling rock.
     It became difficult to make their way in the dark.
     The Professor  and the children more and more frequently bumped against
trees or stumbled and fell.
     "Wait a  minute," said  the Professor, stopping. "Here we are wandering
about when  it is clearly time to look for  a lodging place for the night. I
think we  had  better  spread  out  and  sweep  the wood like  a  chain, but
naturally not losing each other."
     '"It's so dark," whispered Valya. "We may easily get lost."
     "We'll call to each other."
     "What have we got to do?"
     "Well, we must carefully look for  some sort  of  a comfortable cranny.
Whoever finds a suitable place for a night's lodging must shout. Agreed?"
     "Agreed!" answered Karik and Valya together.
     The  travellers dispersed in different directions.  Valya  went along a
broad stream. Further on her left was Karik, and beyond him the Professor.
     "Keep a careful look-out!" came the voice of the Professor.
     "Coo-ee," shouted Valya.
     "Coo-ee," replied Karik.
     Suddenly it seemed to Valya that something quite close to her moved.
     She started running, but at once heard hasty steps behind her.
     She stopped and hid behind a tree. She was becoming scared.
     "Coo-ee," she yelled.
     "Ahey! ahey!" came back two voices from quite near her amid the trees.
     The Professor  and Karik were quite near. Valya became calmer  and once
again resumed her walk but once again she heard behind her cautious steps.
     "Who is that? Who is there?"  Valya jerked  out, and not waiting for an
answer dashed ahead into a dark thicket.
     She ran on stumbling, fearing to stop and not daring to look around.
     Suddenly in the darkness a high  wall rose  up. In her flight Valya all
but collided with it, luckily she stretched out her arms in time.
     Her hands met a cold mass of rock.
     "Coo-ee," she shouted.
     "Coo-ee," Karik at once replied.
     Breathing heavily, Valya started to move along touching the  rocky mass
with her hands. The ground beneath her  feet became muddy. Her feet stuck in
the clay.
     After going a few steps she  stopped.  In front of her lay a  big broad
puddle.
     "I'll  go  around the other way,"  thought  Valya,  and turning sharply
retraced her steps. She got to  the  dry ground and feeling the granite mass
with her  hands started to  go round it  the other way, but had only taken a
few steps when she suddenly felt her hand go into space.
     She stopped.
     In the dark she could make out the black entrance to some cavern.
     "Here we are !" shouted Valya. "Come quickly! I've found it!"
     "Where are you?" yelled back Karik, running out of the trees.
     "Here! Over here! I've found it!"
     Karik  looked  at  the rocky mass  and then  at  Valya,  and then  said
angrily:
     "What are you shouting for? That is a rock. A big rock. Do you think we
can shelter under a rock?"
     "Inside it,"  replied Valya. "Just look  here." She pushed  her brother
towards  the  wide, dark entrance which led  into the interior of the  rocky
mass.
     Karik stepped back a little from the rocky  mass, stopped, put his arms
akimbo  and started to examine it with the eyes of one who might be about to
purchase it as a residence.
     "H'm, yes!"  Karik gravely nodded his  head. "That's  not  bad! Quite a
hotel!"
     It appeared to be a long block of granite rather like a cigar.
     It lay  amidst  the trunks of huge  bamboo-like trees. Some fairy story
giant  must  have  been carrying it and dropped it  here. It was practically
suspended in mid-air. You could put your hand between it and the ground.
     Karik made a trumpet of his hands and yelled:
     "Professor! Professor! We have found a place."
     "Goo-ee, I am coming. Coming!"
     Karik turned to Valya. Patting her on the back, he said:
     "Excellent young woman! This is like an aeroplane hangar made of  rock.
. . . We should certainly be able  to lodge in it for the night. . . . Let's
try and get into it."
     At the very entrance to the cavern there was a  stump of a tree cast up
against it by the flood. Karik clambered on to this and started to gaze into
the darkness beyond.
     "It's  a pity we  haven't got a match," he complained.  "I  can't see a
thing."
     He stretched out his hands and started to move forward into the cave.
     "What's it like?" Valya was impatiently waiting behind him.
     Suddenly Karik sprang backwards and came spinning like  a top over  the
wet stump of the tree.
     With one bound away  from  the cavern he grasped Valya  by the hand and
quickly sat them both down behind a tree.
     "It's  occupied! There's something  in the hole," he whispered.  "Huge!
terrible!"
     At that moment two enormous feelers poked out of the cavern followed by
a round black head. It  turned first to the right, then the left, and slowly
withdrew again into the hole.
     "Did you see that!"
     "Oo hoo! What whiskers! They were its whiskers, weren't they?"
     "Yes, feelers, of course. They all have feelers here."
     "We must get hold of the Professor."
     "Coo-ee," yelled Karik.
     "Coo-ee," came back the voice  of the Professor. "Where are you? How am
I to get to you?"
     "Here! here!"
     "Over here !"
     There was a noise of rustling leaves, heavy steps and a cough.
     Their guide appeared from behind some trees.
     "Well, what luck? You've found something."
     "We've found something."
     "We've practically found it."
     Valya pointed to the cavern.
     "I found that," she said proudly.
     The Professor went nearer and poked the rocky wall with his stick.
     "I recognise  it.  Very successful.  Simply marvellous! Just  the  very
thing we needed. An excellent hotel for travellers like ourselves."
     The Professor got up on the stump and gazed into the cavern.
     "Stop! Stop!" screamed Karik, and seized him by the arm.
     "What's up? What's happened?"
     "The  hotel is occupied. Something is already in  it. Got there  before
us."
     "Enormous, it has . . . oh it's really terrifying!" whispered Valya.
     "Don't worry! don't worry!" replied the Professor quite calmly. "I know
this lodger quite well.  . . . It's an  old friend of  mine. . . .  It won't
take us more than a minute to get it out of that."
     The Professor went back around the puddle  and came  to a stop near the
narrow  end of the rocky mass. Squatting down on his heels  he felt the rock
with his hands.
     "There we are! There we are!" The children heard him exclaim.
     "Just as I thought." Muttering something under his breath the Professor
jumped up and dashed off into the depths of the forest.
     "Where has he gone?" asked Valya.
     "I don't know."
     "Where are you off to. Professor?" shouted Valya.
     "Stay where you are. I'll be back in a minute," came his  voice through
the darkness.
     The minute  passed but the  Professor  didn't come  back.  The children
could hear his steps and mutterings but what  he was doing in the forest was
difficult to guess.
     At last he reappeared.
     "Here I am!" he shouted, dragging behind him a long pole.
     Having  dragged the pole up  to  the  rocky mass he once again felt the
surface of the rock with  his hands and having found a round hole pushed the
sharp end of the pole into it.
     Karik and  Valya watched every movement  he made, but  neither of  them
could understand what he was up to.
     "It looks as if there'll be a fight," said Valya.
     The  children bent  down and searched on  the ground with their  hands.
Karik got hold of a heavy club. Valya  found a rock and firmly grasped it in
her hand. Now  they were ready  to  go at any  moment  to  the  help of  the
Professor.
     "Now, my dears. Just move on one side!" said their guide, straightening
himself up.
     The children not  hurrying moved away from the cavern and stood holding
hands.
     "And  now,"  grinned  the  Professor. "Just  watch how  this  huge  and
terrible creature will take to its heels."
     He twisted the pole  to the right and  to the left, then thrust it deep
into  the  narrow crack and then  started to use it just like a  poker  in a
fire.
     The monster then began to get restless.
     A black  head covered with spines stuck up out of the main entrance  to
the cave and rocking dropped down again.
     "Come on now!" shouted the Professor, throwing his  full weight against
the thick end of the pole.
     The  giant shuddered as if stung, moved out of the entrance,  producing
three  pairs  of legs, then  proceeded to drag  out behind it a long jointed
body and made off towards the stream.
     The children had hardly been able to observe the details of the monster
before it went over the edge of the bank  and fell  with  a dull splash into
the  water.  The  rapid  current  at  once  seized  it  and  it  immediately
disappeared in the darkness.
     "That was  very  neat!"  grinned Karik.  "It won't creep into a strange
hotel another time."
     "That's fine!" gruffed the Professor good humouredly. "We won't go into
details now as to who seized the territory - whether it took ours or we took
its. In any case it didn't argue with us."
     "What!" Karik guessed. "You  mean we have taken its own  personal house
from this giant?"
     "Something  like it!" replied the Professor, "but it's  too late now to
repent. Yes, and it is  not worth while in any  case. Now,  my dears,  let's
prepare our sleeping quarters. Collect twigs and leaves and little branches.
Pile them by the entrance."
     The work became fast and furious in the dark.
     The  Professor  and the  children dragged together  leaves,  roots  and
stumps of grass trees.
     It wasn't at all an easy job.
     It took  two of them to drag a single leaf, and a blue  petal from some
flower proved almost beyond the capacity of the three of them.
     The Professor started to shout.
     "Now, now, make haste! Valya, don't walk  in the water! Karik,  give up
that leaf! You can never lift it. . . . Now help me to drag these twigs!"
     All the same he was contented now. He had feared  that they would  have
to spend the night  under the open sky and now they had  had this unexpected
luck.
     "Ah,  my  dears,"  he said,  with some solemnity, "how very fortunately
this  day has turned out  for  us.  Really, we seem  to have been  born with
silver spoons in our mouths, as  they say in England. Just wait  till we get
into this refuge and you will yourselves see how lucky we are. . . ."
     "What about the flood?" exclaimed Karik.  "B-r-r-r! It is terrible even
to think of it. There wasn't much silver spoon about that."
     "The flood. That certainly was  our darkest hour. However,  we were not
drowned and, my dears, it did us  a useful turn. In fact, but for the flood,
I do  not  know  where we should  have  spent the night  and what might have
happened to us during the night - it was the flood that deposited the Caddis
fly larva on the bank of the stream, together with its rocky home."
     "And  it did not even defend itself!"  said Valya. "So huge and  yet so
peaceful."
     "What! the Caddis fly larva peaceful?"
     The Professor laughed.
     "Well, it could hardly be described  as peaceful," he continued, "under
water  there is nothing it fears. This greedy ruffian  attacks  small crabs,
the larvae of insects and not infrequently devours its own children."
     "A sort of brigand!"
     "A  very  real  brigand. Just  think  how  it  sets out  to  hunt.  How
marvellously equipped it is -  the villain is clad  like a knight in strong,
impenetrable armour. But what a knight! Knights  have  helmets, breastplates
and chain armour, but this gentleman drags around a regular fortress."
     "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.


        CHAPTER XI

     A cold  awakening - The Professor entertains the children to omelette -
He opens a dressmaking  establishment - The Andrena bee - The  Professor and
Karik vanish

        A WHITE FOG WAS ROLLING OVER THE COLD EARTH IN DENSE WAVES.
     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 goi