d man's singing . . . the only person who wouldn't voice a protest against this would be a deaf mute. Therefore, Karik and Valya, frightened that he might actually start singing, started to question him about anything and everything they could see. But the Professor kept on trying to break off and start singing. "Now, then," he said, coughing to clear his voice, "let's strike up. Ha hur! Ha hur! Something like the Forward March. . . . Thus." "Oh, look, look !" shouted Valya, hastily. "Whatever is that under the water? So big, isn't it?" The Carrabus was sailing over some sort of striped object which lay on its side like a sunken ship. The Professor glanced over the side and said good humouredly: "Well, that, my dears, is the former food of mankind - Mussels. There was a time a very great while ago when these mussels were for mankind what bread is for us to-day. But to-day we look upon this former bread with disdain." "I don't think," replied Karik, "that mussels would be nicer than bread." "You are right there," agreed the old man, "but all the same it is a great pity that such a huge source of food should be wasted. Why, it would be possible to collect hundreds of thousands of tons of these mussels." "But whatever for if no one will eat them?" "In Germany, for example, they collect them, boil them in huge cauldrons and ..." "Do they really eat them?" "No. They feed the pigs on them. The pigs are said to get fat quickly and their flesh becomes exceptionally tender and is of delicious flavour." For a short time the conversation then lapsed but as soon as the children heard the ominous coughing - this meant the Professor had decided to start singing - they quickly started to ask him any sort of question. Several hours passed in this way. The Carrabus hurried on under full sail. But as the sun rose so the wind dropped. The ship then moved lazily through the oily swell, barely rolling. The sails hung down. The Captain grew melancholy. The voyagers sat on the gunwale of the ship and dangled their feet in the cool water. Water insects were cutting here and there across the waves. They wove their way in and out of the water weed forest which rose from the dark bottom of the lake. Valya stretched herself on the deck. With her head hanging over the side she gazed at the swirling foliage rising from the bottom. At last the under water forest came to an end. The bottom was now grey and hilly. On the slopes of the underwater hills there wriggled and moved about gigantic red snakes. There were so many of them that the bottom appeared red. "I say! What a lot of them! And what are they?" asked Valya. The Professor bent over. "Culicidae Derguna . . . or in simple language the larvae of the Derguna gnat. . . . . Excellent food for fish. The favourite food of all small fry." "Why are they called Dergunas?" "Just because they are always pulling with their feet twisting about." "That means that all gnats are Dergunas because they all pull things about with their feet. I never knew this before." "No," said the old man, "only one sort of gnat is called Derguna. The other gnats have different names." "What?" Karik was surprised. "Surely there are not a whole lot of different gnats. I thought gnats were all one sort." "Oh, no, there are hundreds of different sorts! Why, just in one district alone there are gnats that pull themselves along, gnats that push themselves along, bearded gnats, long-nosed gnats, malaria gnats or mosquitoes, feather-whiskered gnats, amphibian gnats, ordinary midges. Then we also have snow midges." "White?" "No! They are called snow mosquitoes because they live on the snow." "Surely mosquitoes can't live in winter?" "Life does not come to a halt either in summer or winter," replied the Professor. "In summer one lot of insects crawl, jump and fly, in winter another lot. For example, just around here you come across snow fleas, snow worms, snow spiders, ice flies, wingless gnats, and many, many other living creatures." "Do all the gnats bite?" asked Valya, looking at the larvae of the Derguna in some apprehension. "The larvae do not bite. Yes, and the full-grown Derguna does not bite human beings or living creatures. Anyway, what do the bites of our gnats actually amount to?" "Nothing! twiddle twaddle! A mere trifle!" he gruff-gruffed. Then he stroked his beard and said smiling: "Now on the Island of Barbadoes gnats do bite; that is to say, I am telling you they really do bite!" "What happens? Does it hurt terribly?" whispered Valya. "It's painful all right. . . . For instance, this happened. In the town of Vera Cruz a young woman became unconscious. It was thought that she was dead. Her face was like wax and she herself was as cold as ice. Well, naturally, they put her in a coffin, but they stood the coffin out on the verandah." "Well, what happened then?" No sooner than night had fallen gnats started to fly about the verandah. They swarmed thickly on the corpse and proceeded to bite her so savagely that she awoke, pushed the lid of the coffin off; yes! and ran out into the street in her shroud with the coffin lid in her hands." "And she didn't die any more?" asked Karik. "No, she lived right up to the very day other death," replied the old man with a grin. Suddenly Valya leaped up and shouted: "Oh, look, there is something from Barbadoes swimming along here. Oo, ooee !" Beneath the water on one side of the ship a long, grey-coloured animal with a huge head was jerking itself along. Having blown itself out until it could contain no more the creature contracted itself and shot out a stream of water behind it. As a result of this stream it moved forward just like a rocket. "The larva of a dragonfly!" said the Professor. "That's what we should use instead of a motor," said Karik, thoughtfully. The Professor started to smile. "The larva of the dragonfly has been using it long enough but we have only just been able to make a jet-propelled aeroplane and the jet-propelled submarine has yet to prove itself practical. This dragonfly submarine is a most dangerous craft. It will attack a small fish and devour it. And any fish, however small, is by comparison with us a regular whale." "There is a mother dragonfly!" announced Valya. "Look! Where is she crawling to?" With her wings pressed to her back the goggle-eyed dragonfly, clutching the stem of a water weed, had started to crawl down under water with her huge head pointed towards the bottom. "What is she up to?" demanded Karik in amazement. "Does she want to drown herself?" Valya gazed after the dragonfly, thought a little and said undecidedly: "Evidently she wants to pay a visit to her larva. She is lonely, so she goes to pay a visit. Very simple, actually !" The old man started to laugh. "But there is an explanation still more simple and actually more correct," he said. "The dragonfly is going beneath the water in order to lay her eggs." "But what an awful creature she is!" said Valya. "What's up with you? She is very beautiful!" retorted the Professor. "It is not without reason that the Germans give her a poetic name - Wasser Jungfer, or water nymph; whilst the French call her Mademoiselle, or literally translated, my young Lady or Miss." Waves now started to roll across the lake. The sails started to hum. Astern the wake of the ship had started to gleam. "All hands to their stations!" bawled Karik. "Aye, aye, sir!" sang out the old man. Once again the ship was making way rapidly. Karik climbed up the mast. The Carrabus sailed along, tacking between flat green islands which in fact were the fleshy leaves of kingcups or water lilies. At last the Carrabus sailed out into open water. Karik shielded his eyes with his hand. Far away across the blue lake which was sparkling in the sun he could see the misty outline of the shore. The shore had almost disappeared below the horizon. Clouds lay like mountains of cotton wool above the blue flat stretched ahead. When Karik had looked for some time he spotted on the horizon a minute, slender, pin-like excrescence. At the top of this something was waving very much like a red feather. "There it is! There's our landmark! Alter course to starboard! Good, good! Another point to starboard. Haul in your port sheets, you landlubbers! And again! Helm amidships ! Steady on your course!" "Helm amid-ships! steady on the course," bawled the Professor, in reply. The Carrabus now surged on her straight course for the shore. Suddenly all around things started to sing, to sing, and sing. The water sang, the sky sang. Karik looked around in consternation and hastily clambered down the mast on to the deck. The old man, screwing up his eyes thoughtfully and cocking his head on one side, listened to the amazing music. It sounded as if thousands of violins and flutes were playing one and the same song, a simple melody but quite attractive. The Professor sighed. "That must have been how the sirens sang around the ship! when the Odyssey of legend was sailing the seas." "Are they sirens singing now?" demanded Karik. "No," said the old man, "sirens are the mermaids or the beautiful women sailors have seen in their fancy amongst the foam of the billows. They betray the voyager by their songs or their charms. But the creatures which are now singing arc very real indeed, they are called Corixae minutissimae. It's very touching music, isn't it?" "Very!" replied Valya. "Yes, indeed, they know how to sing, do these savage ruffians!" mused the Professor. "Ruffians?" "I think it's a fair name for these water bugs. Gluttons and brigands they are, but as talented as the legendary sirens." "But how do they sing? A bug surely has no voice?" "They sing with their feet," replied the old man. "At least they produce music. On one of the front claws of the female bug there are bristles like the teeth in a musical box. . . . The bug uses its second front leg like the bow of a fiddle and produces music from these bristles." Karik and Valya very much wanted to see the bug-violinists, but however much they looked about they could not spot a single one of them. The bugs were sitting somewhere in the water weed forest. Meanwhile the Carrabus surged along under full sail towards the shore which now could be seen coming nearer and nearer every minute. Already rocks stuck up out of the water, and every now and then yellow shoals appeared beneath them. The grass forest edging the shore was now becoming plainer and plainer. "Where shall we land?" asked Karik. "Anywhere you like," replied the Professor, gazing at the shore. "A little nearer or a little further is not very important - we shall have to do a good bit of foot-slogging in any case." Valya groaned. "Have we really got to go on foot? Oh, how tired I am!" "Don't worry, Valya, have patience," comforted the old man. "Our journey, I hope, will finish at any time now. I too wish to get home as soon as possible. I have students waiting for me in the university. The examinations will soon be on!" The Professor suddenly started laughing. "If only my students could see me in this ship made of an oak leaf sailing under sails made of flies' wings, whatever would they say? When you think of it - any of them could put me in a waistcoat pocket. Ha, ha, ha!" It was now midday. Grating her bottom on the stones, the Carrabus gently came up towards the beach and stopped, rocking in the light swell. The voyagers got out on the beach. Beyond the near line of forest there was sticking out the dark mast-like landmark. It looked as if they were standing right by it; as if they had just to go through this one little wood and then it would be over. Karik looked around and, having gazed sadly at the famous Carrabus, waved his hand in farewell. "Fare - ye - well, good ship Carrabus. Don't forget your Captain !" "But I thought we were going to sail right up to the very landmark!" said Valya. "You thought wrong!" the Professor shrugged his shoulders. "But why ever did we load the Carrabus with so much food?" "Why ever?" Karik was offended. "If a gale had started to blow! or suppose we had been cast away on some uninhabited water leaf island! What would have we had to eat then?" "True enough," said the Professor. "One must be far-sighted when setting out on a voyage. It's far better to throw away what one does not need than to die of hunger." * * * * * * For two to three hours the old man and the children sat at the edge of the forest, rested and partook of a heavy meal. The Professor got up and wiping his beard with a petal he ran as nimbly as a small boy up the nearest hillock. "There you are," he shouted, looking upwards. "Very good! Excellent! Simply marvellous!" The children also looked up. Above the forest some sort of heavy, hairy animals were flying on broad, seemingly-glass wings. Was the Professor looking at these? "Wasps!" yelled Karik. "Not wasps, bumble bees!" corrected the Professor. The dark and golden bumble bees circled over the thick foliage of the grass forest, circled and alighted on some sort of strange tree which had huge lilac-red hats on its summit. The bumble bees sat on these hats, bustled into them and then soaring upwards flew off in the direction of the landmark and there disappeared - apparently alighting on the ground. The Professor came, took the children by the hand and, gazing at them fixedly, said: "Now I'll tell you, my dears! A very daring plan has flashed into my mind. We can fly the rest of our journey on a bumble bee." The children started in alarm. "On a bumble bee? . . . I . . . I don't want to go on a bumble bee," said Valya. "I am afraid of them." The Professor flung his arm around Valya's shoulder. "Don't be frightened, my darling! This is quite safe. The larvae of the May bug beetles always fly on honey bees, and the honey bees don't touch them." "But then it may be better to fly on a honey bee?" said -Karik. The Professor shook his head. "No, we cannot do it on honey bees! These bees would carry us into their hives and that would be the end of us. But the bumble bees will carry us straight to the landmark. They have evidently got a nest there. You see the way they are all flying. These bumble bees will be much better for us than any honey bee." "No, all the same, I am frightened." Valya shook her head. "I..." "Now, you shut up!" the Professor scolded her. "I'll tell you in detail how the larvae of the Blister beetles travel on bees, and I hope that after this you will stop being frightened." The old man sat down on the hillock and, seating the children beside him, began: "I do beg of you, my dears, not to confuse the Blister beetle with the May bug, just because these beetles are called May beetles. They are by no means the same. This Blister beetle is an amazing creature. Insects as a rule have three stages of life: the larva comes out of the egg, becomes a cocoon and finally from the cocoon emerges the complete insect. Well, now, the Blister beetle has four transformations: the egg, the Triungulina or six-legged larva, the ordinary larva, the cocoon and the grown-up Blister beetle. Remember Triungulina. Fabre calls this simply 'the louse.' Now these lice or Triungulinae feed on bees' honey. . . . But how does it find the combs? Who shows it the way to the bees? Who carries it into the hive?" "Its mother!" suggested Valya. "Well, it couldn't possibly depend on its mother," laughed the Professor. "By the time the louse comes out of its egg its mother is no longer in the land of the living. In order to get into the bees' nest the Triungulina must get up into a flower and, hiding itself there, await a bee. As soon as ever a bee comes into the flower the louse seizes its hairy coat with its claws arid sticks on until the bee has carried it back home. Do you understand, Valya? And what do you think now: the stupid Triungulina is not frightened of making the trip, surely you wouldn't be frightened?" "It's because the Triungulina is so stupid!" sighed Valya. "Yes, you must chuck being such a coward, Valya," insisted Karik. "If we don't fly on the bumble bee we shall have to go on foot, and it may take us another three weeks and maybe a month. Yes, and goodness knows what may happen to us. We may meet a thousand new dangers on that long journey. Some beetle or other will bury us, or a caterpillar will crush us or a butterfly will whisk us over a precipice. Surely it's much better on a bumble bee! . . . And . . . and in any case pioneers mustn't be cowards." "Well, all right, we'll go by bumble bee!" said Valya, in a shaky voice. "What flower have we to climb up?" "There you are, this one! Up to the red round ball which is 1 swinging up there. It's red clover. The favourite flower of bumble bees." The Professor and the children scrambled up the thick stem on to the lilac-reddish hat of the clover and hid between its tube-like flowers, which were hiding drops of clean, clear honey. "Will the bumble bee come soon?" asked Valya. "How am I to know?" answered Karik, in a whisper. "Be quiet!" hissed the Professor. They sat like that for more than an hour. At last wings droned above their heads. A broad shadow came between them and the sky just as if a cloud had covered up the sun. Valya clung to her brother. Her heart hammered, arms and legs shook. She wanted to say something but her lips would not move. "Be ready!" said the Professor, in a scarcely audible voice. Valya secretly squeezed Karik's hand. The hum of the wings became louder and louder. A hairy bumble bee, with its hair bristling out, circling down landed on the flower. It put out its feet and at once started to eat. What happened then neither Valya nor Karik could follow. The huge, furry body came down around them like a heavy fur hat. The children heard the stifled voice of the Professor: "Hold on as tight as you can!" They buried their hands in the fur and in another minute were flying upwards in a whirlwind. CHAPTER XVII Queer soil - The Professor 'collects' a moth - Karik and Valya in the plywood box - An expensive Oecophora - The Professor is packed up - Back to the old world THE WIND QUITE TOOK THE TRAVELLERS' BREATH AWAY. THE ground swayed beneath them and fell away. "Hold tighter!" yelled the Professor. The children could hardly hear his voice. The even, heavy drumming of the bumble bee's wings and the piercing whistle of the wind drowned everything. To begin with, the bumble bee flew high above the ground. But then it seemed as if it was finding itself too heavy and was not happy. Small wonder - three pairs of hands were gripping its hairy coat, three pairs of legs were striking it in the body every time it made a sharp turn. The bumble bee started to fling itself from side to side - evidently in order to try and dislodge its uninvited passengers. It flew on all the time getting lower and lower, every now and then shaking itself; but it could not get rid of the heavy load. Valya's head was swimming and her heart seemed gripped in iron bands. The Professor took an anxious look at her. "If only the poor girl can manage to hold on! If only her hands don't slip!" Then suddenly the bumble bee beat its wings more furiously. The wind whistled in the ears of the travellers. It was plunging like an arrow towards the ground. "Ah, what a pity if it lands before time," flashed through Karik's brain. "We can only have got halfway there by now." The earth came nearer every second. The old man and the children curled up their legs tightly in order not to hit anything hard when they landed. The tops of the grassy jungle came closer and closer. And then - violent jolts - one, two, three. . . . One more jolt and the travellers were thrown out of their fur cabin and hurled along the ground. Turning head over heels the children and the Professor rolled over and over on some queer soil. It was blue in colour and very soft and spungy. At last having rolled over for the last time the Professor caught hold of the edge of a large smooth rock and managed to get on to his feet. Holding on to the edge of the rock he moved around it, limping slightly. "Odd," the old man muttered, feeling the flat smooth rock which seemed as round as a millstone. "Whatever is this? And there's another similar round rock . . . there's a third and yet a fourth. . . ." The Professor managed with difficulty to clamber on to one of the rocks and here gazed around himself. In front of him was a wide plain of the strangest soil. It looked like a chess board. Even blue-coloured roads ran across it from edge to edge. He leant over the edge of the rock and carefully scrutinised its smooth, black, shining surface. Then suddenly a wild guess flashed into his head. "A button!" he clapped his hand to his forehead. "I am standing on a button! Then the chess board soil and blue roads are . . . the very thing . . . . Children!" he shouted to Karik and Valya, who were sitting on a slope rubbing their bruised sides and knees. "Children, what do you think, we're nearly home. This is my waistcoat!" The children leaped up overjoyed. "But the box? Where is the box with the enlarging powder?" demanded Valya, impatiently. The Professor, standing on the button, was attentively surveying the neighbourhood surrounding the waistcoat. "Odd! Very odd," he shrugged his shoulders. He looked around once again. Then he suddenly saw a gigantic column lying on the ground. The further end of this lay far away towards the west. The forest jungle was parted and a straight vista stretched along the column to disappear in the blue distance as it joined the horizon. "It's fallen down! fallen down, the rascal! and not more than ten minutes ago." "What has fallen?" "Our landmark. However, this is no misfortune. We are already there. The box must be just here . . . on the same side as the landmark is lying. Follow me, my dears!" Then the Professor boldly dashed along the edging of the waistcoat, jumping over buttonholes and stumbling over threads. Following him hastened Karik and Valya, jumping and skipping. At the edge of the waistcoat they all stopped. In front of them the grassy jungle was rustling. "There it is!" yelled the Professor, stretching out his hand towards a thick clump. Through gaps in the jungle they could see a tall yellow building. "Hurrah!" shouted the children cheerfully. Then holding hands they dashed towards the box. Panting and puffing, the Professor also ran up to the box. "Well, there we are! There we are!" the Professor rubbed his hands with excitement. "Our trials are over. And wasn't it a good thing we weren't frightened of the bumble bee. This is simply incredible! We should never have found the box on foot. Our landmark fell down a few minutes before our arrival. Yes, indeed! To be fearless is the same as to be lucky!" The Professor passed his hand over his bald head and continued, quite moved by the events: "So, my dears, in a few minutes we shall once again become big, ordinary people. Here at the wall of this box ends our difficult and dangerous journey. We are standing on the threshold of the big world. But before we throw off this little world I would like to say a few words to you. You have seen a lot in the past days but to tell you the truth you have only started to look into one of the tiny corners of the little world. You have just read a few pages out of the thick book entitled Nature. And these pages, I might say, are by no means the most interesting. In the book of nature there are other pages from which it is almost impossible to tear oneself away. "You have seen just a tiny part of the world we live in. It is small, it is unnoticed, this part; we often pay it no attention at all. Yet it is a very important part of the big world in which you and I will soon be living again. "Its life is closely knit with our lives, much, much closer than many people are aware of. "In this little world there are our friends and there are also our enemies. "We need to know them both. "We must come back again here sometime. We must come back with a big expedition equipped from head to foot, and we must conquer this too-little-known world. "For this expedition we shall not have recourse to a lilliput liquid. We shall come with microscopes, with the great knowledge and the experience of numbers of scientists. "Our equipment will be patience. "But we must talk about this in detail at home when we have got back there. But now let us proceed with something we must not any longer postpone. "To make ourselves big again!" The Professor then stepped to the wall of the plywood box. Looking through the solitary window he announced cheerfully, rubbing his hands: "Everything is there. Climb in, my friends, one at a time. The box with the enlarging powder is in the right-hand corner. Carry on!" Karik and Valya after him climbed through the little window. The Professor helped them through and was just about to climb through himself when suddenly a moth with shining wings of a metallic hue alighted on the wall of the box. It was a very small moth; in all only a few times the size of the Professor. The old man took a look at it and froze in his tracks. "An Olive Oecophora," he whispered, taking a deep breath with excitement. He pressed close to the plywood wall and was all on tenterhooks, like a hunter who has spotted nearby some rare wild beast. The Oecophora, paying no attention to the Professor, crawled past him along the wall. The old man's heart beat and hammered. "Stop!" he cried, and jumping up high he seized the Oecophora by the wing. The moth tried to escape and they fell heavily together to the ground. The moth started hitting out, waved its free wing up and down, and pressed the Professor's chest with its feet; but the old man would not let go. Lying on the ground under the butterfly he made every effort to hold on to his valuable prey. He forgot about everything else in the world. Yes, and it was not to be wondered at. In his hands there was struggling an Olive Oecophora - a moth rare in our climate, the very smallest specimen of the Lepidopterae, or scale-winged insects. How it came to appear by the side of the plywood box - a moth native of warm climates, the Professor never at this moment questioned. He remembered only one thing: in his ample collection in the moth cabinets where under glass sitting on pins with their wings spread out were carpet moths, fur moths, hair, grain, cherry, hawthorn, burdock and field moths, in this collection there had never been an Olive Oecophora. And now there would be one. "Yes, you just wait. Ah, what a beauty !" the old man scolded the stubborn moth which dragged him along the ground, trying in every way to get free. "Yes, now then . . . now then . . . that's enough . . . Now then, stop!" * * * * * Whilst the Professor was wrestling with the Olive Oecophora, Karik and Valya had reached the right-hand corner of the chest where the little box with the enlarging powder was standing. Gradually their eyes became used to the semi-darkness. They looked round the empty room with the bare walls. Through the round little window there fell on the floor a narrow, slanting beam of sunlight. Golden dust swam in the sunlight and the beam appeared full of life. "It is jolly here. Isn't it, Karik?" said Valya, looking around. Karik not replying walked over to the corner in which there was standing a huge trunk-like white box covered with a thick sheet of parchment. "There it is!" said Karik. He clambered up to the edge of the box, drummed with his bare heels on its sides and stretched out his hand to Valya. "Climb up here! Come on!" Valya scrambled up and sat beside Karik. Karik bent down and tore the parchment lid off the box. "Eat! And become big again!" he announced in a loud voice, bending over the box. "Oughtn't we to wait for the Professor?" asked Valya. "No - and do you know what. Let's get big before the Professor. Think how interesting that will be. We shall already be big whilst he is still tiny." "All right ! I agree," said Valya, and quickly plunged her hand beneath the parchment and fetched out a whole handful of glistening powder. She put her hand up to her mouth, opened it and then suddenly taking her hand away turned to Karik: "How much of it should one eat to get big again?" "Eat plenty of it." "But supposing we grow very big. . . . it would not be very pleasant to be a girl of giant size." "Don't worry, eat it up!" replied Karik calmly, "if you do grow too much - you can drink some reducing liquid and get yourself right again. That's all. Look how I am eating. Like this!" Then Karik poured a whole fistful of powder into his mouth. "Ready!" Valya swallowed the powder and said with a frown: "The reducing liquid was much nicer." "No, there is nothing wrong with the powder. It is a little acid." Karik jumped down to the floor and pulled Valya after him. "Now we must clear out of here quickly." "Why?" "Why, because it will soon become tight." "Why tight?" "Why, why, why?" Karik got angry. "For the simple reason that we are going to turn into big people . . . you see . . . Ow!" he shouted, having bitten his tongue. His head had hit the ceiling. With a loud crack the chest split open. The bright daylight blinded Karik. He screwed his eyes up, rubbed them and once more opened them. Before him stood Valya. She had not changed in the slightest. However, everything around had become quite different: the green jungle had turned back into ordinary grass. On the grass lay a thick pole with a red rag faded in the sun and the gnats had once again become gnats. "Isn't it grand!" said Valya. "Just think, we need no longer be frightened of a gnat. Just one clap of the hand and it's a goner." "Wait!" Karik interrupted her in a worried voice. "Where is the box with the powder?" They looked down at their feet. In the grass were the broken pieces of the chest. Amid these pieces lay the box turned over and alongside it a tiny parchment sheet. The wind was blowing a white dust over the grass. "That's our enlarging powder!" shouted Karik in alarm, and dashed to catch the dust. But it was already too late. "Now what will happen?" asked Valya, anxiously. "Does it mean that our Professor will have to stay small for ever? Good gracious, maybe we have squashed him already." "Don't you get fussed!" Karik yelled at her. "What's the use of it and you may in fact squash him." Valya froze in her place, but Karik squatting on his haunches started to rake the cool grass with his fingers spaced out like the teeth of a comb. But it was all in vain. "Karik," said Valya, "he must be here somewhere and he would surely hear us. Let him come out himself." "Yes, yes," agreed Karik. He found amongst the pieces of the chest a small smooth board, wiped the dust off it and laying it on a flat place said gently but plainly: "Professor. Can you hear us? Come out on to the board. On to this" - Karik knocked the board with his knuckle. "Don't be afraid. We won't move." Several minutes passed. The children sat perfectly still on their haunches and bending their heads watched the board. Then suddenly on the yellow surface a sort of midge appeared. "There he is!" panted Valya. "Wait a minute!" whispered Karik. "Don't puff like a steam engine. You will blow him off the board." Holding his breath, Karik bent lower over the board, screwing up one eye he started to gaze fixedly at the tiny object which ran backwards and forwards on the board. "It is our Professor!" said Karik, holding his hand in front of his mouth. "Look, look," whispered Valya. "Can you see his hands moving? What a teeny person. Were we really like that?" "Even smaller," answered Karik. "Don't talk, sit and hold your tongue!" Valya even stopped breathing. Then suddenly in the complete silence they caught the sound of a tiny, tiny squeak - weaker than a mosquito. "He is saying something!" whispered Karik, bending his car to the board. "What is he saying?" "I can't understand!" Meanwhile the Professor jumped off the board to the ground and vanished in the grass. "He has gone away!" "Where to?" "We must just sit and wait." After several minutes the old man appeared again. This time he was not alone. "Look, look," said Valya. "Something is attacking him." The children bent over the board, but the longer they looked the less they could understand: whether it was the Professor himself that was dragging a dark moth after him or whether it was the moth that held the Professor and would not let him get up on to the board. The moth was struggling, napping its wings, and it knocked the Professor off his feet. "Let's help him," suggested Valya, "or this Rotton thing will eat him up." The Professor floundering on the edge of the board squeaked something. "Do you hear, Karik? He is shouting, 'Help, help'." Valya stretched out her hand to the moth. "Wait a bit!" Karik stopped his sister. "He is saying something else." But Valya seized the moth and with a whisk threw it aside, then raised the board with the old man on it to her very eyes. "He is evidently very upset about something!" announced Valya. "The butterfly evidently hurt him badly." The Professor raised his hands to the heavens and ran up and down the board squeaking. He shook his fists and stamped his tiny feet. "Don't be frightened," comforted Valya, "it won't hurt you. I've killed it." But this did not calm the old man. He waved his arms more furiously and even appeared to spit several times. By all appearance it was no trifling matter he was raging over. "Well, all right, all right," Valya soothed him. "I'll find it in a minute and squash it. I'll teach it not to hurt little things." The Professor no sooner had heard these words than he clasped his hands behind his head, staggered about and then started to jump up and down, so impatiently squeaking all the time that Karik at once understood the great man wished to say something very important. "I'll squash it in a minute," shouted Valya. "Now, don't go shouting," said Karik in a whisper. "You'll deafen him. After all, he is tiny. Give him to me now!" Karik carefully shook the old man from the board into the palm of his hand and lifted him up to his ear. "Oecophora" he heard the weak voice of the Professor. "A solitary Oecophora. Such a specimen! Such a specimen!" "He is saying something about Ecofor," whispered Karik. "I expect that's what the powder is called," replied Valya quietly, "but there is no more powder." Karik looked at the palm of his hand and said slowly and clearly: "Professor, what are we to do? The wind has scattered all the powder. It wasn't our fault." He again put his hand to his ear. "That doesn't matter," squeaked the scarcely audible voice. "I have got another gramme of the powder in my laboratory. Carry me home. But first find the Oecophora . . . it is here . .'. in the grass." "But what is this Oecophora?" asked Karik. "The Oecophora," squeaked the old man, "is a moth. They live only in the south. In our climate such moths are extremely rare - and Valya took it away from me. You must most certainly find it." "There you are, Valya," said Karik. "Look for the moth. You threw it away and it is very rare. You must find it again." Valya bent down, searched in the grass and picked up a tiny half-dead moth by its wing. "Is this it?" asked Karik, showing the moth to the Professor. "That's it! that's it!" rejoiced the old man. "Take it home, only please be more careful. Don't crush the wing!" "But which direction should we take to go home?" asked Karik. "First of all go straight to the pond, not turning in any way, and beyond the pond you yourselves will see the road to the town." Karik plucked the broad leaf of a plantain, deftly rolled up a twisted funnel of this leaf and carefully placed in the bottom of this funnel the great scholar - Professor Ivan Hermogenovitch Enotoff. "And now let's run home," he said to Valya. "Only don't whatever you do lose the valuable Oecophora moth." "Wait. We cannot go through the town naked!" "Good gracious!" shouted Karik in contempt. "No, no," said Valya. "I won't go. It would be unpleasant." "What do you mean unpleasant?" Karik was surprised. "Well, all my bones are sticking out. Look how thin I am. Everybody would laugh at me." "That's nothing, we'll run there." "No, no," insisted Valya, shaking her head. "We must dress." Valya picked up the Professor's crumpled shirt from the ground and put it over her head. Looking at his sister, Karik started laughing. "What a scarecrow! Whatever do you think you look like?" The old man's shirt reached down to Valya's very heels. The sleeves hung down to her knees. All the same it was some sort of dress. Valya started to roll up the sleeves, and she gathered up the shirt tails like a train. "What about you?" she demanded of Karik, not paying any attention to his laughter. You put on something of the Professor's." Karik decided to get into the old man's trousers. He drew them on up to his very neck. "Very becoming!" Valya approved. Swamped in the trousers, Karik made several steps, stumbled and fell. Fortunately he was able to hold up the hand in which the Professor was in or else he would certainly have lost or squashed the poor chap. "Turn up the legs!" advised Valya, helping her brother to get up and wrestle with the trousers. Karik did this. At last the dressing was finished. Karik took his sister by the hand and they both, as if in a concert, sang cheerfully: FORWARD! The bugles blow From battle most glorious. Forward! and home will go, The children victorious." Beyond the pond, like an arrow, lay an asphalt road. It led to the town. CHAPTER XVIII An unexpected attack - Biology has its uses - Home again - Excitement and pleasure - Elephants and fleas IT WAS ALREADY EVENING BY THE TIME KARIK AND VALYA ENTERED the dark streets of the town. In the windows of the houses yellow lights were twinkling. The streets were empty. Somewhere far ahead children were shouting. They were evidently playing at Cossacks and brigands. Over the dark green public gardens called "The second five-year plan" there rose up like a sort of blue rainbow the reflection of electric lights. Music was to be heard there, swings creak