e ghastly snout of the water skater and then the strong hairy legs of the spider. All around it was dark and there was a rank smell. Some way below beyond his feet water quietly lapped and just beside him someone breathed softly. Karik lay stretched out at full length, but what he was lying on he could not make out. His head sang, his arms and legs were tingling with pins and needles, his eyelids seemed too heavy to open. He groaned and then immediately recognised the frightened voice of Valya. "Quiet! He is here!".. Karik quickly turned his head and bumped his forehead on Valya's temple. Valya made a choked shout. Karik tried to move away from her but could not. Someone had wound a thick cord round them from their feet to their heads fastening them securely together. Karik tried the harder to escape and suddenly as a result of a furious wriggle he and Valya started to sway from side to side as if they were in a swing. "Quieter!" whispered Valya, hurriedly. "Please be quieter! It's - it's just below us." "The spider?" "A - ay - It has just carried us here - I heard - " "Aren't you frightened?" "Not half! Aren't you?" "I am, but look here, don't cry. Let's try to escape first of all." Karik moved apart the loops of the cord with his head and peered around. Below there lay the dark water out of which rose up black smooth walls and overhead was a sloping roof. The children were hanging in mid-air in the den. "What do you think!" whispered Karik. "It's hung us up - fastened us to the roof." "M-m" nodded Valya, "it hung us up. I thought as much." "But what for?" "I've been trying to think. What for?" "Well, haven't you thought of anything?" "No." Karik succeeded in pulling first one arm and then the other out of the spider's binding cords. "What are you doing, Karik?" "Be quieter! Shut up!" Trying not to pant, Karik in the end freed his head and started to look below. Just immediately below the children the spider was scurrying about. It ceaselessly moved about in the water along the walls of the den stopping from time to rime as if listening for something. From the roof above huge drops of water formed and broke off to fall with a splash into the water throwing up showers of spray to the roof. Karik was able to distinguish a dull noise coming from somewhere. Somewhere right beside them - just behind the wall it seemed - something was not exactly knocking and not exactly scratching. It was as if someone outside was moving around feeling the wall looking for a door. This noise definitely was disturbing the spider. It would first of all start climbing the wall and then moving its long legs would back away from the wall. "Do you hear?" said Valya, quietly. "Something is moving the other side of the wall." "Yes, yes," whispered Karik. "I hear it." The noise started to get louder and louder. It seemed as if someone was beating on the wall with soft but heavy fists. "Something is trying to get in here!" breathed Valya. At that moment the walls of the underwater house shook so vigorously that the children in their spider's cradle were shot upwards. The cradle struck the wall and started swinging like a pendulum. "Look! Look at the spider!" whispered Valya. The spider had pushed itself into the centre of the water and was ceaselessly moving its feet as if feeling something and gazing with all its eyes at the wall of its den. And suddenly the wall split open, there was a shower of pieces of plaster-like earth into the water. In the gaping wall there appeared huge hairy feet. The feet once again tore at the wall. The under-water house shook and rocked. The cradle with the children was flung from side to side. The wall crashed down. Amid the noise and splatter another spider as like the owner of the den as are two peas, burrowed its way into the den. It gathered its striped legs underneath its body as if preparing for a spring and slowly started to advance. The owner of the den waved its feelers. The spiders looked at each other for a moment or so. Then the owner raised its feelers and violently hurled itself at the uninvited guest. In the darkness there commenced a bitter struggle. Feelers whistled through the air and smacked the water. Spray flew up to the roof and soon the walls were covered with shaking drops of water. The battle of the spiders shook the underwater den. The walls quivered and the roof rocked. The children were flung up in the air, hurled first to the right and then to the left. Before their eyes were glimpses of wall, roof, spiders, water and then again wall, roof, water. The spiders fought silently. They hugged each other with long legs swaying like wrestlers from side to side, then jumping backwards away from each other would once again dart at one another. Then with a swish there whirled up to the roof a torn-off leg. It got caught in the spider's fastenings and hung swinging above the heads of the children. Karik managed successfully to dislodge it. Rocking in the water the mutilated spiders separated for an instant and sat breathing heavily near the wall; but then once more they hurled themselves at each other. Once more the water foamed noisily and the walls of the little house shook from the blows as if there had been an earthquake. The children followed the battle of the spiders with fear, hardly daring to breathe. The spider fastenings became slacker as a result of the violent jerking. Now it became possible for Karik and Valya to wriggle out of their rope cradle. First Karik climbed out and quickly grasped the rope which led from the roof to the cradle. "Come on Valya," said Karik, "get out." Valya stretched herself upright to her full height and stood by Karik. "Do you know what," she said, "we must look for something." "What for?" "Some sort of stick to defend ourselves with." But wherever the children looked they could see nothing in the den except the bare walls. "What about the leg," said Valya, "we might use the leg over there, there is the torn-off leg floating." She pointed her finger down to the dark water on which mangled legs of the spiders floated. "Oh! Valya," Karik whispered cheerfully. "Look, I believe they have killed each other!" The children stretched their heads down. On the dark surface of the water there floated, moving ever so slightly, the mutilated bodies of the spiders. Waves were pushing them towards the hole in the wall and they rocked side by side, no longer paying each other any attention. The spider-owner of the den made one more attempt to move but its head dropped helplessly into the water - dead. It became quite quiet in the under-water house. "They're dead!" cheerfully shouted Karik. He bent over, stretched his head out and spat first on to one spider and then on to the other. Neither spider budged. The children looked at each other: were they dead or were they not dead? Karik shouted. "Ehey-hey-hey!" The spiders floated like leather cushions blown out with air. "They're dead!" said Karik, now quite certain and having measured with his eyes the distance to the water he let go the rope. Arms and legs gleamed in the air, and Karik hit the water like a stone. "Karik! Lunatic!" screamed Valya, gazing at the fountain of spray shooting up at her. Karik's head appeared above the water: having emerged he looked around and swam towards the spiders. "Karik," screamed Valya, "come back! They are still breathing!" But Karik, paying no attention to the cries of his sister, swam up to one of the spiders and lifting his arm out of the water struck it violently in the tummy. The spider's tummy made a noise like a drum. Karik quickly swam away but, having looked at the spider, came back again and hit its head with the heel of his foot. The spider never budged. Then Karik climbed on to the carcass as if it was a raft. and stood upright. "Jump!" he shouted, waving his hand at Valya. "No!" Valya shook her head, "it's too far!" "What are you going to do? Sit up there for ever? Whatever happens you will have to jump. Come on, jump!" Valya sighed deeply. "Jump quickly because maybe new spiders will come and we shall be even worse off." Valya closed her eyes, flung up her arms and plumped downwards, letting out a sort of squeak. A shower of spray hit Karik and waves rocked the spiders. Blowing and puffing, Valya came up out of the water. "Climb up here!" shouted Karik, drumming with his feet on the distended tummy of the spider. "Don't be afraid! Give me your hand!" Valya swam over to the fearsome carcass, touched the spider's huge, hairy body with her hand and immediately drew her hand back and screamed with fright. "It's mo-ov-ing!" "Don't tell lies! Nothing moved!" Karik grew angry. "Come on! quickly!" At last after much persuasion, Valya took the hand stretched out by Karik and he pulled her up on to his floating island. The spider never budged. There was nothing to fear. Valya squatted down and started to wring out her wet hair, but Karik stood upright and began to examine the gloomy lair of the spider attentively. "We must get out of this," sighed Valya. "We must find a door." "There's a door." Karik stretched out his arm towards the dark hole in the wall. Throwing his arms up above his head he jumped into the water and quickly swam towards the hole in the wall. Valya watched Karik with some agitation and when he vanished in the darkness she yelled. "What's up? What's there?" Karik did not answer. Valya suddenly looked at her feet and grew pale. It seemed to her that the spider was beginning to move. "Ka-ari-k!" - She shouted. Her voice carried along the curve of the roof and died away. "Ka-a-ri-k!" shouted Valya, still louder. She was just about to jump into the water and swim after her brother but at that moment Karik reappeared in the dark hole. "What are you shouting about?" he asked angrily. Seeing Karik alive and uninjured, Valya became calm. She gave her hands to her brother and, helping him up on to the spider, asked: "Well, what did you find? Is there any sort of door?" "No. It is the same sort of den as ours," answered Karik, shrugging his shoulders. "Is there anything living in it?" "Nothing." Karik sat down with his knees up to his chin and clasped his legs with his arms. "And there is no door?" "No!" "But suppose we dive under the wall, Karik?" "Under the wall?" Karik bent and, hanging his head, started to stare at the dark waters. In the depths of the water he could dimly see the slimy bottom of the pond. Silvery spider threads stretched from the slime to the edges of the under-water den, making it impossible to dive out. "We must dive under the wall," repeated Valya. "But do you see that?" And Karik pointed with his hand at the net stretched under the water, preventing either exit or entry to the prison. Certainly not! To dive into that would be terrible. "There must be some door!" said Karik. "How did we get in here otherwise?" Valya now began a sort of panting noise. Karik peered at her and then quickly seized her hand. "Valya! what's up?" Valya sat there very pale with her mouth wide open, holding her throat with her hands. "I can't breathe," she croaked, "there - there's not enough air." "All right, all right!" Karik muttered in confusion. But he did not know how to help his sister, and in fact he himself felt a dragging in his chest which tugged at his ribs till they hurt. "I can't get enough air either," panted Karik. He breathed faster and faster, his ears began to sing, his heart beat as violently as if he was running up a steep high mountain. The damp, heavy air filled his lungs, making breathing more and more difficult. Something had to be done. "Don't be frightened!" he panted, touching Valya with his hand. "We'll get out somehow!" And once again for the hundredth time he started to examine the under-water prison. Karik's head started to go round. He bent over, scooped up the stagnant water, splashed it on his face. Suddenly his arm stopped in mid-air. He had spotted two enormous green eggs on the slimy bottom to which they were attached at one end. One of these eggs started to move and slowly came free of the mud and floated upwards striking the edge of the under-water den disappeared upwards somewhere. In the same way the second egg floated up and disappeared. Karik stretched out a hand to Valya and said with a trembling voice. "Frogbit buds? Do you see?" He had made no mistake, they were the "winter buds" of frogbit - a water plant. Karik had seen these many times when he was in the big world and now recognised them without special difficulty. Frogbit - a creeping water plant - travels about lakes and ponds all the summer blown by the wind from bank to bank. Its roots like strawberries' runners obtain nourishment direct from the water. At the end of the summer young shoots appear with runners. They rise out of the surface of the water and break into leaves resembling a heart as one sees drawn in pictures. In winter the frogbit plant is frozen in the ice and perishes. But before this it succeeds in strewing the bottom with its amazing winter buds. All the winter the buds - looking like green eggs - remain on the bottom. But as soon as there comes a day sufficiently warm they become blown out with gas and one after the other float up to the surface of the water, and once again become water creeping-plants. It was these seeds that Karik had spotted. Seizing Valya by the hand, he spluttered. "Listen! These things rise like corks. We must dive and hold on to one of them. They will then carry us up." "But the web? Look at all its ropes under water." "All the same we must try. Now dive. Quickly!" Just at this moment a gigantic green egg was stirring on the bottom. There was no time to think. The seed came away from the black mud and started to float up. "Dive!" shouted Karik. Valya summoned all her strength. Having taken a deep breath she shot off the spider and disappeared beneath the water. Karik watched her dive under the wall, seize the huge frogbit bud with both hands, and disappear upwards with it. Karik dived after his sister. Opening his eyes beneath the water, he made for another green torpedo. It started to move. He put his arms and legs round the broad slippery sides and at once began to spin round. After turning round several times the torpedo started suddenly to move upwards through the mass of water above. To Karik holding his breath there seemed to follow an age of floating upwards, boring as it was through the water. Another moment and his heart would have burst from lack of air, but as luck would have it the green torpedo suddenly bobbed out of the surface of the water. Blinded by the clear light, with the hot rays of the sun beating on his face, Karik floundered in the water and breathed - at last. At last he could breathe easily. Great lungfuls. Beside him, Valya was floating gulping in the clean fresh air with the same greed. "Ah, Valya," Karik shouted again, "you're alive and breathing." "I am breathing!" "The main thing is, don't be frightened of anything," said the happy Karik. "Don't get depressed, don't whimper and, above all, don't cry. If you and I can succeed in getting away from such a terrible spider - well, it means we should succeed in finding our way home." The poor children had no suspicion of what they had still to survive in this unfamiliar world and what dangers they had still to face on their journey homewards. CHAPTER VI Daring navigators - Strange passengers - Karik and Valya penetrate a watery jungle - The search for food - The children find berries- - But then! RAISING THEIR HEADS ABOVE WATER THE CHILDREN LOOKED ALL around them. Everywhere as far as eye could see there seemed to stretch the blue sheen of the water, and it was only in the west where now the sun was setting there appeared the serried top of a dark bank of forest. Above the forest clouds were rolling. "We must get ashore somehow," said Karik, "and then make for home." "Can we ever get to the shore, do you think?" asked Valya, eyeing the distant bank. "Certainly we can get to the shore," said Karik, perkily. "We must make use of these things. Climb on to your bud!" The children clambered on to the green torpedoes. Karik shouted: "Row with your feet." The children started to paddle with their feet trying to get into motion, but the buds just bobbed about and did not move. "Stop!" shouted Karik. "Come over to me. We'll row together." Valya swam to her brother. The frogbit bud was now loaded so that more than half of it was under water. "Row!" commanded Karik. The children keeping time together pulled their arms through the water like oars. The bud wobbled and then started to move slowly forward. "We are going ahead!" shouted Valya. "Full speed ahead!" ordered Karik. At first the bud went from side to side, to the right and then to the left, but soon this matter was put right. Cutting the water with its sharp nose, the green torpedo sped towards the shore like an ordinary boat. The children drove it forward energetically, labouring with their arms. In the distance ahead something panted and struck the water not exactly like a plank of wood nor like oars of a boat. The nearer the children got to the shore the more distinctly could these noises be heard and then quite beside them something roared. "Qua-a-a-ha-aha-ha," came the sound across the water. Valya trembled and nearly fell off the bud. "Whatever is that," she whispered, stopping rowing. "A frog! It must be a frog. Just an ordinary frog. But bigger than a five storeyed house. Don't be frightened!" "Yes," said Valya thoughtfully. "Just an ordinary one - but even a fly could eat us, let alone a five-storeyed frog." "Don't fret," Karik comforted his sister. "A frog like that will never notice us." Valya became silent. The children were now rowing towards inlets which could be seen cutting the line of the shore. Bright green glistening islands seemed to rise up out of the water. They rocked slightly as if they were rafts moored at buoys. It was necessary to keep a sharp look out to prevent running into one of them. "What do you think that is?" asked Valya, pointing at one of the islands. "I don't know," answered Karik, undecidedly, "must be some sort of leaves - surely water weeds." Now to the right and now to the left of them round animals with smooth, polished backs like motor-car bodies rose suddenly out of the water. They were in fact as big as motor-cars. Stretching out their wings the creatures flew upwards and then just as suddenly plunged back into the water, raising a fountain of spray. On the surface of a broad channel between two islands the children saw a brown striped monster with long, bent legs. It hurried backwards and forwards sliding over the water on its round, podgy body. On the back of this podgy-bodied brute there were sitting five little reproductions of the beast only much smaller. The little ones sat there quite calmly. From time to time the striped brute fished something up out of the water. Then the little ones in one wink slid off into the water, and in a trice climbed back again. In their paws they clasped pieces of some sort of food which they quickly devoured. "Another sort of spider!" groaned Valya, stopping rowing. The seed stopped and lazily rocked in the waves. "And on its back are its young," said Karik. "We had better wait a little. They have our permission to move on!" But at that moment another similar spider shot out from behind one of the islands. It was the very same brown and also had stripes. There were young ones moving on its back too. The spiders hurled themselves at each other. They were wolf spiders, beasts preying on the surface of the water. They jerked each other savagely. The little spiders were thrown like tops into the water. Whilst the big spiders were fighting the little ones skidded about the water in confusion, coming together into a cluster and then separating in all directions. Then suddenly the battle finished. One of the spiders started to sink in the water. The spreading ripples reached the young ones and rocked them up and down. They bobbed on the waves just like ducklings without feathers. "Now the young ones will fight each other," breathed Valya. But the young ones seemed hardly interested in the fight. They fussily charged about the surface of the water, one following the other, tumbled head over heels, and then suddenly they all made a rush for the victorious spider and, jostling each other, nimbly climbed up on its back. Karik and Valya looked at each other. "What do you think of that!" exclaimed Valya. "Will it throw the strange young spiders off its back or not?" But the wolf spider did not even notice that it had twice the number of passengers aboard. It rested calmly on the water with its long legs apart waiting whilst the youngsters settled themselves down. When they were all, to the last one, seated it moved off as if nothing had happened and quickly vanished amid the labyrinth of islands. The children rowed on further. "Interesting," said Valya, thoughtfully. "What's interesting?" "It is interesting what those little spiders were eating." Karik shrugged his shoulders. "Some sort of rubbish !" Valya sighed. She was remembering that she had not eaten anything since the day before - no breakfast, no lunch. So she said. "Maybe it isn't quite rubbish. To begin with, maybe it would taste nasty, but then one would get used to it - and it would be all the same. Then one might get very fond of it." It was time for the evening meal. The children grew thoughtful. What would be happening at home now? Granny would undoubtedly be laying the table. Mother had said yesterday: "Dinner to-morrow will be a special one. You mustn't be late." "What do you think there is for dinner at home to-day?" asked Valya. "I believe it is cold soup and onion and egg pie." Valya swallowed the water her mouth was making. "Or maybe it's hot soup with pork or ham or sausages in it. Then for a second course beefsteak with onions and roast potatoes. What would you like most to eat?" "I?" Valya thought a little and said: "I could eat a crust of bread and a little cheese." "I would prefer a beefsteak," said Karik, "only a big one, like a plate. And masses of potatoes and a green salad and afterwards I believe I should have little difficulty with a whole pie and some strawberry tart. Then ..." Valya stopped rowing. She turned to Karik and asked: "But what are we going to have for dinner to-day?" "To-day it will not be convenient for us to have dinner." "But then what for supper?" "It is not really convenient for us to have supper to-day." "Then breakfast?" "We cannot have breakfast." "What will be convenient?" "Nothing," said Karik, grumpily. "The most convenient thing is not to think about it." Valya sighed. "Come on, row! Let's get to the shore as quickly as possible!" shouted Karik. "We'll find something ashore." "It would be nice to find a strawberry. It would be ten times as big as us. Certainly would be as big as a haystack. Do you know we only need one berry and we could make a hole in it and live in it. Then we could just eat the walls and the ceiling." "Don't chatter." Karik frowned. "Row up and we shall see when we get there." Valya became silent. With their arms and legs swinging in time, the bud spurted towards the shore with a bow wave in front and long widening tracks like whiskers in the water stretching away behind. The shore grew nearer every minute. Higher and higher rose the forest out of the water, and it seemed as if it was floating to meet the children. "Row as hard as you can !" shouted Karik. "I am going full speed ahead," panted Valya. The bud flew forward like an arrow. Within an hour a huge reed forest had risen up before the young travellers shutting out the sun. A heavy cold shadow covered the water and the water itself in the shade by the forest was chilly unlike that in the sun beyond. The bud sped on between huge bamboo-like trunks which rose straight out of the water and disappeared into the sky itself. "Row gently!" commanded Karik. "But why?" "There is some animal here! Can you hear?" The children stopped rowing. Karik put his finger to his lips. Looking at each other apprehensively the brother and sister silently listened to the unpleasant sound which was proceeding from within the forest. The curving trunks swayed, rubbed one another and made loud scraping noises. In the dark recesses of the forest which breathed coldness and damp some animal noisily splashed about, something else jabbered and whined menacingly. The forest stood like trees in a flooded -field. Through the clearings glistened the blue background beyond which the wall of trees rose thick and solid. On the surface of the water between the reed trunks strange, quick-footed animals moved hither and thither and in pursuit of these there hurried other animals bigger and more terrible. When they overtook their prey they pulled it to pieces and immediately devoured it. "Ye-e-es!" Karik whistled softly. Valya understood him without further words. Looking at her brother, in fright she whispered: "We must go back? Now." "Back where?" muttered Karik, and thinking a little. "We must get to a shore where there are none of these brutes. Let's go and look for another." They betook themselves back into open water and drove the bud along the edge of the reed forest now and then looking around and endeavouring all the time to get further away from it. "Do you know what !" said Valya. "I propose that this bank be called 'Nightmare Jungle'." "That's just stupid!" said Karik. "Why stupid?" Valya was offended. "All travellers give names. I have been reading about this in Jules Verne." Karik did not answer. Looking at the reed forest past which they were moving, he whistled some very melancholy tune. "Or else," said Valya, "it could be called 'The Forest of Bloodsome Mystery'." "All right, all right!" barked Karik, "watch your rowing!" The reed forest gradually receded and soon had completely disappeared. To the right there now stretched a desert-like shore covered with yellow stones which glittered in the sun. It was so hot that all living creatures seemed to have hidden and must have been sheltering under leaves and stones, and the children now rowed on without meeting any sign of life. The way was clear. Karik grew happier. "Now that shore," he said, pointing with his hand at the stony waste, "I would call the 'Cape of Good Hope'." "Why Gape? I don't see any Cape." "That is unimportant," answered Karik, steering the bud towards the shore, "as we explore it we are sure to find a Cape sooner or later." "But I. . . ." "I am going to beach the bud!" yelled Karik, splashing water in Valya's face. "Ready !" The children gave one final paddle with their arms and the green torpedo stranded on the stony shore. With the violence of the bump the bud turned over. Karik and Valya found themselves suddenly in the water, but quickly jumped up and catching hold of the projecting yellow cliff scrambled ashore. The rocks were hot from the sun. Valya sat down on one only to leap up again. "What's the matter? Did it bite you?" grinned Karik. "What are you going to call that rock?" He put up his hand to shield his eyes like the peak of a cap and gazed around himself. "Do you know what . . . .?" "What?" replied Valya, timidly. "These rocks are just sand. When we were big it seemed minute, but now each grain of sand has become like a rock for us." "What then?" Karik sighed and said. "They say that in Africa they cook eggs by burying them in the sand. I am afraid we may get cooked without being buried!" He touched a rock with his hand and shook his head. "No, we cannot sit down here. We must go on further." The children returned to their green torpedo and the bud once again set out on its travels. "I propose that this shore be called - " said Valya. " 'Hot Bottom'," interrupted Karik, and laughed loudly. Valya was cross. Knitting her brow, she sat paddling furiously with her arms and legs. Karik also became silent. How long the children drove the torpedo along the bank they neither of them could tell, but their arms and legs became very tired. "If only you knew how much I wanted something to eat," Valya said, breaking the long silence. "I know," Karik sympathised. "The two sides of my tummy are sticking together." "It would be grand," said Valya, "if we could catch something and cook it on those rocks." "What in particular?" "Oh, something - a butterfly - dragonfly." "Do you think they would taste all right?" "Of course! If you cooked them they'd taste all right." "But I could eat something raw," confessed Karik. "A butterfly, only we could never kill it." Talking thus they reached a shore covered with grass forest. Up from the grass forest there was rising the sultry steam of a summer's day. Here and there stood gnarled trunks of trees resembling the monster trees of the tropics - the baobab tree - which Karik and Valya had seen at the pictures. "There will be berries here!" shouted Valya. "I know there are always berries in a forest. Let's get ashore quickly." The bud came to rest on the sloping shore. The children jumped ashore and, stumbling now and then, ran in to the forest. In the forest it was stiflingly hot. The trees smelt of swampy grass. There was no bark on their shiny trunks. The rays of the sun penetrating through the thick vegetation made odd yellow patches on the ground. The ground under foot was damp and sticky. "Now!" cried Valya, pushing her way through the undergrowth of the forest. "Who will be the first to find our dinner!" "All right!" said Karik, "look for it, but don't get too far away or we shall lose each other." Shouting and hallooing to one another the children made their way through the forest keeping a sharp look-out on all sides. On the way they stopped here and there and pushed great leaves on one side to see if there were berries underneath. They climbed up the grass trees to look for berries. But nowhere could they find a berry. "What an awful forest!" Did it mean that they must die of hunger? Suddenly the children heard a dull noise. They stopped. Karik raised his hand. "Did you hear?" "Aha," Valya nodded. "It's water. Apparently it's the noise of a river. Come on! There are sure to be berries by the river. That I know !" Valya ran on. Karik dashed after her. "Not so much noise!" he shouted. "It may not be a river but some sort of frog breathing!" He caught hold of Valya's hand. The children made their way in the direction of the noise, listening at each suspicious rumble. Piles of fallen trunks covered with a layer of dried mud barred their way. Dry leaves stood up like walls and when the children were trying to get round one leaf it fell on them, and they only just managed to wriggle out from underneath it. At last Karik and Valya came out at the foot of a high hillock. They dashed up to the top of this and there suddenly felt cold air in their faces. Right ahead water was flowing noisily. Parting the undergrowth with their hands they saw in front of them a stream. The stream was almost a river. Bubbling and foaming it ran amongst the stones twisting now to the right and now to the left, leaping downwards in noisy waterfalls. "I see something," shouted Valya. She wrenched her hand out of her brother's grasp and knocking him aside dashed off ahead. "Vally! Stop! Come back!" But Valya was already hidden amongst the trunks of the trees. "Come on! Come on!" Karik could hear her calling. "Hurry up! Here are the berries. Such huge ones too. Do hurry, Karik!" Karik ran towards his sister's voice. "Vally!" "Here! Here!" Valya was standing under a tall tree and with her head flung back, she pointed upwards with her finger. Karik ran up beside her. "Berries? Eh?" "Yes ! there you are! Huge ones!" High above the ground there hung pressed to the trunk of the tree dusky fruit as big as beer barrels. Full of juicy flesh, they hid in the shadow of long narrow leaves. "Well!" Valya's eye flashed. "What do you mean, 'Well'? Up you go!" shouted Karik, and dashed to the tree. With their arms and legs around the trunk the children swarmed up the tree, not letting the dusky fruit out of their sight - first Karik and after him Valya. The trunk swayed slightly and the leaves shook. Below at the bottom of a steep slope the river foamed noisily. Valya looked down. "Oh! suppose we fall - how awful!" she said. "Keep climbing," ordered Karik from above, "we won't fall." Nimbly shifting their hands and feet, they at length reached the tempting fruit. Karik stretched out his hand, but suddenly all went dark before his eyes and his hands slipped. "What are you up to?" Valya managed to ask, and at that moment she felt a deafening noise in her ears. Her head started to swim. With their arms waving and turning head over heels the children plunged violently downwards straight into the swift and boisterous stream. The strong current seized them and sweeping them round a rock carried them off towards the rumbling waterfall. CHAPTER VII The battle in the cave - It had ears in its legs - The extraordinary trees - The Professor becomes a pilot - An unexpected meeting THE PROFESSOR EDGED BACK TO THE SIDE OF THE HOLE. AS HIS eyes became used to the darkness he saw in the depth of a dark cavern a huge head with long whiskers. "Good gracious, a regular hussar! What on earth is it?" he gruff-gruffed, quite perplexed. A broad, bulging shield covered the head and the front part of the monster. From under the shield there poked out short but very broad legs with teeth on them. The Professor could at once see that it was quite beyond him to fight with this creature. It could kill him with a single blow of its foot. For all that he resolved that he would defend himself. He pressed his back against the cold, damp side of the dungeon, keeping the wasp sting in front of him. The creature began to stir. The great stiff body, which might have been made of bone rings, started to move forwards. Earth fell noisily from the sides of the cavern. "Is it possible to attack it from behind?" flashed into the Professor's mind. But the monster's back was well protected. Two webbed wings folded side by side covered the huge carcass with a strong armour. "But whatever is it? What can it be?" The Professor stood on tiptoes, stretched his head and suddenly spotted two spears with sharp edges which were dragging on the ground like two tails. He gasped with fright. "An underground cricket! The mole-cricket!" The mole-cricket noisily shifted itself in the cavern. Raking itself forward on the earth it moved nearer and nearer the Professor. "Feeds on the larvae of insects and earth worms," recollected Professor; "no doubt it would not object to eating me!" Looking around helplessly, he cautiously edged away from the dark corner of the cavern, trying to keep as far as possible from the mole-cricket. "Must get round it!" mused the Professor, moving along the wall towards the rear of his enemy. The mole-cricket turned. It raised its feelers as if smelling or listening. The Professor held his breath. The mole-cricket dropped its feelers and clumsily scraping its spade-like feet hurled itself at him. The Professor shot back into his former place. "No! it's not so easy to deceive a mole-cricket underground. It feels just as much at home there as a fish does in water. No! No use running away! I must fight!" He stopped and lifted up the bottom of the spear, let the point fall forward and then steadied it ready for battle. He edged along with one elbow pressed against the wall behind him. Then suddenly he felt his elbow was in space. He quickly turned around. Immediately behind him gaped the entrance of some sort of dark recess. The Professor took a deep breath. Where did this tunnel lead to? Who had dug it? Was any new danger lurking here? But there was no time at that moment to think it out. . . . "To hide, to get away, to dig deeper into the earth," hammered in his mind, and without thinking it all out, he plunged into the hole. Stumbling and hitting himself painfully against a rock, he threaded his way in pitch darkness, feeling with his hands. The hole appeared a lengthy one, sometimes dropping downwards, then rising upwards, then turning to the right, then abruptly twisting to the left and all the time becoming narrower and narrower. It was necessary for him to bend now and in places to crawl on all fours dragging his spear after him. But all this was a trifle. The Professor was ready to put up with all these discomforts. He would readily have agreed to crawl all day long even on his stomach. "If only I could get away from the cursed cricket. If I could only hide - anywhere!" he muttered, shivering with fright. However, it appeared that it was impossible to get away from the mole-cricket. It was relentlessly following in his tracks, and the Professor could clearly hear the rising noises of the chase in progress behind him. When he had first dodged into the tunnel the mole-cricket stopped, felt the walls of the cave with his feelers and then became dead quiet as if thinking, "where has this strange and agile worm hidden itself?" Those feelers had then again moved restlessly. They felt the floor, walls, ceiling, and quickly discovered the entrance to the hole. The mole-cricket shoved its head into the hole, breathing heavily. "Is it here or not?" The creature stopped for a little, stamping its legs, and then thrust its enormous body with great decision into the hole and, rapidly burrowing through the earth, crawled along the tunnel. The mole-cricket moved forward as rapidly as a hot knife cuts butter, pushing its body through the crumbling earth and boring its way with unbelievable rapidity. The Professor could soon hear behind him by his very back jerky breathing, and suddenly the wiry feelers of the mole-cricket touched him on the shoulder. Then again they felt his arms and slid across his face. The Professor yelled. Turning round as quickly as he could he jabbed the spear into the fe