ough a forest. Tall trees, without any
branches or even knots, surrounded them like giant radio masts.
     The sun's rays falling from  above made golden streaks on the ground so
that their path seemed across a blanket striped with yellow.
     The  travellers now  clambered up steep, practically  vertical mountain
sides, now tobogganed downwards raising thick clouds of  dust  behind  them.
Deep valleys were succeeded by high peaks. The  forest followed  down to the
bottom of the ravines and up to the ridges of the mountains.
     The soil was all full of holes and terribly rough. The arms and legs of
the Professor and the children became covered with scratches and weals.
     Valya had  a  great blue bruise on her forehead.  Karik's nose was  all
swollen and he had a great scratch right across his chest.
     The children were puffing but the Professor would not slacken his pace.
     The  sun  started  to  burn  their  shoulders  and arms  painfully. The
Professor  had  to wipe his dripping face continually with the palm  of  his
hand. Valya became as scarlet as if she had been plunged in boiling water.
     "What ho for  Africa!" Karik tried to joke. "Another  day like this and
we shall start to moult our skins. We shall be all striped like Zebras."
     The Professor and Valya remained silent. They licked their cracked lips
and looked from side to side hoping for the glitter of water in some pond or
river.
     There was no sign of water.
     "You just can't imagine how I want a drink!" Valya at length  could not
contain herself any longer.
     "And you just can't imagine," croaked Karik, "how my tongue feels. Just
as if pepper had been shaken all over it."
     "Don't be  discouraged!"  the Professor  comforted the children. "There
must be water somewhere fairly close."
     Valya soon became quite exhausted.
     "Let's rest!" Every ten minutes or so she had to rest again.
     The travellers would stop and sit down. But sitting on the baking earth
was even worse than walking over it. After a minute or so they would have to
jump up and start off again.
     "My goodness," gruff-gruffed the Professor,  "it's just like travelling
in the Sahara desert."
     Valya staggered along.
     "A drink! a drink!" she whimpered.
     Karik moved as  if  in a dream, stumbling and  bumping up  against  the
trees.
     And suddenly through a  clearing in the  forest  there was a glimpse of
blue.
     "Water!" shouted Valya rushing ahead.
     The Professor  and Karik forgot their  tiredness.  One after the  other
they chased after Valya.
     The clearing in the forest widened.
     There amid the green vegetation hung a great blue flower but no sign of
water.
     Valya flung herself on the ground.
     "I - I can't go any further," she groaned.
     "Stick to it! stick to it!"  grunted  the  Professor, "in a very little
time we shall find water."
     He put his arms around Valya and pulled her up.
     "We must keep going! Come along, little Valya!"
     Cold refreshing water now taunted them  every step they took, for right
and left where ever they looked they saw the blue of the water they needed.
     But when the  exhausted travellers stumbled towards  it every  time the
blue turned into a flower.
     "A drink! I must drink!" groaned Valya.
     "Water," Karik whispered with dry lips.
     The  Professor  stumbled and fell  face  downwards on  the ground.  The
children threw themselves down beside him.
     They  could hear  the monsters of the grass jungle rustling past  them.
Backwards  and  forwards  the  insects  went so  that  it  seemed  that  the
travellers might have  been  resting at some busy crossroads. However,  they
were too tired to  pay  any attention  to the  passers-by.  One  caterpillar
passed so close that it trod on Valya's hand but they none of them stirred.
     "Water !"
     "Wa-ater!" groaned the children.
     Swaying from side to side the Professor stood up.
     They  must move  on. But  which way? In which direction would they find
water.
     He leant against a tree and with his head stuck forward upon his breast
he stared gloomily at the ground.
     Suddenly  right  beside him  an earthy hillock started to move.  Stones
fell from  its  top to  the ground  around. Then suddenly the  hillock split
open. Long feelers stuck up into the air  and from within the hillock a huge
head  appeared  and then  a dark body with  a yellow edge slid  out  of  the
ground.
     "Saved!" shouted the Professor.
     The children raised their heads from the ground.
     "Get up! Here's the water!" he continued.
     Having grasped the last word, the children both struggled up.
     "Give us a drink !"
     "In a minute or two you'll have a whole river but now we must accompany
a very good friend of mine who is going to the water."
     The  Professor waved  his hand to where  at one  side there  stood  the
monster with the yellow streak cleaning the dust and dirt from its  body. It
was  like  a  beetle  of  some sort,  only  this  beetle was the size  of  a
motor-bus.
     "What is this?" whispered Karik.
     "Dytiscus, the water  beetle!  It will lead us  to the water!" said the
Professor.
     The water beetle  stretched out its whiskers, turned  to the right  and
confidently went ahead crashing its way through the grassy trees.
     The travellers ran behind it.
     They had all become more cheerful. Karik's eyes were glistening.
     "But how does the water beetle know where the water is?" he croaked.
     "Very simple, considering it lives and hunts in water. It could  hardly
get on without knowing."
     "Where did it come from?"
     "Out of the earth."
     "But why?" marvelled Valya.
     "Well, it is such an amazing creature, is this water beetle."
     As they followed in the wake of the beetle the Professor went on:
     "They reproduce themselves by means of  eggs which  they stick to water
plants.
     "In a month or so the eggs hatch and larvae come out like caterpillars,
but with the temperaments of tigers. These courageous and greedy larvas will
attack pretty  well any  inhabitant of  the water even fish,  which are many
times their size. When the larvae are full grown they creep out of the water
and  finding a peaceful, comfortable spot they bury themselves in the earth.
Here they turn first of all into  a chrysalis and then into a large ordinary
beetle. The beetle comes out of the ground -  you yourselves saw this happen
- and sets out on a career of piracy in its proper realm - in water."
     "But how does it know where the water is?"
     "Well, how do birds know which is south when they fly  away from  us in
the Autumn to winter in a warm climate?"
     The Professor was talking without stopping. He knew well that a journey
seems much shorter to those who travel talking.
     "This beetle," he  continued,  "is perhaps one of  the most  remarkable
creatures in the world. You can  come  across it in any water butt. When you
next see one look at it closely.  Think, my dears, it charges over the water
like a speed boat, dives like a diving duck, is able to sit at the bottom of
a pond  longer than a human diver, travels under the  water as  well  as any
submarine, flies through  the air like  an aeroplane  and  walks on dry land
like a human. You do not meet a creature like that everyday. Once I was - "
     "Water!" screamed Valya.
     Without  waiting to hear  what the Professor had to  say both  children
rushed ahead.
     Amid  green foliage there was now mirrored a blue unruffled expanse  of
water.
     The beetle made for the steep bank of the lake, hurled itself down into
the water and vanished. Circles of waves spread across the mirror.
     "Water !"
     "Water!"
     On the bank of the lake there stood a tree with huge blue flowers. Dark
leaves cast a dense cool shadow on the ground beneath.
     Karik, not waiting, ran down a  slope,  jumped down  and stretching out
his arms flung himself in the water like the beetle had done.
     He splashed himself and, burying his face in the water,  drank. Then he
sat up spluttering and laughing.
     There was no more tiredness.
     "Quickly!"  he  shouted. "Come here quickly before I have  drunk it all
up."
     Limping and  stumbling,  the Professor and Valya  made their way to the
bank. They too jumped into the water,  raising a cloud  of spray and at once
started  to drink:  burying their poor lips,  cracked from the heat,  in the
cool water.
     "Oo! Good, isn't it." Valya raised her head. Her nose was wet and water
dripped from her cheeks and chin.
     "Let's  bathe! Bathe!" the Professor  ordered,  as  he squeezed his wet
beard.
     Having bathed to their hearts' content the travellers came up from  the
water's edge, dried themselves in  the sun and then betaking themselves into
the glade stretched out in the cool shadow of the tree with blue flowers.
     Thus  they lay motionless, silent, gazing  through the  openings in the
trees above them at the distant blue sky, lazily listening  to the noises of
the grassy jungle.
     Suddenly the Professor stood  up and  hitching up his clothes went over
to the tree and grasped a green branch with both hands.
     "Where   are  you  off  to?"  the  children  shouted.   "Don't  disturb
yourselves.  I'll be back in a minute." The  Professor  started to climb the
tree. The children looked  at each other. "We'll  climb  too  !" said Valya.
"We'll climb!"
     They jumped up and jostling each other darted to the tree, but they had
not succeeded in getting hold of the lowest branch when something above them
made  a tearing noise as if  someone  was ripping a  strong piece of  cloth.
"Catch it,  children !" Karik and Valya stretched out  their arms. Something
blue was coming down through the air. Lazily it circled  and swayed until it
seemed  about  to cover  the children  in what appeared  to  be a  huge blue
bedcover.
     The children skipped out of the way.
     The bedcover fell quite gently at their feet.
     "Whatever is it?" shouted Karik, bending over the blue bedcover.
     "A forget. me-not petal!" shouted the Professor from above.
     "What are we to do with it?" asked Valya.
     "Do with  it? We can make ourselves clothes and umbrellas. I don't know
about you, but my back is already covered with blisters from sunburn."
     The Professor threw down some more petals.
     The children collected them and laid them in a heap.
     Valya threw one of the petals up on to her head. The  petal was big and
broad. It drooped down over her shoulders and  covered her  hot back like  a
rubber cape.
     "Well, how about it?" asked the Professor, jumping down from the tree.
     "Thanks awfully!" replied Valya.
     The Professor  took  the petal, bent it in his hands  until  it was  in
halves, then he bent it over the  other way and bit the corner off  with his
teeth.
     "Oo-ough!  It's  tough  enough," he  said,  and carefully unfolded  the
petal.
     In  the middle  of  the petal there now  appeared  an  uneven hole with
ragged edges.
     "Now put your head through here!" commanded the Professor.
     The  petal  soon lay soft, cool  and  protecting, upon Valya's sunburnt
shoulders.
     It covered Valya from the shoulders to the knees.
     "Grand!" approved Karik. "Something like a shroud."
     "Not a shroud!" said the  Professor. "A floral cape. You must have  one
now.  These capes  will save  you from the sun by  day and from the cold  by
night."
     The  little party soon looked  as  if they belonged to  some travelling
circus. The  Professor  and the children garbed in blue  capes proceeded  on
their way in single file.
     In their hands they carried long sticks, to the  ends of which had been
fastened pieces of petal. These  blue  umbrellas  swayed above  their heads,
throwing a shadow on  their faces. They were a  splendid protection from the
scorching rays of the sun.
     The Professor tramped  on whistling a march. Karik and Valya hummed the
same tune where possible.
     The forest became thinner. The travellers came out on to a sunny field.
Overhead huge  winged creatures  as big as cows were droning. Flashing their
transparent wings they darted past  so near that  Karik and Valya had either
to duck or to stop in terror.
     "You  needn't  worry  about  these  insects,"  smiled  the   Professor.
"Remember each  one  has its  own regular habitual  food.  Dragon-flies, for
example, feed on flies  and butterflies, bees on the honey in  flowers. Many
of  the flying insects actually never eat anything. They come into the world
just to lay their eggs, after which they die. Quite a number of these do not
even have a mouth. As you  can see, it is just as safe here  as in a town. I
am quite certain that none of these insects would consider us as dainties to
be eaten. . . ."
     The Professor did not finish his sentence. He suddenly seized Karik and
Valya by the arms and pulled them to himself. The children fell sprawling on
the ground with the Professor stretched out beside them.
     "Ts-s," hissed  the Professor, pressing himself to  the earth.  At that
moment  something whistled  over  the heads  of  the travellers  and crashed
noisily into the undergrowth of the forest.
     The  travellers hastily covered  themselves with their umbrellas. "What
is it?" "What's that?"
     The Professor cautiously peeped out  from under  his  umbrella. Not far
away behind  a  dark hillock  there  could be seen the  green  back  of some
creature glistening  in the sun above  the tops of the trees.  This back was
now rising,  now falling, then the  creature slid  sideways, jumped  upwards
and, having in one flash spread its wings, disappeared.
     "A grasshopper!" said the Professor, standing up and dusting himself.
     Karik  quickly nudged Valya in the side. "Surely a grasshopper wouldn't
find us a dainty morsel?". he asked slyly.
     "Look here," gruff-gruffed  the Professor  in confusion. "A grasshopper
is a treacherous beast. How am I to know what might enter its head.  Caution
never did anybody any harm, my dears."
     The travellers moved on in no particular hurry.
     They  made  their way  forward, wading  across  rivers, swimming across
small ponds and making their way through the thick growth of the jungle.
     The Professor pointed  out first this, then that particular grassy tree
and told the children interesting  stories about  various plants. Apparently
there was not such  a  thing as a grass or  flower  that simply grew without
being of some use for mankind.
     Suddenly Valya seized the Professor by the arm.
     "Look! " she shouted. "Look! What's that?"
     They all stopped in front of some thick undergrowth.
     "Where? What are you looking at?"
     "Over there! There they are! Lying in wait for us."
     "I don't see anything!"  frowned the Professor. Putting his hand to his
eyes like  a peak of a cap, he  craned his neck, stood on tip-toe  and gazed
attentively at the undergrowth.
     "I see! I can see!" said Karik. "They are round and they are moving."
     "But where do you see them?" asked the Professor, in some alarm.
     He stepped forward and then suddenly burst out laughing.
     "Nothing to worry about there. You'll see yourselves when we get nearer
to  these  forest monsters. Come on." And with big strides he moved  towards
the lair of these fearsome creatures.
     The children followed behind him.
     They could now distinguish quite clearly brown balls  hanging  from the
grassy trees. At a distance they were  like footballs, but as one approached
they seemed to be balloons bigger  than the Professor. The  walls  of  these
brown balloons were made of twigs and pieces of earth.
     "Can you guess what these are?" asked the Professor, stopping.
     "Oy!" shouted Valya. "Round houses! Look at all the tenants.  This is a
forest hotel. The 'Insects' Hotel Metropole'."
     "Or  it may be a forest restaurant -  'Insects' Help-yourselves Cafe',"
grinned Karik.
     Yellow six-legged animals  were crawling  over the broad bulging walls.
They  staggered  out  of dark  entrances and  lazily  •  crawled in  various
directions then once  again  came  together,  felt  each  other  with  their
whiskers  and  waddling  in a  ridiculous  way, disappeared  into  the  dark
entrances of their round house.
     "But these are plant lice!" interjected Karik. "How is it that they are
yellow?"
     "Very  simple," answered the Professor, "this kind  of  lice takes  the
colour of their dwelling. In the far north all birds and beasts are white in
colour  to  match the snow,  but  in  the  south  animals  have  splashes of
different colours  to  match  the splashes  of sun  and  shadow seen  in the
southern forests and plains. Surely you know that?"
     "It  is  in order  to  enable them to hide  more  easily?"  Karik  said
questioningly.
     The Professor nodded his head.
     "Both  to  enable  them to  hide  more  easily  and  also  to creep  up
unobserved  by their prey. The markings on the  skin of a giraffe enables it
to hide more easily but the markings on a tiger's skin help it to come up to
its victims unobserved.
     He went up to one of the round brown houses, examined it from all sides
and even tapped it with the stick of his umbrella.
     "Beautiful work! Excellent! Conscientious workers!" he said.  "They are
great boys are ants!"
     "Ants? Surely they didn't build it?"
     "Certainly."
     "But why then are the plant lice living in it?"
     "Just because it  happens  to  be  an ants' dairy  farm." The Professor
waved his blue umbrella and said:
     "Just as mankind breeds cows, so ants herd plant lice. Not only do they
breed them but they protect them from enemies.
     And to  prevent the rain washing their cows away they build  them these
house farms."
     "And how do the ants carry the milk away?"
     "Why carry it? The ants come here and drink the milk."
     Karik grinned cheerfully.
     "It's not so much a farm as a cafeteria."
     "Some  types  of ants," continued the Professor,  "chase the plant lice
into their ant hills when winter starts and feed on fresh milk for the whole
winter without ever coming out of their ant hill."
     "Gunning!" whistled  Karik.  "But  I  read  somewhere that  ants  slept
through the winter and did not eat anything."
     "That is perfectly true, but not of  all the ants. In ant hills some of
the ants are always on watch. These are the ones that feed on the plant lice
milk."
     "These must be the white ants who feed  during the winter!" said Valya.
"I also read about them. They live in Africa and they are called termites."
     "Oh,  Valya, you have muddled it up. There are  no such things as white
ants.  And  termites  are not ants although they  resemble  ants  in  build.
Termites are nearer dragonflies than ants."
     "And are there no white ants?"
     "No!  There are black,  chestnut, red, blood-red and yellow ants. There
are  ant sculptors, ant miners, stone  quarriers, cowherds,  agriculturists,
honey ants, umbrella  ants and  solitary ants.  Then you have  by  no  means
exhausted their occupations."

     * * * * * *

     Still talking about ants, the travellers came to a precipice which fell
sharply away down to a green valley surrounded with low hills.
     Light clouds floated above the hills.

     The  tops of the hills were flooded with the orange tints of the  early
evening sun.
     ''Look  !'' exclaimed  Valya,  suddenly. "Egyptian  pyramids. Look ! Do
look!"
     In the middle of the valley there rose a queer-shaped hill.
     It  was made  of dark beams covered over  with earth. Hanging galleries
covered the sides of the pyramid and appeared to slope downwards in spirals.
     "Ants!" said the Professor. "Black ants. These are evidently the owners
of the farms we have just passed."
     Long-bodied  just  like greyhounds, the ants were fussing  around their
ant hill. They thrust backwards  and forwards, ran jostling each other along
the hanging  galleries.  Knocking  each  other  down, getting  up again, and
running, running, running. Apparently they had been frightened by something.
They were  carrying great white  cocoons  and dragging these in  through the
dark entrances of their ant  hill. The long white eggs seemed to float above
the heads of the black ants.
     "Why are they dragging these eggs about?" asked Valya.
     The Professor shrugged his shoulders.
     "  I suppose  it  is because  it's going  to rain," he  answered. "They
usually hide  their  cocoons  or eggs  as you call them  and close  all  the
entrances and exits  to their nests before rain comes. But we  mustn't waste
time, whilst the ants are busy with  their own affairs we  must  try and get
across the valley.  Also,  my dears, we  must seek some  comfortable  refuge
where we can shelter from the rain."
     The  travellers  started to climb down. But  they  had  hardly  taken a
couple of steps when they heard a sort of confused but increasing noise.
     The Professor stopped.
     "Is that the rain?"
     He looked at the sky.
     It  had grown  dark and  thundery clouds were covering it.  The  grassy
jungle was still as if it had been hushed. But there was no sign of rain.
     "What is it making the noise?"
     The travellers looked about themselves cautiously. The children watched
the Professor  uneasily  as he listened  attentively  to  the rising  noise,
stroking his grey beard.
     I "Strange, very strange!" he gruff-gruffed. "I don't like this  noise,
my dears."
     The Professor and the children hid themselves behind grass trees.
     "It's as if someone were running!" said Karik, cautiously looking  from
behind a thick trunk.
     The  noise came  nearer  and nearer.  They  could now  distinguish  the
trampling  of  rapidly moving feet. It  seemed  as if  a herd of  frightened
cattle was stampeding towards the children.
     The tops of the distant hills became wreathed in something like smoke.
     It was a cloud of dust engulfing them.
     "I see  them!" shouted  Valya.  "There! There  they are!  Look! They're
coming! Oy, however many are there?"
     On the distant ridges of the hill there had now appeared a host of dark
points.
     To begin with they spread along the ridges and then suddenly started to
spread down the sides of the hills.
     The hills became  darkened. Great hordes of some  sort  of animals were
sweeping downwards like an avalanche and soon the whole valley was moving as
if it  were alive. All the time from behind the hills there emerged more and
more new columns.
     "Red ants !" shouted the Professor.
     He had made no mistake.
     These were huge red ants.  Their strong bodies shone like  copper. They
were twice as big  as the black ants. And what a vicious war-like appearance
they had !
     Without  any pause  the stranger ants  flung themselves in assault upon
the ant  hill belonging  to the back ants. They grappled hold of  the  beams
with clutching feet and soon a living stream flowed along the galleries.
     The owners of the ant hill rushed to meet this vicious attack. A bitter
struggle ensued on the galleries.
     The  red  ants, like  a  band  of hungry  dogs, fell upon the  peaceful
cowherd ants, killed them and threw them down from the galleries.
     They attacked the ant  hill from all sides. The cowherd  ants  defended
themselves desperately.
     They  perished in  hundreds bravely defending  every  entrance to their
home. But the forces were too unequal.
     The red ants clambered over the  bodies of the mutilated black ants and
pushed forward step by step  until  at  last  having swept aside their small
opponents they hurled themselves noisily into the interior of the ant heap.
     All along the galleries dead ants were being thrown down.
     Below at the edge of the ant heap a small group of black ants was still
bravely battling with their red foes.
     But the battle was already won.
     The red  ants had  destroyed  the black ants  and  they  now started to
pillage the ant heap.
     The  victors dragged white cocoons out of the  tunnels and hastily  ran
down the galleries to where beneath there  jostled a disorderly noisy crowd.
They  were like bandits who after destroying a house were dragging the goods
away in sacks.
     "Whatever are they up to?" asked Karik, quite perplexed.
     "Don't  you see?" whispered the Professor in reply.  "The red ants have
captured the cocoons of  the  black  ants,  their children  in  other words.
They'll carry off these cocoons to their own ant  hill  and when  these ants
come out they'll make them their slaves."
     "What?"
     Karik jumped up as if he had been stung.
     "And  why  haven't you done  something about it? These slave owners are
busy robbing, and here we are sitting with our hands folded?"
     He  seized a  stone from the  ground and swinging  it  around  flung it
violently at a  group of the bandits, who were dragging white cocoons out of
the ant hill.
     "Hit them! Valya,  what are you looking at? Can't  you  pee? What awful
parasites!"
     Lumps of  earth and  stones  now flew  amongst the  red  ants.  Without
thinking of the danger the children darted from behind the trees.
     "Fire!"  ordered  Karik. And  two  stones  whistled into  the  crowd of
bandits.
     The Professor, becoming frightened, seized the children by the arms.
     "Stop! You lunatics! What are you doing? Do  you want  them  to  attack
us?"
     "Well, let them!"  frowned Valya. "Let them attack us ! We'll soon show
them what happens to people who make slaves."
     "We can't fight them!" scolded the Professor.
     "That  remains to be seen," answered Karik, pugnaciously, still  firing
stones at the ants.
     The  children  had worked themselves up to such a pitch that they could
not be restrained.
     "What  about you?" Valya shouted  at the Professor. "Aren't you ashamed
to stand there with your  hands folded? Come on, help us!" and she  shoved a
stone towards him.
     But the Professor waved his hand and stepped on one side.
     He sat down on the edge  of the precipice and swinging his legs  in the
air started to count the ants which had been hit by the children.
     At that moment one of the children deftly hit an ant plumb on the head.
The ant staggered and slowly, just as if it was thinking hard, it started to
fall forward. At that moment  a second stone  whistled at it, hitting it  on
the chest. The  ant  dropped and lay  still.  The cocoon  fell  out  of  its
clutches and rolled down the hill. Another of the bandits ran up to it.
     "See if you can hit one !" Valya shouted.
     The  Professor, quite  unexpectedly to himself,  bent his arm back  and
threw a stone at the ant.
     Just then the bandit ant was making for the cocoon. It was on the point
of seizing it  with its claws when  the stone thrown by the Professor hit it
on the claw. The  ant turned and fell on one side, spun around and made off"
limping.
     "Aha, you  don't  like that!"  grinned the Professor, and bent over for
more stones.
     A third ant had already reached  the  cocoon. Having seized  it the ant
quickly made off towards his gang.
     "Nonsense," roared the Professor. "I won't let you have it!" At that he
fired a stone so precisely that it knocked this ant out also.
     The cocoon  now  rolled away  off  to one side. "Mow them down!" yelled
Karik. "It is no use just hitting odd ones like that.  Oh, if only our scout
troop was here we'd  soon  show these slave-makers . . .  what  blackguards.
Come on, all together. Give them a volley!"
     Heavy stones crashed over amongst the ants.
     "Hurrah, they are running away !" cried Valya cheerfully.
     She bent over to pick up another stone and suddenly saw in front of her
a fearsome ant face. It had got up the cliff unnoticed and was upon her.
     She seized a lump of earth, swung it upwards and brought it down on the
ant's head, screaming as she did it.
     "Help, help! Come quickly!"
     The ant staggered but made on towards the brave girl.
     "They are here! Come on!" she screamed.
     The Professor and Karik dashed over to her.
     The Professor gave orders.
     "You attack at the side, I'll be in front! Hit it with stones!"
     "Ya-ya-ya-yah!" shouted  the children, and fearlessly hurled themselves
at the ant.
     The Professor hit it full force in the eye with a stone.
     The ant shuddered,  staggered and  helplessly started kicking its  feet
about. Karik struck it in the back and Valya jumping in closer hit it with a
stone on the head. The ant fell heavily to the ground.
     "Hurrah !" yelled Valya.
     With her stone  raised high above  her head she  stood there red in the
face with the exertion and beaming with pride at the Professor and Karik.
     It was, however, too early to celebrate.
     Down in the ravine a whole horde  of fierce ants were streaming over to
the help of the bandit. They were running along, agile and  muscular and the
sun  glinted on their  red shining  sides which  sparkled  like some sort of
copper armour.
     The grassy jungle shook with the heavy beat of ants' feet.
     "Valya, Valya! Lookout! Come back!" yelled Karik.
     Valya turned.
     "Oy! a hundred of them!" she cried  out. "No!  more than that  and they
are climbing up! They're coming up!"
     The hordes of ants were swarming up the sides of the ravine,
     "We must run for it!" barked the Professor.
     He  seized the  children  by  the hands, they  dashed  off together not
caring where they went, jumping over holes and stumbling against rocks.
     The wind sang in their ears: fe-e-ew!
     With  thunderous  tread the ants charged behind  them, gaining  all the
time on the unfortunate travellers.
     Now, now! another  minute  and they'll catch  up, seize  and  tear  the
Professor and the children in pieces.
     Panting  from  the pace at  which he had run, the Professor looked over
his shoulder at the ants, and  then at  the children. Would they  be able to
keep going?
     "We  cannot get  away!" the thought made the Professor  cold with fear.
"We cannot possibly escape them !"
     What could be done? Must he and the children all perish?
     No, it was unthinkable!
     Suppose he were to stop and hold the  ants. Maybe the children would be
able to hide somewhere whilst he fought the beasts.
     He pretended to stumble accidentally and stopped.
     Seeing this the children also stopped.
     "Run on! Run on!" he waved with his hands.
     Karik and Valya ran on, but after a few steps they stopped again.
     "For goodness sake why don't you run?" shouted the  Professor  angrily.
"Run on. What's stopping you?"
     "A river! Here is a river!"
     "Where?" .
     The Professor bounded towards the children. In front of them was a line
of low hillocks.
     Behind the hillocks a river showed blue shimmering in the sun.
     "Can  you  swim that?" the Professor panted  at the children, breathing
heavily.
     Karik and Valya looked at each other and both together answered.
     "Rather!"
     "Of course we can swim it!"
     "Come on! We're saved!"
     The Professor ran up to the  cliff edge of the  river.  "Dive  in!"  he
shouted, "and  swim across!"  and throwing up his  arms  he  plunged off the
cliff into the river, yelling.
     "Follow me."
     Not hesitating a moment, Karik and Valya both dived after him.
     The cold water took  their breath away. Karik bobbed up like a cork and
looked hastily around.
     Ahead, blowing and snorting like a seal, swam the Professor.
     His bald head shone in the sunshine like a polished billiard ball. With
speedy strokes  Karik and  Valya swam after him. But apparently he could not
see them. He twisted his head back and raised himself out of the water for a
second looking around.
     "Ahoy!" he shouted. "Where are you?"
     "Here!"
     "Here!"
     "Don't stop!"
     Karik and Valya threshed the water with their arms. Making every effort
they  tried to  overtake him, but he was quite clearly a master swimmer. The
distance between him and the children increased every minute. He reached the
other bank whilst the children were still in the middle.
     Valya cried out something. So  he  turned  back  and swam alongside the
children.
     "Well! how are things?"  he asked with some  anxiety. "You are not  too
tired! Can you make it?"
     "We'll make it!" Valya just managed to bubble back.
     Karik turned  his  head back; he was no longer afraid - the ants  could
not swim.
     There on the bank they were crowding, running down the side to the very
edge  of the river, bending down to the water's edge, feeling it  with their
feet, just as if they had decided to try and swim - then immediately drawing
back.
     Not one of them could make up its mind to plunge into the water.
     Worn and  weary  the travellers dragged themselves up the opposite bank
and staggering with tiredness made their way to some flat rocks.
     The children sank on to the rocks.
     "There's war  for you," said the  Professor, bending his head  down and
wringing the water out of his beard.
     Karik and Valya didn't reply.
     They  gazed at the opposite bank where the ants  were running backwards
and forwards.
     "And ants don't swim?" asked Valya, wiping her face with her hands.
     "No! These do not swim!" The Professor comforted the girl.
     "But,"  said Karik, taking a  deep breath, "but  I  read somewhere that
they  held  on to each other, made  a floating bridge  and got across rivers
like that."
     "True enough!" nodded  the Professor, "but there are not enough of them
here to make such a bridge. Generally speaking. . . ."
     He  broke  off  to gaze anxiously at the  heavy thundery clouds, and he
turned abruptly from the bank.
     "There is  another danger threatening us,  my dears. Very soon a pretty
drop of rain  will start to fall. Hoo-oo-. We must hide ourselves somewhere,
the sooner the better."
     Valya started grinning.
     "Surely we are so wet already we have nothing much to fear?"
     "You forget," barked the Professor, "that the first drop  of rain would
knock  us off our feet and the  next drops would beat us into the earth.  We
had jolly well better look  around for some hidey hole where  we can shelter
during the rain."
     The travellers had not got much further before the sky darkened, a cold
wind rustled the tops of the grassy jungle and  odd  drops of rain could  be
heard drumming on the leaves.
     These were just the first drops.
     "Quicker!" ordered the Professor, "follow me, my dears!"
     He rolled down a steep slope and jumping up ran on.
     The children plunged after him.
     Their  blue dresses  fluttered  in  the wind. Their umbrellas shook and
their long handles bent like bows.
     Suddenly the Professor turned abruptly to one side.
     "Here we are, children!" he shouted, running towards a high  grey cliff
which stood out of the valley like a skyscraper.
     On top of this cliff there lay an enormous dark brown mass, like a hat.
     In the distance it looked just like a giant peaked cap.
     The Professor ran up to the foot of this strange cliff and throwing his
head back started to examine it.
     "Well!  well! this is marvellous, isn't it?" he said, wiping  his  face
with his hand.
     Karik and Valya ran up to him and both started:
     "What is it?"
     "Don't you recognise it?" smiled the  Professor. "Take a  good  look at
this marvel!"
     The cliff  stretched  high into  the  sky and  the higher it  went  the
narrower it became.
     Right on top at the height of a two-storied house there hung a circular
spongy-looking roof. It projected like the brim of an immense hat protecting
them from the rain. The dark shadow of this roof covered the top half of the
pillar cliff.
     "A mushroom!" yelled Valya.
     "Of course it is - a mushroom!" laughed the Professor.
     "Which sort is it?" asked Karik. "A White mushroom, a Shaggy cap, a Fly
catcher or a Blewit?"
     The Professor opened his mouth to reply but  heavy rain started to beat
down. His voice was drowned in the roar of the torrent.
     Neither the Professor nor the children had ever seen such rain before.
     Huge  balls  of  water whistled  and  howled  through the air,  falling
crashingly upon the earth. Pieces of earth were thrown up just as if a shell
had exploded. Before the mud  had time to settle  hundreds more water shells
howling  and  crashing  buried themselves  in  the  earth,  throwing it  up,
scattering it, and splashing.
     Streams of  water  spread over the earth. Soon a turbid watery  curtain
shut the travellers off from the rest of the world.
     The air suddenly became much cooler.
     Shivering  and  resting  first  on  one  leg and  then on the other the
Professor and the children were like geese standing on ice.
     An icy blast of wind  came  from  the side  and drenched the travellers
with cold spray.
     "Go-oo-old!" Karik's teeth were chattering.
     "Nasty, my dear, nasty!" gruff-gruffed the Professor, and  wriggled his
shoulders  with the  cold. "We shall get quite numb like this.  We must find
the sheltered side of the mushroom. Now come on. You, Karik, go round to the
right and  you, Valya,  to  the left. Assembly point  is here. Try  and find
whether there is not a better place than this. Now quick march!"
     Their teeth chattering with the cold, the children  ran around the base
of the giant mushroom.
     Valya rounded a thick projection of the  cliff and the  wind shifted to
her back and then fell away.
     Behind the projection all was calm.
     Underfoot there were dry sticks and twigs. The earth was warm. Stamping
her frozen feet, Valya felt them at once getting warmer.
     It was  the very  driest and warmest place  under  the mushroom but was
somewhat dark. A little  way above the ground the thick skin of the mushroom
had split and a piece  of  it hung down like a canopy roof overshadowing the
ground.
     Valya got under the canopy.
     "Here we  are ! Come on  here  !"  she shouted.  "I have found  a tent!
Here's a tent! Come round to me!"
     The  Professor and  Karik soon  appeared  from  different  sides of the
mushroom.
     They were at once delighted by the roomy nook with its canopy.
     "Not at all bad!" said the Professor, looking round. In such a pavilion
they could clearly wait until the rain was over in tolerable comfort.
     He rolled some thick  short stems  of dried  grass under the canopy and
the travellers sat down and. made themselves comfortable.
     "I  propose,"  said  Karik,  brightening  up,  "that  this  refuge  for
travellers should be named 'Valya's Wonder Tent'!"
     "I  have no objection!" declared Valya, clearly most taken with Karik's
notion.
     "Well, well!" said the Professor. "All we need now is a nice cup of tea
and - "
     But he didn't  have a chance to say  what  he would like with his  tea.
Something  heavy fell on to the  roof of the wonder tent and rolled rumbling
over  their heads.  Then twisting  and curling itself in  loops a fat  white
snake with a  black head swung downwards in the air. It  fell heavily on the
ground, started to turn around and  wriggle towards the travellers'  feet as
if it were about to attack them.
     The children darted to the Professor and hid behind his back.
     But the Professor himself  was also retreating in alarm.  The snake was
about twice as big as he was and much fatter. It bent its black head down to
the ground and working it like a drill twisted and turned until at length it
had disappeared under the ground.
     "Ah, that's it!" muttered the Professor.
     The travellers  had  not  recovered from this shock  when  white snakes
started to rain down from above and bury themselves in the earth.
     The children began to run away.
     "Where  are you  going?  What's the  matter?"  shouted  the  Professor.
"Stop!"
     He grabbed them by the arms.
     "The snakes!" whispered Valya.
     "Snakes!  Rubbish!  Those  are  not  snakes,  my friend,  they're  just
ordinary larvae, midge larvae."
     "Midges?"
     "Certainly! Fungus midges. Do  you see?" the Professor pointed with his
hand  to the mushroom roof;  "do  you  see  how  they  have eaten  away  the
mushroom? Oh you need  not  be  afraid of them, my  friends! They don't even
notice you. They are much too full of their  own worries. Whilst the soil is
wet and soft they must hurry to work themselves as deep as possible into the
ground so as to turn into chrysalises.
     The children became calmer.
     The  party once again seated themselves  in the wonder tent and huddled
together.
     The storm raged around the mushroom.  The grass  forest bent  under the
force  of  the water. The rain drummed with such force on the mushroom