Comet in Moominland (10 page)

They left the Observatory and set off on the long journey home.

It was getting dark and the awful red light in the sky was stronger. The clouds had gone, and far down in the valley below they could just make out the narrow ribbon of the river and patches of forest.

'I'm longing to get away from this stony country,' said Snufkin. 'Even a poet can have enough sometimes.'

'I wonder where the Snorks spent the night,' said Moomintroll. 'I must give that wretched girl her anklering back.' And he hurried on at such a speed that the others could hardly keep up with him.

CHAPTER 7

Which is about how Moomintroll rescues the Snork Maiden from a poisonous bush and in which the comet appears in the sky.

T
HE
fourth of October dawned clear, but there was a strange haze over the sun as it rose slowly over the mountain-tops and sailed across the red sky. They hadn't set up the tent for the night, but had kept going all the time.

Sniff had got a blister on one foot and was grumbling,

'Well, walk on the other foot,' said Snufkin, but this wasn't very helpful advice, and at last Sniff couldn't stand it any longer.

'Oh!' he moaned. 'Now I feel giddy.' And he lay down and refused to go any farther.

'We're in a hurry,' said Moomintroll. 'I must find that little Snork as quickly as poss...'

'I know, I know,' interrupted Sniff. 'Your wretched Snork maiden. But that's nothing to do with me. I feel terrible, and I think I'm going to be sick.'

'We could wait a bit, couldn't we?' said Snufkin. 'And I know something we can do meanwhile. Have you ever rolled stones?'

'No,' said Moomintroll.

First Snufkin found a heap of great boulders. 'You take a boulder,' he said, 'like this. Roll it as hard as you can over the edge of the precipice - like this. And it rushes down,' he puffed. 'Like that!'

Together they looked over the edge and watched the stone. It crashed its way down, carrying a shower of small stones with it, and for a long time the echo rumbled back and forth between the mountains.

'That was great fun!' burst out Moomintroll. 'Let's do another!' And they rolled another huge boulder on to the edge, where it balanced precariously.

'Heave ho!' shouted Snufkin. 'Heave and - push!'

Away thundered the boulder, but, oh horror, Moomintroll didn't have time to draw back and before anyone realized what was happening he was over the edge, and falling swiftly in the wake of the boulder.

Now there would very likely be one Moomintroll less in the world if he had not had a rope tied round his middle. Snufkin threw himself on the ground and braced himself for the shock. And it was a big one; Snufkin felt as if he would be cut in half.

Moomintroll swung to and fro on the end of the rope - and he was heavy.

Snufkin was dragged slowly nearer and nearer to the edge. Behind him too the rope was pulled tight, and Sniff, who was tied to the other end, began to get pulled along. 'Stop it!' he shouted. 'Leave me alone - I'm ill!'

'You'll be still worse in a minute if you don't hold on to that rope,' said Snufkin.

And then Moomintroll's voice bellowed up from below: 'Help! Pull me up!'

At last Sniff realized what was happening, and he was so frightened that he forgot to be ill. He began struggling frantically against the pulling rope, which got thoroughly

tangled round him and everything else in sight, until in the end it caught fast, and Snufkin was able to crawl back.

'When I say "
Now
" pull,' he told Sniff. 'Not now. Not now. But
NOW
!' And they pulled with all their might, until at last Moomintroll appeared over the edge. First his ears, then his eyes, then his nose (then still more nose) and eventually the whole of him.

'Well, strike me pink!' he exclaimed. 'I never thought I should see you two again.'

'And you never would have done, but for me,' remarked Sniff complacently. Snufkin gave him a queer look, but didn't say anything, and they all sat down to recover themselves.

'We've been stupid,' said Moomintroll suddenly.

'You've
been stupid,' said Sniff.

'Absolutely criminal,' went on Moomintroll, taking no notice. 'We might easily have rolled one of those stones on to the little Snork maiden.'

'If you did she's flat by now,' said Sniff quite unmoved.

Moomintroll was dreadfully worried. 'Well, anyhow, we must go on now,' he said dejectedly. 'It's no good forgetting about the comet.'

So on they went, steadily down the mountainside, with the pale sun shining overhead, out of the pale red sky.

At the foot of the mountain a clear, shallow stream with a sandy bed, ran between the stones, and there sat the Hemulen, with his tired feet in the water, sighing to himself. Beside him was a large book called: 'Moths of the Eastern Hemisphere - their Behaviour and Misbehaviour.'

'Extraordinary!' he was muttering. 'Not one with a red tail. It might have been Dideroformia Archimboldes, but that is very common and has no tail at all.' And he sighed again.

Just then Moomintroll, Snufkin and Sniff popped out from behind a rock and said 'Hullo!'

'Oh! How you frightened me!' gasped the Hemulen. 'So it's only you three again. I thought it was another avalanche. This morning it was terrible.'

'What was?' asked Sniff.

'The avalanche of course,' answered the Hemulen. 'Quite terrible! Rocks the size of houses bouncing about like hail-stones! My best glass jar was broken, and I myself had to move quite quickly to get out of the way.'

'I'm afraid we happened to knock a few stones down as we were passing,' said Snufkin. 'It's so easily done walking on these tracks.'

'Do you mean to say it
was you
who made the avalanche?' said the Hemulen.

'Well - yes - sort of,' Snufkin answered.

'I never thought very much of you,' said the Hemulen slowly, 'and now I think even less. In fact I don't think I want to know you any more.' And he turned away and splashed some water over his tired feet. Snufkin and the others didn't quite know what to say, so they kept silent. After a while the Hemulen looked over his shoulder and remarked: 'Haven't you gone yet?'

'We're just going,' said Moomintroll. 'But first I feel it's my duty to ask you if you haven't noticed something odd about the colour of the sky?'

'The colour of the
sky
?' asked the Hemulen, innocently.

'Yes,' said Moomintroll, 'that's what I said.'

'Why ever should I?' said the Hemulen. 'It can be
spotted fox
all I care. I hardly ever look at it. What worries
me
is that my beautiful mountain stream is nearly dried up. If it goes on like this much longer I shan't be able to splash my feet.'

And he turned away again, muttering and growling to himself.

'Come on,' said Moomintroll. 'I think he'd rather be alone.'

The ground was getting softer to walk on. It was thick with lichen and moss, and a few shy flowers peeped out here and there, while below them the dark carpet of the forest looked quite near.

'We'll make straight for this flowering valley of yours,' said Snufkin, 'because we
must
get there before the comet comes.'

Moomintroll looked at his compass. 'I think there's something wrong with this thing,' he said, 'it's dancing about like a midge over water.'

'It's the comet's fault, I expect,' said Sniff.

'We shall have to go by the sun,' said Snufkin, 'though
it
doesn't seem to be much use either just now.'

A little farther down they came to a tarn, which had sunk so low in its stone basin that the sides were too steep for them to get down and have a swim. There was a rim of weeds and rushes some feet above the water level, and it was still wet.

'Funny,' said Snufkin with wrinkled forehead, 'the water sinking as much and as quickly as that.'

'There must be a hole in the bottom,' said Sniff, 'for the water to run out of.'

'The Hemulen's stream had sunk too,' said Moomintroll.

Sniff looked anxiously into their lemonade bottle, but to his relief that seemed to have as much in it as before.

'I
can't understand it,' he said.

'Never mind, Sniff,' said Moomintroll. 'Perhaps it's better if you can't. Come on now!'

Just then they heard a cry for help.

It came from the wood just ahead of them, and they set off at top speed to the rescue.

'All right!' shouted Snufkin. 'We're coming!'

'Not so fast!' panted Sniff. 'Ow!' for he had fallen over, and was being dragged along on his nose by the rope, which still tied the three of them together. But the others didn't stop until they too were brought up nose to nose on each side of a tree, with the rope hooked across its trunk.

'Darned rope!' Moomintroll said angrily.

Sniff was shocked. 'Oh!' he gasped, 'you swore!'

Moomintroll ignored him, and hacking at the rope with his knife, muttered something about it being the Snork maiden who had called. The moment he was free he set off again as fast as his short legs would carry him.

The next minute the Snork came panting up, green with terror. (Snufkin didn't recognize him at first, because, as you may remember, the Snork was mauve when they had met before.)

'Hurry!' he screamed. 'My sister! A terrible bush! It's eating her up!'

And to their horror they found that this was actually the case. A poisonous bush of the dangerous Angostura family had got hold of the little Snork maiden's tail, and was now dragging her towards it, while she uttered shrill cries and struggled with all her might.

'Miserable bush!' cried Moomintroll and, brandishing his pen-knife (the new one with a corkscrew and an instrument-for-taking-the-stones-out-of-horses'-hooves), he circled round it shouting rude names, such as 'earth-worm,' 'scrubbing-brush' and 'rat-tailed pest'. The bush glared at Moomintroll with all its greeny-yellow flower-eyes, and at last let go of the Snork maiden and stretched its twining arms towards him instead. Snufkin and the others watched the wild battle that followed hardly daring to breathe.

Moomintroll lunged about, with his tail beating angrily, and all the time he attacked the Angostura's waving arms.