Comet in Moominland (14 page)

Tired and discouraged they struggled on. The sand-dunes gradually got flatter and flatter, and then stopped at a line of sea-weed glistening in the red light. Beyond this was a pebbly beach - and then... They stood in a row and stared!

'Well, strike me pink!' said Moomintroll.

Where the sea should have been, with soft blue waves and friendly sails, there gaped a yawning abyss.

Hot steam rose from the depths of great cracks that seemed to go down to the very heart of the earth, and below them the cliff went down... down...

'Moomintroll!' gasped the Snork maiden. 'The whole sea has dried up.'

'What
will
the fishes say to that?' exclaimed Sniff.

The Snork took out his exercise book, and added something to the list headed: 'Risks encountered during Approach of Comet,' but Snufkin sat down with his head in his hands and wailed: 'Oh, dear, oh, dear, the beautiful sea

quite gone. No more sailing, no more swimming, no more fishing. No great storms, no transparent ice and no gleaming black water reflecting the stars. Finished, lost, gone!' And he put his head on his knees and cried as if his heart would break.

'But Snuff,' said Moomintroll reproachfully, 'you have always been so happy-go-lucky. It's dreadful to see you despairing like this.'

'I know,' said Snufkin. 'But I've always loved the sea more than anything else. This is so sad.'

'Especially for the fish,' squeaked Sniff.

'What seems to be most important,' said the Snork, 'is how we are going to get across this huge gap, because we haven't got time to go round it.'

'No, of course not,' Moomintroll agreed anxiously.

'Let's hold a meeting,' said the Snork. 'I will take the chair. Now, what alternatives have we for crossing a dried-up sea?'

'Flying,' said Sniff.

'Don't be silly,' said the Snork. 'Proposal rejected.

Unanimously. Well?'

'Walking,' suggested Moomintroll.

'You
are
stupid,' said the Snork. 'We should fall down those great cracks, or sink into the mud. Proposal rejected.'

'Propose something yourself then!' said Moomintroll angrily.

Then Snufkin lifted his head. 'I know,' he cried, 'stilts!'

'Stilts?' said the Snork. 'Proposal re...'

'Wait a minute,' cried Snufkin. 'Listen. Don't you remember how I used stilts in the land of the hot springs? In one stride I could get over practically anything. It's quick too.'

'But isn't it awfully difficult to walk on stilts?' asked the Snork maiden.

'You can practice here on the beach,' answered Snufkin. 'Now it's only a question of finding stilts.'

So they all set off in different directions on a stilt-hunt, and it wasn't a very easy hunt either.

The Snork faced the problem most sensibly. He thought: Stilts are long poles. What are poles? They are tree-trunks. Where are there trees? In the wood... And so he went all the long hot way back to the edge of the wood, and got a pair of slender fir saplings for himself (there are no tree-spirits in the fir).

Moomintroll and the Snork maiden hunted together. They talked about Moomin Valley and the cave, and soon completely forgot what they were hunting for.

'My pappa has built a wonderful bridge,' said Moomintroll, for about the third time, 'but mostly he writes in a book called "Memoirs". It's all about what he has done in his life, and as soon as he does something else he writes that down too.'

'Then surely he hasn't got time to do very much?' said the Snork maiden.

'Oh, well,' said Moomintroll. 'He makes sure of doing things now and again, even if it's only to give himself something to write about.'

'Tell me about that terrible flood you had,' said the Snork maiden.

'Oh yes, it was dreadful!' said Moomintroll. 'The water just rose and rose, until in the end mamma and Sniff and I were standing on a little mound with hardly room even for our tails.'

'Phew!' said the Snork maiden. 'How high was the water?'

'Five times higher than I am, or perhaps more,' said Moomintroll. "About as high as that pole over there.'

'Fancy!' exclaimed the Snork maiden. And they wandered on thinking about the flood.

After a while Moomintroll stopped and asked: 'Didn't I say "as high as that
pole
over there"?'

'Yes, Why?' asked the Snork maiden.

'Because I've just remembered we're looking for poles,' Moomintroll answered. 'We must go back and fetch it.'

They trudged back along the beach till they found the pole again. It was very long and painted red and white.

'It's one of those posts they use at sea to mark rocks from one side,' said Moomintroll, 'and there's the one for the other side.'

They were in what had been a little bay before the sea had dried up, and the beach was littered with wreckage, piles of driftwood, birch-bark and seaweed. The Snork maiden

found the knob off the top of a ship's mast, but it was too big to take with them. Instead she picked up a bottle with a gilded stopper which had drifted all the way from Mexico. And soon afterwards they came across a very long plank which, broken in two, would do very well for the second pair of stilts.

They set off back very pleased with themselves, and found the others already practising. Snufkin was demonstrating proudly on a fishing-rod and a hop-pole, and Sniff was trying to keep his balance on a broom-stick and the pole that still had their flag on the end of it.

'You ought to have seen me a minute ago,' he cried, and immediately fell smack on his nose.

'You have to do it like this,' said the Snork, climbing over a sandbank.' It's like wearing seven-league boots!'

The Snork maiden whimpered with fright when they hoisted her up on her stilts. But after a time she was better than any of them, strutting about with such an air that you'd have thought she had worn them all her life.

'I think that's pretty good now,' said Snufkin, when they had been balancing and staggering and falling for an hour or so. 'Let's start.'

One after another, with their stilts under their arms, they began to climb down the difficult slippery path to the abyss.

It was very depressing down there on the sea bottom. The seaweed, which looks so beautiful waving in green transparent water, was all flat and black, and the fish floundered pathetically in half-dried-up pools.

The steam was like a smoke-screen above them, and through it the comet shone with a dim eerie light.

'It's almost the same as the land of the hot springs,' said Snufkin.

'It smells awful,' said Sniff, wrinkling his nose. 'Don't forget I'm not to blame for this - I warned you...'

'How goes it?' cried Moomintroll to the Snork maiden through the steam.

'Fine, thanks!' came a faint answering cry.

And on they stalked like long-legged insects, across the bottom of the sea, while the ground sloped gradually down. Here and there great dark green mountains rose; their tops had once been little islands where people had landed and children enjoyed themselves splashing about in the water.

'Never again will I swim in deep water,' said Sniff with a shiver. 'Just to think that all this was underneath!' He squinted down a dark cleft where there was still some water left, and no doubt a strange swarming underwater life.

'But it's beautiful although it's so awful,' said Snufkin. 'And nobody has ever been here before us! What's that over there?'

'A treasure chest!' screamed Sniff. 'Oh! Let's go and see!'

'We can't take it with us anyhow,' said the Snork. 'Let it be. I expect we shall find even more extraordinary things before we get through this place.'

Now they were moving between jagged black rocks, and had to go very carefully for fear of the stilts getting caught. Suddenly in the gloom in front of them a great dark shape loomed up.

'What's that?' gasped Moomintroll, stopping so suddenly that he nearly fell on his nose.

'Perhaps it's something that bites!' said Sniff, anxiously.

Slowly they advanced and peeped at the shape from behind a rock.

'A ship!' exclaimed the Snork. 'A shipwreck!'

How miserable she looked, poor ship! Her mast was broken, and barnacles covered her rotted hull. Her sails and rigging had long ago been swept away by the current, and her golden figurehead was cracked and discoloured.

'Do you think there's anybody on board?' whispered the Snork maiden.

'I expect they were rescued by lifeboat,' said Moomintroll. 'Come away! This is horrible.'

'Wait a minute,' said Sniff, hopping down from his stilts, 'I can see something gold - something shining...'

'Remember what happened with the garnets and the giant lizard!' called Snufkin. 'Much better let it be!'

But Sniff bent down and pulled a dagger with a golden hilt out of the sand. It was set with opals that shone like moonlight and the blade gleamed coldly. Sniff lifted up his find and shouted with excitement.

'Oh, so beautiful!' exclaimed the Snork maiden and completely lost her balance. She rocked backwards and forwards, and suddenly shot right over the side of the ship, and disappeared into the hold. Moomintroll let out one shriek and dashed to her rescue.

His rush was slightly held up by the slipperiness of the deck, but he was soon peering down into the dark hold.