Comet in Moominland (6 page)

CHAPTER 4

This is about the meeting with Snufkin and a terrible experience with a giant lizard.

D
AY
after day the world was shrouded in greyness, but it never rained. Columns of cloud rolled endlessly across the sky, and below them the earth lay waiting, Moomintroll and Sniff floated farther and farther east on their raft. They weren't used to being without sun, and became melancholy and quiet. Sometimes they had a game of poker or wrote a poem or caught a fish for the pot, but mostly they just sat watching the banks float by. Now and then Moomintroll contemplated the clouds and wondered whether he would see the comet if they divided. But they never did. Often he longed to tell Sniff about the great sky-monster that they were going out to look for, but it was too much of a risk. Sniff would only get in a panic.

Three times they saw the Hattifatteners, the little white creatures who are for ever wandering restlessly from place to place in their aimless quest for nobody knows what. Once they were fording the river in a shallow place and twice passing by in their small light boats. They seemed more restless than usual, hopping along at a great speed, but as they can neither hear nor speak it wasn't much use Sniff and Moomintroll even saying 'hullo' to them.

The banks looked different now. Silver poplars, plumtrees and oaks had disappeared, and dark trees with heavy branches stood alone on the deserted sand, while in the distance greyish-yellow mountains climbed steeply towards the sky.

'Oh dear,' sighed Moomintroll. 'Isn't this river ever going to end?'

'Shall we have a game of poker?' suggested Sniff.

Moomintroll shook his head.' I don't feel like it,' he said.

'Then I'll tell your fortune,' Sniff persisted. 'Perhaps you've got one of those lucky stars shining on you.'

'Thanks,' said Moomintroll bitterly. 'I've had just about enough of stars. With or without tails.'

Sniff sighed deeply and sat for a long time disconsolately watching the strange landscape, with his nose between his paws. Suddenly his eye was caught by something out of the ordinary. It looked like a yellow ice cream cornet upside down, and was the first brightly coloured thing they had seen for a week. It was down by the edge of the water, and had what looked like a flag flying on top.

As Moomintroll and Sniff got nearer they heard quite unmistakable sounds of music, and it was cheerful music too. They strained their ears excitedly, drifting slowly nearer. At last they could see it was a tent, and gave a shout of joy.

The music stopped, and out of the tent came a snufkin with a mouth-organ in his hand. He had a feather in his old green hat and cried: 'Ahoy! Ship ahoy!'

Moomintroll caught hold of the rudder and the raft swung towards land.

'Off with the painter!' shouted Snufkin, hopping eagerly

up and down. 'Fancy that! What fun! Coming all this way just to see me!'

'Well - we didn't exactly,' began Moomintroll, clambering ashore.

'Never mind!' answered Snufkin. 'The main thing is that you're here. You'll stay the night, won't you?'

'We should love to,' said Moomintroll. 'We haven't seen a soul since we left home, and that was
ages
ago. Why in the world do you live here in this desert?'

'I'm a tramp, and I live all over the place,' answered Snufkin. 'I wander about and when I find a place that I like I put up my tent and play my mouth-organ.'

'Do you like
this
place?' asked Sniff in surprise, looking at the desolation all around them.

'Certainly I do,' said Snufkin. 'Look at that black velvet tree with the beautiful grey colours beyond; look at the mountains that are deep purple-red in the distance! And sometimes a big blue buffalo comes to look at himself in the river.'

'You aren't by any chance - er - a painter?' asked Moomintroll rather shyly.

'Or perhaps a poet?' suggested Sniff.

'I am everything!' said Snufkin, putting on the kettle. 'And you are discoverers I can see. What are you thinking of discovering?'

Moomintroll cleared his throat and felt very proud. 'Oh, everything,' he said. 'Stars for example!'

Snufkin was deeply impressed.

'Stars!' he exclaimed. 'Then I must come with you. Stars are my favourite things. I always lie and look at them before I go to sleep and wonder who is on them and how one could get there. The sky looks so friendly with all those little eyes twinkling in it.'

'The star we're looking for isn't so very friendly,' said Moomintroll.' Quite the contrary in fact.'

'What
did you say?' said Sniff.

Moomintroll went a bit red. 'I mean - stars in general,' he said, 'big and small, friendly and unfriendly and so on.'

'Can
they be unfriendly?' asked Snufkin.

'Yes - ones with tails,' answered Moomintroll. 'Comets.'

At last it dawned on Sniff. 'You're hiding something from me!' he said accusingly. 'That pattern we saw everywhere, and you said it didn't mean anything!'

'You're too small to be told everything,' answered Moomintroll.

'Too small!
' screamed Sniff.' I must say it's a fine thing to take me on an expedition of discovery and not tell me what I'm supposed to be discovering!'

'Don't take it too hard,' said Snufkin. 'Sit down Moomintroll, and tell us what it's all about.'

Moomintroll took the cup of coffee that Snufkin had given him, sat down, and proceeded to tell them everything that the Muskrat had said.

'And then I asked pappa if comets were dangerous,' he went on, 'and pappa said that they were. That they rushed

about like mad things in the black empty space beyond the sky trailing a flaming tail behind them. All the other stars keep to their courses, and go along just like trains on their rails, but comets can go absolutely anywhere; they pop up here and there wherever you least expect them.'

'Like me,' said Snufkin, laughing. 'They must be sky-tramps!'

Moomintroll looked disapprovingly at him. 'It's nothing to laugh at,' he said. 'It would be a terrible thing if a comet hit the earth.'

'What would happen then?' whispered Sniff.

'Everything would explode,' said Moomintroll, gloomily.

There was a long silence.

Then Snufkin said slowly: 'It would be awful if the earth exploded. It's so beautiful.'

'And what about us?' said Sniff.

But Moomintroll felt much braver now he had shared the secret with the others. He drew himself up and said:' That's why we are going to look for the Observatory on the Lonely Mountains. They've got the biggest telescope in the world there, and we shall be able to find out if the comet is going to hit the earth or not.'

'What about taking my flag with us?' suggested Snufkin. 'We could put it at the masthead of your raft.'

They looked at his flag. 'The blue on top is the sky,' he went on, 'and the blue underneath is the sea. The line in between them is a road, the dot on the left is me at the moment, and the dot on the right is me in the future. Do you approve?'

'You could hardly get any more on a flag,' said Moomintroll. 'We approve!'

'But
I'm
not on it,' said Sniff.

'The dot on the left can be all of us, seen from a great height,' Snufkin said consolingly. 'And now I think we'll explore a bit before supper.'

So they set off, climbing cautiously between the rocks and prickly undergrowth.

'I just want to show you a cleft with garnets in it,' said Snufkin. 'It's not as beautiful as it
can
be of course in this dull light, but when the sun shines you ought to see it glittering.'

'Are they real garnets?' asked Sniff.

'That I don't know,' Snufkin answered, 'but anyway they're beautiful.'

He led them up through a wild ravine, silent and deserted

in the dim evening light, and they talked in whispers. Suddenly Snufkin paused. 'Here,' he said softly.

They bent down and looked. At the bottom of deep narrow cleft myriads of garnets glowed dimly in the darkness and Moomintroll thought of the black space beyond the sky with thousands of comets glittering in it.

'Oh!' whispered Sniff. 'Wonderful! Are they yours?'

'As long as I live here,' said Snufkin carelessly. 'I'm monarch of all I survey. I own the whole earth.'

'Do you think I could have some?' asked Sniff wistfully, 'I might be able to buy a yacht with them, or a pair of roller-skates,' and when Snufkin laughed and told him to take what he liked, he immediately jumped into the cleft and began to climb down. He scraped his nose, and almost lost his footing, but the thought of the garnets gave him courage, and at last, with a deep sigh and paws that trembled a little, he began to collect the shining stones. The pile grew larger and larger as he ran, trembling with excitement, farther and farther along the cleft.

'Hullo!' shouted Snufkin from the top. 'Aren't you coming up soon? It's getting cold and the dew is beginning to fall.'

'In a minute,' Sniff shouted back. 'There are such a lot left...' he trailed off, for he had just seen two huge red garnets shining like eyes, right at the dark end of the cleft.

Suddenly, to his horror, he realized that they
were
eyes -eyes that blinked and moved and came nearer, followed by a scaly body that rasped coldly on the stones.