Comet in Moominland (8 page)

And he began creeping around snuffing and sniffing with his large nose, until he reached the hole in the ground where

the noise was loudest of all. He stuck his nose in as far as possible but couldn't see anything in the dark. However, the party down below saw his shadow across the light, and their song changed to a wild yell.

'Those caterpillars must have gone off their heads,' the Hemulen said to himself, pushing his net down the hole.

Of course Moomintroll and the others didn't waste much time in jumping into it with their belongings, and when the Hemulen hauled up his heavy load and shook it out he was amazed to see three such odd creatures blinking in the daylight. '
Most
extraordinary!' he remarked.

'Thank you very much,' said Moomintroll, who pulled himself together first. 'You saved us in the nick of
time.'

'Have I saved you?' asked the Hemulen in surprise. 'I didn't mean to. I was looking for the caterpillars that were making such a noise down there.' (Hemulens are generally a bit slow in grasping an idea, but they are very pleasant if you don't annoy them.)

'Are we in the Lonely Mountains now?' asked Sniff.

'I've no idea,' said the Hemulen, 'but there are plenty of interesting moths.'

'I think it
must be
the Lonely Mountains,' said Snufkin, gazing at the massive piles of rock, endless, desolate and silent, which towered on every side. The air was chilly.

'And where is the Observatory?' asked Sniff.

'We're going to look for it,' said Moomintroll. 'It's on the highest peak I believe. But first I should like to have some coffee.'

'The kettle is still on the raft,' said Snufkin.

Moomintroll loved coffee, and he rushed at once to the edge of the hole and looked down.

'Oh deary me!' he lamented. 'The raft has floated off and I suppose it's gone down that awful hole by now.'

'Well, never mind. We're not on it,' said Snufkin gaily. 'What's a kettle here or there when you're out looking for a comet!'

'Are they very rare?' asked the Hemulen who thought they were still talking about moths.

'Well, yes, I should think you could call them rare,' answered Snufkin. 'They appear about once in a hundred years.'

'No!' exclaimed the Hemulen. 'Then I must catch one. What does it look like?'

'Red probably. With a long tail,' answered Snufkin.

The Hemulen took out a notebook and wrote this down. 'It must be the Snufsigalonica family,' he said seriously. 'One more question, my learned friends, what does this remarkable insect live on?'

'On Hemulens,' said Sniff, giggling.

The Hemulen went red in the face. 'Little animal,' he said sternly, 'that is not funny. I shall now leave - with grave doubts of your scientific knowledge.' And he put his jars in his pocket, picked up his butterfly-net, and lumbered off.

Sniff doubled up with laughter when the Hemulen was out of earshot. 'How funny!' he exploded. 'The old chap thought we were talking about a beetle or something.'

'It's wrong to be disrespectful to elderly gentlemen,' said Moomintroll severely, not, however, managing to keep a very straight face himself.

But it was getting late, so they picked out the highest mountain and set off towards it.

CHAPTER 6

This is about the adventure with the Eagle and the finding of the Observatory.

I
T
was late evening. The age-old mountains towered into the sky, their dreaming heads lost in mist, and mist swirled in cold grey-white swathes in the chasms and valleys between. A sudden rift in the swirling vapour revealed once again the threatening sign of the comet cut by some unknown hand in a sheer wall of rock.

Just below one of the peaks could be seen a solitary pinprick of light, and a closer look would have revealed that it was a little yellow silk tent lit up from inside. From the tent came the sound of Snufkin's mouth-organ, but in this desolate place it was a strange sound indeed. So strange that a hyena some way off, lifted up her nose and howled in the most melancholy fashion.

One member at least of the party in the tent was startled out of his wits. 'What was that?' gasped Sniff.

'Oh, nothing for you to worry about,' Snufkin reassured him. 'Listen, what about a story? Did
I
ever tell you about those Snorks
I
met a few months ago?'

'No,' said Moomintroll eagerly. 'Whatever are Snorks?'

'Don't you really know what a Snork is?' said Snufkin in amazement. 'They must be the same family as you I should think, because they look the same, except that they aren't often white. They can be any colour in the world (like an Easter egg), and they change co lour when they get upset.'

Moomintroll looked quite angry. '
Well
!' he said. 'I've never heard of
that
branch of the family. A real Moomintroll is
always
white. Changing colour indeed! What an idea!'

'Well, these Snorks were very much like you anyway,' said Snufkin calmly. 'One was pale green and the other was mauve. I met them the time I escaped from prison... But perhaps you don't want to hear that story?'

'Oh yes! We do really,' piped Sniff, but Moomintroll only grunted.

'Well, it was like this,' began Snufkin. 'I had picked a melon for dinner. There was a whole field full of them, you see, and I thought that one more or less wouldn't make any difference. But the moment I dug my teeth into it, a nasty ugly old man came out of a house nearby, and started to shout at me. I listened for a bit, and then I began to wonder if hearing so many bad words was doing me any good. So I started rolling the melon (which was very big and heavy) along the path in front of me, whistling so that I shouldn't hear what the old man was saying. Then he shouted that the police would come after me, so I made a scornful noise to show that I wasn't afraid of the police at all.'

'How could you dare?' whispered Sniff in deep admiration.

'I really can't think,' said Snufkin. 'But now you must listen - that ugly old man
was
the police! And after dashing into his house to get into his uniform, he began to follow me. I ran and ran and the melon rolled and rolled, until in the end we were going so fast that I didn't know which was the melon and which was me.'

'And that was how you landed in prison I suppose?' said Moomintroll. 'I suppose it was there you met those creatures - Snorks didn't you call them?'

'Don't interrupt!' said Snufkin. 'I was just going to tell you how cold and horrible it was in my cell, what with the spiders and rats. I met the Snorks
outside,
after I had escaped one moonless night.'

'Did you climb out of the window with a rope made from your sheets?' asked Sniff.

'No, I dug myself out with a tin-opener,' said Snufkin. 'Twice I came up too soon, once just behind the guard and another time just inside the prison walls. But I went down and started digging again, and the third time I came up in a field. It was turnips and not melons this time, I'm sorry to say. The Snork and his sister were fishing for minnows with their tails in a nearby stream.'

'I should never
think
of fishing with my tail,' said Moomintroll. 'One should have respect for one's tail. What did you do then?'

'Oh, we celebrated my escape with minnows and cowslip wine for many hours,' answered Snufkin. 'And how beautiful the pale green Snork maiden was! She had sparkling blue eyes and was covered with beautiful soft fluff. She could weave mats of grass, and brew soothing herb drinks if you had tummy-ache. She always wore a flower behind her ear, and round her ankle she had a little gold ring.'

'Pah! Women!' scoffed Moomintroll. 'That was a rotten story. Didn't anything
exciting
happen?'

'Wasn't my escape from prison exciting enough?' said Snufkin, and went on playing his mouth-organ.

Moomintroll sniffed once more and then crept into his sleeping-bag and turned his nose to the wall.

But that night he dreamt about a little Snork maiden who looked like him, and he had given her a rose to put behind her ear.

In the morning he sat up muttering 'how silly' to himself.

The others had already begun to take down the tent, and Snufkin declared that they would reach the highest peak that day.