Yan Larri. The Extraordinary Adventures of Karik and Valya --------------------------------------------------------------- Translated from the Russian by John P.Mandeville Russian original title: Leningrad 1937 OCR: Tuocs ______________________________________________ CHAPTER I Granny is difficult - Mother is worried - Jack gets on a hot scent - A strange discovery is made in the Professor's study - The Professor disappears MOTHER SPREAD A BIG WHITE CLOTH ON THE TABLE. GRANNY went over towards the sideboard. In the dining-room knives and forks jingled cheerfully and plates clattered. "Is it egg and onion pie?" asked Granny. "Yes. The children have been begging and begging me for it," said Mother, as she put out the plates. "And is the sweet strawberries, and cream? " "No. To-day we are going to have ice cream pudding for a sweet! The children do love it so." "All the same," mumbled Granny, "in the summer it is better for the children to have berries and fruit. . . . When I was a little girl. . . ." But Mother, apparently, was quite convinced Granny never had been a little girl. Shrugging her shoulders she went over to the window and, looking out into the courtyard, shouted loudly: "Ka-a-ari-ik! Va-alya-ya! Lu-unch!" "When I was a little girl . . . . " continued Granny, offended; but Mother, not listening to her, leaned out on the window-sill and shouted still louder: "Karik! Valya! Where are you?" In the courtyard all was silent. "There you are," grumbled Granny. "I knew it would happen. . . ." "Karik! Valya!" Mother shouted again, and not waiting for an answer sat down on the window-sill and asked, "Didn't they tell you where they were going to go?" Granny bit her lip angrily. "When I was a little girl," she announced, "I always said where I was going, but nowadays . . . ." She straightened the cloth on the table, frowning. "Nowadays they just do as they like . . . if they take the fancy they'll go off to the North Pole; and sometimes even worse. . . . Why, only yesterday they announced on the radio. . . ." "What did they announce?" asked Mother, hastily. "Oh, nothing! Just that some boy was drowned - at least that was what they said." Mother shuddered. "That's all nonsense," she said, sliding off the window-sill. "Fiddlesticks! Rubbish! Karik and Valya would never go off and bathe." "I don't know, I don't know!" Granny shook her head. "Only they should have been here ages ago and there is no sign of them. They ran off early and haven't had anything to eat this morning." Mother put her hand up to her face, and not saying anything more went out of the dining-room quickly. "When I was a little girl . . . ," sighed Granny. But what Granny did when she was a little girl Mother just didn't hear, she was already out in the courtyard and screwing up her eyes in the bright sunlight was peering in all directions. On a yellow mound of sand lay Valya's green spade with the bent handle, and beside it was flung Karik's faded beret. No sign of the children. Under the rusty gutter pipe, warming herself in the sun, was the big tortoise-shell cat - Anyuta. She lazily wrinkled her forehead and stretched out her paws as if she wanted to give them to Mother. "Karik! Valya!" shouted Mother, and actually stamped her foot. Anyuta, the cat, opened her green eyes widely, stared at Mother, and then, yawning luxuriously, turned over on the other side. "What has become of them?" grumbled Mother. She crossed the courtyard, glanced into the laundry room, peeped through the dark windows of the cellar where the firewood was kept. No sign of the children. "Ka-ari-ik!" she shouted once again. There was no reply. "Va-a-lya!" Mother cried out. "Wough-ough, woof!" sounded quite close at hand. The door at a side entrance slammed violently. A big sheep-dog with a sharp pointed nose leaped out into the yard with his chain dragging behind him. With one rush he was on the mound, rolling in the sand, raising a great cloud of dust; then up he jumped, shook himself and with loud barking hurled himself at Mother. Mother stepped back quickly. "Back! No, you don't! Get away with you!" She shooed him off with her hands. "Down, Jack! To heel!" a loud voice resounded in the doorway. A fat man wearing sandals on his bare feet and with a lighted cigarette in his hand had come into the yard. It was the tenant from the fourth floor, the photographer Schmidt. "What are you up to, Jack, eh?" asked the fat man. Jack guiltily wagged his tail. "Such a fool you are!" grinned the photographer. Pretending to yawn, Jack came up to his master, sat down and with a jingling chain set about scratching his neck with his hind leg. "Grand weather to-day!" smiled the fat man. "Aren't you going to your country cottage?" Mother stared first at the fat man, then at the dog and then said rather crossly: "You have let that dog out again, Comrade Schmidt, without his muzzle. He behaves just like a wolf. He just looks around to see at whom he can snap. . . ." "What, Jack?" said the fat man, apparently most surprised. "Why, he wouldn't harm a child! He is as peaceful as a dove. Would you like to stroke him?" Mother waved him away with her hand. "You think I have nothing else to do but to stroke dogs! At home, lunch is getting cold, none of the housework is done and here I am unable to get hold of the children. Ka-a-ri-ik! Val-a-alya!" she shouted once more. "You just stroke Jack and ask him nicely. Say: 'Now then Jack, go find Karik and Valya.' He'll find them in a wink!" Schmidt bent down to his dog and rubbed his neck affectionately. "You'll find them, won't you Jack?" Jack made a little whimpering noise and, quite unexpectedly, jumped up and licked the full lips of the photographer. The fat man staggered back, fussily spat out and wiped his lips with his sleeve. Mother laughed. "You need not laugh," Schmidt gravely assured her, "this is a sleuthhound. He follows the scent of a human being just like a train running on rails. Would you like me to show you?" "I believe you!" said Mother. "No, no!" the fat man was getting agitated. "Allow me to assure you that if I say it is true, it is true! Now then, just give me something belonging to Karik or Valya - a toy - coat - beret. It does not matter what. . . ." Mother shrugged her shoulders, but all the same she stooped down, picked up the spade and beret and, smiling, handed them to Schmidt. "Splendid! Excellent!" said the fat man, and gave the beret to the dog to smell. "Now, Jack," he continued loudly, "show them how you do it! Go find them, boy!" Jack whimpered, put his nose to the ground and, sticking up his tail, started to run round the courtyard in large circles. The photographer cheerfully puffed along behind him. Having run up to the cat Anyuta, Jack stopped. The cat jumped up, bent herself into a bow and flashing her green eyes hissed like a snake. Jack tried to grab her by the tail. The cat bristled up, gave Jack a box on the ear; the poor dog squealed with pain, but at once recovered himself and with a loud bark flung himself at Anyuta. The cat again hissed and raised one paw as if to say: " Sh-sh-sh-shove off! I'll s-s-slap you s-s-such a one!" "Now, now, Jack," said the photographer, "you mustn't get put off!" and he tugged so hard at the lead that the dog sat back on his hind legs. "Get on, now! Go find them!" he ordered. With a parting bark at the cat, Jack ran on ahead. He ran around the whole yard and once more stopped by the gutter pipe and loudly sniffed the air, looking at his master. "I understand, I understand!" said the photographer, nodding his head. "They sat here, of course, playing with the cat! But where did they go afterwards? Now, go find them, go find them, Jack!" Jack started wagging his tail, twisted himself around like a top, scraped with his paws at the sand under the pipe and then, with a loud bark, dashed to the main entrance to the flats. "Ha-ha! he's got on the scent!" shouted Schmidt, and with his sandals slithering he leaped after the dog. "If you do find the children, send them home!" Mother called after him, and started walking back through the yard. "Of course they are in one of the neighbouring courtyards," she thought to herself. Pulling hard on his lead, Jack hauled his master up a staircase. "Not so fast! Not so fast!" puffed the fat man, barely able to keep up with the dog. On the landing of the fifth floor, Jack stopped for a second, gazed at his master and with a short bark threw himself at a door which was covered with oilcloth and felt. On the door there hung a white enamelled plate with the inscription: PROFESSOR IVAN HERMOGENEVITCH ENOTOFF Underneath was pinned a notice: Bell does not work. Please knock. Jack with a squeal jumped up, scratching at the oilcloth covering the door. "Down, Jack!" shouted the fat man. "It says knock, and not squeal." The photographer Schmidt smoothed his hair with the palm of his hand, carefully wiped the perspiration off his face with a handkerchief and then knocked cautiously at the door with his knuckles. Behind the door shuffling steps were heard. The lock clicked. The door opened. A face with shaggy eyebrows and a yellowish white beard appeared in the widening gap. "Do you want me?" "Excuse me, Professor," said the photographer in some confusion, "I only wanted to ask you - " The stout man had not succeeded in finishing his sentence before Jack tore the lead out of his hand and, almost knocking the Professor off his feet, dashed into the flat. "Come back! Jack! To heel!" shouted Schmidt. But Jack was already rattling his chain somewhere at the end of the corridor. "I am so sorry, Professor, Jack is only young. . . . If you will let me come in, I'll soon get hold of him." "Yes, yes . . . of course," replied the Professor, absent-mindedly, letting Schmidt into the flat. "Come in, please. I hope your dog does not bite!" "Hardly ever," Schmidt assured the Professor. The photographer crossed the threshold and having closed the door behind him, said quietly: "A thousand apologies! I won't be a minute. . . . The children must be with you - Karik and Valya, from the second floor. . . ." "Allow me, allow me! Karik and Valya? Yes, of course, I know them well. Very fine children. Polite and eager to learn.. . " "Are they here?" "No, they haven't been here to-day; in fact I am waiting for them!" "Very odd !" muttered the stout man. "Jack has so certainly followed their trail. . . . ." "But may be it is yesterday's trail?" politely suggested the Professor. But Schmidt did not succeed in replying. In the further room, Jack was barking resoundingly, then something rattled, crashed and jingled as if a cupboard or table had fallen with crockery on it. The Professor started. "He may break up everything!" he shouted as if he was going to cry, and seizing Schmidt by the sleeve pulled him along the dark corridor. "Here! through here!" he barked, pushing open a door. No sooner had the Professor and the photographer crossed the threshold of the room than Jack threw himself at his master's chest with a whimper and then at once dashed back with a bark. All around the room he darted with his lead behind him, smelling the bookshelves, jumping on the leather armchair, twisting himself under the table, all the time throwing himself from side to side. On the table, tubes and retorts jingled as they bounced up and down, tall glass vessels swayed and fine glass tubes shivered. From one violent jolt the microscope, with its brass sparkling in the sun, started to rock. The Professor only just succeeded in catching it. But in saving the microscope, he caught with his sleeve a gleaming nickel container full of some sort of complicated weights. The container fell and the weights jumped out and scattered with a jingle over the yellow parquet floor. "What are you up to, Jack?" gruffly jerked out the photographer. "You are making an ass of yourself. You're barking, but what is the use? Where are the children?" Jack put his head on one side. He pricked up his ears and looked most attentively at his master, trying to understand what it was that they were scolding him about. The photographer shook his head disapprovingly. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Jack! They said you were a sleuthhound! With a diploma! And all you can do is to chase cats instead of following a trail. Now, come home! Be generous enough to forgive us. Comrade Professor, for this disturbance!" The photographer bowed awkwardly and made towards the door. But here Jack became possessed as of a devil. He seized his master by the breeches with his teeth, and planting his feet on the slippery parquet floor, tugged towards the table. "What on earth is up with you?" complained the fat man in amazement. Squealing, Jack once more darted around the table, but then leaped on the small divan which stood in front of the open window and putting his paws on the window-sill, barked with short, jerky barks. Schmidt got angry. "Come to heel!" he shouted, seizing the dog by the collar; but Jack stubbornly shook his head and again darted to the divan. "I can't understand it!" The photographer threw up his hands. "Probably there is a mouse behind the divan!" the Professor guessed. "Or maybe a crust of bread or a bone. I often have my dinner there." He went up to the divan and pulled it towards him. At the back of the divan, something rustled and softly padded to the ground. "A crust!" said the Professor. Jack at that moment tore himself forward and squeezed, with his tail sticking up, between the wall, and just managed to shift the divan. He seized something in his teeth. "Come on, show us what it is!" shouted the photographer. Jack backed out, shook his head, turned abruptly to his master, and laid at his feet a child's down-at-heel sandal. The photographer perplexedly turned the find over in his hand. "Apparently some sort of a child's shoe. . . ." "H'm . . . strange!" said the Professor, examining the sandal. "Very strange!" Whilst they were turning the find over in their hands. Jack pulled out from behind the divan a further three sandals, one the same size and two smaller ones. Unable to follow what had happened, the Professor and the stout man looked first at each other and then at the sandals. Schmidt knocked the hard sole of one sandal with his knuckle, and for no apparent reason said: "Strong enough! They're good sandals!" But Jack meanwhile had pulled out from under the divan a pair of blue shorts and, pressing them with his paws to the floor, barked softly. "Something more?" said the Professor, quite perplexed. He bent over, and would have stretched out his hand for the shorts, but Jack bared his teeth and growled so threateningly that the Professor very quickly withdrew his hand. "What a very unfriendly nature he has, to be sure!" said the Professor in some confusion. "Yes, he is not over-polite to me!" agreed the photographer. He took the shorts, shook them, and, folding them neatly, laid them before the Professor. "Please take them." The Professor looked sideways at Jack. "No, no, it is quite unnecessary," said he. "I can see everything. . . . Well, now . . . well, now . . . there are the markings V and K. Valya and Karik!" And he touched with his fingers big white letters sewn in the belts of the shorts. The stout man wiped his face with the palm of his hand. "Is there a bathroom in the flat?" he asked in a businesslike way. "No," replied the Professor, "there is no bathroom. But if you want to wash your hands, there's. . . ." "Oh, no," panted the stout man, "I can wash at home. But I thought they might have undressed and were bathing themselves. Do you see what I mean?" "Certainly." The Professor nodded his head. "But where have they hidden themselves? Naked . . . without shorts, without sandals? I don't understand it at all!" Schmidt made a gesture of hopelessness. Then he put his hands behind his back, spread out his feet, lowered his head and gazed solidly at the yellow rectangles of the parquet; then he suddenly straightened himself up and said confidently: "Don't worry! We'll find them any minute now. They are here, Professor. They are simply hiding! You can be sure of that! My Jack has never been mistaken yet." The Professor and the photographer proceeded on a tour round all the rooms; they examined the kitchen and even looked into the dark larder. Jack listlessly tailed along behind them. In the dining-room, the stout man opened the doors of the sideboard, poked his head under the table, and in the bedroom searched with his hands underneath the bed. But there was no trace of the children in the flat. "Wherever can they have hidden themselves?" muttered the photographer. "In my opinion," said the Professor, "they have not been here to-day." "That's what you think?" questioned Schmidt thoughtfully. "You think they have not been here? But what do you think, Jack? Are they here or aren't they?" Jack barked. "Here?" Jack barked again. "Well, go find them! Go find them, you dog!" Jack at once cheered up. He threw himself round and once more led the Professor and Schmidt into the study. Here he again jumped on to the window-sill and started to bark loudly, and then to whimper as if he wanted to assure his master that the children had left the room through the window. Schmidt got angry. "You're nothing but a dunce ! Just a puppy ! You actually think that the children jumped out into the yard through a window on the fifth floor? Or perhaps you think they flew out of the window like flies or dragonflies?" "What !" The Professor started. "They flew? What dragonfly?" The photographer smiled. "Well, that is what Jack thinks!" The Professor seized his head in his hands. "What an awful thing!" His voice was hoarse. The photographer gazed at him in amazement and asked: "What is the matter with you? Here, have a drink of water! You are not well." He stepped towards the table on which stood a glass jug full of water; but here the Professor positively screamed as if he had trodden on red-hot iron with bare feet. "Stop! stop! stop!" he yelled. The photographer, now frightened, froze in his tracks. The Professor shot out his hand and grabbed a glass containing what appeared to be water, hastily raised it to the level of his eyes and looked through it towards the light. Then he hastily produced a huge magnifying glass with a horn handle from his pocket and shouted to Schmidt: "Don't move! For goodness' sake, don't move! And hold the dog tight ! Better take him in your arms. I beg you!" The fat man, thoroughly frightened, was completely bewildered. Without further ado, he picked up the dog in his arms and pressed him tightly to his chest. "The old man has gone off his head!" he thought. "Now, stay like that!" shouted the Professor. Holding the magnifying glass in front of his eyes, crouching down, he started to examine the rectangles of the floor carefully one after the other. "Shall I have to stand long like this, Professor?" timidly asked the photographer as he followed with alarm the strange movements of the Professor. "Put one foot here!" the Professor yelled at him, pointing with his finger at the nearest rectangles of the parquet. Schmidt awkwardly moved his foot and pressed Jack so tightly that he wriggled in his arms and started to whimper. "Shut up!" whispered Schmidt, watching the Professor with growing fright. "Now - the other foot! Put it here!" The fat man followed without protest. Thus, step by step, the Professor conducted the photographer, who was quite dumb with astonishment, to the doorway. "And now," gruff-gruffed1 the Professor, throwing the door wide open, "please go away!" Schmidt had hardly got outside before the door banged in his face. He could hear the lock being turned. The fat man dropped Jack, spluttered with fright and dashed down the stairway, losing his sandals, out of breath, looking over his shoulder every minute. Jack, with a great bark, plunged after him. And they did not stop running until they reached the nearest militia post.2 * * * * * A motor-car with blue stripes on its sides drove at high speed into the courtyard. Several militiamen sprang out, called out the caretaker and hastened to the fifth floor home of Professor Enotoff. 1 Russians make use of words which show what they mean by their sound. "Gruff-gruff" has been made up and is used in various places to illustrate this. - Translator. 2 In the Soviet Union "policemen" no longer exist; in their place are "Militiamen" who occupy "Militia posts," not "police stations." But the Professor did not appear to be at home. On the door of his flat there hung a note, pinned up with new drawing pins: Don't look for me. It will be quite useless. Professor J. H. Enotoff. CHAPTER II The wonder-working liquid - The bewildering behaviour of shorts and sandals - A very ordinary room is transformed in a very extraordinary way - Adventures on the window-sill - Karik and Valya set off on an amazing journey WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS JUST THIS. On the evening of the day previous to that on which the children had vanished, Karik was sitting in the study of Professor Enotoff. The evening was a good time to have a chat with the old man. The study was in semi-darkness and long dark shadows appeared to be climbing to the ceiling from the black corners of the room: it seemed as if someone was hiding up there and was gazing down at the circle of light on the big table. Blue flames of a spirit lamp leaped up, flickered and swayed underneath the curved bottom of a glass retort. In the retort something gurgled and bubbled. Transparent drops were falling slowly and musically from a filter into a bottle. Karik climbed up on to the biggest leather armchair. Pressing his chin on the edge of the table, he gazed attentively at the skilful hands of the Professor, trying hard not to breathe, and not to move. The Professor worked away, whistling, or telling Karik amusing stories of his childhood, but more often talking about what he had seen in Africa, America or Australia - it was all very interesting, whatever he said. Then, rolling up the white sleeves of his overall, he bent over the table and slowly, drop by drop, he poured out a thicky oily liquid into narrow little glasses. From time to time he threw into these glasses some sparkling crystals, and then little clouds would appear in the liquid, slowly circle round and drop to the bottom. After this, the old man poured something blue out of a measure and the liquid became, for some reason, rose coloured. All this, naturally, was most interesting, and Karik was ready to stay there all night. But suddenly, the Professor hastily dried his hands on a towel, grasped the large retort by the neck and rapidly covered it up with blue paper. "Well, that's that!" he said. "At last I can congratulate myself on a success." "It's ready?" asked Karik, cheerfully. "Yes. All that remains now is to take the colour out of it, and . . ." The Professor snapped his fingers, and in a weird voice sang: 0 beauteous, miraculous fluid! They'll all ask: How did you do it? Karik could not help frowning: the Professor sang so loudly, but unfortunately he had no ear for music and sang a melody which resembled the wailing of the wind in a chimney pipe. "Suppose the rabbit won't drink it?" questioned Karik. "Won't drink it!" The Professor just shrugged his shoulders. "We'll make it drink . . . but that must wait for to-morrow . . .but now. . . ." The old man looked at the clock and started to fuss: "Oh-oh-oh, Karik! We've stayed up far too late. Eleven o'clock. Yes. It's two minutes past eleven!" Karik realised that it was time to go home. With a sigh, he climbed down reluctantly from the armchair and demanded: "You won't begin without me to-morrow?" "Not under any circumstances," assured the Professor, shaking his head. "That I promise you." "And can Valya come?" "Valya?" The Professor thought over this. "Well, why not . . . bring Valya. . . ." "Nothing will happen very suddenly?" "Everything will happen," said the Professor confidently, as he blew out the spirit lamp. "And will the rabbit turn into a flea?" "Oh, no," laughed the Professor. "The rabbit will remain a rabbit." "But tell me, Professor. . . ." "No, no, I will not tell you anything more. Quite enough. We can leave our conversation until to-morrow. Go home, my young friend. I am tired, and it is high time you were in bed." All night long, Karik tossed from side to side. He dreamt he saw a pink elephant, so tiny that you could put him in a thimble. The elephant was eating jam, then ran along the table, round a saucer, playing such pranks that he upset the salt and nearly got drowned in the mustard. Karik rescued him from the mustard pot and started to clean him up, standing him in a little dish, but the elephant wrenched himself away and gave Karik a blow on the shoulder with his trunk. Then he suddenly jumped up on to Karik's head and said in a queer girlish voice, vaguely familiar: "What is the matter, Karik? Why are you shouting?" Karik opened his eyes. Beside his bed, in a dressing-gown, stood Valya. "Aha! you - awake already?" said Karik. "Grand! Dress yourself quickly." "What for?" "We must start. Going to the Professor's. Oo-oo, what will happen to-day . . .? Such wonders! . . . miracles!" "But what?" "Dress yourself quickly." "I'll put on shorts and sandals," said Valya. "And I'll do the same." Looking under the bed for his sandals, Karik told her in a whisper: "Understand: Professor John has invented a pink liquid." "Does it taste nice?" asked Valya, buckling the strap of her sandals. "I don't know . . . it's for rabbits . . . he is going to give it to them to-day . . . make them drink it, and then. . . . Oo-oo, my word!" Valya's eyes opened widely. "And what will happen to them?" she asked in a whisper. "He doesn't know yet. This is just an experiment. Come on quickly!" The children quietly tiptoed through their mother's room. Mother shouted something after them, but Karik grabbed Valya by the hand and raced off with her. "Keep quiet," he whispered, "or she'll make us clean our teeth, wash, and wait for breakfast. Then we shall most certainly be late." Having dashed across the courtyard, they darted into the main entrance of the flats, up on to the fifth floor, stopping at last in front of the door, where the bell did not work and callers were instructed to knock. Karik knocked - no one answered. He pushed the door - it opened. The children went into the semi-darkness of a hall. On the wall a large mirror glittered. Immediately opposite the children, a bronze idol gazed out of a glass case. The Professor had brought it from China, where some of the Chinamen actually pray to these hideous dummies. In the Professor's household it served as a doorkeeper. And a most excellent doorkeeper it was and never grumbled "shut the door after you." In all other respects, it was very like one of the living doorkeepers, and like them could watch the door silently all day. On the hall-stand there hung the Professor's heavy winter fur coat, his overcoat and some sort of a raincoat with big checks like a chess board. All was silent in the flat; except that the tick-tock of a clock sounded a measured beat in the dining room, and in the kitchen, water was dripping musically from the tap. "We'll go in," said Karik. "The Professor is certain to be in his study." But in the study there was no Professor. The children decided to wait. The windows of the study were wide open. The sun lit up the white table, covered with curving jars, vessels and retorts. Fine glass tubing stood up like flowers in the glass vessels. Nickel-plated cups gave blinding reflections of the sun. The brass of the microscope sparkled cheerfully, and on the ceiling the sunbeams frolicked. Along the wall, there was fixed a glass case full of books - thick books and thin books. The titles were hard to understand: The Ecology of Animals, Hydrobiology, Chironomidae, Ascaridae. They were the sort of books children do not touch. The children wandered round the study, twisted the screws of the microscope, sat in the leather armchair, on which, with its empty sleeves flung apart, lay the white overall of the Professor; and then they started to look at the jars. Between two retorts, Valya noticed a tall, narrow glass. It was full to the brim with a silvery clear liquid. Little bubbles, which glittered, rose from the bottom and burst on the surface. It was very like soda water. Valya carefully took the tall glass in her hand. It was as cold as ice. She raised it to her face and smelt it. The liquid had a scent like peaches and something else she could not recognise. It was very appetising. "Oh, how good it smells!" cried out Valya. "Put it back in its place," said Karik, crossly. "You mustn't touch anything. That may be a poison. Come away from the table. Do you hear?" Valya put the glass back in its place, but she did not leave the table; the liquid smelt so delicious that she wanted to sniff it again. "Valya, come away!" said Karik. "Or else I'll tell Mother. Honour bright, I will!" Valya went round the table, sat in the armchair, but quickly returned and found herself once more opposite the delicious liquid. "Do you know, Karik, it is soda water!" she said, and she suddenly wanted desperately to drink it, just as if she had been eating salted herrings all day long. "Don't touch it!" shouted Karik. "But if I want a drink?" asked Valya. "Go home and drink tea." Valya didn't answer a word. She went over to the window, looked out of it, down at the courtyard; but when Karik turned away, she quickly skipped over to the table, seized the tumbler and took a sip. "I say, it's delicious!" she half-whispered. "Valya, you are mad!" snapped Karik. "Oh, Karik, it's so nice! Try it!" And she held out the tumbler to her brother. "Cold and so nice . . . never tasted anything like it." "And suppose it suddenly poisons you!" said Karik, looking doubtfully at the silvery fluid. "Poison would be bitter," smiled Valya, "but this is so delicious." Karik shifted from foot to foot. "It is sure to be some sort of rubbish!" he said, stretching out his hand for the glass in an undecided way. "It is certainly not rubbish. You try it. It smells like peaches but the taste is like lemonade. Only much nicer." Karik looked round. If the Professor were to come in at this minute, a rather unpleasant conversation would ensue. But as there was nobody in the study except Valya, Karik hastily took a few gulps and put the glass back in its former place. "But it certainly tastes nice!" said he. "Only we mustn't drink any more or the Professor will notice it. Let's sit in the window. He will surely be back soon and we shall begin the experiments. "All right," sighed Valya, and looked sadly at the glass and its tasty contents. The children climbed on to the divan and from thence on to the window-sill. With their heads hanging out they lay, 'their feet dangling behind them, and gazed down on the courtyard below. "Oo, what a height!" said Valya, and actually spat so as to watch something fall. "Would you jump down?" "Jump?" answered Karik. "I would with a parachute." "But without a parachute?" "Without a parachute? No, without a parachute you cannot jump from such heights." Suddenly, against the window pane there banged a blue dragonfly which fell on to the window-sill. "A dragonfly!" shouted Valya. "Look, look!" "Mine!" shouted Karik. "No, mine!" screamed Valya. "I saw it first." The dragonfly lay on the window-sill between Karik and Valya, helplessly moving its tiny feet. Karik stretched out his hand towards the dragonfly, and suddenly he felt that his shorts were dropping off. He stooped quickly but could not catch them: the shorts slid off and after them fell his sandals. Karik then wanted to jump off the window-sill on to the divan standing by the window, but the divan suddenly started to drop away down, just like a lift leaving the top floor. Unable to grasp what was happening, Karik looked around in confusion, and then saw that the whole room was suddenly expanding both upwards and downwards. "What's happened?" he screamed. Walls, floor and ceiling were moving away from each other like the bellows of a huge concertina. The electric light was hurrying away up with the ceiling. The floor was falling precipitately down. Hardly a minute had passed, but the room was already almost unrecognisable. High above overhead, there swung a gigantic glass balloon hung around with huge transparent icicles which gleamed in the sunlight. This was the chandelier. Far below, there stretched a boundless yellow field divided into regular rectangles. On the rectangles were piled square wooden blocks with burnt ends. By them lay a long white tube on which there was printed in huge letters "Navy cut." One end of this was burnt and covered by a great cap of grey ash. Nearby, like immense leather mountains, stood the dark armchairs, on one of which lay the Professor's white overall looking like snow covering the mountain. Where lately had been the bookcase there now stood a skyscraper of glass and brown beams. Through the glass could be seen books as big as five-storied houses. "Karik, what is all this?" Valya asked quite calmly, looking with curiosity at the amazing transformation of the room. It was only then that Karik noticed Valya. She was standing beside him without sandals and without shorts. "Look, Karik, isn't it funny!" she giggled. "It must be the experiment beginning. Ooh!" Before Karik succeeded in answering, something beside them started to make a noise and to thump. Thick clouds of dust rose from the window-sill. Valya clung on to Karik's shoulder. At that moment there was a puff of wind. Dust flew up and slowly started to settle. "Ooh!" shouted Valya. In the spot where just a moment or two ago there had lain a tiny dragonfly, there now moved a thick, long, log-like, jointed body with a huge hook at the end of it. The brown body, covered with turquoise blue splashes, was contracting in spasms. The joints moved, sometimes sliding over each other, sometimes turning sideways. Four huge transparent wings, covered with a dense web of glittering threads, trembled in the air. A monstrous head hammered upon the window-sill. "Kari-ik!" whispered Valya. "What is this?" "Sh-sh-sh!" Treading carefully, Karik started to cross the window-sill which now was like a wooden motor road, but, having taken a few steps, he stopped aghast. He was standing on the edge of a precipice. It seemed to him that he was looking down from the height of the St. Isaac's Cathedral. It was then that Karik realised what had happened. He returned to Valya, took her by the hand and, hiccupping with fright, said: "It... it must have been the water for the rabbits... do you understand . . . the Professor's experiment has succeeded . . . only you and I have got small and not the rabbits." Valya didn't understand anything. "But what is this?" she asked, pointing at the monster which was now lying motionless on the window-sill. "That? The dragonfly! "So enormous?" "Not at all enormous," gloomily replied Karik, "it is the same as it was. On the contrary it is we who have become tiny . . . like fleas. . . ." "Isn't that interesting?" said Valya cheerfully. "You fool!" Karik was really angry. "There is nothing at all interesting about it. They'll put us in ajar and start looking at us under a microscope." "In my opinion," said Valya confidently, "they will not have a chance to look at us. The Professor will come and make us big again." "Oh, yes, big again! He won't even notice us!" "But we'll shout!" "He won't hear us!" "Won't hear us? Why? He is not deaf, is he?" "No, he is not deaf, but our voices are just about as strong as a midge's voice." "Is that so?" Valya smiled unconvinced, and then shouted at the top other voice: "Oho! Here we are!" She looked at Karik and asked: "What about it? Difficult to hear?" "All right for us, but no good for the Professor." "But what will happen to us?" "Nothing particular. They'll whisk us off the window-sill with a duster and trample us underfoot, that's all. . . ." "Who will whisk us off?" "The Professor himself." "Whisk us off with a duster?" "Yes, certainly! He'll start to clear up the dust with his whisk! And off we'll go with the dust!" "But we . . . but . . . we - Listen, Karik, I have already thought of something . . . . Do you know what - we can sit on the dragonfly. The Professor will notice the dead dragonfly and most certainly will take it over to his table, and then we can get on to his microscope and he will catch sight of us - of course he will catch sight of us! And then he will make us big again. Let's climb on to the dragonfly quickly." Valya clutched Kari& by the hand and they ran to the dragonfly. "Get up on to it!" Helping one another, the children nimbly clambered up on to the dragonfly, but they had only just sat down when the dragonfly started to quiver, to beat its lumbering wings, to turn heavily and pant and puff like some machine. The children could feel a strong muscular body bending beneath them. "Oy, it's still alive. Jump down quickly!" screamed Valya. "Don't worry, don't worry. Hold on tighter." The children clung with hands and legs to the body of the dragonfly, but it wriggled its whole body, endeavouring to free itself from the unpleasant burden. Karik and Valya rocked and bounced as if they were on springs. "It will throw us off! Oh, it will throw us off any minute!" whimpered Valya. "Just wait!" shouted Karik. "I'll throw it off. . . . There, stop it!" He slid up to the head of the dragonfly, bent over and hit it with all his strength several times in its eye with his fist. The dragonfly shuddered, twisted itself and sank down. "It appears to be dead again," said Valya. "We shall see." Karik slid off the dragonfly, went all around it and then seized with both hands one of the clear, mice-like wings and tried to raise it. The dragonfly didn't stir. "It's dead," said Karik, confidently clambering up on to the dragonfly. For some time the children sat silently, looking every now and then at the door, but they soon became bored and began to examine the dragonfly.