By this time, it was plain, Thimble and Thumb had found something to
raise them to the window-hole, for Nod, as he glanced up, saw half of
both their astonished faces (one eye of each) peering in at the window.
He waved his lean little arms, and their faces vanished.
"Why do you wave your long thumbs in the air?" said the old Gunga
uneasily.
"I wave to Tishnar," said Nod, "who watches over her wandering Princes,
and will preserve them from thieves and cunning ones. And as for your
filthy green-weed soup, how should a Mulla-mulgar soil his thumbs with
gutting fish? And as for the Water-middens' song, _that_ I cannot teach
you, nor would I teach it you if I could, Master Fish-catcher. But I can
catch fish with it."
The old Gunga squatted close on his stool, and grinned as graciously as
he could. "I am poor and growing old," he said, "and I cannot catch fish
as once I could. How is that done, O Royal Traveller?"
Nod stood up and put his finger on his lips. "Secrets, Puss!" says he,
and stepped softly over and peeped out of the door. He came back.
"Listen," he said. "I go down to the water--at daybreak; oh yes, just at
daybreak. Then I row out a little way in my little Bobberie, quite,
quite alone--no one must be near to spy or listen; then I cast my nets
into the water and sing and sing."
"What nets?" said the Gunga.
Nod dodged a crisscross with his finger in the air.
"S[=o][=o]tli, s[=o][=o]tli," mewed Puss, with her eyes half shut.
The old Gunga wriggled his head with his great lip sagging. "What
happens then?" said he.
"Then," said Nod, "from far and near my Magic draws the fishes, head,
fin, and tail, hundreds and hundreds, all to hear my Water-middens'
lovely song."
"And what then?" said Gunga.
"Then," said Nod, peeping with his eye, "I look and I look till I see
the biggest fish of all--seven, eight, nine times as big as that up
there, and I draw him out gently, gently, just as I choose him, into my
Bobberie."
"And wouldn't _any_ fish come to the little Prince unless he fished
alone?" said the greedy Gunga.
"None," said Nod. "But there, why should we be gossiping of fishing? My
boat is far away."
"But," said the Gunga cunningly, "I have a boat."
"Ohé, maybe," said Nod easily. "One cannot drown on dry land. But I did
speak of a Bobberie of skin and Bemba-wood, made by the stamping
Oomgar-nuggas next the sea."
"Ay," said the Gunga triumphantly, "but that's just what my Bobberie
_is_ made of, and I broke the backbone of the Oomgar-nugga chief that
made it with one cuff of my cudgel-hand."
Nod yawned. "Tishnar's Prince is tired," he said, "and cannot talk of
fishes any more. A bowlful more broth, Master Fish-catcher, and then
I'll just put on my jacket and go to sleep." And he laughed, oh, so
softly to himself to see that sooty, gluttonous, velvety face, and the
red, gleaming eyes, and the thick, twitching thumbs.
"Ootz nuggthli!" coughed the Gunga sourly. He ladled out the broth,
bobbing with broken pods, with a great nutshell, muttering angrily to
himself as he stooped over the pot. And there, as soon as he had turned
his back, came those two dark wondering faces at the window, grinning to
see little Nod so snug and comfortable before the fire.
And when the Gunga had poured out the broth, he brought his stool nearer
to Nod, and, leaning his great hands on the floor, he said: "See here,
Prince of Tishnar, if I lend you my skin Bobberie to-morrow morning,
will you catch _me_ some fish with your magic song?"
Nod frowned and stared into the fire. "The crafty Gunga would be peeping
between the trees," he said, "and then----"
"What then?" said he.
"Then Tishnar's Meermuts would come with their silver thongs and drive
you squalling into the water. And the Middens would pick your eyes out,
Master Fish-catcher."
"I promise, I promise," said the old Gunga, and his enormous body
trembled.
"Where is this talked-of Bobberie?" said Nod solemnly. "Was it that old
log Nod saw when whispering with the Water-middens?"
"Follow, follow," said the other. "I'll show the Prince this log." But
first Nod stooped under the bench, and pulled out his sheep's-coat and
put it on. Then he followed the old Fish-catcher down his frosty path
between its banks of snow, clear now in the silver shining of the moon.
The Fish-catcher showed him everything--how to untie the knotted rope of
Samarak, how to use the paddles, where the mooring-stone for deep water
was. He held it up in his hand, a great round stone as big as a
millstone. Nod listened and listened, half hiding his face in his jacket
lest the Gunga-mulgar should see him laughing. Last of all, the
Fish-catcher, lifting him lightly in his hand, pointed across the turbid
water, and bade him have care not to drift out far in his fishing, for
the stream ran very swiftly, the ice-floes or hummocks were sharp, and
under the Shining-one, he said, snorting River-horses and the weeping
Mumbo lurk.
"Never fear, Master Fish-catcher," said Nod. "Tishnar will watch over
me. How many big fish, now, can the old Glutton eat in comfort?"
The Gunga lifted his black bony face, and glinted on the moon. "Five
would be good," he said. "Ten would be better. Ohé, do not count, Royal
Traveller. It makes the head ache after ten." And he thought within
himself what a fine thing it was to have kept this Magic-mulgar, this
Prince of Tishnar, for his friend, when he might in his rage have flung
him clean across Obea-munza into that great B[=o][=o]bab-tree grey in
the moon. "He shall teach me the Middens' song, and then I'll fish for
myself," he thought, all his thick skin stirring on his bones with
greed.
So he cozened and cringed and flattered, and used Nod as if he were his
mother's son. He made him lie on his own bed; he put on him a great skin
ear-cap; he filled a bowl with the hot fish-water to bathe his feet; and
he fetched out from a lidded hole in the floor a necklet of scalloped
Bamba-shells, and hung it round his slender neck.
But Nod, as soon as he lay down, began thinking of those poor
Mulla-mulgars, his brothers, hungry and shivering in the tree-tops. And
he pondered how he could help them. Presently he began to chafe and toss
in his bed, to sigh and groan.
Up started the old Gunga from his corner beside the fire. "What ails the
Prince? Why does he groan? Are you in pain, Mulla-mulgar?"
"In pain!" cried Nod, as if in a great rage, "How shall a Prince sleep
with twice ten thousand Gunga fleas in his blanket?"
He got up, dragging after him the thick Munzaram's fleece off his bed,
and, opening the door, flung it out into the snow. "Try that, my hungry
hopping ones," he said, and pushed up the door again. "Now I must have
another one," he said.
The old Fish-catcher excused himself for the fleas. "It is cold to comb
in the doorway," he said, rubbing his flat nose. And he took another
woolly skin out of his earth-cupboard and laid it over Nod.
"That's one for Thumb," Nod said to himself, laughing. And presently
once more he began fretting and tossing. "Oh, oh, oh!" he cried out,
"What! More of ye! more of ye!" and with that away he went again, and
flung the second ram's fleece after the first.
"Master Traveller, Master Traveller!" yelped the old Fish-catcher,
starting up, "if you throw all my blankets out, those thieves the
smudge-faces will steal them."
"Better no blankets than a million fleas," said Nod; "and yours, Master
Fish-catcher, are as greedy as Ephelanto tics. And now I think I will
sleep by the fire, then the first peep of day will shine in my eyes from
that little window-hole up there, and wake me to my fishing."
"Udzmutchakiss" ("So be it"), growled the Gunga. But he was very angry
underneath. "Wait ye, wait ye, wait ye, my pretty Squirrel-tail," he
kept muttering to himself as he sat with crossed arms. "For every
blanket a Bobberie or great fish."
But Nod had never felt so merry in his life. To think of his brothers
wrapped warm in the Gunga-mulgar's blankets!--He laughed aloud.
"What ails the Traveller? What is he mocking at now?" said the
Fish-catcher, glowering out of his corner.
"Why," said Nod, "I laughed to hear the mice in this box hanging over my
head."
"Mice?" said the Gunga.
"Why, yes; a score or more," said Nod. "And one old husky Muttakin keeps
saying, 'Nibble all, nibble all; leave not one whole, my little pretty
ones--not the crumb of a crumb for the ugly old glutton.' I think, O
generous Gunga, she means the bread of Sudd, I smell."
At that the Gunga flamed up in a fury. He rushed to his food-box,
shouting, "Will ye, oh, will ye, ye nibbling thieves!" And, opening the
door, he flung it after the blankets--Sudd-loaves, Nanoes, river-weed,
and all. And he stood a minute in the doorway, looking out on the cold,
moonlit snow.
"Shut to the door, shut to the door, Master Fish-catcher," called Nod.
"I hear a distant harp-playing."
The Gunga very quickly shut the door at that. But he came to the fire
and stood leaning on his hand, looking into it, very sullen and angry.
"Did I not say it, Prince of Tishnar?" he said. "My blankets are gone
already. Stolen!"
"Sleep softly, my friend," said Nod, "and weary me not with talking.
There's better rams in the forest than ever were flayed. Your blankets
will creep back, never fear. Even to a Mullabruk his own fleas! But,
there! I'll make magic even this very moment, and to-morrow, when you go
down to the river to fetch up the fish, there shall your blankets be,
folded and civeted, on the stones by the water."
Then he rose up in his littleness, and began to dance slowly from one
foot to the other, waving his lean arms over the fire, and singing, in
the secret language of the Mulla-mulgars, as loud as ever he could:
"Thumb, Thimble, Mulgar meese,
In your blankets dream at ease,
And never mind the frozen fleas;
But don't forget the loaves and cheese!"
"It is very strange magic," said the Fish-catcher.
"Nay," said Nod; "they were very strange fleas."
"And 'Thumthimble'--what does that mean?"
"'Thumb' means short and fat, and 'Thimble' means long and lean, which
is Mulgar-royal for both kinds, Master Fish-catcher."
"Ohé! the Prince knows best," said the old Gunga; "but _I_ never heard
such magic. And I've watched the Dancing Oomgars leagues and leagues
from here, and drummed them home to their Shes."
Nod yawned.
As soon as it was daybreak the old Fish-catcher, who had scarcely slept
a wink for thinking of the fishes he was to have for his breakfast, came
and woke Nod up. And Nod said: "Now I go, Master Fish-catcher; but be
sure you do not venture one toe's breadth beyond the door till you hear
me bringing back the fishes."
"How can the Prince carry them, fishes big as that?" said the Gunga.
"One at a time, my friend, as Ephelantoes root up trees," said Nod,
staring at his bristling arms and tusks of teeth. "Ohé!" he went on,
"when you hear my sweet-sounding Water-middens' song, you will not be
able to keep yourself from peeping. You must be bound with Cullum,
Master Fish-catcher. Oh, I should weep riversful of salt tears if the
Water-middens picked your gentle eyes out."
At first the cunning old Gunga would not consent to be bound up. But Nod
refused to stir until he did. So at last he fetched a thick rope of
Samarak (which is stronger and tougher than Cullum) out of his old
chest or coffer, and Nod wound it round and round him--legs, arms, and
shoulders--and tied the ends to the great fish-scaly table.
"Sit easy, my friend," said he; "my magic begins wonderfully to burn in
me." And, without another word, he skipped out and pulled up the door
behind him.
Words could not tell how rejoiced were his brothers to see him from
their tree-tops come frisking across the snow. Away went the travellers
in the first light, hastening like thieves in their jackets, Nod in his
sheep's-coat leading the way. They left the blankets as Nod had promised
the Gunga. Then, one, two, three, they pushed the Bobberie into deep
water. In jumped Nod, in jumped Thimble, in jumped Thumb. Out splashed
the heavy paddles, and soon the Bobberie was floating like a cork among
the ice-humps in the red glare of dawn. They shoved off, Thumb at one
paddle, Thimble and Nod at the other. The farther they floated, the
swifter swept the water. And soon, however hard they pushed at the heavy
paddles, the Bobberie began twirling round and round, zig-zagging faster
and faster down with the stream.
But scarcely were they more than fifteen fathoms from the bank when a
shrill and piercing "Illa olla! illa olla!" broke out behind them. No
need to look back. There on the bank in his glistening fish-skins,
gnashing his teeth and beating with his crusted hands on the drum of his
great chest, stood the terrible Gunga-mulgar, his Samarak-ropes all
burst asunder. He stooped and tore up huge stones and lumps of ice as
big as a sheep, and flung them high into the air after the tossing
Bobberie. Splash, splash, splash, they fell, around the three poor
sweating travellers, drenching them with water and melting snow. The
faster they paddled the faster swirled the water, and the thicker came
tumbling the Gunga's huge boulders of stone and ice. Let but one fall
plump upon their Bobberie, down they would go to be Mumbo-meat for good
and all. But ever farther the surging water was sweeping them on.
Suddenly the hailstones ceased, and they spied their dreadful enemy
swinging furiously back on his thick five-foot arms.
"Gone, gone!" cried Thimble in triumph, leaning breathless on his
paddle.
"Crow when your egg's hatched, brother Thimble," muttered Thumb. "He's
gone to fetch his bow."
True it was. Down swung the gibbering Gunga, his Oomgar-nugga's bow
across his shoulder. Crouching by the water-side, he stretched its
string with all his strength. And a thin, keen dart sung shrill as a
parakeet over their heads. Again, again, and then it seemed to Nod a
red-hot skewer had suddenly spitted him through the shoulder, and he
knew the Fish-catcher had aimed true. He plucked the arrow out and waved
it over his head, scrunching his teeth together, and saying nothing save
"Paddle, Thimble! Paddle, O Thumb!"
Mightily they leaned on their broad, unwieldy paddles. But now, not
looking where the water was sweeping them, of a sudden the Bobberie
butted full tilt into a great hummock of ice, and water began welling up
through a hole in the bottom. Nod knelt down, and, while his brothers
paddled, he flung out the water as fast as he could with his big
fish-skin cap. But fast though he baled, the water rilled in faster, and
just as they floated under a long, snow-laden branch of an
Ollaconda-tree, the Bobberie began to sink.
Then Thimble cried in a loud voice, "Guzza-guzza-nahoo!" and, with a
great leap, sprang out of the boat and caught the drooping branch. Thumb
clutched his legs and Nod Thumb's; and there they were, all three
swinging over the water, while the branch creaked and trembled over
their heads.
Down sank the staved-in Bobberie, and up--one, two, three, four,
five--floated huge, sluggish Mumboes or Coccadrilloes, with dull,
grass-green eyes fixed gluttonously on the dangling Mulgars. And a thick
muskiness filled the air around them.
Inch by inch Thimble edged along the bough, until, because of the
jutting twigs and shoots, he could edge no farther. Then, slowly and
steadily at first, but gradually faster, the three travellers began to
swing, sweeping to and fro through the air, above the enraged and
snapping Coccadrilloes. The wind rushed past Nod's ears; his jacket
flapped about him. "Go!" squealed Thumb; and away whisked Nod, like a
flying squirrel across the water, and landed high and dry on the bank
under the wide-spreading Ollaconda-tree. Thumb followed. Thimble, with
only his own weight to lift, quickly scrambled up into the boughs above
him. And soon all three Mulla-mulgars were sitting in safety, munching
what remained of the Gunga's Sudd-bread, and between their mouthfuls
shouting mockery at the musky Coccadrilloes.
While they were thus eating happily together Thumb suddenly threw up his
hands and called: "Blood, blood, O Ummanodda--blood, red blood!" And
then it seemed to Nod, trees, sky, and river swam mazily before his
eyes. Darkness swept up. He rolled over against a jutting root of the
Ollaconda, and knew no more.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]