When at last day streamed in silver across the peaks, the storm had
spent itself. But Nod did not stir, nor draw near to the fire to drink
of the hot pepper-water the travellers had brewed against the cold.
Thumb came at last and stooped over him. "Get up now, Ummanodda, little
brother, and do not mope and sulk any more. I was angry because I was
afraid. How should we have gone a day in safety without the Nizza-neela
and his Wonderstone? Come nearer to the fire, and dry your sodden
sheep's-coat."
Nod crept forlornly to the fire, and sat there shivering. He could not
eat. He crouched low on his heels, nor paid any heed to what was said or
done around him. And presently he fell into a cold, uneasy sleep, full
of dreadful dreams and voices. When he awoke, he peered sullenly out of
his jacket, and saw Ghibba with three of the five Moona-mulgars that he
had taken with him sitting hunched up round the fire. They had come back
bruised and bedraggled, and torn with thorns. One of them, stumbling in
the gloom on the green rocks, had fallen headlong into the cataract, and
had not been seen again; and one had been pounced on and carried off by
some unknown beast while they were hobbling back in the torchless
darkness towards the beacon above the cataract. There was no way beyond
the ravine. All was dense low forest, rocks and thorns, and pouring
waterways. And the travellers knew not what to be doing.
Nod could not bear to look at them nor listen to their lisping, mournful
voices. He covered up his face again, weary of the journey and of the
dream of Tishnar's Valleys, weary of his brothers, of the very daylight,
but weariest of himself.
After long palaver, Ghibba came shuffling over to him, and sat down
beside him.
"Is the Mulla-mulgar ill, that he sits alone, hiding his eyes?" he said.
Nod shook his head. "I am in my second sleep, Mountain-mulgar. A little
frost has cankered my bones. It is the Harp Nod hears, not Zevvera's
z[=o][=o]ts."
Ghibba sat with a very solemn look on his grey scarred face. "The
Mulla-mulgars say there can be no turning back, Nizza-neela. And, by the
way I have come, it is certain that there is no going onward. Then, say
they, being Mulgars-of-a-race, we must float with the mountain-water
into the great cavern, and trust our hearts to the fishes. Maybe it will
carry us to where every shadow comes at last; maybe these are the waters
of the Fountains of Assasimmon."
"I see no boat," yapped Nod scornfully. "The only boat my brothers ever
floated in was an old Gunga's Oomgar-nugga's bobberie that now is a nest
in Obea-Munza for Coccadrilloes' eggs."
"Already my people are gathering branches," said Ghibba, "to make
floating mats or rafts, such as I saw one of the Fishing-mulgars
squatting on while he dangled his tail for fish-bait. Comfort your weary
bones, then, Eengenares. Tishnar, who guards you, Tishnar, whose Prince
you are, Tishnar, who feasted even Utts like me on fruits of
sleeping-time, will not forsake us now."
Nod turned cold, and trembling, as if to tell this solemn Man of the
Mountains that his Wonderstone was gone. But he swallowed his spittle,
and was ashamed. So he rose up and listlessly hobbled after him to where
the rest of the travellers were toiling to gather branches for their
rafts.
The storm had snapped and stripped off many branches from the trees.
These the travellers dragged down to the water. Others they hauled down
with Cullum ropes, and some smaller saplings they charred through with
fire at the root. When they had heaped together a big pile of boughs and
Samarak, Cullum and all kinds of greenery, Ghibba and Thumb bound them
clumsily one by one together, letting them float out on to the water,
until the raft was large and buoyant enough to bear two or three Mulgars
with their bags. For one great raft that would have carried them all in
safety would have been too unwieldy to enter the mouth of the cavern,
besides being harder for these ignorant sailors to navigate. The torrent
flowed swiftly into the cavern. And if but two or three sailed in
together, Fortune might drown or lose many in the dark windings of the
mountain-water, but one or two at least might escape.
They toiled on till evening, by which time four strong green rafts
bobbed side by side at their mooring-ropes on the water. Then, tired
out, sore and blistered with their day's labours, the travellers heaped
up a great watch-fire once more, and supped merrily together, since it
might be for many of them for the last time. Nor did the
mountain-mulgars raise their drone for their kinsfolk beneath the
cataract, wishing to keep a brave heart for the dangers before them.
Only Nod sat gloomy and downcast, waiting impatiently till all should be
lying fast asleep. One by one the outwearied travellers laid themselves
down, with the palms of their feet towards the fire. Nod heard the
calling of the beasts in the ravine, and ever and again from far up the
mountain-side broke out the long hungry howl of the little wolves. Only
Nod and the Mountain-mulgar whose turn it was to keep watch were now
awake. He was a queer old Mulgar, blind of one eye, but he could stand
wide awake for hours mumbling in his mouth a shaving of their blue
cheese-rind. And when he had turned his back for a moment on the fire,
Nod wriggled softly away, and, hobbling off into the forest, soon
reached the water-side.
He crept forward under the gigantic dragon-tree, and down the steep bank
to the little creek where he had first heard the singing of the
Water-midden. All was shadowy and still. Only the dark water murmured in
its stony channel, and the faint night-wind rustled in the sedge. Nod
leaned on his belly over the water, and, gazing into it, called as
softly and clearly as his harsh voice could: "Water-midden,
Water-midden, here am I, Ummanodda, come as you bade me."
No one answered. He stooped lower, and called again. "It is me, the
Mulla-mulgar, child of Tishnar, who trusted to you his Wonderstone,
beautiful Midden. Nod, who believed in you, calls--your friend, the
sorrowful Nod!"
"Sing, Mulla-mulgar!" croaked a scornful sedge-bird. "The Princess loves
sweet music."
A lean fish of the changing colours of a cherry swam softly to the
glimmering surface and stared at Nod.
"Tell me, Jacket-of-Loveliness," whispered Nod, "where is thy mistress
that she does not answer me?"
The fish stared solemnly on wavering fin.
"Hsst, brother," said Nod, and let fall a bunch of Soota-berries into
the stream. The fish leapt in the water, and caught the little fruit in
its thin, curved teeth, and nibbled greedily till all was gone.
Whereupon, staring solemnly at Nod once more, he let the leaves and
stalk float onward with the stream, then with a flash and flicker of
tail dived down, down, and was gone. All again was silent. Only the
blazing stars and the shadowy phantoms of the distant firelight moved on
the water.
"O Tishnar," muttered the little Mulgar to himself, "help once this
wretched Nod!"
Suddenly, as he watched, as if it were the amber or ivory beam of a
lantern in the water, he saw a pale brightness ascending. And all in a
moment the Water-midden was there rocking on the dark green water
beneath the arching sedge. But her hands, when Nod looked to see, were
empty, floating like rose-leaves open on the water. But he spoke gently,
for he could not look into her beautiful wild face, and her eyes, that
were like the forest for darkness and the moonlit mountains of Tishnar
for loveliness, and still be angry, nor even sad.
"Tell me, O Water-midden, where is my Wonderstone?" he said.
The Water-midden smoothed slowly back her gold locks. "You told me
false, Mulla-mulgar," she answered. "All day long have I been sitting
rubbing, rubbing with my small tired thumb, but no magic has answered.
It is but a common water-pebble roughened into the beasts' shapes. It
means nothing, and I am weary."
And Nod guessed she had been rubbing the Wonderstone craft to cudgel,
and not as the magic went, sama-weeza--right to left.
"If it is but a water-pebble, give it back to me, then, Midden, for it
was my mother who gave it me."
But the Midden smiled with her red lips. "You did deceive me, then,
Mulla-mulgar, so that you might seem strange and wonderful, and far
above the other hoarse-voiced travellers, the beloved of Tishnar? You
may deceive me again, perhaps. I think I will not give you back your
stone. Perhaps, too," she said, throwing back her tiny chin, so that her
face lay like a flower in leaves of gold--"perhaps I rubbed not wisely.
You shall tell me how."
"Show me, then, my Wonderstone. I am tired out for want of sleep, and
long no more for Tishnar's fountains."
Then the Midden floated out into the middle of the stream, and with one
light hand kept herself in front of Nod, her narrow shoulders slowly
twirling the while in the faintly-rosied starlight. She took with the
other a long thick strand of her hair, and, unwinding it slowly,
presently out of it let fall into her palm the angry-flaming
Wonderstone. "See, Mulla-mulgar, here is your Wonderstone. Now in
patience tell me how to make magic."
And Nod said softly: "Float but a span nearer to me, Midden--a span and
just a half a span."
And the Water-midden drew in a little, still softly twirling.
"Oh, but just a thumb-nail nearer," said Nod.
Laughing, she floated in closer yet, till her beautiful eyes were
looking up into his bony and wrinkled face. Then with a sudden spring he
thrust his hand deep into the silken mesh of her hair and held tight.
She moved not a finger; she still looked laughing up. "Listen, listen,
Midden," he said: "I will not harm you--I could not harm you, beautiful
one, though you never gave me back my Wonderstone again, and I wandered
forsaken till I died of hunger in the forest. What use is the stone to
you now? Tishnar is angry. See how wildly it burns and sulks. Give it,
then, into my hand, and I promise--not a promise, Midden, fading in one
evening--I will give you any one thing else whatsoever it is you ask."
And the Water-midden looked up at him unfrightened, and saw the truth
and kindness in his eyes. "Be not angry with me, little brother," she
answered. "I did not pretend with you, sorrowful Nizza-neela!" And she
dropped the Wonderstone into his outstretched hand.
Tears sprang up into Nod's tired, aching eyes. He smoothed softly with
his hairy fingers the golden strands floating in the ice-cold water.
"Till I die, O beautiful one," he said, "I will not forget you. Tell me
your wish!"
Then the Water-midden looked long and gravely at him out of darkling
eyes. She put out her hand and touched his. "This shall be my sorrowful
wish, little Mulgar: it is that when you and your brothers come at last
to the Kingdom of Assasimmon, and the Valleys of Tishnar, you will not
forget me."
"O Midden," Nod answered, "it needed no asking--that. It may be we shall
never reach the Valleys. For now we must plunge into the water-cavern on
our floating rafts, and all is haste and danger. But I mind no danger
now, Midden. That Mulla-mulgar, my father Seelem, chose to wander, and
not to sit fat and idle with Princes. So, too, would I. Tell me a harder
wish. Ask anything, Water-midden, and my Wonderstone shall give it you."
And the Water-midden gazed sorrowfully into his face. "That is all I
ask, Mulla-mulgar," she repeated softly--"that you will not forget me. I
fear the Wonderstone. All day it has been crickling and burning in my
hair. All that I ask, I ask only of you." So Nod stooped once more over
that gold and beauty, and he promised the Water-midden.
And she drew out a slender, fine strand of her hair, and cut it through
with the sharp edge of a little shell, and she wound it seven times
round Nod's left wrist. "There," she said; "that will bid you remember
me when you come to the end. Have no fear of the waters, Nizza-neela; my
people will watch over you."
And Nod could not think what in his turn to give the Water-midden for a
remembrance and a keepsake. So he gave her Battle's silver groat with
the hole in it, and hung it upon a slender shred of Cullum round her
neck, and he tore off also one of the five out of his nine ivory buttons
that still clung to his coat, and gave her that, too.
"And if my brothers stay here one day more, come in the darkness, O
Water-midden; I shall not sleep for thinking of you." And he said
good-bye to her, kneeling above the dark water. But long after he had
safely wrapped his Wonderstone in the blood-stained leaf from Battle's
little book again, and had huddled himself down beside the slumbering
travellers, he still seemed to hear the forlorn singing of the
Water-midden, and in his eyes her small face haunted, amid the darkness
of his dreams.
All the next morning the travellers slaved at their rafts. They made
them narrow and buoyant and very strong, for they knew not what might
lie beyond the mouth of the cavern. And now the sun shone down so
fiercely that the Mulgars, climbing, hacking, dragging at the branches,
and moiling to and fro betwixt forest and water, teased by flies and
stinging ants, hardly knew what to do for the heat. Thumb and Thimble
stripped off the few rags left of their red jackets, and worked in their
skins with better comfort. And they laughed at Nod for sweating on in
his wool.
"Look, Thumb," laughed Thimble, peering out from under a tower of
greenery, "the little Prince is so vain of his tattered old
sheep's-jacket that he won't walk in his bare an instant, yet he is so
hot he can scarcely breathe."
Nod made no answer, but worked stolidly on, bunched up in his hot
jacket, because he feared if he went bare his brothers would see the
thin strand of bright hair about his wrist, and mock at the Midden.
When the sun was at noon the Mulgars had finished the building of their
rafts. They lay merrily bobbing in a long string moored to an Ollaconda
on the swift-running water. They tied up bundles of nuts, and old
Nanoes, roots, and pepper-pods, and scores of torches, and bound these
down securely to the smallest of the rafts. Then, wearied out, with
sting-swollen chops and bleeding hands, they raised their
shadow-blankets, and having bound up their heads with cool leaves, all
lay down beside the embers of their last night's fire for the "glare."
There were now seventeen travellers, and they had built nine light
rafts--two Mulgars for every raft, except two; one of which two was wide
enough to float in comfort three of the lighter Moona-mulgars, who weigh
scarce more than Meermuts at the best of times; the other and least was
for their bundles and torches and all such stuff as they needed, over
and above what each Mulgar carried for himself.
In the full and stillness of afternoon they ate their last meal this
side of Arakkaboa, and beat out their fire. A sprinkle of hail fell,
hopping on their heads as they stood in the sunshine making ready to put
off. It seemed as if there would never come an end to their labour, and
many a strange face stared down on them from the brooding galleries of
the forest.
[Illustration]