Comet in Moominland Read Online Free PDF Page B

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.
    Sniff gave one frantic squeak and ran like mad to the place where he had come down. Shaking all over he began to clamber up, his paws damp with fear, while below him sounded a soft threatening hiss.
    'What's happened?' called Moomintroll, who could hear him coming. 'What's the hurry?'
    Sniff didn't answer - he just climbed. And when they pulled him over the edge at last he collapsed exhausted in a heap.

    Moomintroll and Snufkin leaned over the edge of the cleft and looked down. What they saw was enough to frighten anybody. It was a giant lizard crouching over a pile of shining garnets, like a hideous dragon guarding its beautiful treasure.
    'Well, strike me pink!' exclaimed Moomintroll.
    Sniff was sobbing on the ground.
    'It's all over now,' said Snufkin. 'Don't cry any more Sniff.'
    'The garnets,' Sniff moaned. 'I didn't get a single one.'
    Snufkin sat down beside him and said kindly: 'I know. But that's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase.'
    'The garnets would have gone in the rucksack,' said Sniff miserably. 'You don't need hands for that. It's not the same thing at all just looking at them. I want to touch them and know they're mine.'
    'Never mind, Sniff. We're sure to find some more treasures,' said Moomintroll comfortingly. 'Now cheer up and get a move on. It's getting cold and creepy out here.'
    So they made their way back through the darkening ravine, each one wrapped up in his own thoughts: three subdued little animals.



CHAPTER 5
    Which is about the underground river and rescue by a Hemulen.
    Snufkin added gaiety to the expedition. He played songs on his mouth-organ that they had never heard before, songs from all corners of the earth, he did card tricks and showed them how to make fig-pancakes, and he told them many of his strange and wonderful adventures. The river, too, seemed more lively; it was narrower and flowed swift and strong, eddying round rocks and boulders between high banks.
    Every day the blue and purple mountains came nearer, and they were so high that sometimes their tops disappeared in the heavy rolling clouds.
    One morning Snufkin sat with his legs dangling in the water carving a whistle for himself. 'I remember,' he began, putting his head on one side, and Moomintroll and Sniff immediately pricked up their ears, 'I remember the land with the hot springs. The ground was covered with lava, and from under the lava came a continual rumbling. (It was the earth turning over in her sleep.) There were rocks strewn about higgledy-piggledy, and everything looked strange and unreal in the hot steamy atmosphere. I arrived there in the evening. It didn't take long to cook supper - I only had to fill a saucepan from a hot spring. Everything was bubbling and steaming and I didn't see a single living thing-not so much as a blade of grass.'
    'Didn't you burn your feet?' asked Sniff.
    'I walked on stilts,' Snufkin answered. 'They were wonderful for climbing, and I don't know what I should have done without them when the earth that had been asleep suddenly woke up! There was a great rumbling and roaring and a crater opened right in front of me, and belched out red flames and great clouds of ashes.'
    'A volcano!' gasped Moomintroll and held his breath.
    'Yes,' said Snufkin. 'It was awful, but beautiful too. And then I saw the fire