When they could no longer see the hilltop for cloud and mist, Thumb lit a second fire on the isle of rock upon the verge of the cataract, where the water could not scatter on it. But no sign came of Ghibba and his five Moona-men, and Nod began to fret, and could eat no supper, for fear that some evil had overtaken them. But he said nothing, because he knew well enough by now that Thumb had much the same stomach for distrust as himself, though he kept a still tongue in his head, and that it only angered him to be pestered with questions no Mulgar-wit could answer. He sat by the watch-fire in his draggled sheep"s-jacket, his hands on his knees, and wished he had lent Ghibba his Wonderstone. "But no," he thought, "Mutta-matutta bade me "to no one." Ghibba is cunning and brave; he will come back."
The Men of the Mountains coiled themselves up by the fire. They fear neither for themselves nor for one another. "We die because we must,"
they say. Yet none the less they raise, as I have said, long ululatory lamentations over their dead, and Noomanossi is their enemy as much as any Mulgar"s. Thimble, still a little weak and hazy in his head after his sickness, fell quickly asleep; and soon even Thumb, with head wagging from side to side, though he sat bolt upright on his heels in front of the fire, was dozing.
Nod alone could not close his eyes. He watched his brother"s great face; lower, lower would drop his chin, wheel round, and start up again with a jerk. "Good dreams, old Thumb," he whispered; "dreams of Salem that bring him near!"
And all the while that these thoughts were stirring in his head he heard the endless echoing and answering voices of the cataract. Now they seemed the voices of Mulgars quarrelling, shouting, and fighting near and far; and now it seemed as if a thousand thousand birds were singing sweet and shrill beneath the leaves of a great forest. The shadows of the fire danced high. But the night was clear. He could see a great blue star shining right over their thin column of smoke, winding into the air. And now from the ravine into which Ghibba had gone down with his five Moona-men the milk-pale mists began softly to overflow, as if from a pot filled to the brim. If only Ghibba would come back!
Nod scrambled up, and rather warily shuffled past the sleepers over to the other beacon-fire they had kindled. A few strange little night-beasts scuttled away as he drew near, attracted by the warmth of the fire, or even, perhaps, taking refuge in its shine from the night-hunting birds that wheeled and whirred in the air above them.
"Urrckk, urck!" croaked one, swinging so close that Nod felt the fan of its wings on his cheek. "Starving Mulgars, urrckk, urck!" it croaked.
He heaped up the fire. But he could not see a hand"s breadth into the ravine. Calm and still the mist lay, and softer than wool. Nod wandered restlessly back, pa.s.sed again the camping Mulgars, and hobbled across till he came to the rocky bank of the torrent near to where it forked.
Here a faint reflection of the flamelight fell, and Nod could see the drowsy fish floating coloured and round-eyed in the sliding water. And while he was standing there, he thought, like the sound of an ooboe singing amid thunder, he seemed to hear on the verge of the roar of the cataract a small wailing voice, not of birds, nor of Mulgars, nor like the phantom music of Tishnar. He crept softly down and along the water-side, under a black and enormous dragon-tree. And beneath the giant sedge he leaned forward his little hairy head, and as his flame-haunted eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, he perceived in the dark-green dusk in which she sat a Water-midden sitting low among the rushes, singing, as if she herself were only music, an odd little water-clear song.
"Bubble, Bubble, Swim to see Oh, how beautiful I be.
"Fishes, Fishes, Finned and fine, What"s your gold Compared with mine?
"Why, then, has Wise Tishnar made One so lovely, Yet so sad?
"Lone am I, And can but make A little song, For singing"s sake."
Her slim hands, her stooping shoulders, were clear and pale as ivory, and Nod could see in the rosy glimmering of the flames her narrow, beautiful face reflected amid the gold of her hair upon the formless waters. Mutta-matutta once had told Nod a story about the Water-middens whom Tishnar had made beyond all things beautiful, and yet whose beauty had made beyond all things sad. But he could never in the least understand why this was so. When, by the sorcery of his Wonderstone, he had swept all glittering the night before across the jewelled snow, he had never before felt so happy. Why, then, was this Water-midden--by how much more beautiful than he was then!--why was she not happy, too? He peered in his curiosity, with head on one side and blinking eyes, at the Water-midden, and presently, without knowing it, breathed out a long, gruff sigh.
The still Water-midden instantly stayed her singing and looked up at him. Not in the least less fair than the cl.u.s.tering flowers of Tishnar"s orchard was her pale startled face. Her eyes were dark as starry night"s beneath her narrow brows. She drew her fingers very stealthily across the clear dark water.
"Are you, then, one of those wild wandering Mulgars that light great fires by night," she said, "and scare all my fishes from sleeping?"
"Yes, Midden; I and my brothers," said Nod. "We light fires because we are cold and hungry. We are wanderers; that is true. But "wild"--I know not."
""Cold," O Mulgar, and with a jacket of sheep"s wool, thick and curled, like that?"
Nod laughed. "It was a pleasant coat when it was new, Midden, but we are old friends now--it and me. And though it keeps me warm enough marching by day, when night comes, and this never-to-be-forgotten frost sharpens, my bones begin to ache, as did my mother"s before me, whose grave not even Kush can see."
"The Mulgar should live, like me, in the water, then he, too, would never know of cold. Whither do you and your brothers wander, O Mulgar?"
"We have come," said Nod, "from beyond all Munza-mulgar, that lies on the other side of the river of the saffron-fearing Coccadrilloes--that is, many score leagues southward of Arakkaboa--and we go to our Uncle, King a.s.sasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar--that is, if that Mountain-prince, my friend Ghibba, can find us a way."
The Water-midden looked at Nod, and drew softly, slowly back her smooth gold locks from the slippery water. "The Mulla-mulgar, then, has seen great dangers?" she said. "He is very young and little to have travelled so far."
Nod"s voice grew the least bit glorious. ""Little and young,"" he said.
"Oh yes. And yet, O beautiful Water-midden, my brothers would never have been here without me."
"Tell me why that is," she said, leaning out of her heavy hair.
"Because--because," Nod answered slowly, and not daring to look into her face--"because Queen Tishnar watches over me."
The Water-midden leaned her head. "But Tishnar watches over all," she said.
"Why, then, O Midden, has, as your song said, Tishnar made you so sad?"
"Songs are but songs, Mulla-mulgar," she answered. "It is sad seeing only my own small loneliness in the water. Would not the Mulgar himself weary with only staring fish for company?"
"Are there, then, no other Water-middens in the river?" said Nod.
"Have you, then, seen any beside me?"
"None," said Nod.
The Water-midden turned away and stooped over the water. "Tell me," she said, "why does the Queen Tishnar guard so closely _you_?"
"I am a Nizza-neela, Midden--Mulla-mulgar Ummanodda Nizza-neela Eengenares--that is what I am called, speaking altogether. Other names, too, I have, of course, mocking me. Who is there wise that was not once foolish?"
"A Nizza-neela!" said the Midden, leaning back and glancing slyly out of her dark eyes.
"Oh yes," said Nod gravely; "but besides that I carry with me...."
"Carry with you?" said she.
"Oh, only the Wonderstone," said Nod.
Then the Water-midden lifted both her hands, and scattered back her long pale locks over her narrow shoulders. "The Wonderstone? What, then, is that?"
Nod told her, though he felt angry with himself, all about the Wonderstone, and what magic it had wrought.
"O most marvellous Mulla-mulgar," she said, "I think, if I could see but once this Wonderstone--I think I should be never sad again."
Nod turned away, glancing over his shoulder to where, leaning amid the stars, hung the distant darkness of Mulgarmeerez. He slowly unfastened his ivory-b.u.t.toned pocket and groped for the Wonderstone. Holding it tight in his bare brown palm, he scrambled down a little nearer to the water, and unlatched his fingers to show it to the Midden. But now, to his astonishment, instead of glooming pale as a little moon, it burned angry as Antares.
The Water-midden peeped out between her hair, and laughed and clapped her hands. "Oh, but if I might but hold it in my hand one moment, I think that I should never even sigh again!" said she. Nod"s fingers closed on the Wonderstone again.
"I may not," he said.
"Then," said the Water-midden sorrowfully, "I will not ask."
"My mother told me," said Nod.
But the Water-midden seemed not now to be listening. She began to smooth and sleek her hair, sprinkling the ice-cold water upon it, so that the drops ran glittering down those slippery paths like dew.
"Midden, Midden," said Nod quickly, "I did not mean to say any unkindness. You would give me back my Wonderstone very quickly?"
"Oh, but, gentle Mulla-mulgar," said the Midden, "my hands are cold; they might put out its fiery flame."
"I do not think so, most beautiful Midden," Nod said. "Show me your fingers, and let me see."
Both sly tiny hands, colder than ice-water, the beautiful Water-midden outstretched towards him. He gazed, stooping out of his ugliness, into those eyes whose darkness was only shadowy green, clearer than the mountain-water. For an instant he waited, then he shut his eyes and put the burning Wonderstone into those two small icy hands. "Return it to me quickly--quickly, Midden, or Tishnar will be angered against me. How must the Meermut of my mother now be mourning!"
But the Midden had drawn back amid the reeds, holding tight the ruby-red stone in her small hands, and her eyes looked all darkened and slant, and her small scarlet mouth was curled. "Can you not trust me but a moment, Prince of the Mulgars?"