Part 22 (2/2)

”Then I give it up,” said Tom resignedly. ”The compa.s.s says north--we're going north. This is the very same toymaker.”

”Go-o-od _night_!” said Archer, with even more than his usual vehemence.

”Maybe the Gerrmans have conquerred the Norrth Pole and taken all the steel to make mountains, just like they knocked international law all endways, hey? That's why the compa.s.s don't point right. G-o-o-o-o-od _night_!”

This ingenious theory, involving a rather large piece of strategy even for ”supermen,” did not appeal to Tom's sober mind.

”That's what it is,” said Archer. ”You've got to admit that if they could send Zeps and submarines and things to the North Pole and cop all the steel, the British navy, and ourrs too, would be floppin' around the ocean like a chicken with its head cut off.--It's a good idea!”

Tom went up to the old toymaker, who greeted them with a smile, seeming no more surprised to see them than he had been the day before.

”North--_north_?” asked Tom, pointing.

”Nort--yah,” said the old man, pointing too.

”Water,” said Tom; ”swim--_swim_ across” (he pointed southward and made the motions of swimming). The old man nodded as if he understood.

”Ach--vauder, yach,--Nonnenmattweiher.”

”What?” said Tom.

”_What_?” said Archer.

”Nonnenmattweiher,” said the old man. ”Yah.”

”He wants to know what's the matter with you,” said Archer.

”Water,” Tom repeated, almost in desperation.

”Swim (he went through the motions): Swim across water to south--start south, go north.” He made no attempt to convey the incident of the vanis.h.i.+ng coats.

”Water--yah,--Nonnenmattweiher,” the man repeated.

At last, by dint of repeating words and swinging their arms and going through a variety of extraordinary motions, the boys succeeded in conveying to the little man that something was wrong in the neighborhood of the lake, and he appeared willing enough to go back with them, trotting along beside Tom in his funny belted blouse, for all the world like a mechanical toy. Tom had his misgivings as to whether they would really reach the lake no matter which way they went, but they did reach it, and standing under the tree where they had recovered their vanished coats they tried to explain to the old man what had happened--that they had crossed from the north to the south bank and continued southward, only to find that they were going north!

Suddenly a new light illumined the little man's countenance and he chuckled audibly. Then he pointed across the lake, chattering and chuckling the while, and went through a series of strange motions, spreading his legs farther and farther apart, pointing to the ground between them, and concluded this exhibition with a sweeping motion of his hands as if bidding some invisible presence of that enchanted place G.o.d-speed across the water.

”Och--goo,” he said, and shook his head and laughed.

”I know what he means,” said Tom at last, with undisguised chagrin, ”and I'm a punk scout. I didn't notice anything at all. Come on. We've got to swim across again--that's south, all right.”

”What is it?” asked Archer.

”I'll show you when we get there--come on.”

The little Swiss toymaker stood watching them and laughing with a spasmodic laugh which he might have caught from his own wooden cuckoo.

When they reached the other sh.o.r.e Tom fell at once to examining a very perceptible rift in the earth a few feet from the sh.o.r.e.

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