STOWAWAY TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET
by Eleanor Cameron
No. 2 in the Mushroom Planet series
The Mushroom Planet series by Eleanor Cameron:
1 The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, 1954
2 Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, 1956
3 Mr. Bass's Planetoid, 1958
4 The Terrible Churnadryne, 1959
5 A Mystery for Mr. Bass, 1960
6 Time and Mr. Bass, 1967
With illustrations by Robert Henneberger
An Atlantic Monthly Press Book
Little, Brown and Company • Boston • Toronto
COPYRIGHT, ©, 1956, BY ELEANOR CAMERON
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK IN EXCESS OF FIVE
HUNDRED WORDS MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT
PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 56-8461
ATLANTIC-LITTLE, BROWN BOOKS
ARE PUBLISHED BY LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS
Published simultaneously in Canada by Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
This book is for Colin Cameron, for Chuck Fabian (who is the real Chuck of the story), and for all those children everywhere who asked for more stories about the boys who made The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.
Contents
Part One: The Arrival of Horatio
1 A Visitor out of the Night
2 A View of Basidium
3 Tyco Bass's Notebook
4 A Very, Very Clever Young Man
5 The Arrival of Horatio
6 Horatio Does Some Sleuthing
7 In the Dead of Night
Part Two: The Stowaway
8 Farewell to Earth
9 Chuck and David's First Fight
10 Worse Than Nothingness
11 The Disappearance of Mebe and Oru
12 Escape from the Mushroom People
13 The Hall of the Ancient Ones
14 The Anger of the Ancient Ones
15 The Triumph of Horatio
16 In the Path of the Meteors
17 The Young Lady Named Bright
Part Three: The Fall of Horatio
18 Hen-tracks
19 Horatio's Escape
20 The Return to Space
21 Pride Goeth . . .
PART ONE
The Arrival of Horatio
CHAPTER 1
A Visitor out of the Night
To the very peculiar-looking little man trotting about in the dark trying to find Thallo Street, the sound of tapping came faintly. The neighborhood was quiet. Far off murmured the sea. Then, there it came again - tap, tap - tap, tap, tap. But he was far more intent upon finding Thallo Street, and a certain number on Thallo Street, than in wondering what that tapping could be.
If he had followed it down, he would have been led right to Mr. Tyco Bass's house - a house with a dome like a mushroom's and with a most mysterious-looking tube jutting out at one side through an opening in the dome. Under the dome was the smallest and most perfect little observatory in the world, and at the desk in there sat David and Chuck. David was pecking away at Mr. Bass's portable typewriter.
3
It was after dinner. Dr. and Mrs. Topman, David's father and mother, and Cap'n Tom Master-son, Chuck's grandfather, had given the boys permission to stay the night at Mr. Bass's all by themselves. They had made their own dinner: a can of beans heated up, pickles, fried eggs, bread and jam, and some rather melted ice cream. And they agreed it was the best dinner they'd ever had, cooked on Mr. Bass's stove, served on his dishes, and eaten in his living room where they were surrounded by his remarkable paintings of the planets.
It was now almost two months since David's and Chuck's good friend Tyco had taken off in such an unheard-of fashion, leaving his home and his tiny observatory with its excellent telescope, together with the rest of his property, entirely to the two boys. Already, the Society of Young Astronomers and Students of Space Travel had been formed, just as he had asked that it be, and had proved at once an enormous success.
Because David and Chuck had found the name of a certain Dr. Horace Frobisher many, many times in Tyco Bass's notebooks, they decided the two must have been the best of friends. Certainly it seemed likely, for Dr. Frobisher was a very fa-
4
mous astronomer at the San Julian Observatory in California, not far from Pacific Grove where the boys lived and where Mr. Bass had lived before his disappearance.
So it was that the boys were now writing the doctor a letter asking him to come and talk to their Society about space travel, or other planets, or the stars, or anything he liked. David's brown head and Chuck's dark one were bent over the table. There was silence while they considered. Then Chuck made a suggestion. The keys of the typewriter tapped again, and David's face grew red from having to write such an important letter without any mistakes.
"There!" he exclaimed at last, reading over what he had written with great pride. "Now you sign, Chuck."
And so Chuck did, holding the pen tightly and taking a deep breath, which he continued to hold while he signed. Then David took the pen, added his name, and out they went into the shadowy, silent streets to put their letter into the mailbox.
But no sooner had they turned the corner of Thallo Street, upon which Mr. Bass's house stood, than Chuck grasped David by the arm. Silently he pointed - and there, scurrying along the other
5
side of the road, now dimly seen, now hidden again in darkness, was a small figure peering this way and that - stopping, retracing, hesitating - then hurrying on again.
"Is it a man?" whispered Chuck.
"Not tall enough," whispered back David.
"But it's - it's - he's got a tall hat on!"
So the little man had, and something that floated out behind him as he vanished under the trees into the garden of the house opposite.
"Let's follow!" said Chuck in a low, excited voice. And in a flash he had darted across the street with David at his heels.
Yet how queer! For when they got into that dark, rustling garden, there wasn't a soul to be seen. They followed every path, looked behind every bush and tree, even stole quietly - quietly - up onto the veranda of the house. But no one was there. Then suddenly David knew he was afraid, and so must Chuck have been, for as one boy they raced into the street again, ran as fast as they could to the nearest mailbox, and were back at Mr. Bass's before you could have blinked.
But no sooner were they in the house and about to go up to the observatory to have a look at Basidium, the Mushroom Planet, and perhaps at 6
the moon and Venus, than the knocker sounded - took! - tock! - tockl - on the front door, very loud and clear and firm.
"Oh golly," groaned Chuck. "What'll we do, Dave?"
"It's him!" said David in a low, sort of solemn voice as though their fates were sealed. "I know
• , • >f
it is.
"Shall we answer?"
David hesitated. Because even if, like David, you are so inquisitive that you will venture into the most dangerous places, or, like Chuck, you are short and solid and strong and an absolutely fearless fighter - still, it's a pretty scary thing to have an appearing-disappearing stranger knock at your door in the darkness.
Finally David said, "We've got to answer. All the lights are on."
And so, reflecting that they should never, never have been so foolish as to ask to stay here alone all night, David led the way downstairs. But it was Chuck who turned on the porch light, opened the peephole in the door and applied an eye - and then leaped back with a yelp. For an exceedingly large brown eye was immediately applied on the other side. David, overcome with a mixture of such 8
tense fear and violent curiosity that his stomach felt as if it were turning over, now took his turn. And how his chin dropped in astonishment!
For the brown eye having been politely withdrawn, David beheld in the light of the porch lantern the most outlandish little man imaginable. He was only a mite taller than the boys, very thin, and as though to add to his thinness he was dressed in an exceedingly tight old-fashioned suit. He had a worn and faded black cape flung about his shoulders, and a much-abused, ancient auto robe folded neatly over one arm. He had gloves on, shapeless gloves, badly in need of mending, as was the battered carpetbag he carried. On his large head he wore a rakishly tilted opera hat, and under that hat was a face so familiar that the very look of it brought an almost unbelieving joy to David's heart. The face had an alert, pointed expression as though the little man expected to see someone pop out from under a bush at any moment. But above all, this face was so like that of the boys' dear friend, Mr. Tyco Bass - the large eyes, the small, eager features, and the big head - that David let out a gasp of delight and threw the door open wide.
"Good evening," said the stranger in flutelike,
9
haunting tones. "I am Mr. Theodosius M. Bass, a cousin of Tyco Bass's. And this, I presume, is, at long last, 5 Thallo Street."
"Oh, Mr. Theodosius! Mr. Theodosius!"
How many, many times the two boys had talked about this wandering cousin of Mr. Bass's, spoken of his possible habits and personality, and about how it would feel to meet him. For he was the only other living member on earth of the race of Mushroom People, or Basidiumites, besides Mr. Tyco Bass, whom they had any inkling of at all. And now their Mr. Bass was gone to another planet.
"Come in - come in!" they cried, and introduced themselves at once.
Mr. Theodosius beamed at this warm welcome. His eyes shone with pleasure. Now he stepped briskly in and set down his carpetbag with the robe folded beside it. Next he removed his opera hat, the nap of which, once black and shiny, appeared now to be a rather dull greenish-brown with age and weathering. With a light tap on the top, he caused it to snap down as flat as a dinner plate, and after that he peeled off his shabby gloves as elegantly as though he were in the court of Queen Elizabeth. Then he looked all about, smiling.
10
"My, my," he sighed, "how many years it has been since I have seen this house, with the round dome of Tyco's observatory making it look so pleasantly like a mushroom, and the tube of his telescope reaching up toward the skies! Do you know, I had completely forgotten where the house was! But Tyco? Is he at home? I am sure you can understand how I look forward to seeing him."
The two boys glanced at one another.
"We're so sorry, Mr. Theodosius," exclaimed Chuck. "But you're just too late. You see, Mr. Bass blew away."
Strangely enough, Mr. Theodosius showed no surprise at this seemingly impossible statement, but simply pushed out his lower lip and nodded gravely.
"Ah," he said. "Yes. I see. Well, it explains everything, then - that intense urge of mine to come to Pacific Grove as quickly as I could from clear on the other side of the world. I was camped with some Tibetans in Northern Mongolia when the word 'Tyco' came to me as clearly as though someone had cried it aloud on the night wind. But he blew away, you say. Yes - yes, that is pre-cwely what one would have expected of him."
11
CHAPTER 2
A View of Basidium
uavid and Chuck stared at one another, for that had always been their Mr. Bass's word - "precisely." There were so many things about Mr. Theodosius that reminded them of their old friend! Eagerly they ushered him into the living room where every piece of furniture, having been made especially for Mr. Bass, was slightly smaller than normal so that the boys always felt more comfortable here than anywhere else. The blinds were drawn, and the lamplight shone warmly on those pictures of the planets that Mr. Bass had painted. How cozy and homelike it all was!
Mr. Theodosius stood for a moment in silence looking all about, then he turned to them and his eyes gleamed.
"I wonder," he said, "I wonder if it is possible I could settle down after all these years - here, per-12
haps. You see," he explained, sinking into Mr. Bass's chair as though it were quite natural for him to choose that one especially, "I have always been a wanderer, urged on by some mysterious need to find a place I could call my own. But such a place I have never found. I have been in every corner of the earth - some of my adventures you would scarcely believe - but still I can find no peace. Once I thought the Aleutians might be the answer - but oh, the cruel winds, the fogs, the bitter cold! A great mist-ake, you might say, eh?" And he darted the boys a sudden, twinkling glance, and they grinned at one another and knew with certainty they were going to get along with Mr. Theodosius.
"Something you'll never /og-et, you mean!" burst out Chuck, and then he slapped his knee and roared with laughter. David looked disgusted, but Mr. Theo seemed to think it a fine pun, and laughed and laughed. But then all at once he grew sober and cleared his throat.
"You know," he said, "no matter where I've been, I've always managed to get off a note to my cousin, Tyco. And occasionally, if I've stayed in one place long enough, I've heard from him in return. The last time I wrote, there was some little question of
13
a project he had in mind - some question of inventing a lens filter, for a telescope, I believe, in order to make a certain astronomical discovery. Did he ever speak of it to you boys?"
David's heart stopped for a moment. Now there was a long, questioning pause, and then Chuck's and David's eyes met, and in the look they sent one another was the message that each boy knew in his bones that Mr. Theodosius was all right and that it was quite safe to tell him everything.
"Mr. Theodosius," began David, "Mr. Bass not only told us about this filter he invented, but we've seen how it works on his telescope. We've seen the discovery it made possible - a little planet only thirty-six miles in diameter. And we've not only looked through the telescope at it, but we've been there, all by ourselves, in a space ship!"
Following this staggering announcement, there was another silence in which David and Chuck watched with the hugest pleasure one expression after another take its way across Mr. Theo's face.
"You've been there, you say? In a space ship," he got out at last. "Well, really - I - goodness gracious! And here I thought / was a traveler. But now it seems to me that, by comparison, I've scarcely been anywhere. Tell me," he went on, 14
"tell me all about it - about the journey, what everything looked like, the emotions you felt."
And so, interrupting one another, correcting, reminding each other every now and then of half-forgotten incidents, Chuck and David poured out the almost unbelievable story of their wonderful flight to the Mushroom Planet . . .
"Called Basidium, you see, Mr. Theodosius," said David, "partly because it's covered with mushrooms - some much taller than we are - and partly because the people who live there are spore, or Mushroom People -"
"Who live in a kind of mist," broke in Chuck, "and a lucky thing for them, because if Basidium weren't surrounded by this sort of blue-green mist, very pale and winding and coming and going all the time, they'd be almost bunded by earth-light. You see, Basidium's only 50,000 miles out, so when you look up, the earth seems enormous."
"We made it there in two hours, of course," explained David in a matter-of-fact voice, "because we had to travel at 25,000 miles an hour in order to escape the earth's pull -"
"Or gravity," added Chuck.
"Ah," said Mr. Theodosius, blinking rapidly. "Yes. Quite so. I - what? - 25,000 miles an hour,
15
you say?" He swallowed and looked stricken, absolutely appalled. "I never heard of such a thing," he managed finally. "Tell me, what in the name of goodness gave you the courage to go in the first place? Did Tyco send you?"
"Yes," replied David, remembering as he spoke that tremendous, breath-taking moment when little Mr. Bass, sitting in the very chair where Mr. Theodosius sat now, had announced that he wished them to start at once, that very night, for the Mushroom Planet, a journey no other human being had ever taken. "You see, first of all he put an announcement in the newspaper for two boys to build a space ship. And so we did, Chuck and I, and brought it here to him. Then he told us that his people on Basidium were in danger, and that unless we went there and saved them immediately, they would die."
"And Ta, the king of the Mushroom People," broke in Chuck, "gave us a necklace of the most beautiful stones you've ever seen, to thank us for coming. We still have the necklace. We keep it upstairs now, along with Mr. Bass's filter, in his wall safe."
"Basidium!" breathed Mr. Theodosius. "How that name haunts me. Basidium, of course, means 16
a form of spore-bearing organ having to do with basidiomycetous fungi -"
"And fungi are rusts and smuts and mushrooms," finished Chuck, knowing all this by heart long since.
"Yes - a perfect name for that little planet - a perfect name," exclaimed Mr. Theo, "for such a damp, cool, misty place as it must be. Tell me," he begged, "tell me, if you can, exactly what it is like."
And so the two boys tried to describe Basidium to him: how beautiful the earth-light was drifting through the pale green mists, how the space ship had looked like a greenish-silver arrow resting on the surface of Basidium, and what a queer feeling it had given them to see the horizon so curved and close on the little planet.
As they talked, Mr. Theodosius listened with absorbed attention.
"What language did you speak?" he asked.
"We can't remember," said Chuck sadly, "only that it was not our own. We can't get back even one word. We've tried and tried every way we can think of."
"A little cool, blue-green planet-" murmured Mr. Theo. "How I should love to see it!"
17
"But you can!" shouted David. "You can, Mr. Theodosius. Why didn't we think of it? All you have to do is look through Mr. Bass's telescope."
So now they all trooped up the flight of steep and narrow stairs that led to the observatory. And when Chuck opened the door and they stepped inside that small domed room, lined with books, fitted out with every instrument an explorer of the skies could possibly need, Mr. Theodosius heaved a sigh and a look came over his face of an adventurer who is on the verge of some final discovery. He went at once to the telescope and eagerly, impatiently, stared upward.
"Does the astronomical world know of Tyco's filter by now and of this new planet it has brought into sight?"
"Great jumping kadiddle fish, no!" exclaimed Chuck. "The news'd spread all over, and maybe a big space ship would be built, and Mr. Bass says human beings in large numbers and the little shy Mushroom People would never mix. We've promised him to keep all this a dead, dark secret!"
"I see," said Mr. Theo. He looked very thoughtful.
Now David opened the safe, took out a small, 18
round object of glass to which was attached a long cord, and plugged the cord into a wall socket.
"Mr. Bass's marvelous Stroboscopic Polarizing Filter," he announced, fitting the filter firmly over the eyepiece of the telescope. "His own private in-
19
vention that no one on earth knows about but Chuck and me and our folks, and now you, Tyco Bass's cousin."
"The filter's what allows us to see things that no other astronomers in the whole world can see, Mr. Theodosius," added Chuck with huge pride. "Just think of that! We can even see the surface of Venus, frinstance, through all its vapors; but best of all, we can see Basidium! Now, here's a chart
of -"
"But why does this Stroboscopic Polarizing Filter allow you to see these things?" interrupted Mr. Bass in awed amazement.
"Well, we don't know exactly, except that a stroboscope interrupts light periodically, Mr. Bass said. And polarization -"
"Ah, yes," finished Mr. Theodosius, narrowing his eyes and tapping the side of his nose thoughtfully with one extremely long finger, "polarization affects light rays in such a way that they take definite paths - circular or straight or elliptical. Amazing! Only Tyco would ever think of how to make the combination of the stroboscope and the polarizing process work. Now, how, do you sup-
?»
rv^~ ....
"Oh, Mr. Bass just chuckled when we asked him 20
that! O.K., Chuck, read out the positions, will you?"
Now David flipped a switch and the gentle hum of a tiny motor, like the sound of a hummingbird's wings, filled the room. David twirled certain knobs and dials at the base of the telescope and then the instrument swung slowly around and upward into position. While Chuck read from the chart the correct seasonal positions of Basidium, David squinted and peered and made several adjustments of the filter. Finally, "There!" he said, and Mr. Theodosius, almost fearfully, put his eye to the small glass disc. One hand, resting on the telescope, was trembling with excitement.
Now he gazed, and gazed, and gazed, as if he simply could not have enough of looking at Basidium. Then at last he spoke.
"Yes, there is no mistake," he murmured. "I must go at once. There is no question - absolutely none. In fact, we shall all three go."
21
CHAPTER 3
Tyco Bass's Notebook
You don't mean . . . !" cried the boys.
"Indeed I do," replied Mr. Theodosius calmly. "To Basidium, by all means." Then with his face screwed up, his hands propped on his incredibly thin shanks, and his whole matchstick body bent tensely forward, he peered once more at the tiny planet. "You still have your space ship, I presume?"
...
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