Forest World by Felix Salten

Author:Felix Salten
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

Chapter 16

IT WAS TOWARD MORNING WHEN pungent smoke wakened the animals in the stable.

Manni sniffed deliberately while Devil and Witch stamped anxiously.

“What’s this?” gasped Devil.

“Fire!” said Manni, trying to control his excitement. “In the hayloft over us!”

Panic seized Lisa. She swayed back and forth in her stall, bellowing and pushing the calf from one corner to the other.

“All of you get out in the open!” ordered Manni. “Let’s fetch the two-legged ones!”

He pressed through the swinging doors, the horses behind him. Even Lisa obeyed him, calling her calf. Outside, pale dawn announced the approaching day. From the stable eaves little blue and yellow flames licked out. At the sight Lisa lost her head completely and made an about-face to run back inside.

Manni blocked her way. “Are you crazy?”

The cow threatened him with lowered horns.

“No farther!” shouted Manni. “Not a step! Go ahead and gore me, for all I care. But you’re not going back into that fire!”

The stallion stepped between to stop the calf who had become even more panicky than the mother and was trying to reach the stable door. Devil snorted at them both, “Be stupid whenever you want. But not now—understand? Forward—with us!”

He pushed his forehead into Lisa’s flank. She trembled, seeming to change her mind and have no will of her own.

“Quick—quick!” the donkey commanded.

Shepherding the cow and calf between them, they galloped to the Lodge.

“The two-legged ones are still asleep,” said Manni. “We must wake them up!”

Then the cow and calf bellowed, the horses neighed and the donkey brayed.

Up in their rooms Martin, Peter and Babette leaped out of their beds in alarm.

“What’s up?” Martin called to Peter, who was looking out the window while pulling on his clothes.

“The stable’s on fire!” Peter shouted back.

“Fire?” Martin cried. “How? What caused—”

“Never mind that now, sir,” said Peter. “Let’s hurry.”

Hastily Martin slipped into his trousers and shirt.

Poor Babette suddenly began to act like Lisa the cow, screaming in terror.

Peter shouted at her. “Quiet! Quiet! Control yourself!”

He and Martin were already among the animals and on their way to the barn.

While the stable creatures had been sounding the alarm at the Lodge, the owl had returned from her nightly hunt to seek her accustomed nesting place in the barn. The flames and the sharp biting smoke frightened her badly. Over the gusts of smoke she floated in soundless flight and disappeared toward the forest hill.

Martin and Peter ran to the barn. Behind them came the horses followed by Lisa and the calf, who were chased in turn by the donkey.

Hastily Peter fetched the hose from the shed, unrolled it and screwed it into the hydrant. Martin turned the water on. A thick stream of water shot up to the roof.

The flames flared up as if to resist, yet presently collapsed and died out. Finally only a few wisps of smoke were spiraling skyward. Then Peter dragged the hose into the barn and drenched the rafters and walls until they dripped.

The hiss of the water shooting from the hose made the horses afraid at first.

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