Then, all at once, he saw again the two white butterflies that flew up to him from the way of the setting sun. In suspense, he followed their flight. Would they show him the way? They hovered above his head – then floated apart to return again – whirling about in fickle play. Little by little they left the sun, and finally fluttered beyond the border of the dunes – away to the woods. There, only the highest tips were still touched by the evening glow that shone out red and vivid from under the long files of sombre clouds.
Johannes followed the butterflies. But when they had flown above the nearest trees, he saw a dark shadow swoop toward them in noiseless flight, and then hover over them. It pursued and overtook them. The next moment they had vanished. The black shadow darted swiftly up to him, and he covered his face with his hands, in terror.
"Well, little friend, why do you sit here, crying?" rang a sharp, taunting voice close beside him.
Johannes had seen a huge bat coming toward him, but when he looked up, a swarthy mannikin, not much taller than himself, was standing on the dunes. It had a great head, with big ears, that stood out – dark – against the bright evening sky, and a lean little body with slim legs. Of his face Johannes could see only the small, glittering eyes.
"Have you lost anything, little fellow? If so, I will help you seek it," said he. But Johannes silently shook his head.
"Look! Would you like these?" he began again, opening his hand. Johannes saw there something white, that from time to time barely stirred. It was the two white butterflies – dead – with the torn and broken little wings still quivering. Johannes shivered, as though some one had blown on the back of his neck, and he looked up in alarm at the strange being.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Would you like to know my name, Chappie? Well, just call me Pluizer5– simply Pluizer. I have still prettier names, but that you do not yet understand."
"Are you a human being?"
"Better yet! Still, I have arms and legs and a head – just see what a head! And yet the boy asks if I'm a human being! Well, Johannes, Johannes!" And the mannikin laughed with a shrill, piercing sound.
"How do you know who I am?" asked Johannes.
"Oh, that is a trifle for me! I know a great deal more. I know where you came from, and what you came here to do. I know an astonishing lot – almost everything."
"Ah! Mr. Pluizer…"
"Pluizer – Pluizer. No ceremony!"
"Do you know then?.." But Johannes suddenly stopped. "He is a human being," thought he.
"About your little key, do you mean?" asked the mannikin.
"Yes, indeed I do."
"But I did not think human beings could know anything about that."
"Silly boy! And Wistik has babbled to so many about it!"
"Do you know Wistik, too?"
"Oh, yes – one of my best friends, and I have a great many of them. But I know about the little key, without the help of Wistik. I know a great deal more than Wistik. Wistik is a good enough fellow, but stupid – uncommonly stupid. Not I – far from it!" And Pluizer tapped his big head with his lean little hand in a very pert way.
"Do you know, Johannes," he continued, "a great defect in Wistik? But you never must tell him, for he would be very angry."
"Well, what is it?" asked Johannes.
"He does not exist. That is a great shortcoming, but he will not admit it. And he says of me that I do not exist – but that is a lie. I not exist? The mischief– I do!"
And Pluizer, thrusting the little butterflies into his pocket, suddenly threw himself over, and stood on his head in front of Johannes. Then he made a very ugly grimace, and stuck out his long tongue. Johannes, who did not yet feel quite at his ease alone with this remarkable creature, at the close of the day, in the lonely dunes, was quaking now, with fear.
"This is a most charming way of seeing the world," said Pluizer, still standing on his head. "If you like, I will teach you to do it. Everything looks much clearer and more life-like."
And he sprawled his spindle legs out in the air, and whirled around on his hands. As the red afterglow fell upon his inverted face, Johannes thought it frightful; the small eyes blinked in the light, and showed the whites on the wrong side.
"You see, this way the clouds look like the floor, and the ground the cover, of the world. You can maintain that as well as the contrary. There is no above nor below, however. Those clouds would make a fine promenade."
Johannes looked at the long clouds. He thought they appeared like a plowed field, with blood welling up from the red furrows. And over the sea the splendor was streaming from the gates of that grotto in the clouds.
"Could one get there, and go in?" he asked.
"Nonsense!" said Pluizer, landing suddenly on his feet again, to the great relief of Johannes. "Nonsense! If you were there, it would be precisely as it is here – and the beauty of it would then appear still a little farther off. In those beautiful clouds there, it is misty, grizzly, and cold."
"I do not believe you," said Johannes. "Now I can very well see that you are a human being."
"Oh, come! Not believe me, dear boy, because I am a human being! And what particular thing do you take yourself for?"
"Oh, Pluizer! Am I too a human being?"
"What did you suppose? An elf? Elves do not fall in love." And Pluizer suddenly dropped down exactly in front of Johannes – his legs crossed under him – grinning straight into his face. Johannes felt indescribably distressed and perplexed under this scrutiny, and would have liked to hide, or make himself invisible. Still he could not even turn his eyes away.
"Only human beings fall in love, Johannes. Do you hear? And that is good; otherwise before long there would be no more of them. And you are in love as well as the best of them, although you are still so young. Who are you thinking about, this instant?"
"Robinetta!" whispered Johannes, barely loud enough to be heard.
"Whom do you long for most?"
"Robinetta!"
"Who is the one without whom you think you cannot live?"
Johannes' lips moved silently: "Robinetta!"
"Now, then, you silly fellow," sneered Pluizer, "how can you fancy yourself to be an elf? Elves do not fall in love with the children of men."
"But it was Windekind," stammered Johannes, in his embarrassment. At that, Pluizer looked terribly angry, and he seized Johannes by the ears with his bony little hands.
"What stuff is this? Would you frighten me with that dunce? He is sillier than Wistik – far more silly. He does not know it, though. And what is more, he does not exist at all, and never has existed. I alone exist, do you understand? If you do not believe me, I will make you feel that I do exist."
And he shook poor Johannes by the ears – hard. The latter cried out: "But I have known him so long, and I have traveled so far with him!"
"You have dreamed it, I say. Where, then, are the rose-bush and the little key? Hey! – But you are not dreaming now! Do you feel that?"
"Auch!" cried Johannes; for Pluizer was tweaking his ears.
It had grown dark, and the bats were flying with shrill squeakings close to their heads. The air was black and heavy – not a leaf stirred in the woods.
"May I go home?" begged Johannes. "To my father?"
"Your father? What do you want of him?" asked Pluizer. "That person would give you a warm reception after your long absence!"
"I want to go home," said Johannes; and he thought of the living-room with the bright lamp-light, where he had so often sat beside