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20 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey - Ingersoll Lockwood · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty. This is a long and sad chapter. It
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  Speaker 1: tells how dear gentle pouting Lip was lost, and how
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  Speaker 1: the Pseudopsis grieved for him and whom they suspected. Bulgar
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  Speaker 1: gives a striking proof of his wonderful intelligence, which enables
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  Speaker 1: me to convince the Pseudopsis that my dance inspector did
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  Speaker 1: not cause pouting Lip's death. The true tale of his
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  Speaker 1: terrible fate. What follows my discovery, how a beautiful boat
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  Speaker 1: is built for me by the grateful pseudopsies, and how
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar and I bid adieu to the land of the
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  Speaker 1: make believes twas the custom in the city of Silver
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  Speaker 1: to touch all around, as it was called, before going
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  Speaker 1: to rest. The touch all around began in a certain
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  Speaker 1: quarter of the city and passed with wonderful rapidity from
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  Speaker 1: man to man. Exactly how it was done I never
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  Speaker 1: could understand, But the purpose of the mysterious signaling was
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  Speaker 1: to make an actual count of all the form of folk.
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  Speaker 1: If a single one were missing, it would be most
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  Speaker 1: surely discovered by the time the touch all around had
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  Speaker 1: been completed. It proceeded with lightning like rapidity throughout the city,
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  Speaker 1: and then if no return signal was made. The people
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  Speaker 1: knew that every one was in his proper place, and
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  Speaker 1: that no pseudopsy had lost his way or fallen ill
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  Speaker 1: in some unfrequented passage. I don't think that I had
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  Speaker 1: more than dropped off to sleep when I was aroused
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  Speaker 1: by Bulger's gentle tugging at my sleeve, rubbing my eyes.
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  Speaker 1: I sat up in bed and listened. Instantly my ear
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  Speaker 1: caught that faint shuffling sound which was always perceptible when
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  Speaker 1: any number of the former folk were hurrying hither and
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  Speaker 1: thither over the polished silver pavement. I sprang out of
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  Speaker 1: bed and rushed to the door, Bulger close at my heels.
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  Speaker 1: What a strange sight confronted me. I could compare it
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  Speaker 1: to nothing, save to the appearance of a large ant
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  Speaker 1: hill when some mischievous boy suddenly drops a stone among
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  Speaker 1: the crowd of petty, patient, plodding people peacefully pursuing their work.
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  Speaker 1: In an instant, all is changed. Lines are broken, workmen
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  Speaker 1: jostle workmen. Order becomes disorder. Regularity is changed to confusion.
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  Speaker 1: Hither and thither the affrightened creatures rush with waving feelers,
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  Speaker 1: seeking for the cause of the mad outburst. Of terror.
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  Speaker 1: So it was with a former folk. As I looked
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  Speaker 1: out upon them, with outstretched hands and tremulously moving fingers,
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  Speaker 1: they rushed from side to side, jostling and bumping one another,
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  Speaker 1: while a nameless dread was depicted upon their upturned faces.
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  Speaker 1: Anon a group would halt, join hands and begin to
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  Speaker 1: exchange thoughts by lightning like pressures, tappings, and strokes, when
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  Speaker 1: others would dash against them, break them apart, and confusion
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  Speaker 1: would reign greater than ever. But gradually I noted that
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  Speaker 1: some sort of order seemed to be coming out of
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  Speaker 1: the movements of this mad throng. Here and there groups
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  Speaker 1: of three and foward foreman clasp hands. Then these smaller
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  Speaker 1: circles would break and form into larger ones. And I
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  Speaker 1: noted too that this ever increasing circle was formed on
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  Speaker 1: the outside of the panic stricken crowd, and as it grew,
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  Speaker 1: it shut them in, so that when a fleeing Sudopsy
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  Speaker 1: hurtled up against this steady line, his terair left him
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  Speaker 1: at once, and he took his place in it. In
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  Speaker 1: a few moments, the madly pushing, jostling throng had disappeared entirely,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole city was girt round by these long,
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  Speaker 1: steady lines, the great circle had been formed. After half
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  Speaker 1: an hour, the deliberation was completed, and to my surprise,
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  Speaker 1: the great Circle broke up into squads and companies of
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  Speaker 1: fours and sixes and tens, and then each disappeared, slowly
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  Speaker 1: and steadily with locksteps, passing out of the city into
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  Speaker 1: dark or only partially lighted chambers and passages that surrounded it.
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  Speaker 1: The search for the missing pseudopsy had been begun. It
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  Speaker 1: was hours before the last squad had returned to the
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  Speaker 1: square and the great Circle had been formed again. Alas
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  Speaker 1: the news was sad. Indeed, there came no tidings of
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  Speaker 1: the missing man. He was lost forever, And with clasped
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  Speaker 1: hands and slow and heavy step, the grieving former folk
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  Speaker 1: made their way back to their homes, where the sinne
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  Speaker 1: women and children were awaiting their coming. As Bulger and
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  Speaker 1: I went back to bed again, it almost seemed to
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  Speaker 1: me as if I could hear at times the deep
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  Speaker 1: and long drawn sighs that escaped from the gentle breasts
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  Speaker 1: of the sorrowing pseudopsies. I noticed a very touching thing
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  Speaker 1: on the following day. It was that every man, woman
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  Speaker 1: and child in the city of Silver, grieve for the
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  Speaker 1: lost Pudopsy, as if he were actually brother to each
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  Speaker 1: one of them. Love was not, as with us in
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  Speaker 1: the upper world, a thing bestowed upon those in whom
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  Speaker 1: we see our own vases repeated, and in whose voices
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  Speaker 1: we hear our own ring out again, sweet and clear,
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  Speaker 1: as in our childhood. In other words, a love almost
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  Speaker 1: of our very selves. Oh No, while it was true
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  Speaker 1: that a mother's touch was most tender to her own child,
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  Speaker 1: yet no little hands stretched out to her went without
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  Speaker 1: its caress. She was mother to them. All to her
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  Speaker 1: they were all beautiful, and as their little frocks were
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  Speaker 1: all woven in the same loom, there never could come
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  Speaker 1: into her mind a temptation to feel whether a rich
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  Speaker 1: neighbor's child was playing with hers, and that therefore it
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  Speaker 1: ought to receive a more loving caress. In that portion
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  Speaker 1: of the city where the children had their playgrounds, the
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  Speaker 1: silver pavement was in some places marked off with raised
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  Speaker 1: lines and letters, something after the manner of our hopscotch,
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of a game, which was very popular
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  Speaker 1: with the little Sodopsis. Its name is hard to translate,
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  Speaker 1: but it meant something like little Boogeyman. And many an
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  Speaker 1: hour had Bulgar and I stood there watching these silent
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  Speaker 1: little gnomes at play, fascinated by the wonderful skill which
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  Speaker 1: they would display in feigning the drawing near the little Boogeyman,
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  Speaker 1: their hiding from him, his stealthy approach, the increasing danger,
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  Speaker 1: the attack, the escape, the new dangers, wild flight, and
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  Speaker 1: mad pursuit. Fancy. Therefore my astonishment one morning to note
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  Speaker 1: that Bulger was coaxing me thither, although the place was
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  Speaker 1: quite deserted, the children being all at their lessons. But
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  Speaker 1: as it was a rule of mine always to humor
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar's whims, I went patiently along. In a moment, as
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  Speaker 1: we came to the spot where the pavement was marked
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  Speaker 1: off and inscribed as I have explained, he halted, and,
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  Speaker 1: with an anxious whine, began to play the game of
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  Speaker 1: the Little Boogeyman, turning every now and then to see
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  Speaker 1: what effect his actions had upon me. He made no mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: As he entered each compartment, he rested his paw upon
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  Speaker 1: the raised letters, as he had so often seen the
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  Speaker 1: children do with their little bare feet, and then mimic
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  Speaker 1: with wonderful fidelity their actions, beginning with the first scent
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  Speaker 1: of danger, and ending with mad terror at the close
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  Speaker 1: pursuit of the boogeyman. I was more than surprised. I
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  Speaker 1: was bewildered by this piece of mimicry on Bulgar's part.
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  Speaker 1: To my mind, it boded some terrible accident to him.
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  Speaker 1: For I have a superstitious notion that great danger to
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  Speaker 1: an animal's life gives him for the moment and almost
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  Speaker 1: human intelligence. It is nature caring for her own. But
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden the real truth in this case
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  Speaker 1: burst upon me. It was not my dear little brother
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  Speaker 1: giving me to understand that some peril was threatening him,
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  Speaker 1: but that some danger was hanging over my head. The
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  Speaker 1: more real in that it was unseen and unsuspected by me.
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  Speaker 1: I called him to me and rewarded him with a caress.
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  Speaker 1: He was overjoyed to note that I had apparently understood him.
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  Speaker 1: I now made haste to seek out barrel Brow. He
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  Speaker 1: was surprised to feel my salutation in a moment or
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  Speaker 1: so I had told him all. Nor was he slow
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  Speaker 1: in detecting my excitement. He no doubt felt that in
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  Speaker 1: the changed character of my handwriting, calm thyself, little Baron.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote the wise Bulgar has told the truth. Thy
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  Speaker 1: life is in danger. I had resolved to send for
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  Speaker 1: THEE this very day to warn THEE of it, to
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  Speaker 1: bid THEE quit the land of the former folk in
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  Speaker 1: all haste, for the notion had spread among our people
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  Speaker 1: that it was the advancing Specter at thy heels which
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  Speaker 1: caused the death of the gentle Pouting Lip, who disappeared
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  Speaker 1: so mysteriously the other day. I therefore counsel THEE that
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  Speaker 1: thou make ready at once to quit our city tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: before the clocks roused the people from their sleep. I
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  Speaker 1: thanked beryl brow and promised that I would heed his advice,
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  Speaker 1: although I confessed to him that I would fain have
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  Speaker 1: bide it a few weeks longer. There were so many
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  Speaker 1: things in and about the wonderful city of Silver that
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  Speaker 1: I had not seen. But I owed it to the
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  Speaker 1: dear hearts of my own world to take the best
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  Speaker 1: care of my life. Insignificant though it might appear to me,
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  Speaker 1: then again, I felt that it would be madness to
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  Speaker 1: attempt to reason with the pseudopsys. To them, the dancing
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  Speaker 1: Specter at my heels was a real being of flesh
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  Speaker 1: and bud, Although they had not been able to seize him,
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  Speaker 1: and it was really natural for them to suspect that
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  Speaker 1: we had made away. With pouting lip calling out to
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar to follow me, I left berrel Brow's home, resolved
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  Speaker 1: to make one more round of the wonderful city, and
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  Speaker 1: then pack up some food and clothing, and be all
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  Speaker 1: ready for a start before the clocks began their tapping.
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  Speaker 1: I should explain, dear friends, that, as happens in all cities,
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  Speaker 1: the people of this one imagined at times that they
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  Speaker 1: hadn't quite elbow room enough, and hence they surveyed other
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  Speaker 1: chambers and set up new candelabra within them in order
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  Speaker 1: to chase the cold and dampness away and make them
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  Speaker 1: fit for human habitations. In the last one, which they
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  Speaker 1: had in this way annexed to their fair city, fitting
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  Speaker 1: it with a silver doorway and tiling the floor with
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  Speaker 1: polished plates of the same beautiful metal, they had discovered
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  Speaker 1: a hard mound, apparently of rock in one corner, and
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  Speaker 1: had resolved that they would come some day with their
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  Speaker 1: drills and picks and begin the task of removing this mound.
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  Speaker 1: A strange inclination came upon me to visit this new
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  Speaker 1: chamber in order to inspect the work of these eyeless
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  Speaker 1: workmen and see how far they have proceeded with their
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  Speaker 1: task of transforming a cold and rocky vault into a bright, warm,
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  Speaker 1: healthy habitation. Imagine my surprise to hear Bulgar utter a
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  Speaker 1: low growl as we reached the entrance, and I put
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  Speaker 1: out my hand to swing the door open, for the
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  Speaker 1: Pseudopsis were not at work there that day, and the
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  Speaker 1: place was as silent as a tomb. Glancing through the grating,
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  Speaker 1: a sight met my gaze, which caused my flesh to
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  Speaker 1: creep and my hair to stiffen. What think, ye was it?
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  Speaker 1: Why the mound in the cotton was rocking and swaying,
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  Speaker 1: and from underneath one end issued a loud and angry hissing.
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  Speaker 1: I'm no coward, if I do say it myself, but
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  Speaker 1: this was just a little too much for ordinary or
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  Speaker 1: even extraordinary flesh to bear without flinching. I staggered back
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  Speaker 1: with a suppressed cry of horror, and was upon the
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  Speaker 1: point of breaking into a mad flight when the thought
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  Speaker 1: flashed through my mind that the door was securely fastened,
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  Speaker 1: and that there would be no danger in my taking
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  Speaker 1: another look at the terrible monster thus caged in this chamber.
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  Speaker 1: A great snakelike head was now lifted from beneath one
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  Speaker 1: edge of the mound, and on the end of a
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  Speaker 1: law swain neck. Its great round eyes, big as an oxus,
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  Speaker 1: stared with dull, cold, glassy look from wall to wall,
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  Speaker 1: and then, with an awful outburst of hissing, the whole
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  Speaker 1: mound was suddenly raised upon four great legs, thick as
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  Speaker 1: posts and ending in terrible claws and porn, rocking and
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  Speaker 1: swaying into the center of the chamber. What was this
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  Speaker 1: terrible monster? And where had it come from? Why I
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  Speaker 1: saw through it all now at a glance it was
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  Speaker 1: a gigantic tortoise eight feet long by five wide at least,
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  Speaker 1: and once an inhabitant of the upper world thousands and
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  Speaker 1: thousands of years ago, by the coming of the awful
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  Speaker 1: fields of ice, it had been forced to fly from
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  Speaker 1: certain death by crawling down into these underground caverns. Here,
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  Speaker 1: chilled and numbed by the dampness and cold, it had
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  Speaker 1: fallen asleep, and would have continued to sleep on from
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  Speaker 1: or other ages to come, had not the industrious form
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  Speaker 1: of folk lighted the clusters of burning jets of gas
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  Speaker 1: in the monster's bedroom. Gradually the warmth had penetrated the
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  Speaker 1: roof of shell made thicker by earth, and layer of
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  Speaker 1: broken rock which the tooth of time had dropped upon it,
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  Speaker 1: and reached his great heart and set it beating again, slowly,
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  Speaker 1: very slowly, but faster and faster, until he really felt
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  Speaker 1: that he had awakened from his long sleep by a
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  Speaker 1: terrible misfortune. Pouting lip, the gentle Sodopsy had happened to
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  Speaker 1: be left behind when his brother laborers quit work and
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  Speaker 1: the new silver doors of the chamber had been closed
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  Speaker 1: upon him. Oh, it was terrible to think of, but
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  Speaker 1: true it must have been the poor little Soudopsy, shut
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  Speaker 1: in by his own eyeless folk in this chamber, which
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  Speaker 1: he was helping to beautify by his patient's skill, had
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  Speaker 1: served to satisfy the hunger of this awful monster after
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  Speaker 1: his long ages of fasting. But why you ask, dear friends,
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  Speaker 1: was all this not discovered when the great circle had
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  Speaker 1: been formed and the search was made for him? Simply
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  Speaker 1: because the monster, after devouring the lost Soudopsy, retreated to
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  Speaker 1: his nest and drew the dirt and crumbled rock up
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  Speaker 1: around him with its gigantic flippers. And went to sleep again,
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  Speaker 1: as all gorged reptiles do, so that when the searchers
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  Speaker 1: entered the new chamber, all was as they had left it,
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  Speaker 1: the mound of rock as they had supposed it to
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  Speaker 1: be in the corner, undisturbed. With Bulgar at my heels,
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  Speaker 1: I now turned and ran with such mad haste to
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  Speaker 1: barrel Brows that the whole city was thrown into the
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  Speaker 1: wildest disorder, For of course they had felt me fly
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  Speaker 1: past them with all the quickness I could command. I
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  Speaker 1: wrote an account of what I had witnessed, and when
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  Speaker 1: Beryl Brow communicated it to the assembled pseudopsies, a thousand
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  Speaker 1: hands flew into the air, and token of mingled fright
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  Speaker 1: and wonder, and a wild rush was made for Bulgar
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  Speaker 1: and me, and we were well nigh smothered with kisses
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  Speaker 1: and caresses. The moment the excitement had quieted down a little,
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  Speaker 1: a great circle was immediately formed, and I was honored
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  Speaker 1: with a place in it. And when my tablet was
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  Speaker 1: passed about a thousand hands made signs of ascent. My
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  Speaker 1: plan was a simple one. It was to make a
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  Speaker 1: pipe connection between up a slock and the new chamber,
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  Speaker 1: and to turn the deadly vapor into the sleepy department
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of the gigantic Monster. In this manner, his despatch would
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: be a happy one, merely a beginning of another one
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of his long naps, so far as he would know
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  Speaker 1: anything about it. This was done at once, care, first
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  Speaker 1: being taken to make the doors of the new chamber
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  Speaker 1: perfectly air tight. I was the first to enter the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: cavern after the execution of the monster, and found to
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: my delight that my estimate of his length and width
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: was correct, almost to an inch. I had always had
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: a wonderful eye for dementia and distances. Seen Bulgar raising
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: himself upon his hind legs and make an effort to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: dislodge something from the wall, I drew nearer to assist him.
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  Speaker 1: Alas it was dear gentle pouting lips tablet. He had
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  Speaker 1: been writing upon it, and as the terrible Monster advanced
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  Speaker 1: upon him, he had reached up and hung it upon
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  Speaker 1: a silver pin on the wall. When the pseudopsis read
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  Speaker 1: what their poor brother had written there, they all sat
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  Speaker 1: down and wrung their hands in silent but awful grief.
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  Speaker 1: It ran as follows, O, my people, why have ye
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  Speaker 1: abandoned me? The air trembles, the whole places filled with
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: suffocating odor. Must I die alas I fear it? And
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: yet I would so love to feel my dear ones
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  Speaker 1: touch us once more. The ground trembles, A stafling breath
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  Speaker 1: is puffed into my face. I am wearied, almost fainting
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  Speaker 1: by trying to escape it. I can write no more.
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  Speaker 1: Don't grieve too long over me. It was my fault.
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  Speaker 1: I stayed behind kind when I should have followed. Oh, horrible,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: horrible farewell. I'm going now, I loven touch to all farewell.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: After waiting a few days for the grief of the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: former folk to lighten a little, I asked them to
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: send a number of their most skillful workmen to assist
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: me in removing the magnificent shell from the dead monster,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: whose body was fed to the fishes. They not only
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: did this, but they also offered to transform the shell
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: into a beautiful boat for me, so that when I
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: resolved to bid them adieu, I might sail away from
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  Speaker 1: the city of Silver and not be obliged to trudge
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: along the marble highway. The work went on apace. At first.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: The polishers began their task, and in a few days
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the mighty carapace glowed like a lady's comb. Then the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: dainty and cunning craftsmen in silver began their part of
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  Speaker 1: the work, and ere many days the shell was fitted
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: with a silver prow curiously rocked like a swan's neck
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  Speaker 1: and head, while quaintly carved trimmings ran here and there.
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  Speaker 1: And a dainty pair of silver skulls with a silver rudder,
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  Speaker 1: beautifully chaste, from which ran two little silken ropes were
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  Speaker 1: added to the outfit. I never had seen anything half
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: so rich and rare, and I was as proud of
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  Speaker 1: it as a young king of his throne before he
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: finds it is so much like my ship of shell.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: And last the day came when I was to bid
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the gentle pseudopsies a long farewell. They lined the shore
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: as Bulgar and I proceeded to take our place in
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the bark of shell, which sat upon the water like
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: a thing of life. It was with great show of
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: dignity that Bulgar took his position in the stern, with
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the tiller ropes in his mouth, ready to pull on
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: either side as I might direct, and setting the silver
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: oars in place, I threw my weight upon them, and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: away we glided swiftly and noiselessly over the surface of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the dark and sluggish stream. In a few moments, nothing
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but a faint glimmer was left to remarkind us of
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the wonderful city of Silver, where the silent former folk
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: live and love and labor, without ever a thought that
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: human beings could be any happier than they. Dear happy folk,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: They have solved a mighty problem of which we of
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the upper world are still struggling over. End of chapter
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: twenty