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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, All about the most terrible but magnificent ride
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  Speaker 1: I ever took in my life, ninety miles on the
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  Speaker 1: back of a flying mass of ice, And how Bulgar
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  Speaker 1: and I were landed at last on the banks of
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  Speaker 1: a most wonderful river, how the day broke in this
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  Speaker 1: thunder world. Had my hand at that moment not grasped
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  Speaker 1: a cord tied to the neck of my wise and
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  Speaker 1: keen eyed Bulgar, I really believe I would have come
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  Speaker 1: to a halt, faced about, retraced my steps, and begged
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  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of this crystal realm to admit me once
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  Speaker 1: more into the cold kingdom. When Gelidus held his icy
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  Speaker 1: court for A sudden fit of depression came upon me,
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  Speaker 1: as the chilly air struck against my cheeks, and I
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  Speaker 1: saw the deep darkness made visible by the tiny flame
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  Speaker 1: of my alabaster lamp hold. Though it might be I
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  Speaker 1: would have sunshine in the icy land of the Colti corpse,
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  Speaker 1: But now how could I tell what fate awaited me?
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  Speaker 1: Luckily I had asked the captain of the meat quarries
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  Speaker 1: to allow me to to retain one of his sounding
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  Speaker 1: rods with its flint point, For I feared lest in
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  Speaker 1: descending some icy declivity, I might fall and bruise or
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  Speaker 1: even break a limb. I was determined to advance cautiously
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  Speaker 1: along this icy passage, shrouded as it was in impenetrable gloom,
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  Speaker 1: and so different from the broad and polished pavement of
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  Speaker 1: the Marble Highway, and hence hanging the lamp about my neck,
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  Speaker 1: I proceeded to make use of the sounding rod as
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  Speaker 1: an alpen stock, for which purposes it was admirably adapted. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar halted, gave a low whine of warning, and turned back.
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  Speaker 1: In an instant I knew that there was danger ahead, and,
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  Speaker 1: letting myself drop on my hands and knees, crawled carefully
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  Speaker 1: along to make an investigation of the dangerous spot in
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  Speaker 1: our route signaled by the watchful Bulgar. It was only
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  Speaker 1: too true. We stood apparently upon the very edge of
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  Speaker 1: a sheer parapet. How high I had no way of ascertaining,
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  Speaker 1: but I was unable to reach any bottom with the
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  Speaker 1: sounding rod. What was to be done? Turned back? It
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  Speaker 1: was not yet too late. The Colti Corpion quarrymen could
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  Speaker 1: not have completed their task in so short a time.
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  Speaker 1: They would hear my knock, they would tear down their
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  Speaker 1: wall of ice, and Gilodus and Schneeboullet would welcome us
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  Speaker 1: back to their ice palace with a cold but honest satisfaction.
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  Speaker 1: As I sat there, plunged in thought, I half consciously
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  Speaker 1: began to twirl the sounding rod around until I had
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  Speaker 1: sunk it half in its length into the floor of ice,
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  Speaker 1: and then, reaching out, I encircled Vulgar with my arm
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  Speaker 1: and drew him up against me, As was my wont
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  Speaker 1: when preparing for profound meditation, I had scarcely done so
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  Speaker 1: when the ice beneath me gave one of those sharp, clear,
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  Speaker 1: cracking noises, so unlike the sound made by the breaking
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  Speaker 1: of any other substance. And thereupon I felt the crystal
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  Speaker 1: mass on which Bulgar and I were sitting tremble and
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  Speaker 1: vibrate for an instance, and then with a sudden downward
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  Speaker 1: can't break away from the mass behind it and begin
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  Speaker 1: to move. Instinctively, a sense of my awful peril prommpted
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  Speaker 1: me to cling to the sounding rod, which I had
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  Speaker 1: sunk drill like into the ice. Luckily it was between
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  Speaker 1: my legs, and quick as a flash, I entwined them
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  Speaker 1: around it, assuming a turkish sitting posture while my left
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  Speaker 1: arm was wrapped tightly around Bulger's body. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how it was done done, as it was all in
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  Speaker 1: an instant, but there I sat, now firmly saddled, so
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  Speaker 1: to speak, upon that crystal monster's back. As with a
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  Speaker 1: creak and a crash, it snapped the crystal lynx, which
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  Speaker 1: bounded to the wall of ice and plunged headlong down
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  Speaker 1: the glassy slope. In my fright, I had dropped my lamp,
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  Speaker 1: and now the deep gloom of this underworld enwrapped me.
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  Speaker 1: But no, it was not so far, as the escaping
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  Speaker 1: block of ice creaked and crunched its way along the
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  Speaker 1: two cold crystal surfaces, gave forth a weird glimmer of
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  Speaker 1: phosphorescent light, which made the flying mass seem like a
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  Speaker 1: monstrous living thing, out of whose thousand eyes were darting
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  Speaker 1: tongues of flame as it rushed madly along, now gaining
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  Speaker 1: speed upon striking a steeper stretch of whay, now fowling
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  Speaker 1: with some obstruction and dashing against the rocky sides of
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  Speaker 1: the corridor, and sending a shower of crystals sparkling and
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  Speaker 1: glittering in the black air anon. The escaping block comes
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  Speaker 1: upon a gentle slope, and, with the low music of
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  Speaker 1: crushing crystals, slips softly along in its flight, as if
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  Speaker 1: mounted upon runners of polished steel. And then with a
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  Speaker 1: sudden dip, itt glides upon a sharper descent, and fairly
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  Speaker 1: leaps into the air as it bounds along, hissing over
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  Speaker 1: the slippery roadway and leaving a train of fire behind it.
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  Speaker 1: And now it strikes a stretch of way piled here
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  Speaker 1: and there with clumps and blocks of ice. With a
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  Speaker 1: mad furia, springs upon the lesser ones with a growl
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  Speaker 1: of rage, grinding them into powder, which like showers of
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  Speaker 1: icy foam it hurls upon bulgar and me seated on
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  Speaker 1: its back. But some of the blocks resist its terrible onslaught,
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  Speaker 1: and our mighty steed is hurled from side to side
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  Speaker 1: with crash and creek, as it drives its crystal corners
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  Speaker 1: fiercely against the jutting rocks, leaving marks of its white
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  Speaker 1: flesh on these black heads of Adamant. It seems an
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  Speaker 1: hour since the crystal monster broke away, and yet ever
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  Speaker 1: downward he threads his wild flight, butting, bumping, jostling, veering,
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  Speaker 1: staggering along, bearing Bulgar and me to the lowest level
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  Speaker 1: of the world within a world. Will he ever into
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  Speaker 1: his mad flight? Is there no way for me to
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  Speaker 1: curb him? Must he fly until he has ground his
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  Speaker 1: very body to such a thinness that the next obstruction
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  Speaker 1: will shatter it into ten thousand pieces and hurl Bulgar
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  Speaker 1: and me to death. As these thoughts are flitting through
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  Speaker 1: my mind, the flying mass takes one last mad plunge,
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  Speaker 1: which lands it on an almost level stretch of roadway.
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  Speaker 1: By the different sound given out by the sliding block,
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  Speaker 1: I know that we have left the regions of ice
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  Speaker 1: behind us, and that our crystal sledge is gliding gently
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  Speaker 1: along over a track of polished marble. But mile after
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  Speaker 1: mile it still glides along, gently, softly, silently. And then
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  Speaker 1: I dare to think that our lives are saved. But
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  Speaker 1: so terrible had been the strain, so fearful, the anxiety,
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  Speaker 1: so exhausting, the effort necessary to hold my place on
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  Speaker 1: the block of ice and keep my beloved Bulgar from
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  Speaker 1: slipping out of my arms, that I fell backward into
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  Speaker 1: a dead faint. As the gliding mass came at last
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  Speaker 1: to a standstill. I think I must have lain there
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  Speaker 1: a good half hour or so, for when I came
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  Speaker 1: to myself, Bulgar's frantic joy told me that he had
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  Speaker 1: been terribly wrought up over me, and the moment I
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  Speaker 1: opened my eyes, he began to shower caresses on my
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  Speaker 1: hands and face in most loverlike style. Dear grateful heart.
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  Speaker 1: He felt that he owed his life this time to
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  Speaker 1: his little master, and he wanted me to understand how
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  Speaker 1: thankful he was. The moment Bulgar's nerves had recovered from
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  Speaker 1: the shock occasioned by my prolonged faint, I reached for
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  Speaker 1: my repeater and touched its spring. It registered one hour
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  Speaker 1: and a half since we had stepped through the icy
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  Speaker 1: portal of King Gelidus's domain, allowing the half hour for
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  Speaker 1: the time I lay unconscious. It showed that our mad
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  Speaker 1: descent on the back of the crystal monster had lasted
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  Speaker 1: quite a full hour, and, reckoning the average speed of
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  Speaker 1: the escaping mass office to have been a mile and
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  Speaker 1: a half a minute, that we were now in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood of ninety miles away from the cold kingdom where
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  Speaker 1: Gelidus sat on his icy throne. The Princess Schnebule at
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  Speaker 1: his feet, with chilli chops beside her. It was with
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  Speaker 1: great difficulty that I could rise to my feet, So
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  Speaker 1: stiffened were my joints and knotted my muscles. After that
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  Speaker 1: terrible ride, every instant of which I expected to be
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  Speaker 1: dashed to pieces against projecting rocks, or torn to shreds
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  Speaker 1: by being caught between the fleeing monster of ice and
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  Speaker 1: the gigantic icicles hanging from the ceiling like the shining
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  Speaker 1: teeth of some huge creature of this underworld. But could
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  Speaker 1: it be, dear friends, that Bulgar and I had only
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  Speaker 1: escaped a quick and merciful ending, to be brought face
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  Speaker 1: to face with a death ten tons more terrible in
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  Speaker 1: that it was to be slow and gradual, denied even
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  Speaker 1: the poor boon of looking upon each other, for darkness
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  Speaker 1: impenetrable was folded about us, and silence so deep that
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  Speaker 1: my ears ached in their longing for some sound to
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  Speaker 1: break it. And yet there was something in the sound
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  Speaker 1: of my own voice that startled me when I used it.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed as if the awful stillness were angered at
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  Speaker 1: being disturbed by it, and smote it back into my teeth.
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  Speaker 1: Where are we this was the question I put to myself.
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  Speaker 1: And then in my mind I strove to recall every
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  Speaker 1: word which I had read in the musty pages of
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  Speaker 1: Don Fume's manuscript concerning the world within a world. But
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  Speaker 1: I could recollect nothing to enlighten me, not a word
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  Speaker 1: to give me hope or cheer. And I was about
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  Speaker 1: to cry out in utter despair, when happening to raise
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  Speaker 1: my eyes and look off in the distance, I saw
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  Speaker 1: what seemed to be a jack a lantern, dancing along
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  Speaker 1: the ground. It was a strange and fantastic sight in
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  Speaker 1: this region of inky darkness, and for a moment I
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  Speaker 1: stood watching it with bated breath and wide open eyes.
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  Speaker 1: But no, it could not be a will of the whisp.
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  Speaker 1: For now the faint and uncertain glimmer had increased to
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  Speaker 1: a mild but steady glow, reaching away off into the distance,
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  Speaker 1: like a long line of dying camp fires seen through
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  Speaker 1: an enveloping mist. But in a moment's time, this wide,
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  Speaker 1: encircling ring of light had so increased in brightness that
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  Speaker 1: it looked for all the world like a break of
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  Speaker 1: day in the land of sunshine. And here and there
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  Speaker 1: where its mild infulgence overcame the darkness of this subterranean region,
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  Speaker 1: I caught sight of walls and arches and columns of
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  Speaker 1: snow white marble. And then, as I called to mind
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  Speaker 1: dan Fum's mysterious reference to sunrise in the lower world,
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  Speaker 1: I swung my hat and gave a loud cry of joy,
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  Speaker 1: while Bulgler waked the echoes of these spacious caverns by
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  Speaker 1: his barking. I tell you, dear friends, not until you
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  Speaker 1: have been in just such a plight can you know
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  Speaker 1: just how such a rescue feels. And now no doubt
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  Speaker 1: you are a bit anxious to know what sort of
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  Speaker 1: a sunrise could possibly take place in this underworld miles
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  Speaker 1: below our own. Well, when you have traveled as many
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  Speaker 1: miles as I have, and seen as many wonders as
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  Speaker 1: I have, you'll be ready to admit that wonders are
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  Speaker 1: quite as commonplace as commonplace itself. Know then, that this
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  Speaker 1: vast region of the world within a world, was girt
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  Speaker 1: round about by a broad and placid stream, whose water
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  Speaker 1: swarmed with vast numbers of gigantic, radiant animals such as polyps,
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  Speaker 1: sea urchins, Portuguese men of war, sea anemonies, and the like.
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  Speaker 1: That these transparent creatures, which had the power of emitting light,
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  Speaker 1: after lying dormant for twelve hours, gradually unfolded their bodies
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  Speaker 1: and tentacles and rose toward the surface of these common
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  Speaker 1: limpid waters, increasing by degrees their mysterious radiance, until they
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  Speaker 1: had chased the darkness from the vast caverns opening upon
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  Speaker 1: the banks of the river, and lighted up this underworld
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  Speaker 1: with a soft effulgence somewhat brighter than the rays of
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  Speaker 1: our full moon. For twelve hours, these weird lanterns of
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  Speaker 1: the stream made it day for this nether world. And
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  Speaker 1: then as they gradually shrank togethertherin sank out of sight,
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  Speaker 1: their expiring fires glowed with all the multi colored radiance
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  Speaker 1: of our ferrest twilight. And that night, blacker than stygy
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  Speaker 1: in darkness came back again, but now twas full daylight
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  Speaker 1: and bidding vulgar follow me, I walked in silent wonder
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  Speaker 1: along the banks of this glowing stream, which, like a
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  Speaker 1: band of mysterious fire, as far as my eye could reach,
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  Speaker 1: went circling around the white marble mouths of these vast
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  Speaker 1: underground chambers. End of Chapter thirty