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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three, Ivan more and more troublesome Bulgar watches him
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  Speaker 1: closely his cowardly attack upon me, my faithful vulgar to
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  Speaker 1: the rescue a driver worth having. How I was carried
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  Speaker 1: to a place of safety in the hands of old
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  Speaker 1: Juliana the giants well when we halted for the night.
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  Speaker 1: It was only by threatening the man with severe punishment
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  Speaker 1: upon my return to hitch that I could bring him
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  Speaker 1: to rub his horse's dry and feed and water them properly.
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  Speaker 1: But I stood over him until he had done his
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  Speaker 1: work thoroughly, for I knew that no such horses could
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  Speaker 1: be had for love or money in that country. If
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  Speaker 1: they should go lame from standing with wet coats in
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  Speaker 1: the chill night air, it might meet a week's delay.
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  Speaker 1: Scarcely had I thrown myself on the hard mattress, which
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  Speaker 1: the tavern keeper called the best bed in the house.
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  Speaker 1: When I was aroused by loud and boisterous talking in
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  Speaker 1: the next room, Ivan was drinking and quarreling with the villagers.
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  Speaker 1: I strode into the room with the arrows of indignation
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  Speaker 1: shooting from my eyes, and the faithful Bulgar close at
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  Speaker 1: my heels. The moment Ivan set eyes upon us. He
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  Speaker 1: shrank away, half in earnest and half in jest, and
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  Speaker 1: called out, he look at the mazuntchik, the little dandy,
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  Speaker 1: how smartly looks he frightens me? See his eyes, how
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  Speaker 1: they shine in the dark. Look at the little demon
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  Speaker 1: on four legs beside him. Save me, Rather save me,
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  Speaker 1: he will throw me down into the giant's well. My
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  Speaker 1: uncle will never see me again. Save me, brothers, peace fellow,
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  Speaker 1: I called out sternly, how darest thou exercise thy dull
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  Speaker 1: wit on thy master. Get thee to bed at once,
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  Speaker 1: or I'll have thee whipped by the village constable for
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  Speaker 1: thy drunkenness. Ivan clamored up upon the top of the
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  Speaker 1: bake oven and stretched himself out on a sheepskin. Then,
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  Speaker 1: turning to the tavern keeper, I forbade him, under any
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  Speaker 1: pretext whatever, to give my servant any more liquor to drink. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: your excellency, exclaimed the tavern keeper with a gesture of disgust.
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  Speaker 1: The fools never know when they have had enough. It
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  Speaker 1: matters not what the tavern keeper may say to them.
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  Speaker 1: They tell us not to spoil our own trade. Ah.
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  Speaker 1: They don't know when to stop they have throats as
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  Speaker 1: deep as that. Giants well, giants well, the giant's well,
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  Speaker 1: I murmured to myself, as I again threw myself down
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  Speaker 1: upon the bag of hay, which did service as a
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  Speaker 1: mattress for those who could afford to pay for it.
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  Speaker 1: It's strange how those words seemed to be in every
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  Speaker 1: peasant's mouth, but I thought no more about it at
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  Speaker 1: the time. Sleep got the better of me, and with
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  Speaker 1: my usual good night to the elder baron and the
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  Speaker 1: gracious Baroness my mother, I dropped off into sweet forgetfulness.
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  Speaker 1: It is a good thing that I had the power
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  Speaker 1: of falling asleep almost at will, For with my restless brain,
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  Speaker 1: ever throbbing and pulsating, with its own overabundance of strength,
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  Speaker 1: ever tapping at the thin panels of bone which covered it,
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  Speaker 1: like an imprisoned inventor pounding on his cell door and
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  Speaker 1: pleading to be let out into the daylight. With his
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  Speaker 1: plans and schemes, I should simply have become a lunatic.
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  Speaker 1: As it was, with the mere power of thought I
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  Speaker 1: ordered sweet slumber to come to my rescue. And so
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  Speaker 1: obedient was this good angel of mine, that all I
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  Speaker 1: had to do was simply to set the time when
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  Speaker 1: I wished to awaken, and the thing was done to
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  Speaker 1: the very minute. As for the Bulgar, I never pretended
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  Speaker 1: to lay down any rules for him. He made it
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  Speaker 1: a practice of catching forty winks when he was persuaded
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  Speaker 1: that no danger of any kind threatened me. And even
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  Speaker 1: then I am half inclined to believe that, like an
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  Speaker 1: anxious mother over her babe, he never quite closed both
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  Speaker 1: eyes at once. Though entirely sobered by daybreak, Yet Ivan
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  Speaker 1: went about the task of harnessing up with such an
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  Speaker 1: ill grace that I was obliged to reprove him several
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  Speaker 1: times before we had left the tavern yard. He was
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  Speaker 1: like a vicious but cowardly animal that quails before a
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  Speaker 1: strong and steady eye, but watches its opportunity to spring
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  Speaker 1: upon you when your back is turned. I not only
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  Speaker 1: called Bulgar's attention to the fellow's actions. I warned him
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  Speaker 1: to be very watchful. But I also took the precaution
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  Speaker 1: to examine the priming of the brace of Spanish pistols,
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  Speaker 1: which I care thrust into my belt. We had scarcely
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  Speaker 1: pulled out into the highway when a low growl from
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  Speaker 1: bulgar aroused me from a fit of meditation. And this
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  Speaker 1: growl was followed by such an anxious wine from my
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  Speaker 1: four footed brother as he raised his speaking eyes to me,
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  Speaker 1: that I glanced hastily from one side of the road
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  Speaker 1: to the other. Lo and behold, the treacherous ivan was
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  Speaker 1: deliberately engaged in an attempt to overturn the torrantas and
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  Speaker 1: to get rid of his enforced task of transporting us
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  Speaker 1: any farther on our journey. Wretch, I cried, springing up
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  Speaker 1: and laying my hand on his shoulder. I perceive very
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  Speaker 1: plainly what thou hast in mind. But I warn thee
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  Speaker 1: most sulemnly that if thou makest another attempt to overturn
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  Speaker 1: thy wagon, I'll slay thee where thou sittest for only answer.
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  Speaker 1: And with a lightning like quickness, he struck a back
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  Speaker 1: hand blow at me with the loaded end of his
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  Speaker 1: whip stock. It took me full in the right temple
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  Speaker 1: and sent me to the bottom of the tarantus like
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  Speaker 1: a piece of lead. For an instant the terrible blow
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  Speaker 1: robbed me of my senses. But then I saw that
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  Speaker 1: the cowardly villain had turned in his seat, and had
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  Speaker 1: swung the heavy handled whip aloft, with intent to despatch
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  Speaker 1: me with a second and surer blow. Poor fool he
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  Speaker 1: reckoned without his host, for with a shriek of rage,
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar leaped at his throat like a stone from a catapult,
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  Speaker 1: and struck his teeth deep into the fellow's flesh. He
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  Speaker 1: roared with agony and attempted to shake off this unexpected foe,
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  Speaker 1: but in vain. By this time I had come to
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  Speaker 1: a full realizing sense of the terrible danger Bulgar and
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  Speaker 1: I were both in. For Ivan had dropped his whip
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  Speaker 1: and was reaching for his sheath knife, but he never
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  Speaker 1: gripped it, for a well aimed shot from one of
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  Speaker 1: my pistols struck him in the forearm. For I had
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  Speaker 1: no wish to take the man's life, and broke it.
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  Speaker 1: The shock and pain so paralyzed him that he fell
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  Speaker 1: over against the dashboard, half in a faint, and then
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  Speaker 1: rolled completely out of the wagon, dragging Bulgar with him.
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  Speaker 1: The horses now began to rear and plunge. I saw
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  Speaker 1: no more. There was a noise as of the roar
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  Speaker 1: of angry waters in my ears, and then the light
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  Speaker 1: of life went out of my eyes entirely. I had
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  Speaker 1: swooned dead away. It seemed to me hours that I
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  Speaker 1: lay there on my back in the bottom of the Tarantas,
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  Speaker 1: with my head hanging over the side, But of course
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  Speaker 1: it was only minutes. I was aroused by a prickling
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  Speaker 1: sensation on my left cheek, and as I slowly came
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  Speaker 1: to myself, I discovered that it proceeded from the gravel
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  Speaker 1: thrown up against it by one of the front wheels
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  Speaker 1: of the tarantas. For the horses were galloping along at
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  Speaker 1: the top of their speed, and there on the driver's
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  Speaker 1: seat sat my faithful Bulgar, the reins in his teeth,
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  Speaker 1: bracing himself so as to keep them taut over the
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  Speaker 1: horse's backs. And as I sat up and pressed my
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  Speaker 1: hand against my poor hurt head, the whole truth broke
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  Speaker 1: upon me. The moment Ivan had struck the ground, Bulgar
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  Speaker 1: had released his hold on the fellow's throat, and ere
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  Speaker 1: he had had a chance to revive, he had leaped
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  Speaker 1: up into the driver's seat, and catching up the reins
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  Speaker 1: in his teeth, had drawn them taut, and thus put
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  Speaker 1: an end to the rearing and plunging of the frightened
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  Speaker 1: beast and started them on their way, leaving the enraged
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  Speaker 1: ivan brandishing his knife and uttering imprecations upon mine in
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  Speaker 1: Bulgar's heads as he saw his horse, horses, and wagon
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  Speaker 1: disappear in the distance. Now was it that a mad
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  Speaker 1: shouting assailed my ears? And I caught a glimpse of
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  Speaker 1: half a dozen peasants, who, seeing this as they thought
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  Speaker 1: empty Tarrentus come nearer and nearer, with its galloping horses,
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  Speaker 1: had abandoned their work and rushed out to intercept it.
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  Speaker 1: Judge of their amazement, dear friends, as their eyes fell
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  Speaker 1: upon the common skillful driver, bracing himself on the front
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  Speaker 1: seat and with oft repeated backward tosses of his head,
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  Speaker 1: urging those horses to bear his beloved master farther and
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  Speaker 1: farther away from the treacherous Ivan's sheath knife. As the
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  Speaker 1: peasants seized the animals by the heads and brought them
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  Speaker 1: to a standstill, I staggered to my feet and threw
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  Speaker 1: my arms around my dear Bulgar. He was more than
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  Speaker 1: pleased with what he had done, and licked my bruised
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  Speaker 1: brow with many a piteous moan. Saint Nicholas Savus, cried,
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  Speaker 1: one of the peasants devoutly making the sign of the cross.
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  Speaker 1: But if I should live long enough to fill the
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  Speaker 1: giants well with pebbles, I never would expect to see
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  Speaker 1: the likes of this again. Giants well, the giants well,
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  Speaker 1: I murmured to myself as I followed one of the
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  Speaker 1: peasants to his cot, standing a little back from the highway,
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  Speaker 1: for I stood sore in need of rest after the
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  Speaker 1: terrible experience I had just had. The blow of Ivan's
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  Speaker 1: whip handle had jarred my brain, and I was skilled
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  Speaker 1: enough in surgery to know that the hurt called for
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  Speaker 1: immediate attention. As good luck would have it, I found
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  Speaker 1: beneath the peasant's rough one of those old women, half
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  Speaker 1: witches perhaps, who have recipes for everything, and who know
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  Speaker 1: an herb for every ailment. After she had examined the
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  Speaker 1: cut made by the loaded whip handle, she muttered out,
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  Speaker 1: it's not as broad as the mount the Norse, deep
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  Speaker 1: as the giant's well, but it's bad enough, little master.
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  Speaker 1: The Giant's well, again, thought I, as I laid me
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  Speaker 1: down on the best bed they could make up for me.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder where it may be that Giant's well, and
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  Speaker 1: how deep it is, and who drinks the water that
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  Speaker 1: is drawn from it? End of Chapter three,