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02 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey · Classic Adventure Books Library

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Chapter two don Fum's Mysterious Directions, Bulger and I set out for Petersburg,
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and thence proceed to ourch angel The story of our journey as far as Ilach
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on the illage Ivan the teamster, How we made our way northward in search
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of the portals to the world within a world, Ivan's threat, Bulger's distrust
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of the man, and other things. According to the learned don Fum's manuscript,
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the portals to the world within a world were situated somewhere in northern Russia,
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possibly so he thought, from all indications, somewhere on the westerly slope
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of the upper Urals, but the great thinker could not locate them with any
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accuracy. The people will tell thee was the mysterious phrase that occurred again and
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again on the mildewed pages of this wonderful writing. The people will tell thee
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Ah. But what people will be learning enough to tell me? That was
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the brain racking question which I asked myself, sleeping and waking at sunrise,
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at high noon, and at sunset, at the crowing of the cock,
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and in the silent hours of the night. The people will tell the said
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learned down foam Ah but what people will tell me where to find the portals
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to the world within the world hitherto On my travels, I had made choice
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of a semi oriental guard, both on account of its picturesqueness and its lightness
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and warmth. But now, as I was about to pass quite across Russia
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for a number of months, I resolved to die in the Russian national costume,
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for speaking Russian fluently as I did a score of more of languages living
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and dead. I was thus being able to come and go without ever lastingly
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displaying my passport or having my trains, A thought constantly disturbed by inquisitive traveling
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companions a very important thing to me, for my mind possessed the extraordinary power
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of working out automatically any task assigned to it by me, provided it was
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not suddenly thrown off its track by some ridiculous interruption. For instance, I
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was upon the very point one day of discovering perpetual motion, when the gracious
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Barrenness suddenly opened the door and asked me whether I had pared the nails on
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my great toes lately, as she had observed that I had worn holes in
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several pairs of my best stockings. It was about the middle of February when
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I set out from the castle. Trump and I journeyed night and day in
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order to reach Petersburg by the first of March, for I knew that the
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government trains would leave that city for the Yeca during the first week of that
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month. And I were both in the best of health and spirits, and
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the fatigue of the journey didn't tell upon us in the least. The moment
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I arrived at the Russian capital, I applied to the Emperor for permission to
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join one of the government trains, which was most graciously accorded. Our route
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lay almost directly to the northward for several days, at the end of which
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time we reached the shores of Lake Ladoga. This we crossed on the ice
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with our sledges, as a few days later we did Lake Onega, thence
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by land again. We kept on our way until Onega Bay had been reached,
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crossing it too on the ice, and so reaching the station of the
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same name, where we halted for a day to give our horses a well
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deserved rest. From this point we proceeded in a straight line over the snowfields
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to Archangel, an important trading post on the White Sea. As this was
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the destination of the government train, I parted with its commandant after a few
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days pleasant soldier at the government house, and set out, attended only by
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my faithful bulger and two servants who had been signed to me by the Imperial
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Commissioner. My course now carried me up the River Duenna as far as Solvitchikosk.
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Thence I proceeded on my way over the frozen waters of the Wutchega River
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until we had reached the government post of Yarnsk, and from here on we
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headed due east until our heart little horses had dragged us into the picturesque village
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of Ilich. On the village here we were obliged to have battened our sledges
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for the snows that disappeared like magic, uncovering long vistas of green fields,
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which in a few days the May sun doted with flowers and sweet shrubs.
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At Ilich, I was obliged to relinquish from my service the two faithful government
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retainers who had accompanied me from archangel, for they had now reached the most
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westerly point which they had been commissioned to visit. I had become very much
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attached to them and saw at Bolger, and after their departure, we both
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felt as if we were now, for the first time, among strangers in
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a strange land. But I succeeded in engaging, as I thought a trustworthy
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teamster, Ivan by name, who made a contract with me for a goodly
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wage to carry me one hundred miles farther north. But not another step farther,
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little baron, said the fellow doggedly, I was now really at the
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foothills of the northern Urals, for the rocky crests and snowclad peaks were in
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full sight. I turned many a wistful look up toward the wild regions,
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shut in by their sheer walls and parapets, shaggy and bristling with black pines.
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For a low, mysterious voice came a whispering in my inward ear.
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That's somewhere, ah, somewhere in that awful wilderness, I should one day
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come upon the portals of the world within a world. In spite of all
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I could do. Bulger took a violent dislike to Ivan, and Ivan to
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him. And if the bargain had not been made and the money paid over,
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I should have looked about me for another teamster, and yet it would
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have been a foolish thing to do. For Ivan had two excellent horses,
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as I saw at a glance, and was more. He took the best
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care of them at every post, rubbing them until they were quite dry,
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and never thinking of his own supper until they had been watered and fed.
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His turn task, too, was quite new and solidly built, and well
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furnished with soft blankets, all in law as comfortable as you can make a
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wagon which has no other springs than the two long wooden supports that reach from
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Axel to Axel. True it were somebody elastic, but I could notice that
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Boger was not overfind a riding in this curious vehicle with its Rattiley band gate
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up and down these mountain roads, and often asked permission to leap out and
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follow on foot at length. Ivn't reported everything in readiness for the start,
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and although I would have fainted, taken my departure from Ilage on the illage
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in as quiet a manner as possible. If the whole village turned out to
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see us off. Ivan's family father, mother, sisters and brothers, wife
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and children, uncles and aunts, and cousins by dozens alone, making up
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people enough to stock a small town. They cheered and waved their kerchiefs.
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Bulger barked, and I smiled and raised my cap with all the dignity of
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a trump. And so we got away at last from ilag on the village,
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Ivan on the box, and Buger and I at the back, sitting
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close together like two brothers. That we were two breasts with but a single
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heartbeat, and two brains busy with the same thought that comparels, or come
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sudden attacks, come covert danger, or bold and open faced onslaught, we
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should stand together and fall together. Many and many a time. As Ivan's
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horses went crawling up the long stretches of mountain road, and I lay stretched
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upon the broad cushioned seat of the tyrantath with a blanket rolled up for a
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pillow, I would find myself unconsciously repeating those mysterious words of down foam.
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The people will tell thee, the people will tell thee. So steep with
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the roads that some days we would not make more than five miles, and
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on others a halt of several hours would have to be made to enable Ivan
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to tighten his horse's shoes, reach the axles, or do some needful thing
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in or about his wagon. It was slow work. I it was very
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slow and tedious. But what matters it? How many or great the difficulties
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to a man who has made up his mind to accomplish a certain task.
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Through the storks or the wild geese stop to count the thousands of miles between
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them and their far away homes when the time comes to turn their heads southward?
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Do the brown ants pause to count the hundreds of thousands of grains of
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sand which they must carry through their long corridors and winding passages before they have
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burrowed deep enough to escape the frost of midwinter. There have been many trumps,
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but never one that had thrown up his arms and cried, I surrender,
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And should I be the first to do it? Never, not,
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even if it meant never to see dear old castle trump again. One morning,
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as we went zig zagging up a particularly nasty bit of mountain road,
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Ivan suddenly wheeled about, and, without even taking off his hat, cried
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out, little Baron, I covered the last mile of the one hundred to
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day. If thou wouldst go any farther north, thou must hire another teamster.
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Dost here silence, said I sternly, for the fellow had broken in
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upon a very important train of thought. Boger too resented the man's insolence and
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growled and showed his teeth. But little Baron listen to reason, he continued,
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in a more respectful tone, removing his cap. My people will expect
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me back, I promised my father. I'm a dutiful son. I nay
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nay ivan, I interrupted, sharply curb that tongue of nine, lest it
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harmed thy soul. No than that. I spoke with thy father, and
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he promised me that thou should go a second hundred miles with me, if
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need were, but on condition that I give thee double pay, it shall
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be done. And on top of that, and goodly present for your darling,
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little Baron. Thou art a hard master, whimpered the man. The
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whim took thee. Thou wouldst bid me leap into the giants well, just
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to see whether it has at bottom or not. Saint Nicholas saved me.
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Nay, I mean, said I kindly. I know no such word as
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cruelty, although I do confess that right seems harsh at times. But thou
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wert born to serve and I to command. Providence hath made thee poor and
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me rich. We need each other. Do thou thy duty, and thou
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wilt find me just and consider it. Disobey me, and thou would find
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that this short arm maybe stretched from Ilich to Petersburg. I've been turned pale
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at this hidden threat of mine, but I deemed it necessary to make it
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for I as well as Bolger had sent a treasury and rebellion about this boorish
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fellow, whose good trait was his love of his horses. And it has
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always been my rule in life to open my eyes wide to the good that
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there is in a man, and close them to his faults. But in
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spite of kind words and kind treatment, Ivan grew surlier and moodier. The
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moment we had passed one hundredth milestone, Bogo watched him with a gaze so
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steady and thoughtful that the man fairly quailed before it. Or by hour,
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he became more and more arrestive, And upon leaving a roadside tavern for the
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very first time since we had left the Ilitch on the Illage, I noticed
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that the fellow had been drinking too much costs. He let loose his tongue
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and raised his hand against his horses, which until that moment he had been
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wont to lower down with caresses and pen names. Look out for that driver
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of thye little baron, whispered the tavern keeper. He's in a reckless mood.
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He not pull up if the giants well were gaping in front of him.
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Saint Nicholas had thee in his safe keeping. End of Chapter two