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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five. A sleepless night for Bulgar and me,
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  Speaker 1: and what followed it interview with King Gilidas, my request
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  Speaker 1: and his reply. What all took place when I learned
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  Speaker 1: that the King and his counselors had decided not to
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  Speaker 1: grant my request, strange tumult among the Coltiqerps, and how
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  Speaker 1: his frigid majesty stilled it, and some other things. Not
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  Speaker 1: only had I been unable to sleep, but by my
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  Speaker 1: tossing about I had kept poor dear Bulgar awake, so
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  Speaker 1: that when morning came, we both looked haggard enough. I
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  Speaker 1: felt as if I had been through a fit of sickness,
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  Speaker 1: and no doubt he did too. At any rate, I
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  Speaker 1: had no appetite for the heavy meat diet of the Coltiqerps.
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  Speaker 1: In seeing me refuse my breakfast, Bulgar did Likewise. I
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  Speaker 1: had promised Schnebolet to come early to the palace, for
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  Speaker 1: she had a number of questions which she wished to
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  Speaker 1: ask me concerning the upper world. Good morning, little Baron,
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  Speaker 1: she cried in her sweetest tones, as I entered the
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  Speaker 1: throne room. Did sleep well last night on the new
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  Speaker 1: pelt which Papa sent thee I was about to make
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  Speaker 1: a reply when Schnebulay's hand coming in contact with mine,
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  Speaker 1: for we had both removed our gloves in order to
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  Speaker 1: shake hands. She uttered a piercing scream, and, drying back,
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  Speaker 1: stood there, blowing her breath on her right palm as
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  Speaker 1: she exclaimed again and again, firebrand, Firebrand. In an instant,
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  Speaker 1: King Gelidus and a group of his counselors drew near, and,
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  Speaker 1: pulling over their gloves, one after the other, laid his
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  Speaker 1: hand in mine. Glowing coals, cried his frigid majesty. Tongue
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  Speaker 1: of flame roared, frosty fez, Boiling water groaned glacier boy,
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  Speaker 1: red hot hissed icicle. Thou must leave the palace at once,
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  Speaker 1: half pleaded King Yeladus. It would simply be madness for
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  Speaker 1: me to permit such a firebrand to remain within the
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  Speaker 1: walls of the royal residence. The intense heat of thy
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  Speaker 1: body would be sure to melt the hole in its wall.
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  Speaker 1: Ere the sun goes down, the royal councilors again drew
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  Speaker 1: off their gloves and laid hands upon or Bulgar. When
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  Speaker 1: a second alarm, even wilder than the first, was sent up,
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  Speaker 1: and we were hastily escorted back to our lodging house.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt, dear friends, you will be somewhat mystified upon
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  Speaker 1: reading these words, But the explanation is easy. Owing to
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  Speaker 1: worriment and lack of sleep, Bulgar and I had awakened
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  Speaker 1: in a highly feverish condition, and to the Colti corpse,
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  Speaker 1: we had really seemed to be almost on fire. But
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  Speaker 1: our fever left us toward night, during which King Gilidas
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  Speaker 1: sent for us and did all in his power to
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  Speaker 1: entertain us with song and dance, in both of which
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  Speaker 1: Sneebulet was very skilled. Finding that his frigid Majesty was
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  Speaker 1: in such a rosy humor, if I may be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to speak that way of a person whose face was
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  Speaker 1: almost as white as the alabaster lamps over his head,
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  Speaker 1: I determined to ask him for permission to cleave asunder
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  Speaker 1: the icy cell of the little man with the frozen smile,
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  Speaker 1: and ascertain, if possible, from the collar, which made up
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  Speaker 1: apparently of gold and silver coin, was clasped around his neck,
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  Speaker 1: to whom he had belonged and where his home had been.
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  Speaker 1: No sooner had I preferred my request than I noticed
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  Speaker 1: that the white face of the Royal Galadus parted with
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  Speaker 1: its smile and took on a terribly icy look. Methought
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  Speaker 1: I could look through the tip of his nose as
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  Speaker 1: though an icicle, And methought too that his ears shone
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  Speaker 1: in the light of the alabaster lamps like sheets of
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  Speaker 1: crystal ice, and that his voice as he spoke, puffed
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  Speaker 1: into my face like the first flakes of a coming
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  Speaker 1: snow storm. I quickly repented me of my rash action,
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  Speaker 1: but it was too late, and I determined to stand
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  Speaker 1: by it. Little Barren, spoke Royal Galadus, in icy tones,
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  Speaker 1: never a heart beat, in a kingly breast that was
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  Speaker 1: purer and colder than mine, freer from the warmth of selfishness,
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  Speaker 1: with not a single hot corner for its ire or
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  Speaker 1: anger to nestle in, or for weakness or folly to
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  Speaker 1: make their hiding places. For thousands of years, my people
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  Speaker 1: have inhabited this icy domain and breathed this pure cold air,
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  Speaker 1: and never yet hath one desired to strike an apse
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  Speaker 1: of flint into the walls of that crystal prison. However,
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  Speaker 1: little Baron, there may be some warm corner in my heart,
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  Speaker 1: wherein cold and limpid wisdom may not be at home. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: come to me to morrow for my answer. Meanwhile, I'll
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  Speaker 1: take counsel with the coolest brains and coldest hearts about me.
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  Speaker 1: If they see no harm in thy request, thou mayst
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  Speaker 1: crack open the crystal gates that have for so many
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  Speaker 1: centuries shut the manlike creature in his silent cell, and
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  Speaker 1: take him forth in order to study the mystic words
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  Speaker 1: graven on his collar. But upon the strict condition that,
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  Speaker 1: in cleaving open his house of crystal, my quarrymen so
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  Speaker 1: apply their wedges of flint as to break the block
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  Speaker 1: into two equal pieces, that when thou hast read what
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  Speaker 1: may be there, the two parts be closed upon the
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  Speaker 1: little man again, edge fitting edge, like a perfect mold,
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  Speaker 1: so exactly that to the eye no sign of line
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  Speaker 1: or joint be visible. Dost promise little Baron that this
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  Speaker 1: shell be as to our royal will it seems meet
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  Speaker 1: that it should be. I promised most solemnly that the
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  Speaker 1: crystal cell of the little man with the frozen smile
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  Speaker 1: should be opened and closed exactly as his frigid majesty
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  Speaker 1: had directed. It would be hard for me to tell you,
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  Speaker 1: dear friends, how happy I went to rest that night
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  Speaker 1: upon my icy divan, and how as the tiny flame
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  Speaker 1: of my alabaster lamp shed its soft glow upon the
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  Speaker 1: walls of ice. I lay there, turning over in my
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  Speaker 1: mind the strange and mysterious pleasure which was soon to
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  Speaker 1: fall to my lot, when the quarrymen of King Gelidus
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  Speaker 1: should send their wedges of flint in this glorious block
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  Speaker 1: of ice and cleave it asunder. Even Don Fum, master
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  Speaker 1: of masters, had never dreamed of receiving a message from
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  Speaker 1: the people who lived in the very childhood of the world.
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  Speaker 1: And in anticipation already I enjoyed the splendid triumph which
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  Speaker 1: would be mine when I came to lecture before to
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  Speaker 1: learned societies, upon the mysterious lettering on the curious collar,
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  Speaker 1: clasping the neck of the little with the frozen smile.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine my anguish, then, dear friends, upon receiving a message
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  Speaker 1: from King Gelidas the next day that his counselors had
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  Speaker 1: with one voice decreed against the opening of the crystal
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  Speaker 1: prison which stood in Schneeboulet's grotto, I was as if
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  Speaker 1: smitten with some sudden and awful ailment I had never
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  Speaker 1: felt until that moment, how keen the tooth of disappointment
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  Speaker 1: could be. I shivered first with a chill that made
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  Speaker 1: me brother to the Colti corps, And then I burned
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  Speaker 1: with a fever so raging that a wild rumor spread
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  Speaker 1: through Geladus's icy domain that I was setting fire to
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  Speaker 1: the very walls and ruth. With wild outcries and faces
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  Speaker 1: drawn with nameless dread, the subjects of his frigid majesty
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  Speaker 1: rushed pell mell up the wide flights of stairs leading
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  Speaker 1: to the Palace of Ice, and pleaded for the king
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  Speaker 1: to show himself. In cold and frigid majesty, Gelidus walked
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  Speaker 1: out upon the platform and listened to the prayers of
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  Speaker 1: his people. We shall burn, they cried. Our beautiful homes
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  Speaker 1: will fall about our egars. These crystal steps will melt
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  Speaker 1: away and hold. These fair columns and arches, and statues
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  Speaker 1: and pedestals will turn to water and empty themselves into
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  Speaker 1: the lower caverns of the earth. The great window of
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  Speaker 1: our sky will fall with awful crash upon our heads,
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  Speaker 1: putting an end forever to this fair domain of crystal splendor.
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  Speaker 1: Oh Galadus, haste thee haste thee ere it be too late.
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  Speaker 1: Let the little baron have his way before bitter disappointment
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  Speaker 1: transforms his body and limbs into tongues of flame to
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  Speaker 1: lick up this magnificent palace in a single night, and
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  Speaker 1: dash its thousand alabaster lamps to the ground a heap
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  Speaker 1: of shards, no fragment matching its brother fragment, but all
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  Speaker 1: a wretched mass of worthless matter. King Galadas and his
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  Speaker 1: frosty counselors saw that it would be useless to attempt
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  Speaker 1: to reason with the people, and therefore, turning toward them,
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  Speaker 1: he coldly waved his chilly right hand, and with an
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  Speaker 1: icy smile, spoke frostily as follows, Go, Colti corpse, do
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  Speaker 1: your homes and be happy. What think you have? I
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  Speaker 1: a heated brain, doth my heart steam with foolishness that
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  Speaker 1: you should think me capable of wishing harm to the
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  Speaker 1: tiniest colti corp that spins his top of ice in
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  Speaker 1: my fair kingdom. Go to your homes, I say. The
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  Speaker 1: little baron is already cooling off, for he hath my
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  Speaker 1: full consent to cleave asunder the crystal prison of the
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  Speaker 1: little man. With a frozen smile, there is nothing to
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  Speaker 1: be frightened about my children. So eat hearty suppers and
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  Speaker 1: sleep soundly to night. For my royal word for it.
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  Speaker 1: By to morrow morning, the little baron will seize to
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  Speaker 1: be the least bit dangerous to the peace and welfare
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  Speaker 1: of our icy kingdom. A good cold night to you all.
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  Speaker 1: In a short half hour, the panic stricken Colti corpse
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  Speaker 1: were all back in their homes again. And when a
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  Speaker 1: messenger came from King Dalidus to measure my temperature, he
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  Speaker 1: found such a great improvement that he opened his chilly
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  Speaker 1: heart and sent me a beautiful present from his treasure
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  Speaker 1: house to wit, a small block of ice clearer than
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  Speaker 1: any gem I had ever in the heart of which
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  Speaker 1: lay a glorious red rose in fullest bloom. Each velvet
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  Speaker 1: paddle opened out eagerly. Upon consulting my diary, I found
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  Speaker 1: that it was just six months to a day since
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  Speaker 1: I had left Castle Trump and the loved ones, sheltered
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  Speaker 1: by its time worn tiles and cold as was the
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  Speaker 1: covering of this thrish beautiful child of the upper world.
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  Speaker 1: I clasped it to my breast and shed tears. And
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  Speaker 1: this was the way it came about, dear friends, that
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  Speaker 1: King Elidus and his frosty counselors were brought to give
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  Speaker 1: their consent to my cleaving asunder the icy prison, wherein
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  Speaker 1: lay the little man with the frozen smile. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five.