Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 06 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey

Transcript

06 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter six, my despair upon finding the pipe of the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: funnel too small for my body, A ray of hope
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: breaks in upon me, full account of how I succeeded
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in entering the pipe of the funnel, my passage through it,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Bulgar's timely aid, the Marble Highway, and some curious things
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: concerning the entrance to the world within a world. The
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: rocky sides of Polyphemus's funnel were apparently as well polished
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: as those of any tin funnel that I had ever
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: seen hanging in the kitchen of Castle Trump. So, making
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: fast my tackle and taking Bulgar in my arms away,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: we went, sliding down the side, with the line passed
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: under my arm. For safety's sake. It was nearly a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: hundred feet to the bottom, for I had measured off
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the full length of my line before I had come
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to the apex of this gigantic cone, And, not caring
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to tumble headlong down its pipe, I proceeded to light
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a taper and look about me, Ah, dear friends, I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: can feel that shudder. Now, so terrible was it? And
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: what wonder too? For A glance at the pipe of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the funnel told me that it was too small to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: let my body pass through the agonizing thought flashed through
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: my mind that I had committed a terrible error, that
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I had mistaken some vast pit for the giants well,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: that I had thrown bulgars in my own life away
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: in a mad and unreasoning haste, that I should never
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: reach the wonderful world within a world, that there in
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that thick gloom we must lay our bodies and bones,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: or thought I may not the learned master of masters
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: don fun have made an error himself, and holding not
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the idea that the pipe of Polypmus's funnel was large
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: enough to admit the passage of a man's body. In
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: my almost frenzy, I advanced to the mouth of the pipe, and,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: lowering myself into it, let my body sink as far
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: as it would. It caught at the shoulders, and after
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a careful examination, I was forced to reach the brain
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: racking conclusion that my faithful bulgar and I had traveled
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: our last mile together. There was nothing for us to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: do but to lie down and die, lie down and
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: die never. I had noticed, in making the descent into
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the Giant's well, that its side had much the appearance
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of being walled around by blocks of stone with bulgar
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: strap to my back, I would slowly climb up from
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: shelf to shelf until my strength failed me, and then
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I would wait until I thought old Juliana had come
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: back together herbs, and possibly I might make her hear me.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: In my despair, I sighed and clutched my own arms,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: and as I did so, one of my hands came
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: into contact with something cold and slippery, having the feel
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of tallow. Taking a pinch of the substance between my
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: thumb and finger, I rubbed it thoughtfully for a moment,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and then a ray of hope broke through the awful
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: gloom that enshrouded me so piteously. It was black lead.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: There could be no doubt of it. It had made
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: its way through a crack or crevice in Polyphemus's funnel,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and I had rubbed it off in sliding down the side.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: With this greasy material to rub on the inside of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the pipe to the funnel, and also to besmear myself with.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Mayhap I might yet slip through into the world within
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a world. At any rate, I determined to make the trial,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: even if I left some of my skin on the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: flinty rock in order to collect my thoughts thoroughly, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that I might proceed step by step in that systematic
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: order so characteristic of all my wonderful exploits. I sat down,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and putting my arm around dear Bulgar's neck and drawing
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: him up against me. I communed with myself for a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: good half hour. Then all was in readiness for action.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And to prove to you, dear friends, how careful Bulgar
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: was not to interrupt my train of thought, I have
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to report to you that although a small animal of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the rat family came out from a crevice in the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: rock while I sat there, thinking as I could see
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: by the light of my tiny wax taper, and had
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the temerity first to sniff at Bulgar's tail and then
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to give it a playful nip. Yet the sagacious animal
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: never budged a hair's breath. Mind hath ordered. Now let
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: hands obey, I exclaimed, as I sprang up and began
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: stripping off my outer garments. This done, I clambered up
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: on the side of the funnel and began to collect
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a supply of the black lead, which I deposited near
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the opening of the pipe. The next thing to do
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: was to get Bulgar through the pipe ahead of me.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: To this end, I tied him up in my clothing
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: bag fashion and began to lower away. After paying out
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: sixty five or seventy feet of line, he struck bottom,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and by his loud barking, gave me to understand that
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: it was all rigid that I might make the descent myself.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Upon hearing his voice, I gave the line a few
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: sharp tugs. He was not so slow to comprehend my meaning,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and in a moment or so had not only scrambled
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: out of the bag himself, but pulled my clothing loose
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: so that I might draw the line up again. My
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: next step was to contrive a way to weight myself
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: when the moment arrived to begin of the descent, for
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I felt sure that I never should be able to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: arrange it so as to slip through the pipe unless
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: something was pulling at my heels. Cutting off about ten
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: feet of the rope, I made fast one end of
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the piece to a long piece of rock weighing about
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: a hundred pounds. This I laid near the mouth of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the pipe, ready for use. But now came the most
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: difficult thing of all. It was to draw my shoulders
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: in on my breast and lash them securely in that position,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: by which plan I expected to reduce my width in
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: at least two good inches. These two inches thus gained,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: or rather lost, might be the means by which I
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: would be able to slip through the pipe of Polypmus's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: funnel and reach the vast underground passage leading to the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: world within a world. Putting a noose around my chest
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: just below my collar bone, I drew my shoulders in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: as tight as I could bear, and changed the slip
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: knot into a hard one. Then, having made the other
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: into the line fast to the side of the funnel,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I proceeded to wind myself up, as the housewives often do,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a big sausage to keep it from bursting. This done,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I set about rolling in the black lead until I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: was thoroughly smeared with it. There was now but one
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: thing more to do before dropping myself into the pipe,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and that was to make fast the weight to my feet.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: It was no easy task, wound up as I was
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: with my arms lashed down against my body, but by
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the use of slip knots, I finally accomplished the feat and,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: sitting down, put my legs into the pipe and drew
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a long breath, for I felt as if I was
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: skewered up in a strait jacket. Bending down, I called
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: out to Bulgar. He answered with a yelp of joy
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that brought fresh vigor to my heart. Now was come
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the supreme moment, which was to witness success or failure? Failure? Oh,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: what a dread word is that? And yet how often
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: must human lips pronounce it? And in so doing breathe
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: out the sigh in which it ends. Quickly lowering the weight,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I wriggled off the edge of the opening and straightened
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: myself out as I slipped into the pipe. Had I
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: stopped it like a cork? Or was I moving? Yes? Down, down, gently, slowly, noiselessly,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I went slipping through the pipe to Polyphemus's funnel. What
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: did I care how that weight caused the line to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: cut into my ankles. I was moving. I was drawing
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer to Bulgar, whose joyous spark I could
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: hear now, and then nearer to the inner gates of
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the world within a world. But woe is me? I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: suddenly stopped, and, in spite of all my efforts to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: start again, by twisting, turning, and shaking my body. It
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: refused to sink another inch, and there I stick, Oh, bulgar, bulgar,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I moan, faithful friend, if thou couldst but reach me,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: one tug from thee might save thy little master. In
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a sort of wild and desperate way. I now began
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to feel about me as well as I could with
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: my hands wedged in so close to my sides. But
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in a moment or so I had discovered the cause
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: of my coming to such a sudden standstill. I had
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: struck a portion of the pipe that had a thread
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: to it, like that which encircles a bolt of iron
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and makes a screw of it. And the thought came
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to me that if I could only succeed in giving
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a revolving motion to my body, I would, with every
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: turn twist myself further down toward the end of the pipe.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I could feel that my knuckles and finger tips were
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: being bruised and lacerated by this arduous work. But worft
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: cared I for the keen pain that darted from hands
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to wrists and wrists to elbows. It was like twisting
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a screw slowly through a long nut, only the thread
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in this case was on the knut and the little
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: grows in the screw, and that screw was my poor
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: bruise little body. All of a sudden, by the swinging
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of the weight, I could tell that it had passed
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: out at the lower end of the pipe. It was
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: pulling cruelly hard on my tender ankles, but I could
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: twist myself no more. My strength was gone. I was
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: at the point of swooning when I heard Bulgar utter
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: a loud yelp, And the next instant there was such
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: a strong tug at my ankle, so I sent forth
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a groan. But that hug saved me. It was Bulgar
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: who had leaped into the air, and catching the rope
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: in his teeth, had dragged his little master out of
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the pipe of Polyphemus's tunnel. We all fell into the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: same heap, Bulger and I and the weight fully ten
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: feet and very serious might have been the consequences for
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: me had my fall not been broken by my striking
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: on the pile of my clothing placed directly under the opening.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And dear friends, if you talked until the crack of doom,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you could not make me believe that my four footed
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: brother hadn't placed those clothes there to catch me. They
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: weren't thrown higglely piggledy into a heap, either, but were
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: laid one upon the other, the heaviest at the bottom.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Having unwound myself and lighted one of my wax tapers,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I made haste to cast away the undergarment with its
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: coating of black lead, and resume my clothing. Then, stooping down,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I made anigas damination of the floor. It was composed
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of huge blocks of marble of various colors, polished almost
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: as smooth as if the hand of man had brought
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the work. And then I knew that I was on
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Nature's marble highway leading to the cities of the underworld,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: which don Fum had mentioned in his book. And I
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: remembered too that he had spoken of Nature's mighty mosaics,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: huge fantastic figures on the walls of these lofty corridors,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: made up of various colored blocks and fragments, laid one
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: upon the other, as if with design, and not by
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the wild, tempestuous whims of upbursting forces thousands of years ago,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: when the Earth was in its mad and wayward youth.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: After a rest of several hours, during which I nursed
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: my torn hands and bruised fingers. Bulgar and I were
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: up and off again along this broad and glorious marble highway.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Strange to say, it was not the inky darkness of
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the ordinary cavern which filled these magnificent chambers through which
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the marble Highway went winding in still lately and massive grandeur.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Far from it. The gloom was tempered by a faint
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: glow that met us on the way, Ever, and anon
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: like a ray of twilight gone astray. Anyway, Bulgar, I noticed,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: could see perfectly well, so tying a bit of twine
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: to his collar, I sent him on ahead, convinced that
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I could have no surer guide. At times our path
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: would be lighted up for an instant by the bursting
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: out of a little tongue of flame, either on the
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: sides or from the roof of the gallery. I was
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: puzzled for quite a while to tell what it proceeded from,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: but at last I caught sight of the source, or
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: rather the maker, of this welcome illumination. It proceeded from
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: a lizard like animal, which, by suddenly uncoiling its tail,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: had the power to emit this extremely bright flesh of
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: phosphorescent light, and in so doing he made a sharp
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: crack for all the world like the noise of an
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: electric spark. Bulgar was delighted with this performance, and on
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: one occasion, not being able to control his feelings, he
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: uttered a sharp burke, whereupon apparently ten thousand of these
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: little torch bearers snapped their tails at me at the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: same instant, and filled the vast place with a flash
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of light of almost lightning like intensity. Vulgar was so
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: frightened by the result of his applause that he took
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: good care to keep quiet after this end of chapter
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: six