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30 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey · Adventure Books Collection

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