Latest / Science Fiction Books / 30 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey - Ingersoll Lockwood

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty, All about the most terrible but magnificent ride
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I ever took in my life, ninety miles on the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: back of a flying mass of ice, And how Bulgar
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and I were landed at last on the banks of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a most wonderful river, how the day broke in this
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: thunder world. Had my hand at that moment not grasped
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a cord tied to the neck of my wise and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: keen eyed Bulgar, I really believe I would have come
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to a halt, faced about, retraced my steps, and begged
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of this crystal realm to admit me once
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: more into the cold kingdom. When Gelidus held his icy
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: court for A sudden fit of depression came upon me,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: as the chilly air struck against my cheeks, and I
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: saw the deep darkness made visible by the tiny flame
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of my alabaster lamp hold. Though it might be I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: would have sunshine in the icy land of the Colti corpse,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: But now how could I tell what fate awaited me?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Luckily I had asked the captain of the meat quarries
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to allow me to to retain one of his sounding
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: rods with its flint point, For I feared lest in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: descending some icy declivity, I might fall and bruise or
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: even break a limb. I was determined to advance cautiously
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: along this icy passage, shrouded as it was in impenetrable gloom,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and so different from the broad and polished pavement of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the Marble Highway, and hence hanging the lamp about my neck,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I proceeded to make use of the sounding rod as
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: an alpen stock, for which purposes it was admirably adapted. Suddenly,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Bulgar halted, gave a low whine of warning, and turned back.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: In an instant I knew that there was danger ahead, and,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: letting myself drop on my hands and knees, crawled carefully
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: along to make an investigation of the dangerous spot in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: our route signaled by the watchful Bulgar. It was only
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: too true. We stood apparently upon the very edge of
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a sheer parapet. How high I had no way of ascertaining,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: but I was unable to reach any bottom with the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: sounding rod. What was to be done? Turned back? It
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was not yet too late. The Colti Corpion quarrymen could
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: not have completed their task in so short a time.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: They would hear my knock, they would tear down their
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: wall of ice, and Gilodus and Schneeboullet would welcome us
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: back to their ice palace with a cold but honest satisfaction.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: As I sat there, plunged in thought, I half consciously
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: began to twirl the sounding rod around until I had
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: sunk it half in its length into the floor of ice,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and then, reaching out, I encircled Vulgar with my arm
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and drew him up against me, As was my wont
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: when preparing for profound meditation, I had scarcely done so
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: when the ice beneath me gave one of those sharp, clear,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: cracking noises, so unlike the sound made by the breaking
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of any other substance. And thereupon I felt the crystal
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: mass on which Bulgar and I were sitting tremble and
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: vibrate for an instance, and then with a sudden downward
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: can't break away from the mass behind it and begin
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to move. Instinctively, a sense of my awful peril prommpted
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: me to cling to the sounding rod, which I had
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: sunk drill like into the ice. Luckily it was between
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: my legs, and quick as a flash, I entwined them
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: around it, assuming a turkish sitting posture while my left
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: arm was wrapped tightly around Bulger's body. I don't know
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: how it was done done, as it was all in
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: an instant, but there I sat, now firmly saddled, so
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to speak, upon that crystal monster's back. As with a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: creak and a crash, it snapped the crystal lynx, which
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: bounded to the wall of ice and plunged headlong down
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the glassy slope. In my fright, I had dropped my lamp,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and now the deep gloom of this underworld enwrapped me.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: But no, it was not so far, as the escaping
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: block of ice creaked and crunched its way along the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: two cold crystal surfaces, gave forth a weird glimmer of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: phosphorescent light, which made the flying mass seem like a
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: monstrous living thing, out of whose thousand eyes were darting
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: tongues of flame as it rushed madly along, now gaining
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: speed upon striking a steeper stretch of whay, now fowling
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: with some obstruction and dashing against the rocky sides of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the corridor, and sending a shower of crystals sparkling and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: glittering in the black air anon. The escaping block comes
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: upon a gentle slope, and, with the low music of
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: crushing crystals, slips softly along in its flight, as if
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: mounted upon runners of polished steel. And then with a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: sudden dip, itt glides upon a sharper descent, and fairly
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: leaps into the air as it bounds along, hissing over
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the slippery roadway and leaving a train of fire behind it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: And now it strikes a stretch of way piled here
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and there with clumps and blocks of ice. With a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: mad furia, springs upon the lesser ones with a growl
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of rage, grinding them into powder, which like showers of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: icy foam it hurls upon bulgar and me seated on
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: its back. But some of the blocks resist its terrible onslaught,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and our mighty steed is hurled from side to side
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: with crash and creek, as it drives its crystal corners
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: fiercely against the jutting rocks, leaving marks of its white
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: flesh on these black heads of Adamant. It seems an
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: hour since the crystal monster broke away, and yet ever
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: downward he threads his wild flight, butting, bumping, jostling, veering,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: staggering along, bearing Bulgar and me to the lowest level
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of the world within a world. Will he ever into
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: his mad flight? Is there no way for me to
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: curb him? Must he fly until he has ground his
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: very body to such a thinness that the next obstruction
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: will shatter it into ten thousand pieces and hurl Bulgar
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and me to death. As these thoughts are flitting through
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: my mind, the flying mass takes one last mad plunge,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: which lands it on an almost level stretch of roadway.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: By the different sound given out by the sliding block,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I know that we have left the regions of ice
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: behind us, and that our crystal sledge is gliding gently
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: along over a track of polished marble. But mile after
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: mile it still glides along, gently, softly, silently. And then
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I dare to think that our lives are saved. But
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: so terrible had been the strain, so fearful, the anxiety,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: so exhausting, the effort necessary to hold my place on
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: the block of ice and keep my beloved Bulgar from
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: slipping out of my arms, that I fell backward into
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: a dead faint. As the gliding mass came at last
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: to a standstill. I think I must have lain there
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a good half hour or so, for when I came
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: to myself, Bulgar's frantic joy told me that he had
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: been terribly wrought up over me, and the moment I
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: opened my eyes, he began to shower caresses on my
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: hands and face in most loverlike style. Dear grateful heart.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: He felt that he owed his life this time to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: his little master, and he wanted me to understand how
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: thankful he was. The moment Bulgar's nerves had recovered from
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: the shock occasioned by my prolonged faint, I reached for
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: my repeater and touched its spring. It registered one hour
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and a half since we had stepped through the icy
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: portal of King Gelidus's domain, allowing the half hour for
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the time I lay unconscious. It showed that our mad
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: descent on the back of the crystal monster had lasted
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: quite a full hour, and, reckoning the average speed of
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the escaping mass office to have been a mile and
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: a half a minute, that we were now in the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: neighborhood of ninety miles away from the cold kingdom where
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Gelidus sat on his icy throne. The Princess Schnebule at
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: his feet, with chilli chops beside her. It was with
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: great difficulty that I could rise to my feet, So
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: stiffened were my joints and knotted my muscles. After that
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: terrible ride, every instant of which I expected to be
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: dashed to pieces against projecting rocks, or torn to shreds
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: by being caught between the fleeing monster of ice and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the gigantic icicles hanging from the ceiling like the shining
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: teeth of some huge creature of this underworld. But could
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: it be, dear friends, that Bulgar and I had only
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: escaped a quick and merciful ending, to be brought face
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to face with a death ten tons more terrible in
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: that it was to be slow and gradual, denied even
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the poor boon of looking upon each other, for darkness
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: impenetrable was folded about us, and silence so deep that
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: my ears ached in their longing for some sound to
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: break it. And yet there was something in the sound
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of my own voice that startled me when I used it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: It seemed as if the awful stillness were angered at
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: being disturbed by it, and smote it back into my teeth.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Where are we this was the question I put to myself.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And then in my mind I strove to recall every
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: word which I had read in the musty pages of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Don Fume's manuscript concerning the world within a world. But
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I could recollect nothing to enlighten me, not a word
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to give me hope or cheer. And I was about
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to cry out in utter despair, when happening to raise
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: my eyes and look off in the distance, I saw
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: what seemed to be a jack a lantern, dancing along
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the ground. It was a strange and fantastic sight in
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: this region of inky darkness, and for a moment I
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: stood watching it with bated breath and wide open eyes.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But no, it could not be a will of the whisp.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: For now the faint and uncertain glimmer had increased to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: a mild but steady glow, reaching away off into the distance,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: like a long line of dying camp fires seen through
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: an enveloping mist. But in a moment's time, this wide,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: encircling ring of light had so increased in brightness that
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: it looked for all the world like a break of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: day in the land of sunshine. And here and there
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: where its mild infulgence overcame the darkness of this subterranean region,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I caught sight of walls and arches and columns of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: snow white marble. And then, as I called to mind
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: dan Fum's mysterious reference to sunrise in the lower world,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I swung my hat and gave a loud cry of joy,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: while Bulgler waked the echoes of these spacious caverns by
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: his barking. I tell you, dear friends, not until you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: have been in just such a plight can you know
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: just how such a rescue feels. And now no doubt
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you are a bit anxious to know what sort of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a sunrise could possibly take place in this underworld miles
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: below our own. Well, when you have traveled as many
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: miles as I have, and seen as many wonders as
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I have, you'll be ready to admit that wonders are
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: quite as commonplace as commonplace itself. Know then, that this
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: vast region of the world within a world, was girt
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: round about by a broad and placid stream, whose water
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: swarmed with vast numbers of gigantic, radiant animals such as polyps,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: sea urchins, Portuguese men of war, sea anemonies, and the like.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: That these transparent creatures, which had the power of emitting light,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: after lying dormant for twelve hours, gradually unfolded their bodies
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and tentacles and rose toward the surface of these common
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: limpid waters, increasing by degrees their mysterious radiance, until they
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: had chased the darkness from the vast caverns opening upon
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the banks of the river, and lighted up this underworld
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: with a soft effulgence somewhat brighter than the rays of
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: our full moon. For twelve hours, these weird lanterns of
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the stream made it day for this nether world. And
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: then as they gradually shrank togethertherin sank out of sight,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: their expiring fires glowed with all the multi colored radiance
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: of our ferrest twilight. And that night, blacker than stygy
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: in darkness came back again, but now twas full daylight
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and bidding vulgar follow me, I walked in silent wonder
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: along the banks of this glowing stream, which, like a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: band of mysterious fire, as far as my eye could reach,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: went circling around the white marble mouths of these vast
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: underground chambers. End of Chapter thirty