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

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  Chapter four, My Wound Heels, Uliana talks about the giants well. I
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  resolved to visit it preparations to ascend the mountains. What happened to Juliana and
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  to me reflection and then action. How I contrived to continue the ascent without
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  Juliana for a guide. It was a day or so before I could walk
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  steadily, and meantime I made unusual efforts to keep my brain quiet. But
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  in spite of all I could do, every mention of the giant's well by
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  one of the peasants sent a strange thrill through me. I would find myself
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  suddenly pacing up and down the floor and repeating over and over again the words
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  giants well, giants well. Vulgar was greatly troubled in his mind, and
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  sat watching me with a most bewildered look in his loving eyes. He had
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  half a suspicion. I think that the cruel blow from Ivan's whip handle had
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  injured my reasoning powers, for at times he uttered a low, plaintive whine.
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  The moment I took notice of him, however, and acting more like
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  myself, he gamboled about me in the wildest delight, as I had directed
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  the peasants to drive Ivan's horses back towards Iluch on the Illach until they should
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  meet the miscreant and deliver them to him. I was now without any means
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  of continuing my journey northward unless I set out, like many of my famous
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  predecessors on foot. They had longer legs than I, however, and were
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  not loaded with so heavy a brain in proportion to their sides, and a
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  brain too that scarcely ever slept, least not soundly. I was too impatient
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  to reach the portals to the world within a world. To go trudging along
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  a dusty highway. I must have horses and another tarantas, or at least
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  a peasant's cart I must push on. My head was quite healed now,
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  and my fever gone. Hearken, little master, whispered Juliana. Such was
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  the name of the old woman who had taken care of me. Thou ert
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  not what thou sheamst. I never saw alike of thee before. If thou
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  wouldst, I believe thou couldst tell me how high the sky is, how
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  thick through the mountain's air, and how deep the giant's well is. I
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  smiled, and then I said, didst ever drink from the giant's well,
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  Uleianna, at which she wagged her head and sent forth a low chuckle.
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  Hearken, little master, She then whispered, coming close to me and holding
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  up one of her long bony fingers, Thou canst not trick me. Thou
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  knowest if the giant's well hath no bottom, no bottom, I repeated breathlessly,
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  as don Fum's mysterious words. The people will tell thee flash through my
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  mind. No bottom, Uleiana, naught to unlest Thy eyes are better than
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  mine, Little master, she murmured, nodding her head slowly. Listen,
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  Uleiana, I burst out impetuously. Where is this bottomless well? Thou shalt
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  lead me to it? I must it come? Let start at once?
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  Thou shalt be well paid for thy pains. Nay, nay, little master,
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  Not so fast, she replied. Eatst far up the mountains, the
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  way steep and ruged, the passer narrow and wanding. A false step might
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  mean instant death, were there not some strong hand to save thee. Give
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  up such a mad thought as ever geting there, except it be on the
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  stout shoulders of some mountaineer. Ah, good woman, was my reply.
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  Thou hast just said that I am not what I seem, and thou saidest
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  truly know? Then thou seest before thee. The world renowned traveler will Helm
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  Heinrich Sebastian van Trump commonly called Little barntrom that though short cut of stature and
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  frail of limb, yet what there is if me is of iron. There
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  you, Leana, there's gold for thee. Now lead the way to thes
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  well. Gently, gently, little Baron, almost whispered the old peasant woman,
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  as her shriveled hand closed upon the gold piece. I have not told
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  thee all for leagues about thy ween. No living being excepting me knows where
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  the giant's well. Ease asked them in the little say it's up yonder in
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  the mountains, away up under the eaves of the sky. That's all.
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  That's all they can tell THEE. But little master, I know where it
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  is. And the very herb that cured thy heart head and save THEE from
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  certain death by cooling thy blood, was plucked by me from the brink of
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  the well. These words sent a thrill of joy through me, for now
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  I felt that I was on the right road, that the words of the
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  great Master of all masters, Don Fum had come true. The people will
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  tell thee I the people had told me. For now there was not the
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  faintest shadow of doubt in my mind that I had found the portals to the
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  world within a world. Uliana should be my guide. She knew how to
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  thread her way up the narrow pass, to turn aside from overhanging rocks which
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  a mere touch might topple over, to find the steps which nature had hewn
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  in the sides of the rock parapets, and to pursue her way safely through
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  clefts and gorges, even the entrance to which might be invisible to ordinary eyes.
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  However, in order that the superstitious peasants might be kept friendly to me,
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  I gave it out that I was about to betake myself to the mountains
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  in search of curiosities for my cabinet, and beg them to furnish me with
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  ropes and tackle, with two good stout fellows to carry it for me,
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  promising generous payment for the services. They made haste to provide me with all
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  I asked for, and we set out for the mountain path at daybreak.
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  Juliana, in order not to seem to be of the party, had gone
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  on ahead by the light of the moon, telling her people that she wished
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  to gather certain herbs before the sun rays struck them, and dried the healing
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  dew that beaded their leaves. All went well until the sun was well up
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  over our heads, when suddenly I heard a woman who proved to be Juliana,
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  utter a piercing scream. In a moment or so, the mystery was
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  solved. The old Beldam came rushing down the mountain, her thin whisper of
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  gray hair fluttering in the wind. Her hands were tied behind her, and
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  two young peasants with birch and rods were beating her every chance they got.
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  Turned back, Turned back, brothers, they cried to my two men.
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  The little wizard there has struck hands with this old witch. They're on their
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  way to the giant's well. They'll loosen a band of black spirits about our
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  ears. We shall all be bewitched. Quick quick, gust off the lord's
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  you're bearing and follow us. The two men didn't wait for a second,
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  bidding and throwing the tackle on the ground. They all disappeared like a flash,
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  but for several moments I could hear the screams of poor Juliana as these
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  young wretches beat the old woman with their birchen rods. Well, dear readers,
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  what say you to this? Was I not in a pleasant position,
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  truly alone with Bulgar in that wild and gloomy mountain region, the black rocks
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  hanging like frowning giants and ogres over our heads, with the dwarf pines for
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  hair, clumps of white moss for eyes, vast gaping cracks for mouths,
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  and gnarled and twisted roots for terrible fingers, ready to reach down for my
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  poor little weason frame. Did I follow trembling? Did I make haste to
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  follow those craven spirits down the mountain side? Did I shift the peg of
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  my courage a single hole lower? Not? I. If I had,
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  I wouldn't have been worthy of the name I bore. What I did do
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  was to throw myself at full length on a bed of moss called Bulgar to
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  my side, and close my eyes to the outer world. I had heard
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  of great men going to bed at high noon to give themselves up to the
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  thought, and I had often done it myself before I had heard of their
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  doing it. In fifteen minutes, by nature's watch the sun on the face
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  of the mountain, I had solved the problem. Now there were two difficulties
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  staring me in the face, namely, to find somebody to show me the
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  way up the mountain, and if that body couldn't carry my tackle, then
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  to find somebody else who could. It. Sadly ancred to me that I
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  had noticed some cattle grazing at the foot of the mountain, and what's more,
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  that these cattle were very peculiar yokes. What are these yokes for,
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  I asked myself, for they were of a mate quite different from any that
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  I remembered ever having seen, and consisted of a stout wooden collar, from
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  the bottom of which there projected backward between the beast's fore legs a straight piece
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  of wood, armed with an iron spike pointing toward the ground at the top.
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  The yoke was bound by a leather thong to the animal's horns. So
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  long Therefore, as the beast held his head naturally, or even lowered it
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  to graze, the yoke was drawn forward, and the hook was kept free
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  from the ground. But the very moment the animal raised his head in the
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  air at once the hook was thrown into the ground, and he was prevented
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  from taking another step forward. Now, dear readers, you may or may
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  not know that when a cleft hoofed animal starts to ascend a steep bank,
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  unlike a solid hoofed beast, he throws his head into the air instead of
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  lowering it. And therefore it struck me at once that the purpose of this
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  yoke was to keep the cattle from making their way up the sides of the
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  mountain and getting lost. But why should they want to clamor up the mountain
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  sides simply because there was some kind of grass or herbage growing up there,
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  which was a delicacy to them. And knowing as I well did, what
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  risks animals will take and what fatigue they will undergo to reach a favorite grazing
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  ground, it struck me at once that if I would make it possible for
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  them to reach this favorite food theirs, they would be very glad to give
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  me a lift on my way. No sooner said than done, I forthwith
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  retraced my steps until I fell in with a group of these cattle, And
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  it did not take me many minutes to loosen their yokes from their horns and
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  tie the hooks up under their bodies, so that their progress up hill would
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  not be interfered with. They were delighted to find themselves so unexpectedly freed from
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  the hateful drawback, which permitted them merely to view the coveted grazing grounds from
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  afar, And then, having cut me a suitable goad, I again started
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  up the mountain, driving my new friends leisurely on ahead of me. Upon
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  reaching the spot where the superstitious peasants had thrown the tackle to the ground,
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  I proceeded to load it upon the back of the gentlest beast of the lot,
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  and was soon on my way again. End of Chapter four