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