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

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  Chapter twenty five. A sleepless night for Bulgar and me, and what followed
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  it interview with King Gilidas, my request and his reply. What all took
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  place when I learned that the King and his counselors had decided not to grant
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  my request, strange tumult among the Coltiqerps, and how his frigid majesty stilled
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  it, and some other things. Not only had I been unable to sleep,
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  but by my tossing about I had kept poor dear Bulgar awake, so
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  that when morning came, we both looked haggard enough. I felt as if
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  I had been through a fit of sickness, and no doubt he did too.
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  At any rate, I had no appetite for the heavy meat diet of
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  the Coltiqerps. In seeing me refuse my breakfast, Bulgar did Likewise. I
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  had promised Schnebolet to come early to the palace, for she had a number
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  of questions which she wished to ask me concerning the upper world. Good morning,
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  little Baron, she cried in her sweetest tones, as I entered the
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  throne room. Did sleep well last night on the new pelt which Papa sent
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  thee I was about to make a reply when Schnebulay's hand coming in contact with
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  mine, for we had both removed our gloves in order to shake hands.
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  She uttered a piercing scream, and, drying back, stood there, blowing
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  her breath on her right palm as she exclaimed again and again, firebrand,
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  Firebrand. In an instant, King Gelidas and a group of his counselors drew
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  near, and, pulling over their gloves, one after the other, laid
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  his hand in mine. Glowing coals, cried his frigid majesty, tongue of
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  flame roared, frosty fez, Boiling water groaned glacier boy, red hot hissed
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  icicle. Thou must leave the palace at once, half pleaded King Yeladus.
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  It would simply be madness for me to permit such a firebrand to remain within
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  the walls of the royal residence. The intense heat of thy body would be
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  sure to melt the hole in its wall. Ere the sun goes down,
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  the royal councilors again drew off their gloves and laid hands upon or Bulgar.
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  When a second alarm, even wilder than the first, was sent up,
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  and we were hastily escorted back to our lodging house. No doubt, dear
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  friends, you will be somewhat mystified upon reading these words, But the explanation
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  is easy. Owing to worriment and lack of sleep, Bulgar and I had
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  awakened in a highly feverish condition, and to the Colti corpse, we had
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  really seemed to be almost on fire. But our fever left us toward night,
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  during which King Gilidas sent for us and did all in his power to
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  entertain us with song and dance, in both of which Sneebulet was very skilled.
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  Finding that his frigid Majesty was in such a rosy humor, if I
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  may be allowed to speak that way of a person whose face was almost as
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  white as the alabaster lamps over his head, I determined to ask him for
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  permission to cleave asunder the icy cell of the little man with the frozen smile,
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  and ascertain, if possible, from the collar, which made up apparently
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  of gold and silver coin, was clasped around his neck, to whom he
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  had belonged and where his home had been. No sooner had I preferred my
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  request than I noticed that the white face of the Royal Galadus parted with its
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  smile and took on a terribly icy look. Methought I could look through the
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  tip of his nose as though an icicle, And methought too that his ears
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  shone in the light of the alabaster lamps like sheets of crystal ice, and
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  that his voice as he spoke, puffed into my face like the first flakes
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  of a coming snow storm. I quickly repented me of my rash action,
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  but it was too late, and I determined to stand by it. Little
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  Barren, spoke Royal Galadus, in icy tones, never a heart beat,
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  in a kingly breast that was purer and colder than mine, freer from the
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  warmth of selfishness, with not a single hot corner for its ire or anger
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  to nestle in, or for weakness or folly to make their hiding places.
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  For thousands of years, my people have inhabited this icy domain and breathed this
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  pure cold air, and never yet hath one desired to strike an apse of
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  flint into the walls of that crystal prison. However, little Baron, there
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  may be some warm corner in my heart, wherein cold and limpid wisdom may
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  not be at home. Therefore, come to me to morrow for my answer.
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  Meanwhile, I'll take counsel with the coolest brains and coldest hearts about me.
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  If they see no harm in thy request, thou mayst crack open the
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  crystal gates that have for so many centuries shut the manlike creature in his silent
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  cell, and take him forth in order to study the mystic words graven on
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  his collar. But upon the strict condition that, in cleaving open his house
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  of crystal, my quarrymen so apply their wedges of flint as to break the
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  block into two equal pieces, that when thou hast read what may be there,
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  the two parts be closed upon the little man again, edge fitting edge,
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  like a perfect mold, so exactly that to the eye no sign of
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  line or joint be visible. Dost promise little Baron that this shell be as
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  to our royal will it seems meet that it should be. I promised most
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  solemnly that the crystal cell of the little man with the frozen smile should be
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  opened and closed exactly as his frigid majesty had directed. It would be hard
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  for me to tell you, dear friends, how happy I went to rest
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  that night upon my icy divan, and how as the tiny flame of my
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  alabaster lamp shed its soft glow upon the walls of ice. I lay there,
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  turning over in my mind the strange and mysterious pleasure which was soon to
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  fall to my lot, when the quarrymen of King Gelidus should send their wedges
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  of flint in this glorious block of ice and cleave it asunder. Even Don
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  Fum, master of masters, had never dreamed of receiving a message from the
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  people who lived in the very childhood of the world. And in anticipation already
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  I enjoyed the splendid triumph which would be mine when I came to lecture before
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  to learned societies, upon the mysterious lettering on the curious collar, clasping the
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  neck of the little with the frozen smile. Imagine my anguish, then,
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  dear friends, upon receiving a message from King Gelidas the next day that his
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  counselors had with one voice decreed against the opening of the crystal prison which stood
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  in Schneeboulet's grotto, I was as if smitten with some sudden and awful ailment
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  I had never felt until that moment, how keen the tooth of disappointment could
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  be. I shivered first with a chill that made me brother to the Colti
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  corps, And then I burned with a fever so raging that a wild rumor
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  spread through Geladus's icy domain that I was setting fire to the very walls and
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  ruth. With wild outcries and faces drawn with nameless dread, the subjects of
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  his frigid majesty rushed pell mell up the wide flights of stairs leading to the
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  Palace of Ice, and pleaded for the king to show himself. In cold
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  and frigid majesty, Gelidus walked out upon the platform and listened to the prayers
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  of his people. We shall burn, they cried. Our beautiful homes will
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  fall about our egars. These crystal steps will melt away and hold. These
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  fair columns and arches, and statues and pedestals will turn to water and empty
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  themselves into the lower caverns of the earth. The great window of our sky
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  will fall with awful crash upon our heads, putting an end forever to this
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  fair domain of crystal splendor. Oh Galadus, haste thee haste thee ere it
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  be too late. Let the little baron have his way before bitter disappointment transforms
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  his body and limbs into tongues of flame to lick up this magnificent palace in
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  a single night, and dash its thousand alabaster lamps to the ground a heap
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  of shards, no fragment matching its brother fragment, but all a wretched mass
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  of worthless matter. King Galadas and his frosty counselors saw that it would be
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  useless to attempt to reason with the people, and therefore, turning toward them,
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  he coldly waved his chilly right hand, and with an icy smile,
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  spoke frostily as follows, Go, Colti corpse, do your homes and be
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  happy. What think you have? I a heated brain, doth my heart
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  steam with foolishness that you should think me capable of wishing harm to the tiniest
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  colti corp that spins his top of ice in my fair kingdom. Go to
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  your homes, I say. The little baron is already cooling off, for
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  he hath my full consent to cleave asunder the crystal prison of the little man.
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  With a frozen smile, there is nothing to be frightened about my children.
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  So eat hearty suppers and sleep soundly to night. For my royal word
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  for it. By to morrow morning, the little baron will seize to be
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  the least bit dangerous to the peace and welfare of our icy kingdom. A
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  good cold night to you all. In a short half hour, the panic
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  stricken Colti corpse were all back in their homes again. And when a messenger
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  came from King Dalidus to measure my temperature, he found such a great improvement
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  that he opened his chilly heart and sent me a beautiful present from his treasure
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  house to wit, a small block of ice clearer than any gem I had
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  ever in the heart of which lay a glorious red rose in fullest bloom.
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  Each velvet paddle opened out eagerly. Upon consulting my diary, I found that
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  it was just six months to a day since I had left Castle Trump and
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  the loved ones, sheltered by its time worn tiles and cold as was the
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  covering of this thrish beautiful child of the upper world. I clasped it to
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  my breast and shed tears. And this was the way it came about,
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  dear friends, that King Elidus and his frosty counselors were brought to give their
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  consent to my cleaving asunder the icy prison, wherein lay the little man with
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  the frozen smile. End of Chapter twenty five.