Latest / Classic Adventure Books Collection / 02 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey

Transcript

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

0:00
Chapter two don Fum's Mysterious Directions, Bulger and I set out for Petersburg,
0:08
and thence proceed to ourch angel The story of our journey as far as Ilach
0:14
on the illage Ivan the teamster, How we made our way northward in search
0:20
of the portals to the world within a world, Ivan's threat, Bulger's distrust
0:25
of the man, and other things. According to the learned don Fum's manuscript,
0:31
the portals to the world within a world were situated somewhere in northern Russia,
0:36
possibly so he thought, from all indications, somewhere on the westerly slope
0:42
of the upper Urals, but the great thinker could not locate them with any
0:47
accuracy. The people will tell thee was the mysterious phrase that occurred again and
0:53
again on the mildewed pages of this wonderful writing. The people will tell thee
1:00
Ah. But what people will be learning enough to tell me? That was
1:06
the brain racking question which I asked myself, sleeping and waking at sunrise,
1:11
at high noon, and at sunset, at the crowing of the cock,
1:15
and in the silent hours of the night. The people will tell the said
1:23
learned down foam Ah but what people will tell me where to find the portals
1:29
to the world within the world hitherto On my travels, I had made choice
1:34
of a semi oriental guard, both on account of its picturesqueness and its lightness
1:41
and warmth. But now, as I was about to pass quite across Russia
1:45
for a number of months, I resolved to die in the Russian national costume,
1:49
for speaking Russian fluently as I did a score of more of languages living
1:55
and dead. I was thus being able to come and go without ever lastingly
2:00
displaying my passport or having my trains, A thought constantly disturbed by inquisitive traveling
2:07
companions a very important thing to me, for my mind possessed the extraordinary power
2:14
of working out automatically any task assigned to it by me, provided it was
2:20
not suddenly thrown off its track by some ridiculous interruption. For instance, I
2:25
was upon the very point one day of discovering perpetual motion, when the gracious
2:31
Barrenness suddenly opened the door and asked me whether I had pared the nails on
2:37
my great toes lately, as she had observed that I had worn holes in
2:42
several pairs of my best stockings. It was about the middle of February when
2:46
I set out from the castle. Trump and I journeyed night and day in
2:51
order to reach Petersburg by the first of March, for I knew that the
2:54
government trains would leave that city for the Yeca during the first week of that
2:59
month. And I were both in the best of health and spirits, and
3:02
the fatigue of the journey didn't tell upon us in the least. The moment
3:07
I arrived at the Russian capital, I applied to the Emperor for permission to
3:09
join one of the government trains, which was most graciously accorded. Our route
3:15
lay almost directly to the northward for several days, at the end of which
3:20
time we reached the shores of Lake Ladoga. This we crossed on the ice
3:24
with our sledges, as a few days later we did Lake Onega, thence
3:30
by land again. We kept on our way until Onega Bay had been reached,
3:34
crossing it too on the ice, and so reaching the station of the
3:38
same name, where we halted for a day to give our horses a well
3:43
deserved rest. From this point we proceeded in a straight line over the snowfields
3:49
to Archangel, an important trading post on the White Sea. As this was
3:53
the destination of the government train, I parted with its commandant after a few
3:58
days pleasant soldier at the government house, and set out, attended only by
4:03
my faithful bulger and two servants who had been signed to me by the Imperial
4:09
Commissioner. My course now carried me up the River Duenna as far as Solvitchikosk.
4:15
Thence I proceeded on my way over the frozen waters of the Wutchega River
4:23
until we had reached the government post of Yarnsk, and from here on we
4:29
headed due east until our heart little horses had dragged us into the picturesque village
4:34
of Ilich. On the village here we were obliged to have battened our sledges
4:41
for the snows that disappeared like magic, uncovering long vistas of green fields,
4:46
which in a few days the May sun doted with flowers and sweet shrubs.
4:53
At Ilich, I was obliged to relinquish from my service the two faithful government
4:58
retainers who had accompanied me from archangel, for they had now reached the most
5:03
westerly point which they had been commissioned to visit. I had become very much
5:09
attached to them and saw at Bolger, and after their departure, we both
5:14
felt as if we were now, for the first time, among strangers in
5:17
a strange land. But I succeeded in engaging, as I thought a trustworthy
5:23
teamster, Ivan by name, who made a contract with me for a goodly
5:28
wage to carry me one hundred miles farther north. But not another step farther,
5:33
little baron, said the fellow doggedly, I was now really at the
5:39
foothills of the northern Urals, for the rocky crests and snowclad peaks were in
5:44
full sight. I turned many a wistful look up toward the wild regions,
5:49
shut in by their sheer walls and parapets, shaggy and bristling with black pines.
5:57
For a low, mysterious voice came a whispering in my inward ear.
6:00
That's somewhere, ah, somewhere in that awful wilderness, I should one day
6:06
come upon the portals of the world within a world. In spite of all
6:13
I could do. Bulger took a violent dislike to Ivan, and Ivan to
6:17
him. And if the bargain had not been made and the money paid over,
6:21
I should have looked about me for another teamster, and yet it would
6:26
have been a foolish thing to do. For Ivan had two excellent horses,
6:30
as I saw at a glance, and was more. He took the best
6:34
care of them at every post, rubbing them until they were quite dry,
6:40
and never thinking of his own supper until they had been watered and fed.
6:44
His turn task, too, was quite new and solidly built, and well
6:49
furnished with soft blankets, all in law as comfortable as you can make a
6:54
wagon which has no other springs than the two long wooden supports that reach from
7:00
Axel to Axel. True it were somebody elastic, but I could notice that
7:05
Boger was not overfind a riding in this curious vehicle with its Rattiley band gate
7:13
up and down these mountain roads, and often asked permission to leap out and
7:16
follow on foot at length. Ivn't reported everything in readiness for the start,
7:21
and although I would have fainted, taken my departure from Ilage on the illage
7:27
in as quiet a manner as possible. If the whole village turned out to
7:30
see us off. Ivan's family father, mother, sisters and brothers, wife
7:36
and children, uncles and aunts, and cousins by dozens alone, making up
7:42
people enough to stock a small town. They cheered and waved their kerchiefs.
7:47
Bulger barked, and I smiled and raised my cap with all the dignity of
7:53
a trump. And so we got away at last from ilag on the village,
7:58
Ivan on the box, and Buger and I at the back, sitting
8:01
close together like two brothers. That we were two breasts with but a single
8:07
heartbeat, and two brains busy with the same thought that comparels, or come
8:13
sudden attacks, come covert danger, or bold and open faced onslaught, we
8:18
should stand together and fall together. Many and many a time. As Ivan's
8:24
horses went crawling up the long stretches of mountain road, and I lay stretched
8:28
upon the broad cushioned seat of the tyrantath with a blanket rolled up for a
8:31
pillow, I would find myself unconsciously repeating those mysterious words of down foam.
8:39
The people will tell thee, the people will tell thee. So steep with
8:46
the roads that some days we would not make more than five miles, and
8:50
on others a halt of several hours would have to be made to enable Ivan
8:54
to tighten his horse's shoes, reach the axles, or do some needful thing
8:58
in or about his wagon. It was slow work. I it was very
9:05
slow and tedious. But what matters it? How many or great the difficulties
9:11
to a man who has made up his mind to accomplish a certain task.
9:16
Through the storks or the wild geese stop to count the thousands of miles between
9:22
them and their far away homes when the time comes to turn their heads southward?
9:28
Do the brown ants pause to count the hundreds of thousands of grains of
9:33
sand which they must carry through their long corridors and winding passages before they have
9:39
burrowed deep enough to escape the frost of midwinter. There have been many trumps,
9:46
but never one that had thrown up his arms and cried, I surrender,
9:50
And should I be the first to do it? Never, not,
9:54
even if it meant never to see dear old castle trump again. One morning,
10:00
as we went zig zagging up a particularly nasty bit of mountain road,
10:05
Ivan suddenly wheeled about, and, without even taking off his hat, cried
10:09
out, little Baron, I covered the last mile of the one hundred to
10:15
day. If thou wouldst go any farther north, thou must hire another teamster.
10:20
Dost here silence, said I sternly, for the fellow had broken in
10:26
upon a very important train of thought. Boger too resented the man's insolence and
10:31
growled and showed his teeth. But little Baron listen to reason, he continued,
10:37
in a more respectful tone, removing his cap. My people will expect
10:41
me back, I promised my father. I'm a dutiful son. I nay
10:48
nay ivan, I interrupted, sharply curb that tongue of nine, lest it
10:54
harmed thy soul. No than that. I spoke with thy father, and
11:00
he promised me that thou should go a second hundred miles with me, if
11:03
need were, but on condition that I give thee double pay, it shall
11:09
be done. And on top of that, and goodly present for your darling,
11:16
little Baron. Thou art a hard master, whimpered the man. The
11:22
whim took thee. Thou wouldst bid me leap into the giants well, just
11:26
to see whether it has at bottom or not. Saint Nicholas saved me.
11:31
Nay, I mean, said I kindly. I know no such word as
11:37
cruelty, although I do confess that right seems harsh at times. But thou
11:43
wert born to serve and I to command. Providence hath made thee poor and
11:50
me rich. We need each other. Do thou thy duty, and thou
11:56
wilt find me just and consider it. Disobey me, and thou would find
12:01
that this short arm maybe stretched from Ilich to Petersburg. I've been turned pale
12:07
at this hidden threat of mine, but I deemed it necessary to make it
12:11
for I as well as Bolger had sent a treasury and rebellion about this boorish
12:18
fellow, whose good trait was his love of his horses. And it has
12:22
always been my rule in life to open my eyes wide to the good that
12:26
there is in a man, and close them to his faults. But in
12:31
spite of kind words and kind treatment, Ivan grew surlier and moodier. The
12:37
moment we had passed one hundredth milestone, Bogo watched him with a gaze so
12:43
steady and thoughtful that the man fairly quailed before it. Or by hour,
12:48
he became more and more arrestive, And upon leaving a roadside tavern for the
12:52
very first time since we had left the Ilitch on the Illage, I noticed
12:58
that the fellow had been drinking too much costs. He let loose his tongue
13:03
and raised his hand against his horses, which until that moment he had been
13:07
wont to lower down with caresses and pen names. Look out for that driver
13:11
of thye little baron, whispered the tavern keeper. He's in a reckless mood.
13:18
He not pull up if the giants well were gaping in front of him.
13:22
Saint Nicholas had thee in his safe keeping. End of Chapter two