{"id":401,"date":"2026-06-15T21:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/?p=401"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:24:37","slug":"a-marvelous-underground-journey-chapter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/2026\/06\/15\/a-marvelous-underground-journey-chapter-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Marvelous Underground Journey: Chapter 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
DON FUM\u2019S MYSTERIOUS DIRECTIONS.\u2014BULGER AND I SET OUT FOR PETERSBURG, AND THENCE PROCEED TO ARCHANGEL.\u2014THE STORY OF OUR JOURNEY AS FAR AS ILITCH ON THE ILITCH.\u2014IVAN THE TEAMSTER.\u2014HOW WE MADE OUR WAY NORTHWARD IN SEARCH OF THE PORTALS TO THE WORLD WITHIN A WORLD.\u2014IVAN\u2019S THREAT.\u2014BULGER\u2019S DISTRUST OF THE MAN AND OTHER THINGS.

According to the learned Don Fum\u2019s manuscript, the portals to the World within a World were situated somewhere in Northern Russia, possibly, so he thought, from all indications, somewhere on the westerly slope of the upper Urals. But the great thinker could not locate them with any accuracy. \u201cThe people will tell thee\u201d was the mysterious phrase that
occurred again and again on the mildewed pages of his wonderful writing. \u201cThe people will tell thee.\u201d Ah, but what people will be learned enough to tell me that? was the brain-racking question which I asked myself, sleeping and waking, at sunrise, at high noon, and at sunset; at the crowing of the cock, and in the silent hours of the night.

\u201cThe people will tell thee,\u201d said learned Don Fum.

\u201cAh, but what people will tell me where to find the portals to the World within a World?\u201d

Hitherto on my travels I had made choice of a semi-Oriental garb, both on account of its picturesqueness and its lightness and warmth, but now as I was about to pass quite across Russia for a number of months, I
resolved to don the Russian national costume; for speaking Russian fluently, as I did a score or more of languages living and dead, I would thus be enabled to come and go without everlastingly displaying my
passport, or having my trains of thought constantly disturbed by inquisitive travelling companions\u2014a very important thing to me, for my mind possessed the extraordinary power of working out automatically any
task assigned to it by me, provided it was not suddenly thrown off its track by some ridiculous interruption. For instance, I was upon the very
point one day of discovering perpetual motion, when the gracious baroness suddenly opened the door and asked me whether I had pared the nails of my great toes lately, as she had observed that I had worn holes in several pairs of my best stockings.

It was about the middle of February when I set out from the Castle Trump, and I journeyed night and day in order to reach Petersburg by the first of March, for I knew that the government trains would leave that city for the White Sea during the first week of that month. Bulger and I were both in the best of health and spirits, and the fatigue of the journey didn\u2019t tell upon us in the least. The moment I arrived at the Russian capital I applied to the emperor for permission to join one of the government trains, which was most graciously accorded. Our route lay almost directly to the northward for several days, at the end of which time we reached the shores of Lake Ladoga. This we crossed on the ice with our sledges, as a few days later we did Lake Onega. Thence by land again, we kept on our way until Onega Bay had been reached, crossing it, too, on the ice, and so reaching the station of the same name, where we halted for a day to give our horses a well-deserved rest. From this point we proceeded in a straight line over the snow fields to Archangel,
an important trading-post on the White Sea.

As this was the destination of the government train, I parted with its commandant after a few days\u2019 pleasant sojourn at the government house, and set out, attended only by my faithful Bulger and two servants, who had been assigned to me by the imperial commissioner.

[Illustration: DEPARTURE FROM CASTLE TRUMP.]

My course now carried me up the River Dwina as far as Solvitchegodsk; thence I proceeded on my way over the frozen waters of the Witchegda River until we had reached the government post of Yarensk, and from here
on we headed due East until our hardy little horses had dragged us into the picturesque village of Ilitch on the Ilitch. Here we were obliged to abandon our sledges, for the snows had disappeared like magic,
uncovering long vistas of green fields, which in a few days the May sun dotted with flowers and sweet shrubs. At Ilitch I was obliged to relinquish from my service the two faithful government retainers who had
accompanied me from Archangel, for they had now reached the most westerly point which they had been commissioned to visit. I had become very much attached to them, and so had Bulger, and after their departure we both felt as if we were now, for the first time, among strangers in a strange land; but I succeeded in engaging, as I thought, a trustworthy
teamster, Ivan by name, who made a contract with me for a goodly wage to carry me a hundred miles farther north.

\u201cBut not another step farther, little baron!\u201d said the fellow doggedly. I was now really at the foot hills of the Northern Urals, for the rocky crests and snow-clad peaks were in full sight.

I turned many a wistful look up toward the wild regions shut in by their sheer walls and parapets, shaggy and bristling with black pines, for a low, mysterious voice came a-whispering in my inward ear that somewhere, ah, somewhere in that awful wilderness, I should one day come upon the portals of the World within a World! In spite of all I could do Bulger took a violent dislike to Ivan and Ivan to him; and if the bargain had not been made and the money paid over, I should have looked about me for
another teamster. And yet it would have been a foolish thing to do, for Ivan had two excellent horses, as I saw at a glance, and, what\u2019s more,
he took the best of care of them, at every post rubbing them until they were quite dry, and never thinking of his own supper until they had been
watered and fed.

His tarantass, too, was quite new and solidly built and well furnished with soft blankets, all in all as comfortable as you can make a wagon which has no other springs than the two long wooden supports that reach from axle to axle. True, they were somewhat elastic; but I could notice that Bulger was not overfond of riding in this curious vehicle with its
rattlety-bang gait up and down these mountain roads, and often asked permission to leap out and follow on foot.

At length Ivan reported everything in readiness for the start; and although I would have fain taken my departure from Ilitch on the Ilitch in as quiet a manner as possible, yet the whole village turned out to see us off\u2014Ivan\u2019s family, father, mother, sisters, and brothers, wife and children, uncles and aunts and cousins by dozens alone making up people enough to stock a small town. They cheered and waved their
kerchiefs, Bulger barked, and I smiled and raised my cap with all the dignity of a Trump. And so we got away at last from Ilitch on the Ilitch, Ivan on the box, and Bulger and I at the back, sitting close
together like two brothers that we were\u2014two breasts with but a single heart-beat and two brains busy with the same thought\u2014that come perils or come sudden attacks, come covert danger or bold and open-faced
onslaught, we should stand together and fall  ogether! Many and many a time as Ivan\u2019s horses went crawling up the long stretches of mountain
road and I lay stretched upon the broad-cushioned seat of the tarantass with a blanket rolled up for a pillow, I would find myself unconsciously
repeating those mysterious words of Don Fum:\u2014

\u201cThe people will tell thee! The people will tell thee!\u201d

So steep were the roads that some days we would not make more than five miles, and on others a halt of several hours would have to be made to enable Ivan to tighten his horses\u2019 shoes, grease the axles, or do some needful thing in or about his wagon. It was slow work, ay, it was very slow and tedious, but what matters it how many or great the difficulties, to a man who has made up his mind to accomplish a certain
task? Do the storks or the wild geese stop to count the thousands of miles between them and their far-away homes when the time comes to turn their heads southward? Do the brown ants pause to count the hundreds of thousands of grains of sand which they must carry through their long corridors and winding passages before they have burrowed deep enough to
escape the frost of midwinter?

There had been many Trumps, but never one that had thrown up his arms and cried, \u201cI surrender!\u201d and should I be the first to do it? \u201cNever! Not even if it meant never to see dear old Castle Trump again!\u201d

One morning as we went zigzagging up a particularly nasty bit of mountain road, Ivan suddenly wheeled about and without even taking off his hat, cried out,\u2014

\u201cLittle baron, I cover the last mile of the hundred to-day. If thou wouldst go any farther north thou must hire thee another teamster; dost hear?\u201d

\u201cSilence!\u201d said I sternly, for the fellow had broken in upon a very important train of thought.

Bulger, too, resented the man\u2019s insolence, and growled and showed his teeth.

\u201cBut, little baron, listen to reason,\u201d he continued in a more respectful tone, removing his cap: \u201cmy people will expect me back. I promised my father\u2014I\u2019m a dutiful son\u2014I\u2014\u201d

\u201cNay, nay, Ivan,\u201d I interrupted sharply, \u201ccurb that tongue of thine lest it harm thy soul. Know, then, that I spoke with thy father, and he promised me that thou shouldst go a second hundred miles with me if need were, but on condition that I give thee double pay. It shall be done, and on top of that a goodly present for your _golubtchika_ (darling).\u201d

\u201cLittle baron, thou art a hard master,\u201d whimpered the man. \u201cIf the whim took thee thou wouldst bid me leap into the Giants\u2019 Well just to see whether it has a bottom or not. St. Nicholas, save me!\u201d

\u201cNay, Ivan,\u201d said I kindly, \u201cI know no such word as cruelty although I do confess that right seems harsh at times, but thou wert born to serve and I to command. Providence hath made thee poor and me rich. We need each other. Do thou thy duty, and thou wilt find me just and considerate. Disobey me, and thou wilt find that this short arm may be stretched from Ilitch to Petersburg.\u201d

Ivan turned pale at this hidden threat of mine; but I deemed it necessary to make it, for I as well as Bulger had scented treachery and rebellion about this boorish fellow, whose good trait was his love of
his horses, and it has always been my rule in life to open my eyes wide to the good that there is in a man, and close them to his faults. But, in spite of kind words and kind treatment, Ivan grew surlier and moodier the moment we had passed the hundredth milestone.

Bulger watched him with a gaze so steady and thoughtful that the man fairly quailed before it. Hour by hour he became more and more restive,
and upon leaving a roadside tavern, for the very first time since we had left Ilitch on the Ilitch, I noticed that the fellow had been drinking too much _kwass_. He let loose his tongue, and raised his hand against his horses, which until that moment he had been wont to load down with caresses and pet names.

\u201cLook out for that driver of thine, little baron,\u201d whispered the tavern-keeper. \u201cHe\u2019s in a reckless mood. He\u2019d not pull up if the Giants\u2019 Well were gaping in front of him. St. Nicholas have thee in his safe keeping!\u201d<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DON FUM\u2019S MYSTERIOUS DIRECTIONS.\u2014BULGER AND I SET OUT FOR PETERSBURG, AND THENCE PROCEED TO ARCHANGEL.\u2014THE STORY OF OUR JOURNEY AS FAR AS ILITCH ON THE ILITCH.\u2014IVAN THE TEAMSTER.\u2014HOW WE MADE OUR WAY NORTHWARD IN SEARCH OF THE PORTALS TO THE WORLD WITHIN A WORLD.\u2014IVAN\u2019S THREAT.\u2014BULGER\u2019S DISTRUST OF THE MAN AND OTHER THINGS.According to the learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancide.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}