Thrilling Adventures In The Cavern

Selection From Volume II
Here the Vivian Girls and their army escorts discover a mysteriously phosphorescent underworld where they have an encounter with Blengiglomenean Serpents and wicked Glandelinians, forcing them to fight for their lives.

What in the name of common sense is the matter with the ground?” interrupted one of the men as the earth under him began to sink in slowly.
“Goodness gracious,” gasped the leader as they all drew their horses backwards. A large part of the ground caved in, revealing a dark opening, as dark as Erebus. They found themselves going down slowly and before they knew it, more of the ground caved in under them with a roar, letting them down into a dark cavern with a thud.
“Now where are we?” gasped the soldiers in amazement.
“Well what next. I wonder said the leader. “First we run into a pack of Glandelinians and now we go riding down, as to say, into a great cavern. “How can we get out?” asked Violet. “This cavern seems to have many labyrinthian passages.”
“I know it,” said the leader of the Angelinians, looking through one of the passages. What he saw made him gasp in wonder and amazement. The passage was filled with an unearthly glow, which made Violet and her sisters feel sort of creepy as they saw it, though no hot scorching blasts came from beyond. Sometimes it would suddenly grow brighter, then fade to a dull glow. The Angelinian officer, wishing to discover the way out, and also to discover the meaning of this uncanny glow, decided to explore it anyway. If there was a passageway, he could have a gigantic mine placed in it and blow up the enemy’s entire works, as the cavern seemed to be directly underneath the enemy’s advanced position. Calling the others to follow, he went through the curved opening. Violet and her sisters, at first being somewhat frightened, had to be coaxed before they would follow, for they dreaded that it was some trap, probably set by the enemy, or that it was a den of Glandelinians.
“This is certainly strange,” uttered the Angelinian leader. “This glow seems to get more brighter, dies out, comes again with dazzling brightness as we go on, but we cannot feel any heat whatever or see the source of the whole mystery. I wonder what causes it?”
“You have got me sure,” answered one of his lieutenants.
“It looks like fire down beyond, but no heat can be felt, and neither is there any steam or sulphurous gases,” said one of the privates. On and on they went through the labyrinthian passage, the glow getting redder and redder. There was no noise like the roaring of fire or the hissing of lava, and this mystery did certainly puzzle them all. Besides, instead of going downwards or upwards, the path led straight ahead like a road. Only once in a while did they come to an up- or downgrade, but it did not descend very much. At last they came to the end of the passage and found themselves in a large cavern, which was also filled with the uncanny glow, but which was brighter than it had been in the passageway. This of course astonished them all the more.
“This is a strange mystery,” said the Angelinian leader. “It also looks quite uncanny over there inside that grotto. It’s a darker red over there.”

“Shall we go in there?” asked one of the privates, thinking that his superior dreaded to.
“We might as well,” said the captain. “The sooner we solve the wonderful mystery the better.”
They went near enough to the dark red opening of the cavern and, no sooner had they glanced into it, they saw that instead of a floor it was an abyss of unfathomable depth. It was indeed quite dark down below, while a strange thundering sound occasionally seemed to come from there. They turned away from this dreaded opening and, after walking quite a distance through the very large cavern, they noticed a wreath of peculiar yellowish, greenish, bluish, and red vapor resting against the ceiling. And inside the cavern, there was a peculiar sweet smell.

A THRILLING ADVENTURE IN THE CAVERN
WITH THE STRANGE BLENGIGLOMENEAN CREATURES

If this isn’t the limit,” exclaimed the Angelinian captain. “There is no change in this glow, and though we see vapor of four colors up there, the cavern seems cooler than the labyrinth. I’m dumbfounded.”
They could not turn back for the mystery held to them and they wanted to solve it at any cost. The floor of the cavern was immense, the whole cavern seeming to be a mile in extent, but having no outlet except for that floorless grotto. Toward the center, the floor had a sort of descent, and in the middle of the floor yawned a huge black opening, which on viewing again, made Violet and her sisters feel sort of creepy. “I don’t believe this is a gulf at all, black as the opening is,” said the leader as he lit a torch and peered down. “It has a long descent under the floor. And it seems like a sort of tubular tunnel.”
“It’s good we brought torches with us,” said one of the privates. He lit one also, and going as near to the black opening as he dared, flourished it around as far as he could reach inside. The tunnel seemed to have a long floor and they decided to explore it before they did anything else. Each now carried a torch and the light from so many torches surely showed them a wonderful sight. They had emerged into another cavern under the floor of the first, which had many small grottoes with no outlet, large avenues, domes, impassable lakes of unknown extent, and fearful abysses like the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Also it had diamond chambers and was indescribably rich in crystal beauty. But after a full examination with the torchlights, the leader dreaded that it was very dangerous to proceed any further on account of the horrible abysses. The lakes also seemed to have strange creatures swimming in them, looking like dragonic monsters, but as men insisted on going along the banks of one of the lakes. One of the men decided to enter one of the large grottoes, but he saw it had on the left side a frightfully deep abyss of great width and length. There were also smaller ones all over in the floor.
“This is certainly a dangerous grotto with all of the abysses,” said the leader.
They went back and decided to explore one of the avenues, finding that it descended abruptly; “I wonder where it leads to?” asked Violet, filled with suspicion.
“That I cannot tell till we find out by exploring it.’ answered the captain. “We will have to get the water somehow,” said the Angelinian captain. “It’s not only too dangerous to drink from, but we cannot pass it because it is directly across our way.”
Jennie was thirsty and begged the men to get the water some way. However, as they followed its course for a while, they soon came to a part where it was comparatively calm, and all managed to have a drink. Then they decided to swim across this part. It took a desperate struggle for them all to get across for, calm as it seemed, it had a powerful undertow and three of the men and the children had to be helped across the rest of the way. And my, but the water was cold. No sooner had they crossed, when the captain saw a strange monstrous head arising from the distant lake within their view. Jennie gave a cry of indescribable terror and ran into the arms of one of the soldiers. The head of the monster, I must say, was very huge, but not a bit ugly, though its eyes glowed like automobile headlights and were as large as plates. The grinning mouth, partly open, showed rows of teeth exactly in the form of the teeth of a man, except that on the upper jaw on each side, two teeth seemed longer and pointed and red foamy substance issued from these two peculiar teeth. Violet and her sisters, not knowing what it was, as they only saw the head, looked at the creature in terror, while the captain exclaimed:
“We are in for exciting times. For here comes a swarm of dirty Glandelinians. How in the hell did they get in here? We will have to fight for our lives.”
They had indeed entered a cave where there lived monstrous creatures stranger than any dragons known, especially for their size and shape. The one before them was more huge than any dragon, but no more ugly than a harmless butterfly. It was too beautiful in color to be imagined, though, of course, its body now revealed was covered with numberless talons venomous as the poison of a thousand cobras. Also, its two fangs were equally as poisonous. The creature was not a dangerous wild beast, but one of the good child-loving Blengiglomenean creatures so much heard of in Angelinia, and it had been attracted by the arrival of the Glandelinians, who were charging for the Christians. The Glandelinians themselves were in great peril, for the creature giving forth a sudden deafening roar, fixed its dazzling eyes on them and prepared to make an attack. The smell of that strange sweetness came directly from the creature, who flourished gigantic wings of all dazzling bright hues. All at once from the creature’s body, there extended a peculiar beautiful green light which grew brighter and brighter. Now the monster advanced toward the Christians, flapping its huge butterfly-like wings furiously, making an uncanny din, and moving in a way to confront the approaching Glandelinians.
No artist could picture the color of the creature. Its wings were of thousands of indescribably bright colors, with ivory, black, and chrome-yellow talons. Its belly was sap green, its scales pure gold, while the talons on its body were rose colored, and its tongue and lips were pure crimson. The teeth were milky white, its ears and long protruding Tuskorhorian horns, indigo. Its glowing eyes were vermilion green and so was the beautiful light coming from its entire body. It was indeed one of the well-known Blengiglomenean creatures, and they had no more fear whatever. The nearest Glandelinians, seeing what they had come upon, and that it arrived to the defense of the Christians, prepared to use their bayonets against the advancing creature which roared so terribly that the very cavern shook as if there was an earthquake. Oh my, how the creatures’ eyes did roll after a volley was fired at it by the foolhardy Glandelinians, who thought

it was a dragon trained by the Christians. After the Christians had a good look at the creature, they recognized it instantly.
“It’s one of the beautiful Blengiglomenean creatures called a Crimecian Gazook, and it’s one of the most fierce creatures when its domain is invaded by Glandelinians,” said the captain. “Of course, I know this cavern is not its home, for I kind of feel it was here to protect us in case we got attacked. I thought I saw it before in that lake. It’s other-wise harmless, but when Glandelinian invaders come in to attack Christians with the intention of murdering children, whom the creatures love more dearly than children love flowers, it will surely make an attack in defense of those it intends to protect.”
“But why should the Glandelinians attack us now?” asked one of the soldiers. “They are in a trap. Yet they will foolishly fight to the death. And the place is swarming with the Blengin’s baby ones.”
“It is useless for those fools to fight such a strong creature,” said the captain. “For instead of hurting him they might only anger him, and then there will be the dickens to pay. An angered Blengiglomenean creature is a dreadful thing to encounter.”
Seeing the creature advancing now silently, the Glandelinians foolishly waited until they could give it a good dose of their muskets at close range, and when close enough, the Glandelinians all let go in one simultaneous discharge. From the series of reports from the three hundred muskets, the cave bellowed above the angry roar of the Gazook. The Christian soldiers also fired, to the amazement of the creature itself, and down went a number of Glandelinians sprawling. From the effects of the shots from the Glandelinians, the creature was only surprised, for it had not expected resistance. Looking with an inquiring glance, especially at Violet and her sisters, the creature edged away from its enemies, making a sort of motion for the soldiers with Violet and her sisters to follow
The Glandelinians wanted to prevent this and they boldly rushed forward yelling loudly. Followed by its young ones, the creature reclined against the floor coiling its horrible iron spiked tail to deliver a blow at the Glandelinians should they come too near the Christian fugitives. The Glandelinians were not daunted by this threatening attitude as the creature’s look of fury seemed all gone and a docile look overspread its beautiful face. But before any of the Glandelinians knew what the creature intended to do, it gave a peculiar grin and suddenly swung its coiled tail into the air with a crashing roar of smashed rocks, darting it at the Glandelinians like a flash of lightning. Fortunately for the Glandelinians, it missed them, hut it was apparent that the creature meant this as only a warning, for the aim was purposely untrue. Nevertheless, the tip of the tail landed against a huge boulder, sending it spinning through the ranks of the fleeing Glandelinians, toppling many of them on their faces, and spinning eighteen hundred feet afterwards, rolling into the river with a great splash.
The Glandelinians rallied, however, and advanced again slowly; firing for several minutes without ceasing, and the fugitives had to hide behind rocks to avoid being hit, though the Christian soldiers shot down some of the Glandelinians. Then, with another indescribable roar and flapping its huge wings, the creature rose into the air and darted headlong at the Glandelinians just as several squads of them regained their feet and fired another volley. The shots struck the creature in the abdomen, but only slightly wounded it, which this time enraged it. It had not evidently expected any resistance from the Glandelinians and was indeed astonished at their recklessness. Violet and her sisters were excited beyond a doubt. For a few minutes it ceased its attack and kept up an incessant peculiar roaring, until another head of the same kind appeared from the lake. Then two more. Then two more still. Then five. The wicked Glandelinians were surrounded by the greatest and most beautiful creatures they had ever seen, and there was no escape for them now
“Can they talk like the Blengiglomenean creatures we have seen?” asked Jennie. “If they can we can tell them that we would like to find our way back to the Christian lines outside of the cavern, and that we do not think now that the Glandelinians can harm any of us.”
“No indeed,” answered the captain.
The creatures blocked all the exits of the cavern and set up such a chorus of roaring that it sounded like the explosions of an erupting volcano. Then after a final roar the creatures charged slowly toward the Glandelinians, swinging their tails ready to deliver a blow at the muskets that the gray-coated men held in their hands. But simultaneously, all the soldiers fired their muskets, filling the cavern with smoke and slightly wounding two of the creatures. Despite their injuries, the creatures flung their tails at the Glandelinian soldiers, but most of the soldiers managed to dodge the terrific swing in time, and their tails struck the walls of the cavern, bringing down a shower of rocks. Flapping their huge wings, they darted at the soldiers like a tornado, hovered above them for a moment, then bore a hundred of them to the ground in one rush, badly mangling and crushing them.
One of the baby ones landed beside some of the other Glandelinians, determined to coil its tail around them. But a discharge of musketry fairly hurled the young creature backwards, somewhat wounded. Another creature almost immediately landed on the other side, striking fifty of the men with its tail, sending them spinning headlong toward the other creatures dead from innumerable wounds in their bodies. For monkeying with the Blengiglomenean creatures, they now paid dearly with their lives. Enraged over the injury of three of their comrades and one baby creature, one after another of the Blengiglomeneans rushed furiously at the remaining Glandelinian soldiers, and now there was a lively time as the creatures gave no pause before two hundred Glandelinians were lying dead. The surviving Glandelinians took shelter in a grotto. Violet and her sisters dreaded that these wicked Glandelinians would escape in the grottoes, but one of the little girls suddenly thought of a way to cool down these rascally Glandelinians, for they had heard of an experience like this before with Glandelinians and the same kind of Blengiglonemean creatures.
“Have you men any ham, some kind of meat anyway?” asked Angeline. “If you have, throw it to the Glandelinians who will, if they are wise, throw it to the creatures, for I have heard that it is a token of peace. As soon as they see the meat they will stop attacking and go slowly away. And then we can seize the remainder of the Glandelinians and make them our prisoners.”
The leader said he had some meat with him and produced it right away. Angeline took it and threw it toward the nearest Glandelinian soldiers, who were already holding up a flag of truce and waving it for the Christians to see. The Glandelinian who received it threw it at one of the advancing creatures, who was puffing like an engine. As soon as the meat touched the floor the advancing creature halted and looked steadily at it with rolling eyes. Then it crawled up to the small bag of ham, sniffed at it for quite a while, then recoiled with its eyes fixed on the Glandelinian soldiers.
“The rest of you Glandelinians lower your guns and don’t fire anymore,” shrieked Angeline to the men further away. “For God’s sake, don’t fire and they will leave. And after they are gone, surrender to us as prisoners of war.”
The Glandelinians dropped their guns. Violet and her sisters watched to see if any of the creatures would leave. The creature who had first sniffed at the meat remained near the surviving hundred Glandelinians, keeping its eyes on the men as they came out and surrendered to the Christians, giving up their weapons. The others slowly crawled toward the direction of the various exits, two crawling toward the meat, the last one throwing it aside, and then crawling back toward the remaining exit.



“I wonder what they mean by throwing the meat aside?" asked Jennie. “I thought they would eat it.”
“They never eat flesh,” said the captain. “They eat only fish. But there is no danger of their continuing their attack, - we have the Glandelinians as our prisoners now, and they will leave. But we must leave this cavern also, for we cannot explore any further with these prisoners on our hands.”
“It is a good thing we had some meat,” said Angeline. “Otherwise the Glandelinians would have all been annihilated. But I wonder why that one stays?”
“It wished to remain to see that the Glandelinians are not fooling,” said the captain. “If any of their guns had gone off, I’d be sorry.”
Fearing to discharge the guns accidentally, the Glandelinians had unloaded them and stacked them on the floor, their pistols being turned over to the three hundred Angelinian soldiers. Jennie happened to trip on one of the muskets, which happened to be loaded, and it pulled the trigger. The gun went off with fearful results, the bullet going through one of the Glandelinian soldiers and killing him instantly. Two of the bigger creatures dragged away the wounded monster making a queer sound with their throats. When all except the one on guard had disappeared, this one advanced toward the meat, picked it up with its left foreleg and threw it back toward Angeline. It then advanced toward her, still keeping its eyes on the Glandelinians.
“Shall I approach them?” asked one of the Glandelinians.
"If you do you will wish you did not,” answered the Angelinian captain. “Its very fangs are poisonous and it is likely to fang you, if you do, and you would die in indescribable agony; Wait until it makes a whine, then it will be safe for only Angeline Vivian to approach it. It will not have a Glandelinian soldier come near, as it does not trust you men after the reputation you have made for yourselves on the work of massacring children. But Angeline, be careful of those talons, for they are poisonous through and through, and so are the claws.”
The green light was already at its brightest and vapors of all colors pervaded the cavern like a thick mist, hiding the very walls. The creature now made a whine, which sounded so musical they thought it came from a harp. At the sound, Angeline slowly approached, and as soon as she was near enough, the creature tossed something like a roll of paper at her, then crawled toward the exit with the look of anger and suspicion gone. As the creature disappeared, Angeline picked up the roll of paper and spread it out, but she only saw the word “peace” on it, and rolled it up. So now they decided to retrace their steps and get out of the cavern as quickly as possible, especially as they dreaded that the Glandelinians would try to escape now, since the creatures were gone. So off they went. What surprised them was that there was no vapor at the time of the appearance of the monsters in this under-cave. It was a cavern of unsolved mystery.
“There are more Blengiglomenean creatures beyond,” said one of the Angelinian soldiers. “We can go through this passageway, just as we came, which will enable us to continue on our way without any more encounters with Gazooks. Or else they may kill our prisoners.”
They now started on their way; but took their time to watch that the prisoners did not make any breaks. They soon neared the lake where the creatures had come from and looked across, which was very far beyond, but could see no signs of any more Blengiglomenean creatures. “They are all gone,’ said the Angelinian captain.
“And may we never see them again. said the leader of he Glandelinians.
“Maybe some of your other comrades will invade this place and meet some other great creatures. said Jennie.
Our soldier friends with their prisoners had now passed beyond the lake and nearing the tunnel again they saw a thin yellowish vapor rising steadily; a breath of sweet smelling air was rushing out of a hole in the floor of the cavern while a peculiar blue light proceeded from it. “This must really be the home of these strange creatures,” said the Angelinian captain. “I wondered where all the sweet smelling air came from?” ... They soon came to a passage that descended very steeply and was all hard stone for a floor. “This is surely a passage for some Blengiglomenean creatures,” thought the captain. “To descend in a full run may mean fatal results.” He decided to try the descent and go very slowly, for if he ran full speed he would not be able to stop himself and he would go to his ruin. He was a fool to start going down this descent, for he and the others soon went down at a crashing speed sending clouds of dust in all directions. Down, down they went with a swish and a roar, and the longer they continued to descend, the faster they went, landing on their backs. It was an exciting moment. In vain, the men who were in the lead tried to stop their downward progress, but they could not. They must have been going down for several minutes when they came to a part where it was less steep and which checked their most tremendous speed for several minutes. Then they came to a still steeper grade and did surely go spinning. A stream of rocks, dirt, and pumice stones, broken loose by the force of their swift slide, followed after them with the roar of an avalanche. The more they descended now, the faster they went. What they dreaded most was that they might go down into the bowels of the earth, and all did not cease praying once. The soldiers and children worked hard in an attempt to check their frightful downward rush, but it was useless, for the downward grade grew still steeper, which made them descend so fast that they went from side to side. Then, all of a sudden, something likes gulf yawned before them and in they went to the bottom, but to their surprise, found it was only two feet deep. Then down they went sliding again, but as the new grade was not so steep, they did not go so fast and soon darted into what appeared to be another cavern, but of immense size, and which seemed to have no end. “Whew, but that was a narrow escape,” said the Christian officer. “Suppose we would have plunged into one of those deep lakes. Then we would be goners.” Violet and her sisters were looking at the captain with eyes wide open in amazement, and they at first looked so flabbergasted and excited, that the captain and even the soldiers could not help from smiling. Violet and her sisters recovered from their excitements and smiled themselves, until Jennie burst out laughing. They then all laughed heartily as it did, after all, seem to be a funny occurrence. And they did not lose even a single prisoner. They now followed a small passageway leading into another grotto on the left wall of the cavern, which showed some kind of a light, and before they knew it they found themselves within view of amaze of gray tents and batteries of cannon, and could see purple and red coats moving about. They could even see the moon and stars overhead, and after a good survey, they found to their surprise that they had walked right from the cavern into the heart of the Christian lines. -Volume II, pp. 263-69



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