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diff --git a/old/11870-0.txt b/old/11870-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1278f20 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11870-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16732 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11870 *** + + + + +THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND + +And Other Stories + +H. G. WELLS + + + + + + + +[Illustration: He stopped, and then made a dash to escape from their +closing ranks.] + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +The enterprise of Messrs. T. Nelson & Sons and the friendly accommodation +of Messrs. Macmillan render possible this collection in one cover of all +the short stories by me that I care for any one to read again. Except for +the two series of linked incidents that make up the bulk of the book +called _Tales of Space and Time_, no short story of mine of the +slightest merit is excluded from this volume. Many of very questionable +merit find a place; it is an inclusive and not an exclusive gathering. +And the task of selection and revision brings home to me with something of +the effect of discovery that I was once an industrious writer of short +stories, and that I am no longer anything of the kind. I have not written +one now for quite a long time, and in the past five or six years I have +made scarcely one a year. The bulk of the fifty or sixty tales from which +this present three-and-thirty have been chosen dates from the last +century. This edition is more definitive than I supposed when first I +arranged for it. In the presence of so conclusive an ebb and cessation an +almost obituary manner seems justifiable. + +I find it a little difficult to disentangle the causes that have +restricted the flow of these inventions. It has happened, I remark, to +others as well as to myself, and in spite of the kindliest encouragement +to continue from editors and readers. There was a time when life bubbled +with short stories; they were always coming to the surface of my mind, and +it is no deliberate change of will that has thus restricted my production. +It is rather, I think, a diversion of attention to more sustained and more +exacting forms. It was my friend Mr. C.L. Hind who set that spring going. +He urged me to write short stories for the _Pall Mall Budget_, and +persuaded me by his simple and buoyant conviction that I could do what he +desired. There existed at the time only the little sketch, "The Jilting of +Jane," included in this volume--at least, that is the only tolerable +fragment of fiction I find surviving from my pre-Lewis-Hind period. But I +set myself, so encouraged, to the experiment of inventing moving and +interesting things that could be given vividly in the little space of +eight or ten such pages as this, and for a time I found it a very +entertaining pursuit indeed. Mr. Hind's indicating finger had shown me an +amusing possibility of the mind. I found that, taking almost anything as a +starting-point and letting my thoughts play about it, there would +presently come out of the darkness, in a manner quite inexplicable, some +absurd or vivid little incident more or less relevant to that initial +nucleus. Little men in canoes upon sunlit oceans would come floating out +of nothingness, incubating the eggs of prehistoric monsters unawares; +violent conflicts would break out amidst the flower-beds of suburban +gardens; I would discover I was peering into remote and mysterious worlds +ruled by an order logical indeed but other than our common sanity. + +The 'nineties was a good and stimulating period for a short-story writer. +Mr. Kipling had made his astonishing advent with a series of little +blue-grey books, whose covers opened like window-shutters to reveal +the dusty sun-glare and blazing colours of the East; Mr. Barrie had +demonstrated what could be done in a little space through the panes of his +_Window in Thrums_. The _National Observer_ was at the climax of +its career of heroic insistence upon lyrical brevity and a vivid finish, +and Mr. Frank Harris was not only printing good short stories by other +people, but writing still better ones himself in the dignified pages of +the _Fortnightly Review. Longman's Magazine_, too, represented a +_clientèle_ of appreciative short-story readers that is now +scattered. Then came the generous opportunities of the _Yellow Book_, +and the _National Observer_ died only to give birth to the _New +Review_. No short story of the slightest distinction went for long +unrecognised. The sixpenny popular magazines had still to deaden down the +conception of what a short story might be to the imaginative limitation of +the common reader--and a maximum length of six thousand words. Short +stories broke out everywhere. Kipling was writing short stories; Barrie, +Stevenson, Frank-Harris; Max Beerbohm wrote at least one perfect one, "The +Happy Hypocrite"; Henry James pursued his wonderful and inimitable bent; +and among other names that occur to me, like a mixed handful of jewels +drawn from a bag, are George Street, Morley Roberts, George Gissing, Ella +d'Arcy, Murray Gilchrist, E. Nesbit, Stephen Crane, Joseph Conrad, Edwin +Pugh, Jerome K. Jerome, Kenneth Graham, Arthur Morrison, Marriott Watson, +George Moore, Grant Allen, George Egerton, Henry Harland, Pett Ridge, W. +W. Jacobs (who alone seems inexhaustible). I dare say I could recall as +many more names with a little effort. I may be succumbing to the +infirmities of middle age, but I do not think the present decade can +produce any parallel to this list, or what is more remarkable, that the +later achievements in this field of any of the survivors from that time, +with the sole exception of Joseph Conrad, can compare with the work they +did before 1900. It seems to me this outburst of short stories came not +only as a phase in literary development, but also as a phase in the +development of the individual writers concerned. + +It is now quite unusual to see any adequate criticism of short stories in +English. I do not know how far the decline in short-story writing may not +be due to that. Every sort of artist demands human responses, and few men +can contrive to write merely for a publisher's cheque and silence, however +reassuring that cheque may be. A mad millionaire who commissioned +masterpieces to burn would find it impossible to buy them. Scarcely any +artist will hesitate in the choice between money and attention; and it was +primarily for that last and better sort of pay that the short stories of +the 'nineties were written. People talked about them tremendously, +compared them, and ranked them. That was the thing that mattered. + +It was not, of course, all good talk, and we suffered then, as now, from +the _à priori_ critic. Just as nowadays he goes about declaring that +the work of such-and-such a dramatist is all very amusing and delightful, +but "it isn't a Play," so we' had a great deal of talk about _the_ +short story, and found ourselves measured by all kinds of arbitrary +standards. There was a tendency to treat the short story as though it was +as definable a form as the sonnet, instead of being just exactly what any +one of courage and imagination can get told in twenty minutes' reading or +so. It was either Mr. Edward Garnett or Mr. George Moore in a violently +anti-Kipling mood who invented the distinction between the short story and +the anecdote. The short story was Maupassant; the anecdote was damnable. +It was a quite infernal comment in its way, because it permitted no +defence. Fools caught it up and used it freely. Nothing is so destructive +in a field of artistic effort as a stock term of abuse. Anyone could say +of any short story, "A mere anecdote," just as anyone can say +"Incoherent!" of any novel or of any sonata that isn't studiously +monotonous. The recession of enthusiasm for this compact, amusing form is +closely associated in my mind with that discouraging imputation. One felt +hopelessly open to a paralysing and unanswerable charge, and one's ease +and happiness in the garden of one's fancies was more and more marred by +the dread of it. It crept into one's mind, a distress as vague and +inexpugnable as a sea fog on a spring morning, and presently one shivered +and wanted to go indoors...It is the absurd fate of the imaginative writer +that he should be thus sensitive to atmospheric conditions. + +But after one has died as a maker one may still live as a critic, and I +will confess I am all for laxness and variety in this as in every field of +art. Insistence upon rigid forms and austere unities seems to me the +instinctive reaction of the sterile against the fecund. It is the tired +man with a headache who values a work of art for what it does not contain. +I suppose it is the lot of every critic nowadays to suffer from +indigestion and a fatigued appreciation, and to develop a self-protective +tendency towards rules that will reject, as it were, automatically the +more abundant and irregular forms. But this world is not for the weary, +and in the long-run it is the new and variant that matter. I refuse +altogether to recognise any hard and fast type for the Short Story, any +more than I admit any limitation upon the liberties of the Small Picture. +The short story is a fiction that may be read in something under an hour, +and so that it is moving and delightful, it does not matter whether it is +as "trivial" as a Japanese print of insects seen closely between grass +stems, or as spacious as the prospect of the plain of Italy from Monte +Mottarone. It does not matter whether it is human or inhuman, or whether +it leaves you thinking deeply or radiantly but superficially pleased. Some +things are more easily done as short stories than others and more +abundantly done, but one of the many pleasures of short-story writing is +to achieve the impossible. + +At any rate, that is the present writer's conception of the art of the +short story, as the jolly art of making something very bright and moving; +it may be horrible or pathetic or funny or beautiful or profoundly +illuminating, having only this essential, that it should take from fifteen +to fifty minutes to read aloud. All the rest is just whatever invention +and imagination and the mood can give--a vision of buttered slides on a +busy day or of unprecedented worlds. In that spirit of miscellaneous +expectation these stories should be received. Each is intended to be a +thing by itself; and if it is not too ungrateful to kindly and +enterprising publishers, I would confess I would much prefer to see each +printed expensively alone, and left in a little brown-paper cover to lie +about a room against the needs of a quite casual curiosity. And I would +rather this volume were found in the bedrooms of convalescents and in +dentists' parlours and railway trains than in gentlemen's studies. I would +rather have it dipped in and dipped in again than read severely through. +Essentially it is a miscellany of inventions, many of which were very +pleasant to write; and its end is more than attained if some of them are +refreshing and agreeable to read. I have now re-read them all, and I am +glad to think I wrote them. I like them, but I cannot tell how much the +associations of old happinesses gives them a flavour for me. I make no +claims for them and no apology; they will be read as long as people read +them. Things written either live or die; unless it be for a place of +judgment upon Academic impostors, there is no apologetic intermediate +state. + +I may add that I have tried to set a date to most of these stories, but +that they are not arranged in strictly chronological order. + +H. G. WELLS. + + + +CONTENTS. + + I. THE JILTING OF JANE + + II. THE CONE + + III. THE STOLEN BACILLUS + + IV. THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID + + V. THE AVU OBSERVATORY + + VI. AEPYORNIS ISLAND + + VII. THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON'S EYES. + + VIII. THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS. + + IX. THE MOTH + + X. THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST + + XI. THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM + + XII. UNDER THE KNIFE + + XIII. THE SEA RAIDERS + + XIV. THE OBLITERATED MAN + + XV. THE PLATTNER STORY + + XVI. THE RED ROOM + + XVII. THE PURPLE PILEUS + + XVIII. A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE + + XIX. THE CRYSTAL EGG + + XX. THE STAR + + XXI. THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES + + XXII. A VISION OF JUDGMENT + + XXIII. JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD + + XXIV. MISS WINCHELSEA'S HEART + + XXV. A DREAM OF ARMAGEDDON + + XXVI. THE VALLEY OF SPIDERS + + XXVII. THE NEW ACCELERATOR + +XXVIII. THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT + + XXIX. THE MAGIC SHOP + + XXX. THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS + + XXXI. THE DOOR IN THE WALL + + XXXII. THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND + +XXXIII. THE BEAUTIFUL SUIT + + + + + I. + + THE JILTING OF JANE. + + +As I sit writing in my study, I can hear our Jane bumping her way +downstairs with a brush and dust-pan. She used in the old days to sing +hymn tunes, or the British national song for the time being, to these +instruments, but latterly she has been silent and even careful over her +work. Time was when I prayed with fervour for such silence, and my wife +with sighs for such care, but now they have come we are not so glad as we +might have anticipated we should be. Indeed, I would rejoice secretly, +though it may be unmanly weakness to admit it, even to hear Jane sing +"Daisy," or, by the fracture of any plate but one of Euphemia's best green +ones, to learn that the period of brooding has come to an end. + +Yet how we longed to hear the last of Jane's young man before we heard the +last of him! Jane was always very free with her conversation to my wife, +and discoursed admirably in the kitchen on a variety of topics--so well, +indeed, that I sometimes left my study door open--our house is a small +one--to partake of it. But after William came, it was always William, +nothing but William; William this and William that; and when we thought +William was worked out and exhausted altogether, then William all over +again. The engagement lasted altogether three years; yet how she got +introduced to William, and so became thus saturated with him, was always a +secret. For my part, I believe it was at the street corner where the Rev. +Barnabas Baux used to hold an open-air service after evensong on Sundays. +Young Cupids were wont to flit like moths round the paraffin flare of that +centre of High Church hymn-singing. I fancy she stood singing hymns there, +out of memory and her imagination, instead of coming home to get supper, +and William came up beside her and said, "Hello!" "Hello yourself!" she +said; and etiquette being satisfied, they proceeded to talk together. + +As Euphemia has a reprehensible way of letting her servants talk to her, +she soon heard of him. "He is _such_ a respectable young man, ma'am," +said Jane, "you don't know." Ignoring the slur cast on her acquaintance, +my wife inquired further about this William. + +"He is second porter at Maynard's, the draper's," said Jane, "and gets +eighteen shillings--nearly a pound--a week, m'm; and when the head porter +leaves he will be head porter. His relatives are quite superior people, +m'm. Not labouring people at all. His father was a greengrosher, m'm, and +had a churnor, and he was bankrup' twice. And one of his sisters is in a +Home for the Dying. It will be a very good match for me, m'm," said Jane, +"me being an orphan girl." + +"Then you are engaged to him?" asked my wife. + +"Not engaged, ma'am; but he is saving money to buy a ring--hammyfist." + +"Well, Jane, when you are properly engaged to him you may ask him round +here on Sunday afternoons, and have tea with him in the kitchen;" for my +Euphemia has a motherly conception of her duty towards her maid-servants. +And presently the amethystine ring was being worn about the house, even +with ostentation, and Jane developed a new way of bringing in the joint so +that this gage was evident. The elder Miss Maitland was aggrieved by it, +and told my wife that servants ought not to wear rings. But my wife looked +it up in _Enquire Within_ and _Mrs. Motherly's Book of Household +Management_, and found no prohibition. So Jane remained with this +happiness added to her love. + +The treasure of Jane's heart appeared to me to be what respectable people +call a very deserving young man. "William, ma'am," said Jane one day +suddenly, with ill-concealed complacency, as she counted out the beer +bottles, "William, ma'am, is a teetotaller. Yes, m'm; and he don't smoke. +Smoking, ma'am," said Jane, as one who reads the heart, "_do_ make +such a dust about. Beside the waste of money. _And_ the smell. +However, I suppose they got to do it--some of them..." + +William was at first a rather shabby young man of the ready-made black +coat school of costume. He had watery gray eyes, and a complexion +appropriate to the brother of one in a Home for the Dying. Euphemia did +not fancy him very much, even at the beginning. His eminent respectability +was vouched for by an alpaca umbrella, from which he never allowed himself +to be parted. + +"He goes to chapel," said Jane. "His papa, ma'am----" + +"His _what_, Jane?" + +"His papa, ma'am, was Church: but Mr. Maynard is a Plymouth Brother, and +William thinks it Policy, ma'am, to go there too. Mr. Maynard comes and +talks to him quite friendly when they ain't busy, about using up all the +ends of string, and about his soul. He takes a lot of notice, do Mr. +Maynard, of William, and the way he saves his soul, ma'am." + +Presently we heard that the head porter at Maynard's had left, and that +William was head porter at twenty-three shillings a week. "He is really +kind of over the man who drives the van," said Jane, "and him married, +with three children." And she promised in the pride of her heart to make +interest for us with William to favour us so that we might get our parcels +of drapery from Maynard's with exceptional promptitude. + +After this promotion a rapidly-increasing prosperity came upon Jane's +young man. One day we learned that Mr. Maynard had given William a book. +"'Smiles' 'Elp Yourself,' it's called," said Jane; "but it ain't comic. It +tells you how to get on in the world, and some what William read to me was +_lovely_, ma'am." + +Euphemia told me of this, laughing, and then she became suddenly grave. +"Do you know, dear," she said, "Jane said one thing I did not like. She +had been quiet for a minute, and then she suddenly remarked, 'William is a +lot above me, ma'am, ain't he?'" + +"I don't see anything in that," I said, though later my eyes were to be +opened. + +One Sunday afternoon about that time I was sitting at my writing-desk-- +possibly I was reading a good book--when a something went by the window. I +heard a startled exclamation behind me, and saw Euphemia with her hands +clasped together and her eyes dilated. "George," she said in an +awe-stricken whisper, "did you see?" + +Then we both spoke to one another at the same moment, slowly and solemnly: +"_A silk hat! Yellow gloves! A new umbrella!_" + +"It may be my fancy, dear," said Euphemia; "but his tie was very like +yours. I believe Jane keeps him in ties. She told me a little while ago, +in a way that implied volumes about the rest of your costume, 'The master +_do_ wear pretty ties, ma'am.' And he echoes all your novelties." + +The young couple passed our window again on their way to their customary +walk. They were arm in arm. Jane looked exquisitely proud, happy, and +uncomfortable, with new white cotton gloves, and William, in the silk hat, +singularly genteel! + +That was the culmination of Jane's happiness. When she returned, "Mr. +Maynard has been talking to William, ma'am," she said, "and he is to serve +customers, just like the young shop gentlemen, during the next sale. And +if he gets on, he is to be made an assistant, ma'am, at the first +opportunity. He has got to be as gentlemanly as he can, ma'am; and if he +ain't, ma'am, he says it won't be for want of trying. Mr. Maynard has took +a great fancy to him." + +"He _is_ getting on, Jane," said my wife. + +"Yes, ma'am," said Jane thoughtfully; "he _is_ getting on." + +And she sighed. + +That next Sunday as I drank my tea I interrogated my wife. "How is this +Sunday different from all other Sundays, little woman? What has happened? +Have you altered the curtains, or re-arranged the furniture, or where is +the indefinable difference of it? Are you wearing your hair in a new way +without warning me? I perceive a change clearly, and I cannot for the life +of me say what it is." + +Then my wife answered in her most tragic voice, "George," she said, "that +William has not come near the place to-day! And Jane is crying her heart +out upstairs." + +There followed a period of silence. Jane, as I have said, stopped singing +about the house, and began to care for our brittle possessions, which +struck my wife as being a very sad sign indeed. The next Sunday, and the +next, Jane asked to go out, "to walk with William," and my wife, who never +attempts to extort confidences, gave her permission, and asked no +questions. On each occasion Jane came back looking flushed and very +determined. At last one day she became communicative. + +"William is being led away," she remarked abruptly, with a catching of the +breath, apropos of tablecloths. "Yes, m'm. She is a milliner, and she can +play on the piano." + +"I thought," said my wife, "that you went out with him on Sunday." + +"Not out with him, m'm--after him. I walked along by the side of them, and +told her he was engaged to me." + +"Dear me, Jane, did you? What did they do?" + +"Took no more notice of me than if I was dirt. So I told her she should +suffer for it." + +"It could not have been a very agreeable walk, Jane." + +"Not for no parties, ma'am." + +"I wish," said Jane, "I could play the piano, ma'am. But anyhow, I don't +mean to let _her_ get him away from me. She's older than him, and her +hair ain't gold to the roots, ma'am." + +It was on the August Bank Holiday that the crisis came. We do not clearly +know the details of the fray, but only such fragments as poor Jane let +fall. She came home dusty, excited, and with her heart hot within her. + +The milliner's mother, the milliner, and William had made a party to the +Art Museum at South Kensington, I think. Anyhow, Jane had calmly but +firmly accosted them somewhere in the streets, and asserted her right to +what, in spite of the consensus of literature, she held to be her +inalienable property. She did, I think, go so far as to lay hands on him. +They dealt with her in a crushingly superior way. They "called a cab." +There was a "scene," William being pulled away into the four-wheeler by +his future wife and mother-in-law from the reluctant hands of our +discarded Jane. There were threats of giving her "in charge." + +"My poor Jane!" said my wife, mincing veal as though she was mincing +William. "It's a shame of them. I would think no more of him. He is not +worthy of you." + +"No, m'm," said Jane. "He _is_ weak. + +"But it's that woman has done it," said Jane. She was never known to bring +herself to pronounce "that woman's" name or to admit her girlishness. "I +can't think what minds some women must have--to try and get a girl's young +man away from her. But there, it only hurts to talk about it," said Jane. + +Thereafter our house rested from William. But there was something in the +manner of Jane's scrubbing the front doorstep or sweeping out the rooms, a +certain viciousness, that persuaded me that the story had not yet ended. + +"Please, m'm, may I go and see a wedding tomorrow?" said Jane one day. + +My wife knew by instinct whose wedding. "Do you think it is wise, Jane?" +she said. + +"I would like to see the last of him," said Jane. + +"My dear," said my wife, fluttering into my room about twenty minutes +after Jane had started, "Jane has been to the boot-hole and taken all the +left-off boots and shoes, and gone off to the wedding with them in a bag. +Surely she cannot mean--" + +"Jane," I said, "is developing character. Let us hope for the best." + +Jane came back with a pale, hard face. All the boots seemed to be still in +her bag, at which my wife heaved a premature sigh of relief. We heard her +go upstairs and replace the boots with considerable emphasis. + +"Quite a crowd at the wedding, ma'am," she said presently, in a purely +conversational style, sitting in our little kitchen, and scrubbing the +potatoes; "and such a lovely day for them." She proceeded to numerous +other details, clearly avoiding some cardinal incident. + +"It was all extremely respectable and nice, ma'am; but _her_ father +didn't wear a black coat, and looked quite out of place, ma'am. Mr. +Piddingquirk--" + +"_Who_?" + +"Mr. Piddingquirk--William that was, ma'am--had white gloves, and a coat +like a clergyman, and a lovely chrysanthemum. He looked so nice, ma'am. +And there was red carpet down, just like for gentlefolks. And they say he +gave the clerk four shillings, ma'am. It was a real kerridge they had--not +a fly. When they came out of church there was rice-throwing, and her two +little sisters dropping dead flowers. And someone threw a slipper, and +then I threw a boot--" + +"Threw a _boot_, Jane!" + +"Yes, ma'am. Aimed at her. But it hit _him_. Yes, ma'am, hard. Gev +him a black eye, I should think. I only threw that one. I hadn't the heart +to try again. All the little boys cheered when it hit him." + +After an interval--"I am sorry the boot hit _him_." + +Another pause. The potatoes were being scrubbed violently. "He always +_was_ a bit above me, you know, ma'am. And he was led away." + +The potatoes were more than finished. Jane rose sharply with a sigh, and +rapped the basin down on the table. + +"I don't care," she said. "I don't care a rap. He will find out his +mistake yet. It serves me right. I was stuck up about him. I ought not to +have looked so high. And I am glad things are as things are." + +My wife was in the kitchen, seeing to the higher cookery. After the +confession of the boot-throwing, she must have watched poor Jane fuming +with a certain dismay in those brown eyes of hers. But I imagine they +softened again very quickly, and then Jane's must have met them. + +"Oh, ma'am," said Jane, with an astonishing change of note, "think of all +that _might_ have been! Oh, ma'am, I _could_ have been so happy! +I ought to have known, but I didn't know...You're very kind to let me talk +to you, ma'am...for it's hard on me, ma'am...it's har-r-r-r-d--" + +And I gather that Euphemia so far forgot herself as to let Jane sob out +some of the fullness of her heart on a sympathetic shoulder. My Euphemia, +thank Heaven, has never properly grasped the importance of "keeping up her +position." And since that fit of weeping, much of the accent of bitterness +has gone out of Jane's scrubbing and brush work. + +Indeed, something passed the other day with the butcher-boy--but that +scarcely belongs to this story. However, Jane is young still, and time and +change are at work with her. We all have our sorrows, but I do not believe +very much in the existence of sorrows that never heal. + + + + + II. + + THE CONE. + + +The night was hot and overcast, the sky red-rimmed with the lingering +sunset of midsummer. They sat at the open window, trying to fancy the air +was fresher there. The trees and shrubs of the garden stood stiff and +dark; beyond in the roadway a gas-lamp burnt, bright orange against the +hazy blue of the evening. Farther were the three lights of the railway +signal against the lowering sky. The man and woman spoke to one another in +low tones. + +"He does not suspect?" said the man, a little nervously. + +"Not he," she said peevishly, as though that too irritated her. "He +thinks of nothing but the works and the prices of fuel. He has no +imagination, no poetry." + +"None of these men of iron have," he said sententiously. "They have no +hearts." + +"_He_ has not," she said. She turned her discontented face towards +the window. The distant sound of a roaring and rushing drew nearer and +grew in volume; the house quivered; one heard the metallic rattle of the +tender. As the train passed, there was a glare of light above the cutting +and a driving tumult of smoke; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, +eight black oblongs--eight trucks--passed across the dim grey of the +embankment, and were suddenly extinguished one by one in the throat of the +tunnel, which, with the last, seemed to swallow down train, smoke, and +sound in one abrupt gulp. + +"This country was all fresh and beautiful once," he said; "and now--it is +Gehenna. Down that way--nothing but pot-banks and chimneys belching fire +and dust into the face of heaven...But what does it matter? An end comes, +an end to all this cruelty..._To-morrow."_ He spoke the last word in +a whisper. + +"_To-morrow,"_ she said, speaking in a whisper too, and still staring +out of the window. + +"Dear!" he said, putting his hand on hers. + +She turned with a start, and their eyes searched one another's. Hers +softened to his gaze. "My dear one!" she said, and then: "It seems so +strange--that you should have come into my life like this--to open--" She +paused. + +"To open?" he said. + +"All this wonderful world"--she hesitated, and spoke still more softly-- +"this world of _love_ to me." + +Then suddenly the door clicked and closed. They turned their heads, and he +started violently back. In the shadow of the room stood a great shadowy +figure-silent. They saw the face dimly in the half-light, with +unexpressive dark patches under the pent-house brows. Every muscle in +Raut's body suddenly became tense. When could the door have opened? What +had he heard? Had he heard all? What had he seen? A tumult of questions. + +The new-comer's voice came at last, after a pause that seemed +interminable. "Well?" he said. + +"I was afraid I had missed you, Horrocks," said the man at the window, +gripping the window-ledge with his hand. His voice was unsteady. + +The clumsy figure of Horrocks came forward out of the shadow. He made no +answer to Raut's remark. For a moment he stood above them. + +The woman's heart was cold within her. "I told Mr. Raut it was just +possible you might come back," she said in a voice that never quivered. + +Horrocks, still silent, sat down abruptly in the chair by her little +work-table. His big hands were clenched; one saw now the fire of his eyes +under the shadow of his brows. He was trying to get his breath. His eyes +went from the woman he had trusted to the friend he had trusted, and then +back to the woman. + +By this time and for the moment all three half understood one another. +Yet none dared say a word to ease the pent-up things that choked them. + +It was the husband's voice that broke the silence at last. + +"You wanted to see me?" he said to Raut. + +Raut started as he spoke. "I came to see you," he said, resolved to lie to +the last. + +"Yes," said Horrocks. + +"You promised," said Raut, "to show me some fine effects of moonlight and +smoke." + +"I promised to show you some fine effects of moonlight and smoke," +repeated Horrocks in a colourless voice. + +"And I thought I might catch you to-night before you went down to the +works," proceeded Raut, "and come with you." + +There was another pause. Did the man mean to take the thing coolly? Did +he, after all, know? How long had he been in the room? Yet even at the +moment when they heard the door, their attitudes ... Horrocks glanced at +the profile of the woman, shadowy pallid in the half-light. Then he +glanced at Raut, and seemed to recover himself suddenly. "Of course," he +said, "I promised to show you the works under their proper dramatic +conditions. It's odd how I could have forgotten." + +"If I am troubling you--" began Raut. + +Horrocks started again. A new light had suddenly come into the sultry +gloom of his eyes. "Not in the least." he said. + +"Have you been telling Mr. Raut of all these contrasts of flame and shadow +you think so splendid?" said the woman, turning now to her husband for +the first time, her confidence creeping back again, her voice just one +half-note too high--"that dreadful theory of yours that machinery is +beautiful, and everything else in the world ugly. I thought he would not +spare you, Mr. Raut. It's his great theory, his one discovery in art." + +"I am slow to make discoveries," said Horrocks grimly, damping her +suddenly. "But what I discover ..." He stopped. + +"Well?" she said. + +"Nothing;" and suddenly he rose to his feet. + +"I promised to show you the works," he said to Raut, and put his big, +clumsy hand on his friend's shoulder. "And you are ready to go?" + +"Quite," said Raut, and stood up also. + +There was another pause. Each of them peered through the indistinctness of +the dusk at the other two. + +Horrocks' hand still rested on Raut's shoulder. Raut half fancied still +that the incident was trivial after all. But Mrs. Horrocks knew her +husband better, knew that grim quiet in his voice, and the confusion in +her mind took a vague shape of physical evil. "Very well," said Horrocks, +and, dropping his hand, turned towards the door. + +"My hat?" Raut looked round in the half-light. + +"That's my work-basket," said Mrs. Horrocks with a gust of hysterical +laughter. Their hands came together on the back of the chair. "Here it +is!" he said. She had an impulse to warn him in an undertone, but she +could not frame a word. "Don't go!" and "Beware of him!" struggled in her +mind, and the swift moment passed. + +"Got it?" said Horrocks, standing with the door half open. + +Raut stepped towards him. "Better say goodbye to Mrs. Horrocks," said the +ironmaster, even more grimly quiet in his tone than before. + +Raut started and turned. "Good-evening, Mrs. Horrocks," he said, and their +hands touched. + +Horrocks held the door open with a ceremonial politeness unusual in him +towards men. Raut went out, and then, after a wordless look at her, her +husband followed. She stood motionless while Raut's light footfall and her +husband's heavy tread, like bass and treble, passed down the passage +together. The front door slammed heavily. She went to the window, moving +slowly, and stood watching, leaning forward. The two men appeared for a +moment at the gateway in the road, passed under the street lamp, and were +hidden by the black masses of the shrubbery. The lamplight fell for a +moment on their faces, showing only unmeaning pale patches, telling +nothing of what she still feared, and doubted, and craved vainly to know. +Then she sank down into a crouching attitude in the big arm-chair, her +eyes-wide open and staring out at the red lights from the furnaces that +flickered in the sky. An hour after she was still there, her attitude +scarcely changed. + +The oppressive stillness of the evening weighed heavily upon Raut. They +went side by side down the road in silence, and in silence turned into the +cinder-made byway that presently opened out the prospect of the valley. + +A blue haze, half dust, half mist, touched the long valley with mystery. +Beyond were Hanley and Etruria, grey and dark masses, outlined thinly by +the rare golden dots of the street lamps, and here and there a gas-lit +window, or the yellow glare of some late-working factory or crowded +public-house. Out of the masses, clear and slender against the evening +sky, rose a multitude of tall chimneys, many of them reeking, a few +smokeless during a season of "play." Here and there a pallid patch and +ghostly stunted beehive shapes showed the position of a pot-bank or a +wheel, black and sharp against the hot lower sky, marked some colliery +where they raise the iridescent coal of the place. Nearer at hand was the +broad stretch of railway, and half-invisible trains shunted--a steady +puffing and rumbling, with every run a ringing concussion and a rhymthic +series of impacts, and a passage of intermittent puffs of white steam +across the further view. And to the left, between the railway and the +dark mass of the low hill beyond, dominating the whole view, colossal, +inky-black, and crowned with smoke and fitful flames, stood the great +cylinders of the Jeddah Company Blast Furnaces, the central edifices of +the big ironworks of which Horrocks was the manager. They stood heavy and +threatening, full of an incessant turmoil of flames and seething molten +iron, and about the feet of them rattled the rolling-mills, and the +steam-hammer beat heavily and splashed the white iron sparks hither and +thither. Even as they looked, a truckful of fuel was shot into one of the +giants, and the red flames gleamed out, and a confusion of smoke and black +dust came boiling upwards towards the sky. + +"Certainly you get some colour with your furnaces," said Raut, breaking a +silence that had become apprehensive. + +Horrocks grunted. He stood with his hands in his pockets, frowning down at +the dim steaming railway and the busy ironworks beyond, frowning as if he +were thinking out some knotty problem. + +Raut glanced at him and away again. "At present your moonlight effect is +hardly ripe," he continued, looking upward; "the moon is still smothered +by the vestiges of daylight." + +Horrocks stared at him with the expression of a man who has suddenly +awakened. "Vestiges of daylight? ... Of course, of course." He too looked +up at the moon, pale still in the midsummer sky. "Come along," he said +suddenly, and gripping Raut's arm in his hand, made a move towards the +path that dropped from them to the railway. + +Raut hung back. Their eyes met and saw a thousand things in a moment that +their lips came near to say. Horrocks's hand tightened and then relaxed. +He let go, and before Raut was aware of it, they were arm in arm, and +walking, one unwillingly enough, down the path. + +"You see the fine effect of the railway signals towards Burslem," said +Horrocks, suddenly breaking into loquacity, striding fast and tightening +the grip of his elbow the while--"little green lights and red and white +lights, all against the haze. You have an eye for effect, Raut. It's fine. +And look at those furnaces of mine, how they rise upon us as we come down +the hill. That to the right is my pet--seventy feet of him. I packed him +myself, and he's boiled away cheerfully with iron in his guts for five +long years. I've a particular fancy for _him_. That line of red +there--a lovely bit of warm orange you'd call it, Raut--that's the +puddlers' furnaces, and there, in the hot light, three black figures--did +you see the white splash of the steam-hammer then?--that's the rolling +mills. Come along! Clang, clatter, how it goes rattling across the floor! +Sheet tin, Raut,--amazing stuff. Glass mirrors are not in it when that +stuff comes from the mill. And, squelch! there goes the hammer again. Come +along!" + +He had to stop talking to catch at his breath. His arm twisted into Raut's +with benumbing tightness. He had come striding down the black path towards +the railway as though he was possessed. Raut had not spoken a word, had +simply hung back against Horrocks's pull with all his strength. + +"I say," he said now, laughing nervously, but with an undertone of snarl +in his voice, "why on earth are you nipping my arm off, Horrocks, and +dragging me along like this?" + +At length Horrocks released him. His manner changed again. "Nipping your +arm off?" he said. "Sorry. But it's you taught me the trick of walking +in that friendly way." + +"You haven't learnt the refinements of it yet then," said Raut, laughing +artificially again. "By Jove! I'm black and blue." Horrocks offered no +apology. They stood now near the bottom of the hill, close to the fence +that bordered the railway. The ironworks had grown larger and spread out +with their approach. They looked up to the blast furnaces now instead of +down; the further view of Etruria and Hanley had dropped out of sight with +their descent. Before them, by the stile, rose a notice-board, bearing, +still dimly visible, the words, "BEWARE OF THE TRAINS," half hidden by +splashes of coaly mud. + +"Fine effects," said Horrocks, waving his arm. "Here comes a train. The +puffs of smoke, the orange glare, the round eye of light in front of it, +the melodious rattle. Fine effects! But these furnaces of mine used to be +finer, before we shoved cones in their throats, and saved the gas." + +"How?" said Raut. "Cones?" + +"Cones, my man, cones. I'll show you one nearer. The flames used to flare +out of the open throats, great--what is it?--pillars of cloud by day, red +and black smoke, and pillars of fire by night. Now we run it off--in +pipes, and burn it to heat the blast, and the top is shut by a cone. +You'll be interested in that cone." + +"But every now and then," said Raut, "you get a burst of fire and smoke up +there." + +"The cone's not fixed, it's hung by a chain from a lever, and balanced by +an equipoise. You shall see it nearer. Else, of course, there'd be no way +of getting fuel into the thing. Every now and then the cone dips, and out +comes the flare." + +"I see," said Raut. He looked over his shoulder. "The moon gets brighter," +he said. + +"Come along," said Horrocks abruptly, gripping his shoulder again, and +moving him suddenly towards the railway crossing. And then came one of +those swift incidents, vivid, but so rapid that they leave one doubtful +and reeling. Half-way across, Horrocks's hand suddenly clenched upon him +like a vice, and swung him backward and through a half-turn, so that he +looked up the line. And there a chain of lamp-lit carriage windows +telescoped swiftly as it came towards them, and the red and yellow lights +of an engine grew larger and larger, rushing down upon them. As he grasped +what this meant, he turned his face to Horrocks, and pushed with all his +strength against the arm that held him back between the rails. The +struggle did not last a moment. Just as certain as it was that Horrocks +held him there, so certain was it that he had been violently lugged out of +danger. + +"Out of the way," said Horrocks with a gasp, as the train came rattling +by, and they stood panting by the gate into the ironworks. + +"I did not see it coming," said Raut, still, even in spite of his own +apprehensions, trying to keep up an appearance of ordinary intercourse. + +Horrocks answered with a grunt. "The cone," he said, and then, as one who +recovers himself, "I thought you did not hear." + +"I didn't," said Raut. + +"I wouldn't have had you run over then for the world," said Horrocks. + +"For a moment I lost my nerve," said Raut. + +Horrocks stood for half a minute, then turned abruptly towards the +ironworks again. "See how fine these great mounds of mine, these +clinker-heaps, look in the night! That truck yonder, up above there! Up +it goes, and out-tilts the slag. See the palpitating red stuff go sliding +down the slope. As we get nearer, the heap rises up and cuts the blast +furnaces. See the quiver up above the big one. Not that way! This way, +between the heaps. That goes to the puddling furnaces, but I want to show +you the canal first." He came and took Raut by the elbow, and so they went +along side by side. Raut answered Horrocks vaguely. What, he asked +himself, had really happened on the line? Was he deluding himself with his +own fancies, or had Horrocks actually held him back in the way of the +train? Had he just been within an ace of being murdered? + +Suppose this slouching, scowling monster _did_ know anything? For a +minute or two then Raut was really afraid for his life, but the mood +passed as he reasoned with himself. After all, Horrocks might have heard +nothing. At any rate, he had pulled him out of the way in time. His odd +manner might be due to the mere vague jealousy he had shown once before. +He was talking now of the ash-heaps and the canal. "Eigh?" said Horrocks. + +"What?" said Raut. "Rather! The haze in the moonlight. Fine!" + +"Our canal," said Horrocks, stopping suddenly. "Our canal by moonlight and +firelight is immense. You've never seen it? Fancy that! You've spent too +many of your evenings philandering up in Newcastle there. I tell you, for +real florid quality----But you shall see. Boiling water ..." + +As they came out of the labyrinth of clinker-heaps and mounds of coal and +ore, the noises of the rolling-mill sprang upon them suddenly, loud, near, +and distinct. Three shadowy workmen went by and touched their caps to +Horrocks. Their faces were vague in the darkness. Raut felt a futile +impulse to address them, and before he could frame his words they passed +into the shadows. Horrocks pointed to the canal close before them now: a +weird-looking place it seemed, in the blood-red reflections of the +furnaces. The hot water that cooled the tuyères came into it, some fifty +yards up--a tumultuous, almost boiling affluent, and the steam rose up +from the water in silent white wisps and streaks, wrapping damply about +them, an incessant succession of ghosts coming up from the black and red +eddies, a white uprising that made the head swim. The shining black tower +of the larger blast-furnace rose overhead out of the mist, and its +tumultuous riot filled their ears. Raut kept away from the edge of the +water, and watched Horrocks. + +"Here it is red," said Horrocks, "blood-red vapour as red and hot as sin; +but yonder there, where the moonlight falls on it, and it drives across +the clinker-heaps, it is as white as death." + +Raut turned his head for a moment, and then came back hastily to his watch +on Horrocks. "Come along to the rolling-mills," said Horrocks. The +threatening hold was not so evident that time, and Raut felt a little +reassured. But all the same, what on earth did Horrocks mean about "white +as death" and "red as sin"? Coincidence, perhaps? + +They went and stood behind the puddlers for a little while, and then +through the rolling-mills, where amidst an incessant din the deliberate +steam-hammer beat the juice out of the succulent iron, and black, +half-naked Titans rushed the plastic bars, like hot sealing-wax, between +the wheels, "Come on," said Horrocks in Raut's ear; and they went and +peeped through the little glass hole behind the tuyères, and saw the +tumbled fire writhing in the pit of the blast-furnace. It left one eye +blinded for a while. Then, with green and blue patches dancing across the +dark, they went to the lift by which the trucks of ore and fuel and lime +were raised to the top of the big cylinder. + +And out upon the narrow rail that overhung the furnace Raut's doubts came +upon him again. Was it wise to be here? If Horrocks did know--everything! +Do what he would, he could not resist a violent trembling. Right under +foot was a sheer depth of seventy feet. It was a dangerous place. They +pushed by a truck of fuel to get to the railing that crowned the thing. +The reek of the furnace, a sulphurous vapour streaked with pungent +bitterness, seemed to make the distant hillside of Hanley quiver. The moon +was riding out now from among a drift of clouds, half-way up the sky above +the undulating wooded outlines of Newcastle. The steaming canal ran away +from below them under an indistinct bridge, and vanished into the dim haze +of the flat fields towards Burslem. + +"That's the cone I've been telling you of," shouted Horrocks; "and, below +that, sixty feet of fire and molten metal, with the air of the blast +frothing through it like gas in soda-water." + +Raut gripped the hand-rail tightly, and stared down at the cone. The heat +was intense. The boiling of the iron and the tumult of the blast made a +thunderous accompaniment to Horrocks's voice. But the thing had to be gone +through now. Perhaps, after all... + +"In the middle," bawled Horrocks, "temperature near a thousand degrees. If +_you_ were dropped into it ... flash into flame like a pinch of +gunpowder in a candle. Put your hand out and feel the heat of his breath. +Why, even up here I've seen the rain-water boiling off the trucks. And +that cone there. It's a damned sight too hot for roasting cakes. The top +side of it's three hundred degrees." + +"Three hundred degrees!" said Raut. + +"Three hundred centigrade, mind!" said Horrocks. "It will boil the blood +out of you in no time." + +"Eigh?" said Raut, and turned. + +"Boil the blood out of you in ... No, you don't!" + +"Let me go!" screamed Raut. "Let go my arm!" + +With one hand he clutched at the hand-rail, then with both. For a moment +the two men stood swaying. Then suddenly, with a violent jerk, Horrocks +had twisted him from his hold. He clutched at Horrocks and missed, his +foot went back into empty air; in mid-air he twisted himself, and then +cheek and shoulder and knee struck the hot cone together. + +He clutched the chain by which the cone hung, and the thing sank an +infinitesimal amount as he struck it. A circle of glowing red appeared +about him, and a tongue of flame, released from the chaos within, +flickered up towards him. An intense pain assailed him at the knees, and +he could smell the singeing of his hands. He raised himself to his feet, +and tried to climb up the chain, and then something struck his head. Black +and shining with the moonlight, the throat of the furnace rose about +him. + +Horrocks, he saw, stood above him by one of the trucks of fuel on the +rail. The gesticulating figure was bright and white in the moonlight, and +shouting, "Fizzle, you fool! Fizzle, you hunter of women! You hot-blooded +hound! Boil! boil! boil!" + +Suddenly he caught up a handful of coal out of the truck, and flung it +deliberately, lump after lump, at Raut. + +"Horrocks!" cried Raut. "Horrocks!" + +He clung, crying, to the chain, pulling himself up from the burning of the +cone. Each missile Horrocks flung hit him. His clothes charred and glowed, +and as he struggled the cone dropped, and a rush of hot, suffocating gas +whooped out and burned round him in a swift breath of flame. + +His human likeness departed from him. When the momentary red had passed, +Horrocks saw a charred, blackened figure, its head streaked with blood, +still clutching and fumbling with the chain, and writhing in agony--a +cindery animal, an inhuman, monstrous creature that began a sobbing, +intermittent shriek. + +Abruptly at the sight the ironmaster's anger passed. A deadly sickness +came upon him. The heavy odour of burning flesh came drifting up to his +nostrils. His sanity returned to him. + +"God have mercy upon me!" he cried. "O God! what have I done?" + +He knew the thing below him, save that it still moved and felt, was +already a dead man--that the blood of the poor wretch must be boiling in +his veins. An intense realisation of that agony came to his mind, and +overcame every other feeling. For a moment he stood irresolute, and then, +turning to the truck, he hastily tilted its contents upon the struggling +thing that had once been a man. The mass fell with a thud, and went +radiating over the cone. With the thud the shriek ended, and a boiling +confusion of smoke, dust, and flame came rushing up towards him. As it +passed, he saw the cone clear again. + +Then he staggered back, and stood trembling, clinging to the rail with +both hands. His lips moved, but no words came to them. + +Down below was the sound of voices and running steps. The clangour of +rolling in the shed ceased abruptly. + + + + + III. + + THE STOLEN BACILLUS. + + +"This again," said the Bacteriologist, slipping a glass slide under the +microscope, "is well,--a preparation of the Bacillus of cholera--the +cholera germ." + +The pale-faced man peered down the microscope. He was evidently not +accustomed to that kind of thing, and held a limp white hand over his +disengaged eye. "I see very little," he said. + +"Touch this screw," said the Bacteriologist; "perhaps the microscope is +out of focus for you. Eyes vary so much. Just the fraction of a turn this +way or that." + +"Ah! now I see," said the visitor. "Not so very much to see after all. +Little streaks and shreds of pink. And yet those little particles, those +mere atomies, might multiply and devastate a city! Wonderful!" + +He stood up, and releasing the glass slip from the microscope, held it in +his hand towards the window. "Scarcely visible," he said, scrutinising the +preparation. He hesitated. "Are these--alive? Are they dangerous now?" + +"Those have been stained and killed," said the Bacteriologist. "I wish, +for my own part, we could kill and stain every one of them in the +universe." + +"I suppose," the pale man said, with a slight smile, 'that you scarcely +care to have such things about you in the living--in the active state?" + +"On the contrary, we are obliged to," said the Bacteriologist. +"Here, for instance--" He walked across the room and took up one of +several sealed tubes. "Here is the living thing. This is a cultivation of +the actual living disease bacteria." He hesitated. "Bottled cholera, so to +speak." + +A slight gleam of satisfaction appeared momentarily in the face of the +pale man. "It's a deadly thing to have in your possession," he said, +devouring the little tube with his eyes. The Bacteriologist watched the +morbid pleasure in his visitor's expression. This man, who had visited him +that afternoon with a note of introduction from an old friend, interested +him from the very contrast of their dispositions. The lank black hair and +deep grey eyes, the haggard expression and nervous manner, the fitful yet +keen interest of his visitor were a novel change from the phlegmatic +deliberations of the ordinary scientific worker with whom the +Bacteriologist chiefly associated. It was perhaps natural, with a hearer +evidently so impressionable to the lethal nature of; his topic, to take +the most effective aspect of the matter. + +He held the tube in his hand thoughtfully. "Yes, here is the pestilence +imprisoned. Only break such a little tube as this into a supply of +drinking-water, say to these minute particles of life that one must needs +stain and examine with the highest powers of the microscope even to see, +and that one can neither smell nor taste--say to them, 'Go forth, increase +and multiply, and replenish the cisterns,' and death--mysterious, +untraceable death, death swift and terrible, death full of pain and +indignity--would be released upon this city, and go hither and thither +seeking his victims. Here he would take the husband from the wife, here +the child from its mother, here the statesman from his duty, and here the +toiler from his trouble. He would follow the water-mains, creeping along +streets, picking out and punishing a house here and a house there where +they did not boil their drinking-water, creeping into the wells of the +mineral water makers, getting washed into salad, and lying dormant in +ices. He would wait ready to be drunk in the horse-troughs, and by unwary +children in the public fountains. He would soak into the soil, to reappear +in springs and wells at a thousand unexpected places. Once start him at +the water supply, and before we could ring him in, and catch him again, +he would have decimated the metropolis." + +He stopped abruptly. He had been told rhetoric was his weakness. + +"But he is quite safe here, you know--quite safe." + +The pale-faced man nodded. His eyes shone. He cleared his throat. "These +Anarchist--rascals," said he, "are fools, blind fools--to use bombs when +this kind of thing is attainable. I think----" + +A gentle rap, a mere light touch of the finger-nails, was heard at the +door. The Bacteriologist opened it. "Just a minute, dear," whispered his +wife. + +When he re-entered the laboratory his visitor was looking at his watch. "I +had no idea I had wasted an hour of your time," he said. "Twelve minutes +to four. I ought to have left here by half-past three. But your things +were really too interesting. No, positively I cannot stop a moment longer. +I have an engagement at four." + +He passed out of the room reiterating his thanks, and the Bacteriologist +accompanied him to the door, and then returned thoughtfully along the +passage to his laboratory. He was musing on the ethnology of his visitor. +Certainly the man was not a Teutonic type nor a common Latin one. "A +morbid product, anyhow, I am afraid," said the Bacteriologist to himself. +"How he gloated over those cultivations of disease germs!" A disturbing +thought struck him. He turned to the bench by the vapour bath, and then +very quickly to his writing-table. Then he felt hastily in his pockets and +then rushed to the door. "I may have put it down on the hall table," he +said. + +"Minnie!" he shouted hoarsely in the hall. + +"Yes, dear," came a remote voice. + +"Had I anything in my hand when I spoke to you, dear, just now?" + +Pause. + +"Nothing, dear, because I remember----" + +"Blue ruin!" cried the Bacteriologist, and incontinently ran to the front +door and down the steps of his house to the street. + +Minnie, hearing the door slam violently, ran in alarm to the window. Down +the street a slender man was getting into a cab. The Bacteriologist, +hatless, and in his carpet slippers, was running and gesticulating wildly +towards this group. One slipper came off, but he did not wait for it. "He +has gone _mad_!" said Minnie; "it's that horrid science of his"; and, +opening the window, would have called after him. The slender man, suddenly +glancing round, seemed struck with the same idea of mental disorder. He +pointed hastily to the Bacteriologist, said something to the cabman, the +apron of the cab slammed, the whip swished, the horse's feet clattered, +and in a moment cab and Bacteriologist hotly in pursuit, had receded up +the vista of the roadway and disappeared round the corner. + +Minnie remained straining out of the window for a minute. Then she drew +her head back into the room again. She was dumbfounded. "Of course he is +eccentric," she meditated. "But running about London--in the height of the +season, too--in his socks!" A happy thought struck her. She hastily put +her bonnet on, seized his shoes, went into the hall, took down his hat and +light overcoat from the pegs, emerged upon the doorstep, and hailed a cab +that opportunely crawled by. "Drive me up the road and round Havelock +Crescent, and see if we can find a gentleman running about in a velveteen +coat and no hat." + +"Velveteen coat, ma'am, and no 'at. Very good, ma'am." And the cabman +whipped up at once in the most matter-of-fact way, as if he drove to this +address every day in his life. + +Some few minutes later the little group of cabmen and loafers that +collects round the cabman's shelter at Haverstock Hill were startled by +the passing of a cab with a ginger-coloured screw of a horse, driven +furiously. + +They were silent as it went by, and then as it receded--"That's 'Arry +'Icks. Wot's _he_ got?" said the stout gentleman known as Old +Tootles. + +"He's a-using his whip, he is, _to_ rights," said the ostler boy. + +"Hullo!" said poor old Tommy Byles; "here's another bloomin' loonatic. +Blowed if there ain't." + +"It's old George," said Old Tootles, "and he's drivin' a loonatic, +_as_ you say. Ain't he a-clawin' out of the keb? Wonder if he's after +'Arry 'Icks?" + +The group round the cabman's shelter became animated. Chorus: "Go it, +George!" "It's a race." "You'll ketch 'em!" "Whip up!" + +"She's a goer, she is!" said the ostler boy. + +"Strike me giddy!" cried Old Tootles. "Here! _I'm_ a-goin' to begin +in a minute. Here's another comin'. If all the cabs in Hampstead ain't +gone mad this morning!" + +"It's a fieldmale this time," said the ostler boy. + +"She's a-followin' _him_," said Old Tootles. "Usually the other way +about." + +"What's she got in her 'and?" + +"Looks like a 'igh 'at." + +"What a bloomin' lark it is! Three to one on old George," said the ostler +boy. "Nexst!" + +Minnie went by in a perfect roar of applause. She did not like it, but she +felt that she was doing her duty, and whirled on down Haverstock Hill and +Camden Town High Street with her eyes ever intent on the animated back +view of old George, who was driving her vagrant husband so +incomprehensibly away from her. + +The man in the foremost cab sat crouched in the corner, his arms tightly +folded, and the little tube that contained such vast possibilities of +destruction gripped in his hand. His mood was a singular mixture of fear +and exultation. Chiefly he was afraid of being caught before he could +accomplish his purpose, but behind this was a vaguer but larger fear of +the awfulness of his crime. But his exultation far exceeded his fear. No +Anarchist before him had ever approached this conception of his. Ravachol, +Vaillant, all those distinguished persons whose fame he had envied +dwindled into insignificance beside him. He had only to make sure of the +water supply, and break the little tube into a reservoir. How brilliantly +he had planned it, forged the letter of introduction and got into the +laboratory, and how brilliantly he had seized his opportunity! The world +should hear of him at last. All those people who had sneered at him, +neglected him, preferred other people to him, found his company +undesirable, should consider him at last. Death, death, death! They had +always treated him as a man of no importance. All the world had been in a +conspiracy to keep him under. He would teach them yet what it is to +isolate a man. What was this familiar street? Great Saint Andrew's Street, +of course! How fared the chase? He craned out of the cab. The +Bacteriologist was scarcely fifty yards behind. That was bad. He would be +caught and stopped yet. He felt in his pocket for money, and found half a +sovereign. This he thrust up through the trap in the top of the cab into +the man's face. "More," he shouted, "if only we get away." + +The money was snatched out of his hand. "Right you are," said the cabman, +and the trap slammed, and the lash lay along the glistening side of the +horse. The cab swayed, and the Anarchist, half-standing under the trap, +put the hand containing the little glass tube upon the apron to preserve +his balance. He felt the brittle thing crack, and the broken half of it +rang upon the floor of the cab. He fell back into the seat with a curse, +and stared dismally at the two or three drops of moisture on the apron. + +He shuddered. + +"Well, I suppose I shall be the first. _Phew!_ Anyhow, I shall be a +Martyr. That's something. But it is a filthy death, nevertheless. I wonder +if it hurts as much as they say." + +Presently a thought occurred to him--he groped between his feet. A little +drop was still in the broken end of the tube, and he drank that to make +sure. It was better to make sure. At any rate, he would not fail. + +Then it dawned upon him that there was no further need to escape the +Bacteriologist. In Wellington Street he told the cabman to stop, and got +out. He slipped on the step, and his head felt queer. It was rapid stuff, +this cholera poison. He waved his cabman out of existence, so to speak, +and stood on the pavement with his arms folded upon his breast awaiting +the arrival of the Bacteriologist. There was something tragic in his pose. +The sense of imminent death gave him a certain dignity. He greeted his +pursuer with a defiant laugh. + +"Vive l'Anarchie! You are too late, my friend, I have drunk it. The +cholera is abroad!" + +The Bacteriologist from his cab beamed curiously at him through his +spectacles. "You have drunk it! An Anarchist! I see now." He was about to +say something more, and then checked himself. A smile hung in the corner +of his mouth. He opened the apron of his cab as if to descend, at which +the Anarchist waved him a dramatic farewell and strode off towards +Waterloo Bridge, carefully jostling his infected body against as many +people as possible. The Bacteriologist was so preoccupied with the vision +of him that he scarcely manifested the slightest surprise at the +appearance of Minnie upon the pavement with his hat and shoes and +overcoat. "Very good of you to bring my things," he said, and remained +lost in contemplation of the receding figure of the Anarchist. + +"You had better get in," he said, still staring. Minnie felt absolutely +convinced now that he was mad, and directed the cabman home on her own +responsibility. "Put on my shoes? Certainly, dear," said he, as the cab +began to turn, and hid the strutting black figure, now small in the +distance, from his eyes. Then suddenly something grotesque struck him, and +he laughed. Then he remarked, "It is really very serious, though. + +"You see, that man came to my house to see me, and he is an Anarchist. +No--don't faint, or I cannot possibly tell you the rest. And I wanted to +astonish him, not knowing he was an Anarchist, and took up a cultivation +of that new species of Bacterium I was telling you of that infest, and I +think cause, the blue patches upon various monkeys; and, like a fool, I +said it was Asiatic cholera. And he ran away with it to poison the water +of London, and he certainly might have made things look blue for this +civilised city. And now he has swallowed it. Of course, I cannot say what +will happen, but you know it turned that kitten blue, and the three +puppies--in patches, and the sparrow--bright blue. But the bother is, I +shall have all the trouble and expense of preparing some more. + +"Put on my coat on this hot day! Why? Because we might meet Mrs. Jabber. +My dear, Mrs. Jabber is not a draught. But why should I wear a coat on a +hot day because of Mrs.-----. Oh! _very_ well." + + + + + IV. + + THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID. + + +The buying of orchids always has in it a certain speculative flavour. You +have before you the brown shrivelled lump of tissue, and for the rest you +must trust your judgment, or the auctioneer, or your good luck, as your +taste may incline. The plant may be moribund or dead, or it may be just a +respectable purchase, fair value for your money, or perhaps--for the thing +has happened again and again--there slowly unfolds before the delighted +eyes of the happy purchaser, day after day, some new variety, some novel +richness, a strange twist of the labellum, or some subtler colouration or +unexpected mimicry. Pride, beauty, and profit blossom together on one +delicate green spike, and, it may be, even immortality. For the new +miracle of nature may stand in need of a new specific name, and what so +convenient as that of its discoverer? "John-smithia"! There have been +worse names. + +It was perhaps the hope of some such happy discovery that made Winter +Wedderburn such a frequent attendant at these sales--that hope, and also, +maybe, the fact that he had nothing else of the slightest interest to do +in the world. He was a shy, lonely, rather ineffectual man, provided with +just enough income to keep off the spur of necessity, and not enough +nervous energy to make him seek any exacting employments. He might have +collected stamps or coins, or translated Horace, or bound books, or +invented new species of diatoms. But, as it happened, he grew orchids, and +had one ambitious little hothouse. + +"I have a fancy," he said over his coffee, "that something is going to +happen to me to-day." He spoke--as he moved and thought--slowly. + +"Oh, don't say _that_!" said his housekeeper--who was also his remote +cousin. For "something happening" was a euphemism that meant only one +thing to her. + +"You misunderstand me. I mean nothing unpleasant...though what I do mean I +scarcely know. + +"To-day," he continued, after a pause, "Peters' are going to sell a batch +of plants from the Andamans and the Indies. I shall go up and see what +they have. It may be I shall buy something good unawares. That may be it." + +He passed his cup for his second cupful of coffee. + +"Are these the things collected by that poor young fellow you told me of +the other day?" asked his cousin, as she filled his cup. + +"Yes," he said, and became meditative over a piece of toast. + +"Nothing ever does happen to me," he remarked presently, beginning to +think aloud. "I wonder why? Things enough happen to other people. There is +Harvey. Only the other week; on Monday he picked up sixpence, on Wednesday +his chicks all had the staggers, on Friday his cousin came home from +Australia, and on Saturday he broke his ankle. What a whirl of +excitement!--compared to me." + +"I think I would rather be without so much excitement," said his +housekeeper. "It can't be good for you." + +"I suppose it's troublesome. Still ... you see, nothing ever happens to +me. When I was a little boy I never had accidents. I never fell in love as +I grew up. Never married... I wonder how it feels to have something +happen to you, something really remarkable. + +"That orchid-collector was only thirty-six--twenty years younger than +myself--when he died. And he had been married twice and divorced once; he +had had malarial fever four times, and once he broke his thigh. He killed +a Malay once, and once he was wounded by a poisoned dart. And in the end +he was killed by jungle-leeches. It must have all been very troublesome, +but then it must have been very interesting, you know--except, perhaps, +the leeches." + +"I am sure it was not good for him," said the lady with conviction. + +"Perhaps not." And then Wedderburn looked at his watch. "Twenty-three +minutes past eight. I am going up by the quarter to twelve train, so that +there is plenty of time. I think I shall wear my alpaca jacket--it is +quite warm enough--and my grey felt hat and brown shoes. I suppose--" + +He glanced out of the window at the serene sky and sunlit garden, and then +nervously at his cousin's face. + +"I think you had better take an umbrella if you are going to London," she +said in a voice that admitted of no denial. "There's all between here and +the station coming back." + +When he returned he was in a state of mild excitement. He had made a +purchase. It was rare that he could make up his mind quickly enough to +buy, but this time he had done so. + +"There are Vandas," he said, "and a Dendrobe and some Palaeonophis." He +surveyed his purchases lovingly as he consumed his soup. They were laid +out on the spotless tablecloth before him, and he was telling his cousin +all about them as he slowly meandered through his dinner. It was his +custom to live all his visits to London over again in the evening for her +and his own entertainment. + +"I knew something would happen to-day. And I have bought all these. Some +of them--some of them--I feel sure, do you know, that some of them will be +remarkable. I don't know how it is, but I feel just as sure as if some one +had told me that some of these will turn out remarkable. + +"That one "--he pointed to a shrivelled rhizome--"was not identified. It +may be a Palaeonophis--or it may not. It may be a new species, or even a +new genus. And it was the last that poor Batten ever collected." + +"I don't like the look of it," said his housekeeper. "It's such an ugly +shape." + +"To me it scarcely seems to have a shape." + +"I don't like those things that stick out," said his housekeeper. + +"It shall be put away in a pot to-morrow." + +"It looks," said the housekeeper, "like a spider shamming dead." + +Wedderburn smiled and surveyed the root with his head on one side. "It is +certainly not a pretty lump of stuff. But you can never judge of these +things from their dry appearance. It may turn out to be a very beautiful +orchid indeed. How busy I shall be to-morrow! I must see to-night just +exactly what to do with these things, and to-morrow I shall set to work." + +"They found poor Batten lying dead, or dying, in a mangrove swamp--I +forget which," he began again presently, "with one of these very orchids +crushed up under his body. He had been unwell for some days with some kind +of native fever, and I suppose he fainted. These mangrove swamps are very +unwholesome. Every drop of blood, they say, was taken out of him by the +jungle-leeches. It may be that very plant that cost him his life to +obtain." + +"I think none the better of it for that." + +"Men must work though women may weep," said Wedderburn with profound +gravity. + +"Fancy dying away from every comfort in a nasty swamp! Fancy being ill of +fever with nothing to take but chlorodyne and quinine--if men were left to +themselves they would live on chlorodyne and quinine--and no one round you +but horrible natives! They say the Andaman islanders are most disgusting +wretches--and, anyhow, they can scarcely make good nurses, not having the +necessary training. And just for people in England to have orchids!" + +"I don't suppose it was comfortable, but some men seem to enjoy that kind +of thing," said Wedderburn. "Anyhow, the natives of his party were +sufficiently civilised to take care of all his collection until his +colleague, who was an ornithologist, came back again from the interior; +though they could not tell the species of the orchid, and had let it +wither. And it makes these things more interesting." + +"It makes them disgusting. I should be afraid of some of the malaria +clinging to them. And just think, there has been a dead body lying across +that ugly thing! I never thought of that before. There! I declare I cannot +eat another mouthful of dinner." + +"I will take them off the table if you like, and put them in the +window-seat. I can see them just as well there." + +The next few days he was indeed singularly busy in his steamy little +hothouse, fussing about with charcoal, lumps of teak, moss, and all the +other mysteries of the orchid cultivator. He considered he was having a +wonderfully eventful time. In the evening he would talk about these new +orchids to his friends, and over and over again he reverted to his +expectation of something strange. + +Several of the Vandas and the Dendrobium died under his care, but +presently the strange orchid began to show signs of life. He was +delighted, and took his housekeeper right away from jam-making to see it +at once, directly he made the discovery. + +"That is a bud," he said, "and presently there will be a lot of leaves +there, and those little things coming out here are aerial rootlets." + +"They look to me like little white fingers poking out of the brown," said +his housekeeper. "I don't like them." + +"Why not?" + +"I don't know. They look like fingers trying to get at you. I can't help +my likes and dislikes." + +"I don't know for certain, but I don't _think_ there are any orchids +I know that have aerial rootlets quite like that. It may be my fancy, of +course. You see they are a little flattened at the ends." + +"I don't like 'em," said his housekeeper, suddenly shivering and turning +away. "I know it's very silly of me--and I'm very sorry, particularly as +you like the thing so much. But I can't help thinking of that corpse." + +"But it may not be that particular plant. That was merely a guess of +mine." + +His housekeeper shrugged her shoulders. "Anyhow I don't like it," she +said. + +Wedderburn felt a little hurt at her dislike to the plant. But that did +not prevent his talking to her about orchids generally, and this orchid in +particular, whenever he felt inclined. + +"There are such queer things about orchids," he said one day; "such +possibilities of surprises. You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, +and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was +contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant. +Well, it seems that there are lots of orchids known the flower of which +cannot possibly be used for fertilisation in that way. Some of the +Cypripediums, for instance; there are no insects known that can possibly +fertilise them, and some of them have never been found with seed." + +"But how do they form new plants?" + +"By runners and tubers, and that kind of outgrowth. That is easily +explained. The puzzle is, what are the flowers for? + +"Very likely," he added, "_my_ orchid may be something extraordinary +in that way. If so I shall study it. I have often thought of making +researches as Darwin did. But hitherto I have not found the time, or +something else has happened to prevent it. The leaves are beginning to +unfold now. I do wish you would come and see them!" + +But she said that the orchid-house was so hot it gave her the headache. +She had seen the plant once again, and the aerial rootlets, which were now +some of them more than a foot long, had unfortunately reminded her of +tentacles reaching out after something; and they got into her dreams, +growing after her with incredible rapidity. So that she had settled to her +entire satisfaction that she would not see that plant again, and +Wedderburn had to admire its leaves alone. They were of the ordinary broad +form, and a deep glossy green, with splashes and dots of deep red towards +the base He knew of no other leaves quite like them. The plant was placed +on a low bench near the thermometer, and close by was a simple arrangement +by which a tap dripped on the hot-water pipes and kept the air steamy. And +he spent his afternoons now with some regularity meditating on the +approaching flowering of this strange plant. + +And at last the great thing happened. Directly he entered the little glass +house he knew that the spike had burst out, although his great +_Paloeonophis Lowii_ hid the corner where his new darling stood. +There was a new odour in the air, a rich, intensely sweet scent, that +overpowered every other in that crowded, steaming little greenhouse. + +Directly he noticed this he hurried down to the strange orchid. And, +behold! the trailing green spikes bore now three great splashes of +blossom, from which this overpowering sweetness proceeded. He stopped +before them in an ecstasy of admiration. + +The flowers were white, with streaks of golden orange upon the petals; the +heavy labellum was coiled into an intricate projection, and a wonderful +bluish purple mingled there with the gold. He could see at once that the +genus was altogether a new one. And the insufferable scent! How hot the +place was! The blossoms swam before his eyes. + +He would see if the temperature was right. He made a step towards the +thermometer. Suddenly everything appeared unsteady. The bricks on the +floor were dancing up and down. Then the white blossoms, the green leaves +behind them, the whole greenhouse, seemed to sweep sideways, and then in a +curve upward. + + * * * * * + +At half-past four his cousin made the tea, according to their invariable +custom. But Wedderburn did not come in for his tea. + +"He is worshipping that horrid orchid," she told herself, and waited ten +minutes. "His watch must have stopped. I will go and call him." + +She went straight to the hothouse, and, opening the door, called his name. +There was no reply. She noticed that the air was very close, and loaded +with an intense perfume. Then she saw something lying on the bricks +between the hot-water pipes. + +For a minute, perhaps, she stood motionless. + +He was lying, face upward, at the foot of the strange orchid. The +tentacle-like aerial rootlets no longer swayed freely in the air, but were +crowded together, a tangle of grey ropes, and stretched tight, with their +ends closely applied to his chin and neck and hands. + +She did not understand. Then she saw from under one of the exultant +tentacles upon his cheek there trickled a little thread of blood. + +With an inarticulate cry she ran towards him, and tried to pull him away +from the leech-like suckers. She snapped two of these tentacles, and their +sap dripped red. + +Then the overpowering scent of the blossom began to make her head reel. +How they clung to him! She tore at the tough ropes, and he and the white +inflorescence swam about her. She felt she was fainting, knew she must +not. She left him and hastily opened the nearest door, and, after she had +panted for a moment in the fresh air, she had a brilliant inspiration. She +caught up a flower-pot and smashed in the windows at the end of the +greenhouse. Then she re-entered. She tugged now with renewed strength at +Wedderburn's motionless body, and brought the strange orchid crashing to +the floor. It still clung with the grimmest tenacity to its victim. In a +frenzy, she lugged it and him into the open air. + +Then she thought of tearing through the sucker rootlets one by one, and in +another minute she had released him and was dragging him away from the +horror. + +He was white and bleeding from a dozen circular patches. + +The odd-job man was coming up the garden, amazed at the smashing of glass, +and saw her emerge, hauling the inanimate body with red-stained hands. For +a moment he thought impossible things. + +"Bring some water!" she cried, and her voice dispelled his fancies. When, +with unnatural alacrity, he returned with the water, he found her weeping +with excitement, and with Wedderburn's head upon her knee, wiping the +blood from his face. + +"What's the matter?" said Wedderburn, opening his eyes feebly, and closing +them again at once. + +"Go and tell Annie to come out here to me, and then go for Dr. Haddon at +once," she said to the odd-job man so soon as he brought the water; and +added, seeing he hesitated, "I will tell you all about it when you come +back." + +Presently Wedderburn opened his eyes again, and, seeing that he was +troubled by the puzzle of his position, she explained to him, "You fainted +in the hothouse." + +"And the orchid?" + +"I will see to that," she said. + +Wedderburn had lost a good deal of blood, but beyond that he had suffered +no very great injury. They gave him brandy mixed with some pink extract of +meat, and carried him upstairs to bed. His housekeeper told her incredible +story in fragments to Dr. Haddon. "Come to the orchid-house and see," she +said. + +The cold outer air was blowing in through the open door, and the sickly +perfume was almost dispelled. Most of the torn aerial rootlets lay already +withered amidst a number of dark stains upon the bricks. The stem of the +inflorescence was broken by the fall of the plant, and the flowers were +growing limp and brown at the edges of the petals. The doctor stooped +towards it, then saw that one of the aerial rootlets still stirred feebly, +and hesitated. + +The next morning the strange orchid still lay there, black now and +putrescent. The door banged intermittently in the morning breeze, and all +the array of Wedderburn's orchids was shrivelled and prostrate. But +Wedderburn himself was bright and garrulous upstairs in the glory of his +strange adventure. + + + + + V. + + IN THE AVU OBSERVATORY. + + +The observatory at Avu, in Borneo, stands on the spur of the mountain. To +the north rises the old crater, black at night against the unfathomable +blue of the sky. From the little circular building, with its mushroom +dome, the slopes plunge steeply downward into the black mysteries of the +tropical forest beneath. The little house in which the observer and his +assistant live is about fifty yards from the observatory, and beyond this +are the huts of their native attendants. + +Thaddy, the chief observer, was down with a slight fever. His assistant, +Woodhouse, paused for a moment in silent contemplation of the tropical +night before commencing his solitary vigil. The night was very still. Now +and then voices and laughter came from the native huts, or the cry of some +strange animal was heard from the midst of the mystery of the forest. +Nocturnal insects appeared in ghostly fashion out of the darkness, and +fluttered round his light. He thought, perhaps, of all the possibilities +of discovery that still lay in the black tangle beneath him; for to the +naturalist the virgin forests of Borneo are still a wonderland full of +strange questions and half-suspected discoveries. Woodhouse carried a +small lantern in his hand, and its yellow glow contrasted vividly with the +infinite series of tints between lavender-blue and black in which the +landscape was painted. His hands and face were smeared with ointment +against the attacks of the mosquitoes. + +Even in these days of celestial photography, work done in a purely +temporary erection, and with only the most primitive appliances in +addition to the telescope, still involves a very large amount of cramped +and motionless watching. He sighed as he thought of the physical fatigues +before him, stretched himself, and entered the observatory. + +The reader is probably familiar with the structure of an ordinary +astronomical observatory. The building is usually cylindrical in shape, +with a very light hemispherical roof capable of being turned round from +the interior. The telescope is supported upon a stone pillar in the +centre, and a clockwork arrangement compensates for the earth's rotation, +and allows a star once found to be continuously observed. Besides this, +there is a compact tracery of wheels and screws about its point of +support, by which the astronomer adjusts it. There is, of course, a slit +in the movable roof which follows the eye of the telescope in its survey +of the heavens. The observer sits or lies on a sloping wooden arrangement, +which he can wheel to any part of the observatory as the position of the +telescope may require. Within it is advisable to have things as dark as +possible, in order to enhance the brilliance of the stars observed. + +The lantern flared as Woodhouse entered his circular den, and the general +darkness fled into black shadows behind the big machine, from which it +presently seemed to creep back over the whole place again as the light +waned. The slit was a profound transparent blue, in which six stars shone +with tropical brilliance, and their light lay, a pallid gleam, along the +black tube of the instrument. Woodhouse shifted the roof, and then +proceeding to the telescope, turned first one wheel and then another, the +great cylinder slowly swinging into a new position. Then he glanced +through the finder, the little companion telescope, moved the roof a +little more, made some further adjustments, and set the clockwork in +motion. He took off his jacket, for the night was very hot, and pushed +into position the uncomfortable seat to which he was condemned for the +next four hours. Then with a sigh he resigned himself to his watch upon +the mysteries of space. + +There was no sound now in the observatory, and the lantern waned steadily. +Outside there was the occasional cry of some animal in alarm or pain, or +calling to its mate, and the intermittent sounds of the Malay and Dyak +servants. Presently one of the men began a queer chanting song, in which +the others joined at intervals. After this it would seem that they turned +in for the night, for no further sound came from their direction, and the +whispering stillness became more and more profound. + +The clockwork ticked steadily. The shrill hum of a mosquito explored the +place and grew shriller in indignation at Woodhouse's ointment. Then the +lantern went out and all the observatory was black. + +Woodhouse shifted his position presently, when the slow movement of the +telescope had carried it beyond the limits of his comfort. + +He was watching a little group of stars in the Milky Way, in one of which +his chief had seen or fancied a remarkable colour variability. It was not +a part of the regular work for which the establishment existed, and for +that reason perhaps Woodhouse was deeply interested. He must have +forgotten things terrestrial. All his attention was concentrated upon the +great blue circle of the telescope field--a circle powdered, so it seemed, +with an innumerable multitude of stars, and all luminous against the +blackness of its setting. As he watched he seemed to himself to become +incorporeal, as if he too were floating in the ether of space. Infinitely +remote was the faint red spot he was observing. + +Suddenly the stars were blotted out. A flash of blackness passed, and they +were visible again. + +"Queer," said Woodhouse. "Must have been a bird." + +The thing happened again, and immediately after the great tube shivered as +though it had been struck. Then the dome of the observatory resounded with +a series of thundering blows. The stars seemed to sweep aside as the +telescope--which had been unclamped--swung round and away from the slit in +the roof. + +"Great Scott!" cried Woodhouse. "What's this?" + +Some huge vague black shape, with a flapping something like a wing, seemed +to be struggling in the aperture of the roof. In another moment the slit +was clear again, and the luminous haze of the Milky Way shone warm and +bright. + +The interior of the roof was perfectly black, and only a scraping sound +marked the whereabouts of the unknown creature. + +Woodhouse had scrambled from the seat to his feet. He was trembling +violently and in a perspiration with the suddenness of the occurrence. Was +the thing, whatever it was, inside or out? It was big, whatever else it +might be. Something shot across the skylight, and the telescope swayed. He +started violently and put his arm up. It was in the observatory, then, +with him. It was clinging to the roof apparently. What the devil was it? +Could it see him? + +He stood for perhaps a minute in a state of stupefaction. The beast, +whatever it was, clawed at the interior of the dome, and then something +flapped almost into his face, and he saw the momentary gleam of starlight +on a skin like oiled leather. His water-bottle was knocked off his little +table with a smash. + +The sense of some strange bird-creature hovering a few yards from his face +in the darkness was indescribably unpleasant to Woodhouse. As his thought +returned he concluded that it must be some night-bird or large bat. At any +risk he would see what it was, and pulling a match from his pocket, he +tried to strike it on the telescope seat. There was a smoking streak of +phosphorescent light, the match flared for a moment, and he saw a vast +wing sweeping towards him, a gleam of grey-brown fur, and then he was +struck in the face and the match knocked out of his hand. The blow was +aimed at his temple, and a claw tore sideways down to his cheek. He reeled +and fell, and he heard the extinguished lantern smash. Another blow +followed as he fell. He was partly stunned, he felt his own warm blood +stream out upon his face. Instinctively he felt his eyes had been struck +at, and, turning over on his face to save them, tried to crawl under the +protection of the telescope. + +He was struck again upon the back, and he heard his jacket rip, and then +the thing hit the roof of the observatory. He edged as far as he could +between the wooden seat and the eyepiece of the instrument, and turned his +body round so that it was chiefly his feet that were exposed. With these +he could at least kick. He was still in a mystified state. The strange +beast banged about in the darkness, and presently clung to the telescope, +making it sway and the gear rattle. Once it flapped near him, and he +kicked out madly and felt a soft body with his feet. He was horribly +scared now. It must be a big thing to swing the telescope like that. He +saw for a moment the outline of a head black against the starlight, with +sharply-pointed upstanding ears and a crest between them. It seemed to him +to be as big as a mastiff's. Then he began to bawl out as loudly as he +could for help. + +At that the thing came down upon him again. As it did so his hand touched +something beside him on the floor. He kicked out, and the next moment his +ankle was gripped and held by a row of keen teeth. He yelled again, and +tried to free his leg by kicking with the other. Then he realised he had +the broken water-bottle at his hand, and, snatching it, he struggled into +a sitting posture, and feeling in the darkness towards his foot, gripped a +velvety ear, like the ear of a big cat. He had seized the water-bottle by +its neck and brought it down with a shivering crash upon the head of the +strange beast. He repeated the blow, and then stabbed and jabbed with the +jagged end of it, in the darkness, where he judged the face might be. + +The small teeth relaxed their hold, and at once Woodhouse pulled his leg +free and kicked hard. He felt the sickening feel of fur and bone giving +under his boot. There was a tearing bite at his arm, and he struck over it +at the face, as he judged, and hit damp fur. + +There was a pause; then he heard the sound of claws; and the dragging of a +heavy body away from him over the observatory floor. Then there was +silence, broken only by his own sobbing breathing, and a sound like +licking. Everything was black except the parallelogram of the blue +skylight with the luminous dust of stars, against which the end of the +telescope now appeared in silhouette. He waited, as it seemed, an +interminable time. + +Was the thing coming on again? He felt in his trouser-pocket for some +matches, and found one remaining. He tried to strike this, but the floor +was wet, and it spat and went out. He cursed. He could not see where the +door was situated. In his struggle he had quite lost his bearings. The +strange beast, disturbed by the splutter of the match, began to move +again. "Time!" called Woodhouse, with a sudden gleam of mirth, but the +thing was not coming at him again. He must have hurt it, he thought, with +the broken bottle. He felt a dull pain in his ankle. Probably he was +bleeding there. He wondered if it would support him if he tried to stand +up. The night outside was very still. There was no sound of any one +moving. The sleepy fools had not heard those wings battering upon the +dome, nor his shouts. It was no good wasting strength in shouting. The +monster flapped its wings and startled him into a defensive attitude. He +hit his elbow against the seat, and it fell over with a crash. He cursed +this, and then he cursed the darkness. + +Suddenly the oblong patch of starlight seemed to sway to and fro. Was he +going to faint? It would never do to faint. He clenched his fists and set +his teeth to hold himself together. Where had the door got to? It occurred +to him he could get his bearings by the stars visible through the +skylight. The patch of stars he saw was in Sagittarius and south-eastward; +the door was north--or was it north by west? He tried to think. If he +could get the door open he might retreat. It might be the thing was +wounded. The suspense was beastly. "Look here!" he said, "if you don't +come on, I shall come at you." + +Then the thing began clambering up the side of the observatory, and he saw +its black outline gradually blot out the skylight. Was it in retreat? He +forgot about the door, and watched as the dome shifted and creaked. +Somehow he did not feel very frightened or excited now. He felt a curious +sinking sensation inside him. The sharply-defined patch of light, with the +black form moving across it, seemed to be growing smaller and smaller. +That was curious. He began to feel very thirsty, and yet he did not feel +inclined to get anything to drink. He seemed to be sliding down a long +funnel. + +He felt a burning sensation in his throat, and then he perceived it was +broad daylight, and that one of the Dyak servants was looking at him with +a curious expression. Then there was the top of Thaddy's face upside down. +Funny fellow, Thaddy, to go about like that! Then he grasped the situation +better, and perceived that his head was on Thaddy's knee, and Thaddy was +giving him brandy. And then he saw the eyepiece of the telescope with a +lot of red smears on it. He began to remember. + +"You've made this observatory in a pretty mess," said Thaddy. + +The Dyak boy was beating up an egg in brandy. Woodhouse took this and sat +up. He felt a sharp twinge of pain. His ankle was tied up, so were his +arm and the side of his face. The smashed glass, red-stained, lay about +the floor, the telescope seat was overturned, and by the opposite wall was +a dark pool. The door was open, and he saw the grey summit of the mountain +against a brilliant background of blue sky. + +"Pah!" said Woodhouse. "Who's been killing calves here? Take me out of +it." + +Then he remembered the Thing, and the fight he had had with it. + +"What _was_ it?" he said to Thaddy--"the Thing I fought with?". + +"_You_ know that best," said Thaddy. "But, anyhow, don't worry +yourself now about it. Have some more to drink." + +Thaddy, however, was curious enough, and it was a hard struggle between +duty and inclination to keep Woodhouse quiet until he was decently put +away in bed, and had slept upon the copious dose of meat extract Thaddy +considered advisable. They then talked it over together. + +"It was," said Woodhouse, "more like a big bat than anything else in the +world. It had sharp, short ears, and soft fur, and its wings were +leathery. Its teeth were little but devilish sharp, and its jaw could not +have been very strong or else it would have bitten through my ankle." + +"It has pretty nearly," said Thaddy. + +"It seemed to me to hit out with its claws pretty freely. That is about as +much as I know about the beast. Our conversation was intimate, so to +speak, and yet not confidential." + +"The Dyak chaps talk about a Big Colugo, a Klang-utang--whatever that may +be. It does not often attack man, but I suppose you made it nervous. They +say there is a Big Colugo and a Little Colugo, and a something else that +sounds like gobble. They all fly about at night. For my own part, I know +there are flying foxes and flying lemurs about here, but they are none of +them very big beasts." + +"There are more things in heaven and earth," said Woodhouse--and Thaddy +groaned at the quotation--"and more particularly in the forests of Borneo, +than are dreamt of in our philosophies. On the whole, if the Borneo fauna +is going to disgorge any more of its novelties upon me, I should prefer +that it did so when I was not occupied in the observatory at night and +alone." + + + + + VI. + + AEPYORNIS ISLAND. + + +The man with the scarred face leant over the table and looked at my +bundle. + +"Orchids?" he asked. + +"A few," I said. + +"Cypripediums," he said. + +"Chiefly," said I. + +"Anything new? I thought not. _I_ did these islands twenty-five-- +twenty-seven years ago. If you find anything new here--well, it's brand +new. I didn't leave much." + +"I'm not a collector," said I. + +"I was young then," he went on. "Lord! how I used to fly round." He seemed +to take my measure. "I was in the East Indies two years, and in Brazil +seven. Then I went to Madagascar." + +"I know a few explorers by name," I said, anticipating a yarn. "Whom did +you collect for?" + +"Dawson's. I wonder if you've heard the name of Butcher ever?" + +"Butcher--Butcher?" The name seemed vaguely present in my memory; +then I recalled _Butcher_ v. _Dawson_. "Why!" said I, "you are the +man who sued them for four years' salary--got cast away on a desert +island..." + +"Your servant," said the man with the scar, bowing. "Funny case, wasn't +it? Here was me, making a little fortune on that island, doing nothing +for it neither, and them quite unable to give me notice. It often used +to amuse me thinking over it while I was there. I did calculations of +it--big--all over the blessed atoll in ornamental figuring." + +"How did it happen?" said I. "I don't rightly remember the case." + +"Well... You've heard of the AEpyornis?" + +"Rather. Andrews was telling me of a new species he was working on only a +month or so ago. Just before I sailed. They've got a thigh bone, it seems, +nearly a yard long. Monster the thing must have been!" + +"I believe you," said the man with the scar. "It _was_ a monster. +Sindbad's roc was just a legend of 'em. But when did they find these +bones?" + +"Three or four years ago--'91, I fancy. Why?" + +"Why? Because _I_ found them--Lord!--it's nearly twenty years ago. If +Dawson's hadn't been silly about that salary they might have made a +perfect ring in 'em... _I_ couldn't help the infernal boat going +adrift." + +He paused. "I suppose it's the same place. A kind of swamp about ninety +miles north of Antananarivo. Do you happen to know? You have to go to it +along the coast by boats. You don't happen to remember, perhaps?" + +"I don't. I fancy Andrews said something about a swamp." + +"It must be the same. It's on the east coast. And somehow there's +something in the water that keeps things from decaying. Like creosote it +smells. It reminded me of Trinidad. Did they get any more eggs? Some of +the eggs I found were a foot-and-a-half long. The swamp goes circling +round, you know, and cuts off this bit. It's mostly salt, too. Well... +What a time I had of it! I found the things quite by accident. We went for +eggs, me and two native chaps, in one of those rum canoes all tied +together, and found the bones at the same time. We had a tent and +provisions for four days, and we pitched on one of the firmer places. To +think of it brings that odd tarry smell back even now. It's funny work. +You go probing into the mud with iron rods, you know. Usually the egg gets +smashed. I wonder how long it is since these AEpyornises really lived. The +missionaries say the natives have legends about when they were alive, but +I never heard any such stories myself.[*] But certainly those eggs we got +were as fresh as if they had been new laid. Fresh! Carrying them down to +the boat one of my nigger chaps dropped one on a rock and it smashed. How +I lammed into the beggar! But sweet it was, as if it was new laid, not +even smelly, and its mother dead these four hundred years, perhaps. Said a +centipede had bit him. However, I'm getting off the straight with the +story. It had taken us all day to dig into the slush and get these eggs +out unbroken, and we were all covered with beastly black mud, and +naturally I was cross. So far as I knew they were the only eggs that have +ever been got out not even cracked. I went afterwards to see the ones they +have at the Natural History Museum in London; all of them were cracked and +just stuck together like a mosaic, and bits missing. Mine were perfect, +and I meant to blow them when I got back. Naturally I was annoyed at the +silly duffer dropping three hours' work just on account of a centipede. I +hit him about rather." + +[Footnote *: No European is known to have seen a live AEpyornis, with the +doubtful exception of MacAndrew, who visited Madagascar in 1745.--H.G.W.] + +The man with the scar took out a clay pipe. I placed my pouch before him. +He filled up absent-mindedly. + +"How about the others? Did you get those home? I don't remember--" + +"That's the queer part of the story. I had three others. Perfectly fresh +eggs. Well, we put 'em in the boat, and then I went up to the tent to make +some coffee, leaving my two heathens down by the beach--the one fooling +about with his sting and the other helping him. It never occurred to me +that the beggars would take advantage of the peculiar position I was in to +pick a quarrel. But I suppose the centipede poison and the kicking I had +given him had upset the one--he was always a cantankerous sort--and he +persuaded the other. + +"I remember I was sitting and smoking and boiling up the water over a +spirit-lamp business I used to take on these expeditions. Incidentally I +was admiring the swamp under the sunset. All black and blood-red it was, +in streaks--a beautiful sight. And up beyond the land rose grey and hazy +to the hills, and the sky behind them red, like a furnace mouth. And fifty +yards behind the back of me was these blessed heathen--quite regardless of +the tranquil air of things--plotting to cut off with the boat and leave me +all alone with three days' provisions and a canvas tent, and nothing to +drink whatsoever beyond a little keg of water. I heard a kind of yelp +behind me, and there they were in this canoe affair--it wasn't properly a +boat--and, perhaps, twenty yards from land. I realised what was up in a +moment. My gun was in the tent, and, besides, I had no bullets--only duck +shot. They knew that. But I had a little revolver in my pocket, and I +pulled that out as I ran down to the beach. + +"'Come back!' says I, flourishing it. + +"They jabbered something at me, and the man that broke the egg jeered. I +aimed at the other--because he was unwounded and had the paddle, and I +missed. They laughed. However, I wasn't beat. I knew I had to keep cool, +and I tried him again and made him jump with the whang of it. He didn't +laugh that time. The third time I got his head, and over he went, and the +paddle with him. It was a precious lucky shot for a revolver. I reckon it +was fifty yards. He went right under. I don't know if he was shot, or +simply stunned and drowned. Then I began to shout to the other chap to +come back, but he huddled up in the canoe and refused to answer. So I +fired out my revolver at him and never got near him. + +"I felt a precious fool, I can tell you. There I was on this rotten, black +beach, flat swamp all behind me, and the flat sea, cold after the sun set, +and just this black canoe drifting steadily out to sea. I tell you I +damned Dawson's and Jamrach's and Museums and all the rest of it just to +rights. I bawled to this nigger to come back, until my voice went up into +a scream. + +"There was nothing for it but to swim after him and take my luck with the +sharks. So I opened my clasp-knife and put it in my mouth, and took off +my clothes and waded in. As soon as I was in the water I lost sight of +the canoe, but I aimed, as I judged, to head it off. I hoped the man in it +was too bad to navigate it, and that it would keep on drifting in the +same direction. Presently it came up over the horizon again to the +south-westward about. The afterglow of sunset was well over now and the +dim of night creeping up. The stars were coming through the blue. I swum +like a champion, though my legs and arms were soon aching. + +"However, I came up to him by the time the stars were fairly out. As it +got darker I began to see all manner of glowing things in the water-- +phosphorescence, you know. At times it made me giddy. I hardly knew which +was stars and which was phosphorescence, and whether I was swimming on my +head or my heels. The canoe was as black as sin, and the ripple under the +bows like liquid fire. I was naturally chary of clambering up into it. I +was anxious to see what he was up to first. He seemed to be lying cuddled +up in a lump in the bows, and the stern was all out of water. The thing +kept turning round slowly as it drifted---kind of waltzing, don't you +know. I went to the stern and pulled it down, expecting him to wake up. +Then I began to clamber in with my knife in my hand, and ready for a rush. +But he never stirred. So there I sat in the stern of the little canoe, +drifting away over the calm phosphorescent sea, and with all the host of +the stars above me, waiting for something to happen. + +"After a long time I called him by name, but he never answered. I was too +tired to take any risks by going along to him. So we sat there. I fancy I +dozed once or twice. When the dawn came I saw he was as dead as a doornail +and all puffed up and purple. My three eggs and the bones were lying in +the middle of the canoe, and the keg of water and some coffee and biscuits +wrapped in a Cape _Argus_ by his feet, and a tin of methylated spirit +underneath him. There was no paddle, nor, in fact, anything except the +spirit-tin that I could use as one, so I settled to drift until I was +picked up. I held an inquest on him, brought in a verdict against some +snake, scorpion, or centipede unknown, and sent him overboard. + +"After that I had a drink of water and a few biscuits, and took a look +round. I suppose a man low down as I was don't see very far; leastways, +Madagascar was clean out of sight, and any trace of land at all. I saw a +sail going south-westward--looked like a schooner but her hull never came +up. Presently the sun got high in the sky and began to beat down upon me. +Lord! it pretty near made my brains boil. I tried dipping my head in the +sea, but after a while my eye fell on the Cape _Argus_, and I lay +down flat in the canoe and spread this over me. Wonderful things these +newspapers! I never read one through thoroughly before, but it's odd what +you get up to when you're alone, as I was. I suppose I read that blessed +old Cape _Argus_ twenty times. The pitch in the canoe simply reeked +with the heat and rose up into big blisters. + +"I drifted ten days," said the man with the scar. "It's a little thing in +the telling, isn't it? Every day was like the last. Except in the morning +and the evening I never kept a look-out even--the blaze was so infernal. I +didn't see a sail after the first three days, and those I saw took no +notice of me. About the sixth night a ship went by scarcely half a mile +away from me, with all its lights ablaze and its ports open, looking like +a big firefly. There was music aboard. I stood up and shouted and screamed +at it. The second day I broached one of the AEpyornis eggs, scraped the +shell away at the end bit by bit, and tried it, and I was glad to find it +was good enough to eat. A bit flavoury--not bad, I mean--but with +something of the taste of a duck's egg. There was a kind of circular +patch, about six inches across, on one side of the yoke, and with streaks +of blood and a white mark like a ladder in it that I thought queer, but I +did not understand what this meant at the time, and I wasn't inclined to +be particular. The egg lasted me three days, with biscuits and a drink of +water. I chewed coffee berries too--invigorating stuff. The second egg I +opened about the eighth day, and it scared me." + +The man with the scar paused. "Yes," he said, "developing." + +"I daresay you find it hard to believe. _I_ did, with the thing +before me. There the egg had been, sunk in that cold black mud, perhaps +three hundred years. But there was no mistaking it. There was the--what is +it?--embryo, with its big head and curved back, and its heart beating +under its throat, and the yolk shrivelled up and great membranes spreading +inside of the shell and all over the yolk. Here was I hatching out the +eggs of the biggest of all extinct birds, in a little canoe in the midst +of the Indian Ocean. If old Dawson had known that! It was worth four +years' salary. What do _you_ think? + +"However, I had to eat that precious thing up, every bit of it, before I +sighted the reef, and some of the mouthfuls were beastly unpleasant. I +left the third one alone. I held it up to the light, but the shell was too +thick for me to get any notion of what might be happening inside; and +though I fancied I heard blood pulsing, it might have been the rustle in +my own ears, like what you listen to in a seashell. + +"Then came the atoll. Came out of the sunrise, as it were, suddenly, close +up to me. I drifted straight towards it until I was about half a mile from +shore, not more, and then the current took a turn, and I had to paddle as +hard as I could with my hands and bits of the AEpyornis shell to make the +place. However, I got there. It was just a common atoll about four miles +round, with a few trees growing and a spring in one place, and the lagoon +full of parrot-fish. I took the egg ashore and put it in a good place, +well above the tide lines and in the sun, to give it all the chance I +could, and pulled the canoe up safe, and loafed about prospecting. It's +rum how dull an atoll is. As soon as I had found a spring all the interest +seemed to vanish. When I was a kid I thought nothing could be finer or +more adventurous than the Robinson Crusoe business, but that place was as +monotonous as a book of sermons. I went round finding eatable things and +generally thinking; but I tell you I was bored to death before the first +day was out. It shows my luck--the very day I landed the weather changed. +A thunderstorm went by to the north and flicked its wing over the island, +and in the night there came a drencher and a howling wind slap over us. It +wouldn't have taken much, you know, to upset that canoe. + +"I was sleeping under the canoe, and the egg was luckily among the sand +higher up the beach, and the first thing I remember was a sound like a +hundred pebbles hitting the boat at once, and a rush of water over my +body. I'd been dreaming of Antananarivo, and I sat up and holloaed to +Intoshi to ask her what the devil was up, and clawed out at the chair +where the matches used to be. Then I remembered where I was. There were +phosphorescent waves rolling up as if they meant to eat me, and all the +rest of the night as black as pitch. The air was simply yelling. The +clouds seemed down on your head almost, and the rain fell as if heaven was +sinking and they were baling out the waters above the firmament. One great +roller came writhing at me, like a fiery serpent, and I bolted. Then I +thought of the canoe, and ran down to it as the water went hissing back +again; but the thing had gone. I wondered about the egg then, and felt my +way to it. It was all right and well out of reach of the maddest waves, so +I sat down beside it and cuddled it for company. Lord! what a night that +was! + +"The storm was over before the morning. There wasn't a rag of cloud left +in the sky when the dawn came, and all along the beach there were bits of +plank scattered--which was the disarticulated skeleton, so to speak, of my +canoe. However, that gave me something to do, for, taking advantage of two +of the trees being together, I rigged up a kind of storm-shelter with +these vestiges. And that day the egg hatched. + +"Hatched, sir, when my head was pillowed on it and I was asleep. I heard a +whack and felt a jar and sat up, and there was the end of the egg pecked +out and a rum little brown head looking out at me. 'Lord!' I said, 'you're +welcome'; and with a little difficulty he came out. + +"He was a nice friendly little chap at first, about the size of a small +hen--very much like most other young birds, only bigger. His plumage was a +dirty brown to begin with, with a sort of grey scab that fell off it very +soon, and scarcely feathers--a kind of downy hair. I can hardly express +how pleased I was to see him. I tell you, Robinson Crusoe don't make near +enough of his loneliness. But here was interesting company. He looked at +me and winked his eye from the front backwards, like a hen, and gave a +chirp and began to peck about at once, as though being hatched three +hundred years too late was just nothing. 'Glad to see you, Man Friday!' +says I, for I had naturally settled he was to be called Man Friday if ever +he was hatched, as soon as ever I found the egg in the canoe had +developed. I was a bit anxious about his feed, so I gave him a lump of raw +parrot-fish at once. He took it, and opened his beak for more. I was glad +of that for, under the circumstances, if he'd been at all fanciful, I +should have had to eat him after all. + +"You'd be surprised what an interesting bird that AEpyornis chick was. He +followed me about from the very beginning. He used to stand by me and +watch while I fished in the lagoon, and go shares in anything I caught. +And he was sensible, too. There were nasty green warty things, like +pickled gherkins, used to lie about on the beach, and he tried one of +these and it upset him. He never even looked at any of them again. + +"And he grew. You could almost see him grow. And as I was never much of a +society man, his quiet, friendly ways suited me to a T. For nearly two +years we were as happy as we could be on that island. I had no business +worries, for I knew my salary was mounting up at Dawsons'. We would see a +sail now and then, but nothing ever came near us. I amused myself, too, by +decorating the island with designs worked in sea-urchins and fancy shells +of various kinds. I put AEPYORNIS ISLAND all round the place very nearly, +in big letters, like what you see done with coloured stones at railway +stations in the old country, and mathematical calculations and drawings of +various sorts. And I used to lie watching the blessed bird stalking round +and growing, growing; and think how I could make a living out of him by +showing him about if I ever got taken off. After his first moult he began +to get handsome, with a crest and a blue wattle, and a lot of green +feathers at the behind of him. And then I used to puzzle whether Dawsons' +had any right to claim him or not. Stormy weather and in the rainy season +we lay snug under the shelter I had made out of the old canoe, and I used +to tell him lies about my friends at home. And after a storm we would go +round the island together to see if there was any drift. It was a kind of +idyll, you might say. If only I had had some tobacco it would have been +simply just like heaven. + +"It was about the end of the second year our little paradise went wrong. +Friday was then about fourteen feet high to the bill of him, with a big, +broad head like the end of a pickaxe, and two huge brown eyes with yellow +rims, set together like a man's--not out of sight of each other like a +hen's. His plumage was fine--none of the half-mourning style of your +ostrich--more like a cassowary as far as colour and texture go. And then +it was he began to cock his comb at me and give himself airs, and show +signs of a nasty temper ... + +"At last came a time when my fishing had been rather unlucky, and he began +to hang about me in a queer, meditative way. I thought he might have been +eating sea-cucumbers or something, but it was really just discontent on +his part. I was hungry too, and when at last I landed a fish I wanted it +for myself. Tempers were short that morning on both sides. He pecked at it +and grabbed it, and I gave him a whack on the head to make him leave go. +And at that he went for me. Lord! ... + +"He gave me this in the face." The man indicated his scar. "Then he kicked +me. It was like a carthorse. I got up, and seeing he hadn't finished, I +started off full tilt with my arms doubled up over my face. But he ran on +those gawky legs of his faster than a racehorse, and kept landing out at +me with sledgehammer kicks, and bringing his pickaxe down on the back of +my head. I made for the lagoon, and went in up to my neck. He stopped at +the water, for he hated getting his feet wet, and began to make a shindy, +something like a peacock's, only hoarser. He started strutting up and down +the beach. I'll admit I felt small to see this blessed fossil lording it +there. And my head and face were all bleeding, and--well, my body just one +jelly of bruises. + +"I decided to swim across the lagoon and leave him alone for a bit, until +the affair blew over. I shinned up the tallest palm-tree, and sat there +thinking of it all. I don't suppose I ever felt so hurt by anything before +or since. It was the brutal ingratitude of the creature. I'd been more +than a brother to him. I'd hatched him, educated him. A great gawky, +out-of-date bird! And me a human being--heir of the ages and all that. + +"I thought after a time he'd begin to see things in that light himself, +and feel a little sorry for his behaviour. I thought if I was to catch +some nice little bits of fish, perhaps, and go to him presently in a +casual kind of way, and offer them to him, he might do the sensible thing. +It took me some time to learn how unforgiving and cantankerous an extinct +bird can be. Malice! + +"I won't tell you all the little devices I tried to get that bird round +again, I simply can't. It makes my cheek burn with shame even now to think +of the snubs and buffets I had from this infernal curiosity. I tried +violence. I chucked lumps of coral at him from a safe distance, but he +only swallowed them. I shied my open knife at him and almost lost it, +though it was too big for him to swallow. I tried starving him out and +struck fishing, but he took to picking along the beach at low water after +worms, and rubbed along on that. Half my time I spent up to my neck in the +lagoon, and the rest up the palm-trees. One of them was scarcely high +enough, and when he caught me up it he had a regular Bank Holiday with the +calves of my legs. It got unbearable. I don't know if you have ever tried +sleeping up a palm-tree. It gave me the most horrible nightmares. Think of +the shame of it, too! Here was this extinct animal mooning about my island +like a sulky duke, and me not allowed to rest the sole of my foot on the +place. I used to cry with weariness and vexation. I told him straight that +I didn't mean to be chased about a desert island by any damned +anachronisms. I told him to go and peck a navigator of his own age. But he +only snapped his beak at me. Great ugly bird, all legs and neck! + +"I shouldn't like to say how long that went on altogether. I'd have killed +him sooner if I'd known how. However, I hit on a way of settling him at +last. It is a South American dodge. I joined all my fishing-lines together +with stems of seaweed and things, and made a stoutish string, perhaps +twelve yards in length or more, and I fastened two lumps of coral rock to +the ends of this. It took me some time to do, because every now and then +I had to go into the lagoon or up a tree as the fancy took me. This I +whirled rapidly round my head, and then let it go at him. The first time I +missed, but the next time the string caught his legs beautifully, and +wrapped round them again and again. Over he went. I threw it standing +waist-deep in the lagoon, and as soon as he went down I was out of the +water and sawing at his neck with my knife ... + +"I don't like to think of that even now. I felt like a murderer while I +did it, though my anger was hot against him. When I stood over him and saw +him bleeding on the white sand, and his beautiful great legs and neck +writhing in his last agony ... Pah! + +"With that tragedy loneliness came upon me like a curse. Good Lord! you +can't imagine how I missed that bird. I sat by his corpse and sorrowed +over him, and shivered as I looked round the desolate, silent reef. +I thought of what a jolly little bird he had been when he was hatched, and +of a thousand pleasant tricks he had played before he went wrong. +I thought if I'd only wounded him I might have nursed him round into a +better understanding. If I'd had any means of digging into the coral rock +I'd have buried him. I felt exactly as if he was human. As it was, +I couldn't think of eating him, so I put him in the lagoon, and the little +fishes picked him clean. I didn't even save the feathers. Then one day a +chap cruising about in a yacht had a fancy to see if my atoll still +existed. + +"He didn't come a moment too soon, for I was about sick enough of the +desolation of it, and only hesitating whether I should walk out into the +sea and finish up the business that way, or fall back on the green +things... + +"I sold the bones to a man named Winslow--a dealer near the British +Museum, and he says he sold them to old Havers. It seems Havers didn't +understand they were extra large, and it was only after his death they +attracted attention. They called 'em AEpyornis--what was it?" + +"_AEpyornis vastus_," said I. "It's funny, the very thing was +mentioned to me by a friend of mine. When they found an AEpyornis, with a +thigh a yard long, they thought they had reached the top of the scale, and +called him _AEpyornis maximus_. Then some one turned up another +thigh-bone four feet six or more, and that they called _AEpyornis +Titan_. Then your _vastus_ was found after old Havers died, in his +collection, and then a _vastissimus_ turned up." + +"Winslow was telling me as much," said the man with the scar. "If they get +any more AEpyornises, he reckons some scientific swell will go and burst a +blood-vessel. But it was a queer thing to happen to a man; wasn't it-- +altogether?" + + + + + VII. + + THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON'S EYES. + +I. + +The transitory mental aberration of Sidney Davidson, remarkable enough in +itself, is still more remarkable if Wade's explanation is to be credited. +It sets one dreaming of the oddest possibilities of intercommunication in +the future, of spending an intercalary five minutes on the other side of +the world, or being watched in our most secret operations by unsuspected +eyes. It happened that I was the immediate witness of Davidson's seizure, +and so it falls naturally to me to put the story upon paper. + +When I say that I was the immediate witness of his seizure, I mean that I +was the first on the scene. The thing happened at the Harlow Technical +College, just beyond the Highgate Archway. He was alone in the larger +laboratory when the thing happened. I was in a smaller room, where the +balances are, writing up some notes. The thunderstorm had completely upset +my work, of course. It was just after one of the louder peals that I +thought I heard some glass smash in the other room. I stopped writing, and +turned round to listen. For a moment I heard nothing; the hail was playing +the devil's tattoo on the corrugated zinc of the roof. Then came another +sound, a smash--no doubt of it this time. Something heavy had been knocked +off the bench. I jumped up at once and went and opened the door leading +into the big laboratory. + +I was surprised to hear a queer sort of laugh, and saw Davidson standing +unsteadily in the middle of the room, with a dazzled look on his face. My +first impression was that he was drunk. He did not notice me. He was +clawing out at something invisible a yard in front of his face. He put out +his hand, slowly, rather hesitatingly, and then clutched nothing. "What's +come to it?" he said. He held up his hands to his face, fingers spread +out. "Great Scott!" he said. The thing happened three or four years ago, +when every one swore by that personage. Then he began raising his feet +clumsily, as though he had expected to find them glued to the floor. + +"Davidson!" cried I. "What's the matter with you?" He turned round in my +direction and looked about for me. He looked over me and at me and on +either side of me, without the slightest sign of seeing me. "Waves," he +said; "and a remarkably neat schooner. I'd swear that was Bellow's voice. +_Hullo_!" He shouted suddenly at the top of his voice. + +I thought he was up to some foolery. Then I saw littered about his feet +the shattered remains of the best of our electrometers. "What's up, man?" +said I. "You've smashed the electrometer!" + +"Bellows again!" said he. "Friends left, if my hands are gone. Something +about electrometers. Which way _are_ you, Bellows?" He suddenly came +staggering towards me. "The damned stuff cuts like butter," he said. He +walked straight into the bench and recoiled. "None so buttery that!" he +said, and stood swaying. + +I felt scared. "Davidson," said I, "what on earth's come over you?" + +He looked round him in every direction. "I could swear that was Bellows. +Why don't you show yourself like a man, Bellows?" + +It occurred to me that he must be suddenly struck blind. I walked round +the table and laid my hand upon his arm. I never saw a man more startled +in my life. He jumped away from me, and came round into an attitude of +self-defence, his face fairly distorted with terror. "Good God!" he cried. +"What was that?" + +"It's I--Bellows. Confound it, Davidson!" + +He jumped when I answered him and stared--how can I express it?--right +through me. He began talking, not to me, but to himself. "Here in broad +daylight on a clear beach. Not a place to hide in." He looked about him +wildly. "Here! I'm _off_." He suddenly turned and ran headlong into +the big electro-magnet--so violently that, as we found afterwards, he +bruised his shoulder and jawbone cruelly. At that he stepped back a pace, +and cried out with almost a whimper, "What, in Heaven's name, has come +over me?" He stood, blanched with terror and trembling violently, with his +right arm clutching his left, where that had collided with the magnet. + +By that time I was excited and fairly scared. "Davidson," said I, "don't +be afraid." + +He was startled at my voice, but not so excessively as before. I repeated +my words in as clear and as firm a tone as I could assume. "Bellows," he +said, "is that you?" + +"Can't you see it's me?" + +He laughed. "I can't even see it's myself. Where the devil are we?" + +"Here," said I, "in the laboratory." + +"The laboratory!" he answered in a puzzled tone, and put his hand to his +forehead. "I _was_ in the laboratory--till that flash came, but I'm +hanged if I'm there now. What ship is that?" + +"There's no ship," said I. "Do be sensible, old chap." + +"No ship!" he repeated, and seemed to forget my denial forthwith. "I +suppose," said he slowly, "we're both dead. But the rummy part is I feel +just as though I still had a body. Don't get used to it all at once, I +suppose. The old shop was struck by lightning, I suppose. Jolly quick +thing, Bellows--eigh?" + +"Don't talk nonsense. You're very much alive. You are in the laboratory, +blundering about. You've just smashed a new electrometer. I don't envy you +when Boyce arrives." + +He stared away from me towards the diagrams of cryohydrates. "I must be +deaf," said he. "They've fired a gun, for there goes the puff of smoke, +and I never heard a sound." + +I put my hand on his arm again, and this time he was less alarmed. "We +seem to have a sort of invisible bodies," said he. "By Jove! there's a +boat coming round the headland. It's very much like the old life after +all--in a different climate." + +I shook his arm. "Davidson," I cried, "wake up!" + + + +II. + +It was just then that Boyce came in. So soon as he spoke Davidson +exclaimed: "Old Boyce! Dead too! What a lark!" I hastened to explain that +Davidson was in a kind of somnambulistic trance. Boyce was interested at +once. We both did all we could to rouse the fellow out of his +extraordinary state. He answered our questions, and asked us some of his +own, but his attention seemed distracted by his hallucination about a +beach and a ship. He kept interpolating observations concerning some boat +and the davits, and sails filling with the wind. It made one feel queer, +in the dusky laboratory, to hear him saying such things. + +He was blind and helpless. We had to walk him down the passage, one at +each elbow, to Boyce's private room, and while Boyce talked to him there, +and humoured him about this ship idea, I went along the corridor and asked +old Wade to come and look at him. The voice of our Dean sobered him a +little, but not very much. He asked where his hands were, and why he had +to walk about up to his waist in the ground. Wade thought over him a long +time--you know how he knits his brows--and then made him feel the couch, +guiding his hands to it. "That's a couch," said Wade. "The couch in the +private room of Professor Boyce. Horse-hair stuffing." + +Davidson felt about, and puzzled over it, and answered presently that he +could feel it all right, but he couldn't see it. + +"What _do_ you see?" asked Wade. Davidson said he could see nothing +but a lot of sand and broken-up shells. Wade gave him some other things to +feel, telling him what they were, and watching him keenly. + +"The ship is almost hull down," said Davidson presently, _apropos_ of +nothing. + +"Never mind the ship," said Wade. "Listen to me, Davidson. Do you know +what hallucination means?" + +"Rather," said Davidson. + +"Well, everything you see is hallucinatory." + +"Bishop Berkeley," said Davidson. + +"Don't mistake me," said Wade. "You are alive and in this room of Boyce's. +But something has happened to your eyes. You cannot see; you can feel and +hear, but not see. Do you follow me?" + +"It seems to me that I see too much." Davidson rubbed his knuckles into +his eyes. "Well?" he said. + +"That's all. Don't let it perplex you. Bellows here and I will take you +home in a cab." + +"Wait a bit." Davidson thought. "Help me to sit down," said he presently; +"and now--I'm sorry to trouble you--but will you tell me all that over +again?" + +Wade repeated it very patiently. Davidson shut his eyes, and pressed his +hands upon his forehead. "Yes," said he. "It's quite right. Now my eyes +are shut I know you're right. That's you, Bellows, sitting by me on the +couch. I'm in England again. And we're in the dark." + +Then he opened his eyes. "And there," said he, "is the sun just rising, +and the yards of the ship, and a tumbled sea, and a couple of birds +flying. I never saw anything so real. And I'm sitting up to my neck in a +bank of sand." + +He bent forward and covered his face with his hands. Then he opened his +eyes again. "Dark sea and sunrise! And yet I'm sitting on a sofa in old +Boyce's room!... God help me!" + + + +III. + +That was the beginning. For three weeks this strange affection of +Davidson's eyes continued unabated. It was far worse than being blind. He +was absolutely helpless, and had to be fed like a newly-hatched bird, and +led about and undressed. If he attempted to move, he fell over things or +struck himself against walls or doors. After a day or so he got used to +hearing our voices without seeing us, and willingly admitted he was at +home, and that Wade was right in what he told him. My sister, to whom he +was engaged, insisted on coming to see him, and would sit for hours every +day while he talked about this beach of his. Holding her hand seemed to +comfort him immensely. He explained that when we left the College and +drove home--he lived in Hampstead village--it appeared to him as if we +drove right through a sandhill--it was perfectly black until he emerged +again--and through rocks and trees and solid obstacles, and when he was +taken to his own room it made him giddy and almost frantic with the fear +of falling, because going upstairs seemed to lift him thirty or forty feet +above the rocks of his imaginary island. He kept saying he should smash +all the eggs. The end was that he had to be taken down into his father's +consulting room and laid upon a couch that stood there. + +He described the island as being a bleak kind of place on the whole, with +very little vegetation, except some peaty stuff, and a lot of bare rock. +There were multitudes of penguins, and they made the rocks white and +disagreeable to see. The sea was often rough, and once there was a +thunderstorm, and he lay and shouted at the silent flashes. Once or twice +seals pulled up on the beach, but only on the first two or three days. He +said it was very funny the way in which the penguins used to waddle right +through him, and how he seemed to lie among them without disturbing them. + +I remember one odd thing, and that was when he wanted very badly to smoke. +We put a pipe in his hands--he almost poked his eye out with it--and lit +it. But he couldn't taste anything. I've since found it's the same with +me--I don't know if it's the usual case--that I cannot enjoy tobacco at +all unless I can see the smoke. + +But the queerest part of his vision came when Wade sent him out in a +Bath-chair to get fresh air. The Davidsons hired a chair, and got that +deaf and obstinate dependant of theirs, Widgery, to attend to it. +Widgery's ideas of healthy expeditions were peculiar. My sister, who had +been to the Dogs' Home, met them in Camden Town, towards King's Cross, +Widgery trotting along complacently, and Davidson, evidently most +distressed, trying in his feeble, blind way to attract Widgery's +attention. + +He positively wept when my sister spoke to him. "Oh, get me out of this +horrible darkness!" he said, feeling for her hand. "I must get out of it, +or I shall die." He was quite incapable of explaining what was the matter, +but my sister decided he must go home, and presently, as they went uphill +towards Hampstead, the horror seemed to drop from him. He said it was good +to see the stars again, though it was then about noon and a blazing day. + +"It seemed," he told me afterwards, "as if I was being carried +irresistibly towards the water. I was not very much alarmed at first. Of +course it was night there--a lovely night." + +"Of course?" I asked, for that struck me as odd. + +"Of course," said he. "It's always night there when it is day here... +Well, we went right into the water, which was calm and shining under the +moonlight--just a broad swell that seemed to grow broader and flatter as I +came down into it. The surface glistened just like a skin--it might have +been empty space underneath for all I could tell to the contrary. Very +slowly, for I rode slanting into it, the water crept up to my eyes. Then I +went under and the skin seemed to break and heal again about my eyes. The +moon gave a jump up in the sky and grew green and dim, and fish, faintly +glowing, came darting round me--and things that seemed made of luminous +glass; and I passed through a tangle of seaweeds that shone with an oily +lustre. And so I drove down into the sea, and the stars went out one by +one, and the moon grew greener and darker, and the seaweed became a +luminous purple-red. It was all very faint and mysterious, and everything +seemed to quiver. And all the while I could hear the wheels of the +Bath-chair creaking, and the footsteps of people going by, and a man in +the distance selling the special _Pall Mall_. + +"I kept sinking down deeper and deeper into the water. It became inky +black about me, not a ray from above came down into that darkness, and the +phosphorescent things grew brighter and brighter. The snaky branches of +the deeper weeds flickered like the flames of spirit-lamps; but, after a +time, there were no more weeds. The fishes came staring and gaping towards +me, and into me and through me. I never imagined such fishes before. They +had lines of fire along the sides of them as though they had been outlined +with a luminous pencil. And there was a ghastly thing swimming backwards +with a lot of twining arms. And then I saw, coming very slowly towards me +through the gloom, a hazy mass of light that resolved itself as it drew +nearer into multitudes of fishes, struggling and darting round something +that drifted. I drove on straight towards it, and presently I saw in the +midst of the tumult, and by the light of the fish, a bit of splintered +spar looming over me, and a dark hull tilting over, and some glowing +phosphorescent forms that were shaken and writhed as the fish bit at them. +Then it was I began to try to attract Widgery's attention. A horror came +upon me. Ugh! I should have driven right into those half-eaten--things. If +your sister had not come! They had great holes in them, Bellows, and ... +Never mind. But it was ghastly!" + + +IV. + +For three weeks Davidson remained in this singular state, seeing what at +the time we imagined was an altogether phantasmal world, and stone blind +to the world around him. Then, one Tuesday, when I called I met old +Davidson in the passage. "He can see his thumb!" the old gentleman said, +in a perfect transport. He was struggling into his overcoat. "He can see +his thumb, Bellows!" he said, with the tears in his eyes. "The lad will be +all right yet." + +I rushed in to Davidson. He was holding up a little book before his face, +and looking at it and laughing in a weak kind of way. + +"It's amazing," said he. "There's a kind of patch come there." He pointed +with his finger. "I'm on the rocks as usual, and the penguins are +staggering and flapping about as usual, and there's been a whale showing +every now and then, but it's got too dark now to make him out. But put +something _there_, and I see it--I do see it. It's very dim and +broken in places, but I see it all the same, like a faint spectre of +itself. I found it out this morning while they were dressing me. It's like +a hole in this infernal phantom world. Just put your hand by mine. No--not +there. Ah! Yes! I see it. The base of your thumb and a bit of cuff! It +looks like the ghost of a bit of your hand sticking out of the darkling +sky. Just by it there's a group of stars like a cross coming out." + +From that time Davidson began to mend. His account of the change, like his +account of the vision, was oddly convincing. Over patches of his field of +vision, the phantom world grew fainter, grew transparent, as it were, and +through these translucent gaps he began to see dimly the real world about +him. The patches grew in size and number, ran together and spread until +only here and there were blind spots left upon his eyes. He was able to +get up and steer himself about, feed himself once more, read, smoke, and +behave like an ordinary citizen again. At first it was very confusing to +him to have these two pictures overlapping each other like the changing +views of a lantern, but in a little while he began to distinguish the real +from the illusory. + +At first he was unfeignedly glad, and seemed only too anxious to complete +his cure by taking exercise and tonics. But as that odd island of his +began to fade away from him, he became queerly interested in it. He wanted +particularly to go down into the deep sea again, and would spend half his +time wandering about the low-lying parts of London, trying to find the +water-logged wreck he had seen drifting. The glare of real daylight very +soon impressed him so vividly as to blot out everything of his shadowy +world, but of a night-time, in a darkened room, he could still see the +white-splashed rocks of the island, and the clumsy penguins staggering to +and fro. But even these grew fainter and fainter, and, at last, soon after +he married my sister, he saw them for the last time. + + +V. + +And now to tell of the queerest thing of all. About two years after his +cure I dined with the Davidsons, and after dinner a man named Atkins +called in. He is a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and a pleasant, talkative +man. He was on friendly terms with my brother-in-law, and was soon on +friendly terms with me. It came out that he was engaged to Davidson's +cousin, and incidentally he took out a kind of pocket photograph case to +show us a new rendering of his _fiancée_. "And, by-the-by," said he, +"here's the old _Fulmar_." + +Davidson looked at it casually. Then suddenly his face lit up. "Good +heavens!" said he. "I could almost swear----" + +"What?" said Atkins. + +"That I had seen that ship before." + +"Don't see how you can have. She hasn't been out of the South Seas for six +years, and before then----" + +"But," began Davidson, and then, "Yes--that's the ship I dreamt of; I'm +sure that's the ship I dreamt of. She was standing off an island that +swarmed with penguins, and she fired a gun." + +"Good Lord!" said Atkins, who had now heard the particulars of the +seizure. "How the deuce could you dream that?" + +And then, bit by bit, it came out that on the very day Davidson was +seized, H.M.S. _Fulmar_ had actually been off a little rock to the +south of Antipodes Island. A boat had landed overnight to get penguins' +eggs, had been delayed, and a thunderstorm drifting up, the boat's crew +had waited until the morning before rejoining the ship. Atkins had been +one of them, and he corroborated, word for word, the descriptions Davidson +had given of the island and the boat. There is not the slightest doubt in +any of our minds that Davidson has really seen the place. In some +unaccountable way, while he moved hither and thither in London, his sight +moved hither and thither in a manner that corresponded, about this distant +island. _How_ is absolutely a mystery. + +That completes the remarkable story of Davidson's eyes. It's perhaps the +best authenticated case in existence of real vision at a distance. +Explanation there is none forthcoming, except what Professor Wade has +thrown out. But his explanation invokes the Fourth Dimension, and a +dissertation on theoretical kinds of space. To talk of there being "a kink +in space" seems mere nonsense to me; it may be because I am no +mathematician. When I said that nothing would alter the fact that the +place is eight thousand miles away, he answered that two points might be a +yard away on a sheet of paper, and yet be brought together by bending the +paper round. The reader may grasp his argument, but I certainly do not. +His idea seems to be that Davidson, stooping between the poles of the big +electro-magnet, had some extraordinary twist given to his retinal elements +through the sudden change in the field of force due to the lightning. + +He thinks, as a consequence of this, that it may be possible to live +visually in one part of the world, while one lives bodily in another. He +has even made some experiments in support of his views; but, so far, he +has simply succeeded in blinding a few dogs. I believe that is the net +result of his work, though I have not seen him for some weeks. Latterly I +have been so busy with my work in connection with the Saint Pancras +installation that I have had little opportunity of calling to see him. But +the whole of his theory seems fantastic to me. The facts concerning +Davidson stand on an altogether different footing, and I can testify +personally to the accuracy of every detail I have given. + + + + + VIII. + + THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS. + + +The chief attendant of the three dynamos that buzzed and rattled at +Camberwell, and kept the electric railway going, came out of Yorkshire, +and his name was James Holroyd. He was a practical electrician, but fond +of whisky, a heavy, red-haired brute with irregular teeth. He doubted the +existence of the Deity, but accepted Carnot's cycle, and he had read +Shakespeare and found him weak in chemistry. His helper came out of the +mysterious East, and his name was Azuma-zi. But Holroyd called him +Pooh-bah. Holroyd liked a nigger help because he would stand kicking--a +habit with Holroyd--and did not pry into the machinery and try to learn +the ways of it. Certain odd possibilities of the negro mind brought into +abrupt contact with the crown of our civilisation Holroyd never fully +realised, though just at the end he got some inkling of them. + +To define Azuma-zi was beyond ethnology. He was, perhaps, more negroid +than anything else, though his hair was curly rather than frizzy, and his +nose had a bridge. Moreover, his skin was brown rather than black, and the +whites of his eyes were yellow. His broad cheekbones and narrow chin gave +his face something of the viperine V. His head, too, was broad behind, and +low and narrow at the forehead, as if his brain had been twisted round in +the reverse way to a European's. He was short of stature and still shorter +of English. In conversation he made numerous odd noises of no known +marketable value, and his infrequent words were carved and wrought into +heraldic grotesqueness. Holroyd tried to elucidate his religious beliefs, +and--especially after whisky--lectured to him against superstition and +missionaries. Azuma-zi, however, shirked the discussion of his gods, even +though he was kicked for it. + +Azuma-zi had come, clad in white but insufficient raiment, out of the +stoke-hole of the _Lord Clive_, from the Straits Settlements and +beyond, into London. He had heard even in his youth of the greatness and +riches of London, where all the women are white and fair, and even the +beggars in the streets are white, and he had arrived, with newly-earned +gold coins in his pocket, to worship at the shrine of civilisation. The +day of his landing was a dismal one; the sky was dun, and a wind-worried +drizzle filtered down to the greasy streets, but he plunged boldly into +the delights of Shadwell, and was presently cast up, shattered in health, +civilised in costume, penniless, and, except in matters of the direst +necessity, practically a dumb animal, to toil for James Holroyd, and to be +bullied by him in the dynamo shed at Camberwell. And to James Holroyd +bullying was a labour of love. + +There were three dynamos with their engines at Camberwell. The two that +have been there since the beginning are small machines; the larger one was +new. The smaller machines made a reasonable noise; their straps hummed +over the drums, every now and then the brushes buzzed and fizzled, and the +air churned steadily, whoo! whoo! whoo! between their poles. One was loose +in its foundations and kept the shed vibrating. But the big dynamo drowned +these little noises altogether with the sustained drone of its iron core, +which somehow set part of the ironwork humming. The place made the +visitor's head reel with the throb, throb, throb of the engines, the +rotation of the big wheels, the spinning ball-valves, the occasional +spittings of the steam, and over all the deep, unceasing, surging note of +the big dynamo. This last noise was from an engineering point of view a +defect, but Azuma-zi accounted it unto the monster for mightiness and +pride. + +If it were possible we would have the noises of that shed always about the +reader as he reads, we would tell all our story to such an accompaniment. +It was a steady stream of din, from which the ear picked out first one +thread and then another; there was the intermittent snorting, panting, and +seething of the steam engines, the suck and thud of their pistons, the +dull beat on the air as the spokes of the great driving wheels came round, +a note the leather straps made as they ran tighter and looser, and a +fretful tumult from the dynamos; and, over all, sometimes inaudible, as +the ear tired of it, and then creeping back upon the senses again, was +this trombone note of the big machine. The floor never felt steady and +quiet beneath one's feet, but quivered and jarred. It was a confusing, +unsteady place, and enough to send anyone's thoughts jerking into odd +zigzags. And for three months, while the big strike of the engineers was +in progress, Holroyd, who was a blackleg, and Azuma-zi, who was a mere +black, were never out of the stir and eddy of it, but slept and fed in the +little wooden shanty between the shed and the gates. + +Holroyd delivered a theological lecture on the text of his big machine +soon after Azuma-zi came. He had to shout to be heard in the din. "Look at +that," said Holroyd; "where's your 'eathen idol to match 'im?" And +Azuma-zi looked. For a moment Holroyd was inaudible, and then Azuma-zi +heard: "Kill a hundred men. Twelve per cent, on the ordinary shares," said +Holroyd, "and that's something like a Gord." + +Holroyd was proud of his big dynamo, and expatiated upon its size and +power to Azuma-zi until heaven knows what odd currents of thought that and +the incessant whirling and shindy set up within the curly black cranium. +He would explain in the most graphic manner the dozen or so ways in which +a man might be killed by it, and once he gave Azuma-zi a shock as a sample +of its quality. After that, in the breathing-times of his labour--it was +heavy labour, being not only his own, but most of Holroyd's--Azuma-zi +would sit and watch the big machine. Now and then the brushes would +sparkle and spit blue flashes, at which Holroyd would swear, but all the +rest was as smooth and rhythmic as breathing. The band ran shouting over +the shaft, and ever behind one as one watched was the complacent thud of +the piston. So it lived all day in this big airy shed, with him and +Holroyd to wait upon it; not prisoned up and slaving to drive a ship as +the other engines he knew--mere captive devils of the British Solomon--had +been, but a machine enthroned. Those two smaller dynamos Azuma-zi by force +of contrast despised; the large one he privately christened the Lord of +the Dynamos. They were fretful and irregular, but the big dynamo was +steady. How great it was! How serene and easy in its working! Greater and +calmer even than the Buddhas he had seen at Rangoon, and yet not +motionless, but living! The great black coils spun, spun, spun, the rings +ran round under the brushes, and the deep note of its coil steadied the +whole. It affected Azuma-zi queerly. + +Azuma-zi was not fond of labour. He would sit about and watch the Lord of +the Dynamos while Holroyd went away to persuade the yard porter to get +whisky, although his proper place was not in the dynamo shed but behind +the engines, and, moreover, if Holroyd caught him skulking he got hit for +it with a rod of stout copper wire. He would go and stand close to the +colossus, and look up at the great leather band running overhead. There +was a black patch on the band that came round, and it pleased him somehow +among all the clatter to watch this return again and again. Odd thoughts +spun with the whirl of it. Scientific people tell us that savages give +souls to rocks and trees,--and a machine is a thousand times more alive +than a rock or a tree. And Azuma-zi was practically a savage still; the +veneer of civilisation lay no deeper than his slop suit, his bruises, and +the coal grime on his face and hands. His father before him had worshipped +a meteoric stone, kindred blood, it may be, had splashed the broad wheels +of Juggernaut. + +He took every opportunity Holroyd gave him of touching and handling the +great dynamo that was fascinating him. He polished and cleaned it until +the metal parts were blinding in the sun. He felt a mysterious sense of +service in doing this. He would go up to it and touch its spinning coils +gently. The gods he had worshipped were all far away. The people in London +hid their gods. + +At last his dim feelings grew more distinct, and took shape in thoughts, +and at last in acts. When he came into the roaring shed one morning he +salaamed to the Lord of the Dynamos, and then, when Holroyd was away, he +went and whispered to the thundering machine that he was its servant, and +prayed it to have pity on him and save him from Holroyd. As he did so a +rare gleam of light came in through the open archway of the throbbing +machine-shed, and the Lord of the Dynamos, as he whirled and roared, was +radiant with pale gold. Then Azuma-zi knew that his service was acceptable +to his Lord. After that he did not feel so lonely as he had done, and he +had indeed been very much alone in London. And even when his work-time was +over, which was rare, he loitered about the shed. + +Then, the next time Holroyd maltreated him, Azuma-zi went presently to the +Lord of the Dynamos and whispered, "Thou seest, O my Lord!" and the angry +whirr of the machinery seemed to answer him. Thereafter it appeared to him +that whenever Holroyd came into the shed a different note came into the +sounds of the dynamo. "My Lord bides his time," said Azuma-zi to himself. +"The iniquity of the fool is not yet ripe." And he waited and watched for +the day of reckoning. One day there was evidence of short circuiting, and +Holroyd, making an unwary examination--it was in the afternoon--got a +rather severe shock. Azuma-zi from behind the engine saw him jump off and +curse at the peccant coil. + +"He is warned," said Azuma-zi to himself. "Surely my Lord is very +patient." + +Holroyd had at first initiated his "nigger" into such elementary +conceptions of the dynamo's working as would enable him to take temporary +charge of the shed in his absence. But when he noticed the manner in which +Azuma-zi hung about the monster he became suspicious. He dimly perceived +his assistant was "up to something," and connecting him with the anointing +of the coils with oil that had rotted the varnish in one place, he issued +an edict, shouted above the confusion of the machinery, "Don't 'ee go nigh +that big dynamo any more, Pooh-bah, or a'll take thy skin off!" Besides, +if it pleased Azuma-zi to be near the big machine, it was plain sense and +decency to keep him away from it. + +Azuma-zi obeyed at the time, but later he was caught bowing before the +Lord of the Dynamos. At which Holroyd twisted his arm and kicked him as he +turned to go away. As Azuma-zi presently stood behind the engine and +glared at the back of the hated Holroyd, the noises of the machinery took +a new rhythm, and sounded like four words in his native tongue. + +It is hard to say exactly what madness is. I fancy Azuma-zi was mad. The +incessant din and whirl of the dynamo shed may have churned up his little +store of knowledge and big store of superstitious fancy, at last, into +something akin to frenzy. At any rate, when the idea of making Holroyd a +sacrifice to the Dynamo Fetich was thus suggested to him, it filled him +with a strange tumult of exultant emotion. + +That night the two men and their black shadows were alone in the shed +together. The shed was lit with one big arc light that winked and +flickered purple. The shadows lay black behind the dynamos, the ball +governors of the engines whirled from light to darkness, and their pistons +beat loud and steady. The world outside seen through the open end of the +shed seemed incredibly dim and remote. It seemed absolutely silent, too, +since the riot of the machinery drowned every external sound. Far away was +the black fence of the yard with grey shadowy houses behind, and above was +the deep blue sky and the pale little stars. Azuma-zi suddenly walked +across the centre of the shed above which the leather bands were running, +and went into the shadow by the big dynamo. Holroyd heard a click, and the +spin of the armature changed. + +"What are you dewin' with that switch?" he bawled in surprise. "Han't I +told you----" + +Then he saw the set expression of Azuma-zi's eyes as the Asiatic came out +of the shadow towards him. + +In another moment the two men were grappling fiercely in front of the +great dynamo. + +"You coffee-headed fool!" gasped Holroyd, with a brown hand at his throat. +"Keep off those contact rings." In another moment he was tripped and +reeling back upon the Lord of the Dynamos. He instinctively loosened his +grip upon his antagonist to save himself from the machine. + +The messenger, sent in furious haste from the station to find out what had +happened in the dynamo shed, met Azuma-zi at the porter's lodge by the +gate. Azuma-zi tried to explain something, but the messenger could make +nothing of the black's incoherent English, and hurried on to the shed. +The machines were all noisily at work, and nothing seemed to be +disarranged. There was, however, a queer smell of singed hair. Then he saw +an odd-looking crumpled mass clinging to the front of the big dynamo, and, +approaching, recognised the distorted remains of Holroyd. + +The man stared and hesitated a moment. Then he saw the face, and shut his +eyes convulsively. He turned on his heel before he opened them, so that he +should not see Holroyd again, and went out of the shed to get advice and +help. + +When Azuma-zi saw Holroyd die in the grip of the Great Dynamo he had been +a little scared about the consequences of his act. Yet he felt strangely +elated, and knew that the favour of the Lord Dynamo was upon him. His plan +was already settled when he met the man coming from the station, and the +scientific manager who speedily arrived on the scene jumped at the obvious +conclusion of suicide. This expert scarcely noticed Azuma-zi, except to +ask a few questions. Did he see Holroyd kill himself? Azuma-zi explained +he had been out of sight at the engine furnace until he heard a difference +in the noise from the dynamo. It was not a difficult examination, being +untinctured by suspicion. + +The distorted remains of Holroyd, which the electrician removed from +the machine, were hastily covered by the porter with a coffee-stained +table-cloth. Somebody, by a happy inspiration, fetched a medical man. The +expert was chiefly anxious to get the machine at work again, for seven or +eight trains had stopped midway in the stuffy tunnels of the electric +railway. Azuma-zi, answering or misunderstanding the questions of the +people who had by authority or impudence come into the shed, was presently +sent back to the stoke-hole by the scientific manager. Of course a crowd +collected outside the gates of the yard--a crowd, for no known reason, +always hovers for a day or two near the scene of a sudden death in +London--two or three reporters percolated somehow into the engine-shed, +and one even got to Azuma-zi; but the scientific expert cleared them out +again, being himself an amateur journalist. + +Presently the body was carried away, and public interest departed with it. +Azuma-zi remained very quietly at his furnace, seeing over and over again +in the coals a figure that wriggled violently and became still. An hour +after the murder, to any one coming into the shed it would have looked +exactly as if nothing remarkable had ever happened there. Peeping +presently from his engine-room the black saw the Lord Dynamo spin and +whirl beside his little brothers, and the driving wheels were beating +round, and the steam in the pistons went thud, thud, exactly as it had +been earlier in the evening. After all, from the mechanical point of view, +it had been a most insignificant incident--the mere temporary deflection +of a current. But now the slender form and slender shadow of the +scientific manager replaced the sturdy outline of Holroyd travelling up +and down the lane of light upon the vibrating floor under the straps +between the engines and the dynamos. + +"Have I not served my Lord?" said Azuma-zi inaudibly, from his shadow, and +the note of the great dynamo rang out full and clear. As he looked at the +big whirling mechanism the strange fascination of it that had been a +little in abeyance since Holroyd's death resumed its sway. + +Never had Azuma-zi seen a man killed so swiftly and pitilessly. The big +humming machine had slain its victim without wavering for a second from +its steady beating. It was indeed a mighty god. + +The unconscious scientific manager stood with his back to him, scribbling +on a piece of paper. His shadow lay at the foot of the monster. + +Was the Lord Dynamo still hungry? His servant was ready. + +Azuma-zi made a stealthy step forward; then stopped. The scientific +manager suddenly ceased his writing, walked down the shed to the endmost +of the dynamos, and began to examine the brushes. + +Azuma-zi hesitated, and then slipped across noiselessly into the shadow by +the switch. There he waited. Presently the manager's footsteps could be +heard returning. He stopped in his old position, unconscious of the stoker +crouching ten feet away from him. Then the big dynamo suddenly fizzled, +and in another moment Azuma-zi had sprung out of the darkness upon him. + +First, the scientific manager was gripped round the body and swung towards +the big dynamo, then, kicking with his knee and forcing his antagonist's +head down with his hands, he loosened the grip on his waist and swung +round away from the machine. Then the black grasped him again, putting a +curly head against his chest, and they swayed and panted as it seemed for +an age or so. Then the scientific manager was impelled to catch a black +ear in his teeth and bite furiously. The black yelled hideously. + +They rolled over on the floor, and the black, who had apparently slipped +from the vice of the teeth or parted with some ear--the scientific manager +wondered which at the time--tried to throttle him. The scientific manager +was making some ineffectual efforts to claw something with his hands and +to kick, when the welcome sound of quick footsteps sounded on the floor. +The next moment Azuma-zi had left him and darted towards the big dynamo. +There was a splutter amid the roar. + +The officer of the company who had entered stood staring as Azuma-zi +caught the naked terminals in his hands, gave one horrible convulsion, and +then hung motionless from the machine, his face violently distorted. + +"I'm jolly glad you came in when you did," said the scientific manager, +still sitting on the floor. + +He looked at the still quivering figure. "It is not a nice death to die, +apparently--but it is quick." + +The official was still staring at the body. He was a man of slow +apprehension. + +There was a pause. + +The scientific manager got up on his feet rather awkwardly. He ran his +fingers along his collar thoughtfully, and moved his head to and fro +several times. + +"Poor Holroyd! I see now." Then almost mechanically he went towards the +switch in the shadow and turned the current into the railway circuit +again. As he did so the singed body loosened its grip upon the machine and +fell forward on its face. The core of the dynamo roared out loud and +clear, and the armature beat the air. + +So ended prematurely the worship of the Dynamo Deity, perhaps the most +short-lived of all religions. Yet withal it could at least boast a +Martyrdom and a Human Sacrifice. + + + + IX. + + THE MOTH. + + +Probably you have heard of Hapley--not W. T. Hapley, the son, but the +celebrated Hapley, the Hapley of _Periplaneta Hapliia_, Hapley the +entomologist. + +If so you know at least of the great feud between Hapley and Professor +Pawkins, though certain of its consequences may be new to you. For those +who have not, a word or two of explanation is necessary, which the idle +reader may go over with a glancing eye, if his indolence so incline him. + +It is amazing how very widely diffused is the ignorance of such really +important matters as this Hapley-Pawkins feud. Those epoch-making +controversies, again, that have convulsed the Geological Society are, I +verily believe, almost entirely unknown outside the fellowship of that +body. I have heard men of fair general education even refer to the great +scenes at these meetings as vestry-meeting squabbles. Yet the great hate +of the English and Scotch geologists has lasted now half a century, and +has "left deep and abundant marks upon the body of the science." And this +Hapley-Pawkins business, though perhaps a more personal affair, stirred +passions as profound, if not profounder. Your common man has no conception +of the zeal that animates a scientific investigator, the fury of +contradiction you can arouse in him. It is the _odium theologicum_ in +a new form. There are men, for instance, who would gladly burn Professor +Ray Lankester at Smithfield for his treatment of the Mollusca in the +Encyclopaedia. That fantastic extension of the Cephalopods to cover the +Pteropods ... But I wander from Hapley and Pawkins. + +It began years and years ago, with a revision of the Microlepidoptera +(whatever these may be) by Pawkins, in which he extinguished a new species +created by Hapley. Hapley, who was always quarrelsome, replied by a +stinging impeachment of the entire classification of Pawkins.[A] Pawkins +in his "Rejoinder"[B] suggested that Hapley's microscope was as defective +as his power of observation, and called him an "irresponsible meddler"-- +Hapley was not a professor at that time. Hapley in his retort,[C] spoke of +"blundering collectors," and described, as if inadvertently, Pawkins' +revision as a "miracle of ineptitude." It was war to the knife. However, +it would scarcely interest the reader to detail how these two great men +quarrelled, and how the split between them widened until from the +Microlepidoptera they were at war upon every open question in entomology. +There were memorable occasions. At times the Royal Entomological Society +meetings resembled nothing so much as the Chamber of Deputies. On the +whole, I fancy Pawkins was nearer the truth than Hapley. But Hapley was +skilful with his rhetoric, had a turn for ridicule rare in a scientific +man, was endowed with vast energy, and had a fine sense of injury in the +matter of the extinguished species; while Pawkins was a man of dull +presence, prosy of speech, in shape not unlike a water-barrel, over +conscientious with testimonials, and suspected of jobbing museum +appointments. So the young men gathered round Hapley and applauded him. It +was a long struggle, vicious from the beginning and growing at last to +pitiless antagonism. The successive turns of fortune, now an advantage to +one side and now to another--now Hapley tormented by some success of +Pawkins, and now Pawkins outshone by Hapley, belong rather to the history +of entomology than to this story. + +[Footnote A: "Remarks on a Recent Revision of Microlepidoptera." +_Quart. Journ. Entomological Soc._, 1863.] + +[Footnote B: "Rejoinder to certain Remarks," etc. _Ibid._ 1864.] + +[Footnote C: "Further Remarks," etc. _Ibid._] + +But in 1891 Pawkins, whose health had been bad for some time, published +some work upon the "mesoblast" of the Death's Head Moth. What the +mesoblast of the Death's Head Moth may be does not matter a rap in this +story. But the work was far below his usual standard, and gave Hapley an +opening he had coveted for years. He must have worked night and day to +make the most of his advantage. + +In an elaborate critique he rent Pawkins to tatters--one can fancy the +man's disordered black hair, and his queer dark eyes flashing as he went +for his antagonist--and Pawkins made a reply, halting, ineffectual, with +painful gaps of silence, and yet malignant. There was no mistaking his +will to wound Hapley, nor his incapacity to do it. But few of those who +heard him--I was absent from that meeting--realised how ill the man was. + +Hapley got his opponent down, and meant to finish him. He followed with a +simply brutal attack upon Pawkins, in the form of a paper upon the +development of moths in general, a paper showing evidence of a most +extraordinary amount of mental labour, and yet couched in a violently +controversial tone. Violent as it was, an editorial note witnesses that it +was modified. It must have covered Pawkins with shame and confusion of +face. It left no loophole; it was murderous in argument, and utterly +contemptuous in tone; an awful thing for the declining years of a man's +career. + +The world of entomologists waited breathlessly for the rejoinder from +Pawkins. He would try one, for Pawkins had always been game. But when it +came it surprised them. For the rejoinder of Pawkins was to catch +influenza, proceed to pneumonia, and die. + +It was perhaps as effectual a reply as he could make under the +circumstances, and largely turned the current of feeling against Hapley. +The very people who had most gleefully cheered on those gladiators became +serious at the consequence. There could be no reasonable doubt the fret of +the defeat had contributed to the death of Pawkins. There was a limit even +to scientific controversy, said serious people. Another crushing attack +was already in the press and appeared on the day before the funeral. I +don't think Hapley exerted himself to stop it. People remembered how +Hapley had hounded down his rival, and forgot that rival's defects. +Scathing satire reads ill over fresh mould. The thing provoked comment in +the daily papers. This it was that made me think that you had probably +heard of Hapley and this controversy. But, as I have already remarked, +scientific workers live very much in a world of their own; half the +people, I dare say, who go along Piccadilly to the Academy every year, +could not tell you where the learned societies abide. Many even think that +research is a kind of happy-family cage in which all kinds of men lie down +together in peace. + +In his private thoughts Hapley could not forgive Pawkins for dying. In +the first place, it was a mean dodge to escape the absolute pulverisation +Hapley had in hand for him, and in the second, it left Hapley's mind with +a queer gap in it. For twenty years he had worked hard, sometimes far +into the night, and seven days a week, with microscope, scalpel, +collecting-net, and pen, and almost entirely with reference to Pawkins. +The European reputation he had won had come as an incident in that great +antipathy. He had gradually worked up to a climax in this last +controversy. It had killed Pawkins, but it had also thrown Hapley out of +gear, so to speak, and his doctor advised him to give up work for a time, +and rest. So Hapley went down into a quiet village in Kent, and thought +day and night of Pawkins, and good things it was now impossible to say +about him. + +At last Hapley began to realise in what direction the pre-occupation +tended. He determined to make a fight for it, and started by trying to +read novels. But he could not get his mind off Pawkins, white in the face +and making his last speech--every sentence a beautiful opening for Hapley. +He turned to fiction--and found it had no grip on him. He read the "Island +Nights' Entertainments" until his "sense of causation" was shocked beyond +endurance by the Bottle Imp. Then he went to Kipling, and found he "proved +nothing," besides being irreverent and vulgar. These scientific people +have their limitations. Then unhappily, he tried Besant's "Inner House," +and the opening chapter set his mind upon learned societies and Pawkins at +once. + +So Hapley turned to chess, and found it a little more soothing. He soon +mastered the moves and the chief gambits and commoner closing positions, +and began to beat the Vicar. But then the cylindrical contours of the +opposite king began to resemble Pawkins standing up and gasping +ineffectually against check-mate, and Hapley decided to give up chess. + +Perhaps the study of some new branch of science would after all be better +diversion. The best rest is change of occupation. Hapley determined to +plunge at diatoms, and had one of his smaller microscopes and Halibut's +monograph sent down from London. He thought that perhaps if he could get +up a vigorous quarrel with Halibut, he might be able to begin life afresh +and forget Pawkins. And very soon he was hard at work in his habitual +strenuous fashion, at these microscopic denizens of the way-side pool. + +It was on the third day of the diatoms that Hapley became aware of a novel +addition to the local fauna. He was working late at the microscope, and +the only light in the room was the brilliant little lamp with the special +form of green shade. Like all experienced microscopists, he kept both eyes +open. It is the only way to avoid excessive fatigue. One eye was over the +instrument, and bright and distinct before that was the circular field of +the microscope, across which a brown diatom was slowly moving. With the +other eye Hapley saw, as it were, without seeing. He was only dimly +conscious of the brass side of the instrument, the illuminated part of the +table-cloth, a sheet of notepaper, the foot of the lamp, and the darkened +room beyond. + +Suddenly his attention drifted from one eye to the other. The table-cloth +was of the material called tapestry by shopmen, and rather brightly +coloured. The pattern was in gold, with a small amount of crimson and pale +blue upon a greyish ground. At one point the pattern seemed displaced, and +there was a vibrating movement of the colours at this point. + +Hapley suddenly moved his head back and looked with both eyes. His mouth +fell open with astonishment. + +It was a large moth or butterfly; its wings spread in butterfly fashion! + +It was strange it should be in the room at all, for the windows were +closed. Strange that it should not have attracted his attention when +fluttering to its present position. Strange that it should match the +table-cloth. Stranger far that to him, Hapley, the great entomologist, it +was altogether unknown. There was no delusion. It was crawling slowly +towards the foot of the lamp. + +"New Genus, by heavens! And in England!" said Hapley, staring. + +Then he suddenly thought of Pawkins. Nothing would have maddened Pawkins +more...And Pawkins was dead! + +Something about the head and body of the insect became singularly +suggestive of Pawkins, just as the chess king had been. + +"Confound Pawkins!" said Hapley. "But I must catch this." And looking +round him for some means of capturing the moth, he rose slowly out of his +chair. Suddenly the insect rose, struck the edge of the lampshade--Hapley +heard the "ping"--and vanished into the shadow. + +In a moment Hapley had whipped off the shade, so that the whole room was +illuminated. The thing had disappeared, but soon his practised eye +detected it upon the wall-paper near the door. He went towards it poising +the lamp-shade for capture. Before he was within striking distance, +however, it had risen and was fluttering round the room. After the fashion +of its kind, it flew with sudden starts and turns, seeming to vanish here +and reappear there. Once Hapley struck, and missed; then again. + +The third time he hit his microscope. The instrument swayed, struck and +overturned the lamp, and fell noisily upon the floor. The lamp turned over +on the table and, very luckily, went out. Hapley was left in the dark. +With a start he felt the strange moth blunder into his face. + +It was maddening. He had no lights. If he opened the door of the room the +thing would get away. In the darkness he saw Pawkins quite distinctly +laughing at him. Pawkins had ever an oily laugh. He swore furiously and +stamped his foot on the floor. + +There was a timid rapping at the door. + +Then it opened, perhaps a foot, and very slowly. The alarmed face of the +landlady appeared behind a pink candle flame; she wore a night-cap over +her grey hair and had some purple garment over her shoulders. "What +_was_ that fearful smash?" she said. "Has anything----" The strange +moth appeared fluttering about the chink of the door. "Shut that door!" +said Hapley, and suddenly rushed at her. + +The door slammed hastily. Hapley was left alone in the dark. Then in the +pause he heard his landlady scuttle upstairs, lock her door, and drag +something heavy across the room and put against it. + +It became evident to Hapley that his conduct and appearance had been +strange and alarming. Confound the moth! and Pawkins! However, it was a +pity to lose the moth now. He felt his way into the hall and found the +matches, after sending his hat down upon the floor with a noise like a +drum. With the lighted candle he returned to the sitting-room. No moth was +to be seen. Yet once for a moment it seemed that the thing was fluttering +round his head. Hapley very suddenly decided to give up the moth and go to +bed. But he was excited. All night long his sleep was broken by dreams of +the moth, Pawkins, and his landlady. Twice in the night he turned out and +soused his head in cold water. + +One thing was very clear to him. His landlady could not possibly +understand about the strange moth, especially as he had failed to catch +it. No one but an entomologist would understand quite how he felt. She was +probably frightened at his behaviour, and yet he failed to see how he +could explain it. He decided to say nothing further about the events of +last night. After breakfast he saw her in her garden, and decided to go +out and talk to reassure her. He talked to her about beans and potatoes, +bees, caterpillars, and the price of fruit. She replied in her usual +manner, but she looked at him a little suspiciously, and kept walking as +he walked, so that there was always a bed of flowers, or a row of beans, +or something of the sort, between them. After a while he began to feel +singularly irritated at this, and to conceal his vexation went indoors and +presently went out for a walk. + +The moth, or butterfly, trailing an odd flavour of Pawkins with it, kept +coming into that walk, though he did his best to keep his mind off it. +Once he saw it quite distinctly, with its wings flattened out, upon the +old stone wall that runs along the west edge of the park, but going up to +it he found it was only two lumps of grey and yellow lichen. "This," said +Hapley, "is the reverse of mimicry. Instead of a butterfly looking like a +stone, here is a stone looking like a butterfly!" Once something hovered +and fluttered round his head, but by an effort of will he drove that +impression out of his mind again. + +In the afternoon Hapley called upon the Vicar, and argued with him upon +theological questions. They sat in the little arbour covered with briar, +and smoked as they wrangled. "Look at that moth!" said Hapley, suddenly, +pointing to the edge of the wooden table. + +"Where?" said the Vicar. + +"You don't see a moth on the edge of the table there?" said Hapley. + +"Certainly not," said the Vicar. + +Hapley was thunderstruck. He gasped. The Vicar was staring at him. Clearly +the man saw nothing. "The eye of faith is no better than the eye of +science," said Hapley awkwardly. + +"I don't see your point," said the Vicar, thinking it was part of the +argument. + +That night Hapley found the moth crawling over his counterpane. He sat on +the edge of the bed in his shirt sleeves and reasoned with himself. Was it +pure hallucination? He knew he was slipping, and he battled for his sanity +with the same silent energy he had formerly displayed against Pawkins. So +persistent is mental habit, that he felt as if it were still a struggle +with Pawkins. He was well versed in psychology. He knew that such visual +illusions do come as a result of mental strain. But the point was, he did +not only _see_ the moth, he had heard it when it touched the edge of +the lampshade, and afterwards when it hit against the wall, and he had +felt it strike his face in the dark. + +He looked at it. It was not at all dreamlike, but perfectly clear and +solid-looking in the candle-light. He saw the hairy body, and the short +feathery antennae, the jointed legs, even a place where the down was +rubbed from the wing. He suddenly felt angry with himself for being afraid +of a little insect. + +His landlady had got the servant to sleep with her that night, because she +was afraid to be alone. In addition she had locked the door, and put the +chest of drawers against it. They listened and talked in whispers after +they had gone to bed, but nothing occurred to alarm them. About eleven +they had ventured to put the candle out, and had both dozed off to sleep. +They woke up with a start, and sat up in bed, listening in the darkness. + +Then they heard slippered feet going to and fro in Hapley's room. A chair +was overturned, and there was a violent dab at the wall. Then a china +mantel ornament smashed upon the fender. Suddenly the door of the room +opened, and they heard him upon the landing. They clung to one another, +listening. He seemed to be dancing upon the staircase. Now he would go +down three or four steps quickly, then up again, then hurry down into the +hall. They heard the umbrella stand go over, and the fanlight break. Then +the bolt shot and the chain rattled. He was opening the door. + +They hurried to the window. It was a dim grey night; an almost unbroken +sheet of watery cloud was sweeping across the moon, and the hedge and +trees in front of the house were black against the pale roadway. They saw +Hapley, looking like a ghost in his shirt and white trousers, running to +and fro in the road, and beating the air. Now he would stop, now he would +dart very rapidly at something invisible, now he would move upon it with +stealthy strides. At last he went out of sight up the road towards the +down. Then, while they argued who should go down and lock the door, he +returned. He was walking very fast, and he came straight into the house, +closed the door carefully, and went quietly up to his bedroom. Then +everything was silent. + +"Mrs. Colville," said Hapley, calling down the staircase next morning, "I +hope I did not alarm you last night." + +"You may well ask that!" said Mrs. Colville. + +"The fact is, I am a sleep-walker, and the last two nights I have been +without my sleeping mixture. There is nothing to be alarmed about, really. +I am sorry I made such an ass of myself. I will go over the down to +Shoreham, and get some stuff to make me sleep soundly. I ought to have +done that yesterday." + +But half-way over the down, by the chalk pits, the moth came upon Hapley +again. He went on, trying to keep his mind upon chess problems, but it was +no good. The thing fluttered into his face, and he struck at it with his +hat in self-defence. Then rage, the old rage--the rage he had so often +felt against Pawkins--came upon him again. He went on, leaping and +striking at the eddying insect. Suddenly he trod on nothing, and fell +headlong. + +There was a gap in his sensations, and Hapley found himself sitting on the +heap of flints in front of the opening of the chalk-pits, with a leg +twisted back under him. The strange moth was still fluttering round his +head. He struck at it with his hand, and turning his head saw two men +approaching him. One was the village doctor. It occurred to Hapley that +this was lucky. Then it came into his mind with extraordinary vividness, +that no one would ever be able to see the strange moth except himself, and +that it behoved him to keep silent about it. + +Late that night, however, after his broken leg was set, he was feverish +and forgot his self-restraint. He was lying flat on his bed, and he began +to run his eyes round the room to see if the moth was still about. He +tried not to do this, but it was no good. He soon caught sight of the +thing resting close to his hand, by the night-light, on the green +table-cloth. The wings quivered. With a sudden wave of anger he smote at +it with his fist, and the nurse woke up with a shriek. He had missed it. + +"That moth!" he said; and then, "It was fancy. Nothing!" + +All the time he could see quite clearly the insect going round the cornice +and darting across the room, and he could also see that the nurse saw +nothing of it and looked at him strangely. He must keep himself in hand. +He knew he was a lost man if he did not keep himself in hand. But as the +night waned the fever grew upon him, and the very dread he had of seeing +the moth made him see it. About five, just as the dawn was grey, he tried +to get out of bed and catch it, though his leg was afire with pain. The +nurse had to struggle with him. + +On account of this, they tied him down to the bed. At this the moth grew +bolder, and once he felt it settle in his hair. Then, because he struck +out violently with his arms, they tied these also. At this the moth came +and crawled over his face, and Hapley wept, swore, screamed, prayed for +them to take it off him, unavailingly. + +The doctor was a blockhead, a just-qualified general practitioner, and +quite ignorant of mental science. He simply said there was no moth. Had he +possessed the wit, he might still, perhaps, have saved Hapley from his +fate by entering into his delusion, and covering his face with gauze, as +he prayed might be done. But, as I say, the doctor was a blockhead, and +until the leg was healed Hapley was kept tied to his bed, and with the +imaginary moth crawling over him. It never left him while he was awake and +it grew to a monster in his dreams. While he was awake he longed for +sleep, and from sleep he awoke screaming. + +So now Hapley is spending the remainder of his days in a padded room, +worried by a moth that no one else can see. The asylum doctor calls it +hallucination; but Hapley, when he is in his easier mood, and can talk, +says it is the ghost of Pawkins, and consequently a unique specimen and +well worth the trouble of catching. + + + + + X. + + THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST. + + +The canoe was now approaching the land. The bay opened out, and a gap in +the white surf of the reef marked where the little river ran out to the +sea; the thicker and deeper green of the virgin forest showed its course +down the distant hill slope. The forest here came close to the beach. Far +beyond, dim and almost cloudlike in texture, rose the mountains, like +suddenly frozen waves. The sea was still save for an almost imperceptible +swell. The sky blazed. + +The man with the carved paddle stopped. "It should be somewhere here," he +said. He shipped the paddle and held his arms out straight before him. + +The other man had been in the fore part of the canoe, closely scrutinising +the land. He had a sheet of yellow paper on his knee. + +"Come and look at this, Evans," he said. + +Both men spoke in low tones, and their lips were hard and dry. + +The man called Evans came swaying along the canoe until he could look over +his companion's shoulder. + +The paper had the appearance of a rough map. By much folding it was +creased and worn to the pitch of separation, and the second man held the +discoloured fragments together where they had parted. On it one could +dimly make out, in almost obliterated pencil, the outline of the bay. + +"Here," said Evans, "is the reef, and here is the gap." He ran his +thumb-nail over the chart. + +"This curved and twisting line is the river--I could do with a drink +now!--and this star is the place." + +"You see this dotted line," said the man with the map; "it is a straight +line, and runs from the opening of the reef to a clump of palm-trees. The +star comes just where it cuts the river. We must mark the place as we go +into the lagoon." + +"It's queer," said Evans, after a pause, "what these little marks down +here are for. It looks like the plan of a house or something; but what all +these little dashes, pointing this way and that, may mean I can't get a +notion. And what's the writing?" + +"Chinese," said the man with the map. + +"Of course! _He_ was a Chinee," said Evans. + +"They all were," said the man with the map. + +They both sat for some minutes staring at the land, while the canoe +drifted slowly. Then Evans looked towards the paddle. + +"Your turn with the paddle now, Hooker," said he. + +And his companion quietly folded up his map, put it in his pocket, passed +Evans carefully, and began to paddle. His movements were languid, like +those of a man whose strength was nearly exhausted. + +Evans sat with his eyes half closed, watching the frothy breakwater of the +coral creep nearer and nearer. The sky was like a furnace, for the sun was +near the zenith. Though they were so near the Treasure he did not feel the +exaltation he had anticipated. The intense excitement of the struggle for +the plan, and the long night voyage from the mainland in the unprovisioned +canoe had, to use his own expression, "taken it out of him." He tried to +arouse himself by directing his mind to the ingots the Chinamen had spoken +of, but it would not rest there; it came back headlong to the thought of +sweet water rippling in the river, and to the almost unendurable dryness +of his lips and throat. The rhythmic wash of the sea upon the reef was +becoming audible now, and it had a pleasant sound in his ears; the water +washed along the side of the canoe, and the paddle dripped between each +stroke. Presently he began to doze. + +He was still dimly conscious of the island, but a queer dream texture +interwove with his sensations. Once again it was the night when he and +Hooker had hit upon the Chinamen's secret; he saw the moonlit trees, the +little fire burning, and the black figures of the three Chinamen--silvered +on one side by moonlight, and on the other glowing from the firelight--and +heard them talking together in pigeon-English--for they came from +different provinces. Hooker had caught the drift of their talk first, and +had motioned to him to listen. Fragments of the conversation were +inaudible, and fragments incomprehensible. A Spanish galleon from the +Philippines hopelessly aground, and its treasure buried against the day of +return, lay in the background of the story; a shipwrecked crew thinned by +disease, a quarrel or so, and the needs of discipline, and at last taking +to their boats never to be heard of again. Then Chang-hi, only a year +since, wandering ashore, had happened upon the ingots hidden for two +hundred years, had deserted his junk, and reburied them with infinite +toil, single-handed but very safe. He laid great stress on the safety--it +was a secret of his. Now he wanted help to return and exhume them. +Presently the little map fluttered and the voices sank. A fine story for +two, stranded British wastrels to hear! Evans' dream shifted to the moment +when he had Chang-hi's pigtail in his hand. The life of a Chinaman is +scarcely sacred like a European's. The cunning little face of Chang-hi, +first keen and furious like a startled snake, and then fearful, +treacherous, and pitiful, became overwhelmingly prominent in the dream. At +the end Chang-hi had grinned, a most incomprehensible and startling grin. +Abruptly things became very unpleasant, as they will do at times in +dreams. Chang-hi gibbered and threatened him. He saw in his dream heaps +and heaps of gold, and Chang-hi intervening and struggling to hold him +back from it. He took Chang-hi by the pig-tail--how big the yellow brute +was, and how he struggled and grinned! He kept growing bigger, too. Then +the bright heaps of gold turned to a roaring furnace, and a vast devil, +surprisingly like Chang-hi, but with a huge black tail, began to feed him +with coals. They burnt his mouth horribly. Another devil was shouting his +name: "Evans, Evans, you sleepy fool!"--or was it Hooker? + +He woke up. They were in the mouth of the lagoon. + +"There are the three palm-trees. It must be in a line with that clump of +bushes," said his companion. "Mark that. If we, go to those bushes and +then strike into the bush in a straight line from here, we shall come to +it when we come to the stream." + +They could see now where the mouth of the stream opened out. At the sight +of it Evans revived. "Hurry up, man," he said, "or by heaven I shall have +to drink sea water!" He gnawed his hand and stared at the gleam of silver +among the rocks and green tangle. + +Presently he turned almost fiercely upon Hooker. "Give _me_ the +paddle," he said. + +So they reached the river mouth. A little way up Hooker took some water in +the hollow of his hand, tasted it, and spat it out. A little further he +tried again. "This will do," he said, and they began drinking eagerly. + +"Curse this!" said Evans suddenly. "It's too slow." And, leaning +dangerously over the fore part of the canoe, he began to suck up the water +with his lips. + +Presently they made an end of drinking, and, running the canoe into a +little creek, were about to land among the thick growth that overhung the +water. + +"We shall have to scramble through this to the beach to find our bushes +and get the line to the place," said Evans. + +"We had better paddle round," said Hooker. + +So they pushed out again into the river and paddled back down it to the +sea, and along the shore to the place where the clump of bushes grew. Here +they landed, pulled the light canoe far up the beach, and then went up +towards the edge of the jungle until they could see the opening of the +reef and the bushes in a straight line. Evans had taken a native implement +out of the canoe. It was L-shaped, and the transverse piece was armed with +polished stone. Hooker carried the paddle. "It is straight now in this +direction," said he; "we must push through this till we strike the stream. +Then we must prospect." + +They pushed through a close tangle of reeds, broad fronds, and young +trees, and at first it was toilsome going, but very speedily the trees +became larger and the ground beneath them opened out. The blaze of the +sunlight was replaced by insensible degrees by cool shadow. The trees +became at last vast pillars that rose up to a canopy of greenery far +overhead. Dim white flowers hung from their stems, and ropy creepers swung +from tree to tree. The shadow deepened. On the ground, blotched fungi and +a red-brown incrustation became frequent. + +Evans shivered. "It seems almost cold here after the blaze outside." + +"I hope we are keeping to the straight," said Hooker. + +Presently they saw, far ahead, a gap in the sombre darkness where white +shafts of hot sunlight smote into the forest. There also was brilliant +green undergrowth and coloured flowers. Then they heard the rush of water. + +"Here is the river. We should be close to it now," said Hooker. + +The vegetation was thick by the river bank. Great plants, as yet unnamed, +grew among the roots of the big trees, and spread rosettes of huge green +fans towards the strip of sky. Many flowers and a creeper with shiny +foliage clung to the exposed stems. On the water of the broad, quiet pool +which the treasure-seekers now overlooked there floated big oval leaves +and a waxen, pinkish-white flower not unlike a water-lily. Further, as the +river bent away from them, the water suddenly frothed and became noisy in +a rapid. + +"Well?" said Evans. + +"We have swerved a little from the straight," said Hooker. "That was to be +expected." + +He turned and looked into the dim cool shadows of the silent forest behind +them. "If we beat a little way up and down the stream we should come to +something." + +"You said--" began Evans. + +"_He_ said there was a heap of stones," said Hooker. + +The two men looked at each other for a moment. + +"Let us try a little down-stream first," said Evans. + +They advanced slowly, looking curiously about them. Suddenly Evans +stopped. "What the devil's that?" he said. + +Hooker followed his finger. "Something blue," he said. It had come into +view as they topped a gentle swell of the ground. Then he began to +distinguish what it was. + +He advanced suddenly with hasty steps, until the body that belonged to the +limp hand and arm had become visible. His grip tightened on the implement +he carried. The thing was the figure of a Chinaman lying on his face. The +_abandon_ of the pose was unmistakable. + +The two men drew closer together, and stood staring silently at this +ominous dead body. It lay in a clear space among the trees. Near by was a +spade after the Chinese pattern, and further off lay a scattered heap of +stones, close to a freshly dug hole. + +"Somebody has been here before," said Hooker, clearing his throat. + +Then suddenly Evans began to swear and rave, and stamp upon the ground. + +Hooker turned white but said nothing. He advanced towards the prostrate +body. He saw the neck was puffed and purple, and the hands and ankles +swollen. "Pah!" he said, and suddenly turned away and went towards the +excavation. He gave a cry of surprise. He shouted to Evans, who was +following him slowly. + +"You fool! It's all right. It's here still." Then he turned again and +looked at the dead Chinaman, and then again at the hole. + +Evans hurried to the hole. Already half exposed by the ill-fated wretch +beside them lay a number of dull yellow bars. He bent down in the hole, +and, clearing off the soil with his bare hands, hastily pulled one of the +heavy masses out. As he did so a little thorn pricked his hand. He pulled +the delicate spike out with his fingers and lifted the ingot. + +"Only gold or lead could weigh like this," he said exultantly. + +Hooker was still looking at the dead Chinaman. He was puzzled. + +"He stole a march on his friends," he said at last. "He came here alone, +and some poisonous snake has killed him... I wonder how he found the +place." + +Evans stood with the ingot in his hands. What did a dead Chinaman signify? +"We shall have to take this stuff to the mainland piecemeal, and bury it +there for a while. How shall we get it to the canoe?" + +He took his jacket off and spread it on the ground, and flung two or three +ingots into it. Presently he found that another little thorn had punctured +his skin. + +"This is as much as we can carry," said he. Then suddenly, with a queer +rush of irritation, "What are you staring at?" + +Hooker turned to him. "I can't stand him ..." He nodded towards the +corpse. "It's so like----" + +"Rubbish!" said Evans. "All Chinamen are alike." + +Hooker looked into his face. "I'm going to bury _that_, anyhow, +before I lend a hand with this stuff." + +"Don't be a fool, Hooker," said Evans, "Let that mass of corruption bide." + +Hooker hesitated, and then his eye went carefully over the brown soil +about them. "It scares me somehow," he said. + +"The thing is," said Evans, "what to do with these ingots. Shall we +re-bury them over here, or take them across the strait in the canoe?" + +Hooker thought. His puzzled gaze wandered among the tall tree-trunks, and +up into the remote sunlit greenery overhead. He shivered again as his eye +rested upon the blue figure of the Chinaman. He stared searchingly among +the grey depths between the trees. + +"What's come to you, Hooker?" said Evans. "Have you lost your wits?" + +"Let's get the gold out of this place, anyhow," said Hooker. + +He took the ends of the collar of the coat in his hands, and Evans took +the opposite corners, and they lifted the mass. "Which way?" said Evans. +"To the canoe?" + +"It's queer," said Evans, when they had advanced only a few steps, "but my +arms ache still with that paddling." + +"Curse it!" he said. "But they ache! I must rest." + +They let the coat down, Evans' face was white, and little drops of sweat +stood out upon his forehead. "It's stuffy, somehow, in this forest." + +Then with an abrupt transition to unreasonable anger: "What is the good of +waiting here all the day? Lend a hand, I say! You have done nothing but +moon since we saw the dead Chinaman." + +Hooker was looking steadfastly at his companion's face. He helped raise +the coat bearing the ingots, and they went forward perhaps a hundred yards +in silence. Evans began to breathe heavily. "Can't you speak?" he said. + +"What's the matter with you?" said Hooker. + +Evans stumbled, and then with a sudden curse flung the coat from him. He +stood for a moment staring at Hooker, and then with a groan clutched at +his own throat. + +"Don't come near me," he said, and went and leant against a tree. Then in +a steadier voice, "I'll be better in a minute." + +Presently his grip upon the trunk loosened, and he slipped slowly down the +stem of the tree until he was a crumpled heap at its foot. His hands were +clenched convulsively. His face became distorted with pain. Hooker +approached him. + +"Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" said Evans in a stifled voice. "Put the +gold back on the coat." + +"Can't I do anything for you?" said Hooker. + +"Put the gold back on the coat." + +As Hooker handled the ingots he felt a little prick on the ball of his +thumb. He looked at his hand and saw a slender thorn, perhaps two inches +in length. + +Evans gave an inarticulate cry and rolled over. + +Hooker's jaw dropped. He stared at the thorn for a moment with dilated +eyes. Then he looked at Evans, who was now crumpled together on the +ground, his back bending and straightening spasmodically. Then he looked +through the pillars of the trees and net-work of creeper stems, to where +in the dim grey shadow the blue-clad body of the Chinaman was still +indistinctly visible. He thought of the little dashes in the corner of the +plan, and in a moment he understood. + +"God help me!" he said. For the thorns were similar to those the Dyaks +poison and use in their blowing-tubes. He understood now what Chang-hi's +assurance of the safety of his treasure meant. He understood that grin +now. + +"Evans!" he cried. + +But Evans was silent and motionless, save for a horrible spasmodic +twitching of his limbs. A profound silence brooded over the forest. + +Then Hooker began to suck furiously at the little pink spot on the ball of +his thumb--sucking for dear life. Presently he felt a strange aching pain +in his arms and shoulders, and his fingers seemed difficult to bend. Then +he knew that sucking was no good. + +Abruptly he stopped, and sitting down by the pile of ingots, and resting +his chin upon his hands and his elbows upon his knees, stared at the +distorted but still quivering body of his companion. Chang-hi's grin came +into his mind again. The dull pain spread towards his throat and grew +slowly in intensity. Far above him a faint breeze stirred the greenery, +and the white petals of some unknown flower came floating down through the +gloom. + + + + + XI. + + THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM. + + +I set this story down, not expecting it will be believed, but, if +possible, to prepare a way of escape for the next victim. He, perhaps, may +profit by my misfortune. My own case, I know, is hopeless, and I am now in +some measure prepared to meet my fate. + +My name is Edward George Eden. I was born at Trentham, in Staffordshire, +my father being employed in the gardens there. I lost my mother when I was +three years old, and my father when I was five, my uncle, George Eden, +then adopting me as his own son. He was a single man, self-educated, and +well-known in Birmingham as an enterprising journalist; he educated me +generously, fired my ambition to succeed in the world, and at his death, +which happened four years ago, left me his entire fortune, a matter of +about five hundred pounds after all outgoing charges were paid. I was then +eighteen. He advised me in his will to expend the money in completing my +education. I had already chosen the profession of medicine, and through +his posthumous generosity and my good fortune in a scholarship +competition, I became a medical student at University College, London. At +the time of the beginning of my story I lodged at 11A University Street in +a little upper room, very shabbily furnished and draughty, overlooking the +back of Shoolbred's premises. I used this little room both to live in and +sleep in, because I was anxious to eke out my means to the very last +shillings-worth. + +I was taking a pair of shoes to be mended at a shop in the Tottenham Court +Road when I first encountered the little old man with the yellow face, +with whom my life has now become so inextricably entangled. He was +standing on the kerb, and staring at the number on the door in a doubtful +way, as I opened it. His eyes--they were dull grey eyes, and reddish under +the rims--fell to my face, and his countenance immediately assumed an +expression of corrugated amiability. + +"You come," he said, "apt to the moment. I had forgotten the number of +your house. How do you do, Mr. Eden?" + +I was a little astonished at his familiar address, for I had never set +eyes on the man before. I was a little annoyed, too, at his catching me +with my boots under my arm. He noticed my lack of cordiality. + +"Wonder who the deuce I am, eh? A friend, let me assure you. I have seen +you before, though you haven't seen me. Is there anywhere where I can talk +to you?" + +I hesitated. The shabbiness of my room upstairs was not a matter for every +stranger. "Perhaps," said I, "we might walk down the street. I'm +unfortunately prevented--" My gesture explained the sentence before I had +spoken it. + +"The very thing," he said, and faced this way, and then that. "The street? +Which way shall we go?" I slipped my boots down in the passage. "Look +here!" he said abruptly; "this business of mine is a rigmarole. Come and +lunch with me, Mr. Eden. I'm an old man, a very old man, and not good at +explanations, and what with my piping voice and the clatter of the +traffic----" + +He laid a persuasive skinny hand that trembled a little upon my arm. + +I was not so old that an old man might not treat me to a lunch. Yet at the +same time I was not altogether pleased by this abrupt invitation. "I had +rather----" I began. "But I had rather," he said, catching me up, "and a +certain civility is surely due to my grey hairs." + +And so I consented, and went with him. + +He took me to Blavitiski's; I had to walk slowly to accommodate myself to +his paces; and over such a lunch as I had never tasted before, he fended +off my leading question, and I took a better note of his appearance. His +clean-shaven face was lean and wrinkled, his shrivelled, lips fell over a +set of false teeth, and his white hair was thin and rather long; he seemed +small to me,--though indeed, most people seemed small to me,--and his +shoulders were rounded and bent. And watching him, I could not help but +observe that he too was taking note of me, running his eyes, with a +curious touch of greed in them, over me, from my broad shoulders to my +suntanned hands, and up to my freckled face again. "And now," said he, as +we lit our cigarettes, "I must tell you of the business in hand. + +"I must tell you, then, that I am an old man, a very old man." He paused +momentarily. "And it happens that I have money that I must presently be +leaving, and never a child have I to leave it to." I thought of the +confidence trick, and resolved I would be on the alert for the vestiges of +my five hundred pounds. He proceeded to enlarge on his loneliness, and the +trouble he had to find a proper disposition of his money. "I have weighed +this plan and that plan, charities, institutions, and scholarships, and +libraries, and I have come to this conclusion at last,"--he fixed his eyes +on my face,--"that I will find some young fellow, ambitious, pure-minded, +and poor, healthy in body and healthy in mind, and, in short, make him my +heir, give him all that I have." He repeated, "Give him all that I have. +So that he will suddenly be lifted out of all the trouble and struggle in +which his sympathies have been educated, to freedom and influence." + +I tried to seem disinterested. With a transparent hypocrisy I said, "And +you want my help, my professional services maybe, to find that person." + +He smiled, and looked at me over his cigarette, and I laughed at his quiet +exposure of my modest pretence. + +"What a career such a man might have!" he said. "It fills me with envy to +think how I have accumulated that another man may spend---- + +"But there are conditions, of course, burdens to be imposed. He must, for +instance, take my name. You cannot expect everything without some return. +And I must go into all the circumstances of his life before I can accept +him. He _must_ be sound. I must know his heredity, how his parents +and grandparents died, have the strictest inquiries made into his private +morals." + +This modified my secret congratulations a little. + +"And do I understand," said I, "that I----" + +"Yes," he said, almost fiercely. "You. _You_." + +I answered never a word. My imagination was dancing wildly, my innate +scepticism was useless to modify its transports. There was not a particle +of gratitude in my mind--I did not know what to say nor how to say it. +"But why me in particular?" I said at last. + +He had chanced to hear of me from Professor Haslar; he said, as a +typically sound and sane young man, and he wished, as far as possible, to +leave his money where health and integrity were assured. + +That was my first meeting with the little old man. He was mysterious about +himself; he would not give his name yet, he said, and after I had answered +some questions of his, he left me at the Blavitiski portal. I noticed that +he drew a handful of gold coins from his pocket when it came to paying for +the lunch. His insistence upon bodily health was curious. In accordance +with an arrangement we had made I applied that day for a life policy in +the Loyal Insurance Company for a large sum, and I was exhaustively +overhauled by the medical advisers of that company in the subsequent week. +Even that did not satisfy him, and he insisted I must be re-examined by +the great Doctor Henderson. + +It was Friday in Whitsun week before he came to a decision. He called me +down, quite late in the evening,--nearly nine it was,--from cramming +chemical equations for my Preliminary Scientific examination. He was +standing in the passage under the feeble gas-lamp, and his face was a +grotesque interplay of shadows. He seemed more bowed than when I had first +seen him, and his cheeks had sunk in a little. + +His voice shook with emotion. "Everything is satisfactory, Mr. Eden," he +said. "Everything is quite, quite satisfactory. And this night of all +nights, you must dine with me and celebrate your--accession." He was +interrupted by a cough. "You won't have long to wait, either," he said, +wiping his handkerchief across his lips, and gripping my hand with his +long bony claw that was disengaged. "Certainly not very long to wait." + +We went into the street and called a cab. I remember every incident of +that drive vividly, the swift, easy motion, the vivid contrast of gas and +oil and electric light, the crowds of people in the streets, the place in +Regent Street to which we went, and the sumptuous dinner we were served +with there. I was disconcerted at first by the well-dressed waiter's +glances at my rough clothes, bothered by the stones of the olives, but as +the champagne warmed my blood, my confidence revived. At first the old man +talked of himself. He had already told me his name in the cab; he was +Egbert Elvesham, the great philosopher, whose name I had known since I was +a lad at school. It seemed incredible to me that this man, whose +intelligence had so early dominated mine, this great abstraction, should +suddenly realise itself as this decrepit, familiar figure. I daresay every +young fellow who has suddenly fallen among celebrities has felt something +of my disappointment. He told me now of the future that the feeble streams +of his life would presently leave dry for me, houses, copyrights, +investments; I had never suspected that philosophers were so rich. He +watched me drink and eat with a touch of envy. "What a capacity for living +you have!" he said; and then with a sigh, a sigh of relief I could have +thought it, "it will not be long." + +"Ay," said I, my head swimming now with champagne; "I have a future +perhaps--of a passing agreeable sort, thanks to you. I shall now have the +honour of your name. But you have a past. Such a past as is worth all my +future." + +He shook his head and smiled, as I thought, with half sad appreciation of +my flattering admiration. "That future," he said, "would you in truth +change it?" The waiter came with liqueurs. "You will not perhaps mind +taking my name, taking my position, but would you indeed--willingly--take +my years?" + +"With your achievements," said I gallantly. + +He smiled again. "Kummel--both," he said to the waiter, and turned his +attention to a little paper packet he had taken from his pocket. "This +hour," said he, "this after-dinner hour is the hour of small things. Here +is a scrap of my unpublished wisdom." He opened the packet with his +shaking yellow fingers, and showed a little pinkish powder on the paper. +"This," said he--"well, you must guess what it is. But Kummel--put but a +dash of this powder in it--is Himmel." + +His large greyish eyes watched mine with an inscrutable expression. + +It was a bit of a shock to me to find this great teacher gave his mind to +the flavour of liqueurs. However, I feigned an interest in his weakness, +for I was drunk enough for such small sycophancy. + +He parted the powder between the little glasses, and, rising suddenly, +with a strange unexpected dignity, held out his hand towards me. I +imitated his action, and the glasses rang. "To a quick succession," said +he, and raised his glass towards his lips. + +"Not that," I said hastily. "Not that." + +He paused with the liqueur at the level of his chin, and his eyes blazing +into mine. + +"To a long life," said I. + +He hesitated. "To a long life," said he, with a sudden bark of laughter, +and with eyes fixed on one another we tilted the little glasses. His eyes +looked straight into mine, and as I drained the stuff off, I felt a +curiously intense sensation. The first touch of it set my brain in a +furious tumult; I seemed to feel an actual physical stirring in my skull, +and a seething humming filled my ears. I did not notice the flavour in my +mouth, the aroma that filled my throat; I saw only the grey intensity of +his gaze that burnt into mine. The draught, the mental confusion, the +noise and stirring in my head, seemed to last an interminable time. +Curious vague impressions of half-forgotten things danced and vanished on +the edge of my consciousness. At last he broke the spell. With a sudden +explosive sigh he put down his glass. + +"Well?" he said. + +"It's glorious," said I, though I had not tasted the stuff. + +My head was spinning. I sat down. My brain was chaos. Then my perception +grew clear and minute as though I saw things in a concave mirror. His +manner seemed to have changed into something nervous and hasty. He pulled +out his watch and grimaced at it. "Eleven-seven! And to-night I must-- +Seven-twenty-five. Waterloo! I must go at once." He called for the bill, +and struggled with his coat. Officious waiters came to our assistance. In +another moment I was wishing him good-bye, over the apron of a cab, and +still with an absurd feeling of minute distinctness, as though--how can I +express it?--I not only saw but _felt_ through an inverted +opera-glass. + +"That stuff," he said. He put his hand to his forehead. "I ought not to +have given it to you. It will make your head split to-morrow. Wait a +minute. Here." He handed me out a little flat thing like a seidlitz-powder. +"Take that in water as you are going to bed. The other thing was a +drug. Not till you're ready to go to bed, mind. It will clear your head. +That's all. One more shake--Futurus!" + +I gripped his shrivelled claw. "Good-bye," he said, and by the droop of +his eyelids I judged he too was a little under the influence of that +brain-twisting cordial. + +He recollected something else with a start, felt in his breast-pocket, and +produced another packet, this time a cylinder the size and shape of a +shaving-stick. "Here," said he. "I'd almost forgotten. Don't open this +until I come to-morrow--but take it now." + +It was so heavy that I wellnigh dropped it. "All ri'!" said I, and he +grinned at me through the cab window as the cabman flicked his horse into +wakefulness. It was a white packet he had given me, with red seals at +either end and along its edge. "If this isn't money," said I, "it's +platinum or lead." + +I stuck it with elaborate care into my pocket, and with a whirling brain +walked home through the Regent Street loiterers and the dark back streets +beyond Portland Road. I remember the sensations of that walk very vividly, +strange as they were. I was still so far myself that I could notice my +strange mental state, and wonder whether this stuff I had had was opium--a +drug beyond my experience. It is hard now to describe the peculiarity of +my mental strangeness--mental doubling vaguely expresses it. As I was +walking up Regent Street I found in my mind a queer persuasion that it +was Waterloo Station, and had an odd impulse to get into the Polytechnic +as a man might get into a train. I put a knuckle in my eye, and it was +Regent Street. How can I express it? You see a skilful actor looking +quietly at you, he pulls a grimace, and lo!--another person. Is it too +extravagant if I tell you that it seemed to me as if Regent Street had, +for the moment, done that? Then, being persuaded it was Regent Street +again, I was oddly muddled about some fantastic reminiscences that cropped +up. "Thirty years ago," thought I, "it was here that I quarrelled with my +brother." Then I burst out laughing, to the astonishment and encouragement +of a group of night prowlers. Thirty years ago I did not exist, and never +in my life had I boasted a brother. The stuff was surely liquid folly, for +the poignant regret for that lost brother still clung to me. Along +Portland Road the madness took another turn. I began to recall vanished +shops, and to compare the street with what it used to be. Confused, +troubled thinking is comprehensible enough after the drink I had taken, +but what puzzled me were these curiously vivid phantasm memories that had +crept into my mind, and not only the memories that had crept in, but also +the memories that had slipped out. I stopped opposite Stevens', the +natural history dealer's, and cudgelled my brains to think what he had to +do with me. A 'bus went by, and sounded exactly like the rumbling of a +train. I seemed to be dipping into some dark, remote pit for the +recollection. "Of course," said I, at last, "he has promised me three +frogs to-morrow. Odd I should have forgotten." + +Do they still show children dissolving views? In those I remember one view +would begin like a faint ghost, and grow and oust another. In just that +way it seemed to me that a ghostly set of new sensations was struggling +with those of my ordinary self. + +I went on through Euston Road to Tottenham Court Road, puzzled, and a +little frightened, and scarcely noticed the unusual way I was taking, for +commonly I used to cut through the intervening network of back streets. I +turned into University Street, to discover that I had forgotten my number. +Only by a strong effort did I recall 11A, and even then it seemed to me +that it was a thing some forgotten person had told me. I tried to steady +my mind by recalling the incidents of the dinner, and for the life of me I +could conjure up no picture of my host's face; I saw him only as a shadowy +outline, as one might see oneself reflected in a window through which one +was looking. In his place, however, I had a curious exterior vision of +myself, sitting at a table, flushed, bright-eyed, and talkative. + +"I must take this other powder," said I. "This is getting impossible." + +I tried the wrong side of the hall for my candle and the matches, and had +a doubt of which landing my room might be on. "I'm drunk," I said, "that's +certain," and blundered needlessly on the staircase to sustain the +proposition. + +At the first glance my room seemed unfamiliar. "What rot!" I said, and +stared about me. I seemed to bring myself back by the effort, and the odd +phantasmal quality passed into the concrete familiar. There was the old +glass still, with my notes on the albumens stuck in the corner of the +frame, my old everyday suit of clothes pitched about the floor. And yet it +was not so real after all. I felt an idiotic persuasion trying to creep +into my mind, as it were, that I was in a railway carriage in a train just +stopping, that I was peering out of the window at some unknown station. I +gripped the bed-rail firmly to reassure myself. "It's clairvoyance, +perhaps," I said. "I must write to the Psychical Research Society." + +I put the rouleau on my dressing-table, sat on my bed, and began to take +off my boots. It was as if the picture of my present sensations was +painted over some other picture that was trying to show through. "Curse +it!" said I; "my wits are going, or am I in two places at once?" +Half-undressed, I tossed the powder into a glass and drank it off. It +effervesced, and became a fluorescent amber colour. Before I was in bed +my mind was already tranquillised. I felt the pillow at my cheek, and +thereupon I must have fallen asleep. + + * * * * * + +I awoke abruptly out of a dream of strange beasts, and found myself lying +on my back. Probably every one knows that dismal, emotional dream from +which one escapes, awake indeed, but strangely cowed. There was a curious +taste in my mouth, a tired feeling in my limbs, a sense of cutaneous +discomfort. I lay with my head motionless on my pillow, expecting that my +feeling of strangeness and terror would pass away, and that I should then +doze off again to sleep. But instead of that, my uncanny sensations +increased. At first I could perceive nothing wrong about me. There was a +faint light in the room, so faint that it was the very next thing to +darkness, and the furniture stood out in it as vague blots of absolute +darkness. I stared with my eyes just over the bedclothes. + +It came into my mind that some one had entered the room to rob me of my +rouleau of money, but after lying for some moments, breathing regularly to +simulate sleep, I realised this was mere fancy. Nevertheless, the uneasy +assurance of something wrong kept fast hold of me. With an effort I raised +my head from the pillow, and peered about me at the dark. What it was I +could not conceive. I looked at the dim shapes around me, the greater and +lesser darknesses that indicated curtains, table, fireplace, bookshelves, +and so forth. Then I began to perceive something unfamiliar in the forms +of the darkness. Had the bed turned round? Yonder should be the +bookshelves, and something shrouded and pallid rose there, something that +would not answer to the bookshelves, however I looked at it. It was far +too big to be my shirt thrown on a chair. + +Overcoming a childish terror, I threw back the bedclothes and thrust my +leg out of bed. Instead of coming out of my truckle-bed upon the floor, I +found my foot scarcely reached the edge of the mattress. I made another +step, as it were, and sat up on the edge of the bed. By the side of my bed +should be the candle, and the matches upon the broken chair. I put out my +hand and touched--nothing. I waved my hand in the darkness, and it came +against some heavy hanging, soft and thick in texture, which gave a +rustling noise at my touch. I grasped this and pulled it; it appeared to +be a curtain suspended over the head of my bed. + +I was now thoroughly awake, and beginning to realise that I was in a +strange room. I was puzzled. I tried to recall the overnight +circumstances, and I found them now, curiously enough, vivid in my memory: +the supper, my reception of the little packages, my wonder whether I was +intoxicated, my slow undressing, the coolness to my flushed face of my +pillow. I felt a sudden distrust. Was that last night, or the night +before? At any rate, this room was strange to me, and I could not imagine +how I had got into it. The dim, pallid outline was growing paler, and I +perceived it was a window, with the dark shape of an oval toilet-glass +against the weak intimation of the dawn that filtered through the blind. I +stood up, and was surprised by a curious feeling of weakness and +unsteadiness. With trembling hands outstretched, I walked slowly towards +the window, getting, nevertheless, a bruise on the knee from a chair by +the way. I fumbled round the glass, which was large, with handsome brass +sconces, to find the blind cord. I could not find any. By chance I took +hold of the tassel, and with the click of a spring the blind ran up. + +I found myself looking out upon a scene that was altogether strange to me. +The night was overcast, and through the flocculent grey of the heaped +clouds there filtered a faint half-light of dawn. Just at the edge of the +sky the cloud-canopy had a blood-red rim. Below, everything was dark and +indistinct, dim hills in the distance, a vague mass of buildings running +up into pinnacles, trees like spilt ink, and below the window a tracery of +black bushes and pale grey paths. It was so unfamiliar that for the moment +I thought myself still dreaming. I felt the toilet-table; it appeared to +be made of some polished wood, and was rather elaborately furnished--there +were little cut-glass bottles and a brush upon it. There was also a queer +little object, horse-shoe shape it felt, with smooth, hard projections, +lying in a saucer. I could find no matches nor candlestick. + +I turned my eyes to the room again. Now the blind was up, faint spectres +of its furnishing came out of the darkness. There was a huge curtained +bed, and the fireplace at its foot had a large white mantel with something +of the shimmer of marble. + +I leant against the toilet-table, shut my eyes and opened them again, and +tried to think. The whole thing was far too real for dreaming. I was +inclined to imagine there was still some hiatus in my memory, as a +consequence of my draught of that strange liqueur; that I had come into my +inheritance perhaps, and suddenly lost my recollection of everything since +my good fortune had been announced. Perhaps if I waited a little, things +would be clearer to me again. Yet my dinner with old Elvesham was now +singularly vivid and recent. The champagne, the observant waiters, the +powder, and the liqueurs--I could have staked my soul it all happened a +few hours ago. + +And then occurred a thing so trivial and yet so terrible to me that I +shiver now to think of that moment. I spoke aloud. I said, "How the devil +did I get here?" ... _And the voice was not my own_. + +It was not my own, it was thin, the articulation was slurred, the +resonance of my facial bones was different. Then, to reassure myself I ran +one hand over the other, and felt loose folds of skin, the bony laxity of +age. "Surely," I said, in that horrible voice that had somehow established +itself in my throat, "surely this thing is a dream!" Almost as quickly as +if I did it involuntarily, I thrust my fingers into my mouth. My teeth +had gone. My finger-tips ran on the flaccid surface of an even row of +shrivelled gums. I was sick with dismay and disgust. + +I felt then a passionate desire to see myself, to realise at once in its +full horror the ghastly change that had come upon me. I tottered to the +mantel, and felt along it for matches. As I did so, a barking cough sprang +up in my throat, and I clutched the thick flannel nightdress I found about +me. There were no matches there, and I suddenly realised that my +extremities were cold. Sniffing and coughing, whimpering a little, +perhaps, I fumbled back to bed. "It is surely a dream," I whispered to +myself as I clambered back, "surely a dream." It was a senile repetition. +I pulled the bedclothes over my shoulders, over my ears, I thrust my +withered hand under the pillow, and determined to compose myself to sleep. +Of course it was a dream. In the morning the dream would be over, and I +should wake up strong and vigorous again to my youth and studies. I shut +my eyes, breathed regularly, and, finding myself wakeful, began to count +slowly through the powers of three. + +But the thing I desired would not come. I could not get to sleep. And the +persuasion of the inexorable reality of the change that had happened to me +grew steadily. Presently I found myself with my eyes wide open, the powers +of three forgotten, and my skinny fingers upon my shrivelled gums, I was, +indeed, suddenly and abruptly, an old man. I had in some unaccountable +manner fallen through my life and come to old age, in some way I had been +cheated of all the best of my life, of love, of struggle, of strength, and +hope. I grovelled into the pillow and tried to persuade myself that such +hallucination was possible. Imperceptibly, steadily, the dawn grew +clearer. + +At last, despairing of further sleep, I sat up in bed and looked about me. +A chill twilight rendered the whole chamber visible. It was spacious and +well-furnished, better furnished than any room I had ever slept in before. +A candle and matches became dimly visible upon a little pedestal in a +recess. I threw back the bedclothes, and, shivering with the rawness of +the early morning, albeit it was summer-time, I got out and lit the +candle. Then, trembling horribly, so that the extinguisher rattled on its +spike, I tottered to the glass and saw--_Elvesham's face_! It was +none the less horrible because I had already dimly feared as much. He had +already seemed physically weak and pitiful to me, but seen now, dressed +only in a coarse flannel nightdress, that fell apart and showed the +stringy neck, seen now as my own body, I cannot describe its desolate +decrepitude. The hollow cheeks, the straggling tail of dirty grey hair, +the rheumy bleared eyes, the quivering, shrivelled lips, the lower +displaying a gleam of the pink interior lining, and those horrible dark +gums showing. You who are mind and body together, at your natural years, +cannot imagine what this fiendish imprisonment meant to me. To be young +and full of the desire and energy of youth, and to be caught, and +presently to be crushed in this tottering ruin of a body... + +But I wander from the course of my story. For some time I must have been +stunned at this change that had come upon me. It was daylight when I did +so far gather myself together as to think. In some inexplicable way I had +been changed, though how, short of magic, the thing had been done, I could +not say. And as I thought, the diabolical ingenuity of Elvesham came home +to me. It seemed plain to me that as I found myself in his, so he must be +in possession of _my_ body, of my strength, that is, and my future. +But how to prove it? Then, as I thought, the thing became so incredible, +even to me, that my mind reeled, and I had to pinch myself, to feel my +toothless gums, to see myself in the glass, and touch the things about me, +before I could steady myself to face the facts again. Was all life +hallucination? Was I indeed Elvesham, and he me? Had I been dreaming of +Eden overnight? Was there any Eden? But if I was Elvesham, I should +remember where I was on the previous morning, the name of the town in +which I lived, what happened before the dream began. I struggled with my +thoughts. I recalled the queer doubleness of my memories overnight. But +now my mind was clear. Not the ghost of any memories but those proper to +Eden could I raise. + +"This way lies insanity!" I cried in my piping voice. I staggered to my +feet, dragged my feeble, heavy limbs to the washhand-stand, and plunged my +grey head into a basin of cold water. Then, towelling myself, I tried +again. It was no good. I felt beyond all question that I was indeed Eden, +not Elvesham. But Eden in Elvesham's body! + +Had I been a man of any other age, I might have given myself up to my fate +as one enchanted. But in these sceptical days miracles do not pass +current. Here was some trick of psychology. What a drug and a steady stare +could do, a drug and a steady stare, or some similar treatment, could +surely undo. Men have lost their memories before. But to exchange memories +as one does umbrellas! I laughed. Alas! not a healthy laugh, but a +wheezing, senile titter. I could have fancied old Elvesham laughing at my +plight, and a gust of petulant anger, unusual to me, swept across my +feelings. I began dressing eagerly in the clothes I found lying about on +the floor, and only realised when I was dressed that it was an evening +suit I had assumed. I opened the wardrobe and found some more ordinary +clothes, a pair of plaid trousers, and an old-fashioned dressing-gown. I +put a venerable smoking-cap on my venerable head, and, coughing a little +from my exertions, tottered out upon the landing. + +It was then, perhaps, a quarter to six, and the blinds were closely drawn +and the house quite silent. The landing was a spacious one, a broad, +richly-carpeted staircase went down into the darkness of the hall below, +and before me a door ajar showed me a writing-desk, a revolving bookcase, +the back of a study chair, and a fine array of bound books, shelf upon +shelf. + +"My study," I mumbled, and walked across the landing. Then at the sound of +my voice a thought struck me, and I went back to the bedroom and put in +the set of false teeth. They slipped in with the ease of old, habit. +"That's better," said I, gnashing them, and so returned to the study. + +The drawers of the writing-desk were locked. Its revolving top was also +locked. I could see no indications of the keys, and there were none in the +pockets of my trousers. I shuffled back at once to the bedroom, and went +through the dress suit, and afterwards the pockets of all the garments I +could find. I was very eager, and one might have imagined that burglars +had been at work, to see my room when I had done. Not only were there no +keys to be found, but not a coin, nor a scrap of paper--save only the +receipted bill of the overnight dinner. + +A curious weariness asserted itself. I sat down and stared at the garments +flung here and there, their pockets turned inside out. My first frenzy had +already flickered out. Every moment I was beginning to realise the immense +intelligence of the plans of my enemy, to see more and more clearly the +hopelessness of my position. With an effort I rose and hurried hobbling +into the study again. On the staircase was a housemaid pulling up the +blinds. She stared, I think, at the expression of my face. I shut the door +of the study behind me, and, seizing a poker, began an attack upon the +desk. That is how they found me. The cover of the desk was split, the lock +smashed, the letters torn out of the pigeon-holes, and tossed about the +room. In my senile rage I had flung about the pens and other such light +stationery, and overturned the ink. Moreover, a large vase upon the mantel +had got broken--I do not know how. I could find no cheque-book, no money, +no indications of the slightest use for the recovery of my body. I was +battering madly at the drawers, when the butler, backed by two +women-servants, intruded upon me. + + * * * * * + +That simply is the story of my change. No one will believe my frantic +assertions. I am treated as one demented, and even at this moment I am +under restraint. But I am sane, absolutely sane, and to prove it I have +sat down to write this story minutely as the things happened to me. I +appeal to the reader, whether there is any trace of insanity in the style +or method, of the story he has been reading. I am a young man locked away +in an old man's body. But the clear fact is incredible to everyone. +Naturally I appear demented to those who will not believe this, naturally +I do not know the names of my secretaries, of the doctors who come to see +me, of my servants and neighbours, of this town (wherever it is) where I +find myself. Naturally I lose myself in my own house, and suffer +inconveniences of every sort. Naturally I ask the oddest questions. +Naturally I weep and cry out, and have paroxysms of despair. I have no +money and no cheque-book. The bank will not recognise my signature, for I +suppose that, allowing for the feeble muscles I now have, my handwriting +is still Eden's. These people about me will not let me go to the bank +personally. It seems, indeed, that there is no bank in this town, and that +I have an account in some part of London. It seems that Elvesham kept the +name of his solicitor secret from all his household. I can ascertain +nothing. Elvesham was, of course, a profound student of mental science, +and all my declarations of the facts of the case merely confirm the theory +that my insanity is the outcome of overmuch brooding upon psychology. +Dreams of the personal identity indeed! Two days ago I was a healthy +youngster, with all life before me; now I am a furious old man, unkempt, +and desperate, and miserable, prowling about a great, luxurious, strange +house, watched, feared, and avoided as a lunatic by everyone about me. And +in London is Elvesham beginning life again in a vigorous body, and with +all the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of threescore and ten. He has +stolen my life. + +What has happened I do not clearly know. In the study are volumes of +manuscript notes referring chiefly to the psychology of memory, and parts +of what may be either calculations or ciphers in symbols absolutely +strange to me. In some passages there are indications that he was also +occupied with the philosophy of mathematics. I take it he has transferred +the whole of his memories, the accumulation that makes up his personality, +from this old withered brain of his to mine, and, similarly, that he has +transferred mine to his discarded tenement. Practically, that is, he has +changed bodies. But how such a change may be possible is without the range +of my philosophy. I have been a materialist for all my thinking life, but +here, suddenly, is a clear case of man's detachability from matter. + +One desperate experiment I am about to try. I sit writing here before +putting the matter to issue. This morning, with the help of a table-knife +that I had secreted at breakfast, I succeeded in breaking open a fairly +obvious secret drawer in this wrecked writing-desk. I discovered nothing +save a little green glass phial containing a white powder. Round the neck +of the phial was a label, and thereon was written this one word, +"_Release_." This may be--is most probably--poison. I can understand +Elvesham placing poison in my way, and I should be sure that it was his +intention so to get rid of the only living witness against him, were it +not for this careful concealment. The man has practically solved the +problem of immortality. Save for the spite of chance, he will live in my +body until it has aged, and then, again, throwing that aside, he will +assume some other victim's youth and strength. When one remembers his +heartlessness, it is terrible to think of the ever-growing experience +that... How long has he been leaping from body to body?... But I tire of +writing. The powder appears to be soluble in water. The taste is not +unpleasant. + + * * * * * + +There the narrative found upon Mr. Elvesham's desk ends. His dead body lay +between the desk and the chair. The latter had been pushed back, probably +by his last convulsions. The story was written in pencil and in a crazy +hand, quite unlike his usual minute characters. There remain only two +curious facts to record. Indisputably there was some connection between +Eden and Elvesham, since the whole of Elvesham's property was bequeathed +to the young man. But he never inherited. When Elvesham committed suicide, +Eden was, strangely enough, already dead. Twenty-four hours before, he had +been knocked down by a cab and killed instantly, at the crowded crossing +at the intersection of Gower Street and Euston Road. So that the only +human being who could have thrown light upon this fantastic narrative is +beyond the reach of questions. Without further comment I leave this +extraordinary matter to the reader's individual judgment. + + + + + XII. + + UNDER THE KNIFE. + + +"What if I die under it?" The thought recurred again and again, as I +walked home from Haddon's. It was a purely personal question. I was spared +the deep anxieties of a married man, and I knew there were few of my +intimate friends but would find my death troublesome chiefly on account of +their duty of regret. I was surprised indeed, and perhaps a little +humiliated, as I turned the matter over, to think how few could possibly +exceed the conventional requirement. Things came before me stripped of +glamour, in a clear dry light, during that walk from Haddon's house over +Primrose Hill. There were the friends of my youth: I perceived now that +our affection was a tradition, which we foregathered rather laboriously to +maintain. There were the rivals and helpers of my later career: I suppose +I had been cold-blooded or undemonstrative--one perhaps implies the other. +It may be that even the capacity for friendship is a question of physique. +There had been a time in my own life when I had grieved bitterly enough at +the loss of a friend; but as I walked home that afternoon the emotional +side of my imagination was dormant. I could not pity myself, nor feel +sorry for my friends, nor conceive of them as grieving for me. + +I was interested in this deadness of my emotional nature--no doubt a +concomitant of my stagnating physiology; and my thoughts wandered off +along the line it suggested. Once before, in my hot youth, I had suffered +a sudden loss of blood, and had been within an ace of death. I remembered +now that my affections as well as my passions had drained out of me, +leaving scarce anything but a tranquil resignation, a dreg of self-pity. +It had been weeks before the old ambitions and tendernesses and all the +complex moral interplay of a man had reasserted themselves. It occurred to +me that the real meaning of this numbness might be a gradual slipping away +from the pleasure-pain guidance of the animal man. It has been proven, I +take it, as thoroughly as anything can be proven in this world, that the +higher emotions, the moral feelings, even the subtle unselfishness of +love, are evolved from the elemental desires and fears of the simple +animal: they are the harness in which man's mental freedom goes. And it +may be that as death overshadows us, as our possibility of acting +diminishes, this complex growth of balanced impulse, propensity and +aversion, whose interplay inspires our acts, goes with it. Leaving what? + +I was suddenly brought back to reality by an imminent collision with the +butcher-boy's tray. I found that I was crossing the bridge over the +Regent's Park Canal, which runs parallel with that in the Zoological +Gardens. The boy in blue had been looking over his shoulder at a black +barge advancing slowly, towed by a gaunt white horse. In the Gardens a +nurse was leading three happy little children over the bridge. The trees +were bright green; the spring hopefulness was still unstained by the dusts +of summer; the sky in the water was bright and clear, but broken by long +waves, by quivering bands of black, as the barge drove through. The breeze +was stirring; but it did not stir me as the spring breeze used to do. + +Was this dulness of feeling in itself an anticipation? It was curious that +I could reason and follow out a network of suggestion as clearly as ever: +so, at least, it seemed to me. It was calmness rather than dulness that +was coming upon me. Was there any ground for the relief in the +presentiment of death? Did a man near to death begin instinctively to +withdraw himself from the meshes of matter and sense, even before the +cold hand was laid upon his? I felt strangely isolated--isolated without +regret--from the life and existence about me. The children playing in the +sun and gathering strength and experience for the business of life, +the park-keeper gossiping with a nursemaid, the nursing mother, the young +couple intent upon each other as they passed me, the trees by the wayside +spreading new pleading leaves to the sunlight, the stir in their +branches--I had been part of it all, but I had nearly done with it now. + +Some way down the Broad Walk I perceived that I was tired, and that my +feet were heavy. It was hot that afternoon, and I turned aside and sat +down on one of the green chairs that line the way. In a minute I had dozed +into a dream, and the tide of my thoughts washed up a vision of the +resurrection. I was still sitting in the chair, but I thought myself +actually dead, withered, tattered, dried, one eye (I saw) pecked out by +birds. "Awake!" cried a voice; and incontinently the dust of the path and +the mould under the grass became insurgent. I had never before thought of +Regent's Park as a cemetery, but now, through the trees, stretching as far +as eye could see, I beheld a flat plain of writhing graves and heeling +tombstones. There seemed to be some trouble: the rising dead appeared to +stifle as they struggled upward, they bled in their struggles, the red +flesh was torn away from the white bones. "Awake!" cried a voice; but I +determined I would not rise to such horrors. "Awake!" They would not let +me alone. "Wake up!" said an angry voice. A cockney angel! The man who +sells the tickets was shaking me, demanding my penny. + +I paid my penny, pocketed my ticket, yawned, stretched my legs, and, +feeling now rather less torpid, got up and walked on towards Langham +Place. I speedily lost myself again in a shifting maze of thoughts about +death. Going across Marylebone Road into that crescent at the end of +Langham Place, I had the narrowest escape from the shaft of a cab, and +went on my way with a palpitating heart and a bruised shoulder. It struck +me that it would have been curious if my meditations on my death on the +morrow had led to my death that day. + +But I will not weary you with more of my experiences that day and the +next. I knew more and more certainly that I should die under the +operation; at times I think I was inclined to pose to myself. The doctors +were coming at eleven, and I did not get up. It seemed scarce worth while +to trouble about washing and dressing, and though I read my newspapers and +the letters that came by the first post, I did not find them very +interesting. There was a friendly note from Addison, my old school-friend, +calling my attention to two discrepancies and a printer's error in my new +book, with one from Langridge venting some vexation over Minton. The rest +were business communications. I breakfasted in bed. The glow of pain at my +side seemed more massive. I knew it was pain, and yet, if you can +understand, I did not find it very painful. I had been awake and hot and +thirsty in the night, but in the morning bed felt comfortable. In the +night-time I had lain thinking of things that were past; in the morning I +dozed over the question of immortality. Haddon came, punctual to the +minute, with a neat black bag; and Mowbray soon followed. Their arrival +stirred me up a little. I began to take a more personal interest in the +proceedings. Haddon moved the little octagonal table close to the bedside, +and, with his broad back to me, began taking things out of his bag. I +heard the light click of steel upon steel. My imagination, I found, was +not altogether stagnant. "Will you hurt me much?" I said in an off-hand +tone. + +"Not a bit," Haddon answered over his shoulder. "We shall chloroform you. +Your heart's as sound as a bell." And as he spoke, I had a whiff of the +pungent sweetness of the anaesthetic. + +They stretched me out, with a convenient exposure of my side, and, almost +before I realised what was happening, the chloroform was being +administered. It stings the nostrils, and there is a suffocating sensation +at first. I knew I should die--that this was the end of consciousness for +me. And suddenly I felt that I was not prepared for death: I had a vague +sense of a duty overlooked--I knew not what. What was it I had not done? I +could think of nothing more to do, nothing desirable left in life; and yet +I had the strangest disinclination to death. And the physical sensation +was painfully oppressive. Of course the doctors did not know they were +going to kill me. Possibly I struggled. Then I fell motionless, and +a great silence, a monstrous silence, and an impenetrable blackness came +upon me. + +There must have been an interval of absolute unconsciousness, seconds or +minutes. Then with a chilly, unemotional clearness, I perceived that I was +not yet dead. I was still in my body; but all the multitudinous sensations +that come sweeping from it to make up the background of consciousness had +gone, leaving me free of it all. No, not free of it all; for as yet +something still held me to the poor stark flesh upon the bed--held me, yet +not so closely that I did not feel myself external to it, independent of +it, straining away from it. I do not think I saw, I do not think I heard; +but I perceived all that was going on, and it was as if I both heard and +saw. Haddon was bending over me, Mowbray behind me; the scalpel--it was a +large scalpel--was cutting my flesh at the side under the flying ribs. It +was interesting to see myself cut like cheese, without a pang, without +even a qualm. The interest was much of a quality with that one might feel +in a game of chess between strangers. Haddon's face was firm and his hand +steady; but I was surprised to perceive (_how_ I know not) that he +was feeling the gravest doubt as to his own wisdom in the conduct of the +operation. + +Mowbray's thoughts, too, I could see. He was thinking that Haddon's manner +showed too much of the specialist. New suggestions came up like bubbles +through a stream of frothing meditation, and burst one after another in +the little bright spot of his consciousness. He could not help noticing +and admiring Haddon's swift dexterity, in spite of his envious quality and +his disposition to detract. I saw my liver exposed. I was puzzled at my +own condition. I did not feel that I was dead, but I was different in some +way from my living self. The grey depression, that had weighed on me for a +year or more and coloured all my thoughts, was gone. I perceived and +thought without any emotional tint at all. I wondered if everyone +perceived things in this way under chloroform, and forgot it again when he +came out of it. It would be inconvenient to look into some heads, and not +forget. + +Although I did not think that I was dead, I still perceived quite clearly +that I was soon to die. This brought me back to the consideration of +Haddon's proceedings. I looked into his mind, and saw that he was afraid +of cutting a branch of the portal vein. My attention was distracted from +details by the curious changes going on in his mind. His consciousness was +like the quivering little spot of light which is thrown by the mirror of a +galvanometer. His thoughts ran under it like a stream, some through the +focus bright and distinct, some shadowy in the half-light of the edge. +Just now the little glow was steady; but the least movement on Mowbray's +part, the slightest sound from outside, even a faint difference in the +slow movement of the living flesh he was cutting, set the light-spot +shivering and spinning. A new sense-impression came rushing up through the +flow of thoughts; and lo! the light-spot jerked away towards it, swifter +than a frightened fish. It was wonderful to think that upon that unstable, +fitful thing depended all the complex motions of the man; that for the +next five minutes, therefore, my life hung upon its movements. And he was +growing more and more nervous in his work. It was as if a little picture +of a cut vein grew brighter, and struggled to oust from his brain another +picture of a cut falling short of the mark. He was afraid: his dread of +cutting too little was battling with his dread of cutting too far. + +Then, suddenly, like an escape of water from under a lock-gate, a great +uprush of horrible realisation set all his thoughts swirling, and +simultaneously I perceived that the vein was cut. He started back with a +hoarse exclamation, and I saw the brown-purple blood gather in a swift +bead, and run trickling. He was horrified. He pitched the red-stained +scalpel on to the octagonal table; and instantly both doctors flung +themselves upon me, making hasty and ill-conceived efforts to remedy the +disaster. "Ice!" said Mowbray, gasping. But I knew that I was killed, +though my body still clung to me. + +I will not describe their belated endeavours to save me, though I +perceived every detail. My perceptions were sharper and swifter than they +had ever been in life; my thoughts rushed through my mind with incredible +swiftness, but with perfect definition. I can only compare their crowded +clarity to the effects of a reasonable dose of opium. In a moment it would +all be over, and I should be free. I knew I was immortal, but what would +happen I did not know. Should I drift off presently, like a puff of smoke +from a gun, in some kind of half-material body, an attenuated version of +my material self? Should I find myself suddenly among the innumerable +hosts of the dead, and know the world about me for the phantasmagoria it +had always seemed? Should I drift to some spiritualistic _séance_, +and there make foolish, incomprehensible attempts to affect a purblind +medium? It was a state of unemotional curiosity, of colourless +expectation. And then I realised a growing stress upon me, a feeling as +though some huge human magnet was drawing me upward out of my body. The +stress grew and grew. I seemed an atom for which monstrous forces were +fighting. For one brief, terrible moment sensation came back to me. That +feeling of falling headlong which comes in nightmares, that feeling a +thousand times intensified, that and a black horror swept across my +thoughts in a torrent. Then the two doctors, the naked body with its cut +side, the little room, swept away from under me and vanished, as a speck +of foam vanishes down an eddy. + +I was in mid-air. Far below was the West End of London, receding +rapidly,--for I seemed to be flying swiftly upward,--and as it receded, +passing westward like a panorama. I could see, through the faint haze of +smoke, the innumerable roofs chimney-set, the narrow roadways, stippled +with people and conveyances, the little specks of squares, and the church +steeples like thorns sticking out of the fabric. But it spun away as the +earth rotated on its axis, and in a few seconds (as it seemed) I was over +the scattered clumps of town about Ealing, the little Thames a thread of +blue to the south, and the Chiltern Hills and the North Downs coming up +like the rim of a basin, far away and faint with haze. Up I rushed. And at +first I had not the faintest conception what this headlong rush upward +could mean. + +Every moment the circle of scenery beneath me grew wider and wider, and +the details of town and field, of hill and valley, got more and more hazy +and pale and indistinct, a luminous grey was mingled more and more with +the blue of the hills and the green of the open meadows; and a little +patch of cloud, low and far to the west, shone ever more dazzlingly white. +Above, as the veil of atmosphere between myself and outer space grew +thinner, the sky, which had been a fair springtime blue at first, grew +deeper and richer in colour, passing steadily through the intervening +shades, until presently it was as dark as the blue sky of midnight, and +presently as black as the blackness of a frosty starlight, and at last as +black as no blackness I had ever beheld. And first one star, and then +many, and at last an innumerable host broke out upon the sky: more stars +than anyone has ever seen from the face of the earth. For the blueness of +the sky in the light of the sun and stars sifted and spread abroad +blindingly: there is diffused light even in the darkest skies of winter, +and we do not see the stars by day only because of the dazzling +irradiation of the sun. But now I saw things--I know not how; assuredly +with no mortal eyes--and that defect of bedazzlement blinded me no longer. +The sun was incredibly strange and wonderful. The body of it was a disc of +blinding white light: not yellowish, as it seems to those who live upon +the earth, but livid white, all streaked with scarlet streaks and rimmed +about with a fringe of writhing tongues of red fire. And shooting half-way +across the heavens from either side of it and brighter than the Milky Way, +were two pinions of silver white, making it look more like those winged +globes I have seen in Egyptian sculpture than anything else I can remember +upon earth. These I knew for the solar corona, though I had never seen +anything of it but a picture during the days of my earthly life. + +When my attention came back to the earth again, I saw that it had fallen +very far away from me. Field and town were long since indistinguishable, +and all the varied hues of the country were merging into a uniform bright +grey, broken only by the brilliant white of the clouds that lay scattered +in flocculent masses over Ireland and the west of England. For now I could +see the outlines of the north of France and Ireland, and all this Island +of Britain, save where Scotland passed over the horizon to the north, or +where the coast was blurred or obliterated by cloud. The sea was a dull +grey, and darker than the land; and the whole panorama was rotating slowly +towards the east. + +All this had happened so swiftly that until I was some thousand miles or +so from the earth I had no thought for myself. But now I perceived I had +neither hands nor feet, neither parts nor organs, and that I felt neither +alarm nor pain. All about me I perceived that the vacancy (for I had +already left the air behind) was cold beyond the imagination of man; but +it troubled me not. The sun's rays shot through the void, powerless to +light or heat until they should strike on matter in their course. I saw +things with a serene self-forgetfulness, even as if I were God. And down +below there, rushing away from me,--countless miles in a second,--where a +little dark spot on the grey marked the position of London, two doctors +were struggling to restore life to the poor hacked and outworn shell I had +abandoned. I felt then such release, such serenity as I can compare to no +mortal delight I have ever known. + +It was only after I had perceived all these things that the meaning of +that headlong rush of the earth grew into comprehension. Yet it was so +simple, so obvious, that I was amazed at my never anticipating the thing +that was happening to me. I had suddenly been cut adrift from matter: all +that was material of me was there upon earth, whirling away through space, +held to the earth by gravitation, partaking of the earth-inertia, moving +in its wreath of epicycles round the sun, and with the sun and the planets +on their vast march through space. But the immaterial has no inertia, +feels nothing of the pull of matter for matter: where it parts from its +garment of flesh, there it remains (so far as space concerns it any +longer) immovable in space. _I_ was not leaving the earth: the earth +was leaving _me_, and not only the earth but the whole solar system +was streaming past. And about me in space, invisible to me, scattered in +the wake of the earth upon its journey, there must be an innumerable +multitude of souls, stripped like myself of the material, stripped like +myself of the passions of the individual and the generous emotions of the +gregarious brute, naked intelligences, things of new-born wonder and +thought, marvelling at the strange release that had suddenly come on them! + +As I receded faster and faster from the strange white sun in the black +heavens, and from the broad and shining earth upon which my being had +begun, I seemed to grow in some incredible manner vast: vast as regards +this world I had left, vast as regards the moments and periods of a human +life. Very soon I saw the full circle of the earth, slightly gibbous, like +the moon when she nears her full, but very large; and the silvery shape of +America was now in the noonday blaze wherein (as it seemed) little England +had been basking but a few minutes ago. At first the earth was large, and +shone in the heavens, filling a great part of them; but every moment she +grew smaller and more distant. As she shrank, the broad moon in its third +quarter crept into view over the rim of her disc. I looked for the +constellations. Only that part of Aries directly behind the sun and the +Lion, which the earth covered, were hidden. I recognised the tortuous, +tattered band of the Milky Way with Vega very bright between sun and +earth; and Sirius and Orion shone splendid against the unfathomable +blackness in the opposite quarter of the heavens. The Pole Star was +overhead, and the Great Bear hung over the circle of the earth. And away +beneath and beyond the shining corona of the sun were strange groupings of +stars I had never seen in my life--notably a dagger-shaped group that I +knew for the Southern Cross. All these were no larger than when they had +shone on earth, but the little stars that one scarce sees shone now +against the setting of black vacancy as brightly as the first-magnitudes +had done, while the larger worlds were points of indescribable glory and +colour. Aldebaran was a spot of blood-red fire, and Sirius condensed to +one point the light of innumerable sapphires. And they shone steadily: +they did not scintillate, they were calmly glorious. My impressions had an +adamantine hardness and brightness: there was no blurring softness, no +atmosphere, nothing but infinite darkness set with the myriads of these +acute and brilliant points and specks of light. Presently, when I looked +again, the little earth seemed no bigger than the sun, and it dwindled and +turned as I looked, until in a second's space (as it seemed to me), it was +halved; and so it went on swiftly dwindling. Far away in the opposite +direction, a little pinkish pin's head of light, shining steadily, was the +planet Mars. I swam motionless in vacancy, and, without a trace of terror +or astonishment, watched the speck of cosmic dust we call the world fall +away from me. + +Presently it dawned upon me that my sense of duration had changed; that my +mind was moving not faster but infinitely slower, that between each +separate impression there was a period of many days. The moon spun once +round the earth as I noted this; and I perceived clearly the motion of +Mars in his orbit. Moreover, it appeared as if the time between thought +and thought grew steadily greater, until at last a thousand years was but +a moment in my perception. + +At first the constellations had shone motionless against the black +background of infinite space; but presently it seemed as though the group +of stars about Hercules and the Scorpion was contracting, while Orion and +Aldebaran and their neighbours were scattering apart. Flashing suddenly +out of the darkness there came a flying multitude of particles of rock, +glittering like dust-specks in a sunbeam, and encompassed in a faintly +luminous cloud. They swirled all about me, and vanished again in a +twinkling far behind. And then I saw that a bright spot of light, that +shone a little to one side of my path, was growing very rapidly larger, +and perceived that it was the planet Saturn rushing towards me. Larger and +larger it grew, swallowing up the heavens behind it, and hiding every +moment a fresh multitude, of stars. I perceived its flattened, whirling +body, its disc-like belt, and seven of its little satellites. It grew and +grew, till it towered enormous; and then I plunged amid a streaming +multitude of clashing stones and dancing dust-particles and gas-eddies, +and saw for a moment the mighty triple belt like three concentric arches +of moonlight above me, its shadow black on the boiling tumult below. These +things happened in one-tenth of the time it takes to tell them. The planet +went by like a flash of lightning; for a few seconds it blotted out the +sun, and there and then became a mere black, dwindling, winged patch +against the light. The earth, the mother mote of my being, I could no +longer see. + +So with a stately swiftness, in the profoundest silence, the solar system +fell from me as it had been a garment, until the sun was a mere star amid +the multitude of stars, with its eddy of planet-specks lost in the +confused glittering of the remoter light. I was no longer a denizen of the +solar system: I had come to the outer Universe, I seemed to grasp and +comprehend the whole world of matter. Ever more swiftly the stars closed +in about the spot where Antares and Vega had vanished in a phosphorescent +haze, until that part of the sky had the semblance of a whirling mass of +nebulae, and ever before me yawned vaster gaps of vacant blackness, and +the stars shone fewer and fewer. It seemed as if I moved towards a point +between Orion's belt and sword; and the void about that region opened +vaster and vaster every second, an incredible gulf of nothingness into +which I was falling. Faster and ever faster the universe rushed by, a +hurry of whirling motes at last, speeding silently into the void. Stars +glowing brighter and brighter, with their circling planets catching the +light in a ghostly fashion as I neared them, shone out and vanished again +into inexistence; faint comets, clusters of meteorites, winking specks of +matter, eddying light-points, whizzed past, some perhaps a hundred +millions of miles or so from me at most, few nearer, travelling with +unimaginable rapidity, shooting constellations, momentary darts of fire, +through that black, enormous night. More than anything else it was like a +dusty draught, sunbeam-lit. Broader and wider and deeper grew the starless +space, the vacant Beyond, into which I was being drawn. At last a quarter +of the heavens was black and blank, and the whole headlong rush of stellar +universe closed in behind me like a veil of light that is gathered +together. It drove away from me like a monstrous jack-o'-lantern driven by +the wind. I had come out into the wilderness of space. Ever the vacant +blackness grew broader, until the hosts of the stars seemed only like a +swarm of fiery specks hurrying away from me, inconceivably remote, and the +darkness, the nothingness and emptiness, was about me on every side. Soon +the little universe of matter, the cage of points in which I had begun to +be, was dwindling, now to a whirling disc of luminous glittering, and now +to one minute disc of hazy light. In a little while it would shrink to a +point, and at last would vanish altogether. + +Suddenly feeling came back to me--feeling in the shape of overwhelming +terror; such a dread of those dark vastitudes as no words can describe, a +passionate resurgence of sympathy and social desire. Were there other +souls, invisible to me as I to them, about me in the blackness? or was I +indeed, even as I felt, alone? Had I passed out of being into something +that was neither being nor not-being? The covering of the body, the +covering of matter, had been torn from me, and the hallucinations of +companionship and security. Everything was black and silent. I had ceased +to be. I was nothing. There was nothing, save only that infinitesimal dot +of light that dwindled in the gulf. I strained myself to hear and see, and +for a while there was naught but infinite silence, intolerable darkness, +horror, and despair. + +Then I saw that about the spot of light into which the whole world of +matter had shrunk there was a faint glow. And in a band on either side of +that the darkness was not absolute. I watched it for ages, as it seemed to +me, and through the long waiting the haze grew imperceptibly more +distinct. And then about the band appeared an irregular cloud of the +faintest, palest brown. I felt a passionate impatience; but the things +grew brighter so slowly that they scarce seemed to change. What was +unfolding itself? What was this strange reddish dawn in the interminable +night of space? + +The cloud's shape was grotesque. It seemed to be looped along its lower +side into four projecting masses, and, above, it ended in a straight line. +What phantom was it? I felt assured I had seen that figure before; but I +could not think what, nor where, nor when it was. Then the realisation +rushed upon me. _It was a clenched Hand._ I was alone in space, alone +with this huge, shadowy Hand, upon which the whole Universe of Matter lay +like an unconsidered speck of dust. It seemed as though I watched it +through vast periods of time. On the forefinger glittered a ring; and the +universe from which I had come was but a spot of light upon the ring's +curvature. And the thing that the hand gripped had the likeness of a black +rod. Through a long eternity I watched this Hand, with the ring and the +rod, marvelling and fearing and waiting helplessly on what might follow. +It seemed as though nothing could follow: that I should watch for ever, +seeing only the Hand and the thing it held, and understanding nothing of +its import. Was the whole universe but a refracting speck upon some +greater Being? Were our worlds but the atoms of another universe, and +those again of another, and so on through an endless progression? And what +was I? Was I indeed immaterial? A vague persuasion of a body gathering +about me came into my suspense. The abysmal darkness about the Hand filled +with impalpable suggestions, with uncertain, fluctuating shapes. + +Then, suddenly, came a sound, like the sound of a tolling bell: faint, as +if infinitely far; muffled, as though heard through thick swathings of +darkness: a deep, vibrating resonance, with vast gulfs of silence between +each stroke. And the Hand appeared to tighten on the rod. And I saw far +above the Hand, towards the apex of the darkness, a circle of dim +phosphorescence, a ghostly sphere whence these sounds came throbbing; and +at the last stroke the Hand vanished, for the hour had come, and I heard a +noise of many waters. But the black rod remained as a great band across +the sky. And then a voice, which seemed to run to the uttermost parts of +space, spoke, saying, "There will be no more pain." + +At that an almost intolerable gladness and radiance rushed in upon me, and +I saw the circle shining white and bright, and the rod black and shining, +and many things else distinct and clear. And the circle was the face of +the clock, and the rod the rail of my bed. Haddon was standing at the +foot, against the rail, with a small pair of scissors on his fingers; and +the hands of my clock on the mantel over his shoulder were clasped +together over the hour of twelve. Mowbray was washing something in a basin +at the octagonal table, and at my side I felt a subdued feeling that could +scarce be spoken of as pain. + +The operation had not killed me. And I perceived, suddenly, that the dull +melancholy of half a year was lifted from my mind. + + + + + XIII. + + THE SEA RAIDERS. + + +I. + +Until the extraordinary affair at Sidmouth, the peculiar species +_Haploteuthis ferox_ was known to science only generically, on the +strength of a half-digested tentacle obtained near the Azores, and a +decaying body pecked by birds and nibbled by fish, found early in 1896 by +Mr. Jennings, near Land's End. + +In no department of zoological science, indeed, are we quite so much in +the dark as with regard to the deep-sea cephalopods. A mere accident, for +instance, it was that led to the Prince of Monaco's discovery of nearly a +dozen new forms in the summer of 1895, a discovery in which the +before-mentioned tentacle was included. It chanced that a cachalot was +killed off Terceira by some sperm whalers, and in its last struggles +charged almost to the Prince's yacht, missed it, rolled under, and died +within twenty yards of his rudder. And in its agony it threw up a number +of large objects, which the Prince, dimly perceiving they were strange and +important, was, by a happy expedient, able to secure before they sank. He +set his screws in motion, and kept them circling in the vortices thus +created until a boat could be lowered. And these specimens were whole +cephalopods and fragments of cephalopods, some of gigantic proportions, +and almost all of them unknown to science! + +It would seem, indeed, that these large and agile creatures, living in the +middle depths of the sea, must, to a large extent, for ever remain unknown +to us, since under water they are too nimble for nets, and it is only by +such rare, unlooked-for accidents that specimens can be obtained. In the +case of _Haploteuthis ferox_, for instance, we are still altogether +ignorant of its habitat, as ignorant as we are of the breeding-ground of +the herring or the sea-ways of the salmon. And zoologists are altogether +at a loss to account for its sudden appearance on our coast. Possibly it +was the stress of a hunger migration that drove it hither out of the deep. +But it will be, perhaps, better to avoid necessarily inconclusive +discussion, and to proceed at once with our narrative. + +The first human being to set eyes upon a living _Haploteuthis_--the +first human being to survive, that is, for there can be little doubt now +that the wave of bathing fatalities and boating accidents that travelled +along the coast of Cornwall and Devon in early May was due to this +cause--was a retired tea-dealer of the name of Fison, who was stopping at +a Sidmouth boarding-house. It was in the afternoon, and he was walking +along the cliff path between Sidmouth and Ladram Bay. The cliffs in this +direction are very high, but down the red face of them in one place a kind +of ladder staircase has been made. He was near this when his attention was +attracted by what at first he thought to be a cluster of birds struggling +over a fragment of food that caught the sunlight, and glistened +pinkish-white. The tide was right out, and this object was not only far +below him, but remote across a broad waste of rock reefs covered with +dark seaweed and interspersed with silvery shining tidal pools. And he +was, moreover, dazzled by the brightness of the further water. + +In a minute, regarding this again, he perceived that his judgment was in +fault, for over this struggle circled a number of birds, jackdaws and +gulls for the most part, the latter gleaming blindingly when the sunlight +smote their wings, and they seemed minute in comparison with it. And his +curiosity was, perhaps, aroused all the more strongly because of his first +insufficient explanations. + +As he had nothing better to do than amuse himself, he decided to make this +object, whatever it was, the goal of his afternoon walk, instead of Ladram +Bay, conceiving it might perhaps be a great fish of some sort, stranded by +some chance, and flapping about in its distress. And so he hurried down +the long steep ladder, stopping at intervals of thirty feet or so to take +breath and scan the mysterious movement. + +At the foot of the cliff he was, of course, nearer his object than he had +been; but, on the other hand, it now came up against the incandescent sky, +beneath the sun, so as to seem dark and indistinct. Whatever was pinkish +of it was now hidden by a skerry of weedy boulders. But he perceived that +it was made up of seven rounded bodies distinct or connected, and that the +birds kept up a constant croaking and screaming, but seemed afraid to +approach it too closely. + +Mr. Fison, torn by curiosity, began picking his way across the wave-worn +rocks, and finding the wet seaweed that covered them thickly rendered them +extremely slippery, he stopped, removed his shoes and socks, and rolled +his trousers above his knees. His object was, of course, merely to avoid +stumbling into the rocky pools about him, and perhaps he was rather glad, +as all men are, of an excuse to resume, even for a moment, the sensations +of his boyhood. At any rate, it is to this, no doubt, that he owes his +life. + +He approached his mark with all the assurance which the absolute security +of this country against all forms of animal life gives its inhabitants. +The round bodies moved to and fro, but it was only when he surmounted the +skerry of boulders I have mentioned that he realised the horrible nature +of the discovery. It came upon him with some suddenness. + +The rounded bodies fell apart as he came into sight over the ridge, and +displayed the pinkish object to be the partially devoured body of a human +being, but whether of a man or woman he was unable to say. And the rounded +bodies were new and ghastly-looking creatures, in shape somewhat +resembling an octopus, with huge and very long and flexible tentacles, +coiled copiously on the ground. The skin had a glistening texture, +unpleasant to see, like shiny leather. The downward bend of the +tentacle-surrounded mouth, the curious excrescence at the bend, the +tentacles, and the large intelligent eyes, gave the creatures a grotesque +suggestion of a face. They were the size of a fair-sized swine about the +body, and the tentacles seemed to him to be many feet in length. There +were, he thinks, seven or eight at least of the creatures. Twenty yards +beyond them, amid the surf of the now returning tide, two others were +emerging from the sea. + +Their bodies lay flatly on the rocks, and their eyes regarded him with +evil interest; but it does not appear that Mr. Fison was afraid, or that +he realised that he was in any danger. Possibly his confidence is to be +ascribed to the limpness of their attitudes. But he was horrified, of +course, and intensely excited and indignant, at such revolting creatures +preying upon human flesh. He thought they had chanced upon a drowned body. +He shouted to them, with the idea of driving them off, and finding they +did not budge, cast about him, picked up a big rounded lump of rock, and +flung it at one. + +And then, slowly uncoiling their tentacles, they all began moving towards +him--creeping at first deliberately, and making a soft purring sound to +each other. + +In a moment Mr. Fison realised that he was in danger. He shouted again, +threw both his boots, and started off, with a leap, forthwith. Twenty +yards off he stopped and faced about, judging them slow, and behold! the +tentacles of their leader were already pouring over the rocky ridge on +which he had just been standing! + +At that he shouted again, but this time not threatening, but a cry of +dismay, and began jumping, striding, slipping, wading across the uneven +expanse between him and the beach. The tall red cliffs seemed suddenly at +a vast distance, and he saw, as though they were creatures in another +world, two minute workmen engaged in the repair of the ladder-way, and +little suspecting the race for life that was beginning below them. At one +time he could hear the creatures splashing in the pools not a dozen feet +behind him, and once he slipped and almost fell. + +They chased him to the very foot of the cliffs, and desisted only when he +had been joined by the workmen at the foot of the ladder-way up the cliff. +All three of the men pelted them with stones for a time, and then hurried +to the cliff top and along the path towards Sidmouth, to secure assistance +and a boat, and to rescue the desecrated body from the clutches of these +abominable creatures. + + +II. + +And, as if he had not already been in sufficient peril that day, Mr. Fison +went with the boat to point out the exact spot of his adventure. + +As the tide was down, it required a considerable detour to reach the spot, +and when at last they came off the ladder-way, the mangled body had +disappeared. The water was now running in, submerging first one slab of +slimy rock and then another, and the four men in the boat--the workmen, +that is, the boatman, and Mr. Fison--now turned their attention from the +bearings off shore to the water beneath the keel. + +At first they could see little below them, save a dark jungle of +laminaria, with an occasional darting fish. Their minds were set on +adventure, and they expressed their disappointment freely. But presently +they saw one of the monsters swimming through the water seaward, with a +curious rolling motion that suggested to Mr. Fison the spinning roll of a +captive balloon. Almost immediately after, the waving streamers of +laminaria were extraordinarily perturbed, parted for a moment, and three +of these beasts became darkly visible, struggling for what was probably +some fragment of the drowned man. In a moment the copious olive-green +ribbons had poured again over this writhing group. + +At that all four men, greatly excited, began beating the water with oars +and shouting, and immediately they saw a tumultuous movement among the +weeds. They desisted to see more clearly, and as soon as the water was +smooth, they saw, as it seemed to them, the whole sea bottom among the +weeds set with eyes. + +"Ugly swine!" cried one of the men. "Why, there's dozens!" + +And forthwith the things began to rise through the water about them. Mr. +Fison has since described to the writer this startling eruption out of the +waving laminaria meadows. To him it seemed to occupy a considerable time, +but it is probable that really it was an affair of a few seconds only. For +a time nothing but eyes, and then he speaks of tentacles streaming out and +parting the weed fronds this way and that. Then these things, growing +larger, until at last the bottom was hidden by their intercoiling forms, +and the tips of tentacles rose darkly here and there into the air above +the swell of the waters. + +One came up boldly to the side of the boat, and clinging to this with +three of its sucker-set tentacles, threw four others over the gunwale, as +if with an intention either of oversetting the boat or of clambering into +it. Mr. Fison at once caught up the boat-hook, and, jabbing furiously at +the soft tentacles, forced it to desist. He was struck in the back and +almost pitched overboard by the boatman, who was using his oar to resist a +similar attack on the other side of the boat. But the tentacles on either +side at once relaxed their hold, slid out of sight, and splashed into the +water. + +"We'd better get out of this," said Mr. Fison, who was trembling +violently. He went to the tiller, while the boatman and one of the workmen +seated themselves and began rowing. The other workman stood up in the fore +part of the boat, with the boat-hook, ready to strike any more tentacles +that might appear. Nothing else seems to have been said. Mr. Fison had +expressed the common feeling beyond amendment. In a hushed, scared mood, +with faces white and drawn, they set about escaping from the position into +which they had so recklessly blundered. + +But the oars had scarcely dropped into the water before dark, tapering, +serpentine ropes had bound them, and were about the rudder; and creeping +up the sides of the boat with a looping motion came the suckers again. The +men gripped their oars and pulled, but it was like trying to move a boat +in a floating raft of weeds. "Help here!" cried the boatman, and Mr. Fison +and the second workman rushed to help lug at the oar. + +Then the man with the boat-hook--his name was Ewan, or Ewen--sprang up +with a curse and began striking downward over the side, as far as he could +reach, at the bank of tentacles that now clustered along the boat's +bottom. And, at the same time, the two rowers stood up to get a better +purchase for the recovery of their oars. The boatman handed his to Mr. +Fison, who lugged desperately, and, meanwhile, the boatman opened a big +clasp-knife, and leaning over the side of the boat, began hacking at the +spiring arms upon the oar shaft. + +Mr. Fison, staggering with the quivering rocking of the boat, his teeth +set, his breath coming short, and the veins starting on his hands as he +pulled at his oar, suddenly cast his eyes seaward. And there, not fifty +yards off, across the long rollers of the incoming tide, was a large boat +standing in towards them, with three women and a little child in it. A +boatman was rowing, and a little man in a pink-ribboned straw hat and +whites stood in the stern hailing them. For a moment, of course, Mr. Fison +thought of help, and then he thought of the child. He abandoned his oar +forthwith, threw up his arms in a frantic gesture, and screamed to the +party in the boat to keep away "for God's sake!" It says much for the +modesty and courage of Mr. Fison that he does not seem to be aware that +there was any quality of heroism in his action at this juncture. The oar +he had abandoned was at once drawn under, and presently reappeared +floating about twenty yards away. + +At the same moment Mr. Fison felt the boat under him lurch violently, and +a hoarse scream, a prolonged cry of terror from Hill, the boatman, caused +him to forget the party of excursionists altogether. He turned, and saw +Hill crouching by the forward row-lock, his face convulsed with terror, +and his right arm over the side and drawn tightly down. He gave now a +succession of short, sharp cries, "Oh! oh! oh!--oh!" Mr. Fison believes +that he must have been hacking at the tentacles below the water-line, and +have been grasped by them, but, of course, it is quite impossible to say +now certainly what had happened. The boat was heeling over, so that the +gunwale was within ten inches of the water, and both Ewan and the other +labourer were striking down into the water, with oar and boat-hook, on +either side of Hill's arm. Mr. Fison instinctively placed himself to +counterpoise them. + +Then Hill, who was a burly, powerful man, made a strenuous effort, and +rose almost to a standing position. He lifted his arm, indeed, clean out +of the water. Hanging to it was a complicated tangle of brown ropes, and +the eyes of one of the brutes that had hold of him, glaring straight and +resolute, showed momentarily above the surface. The boat heeled more and +more, and the green-brown water came pouring in a cascade over the side. +Then Hill slipped and fell with his ribs across the side, and his arm and +the mass of tentacles about it splashed back into the water. He rolled +over; his boot kicked Mr. Fison's knee as that gentleman rushed forward to +seize him, and in another moment fresh tentacles had whipped about his +waist and neck, and after a brief, convulsive struggle, in which the boat +was nearly capsized, Hill was lugged overboard. The boat righted with a +violent jerk that all but sent Mr. Fison over the other side, and hid the +struggle in the water from his eyes. + +He stood staggering to recover his balance for a moment, and as he did so +he became aware that the struggle and the inflowing tide had carried them +close upon the weedy rocks again. Not four yards off a table of rock still +rose in rhythmic movements above the in-wash of the tide. In a moment Mr. +Fison seized the oar from Ewan, gave one vigorous stroke, then dropping +it, ran to the bows and leapt. He felt his feet slide over the rock, and, +by a frantic effort, leapt again towards a further mass. He stumbled over +this, came to his knees, and rose again. + +"Look out!" cried someone, and a large drab body struck him. He was +knocked flat into a tidal pool by one of the workmen, and as he went down +he heard smothered, choking cries, that he believed at the time came from +Hill. Then he found himself marvelling at the shrillness and variety of +Hill's voice. Someone jumped over him, and a curving rush of foamy water +poured over him, and passed. He scrambled to his feet dripping, and +without looking seaward, ran as fast as his terror would let him +shoreward. Before him, over the flat space of scattered rocks, stumbled +the two work-men--one a dozen yards in front of the other. + +He looked over his shoulder at last, and seeing that he was not pursued, +faced about. He was astonished. From the moment of the rising of the +cephalopods out of the water he had been acting too swiftly to fully +comprehend his actions. Now it seemed to him as if he had suddenly jumped +out of an evil dream. + +For there were the sky, cloudless and blazing with the afternoon sun, the +sea weltering under its pitiless brightness, the soft creamy foam of the +breaking water, and the low, long, dark ridges of rock. The righted boat +floated, rising and falling gently on the swell about a dozen yards from +shore. Hill and the monsters, all the stress and tumult of that fierce +fight for life, had vanished as though they had never been. + +Mr. Fison's heart was beating violently; he was throbbing to the +finger-tips, and his breath came deep. + +There was something missing. For some seconds he could not think clearly +enough what this might be. Sun, sky, sea, rocks--what was it? Then he +remembered the boat-load of excursionists. It had vanished. He wondered +whether he had imagined it. He turned, and saw the two workmen standing +side by side under the projecting masses of the tall pink cliffs. He +hesitated whether he should make one last attempt to save the man Hill. +His physical excitement seemed to desert him suddenly, and leave him +aimless and helpless. He turned shoreward, stumbling and wading towards +his two companions. + +He looked back again, and there were now two boats floating, and the one +farthest out at sea pitched clumsily, bottom upward. + + + +III. + +So it was _Haploteuthis ferox_ made its appearance upon the +Devonshire coast. So far, this has been its most serious aggression. Mr. +Fison's account, taken together with the wave of boating and bathing +casualties to which I have already alluded, and the absence of fish from +the Cornish coasts that year, points clearly to a shoal of these voracious +deep-sea monsters prowling slowly along the sub-tidal coast-line. Hunger +migration has, I know, been suggested as the force that drove them hither; +but, for my own part, I prefer to believe the alternative theory of +Hemsley. Hemsley holds that a pack or shoal of these creatures may have +become enamoured of human flesh by the accident of a foundered ship +sinking among them, and have wandered in search of it out of their +accustomed zone; first waylaying and following ships, and so coming to our +shores in the wake of the Atlantic traffic. But to discuss Hemsley's +cogent and admirably-stated arguments would be out of place here. + +It would seem that the appetites of the shoal were satisfied by the catch +of eleven people--for, so far as can be ascertained, there were ten people +in the second boat, and certainly these creatures gave no further signs of +their presence off Sidmouth that day. The coast between Seaton and +Budleigh Salterton was patrolled all that evening and night by four +Preventive Service boats, the men in which were armed with harpoons and +cutlasses, and as the evening advanced, a number of more or less similarly +equipped expeditions, organised by private individuals, joined them. Mr. +Fison took no part in any of these expeditions. + +About midnight excited hails were heard from a boat about a couple of +miles out at sea to the south-east of Sidmouth, and a lantern was seen +waving in a strange manner to and fro and up and down. The nearer boats at +once hurried towards the alarm. The venturesome occupants of the boat--a +seaman, a curate, and two schoolboys--had actually seen the monsters +passing under their boat. The creatures, it seems, like most deep-sea +organisms, were phosphorescent, and they had been floating, five fathoms +deep or so, like creatures of moonshine through the blackness of the +water, their tentacles retracted and as if asleep, rolling over and over, +and moving slowly in a wedge-like formation towards the south-east. + +These people told their story in gesticulated fragments, as first one boat +drew alongside and then another. At last there was a little fleet of eight +or nine boats collected together, and from them a tumult, like the chatter +of a market-place, rose into the stillness of the night. There was little +or no disposition to pursue the shoal, the people had neither weapons nor +experience for such a dubious chase, and presently--even with a certain +relief, it may be--the boats turned shoreward. + +And now to tell what is perhaps the most astonishing fact in this whole +astonishing raid. We have not the slightest knowledge of the subsequent +movements of the shoal, although the whole south-west coast was now alert +for it. But it may, perhaps, be significant that a cachalot was stranded +off Sark on June 3. Two weeks and three days after this Sidmouth affair, a +living _Haploteuthis_ came ashore on Calais sands. It was alive, +because several witnesses saw its tentacles moving in a convulsive way. +But it is probable that it was dying. A gentleman named Pouchet obtained a +rifle and shot it. + +That was the last appearance of a living _Haploteuthis_. No others +were seen on the French coast. On the 15th of June a dead carcass, almost +complete, was washed ashore near Torquay, and a few days later a boat from +the Marine Biological station, engaged in dredging off Plymouth, picked up +a rotting specimen, slashed deeply with a cutlass wound. How the former +had come by its death it is impossible to say. And on the last day of +June, Mr. Egbert Caine, an artist, bathing near Newlyn, threw up his arms, +shrieked, and was drawn under. A friend bathing with him made no attempt +to save him, but swam at once for the shore. This is the last fact to tell +of this extraordinary raid from the deeper sea. Whether it is really the +last of these horrible creatures it is, as yet, premature to say. But it +is believed, and certainly it is to be hoped, that they have returned now, +and returned for good, to the sunless depths of the middle seas, out of +which they have so strangely and so mysteriously arisen. + + + + + XIV. + + THE OBLITERATED MAN. + + +I was--you shall hear immediately why I am not now--Egbert Craddock +Cummins. The name remains. I am still (Heaven help me!) Dramatic Critic to +the _Fiery Cross_. What I shall be in a little while I do not know. I +write in great trouble and confusion of mind. I will do what I can to make +myself clear in the face of terrible difficulties. You must bear with me a +little. When a man is rapidly losing his own identity, he naturally finds +a difficulty in expressing himself. I will make it perfectly plain in a +minute, when once I get my grip upon the story. Let me see--where +_am_ I? I wish I knew. Ah, I have it! Dead self! Egbert Craddock +Cummins! + +In the past I should have disliked writing anything quite so full of "I" +as this story must be. It is full of "I's" before and behind, like the +beast in Revelation--the one with a head like a calf, I am afraid. But my +tastes have changed since I became a Dramatic Critic and studied the +masters--G.A.S., G.B.S., G.R.S., and the others. Everything has changed +since then. At least the story is about myself--so that there is some +excuse for me. And it is really not egotism, because, as I say, since +those days my identity has undergone an entire alteration. + +That past!... I was--in those days--rather a nice fellow, rather shy-- +taste for grey in my clothes, weedy little moustache, face "interesting," +slight stutter which I had caught in my early life from a schoolfellow. +Engaged to a very nice girl, named Delia. Fairly new, she was-- +cigarettes--liked me because I was human and original. Considered I was +like Lamb--on the strength of the stutter, I believe. Father, an eminent +authority on postage stamps. She read a great deal in the British Museum. +(A perfect pairing ground for literary people, that British Museum--you +should read George Egerton and Justin Huntly M'Carthy and Gissing and the +rest of them.) We loved in our intellectual way, and shared the brightest +hopes. (All gone now.) And her father liked me because I seemed honestly +eager to hear about stamps. She had no mother. Indeed, I had the happiest +prospects a young man could have. I never went to theatres in those days. +My Aunt Charlotte before she died had told me not to. + +Then Barnaby, the editor of the _Fiery Cross_, made me--in spite of +my spasmodic efforts to escape--Dramatic Critic. He is a fine, healthy +man, Barnaby, with an enormous head of frizzy black hair and a convincing +manner, and he caught me on the staircase going to see Wembly. He had been +dining, and was more than usually buoyant. "Hullo, Cummins!" he said. "The +very man I want!" He caught me by the shoulder or the collar or something, +ran me up the little passage, and flung me over the waste-paper basket +into the arm-chair in his office. "Pray be seated," he said, as he did so. +Then he ran across the room and came back with some pink and yellow +tickets and pushed them into my hand. "Opera Comique," he said, "Thursday; +Friday, the Surrey; Saturday, the Frivolity. That's all, I think." + +"But--" I began. + +"Glad you're free," he said, snatching some proofs off the desk and +beginning to read. + +"I don't quite understand," I said. + +"_Eigh_?" he said, at the top of his voice, as though he thought I +had gone and was startled at my remark. + +"Do you want me to criticise these plays?" + +"Do something with 'em... Did you think it was a treat?" + +"But I can't." + +"Did you call me a fool?" + +"Well, I've never been to a theatre in my life." + +"Virgin soil." + +"But I don't know anything about it, you know." + +"That's just it. New view. No habits. No _clichés_ in stock. Ours is +a live paper, not a bag of tricks. None of your clockwork professional +journalism in this office. And I can rely on your integrity----" + +"But I've conscientious scruples----" + +He caught me up suddenly and put me outside his door. "Go and talk to +Wembly about that," he said. "He'll explain." + +As I stood perplexed, he opened the door again, said, "I forgot this," +thrust a fourth ticket into my hand (it was for that night--in twenty +minutes' time) and slammed the door upon me. His expression was quite +calm, but I caught his eye. + +I hate arguments. I decided that I would take his hint and become (to my +own destruction) a Dramatic Critic. I walked slowly down the passage to +Wembly. That Barnaby has a remarkable persuasive way. He has made few +suggestions during our very pleasant intercourse of four years that he has +not ultimately won me round to adopting. It may be, of course, that I am +of a yielding disposition; certainly I am too apt to take my colour from +my circumstances. It is, indeed, to my unfortunate susceptibility to vivid +impressions that all my misfortunes are due. I have already alluded to the +slight stammer I had acquired from a schoolfellow in my youth. However, +this is a digression... I went home in a cab to dress. + +I will not trouble the reader with my thoughts about the first-night +audience, strange assembly as it is,--those I reserve for my Memoirs,--nor +the humiliating story of how I got lost during the _entr'acte_ in a +lot of red plush passages, and saw the third act from the gallery. The +only point upon which I wish to lay stress was the remarkable effect of +the acting upon me. You must remember I had lived a quiet and retired +life, and had never been to the theatre before, and that I am extremely +sensitive to vivid impressions. At the risk of repetition I must insist +upon these points. + +The first effect was a profound amazement, not untinctured by alarm. The +phenomenal unnaturalness of acting is a thing discounted in the minds of +most people by early visits to the theatre. They get used to the fantastic +gestures, the flamboyant emotions, the weird mouthings, melodious +snortings, agonising yelps, lip-gnawings, glaring horrors, and other +emotional symbolism of the stage. It becomes at last a mere deaf-and-dumb +language to them, which they read intelligently _pari passu_ with the +hearing of the dialogue. But all this was new to me. The thing was called +a modern comedy, the people were supposed to be English and were dressed +like fashionable Americans of the current epoch, and I fell into the +natural error of supposing that the actors were trying to represent human +beings. I looked round on my first-night audience with a kind of wonder, +discovered--as all new Dramatic Critics do--that it rested with me to +reform the Drama, and, after a supper choked with emotion, went off to the +office to write a column, piebald with "new paragraphs" (as all my stuff +is--it fills out so) and purple with indignation. Barnaby was delighted. + +But I could not sleep that night. I dreamt of actors--actors glaring, +actors smiting their chests, actors flinging out a handful of extended +fingers, actors smiling bitterly, laughing despairingly, falling +hopelessly, dying idiotically. I got up at eleven with a slight headache, +read my notice in the _Fiery Cross_, breakfasted, and went back to my +room to shave, (It's my habit to do so.) Then an odd thing happened. I +could not find my razor. Suddenly it occurred to me that I had not +unpacked it the day before. + +"Ah!" said I, in front of the looking-glass. Then "Hullo!" + +Quite involuntarily, when I had thought of my portmanteau, I had flung up +the left arm (fingers fully extended) and clutched at my diaphragm with my +right hand. I am an acutely self-conscious man at all times. The gesture +struck me as absolutely novel for me. I repeated it, for my own +satisfaction. "Odd!" Then (rather puzzled) I turned to my portmanteau. + +After shaving, my mind reverted to the acting I had seen, and I +entertained myself before the cheval glass with some imitations of +Jafferay's more exaggerated gestures. "Really, one might think it a +disease," I said--"Stage-Walkitis!" (There's many a truth spoken in jest.) +Then, if I remember rightly, I went off to see Wembly, and afterwards +lunched at the British Museum with Delia. We actually spoke about our +prospects, in the light of my new appointment. + +But that appointment was the beginning of my downfall. From that day I +necessarily became a persistent theatre-goer, and almost insensibly I +began to change. The next thing I noticed after the gesture about the +razor was to catch myself bowing ineffably when I met Delia, and stooping +in an old-fashioned, courtly way over her hand. Directly I caught myself, +I straightened myself up and became very uncomfortable. I remember she +looked at me curiously. Then, in the office, I found myself doing "nervous +business," fingers on teeth, when Barnaby asked me a question I could not +very well answer. Then, in some trifling difference with Delia, I clasped +my hand to my brow. And I pranced through my social transactions at times +singularly like an actor! I tried not to--no one could be more keenly +alive to the arrant absurdity of the histrionic bearing. And I did! + +It began to dawn on me what it all meant. The acting, I saw, was too much +for my delicately-strung nervous system. I have always, I know, been too +amenable to the suggestions of my circumstances. Night after night of +concentrated attention to the conventional attitudes and intonation of the +English stage was gradually affecting my speech and carriage. I was giving +way to the infection of sympathetic imitation. Night after night my +plastic nervous system took the print of some new amazing gesture, some +new emotional exaggeration--and retained it. A kind of theatrical veneer +threatened to plate over and obliterate my private individuality +altogether. I saw myself in a kind of vision. Sitting by myself one night, +my new self seemed to me to glide, posing and gesticulating, across the +room. He clutched his throat, he opened his fingers, he opened his legs in +walking like a high-class marionette. He went from attitude to attitude. +He might have been clockwork. Directly after this I made an ineffectual +attempt to resign my theatrical work. But Barnaby persisted in talking +about the Polywhiddle Divorce all the time I was with him, and I could get +no opportunity of saying what I wished. + +And then Delia's manner began to change towards me. The ease of our +intercourse vanished. I felt she was learning to dislike me. I grinned, +and capered, and scowled, and posed at her in a thousand ways, and +knew--with what a voiceless agony!--that I did it all the time. I tried to +resign again, and Barnaby talked about "X" and "Z" and "Y" in the _New +Review,_ and gave me a strong cigar to smoke, and so routed me. And +then I walked up the Assyrian Gallery in the manner of Irving to meet +Delia, and so precipitated the crisis. + +"Ah!--_Dear_!" I said, with more sprightliness and emotion in my +voice than had ever been in all my life before I became (to my own +undoing) a Dramatic Critic. + +She held out her hand rather coldly, scrutinising my face as she did so. I +prepared, with a new-won grace, to walk by her side. "Egbert," she said, +standing still, and thought. Then she looked at me. + +I said nothing. I felt what was coming. I tried to be the old Egbert +Craddock Cummins of shambling gait and stammering sincerity, whom she +loved, but I felt even as I did so that I was a new thing, a thing of +surging emotions and mysterious fixity--like no human being that ever +lived, except upon the stage. "Egbert," she said, "you are not yourself." + +"Ah!" Involuntarily I clutched my diaphragm and averted my head (as is the +way with them). + +"There!" she said. + +"_What do you mean_?" I said, whispering in vocal italics--you know +how they do it--turning on her, perplexity on face, right hand down, left +on brow. I knew quite well what she meant. I knew quite well the dramatic +unreality of my behaviour. But I struggled against it in vain. "What do +you mean?" I said, and, in a kind of hoarse whisper, "I don't understand!" + +She really looked as though she disliked me. "What do you keep on posing +for?" she said. "I don't like it. You didn't use to." + +"Didn't use to!" I said slowly, repeating this twice. I glared up and down +the gallery with short, sharp glances. "We are alone," I said swiftly. +"_Listen!_" I poked my forefinger towards her, and glared at her. +"I am under a curse." + +I saw her hand tighten upon her sunshade. "You are under some bad +influence or other," said Delia. "You should give it up. I never knew +anyone change as you have done." + +"Delia!" I said, lapsing into the pathetic. "Pity me, Augh! Delia! +_Pit_--y me!" + +She eyed me critically. "_Why_ you keep playing the fool like this I +don't know," she said. "Anyhow, I really cannot go about with a man who +behaves as you do. You made us both ridiculous on Wednesday. Frankly, I +dislike you, as you are now. I met you here to tell you so--as it's about +the only place where we can be sure of being alone together----" + +"Delia!" said I, with intensity, knuckles of clenched hands white. "You +don't mean----" + +"I do," said Delia. "A woman's lot is sad enough at the best of times. But +with you----" + +I clapped my hand on my brow. + +"So, good-bye," said Delia, without emotion. + +"Oh, Delia!" I said. "Not _this_?" + +"Good-bye, Mr. Cummins," she said. + +By a violent effort I controlled myself and touched her hand. I tried to +say some word of explanation to her. She looked into my working face and +winced. "I _must_ do it," she said hopelessly. Then she turned from +me and began walking rapidly down the gallery. + +Heavens! How the human agony cried within me! I loved Delia. But nothing +found expression--I was already too deeply crusted with my acquired self. + +"Good-baye!" I said at last, watching her retreating figure. How I hated +myself for doing it! After she had vanished, I repeated in a dreamy way, +"Good-baye!" looking hopelessly round me. Then, with a kind of +heart-broken cry, I shook my clenched fists in the air, staggered to the +pedestal of a winged figure, buried my face in my arms, and made my +shoulders heave. Something within me said "Ass!" as I did so. (I had the +greatest difficulty in persuading the Museum policeman, who was attracted +by my cry of agony, that I was not intoxicated, but merely suffering from +a transient indisposition.) + +But even this great sorrow has not availed to save me from my fate. I see +it; everyone sees it: I grow more "theatrical" every day. And no one could +be more painfully aware of the pungent silliness of theatrical ways. The +quiet, nervous, but pleasing E.C. Cummins vanishes. I cannot save him. I +am driven like a dead leaf before the winds of March. My tailor even +enters into the spirit of my disorder. He has a peculiar sense of what is +fitting. I tried to get a dull grey suit from him this spring, and he +foisted a brilliant blue upon me, and I see he has put braid down the +sides of my new dress trousers. My hairdresser insists upon giving me a +"wave." + +I am beginning to associate with actors. I detest them, but it is only in +their company that I can feel I am not glaringly conspicuous. Their talk +infects me. I notice a growing tendency to dramatic brevity, to dashes and +pauses in my style, to a punctuation of bows and attitudes. Barnaby has +remarked it too. I offended Wembly by calling him "Dear Boy" yesterday. I +dread the end, but I cannot escape from it. + +The fact is, I am being obliterated. Living a grey, retired life all my +youth, I came to the theatre a delicate sketch of a man, a thing of tints +and faint lines. Their gorgeous colouring has effaced me altogether. +People forget how much mode of expression, method of movement, are a +matter of contagion. I have heard of stage-struck people before, and +thought it a figure of speech. I spoke of it jestingly, as a disease. It +is no jest. It is a disease. And I have got it badly! Deep down within me +I protest against the wrong done to my personality--unavailingly. For +three hours or more a week I have to go and concentrate my attention on +some fresh play, and the suggestions of the drama strengthen their awful +hold upon me. My manners grow so flamboyant, my passions so professional, +that I doubt, as I said at the outset, whether it is really myself that +behaves in such a manner. I feel merely the core to this dramatic casing, +that grows thicker and presses upon me--me and mine. I feel like King +John's abbot in his cope of lead. + +I doubt, indeed, whether I should not abandon the struggle altogether-- +leave this sad world of ordinary life for which I am so ill fitted, +abandon the name of Cummins for some professional pseudonym, complete my +self-effacement, and--a thing of tricks and tatters, of posing and +pretence--go upon the stage. It seems my only resort--"to hold the mirror +up to Nature." For in the ordinary life, I will confess, no one now seems +to regard me as both sane and sober. Only upon the stage, I feel +convinced, will people take me seriously. That will be the end of it. I +_know_ that will be the end of it. And yet ... I will frankly confess +... all that marks off your actor from your common man ... I +_detest_. I am still largely of my Aunt Charlotte's opinion, that +play-acting is unworthy of a pure-minded man's attention, much more +participation. Even now I would resign my dramatic criticism and try a +rest. Only I can't get hold of Barnaby. Letters of resignation he never +notices. He says it is against the etiquette of journalism to write to +your Editor. And when I go to see him, he gives me another big cigar and +some strong whisky and soda, and then something always turns up to prevent +my explanation. + + + + + XV. + + THE PLATTNER STORY. + + +Whether the story of Gottfried Plattner is to be credited or not is a +pretty question in the value of evidence. On the one hand, we have seven +witnesses--to be perfectly exact, we have six and a half pairs of eyes, +and one undeniable fact; and on the other we have--what is it?--prejudice, +common-sense, the inertia of opinion. Never were there seven more +honest-seeming witnesses; never was there a more undeniable fact than the +inversion of Gottfried Plattner's anatomical structure, and--never was +there a more preposterous story than the one they have to tell! The most +preposterous part of the story is the worthy Gottfried's contribution (for +I count him as one of the seven). Heaven forbid that I should be led into +giving countenance to superstition by a passion for impartiality, and so +come to share the fate of Eusapia's patrons! Frankly, I believe there is +something crooked about this business of Gottfried Plattner; but what that +crooked factor is, I will admit as frankly, I do not know. I have been +surprised at the credit accorded to the story in the most unexpected and +authoritative quarters. The fairest way to the reader, however, will be +for me to tell it without further comment. + +Gottfried Plattner is, in spite of his name, a freeborn Englishman. His +father was an Alsatian who came to England in the 'sixties, married a +respectable English girl of unexceptionable antecedents, and died, after a +wholesome and uneventful life (devoted, I understand, chiefly to the +laying of parquet flooring), in 1887. Gottfried's age is seven-and-twenty. +He is, by virtue of his heritage of three languages, Modern Languages +Master in a small private school in the south of England. To the casual +observer he is singularly like any other Modern Languages Master in any +other small private school. His costume is neither very costly nor very +fashionable, but, on the other hand, it is not markedly cheap or shabby; +his complexion, like his height and his bearing, is inconspicuous. You +would notice, perhaps, that, like the majority of people, his face was not +absolutely symmetrical, his right eye a little larger than the left, and +his jaw a trifle heavier on the right side. If you, as an ordinary +careless person, were to bare his chest and feel his heart beating, you +would probably find it quite like the heart of anyone else. But here you +and the trained observer would part company. If you found his heart quite +ordinary, the trained observer would find it quite otherwise. And once the +thing was pointed out to you, you too would perceive the peculiarity +easily enough. It is that Gottfried's heart beats on the right side of his +body. + +Now, that is not the only singularity of Gottfried's structure, although +it is the only one that would appeal to the untrained mind. Careful +sounding of Gottfried's internal arrangements by a well-known surgeon +seems to point to the fact that all the other unsymmetrical parts of his +body are similarly misplaced. The right lobe of his liver is on the left +side, the left on his right; while his lungs, too, are similarly +contraposed. What is still more singular, unless Gottfried is a consummate +actor, we must believe that his right hand has recently become his left. +Since the occurrences we are about to consider (as impartially as +possible), he has found the utmost difficulty in writing, except from +right to left across the paper with his left hand. He cannot throw with +his right hand, he is perplexed at meal-times between knife and fork, and +his ideas of the rule of the road--he is a cyclist--are still a dangerous +confusion. And there is not a scrap of evidence to show that before these +occurrences Gottfried was at all left-handed. + +There is yet another wonderful fact in this preposterous business. +Gottfried produces three photographs of himself. You have him at the age +of five or six, thrusting fat legs at you from under a plaid frock, and +scowling. In that photograph his left eye is a little larger than his +right, and his jaw is a trifle heavier on the left side. This is the +reverse of his present living condition. The photograph of Gottfried at +fourteen seems to contradict these facts, but that is because it is one of +those cheap "Gem" photographs that were then in vogue, taken direct upon +metal, and therefore reversing things just as a looking-glass would. The +third photograph represents him at one-and-twenty, and confirms the record +of the others. There seems here evidence of the strongest confirmatory +character that Gottfried has exchanged his left side for his right. Yet +how a human being can be so changed, short of a fantastic and pointless +miracle, it is exceedingly hard to suggest. + +In one way, of course, these facts might be explicable on the supposition +that Plattner has undertaken an elaborate mystification, on the strength +of his heart's displacement. Photographs may be faked, and left-handedness +imitated. But the character of the man does not lend itself to any such +theory. He is quiet, practical, unobtrusive, and thoroughly sane, from the +Nordau standpoint. He likes beer, and smokes moderately, takes walking +exercise daily, and has a healthily high estimate of the value of his +teaching. He has a good but untrained tenor voice, and takes a pleasure in +singing airs of a popular and cheerful character. He is fond, but not +morbidly fond, of reading,--chiefly fiction pervaded with a vaguely pious +optimism,--sleeps well, and rarely dreams. He is, in fact, the very last +person to evolve a fantastic fable. Indeed, so far from forcing this story +upon the world, he has been singularly reticent on the matter. He meets +enquirers with a certain engaging--bashfulness is almost the word, that +disarms the most suspicious. He seems genuinely ashamed that anything so +unusual has occurred to him. + +It is to be regretted that Plattner's aversion to the idea of post-mortem +dissection may postpone, perhaps for ever, the positive proof that his +entire body has had its left and right sides transposed. Upon that fact +mainly the credibility of his story hangs. There is no way of taking a man +and moving him about in space as ordinary people understand space, that +will result in our changing his sides. Whatever you do, his right is still +his right, his left his left. You can do that with a perfectly thin and +flat thing, of course. If you were to cut a figure out of paper, any +figure with a right and left side, you could change its sides simply by +lifting it up and turning it over. But with a solid it is different. +Mathematical theorists tell us that the only way in which the right and +left sides of a solid body can be changed is by taking that body clean out +of space as we know it,--taking it out of ordinary existence, that is, and +turning it somewhere outside space. This is a little abstruse, no doubt, +but anyone with any knowledge of mathematical theory will assure the +reader of its truth. To put the thing in technical language, the curious +inversion of Plattner's right and left sides is proof that he has moved +out of our space into what is called the Fourth Dimension, and that he has +returned again to our world. Unless we choose to consider ourselves the +victims of an elaborate and motiveless fabrication, we are almost bound to +believe that this has occurred. + +So much for the tangible facts. We come now to the account of the +phenomena that attended his temporary disappearance from the world. It +appears that in the Sussexville Proprietary School, Plattner not only +discharged the duties of Modern Languages Master, but also taught +chemistry, commercial geography, bookkeeping, shorthand, drawing, and any +other additional subject to which the changing fancies of the boys' +parents might direct attention. He knew little or nothing of these various +subjects, but in secondary as distinguished from Board or elementary +schools, knowledge in the teacher is, very properly, by no means so +necessary as high moral character and gentlemanly tone. In chemistry he +was particularly deficient, knowing, he says, nothing beyond the Three +Gases (whatever the three gases may be). As, however, his pupils began by +knowing nothing, and derived all their information from him, this caused +him (or anyone) but little inconvenience for several terms. Then a little +boy named Whibble joined the school, who had been educated (it seems) by +some mischievous relative into an inquiring habit of mind. This little boy +followed Plattner's lessons with marked and sustained interest, and in +order to exhibit his zeal on the subject, brought, at various times, +substances for Plattner to analyse. Plattner, flattered by this evidence +of his power of awakening interest, and trusting to the boy's ignorance, +analysed these, and even, made general statements as to their composition. +Indeed, he was so far stimulated by his pupil as to obtain a work upon +analytical chemistry, and study it during his supervision of the evening's +preparation. He was surprised to find chemistry quite an interesting +subject. + +So far the story is absolutely commonplace. But now the greenish powder +comes upon the scene. The source of that greenish powder seems, +unfortunately, lost. Master Whibble tells a tortuous story of finding it +done up in a packet in a disused limekiln near the Downs. It would have +been an excellent thing for Plattner, and possibly for Master Whibble's +family, if a match could have been applied to that powder there and then. +The young gentleman certainly did not bring it to school in a packet, but +in a common eight-ounce graduated medicine bottle, plugged with masticated +newspaper. He gave it to Plattner at the end of the afternoon school. Four +boys had been detained after school prayers in order to complete some +neglected tasks, and Plattner was supervising these in the small class-room +in which the chemical teaching was conducted. The appliances for the +practical teaching of chemistry in the Sussexville Proprietary School, as +in most small schools in this country, are characterised by a severe +simplicity. They are kept in a small cupboard standing in a recess, and +having about the same capacity as a common travelling trunk. Plattner, +being bored with his passive superintendence, seems to have welcomed the +intervention of Whibble with his green powder as an agreeable diversion, +and, unlocking this cupboard, proceeded at once with his analytical +experiments. Whibble sat, luckily for himself, at a safe distance, +regarding him. The four malefactors, feigning a profound absorption in +their work, watched him furtively with the keenest interest. For even +within the limits of the Three Gases, Plattner's practical chemistry was, +I understand, temerarious. + +They are practically unanimous in their account of Plattner's proceedings. +He poured a little of the green powder into a test-tube, and tried the +substance with water, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and sulphuric acid +in succession. Getting no result, he emptied out a little heap--nearly +half the bottleful, in fact--upon a slate and tried a match. He held the +medicine bottle in his left hand. The stuff began to smoke and melt, and +then exploded with deafening violence and a blinding flash. + +The five boys, seeing the flash and being prepared for catastrophes, +ducked below their desks, and were none of them seriously hurt. The window +was blown out into the playground, and the blackboard on its easel was +upset. The slate was smashed to atoms. Some plaster fell from the ceiling. +No other damage was done to the school edifice or appliances, and the boys +at first, seeing nothing of Plattner, fancied he was knocked down and +lying out of their sight below the desks. They jumped out of their places +to go to his assistance, and were amazed to find the space empty. Being +still confused by the sudden violence of the report, they hurried to the +open door, under the impression that he must have been hurt, and have +rushed out of the room. But Carson, the foremost, nearly collided in the +doorway with the principal, Mr. Lidgett. + +Mr. Lidgett is a corpulent, excitable man with one eye. The boys describe +him as stumbling into the room mouthing some of those tempered expletives +irritable schoolmasters accustom themselves to use--lest worse befall. +"Wretched mumchancer!" he said. "Where's Mr. Plattner?" The boys are +agreed on the very words. ("Wobbler," "snivelling puppy," and "mumchancer" +are, it seems, among the ordinary small change of Mr. Lidgett's scholastic +commerce.) + +Where's Mr. Plattner? That was a question that was to be repeated many +times in the next few days. It really seemed as though that frantic +hyperbole, "blown to atoms," had for once realised itself. There was not a +visible particle of Plattner to be seen; not a drop of blood nor a stitch +of clothing to be found. Apparently he had been blown clean out of +existence and left not a wrack behind. Not so much as would cover a +sixpenny piece, to quote a proverbial expression! The evidence of his +absolute disappearance as a consequence of that explosion is indubitable. + +It is not necessary to enlarge here upon the commotion excited in the +Sussexville Proprietary School, and in Sussexville and elsewhere, by this +event. It is quite possible, indeed, that some of the readers of these +pages may recall the hearing of some remote and dying version of that +excitement during the last summer holidays. Lidgett, it would seem, did +everything in his power to suppress and minimise the story. He instituted +a penalty of twenty-five lines for any mention of Plattner's name among +the boys, and stated in the schoolroom that he was clearly aware of his +assistant's whereabouts. He was afraid, he explains, that the possibility +of an explosion happening, in spite of the elaborate precautions taken to +minimise the practical teaching of chemistry, might injure the reputation +of the school; and so might any mysterious quality in Plattner's +departure. Indeed, he did everything in his power to make the occurrence +seem as ordinary as possible. In particular, he cross-examined the five +eye-witnesses of the occurrence so searchingly that they began to doubt +the plain evidence of their senses. But, in spite of these efforts, the +tale, in a magnified and distorted state, made a nine days' wonder in the +district, and several parents withdrew their sons on colourable pretexts. +Not the least remarkable point in the matter is the fact that a large +number of people in the neighbourhood dreamed singularly vivid dreams of +Plattner during the period of excitement before his return, and that these +dreams had a curious uniformity. In almost all of them Plattner was seen, +sometimes singly, sometimes in company, wandering about through a +coruscating iridescence. In all cases his face was pale and distressed, +and in some he gesticulated towards the dreamer. One or two of the boys, +evidently under the influence of nightmare, fancied that Plattner +approached them with remarkable swiftness, and seemed to look closely into +their very eyes. Others fled with Plattner from the pursuit of vague and +extraordinary creatures of a globular shape. But all these fancies were +forgotten in inquiries and speculations when on the Wednesday next but one +after the Monday of the explosion, Plattner returned. + +The circumstances of his return were as singular as those of his +departure. So far as Mr. Lidgett's somewhat choleric outline can be filled +in from Plattner's hesitating statements, it would appear that on +Wednesday evening, towards the hour of sunset, the former gentleman, +having dismissed evening preparation, was engaged in his garden, picking +and eating strawberries, a fruit of which he is inordinately fond. It is a +large old-fashioned garden, secured from observation, fortunately, by a +high and ivy-covered red-brick wall. Just as he was stooping over a +particularly prolific plant, there was a flash in the air and a heavy +thud, and before he could look round, some heavy body struck him violently +from behind. He was pitched forward, crushing the strawberries he held in +his hand, and that so roughly, that his silk hat--Mr. Lidgett adheres to +the older ideas of scholastic costume--was driven violently down upon his +forehead, and almost over one eye. This heavy missile, which slid over him +sideways and collapsed into a sitting posture among the strawberry plants, +proved to be our long-lost Mr. Gottfried Plattner, in an extremely +dishevelled condition. He was collarless and hatless, his linen was dirty, +and there was blood upon his hands. Mr. Lidgett was so indignant and +surprised that he remained on all-fours, and with his hat jammed down on +his eye, while he expostulated vehemently with Plattner for his +disrespectful and unaccountable conduct. + +This scarcely idyllic scene completes what I may call the exterior version +of the Plattner story--its exoteric aspect. It is quite unnecessary to +enter here into all the details of his dismissal by Mr. Lidgett. Such +details, with the full names and dates and references, will be found in +the larger report of these occurrences that was laid before the Society +for the Investigation of Abnormal Phenomena. The singular transposition of +Plattner's right and left sides was scarcely observed for the first day or +so, and then first in connection with his disposition to write from right +to left across the blackboard. He concealed rather than ostended this +curious confirmatory circumstance, as he considered it would unfavourably +affect his prospects in a new situation. The displacement of his heart was +discovered some months after, when he was having a tooth extracted under +anaesthetics. He then, very unwillingly, allowed a cursory surgical +examination to be made of himself, with a view to a brief account in the +_Journal of Anatomy_. That exhausts the statement of the material +facts; and we may now go on to consider Plattner's account of the matter. + +But first let us clearly differentiate between the preceding portion of +this story and what is to follow. All I have told thus far is established +by such evidence as even a criminal lawyer would approve. Every one of the +witnesses is still alive; the reader, if he have the leisure, may hunt the +lads out to-morrow, or even brave the terrors of the redoubtable Lidgett, +and cross-examine and trap and test to his heart's content; Gottfried +Plattner himself, and his twisted heart and his three photographs, are +producible. It may be taken as proved that he did disappear for nine days +as the consequence of an explosion; that he returned almost as violently, +under circumstances in their nature annoying to Mr. Lidgett, whatever the +details of those circumstances may be; and that he returned inverted, just +as a reflection returns from a mirror. From the last fact, as I have +already stated, it follows almost inevitably that Plattner, during those +nine days, must have been in some state of existence altogether out of +space. The evidence to these statements is, indeed, far stronger than that +upon which most murderers are hanged. But for his own particular account +of where he had been, with its confused explanations and wellnigh +self-contradictory details, we have only Mr. Gottfried Plattner's word. I +do not wish to discredit that, but I must point out--what so many writers +upon obscure psychic phenomena fail to do--that we are passing here from +the practically undeniable to that kind of matter which any reasonable man +is entitled to believe or reject as he thinks proper. The previous +statements render it plausible; its discordance with common experience +tilts it towards the incredible. I would prefer not to sway the beam of +the reader's judgment either way, but simply to tell the story as Plattner +told it me. + +He gave me his narrative, I may state, at my house at Chislehurst, and so +soon as he had left me that evening, I went into my study and wrote down +everything as I remembered it. Subsequently he was good enough to read +over a type-written copy, so that its substantial correctness is +undeniable. + +He states that at the moment of the explosion he distinctly thought he was +killed. He felt lifted off his feet and driven forcibly backward. It is a +curious fact for psychologists that he thought clearly during his backward +flight, and wondered whether he should hit the chemistry cupboard or the +blackboard easel. His heels struck ground, and he staggered and fell +heavily into a sitting position on something soft and firm. For a moment +the concussion stunned him. He became aware at once of a vivid scent of +singed hair, and he seemed to hear the voice of Lidgett asking for him. +You will understand that for a time his mind was greatly confused. + +At first he was under the impression that he was still standing in the +class-room. He perceived quite distinctly the surprise of the boys and the +entry of Mr. Lidgett. He is quite positive upon that score. He did not +hear their remarks; but that he ascribed to the deafening effect of the +experiment. Things about him seemed curiously dark and faint, but his mind +explained that on the obvious but mistaken idea that the explosion had +engendered a huge volume of dark smoke. Through the dimness the figures of +Lidgett and the boys moved, as faint and silent as ghosts. Plattner's face +still tingled with the stinging heat of the flash. He, was, he says, "all +muddled." His first definite thoughts seem to have been of his personal +safety. He thought he was perhaps blinded and deafened. He felt his limbs +and face in a gingerly manner. Then his perceptions grew clearer, and he +was astonished to miss the old familiar desks and other schoolroom +furniture about him. Only dim, uncertain, grey shapes stood in the place +of these. Then came a thing that made him shout aloud, and awoke his +stunned faculties to instant activity. _Two of the boys, gesticulating, +walked one after the other clean through him_! Neither manifested the +slightest consciousness of his presence. It is difficult to imagine the +sensation he felt. They came against him, he says, with no more force than +a wisp of mist. + +Plattner's first thought after that was that he was dead. Having been +brought up with thoroughly sound views in these matters, however, he was a +little surprised to find his body still about him. His second conclusion +was that he was not dead, but that the others were: that the explosion had +destroyed the Sussexville Proprietary School and every soul in it except +himself. But that, too, was scarcely satisfactory. He was thrown back upon +astonished observation. + +Everything about him was profoundly dark: at first it seemed to have an +altogether ebony blackness. Overhead was a black firmament. The only touch +of light in the scene was a faint greenish glow at the edge of the sky in +one direction, which threw into prominence a horizon of undulating black +hills. This, I say, was his impression at first. As his eye grew +accustomed to the darkness, he began to distinguish a faint quality of +differentiating greenish colour in the circumambient night. Against this +background the furniture and occupants of the class-room, it seems, stood +out like phosphorescent spectres, faint and impalpable. He extended his +hand, and thrust it without an effort through the wall of the room by the +fireplace. + +He describes himself as making a strenuous effort to attract attention. He +shouted to Lidgett, and tried to seize the boys as they went to and fro. +He only desisted from these attempts when Mrs. Lidgett, whom he (as an +Assistant Master) naturally disliked, entered the room. He says the +sensation of being in the world, and yet not a part of it, was an +extraordinarily disagreeable one. He compared his feelings, not inaptly, +to those of a cat watching a mouse through a window. Whenever he made a +motion to communicate with the dim, familiar world about him, he found an +invisible, incomprehensible barrier preventing intercourse. + +He then turned his attention to his solid environment. He found the +medicine bottle still unbroken in his hand, with the remainder of the +green powder therein. He put this in his pocket, and began to feel about +him. Apparently he was sitting on a boulder of rock covered with a velvety +moss. The dark country about him he was unable to see, the faint, misty +picture of the schoolroom blotting it out, but he had a feeling (due +perhaps to a cold wind) that he was near the crest of a hill, and that a +steep valley fell away beneath his feet. The green glow along the edge of +the sky seemed to be growing in extent and intensity. He stood up, rubbing +his eyes. + +It would seem that he made a few steps, going steeply downhill, and then +stumbled, nearly fell, and sat down again upon a jagged mass of rock to +watch the dawn. He became aware that the world about him was absolutely +silent. It was as still as it was dark, and though there was a cold wind +blowing up the hill-face, the rustle of grass, the soughing of the boughs +that should have accompanied it, were absent. He could hear, therefore, if +he could not see, that the hillside upon which he stood was rocky and +desolate. The green grew brighter every moment, and as it did so a faint, +transparent blood-red mingled with, but did not mitigate, the blackness of +the sky overhead and the rocky desolations about him. Having regard to +what follows, I am inclined to think that that redness may have been an +optical effect due to contrast. Something black fluttered momentarily +against the livid yellow-green of the lower sky, and then the thin and +penetrating voice of a bell rose out of the black gulf below him. An +oppressive expectation grew with the growing light. + +It is probable that an hour or more elapsed while he sat there, the +strange green light growing brighter every moment, and spreading slowly, +in flamboyant fingers, upward towards the zenith. As it grew, the spectral +vision of _our_ world became relatively or absolutely fainter. +Probably both, for the time must have been about that of our earthly +sunset. So far as his vision of our world went, Plattner, by his few steps +downhill, had passed through the floor of the class-room, and was now, it +seemed, sitting in mid-air in the larger schoolroom downstairs. He saw the +boarders distinctly, but much more faintly than he had seen Lidgett. They +were preparing their evening tasks, and he noticed with interest that +several were cheating with their Euclid riders by means of a crib, a +compilation whose existence he had hitherto never suspected. As the time +passed, they faded steadily, as steadily as the light of the green dawn +increased. + +Looking down into the valley, he saw that the light had crept far down its +rocky sides, and that the profound blackness of the abyss was now broken +by a minute green glow, like the light of a glow-worm. And almost +immediately the limb of a huge heavenly body of blazing green rose over +the basaltic undulations of the distant hills, and the monstrous +hill-masses about him came out gaunt and desolate, in green light and +deep, ruddy black shadows. He became aware of a vast number of ball-shaped +objects drifting as thistledown drifts over the high ground. There were +none of these nearer to him than the opposite side of the gorge. The bell +below twanged quicker and quicker, with something like impatient +insistence, and several lights moved hither and thither. The boys at work +at their desks were now almost imperceptibly faint. + +This extinction of our world, when the green sun of this other universe +rose, is a curious point upon which Plattner insists. During the +Other-World night it is difficult to move about, on account of the +vividness with which the things of this world are visible. It becomes a +riddle to explain why, if this is the case, we in this world catch no +glimpse of the Other-World. It is due, perhaps, to the comparatively +vivid illumination of this world of ours. Plattner describes the midday +of the Other-World, at its brightest, as not being nearly so bright as +this world at full moon, while its night is profoundly black. +Consequently, the amount of light, even in an ordinary dark room, is +sufficient to render the things of the Other-World invisible, on the +same principle that faint phosphorescence is only visible in the +profoundest darkness. I have tried, since he told me his story, to see +something of the Other-World by sitting for a long space in a +photographer's dark room at night. I have certainly seen indistinctly +the form of greenish slopes and rocks, but only, I must admit, very +indistinctly indeed. The reader may possibly be more successful. Plattner +tells me that since his return he has dreamt and seen and recognised +places in the Other-World, but this is probably due to his memory +of these scenes. It seems quite possible that people with unusually +keen eyesight may occasionally catch a glimpse of this strange Other-World +about us. + +However, this is a digression. As the green sun rose, a long street of +black buildings became perceptible, though only darkly and indistinctly, +in the gorge, and after some hesitation, Plattner began to clamber down +the precipitous descent towards them. The descent was long and exceedingly +tedious, being so not only by the extraordinary steepness, but also by +reason of the looseness of the boulders with which the whole face of the +hill was strewn. The noise of his descent--now and then his heels struck +fire from the rocks--seemed now the only sound in the universe, for the +beating of the bell had ceased. As he drew nearer, he perceived that the +various edifices had a singular resemblance to tombs and mausoleums and +monuments, saving only that they were all uniformly black instead of being +white, as most sepulchres are. And then he saw, crowding out of the +largest building, very much as people disperse from church, a number of +pallid, rounded, pale-green figures. These dispersed in several directions +about the broad street of the place, some going through side alleys and +reappearing upon the steepness of the hill, others entering some of the +small black buildings which lined the way. + +At the sight of these things drifting up towards him, Plattner stopped, +staring. They were not walking, they were indeed limbless, and they had +the appearance of human heads, beneath which a tadpole-like body swung. He +was too astonished at their strangeness, too full, indeed, of strangeness, +to be seriously alarmed by them. They drove towards him, in front of the +chill wind that was blowing uphill, much as soap-bubbles drive before a +draught. And as he looked at the nearest of those approaching, he saw it +was indeed a human head, albeit with singularly large eyes, and wearing +such an expression of distress and anguish as he had never seen before +upon mortal countenance. He was surprised to find that it did not turn to +regard him, but seemed to be watching and following some unseen moving +thing. For a moment he was puzzled, and then it occurred to him that this +creature was watching with its enormous eyes something that was happening +in the world he had just left. Nearer it came, and nearer, and he was too +astonished to cry out. It made a very faint fretting sound as it came +close to him. Then it struck his face with a gentle pat--its touch was +very cold--and drove past him, and upward towards the crest of the hill. + +An extraordinary conviction flashed across Plattner's mind that this head +had a strong likeness to Lidgett. Then he turned his attention to the +other heads that were now swarming thickly up the hill-side. None made the +slightest sign of recognition. One or two, indeed, came close to his head +and almost followed the example of the first, but he dodged convulsively +out of the way. Upon most of them he saw the same expression of unavailing +regret he had seen upon the first, and heard the same faint sounds of +wretchedness from them. One or two wept, and one rolling swiftly uphill +wore an expression of diabolical rage. But others were cold, and several +had a look of gratified interest in their eyes. One, at least, was almost +in an ecstasy of happiness. Plattner does not remember that he recognised +any more likenesses in those he saw at this time. + +For several hours, perhaps, Plattner watched these strange things +dispersing themselves over the hills, and not till long after they had +ceased to issue from the clustering black buildings in the gorge, did he +resume his downward climb. The darkness about him increased so much that +he had a difficulty in stepping true. Overhead the sky was now a bright, +pale green. He felt neither hunger nor thirst. Later, when he did, he +found a chilly stream running down the centre of the gorge, and the rare +moss upon the boulders, when he tried it at last in desperation, was good +to eat. + +He groped about among the tombs that ran down the gorge, seeking vaguely +for some clue to these inexplicable things. After a long time he came to +the entrance of the big mausoleum-like building from which the heads had +issued. In this he found a group of green lights burning upon a kind of +basaltic altar, and a bell-rope from a belfry overhead hanging down into +the centre of the place. Round the wall ran a lettering of fire in a +character unknown to him. While he was still wondering at the purport of +these things, he heard the receding tramp of heavy feet echoing far down +the street. He ran out into the darkness again, but he could see nothing. +He had a mind to pull the bell-rope, and finally decided to follow the +footsteps. But, although he ran far, he never overtook them; and his +shouting was of no avail. The gorge seemed to extend an interminable +distance. It was as dark as earthly starlight throughout its length, while +the ghastly green day lay along the upper edge of its precipices. There +were none of the heads, now, below. They were all, it seemed, busily +occupied along the upper slopes. Looking up, he saw them drifting hither +and thither, some hovering stationary, some flying swiftly through the +air. It reminded him, he said, of "big snowflakes"; only these were black +and pale green. + +In pursuing the firm, undeviating footsteps that he never overtook, in +groping into new regions of this endless devil's dyke, in clambering up +and down the pitiless heights, in wandering about the summits, and in +watching the drifting faces, Plattner states that he spent the better part +of seven or eight days. He did not keep count, he says. Though once or +twice he found eyes watching him, he had word with no living soul. He +slept among the rocks on the hillside. In the gorge things earthly were +invisible, because, from the earthly standpoint, it was far underground. +On the altitudes, so soon as the earthly day began, the world became +visible to him. He found himself sometimes stumbling over the dark green +rocks, or arresting himself on a precipitous brink, while all about him +the green branches of the Sussexville lanes were swaying; or, again, he +seemed to be walking through the Sussexville streets, or watching unseen +the private business of some household. And then it was he discovered, +that to almost every human being in our world there pertained some of +these drifting heads; that everyone in the world is watched intermittently +by these helpless disembodiments. + +What are they--these Watchers of the Living? Plattner never learned. But +two, that presently found and followed him, were like his childhood's +memory of his father and mother. Now and then other faces turned their +eyes upon him: eyes like those of dead people who had swayed him, or +injured him, or helped him in his youth and manhood. Whenever they looked +at him, Plattner was overcome with a strange sense of responsibility. To +his mother he ventured to speak; but she made no answer. She looked sadly, +steadfastly, and tenderly--a little reproachfully, too, it seemed--into +his eyes. + +He simply tells this story: he does not endeavour to explain. We are left +to surmise who these Watchers of the Living may be, or, if they are indeed +the Dead, why they should so closely and passionately watch a world they +have left for ever. It may be--indeed to my mind it seems just--that, when +our life has closed, when evil or good is no longer a choice for us, we +may still have to witness the working out of the train of consequences we +have laid. If human souls continue after death, then surely human +interests continue after death. But that is merely my own guess at the +meaning of the things seen. Plattner offers no interpretation, for none +was given him. It is well the reader should understand this clearly. Day +after day, with his head reeling, he wandered about this strange lit world +outside the world, weary and, towards the end, weak and hungry. By day--by +our earthly day, that is--the ghostly vision of the old familiar scenery +of Sussexville, all about him, irked and worried him. He could not see +where to put his feet, and ever and again with a chilly touch one of these +Watching Souls would come against his face. And after dark the multitude +of these Watchers about him, and their intent distress, confused his mind +beyond describing. A great longing to return to the earthly life that was +so near and yet so remote consumed him. The unearthliness of things about +him produced a positively painful mental distress. He was worried beyond +describing by his own particular followers. He would shout at them to +desist from staring at him, scold at them, hurry away from them. They were +always mute and intent. Run as he might over the uneven ground, they +followed his destinies. + +On the ninth day, towards evening, Plattner heard the invisible footsteps +approaching, far away down the gorge. He was then wandering over the broad +crest of the same hill upon which he had fallen in his entry into this +strange Other-World of his. He turned to hurry down into the gorge, +feeling his way hastily, and was arrested by the sight of the thing that +was happening in a room in a back street near the school. Both of the +people in the room he knew by sight. The windows were open, the blinds up, +and the setting sun shone clearly into it, so that it came out quite +brightly at first, a vivid oblong of room, lying like a magic-lantern +picture upon the black landscape and the livid green dawn. In addition to +the sunlight, a candle had just been lit in the room. + +On the bed lay a lank man, his ghastly white face terrible upon the +tumbled pillow. His clenched hands were raised above his head. A little +table beside the bed carried a few medicine bottles, some toast and water, +and an empty glass. Every now and then the lank man's lips fell apart, +to indicate a word he could not articulate. But the woman did not notice +that he wanted anything, because she was busy turning out papers from an +old-fashioned bureau in the opposite corner of the room. At first the +picture was very vivid indeed, but as the green dawn behind it grew +brighter and brighter, so it became fainter and more and more transparent. + +As the echoing footsteps paced nearer and nearer, those footsteps that +sound so loud in that Other-World and come so silently in this, Plattner +perceived about him a great multitude of dim faces gathering together out +of the darkness and watching the two people in the room. Never before had +he seen so many of the Watchers of the Living. A multitude had eyes only +for the sufferer in the room, another multitude, in infinite anguish, +watched the woman as she hunted with greedy eyes for something she could +not find. They crowded about Plattner, they came across his sight and +buffeted his face, the noise of their unavailing regrets was all about +him. He saw clearly only now and then. At other times the picture quivered +dimly, through the veil of green reflections upon their movements. In the +room it must have been very still, and Plattner says the candle flame +streamed up into a perfectly vertical line of smoke, but in his ears each +footfall and its echoes beat like a clap of thunder. And the faces! +Two, more particularly near the woman's: one a woman's also, white and +clear-featured, a face which might have once been cold and hard, but which +was now softened by the touch of a wisdom strange to earth. The other +might have been the woman's father. Both were evidently absorbed in the +contemplation of some act of hateful meanness, so it seemed, which they +could no longer guard against and prevent. Behind were others, teachers, +it may be, who had taught ill, friends whose influence had failed. And +over the man, too--a multitude, but none that seemed to be parents or +teachers! Faces that might once have been coarse, now purged to strength +by sorrow! And in the forefront one face, a girlish one, neither angry nor +remorseful, but merely patient and weary, and, as it seemed to Plattner, +waiting for relief. His powers of description fail him at the memory of +this multitude of ghastly countenances. They gathered on the stroke of the +bell. He saw them all in the space of a second. It would seem that he was +so worked on by his excitement that, quite involuntarily, his restless +fingers took the bottle of green powder out of his pocket and held it +before him. But he does not remember that. + +Abruptly the footsteps ceased. He waited for the next, and there was +silence, and then suddenly, cutting through the unexpected stillness like +a keen, thin blade, came the first stroke of the bell. At that the +multitudinous faces swayed to and fro, and a louder crying began all about +him. The woman did not hear; she was burning something now in the candle +flame. At the second stroke everything grew dim, and a breath of wind, icy +cold, blew through the host of watchers. They swirled about him like an +eddy of dead leaves in the spring, and at the third stroke something was +extended through them to the bed. You have heard of a beam of light. This +was like a beam of darkness, and looking again at it, Plattner saw that it +was a shadowy arm and hand. + +The green sun was now topping the black desolations of the horizon, and +the vision of the room was very faint. Plattner could see that the white +of the bed struggled, and was convulsed; and that the woman looked round +over her shoulder at it, startled. + +The cloud of watchers lifted high like a puff of green dust before the +wind, and swept swiftly downward towards the temple in the gorge. Then +suddenly Plattner understood the meaning of the shadowy black arm that +stretched across his shoulder and clutched its prey. He did not dare turn +his head to see the Shadow behind the arm. With a violent effort, and +covering his eyes, he set himself to run, made, perhaps, twenty strides, +then slipped on a boulder, and fell. He fell forward on his hands; and the +bottle smashed and exploded as he touched the ground. + +In another moment he found himself, stunned and bleeding, sitting face to +face with Lidgett in the old walled garden behind the school. + + * * * * * + +There the story of Plattner's experiences ends. I have resisted, I believe +successfully, the natural disposition of a writer of fiction to dress up +incidents of this sort. I have told the thing as far as possible in the +order in which Plattner told it to me. I have carefully avoided any +attempt at style, effect, or construction. It would have been easy, for +instance, to have worked the scene of the death-bed into a kind of plot in +which Plattner might have been involved. But, quite apart from the +objectionableness of falsifying a most extraordinary true story, any such +trite devices would spoil, to my mind, the peculiar effect of this dark +world, with its livid green illumination and its drifting Watchers of the +Living, which, unseen and unapproachable to us, is yet lying all about us. + +It remains to add that a death did actually occur in Vincent Terrace, just +beyond the school garden, and, so far as can be proved, at the moment of +Plattner's return. Deceased was a rate-collector and insurance agent. His +widow, who was much younger than himself, married last month a Mr. +Whymper, a veterinary surgeon of Allbeeding. As the portion of this story +given here has in various forms circulated orally in Sussexville, she has +consented to my use of her name, on condition that I make it distinctly +known that she emphatically contradicts every detail of Plattner's account +of her husband's last moments. She burnt no will, she says, although +Plattner never accused her of doing so; her husband made but one will, and +that just after their marriage. Certainly, from a man who had never seen +it, Plattner's account of the furniture of the room was curiously +accurate. + +One other thing, even at the risk of an irksome repetition, I must insist +upon, lest I seem to favour the credulous, superstitious view. Plattner's +absence from the world for nine days is, I think, proved. But that does +not prove his story. It is quite conceivable that even outside space +hallucinations may be possible. That, at least, the reader must bear +distinctly in mind. + + + + XVI. + + THE RED ROOM. + + +"I can assure you," said I, "that it will take a very tangible ghost to +frighten me." And I stood up before the fire with my glass in my hand. + +"It is your own choosing," said the man with the withered arm, and glanced +at me askance. + +"Eight-and-twenty years," said I, "I have lived, and never a ghost have I +seen as yet." + +The old woman sat staring hard into the fire, her pale eyes wide open. +"Ay," she broke in; "and eight-and-twenty years you have lived and never +seen the likes of this house, I reckon. There's a many things to see, when +one's still but eight-and-twenty." She swayed her head slowly from side to +side. "A many things to see and sorrow for." + +I half suspected the old people were trying to enhance the spiritual +terrors of their house by their droning insistence. I put down my empty +glass on the table and looked about the room, and caught a glimpse of +myself, abbreviated and broadened to an impossible sturdiness, in the +queer old mirror at the end of the room. "Well," I said, "if I see +anything to-night, I shall be so much the wiser. For I come to the +business with an open mind." + +"It's your own choosing," said the man with the withered arm once more. + +I heard the sound of a stick and a shambling step on the flags in the +passage outside, and the door creaked on its hinges as a second old man +entered, more bent, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first. He +supported himself by a single crutch, his eyes were covered by a shade, +and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying +yellow teeth. He made straight for an arm-chair on the opposite side of +the table, sat down clumsily, and began to cough. The man with the +withered arm gave this new-comer a short glance of positive dislike; the +old woman took no notice of his arrival, but remained with her eyes fixed +steadily on the fire. + +"I said--it's your own choosing," said the man with the withered arm, when +the coughing had ceased for a while. + +"It's my own choosing," I answered. + +The man with the shade became aware of my presence for the first time, and +threw his head back for a moment and sideways, to see me. I caught a +momentary glimpse of his eyes, small and bright and inflamed. Then he +began to cough and splutter again. + +"Why don't you drink?" said the man with the withered arm, pushing the +beer towards him. The man with the shade poured out a glassful with a +shaky hand that splashed half as much again on the deal table. A monstrous +shadow of him crouched upon the wall and mocked his action as he poured +and drank. I must confess I had scarce expected these grotesque +custodians. There is to my mind something inhuman in senility, something +crouching and atavistic; the human qualities seem to drop from old people +insensibly day by day. The three of them made me feel uncomfortable, with +their gaunt silences, their bent carriage, their evident unfriendliness to +me and to one another. + +"If," said I, "you will show me to this haunted room of yours, I will make +myself comfortable there." + +The old man with the cough jerked his head back so suddenly that it +startled me, and shot another glance of his red eyes at me from under the +shade; but no one answered me. I waited a minute, glancing from one to the +other. + +"If," I said a little louder, "if you will show me to this haunted room of +yours, I will relieve you from the task of entertaining me." + +"There's a candle on the slab outside the door," said the man with the +withered arm, looking at my feet as he addressed me. "But if you go to the +red room to-night----" + +("This night of all nights!" said the old woman.) + +"You go alone." + +"Very well," I answered. "And which way do I go?" + +"You go along the passage for a bit," said he, "until you come to a door, +and through that is a spiral staircase, and half-way up that is a landing +and another door covered with baize. Go through that and down the long +corridor to the end, and the red room is on your left up the steps." + +"Have I got that right?" I said, and repeated his directions. He corrected +me in one particular. + +"And are you really going?" said the man with the shade, looking at me +again for the third time, with that queer, unnatural tilting of the face. + +("This night of all nights!" said the old woman.) + +"It is what I came for," I said, and moved towards the door. As I did so, +the old man with the shade rose and staggered round the table, so as to be +closer to the others and to the fire. At the door I turned and looked at +them, and saw they were all close together, dark against the firelight, +staring at me over their shoulders, with an intent expression on their +ancient faces. + +"Good-night," I said, setting the door open. + +"It's your own choosing," said the man with the withered arm. + +I left the door wide open until the candle was well alight, and then I +shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing passage. + +I must confess that the oddness of these three old pensioners in whose +charge her ladyship had left the castle, and the deep-toned, old-fashioned +furniture of the housekeeper's room in which they foregathered, affected +me in spite of my efforts to keep myself at a matter-of-fact phase. They +seemed to belong to another age, an older age, an age when things +spiritual were different from this of ours, less certain; an age when +omens and witches were credible, and ghosts beyond denying. Their very +existence was spectral; the cut of their clothing, fashions born in dead +brains. The ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were +ghostly--the thoughts of vanished men, which still haunted rather than +participated in the world of to-day. But with an effort I sent such +thoughts to the right-about. The long, draughty subterranean passage was +chilly and dusty, and my candle flared and made the shadows cower and +quiver. The echoes rang up and down the spiral staircase, and a shadow +came sweeping up after me, and one fled before me into the darkness +overhead. I came to the landing and stopped there for a moment, listening +to a rustling that I fancied I heard; then, satisfied of the absolute +silence, I pushed open the baize-covered door and stood in the corridor. + +The effect was scarcely what I expected, for the moonlight, coming in by +the great window on the grand staircase, picked out everything in vivid +black shadow or silvery illumination. Everything was in its place: the +house might have been deserted on the yesterday instead of eighteen months +ago. There were candles in the sockets of the sconces, and whatever dust +had gathered on the carpets or upon the polished flooring was distributed +so evenly as to be invisible in the moonlight. I was about to advance, and +stopped abruptly. A bronze group stood upon the landing, hidden from me by +the corner of the wall, but its shadow fell with marvellous distinctness +upon the white panelling, and gave me the impression of someone crouching +to waylay me. I stood rigid for half a minute perhaps. Then, with my hand +in the pocket that held my revolver, I advanced, only to discover a +Ganymede and Eagle glistening in the moonlight. That incident for a time +restored my nerve, and a porcelain Chinaman on a buhl table, whose head +rocked silently as I passed him, scarcely startled me. + +The door to the red room and the steps up to it were in a shadowy corner. +I moved my candle from side to side, in order to see clearly the nature of +the recess in which I stood before opening the door. Here it was, thought +I, that my predecessor was found, and the memory of that story gave me a +sudden twinge of apprehension. I glanced over my shoulder at the Ganymede +in the moonlight, and opened the door of the red room rather hastily, with +my face half turned to the pallid silence of the landing. + +I entered, closed the door behind me at once, turned the key I found in +the lock within, and stood with the candle held aloft, surveying the scene +of my vigil, the great red room of Lorraine Castle, in which the young +duke had died. Or, rather, in which he had begun his dying, for he had +opened the door and fallen headlong down the steps I had just ascended. +That had been the end of his vigil, of his gallant attempt to conquer the +ghostly tradition of the place, and never, I thought, had apoplexy better +served the ends of superstition. And there were other and older stories +that clung to the room, back to the half-credible beginning of it all, the +tale of a timid wife and the tragic end that came to her husband's jest of +frightening her. And looking around that large sombre room, with its +shadowy window bays, its recesses and alcoves, one could well understand +the legends that had sprouted in its black corners, its germinating +darkness. My candle was a little tongue of light in its vastness, that +failed to pierce the opposite end of the room, and left an ocean of +mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light. + +I resolved to make a systematic examination of the place at once, and +dispel the fanciful suggestions of its obscurity before they obtained a +hold upon me. After satisfying myself of the fastening of the door, I +began to walk about the room, peering round each article of furniture, +tucking up the valances of the bed, and opening its curtains wide. I +pulled up the blinds and examined the fastenings of the several windows +before closing the shutters, leant forward and looked up the blackness +of the wide chimney, and tapped the dark oak panelling for any secret +opening. There were two big mirrors in the room, each with a pair of +sconces bearing candles, and on the mantelshelf, too, were more candles in +china candlesticks. All these I lit one after the other. The fire was +laid, an unexpected consideration from the old housekeeper,--and I lit it, +to keep down any disposition to shiver, and when it was burning well, I +stood round with my back to it and regarded the room again. I had pulled +up a chintz-covered arm-chair and a table, to form a kind of barricade +before me, and on this lay my revolver ready to hand. My precise +examination had done me good, but I still found the remoter darkness of +the place, and its perfect stillness, too stimulating for the imagination. +The echoing of the stir and crackling of the fire was no sort of comfort +to me. The shadow in the alcove at the end in particular, had that +undefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of a lurking, +living thing, that comes so easily in silence and solitude. At last, to +reassure myself, I walked with a candle into it, and satisfied myself that +there was nothing tangible there. I stood that candle upon the floor of +the alcove, and left it in that position. + +By this time I was in a state of considerable nervous tension, although to +my reason there was no adequate cause for the condition. My mind, however, +was perfectly clear. I postulated quite unreservedly that nothing +supernatural could happen, and to pass the time I began to string some +rhymes together, Ingoldsby fashion, of the original legend of the place. A +few I spoke aloud, but the echoes were not pleasant. For the same reason I +also abandoned, after a time, a conversation with myself upon the +impossibility of ghosts and haunting. My mind reverted to the three old +and distorted people downstairs, and I tried to keep it upon that topic. +The sombre reds and blacks of the room troubled, me; even with seven +candles the place was merely dim. The one in the alcove flared in a +draught, and the fire-flickering kept the shadows and penumbra perpetually +shifting and stirring. Casting about for a remedy, I recalled the candles +I had seen in the passage, and, with a slight effort, walked out into the +moonlight, carrying a candle and leaving the door open, and presently +returned with as many as ten. These I put in various knick-knacks of china +with which the room was sparsely adorned, lit and placed where the shadows +had lain deepest, some on the floor, some in the window recesses, until at +last my seventeen candles were so arranged that not an inch of the room +but had the direct light of at least one of them. It occurred to me that +when the ghost came, I could warn him not to trip over them. The room was +now quite brightly illuminated. There was something very cheery and +reassuring in these little streaming flames, and snuffing them gave me an +occupation, and afforded a helpful sense of the passage of time. Even with +that, however, the brooding expectation of the vigil weighed heavily upon +me. It was after midnight that the candle in the alcove suddenly went out, +and the black shadow sprang back to its place there. I did not see the +candle go out; I simply turned and saw that the darkness was there, as one +might start and see the unexpected presence of a stranger. "By Jove!" said +I aloud; "that draught's a strong one!" and, taking the matches from the +table, I walked across the room in a leisurely manner, to relight the +corner again. My first match would not strike, and as I succeeded with the +second, something seemed to blink on the wall before me. I turned my head +involuntarily, and saw that the two candles on the little table by the +fireplace were extinguished. I rose at once to my feet. + +"Odd!" I said. "Did I do that myself in a flash of absent-mindedness?" + +I walked back, relit one, and as I did so, I saw the candle in the right +sconce of one of the mirrors wink and go right out, and almost immediately +its companion followed it. There was no mistake about it. The flame +vanished, as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and a +thumb, leaving the wick neither glowing nor smoking, but black. While I +stood gaping, the candle at the foot of the bed went out, and the shadows +seemed to take another step towards me. + +"This won't do!" said I, and first one and then another candle on the +mantelshelf followed. + +"What's up?" I cried, with a queer high note getting into my voice +somehow. At that the candle on the wardrobe went out, and the one I had +relit in the alcove followed. + +"Steady on!" I said. "These candles are wanted," speaking with a +half-hysterical facetiousness, and scratching away at a match the while +for the mantel candlesticks. My hands trembled so much that twice I missed +the rough paper of the matchbox. As the mantel emerged from darkness again, +two candles in the remoter end of the window were eclipsed. But with the +same match I also relit the larger mirror candles, and those on the floor +near the doorway, so that for the moment I seemed to gain on the +extinctions. But then in a volley there vanished four lights at once in +different corners of the room, and I struck another match in quivering +haste, and stood hesitating whither to take it. + +As I stood undecided, an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two +candles on the table. With a cry of terror, I dashed at the alcove, then +into the corner, and then into the window, relighting three, as two more +vanished by the fireplace; then, perceiving a better way, I dropped the +matches on the iron-bound deed-box in the corner, and caught up the +bedroom candlestick. With this I avoided the delay of striking matches; +but for all that the steady process of extinction went on, and the shadows +I feared and fought against returned, and crept in upon me, first a +step gained on this side of me and then on that. It was like a ragged +storm-cloud sweeping out the stars. Now and then one returned for a +minute, and was lost again. I was now almost frantic with the horror of +the coming darkness, and my self-possession deserted me. I leaped panting +and dishevelled from candle to candle, in a vain struggle against that +remorseless advance. + +I bruised myself on the thigh against the table, I sent a chair headlong, +I stumbled and fell and whisked the cloth from the table in my fall. My +candle rolled away from me, and I snatched another as I rose. Abruptly +this was blown out, as I swung it off the table by the wind of my sudden +movement, and immediately the two remaining candles followed. But there +was light still in the room, a red light that staved off the shadows from +me. The fire! Of course I could still thrust my candle between the bars +and relight it! + +I turned to where the flames were still dancing between the glowing coals, +and splashing red reflections upon the furniture, made two steps towards +the grate, and incontinently the flames dwindled and vanished, the glow +vanished, the reflections rushed together and vanished, and as I thrust +the candle between the bars darkness closed upon me like the shutting of +an eye, wrapped about me in a stifling embrace, sealed my vision, and +crushed the last vestiges of reason from my brain. The candle fell from my +hand. I flung out my arms in a vain effort to thrust that ponderous +blackness away from me, and, lifting up my voice, screamed with all my +might--once, twice, thrice. Then I think I must have staggered to my feet. +I know I thought suddenly of the moonlit corridor, and, with my head bowed +and my arms over my face, made a run for the door. + +But I had forgotten the exact position of the door, and struck myself +heavily against the corner of the bed. I staggered back, turned, and was +either struck or struck myself against some other bulky furniture. I have +a vague memory of battering myself thus, to and fro in the darkness, of a +cramped struggle, and of my own wild crying as I darted to and fro, of a +heavy blow at last upon my forehead, a horrible sensation of falling that +lasted an age, of my last frantic effort to keep my footing, and then I +remember no more. + +I opened my eyes in daylight. My head was roughly bandaged, and the man +with the withered arm was watching my face. I looked about me, trying to +remember what had happened, and for a space I could not recollect. I +rolled my eyes into the corner, and saw the old woman, no longer +abstracted, pouring out some drops of medicine from a little blue phial +into a glass. "Where am I?" I asked; "I seem to remember you, and yet I +cannot remember who you are." + +They told me then, and I heard of the haunted Red Room as one who hears a +tale. "We found you at dawn," said he, "and there was blood on your +forehead and lips." + +It was very slowly I recovered my memory of my experience. "You believe +now," said the old man, "that the room is haunted?" He spoke no longer as +one who greets an intruder, but as one who grieves for a broken friend. + +"Yes," said I; "the room is haunted." + +"And you have seen it. And we, who have lived here all our lives, have +never set eyes upon it. Because we have never dared... Tell us, is it +truly the old earl who----" + +"No," said I; "it is not." + +"I told you so," said the old lady, with the glass in her hand. "It is his +poor young countess who was frightened----" + +"It is not," I said. "There is neither ghost of earl nor ghost of countess +in that room, there is no ghost there at all; but worse, far worse----" + +"Well?" they said. + +"The worst of all the things that haunt poor mortal man," said I; "and +that is, in all its nakedness--Fear that will not have light nor sound, +that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. +It followed me through the corridor, it fought against me in the room----" + +I stopped abruptly. There was an interval of silence. My hand went up to +my bandages. + +Then the man with the shade sighed and spoke. "That is it," said he. "I +knew that was it. A power of darkness. To put such a curse upon a woman! +It lurks there always. You can feel it even in the daytime, even of a +bright summer's day, in the hangings, in the curtains, keeping behind you +however you face about. In the dusk it creeps along the corridor and +follows you, so that you dare not turn. There is Fear in that room of +hers--black Fear, and there will be--so long as this house of sin +endures." + + + + + XVII. + + THE PURPLE PILEUS + + +Mr. Coombes was sick of life. He walked away from his unhappy home, and, +sick not only of his own existence but of everybody else's, turned aside +down Gaswork Lane to avoid the town, and, crossing the wooden bridge that +goes over the canal to Starling's Cottages, was presently alone in the +damp pine woods and out of sight and sound of human habitation. He would +stand it no longer. He repeated aloud with blasphemies unusual to him that +he would stand it no longer. + +He was a pale-faced little man, with dark eyes and a fine and very black +moustache. He had a very stiff, upright collar slightly frayed, that gave +him an illusory double chin, and his overcoat (albeit shabby) was trimmed +with astrachan. His gloves were a bright brown with black stripes over the +knuckles, and split at the finger ends. His appearance, his wife had said +once in the dear, dead days beyond recall--before he married her, that +is--was military. But now she called him--it seems a dreadful thing to +tell of between husband and wife, but she called him "a little grub." It +wasn't the only thing she had called him, either. + +The row had arisen about that beastly Jennie again. Jennie was his wife's +friend, and, by no invitation of Mr. Coombes, she came in every blessed +Sunday to dinner, and made a shindy all the afternoon. She was a big, +noisy girl, with a taste for loud colours and a strident laugh; and this +Sunday she had outdone all her previous intrusions by bringing in a fellow +with her, a chap as showy as herself. And Mr. Coombes, in a starchy, clean +collar and his Sunday frock-coat, had sat dumb and wrathful at his own +table, while his wife and her guests talked foolishly and undesirably, and +laughed aloud. Well, he stood that, and after dinner (which, "as usual," +was late), what must Miss Jennie do but go to the piano and play banjo +tunes, for all the world as if it were a week-day! Flesh and blood could +not endure such goings on. They would hear next door, they would hear in +the road, it was a public announcement of their disrepute. He had to +speak. + +He had felt himself go pale, and a kind of rigour had affected his +respiration as he delivered himself. He had been sitting on one of the +chairs by the window--the new guest had taken possession of the arm-chair. +He turned his head. "Sun Day!" he said over the collar, in the voice of +one who warns. "Sun Day!" What people call a "nasty" tone, it was. + +Jennie had kept on playing, but his wife, who was looking through some +music that was piled on the top of the piano, had stared at him. "What's +wrong now?" she said; "can't people enjoy themselves?" + +"I don't mind rational 'njoyment, at all," said little Coombes, "but I +ain't a-going to have week-day tunes playing on a Sunday in this house." + +"What's wrong with my playing now?" said Jennie, stopping and twirling +round on the music-stool with a monstrous rustle of flounces. + +Coombes saw it was going to be a row, and opened too vigorously, as is +common with your timid, nervous men all the world over. "Steady on with +that music-stool!" said he; "it ain't made for 'eavy-weights." + +"Never you mind about weights," said Jennie, incensed. "What was you +saying behind my back about my playing?" + +"Surely you don't 'old with not having a bit of music on a Sunday, Mr. +Coombes?" said the new guest, leaning back in the arm-chair, blowing a +cloud of cigarette smoke and smiling in a kind of pitying way. And +simultaneously his wife said something to Jennie about "Never mind 'im. +You go on, Jinny." + +"I do," said Mr. Coombes, addressing the new guest. + +"May I arst why?" said the new guest, evidently enjoying both his +cigarette and the prospect of an argument. He was, by-the-by, a lank young +man, very stylishly dressed in bright drab, with a white cravat and a +pearl and silver pin. It had been better taste to come in a black coat, +Mr. Coombes thought. + +"Because," began Mr. Coombes, "it don't suit me. I'm a business man. I +'ave to study my connection. Rational 'njoyment--" + +"His connection!" said Mrs. Coombes scornfully. "That's what he's always +a-saying. We got to do this, and we got to do that--" + +"If you don't mean to study my connection," said Mr. Coombes, "what did +you marry me for?" + +"I wonder," said Jennie, and turned back to the piano. + +"I never saw such a man as you," said Mrs. Coombes. + +"You've altered all round since we were married. Before--" + +Then Jennie began at the turn, turn, turn again. + +"Look here!" said Mr. Coombes, driven at last to revolt, standing up and +raising his voice. "I tell you I won't have that." The frock-coat heaved +with his indignation. + +"No vi'lence, now," said the long young man in drab, sitting up. + +"Who the juice are you?" said Mr. Coombes fiercely. + +Whereupon they all began talking at once. The new guest said he was +Jennie's "intended," and meant to protect her, and Mr. Coombes said he was +welcome to do so anywhere but in his (Mr. Coombes') house; and Mrs. +Coombes said he ought to be ashamed of insulting his guests, and (as I +have already mentioned) that he was getting a regular little grub; and the +end was, that Mr. Coombes ordered his visitors out of the house, and they +wouldn't go, and so he said he would go himself. With his face burning and +tears of excitement in his eyes, he went into the passage, and as he +struggled with his overcoat--his frock-coat sleeves got concertinaed up +his arm--and gave a brush at his silk hat, Jennie began again at the +piano, and strummed him insultingly out of the house. Turn, turn, turn. He +slammed the shop door so that the house quivered. That, briefly, was the +immediate making of his mood. You will perhaps begin to understand his +disgust with existence. + +As he walked along the muddy path under the firs,--it was late October, +and the ditches and heaps of fir needles were gorgeous with clumps of +fungi,--he recapitulated the melancholy history of his marriage. It was +brief and commonplace enough. He now perceived with sufficient clearness +that his wife had married him out of a natural curiosity and in order to +escape from her worrying, laborious, and uncertain life in the workroom; +and, like the majority of her class, she was far too stupid to realise +that it was her duty to co-operate with him in his business. She was +greedy of enjoyment, loquacious, and socially-minded, and evidently +disappointed to find the restraints of poverty still hanging about her. +His worries exasperated her, and the slightest attempt to control her +proceedings resulted in a charge of "grumbling." Why couldn't he be nice-- +as he used to be? And Coombes was such a harmless little man, too, +nourished mentally on _Self-Help_, and with a meagre ambition of +self-denial and competition, that was to end in a "sufficiency." Then +Jennie came in as a female Mephistopheles, a gabbling chronicle of +"fellers," and was always wanting his wife to go to theatres, and "all +that." And in addition were aunts of his wife, and cousins (male and +female) to eat up capital, insult him personally, upset business +arrangements, annoy good customers, and generally blight his life. It was +not the first occasion by many that Mr. Coombes had fled his home in wrath +and indignation, and something like fear, vowing furiously and even aloud +that he wouldn't stand it, and so frothing away his energy along the line +of least resistance. But never before had he been quite so sick of life as +on this particular Sunday afternoon. The Sunday dinner may have had its +share in his despair--and the greyness of the sky. Perhaps, too, he was +beginning to realise his unendurable frustration as a business man as the +consequence of his marriage. Presently bankruptcy, and after that---- +Perhaps she might have reason to repent when it was too late. And destiny, +as I have already intimated, had planted the path through the wood with +evil-smelling fungi, thickly and variously planted it, not only on the +right side, but on the left. + +A small shopman is in such a melancholy position, if his wife turns out a +disloyal partner. His capital is all tied up in his business, and to leave +her means to join the unemployed in some strange part of the earth. The +luxuries of divorce are beyond him altogether. So that the good old +tradition of marriage for better or worse holds inexorably for him, and +things work up to tragic culminations. Bricklayers kick their wives to +death, and dukes betray theirs; but it is among the small clerks and +shopkeepers nowadays that it comes most often to a cutting of throats. +Under the circumstances it is not so very remarkable--and you must take it +as charitably as you can--that the mind of Mr. Coombes ran for a while on +some such glorious close to his disappointed hopes, and that he thought of +razors, pistols, bread-knives, and touching letters to the coroner +denouncing his enemies by name, and praying piously for forgiveness. After +a time his fierceness gave way to melancholia. He had been married in this +very overcoat, in his first and only frock-coat that was buttoned up +beneath it. He began to recall their courting along this very walk, his +years of penurious saving to get capital, and the bright hopefulness of +his marrying days. For it all to work out like this! Was there no +sympathetic ruler anywhere in the world? He reverted to death as a topic. + +He thought of the canal he had just crossed, and doubted whether he +shouldn't stand with his head out, even in the middle, and it was while +drowning was in his mind that the purple pileus caught his eye. He looked +at it mechanically for a moment, and stopped and stooped towards it to +pick it up, under the impression that it was some such small leather +object as a purse. Then he saw that it was the purple top of a fungus, a +peculiarly poisonous-looking purple: slimy, shiny, and emitting a sour +odour. He hesitated with his hand an inch or so from it, and the thought +of poison crossed his mind. With that he picked the thing, and stood up +again with it in his hand. + +The odour was certainly strong--acrid, but by no means disgusting. He +broke off a piece, and the fresh surface was a creamy white, that changed +like magic in the space of ten seconds to a yellowish-green colour. It was +even an inviting-looking change. He broke off two other pieces to see it +repeated. They were wonderful things these fungi, thought Mr. Coombes, and +all of them the deadliest poisons, as his father had often told him. +Deadly poisons! + +There is no time like the present for a rash resolve. Why not here and +now? thought Mr. Coombes. He tasted a little piece, a very little piece +indeed--a mere crumb. It was so pungent that he almost spat it out again, +then merely hot and full-flavoured: a kind of German mustard with a touch +of horse-radish and--well, mushroom. He swallowed it in the excitement of +the moment. Did he like it or did he not? His mind was curiously careless. +He would try another bit. It really wasn't bad--it was good. He forgot his +troubles in the interest of the immediate moment. Playing with death it +was. He took another bite, and then deliberately finished a mouthful. A +curious, tingling sensation began in his finger-tips and toes. His pulse +began to move faster. The blood in his ears sounded like a mill-race. "Try +bi' more," said Mr. Coombes. He turned and looked about him, and found his +feet unsteady. He saw, and struggled towards, a little patch of purple a +dozen yards away. "Jol' goo' stuff," said Mr. Coombes. "E--lomore ye'." He +pitched forward and fell on his face, his hands outstretched towards the +cluster of pilei. But he did not eat any more of them. He forgot +forthwith. + +He rolled over and sat up with a look of astonishment on his face. His +carefully brushed silk hat had rolled away towards the ditch. He pressed +his hand to his brow. Something had happened, but he could not rightly +determine what it was. Anyhow, he was no longer dull--he felt bright, +cheerful. And his throat was afire. He laughed in the sudden gaiety of his +heart. Had he been dull? He did not know; but at any rate he would be dull +no longer. He got up and stood unsteadily, regarding the universe with an +agreeable smile. He began to remember. He could not remember very well, +because of a steam roundabout that was beginning in his head. And he knew +he had been disagreeable at home, just because they wanted to be happy. +They were quite right; life should be as gay as possible. He would go home +and make it up, and reassure them. And why not take some of this +delightful toadstool with him, for them to eat? A hatful, no less. Some of +those red ones with white spots as well, and a few yellow. He had been a +dull dog, an enemy to merriment; he would make up for it. It would be gay +to turn his coat-sleeves inside out, and stick some yellow gorse into his +waistcoat pockets. Then home--singing---for a jolly evening. + +After the departure of Mr. Coombes, Jennie discontinued playing, and +turned round on the music-stool again. "What a fuss about nothing!" said +Jennie. + +"You see, Mr. Clarence, what I've got to put up with," said Mrs. Coombes. + +"He is a bit hasty," said Mr. Clarence judicially. + +"He ain't got the slightest sense of our position," said Mrs. Coombes; +"that's what I complain of. He cares for nothing but his old shop; and if +I have a bit of company, or buy anything to keep myself decent, or get any +little thing I want out of the housekeeping money, there's disagreeables. +'Economy' he says; 'struggle for life,' and all that. He lies awake of +nights about it, worrying how he can screw me out of a shilling. He wanted +us to eat Dorset butter once. If once I was to give in to him--there!" + +"Of course," said Jennie. + +"If a man values a woman," said Mr. Clarence, lounging back in the +arm-chair, "he must be prepared to make sacrifices for her. For my own +part," said Mr. Clarence, with his eye on Jennie, "I shouldn't think of +marrying till I was in a position to do the thing in style. It's downright +selfishness. A man ought to go through the rough-and-tumble by himself, +and not drag her--" + +"I don't agree altogether with that," said Jennie. "I don't see why a man +shouldn't have a woman's help, provided he doesn't treat her meanly, you +know. It's meanness--" + +"You wouldn't believe," said Mrs. Coombes. "But I was a fool to 'ave 'im. +I might 'ave known. If it 'adn't been for my father, we shouldn't 'ave 'ad +not a carriage to our wedding." + +"Lord! he didn't stick out at that?" said Mr. Clarence, quite shocked. + +"Said he wanted the money for his stock, or some such rubbish. Why, he +wouldn't have a woman in to help me once a week if it wasn't for my +standing out plucky. And the fusses he makes about money--comes to me, +well, pretty near crying, with sheets of paper and figgers. 'If only we +can tide over this year,' he says, 'the business is bound to go.' 'If only +we can tide over this year,' I says; 'then it'll be, if only we can tide +over next year. I know you,' I says. 'And you don't catch me screwing +myself lean and ugly. Why didn't you marry a slavey?' I says, 'if you +wanted one--instead of a respectable girl,' I says." + +So Mrs. Coombes. But we will not follow this unedifying conversation +further. Suffice it that Mr. Coombes was very satisfactorily disposed of, +and they had a snug little time round the fire. Then Mrs. Coombes went to +get the tea, and Jennie sat coquettishly on the arm of Mr. Clarence's +chair until the tea-things clattered outside. "What was that I heard?" +asked Mrs. Coombes playfully, as she entered, and there was badinage about +kissing. They were just sitting down to the little circular table when the +first intimation of Mr. Coombes' return was heard. + +This was a fumbling at the latch of the front door. + +"'Ere's my lord," said Mrs. Coombes. "Went out like a lion and comes back +like a lamb, I'll lay." + +Something fell over in the shop: a chair, it sounded like. Then there was +a sound as of some complicated step exercise in the passage. Then the door +opened and Coombes appeared. But it was Coombes transfigured. The +immaculate collar had been torn carelessly from his throat. His +carefully-brushed silk hat, half-full of a crush of fungi, was under one +arm; his coat was inside out, and his waistcoat adorned with bunches of +yellow-blossomed furze. These little eccentricities of Sunday costume, +however, were quite overshadowed by the change in his face; it was livid +white, his eyes were unnaturally large and bright, and his pale blue lips +were drawn back in a cheerless grin. "Merry!" he said. He had stopped +dancing to open the door. "Rational 'njoyment. Dance." He made three +fantastic steps into the room, and stood bowing. + +"Jim!" shrieked Mrs. Coombes, and Mr. Clarence sat petrified, with a +dropping lower jaw. + +"Tea," said Mr. Coombes. "Jol' thing, tea. Tose-stools, too. Brosher." + +"He's drunk," said Jennie in a weak voice. Never before had she seen this +intense pallor in a drunken man, or such shining, dilated eyes. + +Mr. Coombes held out a handful of scarlet agaric to Mr. Clarence. "Jo' +stuff," said he; "ta' some." + +At that moment he was genial. Then at the sight of their startled faces he +changed, with the swift transition of insanity, into overbearing fury. And +it seemed as if he had suddenly recalled the quarrel of his departure. In +such a huge voice as Mrs. Coombes had never heard before, he shouted, "My +house. I'm master 'ere. Eat what I give yer!" He bawled this, as it +seemed, without an effort, without a violent gesture, standing there as +motionless as one who whispers, holding out a handful of fungus. + +Clarence approved himself a coward. He could not meet the mad fury in +Coombes' eyes; he rose to his feet, pushing back his chair, and turned, +stooping. At that Coombes rushed at him. Jennie saw her opportunity, and, +with the ghost of a shriek, made for the door. + +Mrs. Coombes followed her. Clarence tried to dodge. Over went the +tea-table with a smash as Coombes clutched him by the collar and tried to +thrust the fungus into his mouth. Clarence was content to leave his collar +behind him, and shot out into the passage with red patches of fly agaric +still adherent to his face. "Shut 'im in!" cried Mrs. Coombes, and would +have closed the door, but her supports deserted her; Jennie saw the shop +door open, and vanished thereby, locking it behind her, while Clarence +went on hastily into the kitchen. Mr. Coombes came heavily against the +door, and Mrs. Coombes, finding the key was inside, fled upstairs and +locked herself in the spare bedroom. + +So the new convert to _joie de vivre_ emerged upon the passage, his +decorations a little scattered, but that respectable hatful of fungi still +under his arm. He hesitated at the three ways, and decided on the kitchen. +Whereupon Clarence, who was fumbling with the key, gave up the attempt to +imprison his host, and fled into the scullery, only to be captured before +he could open the door into the yard. Mr. Clarence is singularly reticent +of the details of what occurred. It seems that Mr. Coombes' transitory +irritation had vanished again, and he was once more a genial playfellow. +And as there were knives and meat choppers about, Clarence very generously +resolved to humour him and so avoid anything tragic. It is beyond dispute +that Mr. Coombes played with Mr. Clarence to his heart's content; they +could not have been more playful and familiar if they had known each other +for years. He insisted gaily on Clarence trying the fungi, and, after a +friendly tussle, was smitten with remorse at the mess he was making of his +guest's face. It also appears that Clarence was dragged under the sink and +his face scrubbed with the blacking brush--he being still resolved to +humour the lunatic at any cost--and that finally, in a somewhat +dishevelled, chipped, and discoloured condition, he was assisted to his +coat and shown out by the back door, the shopway being barred by Jennie. +Mr. Coombes' wandering thoughts then turned to Jennie. Jennie had been +unable to unfasten the shop door, but she shot the bolts against Mr. +Coombes' latch-key, and remained in possession of the shop for the rest of +the evening. + +It would appear that Mr. Coombes then returned to the kitchen, still in +pursuit of gaiety, and, albeit a strict Good Templar, drank (or spilt down +the front of the first and only frock-coat) no less than five bottles of +the stout Mrs. Coombes insisted upon having for her health's sake. He made +cheerful noises by breaking off the necks of the bottles with several of +his wife's wedding-present dinner-plates, and during the earlier part of +this great drunk he sang divers merry ballads. He cut his finger rather +badly with one of the bottles--the only bloodshed in this story--and what +with that, and the systematic convulsion of his inexperienced physiology +by the liquorish brand of Mrs. Coombes' stout, it may be the evil of the +fungus poison was somehow allayed. But we prefer to draw a veil over the +concluding incidents of this Sunday afternoon. They ended in the coal +cellar, in a deep and healing sleep. + +An interval of five years elapsed. Again it was a Sunday afternoon in +October, and again Mr. Coombes walked through the pine wood beyond the +canal. He was still the same dark-eyed, black-moustached little man that +he was at the outset of the story, but his double chin was now scarcely so +illusory as it had been. His overcoat was new, with a velvet lapel, and a +stylish collar with turn-down corners, free of any coarse starchiness, had +replaced the original all-round article. His hat was glossy, his gloves +newish--though one finger had split and been carefully mended. And a +casual observer would have noticed about him a certain rectitude of +bearing, a certain erectness of head that marks the man who thinks well of +himself. He was a master now, with three assistants. Beside him walked a +larger sunburnt parody of himself, his brother Tom, just back from +Australia. They were recapitulating their early struggles, and Mr. Coombes +had just been making a financial statement. + +"It's a very nice little business, Jim," said brother Tom. "In these days +of competition you're jolly lucky to have worked it up so. And you're +jolly lucky, too, to have a wife who's willing to help like yours does." + +"Between ourselves," said Mr. Coombes, "it wasn't always so. It wasn't +always like this. To begin with, the missus was a bit giddy. Girls are +funny creatures." + +"Dear me!" + +"Yes. You'd hardly think it, but she was downright extravagant, and always +having slaps at me. I was a bit too easy and loving, and all that, and she +thought the whole blessed show was run for her. Turned the 'ouse into a +regular caravansery, always having her relations and girls from business +in, and their chaps. Comic songs a' Sunday, it was getting to, and driving +trade away. And she was making eyes at the chaps, too! I tell you, Tom, +the place wasn't my own." + +"Shouldn't 'a' thought it." + +"It was so. Well--I reasoned with her. I said, 'I ain't a duke, to keep a +wife like a pet animal. I married you for 'elp and company.' I said, 'You +got to 'elp and pull the business through.' She wouldn't 'ear of it. 'Very +well,' I says?? 'I'm a mild man till I'm roused,' I says, 'and it's +getting to that.' But she wouldn't 'ear of no warnings." + +"Well?" + +"It's the way with women. She didn't think I 'ad it in me to be roused. +Women of her sort (between ourselves, Tom) don't respect a man until +they're a bit afraid of him. So I just broke out to show her. In comes a +girl named Jennie, that used to work with her, and her chap. We 'ad a bit +of a row, and I came out 'ere--it was just such another day as this--and I +thought it all out. Then I went back and pitched into them." + +"You did?" + +"I did. I was mad, I can tell you. I wasn't going to 'it 'er if I could +'elp it, so I went back and licked into this chap, just to show 'er what I +could do. 'E was a big chap, too. Well, I chucked him, and smashed things +about, and gave 'er a scaring, and she ran up and locked 'erself into the +spare room." + +"Well?" + +"That's all. I says to 'er the next morning, 'Now you know,' I says, 'what +I'm like when I'm roused.' And I didn't have to say anything more." + +"And you've been happy ever after, eh?" + +"So to speak. There's nothing like putting your foot down with them. If it +'adn't been for that afternoon I should 'a' been tramping the roads now, +and she'd 'a' been grumbling at me, and all her family grumbling for +bringing her to poverty--I know their little ways. But we're all right +now. And it's a very decent little business, as you say." + +They proceeded on their way meditatively. "Women are funny creatures," +said Brother Tom. + +"They want a firm hand," says Coombes. + +"What a lot of these funguses there are about here!" remarked Brother Tom +presently. "I can't see what use they are in the world." + +Mr. Coombes looked. "I dessay they're sent for some wise purpose," said +Mr. Coombes. + +And that was as much thanks as the purple pileus ever got for maddening +this absurd little man to the pitch of decisive action, and so altering +the whole course of his life. + + + + + XVIII. + + A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. + + +Outside the laboratory windows was a watery-grey fog, and within a close +warmth and the yellow light of the green-shaded gas lamps that stood two +to each table down its narrow length. On each table stood a couple of +glass jars containing the mangled vestiges of the crayfish, mussels, +frogs, and guinea-pigs upon which the students had been working, and down +the side of the room, facing the windows, were shelves bearing bleached +dissections in spirits, surmounted by a row of beautifully executed +anatomical drawings in white-wood frames and overhanging a row of cubical +lockers. All the doors of the laboratory were panelled with blackboard, +and on these were the half-erased diagrams of the previous day's work. The +laboratory was empty, save for the demonstrator, who sat near the +preparation-room door, and silent, save for a low, continuous murmur and +the clicking of the rocker microtome at which he was working. But +scattered about the room were traces of numerous students: hand-bags, +polished boxes of instruments, in one place a large drawing covered by +newspaper, and in another a prettily bound copy of _News from +Nowhere_, a book oddly at variance with its surroundings. These things +had been put down hastily as the students had arrived and hurried at once +to secure their seats in the adjacent lecture theatre. Deadened by the +closed door, the measured accents of the professor sounded as a +featureless muttering. + +Presently, faint through the closed windows came the sound of the Oratory +clock striking the hour of eleven. The clicking of the microtome ceased, +and the demonstrator looked at his watch, rose, thrust his hands into his +pockets, and walked slowly down the laboratory towards the lecture theatre +door. He stood listening for a moment, and then his eye fell on the little +volume by William Morris. He picked it up, glanced at the title, smiled, +opened it, looked at the name on the fly-leaf, ran the leaves through with +his hand, and put it down. Almost immediately the even murmur of the +lecturer ceased, there was a sudden burst of pencils rattling on the desks +in the lecture theatre, a stirring, a scraping of feet, and a number of +voices speaking together. Then a firm footfall approached the door, which +began to open, and stood ajar, as some indistinctly heard question +arrested the new-comer. + +The demonstrator turned, walked slowly back past the microtome, and left +the laboratory by the preparation-room door. As he did so, first one, and +then several students carrying notebooks entered the laboratory from the +lecture theatre, and distributed themselves among the little tables, or +stood in a group about the doorway. They were an exceptionally +heterogeneous assembly, for while Oxford and Cambridge still recoil from +the blushing prospect of mixed classes, the College of Science anticipated +America in the matter years ago--mixed socially, too, for the prestige of +the College is high, and its scholarships, free of any age limit, dredge +deeper even than do those of the Scotch universities. The class numbered +one-and-twenty, but some remained in the theatre questioning the +professor, copying the black-board diagrams before they were washed off, +or examining the special specimens he had produced to illustrate the day's +teaching. Of the nine who had come into the laboratory three were girls, +one of whom, a little fair woman, wearing spectacles and dressed in +greyish-green, was peering out of the window at the fog, while the other +two, both wholesome-looking, plain-faced schoolgirls, unrolled and put on +the brown holland aprons they wore while dissecting. Of the men, two went +down the laboratory to their places, one a pallid, dark-bearded man, who +had once been a tailor; the other a pleasant-featured, ruddy young man of +twenty, dressed in a well-fitting brown suit; young Wedderburn, the son of +Wedderburn, the eye specialist. The others formed a little knot near the +theatre door. One of these, a dwarfed, spectacled figure, with a +hunchback, sat on a bent wood stool; two others, one a short, dark +youngster, and the other a flaxen-haired, reddish-complexioned young man, +stood leaning side by side against the slate sink, while the fourth stood +facing them, and maintained the larger share of the conversation. + +This last person was named Hill. He was a sturdily built young fellow, of +the same age as Wedderburn; he had a white face, dark grey eyes, hair of +an indeterminate colour, and prominent, irregular features. He talked +rather louder than was needful, and thrust his hands deeply into his +pockets. His collar was frayed and blue with the starch of a careless +laundress, his clothes were evidently ready-made, and there was a patch on +the side of his boot near the toe. And as he talked or listened to the +others, he glanced now and again towards the lecture theatre door. They +were discussing the depressing peroration of the lecture they had just +heard, the last lecture it was in the introductory course in zoology. +"From ovum to ovum is the goal of the higher vertebrata," the lecturer had +said in his melancholy tones, and so had neatly rounded off the sketch +of comparative anatomy he had been developing. The spectacled hunchback +had repeated it, with noisy appreciation, had tossed it towards the +fair-haired student with an evident provocation, and had started one of +these vague, rambling discussions on generalities, so unaccountably dear +to the student mind all the world over. + +"That is our goal, perhaps--I admit it, as far as science goes," said the +fair-haired student, rising to the challenge. "But there are things above +science." + +"Science," said Hill confidently, "is systematic knowledge. Ideas that +don't come into the system--must anyhow--be loose ideas." He was not quite +sure whether that was a clever saying or a fatuity until his hearers took +it seriously. + +"The thing I cannot understand," said the hunchback, at large, "is whether +Hill is a materialist or not." + +"There is one thing above matter," said Hill promptly, feeling he had a +better thing this time; aware, too, of someone in the doorway behind him, +and raising his voice a trifle for her benefit, "and that is, the delusion +that there is something above matter." + +"So we have your gospel at last," said the fair student. "It's all a +delusion, is it? All our aspirations to lead something more than dogs' +lives, all our work for anything beyond ourselves. But see how +inconsistent you are. Your socialism, for instance. Why do you trouble +about the interests of the race? Why do you concern yourself about the +beggar in the gutter? Why are you bothering yourself to lend that book "-- +he indicated William Morris by a movement of the head--"to everyone in the +lab.?" + +"Girl," said the hunchback indistinctly, and glanced guiltily over his +shoulder. + +The girl in brown, with the brown eyes, had come into the laboratory, and +stood on the other side of the table behind him, with her rolled-up apron +in one hand, looking over her shoulder, listening to the discussion. She +did not notice the hunchback, because she was glancing from Hill to his +interlocutor. Hill's consciousness of her presence betrayed itself to her +only in his studious ignorance of the fact; but she understood that, and +it pleased her. "I see no reason," said he, "why a man should live like a +brute because he knows of nothing beyond matter, and does not expect to +exist a hundred years hence." + +"Why shouldn't he?" said the fair-haired student. + +"Why _should_ he?" said Hill. + +"What inducement has he?" + +"That's the way with all you religious people. It's all a business of +inducements. Cannot a man seek after righteousness for righteousness' +sake?" + +There was a pause. The fair man answered, with a kind of vocal padding, +"But--you see--inducement--when I said inducement," to gain time. And then +the hunchback came to his rescue and inserted a question. He was a +terrible person in the debating society with his questions, and they +invariably took one form--a demand for a definition, "What's your +definition of righteousness?" said the hunchback at this stage. + +Hill experienced a sudden loss of complacency at this question, but even +as it was asked, relief came in the person of Brooks, the laboratory +attendant, who entered by the preparation-room door, carrying a number of +freshly killed guinea-pigs by their hind legs. "This is the last batch of +material this session," said the youngster who had not previously spoken. +Brooks advanced up the laboratory, smacking down a couple of guinea-pigs +at each table. The rest of the class, scenting the prey from afar, came +crowding in by the lecture theatre door, and the discussion perished +abruptly as the students who were not already in their places hurried to +them to secure the choice of a specimen. There was a noise of keys +rattling on split rings as lockers were opened and dissecting instruments +taken out. Hill was already standing by his table, and his box of scalpels +was sticking out of his pocket. The girl in brown came a step towards him, +and, leaning over his table, said softly, "Did you see that I returned +your book, Mr. Hill?" + +During the whole scene she and the book had been vividly present in his +consciousness; but he made a clumsy pretence of looking at the book and +seeing it for the first time. "Oh, yes," he said, taking it up. "I see. +Did you like it?" + +"I want to ask you some questions about it--some time." + +"Certainly," said Hill. "I shall be glad." He stopped awkwardly. "You +liked it?" he said. + +"It's a wonderful book. Only some things I don't understand." + +Then suddenly the laboratory was hushed by a curious, braying noise. It +was the demonstrator. He was at the blackboard ready to begin the day's +instruction, and it was his custom to demand silence by a sound midway +between the "Er" of common intercourse and the blast of a trumpet. The +girl in brown slipped back to her place: it was immediately in front of +Hill's, and Hill, forgetting her forthwith, took a notebook out of the +drawer of his table, turned over its leaves hastily, drew a stumpy pencil +from his pocket, and prepared to make a copious note of the coming +demonstration. For demonstrations and lectures are the sacred text of the +College students. Books, saving only the Professor's own, you may--it is +even expedient to--ignore. + +Hill was the son of a Landport cobbler, and had been hooked by a chance +blue paper the authorities had thrown out to the Landport Technical +College. He kept himself in London on his allowance of a guinea a week, +and found that, with proper care, this also covered his clothing +allowance, an occasional waterproof collar, that is; and ink and needles +and cotton, and such-like necessaries for a man about town. This was his +first year and his first session, but the brown old man in Landport had +already got himself detested in many public-houses by boasting of his son, +"the Professor." Hill was a vigorous youngster, with a serene contempt for +the clergy of all denominations, and a fine ambition to reconstruct the +world. He regarded his scholarship as a brilliant opportunity. He had +begun to read at seven, and had read steadily whatever came in his way, +good or bad, since then. His worldly experience had been limited to the +island of Portsea, and acquired chiefly in the wholesale boot factory in +which he had worked by day, after passing the seventh standard of the +Board school. He had a considerable gift of speech, as the College +Debating Society, which met amidst the crushing machines and mine models +in the metallurgical theatre downstairs, already recognised--recognised by +a violent battering of desks whenever he rose. And he was just at that +fine emotional age when life opens at the end of a narrow pass like a +broad valley at one's feet, full of the promise of wonderful discoveries +and tremendous achievements. And his own limitations, save that he knew +that he knew neither Latin nor French, were all unknown to him. + +At first his interest had been divided pretty equally between his +biological work at the College and social and theological theorising, an +employment which he took in deadly earnest. Of a night, when the big +museum library was not open, he would sit on the bed of his room in +Chelsea with his coat and a muffler on, and write out the lecture notes +and revise his dissection memoranda, until Thorpe called him out by a +whistle--the landlady objected to open the door to attic visitors--and +then the two would go prowling about the shadowy, shiny, gas-lit streets, +talking, very much in the fashion of the sample just given, of the God +idea, and Righteousness, and Carlyle, and the Reorganisation of Society. +And in the midst of it all, Hill, arguing not only for Thorpe, but for the +casual passer-by, would lose the thread of his argument glancing at some +pretty painted face that looked meaningly at him as he passed. Science and +Righteousness! But once or twice lately there had been signs that a third +interest was creeping into his life, and he had found his attention +wandering from the fate of the mesoblastic somites or the probable meaning +of the blastopore, to the thought of the girl with the brown eyes who sat +at the table before him. + +She was a paying student; she descended inconceivable social altitudes to +speak to him. At the thought of the education she must have had, and the +accomplishments she must possess, the soul of Hill became abject within +him. She had spoken to him first over a difficulty about the alisphenoid +of a rabbit's skull, and he had found that, in biology at least, he had no +reason for self-abasement. And from that, after the manner of young people +starting from any starting-point, they got to generalities, and while Hill +attacked her upon the question of socialism--some instinct told him to +spare her a direct assault upon her religion--she was gathering resolution +to undertake what she told herself was his aesthetic education. She was a +year or two older than he, though the thought never occurred to him. The +loan of _News from Nowhere_ was the beginning of a series of cross +loans. Upon some absurd first principle of his, Hill had never "wasted +time" upon poetry, and it seemed an appalling deficiency to her. One day +in the lunch hour, when she chanced upon him alone in the little museum +where the skeletons were arranged, shamefully eating the bun that +constituted his midday meal, she retreated, and returned to lend him, with +a slightly furtive air, a volume of Browning. He stood sideways towards +her and took the book rather clumsily, because he was holding the bun in +the other hand. And in the retrospect his voice lacked the cheerful +clearness he could have wished. + +That occurred after the examination in comparative anatomy, on the day +before the College turned out its students, and was carefully locked up by +the officials, for the Christmas holidays. The excitement of cramming for +the first trial of strength had for a little while dominated Hill, to the +exclusion of his other interests. In the forecasts of the result in which +everyone indulged he was surprised to find that no one regarded him as a +possible competitor for the Harvey Commemoration Medal, of which this and +the two subsequent examinations disposed. It was about this time that +Wedderburn, who so far had lived inconspicuously on the uttermost margin +of Hill's perceptions, began to take on the appearance of an obstacle. By +a mutual agreement, the nocturnal prowlings with Thorpe ceased for the +three weeks before the examination, and his landlady pointed out that she +really could not supply so much lamp oil at the price. He walked to and +fro from the College with little slips of mnemonics in his hand, lists of +crayfish appendages, rabbits' skull-bones, and vertebrate nerves, for +example, and became a positive nuisance to foot passengers in the opposite +direction. + +But, by a natural reaction, Poetry and the girl with the brown eyes ruled +the Christmas holiday. The pending results of the examination became such +a secondary consideration that Hill marvelled at his father's excitement. +Even had he wished it, there was no comparative anatomy to read in +Landport, and he was too poor to buy books, but the stock of poets in the +library was extensive, and Hill's attack was magnificently sustained. He +saturated himself with the fluent numbers of Longfellow and Tennyson, and +fortified himself with Shakespeare; found a kindred soul in Pope, and a +master in Shelley, and heard and fled the siren voices of Eliza Cook and +Mrs. Hemans. But he read no more Browning, because he hoped for the loan +of other volumes from Miss Haysman when he returned to London. + +He walked from his lodgings to the College with that volume of Browning in +his shiny black bag, and his mind teeming with the finest general +propositions about poetry. Indeed, he framed first this little speech and +then that with which to grace the return. The morning was an exceptionally +pleasant one for London; there was a clear, hard frost and undeniable blue +in the sky, a thin haze softened every outline, and warm shafts of +sunlight struck between the house blocks and turned the sunny side of the +street to amber and gold. In the hall of the College he pulled off his +glove and signed his name with fingers so stiff with cold that the +characteristic dash under the signature he cultivated became a quivering +line. He imagined Miss Haysman about him everywhere. He turned at the +staircase, and there, below, he saw a crowd struggling at the foot of the +notice-board. This, possibly, was the biology list. He forgot Browning and +Miss Haysman for the moment, and joined the scrimmage. And at last, with +his cheek flattened against the sleeve of the man on the step above him, +he read the list-- + +CLASS I +H. J. Somers Wedderburn +William Hill + +and thereafter followed a second class that is outside our present +sympathies. It was characteristic that he did not trouble to look for +Thorpe on the physics list, but backed out of the struggle at once, and in +a curious emotional state between pride over common second-class humanity +and acute disappointment at Wedderburn's success, went on his way +upstairs. At the top, as he was hanging up his coat in the passage, the +zoological demonstrator, a young man from Oxford, who secretly regarded +him as a blatant "mugger" of the very worst type, offered his heartiest +congratulations. + +At the laboratory door Hill stopped for a second to get his breath, and +then entered. He looked straight up the laboratory and saw all five girl +students grouped in their places, and Wedderburn, the once retiring +Wedderburn, leaning rather gracefully against the window, playing with the +blind tassel and talking, apparently, to the five of them. Now, Hill could +talk bravely enough and even overbearingly to one girl, and he could have +made a speech to a roomful of girls, but this business of standing at ease +and appreciating, fencing, and returning quick remarks round a group was, +he knew, altogether beyond him. Coming up the staircase his feelings for +Wedderburn had been generous, a certain admiration perhaps, a willingness +to shake his hand conspicuously and heartily as one who had fought but the +first round. But before Christmas Wedderburn had never gone up to that end +of the room to talk. In a flash Hill's mist of vague excitement condensed +abruptly to a vivid dislike of Wedderburn. Possibly his expression +changed. As he came up to his place, Wedderburn nodded carelessly to him, +and the others glanced round. Miss Haysman looked at him and away again, +the faintest touch of her eyes. "I can't agree with you, Mr. Wedderburn," +she said. + +"I must congratulate you on your first-class, Mr. Hill," said the +spectacled girl in green, turning round and beaming at him. + +"It's nothing," said Hill, staring at Wedderburn and Miss Haysman talking +together, and eager to hear what they talked about. + +"We poor folks in the second class don't think so," said the girl in +spectacles. + +What was it Wedderburn was saying? Something about William Morris! Hill +did not answer the girl in spectacles, and the smile died out of his face. +He could not hear, and failed to see how he could "cut in." Confound +Wedderburn! He sat down, opened his bag, hesitated whether to return the +volume of Browning forthwith, in the sight of all, and instead drew out +his new notebooks for the short course in elementary botany that was now +beginning, and which would terminate in February. As he did so, a fat, +heavy man, with a white face and pale grey eyes--Bindon, the professor of +botany, who came up from Kew for January and February--came in by the +lecture theatre door, and passed, rubbing his hands together and smiling, +in silent affability down the laboratory. + + * * * * * + +In the subsequent six weeks Hill experienced some very rapid and curiously +complex emotional developments. For the most part he had Wedderburn in +focus--a fact that Miss Haysman never suspected. She told Hill (for in the +comparative privacy of the museum she talked a good deal to him of +socialism and Browning and general propositions) that she had met +Wedderburn at the house of some people she knew, and "he's inherited his +cleverness; for his father, you know, is the great eye-specialist." + +"_My_ father is a cobbler," said Hill, quite irrelevantly, and +perceived the want of dignity even as he said it. But the gleam of +jealousy did not offend her. She conceived herself the fundamental source +of it. He suffered bitterly from a sense of Wedderburn's unfairness, and a +realisation of his own handicap. Here was this Wedderburn had picked up a +prominent man for a father, and instead of his losing so many marks on the +score of that advantage, it was counted to him for righteousness! And +while Hill had to introduce himself and talk to Miss Haysman clumsily over +mangled guinea-pigs in the laboratory, this Wedderburn, in some backstairs +way, had access to her social altitudes, and could converse in a polished +argot that Hill understood perhaps, but felt incapable of speaking. Not, +of course, that he wanted to. Then it seemed to Hill that for Wedderburn +to come there day after day with cuffs unfrayed, neatly tailored, +precisely barbered, quietly perfect, was in itself an ill-bred, sneering +sort of proceeding. Moreover, it was a stealthy thing for Wedderburn to +behave insignificantly for a space, to mock modesty, to lead Hill to fancy +that he himself was beyond dispute the man of the year, and then suddenly +to dart in front of him, and incontinently to swell up in this fashion. In +addition to these things, Wedderburn displayed an increasing disposition +to join in any conversational grouping that included Miss Haysman, and +would venture, and indeed seek occasion, to pass opinions derogatory to +socialism and atheism. He goaded Hill to incivilities by neat, shallow, +and exceedingly effective personalities about the socialist leaders, +until Hill hated Bernard Shaw's graceful egotisms, William Morris's +limited editions and luxurious wall-papers, and Walter Crane's charmingly +absurd ideal working men, about as much as he hated Wedderburn. The +dissertations in the laboratory, that had been his glory in the previous +term, became a danger, degenerated into inglorious tussels with +Wedderburn, and Hill kept to them only out of an obscure perception that +his honour was involved. In the debating society Hill knew quite clearly +that, to a thunderous accompaniment of banged desks, he could have +pulverised Wedderburn. Only Wedderburn never attended the debating society +to be pulverised, because--nauseous affectation!--he "dined late." + +You must not imagine that these things presented themselves in quite such +a crude form to Hill's perception. Hill was a born generaliser. Wedderburn +to him was not so much an individual obstacle as a type, the salient angle +of a class. The economic theories that, after infinite ferment, had shaped +themselves in Hill's mind, became abruptly concrete at the contact. The +world became full of easy-mannered, graceful, gracefully-dressed, +conversationally dexterous, finally shallow Wedderburns, Bishops +Wedderburn, Wedderburn M.P.'s, Professors Wedderburn, Wedderburn +landlords, all with finger-bowl shibboleths and epigrammatic cities of +refuge from a sturdy debater. And everyone ill-clothed or ill-dressed, +from the cobbler to the cab-runner, was a man and a brother, a +fellow-sufferer, to Hill's imagination. So that he became, as it were, a +champion of the fallen and oppressed, albeit to outward seeming only a +self-assertive, ill-mannered young man, and an unsuccessful champion at +that. Again and again a skirmish over the afternoon tea that the girl +students had inaugurated left Hill with flushed cheeks and a tattered +temper, and the debating society noticed a new quality of sarcastic +bitterness in his speeches. + +You will understand now how it was necessary, if only in the interests of +humanity, that Hill should demolish Wedderburn in the forthcoming +examination and outshine him in the eyes of Miss Haysman; and you will +perceive, too, how Miss Haysman fell into some common feminine +misconceptions. The Hill-Wedderburn quarrel, for in his unostentatious way +Wedderburn reciprocated Hill's ill-veiled rivalry, became a tribute to her +indefinable charm; she was the Queen of Beauty in a tournament of scalpels +and stumpy pencils. To her confidential friend's secret annoyance, it even +troubled her conscience, for she was a good girl, and painfully aware, +from Ruskin and contemporary fiction, how entirely men's activities are +determined by women's attitudes. And if Hill never by any chance mentioned +the topic of love to her, she only credited him with the finer modesty for +that omission. So the time came on for the second examination, and Hill's +increasing pallor confirmed the general rumour that he was working hard. +In the aerated bread shop near South Kensington Station you would see him, +breaking his bun and sipping his milk, with his eyes intent upon a paper +of closely written notes. In his bedroom there were propositions about +buds and stems round his looking-glass, a diagram to catch his eye, if +soap should chance to spare it, above his washing basin. He missed several +meetings of the debating society, but he found the chance encounters with +Miss Haysman in the spacious ways of the adjacent art museum, or in the +little museum at the top of the College, or in the College corridors, more +frequent and very restful. In particular, they used to meet in a little +gallery full of wrought-iron chests and gates, near the art library, and +there Hill used to talk, under the gentle stimulus of her flattering +attention, of Browning and his personal ambitions. A characteristic she +found remarkable in him was his freedom from avarice. He contemplated +quite calmly the prospect of living all his life on an income below a +hundred pounds a year. But he was determined to be famous, to make, +recognisably in his own proper person, the world a better place to live +in. He took Bradlaugh and John Burns for his leaders and models, poor, +even impecunious, great men. But Miss Haysman thought that such lives were +deficient on the aesthetic side, by which, though she did not know it, she +meant good wall-paper and upholstery, pretty books, tasteful clothes, +concerts, and meals nicely cooked and respectfully served. + +At last came the day of the second examination, and the professor of +botany, a fussy, conscientious man, rearranged all the tables in a long +narrow laboratory to prevent copying, and put his demonstrator on a chair +on a table (where he felt, he said, like a Hindoo god), to see all the +cheating, and stuck a notice outside the door, "Door closed," for no +earthly reason that any human being could discover. And all the morning +from ten till one the quill of Wedderburn shrieked defiance at Hill's, and +the quills of the others chased their leaders in a tireless pack, and so +also it was in the afternoon. Wedderburn was a little quieter than usual, +and Hill's face was hot all day, and his overcoat bulged with textbooks +and notebooks against the last moment's revision. And the next day, in the +morning and in the afternoon, was the practical examination, when sections +had to be cut and slides identified. In the morning Hill was depressed +because he knew he had cut a thick section, and in the afternoon came the +mysterious slip. + +It was just the kind of thing that the botanical professor was always +doing. Like the income tax, it offered a premium to the cheat. It was a +preparation under the microscope, a little glass slip, held in its place +on the stage of the instrument by light steel clips, and the inscription +set forth that the slip was not to be moved. Each student was to go in +turn to it, sketch it, write in his book of answers what he considered it +to be, and return to his place. Now, to move such a slip is a thing one +can do by a chance movement of the finger, and in a fraction of a second. +The professor's reason for decreeing that the slip should not be moved +depended on the fact that the object he wanted identified was +characteristic of a certain tree stem. In the position in which it was +placed it was a difficult thing to recognise, but once the slip was moved +so as to bring other parts of the preparation into view, its nature was +obvious enough. + +Hill came to this, flushed from a contest with staining re-agents, sat +down on the little stool before the microscope, turned the mirror to get +the best light, and then, out of sheer habit, shifted the slips. At once +he remembered the prohibition, and, with an almost continuous motion of +his hands, moved it back, and sat paralysed with astonishment at his +action. + +Then, slowly, he turned his head. The professor was out of the room; the +demonstrator sat aloft on his impromptu rostrum, reading the _Q. Jour. +Mi. Sci_.; the rest of the examinees were busy, and with their backs to +him. Should he own up to the accident now? He knew quite clearly what the +thing was. It was a lenticel, a characteristic preparation from the +elder-tree. His eyes roved over his intent fellow-students, and Wedderburn +suddenly glanced over his shoulder at him with a queer expression in his +eyes. The mental excitement that had kept Hill at an abnormal pitch of +vigour these two days gave way to a curious nervous tension. His book of +answers was beside him. He did not write down what the thing was, but with +one eye at the microscope he began making a hasty sketch of it. His mind +was full of this grotesque puzzle in ethics that had suddenly been sprung +upon him. Should he identify it? or should he leave this question +unanswered? In that case Wedderburn would probably come out first in the +second result. How could he tell now whether he might not have identified +the thing without shifting it? It was possible that Wedderburn had failed +to recognise it, of course. Suppose Wedderburn too had shifted the slide? +He looked up at the clock. There were fifteen minutes in which to make up +his mind. He gathered up his book of answers and the coloured pencils he +used in illustrating his replies and walked back to his seat. + +He read through his manuscript, and then sat thinking and gnawing his +knuckle. It would look queer now if he owned up. He _must_ beat +Wedderburn. He forgot the examples of those starry gentlemen, John Burns +and Bradlaugh. Besides, he reflected, the glimpse of the rest of the slip +he had had was, after all, quite accidental, forced upon him by chance, a +kind of providential revelation rather than an unfair advantage. It was +not nearly so dishonest to avail himself of that as it was of Broome, who +believed in the efficacy of prayer, to pray daily for a first-class. "Five +minutes more," said the demonstrator, folding up his paper and becoming +observant. Hill watched the clock hands until two minutes remained; then +he opened the book of answers, and, with hot ears and an affectation of +ease, gave his drawing of the lenticel its name. + +When the second pass list appeared, the previous positions of Wedderburn +and Hill were reversed, and the spectacled girl in green, who knew the +demonstrator in private life (where he was practically human), said that +in the result of the two examinations taken together Hill had the +advantage of a mark--167 to 166 out of a possible 200. Everyone admired +Hill in a way, though the suspicion of "mugging" clung to him. But Hill +was to find congratulations and Miss Haysman's enhanced opinion of him, +and even the decided decline in the crest of Wedderburn, tainted by an +unhappy memory. He felt a remarkable access of energy at first, and the +note of a democracy marching to triumph returned to his debating-society +speeches; he worked at his comparative anatomy with tremendous zeal and +effect, and he went on with his aesthetic education. But through it all, a +vivid little picture was continually coming before his mind's eye--of a +sneakish person manipulating a slide. + +No human being had witnessed the act, and he was cocksure that no higher +power existed to see, it; but for all that it worried him. Memories are +not dead things but alive; they dwindle in disuse, but they harden and +develop in all sorts of queer ways if they are being continually fretted. +Curiously enough, though at the time he perceived clearly that the +shifting was accidental, as the days wore on, his memory became confused +about it, until at last he was not sure--although he assured himself that +he _was_ sure--whether the movement had been absolutely involuntary. +Then it is possible that Hill's dietary was conducive to morbid +conscientiousness; a breakfast frequently eaten in a hurry, a midday bun, +and, at such hours after five as chanced to be convenient, such meat as +his means determined, usually in a chop-house in a back street off the +Brompton Road. Occasionally he treated himself to threepenny or ninepenny +classics, and they usually represented a suppression of potatoes or chops. +It is indisputable that outbreaks of self-abasement and emotional revival +have a distinct relation to periods of scarcity. But apart from this +influence on the feelings, there was in Hill a distinct aversion to +falsity that the blasphemous Landport cobbler had inculcated by strap and +tongue from his earliest years. Of one fact about professed atheists I am +convinced; they may be--they usually are--fools, void of subtlety, +revilers of holy institutions, brutal speakers, and mischievous knaves, +but they lie with difficulty. If it were not so, if they had the faintest +grasp of the idea of compromise, they would simply be liberal churchmen. +And, moreover, this memory poisoned his regard for Miss Haysman. For she +now so evidently preferred him to Wedderburn that he felt sure he cared +for her, and began reciprocating her attentions by timid marks of personal +regard; at one time he even bought a bunch of violets, carried it about in +his pocket, and produced it, with a stumbling explanation, withered and +dead, in the gallery of old iron. It poisoned, too, the denunciation of +capitalist dishonesty that had been one of his life's pleasures. And, +lastly, it poisoned his triumph in Wedderburn. Previously he had been +Wedderburn's superior in his own eyes, and had raged simply at a want of +recognition. Now he began to fret at the darker suspicion of positive +inferiority. He fancied he found justifications for his position in +Browning, but they vanished on analysis. At last--moved, curiously enough, +by exactly the same motive forces that had resulted in his dishonesty--he +went to Professor Bindon, and made a clean breast of the whole affair. As +Hill was a paid student, Professor Bindon did not ask him to sit down, and +he stood before the professor's desk as he made his confession. + +"It's a curious story," said Professor Bindon, slowly realising how the +thing reflected on himself, and then letting his anger rise,--"a most +remarkable story. I can't understand your doing it, and I can't understand +this avowal. You're a type of student--Cambridge men would never dream--I +suppose I ought to have thought--why _did_ you cheat?" + +"I didn't cheat," said Hill. + +"But you have just been telling me you did." + +"I thought I explained--" + +"Either you cheated or you did not cheat." + +"I said my motion was involuntary." + +"I am not a metaphysician, I am a servant of science--of fact. You +were told not to move the slip. You did move the slip. If that is not +cheating--" + +"If I was a cheat," said Hill, with the note of hysterics in his voice, +"should I come here and tell you?" + +"Your repentance, of course, does you credit," said Professor Bindon, "but +it does not alter the original facts." + +"No, sir," said Hill, giving in in utter self-abasement. + +"Even now you cause an enormous amount of trouble. The examination list +will have to be revised." + +"I suppose so, sir." + +"Suppose so? Of course it must be revised. And I don't see how I can +conscientiously pass you." + +"Not pass me?" said Hill. "Fail me?" + +"It's the rule in all examinations. Or where should we be? What else did +you expect? You don't want to shirk the consequences of your own acts?" + +"I thought, perhaps----" said Hill. And then, "Fail me? I thought, as I +told you, you would simply deduct the marks given for that slip." + +"Impossible!" said Bindon. "Besides, it would still leave you above +Wedderburn. Deduct only the marks! Preposterous! The Departmental +Regulations distinctly say----" + +"But it's my own admission, sir." + +"The Regulations say nothing whatever of the manner in which the matter +comes to light. They simply provide----" + +"It will ruin me. If I fail this examination, they won't renew my +scholarship." + +"You should have thought of that before." + +"But, sir, consider all my circumstances----" + +"I cannot consider anything. Professors in this College are machines. The +Regulations will not even let us recommend our students for appointments. +I am a machine, and you have worked me. I have to do----" + +"It's very hard, sir." + +"Possibly it is." + +"If I am to be failed this examination, I might as well go home at once." + +"That is as you think proper." Bindon's voice softened a little; he +perceived he had been unjust, and, provided he did not contradict himself, +he was disposed to amelioration. "As a private person," he said, "I think +this confession of yours goes far to mitigate your offence. But you have +set the machinery in motion, and now it must take its course. I--I am +really sorry you gave way." + +A wave of emotion prevented Hill from answering. Suddenly, very vividly, +he saw the heavily-lined face of the old Landport cobbler, his father. +"Good God! What a fool I have been!" he said hotly and abruptly. + +"I hope," said Bindon, "that it will be a lesson to you." + +But, curiously enough, they were not thinking of quite the same +indiscretion. + +There was a pause. + +"I would like a day to think, sir, and then I will let you know--about +going home, I mean," said Hill, moving towards the door. + + * * * * * + +The next day Hill's place was vacant. The spectacled girl in green was, as +usual, first with the news. Wedderburn and Miss Haysman were talking of a +performance of _The Meistersingers_ when she came up to them. + +"Have you heard?" she said. + +"Heard what?" + +"There was cheating in the examination." + +"Cheating!" said Wedderburn, with his face suddenly hot. "How?" + +"That slide--" + +"Moved? Never!" + +"It was. That slide that we weren't to move--" + +"Nonsense!" said Wedderburn. "Why! How could they find out? Who do they +say--?" + +"It was Mr. Hill." + +_Hill_!" + +"Mr. Hill!" + +"Not--surely not the immaculate Hill?" said Wedderburn, recovering. + +"I don't believe it," said Miss Haysman. "How do you know?" + +"I _didn't_," said the girl in spectacles. "But I know it now for a +fact. Mr. Hill went and confessed to Professor Bindon himself." + +"By Jove!" said Wedderburn. "Hill of all people. But I am always inclined +to distrust these philanthropists-on-principle--" + +"Are you quite sure?" said Miss Haysman, with a catch in her breath. + +"Quite. It's dreadful, isn't it? But, you know, what can you expect? His +father is a cobbler." + +Then Miss Haysman astonished the girl in spectacles. + +"I don't care. I will not believe it," she said, flushing darkly under her +warm-tinted skin. "I will not believe it until he has told me so himself-- +face to face. I would scarcely believe it then," and abruptly she turned +her back on the girl in spectacles, and walked to her own place. + +"It's true, all the same," said the girl in spectacles, peering and +smiling at Wedderburn. + +But Wedderburn did not answer her. She was indeed one of those people who +seemed destined to make unanswered remarks. + + + + + XIX. + + THE CRYSTAL EGG. + + +There was, until a year ago, a little and very grimy-looking shop near +Seven Dials, over which, in weather-worn yellow lettering, the name of "C. +Cave, Naturalist and Dealer in Antiquities," was inscribed. The contents +of its window were curiously variegated. They comprised some elephant +tusks and an imperfect set of chessmen, beads and weapons, a box of eyes, +two skulls of tigers and one human, several moth-eaten stuffed monkeys +(one holding a lamp), an old-fashioned cabinet, a fly-blown ostrich egg +or so, some fishing-tackle, and an extraordinarily dirty, empty glass +fish-tank. There was also, at the moment the story begins, a mass of +crystal, worked into the shape of an egg and brilliantly polished. And at +that two people who stood outside the window were looking, one of them a +tall, thin clergyman, the other a black-bearded young man of dusky +complexion and unobtrusive costume. The dusky young man spoke with eager +gesticulation, and seemed anxious for his companion to purchase the +article. + +While they were there, Mr. Cave came into his shop, his beard still +wagging with the bread and butter of his tea. When he saw these men and +the object of their regard, his countenance fell. He glanced guiltily over +his shoulder, and softly shut the door. He was a little old man, with pale +face and peculiar watery blue eyes; his hair was a dirty grey, and he wore +a shabby blue frock-coat, an ancient silk hat, and carpet slippers very +much down at heel. He remained watching the two men as they talked. The +clergyman went deep into his trouser pocket, examined a handful of money, +and showed his teeth in an agreeable smile. Mr. Cave seemed still more +depressed when they came into the shop. + +The clergyman, without any ceremony, asked the price of the crystal egg. +Mr. Cave glanced nervously towards the door leading into the parlour, and +said five pounds. The clergyman protested that the price was high, to his +companion as well as to Mr. Cave--it was, indeed, very much more than Mr. +Cave had intended to ask when he had stocked the article--and an attempt +at bargaining ensued. Mr. Cave stepped to the shop door, and held it open. +"Five pounds is my price," he said, as though he wished to save himself +the trouble of unprofitable discussion. As he did so, the upper portion of +a woman's face appeared above the blind in the glass upper panel of the +door leading into the parlour, and stared curiously at the two customers. +"Five pounds is my price," said Mr. Cave, with a quiver in his voice. + +The swarthy young man had so far remained a spectator, watching Cave +keenly. Now he spoke. "Give him five pounds," he said. The clergyman +glanced at him to see if he were in earnest, and when he looked at Mr. +Cave again, he saw that the latter's face was white. "It's a lot of +money," said the clergyman, and, diving into his pocket, began counting +his resources. He had little more than thirty shillings, and he appealed +to his companion, with whom he seemed to be on terms of considerable +intimacy. This gave Mr. Cave an opportunity of collecting his thoughts, +and he began to explain in an agitated manner that the crystal was not, as +a matter of fact, entirely free for sale. His two customers were naturally +surprised at this, and inquired why he had not thought of that before he +began to bargain. Mr. Cave became confused, but he stuck to his story, +that the crystal was not in the market that afternoon, that a probable +purchaser of it had already appeared. The two, treating this as an attempt +to raise the price still further, made as if they would leave the shop. +But at this point the parlour door opened, and the owner of the dark +fringe and the little eyes appeared. + +She was a coarse-featured, corpulent woman, younger and very much larger +than Mr. Cave; she walked heavily, and her face was flushed. "That crystal +_is_ for sale," she said. "And five pounds is a good enough price for +it. I can't think what you're about, Cave, not to take the gentleman's +offer!" + +Mr. Cave, greatly perturbed by the irruption, looked angrily at her over +the rims of his spectacles, and, without excessive assurance, asserted his +right to manage his business in his own way. An altercation began. The two +customers watched the scene with interest and some amusement, occasionally +assisting Mrs. Cave with suggestions. Mr. Cave, hard driven, persisted in +a confused and impossible story of an inquiry for the crystal that +morning, and his agitation became painful. But he stuck to his point with +extraordinary persistence. It was the young Oriental who ended this +curious controversy. He proposed that they should call again in the course +of two days--so as to give the alleged inquirer a fair chance. "And then +we must insist," said the clergyman. "Five pounds." Mrs. Cave took it on +herself to apologise for her husband, explaining that he was sometimes "a +little odd," and as the two customers left, the couple prepared for a free +discussion of the incident in all its bearings. + +Mrs. Cave talked to her husband with singular directness. The poor little +man, quivering with emotion, muddled himself between his stories, +maintaining on the one hand that he had another customer in view, and on +the other asserting that the crystal was honestly worth ten guineas. "Why +did you ask five pounds?" said his wife. "_Do_ let me manage my +business my own way!" said Mr. Cave. + +Mr. Cave had living with him a step-daughter and a step-son, and at supper +that night the transaction was re-discussed. None of them had a high +opinion of Mr. Cave's business methods, and this action seemed a +culminating folly. + +"It's my opinion he's refused that crystal before," said the step-son, a +loose-limbed lout of eighteen. + +"But _Five Pounds_!" said the step-daughter, an argumentative young +woman of six-and-twenty. + +Mr. Cave's answers were wretched; he could only mumble weak assertions +that he knew his own business best. They drove him from his half-eaten +supper into the shop, to close it for the night, his ears aflame and tears +of vexation behind his spectacles. Why had he left the crystal in the +window so long? The folly of it! That was the trouble closest in his mind. +For a time he could see no way of evading sale. + +After supper his step-daughter and step-son smartened themselves up and +went out and his wife retired upstairs to reflect upon the business +aspects of the crystal, over a little sugar and lemon and so forth in hot +water. Mr. Cave went into the shop, and stayed there until late, +ostensibly to make ornamental rockeries for gold-fish cases, but really +for a private purpose that will be better explained later. The next day +Mrs. Cave found that the crystal had been removed from the window, and +was lying behind some second-hand books on angling. She replaced it in a +conspicuous position. But she did not argue further about it, as a nervous +headache disinclined her from debate. Mr. Cave was always disinclined. The +day passed disagreeably. Mr. Cave was, if anything, more absent-minded +than usual, and uncommonly irritable withal. In the afternoon, when his +wife was taking her customary sleep, he removed the crystal from the +window again. + +The next day Mr. Cave had to deliver a consignment of dog-fish at one of +the hospital schools, where they were needed for dissection. In his +absence Mrs. Cave's mind reverted to the topic of the crystal, and the +methods of expenditure suitable to a windfall of five pounds. She had +already devised some very agreeable expedients, among others a dress of +green silk for herself and a trip to Richmond, when a jangling of the +front door bell summoned her into the shop. The customer was an +examination coach who came to complain of the non-delivery of certain +frogs asked for the previous day. Mrs. Cave did not approve of this +particular branch of Mr. Cave's business, and the gentleman, who had +called in a somewhat aggressive mood, retired after a brief exchange of +words--entirely civil, so far as he was concerned. Mrs. Cave's eye then +naturally turned to the window; for the sight of the crystal was an +assurance of the five pounds and of her dreams. What was her surprise to +find it gone! + +She went to the place behind the locker on the counter, where she had +discovered it the day before. It was not there; and she immediately began +an eager search about the shop. + +When Mr. Cave returned from his business with the dogfish, about a quarter +to two in the afternoon, he found the shop in some confusion, and his +wife, extremely exasperated and on her knees behind the counter, routing +among his taxidermic material. Her face came up hot and angry over the +counter, as the jangling bell announced his return, and she forthwith +accused him of "hiding it." + +"Hid _what_?" asked Mr. Cave. + +"The crystal!" + +At that Mr. Cave, apparently much surprised, rushed to the window. "Isn't +it here?" he said. "Great Heavens! what has become of it?" + +Just then Mr. Cave's step-son re-entered the shop from, the inner room--he +had come home a minute or so before Mr. Cave--and he was blaspheming +freely. He was apprenticed to a second-hand furniture dealer down the +road, but he had his meals at home, and he was naturally annoyed to find +no dinner ready. + +But when he heard of the loss of the crystal, he forgot his meal, and his +anger was diverted from his mother to his step-father. Their first idea, +of course, was that he had hidden it. But Mr. Cave stoutly denied all +knowledge of its fate, freely offering his bedabbled affidavit in the +matter--and at last was worked up to the point of accusing, first, his +wife and then his stepson of having taken it with a view to a private +sale. So began an exceedingly acrimonious and emotional discussion, which +ended for Mrs. Cave in a peculiar nervous condition midway between +hysterics and amuck, and caused the step-son to be half-an-hour late at +the furniture establishment in the afternoon. Mr. Cave took refuge from +his wife's emotions in the shop. + +In the evening the matter was resumed, with less passion and in a judicial +spirit, under the presidency of the step-daughter. The supper passed +unhappily and culminated in a painful scene. Mr. Cave gave way at last to +extreme exasperation, and went out banging the front door violently. The +rest of the family, having discussed him with the freedom his absence +warranted, hunted the house from garret to cellar, hoping to light upon +the crystal. + +The next day the two customers called again. They were received by Mrs. +Cave almost in tears. It transpired that no one _could_ imagine all +that she had stood from Cave at various times in her married pilgrimage. +... She also gave a garbled account of the disappearance. The clergyman +and the Oriental laughed silently at one another, and said it was very +extraordinary. As Mrs. Cave seemed disposed to give them the complete +history of her life they made to leave the shop. Thereupon Mrs. Cave, +still clinging to hope, asked for the clergyman's address, so that, if she +could get anything out of Cave, she might communicate it. The address was +duly given, but apparently was afterwards mislaid. Mrs. Cave can remember +nothing about it. + +In the evening of that day the Caves seem to have exhausted their +emotions, and Mr. Cave, who had been out in the afternoon, supped in a +gloomy isolation that contrasted pleasantly with the impassioned +controversy of the previous days. For some time matters were very badly +strained in the Cave household, but neither crystal nor customer +reappeared. + +Now, without mincing the matter, we must admit that Mr. Cave was a liar. +He knew perfectly well where the crystal was. It was in the rooms of Mr. +Jacoby Wace, Assistant Demonstrator at St. Catherine's Hospital, +Westbourne Street. It stood on the sideboard partially covered by a black +velvet cloth, and beside a decanter of American whisky. It is from Mr. +Wace, indeed, that the particulars upon which this narrative is based were +derived. Cave had taken off the thing to the hospital hidden in the +dog-fish sack, and there had pressed the young investigator to keep it for +him. Mr. Wace was a little dubious at first. His relationship to Cave was +peculiar. He had a taste for singular characters, and he had more than +once invited the old man to smoke and drink in his rooms, and to unfold +his rather amusing views of life in general and of his wife in particular. +Mr. Wace had encountered Mrs. Cave, too, on occasions when Mr. Cave was +not at home to attend to him. He knew the constant interference to which +Cave was subjected, and having weighed the story judicially, he decided to +give the crystal a refuge. Mr. Cave promised to explain the reasons for +his remarkable affection for the crystal more fully on a later occasion, +but he spoke distinctly of seeing visions therein. He called on Mr. Wace +the same evening. + +He told a complicated story. The crystal he said had come into his +possession with other oddments at the forced sale of another curiosity +dealer's effects, and not knowing what its value might be, he had ticketed +it at ten shillings. It had hung upon his hands at that price for some +months, and he was thinking of "reducing the figure," when he made a +singular discovery. + +At that time his health was very bad--and it must be borne in mind that, +throughout all this experience, his physical condition was one of ebb--and +he was in considerable distress by reason of the negligence, the positive +ill-treatment even, he received from his wife and step-children. His wife +was vain, extravagant, unfeeling, and had a growing taste for private +drinking; his step-daughter was mean and over-reaching; and his step-son +had conceived a violent dislike for him, and lost no chance of showing it. +The requirements of his business pressed heavily upon him, and Mr. Wace +does not think that he was altogether free from occasional intemperance. +He had begun life in a comfortable position, he was a man of fair +education, and he suffered, for weeks at a stretch, from melancholia and +insomnia. Afraid to disturb his family, he would slip quietly from his +wife's side, when his thoughts became intolerable, and wander about the +house. And about three o'clock one morning, late in August, chance +directed him into the shop. + +The dirty little place was impenetrably black except in one spot, where he +perceived an unusual glow of light. Approaching this, he discovered it to +be the crystal egg, which was standing on the corner of the counter +towards the window. A thin ray smote through a crack in the shutters, +impinged upon the object, and seemed as it were to fill its entire +interior. + +It occurred to Mr. Cave that this was not in accordance with the laws of +optics as he had known them in his younger days. He could understand the +rays being refracted by the crystal and coming to a focus in its interior, +but this diffusion jarred with his physical conceptions. He approached the +crystal nearly, peering into it and round it, with a transient revival of +the scientific curiosity that in his youth had determined his choice of a +calling. He was surprised to find the light not steady, but writhing +within the substance of the egg, as though that object was a hollow sphere +of some luminous vapour. In moving about to get different points of view, +he suddenly found that he had come between it and the ray, and that the +crystal none the less remained luminous. Greatly astonished, he lifted it +out of the light ray and carried it to the darkest part of the shop. It +remained bright for some four or five minutes, when it slowly faded and +went out. He placed it in the thin streak of daylight, and its +luminousness was almost immediately restored. + +So far, at least, Mr. Wace was able to verify the remarkable story of Mr. +Cave. He has himself repeatedly held this crystal in a ray of light (which +had to be of a less diameter than one millimetre). And in a perfect +darkness, such as could be produced by velvet wrapping, the crystal did +undoubtedly appear very faintly phosphorescent. It would seem, however, +that the luminousness was of some exceptional sort, and not equally +visible to all eyes; for Mr. Harbinger--whose name will be familiar to the +scientific reader in connection with the Pasteur Institute--was quite +unable to see any light whatever. And Mr. Wace's own capacity for its +appreciation was out of comparison inferior to that of Mr. Cave's. Even +with Mr. Cave the power varied very considerably: his vision was most +vivid during states of extreme weakness and fatigue. + +Now, from the outset, this light in the crystal exercised a curious +fascination upon Mr. Cave. And it says more for his loneliness of soul +than a volume of pathetic writing could do, that he told no human being of +his curious observations. He seems to have been living in such an +atmosphere of petty spite that to admit the existence of a pleasure would +have been to risk the loss of it. He found that as the dawn advanced, and +the amount of diffused light increased, the crystal became to all +appearance non-luminous. And for some time he was unable to see anything +in it, except at night-time, in dark corners of the shop. + +But the use of an old velvet cloth, which he used as a background for a +collection of minerals, occurred to him, and by doubling this, and putting +it over his head and hands, he was able to get a sight of the luminous +movement within the crystal even in the day-time. He was very cautious +lest he should be thus discovered by his wife, and he practised this +occupation only in the afternoons, while she was asleep upstairs, and then +circumspectly in a hollow under the counter. And one day, turning the +crystal about in his hands, he saw something. It came and went like a +flash, but it gave him the impression that the object had for a moment +opened to him the view of a wide and spacious and strange country; and +turning it about, he did, just as the light faded, see the same vision +again. + +Now it would be tedious and unnecessary to state all the phases of Mr. +Cave's discovery from this point. Suffice that the effect was this: the +crystal, being peered into at an angle of about 137 degrees from the +direction of the illuminating ray, gave a clear and consistent picture of +a wide and peculiar country-side. It was not dream-like at all: it +produced a definite impression of reality, and the better the light the +more real and solid it seemed. It was a moving picture: that is to say, +certain objects moved in it, but slowly in an orderly manner like real +things, and, according as the direction of the lighting and vision +changed, the picture changed also. It must, indeed, have been like looking +through an oval glass at a view, and turning the glass about to get at +different aspects. + +Mr. Cave's statements, Mr. Wace assures me, were extremely circumstantial, +and entirely free from any of that emotional quality that taints +hallucinatory impressions. But it must be remembered that all the efforts +of Mr. Wace to see any similar clarity in the faint opalescence of the +crystal were wholly unsuccessful, try as he would. The difference in +intensity of the impressions received by the two men was very great, and +it is quite conceivable that what was a view to Mr. Cave was a mere +blurred nebulosity to Mr. Wace. + +The view, as Mr. Cave described it, was invariably of an extensive plain, +and he seemed always to be looking at it from a considerable height, as if +from a tower or a mast. To the east and to the west the plain was bounded +at a remote distance by vast reddish cliffs, which reminded him of those +he had seen in some picture; but what the picture was Mr. Wace was unable +to ascertain. These cliffs passed north and south--he could tell the +points of the compass by the stars that were visible of a night--receding +in an almost illimitable perspective and fading into the mists of the +distance before they met. He was nearer the eastern set of cliffs; on the +occasion of his first vision the sun was rising over them, and black +against the sunlight and pale against their shadow appeared a multitude of +soaring forms that Mr. Cave regarded as birds. A vast range of buildings +spread below him; he seemed to be looking down upon them; and as they +approached the blurred and refracted edge of the picture they became +indistinct. There were also trees curious in shape, and in colouring a +deep mossy green and an exquisite grey, beside a wide and shining canal. +And something great and brilliantly coloured flew across the picture. But +the first time Mr. Cave saw these pictures he saw only in flashes, his +hands shook, his head moved, the vision came and went, and grew foggy and +indistinct. And at first he had the greatest difficulty in finding the +picture again once the direction of it was lost. + +His next clear vision, which came about a week after the first, the +interval having yielded nothing but tantalising glimpses and some useful +experience, showed him the view down the length of the valley. The view +was different, but he had a curious persuasion, which his subsequent +observations abundantly confirmed, that he was regarding the strange world +from exactly the same spot, although he was looking in a different +direction. The long façade of the great building, whose roof he had looked +down upon before, was now receding in perspective. He recognised the roof. +In the front of the façade was a terrace of massive proportions and +extraordinary length, and down the middle of the terrace, at certain +intervals, stood huge but very graceful masts, bearing small shiny objects +which reflected the setting sun. The import of these small objects did not +occur to Mr. Cave until some time after, as he was describing the scene to +Mr. Wace. The terrace overhung a thicket of the most luxuriant and +graceful vegetation, and beyond this was a wide grassy lawn on which +certain broad creatures, in form like beetles but enormously larger, +reposed. Beyond this again was a richly decorated causeway of pinkish +stone; and beyond that, and lined with dense red weeds, and passing up the +valley exactly parallel with the distant cliffs, was a broad and +mirror-like expanse of water. The air seemed full of squadrons of great +birds, manoeuvring in stately curves; and across the river was a multitude +of splendid buildings, richly coloured and glittering with metallic tracery +and facets, among a forest of moss-like and lichenous trees. And suddenly +something flapped repeatedly across the vision, like the fluttering of a +jewelled fan or the beating of a wing, and a face, or rather the upper +part of a face with very large eyes, came as it were close to his own and +as if on the other side of the crystal. Mr. Cave was so startled and so +impressed by the absolute reality of these eyes that he drew his head back +from the crystal to look behind it. He had become so absorbed in watching +that he was quite surprised to find himself in the cool darkness of his +little shop, with its familiar odour of methyl, mustiness, and decay. And +as he blinked about him, the glowing crystal faded and went out. + +Such were the first general impressions of Mr. Cave. The story is +curiously direct and circumstantial. From the outset, when the valley +first flashed momentarily on his senses, his imagination was strangely +affected, and as he began to appreciate the details of the scene he saw, +his wonder rose to the point of a passion. He went about his business +listless and distraught, thinking only of the time when he should be able +to return to his watching. And then a few weeks after his first sight of +the valley came the two customers, the stress and excitement of their +offer, and the narrow escape of the crystal from sale, as I have already +told. + +Now, while the thing was Mr. Cave's secret, it remained a mere wonder, a +thing to creep to covertly and peep at, as a child might peep upon a +forbidden garden. But Mr. Wace has, for a young scientific investigator, a +particularly lucid and consecutive habit of mind. Directly the crystal and +its story came to him, and he had satisfied himself, by seeing the +phosphorescence with his own eyes, that there really was a certain +evidence for Mr. Cave's statements, he proceeded to develop the matter +systematically. Mr. Cave was only too eager to come and feast his eyes on +this wonderland he saw, and he came every night from half-past eight until +half-past ten, and sometimes, in Mr. Wace's absence, during the day. On +Sunday afternoons, also, he came. From the outset Mr. Wace made copious +notes, and it was due to his scientific method that the relation between +the direction from which the initiating ray entered the crystal and the +orientation of the picture were proved. And, by covering the crystal in a +box perforated only with a small aperture to admit the exciting ray, and +by substituting black holland for his buff blinds, he greatly improved the +conditions of the observations; so that in a little while they were able +to survey the valley in any direction they desired. + +So having cleared the way, we may give a brief account of this visionary +world within the crystal. The things were in all cases seen by Mr. Cave, +and the method of working was invariably for him to watch the crystal and +report what he saw, while Mr. Wace (who as a science student had learnt +the trick of writing in the dark) wrote a brief note of his report. When +the crystal faded, it was put into its box in the proper position and the +electric light turned on. Mr. Wace asked questions, and suggested +observations to clear up difficult points. Nothing, indeed, could have +been less visionary and more matter-of-fact. + +The attention of Mr. Cave had been speedily directed to the bird-like +creatures he had seen so abundantly present in each of his earlier +visions. His first impression was soon corrected, and he considered for a +time that they might represent a diurnal species of bat. Then he thought, +grotesquely enough, that they might be cherubs. Their heads were round and +curiously human, and it was the eyes of one of them that had so startled +him on his second observation. They had broad, silvery wings, not +feathered, but glistening almost as brilliantly as new-killed fish and +with the same subtle play of colour, and these wings were not built on the +plan of bird-wing or bat, Mr. Wace learned, but supported by curved ribs +radiating from the body. (A sort of butterfly wing with curved ribs seems +best to express their appearance.) The body was small, but fitted with two +bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles, immediately under the +mouth. Incredible as it appeared to Mr. Wace, the persuasion at last +became irresistible that it was these creatures which owned the great +quasi-human buildings and the magnificent garden that made the broad +valley so splendid. And Mr. Cave perceived that the buildings, with other +peculiarities, had no doors, but that the great circular windows, which +opened freely, gave the creatures egress and entrance. They would alight +upon their tentacles, fold their wings to a smallness almost rod-like, and +hop into the interior. But among them was a multitude of smaller-winged +creatures, like great dragon-flies and moths and flying beetles, and +across the greensward brilliantly-coloured gigantic ground-beetles crawled +lazily to and fro. Moreover, on the causeways and terraces, large-headed +creatures similar to the greater winged flies, but wingless, were visible, +hopping busily upon their hand-like tangle of tentacles. + +Allusion has already been made to the glittering objects upon masts that +stood upon the terrace of the nearer building. It dawned upon Mr. Cave, +after regarding one of these masts very fixedly on one particularly vivid +day that the glittering object there was a crystal exactly like that into +which he peered. And a still more careful scrutiny convinced him that each +one in a vista of nearly twenty carried a similar object. + +Occasionally one of the large flying creatures would flutter up to one, +and folding its wings and coiling a number of its tentacles about the +mast, would regard the crystal fixedly for a space,--sometimes for as long +as fifteen minutes. And a series of observations, made at the suggestion +of Mr. Wace, convinced both watchers that, so far as this visionary world +was concerned, the crystal into which they peered actually stood at the +summit of the end-most mast on the terrace, and that on one occasion at +least one of these inhabitants of this other world had looked into Mr. +Cave's face while he was making these observations. + +So much for the essential facts of this very singular story. Unless we +dismiss it all as the ingenious fabrication of Mr. Wace, we have to +believe one of two things: either that Mr. Cave's crystal was in two +worlds at once, and that while it was carried about in one, it remained +stationary in the other, which seems altogether absurd; or else that it +had some peculiar relation of sympathy with another and exactly similar +crystal in this other world, so that what was seen in the interior of the +one in this world was, under suitable conditions, visible to an observer +in the corresponding crystal in the other world; and _vice versa_. At +present, indeed, we do not know of any way in which two crystals could so +come _en rapport_, but nowadays we know enough to understand that the +thing is not altogether impossible. This view of the crystals as _en +rapport_ was the supposition that occurred to Mr. Wace, and to me at +least it seems extremely plausible... + +And where was this other world? On this, also, the alert intelligence of +Mr. Wace speedily threw light. After sunset, the sky darkened rapidly-- +there was a very brief twilight interval indeed--and the stars shone out. +They were recognisably the same as those we see, arranged in the same +constellations. Mr. Cave recognised the Bear, the Pleiades, Aldebaran, and +Sirius; so that the other world must be somewhere in the solar system, +and, at the utmost, only a few hundreds of millions of miles from our own. +Following up this clue, Mr. Wace learned that the midnight sky was a +darker blue even than our midwinter sky, and that the sun seemed a little +smaller. _And there were two small moons!_ "like our moon but +smaller, and quite differently marked," one of which moved so rapidly that +its motion was clearly visible as one regarded it. These moons were never +high in the sky, but vanished as they rose: that is, every time they +revolved they were eclipsed because they were so near their primary +planet. And all this answers quite completely, although Mr. Cave did not +know it, to what must be the condition of things on Mars. + +Indeed, it seems an exceedingly plausible conclusion that peering into +this crystal Mr. Cave did actually see the planet Mars and its +inhabitants. And if that be the case, then the evening star that shone so +brilliantly in the sky of that distant vision was neither more nor less +than our own familiar earth. + +For a time the Martians--if they were Martians--do not seem to have known +of Mr. Cave's inspection. Once or twice one would come to peer, and go +away very shortly to some other mast, as though the vision was +unsatisfactory. During this time Mr. Cave was able to watch the +proceedings of these winged people without being disturbed by their +attentions, and although his report is necessarily vague and fragmentary, +it is nevertheless very suggestive. Imagine the impression of humanity a +Martian observer would get who, after a difficult process of preparation +and with considerable fatigue to the eyes, was able to peer at London from +the steeple of St. Martin's Church for stretches, at longest, of four +minutes at a time. Mr. Cave was unable to ascertain if the winged Martians +were the same as the Martians who hopped about the causeways and terraces, +and if the latter could put on wings at will. He several times saw certain +clumsy bipeds, dimly suggestive of apes, white and partially translucent, +feeding among certain of the lichenous trees, and once some of these fled +before one of the hopping, round-headed Martians. The latter caught one in +its tentacles, and then the picture faded suddenly and left Mr. Cave most +tantalisingly in the dark. On another occasion a vast thing, that Mr. Cave +thought at first was some gigantic insect, appeared advancing along the +causeway beside the canal with extraordinary rapidity. As this drew nearer +Mr. Cave perceived that it was a mechanism of shining metals and of +extraordinary complexity. And then, when he looked again, it had passed +out of sight. + +After a time Mr. Wace aspired to attract the attention of the Martians, +and the next time that the strange eyes of one of them appeared close to +the crystal Mr. Cave cried out and sprang away, and they immediately +turned on the light and began to gesticulate in a manner suggestive of +signalling. But when at last Mr. Cave examined the crystal again the +Martian had departed. + +Thus far these observations had progressed in early November, and then Mr. +Cave, feeling that the suspicions of his family about the crystal were +allayed, began to take it to and fro with him in order that, as occasion +arose in the daytime or night, he might comfort himself with what was fast +becoming the most real thing in his existence. + +In December Mr. Wace's work in connection with a forthcoming examination +became heavy, the sittings were reluctantly suspended for a week, and for +ten or eleven days--he is not quite sure which--he saw nothing of Cave. He +then grew anxious to resume these investigations, and, the stress of his +seasonal labours being abated, he went down to Seven Dials. At the corner +he noticed a shutter before a bird fancier's window, and then another at a +cobbler's. Mr. Cave's shop was closed. + +He rapped and the door was opened by the step-son in black. He at once +called Mrs. Cave, who was, Mr. Wace could not but observe, in cheap but +ample widow's weeds of the most imposing pattern. Without any very great +surprise Mr. Wace learnt that Cave was dead and already buried. She was in +tears, and her voice was a little thick. She had just returned from +Highgate. Her mind seemed occupied with her own prospects and the +honourable details of the obsequies, but Mr. Wace was at last able to +learn the particulars of Cave's death. He had been found dead in his shop +in the early morning, the day after his last visit to Mr. Wace, and the +crystal had been clasped in his stone-cold hands. His face was smiling, +said Mrs. Cave, and the velvet cloth from the minerals lay on the floor at +his feet. He must have been dead five or six hours when he was found. + +This came as a great shock to Wace, and he began to reproach himself +bitterly for having neglected the plain symptoms of the old man's +ill-health. But his chief thought was of the crystal. He approached that +topic in a gingerly manner, because he knew Mrs. Cave's peculiarities. He +was dumfounded to learn that it was sold. + +Mrs. Cave's first impulse, directly Cave's body had been taken upstairs, +had been to write to the mad clergyman who had offered five pounds for the +crystal, informing him of its recovery; but after a violent hunt, in which +her daughter joined her, they were convinced of the loss of his address. +As they were without the means required to mourn and bury Cave in the +elaborate style the dignity of an old Seven Dials inhabitant demands, they +had appealed to a friendly fellow-tradesman in Great Portland Street. He +had very kindly taken over a portion of the stock at a valuation. The +valuation was his own, and the crystal egg was included in one of the +lots. Mr. Wace, after a few suitable condolences, a little off-handedly +proffered perhaps, hurried at once to Great Portland Street. But there he +learned that the crystal egg had already been sold to a tall, dark man in +grey. And there the material facts in this curious, and to me at least +very suggestive, story come abruptly to an end. The Great Portland Street +dealer did not know who the tall dark man in grey was, nor had he observed +him with sufficient attention to describe him minutely. He did not even +know which way this person had gone after leaving the shop. For a time Mr. +Wace remained in the shop, trying the dealer's patience with hopeless +questions, venting his own exasperation. And at last, realising abruptly +that the whole thing had passed out of his hands, had vanished like a +vision of the night, he returned to his own rooms, a little astonished to +find the notes he had made still tangible and visible upon, his untidy +table. + +His annoyance and disappointment were naturally very great. He made a +second call (equally ineffectual) upon the Great Portland Street dealer, +and he resorted to advertisements in such periodicals as were lively to +come into the hands of a _bric-a-brac_ collector. He also wrote +letters to _The Daily Chronicle_ and _Nature_, but both those +periodicals, suspecting a hoax, asked him to reconsider his action before +they printed, and he was advised that such a strange story, unfortunately +so bare of supporting evidence, might imperil his reputation as an +investigator. Moreover, the calls of his proper work were urgent. So that +after a month or so, save for an occasional reminder to certain dealers, +he had reluctantly to abandon the quest for the crystal egg, and from that +day to this it remains undiscovered. Occasionally, however, he tells me, +and I can quite believe him, he has bursts of zeal, in which he abandons +his more urgent occupation and resumes the search. + +Whether or not it will remain lost for ever, with the material and origin +of it, are things equally speculative at the present time. If the present +purchaser is a collector, one would have expected the enquiries of Mr. +Wace to have reached him through the dealers. He has been able to discover +Mr. Cave's clergyman and "Oriental"--no other than the Rev. James Parker +and the young Prince of Bosso-Kuni in Java. I am obliged to them for +certain particulars. The object of the Prince was simply curiosity--and +extravagance. He was so eager to buy because Cave was so oddly reluctant +to sell. It is just as possible that the buyer in the second instance was +simply a casual purchaser and not a collector at all, and the crystal egg, +for all I know, may at the present moment be within a mile of me, +decorating a drawing-room or serving as a paper-weight--its remarkable +functions all unknown. Indeed, it is partly with the idea of such a +possibility that I have thrown this narrative into a form that will give +it a chance of being read by the ordinary consumer of fiction. + +My own ideas in the matter are practically identical with those of Mr. +Wace. I believe the crystal on the mast in Mars and the crystal egg of Mr. +Cave's to be in some physical, but at present quite inexplicable, way +_en rapport_, and we both believe further that the terrestrial +crystal must have been--possibly at some remote date--sent hither from +that planet, in order to give the Martians a near view of our affairs. +Possibly the fellows to the crystals on the other masts are also on our +globe. No theory of hallucination suffices for the facts. + + + + + XX. + + THE STAR. + + +It was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, +almost simultaneously from three observatories, that the motion of the +planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planets that wheel about the sun, +had become very erratic. Ogilvy had already called attention to a +suspected retardation in its velocity in December. Such a piece of news +was scarcely calculated to interest a world the greater portion of whose +inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor +outside the astronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a +faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause +any very great excitement. Scientific people, however, found the +intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new +body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, that its motion was quite +different from the orderly progress of the planets, and that the +deflection of Neptune and its satellite was becoming now of an +unprecedented kind. + +Few people without a training in science can realise the huge isolation of +the solar system. The sun with its specks of planets, its dust of +planetoids, and its impalpable comets, swims in a vacant immensity that +almost defeats the imagination. Beyond the orbit of Neptune there is +space, vacant so far as human observation has penetrated, without warmth +or light or sound, blank emptiness, for twenty million times a million +miles. That is the smallest estimate of the distance to be traversed +before the very nearest of the stars is attained. And, saving a few comets +more unsubstantial than the thinnest flame, no matter had ever to human +knowledge crossed this gulf of space until early in the twentieth century +this strange wanderer appeared. A vast mass of matter it was, bulky, +heavy, rushing without warning out of the black mystery of the sky into +the radiance of the sun. By the second day it was clearly visible to any +decent instrument, as a speck with a barely sensible diameter, in the +constellation Leo near Regulus. In a little while an opera glass could +attain it. + +On the third day of the new year the newspaper readers of two hemispheres +were made aware for the first time of the real importance of this unusual +apparition in the heavens. "A Planetary Collision," one London paper +headed the news, and proclaimed Duchaine's opinion that this strange new +planet would probably collide with Neptune. The leader-writers enlarged +upon the topic. So that in most of the capitals of the world, on January +3rd, there was an expectation, however vague, of some imminent phenomenon +in the sky; and as the night followed the sunset round the globe, +thousands of men turned their eyes skyward to see--the old familiar stars +just as they had always been. + +Until it was dawn in London and Pollux setting and the stars overhead +grown pale. The Winter's dawn it was, a sickly filtering accumulation of +daylight, and the light of gas and candles shone yellow in the windows to +show where people were astir. But the yawning policeman saw the thing, the +busy crowds in the markets stopped agape, workmen going to their work +betimes, milkmen, the drivers of news-carts, dissipation going home jaded +and pale, homeless wanderers, sentinels on their beats, and, in the +country, labourers trudging afield, poachers slinking home, all over the +dusky quickening country it could be seen--and out at sea by seamen +watching for the day--a great white star, come suddenly into the westward +sky! + +Brighter it was than any star in our skies; brighter than the evening star +at its brightest. It still glowed out white and large, no mere twinkling +spot of light, but a small, round, clear shining disc, an hour after the +day had come. And where science has not reached, men stared and feared, +telling one another of the wars and pestilences that are foreshadowed by +these fiery signs in the Heavens. Sturdy Boers, dusky Hottentots, Gold +Coast negroes, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, stood in the warmth of +the sunrise watching the setting of this strange new star. + +And in a hundred observatories there had been suppressed excitement, +rising almost to shouting pitch, as the two remote bodies had rushed +together, and a hurrying to and fro, to gather photographic apparatus and +spectroscope, and this appliance and that, to record this novel, +astonishing sight, the destruction of a world. For it was a world, a +sister planet of our earth, far greater than our earth indeed, that had so +suddenly flashed into flaming death. Neptune it was had been struck, +fairly and squarely, by the strange planet from outer space, and the heat +of the concussion had incontinently turned two solid globes into one vast +mass of incandescence. Round the world that day, two hours before the +dawn, went the pallid great white star, fading only as it sank westward +and the sun mounted above it. Everywhere men marvelled at it, but of all +those who saw it none could have marvelled more than those sailors, +habitual watchers of the stars, who far away at sea had heard nothing of +its advent and saw it now rise like a pigmy moon and climb zenithward and +hang overhead and sink westward with the passing of the night. + +And when next it rose over Europe everywhere were crowds of watchers on +hilly slopes, on house-roofs, in open spaces, staring eastward for the +rising of the great new star. It rose with a white glow in front of it, +like the glare of a white fire, and those who had seen it come into +existence the night before cried out at the sight of it. "It is larger," +they cried. "It is brighter!" And indeed the moon, a quarter full and +sinking in the west, was in its apparent size beyond comparison, but +scarcely in all its breadth had it as much brightness now as the little +circle of the strange new star. + +"It is brighter!" cried the people clustering in the streets. But in the +dim observatories the watchers held their breath and peered at one +another. "_It is nearer_!" they said. "_Nearer_!" + +And voice after voice repeated, "It is nearer," and the clicking telegraph +took that up, and it trembled along telephone wires, and in a thousand +cities grimy compositors fingered the type. "It is nearer." Men writing in +offices, struck with a strange realisation, flung down their pens, men +talking in a thousand places suddenly came upon a grotesque possibility in +those words, "It is nearer." It hurried along awakening streets, it was +shouted down the frost-stilled ways of quiet villages, men who had read +these things from the throbbing tape stood in yellow-lit doorways shouting +the news to the passers-by. "It is nearer," Pretty women, flushed and +glittering, heard the news told jestingly between the dances, and feigned +an intelligent interest they did not feel. "Nearer! Indeed. How curious! +How very, very clever people must be to find out things like that!" + +Lonely tramps faring through the wintry night murmured those words to +comfort themselves--looking skyward. "It has need to be nearer, for the +night's as cold as charity. Don't seem much warmth from it if it _is_ +nearer, all the same." + +"What is a new star to me?" cried the weeping woman, kneeling beside her +dead. + +The schoolboy, rising early for his examination work, puzzled it out for +himself--with the great white star shining broad and bright through the +frost-flowers of his window. "Centrifugal, centripetal," he said, with his +chin on his fist. "Stop a planet in its flight, rob it of its centrifugal +force, what then? Centripetal has it, and down it falls into the sun! And +this--! + +"Do _we_ come in the way? I wonder--" + +The light of that day went the way of its brethren, and with the later +watches of the frosty darkness rose the strange star again. And it was now +so bright that the waxing moon seemed but a pale yellow ghost of itself, +hanging huge in the sunset. In a South African city a great man had +married, and the streets were alight to welcome his return with his bride. +"Even the skies have illuminated," said the flatterer. Under Capricorn, +two negro lovers, daring the wild beasts and evil spirits for love of one +another, crouched together in a cane brake where the fire-flies hovered. +"That is our star," they whispered, and felt strangely comforted by the +sweet brilliance of its light. + +The master mathematician sat in his private room and pushed the papers from +him. His calculations were already finished. In a small white phial there +still remained a little of the drug that had kept him awake and active for +four long nights. Each day, serene, explicit, patient as ever, he had +given his lecture to his students, and then had come back at once to this +momentous calculation. His face was grave, a little drawn and hectic from +his drugged activity. For some time he seemed lost in thought. Then he +went to the window, and the blind went up with a click. Half-way up the +sky, over the clustering roofs, chimneys, and steeples of the city, hung +the star. + +He looked at it as one might look into the eyes of a brave enemy. "You may +kill me," he said after a silence. "But I can hold you--and all the +universe for that matter--in the grip of this small brain. I would not +change. Even now." + +He looked at the little phial. "There will be no need of sleep again," he +said. The next day at noon, punctual to the minute, he entered his lecture +theatre, put his hat on the end of the table as his habit was, and +carefully selected a large piece of chalk. It was a joke among his +students that he could not lecture without that piece of chalk to fumble +in his fingers, and once he had been stricken to impotence by their hiding +his supply. He came and looked under his grey eyebrows at the rising tiers +of young fresh faces, and spoke with his accustomed studied commonness of +phrasing. + +"Circumstances have arisen--circumstances beyond my control," he said, and +paused, "which will debar me from completing the course I had designed. +It would seem, gentlemen, if I may put the thing clearly and briefly, +that--Man has lived in vain." + +The students glanced at one another. Had they heard aright? Mad? Raised +eyebrows and grinning lips there were, but one or two faces remained +intent upon his calm grey-fringed face. "It will be interesting," he was +saying, "to devote this morning to an exposition, so far as I can make it +clear to you, of the calculations that have led me to this conclusion. Let +us assume----" + +He turned towards the blackboard, meditating a diagram in the way that was +usual to him. "What was that about 'lived in vain'?" whispered one student +to another. "Listen," said the other, nodding towards the lecturer. + +And presently they began to understand. + + * * * * * + +That night the star rose later, for its proper eastward motion had carried +it some way across Leo towards Virgo, and its brightness was so great that +the sky became a luminous blue as it rose, and every star was hidden in +its turn, save only Jupiter near the zenith, Capella, Aldebaran, Sirius, +and the pointers of the Bear. It was very white and beautiful. In many +parts of the world that night a pallid halo encircled it about. It was +perceptibly larger; in the clear refractive sky of the tropics it seemed +as if it were nearly a quarter the size of the moon. The frost was still +on the ground in England, but the world was as brightly lit as if it were +midsummer moonlight. One could see to read quite ordinary print by that +cold, clear light, and in the cities the lamps burnt yellow and wan. + +And everywhere the world was awake that night, and throughout Christendom +a sombre murmur hung in the keen air over the country-side like the +belling of bees in the heather, and this murmurous tumult grew to a +clangour in the cities. It was the tolling of the bells in a million +belfry towers and steeples, summoning the people to sleep no more, to sin +no more, but to gather in their churches and pray. And overhead, growing +larger and brighter, as the earth rolled on its way and the night passed, +rose the dazzling star. + +And the streets and houses were alight in all the cities, the shipyards +glared, and whatever roads led to high country were lit and crowded all +night long. And in all the seas about the civilized lands, ships with +throbbing engines, and ships with bellying sails, crowded with men and +living creatures, were standing out to ocean and the north. For already +the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all over the +world and translated into a hundred tongues. The new planet and Neptune, +locked in a fiery embrace, were whirling headlong, ever faster and faster +towards the sun. Already every second this blazing mass flew a hundred +miles, and every second its terrific velocity increased. As it flew now, +indeed, it must pass a hundred million of miles, wide of the earth and +scarcely affect it. But near its destined path, as yet only slightly +perturbed, spun the mighty planet Jupiter and his moons sweeping splendid +round the sun. Every moment now the attraction between the fiery star and +the greatest of the planets grew stronger. And the result of that +attraction? Inevitably Jupiter would be deflected from its orbit into +an elliptical path, and the burning star, swung by his attraction wide of +its sunward rush, would "describe a curved path," and perhaps collide +with, and certainly pass very close to, our earth. "Earthquakes, volcanic +outbreaks, cyclones, sea waves, floods, and a steady rise in temperature +to I know not what limit"--so prophesied the master mathematician. + +And overhead, to carry out his words, lonely and cold and livid blazed the +star of the coming doom. + +To many who stared at it that night until their eyes ached it seemed that +it was visibly approaching. And that night, too, the weather changed, and +the frost that had gripped all Central Europe and France and England +softened towards a thaw. + +But you must not imagine, because I have spoken of people praying through +the night and people going aboard ships and people fleeing towards +mountainous country, that the whole world was already in a terror because +of the star. As a matter of fact, use and wont still ruled the world, and +save for the talk of idle moments and the splendour of the night, nine +human beings out of ten were still busy at their common occupations. In +all the cities the shops, save one here and there, opened and closed at +their proper hours, the doctor and the undertaker plied their trades, the +workers gathered in the factories, soldiers drilled, scholars studied, +lovers sought one another, thieves lurked and fled, politicians planned +their schemes. The presses of the newspapers roared through the nights, +and many a priest of this church and that would not open his holy building +to further what he considered a foolish panic. The newspapers insisted on +the lesson of the year 1000--for then, too, people had anticipated the +end. The star was no star--mere gas--a comet; and were it a star it could +not possibly strike the earth. There was no precedent for such a thing. +Common-sense was sturdy everywhere, scornful, jesting, a little inclined +to persecute the obdurate fearful. That night, at seven-fifteen by +Greenwich time, the star would be at its nearest to Jupiter. Then the +world would see the turn things would take. The master mathematician's +grim warnings were treated by many as so much mere elaborate +self-advertisement. Common-sense at last, a little heated by argument, +signified its unalterable convictions by going to bed. So, too, barbarism +and savagery, already tired of the novelty, went about their nightly +business, and, save for a howling dog here and there, the beast world left +the star unheeded. + +And yet, when at last the watchers in the European States saw the star +rise, an hour later, it is true, but no larger than it had been the night +before, there were still plenty awake to laugh at the master +mathematician--to take the danger as if it had passed. + +But hereafter the laughter ceased. The star grew--it grew with a terrible +steadiness hour after hour, a little larger each hour, a little nearer +the midnight zenith, and brighter and brighter, until it had turned night +into a second day. Had it come straight to the earth instead of in a +curved path, had it lost no velocity to Jupiter, it must have leapt the +intervening gulf in a day; but as it was, it took five days altogether to +come by our planet. The next night it had become a third the size of the +moon before it set to English eyes, and the thaw was assured. It rose over +America near the size of the moon, but blinding white to look at, and +_hot_; and a breath of hot wind blew now with its rising and +gathering strength, and in Virginia, and Brazil, and down the St. Lawrence +valley, it shone intermittently through a driving reek of thunder-clouds, +flickering violet lightning, and hail unprecedented. In Manitoba was a +thaw and devastating floods. And upon all the mountains of the earth the +snow and ice began to melt that night, and all the rivers coming out of +high country flowed thick and turbid, and soon--in their upper reaches-- +with swirling trees and the bodies of beasts and men. They rose steadily, +steadily in the ghostly brilliance, and came trickling over their banks at +last, behind the flying population of their valleys. + +And along the coast of Argentina and up the South Atlantic the tides were +higher than had ever been in the memory of man, and the storms drove the +waters in many cases scores of miles inland, drowning whole cities. And so +great grew the heat during the night that the rising of the sun was like +the coming of a shadow. The earthquakes began and grew until all down +America from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn, hillsides were sliding, +fissures were opening, and houses and walls crumbling to destruction. The +whole side of Cotopaxi slipped out in one vast convulsion, and a tumult of +lava poured out so high and broad and swift and liquid that in one day it +reached the sea. + +So the star, with the wan moon in its wake, marched across the Pacific, +trailed the thunder-storms like the hem of a robe, and the growing tidal +wave that toiled behind it, frothing and eager, poured over island and +island and swept them clear of men: until that wave came at last--in a +blinding light and with the breath of a furnace, swift and terrible it +came--a wall of water, fifty feet high, roaring hungrily, upon the long +coasts of Asia, and swept inland across the plains of China. For a space +the star, hotter now and larger and brighter than the sun in its strength, +showed with pitiless brilliance the wide and populous country; towns and +villages with their pagodas and trees, roads, wide cultivated fields, +millions of sleepless people staring in helpless terror at the +incandescent sky; and then, low and growing, came the murmur of the flood. +And thus it was with millions of men that night--a flight nowhither, with +limbs heavy with heat and breath fierce and scant, and the flood like a +wall swift and white behind. And then death. + +China was lit glowing white, but over Japan and Java and all the islands +of Eastern Asia the great star was a ball of dull red fire because of the +steam and smoke and ashes the volcanoes were spouting forth to salute its +coming. Above was the lava, hot gases and ash, and below the seething +floods, and the whole earth swayed and rumbled with the earthquake shocks. +Soon the immemorial snows of Thibet and the Himalaya were melting and +pouring down by ten million deepening converging channels upon the plains +of Burmah and Hindostan. The tangled summits of the Indian jungles were +aflame in a thousand places, and below the hurrying waters around the +stems were dark objects that still struggled feebly and reflected the +blood-red tongues of fire. And in a rudderless confusion a multitude of +men and women fled down the broad river-ways to that one last hope of +men--the open sea. + +Larger grew the star, and larger, hotter, and brighter with a terrible +swiftness now. The tropical ocean had lost its phosphorescence, and the +whirling steam rose in ghostly wreaths from the black waves that plunged +incessantly, speckled with storm-tossed ships. + +And then came a wonder. It seemed to those who in Europe watched for the +rising of the star that the world must have ceased its rotation. In a +thousand open spaces of down and upland the people who had fled thither +from the floods and the falling houses and sliding slopes of hill watched +for that rising in vain. Hour followed hour through a terrible suspense, +and the star rose not. Once again men set their eyes upon the old +constellations they had counted lost to them for ever. In England it was +hot and clear overhead, though the ground quivered perpetually, but in the +tropics, Sirius and Capella and Aldebaran showed through a veil of steam. +And when at last the great star rose near ten hours late, the sun rose +close upon it, and in the centre of its white heart was a disc of black. + +Over Asia it was the star had begun to fall behind the movement of the +sky, and then suddenly, as it hung over India, its light had been veiled. +All the plain of India from the mouth of the Indus to the mouths of the +Ganges was a shallow waste of shining water that night, out of which rose +temples and palaces, mounds and hills, black with people. Every minaret +was a clustering mass of people, who fell one by one into the turbid +waters, as heat and terror overcame them. The whole land seemed a-wailing, +and suddenly there swept a shadow across that furnace of despair, and a +breath of cold wind, and a gathering of clouds, out of the cooling air. +Men looking up, near blinded, at the star, saw that a black disc was +creeping across the light. It was the moon, coming between the star and +the earth. And even as men cried to God at this respite, out of the East +with a strange inexplicable swiftness sprang the sun. And then star, sun, +and moon rushed together across the heavens. + +So it was that presently to the European watchers star and sun rose close +upon each other, drove headlong for a space and then slower, and at last +came to rest, star and sun merged into one glare of flame at the zenith of +the sky. The moon no longer eclipsed the star but was lost to sight in the +brilliance of the sky. And though those who were still alive regarded it +for the most part with that dull stupidity that hunger, fatigue, heat and +despair engender, there were still men who could perceive the meaning of +these signs. Star and earth had been at their nearest, had swung about one +another, and the star had passed. Already it was receding, swifter and +swifter, in the last stage of its headlong journey downward into the sun. + +And then the clouds gathered, blotting out the vision of the sky, the +thunder and lightning wove a garment round the world; all over the earth +was such a downpour of rain as men had never before seen, and where the +volcanoes flared red against the cloud canopy there descended torrents of +mud. Everywhere the waters were pouring off the land, leaving mud-silted +ruins, and the earth littered like a storm-worn beach with all that had +floated, and the dead bodies of the men and brutes, its children. For days +the water streamed off the land, sweeping away soil and trees and houses +in the way, and piling huge dykes and scooping out Titanic gullies over +the country-side. Those were the days of darkness that followed the star +and the heat. All through them, and for many weeks and months, the +earthquakes continued. + +But the star had passed, and men, hunger-driven and gathering courage only +slowly, might creep back to their ruined cities, buried granaries, and +sodden fields. Such few ships as had escaped the storms of that time came +stunned and shattered and sounding their way cautiously through the new +marks and shoals of once familiar ports. And as the storms subsided men +perceived that everywhere the days were hotter than of yore, and the sun +larger, and the moon, shrunk to a third of its former size, took now +fourscore days between its new and new. + +But of the new brotherhood that grew presently among men, of the saving of +laws and books and machines, of the strange change that had come over +Iceland and Greenland and the shores of Baffin's Bay, so that the sailors +coming there presently found them green and gracious, and could scarce +believe their eyes, this story does not tell. Nor of the movement of +mankind, now that the earth was hotter, northward and southward towards +the poles of the earth. It concerns itself only with the coming and the +passing of the star. + +The Martian astronomers--for there are astronomers on Mars, although they +are very different beings from men--were naturally profoundly interested +by these things. They saw them from their own standpoint of course. +"Considering the mass and temperature of the missile that was flung +through our solar system into the sun," one wrote, "it is astonishing what +a little damage the earth, which it missed so narrowly, has sustained. All +the familiar continental markings and the masses of the seas remain +intact, and indeed the only difference seems to be a shrinkage of the +white discolouration (supposed to be frozen water) round either pole." +Which only shows how small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem at a +distance of a few million miles. + + + + + XXI. + + THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES. + + A PANTOUM IN PROSE. + + +It is doubtful whether the gift was innate. For my own part, I think it +came to him suddenly. Indeed, until he was thirty he was a sceptic, and +did not believe in miraculous powers. And here, since it is the most +convenient place, I must mention that he was a little man, and had eyes of +a hot brown, very erect red hair, a moustache with ends that he twisted +up, and freckles. His name was George McWhirter Fotheringay--not the sort +of name by any means to lead to any expectation of miracles--and he was +clerk at Gomshott's. He was greatly addicted to assertive argument. It was +while he was asserting the impossibility of miracles that he had his first +intimation of his extraordinary powers. This particular argument was being +held in the bar of the Long Dragon, and Toddy Beamish was conducting the +opposition by a monotonous but effective "So _you_ say," that drove +Mr. Fotheringay to the very limit of his patience. + +There were present, besides these two, a very dusty cyclist, landlord Cox, +and Miss Maybridge, the perfectly respectable and rather portly barmaid of +the Dragon. Miss Maybridge was standing with her back to Mr. Fotheringay, +washing glasses; the others were watching him, more or less amused by the +present ineffectiveness of the assertive method. Goaded by the Torres +Vedras tactics of Mr. Beamish, Mr. Fotheringay determined to make an +unusual rhetorical effort. "Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. +Fotheringay. "Let us clearly understand what a miracle is. It's something +contrariwise to the course of nature, done by power of will, something +what couldn't happen without being specially willed." + +"So _you_ say," said Mr. Beamish, repulsing him. + +Mr. Fotheringay appealed to the cyclist, who had hitherto been a silent +auditor, and received his assent--given with a hesitating cough and a +glance at Mr. Beamish. The landlord would express no opinion, and Mr. +Fotheringay, returning to Mr. Beamish, received the unexpected concession +of a qualified assent to his definition of a miracle. + +"For instance," said Mr. Fotheringay, greatly encouraged. "Here would be a +miracle. That lamp, in the natural course of nature, couldn't burn like +that upsy-down, could it, Beamish?" + +"_You_ say it couldn't," said Beamish. + +"And you?" said Fotheringay. "You don't mean to say--eh?" + +"No," said Beamish reluctantly. "No, it couldn't." + +"Very well," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Then here comes someone, as it might +be me, along here, and stands as it might be here, and says to that lamp, +as I might do, collecting all my will--Turn upsy-down without breaking, +and go on burning steady, and--Hullo!" + +It was enough to make anyone say "Hullo!" The impossible, the incredible, +was visible to them all. The lamp hung inverted in the air, burning +quietly with its flame pointing down. It was as solid, as indisputable as +ever a lamp was, the prosaic common lamp of the Long Dragon bar. + +Mr. Fotheringay stood with an extended forefinger and the knitted brows of +one anticipating a catastrophic smash. The cyclist, who was sitting next +the lamp, ducked and jumped across the bar. Everybody jumped, more or +less. Miss Maybridge turned and screamed. For nearly three seconds the +lamp remained still. A faint cry of mental distress came from Mr. +Fotheringay. "I can't keep it up," he said, "any longer." He staggered +back, and the inverted lamp suddenly flared, fell against the corner of +the bar, bounced aside, smashed upon the floor, and went out. + +It was lucky it had a metal receiver, or the whole place would have been +in a blaze. Mr. Cox was the first to speak, and his remark, shorn of +needless excrescences, was to the effect that Fotheringay was a fool. +Fotheringay was beyond disputing even so fundamental a proposition as +that! He was astonished beyond measure at the thing that had occurred. The +subsequent conversation threw absolutely no light on the matter so far as +Fotheringay was concerned; the general opinion not only followed Mr. Cox +very closely but very vehemently. Everyone accused Fotheringay of a silly +trick, and presented him to himself as a foolish destroyer of comfort and +security. His mind was in a tornado of perplexity, he was himself inclined +to agree with them, and he made a remarkably ineffectual opposition to the +proposal of his departure. + +He went home flushed and heated, coat-collar crumpled, eyes smarting, and +ears red. He watched each of the ten street lamps nervously as he passed +it. It was only when he found himself alone in his little bedroom in +Church Row that he was able to grapple seriously with his memories of the +occurrence, and ask, "What on earth happened?" + +He had removed his coat and boots, and was sitting on the bed with his +hands in his pockets repeating the text of his defence for the seventeenth +time, "I didn't want the confounded thing to upset," when it occurred to +him that at the precise moment he had said the commanding words he had +inadvertently willed the thing he said, and that when he had seen the lamp +in the air he had felt that it depended on him to maintain it there +without being clear how this was to be done. He had not a particularly +complex mind, or he might have stuck for a time at that "inadvertently +willed," embracing, as it does, the abstrusest problems of voluntary +action; but as it was, the idea came to him with a quite acceptable +haziness. And from that, following, as I must admit, no clear logical +path, he came to the test of experiment. + +He pointed resolutely to his candle and collected his mind, though he felt +he did a foolish thing. "Be raised up," he said. But in a second that +feeling vanished. The candle was raised, hung in the air one giddy moment, +and as Mr. Fotheringay gasped, fell with a smash on his toilet-table, +leaving him in darkness save for the expiring glow of its wick. + +For a time Mr. Fotheringay sat in the darkness, perfectly still. "It did +happen, after all," he said. "And 'ow _I'm_ to explain it I +_don't_ know." He sighed heavily, and began feeling in his pockets +for a match. He could find none, and he rose and groped about the +toilet-table. "I wish I had a match," he said. He resorted to his coat, +and there was none there, and then it dawned upon him that miracles were +possible even with matches. He extended a hand and scowled at it in the +dark. "Let there be a match in that hand," he said. He felt some light +object fall across his palm and his fingers closed upon a match. + +After several ineffectual attempts to light this, he discovered it was a +safety match. He threw it down, and then it occurred to him that he might +have willed it lit. He did, and perceived it burning in the midst of his +toilet-table mat. He caught it up hastily, and it went out. His perception +of possibilities enlarged, and he felt for and replaced the candle in its +candlestick. "Here! _you_ be lit," said Mr. Fotheringay, and +forthwith the candle was flaring, and he saw a little black hole in the +toilet-cover, with a wisp of smoke rising from it. For a time he stared +from this to the little flame and back, and then looked up and met his own +gaze in the looking-glass. By this help he communed with himself in +silence for a time. + +"How about miracles now?" said Mr. Fotheringay at last, addressing his +reflection. + +The subsequent meditations of Mr. Fotheringay were of a severe but +confused description. So far, he could see it was a case of pure willing +with him. The nature of his experiences so far disinclined him for any +further experiments, at least until he had reconsidered them. But he +lifted a sheet of paper, and turned a glass of water pink and then green, +and he created a snail, which he miraculously annihilated, and got himself +a miraculous new tooth-brush. Somewhere in the small hours he had reached +the fact that his will-power must be of a particularly rare and pungent +quality, a fact of which he had indeed had inklings before, but no certain +assurance. The scare and perplexity of his first discovery was now +qualified by pride in this evidence of singularity and by vague +intimations of advantage. He became aware that the church clock was +striking one, and as it did not occur to him that his daily duties at +Gomshott's might be miraculously dispensed with, he resumed undressing, in +order to get to bed without further delay. As he struggled to get his +shirt over his head, he was struck with a brilliant idea. "Let me be in +bed," he said, and found himself so. "Undressed," he stipulated; and, +finding the sheets cold, added hastily, "and in my nightshirt--ho, in a +nice soft woollen nightshirt. Ah!" he said with immense enjoyment. "And +now let me be comfortably asleep..." + +He awoke at his usual hour and was pensive all through breakfast-time, +wondering whether his over-night experience might not be a particularly +vivid dream. At length his mind turned again to cautious experiments. For +instance, he had three eggs for breakfast; two his landlady had supplied, +good, but shoppy, and one was a delicious fresh goose-egg, laid, cooked, +and served by his extraordinary will. He hurried off to Gomshott's in a +state of profound but carefully concealed excitement, and only remembered +the shell of the third egg when his landlady spoke of it that night. All +day he could do no work because of this astonishing new self-knowledge, +but this caused him no inconvenience, because he made up for it +miraculously in his last ten minutes. + +As the day wore on his state of mind passed from wonder to elation, albeit +the circumstances of his dismissal from the Long Dragon were still +disagreeable to recall, and a garbled account of the matter that had +reached his colleagues led to some badinage. It was evident he must be +careful how he lifted frangible articles, but in other ways his gift +promised more and more as he turned it over in his mind. He intended among +other things to increase his personal property by unostentatious acts of +creation. He called into existence a pair of very splendid diamond studs, +and hastily annihilated them again as young Gomshott came across the +counting-house to his desk. He was afraid young Gomshott might wonder how +he had come by them. He saw quite clearly the gift required caution and +watchfulness in its exercise, but so far as he could judge the +difficulties attending its mastery would be no greater than those he had +already faced in the study of cycling. It was that analogy, perhaps, quite +as much as the feeling that he would be unwelcome in the Long Dragon, that +drove him out after supper into the lane beyond the gasworks, to rehearse +a few miracles in private. + +There was possibly a certain want of originality in his attempts, for, +apart from his will-power, Mr. Fotheringay was not a very exceptional man. +The miracle of Moses' rod came to his mind, but the night was dark and +unfavourable to the proper control of large miraculous snakes. Then he +recollected the story of "Tannhäuser" that he had read on the back of the +Philharmonic programme. That seemed to him singularly attractive and +harmless. He stuck his walking-stick--a very nice Poona-Penang lawyer-- +into the turf that edged the footpath, and commanded the dry wood to +blossom. The air was immediately full of the scent of roses, and by means +of a match he saw for himself that this beautiful miracle was indeed +accomplished. His satisfaction was ended by advancing footsteps. Afraid of +a premature discovery of his powers, he addressed the blossoming stick +hastily: "Go back." What he meant was "Change back;" but of course he was +confused. The stick receded at a considerable velocity, and incontinently +came a cry of anger and a bad word from the approaching person. "Who are +you throwing brambles at, you fool?" cried a voice. "That got me on the +shin." + +"I'm sorry, old chap," said Mr. Fotheringay, and then, realising the +awkward nature of the explanation, caught nervously at his moustache. He +saw Winch, one of the three Immering constables, advancing. + +"What d'yer mean by it?" asked the constable. "Hullo! it's you, is it? The +gent that broke the lamp at the Long Dragon!" + +"I don't mean anything by it," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Nothing at all." + +"What d'yer do it for then?" + +"Oh, bother!" said Mr. Fotheringay. + +"Bother indeed! D'yer know that stick hurt? What d'yer do it for, eh?" + +For the moment Mr. Fotheringay could not think what he had done it for. +His silence seemed to irritate Mr. Winch. "You've been assaulting the +police, young man, this time. That's what _you_ done." + +"Look here, Mr. Winch," said Mr. Fotheringay, annoyed and confused, "I'm +sorry, very. The fact is----" + +"Well?" + +He could think of no way but the truth. "I was working a miracle." He +tried to speak in an off-hand way, but try as he would he couldn't. + +"Working a--! 'Ere, don't you talk rot. Working a miracle, indeed! +Miracle! Well, that's downright funny! Why, you's the chap that don't +believe in miracles... Fact is, this is another of your silly conjuring +tricks--that's what this is. Now, I tell you--" + +But Mr. Fotheringay never heard what Mr. Winch was going to tell him. He +realised he had given himself away, flung his valuable secret to all the +winds of heaven. A violent gust of irritation swept him to action. He +turned on the constable swiftly and fiercely. "Here," he said, "I've had +enough of this, I have! I'll show you a silly conjuring trick, I will! Go +to Hades! Go, now!" + +He was alone! + +Mr. Fotheringay performed no more miracles that night, nor did he trouble +to see what had become of his flowering stick. He returned to the town, +scared and very quiet, and went to his bedroom. "Lord!" he said, "it's a +powerful gift--an extremely powerful gift. I didn't hardly mean as much as +that. Not really... I wonder what Hades is like!" + +He sat on the bed taking off his boots. Struck by a happy thought he +transferred the constable to San Francisco, and without any more +interference with normal causation went soberly to bed. In the night he +dreamt of the anger of Winch. + +The next day Mr. Fotheringay heard two interesting items of news. Someone +had planted a most beautiful climbing rose against the elder Mr. +Gomshott's private house in the Lullaborough Road, and the river as far as +Rawling's Mill was to be dragged for Constable Winch. + +Mr. Fotheringay was abstracted and thoughtful all that day, and performed +no miracles except certain provisions for Winch, and the miracle of +completing his day's work with punctual perfection in spite of all the +bee-swarm of thoughts that hummed through his mind. And the extraordinary +abstraction and meekness of his manner was remarked by several people, and +made a matter for jesting. For the most part he was thinking of Winch. + +On Sunday evening he went to chapel, and oddly enough, Mr. Maydig, who +took a certain interest in occult matters, preached about "things that are +not lawful." Mr. Fotheringay was not a regular chapelgoer, but the system +of assertive scepticism, to which I have already alluded, was now very +much shaken. The tenor of the sermon threw an entirely new light on these +novel gifts, and he suddenly decided to consult Mr. Maydig immediately +after the service. So soon as that was determined, he found himself +wondering why he had not done so before. + +Mr. Maydig, a lean, excitable man with quite remarkably long wrists and +neck, was gratified at a request for a private conversation from a young +man whose carelessness in religious matters was a subject for general +remark in the town. After a few necessary delays, he conducted him to the +study of the manse, which was contiguous to the chapel, seated him +comfortably, and, standing in front of a cheerful fire--his legs threw a +Rhodian arch of shadow on the opposite wall--requested Mr. Fotheringay to +state his business. + +At first Mr. Fotheringay was a little abashed, and found some difficulty +in opening the matter. "You will scarcely believe me, Mr. Maydig, I am +afraid"--and so forth for some time. He tried a question at last, and +asked Mr. Maydig his opinion of miracles. + +Mr. Maydig was still saying "Well" in an extremely judicial tone, when Mr. +Fotheringay interrupted again: "You don't believe, I suppose, that some +common sort of person--like myself, for instance--as it might be sitting +here now, might have some sort of twist inside him that made him able to +do things by his will." + +"It's possible," said Mr. Maydig. "Something of the sort, perhaps, is +possible." + +"If I might make free with something here, I think I might show you by a +sort of experiment," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Now, take that tobacco-jar on +the table, for instance. What I want to know is whether what I am going to +do with it is a miracle or not. Just half a minute, Mr. Maydig, please." + +He knitted his brows, pointed to the tobacco-jar and said: "Be a bowl of +vi'lets." + +The tobacco-jar did as it was ordered. + +Mr. Maydig started violently at the change, and stood looking from the +thaumaturgist to the bowl of flowers. He said nothing. Presently he +ventured to lean over the table and smell the violets; they were +fresh-picked and very fine ones. Then he stared at Mr. Fotheringay again. + +"How did you do that?" he asked. + +Mr. Fotheringay pulled his moustache. "Just told it--and there you are. Is +that a miracle, or is it black art, or what is it? And what do you think's +the matter with me? That's what I want to ask." + +"It's a most extraordinary occurrence." + +"And this day last week I knew no more that I could do things like that +than you did. It came quite sudden. It's something odd about my will, I +suppose, and that's as far as I can see." + +"Is that--the only thing. Could you do other things besides that?" + +"Lord, yes!" said Mr. Fotheringay. "Just anything." He thought, and +suddenly recalled a conjuring entertainment he had seen. "Here!" he +pointed, "change into a bowl of fish--no, not that--change into a glass +bowl full of water with goldfish swimming in it. That's better! You see +that, Mr. Maydig?" + +"It's astonishing. It's incredible. You are either a most extraordinary... +But no----" + +"I could change it into anything," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Just anything. +Here! be a pigeon, will you?" + +In another moment a blue pigeon was fluttering round the room and making +Mr. Maydig duck every time it came near him. "Stop there, will you?" said +Mr. Fotheringay; and the pigeon hung motionless in the air. "I could +change it back to a bowl of flowers," he said, and after replacing the +pigeon on the table worked that miracle. "I expect you will want your pipe +in a bit," he said, and restored the tobacco-jar. + +Mr. Maydig had followed all these later changes in a sort of ejaculatory +silence. He stared at Mr. Fotheringay and in a very gingerly manner picked +up the tobacco-jar, examined it, replaced it on the table. "_Well_!" +was the only expression of his feelings. + +"Now, after that it's easier to explain what I came about," said Mr. +Fotheringay; and proceeded to a lengthy and involved narrative of his +strange experiences, beginning with the affair of the lamp in the Long +Dragon and complicated by persistent allusions to Winch. As he went on, +the transient pride Mr. Maydig's consternation had caused passed away; he +became the very ordinary Mr. Fotheringay of everyday intercourse again. +Mr. Maydig listened intently, the tobacco-jar in his hand, and his bearing +changed also with the course of the narrative. Presently, while Mr. +Fotheringay was dealing with the miracle of the third egg, the minister +interrupted with a fluttering, extended hand. + +"It is possible," he said. "It is credible. It is amazing, of course, but +it reconciles a number of amazing difficulties. The power to work miracles +is a gift--a peculiar quality like genius or second sight; hitherto it has +come very rarely and to exceptional people. But in this case...I have +always wondered at the miracles of Mahomet, and at Yogi's miracles, and +the miracles of Madame Blavatsky. But, of course--Yes, it is simply a +gift! It carries out so beautifully the arguments of that great thinker"-- +Mr. Maydig's voice sank--"his Grace the Duke of Argyll. Here we plumb some +profounder law--deeper than the ordinary laws of nature. Yes--yes. Go on. +Go on!" + +Mr. Fotheringay proceeded to tell of his misadventure with Winch, and Mr. +Maydig, no longer overawed or scared, began to jerk his limbs about and +interject astonishment. "It's this what troubled me most," proceeded Mr. +Fotheringay; "it's this I'm most mijitly in want of advice for; of course +he's at San Francisco--wherever San Francisco may be--but of course it's +awkward for both of us, as you'll see, Mr. Maydig. I don't see how he can +understand what has happened, and I daresay he's scared and exasperated +something tremendous, and trying to get at me. I daresay he keeps on +starting off to come here. I send him back, by a miracle, every few hours, +when I think of it. And, of course, that's a thing he won't be able to +understand, and it's bound to annoy him; and, of course, if he takes a +ticket every time it will cost him a lot of money. I done the best I could +for him, but, of course, it's difficult for him to put himself in my +place. I thought afterwards that his clothes might have got scorched, you +know--if Hades is all it's supposed to be--before I shifted him. In that +case I suppose they'd have locked him up in San Francisco. Of course I +willed him a new suit of clothes on him directly I thought of it. But, you +see, I'm already in a deuce of a tangle----" + +Mr. Maydig looked serious. "I see you are in a tangle. Yes, it's a +difficult position. How you are to end it..." He became diffuse and +inconclusive. + +"However, we'll leave Winch for a little and discuss the larger question. +I don't think this is a case of the black art or anything of the sort. I +don't think there is any taint of criminality about it at all, Mr. +Fotheringay--none whatever, unless you are suppressing material facts. No, +it's miracles--pure miracles--miracles, if I may say so, of the very +highest class." + +He began to pace the hearthrug and gesticulate, while Mr. Fotheringay sat +with his arm on the table and his head on his arm, looking worried. "I +don't see how I'm to manage about Winch," he said. + +"A gift of working miracles--apparently a very powerful gift," said Mr. +Maydig, "will find a way about Winch--never fear. My dear sir, you are a +most important man--a man of the most astonishing possibilities. As +evidence, for example! And in other ways, the things you may do..." + +"Yes, _I've_ thought of a thing or two," said Mr. Fotheringay. "But-- +some of the things came a bit twisty. You saw that fish at first? Wrong +sort of bowl and wrong sort of fish. And I thought I'd ask someone." + +"A proper course," said Mr. Maydig, "a very proper course--altogether the +proper course." He stopped and looked at Mr. Fotheringay. "It's +practically an unlimited gift. Let us test your powers, for instance. If +they really _are_ ... If they really are all they seem to be." + +And so, incredible as it may seem, in the study of the little house behind +the Congregational Chapel, on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 10, 1896, Mr. +Fotheringay, egged on and inspired by Mr. Maydig, began to work miracles. +The reader's attention is specially and definitely called to the date. He +will object, probably has already objected, that certain points in this +story are improbable, that if any things of the sort already described had +indeed occurred, they would have been in all the papers at that time. The +details immediately following he will find particularly hard to accept, +because among other things they involve the conclusion that he or she, the +reader in question, must have been killed in a violent and unprecedented +manner more than a year ago. Now a miracle is nothing if not improbable, +and as a matter of fact the reader _was_ killed in a violent and +unprecedented manner in 1896. In the subsequent course of this story that +will become perfectly clear and credible, as every right-minded and +reasonable reader will admit. But this is not the place for the end of the +story, being but little beyond the hither side of the middle. And at first +the miracles worked by Mr. Fotheringay were timid little miracles--little +things with the cups and parlour fitments, as feeble as the miracles of +Theosophists, and, feeble as they were, they were received with awe by his +collaborator. He would have preferred to settle the Winch business out of +hand, but Mr. Maydig would not let him. But after they had worked a dozen +of these domestic trivialities, their sense of power grew, their +imagination began to show signs of stimulation, and their ambition +enlarged. Their first larger enterprise was due to hunger and the +negligence of Mrs. Minchin, Mr. Maydig's housekeeper. The meal to which +the minister conducted Mr. Fotheringay was certainly ill-laid and +uninviting as refreshment for two industrious miracle-workers; but they +were seated, and Mr. Maydig was descanting in sorrow rather than in anger +upon his housekeeper's shortcomings, before it occurred to Mr. Fotheringay +that an opportunity lay before him. "Don't you think, Mr. Maydig," he +said, "if it isn't a liberty, _I_----" + +"My dear Mr. Fotheringay! Of course! No--I didn't think." + +Mr. Fotheringay waved his hand. "What shall we have?" he said, in a large, +inclusive spirit, and, at Mr. Maydig's order, revised the supper very +thoroughly. "As for me," he said, eyeing Mr. Maydig's selection, "I am +always particularly fond of a tankard of stout and a nice Welsh rarebit, +and I'll order that. I ain't much given to Burgundy," and forthwith stout +and Welsh rarebit promptly appeared at his command. They sat long at their +supper, talking like equals, as Mr. Fotheringay presently perceived, with +a glow of surprise and gratification, of all the miracles they would +presently do. "And, by-the-by, Mr. Maydig," said Mr. Fotheringay, "I might +perhaps be able to help you--in a domestic way." + +"Don't quite follow," said Mr. Maydig, pouring out a glass of miraculous +old Burgundy. + +Mr. Fotheringay helped himself to a second Welsh rarebit out of vacancy, +and took a mouthful. "I was thinking," he said, "I might be able (_chum, +chum_) to work (_chum, chum_) a miracle with Mrs. Minchin +(_chum, chum_)--make her a better woman." + +Mr. Maydig put down the glass and looked doubtful. + +"She's----She strongly objects to interference, you know, Mr. +Fotheringay. And--as a matter of fact--it's well past eleven and she's +probably in bed and asleep. Do you think, on the whole----" + +Mr. Fotheringay considered these objections. "I don't see that it +shouldn't be done in her sleep." + +For a time Mr. Maydig opposed the idea, and then he yielded. Mr. +Fotheringay issued his orders, and a little less at their ease, perhaps, +the two gentlemen proceeded with their repast. Mr. Maydig was enlarging on +the changes he might expect in his housekeeper next day, with an optimism, +that seemed even to Mr. Fotheringay's supper senses a little forced and +hectic, when a series of confused noises from upstairs began. Their eyes +exchanged interrogations, and Mr. Maydig left the room hastily. Mr. +Fotheringay heard him calling up to his housekeeper and then his footsteps +going softly up to her. + +In a minute or so the minister returned, his step light, his face radiant. +"Wonderful!" he said, "and touching! Most touching!" + +He began pacing the hearthrug. "A repentance--a most touching repentance-- +through the crack of the door. Poor woman! A most wonderful change! She +had got up. She must have got up at once. She had got up out of her sleep +to smash a private bottle of brandy in her box. And to confess it too!... +But this gives us--it opens--a most amazing vista of possibilities. If we +can work this miraculous change in _her_..." + +"The thing's unlimited seemingly," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And about Mr. +Winch----" + +"Altogether unlimited." And from the hearthrug Mr. Maydig, waving the +Winch difficulty aside, unfolded a series of wonderful proposals-- +proposals he invented as he went along. + +Now what those proposals were does not concern the essentials of this +story. Suffice it that they were designed in a spirit of infinite +benevolence, the sort of benevolence that used to be called post-prandial. +Suffice it, too, that the problem of Winch remained unsolved. Nor is it +necessary to describe how far that series got to its fulfilment. There +were astonishing changes. The small hours found Mr. Maydig and Mr. +Fotheringay careering across the chilly market square under the still +moon, in a sort of ecstasy of thaumaturgy, Mr. Maydig all flap and +gesture, Mr. Fotheringay short and bristling, and no longer abashed at his +greatness. They had reformed every drunkard in the Parliamentary division, +changed all the beer and alcohol to water (Mr. Maydig had overruled Mr. +Fotheringay on this point); they had, further, greatly improved the +railway communication of the place, drained Flinder's swamp, improved the +soil of One Tree Hill, and cured the vicar's wart. And they were going to +see what could be done with the injured pier at South Bridge. "The place," +gasped Mr. Maydig, "won't be the same place to-morrow. How surprised and +thankful everyone will be!" And just at that moment the church clock +struck three. + +"I say," said Mr. Fotheringay, "that's three o'clock! I must be getting +back. I've got to be at business by eight. And besides, Mrs. Wimms----" + +"We're only beginning," said Mr. Maydig, full of the sweetness of +unlimited power. "We're only beginning. Think of all the good we're doing. +When people wake----" + +"But----," said Mr. Fotheringay. + +Mr. Maydig gripped his arm suddenly. His eyes were bright and wild. "My +dear chap," he said, "there's no hurry. Look"--he pointed to the moon at +the zenith--"Joshua!" + +"Joshua?" said Mr. Fotheringay. + +"Joshua," said Mr. Maydig. "Why not? Stop it." + +Mr. Fotheringay looked at the moon. + +"That's a bit tall," he said, after a pause. + +"Why not?" said Mr. Maydig. "Of course it doesn't stop. You stop the +rotation of the earth, you know. Time stops. It isn't as if we were doing +harm." + +"H'm!" said Mr. Fotheringay. "Well," he sighed, "I'll try. Here!" + +He buttoned up his jacket and addressed himself to the habitable globe, +with as good an assumption of confidence as lay in his power. "Jest stop +rotating, will you?" said Mr. Fotheringay. + +Incontinently he was flying head over heels through the air at the rate of +dozens of miles a minute. In spite of the innumerable circles he was +describing per second, he thought; for thought is wonderful--sometimes as +sluggish as flowing pitch, sometimes as instantaneous as light. He thought +in a second, and willed. "Let me come down safe and sound. Whatever else +happens, let me down safe and sound." + +He willed it only just in time, for his clothes, heated by his rapid +flight through the air, were already beginning to singe. He came down with +a forcible, but by no means injurious, bump in what appeared to be a mound +of fresh-turned earth. A large mass of metal and masonry, extraordinarily +like the clock-tower in the middle of the market square, hit the earth +near him, ricochetted over him, and flew into stonework, bricks, and +cement, like a bursting bomb. A hurtling cow hit one of the larger blocks +and smashed like an egg. There was a crash that made all the most violent +crashes of his past life seem like the sound of falling dust, and this was +followed by a descending series of lesser crashes. A vast wind roared +throughout earth and heaven, so that he could scarcely lift his head to +look. For a while he was too breathless and astonished even to see where +he was or what had happened. And his first movement was to feel his head +and reassure himself that his streaming hair was still his own. + +"Lord!" gasped Mr. Fotheringay, scarce able to speak for the gale, "I've +had a squeak! What's gone wrong? Storms and thunder. And only a minute ago +a fine night. It's Maydig set me on to this sort of thing. _What_ a +wind! If I go on fooling in this way I'm bound to have a thundering +accident!... + +"Where's Maydig? + +"What a confounded mess everything's in!" + +He looked about him so far as his flapping jacket would permit. The +appearance of things was really extremely strange. "The sky's all right +anyhow," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And that's about all that is all right. +And even there it looks like a terrific gale coming up. But there's the +moon overhead. Just as it was just now. Bright as midday. But as for the +rest----Where's the village? Where's--where's anything? And what on earth +set this wind a-blowing? I didn't order no wind." + +Mr. Fotheringay struggled to get to his feet in vain, and after one +failure, remained on all fours, holding on. He surveyed the moonlit world +to leeward, with the tails of his jacket streaming over his head. "There's +something seriously wrong," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And what it is-- +goodness knows." + +Far and wide nothing was visible in the white glare through the haze of +dust that drove before a screaming gale but tumbled masses of earth and +heaps of inchoate ruins, no trees, no houses, no familiar shapes, only a +wilderness of disorder, vanishing at last into the darkness beneath the +whirling columns and streamers, the lightnings and thunderings of a +swiftly rising storm. Near him in the livid glare was something that might +once have been an elm-tree, a smashed mass of splinters, shivered from +boughs to base, and further a twisted mass of iron girders--only too +evidently the viaduct--rose out of the piled confusion. + +You see, when Mr. Fotheringay had arrested the rotation of the solid +globe, he had made no stipulation concerning the trifling movables upon +its surface. And the earth spins so fast that the surface at its equator +is travelling at rather more than a thousand miles an hour, and in these +latitudes at more than half that pace. So that the village, and Mr. +Maydig, and Mr. Fotheringay, and everybody and everything had been jerked +violently forward at about nine miles per second--that is to say, much +more violently than if they had been fired out of a cannon. And every +human being, every living creature, every house, and every tree--all the +world as we know it--had been so jerked and smashed and utterly destroyed. +That was all. + +These things Mr. Fotheringay did not, of course, fully appreciate. But he +perceived that his miracle had miscarried, and with that a great disgust +of miracles came upon him. He was in darkness now, for the clouds had +swept together and blotted out his momentary glimpse of the moon, and the +air was full of fitful struggling tortured wraiths of hail. A great +roaring of wind and waters filled earth and sky, and peering under his +hand through the dust and sleet to windward, he saw by the play of the +lightnings a vast wall of water pouring towards him. + +"Maydig!" screamed Mr. Fotheringay's feeble voice amid the elemental +uproar. "Here!--Maydig! + +"Stop!" cried Mr. Fotheringay to the advancing water. "Oh, for goodness' +sake, stop! + +"Just a moment," said Mr. Fotheringay to the lightnings and thunder. "Stop +jest a moment while I collect my thoughts... And now what shall I do?" he +said. "What _shall_ I do? Lord! I wish Maydig was about." + +"I know," said Mr. Fotheringay. "And for goodness' sake let's have it +right _this_ time." + +He remained on all fours, leaning against the wind, very intent to have +everything right. + +"Ah!" he said. "Let nothing what I'm going to order happen until I say +'Off!'...Lord! I wish I'd thought of that before!" + +He lifted his little voice against the whirlwind, shouting louder and +louder in the vain desire to hear himself speak. "Now then!--here goes! +Mind about that what I said just now. In the first place, when all I've +got to say is done, let me lose my miraculous power, let my will become +just like anybody else's will, and all these dangerous miracles be +stopped. I don't like them. I'd rather I didn't work 'em. Ever so much. +That's the first thing. And the second is--let me be back just before the +miracles begin; let everything be just as it was before that blessed lamp +turned up. It's a big job, but it's the last. Have you got it? No more +miracles, everything as it was--me back in the Long Dragon just before I +drank my half-pint. That's it! Yes." + +He dug his fingers into the mould, closed his eyes, and said "Off!" + +Everything became perfectly still. He perceived that he was standing +erect. + +"So _you_ say," said a voice. + +He opened his eyes. He was in the bar of the Long Dragon, arguing about +miracles with Toddy Beamish. He had a vague sense of some great thing +forgotten that instantaneously passed. You see that, except for the loss +of his miraculous powers, everything was back as it had been, his mind and +memory therefore were now just as they had been at the time when this +story began. So that he knew absolutely nothing of all that is told here-- +knows nothing of all that is told here to this day. And among other +things, of course, he still did not believe in miracles. + +"I tell you that miracles, properly speaking, can't possibly happen," he +said, "whatever you like to hold. And I'm prepared to prove it up to the +hilt." + +"That's what _you_ think," said Toddy Beamish, and "Prove it if you +can." + +"Looky here, Mr. Beamish," said Mr. Fotheringay. "Let us clearly +understand what a miracle is. It's something contrariwise to the course of +nature done by power of Will..." + + + + + XXII. + + A VISION OF JUDGMENT. + + +I. + +Bru-a-a-a. + +I listened, not understanding. + +Wa-ra-ra-ra. + +"Good Lord!" said I, still only half awake. "What an infernal shindy!" + +Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra Ta-ra-rra-ra. + +"It's enough," said I, "to wake----" and stopped short. Where was I? + +Ta-rra-rara--louder and louder. + +"It's either some new invention----" + +Toora-toora-toora! Deafening! + +"No," said I, speaking loud in order to hear myself. "That's the Last +Trump." + +Tooo-rraa! + + +II. + +The last note jerked me out of my grave like a hooked minnow. + +I saw my monument (rather a mean little affair, and I wished I knew who'd +done it), and the old elm tree and the sea view vanished like a puff of +steam, and then all about me--a multitude no man could number, nations, +tongues, kingdoms, peoples--children of all the ages, in an amphitheatral +space as vast as the sky. And over against us, seated on a throne of +dazzling white cloud, the Lord God and all the host of his angels. I +recognised Azrael by his darkness and Michael by his sword, and the great +angel who had blown the trumpet stood with the trumpet still half raised. + + +III. + +"Prompt," said the little man beside me. "Very prompt. Do you see the +angel with the book?" + +He was ducking and craning his head about to see over and under and +between the souls that crowded round us. "Everybody's here," he said. +"Everybody. And now we shall know-- + +"There's Darwin," he said, going off at a tangent. "_He'll_ catch it! +And there--you see?--that tall, important-looking man trying to catch the +eye of the Lord God, that's the Duke. But there's a lot of people one +doesn't know. + +"Oh! there's Priggles, the publisher. I have always wondered about +printers' overs. Priggles was a clever man ... But we shall know now--even +about him. + +"I shall hear all that. I shall get most of the fun before ... _My_ +letter's S." + +He drew the air in between his teeth. + +"Historical characters, too. See? That's Henry the Eighth. There'll be a +good bit of evidence. Oh, damn! He's Tudor." + +He lowered his voice. "Notice this chap, just in front of us, all covered +with hair. Paleolithic, you know. And there again--" + +But I did not heed him, because I was looking at the Lord God. + + +IV. + +"Is this _all_?" asked the Lord God. + +The angel at the book--it was one of countless volumes, like the British +Museum Reading-room Catalogue, glanced at us and seemed to count us in the +instant. + +"That's all," he said, and added: "It was, O God, a very little planet." + +The eyes of God surveyed us. + +"Let us begin," said the Lord God. + + +V. + +The angel opened the book and read a name. It was a name full of A's, and +the echoes of it came back out of the uttermost parts of space. I did not +catch it clearly, because the little man beside me said, in a sharp jerk, +"_What's_ that?" It sounded like "Ahab" to me; but it could not have +been the Ahab of Scripture. + +Instantly a small black figure was lifted up to a puffy cloud at the very +feet of God. It was a stiff little figure, dressed in rich outlandish +robes and crowned, and it folded its arms and scowled. + +"Well?" said God, looking down at him. + +We were privileged to hear the reply, and indeed the acoustic properties +of the place were marvellous. + +"I plead guilty," said the little figure. + +"Tell them what you have done," said the Lord God. + +"I was a king," said the little figure, "a great king, and I was lustful +and proud and cruel. I made wars, I devastated countries, I built palaces, +and the mortar was the blood of men. Hear, O God, the witnesses against +me, calling to you for vengeance. Hundreds and thousands of witnesses." He +waved his hands towards us. "And worse! I took a prophet--one of your +prophets----" + +"One of my prophets," said the Lord God. + +"And because he would not bow to me, I tortured him for four days and +nights, and in the end he died. I did more, O God, I blasphemed. I robbed +you of your honours----" + +"Robbed me of my honours," said the Lord God. + +"I caused myself to be worshipped in your stead. No evil was there but I +practised it; no cruelty wherewith I did not stain my soul. And at last +you smote me, O God!" + +God raised his eyebrows slightly. + +"And I was slain in battle. And so I stand before you, meet for your +nethermost Hell! Out of your greatness daring no lies, daring no pleas, +but telling the truth of my iniquities before all mankind." + +He ceased. His face I saw distinctly, and it seemed to me white and +terrible and proud and strangely noble. I thought of Milton's Satan. + +"Most of that is from the Obelisk," said the Recording Angel, finger on +page. + +"It is," said the Tyrannous Man, with a faint touch of surprise. + +Then suddenly God bent forward and took this man in his hand, and held him +up on his palm as if to see him better. He was just a little dark stroke +in the middle of God's palm. + +"_Did_ he do all this?" said the Lord God. + +The Recording Angel flattened his book with his hand. + +"In a way," said the Recording Angel, carelessly. Now when I looked again +at the little man his face had changed in a very curious manner. He was +looking at the Recording Angel with a strange apprehension in his eyes, +and one hand fluttered to his mouth. Just the movement of a muscle or so, +and all that dignity of defiance was gone. + +"Read," said the Lord God. + +And the angel read, explaining very carefully and fully all the wickedness +of the Wicked Man. It was quite an intellectual treat.--A little "daring" +in places, I thought, but of course Heaven has its privileges... + + +VI. + +Everybody was laughing. Even the prophet of the Lord whom the Wicked Man +had tortured had a smile on his face. The Wicked Man was really such a +preposterous little fellow. + +"And then," read the Recording Angel, with a smile that set us all agog, +"one day, when he was a little irascible from over-eating, he--" + +"Oh, not _that_," cried the Wicked Man, "nobody knew of _that_. + +"It didn't happen," screamed the Wicked Man. "I was bad--I was really bad. +Frequently bad, but there was nothing so silly--so absolutely silly--" + +The angel went on reading. + +"O God!" cried the Wicked Man. "Don't let them know that! I'll repent! +I'll apologise..." + +The Wicked Man on God's hand began to dance and weep. Suddenly shame +overcame him. He made a wild rush to jump off the ball of God's little +finger, but God stopped him by a dexterous turn of the wrist. Then he made +a rush for the gap between hand and thumb, but the thumb closed. And all +the while the angel went on reading--reading. The Wicked Man rushed to and +fro across God's palm, and then suddenly turned about and fled up the +sleeve of God. + +I expected God would turn him out, but the mercy of God is infinite. + +The Recording Angel paused. + +"Eh?" said the Recording Angel. + +"Next," said God, and before the Recording Angel could call the name a +hairy creature in filthy rags stood upon God's palm. + + +VII. + +"Has God got Hell up his sleeve then?" said the little man beside me. + +"_Is_ there a Hell?" I asked. + +"If you notice," he said--he peered between the feet of the great angels-- +"there's no particular indication of a Celestial City." + +"'Ssh!" said a little woman near us, scowling. "Hear this blessed Saint!" + + +VIII. + +"He was Lord of the Earth, but I was the prophet of the God of Heaven," +cried the Saint, "and all the people marvelled at the sign. For I, O God, +knew of the glories of thy Paradise. No pain, no hardship, gashing with +knives, splinters thrust under my nails, strips of flesh flayed off, all +for the glory and honour of God." + +God smiled. + +"And at last I went, I in my rags and sores, smelling of my holy +discomforts----" + +Gabriel laughed abruptly. + +"And lay outside his gates, as a sign, as a wonder----" + +"As a perfect nuisance," said the Recording Angel, and began to read, +heedless of the fact that the saint was still speaking of the gloriously +unpleasant things he had done that Paradise might be his. + +And behold, in that book the record of the Saint also was a revelation, a +marvel. + +It seemed not ten seconds before the Saint also was rushing to and fro +over the great palm of God. Not ten seconds! And at last he also shrieked +beneath that pitiless and cynical exposition, and fled also, even as the +Wicked Man had fled, into the shadow of the sleeve. And it was permitted +us to see into the shadow of the sleeve. And the two sat side by side, +stark of all delusions, in the shadow of the robe of God's charity, like +brothers. + +And thither also I fled in my turn. + + +IX. + +"And now," said God, as he shook us out of his sleeve upon the planet he +had given us to live upon, the planet that whirled about green Sirius for +a sun, "now that you understand me and each other a little better,...try +again." + +Then he and his great angels turned themselves about and suddenly had +vanished... + +The Throne had vanished. + +All about me was a beautiful land, more beautiful than any I had ever seen +before--waste, austere, and wonderful; and all about me were the +enlightened souls of men in new clean bodies... + + + + + XXIII. + + JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD. + + +"It isn't every one who's been a god," said the sunburnt man. "But it's +happened to me--among other things." + +I intimated my sense of his condescension. + +"It don't leave much for ambition, does it?" said the sunburnt man. + +"I was one of those men who were saved from the _Ocean Pioneer_. +Gummy! how time flies! It's twenty years ago. I doubt if you'll remember +anything of the _Ocean Pioneer_?" + +The name was familiar, and I tried to recall when and where I had read it. +The _Ocean Pioneer_? "Something about gold dust," I said vaguely, +"but the precise--" + +"That's it," he said. "In a beastly little channel she hadn't no business +in--dodging pirates. It was before they'd put the kybosh on that business. +And there'd been volcanoes or something and all the rocks was wrong. +There's places about by Soona where you fair have to follow the rocks +about to see where they're going next. Down she went in twenty fathoms +before you could have dealt for whist, with fifty thousand pounds worth of +gold aboard, it was said, in one form or another." + +"Survivors?" + +"Three." + +"I remember the case now," I said. "There was something about salvage----" + +But at the word salvage the sunburnt man exploded into language so +extraordinarily horrible that I stopped aghast. He came down to more +ordinary swearing, and pulled himself up abruptly. "Excuse me," he said, +"but--salvage!" + +He leant over towards me. "I was in that job," he said. "Tried to make +myself a rich man, and got made a god instead. I've got my feelings---- + +"It ain't all jam being a god," said the sunburnt man, and for some time +conversed by means of such pithy but unprogressive axioms. At last he took +up his tale again. + +"There was me," said the sunburnt man, "and a seaman named Jacobs, and +Always, the mate of the _Ocean Pioneer_. And him it was that set the +whole thing going. I remember him now, when we was in the jolly-boat, +suggesting it all to our minds just by one sentence. He was a wonderful +hand at suggesting things. 'There was forty thousand pounds,' he said, 'on +that ship, and it's for me to say just where she went down.' It didn't +need much brains to tumble to that. And he was the leader from the first +to the last. He got hold of the Sanderses and their brig; they were +brothers, and the brig was the _Pride of Banya_, and he it was bought +the diving dress--a second-hand one with a compressed air apparatus +instead of pumping. He'd have done the diving too, if it hadn't made him +sick going down. And the salvage people were mucking about with a chart +he'd cooked up, as solemn as could be, at Starr Race, a hundred and twenty +miles away. + +"I can tell you we was a happy lot aboard that brig, jokes and drink and +bright hopes all the time. It all seemed so neat and clean and +straightforward, and what rough chaps call a 'cert.' And we used to +speculate how the other blessed lot, the proper salvagers, who'd started +two days before us, were getting on, until our sides fairly ached. We all +messed together in the Sanderses' cabin--it was a curious crew, all +officers and no men--and there stood the diving-dress waiting its turn. +Young Sanders was a humorous sort of chap, and there certainly was +something funny in the confounded thing's great fat head and its stare, +and he made us see it too. 'Jimmy Goggles,' he used to call it, and talk +to it like a Christian. Asked if he was married, and how Mrs. Goggles was, +and all the little Goggleses. Fit to make you split. And every blessed day +all of us used to drink the health of Jimmy Goggles in rum, and unscrew +his eye and pour a glass of rum in him, until, instead of that nasty +mackintosheriness, he smelt as nice in his inside as a cask of rum. It was +jolly times we had in those days, I can tell you--little suspecting, poor +chaps! what was a-coming. + +"We weren't going to throw away our chances by any blessed hurry, you +know, and we spent a whole day sounding our way towards where the +_Ocean Pioneer_ had gone down, right between two chunks of ropy grey +rock--lava rocks that rose nearly out of the water. We had to lay off +about half a mile to get a safe anchorage, and there was a thundering row +who should stop on board. And there she lay just as she had gone down, so +that you could see the top of the masts that was still standing perfectly +distinctly. The row ended in all coming in the boat. I went down in the +diving-dress on Friday morning directly it was light. + +"What a surprise it was! I can see it all now quite distinctly. It was a +queer-looking place, and the light was just coming. People over here think +every blessed place in the tropics is a flat shore and palm-trees and +surf, bless 'em! This place, for instance, wasn't a bit that way. Not +common rocks they were, undermined by waves; but great curved banks like +ironwork cinder heaps, with green slime below, and thorny shrubs and +things just waving upon them here and there, and the water glassy calm and +clear, and showing you a kind of dirty gray-black shine, with huge flaring +red-brown weeds spreading motionless, and crawling and darting things +going through it. And far away beyond the ditches and pools and the heaps +was a forest on the mountain flank, growing again after the fires and +cinder showers of the last eruption. And the other way forest, too, and a +kind of broken--what is it?--amby-theatre of black and rusty cinders +rising out of it all, and the sea in a kind of bay in the middle. + +"The dawn, I say, was just coming, and there wasn't much colour about +things, and not a human being but ourselves anywhere in sight up or down +the channel. Except the _Pride of Banya_, lying out beyond a lump of +rocks towards the line of the sea. + +"Not a human being in sight," he repeated, and paused. + +"_I_ don't know where they came from, not a bit. And we were feeling +so safe that we were all alone that poor young Sanders was a-singing. I +was in Jimmy Goggles, all except the helmet. 'Easy,' says Always, 'there's +her mast.' And after I'd had just one squint over the gunwale, I caught up +the bogey, and almost tipped out as old Sanders brought the boat round. +When the windows were screwed and everything was all right, I shut the +valve from the air-belt in order to help my sinking, and jumped overboard, +feet foremost--for we hadn't a ladder. I left the boat pitching, and all +of them staring down into water after me, as my head sank down into the +weeds and blackness that lay about the mast. I suppose nobody, not the +most cautious chap in the world, would have bothered about a look-out at +such a desolate place. It stunk of solitude. + +"Of course you must understand that I was a greenhorn at diving. None of +us were divers. We'd had to muck about with the thing to get the way of +it, and this was the first time I'd been deep. It feels damnable. Your +ears hurt beastly. I don't know if you've ever hurt yourself yawning or +sneezing, but it takes you like that, only ten times worse. And a pain +over the eyebrows here--splitting--and a feeling like influenza in the +head. And it isn't all heaven in your lungs and things. And going down +feels like the beginning of a lift, only it keeps on. And you can't turn +your head to see what's above you, and you can't get a fair squint at +what's happening to your feet without bending down something painful. And +being deep it was dark, let alone the blackness of the ashes and mud that +formed the bottom. It was like going down out of the dawn back into the +night, so to speak. + +"The mast came up like a ghost out of the black, and then a lot of fishes, +and then a lot of flapping red seaweed, and then whack I came with a kind +of dull bang on the deck of the _Ocean Pioneer_, and the fishes that +had been feeding on the dead rose about me like a swarm of flies from road +stuff in summer-time. I turned on the compressed air again--for the suit +was a bit thick and mackintoshery after all, in spite of the rum--and +stood recovering myself. It struck coolish down there, and that helped +take off the stuffiness a bit." + +"When I began to feel easier, I started looking about me. It was an +extraordinary sight. Even the light was extraordinary, a kind of +reddy-coloured twilight, on account of the streamers of seaweed that +floated up on either side of the ship. And far overhead just a moony, +deep green blue. The deck of the ship, except for a slight list to +starboard, was level, and lay all dark and long between the weeds, clear +except where the masts had snapped when she rolled, and vanishing into +black night towards the forecastle. There wasn't any dead on the decks, +most were in the weeds alongside, I suppose; but afterwards I found two +skeletons lying in the passengers' cabins, where death had come to them. +It was curious to stand on that deck and recognise it all, bit by bit; a +place against the rail where I'd been fond of smoking by starlight, and +the corner where an old chap from Sydney used to flirt with a widow we +had aboard. A comfortable couple they'd been, only a month ago, and now +you couldn't have got a meal for a baby crab off either of them. + +"I've always had a bit of a philosophical turn, and I daresay I spent the +best part of five minutes in such thoughts before I went below to find +where the blessed dust was stored. It was slow work hunting, feeling it +was for the most part, pitchy dark, with confusing blue gleams down the +companion. And there were things moving about, a dab at my glass once, and +once a pinch at my leg. Crabs, I expect. I kicked a lot of loose stuff +that puzzled me, and stooped and picked up something all knobs and spikes. +What do you think? Backbone! But I never had any particular feeling for +bones. We had talked the affair over pretty thoroughly, and Always knew +just where the stuff was stowed. I found it that trip. I lifted a box one +end an inch or more." + +He broke off in his story. "I've lifted it," he said, "as near as that! +Forty thousand pounds' worth of pure gold! Gold! I shouted inside my +helmet as a kind of cheer, and hurt my ears. I was getting confounded +stuffy and tired by this time--I must have been down twenty-five minutes +or more--and I thought this was good enough. I went up the companion +again, and as my eyes came up flush with the deck, a thundering great crab +gave a kind of hysterical jump and went scuttling off sideways. Quite a +start it gave me. I stood up clear on deck and shut the valve behind the +helmet to let the air accumulate to carry me up again--I noticed a kind of +whacking from above, as though they were hitting the water with an oar, +but I didn't look up. I fancied they were signalling me to come up. + +"And then something shot down by me--something heavy, and stood a-quiver +in the planks. I looked, and there was a long knife I'd seen young Sanders +handling. Thinks I, he's dropped it, and I was still calling him this kind +of fool and that---for it might have hurt me serious--when I began to lift +and drive up towards the daylight. Just about the level of the top spars +of the _Ocean Pioneer_, whack! I came against something sinking down, +and a boot knocked in front of my helmet. Then something else, struggling +frightful. It was a big weight atop of me, whatever it was, and moving and +twisting about. I'd have thought it a big octopus, or some such thing, if +it hadn't been for the boot. But octopuses don't wear boots. It was all in +a moment, of course. + +"I felt myself sinking down again, and I threw my arms about to keep +steady, and the whole lot rolled free of me and shot down as I went up--" + +He paused. + +"I saw young Sanders's face, over a naked black shoulder, and a spear +driven clean through his neck, and out of his mouth and neck what looked +like spirts of pink smoke in the water. And down they went clutching one +another, and turning over, and both too far gone to leave go. And in +another second my helmet came a whack, fit to split, against the niggers' +canoe. It was niggers! Two canoes full. + +"It was lively times I tell you? Overboard came Always with three spears +in him. There was the legs of three or four black chaps kicking about me +in the water. I couldn't see much, but I saw the game was up at a glance, +gave my valve a tremendous twist, and went bubbling down again after poor +Always, in as awful a state of scare and astonishment as you can well +imagine. I passed young Sanders and the nigger going up again and +struggling still a bit, and in another moment I was standing in the dim +again on the deck of the _Ocean Pioneer_. + +"Gummy, thinks I, here's a fix! Niggers? At first I couldn't see anything +for it but Stifle below or Stabs above. I didn't properly understand how +much air there was to last me out, but I didn't feel like standing very +much more of it down below. I was hot and frightfully heady, quite apart +from the blue funk I was in. We'd never reckoned with these beastly +natives, filthy Papuan beasts. It wasn't any good coming up where I was, +but I had to do something. On the spur of the moment, I clambered over the +side of the brig and landed among the weeds, and set off through the +darkness as fast as I could. I just stopped once and knelt, and twisted +back my head in the helmet and had a look up. It was a most extraordinary +bright green-blue above, and the two canoes and the boat floating there +very small and distant like a kind of twisted H. And it made me feel sick +to squint up at it, and think what the pitching and swaying of the three +meant. + +"It was just about the most horrible ten minutes I ever had, blundering +about in that darkness--pressure something awful, like being buried in +sand, pain across the chest, sick with funk, and breathing nothing as it +seemed but the smell of rum and mackintosh. Gummy! After a bit, I found +myself going up a steepish sort of slope. I had another squint to see if +anything was visible of the canoes and boats, and then kept on. I stopped +with my head a foot from the surface, and tried to see where I was going, +but, of course, nothing was to be seen but the reflection of the bottom. +Then out I dashed, like knocking my head through a mirror. Directly I got +my eyes out of the water, I saw I'd come up a kind of beach near the +forest. I had a look round, but the natives and the brig were both hidden +by a big hummucky heap of twisted lava. The born fool in me suggested a +run for the woods. I didn't take the helmet off, but I eased open one of +the windows, and, after a bit of a pant, went on out of the water. You'd +hardly imagine how clean and light the air tasted. + +"Of course, with four inches of lead in your boot soles, and your head in +a copper knob the size of a football, and been thirty-five minutes under +water, you don't break any records running. I ran like a ploughboy going +to work. And half-way to the trees I saw a dozen niggers or more, coming +out in a gaping, astonished sort of way to meet me. + +"I just stopped dead, and cursed myself for all the fools out of London. I +had about as much chance of cutting back to the water as a turned turtle. +I just screwed up my window again to leave my hands free, and waited for +them. There wasn't anything else for me to do. + +"But they didn't come on very much. I began to suspect why. 'Jimmy +Goggles,' I says, 'it's your beauty does it.' I was inclined to be a +little lightheaded, I think, with all these dangers about and the change +in the pressure of the blessed air. 'Who're ye staring at?' I said, as if +the savages could hear me. 'What d'ye take me for? I'm hanged if I don't +give you something to stare at,' I said, and with that I screwed up the +escape valve and turned on the compressed air from the belt, until I was +swelled out like a blown frog. Regular imposing it must have been. I'm +blessed if they'd come on a step; and presently one and then another went +down on their hands and knees. They didn't know what to make of me, and +they was doing the extra polite, which was very wise and reasonable of +them. I had half a mind to edge back seaward and cut and run, but it +seemed too hopeless. A step back and they'd have been after me. And out of +sheer desperation I began to march towards them up the beach, with slow, +heavy steps, and waving my blown-out arms about, in a dignified manner. +And inside of me I was singing as small as a tomtit. + +"But there's nothing like a striking appearance to help a man over a +difficulty,--I've found that before and since. People like ourselves, +who're up to diving dresses by the time we're seven, can scarcely imagine +the effect of one on a simple-minded savage. One or two of these niggers +cut and run, the others started in a great hurry trying to knock their +brains out on the ground. And on I went as slow and solemn and +silly-looking and artful as a jobbing plumber. It was evident they took +me for something immense. + +"Then up jumped one and began pointing, making extraordinary gestures to +me as he did so, and all the others began sharing their attention between +me and something out at; sea. 'What's the matter now?' I said. I turned +slowly on account of my dignity, and there I saw, coming round a point, +the poor old _Pride of Banya_ towed by a couple of canoes. The sight +fairly made me sick. But they evidently expected some recognition, so I +waved my arms in a striking sort of non-committal manner. And then I +turned and stalked on towards the trees again. At that time I was praying +like mad, I remember, over and over again: 'Lord help me through with it! +Lord help me through with it!' It's only fools who know nothing of danger +can afford to laugh at praying." + +"But these niggers weren't going to let me walk through and away like +that. They started a kind of bowing dance about me, and sort of pressed me +to take a pathway that lay through the trees. It was clear to me they +didn't take me for a British citizen, whatever else they thought of me, +and for my own part I was never less anxious to own up to the old country. + +"You'd hardly believe it, perhaps, unless you're familiar with savages, +but these poor, misguided, ignorant creatures took me straight to their +kind of joss place to present me to the blessed old black stone there. By +this time I was beginning to sort of realise the depth of their ignorance, +and directly I set eyes on this deity I took my cue. I started a baritone +howl, 'wow-wow,' very long on one note, and began waving my arms about a +lot, and then very slowly and ceremoniously turned their image over on its +side and sat down on it. I wanted to sit down badly, for diving dresses +ain't much wear in the tropics. Or, to put it different like, they're a +sight too much. It took away their breath, I could see, my sitting on +their joss, but in less time than a minute they made up their minds and +were hard at work worshipping me. And I can tell you I felt a bit relieved +to see things turning out so well, in spite of the weight on my shoulders +and feet. + +"But what made me anxious was what the chaps in the canoes might think +when they came back. If they'd seen me in the boat before I went down, and +without the helmet on--for they might have been spying and hiding since +over night--they would very likely take a different view from the others. +I was in a deuce of a stew about that for hours, as it seemed, until the +shindy of the arrival began. + +"But they took it down--the whole blessed village took it down. At the +cost of sitting up stiff and stern, as much like those sitting Egyptian +images one sees as I could manage, for pretty nearly twelve hours, I +should guess at least, on end, I got over it. You'd hardly think what it +meant in that heat and stink. I don't think any of them dreamt of the man +inside. I was just a wonderful leathery great joss that had come up with +luck out of the water. But the fatigue! the heat! the beastly closeness! +the mackintosheriness and the rum! and the fuss! They lit a stinking fire +on a kind of lava slab there was before me, and brought in a lot of gory +muck--the worst parts of what they were feasting on outside, the Beasts-- +and burnt it all in my honour. I was getting a bit hungry, but I +understand now how gods manage to do without eating, what with the smell +of burnt-offerings about them. And they brought in a lot of the stuff +they'd got off the brig and, among other stuff, what I was a bit relieved +to see, the kind of pneumatic pump that was used for the compressed air +affair, and then a lot of chaps and girls came in and danced about me +something disgraceful. It's extraordinary the different ways different +people have of showing respect. If I'd had a hatchet handy I'd have gone +for the lot of them--they made me feel that wild. All this time I sat as +stiff as company, not knowing anything better to do. And at last, when +nightfall came, and the wattle joss-house place got a bit too shadowy for +their taste--all these here savages are afraid of the dark, you know--and +I started a sort of 'Moo' noise, they built big bonfires outside and left +me alone in peace in the darkness of my hut, free to unscrew my windows a +bit and think things over, and feel just as bad as I liked. And Lord! I +was sick. + +"I was weak and hungry, and my mind kept on behaving like a beetle on a +pin, tremendous activity and nothing done at the end of it. Come round +just where it was before. There was sorrowing for the other chaps, beastly +drunkards certainly, but not deserving such a fate, and young Sanders with +the spear through his neck wouldn't go out of my mind. There was the +treasure down there in the _Ocean Pioneer_, and how one might get it +and hide it somewhere safer, and get away and come back for it. And there +was the puzzle where to get anything to eat. I tell you I was fair +rambling. I was afraid to ask by signs for food, for fear of behaving too +human, and so there I sat and hungered until very near the dawn. Then the +village got a bit quiet, and I couldn't stand it any longer, and I went +out and got some stuff like artichokes in a bowl and some sour milk. What +was left of these I put away among the other offerings, just to give them +a hint of my tastes. And in the morning they came to worship, and found me +sitting up stiff and respectable on their previous god, just as they'd +left me overnight. I'd got my back against the central pillar of the hut, +and, practically, I was asleep. And that's how I became a god among the +heathen--false god, no doubt, and blasphemous, but one can't always pick +and choose. + +"Now, I don't want to crack myself up as a god beyond my merits, but I +must confess that while I was god to these people they was extraordinary +successful. I don't say there's anything in it, mind you. They won a +battle with another tribe--I got a lot of offerings I didn't want through +it--they had wonderful fishing, and their crop of pourra was exceptional +fine. And they counted the capture of the brig among the benefits I +brought 'em. I must say I don't think that was a poor record for a +perfectly new hand. And, though perhaps you'd scarcely credit it, I was +the tribal god of those beastly savages for pretty nearly four months... + +"What else could I do, man? But I didn't wear that diving-dress all the +time. I made 'em rig me up a sort of holy of holies, and a deuce of a time +I had too, making them understand what it was I wanted them to do. That +indeed was the great difficulty--making them understand my wishes. I +couldn't let myself down by talking their lingo badly, even if I'd been +able to speak at all, and I couldn't go flapping a lot of gestures at +them. So I drew pictures in sand and sat down beside them and hooted like +one o'clock. Sometimes they did the things I wanted all right, and +sometimes they did them all wrong. They was always very willing, +certainly. All the while I was puzzling how I was to get the confounded +business settled. Every night before the dawn I used to march out in full +rig and go off to a place where I could see the channel in which the +_Ocean Pioneer_ lay sunk, and once even, one moonlight night, I tried +to walk out to her, but the weeds and rocks and dark clean beat me. I +didn't get back till full day, and then I found all those silly niggers +out on the beach praying their sea-god to return to them. I was that vexed +and tired, messing and tumbling about, and coming up and going down again, +I could have punched their silly heads all round when they started +rejoicing. Hanged if I like so much ceremony. + +"And then came the missionary. That missionary! _What_ a Guy! Gummy! +It was in the afternoon, and I was sitting in state in my outer temple +place, sitting on that old black stone of theirs, when he came. I heard a +row outside and jabbering, and then his voice speaking to an interpreter. +'They worship stocks and stones,' he said, and I knew what was up, in a +flash. I had one of my windows out for comfort, and I sang out straight +away on the spur of the moment. 'Stocks and stones!' I says. 'You come +inside,' I says, 'and I'll punch your blooming Exeter Hall of a head.' + +"There was a kind of silence and more jabbering, and in he came, Bible in +hand, after the manner of them--a little sandy chap in specks and a pith +helmet. I flatter myself that me sitting there in the shadows, with my +copper head and my big goggles, struck him a bit of a heap at first. +'Well,' I says, 'how's the trade in scissors?' for I don't hold with +missionaries. + +"I had a lark with that missionary. He was a raw hand, and quite +outclassed by a man like me. He gasped out who was I, and I told him to +read the inscription at my feet if he wanted to know. There wasn't no +inscription; why should there be? but down he goes to read, and his +interpreter, being of course as superstitious as any of them, more so by +reason of his seeing missionary close to, took it for an act of worship +and plumped down like a shot. All my people gave a howl of triumph, and +there wasn't any more business to be done in my village after that +journey, not by the likes of him. + +"But, of course, I was a fool to choke him off like that. If I'd had any +sense I should have told him straight away of the treasure and taken him +into Co. I've no doubt he'd have come into Co. A child, with a few hours +to think it over, could have seen the connection between my diving dress +and the loss of the _Ocean Pioneer_. A week after he left I went out +one morning and saw the _Motherhood_, the salver's ship from Starr +Race, towing up the channel and sounding. The whole blessed game was up, +and all my trouble thrown away. Gummy! How wild I felt! And guying it in +that stinking silly dress! Four months!" + +The sunburnt man's story degenerated again. "Think of it," he said, when +he emerged to linguistic purity once more. "Forty thousand pounds' worth +of gold." + +"Did the little missionary come back?" I asked. + +"Oh yes! bless him! And he pledged his reputation there was a man inside +the god, and started out to see as much with tremendous ceremony. But +wasn't--he got sold again. I always did hate scenes and explanations, and +long before he came I was out of it all--going home to Banya along the +coast, hiding in bushes by day, and thieving food from the villages by +night. Only weapon, a spear. No clothes, no money. Nothing. My face, my +fortune, as the saying is. And just a squeak of eight thousand pounds of +gold--fifth share. But the natives cut up rusty, thank goodness, because +they thought it was him had driven their luck away." + + + + + XXIV. + + MISS WINCHELSEA'S HEART. + + +Miss Winchelsea was going to Rome. The matter had filled her mind for a +month or more, and had overflowed so abundantly into her conversation that +quite a number of people who were not going to Rome, and who were not +likely to go to Rome, had made it a personal grievance against her. Some +indeed had attempted quite unavailingly to convince her that Rome was not +nearly such a desirable place as it was reported to be, and others had +gone so far as to suggest behind her back that she was dreadfully "stuck +up" about "that Rome of hers." And little Lily Hardhurst had told her +friend Mr. Binns that so far as she was concerned Miss Winchelsea might +"go to her old Rome and stop there; _she_ (Miss Lily Hardhurst) +wouldn't grieve." And the way in which Miss Winchelsea put herself upon +terms of personal tenderness with Horace and Benvenuto Cellini and Raphael +and Shelley and Keats--if she had been Shelley's widow she could not have +professed a keener interest in his grave--was a matter of universal +astonishment. Her dress was a triumph of tactful discretion, sensible, but +not too "touristy"'--Miss Winchelsea had a great dread of being +"touristy"--and her Baedeker was carried in a cover of grey to hide its +glaring red. She made a prim and pleasant little figure on the Charing +Cross platform, in spite of her swelling pride, when at last the great day +dawned, and she could start for Rome. The day was bright, the Channel +passage would be pleasant, and all the omens promised well. There was the +gayest sense of adventure in this unprecedented departure. + +She was going with two friends who had been fellow-students with her at +the training college, nice honest girls both, though not so good at +history and literature as Miss Winchelsea. They both looked up to her +immensely, though physically they had to look down, and she anticipated +some pleasant times to be spent in "stirring them up" to her own pitch of +AEsthetic and historical enthusiasm. They had secured seats already, and +welcomed her effusively at the carriage door. In the instant criticism of +the encounter she noted that Fanny had a slightly "touristy" leather +strap, and that Helen had succumbed to a serge jacket with side pockets, +into which her hands were thrust. But they were much too happy with +themselves and the expedition for their friend to attempt any hint at the +moment about these things. As soon as the first ecstasies were over-- +Fanny's enthusiasm was a little noisy and crude, and consisted mainly +in emphatic repetitions of "Just _fancy_! we're going to Rome, my +dear!--Rome!"--they gave their attention to their fellow-travellers. Helen +was anxious to secure a compartment to themselves, and, in order to +discourage intruders, got out and planted herself firmly on the step. Miss +Winchelsea peeped out over her shoulder, and made sly little remarks about +the accumulating people on the platform, at which Fanny laughed gleefully. + +They were travelling with one of Mr. Thomas Gunn's parties--fourteen days +in Rome for fourteen pounds. They did not belong to the personally +conducted party, of course--Miss Winchelsea had seen to that--but they +travelled with it because of the convenience of that arrangement. The +people were the oddest mixture, and wonderfully amusing. There was a +vociferous red-faced polyglot personal conductor in a pepper-and-salt +suit, very long in the arms and legs and very active. He shouted +proclamations. When he wanted to speak to people he stretched out an arm +and held them until his purpose was accomplished. One hand was full of +papers, tickets, counterfoils of tourists. The people of the personally +conducted party were, it seemed, of two sorts; people the conductor wanted +and could not find, and people he did not want and who followed him in a +steadily growing tail up and down the platform. These people seemed, +indeed, to think that their one chance of reaching Rome lay in keeping +close to him. Three little old ladies were particularly energetic in his +pursuit, and at last maddened him to the pitch of clapping them into a +carriage and daring them to emerge again. For the rest of the time, one, +two, or three of their heads protruded from the window wailing inquiries +about "a little wicker-work box" whenever he drew near. There was a very +stout man with a very stout wife in shiny black; there was a little old +man like an aged hostler. + +"What _can_ such people want in Rome?" asked Miss Winchelsea. "What +can it mean to them?" There was a very tall curate in a very small straw +hat, and a very short curate encumbered by a long camera stand. The +contrast amused Fanny very much. Once they heard some one calling for +"Snooks." "I always thought that name was invented by novelists," said +Miss Winchelsea. "Fancy! Snooks. I wonder which _is_ Mr. Snooks." +Finally they picked out a very stout and resolute little man in a large +check suit. "If he isn't Snooks, he ought to be," said Miss Winchelsea. + +Presently the conductor discovered Helen's attempt at a corner in +carriages. "Room for five," he bawled with a parallel translation on his +fingers. A party of four together--mother, father, and two daughters-- +blundered in, all greatly excited. "It's all right, Ma--you let me," said +one of the daughters, hitting her mother's bonnet with a handbag she +struggled to put in the rack. Miss Winchelsea detested people who banged +about and called their mother "Ma." A young man travelling alone followed. +He was not at all "touristy" in his costume, Miss Winchelsea observed; his +Gladstone bag was of good pleasant leather with labels reminiscent of +Luxembourg and Ostend, and his boots, though brown, were not vulgar. He +carried an overcoat on his arm. Before these people had properly settled +in their places, came an inspection of tickets and a slamming of doors, +and behold! they were gliding out of Charing Cross Station on their way to +Rome. + +"Fancy!" cried Fanny, "we are going to Rome, my dear! Rome! I don't seem +to believe it, even now." + +Miss Winchelsea suppressed Fanny's emotions with a little smile, and the +lady who was called "Ma" explained to people in general why they had "cut +it so close" at the station. The two daughters called her "Ma" several +times, toned her down in a tactless, effective way, and drove her at last +to the muttered inventory of a basket of travelling requisites. Presently +she looked up. "Lor!" she said, "I didn't bring _them_!" Both the +daughters said "Oh, Ma!" But what "them" was did not appear. + +Presently Fanny produced Hare's _Walks in Rome_, a sort of mitigated +guide-book very popular among Roman visitors; and the father of the two +daughters began to examine his books of tickets minutely, apparently in a +search after English words. When he had looked at the tickets for a long +time right way up, he turned them upside down. Then he produced a fountain +pen and dated them with considerable care. The young man having completed +an unostentatious survey of his fellow-travellers produced a book and fell +to reading. When Helen and Fanny were looking out of the window at +Chislehurst--the place interested Fanny because the poor dear Empress of +the French used to live there--Miss Winchelsea took the opportunity to +observe the book the young man held. It was not a guide-book but a little +thin volume of poetry--_bound_. She glanced at his face--it seemed a +refined, pleasant face to her hasty glance. He wore a little gilt +_pince-nez_. "Do you think she lives there now?" said Fanny, and Miss +Winchelsea's inspection came to an end. + +For the rest of the journey Miss Winchelsea talked little, and what she +said was as agreeable and as stamped with refinement as she could make it. +Her voice was always low and clear and pleasant, and she took care that on +this occasion it was particularly low and clear and pleasant. As they came +under the white cliffs the young man put his book of poetry away, and when +at last the train stopped beside the boat, he displayed a graceful +alacrity with the impedimenta of Miss Winchelsea and her friends. Miss +Winchelsea "hated nonsense," but she was pleased to see the young man +perceived at once that they were ladies, and helped them without any +violent geniality; and how nicely he showed that his civilities were to be +no excuse for further intrusions. None of her little party had been out of +England before, and they were all excited and a little nervous at the +Channel passage. They stood in a little group in a good place near the +middle of the boat--the young man had taken Miss Winchelsea's carry-all +there and had told her it was a good place--and they watched the white +shores of Albion recede and quoted Shakespeare and made quiet fun of their +fellow-travellers in the English way. + +They were particularly amused at the precautions the bigger-sized people +had taken against the little waves--cut lemons and flasks prevailed, one +lady lay full length in a deck chair with a handkerchief over her face, +and a very broad resolute man in a bright brown "touristy" suit walked all +the way from England to France along the deck, with his legs as widely +apart as Providence permitted. These were all excellent precautions, and +nobody was ill. The personally-conducted party pursued the conductor about +the deck with inquiries, in a manner that suggested to Helen's mind the +rather vulgar image of hens with a piece of bacon rind, until at last he +went into hiding below. And the young man with the thin volume of poetry +stood at the stern watching England receding, looking rather lonely and +sad to Miss Winchelsea's eye. + +And then came Calais and tumultuous novelties, and the young man had not +forgotten Miss Winchelsea's hold-all and the other little things. All +three girls, though they had passed Government examinations in French to +any extent, were stricken with a dumb shame of their accents, and the +young man was very useful. And he did not intrude. He put them in a +comfortable carriage and raised his hat and went away. Miss Winchelsea +thanked him in her best manner--a pleasing, cultivated manner--and Fanny +said he was "nice" almost before he was out of earshot. "I wonder what he +can be," said Helen. "He's going to Italy, because I noticed green tickets +in his book." Miss Winchelsea almost told them of the poetry, and decided +not to do so. And presently the carriage windows seized hold upon them and +the young man was forgotten. It made them feel that they were doing an +educated sort of thing to travel through a country whose commonest +advertisements were in idiomatic French, and Miss Winchelsea made +unpatriotic comparisons because there were weedy little sign-board +advertisements by the rail side instead of the broad hoardings that deface +the landscape in our land. But the north of France is really uninteresting +country, and after a time Fanny reverted to Hare's _Walks_, and Helen +initiated lunch. Miss Winchelsea awoke out of a happy reverie; she had +been trying to realise, she said, that she was actually going to Rome, but +she perceived at Helen's suggestion that she was hungry, and they lunched +out of their baskets very cheerfully. In the afternoon they were tired and +silent until Helen made tea. Miss Winchelsea might have dozed, only she +knew Fanny slept with her mouth open; and as their fellow-passengers were +two rather nice, critical-looking ladies of uncertain age--who knew French +well enough to talk it--she employed herself in keeping Fanny awake. The +rhythm of the train became insistent, and the streaming landscape outside +became at last quite painful to the eye. They were already dreadfully +tired of travelling before their night's stoppage came. + +The stoppage for the night was brightened by the appearance of the young +man, and his manners were all that could be desired and his French quite +serviceable. + +His coupons availed for the same hotel as theirs, and by chance, as it +seemed, he sat next Miss Winchelsea at the _table d'hôte._ In spite +of her enthusiasm for Rome, she had thought out some such possibility very +thoroughly, and when he ventured to make a remark upon the tediousness of +travelling--he let the soup and fish go by before he did this--she did not +simply assent to his proposition, but responded with another. They were +soon comparing their journeys, and Helen and Fanny were cruelly overlooked +in the conversation.. It was to be the same journey, they found; one day +for the galleries at Florence--"from what I hear," said the young man, "it +is barely enough,"--and the rest at Rome. He talked of Rome very +pleasantly; he was evidently quite well read, and he quoted Horace about +Soracte. Miss Winchelsea had "done" that book of Horace for her +matriculation, and was delighted to cap his quotation. It gave a sort of +tone to things, this incident--a touch of refinement to mere chatting. +Fanny expressed a few emotions, and Helen interpolated a few sensible +remarks, but the bulk of the talk on the girls' side naturally fell to +Miss Winchelsea. + +Before they reached Rome this young man was tacitly of their party. They +did not know his name nor what he was, but it seemed he taught, and Miss +Winchelsea had a shrewd idea he was an extension lecturer. At any rate he +was something of that sort, something gentlemanly and refined without +being opulent and impossible. She tried once or twice to ascertain whether +he came from Oxford or Cambridge, but he missed her timid opportunities. +She tried to get him to make remarks about those places to see if he would +say "come up" to them instead of "go down,"--she knew that was how you +told a 'Varsity man. He used the word "'Varsity"--not university--in quite +the proper way. + +They saw as much of Mr. Ruskin's Florence as the brief time permitted; he +met them in the Pitti Gallery and went round with them, chatting brightly, +and evidently very grateful for their recognition. He knew a great deal +about art, and all four enjoyed the morning immensely. It was fine to go +round recognising old favourites and finding new beauties, especially +while so many people fumbled helplessly with Baedeker. Nor was he a bit of +a prig, Miss Winchelsea said, and indeed she detested prigs. He had a +distinct undertone of humour, and was funny, for example, without being +vulgar, at the expense of the quaint work of Beato Angelico. He had a +grave seriousness beneath it all, and was quick to seize the moral lessons +of the pictures. Fanny went softly among these masterpieces; she admitted +"she knew so little about them," and she confessed that to her they were +"all beautiful." Fanny's "beautiful" inclined to be a little monotonous, +Miss Winchelsea thought. She had been quite glad when the last sunny Alp +had vanished, because of the staccato of Fanny's admiration. Helen said +little, but Miss Winchelsea had found her a trifle wanting on the +aesthetic side in the old days and was not surprised; sometimes she +laughed at the young man's hesitating, delicate jests and sometimes she +didn't, and sometimes she seemed quite lost to the art about them in the +contemplation of the dresses of the other visitors. + +At Rome the young man was with them intermittently. A rather "touristy" +friend of his took him away at times. He complained comically to Miss +Winchelsea. "I have only two short weeks in Rome," he said, "and my friend +Leonard wants to spend a whole day at Tivoli looking at a waterfall." + +"What is your friend Leonard?" asked Miss Winchelsea abruptly. + +"He's the most enthusiastic pedestrian I ever met," the young man +replied--amusingly, but a little unsatisfactorily, Miss Winchelsea +thought. + +They had some glorious times, and Fanny could not think what they would +have done without him. Miss Winchelsea's interest and Fanny's enormous +capacity for admiration were insatiable. They never flagged--through +pictures and sculpture galleries, immense crowded churches, ruins and +museums, Judas trees and prickly pears, wine carts and palaces, they +admired their way unflinchingly. They never saw a stone pine or a +eucalyptus but they named and admired it; they never glimpsed Soracte but +they exclaimed. Their common ways were made wonderful by imaginative play. +"Here Caesar may have walked," they would say. "Raphael may have seen +Soracte from this very point." They happened on the tomb of Bibulus. "Old +Bibulus," said the young man. "The oldest monument of Republican Rome!" +said Miss Winchelsea. + +"I'm dreadfully stupid," said Fanny, "but who _was_ Bibulus?" + +There was a curious little pause. + +"Wasn't he the person who built the wall?" said Helen. + +The young man glanced quickly at her and laughed. "That was Balbus," he +said. Helen reddened, but neither he nor Miss Winchelsea threw any light +upon Fanny's ignorance about Bibulus. + +Helen was more taciturn than the other three, but then she was always +taciturn, and usually she took care of the tram tickets and things like +that, or kept her eye on them if the young man took them, and told him +where they were when he wanted them. Glorious times they had, these young +people, in that pale brown cleanly city of memories that was once the +world. Their only sorrow was the shortness of the time. They said indeed +that the electric trams and the '70 buildings, and that criminal +advertisement that glares upon the Forum, outraged their aesthetic +feelings unspeakably; but that was only part of the fun. And indeed Rome +is such a wonderful place that it made Miss Winchelsea forget some of her +most carefully prepared enthusiasms at times, and Helen, taken unawares, +would suddenly admit the beauty of unexpected things. Yet Fanny and Helen +would have liked a shop window or so in the English quarter if Miss +Winchelsea's uncompromising hostility to all other English visitors had +not rendered that district impossible. + +The intellectual and aesthetic fellowship of Miss Winchelsea and the +scholarly young man passed insensibly towards a deeper feeling. The +exuberant Fanny did her best to keep pace with their recondite admiration +by playing her "beautiful" with vigour, and saying "Oh! _let's_ go," +with enormous appetite whenever a new place of interest was mentioned. But +Helen developed a certain want of sympathy towards the end that +disappointed Miss Winchelsea a little. She refused to see "anything" in +the face of Beatrice Cenci--Shelley's Beatrice Cenci!--in the Barberini +Gallery; and one day, when they were deploring the electric trams, she +said rather snappishly that "people must get about somehow, and it's +better than torturing horses up these horrid little hills." She spoke of +the Seven Hills of Rome as "horrid little hills "! + +And the day they went on the Palatine--though Miss Winchelsea did not know +of this--she remarked suddenly to Fanny, "Don't hurry like that, my dear; +_they_ don't want us to overtake them. And we don't say the right +things for them when we _do_ get near." + +"I wasn't trying to overtake them," said Fanny, slackening her excessive +pace; "I wasn't indeed." And for a minute she was short of breath. + +But Miss Winchelsea had come upon happiness. It was only when she came to +look back across an intervening tragedy that she quite realised how happy +she had been pacing among the cypress-shadowed ruins, and exchanging the +very highest class of information the human mind can possess, the most +refined impressions it is possible to convey. Insensibly emotion crept +into their intercourse, sunning itself openly and pleasantly at last when +Helen's modernity was not too near. Insensibly their interest drifted from +the wonderful associations about them to their more intimate and personal +feelings. In a tentative way information was supplied; she spoke +allusively of her school, of her examination successes, of her gladness +that the days of "Cram" were over. He made it quite clear that he also was +a teacher. They spoke of the greatness of their calling, of the necessity +of sympathy to face its irksome details, of a certain loneliness they +sometimes felt. + +That was in the Colosseum, and it was as far as they got that day, because +Helen returned with Fanny--she had taken her into the upper galleries. Yet +the private dreams of Miss Winchelsea, already vivid and concrete enough, +became now realistic in the highest degree. She figured that pleasant +young man lecturing in the most edifying way to his students, herself +modestly prominent as his intellectual mate and helper; she figured a +refined little home, with two bureaus, with white shelves of high-class +books, and autotypes of the pictures of Rossetti and Burne Jones, with +Morris's wall-papers and flowers in pots of beaten copper. Indeed she +figured many things. On the Pincio the two had a few precious moments +together, while Helen marched Fanny off to see the _muro Torto_, and +he spoke at once plainly. He said he hoped their friendship was only +beginning, that he already found her company very precious to him, that +indeed it was more than that. + +He became nervous, thrusting at his glasses with trembling fingers as +though he fancied his emotions made them unstable. "I should of course," +he said, "tell you things about myself. I know it is rather unusual my +speaking to you like this. Only our meeting has been so accidental--or +providential--and I am snatching at things. I came to Rome expecting a +lonely tour ... and I have been so very happy, so very happy. Quite +recently I have found myself in a position--I have dared to think----, +And----" + +He glanced over his shoulder and stopped. He said "Demn!" quite +distinctly--and she did not condemn him for that manly lapse into +profanity. She looked and saw his friend Leonard advancing. He drew +nearer; he raised his hat to Miss Winchelsea, and his smile was almost a +grin. "I've been looking for you everywhere, Snooks," he said. "You +promised to be on the Piazza steps half-an-hour ago." + +Snooks! The name struck Miss Winchelsea like a blow in the face. She did +not hear his reply. She thought afterwards that Leonard must have +considered her the vaguest-minded person. To this day she is not sure +whether she was introduced to Leonard or not, nor what she said to him. A +sort of mental paralysis was upon her. Of all offensive surnames--Snooks! + +Helen and Fanny were returning, there were civilities, and the young men +were receding. By a great effort she controlled herself to face the +inquiring eyes of her friends. All that afternoon she lived the life of a +heroine under the indescribable outrage of that name, chatting, observing, +with "Snooks" gnawing at her heart. From the moment that it first rang +upon her ears, the dream of her happiness was prostrate in the dust. All +the refinement she had figured was ruined and defaced by that cognomen's +unavoidable vulgarity. + +What was that refined little home to her now, spite of autotypes, Morris +papers, and bureaus? Athwart it in letters of fire ran an incredible +inscription: "Mrs. Snooks." That may seem a little thing to the reader, +but consider the delicate refinement of Miss Winchelsea's mind. Be as +refined as you can and then think of writing yourself down:--"Snooks." She +conceived herself being addressed as Mrs. Snooks by all the people she +liked least, conceived the patronymic touched with a vague quality of +insult. She figured a card of grey and silver bearing 'Winchelsea' +triumphantly effaced by an arrow, Cupid's arrow, in favour of "Snooks." +Degrading confession of feminine weakness! She imagined the terrible +rejoicings of certain girl friends, of certain grocer cousins from whom +her growing refinement had long since estranged her. How they would make +it sprawl across the envelope that would bring their sarcastic +congratulations. Would even his pleasant company compensate her for that? +"It is impossible," she muttered; "impossible! _Snooks!_" + +She was sorry for him, but not so sorry as she was for herself. For him +she had a touch of indignation. To be so nice, so refined, while all the +time he was "Snooks," to hide under a pretentious gentility of demeanour +the badge sinister of his surname seemed a sort of treachery. To put it in +the language of sentimental science she felt he had "led her on." + +There were, of course, moments of terrible vacillation, a period even when +something almost like passion bid her throw refinement to the winds. And +there was something in her, an unexpurgated vestige of vulgarity that made +a strenuous attempt at proving that Snooks was not so very bad a name +after all. Any hovering hesitation flew before Fanny's manner, when Fanny +came with an air of catastrophe to tell that she also knew the horror. +Fanny's voice fell to a whisper when she said _Snooks_. Miss +Winchelsea would not give him any answer when at last, in the Borghese, +she could have a minute with him; but she promised him a note. + +She handed him that note in the little book of poetry he had lent her, the +little book that had first drawn them together. Her refusal was ambiguous, +allusive. She could no more tell him why she rejected him than she could +have told a cripple of his hump. He too must feel something of the +unspeakable quality of his name. Indeed he had avoided a dozen chances of +telling it, she now perceived. So she spoke of "obstacles she could not +reveal"--"reasons why the thing he spoke of was impossible." She addressed +the note with a shiver, "E.K. Snooks." + +Things were worse than she had dreaded; he asked her to explain. How +_could_ she explain? Those last two days in Rome were dreadful. She +was haunted by his air of astonished perplexity. She knew she had given +him intimate hopes, she had not the courage to examine her mind thoroughly +for the extent of her encouragement. She knew he must think her the most +changeable of beings. Now that she was in full retreat, she would not even +perceive his hints of a possible correspondence. But in that matter he did +a thing that seemed to her at once delicate and romantic. He made a +go-between of Fanny. Fanny could not keep the secret, and came and told +her that night under a transparent pretext of needed advice. "Mr. Snooks," +said Fanny, "wants to write to me. Fancy! I had no idea. But should I let +him?" They talked it over long and earnestly, and Miss Winchelsea was +careful to keep the veil over her heart. She was already repenting his +disregarded hints. Why should she not hear of him sometimes--painful +though his name must be to her? Miss Winchelsea decided it might be +permitted, and Fanny kissed her good-night with unusual emotion. After she +had gone Miss Winchelsea sat for a long time at the window of her little +room. It was moonlight, and down the street a man sang "Santa Lucia" with +almost heart-dissolving tenderness... She sat very still. + +She breathed a word very softly to herself. The word was "_Snooks_." +Then she got up with a profound sigh, and went to bed. The next morning he +said to her meaningly, "I shall hear of you through your friend." + +Mr. Snooks saw them off from Rome with that pathetic interrogative +perplexity still on his face, and if it had not been for Helen he would +have retained Miss Winchelsea's hold-all in his hand as a sort of +encyclopaedic keepsake. On their way back to England Miss Winchelsea on +six separate occasions made Fanny promise to write to her the longest of +long letters. Fanny, it seemed, would be quite near Mr. Snooks. Her new +school--she was always going to new schools--would be only five miles from +Steely Bank, and it was in the Steely Bank Polytechnic, and one or two +first-class schools, that Mr. Snooks did his teaching. He might even see +her at times. They could not talk much of him--she and Fanny always spoke +of "him," never of Mr. Snooks--because Helen was apt to say unsympathetic +things about him. Her nature had coarsened very much, Miss Winchelsea +perceived, since the old Training College days; she had become hard and +cynical. She thought he had a weak face, mistaking refinement for weakness +as people of her stamp are apt to do, and when she heard his name was +Snooks, she said she had expected something of the sort. Miss Winchelsea +was careful to spare her own feelings after that, but Fanny was less +circumspect. + +The girls parted in London, and Miss Winchelsea returned, with a new +interest in life, to the Girls' High School in which she had been an +increasingly valuable assistant for the last three years. Her new interest +in life was Fanny as a correspondent, and to give her a lead she wrote her +a lengthy descriptive letter within a fortnight of her return. Fanny +answered, very disappointingly. Fanny indeed had no literary gift, but it +was new to Miss Winchelsea to find herself deploring the want of gifts in +a friend. That letter was even criticised aloud in the safe solitude of +Miss Winchelsea's study, and her criticism, spoken with great bitterness, +was "Twaddle!" It was full of just the things Miss Winchelsea's letter had +been full of, particulars of the school. And of Mr. Snooks, only this +much: "I have had a letter from Mr. Snooks, and he has been over to see me +on two Saturday afternoons running. He talked about Rome and you; we both +talked about you. Your ears must have burnt, my dear..." + +Miss Winchelsea repressed a desire to demand more explicit information, +and wrote the sweetest, long letter again. "Tell me all about yourself, +dear. That journey has quite refreshed our ancient friendship, and I do so +want to keep in touch with you." About Mr. Snooks she simply wrote on the +fifth page that she was glad Fanny had seen him, and that if he +_should_ ask after her, she was to be remembered to him _very +kindly_ (underlined). And Fanny replied most obtusely in the key of +that "ancient friendship," reminding Miss Winchelsea of a dozen foolish +things of those old schoolgirl days at the Training College, and saying +not a word about Mr. Snooks! + +For nearly a week Miss Winchelsea was so angry at the failure of Fanny as +a go-between that she could not write to her. And then she wrote less +effusively, and in her letter she asked point-blank, "Have you seen Mr. +Snooks?" Fanny's letter was unexpectedly satisfactory. "I _have_ seen +Mr. Snooks," she wrote, and having once named him she kept on about him; +it was all Snooks--Snooks this and Snooks that. He was to give a public +lecture, said Fanny, among other things. Yet Miss Winchelsea, after the +first glow of gratification, still found this letter a little +unsatisfactory. Fanny did not report Mr. Snooks as saying anything about +Miss Winchelsea, nor as looking a little white and worn, as he ought to +have been doing. And behold! before she had replied, came a second letter +from Fanny on the same theme, quite a gushing letter, and covering six +sheets with her loose feminine hand. + +And about this second letter was a rather odd little thing that Miss +Winchelsea only noticed as she re-read it the third time. Fanny's natural +femininity had prevailed even against the round and clear traditions of +the Training College; she was one of those she-creatures born to +make all her _m'_s and _n'_s and _u'_s and _r'_s and _e'_s +alike, and to leave her _o'_s and _a'_s open and her _i'_s +undotted. So that it was only after an elaborate comparison of word with +word that Miss Winchelsea felt assured Mr. Snooks was not really "Mr. +Snooks" at all! In Fanny's first letter of gush he was Mr. "Snooks," in +her second the spelling was changed to Mr. "Senoks." Miss Winchelsea's +hand positively trembled as she turned the sheet over--it meant so much to +her. For it had already begun to seem to her that even the name of Mrs. +Snooks might be avoided at too great a price, and suddenly--this +possibility! She turned over the six sheets, all dappled with that +critical name, and everywhere the first letter had the form of an +_e_! For a time she walked the room with a hand pressed upon her +heart. + +She spent a whole day pondering this change, weighing a letter of inquiry +that should be at once discreet and effectual; weighing, too, what action +she should take after the answer came. She was resolved that if this +altered spelling was anything more than a quaint fancy of Fanny's, she +would write forthwith to Mr. Snooks. She had now reached a stage when the +minor refinements of behaviour disappear. Her excuse remained uninvented, +but she had the subject of her letter clear in her mind, even to the hint +that "circumstances in my life have changed very greatly since we talked +together." But she never gave that hint. There came a third letter from +that fitful correspondent Fanny. The first line proclaimed her "the +happiest girl alive." + +Miss Winchelsea crushed the letter in her hand--the rest unread--and sat +with her face suddenly very still. She had received it just before morning +school, and had opened it when the junior mathematicians were well under +way. Presently she resumed reading with an appearance of great calm. But +after the first sheet she went on reading the third without discovering +the error:--"told him frankly I did not like his name," the third sheet +began. "He told me he did not like it himself--you know that sort of +sudden, frank way he has"--Miss Winchelsea did know. "So I said, 'couldn't +you change it?' He didn't see it at first. Well, you know, dear, he had +told me what it really meant; it means Sevenoaks, only it has got down to +Snooks--both Snooks and Noaks, dreadfully vulgar surnames though they be, +are really worn forms of Sevenoaks. So I said--even I have my bright ideas +at times--'If it got down from Sevenoaks to Snooks, why not get it back +from Snooks to Sevenoaks?' And the long and the short of it is, dear, he +couldn't refuse me, and he changed his spelling there and then to Senoks +for the bills of the new lecture. And afterwards, when we are married, we +shall put in the apostrophe and make it Se'noks. Wasn't it kind of him to +mind that fancy of mine, when many men would have taken offence? But it is +just like him all over; he is as kind as he is clever. Because he knew as +well as I did that I would have had him in spite of it, had he been ten +times Snooks. But he did it all the same." + +The class was startled by the sound of paper being viciously torn, and +looked up to see Miss Winchelsea white in the face and with some very +small pieces of paper clenched in one hand. For a few seconds they stared +at her stare, and then her expression changed back to a more familiar one. +"Has any one finished number three?" she asked in an even tone. She +remained calm after that. But impositions ruled high that day. And she +spent two laborious evenings writing letters of various sorts to Fanny, +before she found a decent congratulatory vein. Her reason struggled +hopelessly against the persuasion that Fanny had behaved in an exceedingly +treacherous manner. + +One may be extremely refined and still capable of a very sore heart. +Certainly Miss Winchelsea's heart was very sore. She had moods of sexual +hostility, in which she generalised uncharitably about mankind. "He forgot +himself with me," she said. "But Fanny is pink and pretty and soft and a +fool--a very excellent match for a Man." And by way of a wedding present +she sent Fanny a gracefully bound volume of poetry by George Meredith, and +Fanny wrote back a grossly happy letter to say that it was "_all_ +beautiful." Miss Winchelsea hoped that some day Mr. Senoks might take up +that slim book and think for a moment of the donor. Fanny wrote several +times before and about her marriage, pursuing that fond legend of their +"ancient friendship," and giving her happiness in the fullest detail. And +Miss Winchelsea wrote to Helen for the first time after the Roman journey, +saying nothing about the marriage, but expressing very cordial feelings. + +They had been in Rome at Easter, and Fanny was married in the August +vacation. She wrote a garrulous letter to Miss Winchelsea, describing her +home-coming and the astonishing arrangements of their "teeny, weeny" +little house. Mr. Se'noks was now beginning to assume a refinement in Miss +Winchelsea's memory out of all proportion to the facts of the case, and +she tried in vain to imagine his cultured greatness in a "teeny weeny" +little house. "Am busy enamelling a cosy corner," said Fanny, sprawling to +the end of her third sheet, "so excuse more." Miss Winchelsea answered in +her best style, gently poking fun at Fanny's arrangements, and hoping +intensely that Mr. Se'noks might see the letter. Only this hope enabled +her to write at all, answering not only that letter but one in November +and one at Christmas. + +The two latter communications contained urgent invitations for her to come +to Steely Bank on a visit during the Christmas holidays. She tried to +think that _he_ had told her to ask that, but it was too much like +Fanny's opulent good-nature. She could not but believe that he must be +sick of his blunder by this time; and she had more than a hope that he +would presently write her a letter beginning "Dear Friend." Something +subtly tragic in the separation was a great support to her, a sad +misunderstanding. To have been jilted would have been intolerable. But he +never wrote that letter beginning "Dear Friend." + +For two years Miss Winchelsea could not go to see her friends, in spite of +the reiterated invitations of Mrs. Sevenoaks--it became full Sevenoaks in +the second year. Then one day near the Easter rest she felt lonely and +without a soul to understand her in the world, and her mind ran once more +on what is called Platonic friendship. Fanny was clearly happy and busy in +her new sphere of domesticity, but no doubt _he_ had his lonely +hours. Did he ever think of those days in Rome, gone now beyond recalling? +No one had understood her as he had done; no one in all the world. It +would be a sort of melancholy pleasure to talk to him again, and what harm +could it do? Why should she deny herself? That night she wrote a sonnet, +all but the last two lines of the octave--which would not come; and the +next day she composed a graceful little note to tell Fanny she was coming +down. + +And so she saw him again. + +Even at the first encounter it was evident he had changed; he seemed +stouter and less nervous, and it speedily appeared that his conversation +had already lost much of its old delicacy. There even seemed a +justification for Helen's description of weakness in his face--in certain +lights it _was_ weak. He seemed busy and preoccupied about his +affairs, and almost under the impression that Miss Winchelsea had come for +the sake of Fanny. He discussed his dinner with Fanny in an intelligent +way. They only had one good long talk together, and that came to nothing. +He did not refer to Rome, and spent some time abusing a man who had stolen +an idea he had had for a text-book. It did not seem a very wonderful idea +to Miss Winchelsea. She discovered he had forgotten the names of more than +half the painters whose work they had rejoiced over in Florence. + +It was a sadly disappointing week, and Miss Winchelsea was glad when it +came to an end. Under various excuses she avoided visiting them again. +After a time the visitor's room was occupied by their two little boys, and +Fanny's invitations ceased. The intimacy of her letters had long since +faded away. + + + + + XXV. + + A DREAM OF ARMAGEDDON. + + +The man with the white face entered the carriage at Rugby. He moved slowly +in spite of the urgency of his porter, and even while he was still on the +platform I noted how ill he seemed. He dropped into the corner over +against me with a sigh, made an incomplete attempt to arrange his +travelling shawl, and became motionless, with his eyes staring vacantly. +Presently he was moved by a sense of my observation, looked up at me, and +put out a spiritless hand for his newspaper. Then he glanced again in my +direction. + +I feigned to read. I feared I had unwittingly embarrassed him, and in a +moment I was surprised to find him speaking. + +"I beg your pardon?" said I. + +"That book," he repeated, pointing a lean finger, "is about dreams." + +"Obviously," I answered, for it was Fortnum-Roscoe's _Dream States_, +and the title was on the cover. + +He hung silent for a space as if he sought words. "Yes," he said, at last, +"but they tell you nothing." + +I did not catch his meaning for a second. + +"They don't know," he added. + +I looked a little more attentively at his face. + +"There are dreams," he said, "and dreams." That sort of proposition I +never dispute. "I suppose----" he hesitated. "Do you ever dream? I mean +vividly." + +"I dream very little," I answered. "I doubt if I have three vivid dreams +in a year." + +"Ah!" he said, and seemed for a moment to collect his thoughts. + +"Your dreams don't mix with your memories?" he asked abruptly. "You don't +find yourself in doubt: did this happen or did it not?" + +"Hardly ever. Except just for a momentary hesitation now and then. I +suppose few people do." + +"Does _he_ say----" he indicated the book. + +"Says it happens at times and gives the usual explanation about intensity +of impression and the like to account for its not happening as a rule. I +suppose you know something of these theories----" + +"Very little--except that they are wrong." + +His emaciated hand played with the strap of the window for a time. I +prepared to resume reading, and that seemed to precipitate his next +remark. He leant forward almost as though he would touch me. + +"Isn't there something called consecutive dreaming--that goes on night +after night?" + +"I believe there is. There are cases given in most books on mental +trouble." + +"Mental trouble! Yes. I daresay there are. It's the right place for them. +But what I mean----" He looked at his bony knuckles. "Is that sort of +thing always dreaming? _Is_ it dreaming? Or is it something else? +Mightn't it be something else?" + +I should have snubbed his persistent conversation but for the drawn +anxiety of his face. I remember now the look of his faded eyes and the +lids red stained--perhaps you know that look. + +"I'm not just arguing about a matter of opinion," he said. "The thing's +killing me." + +"Dreams?" + +"If you call them dreams. Night after night. Vivid!--so vivid ... this--" +(he indicated the landscape that went streaming by the window) "seems +unreal in comparison! I can scarcely remember who I am, what business I am +on ..." + +He paused. "Even now--" + +"The dream is always the same--do you mean?" I asked. + +"It's over." + +"You mean?" + +"I died." + +"Died?" + +"Smashed and killed, and now so much of me as that dream was is dead. Dead +for ever. I dreamt I was another man, you know, living in a different part +of the world and in a different time. I dreamt that night after night. +Night after night I woke into that other life. Fresh scenes and fresh +happenings--until I came upon the last--" + +"When you died?" + +"When I died." + +"And since then--" + +"No," he said. "Thank God! that was the end of the dream..." + +It was clear I was in for this dream. And, after all, I had an hour before +me, the light was fading fast, and Fortnum-Roscoe has a dreary way with +him. "Living in a different time," I said: "do you mean in some different +age?" + +"Yes." + +"Past?" + +"No, to come--to come." + +"The year three thousand, for example?" + +"I don't know what year it was. I did when I was asleep, when I was +dreaming, that is, but not now--not now that I am awake. There's a lot of +things I have forgotten since I woke out of these dreams, though I knew +them at the time when I was--I suppose it was dreaming. They called the +year differently from our way of calling the year... What _did_ they +call it?" He put his hand to his forehead. "No," said he, "I forget." + +He sat smiling weakly. For a moment I feared he did not mean to tell me +his dream. As a rule, I hate people who tell their dreams, but this struck +me differently. I proffered assistance even. "It began----" I suggested. + +"It was vivid from the first. I seemed to wake up in it suddenly. And it's +curious that in these dreams I am speaking of I never remembered this life +I am living now. It seemed as if the dream life was enough while it +lasted. Perhaps----But I will tell you how I find myself when I do my +best to recall it all. I don't remember anything clearly until I found +myself sitting in a sort of loggia looking out over the sea. I had been +dozing, and suddenly I woke up--fresh and vivid--not a bit dreamlike-- +because the girl had stopped fanning me." + +"The girl?" + +"Yes, the girl. You must not interrupt or you will put me out." + +He stopped abruptly. "You won't think I'm mad?" he said. + +"No," I answered; "you've been dreaming. Tell me your dream." + +"I woke up, I say, because the girl had stopped fanning me. I was not +surprised to find myself there or anything of that sort, you understand. I +did not feel I had fallen into it suddenly. I simply took it up at that +point. Whatever memory I had of _this_ life, this nineteenth-century +life, faded as I woke, vanished like a dream. I knew all about myself, +knew that my name was no longer Cooper but Hedon, and all about my +position in the world. I've forgotten a lot since I woke--there's a want +of connection--but it was all quite clear and matter-of-fact then." + +He hesitated again, gripping the window strap, putting his face forward, +and looking up to me appealingly. + +"This seems bosh to you?" + +"No, no!" I cried. "Go on. Tell me what this loggia was like." + +"It was not really a loggia--I don't know what to call it. It faced south. +It was small. It was all in shadow except the semicircle above the balcony +that showed the sky and sea and the corner where the girl stood. I was on +a couch--it was a metal couch with light striped cushions--and the girl +was leaning over the balcony with her back to me. The light of the sunrise +fell on her ear and cheek. Her pretty white neck and the little curls that +nestled there, and her white shoulder were in the sun, and all the grace +of her body was in the cool blue shadow. She was dressed--how can I +describe it? It was easy and flowing. And altogether there she stood, so +that it came to me how beautiful and desirable she was, as though I had +never seen her before. And when at last I sighed and raised myself upon my +arm she turned her face to me--" + +He stopped. + +"I have lived three-and-fifty years in this world. I have had mother, +sisters, friends, wife and daughters--all their faces, the play of their +faces, I know. But the face of this girl--it is much more real to me. I +can bring it back into memory so that I see it again--I could draw it or +paint it. And after all--" + +He stopped--but I said nothing. + +"The face of a dream--the face of a dream. She was beautiful. Not that +beauty which is terrible, cold, and worshipful, like the beauty of a +saint; nor that beauty that stirs fierce passions; but a sort of +radiation, sweet lips that softened into smiles, and grave gray eyes. And +she moved gracefully, she seemed to have part with all pleasant and +gracious things--" + +He stopped, and his face was downcast and hidden. Then he looked up at me +and went on, making no further attempt to disguise his absolute belief in +the reality of his story. + +"You see, I had thrown up my plans and ambitions, thrown up all I had ever +worked for or desired, for her sake. I had been a master man away there in +the north, with influence and property and a great reputation, but none of +it had seemed worth having beside her. I had come to the place, this city +of sunny pleasures, with her, and left all those things to wreck and ruin +just to save a remnant at least of my life. While I had been in love with +her before I knew that she had any care for me, before I had imagined that +she would dare--that we should dare--all my life had seemed vain and +hollow, dust and ashes. It _was_ dust and ashes. Night after night, +and through the long days I had longed and desired--my soul had beaten +against the thing forbidden! + +"But it is impossible for one man to tell another just these things. It's +emotion, it's a tint, a light that comes and goes. Only while it's there, +everything changes, everything. The thing is I came away and left them in +their crisis to do what they could." + +"Left whom?" I asked, puzzled. + +"The people up in the north there. You see--in this dream, anyhow--I had +been a big man, the sort of man men come to trust in, to group themselves +about. Millions of men who had never seen me were ready to do things and +risk things because of their confidence in me. I had been playing that +game for years, that big laborious game, that vague, monstrous political +game amidst intrigues and betrayals, speech and agitation. It was a vast +weltering world, and at last I had a sort of leadership against the Gang-- +you know it was called the Gang--a sort of compromise of scoundrelly +projects and base ambitions and vast public emotional stupidities and +catch-words--the Gang that kept the world noisy and blind year by year, +and all the while that it was drifting, drifting towards infinite +disaster. But I can't expect you to understand the shades and +complications of the year--the year something or other ahead. I had it +all--down to the smallest details--in my dream. I suppose I had been +dreaming of it before I awoke, and the fading outline of some queer new +development I had imagined still hung about me as I rubbed my eyes. It was +some grubby affair that made me thank God for the sunlight. I sat up on +the couch and remained looking at the woman, and rejoicing--rejoicing that +I had come away out of all that tumult and folly and violence before it +was too late. After all, I thought, this is life--love and beauty, desire +and delight, are they not worth all those dismal struggles for vague, +gigantic ends? And I blamed myself for having ever sought to be a leader +when I might have given my days to love. But then, thought I, if I had not +spent my early days sternly and austerely, I might have wasted myself upon +vain and worthless women, and at the thought all my being went out in love +and tenderness to my dear mistress, my dear lady, who had come at last and +compelled me--compelled me by her invincible charm for me--to lay that +life aside. + +"'You are worth it,' I said, speaking without intending her to hear; 'you +are worth it, my dearest one; worth pride and praise and all things. Love! +to have _you_ is worth them all together.' And at the murmur of my +voice she turned about. + +"'Come and see,' she cried--I can hear her now--come and see the sunrise +upon Monte Solaro.' + +"I remember how I sprang to my feet and joined her at the balcony. She put +a white hand upon my shoulder and pointed towards great masses of +limestone flushing, as it were, into life. I looked. But first I noted the +sunlight on her face caressing the lines of her cheeks and neck. How can I +describe to you the scene we had before us? We were at Capri----" + +"I have been there," I said. "I have clambered up Monte Solaro and drunk +_vero Capri_--muddy stuff like cider--at the summit." + +"Ah!" said the man with the white face; "then perhaps you can tell me--you +will know if this was indeed Capri. For in this life I have never been +there. Let me describe it. We were in a little room, one of a vast +multitude of little rooms, very cool and sunny, hollowed out of the +limestone of a sort of cape, very high above the sea. The whole island, +you know, was one enormous hotel, complex beyond explaining, and on the +other side there were miles of floating hotels, and huge floating stages +to which the flying machines came. They called it a Pleasure City. Of +course, there was none of that in your time--rather, I should say, +_is_ none of that _now_. Of course. Now!--yes. + +"Well, this room of ours was at the extremity of the cape, so that one +could see east and west. Eastward was a great cliff--a thousand feet high +perhaps, coldly grey except for one bright edge of gold, and beyond it the +Isle of the Sirens, and a falling coast that faded and passed into the hot +sunrise. And when one turned to the west, distinct and near was a little +bay, a little beach still in shadow. And out of that shadow rose Solaro, +straight and tall, flushed and golden-crested, like a beauty throned, and +the white moon was floating behind her in the sky. And before us from east +to west stretched the many-tinted sea all dotted with little +sailing-boats. + +"To the eastward, of course, these little boats were gray and very minute +and clear, but to the westward they were little boats of gold--shining +gold--almost like little flames. And just below us was a rock with an arch +worn through it. The blue sea-water broke to green and foam all round the +rock, and a galley came gliding out of the arch." + +"I know that rock," I said. "I was nearly drowned there. It is called the +Faraglioni." + +"_Faraglioni_? Yes, _she_ called it that," answered the man with +the white face. "There was some story--but that----" + +He put his hand to his forehead again. "No," he said, "I forget that +story. + +"Well, that is the first thing I remember, the first dream I had, that +little shaded room and the beautiful air and sky and that dear lady of +mine, with her shining arms and her graceful robe, and how we sat and +talked in half whispers to one another. We talked in whispers, not because +there was any one to hear, but because there was still such a freshness of +mind between us that our thoughts were a little frightened, I think, to +find themselves at last in words. And so they went softly. + +"Presently we were hungry, and we went from our apartment, going by a +strange passage with a moving floor, until we came to the great +breakfast-room--there was a fountain and music. A pleasant and joyful +place it was, with its sunlight and splashing, and the murmur of plucked +strings. And we sat and ate and smiled at one another, and I would not +heed a man who was watching me from a table near by. + +"And afterwards we went on to the dancing-hall. But I cannot describe +that hall. The place was enormous, larger than any building you have ever +seen--and in one place there was the old gate of Capri, caught into the +wall of a gallery high overhead. Light girders, stems and threads of gold, +burst from the pillars like fountains, streamed like an Aurora across the +roof and interlaced, like--like conjuring tricks. All about the great +circle for the dancers there were beautiful figures, strange dragons, and +intricate and wonderful grotesques bearing lights. The place was inundated +with artificial light that shamed the newborn day. And as we went through +the throng the people turned about and looked at us, for all through the +world my name and face were known, and how I had suddenly thrown up pride, +and struggle to come to this place. And they looked also at the lady +beside me, though half the story of how at last she had come to me was +unknown or mistold. And few of the men who were there, I know, but judged +me a happy man, in spite of all the shame and dishonour that had come upon +my name. + +"The air was full of music, full of harmonious scents, full of the rhythm +of beautiful motions. Thousands of beautiful people swarmed about the +hall, crowded the galleries, sat in a myriad recesses; they were dressed +in splendid colours and crowned with flowers; thousands danced about the +great circle beneath the white images of the ancient gods, and glorious +processions of youths and maidens came and went. We two danced, not the +dreary monotonies of your days--of this time, I mean--but dances that were +beautiful, intoxicating. And even now I can see my lady dancing--dancing +joyously. She danced, you know, with a serious face; she danced with a +serious dignity, and yet she was smiling at me and caressing me--smiling +and caressing with her eyes. + +"The music was different," he murmured. "It went--I cannot describe it; +but it was infinitely richer and more varied than any music that has ever +come to me awake. + +"And then--it was when we had done dancing--a man came to speak to me. He +was a lean, resolute man, very soberly clad for that place, and already I +had marked his face watching me in the breakfasting hall, and afterwards +as we went along the passage I had avoided his eye. But now, as we sat in +a little alcove smiling at the pleasure of all the people who went to and +fro across the shining floor, he came and touched me, and spoke to me so +that I was forced to listen. And he asked that he might speak to me for a +little time apart. + +"'No,' I said. 'I have no secrets from this lady. What do you want to tell +me?' + +"He said it was a trivial matter, or at least a dry matter, for a lady to +hear. + +"'Perhaps for me to hear,' said I. + +"He glanced at her, as though almost he would appeal to her. Then he asked +me suddenly if I had heard of a great and avenging declaration that +Gresham had made. Now, Gresham had always before been the man next to +myself in the leadership of that great party in the north. He was a +forcible, hard, and tactless man, and only I had been able to control and +soften him. It was on his account even more than my own, I think, that the +others had been so dismayed at my retreat. So this question about what he +had done re-awakened my old interest in the life I had put aside just for +a moment. + +"'I have taken no heed of any news for many days,' I said. 'What has +Gresham been saying?' + +"And with that the man began, nothing loth, and I must confess ever; I was +struck by Gresham's reckless folly in the wild and threatening words he +had used. And this messenger they had sent to me not only told me of +Gresham's speech, but went on to ask counsel and to point out what need +they had of me. While he talked, my lady sat a little forward and watched +his face and mine. + +"My old habits of scheming and organising reasserted themselves. I could +even see myself suddenly returning to the north, and all the dramatic +effect of it. All that this man said witnessed to the disorder of the +party indeed, but not to its damage. I should go back stronger than I had +come. And then I thought of my lady. You see--how can I tell you? There +were certain peculiarities of our relationship--as things are I need not +tell about that--which would render her presence with me impossible. I +should have had to leave her; indeed, I should have had to renounce her +clearly and openly, if I was to do all that I could do in the north. And +the man knew _that_, even as he talked to her and me, knew it as well +as she did, that my steps to duty were--first, separation, then +abandonment. At the touch of that thought my dream of a return was +shattered. I turned on the man suddenly, as he was imagining his eloquence +was gaining ground with me. + +"'What have I to do with these things now?' I said. 'I have done with +them. Do you think I am coquetting with your people in coming here?' + +"'No,' he said; 'but----' + +"'Why cannot you leave me alone? I have done with these things. I have +ceased to be anything but a private man.' + +"'Yes,' he answered. 'But have you thought?--this talk of war, these +reckless challenges, these wild aggressions----' + +"I stood up. + +"'No,' I cried. 'I won't hear you. I took count of all those things, I +weighed them--and I have come away." + +"He seemed to consider the possibility of persistence. He looked from me +to where the lady sat regarding us. + +"'War,' he said, as if he were speaking to himself, and then turned slowly +from me and walked away. + +"I stood, caught in the whirl of thoughts his appeal had set going. + +"I heard my lady's voice. + +"'Dear,' she said; 'but if they have need of you--' + +"She did not finish her sentence, she let it rest there. I turned to her +sweet face, and the balance of my mood swayed and reeled. + +"'They want me only to do the thing they dare not do themselves,' I said. +'If they distrust Gresham they must settle with him themselves.' + +"She looked at me doubtfully. + +"'But war--' she said. + +"I saw a doubt on her face that I had seen before, a doubt of herself and +me, the first shadow of the discovery that, seen strongly and completely, +must drive us apart for ever. + +"Now, I was an older mind than hers, and I could sway her to this belief +or that. + +"'My dear one,' I said, 'you must not trouble over these things. There +will be no war. Certainly there will be no war. The age of wars is past. +Trust me to know the justice of this case. They have no right upon me, +dearest, and no one has a right upon me. I have been free to choose my +life, and I have chosen this.' + +"'But _war_--' she said. + +"I sat down beside her. I put an arm behind her and took her hand in mine. +I set myself to drive that doubt away--I set myself to fill her mind with +pleasant things again. I lied to her, and in lying to her I lied also to +myself. And she was only too ready to believe me, only too ready to +forget. + +"Very soon the shadow had gone again, and we were hastening to our +bathing-place in the Grotta del Bovo Marino, where it was our custom to +bathe every day. We swam and splashed one another, and in that buoyant +water I seemed to become something lighter and stronger than a man. And at +last we came out dripping and rejoicing and raced among the rocks. And +then I put on a dry bathing-dress, and we sat to bask in the sun, and +presently I nodded, resting my head against her knee, and she put her hand +upon my hair and stroked it softly and I dozed. And behold! as it were +with the snapping of the string of a violin, I was awakening, and I was in +my own bed in Liverpool, in the life of to-day. + +"Only for a time I could not believe that all these vivid moments had been +no more than the substance of a dream. + +"In truth, I could not believe it a dream, for all the sobering reality of +things about me. I bathed and dressed as it were by habit, and as I shaved +I argued why I of all men should leave the woman I loved to go back to +fantastic politics in the hard and strenuous north. Even if Gresham did +force the world back to war, what was that to me? I was a man, with the +heart of a man, and why should I feel the responsibility of a deity for +the way the world might go? + +"You know that is not quite the way I think about affairs, about my real +affairs. I am a solicitor, you know, with a point of view. + +"The vision was so real, you must understand, so utterly unlike a dream, +that I kept perpetually recalling little irrelevant details; even the +ornament of a bookcover that lay on my wife's sewing-machine in the +breakfast-room recalled with the utmost vividness the gilt line that ran +about the seat in the alcove where I had talked with the messenger from my +deserted party. Have you ever heard of a dream that had a quality like +that?" + +"Like--?" + +"So that afterwards you remembered little details you had forgotten." + +I thought. I had never noticed the point before, but he was right. + +"Never," I said. "That is what you never seem to do with dreams." + +"No," he answered. "But that is just what I did. I am a solicitor, you +must understand, in Liverpool, and I could not help wondering what the +clients and business people I found myself talking to in my office would +think if I told them suddenly I was in love with a girl who would be born +a couple of hundred years or so hence, and worried about the politics of +my great-great-great-grandchildren. I was chiefly busy that day +negotiating a ninety-nine-year building lease. It was a private builder in +a hurry, and we wanted to tie him in every possible way. I had an +interview with him, and he showed a certain want of temper that sent me to +bed still irritated. That night I had no dream. Nor did I dream the next +night, at least, to remember. + +"Something of that intense reality of conviction vanished. I began to feel +sure it _was_ a dream. And then it came again. + +"When the dream came again, nearly four days later, it was very different. +I think it certain that four days had also elapsed _in_ the dream. +Many things had happened in the north, and the shadow of them was back +again between us, and this time it was not so easily dispelled. I began, I +know, with moody musings. Why, in spite of all, should I go back, go back +for all the rest of my days, to toil and stress, insults, and perpetual +dissatisfaction, simply to save hundreds of millions of common people, +whom I did not love, whom too often I could not do other than despise, +from the stress and anguish of war and infinite misrule? And, after all, I +might fail. _They_ all sought their own narrow ends, and why should +not I--why should not I also live as a man? And out of such thoughts her +voice summoned me, and I lifted my eyes. + +"I found myself awake and walking. We had come out above the Pleasure +City, we were near the summit of Monte Solaro and looking towards the bay. +It was the late afternoon and very clear. Far away to the left Ischia hung +in a golden haze between sea and sky, and Naples was coldly white against +the hills, and before us was Vesuvius with a tall and slender streamer +feathering at last towards the south, and the ruins of Torre dell' +Annunziata and Castellammare glittering and near." + +I interrupted suddenly: "You have been to Capri, of course?" + +"Only in this dream," he said, "only in this dream. All across the bay +beyond Sorrento were the floating palaces of the Pleasure City moored and +chained. And northward were the broad floating stages that received the +aeroplanes. Aeroplanes fell out of the sky every afternoon, each bringing +its thousands of pleasure-seekers from the uttermost parts of the earth to +Capri and its delights. All these things, I say, stretched below. + +"But we noticed them only incidentally because of an unusual sight that +evening had to show. Five war aeroplanes that had long slumbered useless +in the distant arsenals of the Rhine-mouth were manoeuvring now in the +eastward sky. Gresham had astonished the world by producing them and +others, and sending them to circle here and there. It was the threat +material in the great game of bluff he was playing, and it had taken even +me by surprise. He was one of those incredibly stupid energetic people who +seem sent by heaven to create disasters. His energy to the first glance +seemed so wonderfully like capacity! But he had no imagination, no +invention, only a stupid, vast, driving force of will, and a mad faith in +his stupid idiot 'luck' to pull him through. I remember how we stood out +upon the headland watching the squadron circling far away, and how I +weighed the full meaning of the sight, seeing clearly the way things must +_go_. And then even it was not too late. I might have gone back, I +think, and saved the world. The people of the north would follow me, I +knew, granted only that in one thing I respected their moral standards. +The east and south would trust me as they would trust no other northern +man. And I knew I had only to put it to her and she would have let me +go... Not because she did not love me! + +"Only I did not want to go; my will was all the other way about. I had so +newly thrown off the incubus of responsibility: I was still so fresh a +renegade from duty that the daylight clearness of what I _ought_ to +do had no power at all to touch my will. My will was to live, to gather +pleasures, and make my dear lady happy. But though this sense of vast +neglected duties had no power to draw me, it could make me silent and +preoccupied, it robbed the days I had spent of half their brightness and +roused me into dark meditations in the silence of the night. And as I +stood and watched Gresham's aeroplanes sweep to and fro--those birds of +infinite ill omen--she stood beside me, watching me, perceiving the +trouble indeed, but not perceiving it clearly--her eyes questioning my +face, her expression shaded with perplexity. Her face was grey because the +sunset was fading out of the sky. It was no fault of hers that she held +me. She had asked me to go from her, and again in the night-time and with +tears she had asked me to go. + +"At last it was the sense of her that roused me from my mood. I turned +upon her suddenly and challenged her to race down the mountain slopes. +'No,' she said, as if I jarred with her gravity, but I was resolved to end +that gravity and made her run--no one can be very grey and sad who is out +of breath---and when she stumbled I ran with my hand beneath her arm. We +ran down past a couple of men, who turned back staring in astonishment at +my behaviour--they must have recognised my face. And half-way down the +slope came a tumult in the air--clang-clank, clang-clank--and we stopped, +and presently over the hill-crest those war things came flying one behind +the other." + +The man seemed hesitating on the verge of a description. + +"What were, they like?" I asked. + +"They had never fought," he said. "They were just like our ironclads are +nowadays; they had never fought. No one knew what they might do, with +excited men inside them; few even cared to speculate. They were great +driving things shaped like spear-heads without a shaft, with a propeller +in the place of the shaft." + +"Steel?" + +"Not steel." + +"Aluminium?" + +"No, no, nothing of that sort. An alloy that was very common--as common as +brass, for example. It was called--let me see--" He squeezed his forehead +with the fingers of one hand. "I am forgetting everything," he said. + +"And they carried guns?" + +"Little guns, firing high explosive shells. They fired the guns backwards, +out of the base of the leaf, so to speak, and rammed with the beak. That +was the theory, you know, but they had never been fought. No one could +tell exactly what was going to happen. And meanwhile I suppose it was very +fine to go whirling through the air like a flight of young swallows, swift +and easy. I guess the captains tried not to think too clearly what the +real thing would be like. And these flying war machines, you know, were +only one sort of the endless war contrivances that had been invented and +had fallen into abeyance during the long peace. There were all sorts of +these things that people were routing out and furbishing up; infernal +things, silly things; things that had never been tried; big engines, +terrible explosives, great guns. You know the silly way of these ingenious +sort of men who make these things; they turn 'em out as beavers build +dams, and with no more sense of the rivers they're going to divert and the +lands they're going to flood! + +"As we went down the winding stepway to our hotel again in the twilight I +foresaw it all: I saw how clearly and inevitably things were driving for +war in Gresham's silly, violent hands, and I had some inkling of what war +was bound to be under these new conditions. And even then, though I knew +it was drawing near the limit of my opportunity, I could find no will to +go back." + +He sighed. + +"That was my last chance. + +"We did not go into the city until the sky was full of stars, so we walked +out upon the high terrace, to and fro, and--she counselled me to go back. + +"'My dearest,' she said, and her sweet face looked up to me, 'this is +Death. This life you lead is Death. Go back to them, go back to your +duty--' + +"She began to weep, saying between her sobs, and clinging to my arm as she +said it, 'Go back--go back.' + +"Then suddenly she fell mute, and glancing down at her face, I read in an +instant the thing she had thought to do. It was one of those moments when +one _sees_. + +"'No!' I said. + +"'No?' she asked, in surprise, and I think a little fearful at the answer +to her thought. + +"'Nothing,' I said, 'shall send me back. Nothing! I have chosen. Love, I +have chosen, and the world must go. Whatever happens, I will live this +life--I will live for _you_! It--nothing shall turn me aside; +nothing, my dear one. Even if you died--even if you died--' + +"'Yes?' she murmured, softly. + +"'Then--I also would die.' + +"And before she could speak again I began to talk, talking eloquently--as +I _could_ do in that life--talking to exalt love, to make the life we +were living seem heroic and glorious; and the thing I was deserting +something hard and enormously ignoble that it was a fine thing to set +aside. I bent all my mind to throw that glamour upon it, seeking not only +to convert her but myself to that. We talked, and she clung to me, torn +too between all that she deemed noble and all that she knew was sweet. And +at last I did make it heroic, made all the thickening disaster of the +world only a sort of glorious setting to our unparalleled love, and we two +poor foolish souls strutted there at last, clad in that splendid delusion, +drunken rather with that glorious delusion, under the still stars. + +"And so my moment passed. + +"It was my last chance. Even as we went to and fro there, the leaders of +the south and east were gathering their resolve, and the hot answer that +shattered Gresham's bluffing for ever took shape and waited. And all over +Asia, and the ocean, and the south, the air and the wires were throbbing +with their warnings to prepare--prepare. + +"No one living, you know, knew what war was; no one could imagine, with +all these new inventions, what horror war might bring. I believe most +people still believed it would be a matter of bright uniforms and shouting +charges and triumphs and flags and bands--in a time when half the world +drew its food-supply from regions ten thousand miles away----" + +The man with the white face paused. I glanced at him, and his face was +intent on the floor of the carriage. A little railway station, a string of +loaded trucks, a signal-box, and the back of a cottage shot by the +carriage window, and a bridge passed with a clap of noise, echoing the +tumult of the train. + +"After that," he said, "I dreamt often. For three weeks of nights that +dream was my life. And the worst of it was there were nights when I could +not dream, when I lay tossing on a bed in _this_ accursed life; and +_there_--somewhere lost to me--things were happening--momentous, +terrible things... I lived at nights--my days, my waking days, this life +I am living now, became a faded, far-away dream, a drab setting, the cover +of the book." + +He thought. + +"I could tell you all, tell you every little thing in the dream, but as to +what I did in the daytime--no. I could not tell--I do not remember. My +memory--my memory has gone. The business of life slips from me--" + +He leant forward, and pressed his hands upon his eyes. For a long time he +said nothing. + +"And then?" said I. + +"The war burst like a hurricane." + +He stared before him at unspeakable things. + +"And then?" I urged again. + +"One touch of unreality," he said, in the low tone of a man who speaks to +himself, "and they would have been nightmares. But they were not +nightmares--they were not nightmares. _No_!" + +He was silent for so long that it dawned upon me that there was a danger +of losing the rest of the story. But he went on talking again in the same +tone of questioning self-communion. + +"What was there to do but flight? I had not thought the war would touch +Capri--I had seemed to see Capri as being out of it all, as the contrast +to it all; but two nights after the whole place was shouting and bawling, +every woman almost and every other man wore a badge--Gresham's badge--and +there was no music but a jangling war-song over and over again, and +everywhere men enlisting, and in the dancing halls they were drilling. The +whole island was a-whirl with rumours; it was said again and again, that +fighting had begun. I had not expected this. I had seen so little of the +life of pleasure that I had failed to reckon with this violence of the +amateurs. And as for me, I was out of it. I was like a man who might have +prevented the firing of a magazine. The time had gone. I was no one; the +vainest stripling with a badge counted for more than I. The crowd jostled +us and bawled in our ears; that accursed song deafened us; a woman +shrieked at my lady because no badge was on her, and we two went back to +our own place again, ruffled and insulted--my lady white and silent, and I +a-quiver with rage. So furious was I, I could have quarrelled with her if +I could have found one shade of accusation in her eyes. + +"All my magnificence had gone from me. I walked up and down our rock cell, +and outside was the darkling sea and a light to the southward that flared +and passed and came again. + +"'We must get out of this place,' I said over and over. 'I have made my +choice, and I will have no hand in these troubles. I will have nothing of +this war. We have taken our lives out of all these things. This is no +refuge for us. Let us go.' + +"And the next day we were already in flight from the war that covered the +world. + +"And all the rest was Flight--all the rest was Flight." + +He mused darkly. + +"How much was there of it?" + +He made no answer. + +"How many days?" + +His face was white and drawn and his hands were clenched. He took no heed +of my curiosity. + +I tried to draw him back to his story with questions. + +"Where did you go?" I said. + +"When?" + +"When you left Capri." + +"South-west," he said, and glanced at me for a second. "We went in a +boat." + +"But I should have thought an aeroplane?" + +"They had been seized." + +I questioned him no more. Presently I thought he was beginning again. He +broke out in an argumentative monotone: + +"But why should it be? If, indeed, this battle, this slaughter and stress, +_is_ life, why have we this craving for pleasure and beauty? If there +_is_ no refuge, if there is no place of peace, and if all our dreams +of quiet places are a folly and a snare, why have we such dreams? Surely +it was no ignoble cravings, no base intentions, had brought us to this; it +was love had isolated us. Love had come to me with her eyes and robed in +her beauty, more glorious than all else in life, in the very shape and +colour of life, and summoned me away. I had silenced all the voices, I had +answered all the questions--I had come to her. And suddenly there was +nothing but War and Death!" + +I had an inspiration. "After all," I said, "it could have been only a +dream." + +"A dream!" he cried, flaming upon me, "a dream--when, even now--" + +For the first time he became animated. A faint flush crept into his cheek. +He raised his open hand and clenched it, and dropped it to his knee. He +spoke, looking away from me, and for all the rest of the time he looked +away. "We are but phantoms," he said, "and the phantoms of phantoms, +desires like cloud shadows and wills of straw that eddy in the wind; the +days pass, use and wont carry us through as a train carries the shadow of +its lights--so be it? But one thing is real and certain, one thing is no +dream stuff, but eternal and enduring. It is the centre of my life, and +all other things about it are subordinate or altogether vain. I loved her, +that woman of a dream. And she and I are dead together! + +"A dream! How can it be a dream, when it drenched a living life with +unappeasable sorrow, when it makes all that I have lived for and cared for +worthless and unmeaning? + +"Until that very moment when she was killed I believed we had still a +chance of getting away," he said. "All through the night and morning that +we sailed across the sea from Capri to Salerno we talked of escape. We +were full of hope, and it clung about us to the end, hope for the life +together we should lead, out of it all, out of the battle and struggle, +the wild and empty passions, the empty, arbitrary 'thou shalt' and 'thou +shalt not' of the world. We were uplifted, as though our quest was a holy +thing, as though love for one another was a mission... + +"Even when from our boat we saw the fair face of that great rock Capri-- +already scarred and gashed by the gun emplacements and hiding-places that +were to make it a fastness--we reckoned nothing of the imminent slaughter, +though the fury of preparation hung about in puffs and clouds of dust at a +hundred points amidst the grey; but, indeed, I made a text of that and +talked. There, you know, was the rock, still beautiful for all its scars, +with its countless windows and arches and ways, tier upon tier, for a +thousand feet, a vast carving of grey, broken by vine-clad terraces, and +lemon and orange groves, and masses of agave and prickly pear, and puffs +of almond blossom. And out under the archway that is built over the +Piccola Marina other boats were coming; and as we came round the cape and +within sight of the mainland, another little string of boats came into +view, driving before the wind towards the south-west. In a little while a +multitude had come out, the remoter just little specks of ultramarine in +the shadow of the eastward cliff. + +"'It is love and reason,' I said, 'fleeing from all this madness of war.' + +"And though we presently saw a squadron of aeroplanes flying across the +southern sky we did not heed it. There it was--a line of little dots in +the sky--and then more, dotting the south-eastern horizon, and then still +more, until all that quarter of the sky was stippled with blue specks. Now +they were all thin little strokes of blue, and now one and now a multitude +would heel and catch the sun and become short flashes of light. They came, +rising and falling and growing larger, like some huge flight of gulls or +rooks or such-like birds, moving with a marvellous uniformity, and ever as +they drew nearer they spread over a greater width of sky. The southward +wing flung itself in an arrow-headed cloud athwart the sun. And then +suddenly they swept round to the eastward and streamed eastward, growing +smaller and smaller and clearer and clearer again until they vanished from +the sky. And after that we noted to the northward, and very high, +Gresham's fighting machines hanging high over Naples like an evening swarm +of gnats. + +"It seemed to have no more to do with us than a flight of birds. + +"Even the mutter of guns far away in the south-east seemed to us to +signify nothing... + +"Each day, each dream after that, we were still exalted, still seeking +that refuge where we might live and love. Fatigue had come upon us, pain +and many distresses. For though we were dusty and stained by our toilsome +tramping, and half starved, and with the horror of the dead men we had +seen and the flight of the peasants--for very soon a gust of fighting +swept up the peninsula--with these things haunting our minds it still +resulted only in a deepening resolution to escape. Oh, but she was brave +and patient! She who had never faced hardship and exposure had courage for +herself--and me. We went to and fro seeking an outlet, over a country all +commandeered and ransacked by the gathering hosts of war. Always we went +on foot. At first there were other fugitives, but we did not mingle with +them. Some escaped northward, some were caught in the torrent of peasantry +that swept along the main roads; many gave themselves into the hands of +the soldiery and were sent northward. Many of the men were impressed. But +we kept away from these things; we had brought no money to bribe a passage +north, and I feared for my lady at the hands of these conscript crowds. We +had landed at Salerno, and we had been turned back from Cava, and we had +tried to cross towards Taranto by a pass over Mount Alburno, but we had +been driven back for want of food, and so we had come down among the +marshes by Paestum, where those great temples stand alone. I had some +vague idea that by Paestum it might be possible to find a boat or +something, and take once more to sea. And there it was the battle overtook +us. + +"A sort of soul-blindness had me. Plainly I could see that we were being +hemmed in; that the great net of that giant Warfare had us in its toils. +Many times we had seen the levies that had come down from the north going +to and fro, and had come upon them in the distance amidst the mountains +making ways for the ammunition and preparing the mounting of the guns. +Once we fancied they had fired at us, taking us for spies--at any rate a +shot had gone shuddering over us. Several times we had hidden in woods +from hovering aeroplanes. + +"But all these things do not matter now, these nights of flight and +pain... We were in an open place near those great temples at Paestum, at +last, on a blank stony place dotted with spiky bushes, empty and desolate +and so flat that a grove of eucalyptus far away showed to the feet of its +stems. How I can see it! My lady was sitting down under a bush resting a +little, for she was very weak and weary, and I was standing up watching to +see if I could tell the distance of the firing that came and went. They +were still, you know, fighting far from each other, with these terrible +new weapons that had never before been used: guns that would carry beyond +sight, and aeroplanes that would do----What _they_ would do no man +could foretell. + +"I knew that we were between the two armies, and that they drew together. +I knew we were in danger, and that we could not stop there and rest! + +"Though all those things were in my mind, they were in the background. +They seemed to be affairs beyond our concern. Chiefly, I was thinking of +my lady. An aching distress filled me. For the first time she had owned +herself beaten and had fallen a-weeping. Behind me I could hear her +sobbing, but I would not turn round to her because I knew she had need of +weeping, and had held herself so far and so long for me. It was well, I +thought, that she would weep and rest, and then we would toil on again, +for I had no inkling of the thing that hung so near. Even now I can see +her as she sat there, her lovely hair upon her shoulder, can mark again +the deepening hollow of her cheek. + +"'If we had parted,' she said, 'if I had let you go--' + +"'No,' said I. 'Even now I do not repent. I will not repent; I made my +choice, and I will hold on to the end.' + +"And then-- + +"Overhead in the sky flashed something and burst, and all about us I heard +the bullets making a noise like a handful of peas suddenly thrown. They +chipped the stones about us, and whirled fragments from the bricks and +passed..." + +He put his hand to his mouth, and then moistened his lips. + +"At the flash I had turned about... + +"You know--she stood up-- + +"She stood up, you know, and moved a step towards me-- + +"As though she wanted to reach me-- + +"And she had been shot through the heart." + +He stopped and stared at me. I felt all that foolish incapacity an +Englishman feels on such occasions. I met his eyes for a moment, and then +stared out of the window. For a long space we kept silence. When at last I +looked at him he was sitting back in his corner, his arms folded and his +teeth gnawing at his knuckles. + +He bit his nail suddenly, and stared at it. + +"I carried her," he said, "towards the temples, in my arms--as though it +mattered. I don't know why. They seemed a sort of sanctuary, you know, +they had lasted so long, I suppose. + +"She must have died almost instantly. Only--I talked to her--all the way." + +Silence again. + +"I have seen those temples," I said abruptly, and indeed he had brought +those still, sunlit arcades of worn sandstone very vividly before me. + +"It was the brown one, the big brown one. I sat down on a fallen pillar +and held her in my arms... Silent after the first babble was over. And +after a little while the lizards came out and ran about again, as though +nothing unusual was going on, as though nothing had changed... It was +tremendously still there, the sun high and the shadows still; even the +shadows of the weeds upon the entablature were still--in spite of the +thudding and banging that went all about the sky. + +"I seem to remember that the aeroplanes came up out of the south, and that +the battle went away to the west. One aeroplane was struck, and overset +and fell. I remember that--though it didn't interest me in the least. It +didn't seem to signify. It was like a wounded gull, you know--flapping for +a time in the water. I could see it down the aisle of the temple--a black +thing in the bright blue water. + +"Three or four times shells burst about the beach, and then that ceased. +Each time that happened all the lizards scuttled in and hid for a space. +That was all the mischief done, except that once a stray bullet gashed the +stone hard by--made just a fresh bright surface. + +"As the shadows grew longer, the stillness seemed greater. + +"The curious thing," he remarked, with the manner of a man who makes a +trivial conversation, "is that I didn't _think_--I didn't think at +all. I sat with her in my arms amidst the stones--in a sort of lethargy-- +stagnant. + +"And I don't remember waking up. I don't remember dressing that day. I +know I found myself in my office, with my letters all slit open in front +of me, and how I was struck by the absurdity of being there, seeing that +in reality I was sitting, stunned, in that Paestum Temple with a dead +woman in my arms. I read my letters like a machine. I have forgotten what +they were about." + +He stopped, and there was a long silence. + +Suddenly I perceived that we were running down the incline from Chalk Farm +to Euston. I started at this passing of time. I turned on him with a +brutal question with the tone of "Now or never." + +"And did you dream again?" + +"Yes." + +He seemed to force himself to finish. His voice was very low. + +"Once more, and as it were only for a few instants. I seemed to have +suddenly awakened out of a great apathy, to have risen into a sitting +position, and the body lay there on the stones beside me. A gaunt body. +Not her, you know. So soon--it was not her... + +"I may have heard voices. I do not know. Only I knew clearly that men were +coming into the solitude and that that was a last outrage. + +"I stood up and walked through the temple, and then there came into +sight--first one man with a yellow face, dressed in a uniform of dirty +white, trimmed with blue, and then several, climbing to the crest of the +old wall of the vanished city, and crouching there. They were little +bright figures in the sunlight, and there they hung, weapon in hand, +peering cautiously before them. + +"And further away I saw others, and then more at another point in the +wall. It was a long lax line of men in open order. + +"Presently the man I had first seen stood up and shouted a command, and +his men came tumbling down the wall and into the high weeds towards the +temple. He scrambled down with them and led them. He came facing towards +me, and when he saw me he stopped. + +"At first I had watched these men with a mere curiosity, but when I had +seen they meant to come to the temple I was moved to forbid them. I +shouted to the officer. + +"'You must not come here,' I cried, '_I_ am here. I am here with my +dead.' + +"He stared, and then shouted a question back to me in some unknown tongue. + +"I repeated what I had said. + +"He shouted again, and I folded my arms and stood still. Presently he +spoke to his men and came forward. He carried a drawn sword. + +"I signed to him to keep away, but he continued to advance. I told him +again very patiently and clearly: 'You must not come here. These are old +temples, and I am here with my dead.' + +"Presently he was so close I could see his face clearly. It was a narrow +face, with dull grey eyes, and a black moustache. He had a scar on his +upper lip, and he was dirty and unshaven. He kept shouting unintelligible +things, questions perhaps, at me. + +"I know now that he was afraid of me, but at the time that did not occur +to me. As I tried to explain to him he interrupted me in imperious tones, +bidding me, I suppose, stand aside. + +"He made to go past me, and I caught hold of him. + +"I saw his face change at my grip. + +"'You fool,' I cried. 'Don't you know? She is dead!' + +"He started back. He looked at me with cruel eyes. + +"I saw a sort of exultant resolve leap into them--delight. Then suddenly, +with a scowl, he swept his sword back--_so_--and thrust." + +He stopped abruptly. + +I became aware of a change in the rhythm of the train. The brakes lifted +their voices and the carriage jarred and jerked. This present world +insisted upon itself, became clamorous. I saw through the steamy window +huge electric lights glaring down from tall masts upon a fog, saw rows of +stationary empty carriages passing by, and then a signal-box, hoisting its +constellation of green and red into the murky London twilight, marched +after them. I looked again at his drawn features. + +"He ran me through the heart. It was with a sort of astonishment--no fear, +no pain--but just amazement, that I felt it pierce me, felt the sword +drive home into my body. It didn't hurt, you know. It didn't hurt at all." + +The yellow platform lights came into the field of view, passing first +rapidly, then slowly, and at last stopping with a jerk. Dim shapes of men +passed to and fro without. + +"Euston!" cried a voice. + +"Do you mean--?" + +"There was no pain, no sting or smart. Amazement and then darkness +sweeping over everything. The hot, brutal face before me, the face of the +man who had killed me, seemed to recede. It swept out of existence--" + +"Euston!" clamoured the voices outside; "Euston!" + +The carriage door opened, admitting a flood of sound, and a porter stood +regarding us. The sounds of doors slamming, and the hoof-clatter of +cab-horses, and behind these things the featureless remote roar of the +London cobble-stones, came to my ears. A truck-load of lighted lamps +blazed along the platform. + +"A darkness, a flood of darkness that opened and spread and blotted out +all things." + +"Any luggage, sir?" said the porter. + +"And that was the end?" I asked. + +He seemed to hesitate. Then, almost inaudibly, he answered, "_No_." + +"You mean?" + +"I couldn't get to her. She was there on the other side of the temple-- +And then--" + +"Yes," I insisted. "Yes?" + +"Nightmares," he cried; "nightmares indeed! My God! Great birds that +fought and tore." + + + + + XXVI. + + THE VALLEY OF SPIDERS. + + +Towards mid-day the three pursuers came abruptly round a bend in the +torrent bed upon the sight of a very broad and spacious valley. The +difficult and winding trench of pebbles along which they had tracked the +fugitives for so long expanded to a broad slope, and with a common impulse +the three men left the trail, and rode to a little eminence set with +olive-dun trees, and there halted, the two others, as became them, a +little behind the man with the silver-studded bridle. + +For a space they scanned the great expanse below them with eager eyes. It +spread remoter and remoter, with only a few clusters of sere thorn bushes +here and there, and the dim suggestions of some now waterless ravine to +break its desolation of yellow grass. Its purple distances melted at last +into the bluish slopes of the further hills--hills it might be of a +greener kind--and above them, invisibly supported, and seeming indeed to +hang in the blue, were the snow-clad summits of mountains--that grew +larger and bolder to the northwestward as the sides of the valley drew +together. And westward the valley opened until a distant darkness under +the sky told where the forests began. But the three men looked neither +east nor west, but only steadfastly across the valley. + +The gaunt man with the scarred lip was the first to speak. "Nowhere," he +said, with a sigh of disappointment in his voice. "But, after all, they +had a full day's start." + +"They don't know we are after them," said the little man on the white +horse. + +"_She_ would know," said the leader bitterly, as if speaking to +himself. + +"Even then they can't go fast. They've got no beast but the mule, and all +to-day the girl's foot has been bleeding----" + +The man with the silver bridle flashed a quick intensity of rage on him. +"Do you think I haven't seen that?" he snarled. + +"It helps, anyhow," whispered the little man to himself. + +The gaunt man with the scarred lip stared impassively. "They can't be over +the valley," he said. "If we ride hard----" + +He glanced at the white horse and paused. + +"Curse all white horses!" said the man with the silver bridle, and turned +to scan the beast his curse included. + +The little man looked down between the melancholy ears of his steed. + +"I did my best," he said. + +The two others stared again across the valley for a space. The gaunt man +passed the back of his hand across the scarred lip. + +"Come up!" said the man who owned the silver bridle, suddenly. The little +man started and jerked his rein, and the horse hoofs of the three made a +multitudinous faint pattering upon the withered grass as they turned back +towards the trail... + +They rode cautiously down the long slope before them, and so came through +a waste of prickly twisted bushes and strange dry shapes of thorny +branches that grew amongst the rocks, into the levels below. And there the +trail grew faint, for the soil was scanty, and the only herbage was this +scorched dead straw that lay upon the ground. Still, by hard scanning, by +leaning beside the horses' necks and pausing ever and again, even these +white men could contrive to follow after their prey. + +There were trodden places, bent and broken blades of the coarse grass, and +ever and again the sufficient intimation of a footmark. And once the +leader saw a brown smear of blood where the half-caste girl may have trod. +And at that under his breath he cursed her for a fool. + +The gaunt man checked his leader's tracking, and the little man on the +white horse rode behind, a man lost in a dream. They rode one after +another, the man with the silver bridle led the way, and they spoke never +a word. After a time it came to the little man on the white horse that the +world was very still. He started out of his dream. Besides the little +noises of their horses and equipment, the whole great valley kept the +brooding quiet of a painted scene. + +Before him went his master and his fellow, each intently leaning forward +to the left, each impassively moving with the paces of his horse; their +shadows went before them--still, noiseless, tapering attendants; and +nearer a crouched cool shape was his own. He looked about him. What was it +had gone? Then he remembered the reverberation from the banks of the gorge +and the perpetual accompaniment of shifting, jostling pebbles. And, +moreover----? There was no breeze. That was it! What a vast, still place +it was, a monotonous afternoon slumber! And the sky open and blank except +for a sombre veil of haze that had gathered in the upper valley. + +He straightened his back, fretted with his bridle, puckered his lips to +whistle, and simply sighed. He turned in his saddle for a time, and stared +at the throat of the mountain gorge out of which they had come. Blank! +Blank slopes on either side, with never a sign of a decent beast or tree-- +much less a man. What a land it was! What a wilderness! He dropped again +into his former pose. + +It filled him with a momentary pleasure to see a wry stick of purple black +flash out into the form of a snake, and vanish amidst the brown. After +all, the infernal valley _was_ alive. And then, to rejoice him still +more, came a little breath across his face, a whisper that came and went, +the faintest inclination of a stiff black-antlered bush upon a little +crest, the first intimations of a possible breeze. Idly he wetted his +finger, and held it up. + +He pulled up sharply to avoid a collision with the gaunt man, who had +stopped at fault upon the trail. Just at that guilty moment he caught his +master's eye looking towards him. + +For a time he forced an interest in the tracking. Then, as they rode on +again, he studied his master's shadow and hat and shoulder, appearing and +disappearing behind the gaunt man's nearer contours. They had ridden four +days out of the very limits of the world into this desolate place, short +of water, with nothing but a strip of dried meat under their saddles, over +rocks and mountains, where surely none but these fugitives had ever been +before--for _that_! + +And all this was for a girl, a mere wilful child! And the man had whole +cityfuls of people to do his basest bidding--girls, women! Why in the name +of passionate folly _this_ one in particular? asked the little man, +and scowled at the world, and licked his parched lips with a blackened +tongue. It was the way of the master, and that was all he knew. Just +because she sought to evade him... + +His eye caught a whole row of high-plumed canes bending in unison, and +then the tails of silk that hung before his neck flapped and fell. The +breeze was growing stronger. Somehow it took the stiff stillness out of +things--and that was well. + +"Hullo!" said the gaunt man. + +All three stopped abruptly. + +"What?" asked the master. "What?" + +"Over there," said the gaunt man, pointing up the valley. + +"What?" + +"Something coming towards us." + +And as he spoke a yellow animal crested a rise and came bearing down upon +them. It was a big wild dog, coming before the wind, tongue out, at a +steady pace, and running with such an intensity of purpose that he did not +seem to see the horsemen he approached. He ran with his nose up, +following, it was plain, neither scent nor quarry. As he drew nearer the +little man felt for his sword. "He's mad," said the gaunt rider. + +"Shout!" said the little man, and shouted. + +The dog came on. Then when the little man's blade was already out, it +swerved aside and went panting by them and passed. The eyes of the little +man followed its flight. "There was no foam," he said. For a space the man +with the silver-studded bridle stared up the valley. "Oh, come on!" he +cried at last. "What does it matter?" and jerked his horse into movement +again. + +The little man left the insoluble mystery of a dog that fled from nothing +but the wind, and lapsed into profound musings on human character. "Come +on!" he whispered to himself. "Why should it be given to one man to say +'Come on!' with that stupendous violence of effect? Always, all his life, +the man with the silver bridle has been saying that. If _I_ said +it--!" thought the little man. But people marvelled when the master was +disobeyed even in the wildest things. This half-caste girl seemed to him, +seemed to every one, mad--blasphemous almost. The little man, by way of +comparison, reflected on the gaunt rider with the scarred lip, as stalwart +as his master, as brave and, indeed, perhaps braver, and yet for him there +was obedience, nothing but to give obedience duly and stoutly... + +Certain sensations of the hands and knees called the little man back to +more immediate things. He became aware of something. He rode up beside his +gaunt fellow. "Do you notice the horses?" he said in an undertone. + +The gaunt face looked interrogation. + +"They don't like this wind," said the little man, and dropped behind as +the man with the silver bridle turned upon him. + +"It's all right," said the gaunt-faced man. + +They rode on again for a space in silence. The foremost two rode downcast +upon the trail, the hindmost man watched the haze that crept down the +vastness of the valley, nearer and nearer, and noted how the wind grew in +strength moment by moment. Far away on the left he saw a line of dark +bulks--wild hog, perhaps, galloping down the valley, but of that he said +nothing, nor did he remark again upon the uneasiness of the horses. + +And then he saw first one and then a second great white ball, a great +shining white ball like a gigantic head of thistledown, that drove before +the wind athwart the path. These balls soared high in the air, and dropped +and rose again and caught for a moment, and hurried on and passed, but at +the sight of them the restlessness of the horses increased. + +Then presently he saw that more of these drifting globes--and then soon +very many more--were hurrying towards him down the valley. + +They became aware of a squealing. Athwart the path a huge boar rushed, +turning his head but for one instant to glance at them, and then hurling +on down the valley again. And at that all three stopped and sat in their +saddles, staring into the thickening haze that was coming upon them. + +"If it were not for this thistle-down--" began the leader. + +But now a big globe came drifting past within a score of yards of them. It +was really not an even sphere at all, but a vast, soft, ragged, filmy +thing, a sheet gathered by the corners, an aerial jelly-fish, as it were, +but rolling over and over as it advanced, and trailing long cobwebby +threads and streamers that floated in its wake. + +"It isn't thistle-down," said the little man. + +"I don't like the stuff," said the gaunt man. + +And they looked at one another. + +"Curse it!" cried the leader. "The air's full of lit up there. If it keeps +on at this pace long, it will stop us altogether." + +An instinctive feeling, such as lines out a herd of deer at the approach +of some ambiguous thing, prompted them to turn their horses to the wind, +ride forward for a few paces, and stare at that advancing multitude of +floating masses. They came on before the wind with a sort of smooth +swiftness, rising and falling noiselessly, sinking to earth, rebounding +high, soaring--all with a perfect unanimity, with a still, deliberate +assurance. + +Right and left of the horsemen the pioneers of this strange army passed. +At one that rolled along the ground, breaking shapelessly and trailing out +reluctantly into long grappling ribbons and bands, all three horses began +to shy and dance. The master was seized with a sudden, unreasonable +impatience. He cursed the drifting globes roundly. "Get on!" he cried; +"get on! What do these things matter? How _can_ they matter? Back to +the trail!" He fell swearing at his horse and sawed the bit across its +mouth. + +He shouted aloud with rage. "I will follow that trail, I tell you," he +cried. "Where is the trail?" + +He gripped the bridle of his prancing horse and searched amidst the grass. +A long and clinging thread fell across his face, a grey streamer dropped +about his bridle arm, some big, active thing with many legs ran down the +back of his head. He looked up to discover one of those grey masses +anchored as it were above him by these things and flapping out ends as a +sail flaps when a boat comes about--but noiselessly. + +He had an impression of many eyes, of a dense crew of squat bodies, of +long, many-jointed limbs hauling at their mooring ropes to bring the thing +down upon him. For a space he stared up, reining in his prancing horse +with the instinct born of years of horsemanship. Then the flat of a sword +smote his back, and a blade flashed overhead and cut the drifting balloon +of spider-web free, and the whole mass lifted softly and drove clear and +away. + +"Spiders!" cried the voice of the gaunt man. "The things are full of big +spiders! Look, my lord!" + +The man with the silver bridle still followed the mass that drove away. + +"Look, my lord!" + +The master found himself staring down at a red smashed thing on the ground +that, in spite of partial obliteration, could still wriggle unavailing +legs. Then, when the gaunt man pointed to another mass that bore down upon +them, he drew his sword hastily. Up the valley now it was like a fog bank +torn to rags. He tried to grasp the situation. + +"Ride for it!" the little man was shouting. "Ride for it down the valley." + +What happened then was like the confusion of a battle. The man with the +silver bridle saw the little man go past him, slashing furiously at +imaginary cobwebs, saw him cannon into the horse of the gaunt man and hurl +it and its rider to earth. His own horse went a dozen paces before he +could rein it in. Then he looked up to avoid imaginary dangers, and then +back again to see a horse rolling on the ground, the gaunt man standing +and slashing over it at a rent and fluttering mass of grey that streamed +and wrapped about them both. And thick and fast as thistle-down on waste +land on a windy day in July the cobweb masses were coming on. + +The little man had dismounted, but he dared not release his horse. He was +endeavouring to lug the struggling brute back with the strength of one +arm, while with the other he slashed aimlessly. The tentacles of a second +grey mass had entangled themselves with the struggle, and this second grey +mass came to its moorings, and slowly sank. + +The master set his teeth, gripped his bridle, lowered his head, and +spurred his horse forward. The horse on the ground rolled over, there was +blood and moving shapes upon the flanks, and the gaunt man suddenly +leaving it, ran forward towards his master, perhaps ten paces. His legs +were swathed and encumbered with grey; he made ineffectual movements with +his sword. Grey streamers waved from him; there was a thin veil of grey +across his face. With his left hand he beat at something on his body, and +suddenly he stumbled and fell. He struggled to rise, and fell again, and +suddenly, horribly, began to howl, "Oh--ohoo, ohooh!" + +The master could see the great spiders upon him, and others upon the +ground. + +As he strove to force his horse nearer to this gesticulating, screaming +grey object that struggled up and down, there came a clatter of hoofs, and +the little man, in act of mounting, swordless, balanced on his belly +athwart the white horse, and clutching its mane, whirled past. And again a +clinging thread of grey gossamer swept across the master's face. All about +him, and over him, it seemed this drifting, noiseless cobweb circled and +drew nearer him... + +To the day of his death he never knew just how the event of that moment +happened. Did he, indeed, turn his horse, or did it really of its own +accord stampede after its fellow? Suffice it that in another second he was +galloping full tilt down the valley with his sword whirling furiously +overhead. And all about him on the quickening breeze, the spiders' +air-ships, their air bundles and air sheets, seemed to him to hurry in a +conscious pursuit. + +Clatter, clatter, thud, thud,--the man with the silver bridle rode, +heedless of his direction, with his fearful face looking up now right, now +left, and his sword arm ready to slash. And a few hundred yards ahead of +him, with a tail of torn cobweb trailing behind him, rode the little man +on the white horse, still but imperfectly in the saddle. The reeds bent +before them, the wind blew fresh and strong, over his shoulder the master +could see the webs hurrying to overtake... + +He was so intent to escape the spiders' webs that only as his horse +gathered together for a leap did he realise the ravine ahead. And then he +realised it only to misunderstand and interfere. He was leaning forward on +his horse's neck and sat up and back all too late. + +But if in his excitement he had failed to leap, at any rate he had not +forgotten how to fall. He was horseman again in mid-air. He came off clear +with a mere bruise upon his shoulder, and his horse rolled, kicking +spasmodic legs, and lay still. But the master's sword drove its point into +the hard soil, and snapped clean across, as though Chance refused him any +longer as her Knight, and the splintered end missed his face by an inch or +so. + +He was on his feet in a moment, breathlessly scanning the on-rushing +spider-webs. For a moment he was minded to run, and then thought of the +ravine, and turned back. He ran aside once to dodge one drifting terror, +and then he was swiftly clambering down the precipitous sides, and out of +the touch of the gale. + +There, under the lee of the dry torrent's steeper banks, he might crouch +and watch these strange, grey masses pass and pass in safety till the wind +fell, and it became possible to escape. And there for a long time he +crouched, watching the strange, grey, ragged masses trail their streamers +across his narrowed sky. + +Once a stray spider fell into the ravine close beside him--a full foot it +measured from leg to leg and its body was half a man's hand--and after he +had watched its monstrous alacrity of search and escape for a little while +and tempted it to bite his broken sword, he lifted up his iron-heeled boot +and smashed it into a pulp. He swore as he did so, and for a time sought +up and down for another. + +Then presently, when he was surer these spider swarms could not drop into +the ravine, he found a place where he could sit down, and sat and fell +into deep thought and began, after his manner, to gnaw his knuckles and +bite his nails. And from this he was moved by the coming of the man with +the white horse. + +He heard him long before he saw him, as a clattering of hoofs, stumbling +footsteps, and a reassuring voice. Then the little man appeared, a rueful +figure, still with a tail of white cobweb trailing behind him. They +approached each other without speaking, without a salutation. The little +man was fatigued and shamed to the pitch of hopeless bitterness, and came +to a stop at last, face to face with his seated master. The latter winced +a little under his dependent's eye. "Well?" he said at last, with no +pretence of authority. + +"You left him?" + +"My horse bolted." + +"I know. So did mine." + +He laughed at his master mirthlessly. + +"I say my horse bolted," said the man who once had a silver-studded +bridle. + +"Cowards both," said the little man. + +The other gnawed his knuckle through some meditative moments, with his eye +on his inferior. + +"Don't call me a coward," he said at length. + +"You are a coward, like myself." + +"A coward possibly. There is a limit beyond which every man must fear. +That I have learnt at last. But not like yourself. That is where the +difference comes in." + +"I never could have dreamt you would have left him. He saved your life two +minutes before... Why are you our lord?" + +The master gnawed his knuckles again, and his countenance was dark. + +"No man calls me a coward," he said. "No ... A broken sword is better +than none ... One spavined white horse cannot be expected to carry two +men a four days' journey. I hate white horses, but this time it cannot be +helped. You begin to understand me? I perceive that you are minded, on the +strength of what you have seen and fancy, to taint my reputation. It is +men of your sort who unmake kings. Besides which--I never liked you." + +"My lord!" said the little man. + +"No," said the master. "_No!_" + +He stood up sharply as the little man moved. For a minute perhaps they +faced one another. Overhead the spiders' balls went driving. There was a +quick movement among the pebbles; a running of feet, a cry of despair, a +gasp and a blow... + +Towards nightfall the wind fell. The sun set in a calm serenity, and the +man who had once possessed the silver bridle came at last very cautiously +and by an easy slope out of the ravine again; but now he led the white +horse that once belonged to the little man. He would have gone back to his +horse to get his silver-mounted bridle again, but he feared night and a +quickening breeze might still find him in the valley, and besides, he +disliked greatly to think he might discover his horse all swathed in +cobwebs and perhaps unpleasantly eaten. + +And as he thought of those cobwebs, and of all the dangers he had been +through, and the manner in which he had been preserved that day, his hand +sought a little reliquary that hung about his neck, and he clasped it for +a moment with heartfelt gratitude. As he did so his eyes went across the +valley. + +"I was hot with passion," he said, "and now she has met her reward. They +also, no doubt--" + +And behold! far away out of the wooded slopes across the valley, but in +the clearness of the sunset, distinct and unmistakable, he saw a little +spire of smoke. + +At that his expression of serene resignation changed to an amazed anger. +Smoke? He turned the head of the white horse about, and hesitated. And as +he did so a little rustle of air went through the grass about him. Far +away upon some reeds swayed a tattered sheet of grey. He looked at the +cobwebs; he looked at the smoke. + +"Perhaps, after all, it is not them," he said at last. + +But he knew better. + +After he had stared at the smoke for some time, he mounted the white +horse. + +As he rode, he picked his way amidst stranded masses of web. For some +reason there were many dead spiders on the ground, and those that lived +feasted guiltily on their fellows. At the sound of his horse's hoofs they +fled. + +Their time had passed. From the ground, without either a wind to carry +them or a winding-sheet ready, these things, for all their poison, could +do him little evil. + +He flicked with his belt at those he fancied came too near. Once, where a +number ran together over a bare place, he was minded to dismount and +trample them with his boots, but this impulse he overcame. Ever and again +he turned in his saddle, and looked back at the smoke. + +"Spiders," he muttered over and over again. "Spiders. Well, well... The +next time I must spin a web." + + + + + XXVII. + + THE NEW ACCELERATOR. + + +Certainly, if ever a man found a guinea when he was looking for a pin, it +is my good friend Professor Gibberne. I have heard before of investigators +overshooting the mark, but never quite to the extent that he has done. He +has really, this time at any rate, without any touch of exaggeration in the +phrase, found something to revolutionise human life. And that when he was +simply seeking an all-round nervous stimulant to bring languid people up +to the stresses of these pushful days. I have tasted the stuff now several +times, and I cannot do better than describe the effect the thing had on +me. That there are astonishing experiences in store for all in search of +new sensations will become apparent enough. + +Professor Gibberne, as many people know, is my neighbour in Folkestone. +Unless my memory plays me a trick, his portrait at various ages has +already appeared in _The Strand Magazine_--think late in 1899 but I +am unable to look it up because I have lent that volume to someone who has +never sent it back. The reader may, perhaps, recall the high forehead and +the singularly long black eyebrows that give such a Mephistophelean touch +to his face. He occupies one of those pleasant little detached houses in +the mixed style that make the western end of the Upper Sandgate Road so +interesting. His is the one with the Flemish gables and the Moorish +portico, and it is in the little room with the mullioned bay window that +he works when he is down here, and in which of an evening we have so often +smoked and talked together. He is a mighty jester, but, besides, he likes +to talk to me about his work; he is one of those men who find a help and +stimulus in talking, and so I have been able to follow the conception of +the New Accelerator right up from a very early stage. Of course, the +greater portion of his experimental work is not done in Folkestone, but in +Gower Street, in the fine new laboratory next to the hospital that he has +been the first to use. + +As every one knows, or at least as all intelligent people know, the +special department in which Gibberne has gained so great and deserved a +reputation among physiologists is the action of drugs upon the nervous +system. Upon soporifics, sedatives, and anaesthetics he is, I am told, +unequalled. He is also a chemist of considerable eminence, and I suppose +in the subtle and complex jungle of riddles that centres about the +ganglion cell and the axis fibre there are little cleared places of his +making, little glades of illumination, that, until he sees fit to publish +his results, are still inaccessible to every other living man. And in the +last few years he has been particularly assiduous upon this question of +nervous stimulants, and already, before the discovery of the New +Accelerator, very successful with them. Medical science has to thank him +for at least three distinct and absolutely safe invigorators of unrivalled +value to practising men. In cases of exhaustion the preparation known as +Gibberne's B Syrup has, I suppose, saved more lives already than any +lifeboat round the coast. + +"But none of these little things begin to satisfy me yet," he told me +nearly a year ago. "Either they increase the central energy without +affecting the nerves, or they simply increase the available energy by +lowering the nervous conductivity; and all of them are unequal and local +in their operation. One wakes up the heart and viscera and leaves the +brain stupefied, one gets at the brain champagne fashion, and does nothing +good for the solar plexus, and what I want--and what, if it's an earthly +possibility, I mean to have--is a stimulant that stimulates all round, +that wakes you up for a time from the crown of your head to the tip of +your great toe, and makes you go two--or even three--to everybody else's +one. Eh? That's the thing I'm after." + +"It would tire a man," I said. + +"Not a doubt of it. And you'd eat double or treble--and all that. But just +think what the thing would mean. Imagine yourself with a little phial like +this"--he held up a little bottle of green glass and marked his points +with it--"and in this precious phial is the power to think twice as fast, +move twice as quickly, do twice as much work in a given time as you could +otherwise do." + +"But is such a thing possible?" + +"I believe so. If it isn't, I've wasted my time for a year. These various +preparations of the hypophosphites, for example, seem to show that +something of the sort... Even if it was only one and a half times as fast +it would do." + +"It _would_ do," I said. + +"If you were a statesman in a corner, for example, time rushing up against +you, something urgent to be done, eh?" + +"He could dose his private secretary," I said. + +"And gain--double time. And think if _you_, for example, wanted to +finish a book." + +"Usually," I said, "I wish I'd never begun 'em." + +"Or a doctor, driven to death, wants to sit down and think out a case. Or +a barrister--or a man cramming for an examination." + +"Worth a guinea a drop," said I, "and more--to men like that." + +"And in a duel, again," said Gibberne, "where it all depends on your +quickness in pulling the trigger." + +"Or in fencing," I echoed. + +"You see," said Gibberne, "if I get it as an all-round thing, it will +really do you no harm at all--except perhaps to an infinitesimal degree it +brings you nearer old age. You will just have lived twice to other +people's once--" + +"I suppose," I meditated, "in a duel--it would be fair?" + +"That's a question for the seconds," said Gibberne. + +I harked back further. "And you really think such a thing _is_ +possible?" I said. + +"As possible," said Gibberne, and glanced at something that went throbbing +by the window, "as a motor-bus. As a matter of fact--" + +He paused and smiled at me deeply, and tapped slowly on the edge of his +desk with the green phial. "I think I know the stuff... Already I've got +something coming." The nervous smile upon his face betrayed the gravity of +his revelation. He rarely talked of his actual experimental work unless +things were very near the end. "And it may be, it may be--I shouldn't be +surprised--it may even do the thing at a greater rate than twice." + +"It will be rather a big thing," I hazarded. + +"It will be, I think, rather a big thing." + +But I don't think he quite knew what a big thing it was to be, for all +that. + +I remember we had several talks about the stuff after that. "The New +Accelerator" he called it, and his tone about it grew more confident on +each occasion. Sometimes he talked nervously of unexpected physiological +results its use might have, and then he would get a little unhappy; at +others he was frankly mercenary, and we debated long and anxiously how the +preparation might be turned to commercial account. "It's a good thing," +said Gibberne, "a tremendous thing. I know I'm giving the world something, +and I think it only reasonable we should expect the world to pay. The +dignity of science is all very well, but I think somehow I must have the +monopoly of the stuff for, say, ten years. I don't see why _all_ the +fun in life should go to the dealers in ham." + +My own interest in the coming drug certainly did not wane in the time. I +have always had a queer little twist towards metaphysics in my mind. I +have always been given to paradoxes about space and time, and it seemed to +me that Gibberne was really preparing no less than the absolute +acceleration of life. Suppose a man repeatedly dosed with such a +preparation: he would live an active and record life indeed, but he would +be an adult at eleven, middle-aged at twenty-five, and by thirty well on +the road to senile decay. It seemed to me that so far Gibberne was only +going to do for any one who took his drug exactly what Nature has done for +the Jews and Orientals, who are men in their teens and aged by fifty, and +quicker in thought and act than we are all the time. The marvel of drugs +has always been great to my mind; you can madden a man, calm a man, make +him incredibly strong and alert or a helpless log, quicken this passion +and allay that, all by means of drugs, and here was a new miracle to be +added to this strange armoury of phials the doctors use! But Gibberne was +far too eager upon his technical points to enter very keenly into my +aspect of the question. + +It was the 7th or 8th of August when he told me the distillation that +would decide his failure or success for a time was going forward as we +talked, and it was on the 10th that he told me the thing was done and the +New Accelerator a tangible reality in the world. I met him as I was going +up the Sandgate Hill towards Folkestone--I think I was going to get my +hair cut, and he came hurrying down to meet me--I suppose he was coming to +my house to tell me at once of his success. I remember that his eyes were +unusually bright and his face flushed, and I noted even then the swift +alacrity of his step. + +"It's done," he cried, and gripped my hand, speaking very fast; "it's more +than done. Come up to my house and see." + +"Really?" + +"Really!" he shouted. "Incredibly! Come up and see." + +"And it does--twice?" + +"It does more, much more. It scares me. Come up and see the stuff. Taste +it! Try it! It's the most amazing stuff on earth." He gripped my arm and; +walking at such a pace that he forced me into a trot, went shouting with +me up the hill. A whole _char-à-banc_-ful of people turned and stared +at us in unison after the manner of people in _chars-à-banc_. It was +one of those hot, clear days that Folkestone sees so much of, every colour +incredibly bright and every outline hard. There was a breeze, of course, +but not so much breeze as sufficed under these conditions to keep me cool +and dry. I panted for mercy. + +"I'm not walking fast, am I?" cried Gibberne, and slackened his pace to a +quick march. + +"You've been taking some of this stuff," I puffed. + +"No," he said. "At the utmost a drop of water that stood in a beaker from +which I had washed out the last traces of the stuff. I took some last +night, you know. But that is ancient history now." + +"And it goes twice?" I said, nearing his doorway in a grateful +perspiration. + +"It goes a thousand times, many thousand times!" cried Gibberne, with a +dramatic gesture, flinging open his Early English carved oak gate. + +"Phew!" said I, and followed him to the door. + +"I don't know how many times it goes," he said, with his latch-key in his +hand. + +"And you----" + +"It throws all sorts of light on nervous physiology, it kicks the theory +of vision into a perfectly new shape! ... Heaven knows how many thousand +times. We'll try all that after----The thing is to try the stuff now." + +"Try the stuff?" I said, as we went along the passage. + +"Rather," said Gibberne, turning on me in his study. "There it is in that +little green phial there! Unless you happen to be afraid?" + +I am a careful man by nature, and only theoretically adventurous. I +_was_ afraid. But on the other hand, there is pride. + +"Well," I haggled. "You say you've tried it?" + +"I've tried it," he said, "and I don't look hurt by it, do I? I don't even +look livery, and I _feel_----" + +I sat down. "Give me the potion," I said. "If the worst comes to the +worst it will save having my hair cut, and that, I think, is one of the +most hateful duties of a civilised man. How do you take the mixture?" + +"With water," said Gibberne, whacking down a carafe. + +He stood up in front of his desk and regarded me in his easy-chair; his +manner was suddenly affected by a touch of the Harley Street specialist. +"It's rum stuff, you know," he said. + +I made a gesture with my hand. + +"I must warn you, in the first place, as soon as you've got it down to +shut your eyes, and open them very cautiously in a minute or so's time. +One still sees. The sense of vision is a question of length of vibration, +and not of multitude of impacts; but there's a kind of shock to the +retina, a nasty giddy confusion just at the time if the eyes are open. +Keep 'em shut." + +"Shut," I said. "Good!" + +"And the next thing is, keep still. Don't begin to whack about. You may +fetch something a nasty rap if you do. Remember you will be going several +thousand times faster than you ever did before, heart, lungs, muscles, +brain--everything--and you will hit hard without knowing it. You won't +know it, you know. You'll feel just as you do now. Only everything in the +world will seem to be going ever so many thousand times slower than it +ever went before. That's what makes it so deuced queer." + +"Lor," I said. "And you mean----" + +"You'll see," said he, and took up a little measure. He glanced at the +material on his desk. "Glasses," he said, "water. All here. Mustn't take +too much for the first attempt." + +The little phial glucked out its precious contents. "Don't forget what I +told you," he said, turning the contents of the measure into a glass in +the manner of an Italian waiter measuring whisky. "Sit with the eyes +tightly shut and in absolute stillness for two minutes," he said. "Then +you will hear me speak." + +He added an inch or so of water to the little dose in each glass. + +"By-the-by," he said, "don't put your glass down. Keep it in your hand and +rest your hand on your knee. Yes--so. And now----" + +He raised his glass. + +"The New Accelerator," I said. + +"The New Accelerator," he answered, and we touched glasses and drank, and +instantly I closed my eyes. + +You know that blank non-existence into which one drops when one has taken +"gas." For an indefinite interval it was like that. Then I heard Gibberne +telling me to wake up, and I stirred and opened my eyes. There he stood as +he had been standing, glass still in hand. It was empty, that was all the +difference. + +"Well?" said I. + +"Nothing out of the way?" + +"Nothing. A slight feeling of exhilaration, perhaps. Nothing more." + +"Sounds?" + +"Things are still," I said. "By Jove! yes! They _are_ still. Except +the sort of faint pat, patter, like rain falling on different things. What +is it?" + +"Analysed sounds," I think he said, but I am not sure. He glanced at the +window. "Have you ever seen a curtain before a window fixed in that way +before?" + +I followed his eyes, and there was the end of the curtain, frozen, as it +were, corner high, in the act of flapping briskly in the breeze. + +"No," said I; "that's odd." + +"And here," he said, and opened the hand that held the glass. Naturally I +winced, expecting the glass to smash. But so far from smashing, it did not +even seem to stir; it hung in mid-air--motionless. "Roughly speaking," +said Gibberne, "an object in these latitudes falls 16 feet in the first +second. This glass is falling 16 feet in a second now. Only, you see, it +hasn't been falling yet for the hundredth part of a second. That gives you +some idea of the pace of my Accelerator." + +And he waved his hand round and round, over and under the slowly sinking +glass. Finally he took it by the bottom, pulled it down and placed it very +carefully on the table. "Eh?" he said to me, and laughed. + +"That seems all right," I said, and began very gingerly to raise myself +from my chair. I felt perfectly well, very light and comfortable, and +quite confident in my mind. I was going fast all over. My heart, for +example, was beating a thousand times a second, but that caused me no +discomfort at all. I looked out of the window. An immovable cyclist, head +down and with a frozen puff of dust behind his driving-wheel, scorched to +overtake a galloping _char-à-banc_ that did not stir. I gaped in +amazement at this incredible spectacle. "Gibberne," I cried, "how long +will this confounded stuff last?" + +"Heaven knows!" he answered. "Last time I took it I went to bed and slept +it off. I tell you, I was frightened. It must have lasted some minutes, I +think--it seemed like hours. But after a bit it slows down rather +suddenly, I believe." + +I was proud to observe that I did not feel frightened--I suppose because +there were two of us. "Why shouldn't we go out?" I asked. + +"Why not?" + +"They'll see us." + +"Not they. Goodness, no! Why, we shall be going a thousand times faster +than the quickest conjuring trick that was ever done. Come along! Which +way shall we go? Window, or door?" + +And out by the window we went. + +Assuredly of all the strange experiences that I have ever had, or +imagined, or read of other people having or imagining, that little raid I +made with Gibberne on the Folkestone Leas, under the influence of the New +Accelerator, was the strangest and maddest of all. We went out by his gate +into the road, and there we made a minute examination of the statuesque +passing traffic. The tops of the wheels and some of the legs of the horses +of this _char-à-banc,_ the end of the whip-lash and the lower jaw of +the conductor--who was just beginning to yawn--were perceptibly in motion, +but all the rest of the lumbering conveyance seemed still. And quite +noiseless except for a faint rattling that came from one man's throat. And +as parts of this frozen edifice there were a driver, you know, and a +conductor, and eleven people! The effect as we walked about the thing +began by being madly queer and ended by being--disagreeable. There they +were, people like ourselves and yet not like ourselves, frozen in careless +attitudes, caught in mid-gesture. A girl and a man smiled at one another, +a leering smile that threatened to last for evermore; a woman in a floppy +capelline rested her arm on the rail and stared at Gibberne's house with +the unwinking stare of eternity; a man stroked his moustache like a figure +of wax, and another stretched a tiresome stiff hand with extended fingers +towards his loosened hat. We stared at them, we laughed at them, we made +faces at them, and then a sort of disgust of them came upon us, and we +turned away and walked round in front of the cyclist towards the Leas. + +"Goodness!" cried Gibberne, suddenly; "look there!" + +He pointed, and there at the tip of his finger and sliding down the air +with wings flapping slowly and at the speed of an exceptionally languid +snail--was a bee. + +And so we came out upon the Leas. There the thing seemed madder than ever. +The band was playing in the upper stand, though all the sound it made for +us was a low-pitched, wheezy rattle, a sort of prolonged last sigh that +passed at times into a sound like the slow, muffled ticking of some +monstrous clock. Frozen people stood erect, strange, silent, +self-conscious-looking dummies hung unstably in mid-stride, promenading +upon the grass. I passed close to a little poodle dog suspended in the act +of leaping, and watched the slow movement of his legs as he sank to earth. +"Lord, look _here_!" cried Gibberne, and we halted for a moment +before a magnificent person in white faint--striped flannels, white shoes, +and a Panama hat, who turned back to wink at two gaily dressed ladies he +had passed. A wink, studied with such leisurely deliberation as we could +afford, is an unattractive thing. It loses any quality of alert gaiety, +and one remarks that the winking eye does not completely close, that under +its drooping lid appears the lower edge of an eyeball and a little line of +white. "Heaven give me memory," said I, "and I will never wink again." + +"Or smile," said Gibberne, with his eye on the lady's answering teeth. + +"It's infernally hot, somehow," said I, "Let's go slower." + +"Oh, come along!" said Gibberne. + +We picked our way among the bath-chairs in the path. Many of the people +sitting in the chairs seemed almost natural in their passive poses, but +the contorted scarlet of the bandsmen was not a restful thing to see. A +purple-faced little gentleman was frozen in the midst of a violent +struggle to refold his newspaper against the wind; there were many +evidences that all these people in their sluggish way were exposed to a +considerable breeze, a breeze that had no existence so far as our +sensations went. We came out and walked a little way from the crowd, and +turned and regarded it. To see all that multitude changed to a picture, +smitten rigid, as it were, into the semblance of realistic wax, was +impossibly wonderful. It was absurd, of course; but it filled me with an +irrational, an exultant sense of superior advantage. Consider the wonder +of it! All that I had said, and thought, and done since the stuff had +begun to work in my veins had happened, so far as those people, so far as +the world in general went, in the twinkling of an eye. "The New +Accelerator----" I began, but Gibberne interrupted me. + +"There's that infernal old woman!" he said. + +"What old woman?" + +"Lives next door to me," said Gibberne. "Has a lapdog that yaps. Gods! The +temptation is strong!" + +There is something very boyish and impulsive about Gibberne at times. +Before I could expostulate with him he had dashed forward, snatched the +unfortunate animal out of visible existence, and was running violently +with it towards the cliff of the Leas. It was most extraordinary. The +little brute, you know, didn't bark or wriggle or make the slightest sign +of vitality. It kept quite stiffly in an attitude of somnolent repose, and +Gibberne held it by the neck. It was like running about with a dog of +wood. "Gibberne," I cried, "put it down!" Then I said something else. "If +you run like that, Gibberne," I cried, "you'll set your clothes on fire. +Your linen trousers are going brown as it is!" + +He clapped his hand on his thigh and stood hesitating on the verge. +"Gibberne," I cried, coming up, "put it down. This heat is too much! It's +our running so! Two or three miles a second! Friction of the air!" + +"What?" he said, glancing at the dog. + +"Friction of the air," I shouted. "Friction of the air. Going too fast. +Like meteorites and things. Too hot. And, Gibberne! Gibberne! I'm all over +pricking and a sort of perspiration. You can see people stirring slightly. +I believe the stuff's working off! Put that dog down." + +"Eh?" he said. + +"It's working off," I repeated. "We're too hot and the stuff's working +off! I'm wet through." + +He stared at me, then at the band, the wheezy rattle of whose performance +was certainly going faster. Then with a tremendous sweep of the arm he +hurled the dog away from him and it went spinning upward, still inanimate, +and hung at last over the grouped parasols of a knot of chattering people. +Gibberne was gripping my elbow. "By Jove!" he cried, "I believe it +is! A sort of hot pricking and--yes. That man's moving his +pocket-handkerchief! Perceptibly. We must get out of this sharp." + +But we could not get out of it sharply enough. Luckily, perhaps! For we +might have run, and if we had run we should, I believe, have burst into +flames. Almost certainly we should have burst into flames! You know we had +neither of us thought of that... But before we could even begin to run +the action of the drug had ceased. It was the business of a minute +fraction of a second. The effect of the New Accelerator passed like the +drawing of a curtain, vanished in the movement of a hand. I heard +Gibberne's voice in infinite alarm. "Sit down," he said, and flop, down +upon the turf at the edge of the Leas I sat--scorching as I sat. There is +a patch of burnt grass there still where I sat down. The whole stagnation +seemed to wake up as I did so, the disarticulated vibration of the band +rushed together into a blast of music, the promenaders put their feet down +and walked their ways, the papers and flags began flapping, smiles passed +into words, the winker finished his wink and went on his way complacently, +and all the seated people moved and spoke. + +The whole world had come alive again, was going as fast as we were, or +rather we were going no faster than the rest of the world. It was like +slowing down as one comes into a railway station. Everything seemed to +spin round for a second or two, I had the most transient feeling of +nausea, and that was all. And the little dog, which had seemed to hang for +a moment when the force of Gibberne's arm was expended, fell with a swift +acceleration clean through a lady's parasol! + +That was the saving of us. Unless it was for one corpulent old gentleman +in a bath-chair, who certainly did start at the sight of us, and +afterwards regarded us at intervals with a darkly suspicious eye, and, +finally, I believe, said something to his nurse about us, I doubt if a +solitary person remarked our sudden appearance among them. Plop! We must +have appeared abruptly. We ceased to smoulder almost at once, though the +turf beneath me was uncomfortably hot. The attention of every one-- +including even the Amusements' Association band, which on this occasion, +for the only time in its history, got out of tune--was arrested by the +amazing fact, and the still more amazing yapping and uproar caused by the +fact, that a respectable, over-fed lapdog sleeping quietly to the east of +the bandstand should suddenly fall through the parasol of a lady on the +west--in a slightly singed condition due to the extreme velocity of its +movements through the air. In these absurd days, too, when we are all +trying to be as psychic, and silly, and superstitious as possible! People +got up and trod on other people, chairs were overturned, the Leas +policeman ran. How the matter settled itself I do not know--we were much +too anxious to disentangle ourselves from the affair and get out of range +of the eye of the old gentleman in the bath-chair to make minute +inquiries. As soon as we were sufficiently cool and sufficiently recovered +from our giddiness and nausea and confusion of mind to do so we stood up, +and skirting the crowd, directed our steps back along the road below the +Metropole towards Gibberne's house. But amidst the din I heard very +distinctly the gentleman who had been sitting beside the lady of the +ruptured sunshade using quite unjustifiable threats and language to one of +those chair-attendants who have "Inspector" written on their caps: "If you +didn't throw the dog," he said, "who _did_?" + +The sudden return of movement and familiar noises, and our natural anxiety +about ourselves (our clothes were still dreadfully hot, and the fronts of +the thighs of Gibberne's white trousers were scorched a drabbish brown), +prevented the minute observations I should have liked to make on all these +things. Indeed, I really made no observations of any scientific value on +that return. The bee, of course, had gone. I looked for that cyclist, but +he was already out of sight as we came into the Upper Sandgate Road or +hidden from us by traffic; the _char-à-banc_, however, with its +people now all alive and stirring, was clattering along at a spanking pace +almost abreast of the nearer church. + +We noted, however, that the window-sill on which we had stepped in getting +out of the house was slightly singed, and that the impressions of our feet +on the gravel of the path were unusually deep. + +So it was I had my first experience of the New Accelerator. Practically we +had been running about and saying and doing all sorts of things in the +space of a second or so of time. We had lived half an hour while the band +had played, perhaps, two bars. But the effect it had upon us was that the +whole world had stopped for our convenient inspection. Considering all +things, and particularly considering our rashness in venturing out of the +house, the experience might certainly have been much more disagreeable +than it was. It showed, no doubt, that Gibberne has still much to learn +before his preparation is a manageable convenience, but its practicability +it certainly demonstrated beyond all cavil. + +Since that adventure he has been steadily bringing its use under control, +and I have several times, and without the slightest bad result, taken +measured doses under his direction; though I must confess I have not yet +ventured abroad again while under its influence. I may mention, for +example, that this story has been written at one sitting and without +interruption, except for the nibbling of some chocolate, by its means. I +began at 6.25, and my watch is now very nearly at the minute past the +half-hour. The convenience of securing a long, uninterrupted spell of work +in the midst of a day full of engagements cannot be exaggerated. Gibberne +is now working at the quantitative handling of his preparation, with +especial reference to its distinctive effects upon different types of +constitution. He then hopes to find a Retarder, with which to dilute its +present rather excessive potency. The Retarder will, of course, have the +reverse effect to the Accelerator; used alone it should enable the patient +to spread a few seconds over many hours of ordinary time, and so to +maintain an apathetic inaction, a glacier-like absence of alacrity, amidst +the most animated or irritating surroundings. The two things together must +necessarily work an entire revolution in civilised existence. It is the +beginning of our escape from that Time Garment of which Carlyle speaks. +While this Accelerator will enable us to concentrate ourselves with +tremendous impact upon any moment or occasion that demands our utmost +sense and vigour, the Retarder will enable us to pass in passive +tranquillity through infinite hardship and tedium. Perhaps I am a little +optimistic about the Retarder, which has indeed still to be discovered, +but about the Accelerator there is no possible sort of doubt whatever. Its +appearance upon the market in a convenient, controllable, and assimilable +form is a matter of the next few months. It will be obtainable of all +chemists and druggists, in small green bottles, at a high but, considering +its extraordinary qualities, by no means excessive price. Gibberne's +Nervous Accelerator it will be called, and he hopes to be able to supply +it in three strengths: one in 200, one in 900, and one in 2000, +distinguished by yellow, pink, and white labels respectively. + +No doubt its use renders a great number of very extraordinary things +possible; for, of course, the most remarkable and, possibly, even criminal +proceedings may be effected with impunity by thus dodging, as it were, +into the interstices of time. Like all potent preparations, it will be +liable to abuse. We have, however, discussed this aspect of the question +very thoroughly, and we have decided that this is purely a matter of +medical jurisprudence and altogether outside our province. We shall +manufacture and sell the Accelerator, and as for the consequences--we +shall see. + + + + + XXVIII. + + THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT. + + +He sits not a dozen yards away. If I glance over my shoulder I can see +him. And if I catch his eye--and usually I catch his eye--it meets me with +an expression---- + +It is mainly an imploring look--and yet with suspicion in it. + +Confound his suspicion! If I wanted to tell on him I should have told long +ago. I don't tell and I don't tell, and he ought to feel at his ease. As +if anything so gross and fat as he could feel at ease! Who would believe +me if I did tell? + +Poor old Pyecraft! Great, uneasy jelly of substance! The fattest clubman +in London. + +He sits at one of the little club tables in the huge bay by the fire, +stuffing. What is he stuffing? I glance judiciously, and catch him biting +at a round of hot buttered teacake, with his eyes on me. Confound him! +--with his eyes on me! + +That settles it, Pyecraft! Since you _will_ be abject, since you +_will_ behave as though I was not a man of honour, here, right under +your embedded eyes, I write the thing down--the plain truth about +Pyecraft. The man I helped, the man I shielded, and who has requited me by +making my club unendurable, absolutely unendurable, with his liquid +appeal, with the perpetual "don't tell" of his looks. + +And, besides, why does he keep on eternally eating? + +Well, here goes for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! + +Pyecraft----. I made the acquaintance of Pyecraft in this very +smoking-room. I was a young, nervous new member, and he saw it. I was +sitting all alone, wishing I knew more of the members, and suddenly he +came, a great rolling front of chins and abdomina, towards me, and +grunted and sat down in a chair close by me and wheezed for a space, and +scraped for a space with a match and lit a cigar, and then addressed me. +I forget what he said--something about the matches not lighting properly, +and afterwards as he talked he kept stopping the waiters one by one as +they went by, and telling them about the matches in that thin, fluty +voice he has. But, anyhow, it was in some such way we began our talking. + +He talked about various things and came round to games. And thence to my +figure and complexion. "_You_ ought to be a good cricketer," he said. +I suppose I am slender, slender to what some people would call lean, and I +suppose I am rather dark, still----I am not ashamed of having a Hindu +great-grandmother, but, for all that, I don't want casual strangers to see +through me at a glance to _her_. So that I was set against Pyecraft +from the beginning. + +But he only talked about me in order to get to himself. + +"I expect," he said, "you take no more exercise than I do, and probably +you eat no less." (Like all excessively obese people he fancied he ate +nothing.) "Yet"--and he smiled an oblique smile--"we differ." + +And then he began to talk about his fatness and his fatness; all he did +for his fatness and all he was going to do for his fatness; what people +had advised him to do for his fatness and what he had heard of people +doing for fatness similar to his. "_A priori_," he said, "one would +think a question of nutrition could be answered by dietary and a question +of assimilation by drugs." It was stifling. It was dumpling talk. It made +me feel swelled to hear him. + +One stands that sort of thing once in a way at a club, but a time came +when I fancied I was standing too much. He took to me altogether too +conspicuously. I could never go into the smoking-room but he would come +wallowing towards me, and sometimes he came and gormandised round and +about me while I had my lunch. He seemed at times almost to be clinging to +me. He was a bore, but not so fearful a bore as to be limited to me and +from the first there was something in his manner--almost as though he +knew, almost as though he penetrated to the fact that I _might_--that +there was a remote, exceptional chance in me that no one else presented. + +"I'd give anything to get it down," he would say--"anything," and peer at +me over his vast cheeks and pant. Poor old Pyecraft! He has just gonged; +no doubt to order another buttered teacake! + +He came to the actual thing one day. "Our Pharmacopoeia," he said, "our +Western Pharmacopoeia, is anything but the last word of medical science. +In the East, I've been told----" + +He stopped and stared at me. It was like being at an aquarium. + +I was quite suddenly angry with him. "Look here," I said, "who told you +about my great-grandmother's recipes?" + +"Well," he fenced. + +"Every time we've met for a week," I said--"and we've met pretty often-- +you've given me a broad hint or so about that little secret of mine." + +"Well," he said, "now the cat's out of the bag, I'll admit, yes, it is so. +I had it----" + +"From Pattison?" + +"Indirectly," he said, which I believe was lying, "yes." + +"Pattison," I said, "took that stuff at his own risk." He pursed his mouth +and bowed. + +"My great-grandmother's recipes," I said, "are queer things to handle. My +father was near making me promise----" + +"He didn't?" + +"No. But he warned me. He himself used one--once." + +"Ah! ... But do you think----? Suppose--suppose there did happen to be +one----" + +"The things are curious documents," I said. "Even the smell of 'em ... +No!" + +But after going so far Pyecraft was resolved I should go farther. I was +always a little afraid if I tried his patience too much he would fall on +me suddenly and smother me. I own I was weak. But I was also annoyed with +Pyecraft. I had got to that state of feeling for him that disposed me to +say, "Well, _take_ the risk!" The little affair of Pattison to which +I have alluded was a different matter altogether. What it was doesn't +concern us now, but I knew, anyhow, that the particular recipe I used then +was safe. The rest I didn't know so much about, and, on the whole, I was +inclined to doubt their safety pretty completely. + +Yet even if Pyecraft got poisoned---- + +I must confess the poisoning of Pyecraft struck me as an immense +undertaking. + +That evening I took that queer, odd-scented sandal-wood box out of my +safe, and turned the rustling skins over. The gentleman who wrote the +recipes for my great-grandmother evidently had a weakness for skins of a +miscellaneous origin, and his handwriting was cramped to the last degree. +Some of the things are quite unreadable to me--though my family, with its +Indian Civil Service associations, has kept up a knowledge of Hindustani +from generation to generation--and none are absolutely plain sailing. But +I found the one that I knew was there soon enough, and sat on the floor by +my safe for some time looking at it. + +"Look here," said I to Pyecraft next day, and snatched the slip away from +his eager grasp. + +"So far as I can make it out, this is a recipe for Loss of Weight. ("Ah!" +said Pyecraft.) I'm not absolutely sure, but I think it's that. And if you +take my advice you'll leave it alone. Because, you know--I blacken my +blood in your interest, Pyecraft--my ancestors on that side were, so far +as I can gather, a jolly queer lot. See?" + +"Let me try it," said Pyecraft. + +I leant back in my chair. My imagination made one mighty effort and fell +flat within me. "What in Heaven's name, Pyecraft," I asked, "do you think +you'll look like when you get thin?" + +He was impervious to reason, I made him promise never to say a word to me +about his disgusting fatness again whatever happened--never, and then I +handed him that little piece of skin. + +"It's nasty stuff," I said. + +"No matter," he said, and took it. + +He goggled at it. "But--but--" he said + +He had just discovered that it wasn't English. + +"To the best of my ability," I said, "I will do you a translation." + +I did my best. After that we didn't speak for a fortnight. Whenever he +approached me I frowned and motioned him away, and he respected our +compact, but at the end of the fortnight he was as fat as ever. And then +he got a word in. + +"I must speak," he said, "It isn't fair. There's something wrong. It's +done me no good. You're not doing your great-grandmother justice." + +"Where's the recipe?" + +He produced it gingerly from his pocket-book. + +I ran my eye over the items. "Was the egg addled?" I asked. + +"No. Ought it to have been?" + +"That," I said, "goes without saying in all my poor dear +great-grandmother's recipes. When condition or quality is not specified +you must get the worst. She was drastic or nothing... And there's one or +two possible alternatives to some of these other things. You got _fresh_ +rattlesnake venom?" + +"I got a rattlesnake from Jamrach's. It cost--it cost----" + +"That's your affair anyhow. This last item----" + +"I know a man who----" + +"Yes. H'm. Well, I'll write the alternatives down. So far as I know the +language, the spelling of this recipe is particularly atrocious. +By-the-by, dog here probably means pariah dog." + +For a month after that I saw Pyecraft constantly at the club and as fat +and anxious as ever. He kept our treaty, but at times he broke the spirit +of it by shaking his head despondently. Then one day in the cloakroom he +said, "Your great-grandmother----" + +"Not a word against her," I said; and he held his peace. + +I could have fancied he had desisted, and I saw him one day talking to +three new members about his fatness as though he was in search of other +recipes. And then, quite unexpectedly, his telegram came. + +"Mr. Formalyn!" bawled a page-boy under my nose, and I took the telegram +and opened it at once. + +"_For Heaven's sake come_.--_Pyecraft_." + +"H'm," said I, and to tell the truth I was so pleased at the +rehabilitation of my great-grandmother's reputation this evidently +promised that I made a most excellent lunch. + +I got Pyecraft's address from the hall porter. Pyecraft inhabited the +upper half of a house in Bloomsbury, and I went there so soon as I had +done my coffee and Trappistine. I did not wait to finish my cigar. + +"Mr. Pyecraft?" said I, at the front door. + +They believed he was ill; he hadn't been out for two days. + +"He expects me," said I, and they sent me up. + +I rang the bell at the lattice-door upon the landing. + +"He shouldn't have tried it, anyhow," I said to myself. "A man who eats +like a pig ought to look like a pig." + +An obviously worthy woman, with an anxious face and a carelessly placed +cap, came and surveyed me through the lattice. + +I gave my name and she let me in in a dubious fashion. + +"Well?" said I, as we stood together inside Pyecraft's piece of the +landing. + +"'E said you was to come in if you came," she said, and regarded me, +making no motion to show me anywhere. And then, confidentially, "'E's +locked in, sir." + +"Locked in?" + +"Locked 'imself in yesterday morning and 'asn't let any one in since, sir. +And ever and again _swearing_. Oh, my!" + +I stared at the door she indicated by her glances. "In there?" I said. + +"Yes, sir." + +"What's up?" + +She shook her head sadly. "'E keeps on calling for vittles, sir. +'_Eavy_ vittles 'e wants. I get 'im what I can. Pork 'e's had, sooit +puddin', sossiges, noo bread. Everythink like that. Left outside, if you +please, and me go away. 'E's eatin', sir, somethink _awful_." + +There came a piping bawl from inside the door: "That Formalyn?" + +"That you, Pyecraft?" I shouted, and went and banged the door. + +"Tell her to go away." + +I did. + +Then I could hear a curious pattering upon the door, almost like some one +feeling for the handle in the dark, and Pyecraft's familiar grunts. + +"It's all right," I said, "she's gone." + +But for a long time the door didn't open. + +I heard the key turn. Then Pyecraft's voice said, "Come in." + +I turned the handle and opened the door. Naturally I expected to see +Pyecraft. + +Well, you know, he wasn't there! + +I never had such a shock in my life. There was his sitting-room in a state +of untidy disorder, plates and dishes among the books and writing things, +and several chairs overturned, but Pyecraft---- + +"It's all right, old man; shut the door," he said, and then I discovered +him. + +There he was, right up close to the cornice in the corner by the door, as +though some one had glued him to the ceiling. His face was anxious and +angry. He panted and gesticulated. "Shut the door," he said. "If that +woman gets hold of it----" + +I shut the door, and went and stood away from him and stared. + +"If anything gives way and you tumble down," I said, "you'll break your +neck, Pyecraft." + +"I wish I could," he wheezed. + +"A man of your age and weight getting up to kiddish gymnastics----" + +"Don't," he said, and looked agonised. + +"I'll tell you," he said, and gesticulated. + +"How the deuce," said I, "are you holding on up there?" + +And then abruptly I realised that he was not holding on at all, that he +was floating up there--just as a gas-filled bladder might have floated in +the same position. He began a struggle to thrust himself away from the +ceiling and to clamber down the wall to me. "It's that prescription," he +panted, as he did so. "Your great-gran----" + +He took hold of a framed engraving rather carelessly as he spoke and it +gave way, and he flew back to the ceiling again, while the picture smashed +on to the sofa. Bump he went against the ceiling, and I knew then why he +was all over white on the more salient curves and angles of his person. He +tried again more carefully, coming down by way of the mantel. + +It was really a most extraordinary spectacle, that great, fat, +apoplectic-looking man upside down and trying to get from the ceiling +to the floor. "That prescription," he said. "Too successful." + +"How?" + +"Loss of weight--almost complete." + +And then, of course, I understood. + +"By Jove, Pyecraft," said I, "what you wanted was a cure for fatness! But +you always called it weight. You would call it weight." + +Somehow I was extremely delighted. I quite liked Pyecraft for the time. +"Let me help you!" I said, and took his hand and pulled him down. He +kicked about, trying to get foothold somewhere. It was very like holding a +flag on a windy day. + +"That table," he said, pointing, "is solid mahogany and very heavy. If you +can put me under that----" + +I did, and there he wallowed about like a captive balloon, while I stood +on his hearthrug and talked to him. + +I lit a cigar. "Tell me," I said, "what happened?" + +"I took it," he said. + +"How did it taste?" + +"Oh, _beastly_!" + +I should fancy they all did. Whether one regards the ingredients or +the probable compound or the possible results, almost all my +great-grandmother's remedies appear to me at least to be extraordinarily +uninviting. For my own part---- + +"I took a little sip first." + +"Yes?" + +"And as I felt lighter and better after an hour, I decided to take the +draught." + +"My dear Pyecraft!" + +"I held my nose," he explained. "And then I kept on getting lighter and +lighter--and helpless, you know." + +He gave way suddenly to a burst of passion. "What the goodness am I to +_do?_" he said. + +"There's one thing pretty evident," I said, "that you mustn't do. If you +go out of doors you'll go up and up." I waved an arm upward. "They'd have +to send Santos-Dumont after you to bring you down again." + +"I suppose it will wear off?" + +I shook my head. "I don't think you can count on that," I said. + +And then there was another burst of passion, and he kicked out at adjacent +chairs and banged the floor. He behaved just as I should have expected a +great, fat, self-indulgent man to behave under trying circumstances--that +is to say, very badly. He spoke of me and of my great-grandmother with an +utter want of discretion. + +"I never asked you to take the stuff," I said. + +And generously disregarding the insults he was putting upon me, I sat down +in his armchair and began to talk to him in a sober, friendly fashion. + +I pointed out to him that this was a trouble he had brought upon himself, +and that it had almost an air of poetical justice. He had eaten too much. +This he disputed, and for a time we argued the point. + +He became noisy and violent, so I desisted from this aspect of his lesson. +"And then," said I, "you committed the sin of euphuism. You called it, not +Fat, which is just and inglorious, but Weight. You----" + +He interrupted to say that he recognised all that. What was he to +_do?_ + +I suggested he should adapt himself to his new conditions. So we came to +the really sensible part of the business. I suggested that it would not be +difficult for him to learn to walk about on the ceiling with his hands---- + +"I can't sleep," he said. + +But that was no great difficulty. It was quite possible, I pointed out, to +make a shake-up under a wire mattress, fasten the under things on with +tapes, and have a blanket, sheet, and coverlet to button at the side. He +would have to confide in his housekeeper, I said; and after some +squabbling he agreed to that. (Afterwards it was quite delightful to see +the beautifully matter-of-fact way with which the good lady took all these +amazing inversions.) He could have a library ladder in his room, and all +his meals could be laid on the top of his bookcase. We also hit on an +ingenious device by which he could get to the floor whenever he wanted, +which was simply to put the _British Encyclopaedia_ (tenth edition) +on the top of his open shelves. He just pulled out a couple of volumes and +held on, and down he came. And we agreed there must be iron staples along +the skirting, so that he could cling to those whenever he wanted to get +about the room on the lower level. + +As we got on with the thing I found myself almost keenly interested. It +was I who called in the housekeeper and broke matters to her, and it was I +chiefly who fixed up the inverted bed. In fact, I spent two whole days at +his flat. I am a handy, interfering sort of man with a screw-driver, and I +made all sorts of ingenious adaptations for him--ran a wire to bring his +bells within reach, turned all his electric lights up instead of down, and +so on. The whole affair was extremely curious and interesting to me, and +it was delightful to think of Pyecraft like some great, fat blow-fly, +crawling about on his ceiling and clambering round the lintel of his doors +from one room to another, and never, never, never coming to the club any +more... + +Then, you know, my fatal ingenuity got the better of me. I was sitting by +his fire drinking his whisky, and he was up in his favourite corner by the +cornice, tacking a Turkey carpet to the ceiling, when the idea struck me. +"By Jove, Pyecraft!" I said, "all this is totally unnecessary." + +And before I could calculate the complete consequences of my notion I +blurted it out. "Lead underclothing," said I, and the mischief was done. + +Pyecraft received the thing almost in tears. "To be right ways up +again----" he said. + +I gave him the whole secret before I saw where it would take me. "Buy +sheet lead," I said, "stamp it into discs. Sew 'em all over your +underclothes until you have enough. Have lead-soled boots, carry a bag of +solid lead, and the thing is done! Instead of being a prisoner here you +may go abroad again, Pyecraft; you may travel----" + +A still happier idea came to me. "You need never fear a shipwreck. All you +need do is just slip off some or all of your clothes, take the necessary +amount of luggage in your hand, and float up in the air----" + +In his emotion he dropped the tack-hammer within an ace of my head. "By +Jove!" he said, "I shall be able to come back to the club again." + +"The thing pulled me up short. By Jove!" I said, faintly. "Yes. Of +course--you will." + +He did. He does. There he sits behind me now, stuffing--as I live!--a +third go of buttered teacake. And no one in the whole world knows--except +his housekeeper and me---that he weighs practically nothing; that he is a +mere boring mass of assimilatory matter, mere clouds in clothing, +_niente, nefas_, the most inconsiderable of men. There he sits +watching until I have done this writing. Then, if he can, he will waylay +me. He will come billowing up to me... + +He will tell me over again all about it, how it feels, how it doesn't +feel, how he sometimes hopes it is passing off a little. And always +somewhere in that fat, abundant discourse he will say, "The secret's +keeping, eh? If any one knew of it--I should be so ashamed... Makes +a fellow look such a fool, you know. Crawling about on a ceiling and all +that..." + +And now to elude Pyecraft, occupying, as he does, an admirable strategic +position between me and the door. + + + + + XXIX. + + THE MAGIC SHOP. + + +I had seen the Magic Shop from afar several times; I had passed it once or +twice, a shop window of alluring little objects, magic balls, magic hens, +wonderful cones, ventriloquist dolls, the material of the basket trick, +packs of cards that _looked_ all right, and all that sort of thing, +but never had I thought of going in until one day, almost without warning, +Gip hauled me by my finger right up to the window, and so conducted +himself that there was nothing for it but to take him in. I had not +thought the place was there, to tell the truth--a modest-sized frontage in +Regent Street, between the picture shop and the place where the chicks run +about just out of patent incubators,--but there it was sure enough. I had +fancied it was down nearer the Circus, or round the corner in Oxford +Street, or even in Holborn; always over the way and a little inaccessible +it had been, with something of the mirage in its position; but here it was +now quite indisputably, and the fat end of Gip's pointing finger made a +noise upon the glass. + +"If I was rich," said Gip, dabbing a finger at the Disappearing Egg, "I'd +buy myself that. And that"--which was The Crying Baby, Very Human--"and +that," which was a mystery, and called, so a neat card asserted, "Buy One +and Astonish Your Friends." + +"Anything," said Gip, "will disappear under one of those cones. I have +read about it in a book. + +"And there, dadda, is the Vanishing Halfpenny--only they've put it this +way up so's we can't see how it's done." + +Gip, dear boy, inherits his mother's breeding, and he did not propose to +enter the shop or worry in any way; only, you know, quite unconsciously, +he lugged my finger doorward, and he made his interest clear. + +"That," he said, and pointed to the Magic Bottle. + +"If you had that?" I said; at which promising inquiry he looked up with a +sudden radiance. + +"I could show it to Jessie," he said, thoughtful as ever of others. + +"It's less than a hundred days to your birthday, Gibbles," I said, and +laid my hand on the door-handle. + +Gip made no answer, but his grip tightened on my finger, and so we came +into the shop. + +It was no common shop this; it was a magic shop, and all the prancing +precedence Gip would have taken in the matter of mere toys was wanting. He +left the burthen of the conversation to me. + +It was a little, narrow shop, not very well lit, and the door-bell pinged +again with a plaintive note as we closed it behind us. For a moment or +so we were alone and could glance about us. There was a tiger in +_papier-mâché_ on the glass case that covered, the low counter--a +grave, kind-eyed tiger that waggled his head in a methodical manner; there +were several crystal spheres, a china hand holding magic cards, a stock of +magic fish-bowls in various sizes, and an immodest magic hat that +shamelessly displayed its springs. On the floor were magic mirrors; one to +draw you out long and thin, one to swell your head and vanish your legs, +and one to make you short and fat like a draught; and while, we were +laughing at these the shopman, as I suppose, came in. + +At any rate, there he was behind the counter--a curious, sallow, dark man, +with one ear larger than the other and a chin like the toe-cap of a boot. + +"What can we have the pleasure?" he said, spreading his long magic fingers +on the glass case; and so with a start we were aware of him. + +"I want," I said, "to buy my little boy a few simple tricks." + +"Legerdemain?" he asked. "Mechanical? Domestic?" + +"Anything amusing?" said I. + +"Um!" said the shopman, and scratched his head for a moment as if +thinking. Then, quite distinctly, he drew from his head a glass ball. +"Something in this way?" he said, and held it out. + +The action was unexpected. I had seen the trick done at entertainments +endless times before--it's part of the common stock of conjurers--but I +had not expected it here. "That's good," I said, with a laugh. + +"Isn't it?" said the shopman. + +Gip stretched out his disengaged hand to take this object and found merely +a blank palm. + +"It's in your pocket," said the shopman, and there it was! + +"How much will that be?" I asked. + +"We make no charge for glass balls," said the shopman politely. "We get +them"--he picked one out of his elbow as he spoke--"free." He produced +another from the back of his neck, and laid it beside its predecessor on +the counter. Gip regarded his glass ball sagely, then directed a look of +inquiry at the two on the counter, and finally brought his round-eyed +scrutiny to the shopman, who smiled. "You may have those two," said the +shopman, "and, if you _don't_ mind one from my mouth. _So!_" + +Gip counselled me mutely for a moment, and then in a profound silence put +away the four balls, resumed my reassuring finger, and nerved himself for +the next event. + +"We get all our smaller tricks in that way," the shopman remarked. + +I laughed in the manner of one who subscribes to a jest. "Instead of going +to the wholesale shop," I said. "Of course, it's cheaper." + +"In a way," the shopman said. "Though we pay in the end. But not so +heavily--as people suppose... Our larger tricks, and our daily provisions +and all the other things we want, we get out of that hat... And you know, +sir, if you'll excuse my saying it, there _isn't_ a wholesale shop, +not for Genuine Magic goods, sir. I don't know if you noticed our +inscription--the Genuine Magic Shop." He drew a business card from his +cheek and handed it to me. "Genuine," he said, with his finger on the +word, and added, "There is absolutely no deception, sir." + +He seemed to be carrying out the joke pretty thoroughly, I thought. + +He turned to Gip with a smile of remarkable affability. "You, you know, +are the Right Sort of Boy." + +I was surprised at his knowing that, because, in the interests of +discipline, we keep it rather a secret even at home; but Gip received it +in unflinching silence, keeping a steadfast eye on him. + +"It's only the Right Sort of Boy gets through that doorway." + +And, as if by way of illustration, there came a rattling at the door, and +a squeaking little voice could be faintly heard. "Nyar! I _warn_ 'a +go in there, dadda, I WARN 'a go in there. Ny-a-a-ah!" and then the +accents of a downtrodden parent, urging consolations and propitiations. +"It's locked, Edward," he said. + +"But it isn't," said I. + +"It is, sir," said the shopman, "always--for that sort of child," and as +he spoke we had a glimpse of the other youngster, a little, white face, +pallid from sweet-eating and over-sapid food, and distorted by evil +passions, a ruthless little egotist, pawing at the enchanted pane. "It's +no good, sir," said the shopman, as I moved, with my natural helpfulness, +doorward, and presently the spoilt child was carried off howling. + +"How do you manage that?" I said, breathing a little more freely. + +"Magic!" said the shopman, with a careless wave of the hand, and behold! +sparks of coloured fire flew out of his fingers and vanished into the +shadows of the shop. + +"You were saying," he said, addressing himself to Gip, "before you came +in, that you would like one of our 'Buy One and Astonish your Friends' +boxes?" + +Gip, after a gallant effort, said "Yes." + +"It's in your pocket." + +And leaning over the counter--he really had an extraordinary long body-- +this amazing person produced the article in the customary conjurer's +manner. "Paper," he said, and took a sheet out of the empty hat with the +springs; "string," and behold his mouth was a string box, from which he +drew an unending thread, which when he had tied his parcel he bit off-- +and, it seemed to me, swallowed the ball of string. And then he lit a +candle at the nose of one of the ventriloquist's dummies, stuck one of his +fingers (which had become sealing-wax red) into the flame, and so sealed +the parcel. "Then there was the Disappearing Egg," he remarked, and +produced one from within my coat-breast and packed it, and also The Crying +Baby, Very Human. I handed each parcel to Gip as it was ready, and he +clasped them to his chest. + +He said very little, but his eyes were eloquent; the clutch of his arms +was eloquent. He was the playground of unspeakable emotions. These, you +know, were _real_ Magics. + +Then, with a start, I discovered something moving about in my hat-- +something soft and jumpy. I whipped it off, and a ruffled pigeon--no doubt +a confederate--dropped out and ran on the counter, and went, I fancy, into +a cardboard box behind the _papier-mâché_ tiger. + +"Tut, tut!" said the shopman, dexterously relieving, me of my headdress; +"careless bird, and--as I live--nesting!" + +He shook my hat, and shook out into his extended hand, two or three eggs, +a large marble, a watch, about half a dozen of the inevitable glass balls, +and then crumpled, crinkled paper, more and more and more, talking all the +time of the way in which people neglect to brush their hats _inside_ +as well as out--politely, of course, but with a certain personal +application. "All sorts of things accumulate, sir... Not _you_, of +course, in particular... Nearly every customer... Astonishing what they +carry about with them..." The crumpled paper rose and billowed on the +counter more and more and more, until he was nearly hidden from us, until +he was altogether hidden, and still his voice went on and on. "We none of +us know what the fair semblance of a human being may conceal, Sir. Are we +all then no better than brushed exteriors, whited sepulchres-----" + +His voice stopped--exactly like when you hit a neighbour's gramophone with +a well-aimed brick, the same instant silence--and the rustle of the paper +stopped, and everything was still... + +"Have you done with my hat?" I said, after an interval. + +There was no answer. + +I stared at Gip, and Gip stared at me, and there were our distortions in +the magic mirrors, looking very rum, and grave, and quiet... + +"I think we'll go now," I said. "Will you tell me how much all this comes +to?... + +"I say," I said, on a rather louder note, "I want the bill; and my hat, +please." + +It might have been a sniff from behind the paper pile... + +"Let's look behind the counter, Gip," I said. "He's making fun of us." + +I led Gip round the head-wagging tiger, and what do you think there was +behind the counter? No one at all! Only my hat on the floor, and a common +conjurer's lop-eared white rabbit lost in meditation, and looking as +stupid and crumpled as only a conjurer's rabbit can do. I resumed my hat, +and the rabbit lolloped a lollop or so out of my way. + +"Dadda!" said Gip, in a guilty whisper. + +"What is it, Gip?" said I. + +"I _do_ like this shop, dadda." + +"So should I," I said to myself, "if the counter wouldn't suddenly extend +itself to shut one off from the door." But I didn't call Gip's attention +to that. "Pussy!" he said, with a hand out to the rabbit as it came +lolloping past us; "Pussy, do Gip a magic!" and his eyes followed it as it +squeezed through a door I had certainly not remarked a moment before. Then +this door opened wider, and the man with one ear larger than the other +appeared again. He was smiling still, but his eye met mine with something +between amusement and defiance. "You'd like to see our showroom, sir," he +said, with an innocent suavity. Gip tugged my finger forward. I glanced at +the counter and met the shopman's eye again. I was beginning to think the +magic just a little too genuine. "We haven't _very_ much time," I +said. But somehow we were inside the showroom before I could finish that. + +"All goods of the same quality," said the shopman, rubbing his flexible +hands together, "and that is the Best. Nothing in the place that isn't +genuine Magic, and warranted thoroughly rum. Excuse me, sir!" + +I felt him pull at something that clung to my coat-sleeve, and then I saw +he held a little, wriggling red demon by the tail--the little creature bit +and fought and tried to get at his hand--and in a moment he tossed it +carelessly behind a counter. No doubt the thing was only an image of +twisted indiarubber, but for the moment--! And his gesture was exactly +that of a man who handles some petty biting bit of vermin. I glanced at +Gip, but Gip was looking at a magic rocking-horse. I was glad he hadn't +seen the thing. "I say," I said, in an undertone, and indicating Gip and +the red demon with my eyes, "you haven't many things like _that_ +about, have you?" + +"None of ours! Probably brought it with you," said the shopman--also in an +undertone, and with a more dazzling smile than ever. "Astonishing what +people _will_, carry about with them unawares!" And then to Gip, "Do +you see anything you fancy here?" + +There were many things that Gip fancied there. + +He turned to this astonishing tradesman with mingled confidence and +respect. "Is that a Magic Sword?" he said. + +"A Magic Toy Sword. It neither bends, breaks, nor cuts the fingers. It +renders the bearer invincible in battle against any one under eighteen. +Half a crown to seven and sixpence, according to size. These panoplies on +cards are for juvenile knights-errant and very useful--shield of safety, +sandals of swiftness, helmet of invisibility." + +"Oh, dadda!" gasped Gip. + +I tried to find out what they cost, but the shopman did not heed me. +He had got Gip now; he had got him away from my finger; he had embarked +upon the exposition of all his confounded stock, and nothing was going to +stop him. Presently I saw with a qualm of distrust and something very like +jealousy that Gip had hold of this person's finger as usually he has hold +of mine. No doubt the fellow was interesting, I thought, and had an +interestingly faked lot of stuff, really _good_ faked stuff, +still---- + +I wandered after them, saying very little, but keeping an eye on this +prestidigital fellow. After all, Gip was enjoying it. And no doubt when +the time came to go we should be able to go quite easily. + +It was a long, rambling place, that showroom, a gallery broken up by +stands and stalls and pillars, with archways leading off to other +departments, in which the queerest-looking assistants loafed and stared at +one, and with perplexing mirrors and curtains. So perplexing, indeed, were +these that I was presently unable to make out the door by which we had +come. + +The shopman showed Gip magic trains that ran without steam or clockwork, +just as you set the signals, and then some very, very valuable boxes of +soldiers that all came alive directly you took off the lid and said----I +myself haven't a very quick ear, and it was a tongue-twisting sound, but +Gip--he has his mother's ear--got it in no time. "Bravo!" said the +shopman, putting the men back into the box unceremoniously and handing it +to Gip. "Now," said the shopman, and in a moment Gip had made them all +alive again. + +"You'll take that box?" asked the shopman. + +"We'll take that box," said I, "unless you charge its full value. In which +case it would need a Trust Magnate----" + +"Dear heart! _No!_" and the shopman swept the little men back again, +shut the lid, waved the box in the air, and there it was, in brown paper, +tied up and--_with Gip's full name and address on the paper!_ + +The shopman laughed at my amazement. + +"This is the genuine magic," he said. "The real thing." + +"It's a little too genuine for my taste," I said again. + +After that he fell to showing Gip tricks, odd tricks, and still odder the +way they were done. He explained them, he turned them inside out, and +there was the dear little chap nodding his busy bit of a head in the +sagest manner. + +I did not attend as well as I might. "Hey, presto!" said the Magic +Shopman, and then would come the clear, small "Hey, presto!" of the boy. +But I was distracted by other things. It was being borne in upon me just +how tremendously rum this place was; it was, so to speak, inundated by a +sense of rumness. There was something a little rum about the fixtures +even, about the ceiling, about the floor, about the casually distributed +chairs. I had a queer feeling that whenever I wasn't looking at them +straight they went askew, and moved about, and played a noiseless +puss-in-the-corner behind my back. And the cornice had a serpentine design +with masks--masks altogether too expressive for proper plaster. + +Then abruptly my attention was caught by one of the odd-looking +assistants. He was some way off and evidently unaware of my presence--I +saw a sort of three-quarter length of him over a pile of toys and through +an arch--and, you know, he was leaning against a pillar in an idle sort of +way doing the most horrid things with his features! The particular horrid +thing he did was with his nose. He did it just as though he was idle and +wanted to amuse himself. First of all it was a short, blobby nose, and +then suddenly he shot it out like a telescope, and then out it flew and +became thinner and thinner until it was like a long, red flexible whip. +Like a thing in a nightmare it was! He flourished it about and flung it +forth as a fly-fisher flings his line. + +My instant thought was that Gip mustn't see him. I turned about, and there +was Gip quite preoccupied with the shopman, and thinking no evil. They +were whispering together and looking at me. Gip was standing on a little +stool, and the shopman was holding a sort of big drum in his hand. + +"Hide and seek, dadda!" cried Gip. "You're He!" + +And before I could do anything to prevent it, the shopman had clapped the +big drum over him. + +I saw what was up directly. "Take that off," I cried, "this instant! +You'll frighten the boy. Take it off!" + +The shopman with the unequal ears did so without a word, and held the big +cylinder towards me to show its emptiness. And the little stool was +vacant! In that instant my boy had utterly disappeared!... + +You know, perhaps, that sinister something that comes like a hand out of +the unseen and grips your heart about. You know it takes your common self +away and leaves you tense and deliberate, neither slow nor hasty, neither +angry nor afraid. So it was with me. + +I came up to this grinning shopman and kicked his stool aside. + +"Stop this folly!" I said. "Where is my boy?" + +"You see," he said, still displaying the drum's interior, "there is no +deception----" + +I put out my hand to grip him, and he eluded me by a dexterous movement. I +snatched again, and he turned from me and pushed open a door to escape. +"Stop!" I said, and he laughed, receding. I leapt after him--into utter +darkness. + +_Thud!_ + +"Lor' bless my 'eart! I didn't see you coming, sir!" + +I was in Regent Street, and I had collided with a decent-looking working +man; and a yard away, perhaps, and looking a little perplexed with +himself, was Gip. There was some sort of apology, and then Gip had turned +and come to me with a bright little smile, as though for a moment he had +missed me. + +And he was carrying four parcels in his arm! + +He secured immediate possession of my finger. + +For the second I was rather at a loss. I stared round to see the door of +the Magic Shop, and, behold, it was not there! There was no door, no shop, +nothing, only the common pilaster between the shop where they sell +pictures and the window with the chicks! ... + +I did the only thing possible in that mental tumult; I walked straight to +the kerbstone and held up my umbrella for a cab. + +"'Ansoms," said Gip, in a note of culminating exultation. + +I helped him in, recalled my address with an effort, and got in also. +Something unusual proclaimed itself in my tail-coat pocket, and I felt and +discovered a glass ball. With a petulant expression I flung it into the +street. + +Gip said nothing. + +For a space neither of us spoke. + +"Dadda!" said Gip, at last, "that _was_ a proper shop!" + +I came round with that to the problem of just how the whole thing had +seemed to him. He looked completely undamaged--so far, good; he was +neither scared nor unhinged, he was simply tremendously satisfied with the +afternoon's entertainment, and there in his arms were the four parcels. + +Confound it! what could be in them? + +"Um!" I said. "Little boys can't go to shops like that every day." + +He received this with his usual stoicism, and for a moment I was sorry I +was his father and not his mother, and so couldn't suddenly there, +_coram publico,_ in our hansom, kiss him. After all, I thought, the +thing wasn't so very bad. + +But it was only when we opened the parcels that I really began to be +reassured. Three of them contained boxes of soldiers, quite ordinary lead +soldiers, but of so good a quality as to make Gip altogether forget that +originally these parcels had been Magic Tricks of the only genuine sort, +and the fourth contained a kitten, a little living white kitten, in +excellent health and appetite and temper. + +I saw this unpacking with a sort of provisional relief. I hung about in +the nursery for quite an unconscionable time... + +That happened six months ago. And now I am beginning to believe it is +all right. The kitten had only the magic natural to all kittens, and +the soldiers seemed as steady a company as any colonel could desire. And +Gip----? + +The intelligent parent will understand that I have to go cautiously with +Gip. + +But I went so far as this one day. I said, "How would you like your +soldiers to come alive, Gip, and march about by themselves?" + +"Mine do," said Gip. "I just have to say a word I know before I open the +lid." + +"Then they march about alone?" + +"Oh, _quite_, dadda. I shouldn't like them if they didn't do that." + +I displayed no unbecoming surprise, and since then I have taken occasion +to drop in upon him once or twice, unannounced, when the soldiers were +about, but so far I have never discovered them performing in anything like +a magical manner... + +It's so difficult to tell. + +There's also a question of finance. I have an incurable habit of paying +bills. I have been up and down Regent Street several times looking for +that shop. I am inclined to think, indeed, that in that matter honour is +satisfied, and that, since Gip's name and address are known to them, I may +very well leave it to these people, whoever they may be, to send in their +bill in their own time. + + + + + XXX. + + THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. + + +When Captain Gerilleau received instructions to take his new gunboat, the +_Benjamin Constant,_ to Badama on the Batemo arm of the Guaramadema +and there assist the inhabitants against a plague of ants, he suspected +the authorities of mockery. His promotion had been romantic and irregular, +the affections of a prominent Brazilian lady and the captain's liquid eyes +had played a part in the process, and the _Diario_ and _O +Futuro_ had been lamentably disrespectful in their comments. He felt he +was to give further occasion for disrespect. + +He was a Creole, his conceptions of etiquette and discipline were +pure-blooded Portuguese, and it was only to Holroyd, the Lancashire +engineer who had come over with the boat, and as an exercise in the use of +English--his "th" sounds were very uncertain--that he opened his heart. + +"It is in effect," he said, "to make me absurd! What can a man do against +ants? Dey come, dey go." + +"They say," said Holroyd, "that these don't go. That chap you said was a +Sambo----" + +"Zambo;--it is a sort of mixture of blood." + +"Sambo. He said the people are going!" + +The captain smoked fretfully for a time. "Dese tings 'ave to happen," he +said at last. "What is it? Plagues of ants and suchlike as God wills. Dere +was a plague in Trinidad--the little ants that carry leaves. Orl der +orange-trees, all der mangoes! What does it matter? Sometimes ant armies +come into your houses--fighting ants; a different sort. You go and they +clean the house. Then you come back again;--the house is clean, like new! +No cockroaches, no fleas, no jiggers in the floor." + +"That Sambo chap," said Holroyd, "says these are a different sort of ant." + +The captain shrugged his shoulders, fumed, and gave his attention to a +cigarette. + +Afterwards he reopened the subject. "My dear 'Olroyd, what am I to do +about dese infernal ants?" + +The captain reflected. "It is ridiculous," he said. But in the afternoon +he put on his full uniform and went ashore, and jars and boxes came back +to the ship and subsequently he did. And Holroyd sat on deck in the +evening coolness and smoked profoundly and marvelled at Brazil. They were +six days up the Amazon, some hundreds of miles from the ocean, and east +and west of him there was a horizon like the sea, and to the south nothing +but a sand-bank island with some tufts of scrub. The water was always +running like a sluice, thick with dirt, animated with crocodiles and +hovering birds, and fed by some inexhaustible source of tree trunks; and +the waste of it, the headlong waste of it, filled his soul. The town of +Alemquer, with its meagre church, its thatched sheds for houses, its +discoloured ruins of ampler days, seemed a little thing lost in this +wilderness of Nature, a sixpence dropped on Sahara. He was a young man, +this was his first sight of the tropics, he came straight from England, +where Nature is hedged, ditched, and drained, into the perfection of +submission, and he had suddenly discovered the insignificance of man. For +six days they had been steaming up from the sea by unfrequented channels; +and man had been as rare as a rare butterfly. One saw one day a canoe, +another day a distant station, the next no men at all. He began to +perceive that man is indeed a rare animal, having but a precarious hold +upon this land. + +He perceived it more clearly as the days passed, and he made his devious +way to the Batemo, in the company of this remarkable commander, who ruled +over one big gun, and was forbidden to waste his ammunition. Holroyd was +learning Spanish industriously, but he was still in the present tense and +substantive stage of speech, and the only other person who had any words +of English was a negro stoker, who had them all wrong. The second in +command was a Portuguese, da Cunha, who spoke French, but it was a +different sort of French from the French Holroyd had learnt in Southport, +and their intercourse was confined to politenesses and simple propositions +about the weather. And the weather, like everything else in this amazing +new world, the weather had no human aspect, and was hot by night and hot +by day, and the air steam, even the wind was hot steam, smelling of +vegetation in decay: and the alligators and the strange birds, the flies +of many sorts and sizes, the beetles, the ants, the snakes and monkeys +seemed to wonder what man was doing in an atmosphere that had no gladness +in its sunshine and no coolness in its night. To wear clothing was +intolerable, but to cast it aside was to scorch by day, and expose an +ampler area to the mosquitoes by night; to go on deck by day was to be +blinded by glare and to stay below was to suffocate. And in the daytime +came certain flies, extremely clever and noxious about one's wrist and +ankle. Captain Gerilleau, who was Holroyd's sole distraction from these +physical distresses, developed into a formidable bore, telling the simple +story of his heart's affections day by day, a string of anonymous women, +as if he was telling beads. Sometimes he suggested sport, and they shot at +alligators, and at rare intervals they came to human aggregations in the +waste of trees, and stayed for a day or so, and drank and sat about, and, +one night, danced with Creole girls, who found Holroyd's poor elements of +Spanish, without either past tense or future, amply sufficient for their +purposes. But these were mere luminous chinks in the long grey passage of +the streaming river, up which the throbbing engines beat. A certain +liberal heathen deity, in the shape of a demi-john, held seductive court +aft, and, it is probable, forward. + +But Gerilleau learnt things about the ants, more things and more, at this +stopping-place and that, and became interested in his mission. + +"Dey are a new sort of ant," he said. "We have got to be--what do you call +it?--entomologie? Big. Five centimetres! Some bigger! It is ridiculous. We +are like the monkeys---sent to pick insects... But dey are eating up the +country." + +He burst out indignantly. "Suppose--suddenly, there are complications with +Europe. Here am I--soon we shall be above the Rio Negro--and my gun, +useless!" + +He nursed his knee and mused. + +"Dose people who were dere at de dancing place, dey 'ave come down. Dey +'ave lost all they got. De ants come to deir house one afternoon. Everyone +run out. You know when de ants come one must--everyone runs out and they +go over the house. If you stayed they'd eat you. See? Well, presently dey +go back; dey say, 'The ants 'ave gone.' ... De ants _'aven't_ gone. +Dey try to go in--de son, 'e goes in. De ants fight." + +"Swarm over him?" + +"Bite 'im. Presently he comes out again--screaming and running. He runs +past them to the river. See? He gets into de water and drowns de ants-- +yes." Gerilleau paused, brought his liquid eyes close to Holroyd's face, +tapped Holroyd's knee with his knuckle. "That night he dies, just as if he +was stung by a snake." + +"Poisoned--by the ants?" + +"Who knows?" Gerilleau shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps they bit him +badly... When I joined dis service I joined to fight men. Dese things, +dese ants, dey come and go. It is no business for men." + +After that he talked frequently of the ants to Holroyd, and whenever they +chanced to drift against any speck of humanity in that waste of water and +sunshine and distant trees, Holroyd's improving knowledge of the language +enabled him to recognise the ascendant word _Saüba_, more and more +completely dominating the whole. + +He perceived the ants were becoming interesting, and the nearer he drew to +them the more interesting they became. Gerilleau abandoned his old themes +almost suddenly, and the Portuguese lieutenant became a conversational +figure; he knew something about the leaf-cutting ant, and expanded his +knowledge. Gerilleau sometimes rendered what he had to tell to Holroyd. He +told of the little workers that swarm and fight, and the big workers that +command and rule, and how these latter always crawled to the neck and how +their bites drew blood. He told how they cut leaves and made fungus beds, +and how their nests in Caracas are sometimes a hundred yards across. Two +days the three men spent disputing whether ants have eyes. The discussion +grew dangerously heated on the second afternoon, and Holroyd saved the +situation by going ashore in a boat to catch ants and see. He captured +various specimens and returned, and some had eyes and some hadn't. Also, +they argued, do ants bite or sting? + +"Dese ants," said Gerilleau, after collecting information at a rancho, +"have big eyes. They don't run about blind--not as most ants do. No! Dey +get in corners and watch what you do." + +"And they sting?" asked Holroyd. + +"Yes. Dey sting. Dere is poison in the sting." He meditated. "I do not see +what men can do against ants. Dey come and go." + +"But these don't go." + +"They will," said Gerilleau. + +Past Tamandu there is a long low coast of eighty miles without any +population, and then one comes to the confluence of the main river and the +Batemo arm like a great lake, and then the forest came nearer, came at +last intimately near. The character of the channel changes, snags abound, +and the _Benjamin Constant_ moored by a cable that night, under the +very shadow of dark trees. For the first time for many days came a spell +of coolness, and Holroyd and Gerilleau sat late, smoking cigars and +enjoying this delicious sensation. Gerilleau's mind was full of ants and +what they could do. He decided to sleep at last, and lay down on a +mattress on deck, a man hopelessly perplexed, his last words, when he +already seemed asleep, were to ask, with a flourish of despair, "What can +one do with ants?... De whole thing is absurd." + +Holroyd was left to scratch his bitten wrists, and meditate alone. + +He sat on the bulwark and listened to the little changes in Gerilleau's +breathing until he was fast asleep, and then the ripple and lap of the +stream took his mind, and brought back that sense of immensity that had +been growing upon him since first he had left Para and come up the river. +The monitor showed but one small light, and there was first a little +talking forward and then stillness. His eyes went from the dim black +outlines of the middle works of the gunboat towards the bank, to the black +overwhelming mysteries of forest, lit now and then by a fire-fly, and +never still from the murmur of alien and mysterious activities... + +It was the inhuman immensity of this land that astonished and oppressed +him. He knew the skies were empty of men, the stars were specks in an +incredible vastness of space; he knew the ocean was enormous and +untamable, but in England he had come to think of the land as man's. In +England it is indeed man's, the wild things live by sufferance, grow on +lease, everywhere the roads, the fences, and absolute security runs. In an +atlas, too, the land is man's, and all coloured to show his claim to it-- +in vivid contrast to the universal independent blueness of the sea. He had +taken it for granted that a day would come when everywhere about the +earth, plough and culture, light tramways and good roads, an ordered +security, would prevail. But now, he doubted. + +This forest was interminable, it had an air of being invincible, and Man +seemed at best an infrequent precarious intruder. One travelled for miles, +amidst the still, silent struggle of giant trees, of strangulating +creepers, of assertive flowers, everywhere the alligator, the turtle, and +endless varieties of birds and insects seemed at home, dwelt +irreplaceably--but man, man at most held a footing upon resentful +clearings, fought weeds, fought beasts and insects for the barest +foothold, fell a prey to snake and beast, insect and fever, and was +presently carried away. In many places down the river he had been +manifestly driven back, this deserted creek or that preserved the name of +a _casa_, and here and there ruinous white walls and a shattered +tower enforced the lesson. The puma, the jaguar, were more the masters +here... + +Who were the real masters? + +In a few miles of this forest there must be more ants than there are men +in the whole world! This seemed to Holroyd a perfectly new idea. In a few +thousand years men had emerged from barbarism to a stage of civilisation +that made them feel lords of the future and masters of the earth! But what +was to prevent the ants evolving also? Such ants as one knew lived in +little communities of a few thousand individuals, made no concerted +efforts against the greater world. But they had a language, they had an +intelligence! Why should things stop at that any more than men had stopped +at the barbaric stage? Suppose presently the ants began to store +knowledge, just as men had done by means of books and records, use +weapons, form great empires, sustain a planned and organised war? + +Things came back to him that Gerilleau had gathered about these ants they +were approaching. They used a poison like the poison of snakes. They +obeyed greater leaders even as the leaf-cutting ants do. They were +carnivorous, and where they came they stayed... + +The forest was very still. The water lapped incessantly against the side. +About the lantern overhead there eddied a noiseless whirl of phantom +moths. + +Gerilleau stirred in the darkness and sighed. "What can one _do?_" he +murmured, and turned over and was still again. + +Holroyd was roused from meditations that were becoming sinister by the hum +of a mosquito. + + +II. + +The next morning Holroyd learnt they were within forty kilometres of +Badama, and his interest in the banks intensified. He came up whenever an +opportunity offered to examine his surroundings. He could see no signs of +human occupation whatever, save for a weedy ruin of a house and the +green-stained facade of the long-deserted monastery at Mojû, with a forest +tree growing out of a vacant window space, and great creepers netted across +its vacant portals. Several flights of strange yellow butterflies with +semi-transparent wings crossed the river that morning, and many alighted on +the monitor and were killed by the men. It was towards afternoon that they +came upon the derelict _cuberta_. + +She did not at first appear to be derelict; both her sails were set and +hanging slack in the afternoon calm, and there was the figure of a man +sitting on the fore planking beside the shipped sweeps. Another man +appeared to be sleeping face downwards on the sort of longitudinal bridge +these big canoes have in the waist. But it was presently apparent, from +the sway of her rudder and the way she drifted into the course of the +gunboat, that something was out of order with her. Gerilleau surveyed her +through a field-glass, and became interested in the queer darkness of the +face of the sitting man, a red-faced man he seemed, without a nose-- +crouching he was rather than sitting, and the longer the captain looked +the less he liked to look at him, and the less able he was to take his +glasses away. + +But he did so at last, and went a little way to call up Holroyd. Then he +went back to hail the cuberta. He hailed her again, and so she drove past +him. _Santa Rosa_ stood out clearly as her name. + +As she came by and into the wake of the monitor, she pitched a little, and +suddenly the figure of the crouching man collapsed as though all its joints +had given way. His hat fell off, his head was not nice to look at, and his +body flopped lax and rolled out of sight behind the bulwarks. + +"Caramba!" cried Gerilleau, and resorted to Holroyd forthwith. + +Holroyd was half-way up the companion. "Did you see dat?" said the +captain. + +"Dead!" said Holroyd. "Yes. You'd better send a boat aboard. There's +something wrong." + +"Did you--by any chance--see his face?" + +"What was it like?" + +"It was--ugh!--I have no words." And the captain suddenly turned his back +on Holroyd and became an active and strident commander. + +The gunboat came about, steamed parallel to the erratic course of the +canoe, and dropped the boat with Lieutenant da Cunha and three sailors to +board her. Then the curiosity of the captain made him draw up almost +alongside as the lieutenant got aboard, so that the whole of the _Santa +Rosa_, deck and hold, was visible to Holroyd. + +He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead +men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched +hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to +some strange exceptional process of decay. For a moment his attention +concentrated on those two enigmatical bundles of dirty clothes and laxly +flung limbs, and then his eyes went forward to discover the open hold +piled high with trunks and cases, and aft, to where the little cabin gaped +inexplicably empty. Then he became aware that the planks of the middle +decking were dotted with moving black specks. + +His attention was riveted by these specks. They were all walking in +directions radiating from the fallen man in a manner--the image came +unsought to his mind--like the crowd dispersing from a bull-fight. + +He became aware of Gerilleau beside him. "Capo," he said, "have you your +glasses? Can you focus as closely as those planks there?" + +Gerilleau made an effort, grunted, and handed him the glasses. + +There followed a moment of scrutiny. "It's ants," said the Englishman, and +handed the focused field-glass back to Gerilleau. + +His impression of them was of a crowd of large black ants, very like +ordinary ants except for their size, and for the fact that some of the +larger of them bore a sort of clothing of grey. But at the time his +inspection was too brief for particulars. The head of Lieutenant da Cunha +appeared over the side of the cuberta, and a brief colloquy ensued. + +"You must go aboard," said Gerilleau. + +The lieutenant objected that the boat was full of ants. + +"You have your boots," said Gerilleau. + +The lieutenant changed the subject. "How did these men die?" he asked. + +Captain Gerilleau embarked upon speculations that Holroyd could not +follow, and the two men disputed with a certain increasing vehemence. +Holroyd took up the field-glass and resumed his scrutiny, first of the +ants and then of the dead man amidships. + +He has described these ants to me very particularly. + +He says they were as large as any ants he has ever seen, black and moving +with a steady deliberation very different from the mechanical fussiness of +the common ant. About one in twenty was much larger than its fellows, and +with an exceptionally large head. These reminded him at once of the master +workers who are said to rule over the leaf-cutter ants; like them they +seemed to be directing and co-ordinating the general movements. They +tilted their bodies back in a manner altogether singular as if they made +some use of the fore feet. And he had a curious fancy that he was too far +off to verify, that most of these ants of both kinds were wearing +accoutrements, had things strapped about their bodies by bright white +bands like white metal threads... + +He put down the glasses abruptly, realising that the question of +discipline between the captain and his subordinate had become acute. + +"It is your duty," said the captain, "to go aboard. It is my +instructions." + +The lieutenant seemed on the verge of refusing. The head of one of the +mulatto sailors appeared beside him. + +"I believe these men were killed by the ants," said Holroyd abruptly in +English. + +The captain burst into a rage. He made no answer to Holroyd. "I have +commanded you to go aboard," he screamed to his subordinate in Portuguese. +"If you do not go aboard forthwith it is mutiny--rank mutiny. Mutiny and +cowardice! Where is the courage that should animate us? I will have you in +irons, I will have you shot like a dog." He began a torrent of abuse and +curses, he danced to and fro. He shook his fists, he behaved as if beside +himself with rage, and the lieutenant, white and still, stood looking at +him. The crew appeared forward, with amazed faces. + +Suddenly, in a pause of this outbreak, the lieutenant came to some heroic +decision, saluted, drew himself together and clambered upon the deck of +the cuberta. + +"Ah!" said Gerilleau, and his mouth shut like a trap. Holroyd saw the ants +retreating before da Cunha's boots. The Portuguese walked slowly to the +fallen man, stooped down, hesitated, clutched his coat and turned him +over. A black swarm of ants rushed out of the clothes, and da Cunha +stepped back very quickly and trod two or three times on the deck. + +Holroyd put up the glasses. He saw the scattered ants about the invader's +feet, and doing what he had never seen ants doing before. They had nothing +of the blind movements of the common ant; they were looking at him--as a +rallying crowd of men might look at some gigantic monster that had +dispersed it. + +"How did he die?" the captain shouted. + +Holroyd understood the Portuguese to say the body was too much eaten to +tell. + +"What is there forward?" asked Gerilleau. + +The lieutenant walked a few paces, and began his answer in Portuguese. He +stopped abruptly and beat off something from his leg. He made some +peculiar steps as if he was trying to stamp on something invisible, and +went quickly towards the side. Then he controlled himself, turned about, +walked deliberately forward to the hold, clambered up to the fore decking, +from which the sweeps are worked, stooped for a time over the second man, +groaned audibly, and made his way back and aft to the cabin, moving very +rigidly. He turned and began a conversation with his captain, cold and +respectful in tone on either side, contrasting vividly with the wrath and +insult of a few moments before. Holroyd gathered only fragments of its +purport. + +He reverted to the field-glass, and was surprised to find the ants had +vanished from all the exposed surfaces of the deck. He turned towards the +shadows beneath the decking, and it seemed to him they were full of +watching eyes. + +The cuberta, it was agreed; was derelict, but too full of ants to put men +aboard to sit and sleep: it must be towed. The lieutenant went forward to +take in and adjust the cable, and the men in the boat stood up to be ready +to help him. Holroyd's glasses searched the canoe. + +He became more and more impressed by the fact that a great if minute and +furtive activity was going on. He perceived that a number of gigantic +ants--they seemed nearly a couple of inches in length--carrying +oddly-shaped burthens for which he could imagine no use--were moving in +rushes from one point of obscurity to another. They did not move in columns +across the exposed places, but in open, spaced-out lines, oddly suggestive +of the rushes of modern infantry advancing under fire. A number were +taking cover under the dead man's clothes, and a perfect swarm was +gathering along the side over which da Cunha must presently go. + +He did not see them actually rush for the lieutenant as he returned, but +he has no doubt they did make a concerted rush. Suddenly the lieutenant +was shouting and cursing and beating at his legs. "I'm stung!" he shouted, +with a face of hate and accusation towards Gerilleau. + +Then he vanished over the side, dropped into his boat, and plunged at once +into the water. Holroyd heard the splash. + +The three men in the boat pulled him out and brought him aboard, and that +night he died. + +III. + +Holroyd and the captain came out of the cabin in which the swollen and +contorted body of the lieutenant lay and stood together at the stern of +the monitor, staring at the sinister vessel they trailed behind them. It +was a close, dark night that had only phantom flickerings of sheet +lightning to illuminate it. The cuberta, a vague black triangle, rocked +about in the steamer's wake, her sails bobbing and flapping, and the black +smoke from the funnels, spark-lit ever and again, streamed over her +swaying masts. + +Gerilleau's mind was inclined to run on the unkind things the lieutenant +had said in the heat of his last fever. + +"He says I murdered 'im," he protested. "It is simply absurd. Someone +_'ad_ to go aboard. Are we to run away from these confounded ants +whenever they show up?" + +Holroyd said nothing. He was thinking of a disciplined rush of little +black shapes across bare sunlit planking. + +"It was his place to go," harped Gerilleau. "He died in the execution of +his duty. What has he to complain of? Murdered!... But the poor fellow +was--what is it?--demented. He was not in his right mind. The poison +swelled him... U'm." + +They came to a long silence. + +"We will sink that canoe--burn it." + +"And then?" + +The inquiry irritated Gerilleau. His shoulders went up, his hands flew out +at right angles from his body. "What is one to _do?_" he said, his +voice going up to an angry squeak. + +"Anyhow," he broke out vindictively, "every ant in dat cuberta!--I will +burn dem alive!" + +Holroyd was not moved to conversation. A distant ululation of howling +monkeys filled the sultry night with foreboding sounds, and as the gunboat +drew near the black mysterious banks this was reinforced by a depressing +clamour of frogs. + +"What is one to _do?_" the captain repeated after a vast interval, +and suddenly becoming active and savage and blasphemous, decided to burn +the _Santa Rosa_ without further delay. Everyone aboard was pleased +by that idea, everyone helped with zest; they pulled in the cable, cut it, +and dropped the boat and fired her with tow and kerosene, and soon the +cuberta was crackling and flaring merrily amidst the immensities of the +tropical night. Holroyd watched the mounting yellow flare against the +blackness, and the livid flashes of sheet lightning that came and went +above the forest summits, throwing them into momentary silhouette, and his +stoker stood behind him watching also. + +The stoker was stirred to the depths of his linguistics. "_Saüba_ go +pop, pop," he said, "Wahaw" and laughed richly. + +But Holroyd was thinking that these little creatures on the decked canoe +had also eyes and brains. + +The whole thing impressed him as incredibly foolish and wrong, but--what +was one to _do_? This question came back enormously reinforced on the +morrow, when at last the gunboat reached Badama. + +This place, with its leaf-thatch-covered houses and sheds, its +creeper-invaded sugar-mill, its little jetty of timber and canes, was very +still in the morning heat, and showed never a sign of living men. Whatever +ants there were at that distance were too small to see. + +"All the people have gone," said Gerilleau, "but we will do one thing +anyhow. We will 'oot and vissel." + +So Holroyd hooted and whistled. + +Then the captain fell into a doubting fit of the worst kind. "Dere is one +thing we can do," he said presently, "What's that?" said Holroyd. + +"'Oot and vissel again." + +So they did. + +The captain walked his deck and gesticulated to himself. He seemed to have +many things on his mind. Fragments of speeches came from his lips. He +appeared to be addressing some imaginary public tribunal either in Spanish +or Portuguese. Holroyd's improving ear detected something about +ammunition. He came out of these preoccupations suddenly into English. "My +dear 'Olroyd!" he cried, and broke off with "But what _can_ one do?" + +They took the boat and the field-glasses, and went close in to examine the +place. They made out a number of big ants, whose still postures had a +certain effect of watching them, dotted about the edge of the rude +embarkation jetty. Gerilleau tried ineffectual pistol shots at these. +Holroyd thinks he distinguished curious earthworks running between the +nearer houses, that may have been the work of the insect conquerors of +those human habitations. The explorers pulled past the jetty, and became +aware of a human skeleton wearing a loin cloth, and very bright and clean +and shining, lying beyond. They came to a pause regarding this... + +"I 'ave all dose lives to consider," said Gerilleau suddenly. + +Holroyd turned and stared at the captain, realising slowly that he +referred to the unappetising mixture of races that constituted his crew. + +"To send a landing party--it is impossible--impossible. They will be +poisoned, they will swell, they will swell up and abuse me and die. It is +totally impossible... If we land, I must land alone, alone, in thick +boots and with my life in my hand. Perhaps I should live. Or again--I +might not land. I do not know. I do not know." + +Holroyd thought he did, but he said nothing. + +"De whole thing," said Gerilleau suddenly, "'as been got up to make me +ridiculous. De whole thing!" + +They paddled about and regarded the clean white skeleton from various +points of view, and then they returned to the gunboat. Then Gerilleau's +indecisions became terrible. Steam was got up, and in the afternoon the +monitor went on up the river with an air of going to ask somebody +something, and by sunset came back again and anchored. A thunderstorm +gathered and broke furiously, and then the night became beautifully cool +and quiet and everyone slept on deck. Except Gerilleau, who tossed about +and muttered. In the dawn he awakened Holroyd. + +"Lord!" said Holroyd, "what now?" + +"I have decided," said the captain. + +"What--to land?" said Holroyd, sitting up brightly. + +"No!" said the captain, and was for a time very reserved. "I have +decided," he repeated, and Holroyd manifested symptoms of impatience. + +"Well,--yes," said the captain, "_I shall fire de big gun!_" + +And he did! Heaven knows what the ants thought of it, but he did. He fired +it twice with great sternness and ceremony. All the crew had wadding in +their ears, and there was an effect of going into action about the whole +affair, and first they hit and wrecked the old sugar-mill, and then they +smashed the abandoned store behind the jetty. And then Gerilleau +experienced the inevitable reaction. + +"It is no good," he said to Holroyd; "no good at all. No sort of bally +good. We must go back--for instructions. Dere will be de devil of a row +about dis ammunition--oh! de _devil_ of a row! You don't know, +'Olroyd..." + +He stood regarding the world in infinite perplexity for a space. + +"But what else was there to _do?_" he cried. + +In the afternoon the monitor started down stream again, and in the evening +a landing party took the body of the lieutenant and buried it on the bank +upon which the new ants have so far not appeared... + +IV. + +I heard this story in a fragmentary state from Holroyd not three weeks +ago. + +These new ants have got into his brain, and he has come back to England +with the idea, as he says, of "exciting people" about them "before it is +too late." He says they threaten British Guiana, which cannot be much over +a trifle of a thousand miles from their present sphere of activity, and +that the Colonial Office ought to get to work upon them at once. He +declaims with great passion: "These are intelligent ants. Just think what +that means!" + +There can be no doubt they are a serious pest, and that the Brazilian +Government is well advised in offering a prize of five hundred pounds for +some effectual method of extirpation. It is certain too that since they +first appeared in the hills beyond Badama, about three years ago, they +have achieved extraordinary conquests. The whole of the south bank of the +Batemo River, for nearly sixty miles, they have in their effectual +occupation; they have driven men out completely, occupied plantations and +settlements, and boarded and captured at least one ship. It is even said +they have in some inexplicable way bridged the very considerable Capuarana +arm and pushed many miles towards the Amazon itself. There can be little +doubt that they are far more reasonable and with a far better social +organisation than any previously known ant species; instead of being in +dispersed societies they are organised into what is in effect a single +nation; but their peculiar and immediate formidableness lies not so much +in this as in the intelligent use they make of poison against their larger +enemies. It would seem this poison of theirs is closely akin to snake +poison, and it is highly probable they actually manufacture it, and that +the larger individuals among them carry the needle-like crystals of it in +their attacks upon men. + +Of course it is extremely difficult to get any detailed information about +these new competitors for the sovereignty of the globe. No eye-witnesses +of their activity, except for such glimpses as Holroyd's, have survived +the encounter. The most extraordinary legends of their prowess and +capacity are in circulation in the region of the Upper Amazon, and grow +daily as the steady advance of the invader stimulates men's imaginations +through their fears. These strange little creatures are credited not only +with the use of implements and a knowledge of fire and metals and with +organised feats of engineering that stagger our northern minds--unused as +we are to such feats as that of the Saübas of Rio de Janeiro, who in 1841 +drove a tunnel under the Parahyba where it is as wide as the Thames at +London Bridge--but with an organised and detailed method of record and +communication analogous to our books. So far their action has been a +steady progressive settlement, involving the flight or slaughter of every +human being in the new areas they invade. They are increasing rapidly in +numbers, and Holroyd at least is firmly convinced that they will finally +dispossess man over the whole of tropical South America. + +And why should they stop at tropical South America? + +Well, there they are, anyhow. By 1911 or thereabouts, if they go on as +they are going, they ought to strike the Capuarana Extension Railway, and +force themselves upon the attention of the European capitalist. + +By 1920 they will be half-way down the Amazon. I fix 1950 or '60 at the +latest for the discovery of Europe. + + + + + XXXI. + + THE DOOR IN THE WALL. + + +I. + +One confidential evening, not three months ago, Lionel Wallace told me +this story of the Door in the Wall. And at the time I thought that so far +as he was concerned it was a true story. + +He told it me with such a direct simplicity of conviction that I could not +do otherwise than believe in him. But in the morning, in my own flat, I +woke to a different atmosphere, and as I lay in bed and recalled the +things he had told me, stripped of the glamour of his earnest slow voice, +denuded of the focussed, shaded table light, the shadowy atmosphere that +wrapped about him and me, and the pleasant bright things, the dessert and +glasses and napery of the dinner we had shared, making them for the time a +bright little world quite cut off from everyday realities, I saw it all as +frankly incredible. "He was mystifying!" I said, and then: "How well he +did it!... It isn't quite the thing I should have expected him, of all +people, to do well." + +Afterwards as I sat up in bed and sipped my morning tea, I found myself +trying to account for the flavour of reality that perplexed me in his +impossible reminiscences, by supposing they did in some way suggest, +present, convey--I hardly know which word to use--experiences it was +otherwise impossible to tell. + +Well, I don't resort to that explanation now. I have got over my +intervening doubts. I believe now, as I believed at the moment of telling, +that Wallace did to the very best of his ability strip the truth of his +secret for me. But whether he himself saw, or only thought he saw, whether +he himself was the possessor of an inestimable privilege or the victim of +a fantastic dream, I cannot pretend to guess. Even the facts of his death, +which ended my doubts for ever, throw no light on that. + +That much the reader must judge for himself. + +I forget now what chance comment or criticism of mine moved so reticent a +man to confide in me. He was, I think, defending himself against an +imputation of slackness and unreliability I had made in relation to a +great public movement, in which he had disappointed me. But he plunged +suddenly. "I have," he said, "a preoccupation---- + +"I know," he went on, after a pause, "I have been negligent. The fact is-- +it isn't a case of ghosts or apparitions--but--it's an odd thing to tell +of, Redmond--I am haunted. I am haunted by something--that rather takes +the light out of things, that fills me with longings..." + +He paused, checked by that English shyness that so often overcomes us when +we would speak of moving or grave or beautiful things. "You were at Saint +Aethelstan's all through," he said, and for a moment that seemed to me +quite irrelevant. "Well"--and he paused. Then very haltingly at first, but +afterwards more easily, he began to tell of the thing that was hidden in +his life, the haunting memory of a beauty and a happiness that filled his +heart with insatiable longings, that made all the interests and spectacle +of worldly life seem dull and tedious and vain to him. + +Now that I have the clue to it, the thing seems written visibly in his +face. I have a photograph in which that look of detachment has been caught +and intensified. It reminds me of what a woman once said of him--a woman +who had loved him greatly. "Suddenly," she said, "the interest goes out of +him. He forgets you. He doesn't care a rap for you--under his very +nose..." + +Yet the interest was not always out of him, and when he was holding his +attention to a thing Wallace could contrive to be an extremely successful +man. His career, indeed, is set with successes. He left me behind him long +ago: he soared up over my head, and cut a figure in the world that I +couldn't cut--anyhow. He was still a year short of forty, and they say now +that he would have been in office and very probably in the new Cabinet if +he had lived. At school he always beat me without effort--as it were by +nature. We were at school together at Saint Aethelstan's College in West +Kensington for almost all our school-time. He came into the school as my +coequal, but he left far above me, in a blaze of scholarships and +brilliant performance. Yet I think I made a fair average running. And it +was at school I heard first of the "Door in the Wall"--that I was to hear +of a second time only a month before his death. + +To him at least the Door in the Wall was a real door, leading through a +real wall to immortal realities. Of that I am now quite assured. + +And it came into his life quite early, when he was a little fellow between +five and six. I remember how, as he sat making his confession to me with a +slow gravity, he reasoned and reckoned the date of it. "There was," he +said, "a crimson Virginia creeper in it--all one bright uniform crimson, +in a clear amber sunshine against a white wall. That came into the +impression somehow, though I don't clearly remember how, and there were +horse-chestnut leaves upon the clean pavement outside the green door. They +were blotched yellow and green, you know, not brown nor dirty, so that +they must have been new fallen. I take it that means October. I look out +for horse-chestnut leaves every year and I ought to know. + +"If I'm right in that, I was about five years and four months old." + +He was, he said, rather a precocious little boy--he learnt to talk at an +abnormally early age, and he was so sane and "old-fashioned," as people +say, that he was permitted an amount of initiative that most children +scarcely attain by seven or eight. His mother died when he was two, and he +was under the less vigilant and authoritative care of a nursery governess. +His father was a stern, preoccupied lawyer, who gave him little attention, +and expected great things of him. For all his brightness he found life a +little grey and dull, I think. And one day he wandered. + +He could not recall the particular neglect that enabled him to get away, +nor the course he took among the West Kensington roads. All that had faded +among the incurable blurs of memory. But the white wall and the green door +stood out quite distinctly. + +As his memory of that childish experience ran, he did at the very first +sight of that door experience a peculiar emotion, an attraction, a desire +to get to the door and open it and walk in. And at the same time he had +the clearest conviction that either it was unwise or it was wrong of him-- +he could not tell which--to yield to this attraction. He insisted upon it +as a curious thing that he knew from the very beginning--unless memory has +played him the queerest trick--that the door was unfastened, and that he +could go in as he chose. + +I seem to see the figure of that little boy, drawn and repelled. And it +was very clear in his mind, too, though why it should be so was never +explained, that his father would be very angry if he went in through that +door. + +Wallace described all these moments of hesitation to me with the utmost +particularity. He went right past the door, and then, with his hands in +his pockets and making an infantile attempt to whistle, strolled right +along beyond the end of the wall. There he recalls a number of mean dirty +shops, and particularly that of a plumber and decorator with a dusty +disorder of earthenware pipes, sheet lead, ball taps, pattern books of +wall paper, and tins of enamel. He stood pretending to examine these +things, and _coveting_, passionately desiring, the green door. + +Then, he said, he had a gust of emotion. He made a run for it, lest +hesitation should grip him again; he went plump with outstretched hand +through the green door and let it slam behind him. And so, in a trice, he +came into the garden that has haunted all his life. + +It was very difficult for Wallace to give me his full sense of that garden +into which he came. + +There was something in the very air of it that exhilarated, that gave one +a sense of lightness and good happening and well-being; there was +something in the sight of it that made all its colour clean and perfect +and subtly luminous. In the instant of coming into it one was exquisitely +glad--as only in rare moments, and when one is young and joyful one can be +glad in this world. And everything was beautiful there... + +Wallace mused before he went on telling me. "You see," he said, with the +doubtful inflection of a man who pauses at incredible things, "there were +two great panthers there... Yes, spotted panthers. And I was not afraid. +There was a long wide path with marble-edged flower borders on either +side, and these two huge velvety beasts were playing there with a ball. +One looked up and came towards me, a little curious as it seemed. It came +right up to me, rubbed its soft round ear very gently against the small +hand I held out, and purred. It was, I tell you, an enchanted garden. I +know. And the size? Oh! it stretched far and wide, this way and that. I +believe there were hills far away. Heaven knows where West Kensington had +suddenly got to. And somehow it was just like coming home. + +"You know, in the very moment the door swung to behind me, I forgot the +road with its fallen chestnut leaves, its cabs and tradesmen's carts, I +forgot the sort of gravitational pull back to the discipline and obedience +of home, I forgot all hesitations and fear, forgot discretion, forgot all +the intimate realities of this life. I became in a moment a very glad and +wonder-happy little boy--in another world. It was a world with a different +quality, a warmer, more penetrating and mellower light, with a faint clear +gladness in its air, and wisps of sun-touched cloud in the blueness of its +sky. And before me ran this long wide path, invitingly, with weedless beds +on either side, rich with untended flowers, and these two great panthers. +I put my little hands fearlessly on their soft fur, and caressed their +round ears and the sensitive corners under their ears, and played with +them, and it was as though they welcomed me home. There was a keen sense +of home-coming in my mind, and when presently a tall, fair girl appeared +in the pathway and came to meet me, smiling, and said 'Well?' to me, and +lifted me, and kissed me, and put me down, and led me by the hand, there +was no amazement, but only an impression of delightful rightness, of being +reminded of happy things that had in some strange way been overlooked. +There were broad red steps, I remember, that came into view between spikes +of delphinium, and up these we went to a great avenue between very old and +shady dark trees. All down this avenue, you know, between the red chapped +stems, were marble seats of honour and statuary, and very tame and +friendly white doves... + +"Along this cool avenue my girl-friend led me, looking down--I recall the +pleasant lines, the finely-modelled chin of her sweet kind face--asking me +questions in a soft, agreeable voice, and telling me things, pleasant +things I know, though what they were I was never able to recall... +Presently a little Capuchin monkey, very clean, with a fur of ruddy brown +and kindly hazel eyes, came down a tree to us and ran beside me, looking +up at me and grinning, and presently leapt to my shoulder. So we two went +on our way in great happiness." + +He paused. + +"Go on," I said. + +"I remember little things. We passed an old man musing among laurels, I +remember, and a place gay with paroquets, and came through a broad shaded +colonnade to a spacious cool palace, full of pleasant fountains, full of +beautiful things, full of the quality and promise of heart's desire. And +there were many things and many people, some that still seem to stand out +clearly and some that are a little vague; but all these people were +beautiful and kind. In some way--I don't know how--it was conveyed to me +that they all were kind to me, glad to have me there, and filling me with +gladness by their gestures, by the touch of their hands, by the welcome +and love in their eyes. Yes----" + +He mused for a while. "Playmates I found there. That was very much to me, +because I was a lonely little boy. They played delightful games in a +grass-covered court where there was a sun-dial set about with flowers. And +as one played one loved... + +"But--it's odd--there's a gap in my memory. I don't remember the games we +played. I never remembered. Afterwards, as a child, I spent long hours +trying, even with tears, to recall the form of that happiness. I wanted to +play it all over again--in my nursery--by myself. No! All I remember is +the happiness and two dear playfellows who were most with me... Then +presently came a sombre dark woman, with a grave, pale face and dreamy +eyes, a sombre woman, wearing a soft long robe of pale purple, who carried +a book, and beckoned and took me aside with her into a gallery above a +hall--though my playmates were loth to have me go, and ceased their game +and stood watching as I was carried away. Come back to us!' they cried. +'Come back to us soon!' I looked up at her face, but she heeded them not +at all. Her face was very gentle and grave. She took me to a seat in the +gallery, and I stood beside her, ready to look at her book as she opened +it upon her knee. The pages fell open. She pointed, and I looked, +marvelling, for in the living pages of that book I saw myself; it was a +story about myself, and in it were all the things that had happened to me +since ever I was born... + +"It was wonderful to me, because the pages of that book were not pictures, +you understand, but realities." + +Wallace paused gravely--looked at me doubtfully. + +"Go on," I said. "I understand." + +"They were realities---yes, they must have been; people moved and things +came and went in them; my dear mother, whom I had near forgotten; then my +father, stern and upright, the servants, the nursery, all the familiar +things of home. Then the front door and the busy streets, with traffic to +and fro. I looked and marvelled, and looked half doubtfully again into the +woman's face and turned the pages over, skipping this and that, to see +more of this book and more, and so at last I came to myself hovering and +hesitating outside the green door in the long white wall, and felt again +the conflict and the fear. + +"'And next?' I cried, and would have turned on, but the cool hand of the +grave woman delayed me. + +"'Next?' I insisted, and struggled gently with her hand, pulling up her +fingers with all my childish strength, and as she yielded and the page +came over she bent down upon me like a shadow and kissed my brow. + +"But the page did not show the enchanted garden, nor the panthers, nor the +girl who had led me by the hand, nor the playfellows who had been so loth +to let me go. It showed a long grey street in West Kensington, in that +chill hour of afternoon before the lamps are lit, and I was there, a +wretched little figure, weeping aloud, for all that I could do to restrain +myself, and I was weeping because I could not return to my dear +playfellows who had called after me, 'Come back to us! Come back to us +soon!' I was there. This was no page in a book, but harsh reality; that +enchanted place and the restraining hand of the grave mother at whose knee +I stood had gone--whither had they gone?" + +He halted again, and remained for a time staring into the fire. + +"Oh! the woefulness of that return!" he murmured. + +"Well?" I said, after a minute or so. + +"Poor little wretch I was!--brought back to this grey world again! As I +realised the fulness of what had happened to me, I gave way to quite +ungovernable grief. And the shame and humiliation of that public weeping +and my disgraceful home-coming remain with me still. I see again the +benevolent-looking old gentleman in gold spectacles who stopped and spoke +to me--prodding me first with his umbrella. 'Poor little chap,' said he; +'and are you lost then?'--and me a London boy of five and more! And he +must needs bring in a kindly young policeman and make a crowd of me, and +so march me home. Sobbing, conspicuous, and frightened, I came back from +the enchanted garden to the steps of my father's house. + +"That is as well as I can remember my vision of that garden--the garden +that haunts me still. Of course, I can convey nothing of that +indescribable quality of translucent unreality, that _difference_ +from the common things of experience that hung about it all; but that-- +that is what happened. If it was a dream, I am sure it was a day-time and +altogether extraordinary dream... H'm!--naturally there followed a +terrible questioning, by my aunt, my father, the nurse, the governess-- +everyone... + +"I tried to tell them, and my father gave me my first thrashing for +telling lies. When afterwards I tried to tell my aunt, she punished me +again for my wicked persistence. Then, as I said, everyone was forbidden +to listen to me, to hear a word about it. Even my fairytale books were +taken away from me for a time--because I was too 'imaginative.' Eh? Yes, +they did that! My father belonged to the old school... And my story was +driven back upon myself. I whispered it to my pillow--my pillow that was +often damp and salt to my whispering lips with childish tears. And I added +always to my official and less fervent prayers this one heartfelt request: +'Please God I may dream of the garden. Oh! take me back to my garden!' +Take me back to my garden! I dreamt often of the garden. I may have added +to it, I may have changed it; I do not know... All this, you understand, +is an attempt to reconstruct from fragmentary memories a very early +experience. Between that and the other consecutive memories of my boyhood +there is a gulf. A time came when it seemed impossible I should ever speak +of that wonder glimpse again." + +I asked an obvious question. + +"No," he said. "I don't remember that I ever attempted to find my way back +to the garden in those early years. This seems odd to me now, but I think +that very probably a closer watch was kept on my movements after this +misadventure to prevent my going astray. No, it wasn't till you knew me +that I tried for the garden again. And I believe there was a period-- +incredible as it seems now--when I forgot the garden altogether--when I +was about eight or nine it may have been. Do you remember me as a kid at +Saint Aethelstan's?" + +"Rather!" + +"I didn't show any signs, did I, in those days of having a secret dream?" + + +II. + +He looked up with a sudden smile. + +"Did you ever play North-West Passage with me?... No, of course you didn't +come my way!" + +"It was the sort of game," he went on, "that every imaginative child plays +all day. The idea was the discovery of a North-West Passage to school. The +way to school was plain enough; the game consisted in finding some way +that wasn't plain, starting off ten minutes early in some almost hopeless +direction, and working my way round through unaccustomed streets to my +goal. And one day I got entangled among some rather low-class streets on +the other side of Campden Hill, and I began to think that for once the +game would be against me and that I should get to school late. I tried +rather desperately a street that seemed a _cul-de-sac_, and found a +passage at the end. I hurried through that with renewed hope. 'I shall do +it yet,' I said, and passed a row of frowsy little shops that were +inexplicably familiar to me, and behold! there was my long white wall and +the green door that led to the enchanted garden! + +"The thing whacked upon me suddenly. Then, after all, that garden, that +wonderful garden, wasn't a dream!" + +He paused. + +"I suppose my second experience with the green door marks the world of +difference there is between the busy life of a schoolboy and the infinite +leisure of a child. Anyhow, this second time I didn't for a moment think +of going in straight away. You see----. For one thing, my mind was full of +the idea of getting to school in time--set on not breaking my record for +punctuality. I must surely have felt _some_ little desire at least to +try the door--yes. I must have felt that... But I seem to remember the +attraction of the door mainly as another obstacle to my overmastering +determination to get to school. I was immensely interested by this +discovery I had made, of course--I went on with my mind full of it--but I +went on. It didn't check me. I ran past, tugging out my watch, found I had +ten minutes still to spare, and then I was going downhill into familiar +surroundings. I got to school, breathless, it is true, and wet with +perspiration, but in time. I can remember hanging up my coat and hat... +Went right by it and left it behind me. Odd, eh?" + +He looked at me thoughtfully, "Of course I didn't know then that it +wouldn't always be there. Schoolboys have limited imaginations. I suppose +I thought it was an awfully jolly thing to have it there, to know my way +back to it, but there was the school tugging at me. I expect I was a good +deal distraught and inattentive that morning, recalling what I could of +the beautiful strange people I should presently see again. Oddly enough I +had no doubt in my mind that they would be glad to see me... Yes, I must +have thought of the garden that morning just as a jolly sort of place to +which one might resort in the interludes of a strenuous scholastic career. + +"I didn't go that day at all. The next day was a half holiday, and that +may have weighed with me. Perhaps, too, my state of inattention brought +down impositions upon me, and docked the margin of time necessary for the +_detour_. I don't know. What I do know is that in the meantime the +enchanted garden was so much upon my mind that I could not keep it to +myself. + +"I told. What was his name?--a ferrety-looking youngster we used to call +Squiff." + +"Young Hopkins," said I. + +"Hopkins it was. I did not like telling him. I had a feeling that in some +way it was against the rules to tell him, but I did. He was walking part +of the way home with me; he was talkative, and if we had not talked about +the enchanted garden we should have talked of something else, and it was +intolerable to me to think about any other subject. So I blabbed. + +"Well, he told my secret. The next day in the play interval I found myself +surrounded by half a dozen bigger boys, half teasing, and wholly curious +to hear more of the enchanted garden. There was that big Fawcett--you +remember him?--and Carnaby and Morley Reynolds. You weren't there by any +chance? No, I think I should have remembered if you were... + +"A boy is a creature of odd feelings. I was, I really believe, in spite of +my secret self-disgust, a little flattered to have the attention of these +big fellows. I remember particularly a moment of pleasure caused by the +praise of Crawshaw--you remember Crawshaw major, the son of Crawshaw the +composer?--who said it was the best lie he had ever heard. But at the same +time there was a really painful undertow of shame at telling what I felt +was indeed a sacred secret. That beast Fawcett made a joke about the girl +in green----" + +Wallace's voice sank with the keen memory of that shame. "I pretended not +to hear," he said. "Well, then Carnaby suddenly called me a young liar, +and disputed with me when I said the thing was true. I said I knew where +to find the green door, could lead them all there in ten minutes. Carnaby +became outrageously virtuous, and said I'd have to--and bear out my words +or suffer. Did you ever have Carnaby twist your arm? Then perhaps you'll +understand how it went with me. I swore my story was true. There was +nobody in the school then to save a chap from Carnaby, though Crawshaw put +in a word or so. Carnaby had got his game. I grew excited and red-eared, +and a little frightened. I behaved altogether like a silly little chap, +and the outcome of it all was that instead of starting alone for my +enchanted garden, I led the way presently--cheeks flushed, ears hot, eyes +smarting, and my soul one burning misery and shame--for a party of six +mocking, curious, and threatening schoolfellows. + +"We never found the white wall and the green door..." + +"You mean----?" + +"I mean I couldn't find it. I would have found it if I could. + +"And afterwards when I could go alone I couldn't find it. I never found +it. I seem now to have been always looking for it through my school-boy +days, but I never came upon it--never." + +"Did the fellows--make it disagreeable?" + +"Beastly... Carnaby held a council over me for wanton lying. I remember +how I sneaked home and upstairs to hide the marks of my blubbering. But +when I cried myself to sleep at last it wasn't for Carnaby, but for the +garden, for the beautiful afternoon I had hoped for, for the sweet +friendly women and the waiting playfellows, and the game I had hoped to +learn again, that beautiful forgotten game... + +"I believed firmly that if I had not told--... I had bad times after +that--crying at night and wool-gathering by day. For two terms I slackened +and had bad reports. Do you remember? Of course you would! It was +_you_--your beating me in mathematics that brought me back to the +grind again." + + +III. + +For a time my friend stared silently into the red heart of the fire. Then +he said: "I never saw it again until I was seventeen. + +"It leapt upon me for the third time--as I was driving to Paddington on my +way to Oxford and a scholarship. I had just one momentary glimpse. I was +leaning over the apron of my hansom smoking a cigarette, and no doubt +thinking myself no end of a man of the world, and suddenly there was the +door, the wall, the dear sense of unforgettable and still attainable +things. + +"We clattered by--I too taken by surprise to stop my cab until we were +well past and round a corner. Then I had a queer moment, a double and +divergent movement of my will: I tapped the little door in the roof of the +cab, and brought my arm down to pull out my watch. 'Yes, sir!' said the +cabman, smartly. 'Er--well--it's nothing,' I cried. '_My_ mistake! We +haven't much time! Go on!' And he went on... + +"I got my scholarship. And the night after I was told of that I sat over +my fire in my little upper room, my study, in my father's house, with his +praise--his rare praise--and his sound counsels ringing in my ears, and I +smoked my favourite pipe--the formidable bulldog of adolescence--and +thought of that door in the long white wall. 'If I had stopped,' I +thought, 'I should have missed my scholarship, I should have missed +Oxford--muddled all the fine career before me! I begin to see things +better!' I fell musing deeply, but I did not doubt then this career of +mine was a thing that merited sacrifice. + +"Those dear friends and that clear atmosphere seemed very sweet to me, +very fine but remote. My grip was fixing now upon the world. I saw another +door opening--the door of my career." + +He stared again into the fire. Its red light picked out a stubborn +strength in his face for just one flickering moment, and then it vanished +again. + +"Well," he said and sighed, "I have served that career. I have done--much +work, much hard work. But I have dreamt of the enchanted garden a thousand +dreams, and seen its door, or at least glimpsed its door, four times since +then. Yes--four times. For a while this world was so bright and +interesting, seemed so full of meaning and opportunity, that the +half-effaced charm of the garden was by comparison gentle and remote. Who +wants to pat panthers on the way to dinner with pretty women and +distinguished men? I came down to London from Oxford, a man of bold +promise that I have done something to redeem. Something--and yet there +have been disappointments... + +"Twice I have been in love--I will not dwell on that--but once, as I went +to someone who, I knew, doubted whether I dared to come, I took a short +cut at a venture through an unfrequented road near Earl's Court, and so +happened on a white wall and a familiar green door. 'Odd!' said I to +myself, 'but I thought this place was on Campden Hill. It's the place I +never could find somehow--like counting Stonehenge--the place of that +queer daydream of mine.' And I went by it intent upon my purpose. It had +no appeal to me that afternoon. + +"I had just a moment's impulse to try the door, three steps aside were +needed at the most--though I was sure enough in my heart that it would +open to me--and then I thought that doing so might delay me on the way to +that appointment in which I thought my honour was involved. Afterwards I +was sorry for my punctuality--might at least have peeped in, I thought, +and waved a hand to those panthers, but I knew enough by this time not to +seek again belatedly that which is not found by seeking. Yes, that time +made me very sorry... + +"Years of hard work after that, and never a sight of the door. It's only +recently it has come back to me. With it there has come a sense as though +some thin tarnish had spread itself over my world. I began to think of it +as a sorrowful and bitter thing that I should never see that door again. +Perhaps I was suffering a little from overwork--perhaps it was what I've +heard spoken of as the feeling of forty. I don't know. But certainly the +keen brightness that makes effort easy has gone out of things recently, +and that just at a time--with all these new political developments--when I +ought to be working. Odd, isn't it? But I do begin to find life toilsome, +its rewards, as I come near them, cheap. I began a little while ago to +want the garden quite badly. Yes--and I've seen it three times." + +"The garden?" + +"No---the door! And I haven't gone in!" + +He leant over the table to me, with an enormous sorrow in his voice as he +spoke. "Thrice I have had my chance--_thrice_! If ever that door +offers itself to me again, I swore, I will go in, out of this dust and +heat, out of this dry glitter of vanity, out of these toilsome futilities. +I will go and never return. This time I will stay... I swore it, and when +the time came--_I didn't go_. + +"Three times in one year have I passed that door and failed to enter. +Three times in the last year. + +"The first time was on the night of the snatch division on the Tenants' +Redemption Bill, on which the Government was saved by a majority of three. +You remember? No one on our side--perhaps very few on the opposite side-- +expected the end that night. Then the debate collapsed like eggshells. I +and Hotchkiss were dining with his cousin at Brentford; we were both +unpaired, and we were called up by telephone, and set off at once in his +cousin's motor. We got in barely in time, and on the way we passed my wall +and door--livid in the moonlight, blotched with hot yellow as the glare of +our lamps lit it, but unmistakable. 'My God!' cried I. 'What?' said +Hotchkiss. 'Nothing!' I answered, and the moment passed. + +"'I've made a great sacrifice,' I told the whip as I got in. 'They all +have,' he said, and hurried by. + +"I do not see how I could have done otherwise then. And the next occasion +was as I rushed to my father's bedside to bid that stern old man farewell. +Then, too, the claims of life were imperative. But the third time was +different; it happened a week ago. It fills me with hot remorse to recall +it. I was with Gurker and Ralphs--it's no secret now, you know, that I've +had my talk with Gurker. We had been dining at Frobisher's, and the talk +had become intimate between us. The question of my place in the +reconstructed Ministry lay always just over the boundary of the +discussion. Yes--yes. That's all settled. It needn't be talked about yet, +but there's no reason to keep a secret from you... Yes--thanks! thanks! +But let me tell you my story. + +"Then, on that night things were very much in the air. My position was a +very delicate one. I was keenly anxious to get some definite word from +Gurker, but was hampered by Ralphs' presence. I was using the best power +of my brain to keep that light and careless talk not too obviously +directed to the point that concerned me. I had to. Ralphs' behaviour since +has more than justified my caution... Ralphs, I knew, would leave us +beyond the Kensington High Street, and then I could surprise Gurker by a +sudden frankness. One has sometimes to resort to these little devices... +And then it was that in the margin of my field of vision I became aware +once more of the white wall, the green door before us down the road. + +"We passed it talking. I passed it. I can still see the shadow of Gurker's +marked profile, his opera hat tilted forward over his prominent nose, the +many folds of his neck wrap going before my shadow and Ralphs' as we +sauntered past. + +"I passed within twenty inches of the door. 'If I say good-night to them, +and go in,' I asked myself, 'what will happen?' And I was all a-tingle for +that word with Gurker. + +"I could not answer that question in the tangle of my other problems. +'They will think me mad,' I thought. 'And suppose I vanish now!---Amazing +disappearance of a prominent politician!' That weighed with me. A thousand +inconceivably petty worldlinesses weighed with me in that crisis." + +Then he turned on me with a sorrowful smile, and, speaking slowly, "Here I +am!" he said. + +"Here I am!" he repeated, "and my chance has gone from me. Three times in +one year the door has been offered me--the door that goes into peace, into +delight, into a beauty beyond dreaming, a kindness no man on earth can +know. And I have rejected it, Redmond, and it has gone----" + +"How do you know?" + +"I know. I know. I am left now to work it out, to stick to the tasks that +held me so strongly when my moments came. You say I have success--this +vulgar, tawdry, irksome, envied thing. I have it." He had a walnut in his +big hand. "If that was my success," he said, and crushed it, and held it +out for me to see. + +"Let me tell you something, Redmond. This loss is destroying me. For two +months, for ten weeks nearly now, I have done no work at all, except the +most necessary and urgent duties. My soul is full of inappeasable regrets. +At nights--when it is less likely I shall be recognised--I go out. I +wander. Yes. I wonder what people would think of that if they knew. A +Cabinet Minister, the responsible head of that most vital of all +departments, wandering alone--grieving--sometimes near audibly lamenting-- +for a door, for a garden!" + + +IV. + +I can see now his rather pallid face, and the unfamiliar sombre fire that +had come into his eyes. I see him very vividly to-night. I sit recalling +his words, his tones, and last evening's _Westminster Gazette_ still +lies on my sofa, containing the notice of his death. At lunch to-day the +club was busy with his death. We talked of nothing else. + +They found his body very early yesterday morning in a deep excavation near +East Kensington Station. It is one of two shafts that have been made in +connection with an extension of the railway southward. It is protected +from the intrusion of the public by a hoarding upon the high road, in +which a small doorway has been cut for the convenience of some of the +workmen who live in that direction. The doorway was left unfastened +through a misunderstanding between two gangers, and through it he made his +way... + +My mind is darkened with questions and riddles. + +It would seem he walked all the way from the House that night--he has +frequently walked home during the past Session--and so it is I figure his +dark form coming along the late and empty streets, wrapped up, intent. And +then did the pale electric lights near the station cheat the rough +planking into a semblance of white? Did that fatal unfastened door awaken +some memory? + +Was there, after all, ever any green door in the wall at all? + +I do not know. I have told his story as he told it to me. There are times +when I believe that Wallace was no more than the victim of the coincidence +between a rare but not unprecedented type of hallucination and a careless +trap, but that indeed is not my profoundest belief. You may think me +superstitious, if you will, and foolish; but, indeed, I am more than +half convinced that he had, in truth, an abnormal gift, and a sense, +something--I know not what---that in the guise of wall and door offered +him an outlet, a secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and +altogether more beautiful world. At any rate, you will say, it betrayed +him in the end. But did it betray him? There you touch the inmost mystery +of these dreamers, these men of vision and the imagination. We see our +world fair and common, the hoarding and the pit. By our daylight standard +he walked out of security into darkness, danger, and death. + +But did he see like that? + + + + + XXXII. + + THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND. + + +Three hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the snows +of Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador's Andes, there lies that +mysterious mountain valley, cut off from the world of men, the Country of +the Blind. Long years ago that valley lay so far open to the world that +men might come at last through frightful gorges and over an icy pass into +its equable meadows; and thither indeed men came, a family or so of +Peruvian half-breeds fleeing from the lust and tyranny of an evil Spanish +ruler. Then came the stupendous outbreak of Mindobamba, when it was night +in Quito for seventeen days, and the water was boiling at Yaguachi and all +the fish floating dying even as far as Guayaquil; everywhere along the +Pacific slopes there were land-slips and swift thawings and sudden floods, +and one whole side of the old Arauca crest slipped and came down in +thunder, and cut off the Country of the Blind for ever from the exploring +feet of men. But one of these early settlers had chanced to be on the +hither side of the gorges when the world had so terribly shaken itself, +and he perforce had to forget his wife and his child and all the friends +and possessions he had left up there, and start life over again in the +lower world. He started it again but ill, blindness overtook him, and he +died of punishment in the mines; but the story he told begot a legend that +lingers along the length of the Cordilleras of the Andes to this day. + +He told of his reason for venturing back from that fastness, into which he +had first been carried lashed to a llama, beside a vast bale of gear, when +he was a child. The valley, he said, had in it all that the heart of man +could desire--sweet water, pasture, and even climate, slopes of rich brown +soil with tangles of a shrub that bore an excellent fruit, and on one side +great hanging forests of pine that held the avalanches high. Far overhead, +on three sides, vast cliffs of grey-green rock were capped by cliffs of +ice; but the glacier stream came not to them but flowed away by the +farther slopes, and only now and then huge ice masses fell on the valley +side. In this valley it neither rained nor snowed, but the abundant +springs gave a rich green pasture, that irrigation would spread over all +the valley space. The settlers did well indeed there. Their beasts did +well and multiplied, and but one thing marred their happiness. Yet it was +enough to mar it greatly. A strange disease had come upon them, and had +made all the children born to them there--and indeed, several older +children also--blind. It was to seek some charm or antidote against this +plague of blindness that he had with fatigue and danger and difficulty +returned down the gorge. In those days, in such cases, men did not think +of germs and infections but of sins; and it seemed to him that the reason +of this affliction must lie in the negligence of these priestless +immigrants to set up a shrine so soon as they entered the valley. He +wanted a shrine--a handsome, cheap, effectual shrine--to be erected in the +valley; he wanted relics and such-like potent things of faith, blessed +objects and mysterious medals and prayers. In his wallet he had a bar of +native silver for which he would not account; he insisted there was none +in the valley with something of the insistence of an inexpert liar. They +had all clubbed their money and ornaments together, having little need for +such treasure up there, he said, to buy them holy help against their ill. +I figure this dim-eyed young mountaineer, sunburnt, gaunt, and anxious, +hat-brim clutched feverishly, a man all unused to the ways of the lower +world, telling this story to some keen-eyed, attentive priest before the +great convulsion; I can picture him presently seeking to return with pious +and infallible remedies against that trouble, and the infinite dismay with +which he must have faced the tumbled vastness where the gorge had once +come out. But the rest of his story of mischances is lost to me, save that +I know of his evil death after several years. Poor stray from that +remoteness! The stream that had once made the gorge now bursts from the +mouth of a rocky cave, and the legend his poor, ill-told story set going +developed into the legend of a race of blind men somewhere "over there" +one may still hear to-day. + +And amidst the little population of that now isolated and forgotten valley +the disease ran its course. The old became groping and purblind, the young +saw but dimly, and the children that were born to them saw never at all. +But life was very easy in that snow-rimmed basin, lost to all the world, +with neither thorns nor briars, with no evil insects nor any beasts save +the gentle breed of llamas they had lugged and thrust and followed up the +beds of the shrunken rivers in the gorges up which they had come. The +seeing had become purblind so gradually that they scarcely noted their +loss. They guided the sightless youngsters hither and thither until they +knew the whole Valley marvellously, and when at last sight died out among +them the race lived on. They had even time to adapt themselves to the +blind control of fire, which they made carefully in stoves of stone. They +were a simple strain of people at the first, unlettered, only slightly +touched with the Spanish civilisation, but with something of a tradition +of the arts of old Peru and of its lost philosophy. Generation followed +generation. They forgot many things; they devised many things. Their +tradition of the greater world they came from became mythical in colour +and uncertain. In all things save sight they were strong and able, and +presently the chance of birth and heredity sent one who had an original +mind and who could talk and persuade among them, and then afterwards +another. These two passed, leaving their effects, and the little community +grew in numbers and in understanding, and met and settled social and +economic problems that arose. Generation followed generation. Generation +followed generation. There came a time when a child was born who was +fifteen generations from that ancestor who went out of the valley with a +bar of silver to seek God's aid, and who never returned. Thereabouts it +chanced that a man came into this community from the outer world. And this +is the story of that man. + +He was a mountaineer from the country near Quito, a man who had been down +to the sea and had seen the world, a reader of books in an original way, +an acute and enterprising man, and he was taken on by a party of +Englishmen who had come out to Ecuador to climb mountains, to replace one +of their three Swiss guides who had fallen ill. He climbed here and he +climbed there, and then came the attempt on Parascotopetl, the Matterhorn +of the Andes, in which he was lost to the outer world. The story of the +accident has been written a dozen times. Pointer's narrative is the best. +He tells how the little party worked their difficult and almost vertical +way up to the very foot of the last and greatest precipice, and how they +built a night shelter amidst the snow upon a little shelf of rock, and, +with a touch of real dramatic power, how presently they found Nunez had +gone from them. They shouted, and there was no reply; shouted and +whistled, and for the rest of that night they slept no more. + +As the morning broke they saw the traces of his fall. It seems impossible +he could have uttered a sound. He had slipped eastward towards the unknown +side of the mountain; far below he had struck a steep slope of snow, and +ploughed his way down it in the midst of a snow avalanche. His track went +straight to the edge of a frightful precipice, and beyond that everything +was hidden. Far, far below, and hazy with distance, they could see trees +rising out of a narrow, shut-in valley--the lost Country of the Blind. But +they did not know it was the lost Country of the Blind, nor distinguish it +in any way from any other narrow streak of upland valley. Unnerved by this +disaster, they abandoned their attempt in the afternoon, and Pointer was +called away to the war before he could make another attack. To this day +Parascotopetl lifts an unconquered crest, and Pointer's shelter crumbles +unvisited amidst the snows. + +And the man who fell survived. + +At the end of the slope he fell a thousand feet, and came down in the +midst of a cloud of snow upon a snow slope even steeper than the one +above. Down this he was whirled, stunned and insensible, but without a +bone broken in his body; and then at last came to gentler slopes, and at +last rolled out and lay still, buried amidst a softening heap of the white +masses that had accompanied and saved him. He came to himself with a dim +fancy that he was ill in bed; then realised his position with a +mountaineer's intelligence, and worked himself loose and, after a rest or +so, out until he saw the stars. He rested flat upon his chest for a space, +wondering where he was and what had happened to him. He explored his +limbs, and discovered that several of his buttons were gone and his coat +turned over his head. His knife had gone from his pocket and his hat was +lost, though he had tied it under his chin. He recalled that he had been +looking for loose stones to raise his piece of the shelter wall. His +ice-axe had disappeared. + +He decided he must have fallen, and looked up to see, exaggerated by the +ghastly light of the rising moon, the tremendous flight he had taken. For +a while he lay, gazing blankly at that vast pale cliff towering above, +rising moment by moment out of a subsiding tide of darkness. Its +phantasmal, mysterious beauty held him for a space, and then he was seized +with a paroxysm of sobbing laughter... + +After a great interval of time he became aware that he was near the lower +edge of the snow. Below, down what was now a moonlit and practicable +slope, he saw the dark and broken appearance of rock-strewn turf. He +struggled to his feet, aching in every joint and limb, got down painfully +from the heaped loose snow about him, went downward until he was on the +turf, and there dropped rather than lay beside a boulder, drank deep from +the flask in his inner pocket, and instantly fell asleep... + +He was awakened by the singing of birds in the trees far below. + +He sat up and perceived he was on a little alp at the foot of a vast +precipice, that was grooved by the gully down which he and his snow had +come. Over against him another wall of rock reared itself against the sky. +The gorge between these precipices ran east and west and was full of the +morning sunlight, which lit to the westward the mass of fallen mountain +that closed the descending gorge. Below him it seemed there was a +precipice equally steep, but behind the snow in the gully he found a sort +of chimney-cleft dripping with snow-water down which a desperate man might +venture. He found it easier than it seemed, and came at last to another +desolate alp, and then after a rock climb of no particular difficulty to a +steep slope of trees. He took his bearings and turned his face up the +gorge, for he saw it opened out above upon green meadows, among which he +now glimpsed quite distinctly a cluster of stone huts of unfamiliar +fashion. At times his progress was like clambering along the face of a +wall, and after a time the rising sun ceased to strike along the gorge, +the voices of the singing birds died away, and the air grew cold and dark +about him. But the distant valley with its houses was all the brighter for +that. He came presently to talus, and among the rocks he noted--for he was +an observant man--an unfamiliar fern that seemed to clutch out of the +crevices with intense green hands. He picked a frond or so and gnawed its +stalk and found it helpful. + +About midday he came at last out of the throat of the gorge into the plain +and the sunlight. He was stiff and weary; he sat down in the shadow of a +rock, filled up his flask with water from a spring and drank it down, and +remained for a time resting before he went on to the houses. + +They were very strange to his eyes, and indeed the whole aspect of that +valley became, as he regarded it, queerer and more unfamiliar. The greater +part of its surface was lush green meadow, starred with many beautiful +flowers, irrigated with extraordinary care, and bearing evidence of +systematic cropping piece by piece. High up and ringing the valley about +was a wall, and what appeared to be a circumferential water-channel, from +which the little trickles of water that fed the meadow plants came, and on +the higher slopes above this flocks of llamas cropped the scanty herbage. +Sheds, apparently shelters or feeding-places for the llamas, stood against +the boundary wall here and there. The irrigation streams ran together into +a main channel down the centre of the valley, and this was enclosed on +either side by a wall breast high. This gave a singularly urban quality to +this secluded place, a quality that was greatly enhanced by the fact that +a number of paths paved with black and white stones, and each with a +curious little kerb at the side, ran hither and thither in an orderly +manner. The houses of the central village were quite unlike the casual and +higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain villages he knew; they +stood in a continuous row on either side of a central street of +astonishing cleanness; here and there their particoloured facade was +pierced by a door, and not a solitary window broke their even frontage. +They were particoloured with extraordinary irregularity, smeared with a +sort of plaster that was sometimes grey, sometimes drab, sometimes +slate-coloured or dark brown; and it was the sight of this wild plastering +first brought the word "blind" into the thoughts of the explorer. "The +good man who did that," he thought, "must have been as blind as a bat." + +He descended a steep place, and so came to the wall and channel that ran +about the valley, near where the latter spouted out its surplus contents +into the deeps of the gorge in a thin and wavering thread of cascade. He +could now see a number of men and women resting on piled heaps of grass, +as if taking a siesta, in the remoter part of the meadow, and nearer the +village a number of recumbent children, and then nearer at hand three men +carrying pails on yokes along a little path that ran from the encircling +wall towards the houses. These latter were clad in garments of llama cloth +and boots and belts of leather, and they wore caps of cloth with back and +ear flaps. They followed one another in single file, walking slowly and +yawning as they walked, like men who have been up all night. There was +something so reassuringly prosperous and respectable in their bearing that +after a moment's hesitation Nunez stood forward as conspicuously as +possible upon his rock, and gave vent to a mighty shout that echoed round +the valley. + +The three men stopped, and moved their heads as though they were looking +about them. They turned their faces this way and that, and Nunez +gesticulated with freedom. But they did not appear to see him for all his +gestures, and after a time, directing themselves towards the mountains far +away to the right, they shouted as if in answer. Nunez bawled again, and +then once more, and as he gestured ineffectually the word "blind" came up +to the top of his thoughts. "The fools must be blind," he said. + +When at last, after much shouting and wrath, Nunez crossed the stream by a +little bridge, came through a gate in the wall, and approached them, he +was sure that they were blind. He was sure that this was the Country of +the Blind of which the legends told. Conviction had sprung upon him, and a +sense of great and rather enviable adventure. The three stood side by +side, not looking at him, but with their ears directed towards him, +judging him by his unfamiliar steps. They stood close together like men a +little afraid, and he could see their eyelids closed and sunken, as though +the very balls beneath had shrunk away. There was an expression near awe +on their faces. + +"A man," one said, in hardly recognisable Spanish--"a man it is--a man or +a spirit--coming down from the rocks." + +But Nunez advanced with the confident steps of a youth who enters upon +life. All the old stories of the lost valley and the Country of the Blind +had come back to his mind, and through his thoughts ran this old proverb, +as if it were a refrain-- + +"In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King." + +"In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King." + +And very civilly he gave them greeting. He talked to them and used his +eyes. + +"Where does he come from, brother Pedro?" asked one. + +"Down out of the rocks." + +"Over the mountains I come," said Nunez, "out of the country beyond +there--where men can see. From near Bogota, where there are a hundred +thousands of people, and where the city passes out of sight." + +"Sight?" muttered Pedro. "Sight?" + +"He comes," said the second blind man, "out of the rocks." + +The cloth of their coats Nunez saw was curiously fashioned, each with a +different sort of stitching. + +They startled him by a simultaneous movement towards him, each with a hand +outstretched. He stepped back from the advance of these spread fingers. + +"Come hither," said the third blind man, following his motion and +clutching him neatly. + +And they held Nunez and felt him over, saying no word further until they +had done so. + +"Carefully," he cried, with a finger in his eye, and found they thought +that organ, with its fluttering lids, a queer thing in him. They went over +it again. + +"A strange creature, Correa," said the one called Pedro. "Feel the +coarseness of his hair. Like a llama's hair." + +"Rough he is as the rocks that begot him," said Correa, investigating +Nunez's unshaven chin with a soft and slightly moist hand. "Perhaps he +will grow finer." Nunez struggled a little under their examination, but +they gripped him firm. + +"Carefully," he said again. + +"He speaks," said the third man. "Certainly he is a man." + +"Ugh!" said Pedro, at the roughness of his coat. + +"And you have come into the world?" asked Pedro. + +"_Out_ of the world. Over mountains and glaciers; right over above +there, half-way to the sun. Out of the great big world that goes down, +twelve days' journey to the sea." + +They scarcely seemed to heed him. "Our fathers have told us men may be +made by the forces of Nature," said Correa. "It is the warmth of things +and moisture, and rottenness--rottenness." + +"Let us lead him to the elders," said Pedro. + +"Shout first," said Correa, "lest the children be afraid... This is a +marvellous occasion." + +So they shouted, and Pedro went first and took Nunez by the hand to lead +him to the houses. + +He drew his hand away. "I can see," he said. + +"See?" said Correa. + +"Yes, see," said Nunez, turning towards him, and stumbled against Pedro's +pail. + +"His senses are still imperfect," said the third blind man. "He stumbles, +and talks unmeaning words. Lead him by the hand." + +"As you will," said Nunez, and was led along, laughing. + +It seemed they knew nothing of sight. + +Well, all in good time he would teach them. + +He heard people shouting, and saw a number of figures gathering together +in the middle roadway of the village. + +He found it tax his nerve and patience more than he had anticipated, that +first encounter with the population of the Country of the Blind. The place +seemed larger as he drew near to it, and the smeared plasterings queerer, +and a crowd of children and men and women (the women and girls, he was +pleased to note, had some of them quite sweet faces, for all that their +eyes were shut and sunken) came about him, holding on to him, touching him +with soft, sensitive hands, smelling at him, and listening at every word +he spoke. Some of the maidens and children, however, kept aloof as if +afraid, and indeed his voice seemed coarse and rude beside their softer +notes. They mobbed him. His three guides kept close to him with an effect +of proprietorship, and said again and again, "A wild man out of the rock." + +"Bogota," he said. "Bogota. Over the mountain crests." + +"A wild man--using wild words," said Pedro. "Did you hear that-- +_Bogota_? His mind is hardly formed yet. He has only the beginnings +of speech." + +A little boy nipped his hand. "Bogota!" he said mockingly. + +"Ay! A city to your village. I come from the great world--where men have +eyes and see." + +"His name's Bogota," they said. + +"He stumbled," said Correa, "stumbled twice as we came hither." + +"Bring him to the elders." + +And they thrust him suddenly through a doorway into a room as black as +pitch, save at the end there faintly glowed a fire. The crowd closed in +behind him and shut out all but the faintest glimmer of day, and before he +could arrest himself he had fallen headlong over the feet of a seated man. +His arm, outflung, struck the face of someone else as he went down; he +felt the soft impact of features and heard a cry of anger, and for a +moment he struggled against a number of hands that clutched him. It was a +one-sided fight. An inkling of the situation came to him, and he lay +quiet. + +"I fell down," he said; "I couldn't see in this pitchy darkness." + +There was a pause as if the unseen persons about him tried to understand +his words. Then the voice of Correa said: "He is but newly formed. He +stumbles as he walks and mingles words that mean nothing with his speech." + +Others also said things about him that he heard or understood imperfectly. + +"May I sit up?" he asked, in a pause. "I will not struggle against you +again." + +They consulted and let him rise. + +The voice of an older man began to question him, and Nunez found himself +trying to explain the great world out of which he had fallen, and the sky +and mountains and sight and such-like marvels, to these elders who sat in +darkness in the Country of the Blind. And they would believe and +understand nothing whatever he told them, a thing quite outside his +expectation. They would not even understand many of his words. For +fourteen generations these people had been blind and cut off from all the +seeing world; the names for all the things of sight had faded and changed; +the story of the outer world was faded and changed to a child's story; and +they had ceased to concern themselves with anything beyond the rocky +slopes above their circling wall. Blind men of genius had arisen among +them and questioned the shreds of belief and tradition they had brought +with them from their seeing days, and had dismissed all these things as +idle fancies, and replaced them with new and saner explanations. Much of +their imagination had shrivelled with their eyes, and they had made for +themselves new imaginations with their ever more sensitive ears and +finger-tips. Slowly Nunez realised this; that his expectation of wonder +and reverence at his origin and his gifts was not to be borne out; and +after his poor attempt to explain sight to them had been set aside as the +confused version of a new-made being describing the marvels of his +incoherent sensations, he subsided, a little dashed, into listening to +their instruction. And the eldest of the blind men explained to him life +and philosophy and religion, how that the world (meaning their valley) had +been first an empty hollow in the rocks, and then had come, first, +inanimate things without the gift of touch, and llamas and a few other +creatures that had little sense, and then men, and at last angels, whom +one could hear singing and making fluttering sounds, but whom no one could +touch at all, which puzzled Nunez greatly until he thought of the birds. + +He went on to tell Nunez how this time had been divided into the warm and +the cold, which are the blind equivalents of day and night, and how it was +good to sleep in the warm and work during the cold, so that now, but for +his advent, the whole town of the blind would have been asleep. He said +Nunez must have been specially created to learn and serve the wisdom, they +had acquired, and that for all his mental incoherency and stumbling +behaviour he must have courage, and do his best to learn, and at that all +the people in the doorway murmured encouragingly. He said the night--for +the blind call their day night--was now far gone, and it behoved every one +to go back to sleep. He asked Nunez if he knew how to sleep, and Nunez +said he did, but that before sleep he wanted food. + +They brought him food--llama's milk in a bowl, and rough salted bread--and +led him into a lonely place, to eat out of their hearing, and afterwards +to slumber until the chill of the mountain evening roused them to begin +their day again. But Nunez slumbered not at all. + +Instead, he sat up in the place where they had left him, resting his limbs +and turning the unanticipated circumstances of his arrival over and over +in his mind. + +Every now and then he laughed, sometimes with amusement, and sometimes +with indignation. + +"Unformed mind!" he said. "Got no senses yet! They little know they've +been insulting their heaven-sent king and master. I see I must bring them +to reason. Let me think--let me think." + +He was still thinking when the sun set. + +Nunez had an eye for all beautiful things, and it seemed to him that the +glow upon the snowfields and glaciers that rose about the valley on every +side was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. His eyes went from +that inaccessible glory to the village and irrigated fields, fast sinking +into the twilight, and suddenly a wave of emotion took him, and he thanked +God from the bottom of his heart that the power of sight had been given +him. + +He heard a voice calling to him from out of the village. "Ya ho there, +Bogota! Come hither!" + +At that he stood up smiling. He would show these people once and for all +what sight would do for a man. They would seek him, but not find him. + +"You move not, Bogota," said the voice. + +He laughed noiselessly, and made two stealthy steps aside from the path. + +"Trample not on the grass, Bogota; that is not allowed." + +Nunez had scarcely heard the sound he made himself. He stopped amazed. + +The owner of the voice came running up the piebald path towards him. + +He stepped back into the pathway. "Here I am," he said. + +"Why did you not come when I called you?" said the blind man. "Must you be +led like a child? Cannot you hear the path as you walk?" + +Nunez laughed. "I can see it," he said. + +"There is no such word as _see_," said the blind man, after a pause. +"Cease this folly, and follow the sound of my feet." + +Nunez followed, a little annoyed. + +"My time will come," he said. + +"You'll learn," the blind man answered. "There is much to learn in the +world." + +"Has no one told you, 'In the Country of the Blind the One-eyed Man is +King'?" + +"What is blind?" asked the blind man carelessly over his shoulder. + +Four days passed, and the fifth found the King of the Blind still +incognito, as a clumsy and useless stranger among his subjects. + +It was, he found, much more difficult to proclaim himself than he had +supposed, and in the meantime, while he meditated his _coup d'état,_ +he did what he was told and learnt the manners and customs of the Country +of the Blind. He found working and going about at night a particularly +irksome thing, and he decided that that should be the first thing he would +change. + +They led a simple, laborious life, these people, with all the elements of +virtue and happiness, as these things can be understood by men. They +toiled, but not oppressively; they had food and clothing sufficient for +their needs; they had days and seasons of rest; they made much of music +and singing, and there was love among them, and little children. + +It was marvellous with what confidence and precision they went about their +ordered world. Everything, you see, had been made to fit their needs; each +of the radiating paths of the valley area had a constant angle to the +others, and was distinguished by a special notch upon its kerbing; all +obstacles and irregularities of path or meadow had long since been cleared +away; all their methods and procedure arose naturally from their special +needs. Their senses had become marvellously acute; they could hear and +judge the slightest gesture of a man a dozen paces away--could hear the +very beating of his heart. Intonation had long replaced expression with +them, and touches gesture, and their work with hoe and spade and fork was +as free and confident as garden work can be. Their sense of smell was +extraordinarily fine; they could distinguish individual differences as +readily as a dog can, and they went about the tending of the llamas, who +lived among the rocks above and came to the wall for food and shelter, +with ease and confidence. It was only when at last Nunez sought to assert +himself that he found how easy and confident their movements could be. + +He rebelled only after he had tried persuasion. + +He tried at first on several occasions to tell them of sight. "Look you +here, you people," he said. "There are things you do not understand in +me." + +Once or twice one or two of them attended to him; they sat with faces +downcast and ears turned intelligently towards him, and he did his best to +tell them what it was to see. Among his hearers was a girl, with eyelids +less red and sunken than the others, so that one could almost fancy she +was hiding eyes, whom especially he hoped to persuade. He spoke of the +beauties of sight, of watching the mountains, of the sky and the sunrise, +and they heard him with amused incredulity that presently became +condemnatory. They told him there were indeed no mountains at all, but +that the end of the rocks where the llamas grazed was indeed the end of +the world; thence sprang a cavernous roof of the universe, from which the +dew and the avalanches fell; and when he maintained stoutly the world had +neither end nor roof such as they supposed, they said his thoughts were +wicked. So far as he could describe sky and clouds and stars to them it +seemed to them a hideous void, a terrible blankness in the place of the +smooth roof to things in which they believed--it was an article of faith +with them that the cavern roof was exquisitely smooth to the touch. He saw +that in some manner he shocked them, and gave up that aspect of the matter +altogether, and tried to show them the practical value of sight. One +morning he saw Pedro in the path called Seventeen and coming towards the +central houses, but still too far off for hearing or scent, and he told +them as much. "In a little while," he prophesied, "Pedro will be here." An +old man remarked that Pedro had no business on path Seventeen, and then, +as if in confirmation, that individual as he drew near turned and went +transversely into path Ten, and so back with nimble paces towards the +outer wall. They mocked Nunez when Pedro did not arrive, and afterwards, +when he asked Pedro questions to clear his character, Pedro denied and +outfaced him, and was afterwards hostile to him. + +Then he induced them to let him go a long way up the sloping meadows +towards the wall with one complacent individual, and to him he promised to +describe all that happened among the houses. He noted certain goings and +comings, but the things that really seemed to signify to these people +happened inside of or behind the windowless houses--the only things they +took note of to test him by--and of these he could see or tell nothing; +and it was after the failure of this attempt, and the ridicule they could +not repress, that he resorted to force. He thought of seizing a spade and +suddenly smiting one or two of them to earth, and so in fair combat +showing the advantage of eyes. He went so far with that resolution as to +seize his spade, and then he discovered a new thing about himself, and +that was that it was impossible for him to hit a blind man in cold blood. + +He hesitated, and found them all aware that he had snatched up the spade. +They stood alert, with their heads on one side, and bent ears towards him +for what he would do next. + +"Put that spade down," said one, and he felt a sort of helpless horror. He +came near obedience. + +Then he thrust one backwards against a house wall, and fled past him and +out of the village. + +He went athwart one of their meadows, leaving a track of trampled grass +behind his feet, and presently sat down by the side of one of their ways. +He felt something of the buoyancy that comes to all men in the beginning +of a fight, but more perplexity. He began to realise that you cannot even +fight happily with creatures who stand upon a different mental basis to +yourself. Far away he saw a number of men carrying spades and sticks come +out of the street of houses, and advance in a spreading line along the +several paths towards him. They advanced slowly, speaking frequently to +one another, and ever and again the whole cordon would halt and sniff the +air and listen. + +The first time they did this Nunez laughed. But afterwards he did not +laugh. + +One struck his trail in the meadow grass, and came stooping and feeling +his way along it. + +For five minutes he watched the slow extension of the cordon, and then his +vague disposition to do something forthwith became frantic. He stood up, +went a pace or so towards the circumferential wall, turned, and went back +a little way. There they all stood in a crescent, still and listening. + +He also stood still, gripping his spade very tightly in both hands. Should +he charge them? + +The pulse in his ears ran into the rhythm of "In the Country of the Blind +the One-eyed Man is King!" + +Should he charge them? + +He looked back at the high and unclimbable wall behind--unclimbable +because of its smooth plastering, but withal pierced with many little +doors, and at the approaching line of seekers. Behind these others were +now coming out of the street of houses. + +Should he charge them? + +"Bogota!" called one. "Bogota! where are you?" + +He gripped his spade still tighter, and advanced down the meadows towards +the place of habitations, and directly he moved they converged upon him. +"I'll hit them if they touch me," he swore; "by Heaven, I will. I'll hit." +He called aloud, "Look here, I'm going to do what I like in this valley. +Do you hear? I'm going to do what I like and go where I like!" + +They were moving in upon him quickly, groping, yet moving rapidly. It was +like playing blind man's buff, with everyone blindfolded except one. "Get +hold of him!" cried one. He found himself in the arc of a loose curve of +pursuers. He felt suddenly he must be active and resolute. + +"You don't understand," he cried in a voice that was meant to be great and +resolute, and which broke. "You are blind, and I can see. Leave me alone!" + +"Bogota! Put down that spade, and come off the grass!" + +The last order, grotesque in its urban familiarity, produced a gust of +anger. + +"I'll hurt you," he said, sobbing with emotion. "By Heaven, I'll hurt you. +Leave me alone!" + +He began to run, not knowing clearly where to run. He ran from the nearest +blind man, because it was a horror to hit him. He stopped, and then made a +dash to escape from their closing ranks. He made for where a gap was wide, +and the men on either side, with a quick perception of the approach of his +paces, rushed in on one another. He sprang forward, and then saw he must +be caught, and _swish_! the spade had struck. He felt the soft thud +of hand and arm, and the man was down with a yell of pain, and he was +through. + +Through! And then he was close to the street of houses again, and blind +men, whirling spades and stakes, were running with a sort of reasoned +swiftness hither and thither. + +He heard steps behind him just in time, and found a tall man rushing +forward and swiping at the sound of him. He lost his nerve, hurled his +spade a yard wide at his antagonist, and whirled about and fled, fairly +yelling as he dodged another. + +He was panic-stricken. He ran furiously to and fro, dodging when there was +no need to dodge, and in his anxiety to see on every side of him at once, +stumbling. For a moment he was down and they heard his fall. Far away in +the circumferential wall a little doorway looked like heaven, and he set +off in a wild rush for it. He did not even look round at his pursuers +until it was gained, and he had stumbled across the bridge, clambered a +little way among the rocks, to the surprise and dismay of a young llama, +who went leaping out of sight, and lay down sobbing for breath. + +And so his _coup d'état_ came to an end. + +He stayed outside the wall of the valley of the Blind for two nights and +days without food or shelter, and meditated upon the unexpected. During +these meditations he repeated very frequently and always with a profounder +note of derision the exploded proverb: "In the Country of the Blind the +One-Eyed Man is King." He thought chiefly of ways of fighting and +conquering these people, and it grew clear that for him no practicable way +was possible. He had no weapons, and now it would be hard to get one. + +The canker of civilisation had got to him even in Bogota, and he could not +find it in himself to go down and assassinate a blind man. Of course, if +he did that, he might then dictate terms on the threat of assassinating +them all. But--sooner or later he must sleep!... + +He tried also to find food among the pine trees, to be comfortable under +pine boughs while the frost fell at night, and--with less confidence--to +catch a llama by artifice in order to try to kill it--perhaps by hammering +it with a stone--and so finally, perhaps, to eat some of it. But the +llamas had a doubt of him and regarded him with distrustful brown eyes, +and spat when he drew near. Fear came on him the second day and fits of +shivering. Finally he crawled down to the wall of the Country of the Blind +and tried to make terms. He crawled along by the stream, shouting, until +two blind men came out to the gate and talked to him. + +"I was mad," he said. "But I was only newly made." + +They said that was better. + +He told them he was wiser now, and repented of all he had done. + +Then he wept without intention, for he was very weak and ill now, and they +took that as a favourable sign. + +They asked him if he still thought he could "_see_" + +"No," he said. "That was folly. The word means nothing--less than +nothing!" + +They asked him what was overhead. + +"About ten times ten the height of a man there is a roof above the world-- +of rock--and very, very smooth." ... He burst again into hysterical +tears. "Before you ask me any more, give me some food or I shall die." + +He expected dire punishments, but these blind people were capable of +toleration. They regarded his rebellion as but one more proof of his +general idiocy and inferiority; and after they had whipped him they +appointed him to do the simplest and heaviest work they had for anyone to +do, and he, seeing no other way of living, did submissively what he was +told. + +He was ill for some days, and they nursed him kindly. That refined his +submission. But they insisted on his lying in the dark, and that was a +great misery. And blind philosophers came and talked to him of the wicked +levity of his mind, and reproved him so impressively for his doubts about +the lid of rock that covered their cosmic casserole that he almost doubted +whether indeed he was not the victim of hallucination in not seeing it +overhead. + +So Nunez became a citizen of the Country of the Blind, and these people +ceased to be a generalised people and became individualities and familiar +to him, while the world beyond the mountains became more and more remote +and unreal. There was Yacob, his master, a kindly man when not annoyed; +there was Pedro, Yacob's nephew; and there was Medina-saroté, who was the +youngest daughter of Yacob. She was little esteemed in the world of the +blind, because she had a clear-cut face, and lacked that satisfying, +glossy smoothness that is the blind man's ideal of feminine beauty; but +Nunez thought her beautiful at first, and presently the most beautiful +thing in the whole creation. Her closed eyelids were not sunken and red +after the common way of the valley, but lay as though they might open +again at any moment; and she had long eyelashes, which were considered a +grave disfigurement. And her voice was strong, and did not satisfy the +acute hearing of the valley swains. So that she had no lover. + +There came a time when Nunez thought that, could he win her, he would be +resigned to live in the valley for all the rest of his days. + +He watched her; he sought opportunities of doing her little services, and +presently he found that she observed him. Once at a rest-day gathering +they sat side by side in the dim starlight, and the music was sweet. His +hand came upon hers and he dared to clasp it. Then very tenderly she +returned his pressure. And one day, as they were at their meal in the +darkness, he felt her hand very softly seeking him, and as it chanced the +fire leapt then and he saw the tenderness of her face. + +He sought to speak to her. + +He went to her one day when she was sitting in the summer moonlight +spinning. The light made her a thing of silver and mystery. He sat down at +her feet and told her he loved her, and told her how beautiful she seemed +to him. He had a lover's voice, he spoke with a tender reverence that came +near to awe, and she had never before been touched by adoration. She made +him no definite answer, but it was clear his words pleased her. + +After that he talked to her whenever he could take an opportunity. The +valley became the world for him, and the world beyond the mountains where +men lived in sunlight seemed no more than a fairy tale he would some day +pour into her ears. Very tentatively and timidly he spoke to her of sight. + +Sight seemed to her the most poetical of fancies, and she listened to his +description of the stars and the mountains and her own sweet white-lit +beauty as though it was a guilty indulgence. She did not believe, she +could only half understand, but she was mysteriously delighted, and it +seemed to him that she completely understood. + +His love lost its awe and took courage. Presently he was for demanding +her of Yacob and the elders in marriage, but she became fearful and +delayed. And it was one of her elder sisters who first told Yacob that +Medina-saroté and Nunez were in love. + +There was from the first very great opposition to the marriage of Nunez +and Medina-saroté; not so much because they valued her as because they +held him as a being apart, an idiot, incompetent thing below the +permissible level of a man. Her sisters opposed it bitterly as bringing +discredit on them all; and old Yacob, though he had formed a sort of +liking for his clumsy, obedient serf, shook his head and said the thing +could not be. The young men were all angry at the idea of corrupting the +race, and one went so far as to revile and strike Nunez. He struck back. +Then for the first time he found an advantage in seeing, even by twilight, +and after that fight was over no one was disposed to raise a hand against +him. But they still found his marriage impossible. + +Old Yacob had a tenderness for his last little daughter, and was grieved +to have her weep upon his shoulder. + +"You see, my dear, he's an idiot. He has delusions; he can't do anything +right." + +"I know," wept Medina-saroté. "But he's better than he was. He's getting +better. And he's strong, dear father, and kind--stronger and kinder than +any other man in the world. And he loves me--and, father, I love him." + +Old Yacob was greatly distressed to find her inconsolable, and, besides-- +what made it more distressing--he liked Nunez for many things. So he went +and sat in the windowless council-chamber with the other elders and +watched the trend of the talk, and said, at the proper time, "He's better +than he was. Very likely, some day, we shall find him as sane as +ourselves." + +Then afterwards one of the elders, who thought deeply, had an idea. He was +the great doctor among these people, their medicine-man, and he had a very +philosophical and inventive mind, and the idea of curing Nunez of his +peculiarities appealed to him. One day when Yacob was present he returned +to the topic of Nunez. + +"I have examined Bogota," he said, "and the case is clearer to me. I think +very probably he might be cured." + +"That is what I have always hoped," said old Yacob. + +"His brain is affected," said the blind doctor. + +The elders murmured assent. + +"Now, _what_ affects it?" + +"Ah!" said old Yacob. + +"_This_," said the doctor, answering his own question. "Those queer +things that are called the eyes, and which exist to make an agreeable soft +depression in the face, are diseased, in the case of Bogota, in such a way +as to affect his brain. They are greatly distended, he has eyelashes, and +his eyelids move, and consequently his brain is in a state of constant +irritation and distraction." + +"Yes?" said old Yacob. "Yes?" + +"And I think I may say with reasonable certainty that, in order to cure +him completely, all that we need do is a simple and easy surgical +operation--namely, to remove these irritant bodies." + +"And then he will be sane?" + +"Then he will be perfectly sane, and a quite admirable citizen." + +"Thank Heaven for science!" said old Yacob, and went forth at once to tell +Nunez of his happy hopes. + +But Nunez's manner of receiving the good news struck him as being cold and +disappointing. + +"One might think," he said, "from the tone you take, that you did not care +for my daughter." + +It was Medina-saroté who persuaded Nunez to face the blind surgeons. + +"_You_ do not want me," he said, "to lose my gift of sight?" + +She shook her head. + +"My world is sight." + +Her head drooped lower. + +"There are the beautiful things, the beautiful little things--the flowers, +the lichens among the rocks, the lightness and softness on a piece of fur, +the far sky with its drifting down of clouds, the sunsets and the stars. +And there is _you_. For you alone it is good to have sight, to see +your sweet, serene face, your kindly lips, your dear, beautiful hands +folded together... It is these eyes of mine you won, these eyes that hold +me to you, that these idiots seek. Instead, I must touch you, hear you, +and never see you again. I must come under that roof of rock and stone and +darkness, that horrible roof under which your imagination stoops... +No; you would not have me do that?" + +A disagreeable doubt had arisen in him. He stopped, and left the thing a +question. + +"I wish," she said, "sometimes----" She paused. + +"Yes," said he, a little apprehensively. + +"I wish sometimes--you would not talk like that." + +"Like what?" + +"I know it's pretty--it's your imagination. I love it, but _now_----" + +He felt cold. "_Now_?" he said faintly. + +She sat quite still. + +"You mean--you think--I should be better, better perhaps-----" + +He was realising things very swiftly. He felt anger, indeed, anger at the +dull course of fate, but also sympathy for her lack of understanding--a +sympathy near akin to pity. + +"_Dear_," he said, and he could see by her whiteness how intensely +her spirit pressed against the things she could not say. He put his arms +about her, he kissed her ear, and they sat for a time in silence. + +"If I were to consent to this?" he said at last, in a voice that was very +gentle. + +She flung her arms about him, weeping wildly. "Oh, if you would," she +sobbed, "if only you would!" + + * * * * * + +For a week before the operation that was to raise him from his servitude +and inferiority to the level of a blind citizen, Nunez knew nothing of +sleep, and all through the warm sunlit hours, while the others slumbered +happily, he sat brooding or wandered aimlessly, trying to bring his mind +to bear on his dilemma. He had given his answer, he had given his consent, +and still he was not sure. And at last work-time was over, the sun rose in +splendour over the golden crests, and his last day of vision began for +him. He had a few minutes with Medina-saroté before she went apart to +sleep. + +"To-morrow," he said, "I shall see no more." + +"Dear heart!" she answered, and pressed his hands with all her strength. + +"They will hurt you but little," she said; "and you are going through this +pain--you are going through it, dear lover, for _me_... Dear, if a +woman's heart and life can do it, I will repay you. My dearest one, my +dearest with the tender voice, I will repay." + +He was drenched in pity for himself and her. + +He held her in his arms, and pressed his lips to hers, and looked on her +sweet face for the last time. "Good-bye!" he whispered at that dear sight, +"good-bye!" + +And then in silence he turned away from her. + +She could hear his slow retreating footsteps, and something in the rhythm +of them threw her into a passion of weeping. + +He had fully meant to go to a lonely place where the meadows were +beautiful with white narcissus, and there remain until the hour of his +sacrifice should come, but as he went he lifted up his eyes and saw the +morning, the morning like an angel in golden armour, marching down the +steeps... + +It seemed to him that before this splendour he, and this blind world in +the valley, and his love, and all, were no more than a pit of sin. + +He did not turn aside as he had meant to do, but went on, and passed +through the wall of the circumference and out upon the rocks, and his eyes +were always upon the sunlit ice and snow. + +He saw their infinite beauty, and his imagination soared over them to the +things beyond he was now to resign for ever. + +He thought of that great free world he was parted from, the world that was +his own, and he had a vision of those further slopes, distance beyond +distance, with Bogota, a place of multitudinous stirring beauty, a glory +by day, a luminous mystery by night, a place of palaces and fountains and +statues and white houses, lying beautifully in the middle distance. He +thought how for a day or so one might come down through passes, drawing +ever nearer and nearer to its busy streets and ways. He thought of the +river journey, day by day, from great Bogota to the still vaster world +beyond, through towns and villages, forest and desert places, the rushing +river day by day, until its banks receded and the big steamers came +splashing by, and one had reached the sea--the limitless sea, with its +thousand islands, its thousands of islands, and its ships seen dimly far +away in their incessant journeyings round and about that greater world. +And there, unpent by mountains, one saw the sky--the sky, not such a disc +as one saw it here, but an arch of immeasurable blue, a deep of deeps in +which the circling stars were floating... + +His eyes scrutinised the great curtain of the mountains with a keener +inquiry. + +For example, if one went so, up that gully and to that chimney there, then +one might come out high among those stunted pines that ran round in a sort +of shelf and rose still higher and higher as it passed above the gorge. +And then? That talus might be managed. Thence perhaps a climb might be +found to take him up to the precipice that came below the snow; and if +that chimney failed, then another farther to the east might serve his +purpose better. And then? Then one would be out upon the amber-lit snow +there, and half-way up to the crest of those beautiful desolations. + +He glanced back at the village, then turned right round and regarded it +steadfastly. + +He thought of Medina-saroté, and she had become small and remote. + +He turned again towards the mountain wall, down which the day had come to +him. + +Then very circumspectly he began to climb. + +When sunset came he was no longer climbing, but he was far and high. He +had been higher, but he was still very high. His clothes were torn, his +limbs were blood-stained, he was bruised in many places, but he lay as if +he were at his ease, and there was a smile on his face. + +From where he rested the valley seemed as if it were in a pit and nearly a +mile below. Already it was dim with haze and shadow, though the mountain +summits around him were things of light and fire. The mountain summits +around him were things of light and fire, and the little details of the +rocks near at hand were drenched with subtle beauty--a vein of green +mineral piercing the grey, the flash of crystal faces here and there, a +minute, minutely-beautiful orange lichen close beside his face. There were +deep mysterious shadows in the gorge, blue deepening into purple, and +purple into a luminous darkness, and overhead was the illimitable vastness +of the sky. But he heeded these things no longer, but lay quite inactive +there, smiling as if he were satisfied merely to have escaped from the +valley of the Blind in which he had thought to be King. + +The glow of the sunset passed, and the night came, and still he lay +peacefully contented under the cold clear stars. + + + + + XXXIII. + + THE BEAUTIFUL SUIT. + + +There was once a little man whose mother made him a beautiful suit of +clothes. It was green and gold, and woven so that I cannot describe how +delicate and fine it was, and there was a tie of orange fluffiness that +tied up under his chin. And the buttons in their newness shone like stars. +He was proud and pleased by his suit beyond measure, and stood before the +long looking-glass when first he put it on, so astonished and delighted +with it that he could hardly turn himself away. He wanted to wear it +everywhere, and show it to all sorts of people. He thought over all the +places he had ever visited, and all the scenes he had ever heard +described, and tried to imagine what the feel of it would be if he were to +go now to those scenes and places wearing his shining suit, and he wanted +to go out forthwith into the long grass and the hot sunshine of the meadow +wearing it. Just to wear it! But his mother told him "No." She told him he +must take great care of his suit, for never would he have another nearly +so fine; he must save it and save it, and only wear it on rare and great +occasions. It was his wedding-suit, she said. And she took the buttons and +twisted them up with tissue paper for fear their bright newness should be +tarnished, and she tacked little guards over the cuffs and elbows, and +wherever the suit was most likely to come to harm. He hated and resisted +these things, but what could he do? And at last her warnings and +persuasions had effect, and he consented to take off his beautiful suit +and fold it into its proper creases, and put it away. It was almost as +though he gave it up again. But he was always thinking of wearing it, and +of the supreme occasions when some day it might be worn without the +guards, without the tissue paper on the buttons, utterly and delightfully, +never caring, beautiful beyond measure. + +One night, when he was dreaming of it after his habit, he dreamt he took +the tissue paper from one of the buttons, and found its brightness a +little faded, and that distressed him mightily in his dream. He polished +the poor faded button and polished it, and, if anything, it grew duller. +He woke up and lay awake, thinking of the brightness a little dulled, and +wondering how he would feel if perhaps when the great occasion (whatever +it might be) should arrive, one button should chance to be ever so little +short of its first glittering freshness, and for days and days that +thought remained with him distressingly. And when next his mother let him +wear his suit, he was tempted and nearly gave way to the temptation just +to fumble off one little bit of tissue paper and see if indeed the buttons +were keeping as bright as ever. + +He went trimly along on his way to church, full of this wild desire. For +you must know his mother did, with repeated and careful warnings, let him +wear his suit at times, on Sundays, for example, to and fro from church, +when there was no threatening of rain, no dust blowing, nor anything to +injure it, with its buttons covered and its protections tacked upon it, +and a sun-shade in his hand to shadow it if there seemed too strong a +sunlight for its colours. And always, after such occasions, he brushed it +over and folded it exquisitely as she had taught him, and put it away +again. + +Now all these restrictions his mother set to the wearing of his suit he +obeyed, always he obeyed them, until one strange night he woke up and saw +the moonlight shining outside his window. It seemed to him the moonlight +was not common moonlight, nor the night a common night, and for awhile he +lay quite drowsily, with this odd persuasion in his mind. Thought joined +on to thought like things that whisper warmly in the shadows. Then he sat +up in his little bed suddenly very alert, with his heart beating very +fast, and a quiver in his body from top to toe. He had made up his mind. +He knew that now he was going to wear his suit as it should be worn. He +had no doubt in the matter. He was afraid, terribly afraid, but glad, +glad. + +He got out of his bed and stood for a moment by the window looking at the +moonshine-flooded garden, and trembling at the thing he meant to do. The +air was full of a minute clamour of crickets and murmurings, of the +infinitesimal shoutings of little living things. He went very gently +across the creaking boards, for fear that he might wake the sleeping +house, to the big dark clothes-press wherein his beautiful suit lay +folded, and he took it out garment by garment, and softly and very eagerly +tore off its tissue-paper covering and its tacked protections until there +it was, perfect and delightful as he had seen it when first his mother had +given it to him--a long time it seemed ago. Not a button had tarnished, +not a thread had faded on this dear suit of his; he was glad enough for +weeping as in a noiseless hurry he put it on. And then back he went, soft +and quick, to the window that looked out upon the garden, and stood there +for a minute, shining in the moonlight, with his buttons twinkling like +stars, before he got out on the sill, and, making as little of a rustling +as he could, clambered down to the garden path below. He stood before his +mother's house, and it was white and nearly as plain as by day, with every +window-blind but his own shut like an eye that sleeps. The trees cast +still shadows like intricate black lace upon the wall. + +The garden in the moonlight was very different from the garden by day; +moonshine was tangled in the hedges and stretched in phantom cobwebs from +spray to spray. Every flower was gleaming white or crimson black, and the +air was a-quiver with the thridding of small crickets and nightingales +singing unseen in the depths of the trees. + +There was no darkness in the world, but only warm, mysterious shadows, +and all the leaves and spikes were edged and lined with iridescent jewels +of dew. The night was warmer than any night had ever been, the heavens +by some miracle at once vaster and nearer, and, spite of the great +ivory-tinted moon that ruled the world, the sky was full of stars. + +The little man did not shout nor sing for all his infinite gladness. He +stood for a time like one awestricken, and then, with a queer small cry +and holding out his arms, he ran out as if he would embrace at once the +whole round immensity of the world. He did not follow the neat set paths +that cut the garden squarely, but thrust across the beds and through the +wet, tall, scented herbs, through the night-stock and the nicotine and the +clusters of phantom white mallow flowers and through the thickets of +southernwood and lavender, and knee-deep across a wide space of +mignonette. He came to the great hedge, and he thrust his way through it; +and though the thorns of the brambles scored him deeply and tore threads +from his wonderful suit, and though burrs and goose-grass and havers +caught and clung to him, he did not care. He did not care, for he knew it +was all part of the wearing for which he had longed. "I am glad I put on +my suit," he said; "I am glad I wore my suit." + +Beyond the hedge he came to the duck-pond, or at least to what was the +duck-pond by day. But by night it was a great bowl of silver moonshine all +noisy with singing frogs, of wonderful silver moonshine twisted and +clotted with strange patternings, and the little man ran down into its +waters between the thin black rushes, knee-deep and waist-deep and to his +shoulders, smiting the water to black and shining wavelets with either +hand, swaying and shivering wavelets, amidst which the stars were netted +in the tangled reflections of the brooding trees upon the bank. He waded +until he swam, and so he crossed the pond and came out upon the other +side, trailing, as it seemed to him, not duckweed, but very silver in +long, clinging, dripping masses. And up he went through the transfigured +tangles of the willow-herb and the uncut seeding grasses of the farther +bank. He came glad and breathless into the high-road. "I am glad," he +said, "beyond measure, that I had clothes that fitted this occasion." + +The high-road ran straight as an arrow flies, straight into the deep-blue +pit of sky beneath the moon, a white and shining road between the singing +nightingales, and along it he went, running now and leaping, and now +walking and rejoicing, in the clothes his mother had made for him with +tireless, loving hands. The road was deep in dust, but that for him was +only soft whiteness; and as he went a great dim moth came fluttering round +his wet and shimmering and hastening figure. At first he did not heed the +moth, and then he waved his hands at it, and made a sort of dance with it +as it circled round his head. "Soft moth!" he cried, "dear moth! And +wonderful night, wonderful night of the world! Do you think my clothes are +beautiful, dear moth? As beautiful as your scales and all this silver +vesture of the earth and sky?" + +And the moth circled closer and closer until at last its velvet wings just +brushed his lips... + + * * * * * + +And next morning they found him dead, with his neck broken, in the bottom +of the stone pit, with his beautiful clothes a little bloody, and foul and +stained with the duckweed from the pond. But his face was a face of such +happiness that, had you seen it, you would have understood indeed how that +he had died happy, never knowing that cool and streaming silver for the +duckweed in the pond. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11870 *** |