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+Project Gutenberg Etext of Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
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+The Lair of the White Worm
+
+by Bram Stoker
+
+February, 1998  [Etext #1188]
+
+
+Project Gutenberg Etext of Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
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+
+
+
+The Lair of the White Worm
+
+by Bram Stoker
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--ADAM SALTON ARRIVES
+
+
+
+Adam Salton sauntered into the Empire Club, Sydney, and found
+awaiting him a letter from his grand-uncle.  He had first heard from
+the old gentleman less than a year before, when Richard Salton had
+claimed kinship, stating that he had been unable to write earlier,
+as he had found it very difficult to trace his grand-nephew's
+address.  Adam was delighted and replied cordially; he had often
+heard his father speak of the older branch of the family with whom
+his people had long lost touch.  Some interesting correspondence had
+ensued.  Adam eagerly opened the letter which had only just arrived,
+and conveyed a cordial invitation to stop with his grand-uncle at
+Lesser Hill, for as long a time as he could spare.
+
+"Indeed," Richard Salton went on, "I am in hopes that you will make
+your permanent home here.  You see, my dear boy, you and I are all
+that remain of our race, and it is but fitting that you should
+succeed me when the time comes.  In this year of grace, 1860, I am
+close on eighty years of age, and though we have been a long-lived
+race, the span of life cannot be prolonged beyond reasonable bounds.
+I am prepared to like you, and to make your home with me as happy as
+you could wish.  So do come at once on receipt of this, and find the
+welcome I am waiting to give you.  I send, in case such may make
+matters easy for you, a banker's draft for 200 pounds.  Come soon,
+so that we may both of us enjoy many happy days together.  If you
+are able to give me the pleasure of seeing you, send me as soon as
+you can a letter telling me when to expect you.  Then when you
+arrive at Plymouth or Southampton or whatever port you are bound
+for, wait on board, and I will meet you at the earliest hour
+possible."
+
+
+Old Mr. Salton was delighted when Adam's reply arrived and sent a
+groom hot-foot to his crony, Sir Nathaniel de Salis, to inform him
+that his grand-nephew was due at Southampton on the twelfth of June.
+
+Mr. Salton gave instructions to have ready a carriage early on the
+important day, to start for Stafford, where he would catch the 11.40
+a.m. train.  He would stay that night with his grand-nephew, either
+on the ship, which would be a new experience for him, or, if his
+guest should prefer it, at a hotel.  In either case they would start
+in the early morning for home.  He had given instructions to his
+bailiff to send the postillion carriage on to Southampton, to be
+ready for their journey home, and to arrange for relays of his own
+horses to be sent on at once.  He intended that his grand-nephew,
+who had been all his life in Australia, should see something of
+rural England on the drive.  He had plenty of young horses of his
+own breeding and breaking, and could depend on a journey memorable
+to the young man.  The luggage would be sent on by rail to Stafford,
+where one of his carts would meet it.  Mr. Salton, during the
+journey to Southampton, often wondered if his grand-nephew was as
+much excited as he was at the idea of meeting so near a relation for
+the first time; and it was with an effort that he controlled
+himself.  The endless railway lines and switches round the
+Southampton Docks fired his anxiety afresh.
+
+As the train drew up on the dockside, he was getting his hand traps
+together, when the carriage door was wrenched open and a young man
+jumped in.
+
+"How are you, uncle?  I recognised you from the photo you sent me!
+I wanted to meet you as soon as I could, but everything is so
+strange to me that I didn't quite know what to do.  However, here I
+am.  I am glad to see you, sir.  I have been dreaming of this
+happiness for thousands of miles; now I find that the reality beats
+all the dreaming!"  As he spoke the old man and the young one were
+heartily wringing each other's hands.
+
+The meeting so auspiciously begun proceeded well.  Adam, seeing that
+the old man was interested in the novelty of the ship, suggested
+that he should stay the night on board, and that he would himself be
+ready to start at any hour and go anywhere that the other suggested.
+This affectionate willingness to fall in with his own plans quite
+won the old man's heart.  He warmly accepted the invitation, and at
+once they became not only on terms of affectionate relationship, but
+almost like old friends.  The heart of the old man, which had been
+empty for so long, found a new delight.  The young man found, on
+landing in the old country, a welcome and a surrounding in full
+harmony with all his dreams throughout his wanderings and solitude,
+and the promise of a fresh and adventurous life.  It was not long
+before the old man accepted him to full relationship by calling him
+by his Christian name.  After a long talk on affairs of interest,
+they retired to the cabin, which the elder was to share.  Richard
+Salton put his hands affectionately on the boy's shoulders--though
+Adam was in his twenty-seventh year, he was a boy, and always would
+be, to his grand-uncle.
+
+"I am so glad to find you as you are, my dear boy--just such a young
+man as I had always hoped for as a son, in the days when I still had
+such hopes.  However, that is all past.  But thank God there is a
+new life to begin for both of us.  To you must be the larger part--
+but there is still time for some of it to be shared in common.  I
+have waited till we should have seen each other to enter upon the
+subject; for I thought it better not to tie up your young life to my
+old one till we should have sufficient personal knowledge to justify
+such a venture.  Now I can, so far as I am concerned, enter into it
+freely, since from the moment my eyes rested on you I saw my son--as
+he shall be, God willing--if he chooses such a course himself."
+
+"Indeed I do, sir--with all my heart!"
+
+"Thank you, Adam, for that."  The old, man's eyes filled and his
+voice trembled.  Then, after a long silence between them, he went
+on:  "When I heard you were coming I made my will.  It was well that
+your interests should be protected from that moment on.  Here is the
+deed--keep it, Adam.  All I have shall belong to you; and if love
+and good wishes, or the memory of them, can make life sweeter, yours
+shall be a happy one.  Now, my dear boy, let us turn in.  We start
+early in the morning and have a long drive before us.  I hope you
+don't mind driving?  I was going to have the old travelling carriage
+in which my grandfather, your great-grand-uncle, went to Court when
+William IV. was king.  It is all right--they built well in those
+days--and it has been kept in perfect order.  But I think I have
+done better:  I have sent the carriage in which I travel myself.
+The horses are of my own breeding, and relays of them shall take us
+all the way.  I hope you like horses?  They have long been one of my
+greatest interests in life."
+
+"I love them, sir, and I am happy to say I have many of my own.  My
+father gave me a horse farm for myself when I was eighteen.  I
+devoted myself to it, and it has gone on.  Before I came away, my
+steward gave me a memorandum that we have in my own place more than
+a thousand, nearly all good."
+
+"I am glad, my boy.  Another link between us."
+
+"Just fancy what a delight it will be, sir, to see so much of
+England--and with you!"
+
+"Thank you again, my boy.  I will tell you all about your future
+home and its surroundings as we go.  We shall travel in old-
+fashioned state, I tell you.  My grandfather always drove four-in-
+hand; and so shall we."
+
+"Oh, thanks, sir, thanks.  May I take the ribbons sometimes?"
+
+"Whenever you choose, Adam.  The team is your own.  Every horse we
+use to-day is to be your own."
+
+"You are too generous, uncle!"
+
+"Not at all.  Only an old man's selfish pleasure.  It is not every
+day that an heir to the old home comes back.  And--oh, by the way. .
+. No, we had better turn in now--I shall tell you the rest in the
+morning."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE CASWALLS OF CASTRA REGIS
+
+
+
+Mr. Salton had all his life been an early riser, and necessarily an
+early waker.  But early as he woke on the next morning--and although
+there was an excuse for not prolonging sleep in the constant whirr
+and rattle of the "donkey" engine winches of the great ship--he met
+the eyes of Adam fixed on him from his berth.  His grand-nephew had
+given him the sofa, occupying the lower berth himself.  The old man,
+despite his great strength and normal activity, was somewhat tired
+by his long journey of the day before, and the prolonged and
+exciting interview which followed it.  So he was glad to lie still
+and rest his body, whilst his mind was actively exercised in taking
+in all he could of his strange surroundings.  Adam, too, after the
+pastoral habit to which he had been bred, woke with the dawn, and
+was ready to enter on the experiences of the new day whenever it
+might suit his elder companion.  It was little wonder, then, that,
+so soon as each realised the other's readiness, they simultaneously
+jumped up and began to dress.  The steward had by previous
+instructions early breakfast prepared, and it was not long before
+they went down the gangway on shore in search of the carriage.
+
+They found Mr. Salton's bailiff looking out for them on the dock,
+and he brought them at once to where the carriage was waiting in the
+street.  Richard Salton pointed out with pride to his young
+companion the suitability of the vehicle for every need of travel.
+To it were harnessed four useful horses, with a postillion to each
+pair.
+
+"See," said the old man proudly, "how it has all the luxuries of
+useful travel--silence and isolation as well as speed.  There is
+nothing to obstruct the view of those travelling and no one to
+overhear what they may say.  I have used that trap for a quarter of
+a century, and I never saw one more suitable for travel.  You shall
+test it shortly.  We are going to drive through the heart of
+England; and as we go I'll tell you what I was speaking of last
+night.  Our route is to be by Salisbury, Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham,
+Worcester, Stafford; and so home."
+
+Adam remained silent a few minutes, during which he seemed all eyes,
+for he perpetually ranged the whole circle of the horizon.
+
+"Has our journey to-day, sir," he asked, "any special relation to
+what you said last night that you wanted to tell me?"
+
+"Not directly; but indirectly, everything."
+
+"Won't you tell me now--I see we cannot be overheard--and if
+anything strikes you as we go along, just run it in.  I shall
+understand."
+
+So old Salton spoke:
+
+"To begin at the beginning, Adam.  That lecture of yours on 'The
+Romans in Britain,' a report of which you posted to me, set me
+thinking--in addition to telling me your tastes.  I wrote to you at
+once and asked you to come home, for it struck me that if you were
+fond of historical research--as seemed a fact--this was exactly the
+place for you, in addition to its being the home of your own
+forbears.  If you could learn so much of the British Romans so far
+away in New South Wales, where there cannot be even a tradition of
+them, what might you not make of the same amount of study on the
+very spot.  Where we are going is in the real heart of the old
+kingdom of Mercia, where there are traces of all the various
+nationalities which made up the conglomerate which became Britain."
+
+"I rather gathered that you had some more definite--more personal
+reason for my hurrying.  After all, history can keep--except in the
+making!"
+
+"Quite right, my boy.  I had a reason such as you very wisely
+guessed.  I was anxious for you to be here when a rather important
+phase of our local history occurred."
+
+"What is that, if I may ask, sir?"
+
+"Certainly.  The principal land-owner of our part of the county is
+on his way home, and there will be a great home-coming, which you
+may care to see.  The fact is, for more than a century the various
+owners in the succession here, with the exception of a short time,
+have lived abroad."
+
+"How is that, sir, if I may ask?"
+
+"The great house and estate in our part of the world is Castra
+Regis, the family seat of the Caswall family.  The last owner who
+lived here was Edgar Caswall, grandfather of the man who is coming
+here--and he was the only one who stayed even a short time.  This
+man's grandfather, also named Edgar--they keep the tradition of the
+family Christian name--quarrelled with his family and went to live
+abroad, not keeping up any intercourse, good or bad, with his
+relatives, although this particular Edgar, as I told you, did visit
+his family estate, yet his son was born and lived and died abroad,
+while his grandson, the latest inheritor, was also born and lived
+abroad till he was over thirty--his present age.  This was the
+second line of absentees.  The great estate of Castra Regis has had
+no knowledge of its owner for five generations--covering more than a
+hundred and twenty years.  It has been well administered, however,
+and no tenant or other connected with it has had anything of which
+to complain.  All the same, there has been much natural anxiety to
+see the new owner, and we are all excited about the event of his
+coming.  Even I am, though I own my own estate, which, though
+adjacent, is quite apart from Castra Regis.--Here we are now in new
+ground for you.  That is the spire of Salisbury Cathedral, and when
+we leave that we shall be getting close to the old Roman county, and
+you will naturally want your eyes.  So we shall shortly have to keep
+our minds on old Mercia.  However, you need not be disappointed.  My
+old friend, Sir Nathaniel de Salis, who, like myself, is a free-
+holder near Castra Regis--his estate, Doom Tower, is over the border
+of Derbyshire, on the Peak--is coming to stay with me for the
+festivities to welcome Edgar Caswall.  He is just the sort of man
+you will like.  He is devoted to history, and is President of the
+Mercian Archaeological Society.  He knows more of our own part of
+the country, with its history and its people, than anyone else.  I
+expect he will have arrived before us, and we three can have a long
+chat after dinner.  He is also our local geologist and natural
+historian.  So you and he will have many interests in common.
+Amongst other things he has a special knowledge of the Peak and its
+caverns, and knows all the old legends of prehistoric times."
+
+They spent the night at Cheltenham, and on the following morning
+resumed their journey to Stafford.  Adam's eyes were in constant
+employment, and it was not till Salton declared that they had now
+entered on the last stage of their journey, that he referred to Sir
+Nathaniel's coming.
+
+As the dusk was closing down, they drove on to Lesser Hill, Mr.
+Salton's house.  It was now too dark to see any details of their
+surroundings.  Adam could just see that it was on the top of a hill,
+not quite so high as that which was covered by the Castle, on whose
+tower flew the flag, and which was all ablaze with moving lights,
+manifestly used in the preparations for the festivities on the
+morrow.  So Adam deferred his curiosity till daylight.  His grand-
+uncle was met at the door by a fine old man, who greeted him warmly.
+
+"I came over early as you wished.  I suppose this is your grand-
+nephew--I am glad to meet you, Mr. Adam Salton.  I am Nathaniel de
+Salis, and your uncle is one of my oldest friends."
+
+Adam, from the moment of their eyes meeting, felt as if they were
+already friends.  The meeting was a new note of welcome to those
+that had already sounded in his ears.
+
+The cordiality with which Sir Nathaniel and Adam met, made the
+imparting of information easy.  Sir Nathaniel was a clever man of
+the world, who had travelled much, and within a certain area studied
+deeply.  He was a brilliant conversationalist, as was to be expected
+from a successful diplomatist, even under unstimulating conditions.
+But he had been touched and to a certain extent fired by the younger
+man's evident admiration and willingness to learn from him.
+Accordingly the conversation, which began on the most friendly
+basis, soon warmed to an interest above proof, as the old man spoke
+of it next day to Richard Salton.  He knew already that his old
+friend wanted his grand-nephew to learn all he could of the subject
+in hand, and so had during his journey from the Peak put his
+thoughts in sequence for narration and explanation.  Accordingly,
+Adam had only to listen and he must learn much that he wanted to
+know.  When dinner was over and the servants had withdrawn, leaving
+the three men at their wine, Sir Nathaniel began.
+
+"I gather from your uncle--by the way, I suppose we had better speak
+of you as uncle and nephew, instead of going into exact
+relationship?  In fact, your uncle is so old and dear a friend,
+that, with your permission, I shall drop formality with you
+altogether and speak of you and to you as Adam, as though you were
+his son."
+
+"I should like," answered the young man, "nothing better!"
+
+The answer warmed the hearts of both the old men, but, with the
+usual avoidance of Englishmen of emotional subjects personal to
+themselves, they instinctively returned to the previous question.
+Sir Nathaniel took the lead.
+
+"I understand, Adam, that your uncle has posted you regarding the
+relationships of the Caswall family?"
+
+"Partly, sir; but I understood that I was to hear minuter details
+from you--if you would be so good."
+
+"I shall be delighted to tell you anything so far as my knowledge
+goes.  Well, the first Caswall in our immediate record is an Edgar,
+head of the family and owner of the estate, who came into his
+kingdom just about the time that George III. did.  He had one son of
+about twenty-four.  There was a violent quarrel between the two.  No
+one of this generation has any idea of the cause; but, considering
+the family characteristics, we may take it for granted that though
+it was deep and violent, it was on the surface trivial.
+
+"The result of the quarrel was that the son left the house without a
+reconciliation or without even telling his father where he was
+going.  He never came back again.  A few years after, he died,
+without having in the meantime exchanged a word or a letter with his
+father.  He married abroad and left one son, who seems to have been
+brought up in ignorance of all belonging to him.  The gulf between
+them appears to have been unbridgable; for in time this son married
+and in turn had a son, but neither joy nor sorrow brought the
+sundered together.  Under such conditions no RAPPROCHEMENT was to be
+looked for, and an utter indifference, founded at best on ignorance,
+took the place of family affection--even on community of interests.
+It was only due to the watchfulness of the lawyers that the birth of
+this new heir was ever made known.  He actually spent a few months
+in the ancestral home.
+
+"After this the family interest merely rested on heirship of the
+estate.  As no other children have been born to any of the newer
+generations in the intervening years, all hopes of heritage are now
+centred in the grandson of this man.
+
+"Now, it will be well for you to bear in mind the prevailing
+characteristics of this race.  These were well preserved and
+unchanging; one and all they are the same:  cold, selfish, dominant,
+reckless of consequences in pursuit of their own will.  It was not
+that they did not keep faith, though that was a matter which gave
+them little concern, but that they took care to think beforehand of
+what they should do in order to gain their own ends.  If they should
+make a mistake, someone else should bear the burthen of it.  This
+was so perpetually recurrent that it seemed to be a part of a fixed
+policy.  It was no wonder that, whatever changes took place, they
+were always ensured in their own possessions.  They were absolutely
+cold and hard by nature.  Not one of them--so far as we have any
+knowledge--was ever known to be touched by the softer sentiments, to
+swerve from his purpose, or hold his hand in obedience to the
+dictates of his heart.  The pictures and effigies of them all show
+their adherence to the early Roman type.  Their eyes were full;
+their hair, of raven blackness, grew thick and close and curly.
+Their figures were massive and typical of strength.
+
+"The thick black hair, growing low down on the neck, told of vast
+physical strength and endurance.  But the most remarkable
+characteristic is the eyes.  Black, piercing, almost unendurable,
+they seem to contain in themselves a remarkable will power which
+there is no gainsaying.  It is a power that is partly racial and
+partly individual:  a power impregnated with some mysterious
+quality, partly hypnotic, partly mesmeric, which seems to take away
+from eyes that meet them all power of resistance--nay, all power of
+wishing to resist.  With eyes like those, set in that all-commanding
+face, one would need to be strong indeed to think of resisting the
+inflexible will that lay behind.
+
+"You may think, Adam, that all this is imagination on my part,
+especially as I have never seen any of them.  So it is, but
+imagination based on deep study.  I have made use of all I know or
+can surmise logically regarding this strange race.  With such
+strange compelling qualities, is it any wonder that there is abroad
+an idea that in the race there is some demoniac possession, which
+tends to a more definite belief that certain individuals have in the
+past sold themselves to the Devil?
+
+"But I think we had better go to bed now.  We have a lot to get
+through to-morrow, and I want you to have your brain clear, and all
+your susceptibilities fresh.  Moreover, I want you to come with me
+for an early walk, during which we may notice, whilst the matter is
+fresh in our minds, the peculiar disposition of this place--not
+merely your grand-uncle's estate, but the lie of the country around
+it.  There are many things on which we may seek--and perhaps find--
+enlightenment.  The more we know at the start, the more things which
+may come into our view will develop themselves."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--DIANA'S GROVE
+
+
+
+Curiosity took Adam Salton out of bed in the early morning, but when
+he had dressed and gone downstairs; he found that, early as he was,
+Sir Nathaniel was ahead of him.  The old gentleman was quite
+prepared for a long walk, and they started at once.
+
+Sir Nathaniel, without speaking, led the way to the east, down the
+hill.  When they had descended and risen again, they found
+themselves on the eastern brink of a steep hill.  It was of lesser
+height than that on which the Castle was situated; but it was so
+placed that it commanded the various hills that crowned the ridge.
+All along the ridge the rock cropped out, bare and bleak, but broken
+in rough natural castellation.  The form of the ridge was a segment
+of a circle, with the higher points inland to the west.  In the
+centre rose the Castle, on the highest point of all.  Between the
+various rocky excrescences were groups of trees of various sizes and
+heights, amongst some of which were what, in the early morning
+light, looked like ruins.  These--whatever they were--were of
+massive grey stone, probably limestone rudely cut--if indeed they
+were not shaped naturally.  The fall of the ground was steep all
+along the ridge, so steep that here and there both trees and rocks
+and buildings seemed to overhang the plain far below, through which
+ran many streams.
+
+Sir Nathaniel stopped and looked around, as though to lose nothing
+of the effect.  The sun had climbed the eastern sky and was making
+all details clear.  He pointed with a sweeping gesture, as though
+calling Adam's attention to the extent of the view.  Having done so,
+he covered the ground more slowly, as though inviting attention to
+detail.  Adam was a willing and attentive pupil, and followed his
+motions exactly, missing--or trying to miss--nothing.
+
+"I have brought you here, Adam, because it seems to me that this is
+the spot on which to begin our investigations.  You have now in
+front of you almost the whole of the ancient kingdom of Mercia.  In
+fact, we see the whole of it except that furthest part, which is
+covered by the Welsh Marches and those parts which are hidden from
+where we stand by the high ground of the immediate west.  We can
+see--theoretically--the whole of the eastern bound of the kingdom,
+which ran south from the Humber to the Wash.  I want you to bear in
+mind the trend of the ground, for some time, sooner or later, we
+shall do well to have it in our mind's eye when we are considering
+the ancient traditions and superstitions, and are trying to find the
+RATIONALE of them.  Each legend, each superstition which we receive,
+will help in the understanding and possible elucidation of the
+others.  And as all such have a local basis, we can come closer to
+the truth--or the probability--by knowing the local conditions as we
+go along.  It will help us to bring to our aid such geological truth
+as we may have between us.  For instance, the building materials
+used in various ages can afford their own lessons to understanding
+eyes.  The very heights and shapes and materials of these hills--
+nay, even of the wide plain that lies between us and the sea--have
+in themselves the materials of enlightening books."
+
+"For instance, sir?" said Adam, venturing a question.
+
+"Well, look at those hills which surround the main one where the
+site for the Castle was wisely chosen--on the highest ground.  Take
+the others.  There is something ostensible in each of them, and in
+all probability something unseen and unproved, but to be imagined,
+also."
+
+"For instance?" continued Adam.
+
+"Let us take them SERIATIM.  That to the east, where the trees are,
+lower down--that was once the location of a Roman temple, possibly
+founded on a pre-existing Druidical one.  Its name implies the
+former, and the grove of ancient oaks suggests the latter."
+
+"Please explain."
+
+"The old name translated means 'Diana's Grove.'  Then the next one
+higher than it, but just beyond it, is called 'MERCY'--in all
+probability a corruption or familiarisation of the word MERCIA, with
+a Roman pun included.  We learn from early manuscripts that the
+place was called VILULA MISERICORDIAE.  It was originally a nunnery,
+founded by Queen Bertha, but done away with by King Penda, the
+reactionary to Paganism after St. Augustine.  Then comes your
+uncle's place--Lesser Hill.  Though it is so close to the Castle, it
+is not connected with it.  It is a freehold, and, so far as we know,
+of equal age.  It has always belonged to your family."
+
+"Then there only remains the Castle!"
+
+"That is all; but its history contains the histories of all the
+others--in fact, the whole history of early England."  Sir
+Nathaniel, seeing the expectant look on Adam's face, went on:
+
+"The history of the Castle has no beginning so far as we know.  The
+furthest records or surmises or inferences simply accept it as
+existing.  Some of these--guesses, let us call them--seem to show
+that there was some sort of structure there when the Romans came,
+therefore it must have been a place of importance in Druid times--if
+indeed that was the beginning.  Naturally the Romans accepted it, as
+they did everything of the kind that was, or might be, useful.  The
+change is shown or inferred in the name Castra.  It was the highest
+protected ground, and so naturally became the most important of
+their camps.  A study of the map will show you that it must have
+been a most important centre.  It both protected the advances
+already made to the north, and helped to dominate the sea coast.  It
+sheltered the western marches, beyond which lay savage Wales--and
+danger.  It provided a means of getting to the Severn, round which
+lay the great Roman roads then coming into existence, and made
+possible the great waterway to the heart of England--through the
+Severn and its tributaries.  It brought the east and the west
+together by the swiftest and easiest ways known to those times.
+And, finally, it provided means of descent on London and all the
+expanse of country watered by the Thames.
+
+"With such a centre, already known and organised, we can easily see
+that each fresh wave of invasion--the Angles, the Saxons, the Danes,
+and the Normans--found it a desirable possession and so ensured its
+upholding.  In the earlier centuries it was merely a vantage ground.
+But when the victorious Romans brought with them the heavy solid
+fortifications impregnable to the weapons of the time, its
+commanding position alone ensured its adequate building and
+equipment.  Then it was that the fortified camp of the Caesars
+developed into the castle of the king.  As we are as yet ignorant of
+the names of the first kings of Mercia, no historian has been able
+to guess which of them made it his ultimate defence; and I suppose
+we shall never know now.  In process of time, as the arts of war
+developed, it increased in size and strength, and although recorded
+details are lacking, the history is written not merely in the stone
+of its building, but is inferred in the changes of structure.  Then
+the sweeping changes which followed the Norman Conquest wiped out
+all lesser records than its own.  To-day we must accept it as one of
+the earliest castles of the Conquest, probably not later than the
+time of Henry I.  Roman and Norman were both wise in their retention
+of places of approved strength or utility.  So it was that these
+surrounding heights, already established and to a certain extent
+proved, were retained.  Indeed, such characteristics as already
+pertained to them were preserved, and to-day afford to us lessons
+regarding things which have themselves long since passed away.
+
+"So much for the fortified heights; but the hollows too have their
+own story.  But how the time passes!  We must hurry home, or your
+uncle will wonder what has become of us."
+
+He started with long steps towards Lesser Hill, and Adam was soon
+furtively running in order to keep up with him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE LADY ARABELLA MARCH
+
+
+
+"Now, there is no hurry, but so soon as you are both ready we shall
+start," Mr. Salton said when breakfast had begun.  "I want to take
+you first to see a remarkable relic of Mercia, and then we'll go to
+Liverpool through what is called 'The Great Vale of Cheshire.'  You
+may be disappointed, but take care not to prepare your mind"--this
+to Adam--"for anything stupendous or heroic.  You would not think
+the place a vale at all, unless you were told so beforehand, and had
+confidence in the veracity of the teller.  We should get to the
+Landing Stage in time to meet the WEST AFRICAN, and catch Mr.
+Caswall as he comes ashore.  We want to do him honour--and, besides,
+it will be more pleasant to have the introductions over before we go
+to his FETE at the Castle."
+
+The carriage was ready, the same as had been used the previous day,
+but there were different horses--magnificent animals, and keen for
+work.  Breakfast was soon over, and they shortly took their places.
+The postillions had their orders, and were quickly on their way at
+an exhilarating pace.
+
+Presently, in obedience to Mr. Salton's signal, the carriage drew up
+opposite a great heap of stones by the wayside.
+
+"Here, Adam," he said, "is something that you of all men should not
+pass by unnoticed.  That heap of stones brings us at once to the
+dawn of the Anglian kingdom.  It was begun more than a thousand
+years ago--in the latter part of the seventh century--in memory of a
+murder.  Wulfere, King of Mercia, nephew of Penda, here murdered his
+two sons for embracing Christianity.  As was the custom of the time,
+each passer-by added a stone to the memorial heap.  Penda
+represented heathen reaction after St. Augustine's mission.  Sir
+Nathaniel can tell you as much as you want about this, and put you,
+if you wish, on the track of such accurate knowledge as there is."
+
+Whilst they were looking at the heap of stones, they noticed that
+another carriage had drawn up beside them, and the passenger--there
+was only one--was regarding them curiously.  The carriage was an old
+heavy travelling one, with arms blazoned on it gorgeously.  The men
+took off their hats, as the occupant, a lady, addressed them.
+
+"How do you do, Sir Nathaniel?  How do you do, Mr. Salton?  I hope
+you have not met with any accident.  Look at me!"
+
+As she spoke she pointed to where one of the heavy springs was
+broken across, the broken metal showing bright.  Adam spoke up at
+once:
+
+"Oh, that can soon be put right."
+
+"Soon?  There is no one near who can mend a break like that."
+
+"I can."
+
+"You!"  She looked incredulously at the dapper young gentleman who
+spoke.  "You--why, it's a workman's job."
+
+"All right, I am a workman--though that is not the only sort of work
+I do.  I am an Australian, and, as we have to move about fast, we
+are all trained to farriery and such mechanics as come into travel--
+I am quite at your service."
+
+"I hardly know how to thank you for your kindness, of which I gladly
+avail myself.  I don't know what else I can do, as I wish to meet
+Mr. Caswall of Castra Regis, who arrives home from Africa to-day.
+It is a notable home-coming; all the countryside want to do him
+honour."  She looked at the old men and quickly made up her mind as
+to the identity of the stranger.  "You must be Mr. Adam Salton of
+Lesser Hill.  I am Lady Arabella March of Diana's Grove."  As she
+spoke she turned slightly to Mr. Salton, who took the hint and made
+a formal introduction.
+
+So soon as this was done, Adam took some tools from his uncle's
+carriage, and at once began work on the broken spring.  He was an
+expert workman, and the breach was soon made good.  Adam was
+gathering the tools which he had been using--which, after the manner
+of all workmen, had been scattered about--when he noticed that
+several black snakes had crawled out from the heap of stones and
+were gathering round him.  This naturally occupied his mind, and he
+was not thinking of anything else when he noticed Lady Arabella, who
+had opened the door of the carriage, slip from it with a quick
+gliding motion.  She was already among the snakes when he called out
+to warn her.  But there seemed to be no need of warning.  The snakes
+had turned and were wriggling back to the mound as quickly as they
+could.  He laughed to himself behind his teeth as he whispered, "No
+need to fear there.  They seem much more afraid of her than she of
+them."  All the same he began to beat on the ground with a stick
+which was lying close to him, with the instinct of one used to such
+vermin.  In an instant he was alone beside the mound with Lady
+Arabella, who appeared quite unconcerned at the incident.  Then he
+took a long look at her, and her dress alone was sufficient to
+attract attention.  She was clad in some kind of soft white stuff,
+which clung close to her form, showing to the full every movement of
+her sinuous figure.  She wore a close-fitting cap of some fine fur
+of dazzling white.  Coiled round her white throat was a large
+necklace of emeralds, whose profusion of colour dazzled when the sun
+shone on them.  Her voice was peculiar, very low and sweet, and so
+soft that the dominant note was of sibilation.  Her hands, too, were
+peculiar--long, flexible, white, with a strange movement as of
+waving gently to and fro.
+
+She appeared quite at ease, and, after thanking Adam, said that if
+any of his uncle's party were going to Liverpool she would be most
+happy to join forces.
+
+"Whilst you are staying here, Mr. Salton, you must look on the
+grounds of Diana's Grove as your own, so that you may come and go
+just as you do in Lesser Hill.  There are some fine views, and not a
+few natural curiosities which are sure to interest you, if you are a
+student of natural history--specially of an earlier kind, when the
+world was younger."
+
+The heartiness with which she spoke, and the warmth of her words--
+not of her manner, which was cold and distant--made him suspicious.
+In the meantime both his uncle and Sir Nathaniel had thanked her for
+the invitation--of which, however, they said they were unable to
+avail themselves.  Adam had a suspicion that, though she answered
+regretfully, she was in reality relieved.  When he had got into the
+carriage with the two old men, and they had driven off, he was not
+surprised when Sir Nathaniel spoke.
+
+"I could not but feel that she was glad to be rid of us.  She can
+play her game better alone!"
+
+"What is her game?" asked Adam unthinkingly.
+
+"All the county knows it, my boy.  Caswall is a very rich man.  Her
+husband was rich when she married him--or seemed to be.  When he
+committed suicide, it was found that he had nothing left, and the
+estate was mortgaged up to the hilt.  Her only hope is in a rich
+marriage.  I suppose I need not draw any conclusion; you can do that
+as well as I can."
+
+Adam remained silent nearly all the time they were travelling
+through the alleged Vale of Cheshire.  He thought much during that
+journey and came to several conclusions, though his lips were
+unmoved.  One of these conclusions was that he would be very careful
+about paying any attention to Lady Arabella.  He was himself a rich
+man, how rich not even his uncle had the least idea, and would have
+been surprised had he known.
+
+The remainder of the journey was uneventful, and upon arrival at
+Liverpool they went aboard the WEST AFRICAN, which had just come to
+the landing-stage.  There his uncle introduced himself to Mr.
+Caswall, and followed this up by introducing Sir Nathaniel and then
+Adam.  The new-comer received them graciously, and said what a
+pleasure it was to be coming home after so long an absence of his
+family from their old seat.  Adam was pleased at the warmth of the
+reception; but he could not avoid a feeling of repugnance at the
+man's face.  He was trying hard to overcome this when a diversion
+was caused by the arrival of Lady Arabella.  The diversion was
+welcome to all; the two Saltons and Sir Nathaniel were shocked at
+Caswall's face--so hard, so ruthless, so selfish, so dominant.  "God
+help any," was the common thought, "who is under the domination of
+such a man!"
+
+Presently his African servant approached him, and at once their
+thoughts changed to a larger toleration.  Caswall looked indeed a
+savage--but a cultured savage.  In him were traces of the softening
+civilisation of ages--of some of the higher instincts and education
+of man, no matter how rudimentary these might be.  But the face of
+Oolanga, as his master called him, was unreformed, unsoftened
+savage, and inherent in it were all the hideous possibilities of a
+lost, devil-ridden child of the forest and the swamp--the lowest of
+all created things that could be regarded as in some form ostensibly
+human.  Lady Arabella and Oolanga arrived almost simultaneously, and
+Adam was surprised to notice what effect their appearance had on
+each other.  The woman seemed as if she would not--could not--
+condescend to exhibit any concern or interest in such a creature.
+On the other hand, the negro's bearing was such as in itself to
+justify her pride.  He treated her not merely as a slave treats his
+master, but as a worshipper would treat a deity.  He knelt before
+her with his hands out-stretched and his forehead in the dust.  So
+long as she remained he did not move; it was only when she went over
+to Caswall that he relaxed his attitude of devotion and stood by
+respectfully.
+
+Adam spoke to his own man, Davenport, who was standing by, having
+arrived with the bailiff of Lesser Hill, who had followed Mr. Salton
+in a pony trap.  As he spoke, he pointed to an attentive ship's
+steward, and presently the two men were conversing.
+
+"I think we ought to be moving," Mr. Salton said to Adam.  "I have
+some things to do in Liverpool, and I am sure that both Mr. Caswall
+and Lady Arabella would like to get under weigh for Castra Regis."
+
+"I too, sir, would like to do something," replied Adam.  "I want to
+find out where Ross, the animal merchant, lives--I want to take a
+small animal home with me, if you don't mind.  He is only a little
+thing, and will be no trouble."
+
+"Of course not, my boy.  What kind of animal is it that you want?"
+
+"A mongoose."
+
+"A mongoose!  What on earth do you want it for?"
+
+"To kill snakes."
+
+"Good!"  The old man remembered the mound of stones.  No explanation
+was needed.
+
+When Ross heard what was wanted, he asked:
+
+"Do you want something special, or will an ordinary mongoose do?"
+
+"Well, of course I want a good one.  But I see no need for anything
+special.  It is for ordinary use."
+
+"I can let you have a choice of ordinary ones.  I only asked,
+because I have in stock a very special one which I got lately from
+Nepaul.  He has a record of his own.  He killed a king cobra that
+had been seen in the Rajah's garden.  But I don't suppose we have
+any snakes of the kind in this cold climate--I daresay an ordinary
+one will do."
+
+When Adam got back to the carriage, carefully carrying the box with
+the mongoose, Sir Nathaniel said:  "Hullo! what have you got there?"
+
+"A mongoose."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To kill snakes!"
+
+Sir Nathaniel laughed.
+
+"I heard Lady Arabella's invitation to you to come to Diana's
+Grove."
+
+"Well, what on earth has that got to do with it?"
+
+"Nothing directly that I know of.  But we shall see."  Adam waited,
+and the old man went on:  "Have you by any chance heard the other
+name which was given long ago to that place."
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"It was called-- Look here, this subject wants a lot of talking
+over.  Suppose we wait till we are alone and have lots of time
+before us."
+
+"All right, sir."  Adam was filled with curiosity, but he thought it
+better not to hurry matters.  All would come in good time.  Then the
+three men returned home, leaving Mr. Caswall to spend the night in
+Liverpool.
+
+The following day the Lesser Hill party set out for Castra Regis,
+and for the time Adam thought no more of Diana's Grove or of what
+mysteries it had contained--or might still contain.
+
+The guests were crowding in, and special places were marked for
+important people.  Adam, seeing so many persons of varied degree,
+looked round for Lady Arabella, but could not locate her.  It was
+only when he saw the old-fashioned travelling carriage approach and
+heard the sound of cheering which went with it, that he realised
+that Edgar Caswall had arrived.  Then, on looking more closely, he
+saw that Lady Arabella, dressed as he had seen her last, was seated
+beside him.  When the carriage drew up at the great flight of steps,
+the host jumped down and gave her his hand.
+
+It was evident to all that she was the chief guest at the
+festivities.  It was not long before the seats on the dais were
+filled, while the tenants and guests of lesser importance had
+occupied all the coigns of vantage not reserved.  The order of the
+day had been carefully arranged by a committee.  There were some
+speeches, happily neither many nor long; and then festivities were
+suspended till the time for feasting arrived.  In the interval
+Caswall walked among his guests, speaking to all in a friendly
+manner and expressing a general welcome.  The other guests came down
+from the dais and followed his example, so there was unceremonious
+meeting and greeting between gentle and simple.
+
+Adam Salton naturally followed with his eyes all that went on within
+their scope, taking note of all who seemed to afford any interest.
+He was young and a man and a stranger from a far distance; so on all
+these accounts he naturally took stock rather of the women than of
+the men, and of these, those who were young and attractive.  There
+were lots of pretty girls among the crowd, and Adam, who was a
+handsome young man and well set up, got his full share of admiring
+glances.  These did not concern him much, and he remained unmoved
+until there came along a group of three, by their dress and bearing,
+of the farmer class.  One was a sturdy old man; the other two were
+good-looking girls, one of a little over twenty, the other not quite
+so old.  So soon as Adam's eyes met those of the younger girl, who
+stood nearest to him, some sort of electricity flashed--that divine
+spark which begins by recognition, and ends in obedience.  Men call
+it "Love."
+
+Both his companions noticed how much Adam was taken by the pretty
+girl, and spoke of her to him in a way which made his heart warm to
+them.
+
+"Did you notice that party that passed?  The old man is Michael
+Watford, one of the tenants of Mr. Caswall.  He occupies Mercy Farm,
+which Sir Nathaniel pointed out to you to-day.  The girls are his
+grand-daughters, the elder, Lilla, being the only child of his elder
+son, who died when she was less than a year old.  His wife died on
+the same day.  She is a good girl--as good as she is pretty.  The
+other is her first cousin, the daughter of Watford's second son.  He
+went for a soldier when he was just over twenty, and was drafted
+abroad.  He was not a good correspondent, though he was a good
+enough son.  A few letters came, and then his father heard from the
+colonel of his regiment that he had been killed by dacoits in
+Burmah.  He heard from the same source that his boy had been married
+to a Burmese, and that there was a daughter only a year old.
+Watford had the child brought home, and she grew up beside Lilla.
+The only thing that they heard of her birth was that her name was
+Mimi.  The two children adored each other, and do to this day.
+Strange how different they are!  Lilla all fair, like the old Saxon
+stock from which she is sprung; Mimi showing a trace of her mother's
+race.  Lilla is as gentle as a dove, but Mimi's black eyes can glow
+whenever she is upset.  The only thing that upsets her is when
+anything happens to injure or threaten or annoy Lilla.  Then her
+eyes glow as do the eyes of a bird when her young are menaced."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--THE WHITE WORM
+
+
+
+Mr. Salton introduced Adam to Mr. Watford and his grand-daughters,
+and they all moved on together.  Of course neighbours in the
+position of the Watfords knew all about Adam Salton, his
+relationship, circumstances, and prospects.  So it would have been
+strange indeed if both girls did not dream of possibilities of the
+future.  In agricultural England, eligible men of any class are
+rare.  This particular man was specially eligible, for he did not
+belong to a class in which barriers of caste were strong.  So when
+it began to be noticed that he walked beside Mimi Watford and seemed
+to desire her society, all their friends endeavoured to give the
+promising affair a helping hand.  When the gongs sounded for the
+banquet, he went with her into the tent where her grandfather had
+seats.  Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel noticed that the young man did
+not come to claim his appointed place at the dais table; but they
+understood and made no remark, or indeed did not seem to notice his
+absence.
+
+Lady Arabella sat as before at Edgar Caswall's right hand.  She was
+certainly a striking and unusual woman, and to all it seemed fitting
+from her rank and personal qualities that she should be the chosen
+partner of the heir on his first appearance.  Of course nothing was
+said openly by those of her own class who were present; but words
+were not necessary when so much could be expressed by nods and
+smiles.  It seemed to be an accepted thing that at last there was to
+be a mistress of Castra Regis, and that she was present amongst
+them.  There were not lacking some who, whilst admitting all her
+charm and beauty, placed her in the second rank, Lilla Watford being
+marked as first.  There was sufficient divergence of type, as well
+as of individual beauty, to allow of fair comment; Lady Arabella
+represented the aristocratic type, and Lilla that of the commonalty.
+
+When the dusk began to thicken, Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel walked
+home--the trap had been sent away early in the day--leaving Adam to
+follow in his own time.  He came in earlier than was expected, and
+seemed upset about something.  Neither of the elders made any
+comment.  They all lit cigarettes, and, as dinner-time was close at
+hand, went to their rooms to get ready.
+
+Adam had evidently been thinking in the interval.  He joined the
+others in the drawing-room, looking ruffled and impatient--a
+condition of things seen for the first time.  The others, with the
+patience--or the experience--of age, trusted to time to unfold and
+explain things.  They had not long to wait.  After sitting down and
+standing up several times, Adam suddenly burst out.
+
+"That fellow seems to think he owns the earth.  Can't he let people
+alone!  He seems to think that he has only to throw his handkerchief
+to any woman, and be her master."
+
+This outburst was in itself enlightening.  Only thwarted affection
+in some guise could produce this feeling in an amiable young man.
+Sir Nathaniel, as an old diplomatist, had a way of understanding, as
+if by foreknowledge, the true inwardness of things, and asked
+suddenly, but in a matter-of-fact, indifferent voice:
+
+"Was he after Lilla?"
+
+"Yes, and the fellow didn't lose any time either.  Almost as soon as
+they met, he began to butter her up, and tell her how beautiful she
+was.  Why, before he left her side, he had asked himself to tea to-
+morrow at Mercy Farm.  Stupid ass!  He might see that the girl isn't
+his sort!  I never saw anything like it.  It was just like a hawk
+and a pigeon."
+
+As he spoke, Sir Nathaniel turned and looked at Mr. Salton--a keen
+look which implied a full understanding.
+
+"Tell us all about it, Adam.  There are still a few minutes before
+dinner, and we shall all have better appetites when we have come to
+some conclusion on this matter."
+
+"There is nothing to tell, sir; that is the worst of it.  I am bound
+to say that there was not a word said that a human being could
+object to.  He was very civil, and all that was proper--just what a
+landlord might be to a tenant's daughter. . . Yet--yet--well, I
+don't know how it was, but it made my blood boil."
+
+"How did the hawk and the pigeon come in?"  Sir Nathaniel's voice
+was soft and soothing, nothing of contradiction or overdone
+curiosity in it--a tone eminently suited to win confidence.
+
+"I can hardly explain.  I can only say that he looked like a hawk
+and she like a dove--and, now that I think of it, that is what they
+each did look like; and do look like in their normal condition."
+
+"That is so!" came the soft voice of Sir Nathaniel.
+
+Adam went on:
+
+"Perhaps that early Roman look of his set me off.  But I wanted to
+protect her; she seemed in danger."
+
+"She seems in danger, in a way, from all you young men.  I couldn't
+help noticing the way that even you looked--as if you wished to
+absorb her!"
+
+"I hope both you young men will keep your heads cool," put in Mr.
+Salton.  "You know, Adam, it won't do to have any quarrel between
+you, especially so soon after his home-coming and your arrival here.
+We must think of the feelings and happiness of our neighbours;
+mustn't we?"
+
+"I hope so, sir.  I assure you that, whatever may happen, or even
+threaten, I shall obey your wishes in this as in all things."
+
+"Hush!" whispered Sir Nathaniel, who heard the servants in the
+passage bringing dinner.
+
+After dinner, over the walnuts and the wine, Sir Nathaniel returned
+to the subject of the local legends.
+
+"It will perhaps be a less dangerous topic for us to discuss than
+more recent ones."
+
+"All right, sir," said Adam heartily.  "I think you may depend on me
+now with regard to any topic.  I can even discuss Mr. Caswall.
+Indeed, I may meet him to-morrow.  He is going, as I said, to call
+at Mercy Farm at three o'clock--but I have an appointment at two."
+
+"I notice," said Mr. Salton, "that you do not lose any time."
+
+The two old men once more looked at each other steadily.  Then, lest
+the mood of his listener should change with delay, Sir Nathaniel
+began at once:
+
+"I don't propose to tell you all the legends of Mercia, or even to
+make a selection of them.  It will be better, I think, for our
+purpose if we consider a few facts--recorded or unrecorded--about
+this neighbourhood.  I think we might begin with Diana's Grove.  It
+has roots in the different epochs of our history, and each has its
+special crop of legend.  The Druid and the Roman are too far off for
+matters of detail; but it seems to me the Saxon and the Angles are
+near enough to yield material for legendary lore.  We find that this
+particular place had another name besides Diana's Grove.  This was
+manifestly of Roman origin, or of Grecian accepted as Roman.  The
+other is more pregnant of adventure and romance than the Roman name.
+In Mercian tongue it was 'The Lair of the White Worm.'  This needs a
+word of explanation at the beginning.
+
+"In the dawn of the language, the word 'worm' had a somewhat
+different meaning from that in use to-day.  It was an adaptation of
+the Anglo-Saxon 'wyrm,' meaning a dragon or snake; or from the
+Gothic 'waurms,' a serpent; or the Icelandic 'ormur,' or the German
+'wurm.'  We gather that it conveyed originally an idea of size and
+power, not as now in the diminutive of both these meanings.  Here
+legendary history helps us.  We have the well-known legend of the
+'Worm Well' of Lambton Castle, and that of the 'Laidly Worm of
+Spindleston Heugh' near Bamborough.  In both these legends the
+'worm' was a monster of vast size and power--a veritable dragon or
+serpent, such as legend attributes to vast fens or quags where there
+was illimitable room for expansion.  A glance at a geological map
+will show that whatever truth there may have been of the actuality
+of such monsters in the early geologic periods, at least there was
+plenty of possibility.  In England there were originally vast plains
+where the plentiful supply of water could gather.  The streams were
+deep and slow, and there were holes of abysmal depth, where any kind
+and size of antediluvian monster could find a habitat.  In places,
+which now we can see from our windows, were mud-holes a hundred or
+more feet deep.  Who can tell us when the age of the monsters which
+flourished in slime came to an end?  There must have been places and
+conditions which made for greater longevity, greater size, greater
+strength than was usual.  Such over-lappings may have come down even
+to our earlier centuries.  Nay, are there not now creatures of a
+vastness of bulk regarded by the generality of men as impossible?
+Even in our own day there are seen the traces of animals, if not the
+animals themselves, of stupendous size--veritable survivals from
+earlier ages, preserved by some special qualities in their habitats.
+I remember meeting a distinguished man in India, who had the
+reputation of being a great shikaree, who told me that the greatest
+temptation he had ever had in his life was to shoot a giant snake
+which he had come across in the Terai of Upper India.  He was on a
+tiger-shooting expedition, and as his elephant was crossing a
+nullah, it squealed.  He looked down from his howdah and saw that
+the elephant had stepped across the body of a snake which was
+dragging itself through the jungle.  'So far as I could see,' he
+said, 'it must have been eighty or one hundred feet in length.
+Fully forty or fifty feet was on each side of the track, and though
+the weight which it dragged had thinned it, it was as thick round as
+a man's body.  I suppose you know that when you are after tiger, it
+is a point of honour not to shoot at anything else, as life may
+depend on it.  I could easily have spined this monster, but I felt
+that I must not--so, with regret, I had to let it go.'
+
+"Just imagine such a monster anywhere in this country, and at once
+we could get a sort of idea of the 'worms,' which possibly did
+frequent the great morasses which spread round the mouths of many of
+the great European rivers."
+
+"I haven't the least doubt, sir, that there may have been such
+monsters as you have spoken of still existing at a much later period
+than is generally accepted," replied Adam.  "Also, if there were
+such things, that this was the very place for them.  I have tried to
+think over the matter since you pointed out the configuration of the
+ground.  But it seems to me that there is a hiatus somewhere.  Are
+there not mechanical difficulties?"
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Well, our antique monster must have been mighty heavy, and the
+distances he had to travel were long and the ways difficult.  From
+where we are now sitting down to the level of the mud-holes is a
+distance of several hundred feet--I am leaving out of consideration
+altogether any lateral distance.  Is it possible that there was a
+way by which a monster could travel up and down, and yet no chance
+recorder have ever seen him?  Of course we have the legends; but is
+not some more exact evidence necessary in a scientific
+investigation?"
+
+"My dear Adam, all you say is perfectly right, and, were we starting
+on such an investigation, we could not do better than follow your
+reasoning.  But, my dear boy, you must remember that all this took
+place thousands of years ago.  You must remember, too, that all
+records of the kind that would help us are lacking.  Also, that the
+places to be considered were desert, so far as human habitation or
+population are considered.  In the vast desolation of such a place
+as complied with the necessary conditions, there must have been such
+profusion of natural growth as would bar the progress of men formed
+as we are.  The lair of such a monster would not have been disturbed
+for hundreds--or thousands--of years.  Moreover, these creatures
+must have occupied places quite inaccessible to man.  A snake who
+could make himself comfortable in a quagmire, a hundred feet deep,
+would be protected on the outskirts by such stupendous morasses as
+now no longer exist, or which, if they exist anywhere at all, can be
+on very few places on the earth's surface.  Far be it from me to say
+that in more elemental times such things could not have been.  The
+condition belongs to the geologic age--the great birth and growth of
+the world, when natural forces ran riot, when the struggle for
+existence was so savage that no vitality which was not founded in a
+gigantic form could have even a possibility of survival.  That such
+a time existed, we have evidences in geology, but there only; we can
+never expect proofs such as this age demands.  We can only imagine
+or surmise such things--or such conditions and such forces as
+overcame them."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--HAWK AND PIGEON
+
+
+
+At breakfast-time next morning Sir Nathaniel and Mr. Salton were
+seated when Adam came hurriedly into the room.
+
+"Any news?" asked his uncle mechanically.
+
+"Four."
+
+"Four what?" asked Sir Nathaniel.
+
+"Snakes," said Adam, helping himself to a grilled kidney.
+
+"Four snakes.  I don't understand."
+
+"Mongoose," said Adam, and then added explanatorily:  "I was out
+with the mongoose just after three."
+
+"Four snakes in one morning!  Why, I didn't know there were so many
+on the Brow"--the local name for the western cliff.  "I hope that
+wasn't the consequence of our talk of last night?"
+
+"It was, sir.  But not directly."
+
+"But, God bless my soul, you didn't expect to get a snake like the
+Lambton worm, did you?  Why, a mongoose, to tackle a monster like
+that--if there were one--would have to be bigger than a haystack."
+
+"These were ordinary snakes, about as big as a walking-stick."
+
+"Well, it's pleasant to be rid of them, big or little.  That is a
+good mongoose, I am sure; he'll clear out all such vermin round
+here," said Mr. Salton.
+
+Adam went quietly on with his breakfast.  Killing a few snakes in a
+morning was no new experience to him.  He left the room the moment
+breakfast was finished and went to the study that his uncle had
+arranged for him.  Both Sir Nathaniel and Mr. Salton took it that he
+wanted to be by himself, so as to avoid any questioning or talk of
+the visit that he was to make that afternoon.  They saw nothing
+further of him till about half-an-hour before dinner-time.  Then he
+came quietly into the smoking-room, where Mr. Salton and Sir
+Nathaniel were sitting together, ready dressed.
+
+"I suppose there is no use waiting.  We had better get it over at
+once," remarked Adam.
+
+His uncle, thinking to make things easier for him, said:  "Get what
+over?"
+
+There was a sign of shyness about him at this.  He stammered a
+little at first, but his voice became more even as he went on.
+
+"My visit to Mercy Farm."
+
+Mr. Salton waited eagerly.  The old diplomatist simply smiled.
+
+"I suppose you both know that I was much interested yesterday in the
+Watfords?"  There was no denial or fending off the question.  Both
+the old men smiled acquiescence.  Adam went on:  "I meant you to see
+it--both of you.  You, uncle, because you are my uncle and the
+nearest of my own kin, and, moreover, you couldn't have been more
+kind to me or made me more welcome if you had been my own father."
+Mr. Salton said nothing.  He simply held out his hand, and the other
+took it and held it for a few seconds.  "And you, sir, because you
+have shown me something of the same affection which in my wildest
+dreams of home I had no right to expect."  He stopped for an
+instant, much moved.
+
+Sir Nathaniel answered softly, laying his hand on the youth's
+shoulder.
+
+"You are right, my boy; quite right.  That is the proper way to look
+at it.  And I may tell you that we old men, who have no children of
+our own, feel our hearts growing warm when we hear words like
+those."
+
+Then Adam hurried on, speaking with a rush, as if he wanted to come
+to the crucial point.
+
+"Mr. Watford had not come in, but Lilla and Mimi were at home, and
+they made me feel very welcome.  They have all a great regard for my
+uncle.  I am glad of that any way, for I like them all--much.  We
+were having tea, when Mr. Caswall came to the door, attended by the
+negro.  Lilla opened the door herself.  The window of the living-
+room at the farm is a large one, and from within you cannot help
+seeing anyone coming.  Mr. Caswall said he had ventured to call, as
+he wished to make the acquaintance of all his tenants, in a less
+formal way, and more individually, than had been possible to him on
+the previous day.  The girls made him welcome--they are very sweet
+girls those, sir; someone will be very happy some day there--with
+either of them."
+
+"And that man may be you, Adam," said Mr. Salton heartily.
+
+A sad look came over the young man's eyes, and the fire his uncle
+had seen there died out.  Likewise the timbre left his voice, making
+it sound lonely.
+
+"Such might crown my life.  But that happiness, I fear, is not for
+me--or not without pain and loss and woe."
+
+"Well, it's early days yet!" cried Sir Nathaniel heartily.
+
+The young man turned on him his eyes, which had now grown
+excessively sad.
+
+"Yesterday--a few hours ago--that remark would have given me new
+hope--new courage; but since then I have learned too much."
+
+The old man, skilled in the human heart, did not attempt to argue in
+such a matter.
+
+"Too early to give in, my boy."
+
+"I am not of a giving-in kind," replied the young man earnestly.
+"But, after all, it is wise to realise a truth.  And when a man,
+though he is young, feels as I do--as I have felt ever since
+yesterday, when I first saw Mimi's eyes--his heart jumps.  He does
+not need to learn things.  He knows."
+
+There was silence in the room, during which the twilight stole on
+imperceptibly.  It was Adam who again broke the silence.
+
+"Do you know, uncle, if we have any second sight in our family?"
+
+"No, not that I ever heard about.  Why?"
+
+"Because," he answered slowly, "I have a conviction which seems to
+answer all the conditions of second sight."
+
+"And then?" asked the old man, much perturbed.
+
+"And then the usual inevitable.  What in the Hebrides and other
+places, where the Sight is a cult--a belief--is called 'the doom'--
+the court from which there is no appeal.  I have often heard of
+second sight--we have many western Scots in Australia; but I have
+realised more of its true inwardness in an instant of this afternoon
+than I did in the whole of my life previously--a granite wall
+stretching up to the very heavens, so high and so dark that the eye
+of God Himself cannot see beyond.  Well, if the Doom must come, it
+must.  That is all."
+
+The voice of Sir Nathaniel broke in, smooth and sweet and grave.
+
+"Can there not be a fight for it?  There can for most things."
+
+"For most things, yes, but for the Doom, no.  What a man can do I
+shall do.  There will be--must be--a fight.  When and where and how
+I know not, but a fight there will be.  But, after all, what is a
+man in such a case?"
+
+"Adam, there are three of us."  Salton looked at his old friend as
+he spoke, and that old friend's eyes blazed.
+
+"Ay, three of us," he said, and his voice rang.
+
+There was again a pause, and Sir Nathaniel endeavoured to get back
+to less emotional and more neutral ground.
+
+"Tell us of the rest of the meeting.  Remember we are all pledged to
+this.  It is a fight E L'OUTRANCE, and we can afford to throw away
+or forgo no chance."
+
+"We shall throw away or lose nothing that we can help.  We fight to
+win, and the stake is a life--perhaps more than one--we shall see."
+Then he went on in a conversational tone, such as he had used when
+he spoke of the coming to the farm of Edgar Caswall:  "When Mr.
+Caswall came in, the negro went a short distance away and there
+remained.  It gave me the idea that he expected to be called, and
+intended to remain in sight, or within hail.  Then Mimi got another
+cup and made fresh tea, and we all went on together."
+
+"Was there anything uncommon--were you all quite friendly?" asked
+Sir Nathaniel quietly.
+
+"Quite friendly.  There was nothing that I could notice out of the
+common--except," he went on, with a slight hardening of the voice,
+"except that he kept his eyes fixed on Lilla, in a way which was
+quite intolerable to any man who might hold her dear."
+
+"Now, in what way did he look?" asked Sir Nathaniel.
+
+"There was nothing in itself offensive; but no one could help
+noticing it."
+
+"You did.  Miss Watford herself, who was the victim, and Mr.
+Caswall, who was the offender, are out of range as witnesses.  Was
+there anyone else who noticed?"
+
+"Mimi did.  Her face flamed with anger as she saw the look."
+
+"What kind of look was it?  Over-ardent or too admiring, or what?
+Was it the look of a lover, or one who fain would be?  You
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I quite understand.  Anything of that sort I should of
+course notice.  It would be part of my preparation for keeping my
+self-control--to which I am pledged."
+
+"If it were not amatory, was it threatening?  Where was the
+offence?"
+
+Adam smiled kindly at the old man.
+
+"It was not amatory.  Even if it was, such was to be expected.  I
+should be the last man in the world to object, since I am myself an
+offender in that respect.  Moreover, not only have I been taught to
+fight fair, but by nature I believe I am just.  I would be as
+tolerant of and as liberal to a rival as I should expect him to be
+to me.  No, the look I mean was nothing of that kind.  And so long
+as it did not lack proper respect, I should not of my own part
+condescend to notice it.  Did you ever study the eyes of a hound?"
+
+"At rest?"
+
+"No, when he is following his instincts!  Or, better still," Adam
+went on, "the eyes of a bird of prey when he is following his
+instincts.  Not when he is swooping, but merely when he is watching
+his quarry?"
+
+"No," said Sir Nathaniel, "I don't know that I ever did.  Why, may I
+ask?"
+
+"That was the look.  Certainly not amatory or anything of that kind-
+-yet it was, it struck me, more dangerous, if not so deadly as an
+actual threatening."
+
+Again there was a silence, which Sir Nathaniel broke as he stood up:
+
+"I think it would be well if we all thought over this by ourselves.
+Then we can renew the subject."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--OOLANGA
+
+
+
+Mr. Salton had an appointment for six o'clock at Liverpool.  When he
+had driven off, Sir Nathaniel took Adam by the arm.
+
+"May I come with you for a while to your study?  I want to speak to
+you privately without your uncle knowing about it, or even what the
+subject is.  You don't mind, do you?  It is not idle curiosity.  No,
+no.  It is on the subject to which we are all committed."
+
+"Is it necessary to keep my uncle in the dark about it?  He might be
+offended."
+
+"It is not necessary; but it is advisable.  It is for his sake that
+I asked.  My friend is an old man, and it might concern him unduly--
+even alarm him.  I promise you there shall be nothing that could
+cause him anxiety in our silence, or at which he could take
+umbrage."
+
+"Go on, sir!" said Adam simply.
+
+"You see, your uncle is now an old man.  I know it, for we were boys
+together.  He has led an uneventful and somewhat self-contained
+life, so that any such condition of things as has now arisen is apt
+to perplex him from its very strangeness.  In fact, any new matter
+is trying to old people.  It has its own disturbances and its own
+anxieties, and neither of these things are good for lives that
+should be restful.  Your uncle is a strong man, with a very happy
+and placid nature.  Given health and ordinary conditions of life,
+there is no reason why he should not live to be a hundred.  You and
+I, therefore, who both love him, though in different ways, should
+make it our business to protect him from all disturbing influences.
+I am sure you will agree with me that any labour to this end would
+be well spent.  All right, my boy!  I see your answer in your eyes;
+so we need say no more of that.  And now," here his voice changed,
+"tell me all that took place at that interview.  There are strange
+things in front of us--how strange we cannot at present even guess.
+Doubtless some of the difficult things to understand which lie
+behind the veil will in time be shown to us to see and to
+understand.  In the meantime, all we can do is to work patiently,
+fearlessly, and unselfishly, to an end that we think is right.  You
+had got so far as where Lilla opened the door to Mr. Caswall and the
+negro.  You also observed that Mimi was disturbed in her mind at the
+way Mr. Caswall looked at her cousin."
+
+"Certainly--though 'disturbed' is a poor way of expressing her
+objection."
+
+"Can you remember well enough to describe Caswall's eyes, and how
+Lilla looked, and what Mimi said and did?  Also Oolanga, Caswall's
+West African servant."
+
+"I'll do what I can, sir.  All the time Mr. Caswall was staring, he
+kept his eyes fixed and motionless--but not as if he was in a
+trance.  His forehead was wrinkled up, as it is when one is trying
+to see through or into something.  At the best of times his face has
+not a gentle expression; but when it was screwed up like that it was
+almost diabolical.  It frightened poor Lilla so that she trembled,
+and after a bit got so pale that I thought she had fainted.
+However, she held up and tried to stare back, but in a feeble kind
+of way.  Then Mimi came close and held her hand.  That braced her
+up, and--still, never ceasing her return stare--she got colour again
+and seemed more like herself."
+
+"Did he stare too?"
+
+"More than ever.  The weaker Lilla seemed, the stronger he became,
+just as if he were feeding on her strength.  All at once she turned
+round, threw up her hands, and fell down in a faint.  I could not
+see what else happened just then, for Mimi had thrown herself on her
+knees beside her and hid her from me.  Then there was something like
+a black shadow between us, and there was the nigger, looking more
+like a malignant devil than ever.  I am not usually a patient man,
+and the sight of that ugly devil is enough to make one's blood boil.
+When he saw my face, he seemed to realise danger--immediate danger--
+and slunk out of the room as noiselessly as if he had been blown
+out.  I learned one thing, however--he is an enemy, if ever a man
+had one."
+
+"That still leaves us three to two!" put in Sir Nathaniel.
+
+"Then Caswall slunk out, much as the nigger had done.  When he had
+gone, Lilla recovered at once."
+
+"Now," said Sir Nathaniel, anxious to restore peace, "have you found
+out anything yet regarding the negro?  I am anxious to be posted
+regarding him.  I fear there will be, or may be, grave trouble with
+him."
+
+"Yes, sir, I've heard a good deal about him--of course it is not
+official; but hearsay must guide us at first.  You know my man
+Davenport--private secretary, confidential man of business, and
+general factotum.  He is devoted to me, and has my full confidence.
+I asked him to stay on board the WEST AFRICAN and have a good look
+round, and find out what he could about Mr. Caswall.  Naturally, he
+was struck with the aboriginal savage.  He found one of the ship's
+stewards, who had been on the regular voyages to South Africa.  He
+knew Oolanga and had made a study of him.  He is a man who gets on
+well with niggers, and they open their hearts to him.  It seems that
+this Oolanga is quite a great person in the nigger world of the
+African West Coast.  He has the two things which men of his own
+colour respect:  he can make them afraid, and he is lavish with
+money.  I don't know whose money--but that does not matter.  They
+are always ready to trumpet his greatness.  Evil greatness it is--
+but neither does that matter.  Briefly, this is his history.  He was
+originally a witch-finder--about as low an occupation as exists
+amongst aboriginal savages.  Then he got up in the world and became
+an Obi-man, which gives an opportunity to wealth VIA blackmail.
+Finally, he reached the highest honour in hellish service.  He
+became a user of Voodoo, which seems to be a service of the utmost
+baseness and cruelty.  I was told some of his deeds of cruelty,
+which are simply sickening.  They made me long for an opportunity of
+helping to drive him back to hell.  You might think to look at him
+that you could measure in some way the extent of his vileness; but
+it would be a vain hope.  Monsters such as he is belong to an
+earlier and more rudimentary stage of barbarism.  He is in his way a
+clever fellow--for a nigger; but is none the less dangerous or the
+less hateful for that.  The men in the ship told me that he was a
+collector:  some of them had seen his collections.  Such
+collections!  All that was potent for evil in bird or beast, or even
+in fish.  Beaks that could break and rend and tear--all the birds
+represented were of a predatory kind.  Even the fishes are those
+which are born to destroy, to wound, to torture.  The collection, I
+assure you, was an object lesson in human malignity.  This being has
+enough evil in his face to frighten even a strong man.  It is little
+wonder that the sight of it put that poor girl into a dead faint!"
+
+Nothing more could be done at the moment, so they separated.
+
+Adam was up in the early morning and took a smart walk round the
+Brow.  As he was passing Diana's Grove, he looked in on the short
+avenue of trees, and noticed the snakes killed on the previous
+morning by the mongoose.  They all lay in a row, straight and rigid,
+as if they had been placed by hands.  Their skins seemed damp and
+sticky, and they were covered all over with ants and other insects.
+They looked loathsome, so after a glance, he passed on.
+
+A little later, when his steps took him, naturally enough, past the
+entrance to Mercy Farm, he was passed by the negro, moving quickly
+under the trees wherever there was shadow.  Laid across one extended
+arm, looking like dirty towels across a rail, he had the horrid-
+looking snakes.  He did not seem to see Adam.  No one was to be seen
+at Mercy except a few workmen in the farmyard, so, after waiting on
+the chance of seeing Mimi, Adam began to go slowly home.
+
+Once more he was passed on the way.  This time it was by Lady
+Arabella, walking hurriedly and so furiously angry that she did not
+recognise him, even to the extent of acknowledging his bow.
+
+When Adam got back to Lesser Hill, he went to the coach-house where
+the box with the mongoose was kept, and took it with him, intending
+to finish at the Mound of Stone what he had begun the previous
+morning with regard to the extermination.  He found that the snakes
+were even more easily attacked than on the previous day; no less
+than six were killed in the first half-hour.  As no more appeared,
+he took it for granted that the morning's work was over, and went
+towards home.  The mongoose had by this time become accustomed to
+him, and was willing to let himself be handled freely.  Adam lifted
+him up and put him on his shoulder and walked on.  Presently he saw
+a lady advancing towards him, and recognised Lady Arabella.
+
+Hitherto the mongoose had been quiet, like a playful affectionate
+kitten; but when the two got close, Adam was horrified to see the
+mongoose, in a state of the wildest fury, with every hair standing
+on end, jump from his shoulder and run towards Lady Arabella.  It
+looked so furious and so intent on attack that he called a warning.
+
+"Look out--look out!  The animal is furious and means to attack."
+
+Lady Arabella looked more than ever disdainful and was passing on;
+the mongoose jumped at her in a furious attack.  Adam rushed forward
+with his stick, the only weapon he had.  But just as he got within
+striking distance, the lady drew out a revolver and shot the animal,
+breaking his backbone.  Not satisfied with this, she poured shot
+after shot into him till the magazine was exhausted.  There was no
+coolness or hauteur about her now; she seemed more furious even than
+the animal, her face transformed with hate, and as determined to
+kill as he had appeared to be.  Adam, not knowing exactly what to
+do, lifted his hat in apology and hurried on to Lesser Hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--SURVIVALS
+
+
+
+At breakfast Sir Nathaniel noticed that Adam was put out about
+something, but he said nothing.  The lesson of silence is better
+remembered in age than in youth.  When they were both in the study,
+where Sir Nathaniel followed him, Adam at once began to tell his
+companion of what had happened.  Sir Nathaniel looked graver and
+graver as the narration proceeded, and when Adam had stopped he
+remained silent for several minutes, before speaking.
+
+"This is very grave.  I have not formed any opinion yet; but it
+seems to me at first impression that this is worse than anything I
+had expected."
+
+"Why, sir?" said Adam.  "Is the killing of a mongoose--no matter by
+whom--so serious a thing as all that?"
+
+His companion smoked on quietly for quite another few minutes before
+he spoke.
+
+"When I have properly thought it over I may moderate my opinion, but
+in the meantime it seems to me that there is something dreadful
+behind all this--something that may affect all our lives--that may
+mean the issue of life or death to any of us."
+
+Adam sat up quickly.
+
+"Do tell me, sir, what is in your mind--if, of course, you have no
+objection, or do not think it better to withhold it."
+
+"I have no objection, Adam--in fact, if I had, I should have to
+overcome it.  I fear there can be no more reserved thoughts between
+us."
+
+"Indeed, sir, that sounds serious, worse than serious!"
+
+"Adam, I greatly fear that the time has come for us--for you and me,
+at all events--to speak out plainly to one another.  Does not there
+seem something very mysterious about this?"
+
+"I have thought so, sir, all along.  The only difficulty one has is
+what one is to think and where to begin."
+
+"Let us begin with what you have told me.  First take the conduct of
+the mongoose.  He was quiet, even friendly and affectionate with
+you.  He only attacked the snakes, which is, after all, his business
+in life."
+
+"That is so!"
+
+"Then we must try to find some reason why he attacked Lady
+Arabella."
+
+"May it not be that a mongoose may have merely the instinct to
+attack, that nature does not allow or provide him with the fine
+reasoning powers to discriminate who he is to attack?"
+
+"Of course that may be so.  But, on the other hand, should we not
+satisfy ourselves why he does wish to attack anything?  If for
+centuries, this particular animal is known to attack only one kind
+of other animal, are we not justified in assuming that when one of
+them attacks a hitherto unclassed animal, he recognises in that
+animal some quality which it has in common with the hereditary
+enemy?"
+
+"That is a good argument, sir," Adam went on, "but a dangerous one.
+If we followed it out, it would lead us to believe that Lady
+Arabella is a snake."
+
+"We must be sure, before going to such an end, that there is no
+point as yet unconsidered which would account for the unknown thing
+which puzzles us."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Well, suppose the instinct works on some physical basis--for
+instance, smell.  If there were anything in recent juxtaposition to
+the attacked which would carry the scent, surely that would supply
+the missing cause."
+
+"Of course!" Adam spoke with conviction.
+
+"Now, from what you tell me, the negro had just come from the
+direction of Diana's Grove, carrying the dead snakes which the
+mongoose had killed the previous morning.  Might not the scent have
+been carried that way?"
+
+"Of course it might, and probably was.  I never thought of that.  Is
+there any possible way of guessing approximately how long a scent
+will remain?  You see, this is a natural scent, and may derive from
+a place where it has been effective for thousands of years.  Then,
+does a scent of any kind carry with it any form or quality of
+another kind, either good or evil?  I ask you because one ancient
+name of the house lived in by the lady who was attacked by the
+mongoose was 'The Lair of the White Worm.'  If any of these things
+be so, our difficulties have multiplied indefinitely.  They may even
+change in kind.  We may get into moral entanglements; before we know
+it, we may be in the midst of a struggle between good and evil."
+
+Sir Nathaniel smiled gravely.
+
+"With regard to the first question--so far as I know, there are no
+fixed periods for which a scent may be active--I think we may take
+it that that period does not run into thousands of years.  As to
+whether any moral change accompanies a physical one, I can only say
+that I have met no proof of the fact.  At the same time, we must
+remember that 'good' and 'evil' are terms so wide as to take in the
+whole scheme of creation, and all that is implied by them and by
+their mutual action and reaction.  Generally, I would say that in
+the scheme of a First Cause anything is possible.  So long as the
+inherent forces or tendencies of any one thing are veiled from us we
+must expect mystery."
+
+"There is one other question on which I should like to ask your
+opinion.  Suppose that there are any permanent forces appertaining
+to the past, what we may call 'survivals,' do these belong to good
+as well as to evil?  For instance, if the scent of the primaeval
+monster can so remain in proportion to the original strength, can
+the same be true of things of good import?"
+
+Sir Nathaniel thought for a while before he answered.
+
+"We must be careful not to confuse the physical and the moral.  I
+can see that already you have switched on the moral entirely, so
+perhaps we had better follow it up first.  On the side of the moral,
+we have certain justification for belief in the utterances of
+revealed religion.  For instance, 'the effectual fervent prayer of a
+righteous man availeth much' is altogether for good.  We have
+nothing of a similar kind on the side of evil.  But if we accept
+this dictum we need have no more fear of 'mysteries':  these become
+thenceforth merely obstacles."
+
+Adam suddenly changed to another phase of the subject.
+
+"And now, sir, may I turn for a few minutes to purely practical
+things, or rather to matters of historical fact?"
+
+Sir Nathaniel bowed acquiescence.
+
+"We have already spoken of the history, so far as it is known, of
+some of the places round us--'Castra Regis,' 'Diana's Grove,' and
+'The Lair of the White Worm.'  I would like to ask if there is
+anything not necessarily of evil import about any of the places?"
+
+"Which?" asked Sir Nathaniel shrewdly.
+
+"Well, for instance, this house and Mercy Farm?"
+
+"Here we turn," said Sir Nathaniel, "to the other side, the light
+side of things.  Let us take Mercy Farm first.  When Augustine was
+sent by Pope Gregory to Christianise England, in the time of the
+Romans, he was received and protected by Ethelbert, King of Kent,
+whose wife, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, was a Christian,
+and did much for Augustine.  She founded a nunnery in memory of
+Columba, which was named SEDES MISERICORDIOE, the House of Mercy,
+and, as the region was Mercian, the two names became involved.  As
+Columba is the Latin for dove, the dove became a sort of
+signification of the nunnery.  She seized on the idea and made the
+newly-founded nunnery a house of doves.  Someone sent her a freshly-
+discovered dove, a sort of carrier, but which had in the white
+feathers of its head and neck the form of a religious cowl.  The
+nunnery flourished for more than a century, when, in the time of
+Penda, who was the reactionary of heathendom, it fell into decay.
+In the meantime the doves, protected by religious feeling, had
+increased mightily, and were known in all Catholic communities.
+When King Offa ruled in Mercia, about a hundred and fifty years
+later, he restored Christianity, and under its protection the
+nunnery of St. Columba was restored and its doves flourished again.
+In process of time this religious house again fell into desuetude;
+but before it disappeared it had achieved a great name for good
+works, and in especial for the piety of its members.  If deeds and
+prayers and hopes and earnest thinking leave anywhere any moral
+effect, Mercy Farm and all around it have almost the right to be
+considered holy ground."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Adam earnestly, and was silent.  Sir
+Nathaniel understood.
+
+After lunch that day, Adam casually asked Sir Nathaniel to come for
+a walk with him.  The keen-witted old diplomatist guessed that there
+must be some motive behind the suggestion, and he at once agreed.
+
+As soon as they were free from observation, Adam began.
+
+"I am afraid, sir, that there is more going on in this neighbourhood
+than most people imagine.  I was out this morning, and on the edge
+of the small wood, I came upon the body of a child by the roadside.
+At first, I thought she was dead, and while examining her, I noticed
+on her neck some marks that looked like those of teeth."
+
+"Some wild dog, perhaps?" put in Sir Nathaniel.
+
+"Possibly, sir, though I think not--but listen to the rest of my
+news.  I glanced around, and to my surprise, I noticed something
+white moving among the trees.  I placed the child down carefully,
+and followed, but I could not find any further traces.  So I
+returned to the child and resumed my examination, and, to my
+delight, I discovered that she was still alive.  I chafed her hands
+and gradually she revived, but to my disappointment she remembered
+nothing--except that something had crept up quietly from behind, and
+had gripped her round the throat.  Then, apparently, she fainted."
+
+"Gripped her round the throat!  Then it cannot have been a dog."
+
+"No, sir, that is my difficulty, and explains why I brought you out
+here, where we cannot possibly be overheard.  You have noticed, of
+course, the peculiar sinuous way in which Lady Arabella moves--well,
+I feel certain that the white thing that I saw in the wood was the
+mistress of Diana's Grove!"
+
+"Good God, boy, be careful what you say."
+
+"Yes, sir, I fully realise the gravity of my accusation, but I feel
+convinced that the marks on the child's throat were human--and made
+by a woman."
+
+Adam's companion remained silent for some time, deep in thought.
+
+"Adam, my boy," he said at last, "this matter appears to me to be
+far more serious even than you think.  It forces me to break
+confidence with my old friend, your uncle--but, in order to spare
+him, I must do so.  For some time now, things have been happening in
+this district that have been worrying him dreadfully--several people
+have disappeared, without leaving the slightest trace; a dead child
+was found by the roadside, with no visible or ascertainable cause of
+death--sheep and other animals have been found in the fields,
+bleeding from open wounds.  There have been other matters--many of
+them apparently trivial in themselves.  Some sinister influence has
+been at work, and I admit that I have suspected Lady Arabella--that
+is why I questioned you so closely about the mongoose and its
+strange attack upon Lady Arabella.  You will think it strange that I
+should suspect the mistress of Diana's Grove, a beautiful woman of
+aristocratic birth.  Let me explain--the family seat is near my own
+place, Doom Tower, and at one time I knew the family well.  When
+still a young girl, Lady Arabella wandered into a small wood near
+her home, and did not return.  She was found unconscious and in a
+high fever--the doctor said that she had received a poisonous bite,
+and the girl being at a delicate and critical age, the result was
+serious--so much so that she was not expected to recover.  A great
+London physician came down but could do nothing--indeed, he said
+that the girl would not survive the night.  All hope had been
+abandoned, when, to everyone's surprise, Lady Arabella made a sudden
+and startling recovery.  Within a couple of days she was going about
+as usual!  But to the horror of her people, she developed a terrible
+craving for cruelty, maiming and injuring birds and small animals--
+even killing them.  This was put down to a nervous disturbance due
+to her age, and it was hoped that her marriage to Captain March
+would put this right.  However, it was not a happy marriage, and
+eventually her husband was found shot through the head.  I have
+always suspected suicide, though no pistol was found near the body.
+He may have discovered something--God knows what!--so possibly Lady
+Arabella may herself have killed him.  Putting together many small
+matters that have come to my knowledge, I have come to the
+conclusion that the foul White Worm obtained control of her body,
+just as her soul was leaving its earthly tenement--that would
+explain the sudden revival of energy, the strange and inexplicable
+craving for maiming and killing, as well as many other matters with
+which I need not trouble you now, Adam.  As I said just now, God
+alone knows what poor Captain March discovered--it must have been
+something too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory is correct
+that the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under the
+control of this ghastly White Worm."
+
+Adam nodded.
+
+"But what can we do, sir--it seems a most difficult problem."
+
+"We can do nothing, my boy--that is the important part of it.  It
+would be impossible to take action--all we can do is to keep careful
+watch, especially as regards Lady Arabella, and be ready to act,
+promptly and decisively, if the opportunity occurs."
+
+Adam agreed, and the two men returned to Lesser Hill.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--SMELLING DEATH
+
+
+
+Adam Salton, though he talked little, did not let the grass grow
+under his feet in any matter which he had undertaken, or in which he
+was interested.  He had agreed with Sir Nathaniel that they should
+not do anything with regard to the mystery of Lady Arabella's fear
+of the mongoose, but he steadily pursued his course in being
+PREPARED to act whenever the opportunity might come.  He was in his
+own mind perpetually casting about for information or clues which
+might lead to possible lines of action.  Baffled by the killing of
+the mongoose, he looked around for another line to follow.  He was
+fascinated by the idea of there being a mysterious link between the
+woman and the animal, but he was already preparing a second string
+to his bow.  His new idea was to use the faculties of Oolanga, so
+far as he could, in the service of discovery.  His first move was to
+send Davenport to Liverpool to try to find the steward of the WEST
+AFRICAN, who had told him about Oolanga, and if possible secure any
+further information, and then try to induce (by bribery or other
+means) the nigger to come to the Brow.  So soon as he himself could
+have speech of the Voodoo-man he would be able to learn from him
+something useful.  Davenport was successful in his missions, for he
+had to get another mongoose, and he was able to tell Adam that he
+had seen the steward, who told him much that he wanted to know, and
+had also arranged for Oolanga to come to Lesser Hill the following
+day.  At this point Adam saw his way sufficiently clear to admit
+Davenport to some extent into his confidence.  He had come to the
+conclusion that it would be better--certainly at first--not himself
+to appear in the matter, with which Davenport was fully competent to
+deal.  It would be time for himself to take a personal part when
+matters had advanced a little further.
+
+If what the nigger said was in any wise true, the man had a rare
+gift which might be useful in the quest they were after.  He could,
+as it were, "smell death."  If any one was dead, if any one had
+died, or if a place had been used in connection with death, he
+seemed to know the broad fact by intuition.  Adam made up his mind
+that to test this faculty with regard to several places would be his
+first task.  Naturally he was anxious, and the time passed slowly.
+The only comfort was the arrival the next morning of a strong
+packing case, locked, from Ross, the key being in the custody of
+Davenport.  In the case were two smaller boxes, both locked.  One of
+them contained a mongoose to replace that killed by Lady Arabella;
+the other was the special mongoose which had already killed the
+king-cobra in Nepaul.  When both the animals had been safely put
+under lock and key, he felt that he might breathe more freely.  No
+one was allowed to know the secret of their existence in the house,
+except himself and Davenport.  He arranged that Davenport should
+take Oolanga round the neighbourhood for a walk, stopping at each of
+the places which he designated.  Having gone all along the Brow, he
+was to return the same way and induce him to touch on the same
+subjects in talking with Adam, who was to meet them as if by chance
+at the farthest part--that beyond Mercy Farm.
+
+The incidents of the day proved much as Adam expected.  At Mercy
+Farm, at Diana's Grove, at Castra Regis, and a few other spots, the
+negro stopped and, opening his wide nostrils as if to sniff boldly,
+said that he smelled death.  It was not always in the same form.  At
+Mercy Farm he said there were many small deaths.  At Diana's Grove
+his bearing was different.  There was a distinct sense of enjoyment
+about him, especially when he spoke of many great deaths.  Here,
+too, he sniffed in a strange way, like a bloodhound at check, and
+looked puzzled.  He said no word in either praise or disparagement,
+but in the centre of the Grove, where, hidden amongst ancient oak
+stumps, was a block of granite slightly hollowed on the top, he bent
+low and placed his forehead on the ground.  This was the only place
+where he showed distinct reverence.  At the Castle, though he spoke
+of much death, he showed no sign of respect.
+
+There was evidently something about Diana's Grove which both
+interested and baffled him.  Before leaving, he moved all over the
+place unsatisfied, and in one spot, close to the edge of the Brow,
+where there was a deep hollow, he appeared to be afraid.  After
+returning several times to this place, he suddenly turned and ran in
+a panic of fear to the higher ground, crossing as he did so the
+outcropping rock.  Then he seemed to breathe more freely, and
+recovered some of his jaunty impudence.
+
+All this seemed to satisfy Adam's expectations.  He went back to
+Lesser Hill with a serene and settled calm upon him.  Sir Nathaniel
+followed him into his study.
+
+"By the way, I forgot to ask you details about one thing.  When that
+extraordinary staring episode of Mr. Caswall went on, how did Lilla
+take it--how did she bear herself?"
+
+"She looked frightened, and trembled just as I have seen a pigeon
+with a hawk, or a bird with a serpent."
+
+"Thanks.  It is just as I expected.  There have been circumstances
+in the Caswall family which lead one to believe that they have had
+from the earliest times some extraordinary mesmeric or hypnotic
+faculty.  Indeed, a skilled eye could read so much in their
+physiognomy.  That shot of yours, whether by instinct or intention,
+of the hawk and the pigeon was peculiarly apposite.  I think we may
+settle on that as a fixed trait to be accepted throughout our
+investigation."
+
+When dusk had fallen, Adam took the new mongoose--not the one from
+Nepaul--and, carrying the box slung over his shoulder, strolled
+towards Diana's Grove.  Close to the gateway he met Lady Arabella,
+clad as usual in tightly fitting white, which showed off her slim
+figure.
+
+To his intense astonishment the mongoose allowed her to pet him,
+take him up in her arms and fondle him.  As she was going in his
+direction, they walked on together.
+
+Round the roadway between the entrances of Diana's Grove and Lesser
+Hill were many trees, with not much foliage except at the top.  In
+the dusk this place was shadowy, and the view was hampered by the
+clustering trunks.  In the uncertain, tremulous light which fell
+through the tree-tops, it was hard to distinguish anything clearly,
+and at last, somehow, he lost sight of her altogether, and turned
+back on his track to find her.  Presently he came across her close
+to her own gate.  She was leaning over the paling of split oak
+branches which formed the paling of the avenue.  He could not see
+the mongoose, so he asked her where it had gone.
+
+"He slipt out of my arms while I was petting him," she answered,
+"and disappeared under the hedges."
+
+They found him at a place where the avenue widened so as to let
+carriages pass each other.  The little creature seemed quite
+changed.  He had been ebulliently active; now he was dull and
+spiritless--seemed to be dazed.  He allowed himself to be lifted by
+either of the pair; but when he was alone with Lady Arabella he kept
+looking round him in a strange way, as though trying to escape.
+When they had come out on the roadway Adam held the mongoose tight
+to him, and, lifting his hat to his companion, moved quickly towards
+Lesser Hill; he and Lady Arabella lost sight of each other in the
+thickening gloom.
+
+When Adam got home, he put the mongoose in his box, and locked the
+door of the room.  The other mongoose--the one from Nepaul--was
+safely locked in his own box, but he lay quiet and did not stir.
+When he got to his study Sir Nathaniel came in, shutting the door
+behind him.
+
+"I have come," he said, "while we have an opportunity of being
+alone, to tell you something of the Caswall family which I think
+will interest you.  There is, or used to be, a belief in this part
+of the world that the Caswall family had some strange power of
+making the wills of other persons subservient to their own.  There
+are many allusions to the subject in memoirs and other unimportant
+works, but I only know of one where the subject is spoken of
+definitely.  It is MERCIA AND ITS WORTHIES, written by Ezra Toms
+more than a hundred years ago.  The author goes into the question of
+the close association of the then Edgar Caswall with Mesmer in
+Paris.  He speaks of Caswall being a pupil and the fellow worker of
+Mesmer, and states that though, when the latter left France, he took
+away with him a vast quantity of philosophical and electric
+instruments, he was never known to use them again.  He once made it
+known to a friend that he had given them to his old pupil.  The term
+he used was odd, for it was 'bequeathed,' but no such bequest of
+Mesmer was ever made known.  At any rate the instruments were
+missing, and never turned up."
+
+A servant came into the room to tell Adam that there was some
+strange noise coming from the locked room into which he had gone
+when he came in.  He hurried off to the place at once, Sir Nathaniel
+going with him.  Having locked the door behind them, Adam opened the
+packing-case where the boxes of the two mongooses were locked up.
+There was no sound from one of them, but from the other a queer
+restless struggling.  Having opened both boxes, he found that the
+noise was from the Nepaul animal, which, however, became quiet at
+once.  In the other box the new mongoose lay dead, with every
+appearance of having been strangled!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--THE KITE
+
+
+
+On the following day, a little after four o'clock, Adam set out for
+Mercy.
+
+He was home just as the clocks were striking six.  He was pale and
+upset, but otherwise looked strong and alert.  The old man summed up
+his appearance and manner thus:  "Braced up for battle."
+
+"Now!" said Sir Nathaniel, and settled down to listen, looking at
+Adam steadily and listening attentively that he might miss nothing--
+even the inflection of a word.
+
+"I found Lilla and Mimi at home.  Watford had been detained by
+business on the farm.  Miss Watford received me as kindly as before;
+Mimi, too, seemed glad to see me.  Mr. Caswall came so soon after I
+arrived, that he, or someone on his behalf, must have been watching
+for me.  He was followed closely by the negro, who was puffing hard
+as if he had been running--so it was probably he who watched.  Mr.
+Caswall was very cool and collected, but there was a more than
+usually iron look about his face that I did not like.  However, we
+got on very well.  He talked pleasantly on all sorts of questions.
+The nigger waited a while and then disappeared as on the other
+occasion.  Mr. Caswall's eyes were as usual fixed on Lilla.  True,
+they seemed to be very deep and earnest, but there was no offence in
+them.  Had it not been for the drawing down of the brows and the
+stern set of the jaws, I should not at first have noticed anything.
+But the stare, when presently it began, increased in intensity.  I
+could see that Lilla began to suffer from nervousness, as on the
+first occasion; but she carried herself bravely.  However, the more
+nervous she grew, the harder Mr. Caswall stared.  It was evident to
+me that he had come prepared for some sort of mesmeric or hypnotic
+battle.  After a while he began to throw glances round him and then
+raised his hand, without letting either Lilla or Mimi see the
+action.  It was evidently intended to give some sign to the negro,
+for he came, in his usual stealthy way, quietly in by the hall door,
+which was open.  Then Mr. Caswall's efforts at staring became
+intensified, and poor Lilla's nervousness grew greater.  Mimi,
+seeing that her cousin was distressed, came close to her, as if to
+comfort or strengthen her with the consciousness of her presence.
+This evidently made a difficulty for Mr. Caswall, for his efforts,
+without appearing to get feebler, seemed less effective.  This
+continued for a little while, to the gain of both Lilla and Mimi.
+Then there was a diversion.  Without word or apology the door
+opened, and Lady Arabella March entered the room.  I had seen her
+coming through the great window.  Without a word she crossed the
+room and stood beside Mr. Caswall.  It really was very like a fight
+of a peculiar kind; and the longer it was sustained the more
+earnest--the fiercer--it grew.  That combination of forces--the
+over-lord, the white woman, and the black man--would have cost some-
+-probably all of them--their lives in the Southern States of
+America.  To us it was simply horrible.  But all that you can
+understand.  This time, to go on in sporting phrase, it was
+understood by all to be a 'fight to a finish,' and the mixed group
+did not slacken a moment or relax their efforts.  On Lilla the
+strain began to tell disastrously.  She grew pale--a patchy pallor,
+which meant that her nerves were out of order.  She trembled like an
+aspen, and though she struggled bravely, I noticed that her legs
+would hardly support her.  A dozen times she seemed about to
+collapse in a faint, but each time, on catching sight of Mimi's
+eyes, she made a fresh struggle and pulled through.
+
+"By now Mr. Caswall's face had lost its appearance of passivity.
+His eyes glowed with a fiery light.  He was still the old Roman in
+inflexibility of purpose; but grafted on to the Roman was a new
+Berserker fury.  His companions in the baleful work seemed to have
+taken on something of his feeling.  Lady Arabella looked like a
+soulless, pitiless being, not human, unless it revived old legends
+of transformed human beings who had lost their humanity in some
+transformation or in the sweep of natural savagery.  As for the
+negro--well, I can only say that it was solely due to the self-
+restraint which you impressed on me that I did not wipe him out as
+he stood--without warning, without fair play--without a single one
+of the graces of life and death.  Lilla was silent in the helpless
+concentration of deadly fear; Mimi was all resolve and self-
+forgetfulness, so intent on the soul-struggle in which she was
+engaged that there was no possibility of any other thought.  As for
+myself, the bonds of will which held me inactive seemed like bands
+of steel which numbed all my faculties, except sight and hearing.
+We seemed fixed in an IMPASSE.  Something must happen, though the
+power of guessing was inactive.  As in a dream, I saw Mimi's hand
+move restlessly, as if groping for something.  Mechanically it
+touched that of Lilla, and in that instant she was transformed.  It
+was as if youth and strength entered afresh into something already
+dead to sensibility and intention.  As if by inspiration, she
+grasped the other's band with a force which blenched the knuckles.
+Her face suddenly flamed, as if some divine light shone through it.
+Her form expanded till it stood out majestically.  Lifting her right
+hand, she stepped forward towards Caswall, and with a bold sweep of
+her arm seemed to drive some strange force towards him.  Again and
+again was the gesture repeated, the man falling back from her at
+each movement.  Towards the door he retreated, she following.  There
+was a sound as of the cooing sob of doves, which seemed to multiply
+and intensify with each second.  The sound from the unseen source
+rose and rose as he retreated, till finally it swelled out in a
+triumphant peal, as she with a fierce sweep of her arm, seemed to
+hurl something at her foe, and he, moving his hands blindly before
+his face, appeared to be swept through the doorway and out into the
+open sunlight.
+
+"All at once my own faculties were fully restored; I could see and
+hear everything, and be fully conscious of what was going on.  Even
+the figures of the baleful group were there, though dimly seen as
+through a veil--a shadowy veil.  I saw Lilla sink down in a swoon,
+and Mimi throw up her arms in a gesture of triumph.  As I saw her
+through the great window, the sunshine flooded the landscape, which,
+however, was momentarily becoming eclipsed by an onrush of a myriad
+birds."
+
+By the next morning, daylight showed the actual danger which
+threatened.  From every part of the eastern counties reports were
+received concerning the enormous immigration of birds.  Experts were
+sending--on their own account, on behalf of learned societies, and
+through local and imperial governing bodies--reports dealing with
+the matter, and suggesting remedies.
+
+The reports closer to home were even more disturbing.  All day long
+it would seem that the birds were coming thicker from all quarters.
+Doubtless many were going as well as coming, but the mass seemed
+never to get less.  Each bird seemed to sound some note of fear or
+anger or seeking, and the whirring of wings never ceased nor
+lessened.  The air was full of a muttered throb.  No window or
+barrier could shut out the sound, till the ears of any listener
+became dulled by the ceaseless murmur.  So monotonous it was, so
+cheerless, so disheartening, so melancholy, that all longed, but in
+vain, for any variety, no matter how terrible it might be.
+
+The second morning the reports from all the districts round were
+more alarming than ever.  Farmers began to dread the coming of
+winter as they saw the dwindling of the timely fruitfulness of the
+earth.  And as yet it was only a warning of evil, not the evil
+accomplished; the ground began to look bare whenever some passing
+sound temporarily frightened the birds.
+
+Edgar Caswall tortured his brain for a long time unavailingly, to
+think of some means of getting rid of what he, as well as his
+neighbours, had come to regard as a plague of birds.  At last he
+recalled a circumstance which promised a solution of the difficulty.
+The experience was of some years ago in China, far up-country,
+towards the head-waters of the Yang-tze-kiang, where the smaller
+tributaries spread out in a sort of natural irrigation scheme to
+supply the wilderness of paddy-fields.  It was at the time of the
+ripening rice, and the myriads of birds which came to feed on the
+coming crop was a serious menace, not only to the district, but to
+the country at large.  The farmers, who were more or less afflicted
+with the same trouble every season, knew how to deal with it.  They
+made a vast kite, which they caused to be flown over the centre spot
+of the incursion.  The kite was shaped like a great hawk; and the
+moment it rose into the air the birds began to cower and seek
+protection--and then to disappear.  So long as that kite was flying
+overhead the birds lay low and the crop was saved.  Accordingly
+Caswall ordered his men to construct an immense kite, adhering as
+well as they could to the lines of a hawk.  Then he and his men,
+with a sufficiency of cord, began to fly it high overhead.  The
+experience of China was repeated.  The moment the kite rose, the
+birds hid or sought shelter.  The following morning, the kite was
+still flying high, no bird was to be seen as far as the eye could
+reach from Castra Regis.  But there followed in turn what proved
+even a worse evil.  All the birds were cowed; their sounds stopped.
+Neither song nor chirp was heard--silence seemed to have taken the
+place of the normal voices of bird life.  But that was not all.  The
+silence spread to all animals.
+
+The fear and restraint which brooded amongst the denizens of the air
+began to affect all life.  Not only did the birds cease song or
+chirp, but the lowing of the cattle ceased in the fields and the
+varied sounds of life died away.  In place of these things was only
+a soundless gloom, more dreadful, more disheartening, more soul-
+killing than any concourse of sounds, no matter how full of fear and
+dread.  Pious individuals put up constant prayers for relief from
+the intolerable solitude.  After a little there were signs of
+universal depression which those who ran might read.  One and all,
+the faces of men and women seemed bereft of vitality, of interest,
+of thought, and, most of all, of hope.  Men seemed to have lost the
+power of expression of their thoughts.  The soundless air seemed to
+have the same effect as the universal darkness when men gnawed their
+tongues with pain.
+
+From this infliction of silence there was no relief.  Everything was
+affected; gloom was the predominant note.  Joy appeared to have
+passed away as a factor of life, and this creative impulse had
+nothing to take its place.  That giant spot in high air was a plague
+of evil influence.  It seemed like a new misanthropic belief which
+had fallen on human beings, carrying with it the negation of all
+hope.
+
+After a few days, men began to grow desperate; their very words as
+well as their senses seemed to be in chains.  Edgar Caswall again
+tortured his brain to find any antidote or palliative of this
+greater evil than before.  He would gladly have destroyed the kite,
+or caused its flying to cease; but the instant it was pulled down,
+the birds rose up in even greater numbers; all those who depended in
+any way on agriculture sent pitiful protests to Castra Regis.
+
+It was strange indeed what influence that weird kite seemed to
+exercise.  Even human beings were affected by it, as if both it and
+they were realities.  As for the people at Mercy Farm, it was like a
+taste of actual death.  Lilla felt it most.  If she had been indeed
+a real dove, with a real kite hanging over her in the air, she could
+not have been more frightened or more affected by the terror this
+created.
+
+Of course, some of those already drawn into the vortex noticed the
+effect on individuals.  Those who were interested took care to
+compare their information.  Strangely enough, as it seemed to the
+others, the person who took the ghastly silence least to heart was
+the negro.  By nature he was not sensitive to, or afflicted by,
+nerves.  This alone would not have produced the seeming
+indifference, so they set their minds to discover the real cause.
+Adam came quickly to the conclusion that there was for him some
+compensation that the others did not share; and he soon believed
+that that compensation was in one form or another the enjoyment of
+the sufferings of others.  Thus the black had a never-failing source
+of amusement.
+
+Lady Arabella's cold nature rendered her immune to anything in the
+way of pain or trouble concerning others.  Edgar Caswall was far too
+haughty a person, and too stern of nature, to concern himself about
+poor or helpless people, much less the lower order of mere animals.
+Mr. Watford, Mr. Salton, and Sir Nathaniel were all concerned in the
+issue, partly from kindness of heart--for none of them could see
+suffering, even of wild birds, unmoved--and partly on account of
+their property, which had to be protected, or ruin would stare them
+in the face before long.
+
+Lilla suffered acutely.  As time went on, her face became pinched,
+and her eyes dull with watching and crying.  Mimi suffered too on
+account of her cousin's suffering.  But as she could do nothing, she
+resolutely made up her mind to self-restraint and patience.  Adam's
+frequent visits comforted her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--MESMER'S CHEST
+
+
+
+After a couple of weeks had passed, the kite seemed to give Edgar
+Caswall a new zest for life.  He was never tired of looking at its
+movements.  He had a comfortable armchair put out on the tower,
+wherein he sat sometimes all day long, watching as though the kite
+was a new toy and he a child lately come into possession of it.  He
+did not seem to have lost interest in Lilla, for he still paid an
+occasional visit at Mercy Farm.
+
+Indeed, his feeling towards her, whatever it had been at first, had
+now so far changed that it had become a distinct affection of a
+purely animal kind.  Indeed, it seemed as though the man's nature
+had become corrupted, and that all the baser and more selfish and
+more reckless qualities had become more conspicuous.  There was not
+so much sternness apparent in his nature, because there was less
+self-restraint.  Determination had become indifference.
+
+The visible change in Edgar was that he grew morbid, sad, silent;
+the neighbours thought he was going mad.  He became absorbed in the
+kite, and watched it not only by day, but often all night long.  It
+became an obsession to him.
+
+Caswall took a personal interest in the keeping of the great kite
+flying.  He had a vast coil of cord efficient for the purpose, which
+worked on a roller fixed on the parapet of the tower.  There was a
+winch for the pulling in of the slack; the outgoing line being
+controlled by a racket.  There was invariably one man at least, day
+and night, on the tower to attend to it.  At such an elevation there
+was always a strong wind, and at times the kite rose to an enormous
+height, as well as travelling for great distances laterally.  In
+fact, the kite became, in a short time, one of the curiosities of
+Castra Regis and all around it.  Edgar began to attribute to it, in
+his own mind, almost human qualities.  It became to him a separate
+entity, with a mind and a soul of its own.  Being idle-handed all
+day, he began to apply to what he considered the service of the kite
+some of his spare time, and found a new pleasure--a new object in
+life--in the old schoolboy game of sending up "runners" to the kite.
+The way this is done is to get round pieces of paper so cut that
+there is a hole in the centre, through which the string of the kite
+passes.  The natural action of the wind-pressure takes the paper
+along the string, and so up to the kite itself, no matter how high
+or how far it may have gone.
+
+In the early days of this amusement Edgar Caswall spent hours.
+Hundreds of such messengers flew along the string, until soon he
+bethought him of writing messages on these papers so that he could
+make known his ideas to the kite.  It may be that his brain gave way
+under the opportunities given by his illusion of the entity of the
+toy and its power of separate thought.  From sending messages he
+came to making direct speech to the kite--without, however, ceasing
+to send the runners.  Doubtless, the height of the tower, seated as
+it was on the hill-top, the rushing of the ceaseless wind, the
+hypnotic effect of the lofty altitude of the speck in the sky at
+which he gazed, and the rushing of the paper messengers up the
+string till sight of them was lost in distance, all helped to
+further affect his brain, undoubtedly giving way under the strain of
+beliefs and circumstances which were at once stimulating to the
+imagination, occupative of his mind, and absorbing.
+
+The next step of intellectual decline was to bring to bear on the
+main idea of the conscious identity of the kite all sorts of
+subjects which had imaginative force or tendency of their own.  He
+had, in Castra Regis, a large collection of curious and interesting
+things formed in the past by his forebears, of similar tastes to his
+own.  There were all sorts of strange anthropological specimens,
+both old and new, which had been collected through various travels
+in strange places:  ancient Egyptian relics from tombs and mummies;
+curios from Australia, New Zealand, and the South Seas; idols and
+images--from Tartar ikons to ancient Egyptian, Persian, and Indian
+objects of worship; objects of death and torture of American
+Indians; and, above all, a vast collection of lethal weapons of
+every kind and from every place--Chinese "high pinders," double
+knives, Afghan double-edged scimitars made to cut a body in two,
+heavy knives from all the Eastern countries, ghost daggers from
+Thibet, the terrible kukri of the Ghourka and other hill tribes of
+India, assassins' weapons from Italy and Spain, even the knife which
+was formerly carried by the slave-drivers of the Mississippi region.
+Death and pain of every kind were fully represented in that gruesome
+collection.
+
+That it had a fascination for Oolanga goes without saying.  He was
+never tired of visiting the museum in the tower, and spent endless
+hours in inspecting the exhibits, till he was thoroughly familiar
+with every detail of all of them.  He asked permission to clean and
+polish and sharpen them--a favour which was readily granted.  In
+addition to the above objects, there were many things of a kind to
+awaken human fear.  Stuffed serpents of the most objectionable and
+horrid kind; giant insects from the tropics, fearsome in every
+detail; fishes and crustaceans covered with weird spikes; dried
+octopuses of great size.  Other things, too, there were, not less
+deadly though seemingly innocuous--dried fungi, traps intended for
+birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, and insects; machines which could
+produce pain of any kind and degree, and the only mercy of which was
+the power of producing speedy death.
+
+Caswall, who had never before seen any of these things, except those
+which he had collected himself, found a constant amusement and
+interest in them.  He studied them, their uses, their mechanism--
+where there was such--and their places of origin, until he had an
+ample and real knowledge of all concerning them.  Many were secret
+and intricate, but he never rested till he found out all the
+secrets.  When once he had become interested in strange objects, and
+the way to use them, he began to explore various likely places for
+similar finds.  He began to inquire of his household where strange
+lumber was kept.  Several of the men spoke of old Simon Chester as
+one who knew everything in and about the house.  Accordingly, he
+sent for the old man, who came at once.  He was very old, nearly
+ninety years of age, and very infirm.  He had been born in the
+Castle, and had served its succession of masters--present or absent-
+-ever since.  When Edgar began to question him on the subject
+regarding which he had sent for him, old Simon exhibited much
+perturbation.  In fact, he became so frightened that his master,
+fully believing that he was concealing something, ordered him to
+tell at once what remained unseen, and where it was hidden away.
+Face to face with discovery of his secret, the old man, in a
+pitiable state of concern, spoke out even more fully than Mr.
+Caswall had expected.
+
+"Indeed, indeed, sir, everything is here in the tower that has ever
+been put away in my time except--except--" here he began to shake
+and tremble it--"except the chest which Mr. Edgar--he who was Mr.
+Edgar when I first took service--brought back from France, after he
+had been with Dr. Mesmer.  The trunk has been kept in my room for
+safety; but I shall send it down here now."
+
+"What is in it?" asked Edgar sharply.
+
+"That I do not know.  Moreover, it is a peculiar trunk, without any
+visible means of opening."
+
+"Is there no lock?"
+
+"I suppose so, sir; but I do not know.  There is no keyhole."
+
+"Send it here; and then come to me yourself."
+
+The trunk, a heavy one with steel bands round it, but no lock or
+keyhole, was carried in by two men.  Shortly afterwards old Simon
+attended his master.  When he came into the room, Mr. Caswall
+himself went and closed the door; then he asked:
+
+"How do you open it?"
+
+"I do not know, sir."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you never opened it?"
+
+"Most certainly I say so, your honour.  How could I?  It was
+entrusted to me with the other things by my master.  To open it
+would have been a breach of trust."
+
+Caswall sneered.
+
+"Quite remarkable!  Leave it with me.  Close the door behind you.
+Stay--did no one ever tell you about it--say anything regarding it--
+make any remark?"
+
+Old Simon turned pale, and put his trembling hands together.
+
+"Oh, sir, I entreat you not to touch it.  That trunk probably
+contains secrets which Dr. Mesmer told my master.  Told them to his
+ruin!"
+
+"How do you mean?  What ruin?"
+
+"Sir, he it was who, men said, sold his soul to the Evil One; I had
+thought that that time and the evil of it had all passed away."
+
+"That will do.  Go away; but remain in your own room, or within
+call.  I may want you."
+
+The old man bowed deeply and went out trembling, but without
+speaking a word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--THE CHEST OPENED
+
+
+
+Left alone in the turret-room, Edgar Caswall carefully locked the
+door and hung a handkerchief over the keyhole.  Next, he inspected
+the windows, and saw that they were not overlooked from any angle of
+the main building.  Then he carefully examined the trunk, going over
+it with a magnifying glass.  He found it intact:  the steel bands
+were flawless; the whole trunk was compact.  After sitting opposite
+to it for some time, and the shades of evening beginning to melt
+into darkness, he gave up the task and went to his bedroom, after
+locking the door of the turret-room behind him and taking away the
+key.
+
+He woke in the morning at daylight, and resumed his patient but
+unavailing study of the metal trunk.  This he continued during the
+whole day with the same result--humiliating disappointment, which
+overwrought his nerves and made his head ache.  The result of the
+long strain was seen later in the afternoon, when he sat locked
+within the turret-room before the still baffling trunk, distrait,
+listless and yet agitated, sunk in a settled gloom.  As the dusk was
+falling he told the steward to send him two men, strong ones.  These
+he ordered to take the trunk to his bedroom.  In that room he then
+sat on into the night, without pausing even to take any food.  His
+mind was in a whirl, a fever of excitement.  The result was that
+when, late in the night, he locked himself in his room his brain was
+full of odd fancies; he was on the high road to mental disturbance.
+He lay down on his bed in the dark, still brooding over the mystery
+of the closed trunk.
+
+Gradually he yielded to the influences of silence and darkness.
+After lying there quietly for some time, his mind became active
+again.  But this time there were round him no disturbing influences;
+his brain was active and able to work freely and to deal with
+memory.  A thousand forgotten--or only half-known--incidents,
+fragments of conversations or theories long ago guessed at and long
+forgotten, crowded on his mind.  He seemed to hear again around him
+the legions of whirring wings to which he had been so lately
+accustomed.  Even to himself he knew that that was an effort of
+imagination founded on imperfect memory.  But he was content that
+imagination should work, for out of it might come some solution of
+the mystery which surrounded him.  And in this frame of mind, sleep
+made another and more successful essay.  This time he enjoyed
+peaceful slumber, restful alike to his wearied body and his
+overwrought brain.
+
+In his sleep he arose, and, as if in obedience to some influence
+beyond and greater than himself, lifted the great trunk and set it
+on a strong table at one side of the room, from which he had
+previously removed a quantity of books.  To do this, he had to use
+an amount of strength which was, he knew, far beyond him in his
+normal state.  As it was, it seemed easy enough; everything yielded
+before his touch.  Then he became conscious that somehow--how, he
+never could remember--the chest was open.  He unlocked his door,
+and, taking the chest on his shoulder, carried it up to the turret-
+room, the door of which also he unlocked.  Even at the time he was
+amazed at his own strength, and wondered whence it had come.  His
+mind, lost in conjecture, was too far off to realise more immediate
+things.  He knew that the chest was enormously heavy.  He seemed, in
+a sort of vision which lit up the absolute blackness around, to see
+the two sturdy servant men staggering under its great weight.  He
+locked himself again in the turret-room, and laid the opened chest
+on a table, and in the darkness began to unpack it, laying out the
+contents, which were mainly of metal and glass--great pieces in
+strange forms--on another table.  He was conscious of being still
+asleep, and of acting rather in obedience to some unseen and unknown
+command than in accordance with any reasonable plan, to be followed
+by results which he understood.  This phase completed, he proceeded
+to arrange in order the component parts of some large instruments,
+formed mostly of glass.  His fingers seemed to have acquired a new
+and exquisite subtlety and even a volition of their own.  Then
+weariness of brain came upon him; his head sank down on his breast,
+and little by little everything became wrapped in gloom.
+
+He awoke in the early morning in his bedroom, and looked around him,
+now clear-headed, in amazement.  In its usual place on the strong
+table stood the great steel-hooped chest without lock or key.  But
+it was now locked.  He arose quietly and stole to the turret-room.
+There everything was as it had been on the previous evening.  He
+looked out of the window where high in air flew, as usual, the giant
+kite.  He unlocked the wicket gate of the turret stair and went out
+on the roof.  Close to him was the great coil of cord on its reel.
+It was humming in the morning breeze, and when he touched the string
+it sent a quick thrill through hand and arm.  There was no sign
+anywhere that there had been any disturbance or displacement of
+anything during the night.
+
+Utterly bewildered, he sat down in his room to think.  Now for the
+first time he FELT that he was asleep and dreaming.  Presently he
+fell asleep again, and slept for a long time.  He awoke hungry and
+made a hearty meal.  Then towards evening, having locked himself in,
+he fell asleep again.  When he woke he was in darkness, and was
+quite at sea as to his whereabouts.  He began feeling about the dark
+room, and was recalled to the consequences of his position by the
+breaking of a large piece of glass.  Having obtained a light, he
+discovered this to be a glass wheel, part of an elaborate piece of
+mechanism which he must in his sleep have taken from the chest,
+which was now opened.  He had once again opened it whilst asleep,
+but he had no recollection of the circumstances.
+
+Caswall came to the conclusion that there had been some sort of dual
+action of his mind, which might lead to some catastrophe or some
+discovery of his secret plans; so he resolved to forgo for a while
+the pleasure of making discoveries regarding the chest.  To this
+end, he applied himself to quite another matter--an investigation of
+the other treasures and rare objects in his collections.  He went
+amongst them in simple, idle curiosity, his main object being to
+discover some strange item which he might use for experiment with
+the kite.  He had already resolved to try some runners other than
+those made of paper.  He had a vague idea that with such a force as
+the great kite straining at its leash, this might be used to lift to
+the altitude of the kite itself heavier articles.  His first
+experiment with articles of little but increasing weight was
+eminently successful.  So he added by degrees more and more weight,
+until he found out that the lifting power of the kite was
+considerable.  He then determined to take a step further, and send
+to the kite some of the articles which lay in the steel-hooped
+chest.  The last time he had opened it in sleep, it had not been
+shut again, and he had inserted a wedge so that he could open it at
+will.  He made examination of the contents, but came to the
+conclusion that the glass objects were unsuitable.  They were too
+light for testing weight, and they were so frail as to be dangerous
+to send to such a height.
+
+So he looked around for something more solid with which to
+experiment.  His eye caught sight of an object which at once
+attracted him.  This was a small copy of one of the ancient Egyptian
+gods--that of Bes, who represented the destructive power of nature.
+It was so bizarre and mysterious as to commend itself to his mad
+humour.  In lifting it from the cabinet, he was struck by its great
+weight in proportion to its size.  He made accurate examination of
+it by the aid of some instruments, and came to the conclusion that
+it was carved from a lump of lodestone.  He remembered that he had
+read somewhere of an ancient Egyptian god cut from a similar
+substance, and, thinking it over, he came to the conclusion that he
+must have read it in Sir Thomas Brown's POPULAR ERRORS, a book of
+the seventeenth century.  He got the book from the library, and
+looked out the passage:
+
+"A great example we have from the observation of our learned friend
+Mr. Graves, in an AEgyptian idol cut out of Loadstone and found
+among the Mummies; which still retains its attraction, though
+probably taken out of the mine about two thousand years ago."
+
+The strangeness of the figure, and its being so close akin to his
+own nature, attracted him.  He made from thin wood a large circular
+runner, and in front of it placed the weighty god, sending it up to
+the flying kite along the throbbing cord.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--OOLANGA'S HALLUCINATIONS
+
+
+
+During the last few days Lady Arabella had been getting exceedingly
+impatient.  Her debts, always pressing, were growing to an
+embarrassing amount.  The only hope she had of comfort in life was a
+good marriage; but the good marriage on which she had fixed her eye
+did not seem to move quickly enough--indeed, it did not seem to move
+at all--in the right direction.  Edgar Caswall was not an ardent
+wooer.  From the very first he seemed DIFFICILE, but he had been
+keeping to his own room ever since his struggle with Mimi Watford.
+On that occasion Lady Arabella had shown him in an unmistakable way
+what her feelings were; indeed, she had made it known to him, in a
+more overt way than pride should allow, that she wished to help and
+support him.  The moment when she had gone across the room to stand
+beside him in his mesmeric struggle, had been the very limit of her
+voluntary action.  It was quite bitter enough, she felt, that he did
+not come to her, but now that she had made that advance, she felt
+that any withdrawal on his part would, to a woman of her class, be
+nothing less than a flaming insult.  Had she not classed herself
+with his nigger servant, an unreformed savage?  Had she not shown
+her preference for him at the festival of his home-coming?  Had she
+not. . . Lady Arabella was cold-blooded, and she was prepared to go
+through all that might be necessary of indifference, and even
+insult, to become chatelaine of Castra Regis.  In the meantime, she
+would show no hurry--she must wait.  She might, in an unostentatious
+way, come to him again.  She knew him now, and could make a keen
+guess at his desires with regard to Lilla Watford.  With that secret
+in her possession, she could bring pressure to bear on Caswall which
+would make it no easy matter for him to evade her.  The great
+difficulty was how to get near him.  He was shut up within his
+Castle, and guarded by a defence of convention which she could not
+pass without danger of ill repute to herself.  Over this question
+she thought and thought for days and nights.  At last she decided
+that the only way would be to go to him openly at Castra Regis.  Her
+rank and position would make such a thing possible, if carefully
+done.  She could explain matters afterwards if necessary.  Then when
+they were alone, she would use her arts and her experience to make
+him commit himself.  After all, he was only a man, with a man's
+dislike of difficult or awkward situations.  She felt quite
+sufficient confidence in her own womanhood to carry her through any
+difficulty which might arise.
+
+From Diana's Grove she heard each day the luncheon-gong from Castra
+Regis sound, and knew the hour when the servants would be in the
+back of the house.  She would enter the house at that hour, and,
+pretending that she could not make anyone hear her, would seek him
+in his own rooms.  The tower was, she knew, away from all the usual
+sounds of the house, and moreover she knew that the servants had
+strict orders not to interrupt him when he was in the turret
+chamber.  She had found out, partly by the aid of an opera-glass and
+partly by judicious questioning, that several times lately a heavy
+chest had been carried to and from his room, and that it rested in
+the room each night.  She was, therefore, confident that he had some
+important work on hand which would keep him busy for long spells.
+
+Meanwhile, another member of the household at Castra Regis had
+schemes which he thought were working to fruition.  A man in the
+position of a servant has plenty of opportunity of watching his
+betters and forming opinions regarding them.  Oolanga was in his way
+a clever, unscrupulous rogue, and he felt that with things moving
+round him in this great household there should be opportunities of
+self-advancement.  Being unscrupulous and stealthy--and a savage--he
+looked to dishonest means.  He saw plainly enough that Lady Arabella
+was making a dead set at his master, and he was watchful of the
+slightest sign of anything which might enhance this knowledge.  Like
+the other men in the house, he knew of the carrying to and fro of
+the great chest, and had got it into his head that the care
+exercised in its porterage indicated that it was full of treasure.
+He was for ever lurking around the turret-rooms on the chance of
+making some useful discovery.  But he was as cautious as he was
+stealthy, and took care that no one else watched him.
+
+It was thus that the negro became aware of Lady Arabella's venture
+into the house, as she thought, unseen.  He took more care than
+ever, since he was watching another, that the positions were not
+reversed.  More than ever he kept his eyes and ears open and his
+mouth shut.  Seeing Lady Arabella gliding up the stairs towards his
+master's room, he took it for granted that she was there for no
+good, and doubled his watching intentness and caution.
+
+Oolanga was disappointed, but he dared not exhibit any feeling lest
+it should betray that he was hiding.  Therefore he slunk downstairs
+again noiselessly, and waited for a more favourable opportunity of
+furthering his plans.  It must be borne in mind that he thought that
+the heavy trunk was full of valuables, and that he believed that
+Lady Arabella had come to try to steal it.  His purpose of using for
+his own advantage the combination of these two ideas was seen later
+in the day.  Oolanga secretly followed her home.  He was an expert
+at this game, and succeeded admirably on this occasion.  He watched
+her enter the private gate of Diana's Grove, and then, taking a
+roundabout course and keeping out of her sight, he at last overtook
+her in a thick part of the Grove where no one could see the meeting.
+
+Lady Arabella was much surprised.  She had not seen the negro for
+several days, and had almost forgotten his existence.  Oolanga would
+have been startled had he known and been capable of understanding
+the real value placed on him, his beauty, his worthiness, by other
+persons, and compared it with the value in these matters in which he
+held himself.  Doubtless Oolanga had his dreams like other men.  In
+such cases he saw himself as a young sun-god, as beautiful as the
+eye of dusky or even white womanhood had ever dwelt upon.  He would
+have been filled with all noble and captivating qualities--or those
+regarded as such in West Africa.  Women would have loved him, and
+would have told him so in the overt and fervid manner usual in
+affairs of the heart in the shadowy depths of the forest of the Gold
+Coast.
+
+Oolanga came close behind Lady Arabella, and in a hushed voice,
+suitable to the importance of his task, and in deference to the
+respect he had for her and the place, began to unfold the story of
+his love.  Lady Arabella was not usually a humorous person, but no
+man or woman of the white race could have checked the laughter which
+rose spontaneously to her lips.  The circumstances were too
+grotesque, the contrast too violent, for subdued mirth.  The man a
+debased specimen of one of the most primitive races of the earth,
+and of an ugliness which was simply devilish; the woman of high
+degree, beautiful, accomplished.  She thought that her first
+moment's consideration of the outrage--it was nothing less in her
+eyes--had given her the full material for thought.  But every
+instant after threw new and varied lights on the affront.  Her
+indignation was too great for passion; only irony or satire would
+meet the situation.  Her cold, cruel nature helped, and she did not
+shrink to subject this ignorant savage to the merciless fire-lash of
+her scorn.
+
+Oolanga was dimly conscious that he was being flouted; but his anger
+was no less keen because of the measure of his ignorance.  So he
+gave way to it, as does a tortured beast.  He ground his great teeth
+together, raved, stamped, and swore in barbarous tongues and with
+barbarous imagery.  Even Lady Arabella felt that it was well she was
+within reach of help, or he might have offered her brutal violence--
+even have killed her.
+
+"Am I to understand," she said with cold disdain, so much more
+effective to wound than hot passion, "that you are offering me your
+love?  Your--love?"
+
+For reply he nodded his head.  The scorn of her voice, in a sort of
+baleful hiss, sounded--and felt--like the lash of a whip.
+
+"And you dared! you--a savage--a slave--the basest thing in the
+world of vermin!  Take care!  I don't value your worthless life more
+than I do that of a rat or a spider.  Don't let me ever see your
+hideous face here again, or I shall rid the earth of you."
+
+As she was speaking, she had taken out her revolver and was pointing
+it at him.  In the immediate presence of death his impudence forsook
+him, and he made a weak effort to justify himself.  His speech was
+short, consisting of single words.  To Lady Arabella it sounded mere
+gibberish, but it was in his own dialect, and meant love, marriage,
+wife.  From the intonation of the words, she guessed, with her
+woman's quick intuition, at their meaning; but she quite failed to
+follow, when, becoming more pressing, he continued to urge his suit
+in a mixture of the grossest animal passion and ridiculous threats.
+He warned her that he knew she had tried to steal his master's
+treasure, and that he had caught her in the act.  But if she would
+be his, he would share the treasure with her, and they could live in
+luxury in the African forests.  But if she refused, he would tell
+his master, who would flog and torture her and then give her to the
+police, who would kill her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--BATTLE RENEWED
+
+
+
+The consequences of that meeting in the dusk of Diana's Grove were
+acute and far-reaching, and not only to the two engaged in it.  From
+Oolanga, this might have been expected by anyone who knew the
+character of the tropical African savage.  To such, there are two
+passions that are inexhaustible and insatiable--vanity and that
+which they are pleased to call love.  Oolanga left the Grove with an
+absorbing hatred in his heart.  His lust and greed were afire, while
+his vanity had been wounded to the core.  Lady Arabella's icy nature
+was not so deeply stirred, though she was in a seething passion.
+More than ever she was set upon bringing Edgar Caswall to her feet.
+The obstacles she had encountered, the insults she had endured, were
+only as fuel to the purpose of revenge which consumed her.
+
+As she sought her own rooms in Diana's Grove, she went over the
+whole subject again and again, always finding in the face of Lilla
+Watford a key to a problem which puzzled her--the problem of a way
+to turn Caswall's powers--his very existence--to aid her purpose.
+
+When in her boudoir, she wrote a note, taking so much trouble over
+it that she destroyed, and rewrote, till her dainty waste-basket was
+half-full of torn sheets of notepaper.  When quite satisfied, she
+copied out the last sheet afresh, and then carefully burned all the
+spoiled fragments.  She put the copied note in an emblazoned
+envelope, and directed it to Edgar Caswall at Castra Regis.  This
+she sent off by one of her grooms.  The letter ran:
+
+
+"DEAR MR. CASWALL,
+
+"I want to have a chat with you on a subject in which I believe you
+are interested.  Will you kindly call for me one day after lunch--
+say at three or four o'clock, and we can walk a little way together.
+Only as far as Mercy Farm, where I want to see Lilla and Mimi
+Watford.  We can take a cup of tea at the Farm.  Do not bring your
+African servant with you, as I am afraid his face frightens the
+girls.  After all, he is not pretty, is he?  I have an idea you will
+be pleased with your visit this time.
+
+"Yours sincerely,
+"ARABELLA MARCH."
+
+
+At half-past three next day, Edgar Caswall called at Diana's Grove.
+Lady Arabella met him on the roadway outside the gate.  She wished
+to take the servants into her confidence as little as possible.  She
+turned when she saw him coming, and walked beside him towards Mercy
+Farm, keeping step with him as they walked.  When they got near
+Mercy, she turned and looked around her, expecting to see Oolanga or
+some sign of him.  He was, however, not visible.  He had received
+from his master peremptory orders to keep out of sight--an order for
+which the African scored a new offence up against her.  They found
+Lilla and Mimi at home and seemingly glad to see them, though both
+the girls were surprised at the visit coming so soon after the
+other.
+
+The proceedings were a repetition of the battle of souls of the
+former visit.  On this occasion, however, Edgar Caswall had only the
+presence of Lady Arabella to support him--Oolanga being absent; but
+Mimi lacked the support of Adam Salton, which had been of such
+effective service before.  This time the struggle for supremacy of
+will was longer and more determined.  Caswall felt that if he could
+not achieve supremacy he had better give up the idea, so all his
+pride was enlisted against Mimi.  When they had been waiting for the
+door to be opened, Lady Arabella, believing in a sudden attack, had
+said to him in a low voice, which somehow carried conviction:
+
+"This time you should win.  Mimi is, after all, only a woman.  Show
+her no mercy.  That is weakness.  Fight her, beat her, trample on
+her--kill her if need be.  She stands in your way, and I hate her.
+Never take your eyes off her.  Never mind Lilla--she is afraid of
+you.  You are already her master.  Mimi will try to make you look at
+her cousin.  There lies defeat.  Let nothing take your attention
+from Mimi, and you will win.  If she is overcoming you, take my hand
+and hold it hard whilst you are looking into her eyes.  If she is
+too strong for you, I shall interfere.  I'll make a diversion, and
+under cover of it you must retire unbeaten, even if not victorious.
+Hush! they are coming."
+
+The two girls came to the door together.  Strange sounds were coming
+up over the Brow from the west.  It was the rustling and crackling
+of the dry reeds and rushes from the low lands.  The season had been
+an unusually dry one.  Also the strong east wind was helping forward
+enormous flocks of birds, most of them pigeons with white cowls.
+Not only were their wings whirring, but their cooing was plainly
+audible.  From such a multitude of birds the mass of sound,
+individually small, assumed the volume of a storm.  Surprised at the
+influx of birds, to which they had been strangers so long, they all
+looked towards Castra Regis, from whose high tower the great kite
+had been flying as usual.  But even as they looked, the cord broke,
+and the great kite fell headlong in a series of sweeping dives.  Its
+own weight, and the aerial force opposed to it, which caused it to
+rise, combined with the strong easterly breeze, had been too much
+for the great length of cord holding it.
+
+Somehow, the mishap to the kite gave new hope to Mimi.  It was as
+though the side issues had been shorn away, so that the main
+struggle was thenceforth on simpler lines.  She had a feeling in her
+heart, as though some religious chord had been newly touched.  It
+may, of course, have been that with the renewal of the bird voices a
+fresh courage, a fresh belief in the good issue of the struggle came
+too.  In the misery of silence, from which they had all suffered for
+so long, any new train of thought was almost bound to be a boon.  As
+the inrush of birds continued, their wings beating against the
+crackling rushes, Lady Arabella grew pale, and almost fainted.
+
+"What is that?" she asked suddenly.
+
+To Mimi, born and bred in Siam, the sound was strangely like an
+exaggeration of the sound produced by a snake-charmer.
+
+Edgar Caswall was the first to recover from the interruption of the
+falling kite.  After a few minutes he seemed to have quite recovered
+his SANG FROID, and was able to use his brains to the end which he
+had in view.  Mimi too quickly recovered herself, but from a
+different cause.  With her it was a deep religious conviction that
+the struggle round her was of the powers of Good and Evil, and that
+Good was triumphing.  The very appearance of the snowy birds, with
+the cowls of Saint Columba, heightened the impression.  With this
+conviction strong upon her, she continued the strange battle with
+fresh vigour.  She seemed to tower over Caswall, and he to give back
+before her oncoming.  Once again her vigorous passes drove him to
+the door.  He was just going out backward when Lady Arabella, who
+had been gazing at him with fixed eyes, caught his hand and tried to
+stop his movement.  She was, however, unable to do any good, and so,
+holding hands, they passed out together.  As they did so, the
+strange music which had so alarmed Lady Arabella suddenly stopped.
+Instinctively they all looked towards the tower of Castra Regis, and
+saw that the workmen had refixed the kite, which had risen again and
+was beginning to float out to its former station.
+
+As they were looking, the door opened and Michael Watford came into
+the room.  By that time all had recovered their self-possession, and
+there was nothing out of the common to attract his attention.  As he
+came in, seeing inquiring looks all around him, he said:
+
+"The new influx of birds is only the annual migration of pigeons
+from Africa.  I am told that it will soon be over."
+
+The second victory of Mimi Watford made Edgar Caswall more moody
+than ever.  He felt thrown back on himself, and this, added to his
+absorbing interest in the hope of a victory of his mesmeric powers,
+became a deep and settled purpose of revenge.  The chief object of
+his animosity was, of course, Mimi, whose will had overcome his, but
+it was obscured in greater or lesser degree by all who had opposed
+him.  Lilla was next to Mimi in his hate--Lilla, the harmless,
+tender-hearted, sweet-natured girl, whose heart was so full of love
+for all things that in it was no room for the passions of ordinary
+life--whose nature resembled those doves of St. Columba, whose
+colour she wore, whose appearance she reflected.  Adam Salton came
+next--after a gap; for against him Caswall had no direct animosity.
+He regarded him as an interference, a difficulty to be got rid of or
+destroyed.  The young Australian had been so discreet that the most
+he had against him was his knowledge of what had been.  Caswall did
+not understand him, and to such a nature as his, ignorance was a
+cause of alarm, of dread.
+
+Caswall resumed his habit of watching the great kite straining at
+its cord, varying his vigils in this way by a further examination of
+the mysterious treasures of his house, especially Mesmer's chest.
+He sat much on the roof of the tower, brooding over his thwarted
+passion.  The vast extent of his possessions, visible to him at that
+altitude, might, one would have thought, have restored some of his
+complacency.  But the very extent of his ownership, thus perpetually
+brought before him, created a fresh sense of grievance.  How was it,
+he thought, that with so much at command that others wished for, he
+could not achieve the dearest wishes of his heart?
+
+In this state of intellectual and moral depravity, he found a solace
+in the renewal of his experiments with the mechanical powers of the
+kite.  For a couple of weeks he did not see Lady Arabella, who was
+always on the watch for a chance of meeting him; neither did he see
+the Watford girls, who studiously kept out of his way.  Adam Salton
+simply marked time, keeping ready to deal with anything that might
+affect his friends.  He called at the farm and heard from Mimi of
+the last battle of wills, but it had only one consequence.  He got
+from Ross several more mongooses, including a second king-cobra-
+killer, which he generally carried with him in its box whenever he
+walked out.
+
+Mr. Caswall's experiments with the kite went on successfully.  Each
+day he tried the lifting of greater weight, and it seemed almost as
+if the machine had a sentience of its own, which was increasing with
+the obstacles placed before it.  All this time the kite hung in the
+sky at an enormous height.  The wind was steadily from the north, so
+the trend of the kite was to the south.  All day long, runners of
+increasing magnitude were sent up.  These were only of paper or thin
+cardboard, or leather, or other flexible materials.  The great
+height at which the kite hung made a great concave curve in the
+string, so that as the runners went up they made a flapping sound.
+If one laid a finger on the string, the sound answered to the
+flapping of the runner in a sort of hollow intermittent murmur.
+Edgar Caswall, who was now wholly obsessed by the kite and all
+belonging to it, found a distinct resemblance between that
+intermittent rumble and the snake-charming music produced by the
+pigeons flying through the dry reeds.
+
+One day he made a discovery in Mesmer's chest which he thought he
+would utilise with regard to the runners.  This was a great length
+of wire, "fine as human hair," coiled round a finely made wheel,
+which ran to a wondrous distance freely, and as lightly.  He tried
+this on runners, and found it work admirably.  Whether the runner
+was alone, or carried something much more weighty than itself, it
+worked equally well.  Also it was strong enough and light enough to
+draw back the runner without undue strain.  He tried this a good
+many times successfully, but it was now growing dusk and he found
+some difficulty in keeping the runner in sight.  So he looked for
+something heavy enough to keep it still.  He placed the Egyptian
+image of Bes on the fine wire, which crossed the wooden ledge which
+protected it.  Then, the darkness growing, he went indoors and
+forgot all about it.
+
+He had a strange feeling of uneasiness that night--not
+sleeplessness, for he seemed conscious of being asleep.  At daylight
+he rose, and as usual looked out for the kite.  He did not see it in
+its usual position in the sky, so looked round the points of the
+compass.  He was more than astonished when presently he saw the
+missing kite struggling as usual against the controlling cord.  But
+it had gone to the further side of the tower, and now hung and
+strained AGAINST THE WIND to the north.  He thought it so strange
+that he determined to investigate the phenomenon, and to say nothing
+about it in the meantime.
+
+In his many travels, Edgar Caswall had been accustomed to use the
+sextant, and was now an expert in the matter.  By the aid of this
+and other instruments, he was able to fix the position of the kite
+and the point over which it hung.  He was startled to find that
+exactly under it--so far as he could ascertain--was Diana's Grove.
+He had an inclination to take Lady Arabella into his confidence in
+the matter, but he thought better of it and wisely refrained.  For
+some reason which he did not try to explain to himself, he was glad
+of his silence, when, on the following morning, he found, on looking
+out, that the point over which the kite then hovered was Mercy Farm.
+When he had verified this with his instruments, he sat before the
+window of the tower, looking out and thinking.  The new locality was
+more to his liking than the other; but the why of it puzzled him,
+all the same.  He spent the rest of the day in the turret-room,
+which he did not leave all day.  It seemed to him that he was now
+drawn by forces which he could not control--of which, indeed, he had
+no knowledge--in directions which he did not understand, and which
+were without his own volition.  In sheer helpless inability to think
+the problem out satisfactorily, he called up a servant and told him
+to tell Oolanga that he wanted to see him at once in the turret-
+room.  The answer came back that the African had not been seen since
+the previous evening.
+
+Caswall was now so irritable that even this small thing upset him.
+As he was distrait and wanted to talk to somebody, he sent for Simon
+Chester, who came at once, breathless with hurrying and upset by the
+unexpected summons.  Caswall bade him sit down, and when the old man
+was in a less uneasy frame of mind, he again asked him if he had
+ever seen what was in Mesmer's chest or heard it spoken about.
+
+Chester admitted that he had once, in the time of "the then Mr.
+Edgar," seen the chest open, which, knowing something of its history
+and guessing more, so upset him that he had fainted.  When he
+recovered, the chest was closed.  From that time the then Mr. Edgar
+had never spoken about it again.
+
+When Caswall asked him to describe what he had seen when the chest
+was open, he got very agitated, and, despite all his efforts to
+remain calm, he suddenly went off into a faint.  Caswall summoned
+servants, who applied the usual remedies.  Still the old man did not
+recover.  After the lapse of a considerable time, the doctor who had
+been summoned made his appearance.  A glance was sufficient for him
+to make up his mind.  Still, he knelt down by the old man, and made
+a careful examination.  Then he rose to his feet, and in a hushed
+voice said:
+
+"I grieve to say, sir, that he has passed away."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--ON THE TRACK
+
+
+
+Those who had seen Edgar Caswall familiarly since his arrival, and
+had already estimated his cold-blooded nature at something of its
+true value, were surprised that he took so to heart the death of old
+Chester.  The fact was that not one of them had guessed correctly at
+his character.  They thought, naturally enough, that the concern
+which he felt was that of a master for a faithful old servant of his
+family.  They little thought that it was merely the selfish
+expression of his disappointment, that he had thus lost the only
+remaining clue to an interesting piece of family history--one which
+was now and would be for ever wrapped in mystery.  Caswall knew
+enough about the life of his ancestor in Paris to wish to know more
+fully and more thoroughly all that had been.  The period covered by
+that ancestor's life in Paris was one inviting every form of
+curiosity.
+
+Lady Arabella, who had her own game to play, saw in the METIER of
+sympathetic friend, a series of meetings with the man she wanted to
+secure.  She made the first use of the opportunity the day after old
+Chester's death; indeed, as soon as the news had filtered in through
+the back door of Diana's Grove.  At that meeting, she played her
+part so well that even Caswall's cold nature was impressed.
+
+Oolanga was the only one who did not credit her with at least some
+sense of fine feeling in the matter.  In emotional, as in other
+matters, Oolanga was distinctly a utilitarian, and as he could not
+understand anyone feeling grief except for his own suffering, pain,
+or for the loss of money, he could not understand anyone simulating
+such an emotion except for show intended to deceive.  He thought
+that she had come to Castra Regis again for the opportunity of
+stealing something, and was determined that on this occasion the
+chance of pressing his advantage over her should not pass.  He felt,
+therefore, that the occasion was one for extra carefulness in the
+watching of all that went on.  Ever since he had come to the
+conclusion that Lady Arabella was trying to steal the treasure-
+chest, he suspected nearly everyone of the same design, and made it
+a point to watch all suspicious persons and places.  As Adam was
+engaged on his own researches regarding Lady Arabella, it was only
+natural that there should be some crossing of each other's tracks.
+This is what did actually happen.
+
+Adam had gone for an early morning survey of the place in which he
+was interested, taking with him the mongoose in its box.  He arrived
+at the gate of Diana's Grove just as Lady Arabella was preparing to
+set out for Castra Regis on what she considered her mission of
+comfort.  Seeing Adam from her window going through the shadows of
+the trees round the gate, she thought that he must be engaged on
+some purpose similar to her own.  So, quickly making her toilet, she
+quietly left the house, and, taking advantage of every shadow and
+substance which could hide her, followed him on his walk.
+
+Oolanga, the experienced tracker, followed her, but succeeded in
+hiding his movements better than she did.  He saw that Adam had on
+his shoulder a mysterious box, which he took to contain something
+valuable.  Seeing that Lady Arabella was secretly following Adam, he
+was confirmed in this idea.  His mind--such as it was--was fixed on
+her trying to steal, and he credited her at once with making use of
+this new opportunity.
+
+In his walk, Adam went into the grounds of Castra Regis, and Oolanga
+saw her follow him with great secrecy.  He feared to go closer, as
+now on both sides of him were enemies who might make discovery.
+When he realised that Lady Arabella was bound for the Castle, he
+devoted himself to following her with singleness of purpose.  He
+therefore missed seeing that Adam branched off the track and
+returned to the high road.
+
+That night Edgar Caswall had slept badly.  The tragic occurrence of
+the day was on his mind, and he kept waking and thinking of it.
+After an early breakfast, he sat at the open window watching the
+kite and thinking of many things.  From his room he could see all
+round the neighbourhood, but the two places that interested him most
+were Mercy Farm and Diana's Grove.  At first the movements about
+those spots were of a humble kind--those that belong to domestic
+service or agricultural needs--the opening of doors and windows, the
+sweeping and brushing, and generally the restoration of habitual
+order.
+
+From his high window--whose height made it a screen from the
+observation of others--he saw the chain of watchers move into his
+own grounds, and then presently break up--Adam Salton going one way,
+and Lady Arabella, followed by the nigger, another.  Then Oolanga
+disappeared amongst the trees; but Caswall could see that he was
+still watching.  Lady Arabella, after looking around her, slipped in
+by the open door, and he could, of course, see her no longer.
+
+Presently, however, he heard a light tap at his door, then the door
+opened slowly, and he could see the flash of Lady Arabella's white
+dress through the opening.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--A VISIT OF SYMPATHY
+
+
+
+Caswall was genuinely surprised when he saw Lady Arabella, though he
+need not have been, after what had already occurred in the same way.
+The look of surprise on his face was so much greater than Lady
+Arabella had expected--though she thought she was prepared to meet
+anything that might occur--that she stood still, in sheer amazement.
+Cold-blooded as she was and ready for all social emergencies, she
+was nonplussed how to go on.  She was plucky, however, and began to
+speak at once, although she had not the slightest idea what she was
+going to say.
+
+"I came to offer you my very warm sympathy with the grief you have
+so lately experienced."
+
+"My grief?  I'm afraid I must be very dull; but I really do not
+understand."
+
+Already she felt at a disadvantage, and hesitated.
+
+"I mean about the old man who died so suddenly--your old. . .
+retainer."
+
+Caswall's face relaxed something of its puzzled concentration.
+
+"Oh, he was only a servant; and he had over-stayed his three-score
+and ten years by something like twenty years.  He must have been
+ninety!"
+
+"Still, as an old servant. . . "
+
+Caswall's words were not so cold as their inflection.
+
+"I never interfere with servants.  He was kept on here merely
+because he had been so long on the premises.  I suppose the steward
+thought it might make him unpopular if the old fellow had been
+dismissed."
+
+How on earth was she to proceed on such a task as hers if this was
+the utmost geniality she could expect?  So she at once tried another
+tack--this time a personal one.
+
+"I am sorry I disturbed you.  I am really not unconventional--though
+certainly no slave to convention.  Still there are limits. . . it is
+bad enough to intrude in this way, and I do not know what you can
+say or think of the time selected, for the intrusion."
+
+After all, Edgar Caswall was a gentleman by custom and habit, so he
+rose to the occasion.
+
+"I can only say, Lady Arabella, that you are always welcome at any
+time you may deign to honour my house with your presence."
+
+She smiled at him sweetly.
+
+"Thank you SO much.  You DO put one at ease.  My breach of
+convention makes me glad rather than sorry.  I feel that I can open
+my heart to you about anything."
+
+Forthwith she proceeded to tell him about Oolanga and his strange
+suspicions of her honesty.  Caswall laughed and made her explain all
+the details.  His final comment was enlightening.
+
+"Let me give you a word of advice:  If you have the slightest fault
+to find with that infernal nigger, shoot him at sight.  A swelled-
+headed nigger, with a bee in his bonnet, is one of the worst
+difficulties in the world to deal with.  So better make a clean job
+of it, and wipe him out at once!"
+
+"But what about the law, Mr. Caswall?"
+
+"Oh, the law doesn't concern itself much about dead niggers.  A few
+more or less do not matter.  To my mind it's rather a relief!"
+
+"I'm afraid of you," was her only comment, made with a sweet smile
+and in a soft voice.
+
+"All right," he said, "let us leave it at that.  Anyhow, we shall be
+rid of one of them!"
+
+"I don't love niggers any more than you do," she replied, "and I
+suppose one mustn't be too particular where that sort of cleaning up
+is concerned."  Then she changed in voice and manner, and asked
+genially:  "And now tell me, am I forgiven?"
+
+"You are, dear lady--if there is anything to forgive."
+
+As he spoke, seeing that she had moved to go, he came to the door
+with her, and in the most natural way accompanied her downstairs.
+He passed through the hall with her and down the avenue.  As he went
+back to the house, she smiled to herself.
+
+"Well, that is all right.  I don't think the morning has been
+altogether thrown away."
+
+And she walked slowly back to Diana's Grove.
+
+Adam Salton followed the line of the Brow, and refreshed his memory
+as to the various localities.  He got home to Lesser Hill just as
+Sir Nathaniel was beginning lunch.  Mr. Salton had gone to Walsall
+to keep an early appointment; so he was all alone.  When the meal
+was over--seeing in Adam's face that he had something to speak
+about--he followed into the study and shut the door.
+
+When the two men had lighted their pipes, Sir Nathaniel began.
+
+"I have remembered an interesting fact about Diana's Grove--there
+is, I have long understood, some strange mystery about that house.
+It may be of some interest, or it may be trivial, in such a tangled
+skein as we are trying to unravel."
+
+"Please tell me all you know' or suspect.  To begin, then, of what
+sort is the mystery--physical, mental, moral, historical,
+scientific, occult?  Any kind of hint will help me."
+
+"Quite right.  I shall try to tell you what I think; but I have not
+put my thoughts on the subject in sequence, so you must forgive me
+if due order is not observed in my narration.  I suppose you have
+seen the house at Diana's Grove?"
+
+"The outside of it; but I have that in my mind's eye, and I can fit
+into my memory whatever you may mention."
+
+"The house is very old--probably the first house of some sort that
+stood there was in the time of the Romans.  This was probably
+renewed--perhaps several times at later periods.  The house stands,
+or, rather, used to stand here when Mercia was a kingdom--I do not
+suppose that the basement can be later than the Norman Conquest.
+Some years ago, when I was President of the Mercian Archaeological
+Society, I went all over it very carefully.  This was when it was
+purchased by Captain March.  The house had then been done up, so as
+to be suitable for the bride.  The basement is very strong,--almost
+as strong and as heavy as if it had been intended as a fortress.
+There are a whole series of rooms deep underground.  One of them in
+particular struck me.  The room itself is of considerable size, but
+the masonry is more than massive.  In the middle of the room is a
+sunk well, built up to floor level and evidently going deep
+underground.  There is no windlass nor any trace of there ever
+having been any--no rope--nothing.  Now, we know that the Romans had
+wells of immense depth, from which the water was lifted by the 'old
+rag rope'; that at Woodhull used to be nearly a thousand feet.
+Here, then, we have simply an enormously deep well-hole.  The door
+of the room was massive, and was fastened with a lock nearly a foot
+square.  It was evidently intended for some kind of protection to
+someone or something; but no one in those days had ever heard of
+anyone having been allowed even to see the room.  All this is E
+PROPOS of a suggestion on my part that the well-hole was a way by
+which the White Worm (whatever it was) went and came.  At that time
+I would have had a search made--even excavation if necessary--at my
+own expense, but all suggestions were met with a prompt and explicit
+negative.  So, of course, I took no further step in the matter.
+Then it died out of recollection--even of mine."
+
+"Do you remember, sir," asked Adam, "what was the appearance of the
+room where the well-hole was?  Was there furniture--in fact, any
+sort of thing in the room?"
+
+"The only thing I remember was a sort of green light--very clouded,
+very dim--which came up from the well.  Not a fixed light, but
+intermittent and irregular--quite unlike anything I had ever seen."
+
+"Do you remember how you got into the well-room?  Was there a
+separate door from outside, or was there any interior room or
+passage which opened into it?"
+
+"I think there must have been some room with a way into it.  I
+remember going up some steep steps; they must have been worn smooth
+by long use or something of the kind, for I could hardly keep my
+feet as I went up.  Once I stumbled and nearly fell into the well-
+hole."
+
+"Was there anything strange about the place--any queer smell, for
+instance?"
+
+"Queer smell--yes!  Like bilge or a rank swamp.  It was distinctly
+nauseating; when I came out I felt as if I had just been going to be
+sick.  I shall try back on my visit and see if I can recall any more
+of what I saw or felt."
+
+"Then perhaps, sir, later in the day you will tell me anything you
+may chance to recollect."
+
+"I shall be delighted, Adam.  If your uncle has not returned by
+then, I'll join you in the study after dinner, and we can resume
+this interesting chat."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--THE MYSTERY OF "THE GROVE"
+
+
+
+That afternoon Adam decided to do a little exploring.  As he passed
+through the wood outside the gate of Diana's Grove, he thought he
+saw the African's face for an instant.  So he went deeper into the
+undergrowth, and followed along parallel to the avenue to the house.
+He was glad that there was no workman or servant about, for he did
+not care that any of Lady Arabella's people should find him
+wandering about her grounds.  Taking advantage of the denseness of
+the trees, he came close to the house and skirted round it.  He was
+repaid for his trouble, for on the far side of the house, close to
+where the rocky frontage of the cliff fell away, he saw Oolanga
+crouched behind the irregular trunk of a great oak.  The man was so
+intent on watching someone, or something, that he did not guard
+against being himself watched.  This suited Adam, for he could thus
+make scrutiny at will.
+
+The thick wood, though the trees were mostly of small girth, threw a
+heavy shadow, so that the steep declension, in front of which grew
+the tree behind which the African lurked, was almost in darkness.
+Adam drew as close as he could, and was amazed to see a patch of
+light on the ground before him; when he realised what it was, he was
+determined, more than ever to follow on his quest.  The nigger had a
+dark lantern in his hand, and was throwing the light down the steep
+incline.  The glare showed a series of stone steps, which ended in a
+low-lying heavy iron door fixed against the side of the house.  All
+the strange things he had heard from Sir Nathaniel, and all those,
+little and big, which he had himself noticed, crowded into his mind
+in a chaotic way.  Instinctively he took refuge behind a thick oak
+stem, and set himself down, to watch what might occur.
+
+After a short time it became apparent that the African was trying to
+find out what was behind the heavy door.  There was no way of
+looking in, for the door fitted tight into the massive stone slabs.
+The only opportunity for the entrance of light was through a small
+hole between the great stones above the door.  This hole was too
+high up to look through from the ground level.  Oolanga, having
+tried standing tiptoe on the highest point near, and holding the
+lantern as high as he could, threw the light round the edges of the
+door to see if he could find anywhere a hole or a flaw in the metal
+through which he could obtain a glimpse.  Foiled in this, he brought
+from the shrubbery a plank, which he leant against the top of the
+door and then climbed up with great dexterity.  This did not bring
+him near enough to the window-hole to look in, or even to throw the
+light of the lantern through it, so he climbed down and carried the
+plank back to the place from which he had got it.  Then he concealed
+himself near the iron door and waited, manifestly with the intent of
+remaining there till someone came near.  Presently Lady Arabella,
+moving noiselessly through the shade, approached the door.  When he
+saw her close enough to touch it, Oolanga stepped forward from his
+concealment, and spoke in a whisper, which through the gloom sounded
+like a hiss.
+
+"I want to see you, missy--soon and secret."
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"You know well, missy; I told you already."
+
+She turned on him with blazing eyes, the green tint in them glowing
+like emeralds.
+
+"Come, none of that.  If there is anything sensible which you wish
+to say to me, you can see me here, just where we are, at seven
+o'clock."
+
+He made no reply in words, but, putting the backs of his hands
+together, bent lower and lower till his forehead touched the earth.
+Then he rose and went slowly away.
+
+Adam Salton, from his hiding-place, saw and wondered.  In a few
+minutes he moved from his place and went home to Lesser Hill, fully
+determined that seven o'clock would find him in some hidden place
+behind Diana's Grove.
+
+At a little before seven Adam stole softly out of the house and took
+the back-way to the rear of Diana's Grove.  The place seemed silent
+and deserted, so he took the opportunity of concealing himself near
+the spot whence he had seen Oolanga trying to investigate whatever
+was concealed behind the iron door.  He waited, perfectly still, and
+at last saw a gleam of white passing soundlessly through the
+undergrowth.  He was not surprised when he recognised the colour of
+Lady Arabella's dress.  She came close and waited, with her face to
+the iron door.  From some place of concealment near at hand Oolanga
+appeared, and came close to her.  Adam noticed, with surprised
+amusement, that over his shoulder was the box with the mongoose.  Of
+course the African did not know that he was seen by anyone, least of
+all by the man whose property he had with him.
+
+Silent-footed as he was, Lady Arabella heard him coming, and turned
+to meet him.  It was somewhat hard to see in the gloom, for, as
+usual, he was all in black, only his collar and cuffs showing white.
+Lady Arabella opened the conversation which ensued between the two.
+
+"What do you want?  To rob me, or murder me?"
+
+"No, to lub you!"
+
+This frightened her a little, and she tried to change the tone.
+
+"Is that a coffin you have with you?  If so, you are wasting your
+time.  It would not hold me."
+
+When a nigger suspects he is being laughed at, all the ferocity of
+his nature comes to the front; and this man was of the lowest kind.
+
+"Dis ain't no coffin for nobody.  Dis box is for you.  Somefin you
+lub.  Me give him to you!"
+
+Still anxious to keep off the subject of affection, on which she
+believed him to have become crazed, she made another effort to keep
+his mind elsewhere.
+
+"Is this why you want to see me?"  He nodded.  "Then come round to
+the other door.  But be quiet.  I have no desire to be seen so close
+to my own house in conversation with a--a--a nigger like you!"
+
+She had chosen the word deliberately.  She wished to meet his
+passion with another kind.  Such would, at all events, help to keep
+him quiet.  In the deep gloom she could not see the anger which
+suffused his face.  Rolling eyeballs and grinding teeth are,
+however, sufficient signs of anger to be decipherable in the dark.
+She moved round the corner of the house to her right.  Oolanga was
+following her, when she stopped him by raising her hand.
+
+"No, not that door," she said; "that is not for niggers.  The other
+door will do well enough for you!"
+
+Lady Arabella took in her hand a small key which hung at the end of
+her watch-chain, and moved to a small door, low down, round the
+corner, and a little downhill from the edge of the Brow.  Oolanga,
+in obedience to her gesture, went back to the iron door.  Adam
+looked carefully at the mongoose box as the African went by, and was
+glad to see that it was intact.  Unconsciously, as he looked, he
+fingered the key that was in his waistcoat pocket.  When Oolanga was
+out of sight, Adam hurried after Lady Arabella.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--EXIT OOLANGA
+
+
+
+The woman turned sharply as Adam touched her shoulder.
+
+"One moment whilst we are alone.  You had better not trust that
+nigger!" he whispered.
+
+Her answer was crisp and concise:
+
+"I don't."
+
+"Forewarned is forearmed.  Tell me if you will--it is for your own
+protection.  Why do you mistrust him?"
+
+"My friend, you have no idea of that man's impudence.  Would you
+believe that he wants me to marry him?"
+
+"No!" said Adam incredulously, amused in spite of himself.
+
+"Yes, and wanted to bribe me to do it by sharing a chest of
+treasure--at least, he thought it was--stolen from Mr. Caswall.  Why
+do you distrust him, Mr. Salton?"
+
+"Did you notice that box he had slung on his shoulder?  That belongs
+to me.  I left it in the gun-room when I went to lunch.  He must
+have crept in and stolen it.  Doubtless he thinks that it, too, is
+full of treasure."
+
+"He does!"
+
+"How on earth do you know?" asked Adam.
+
+"A little while ago he offered to give it to me--another bribe to
+accept him.  Faugh!  I am ashamed to tell you such a thing.  The
+beast!"
+
+Whilst they had been speaking, she had opened the door, a narrow
+iron one, well hung, for it opened easily and closed tightly without
+any creaking or sound of any kind.  Within all was dark; but she
+entered as freely and with as little misgiving or restraint as if it
+had been broad daylight.  For Adam, there was just sufficient green
+light from somewhere for him to see that there was a broad flight of
+heavy stone steps leading upward; but Lady Arabella, after shutting
+the door behind her, when it closed tightly without a clang, tripped
+up the steps lightly and swiftly.  For an instant all was dark, but
+there came again the faint green light which enabled him to see the
+outlines of things.  Another iron door, narrow like the first and
+fairly high, led into another large room, the walls of which were of
+massive stones, so closely joined together as to exhibit only one
+smooth surface.  This presented the appearance of having at one time
+been polished.  On the far side, also smooth like the walls, was the
+reverse of a wide, but not high, iron door.  Here there was a little
+more light, for the high-up aperture over the door opened to the
+air.
+
+Lady Arabella took from her girdle another small key, which she
+inserted in a keyhole in the centre of a massive lock.  The great
+bolt seemed wonderfully hung, for the moment the small key was
+turned, the bolts of the great lock moved noiselessly and the iron
+doors swung open.  On the stone steps outside stood Oolanga, with
+the mongoose box slung over his shoulder.  Lady Arabella stood a
+little on one side, and the African, accepting the movement as an
+invitation, entered in an obsequious way.  The moment, however, that
+he was inside, he gave a quick look around him.
+
+"Much death here--big death.  Many deaths.  Good, good!"
+
+He sniffed round as if he was enjoying the scent.  The matter and
+manner of his speech were so revolting that instinctively Adam's
+hand wandered to his revolver, and, with his finger on the trigger,
+he rested satisfied that he was ready for any emergency.
+
+There was certainly opportunity for the nigger's enjoyment, for the
+open well-hole was almost under his nose, sending up such a stench
+as almost made Adam sick, though Lady Arabella seemed not to mind it
+at all.  It was like nothing that Adam had ever met with.  He
+compared it with all the noxious experiences he had ever had--the
+drainage of war hospitals, of slaughter-houses, the refuse of
+dissecting rooms.  None of these was like it, though it had
+something of them all, with, added, the sourness of chemical waste
+and the poisonous effluvium of the bilge of a water-logged ship
+whereon a multitude of rats had been drowned.
+
+Then, quite unexpectedly, the negro noticed the presence of a third
+person--Adam Salton!  He pulled out a pistol and shot at him,
+happily missing.  Adam was himself usually a quick shot, but this
+time his mind had been on something else and he was not ready.
+However, he was quick to carry out an intention, and he was not a
+coward.  In another moment both men were in grips.  Beside them was
+the dark well-hole, with that horrid effluvium stealing up from its
+mysterious depths.
+
+Adam and Oolanga both had pistols; Lady Arabella, who had not one,
+was probably the most ready of them all in the theory of shooting,
+but that being impossible, she made her effort in another way.
+Gliding forward, she tried to seize the African; but he eluded her
+grasp, just missing, in doing so, falling into the mysterious hole.
+As he swayed back to firm foothold, he turned his own gun on her and
+shot.  Instinctively Adam leaped at his assailant; clutching at each
+other, they tottered on the very brink.
+
+Lady Arabella's anger, now fully awake, was all for Oolanga.  She
+moved towards him with her hands extended, and had just seized him
+when the catch of the locked box--due to some movement from within--
+flew open, and the king-cobra-killer flew at her with a venomous
+fury impossible to describe.  As it seized her throat, she caught
+hold of it, and, with a fury superior to its own, tore it in two
+just as if it had been a sheet of paper.  The strength used for such
+an act must have been terrific.  In an instant, it seemed to spout
+blood and entrails, and was hurled into the well-hole.  In another
+instant she had seized Oolanga, and with a swift rush had drawn him,
+her white arms encircling him, down with her into the gaping
+aperture.
+
+Adam saw a medley of green and red lights blaze in a whirling
+circle, and as it sank down into the well, a pair of blazing green
+eyes became fixed, sank lower and lower with frightful rapidity, and
+disappeared, throwing upward the green light which grew more and
+more vivid every moment.  As the light sank into the noisome depths,
+there came a shriek which chilled Adam's blood--a prolonged agony of
+pain and terror which seemed to have no end.
+
+Adam Salton felt that he would never be able to free his mind from
+the memory of those dreadful moments.  The gloom which surrounded
+that horrible charnel pit, which seemed to go down to the very
+bowels of the earth, conveyed from far down the sights and sounds of
+the nethermost hell.  The ghastly fate of the African as he sank
+down to his terrible doom, his black face growing grey with terror,
+his white eyeballs, now like veined bloodstone, rolling in the
+helpless extremity of fear.  The mysterious green light was in
+itself a milieu of horror.  And through it all the awful cry came up
+from that fathomless pit, whose entrance was flooded with spots of
+fresh blood.  Even the death of the fearless little snake-killer--so
+fierce, so frightful, as if stained with a ferocity which told of no
+living force above earth, but only of the devils of the pit--was
+only an incident.  Adam was in a state of intellectual tumult, which
+had no parallel in his experience.  He tried to rush away from the
+horrible place; even the baleful green light, thrown up through the
+gloomy well-shaft, was dying away as its source sank deeper into the
+primeval ooze.  The darkness was closing in on him in overwhelming
+density--darkness in such a place and with such a memory of it!
+
+He made a wild rush forward--slipt on the steps in some sticky,
+acrid-smelling mass that felt and smelt like blood, and, falling
+forward, felt his way into the inner room, where the well-shaft was
+not.
+
+Then he rubbed his eyes in sheer amazement.  Up the stone steps from
+the narrow door by which he had entered, glided the white-clad
+figure of Lady Arabella, the only colour to be seen on her being
+blood-marks on her face and hands and throat.  Otherwise, she was
+calm and unruffled, as when earlier she stood aside for him to pass
+in through the narrow iron door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--AN ENEMY IN THE DARK
+
+
+
+Adam Salton went for a walk before returning to Lesser Hill; he felt
+that it might be well, not only to steady his nerves, shaken by the
+horrible scene, but to get his thoughts into some sort of order, so
+as to be ready to enter on the matter with Sir Nathaniel.  He was a
+little embarrassed as to telling his uncle, for affairs had so
+vastly progressed beyond his original view that he felt a little
+doubtful as to what would be the old gentleman's attitude when he
+should hear of the strange events for the first time.  Mr. Salton
+would certainly not be satisfied at being treated as an outsider
+with regard to such things, most of which had points of contact with
+the inmates of his own house.  It was with an immense sense of
+relief that Adam heard that his uncle had telegraphed to the
+housekeeper that he was detained by business at Walsall, where he
+would remain for the night; and that he would be back in the morning
+in time for lunch.
+
+When Adam got home after his walk, he found Sir Nathaniel just going
+to bed.  He did not say anything to him then of what had happened,
+but contented himself with arranging that they would walk together
+in the early morning, as he had much to say that would require
+serious attention.
+
+Strangely enough he slept well, and awoke at dawn with his mind
+clear and his nerves in their usual unshaken condition.  The maid
+brought up, with his early morning cup of tea, a note which had been
+found in the letter-box.  It was from Lady Arabella, and was
+evidently intended to put him on his guard as to what he should say
+about the previous evening.
+
+He read it over carefully several times, before he was satisfied
+that he had taken in its full import.
+
+
+"DEAR MR. SALTON,
+
+"I cannot go to bed until I have written to you, so you must forgive
+me if I disturb you, and at an unseemly time.  Indeed, you must also
+forgive me if, in trying to do what is right, I err in saying too
+much or too little.  The fact is that I am quite upset and unnerved
+by all that has happened in this terrible night.  I find it
+difficult even to write; my hands shake so that they are not under
+control, and I am trembling all over with memory of the horrors we
+saw enacted before our eyes.  I am grieved beyond measure that I
+should be, however remotely, a cause of this horror coming on you.
+Forgive me if you can, and do not think too hardly of me.  This I
+ask with confidence, for since we shared together the danger--the
+very pangs--of death, I feel that we should be to one another
+something more than mere friends, that I may lean on you and trust
+you, assured that your sympathy and pity are for me.  You really
+must let me thank you for the friendliness, the help, the
+confidence, the real aid at a time of deadly danger and deadly fear
+which you showed me.  That awful man--I shall see him for ever in my
+dreams.  His black, malignant face will shut out all memory of
+sunshine and happiness.  I shall eternally see his evil eyes as he
+threw himself into that well-hole in a vain effort to escape from
+the consequences of his own misdoing.  The more I think of it, the
+more apparent it seems to me that he had premeditated the whole
+thing--of course, except his own horrible death.
+
+"Perhaps you have noticed a fur collar I occasionally wear.  It is
+one of my most valued treasures--an ermine collar studded with
+emeralds.  I had often seen the nigger's eyes gleam covetously when
+he looked at it.  Unhappily, I wore it yesterday.  That may have
+been the cause that lured the poor man to his doom.  On the very
+brink of the abyss he tore the collar from my neck--that was the
+last I saw of him.  When he sank into the hole, I was rushing to the
+iron door, which I pulled behind me.  When I heard that soul-
+sickening yell, which marked his disappearance in the chasm, I was
+more glad than I can say that my eyes were spared the pain and
+horror which my ears had to endure.
+
+"When I tore myself out of the negro's grasp as he sank into the
+well-hole; I realised what freedom meant.  Freedom!  Freedom!  Not
+only from that noisome prison-house, which has now such a memory,
+but from the more noisome embrace of that hideous monster.  Whilst I
+live, I shall always thank you for my freedom.  A woman must
+sometimes express her gratitude; otherwise it becomes too great to
+bear.  I am not a sentimental girl, who merely likes to thank a man;
+I am a woman who knows all, of bad as well as good, that life can
+give.  I have known what it is to love and to lose.  But you must
+not let me bring any unhappiness into your life.  I must live on--as
+I have lived--alone, and, in addition, bear with other woes the
+memory of this latest insult and horror.  In the meantime, I must
+get away as quickly as possible from Diana's Grove.  In the morning
+I shall go up to town, where I shall remain for a week--I cannot
+stay longer, as business affairs demand my presence here.  I think,
+however, that a week in the rush of busy London, surrounded with
+multitudes of commonplace people, will help to soften--I cannot
+expect total obliteration--the terrible images of the bygone night.
+When I can sleep easily--which will be, I hope, after a day or two--
+I shall be fit to return home and take up again the burden which
+will, I suppose, always be with me.
+
+"I shall be most happy to see you on my return--or earlier, if my
+good fortune sends you on any errand to London.  I shall stay at the
+Mayfair Hotel.  In that busy spot we may forget some of the dangers
+and horrors we have shared together.  Adieu, and thank you, again
+and again, for all your kindness and consideration to me.
+
+"ARABELLA MARSH."
+
+
+Adam was surprised by this effusive epistle, but he determined to
+say nothing of it to Sir Nathaniel until he should have thought it
+well over.  When Adam met Sir Nathaniel at breakfast, he was glad
+that he had taken time to turn things over in his mind.  The result
+had been that not only was he familiar with the facts in all their
+bearings, but he had already so far differentiated them that he was
+able to arrange them in his own mind according to their values.
+Breakfast had been a silent function, so it did not interfere in any
+way with the process of thought.
+
+So soon as the door was closed, Sir Nathaniel began:
+
+"I see, Adam, that something has occurred, and that you have much to
+tell me."
+
+"That is so, sir.  I suppose I had better begin by telling you all I
+know--all that has happened since I left you yesterday?"
+
+Accordingly Adam gave him details of all that had happened during
+the previous evening.  He confined himself rigidly to the narration
+of circumstances, taking care not to colour events by any comment of
+his own, or any opinion of the meaning of things which he did not
+fully understand.  At first, Sir Nathaniel seemed disposed to ask
+questions, but shortly gave this up when he recognised that the
+narration was concise and self-explanatory.  Thenceforth, he
+contented himself with quick looks and glances, easily interpreted,
+or by some acquiescent motions of his hands, when such could be
+convenient, to emphasise his idea of the correctness of any
+inference.  Until Adam ceased speaking, having evidently come to an
+end of what he had to say with regard to this section of his story,
+the elder man made no comment whatever.  Even when Adam took from
+his pocket Lady Arabella's letter, with the manifest intention of
+reading it, he did not make any comment.  Finally, when Adam folded
+up the letter and put it, in its envelope, back in his pocket, as an
+intimation that he had now quite finished, the old diplomatist
+carefully made a few notes in his pocket-book.
+
+"Your narrative, my dear Adam, is altogether admirable.  I think I
+may now take it that we are both well versed in the actual facts,
+and that our conference had better take the shape of a mutual
+exchange of ideas.  Let us both ask questions as they may arise; and
+I do not doubt that we shall arrive at some enlightening
+conclusions."
+
+"Will you kindly begin, sir?  I do not doubt that, with your longer
+experience, you will be able to dissipate some of the fog which
+envelops certain of the things which we have to consider."
+
+"I hope so, my dear boy.  For a beginning, then, let me say that
+Lady Arabella's letter makes clear some things which she intended--
+and also some things which she did not intend.  But, before I begin
+to draw deductions, let me ask you a few questions.  Adam, are you
+heart-whole, quite heart-whole, in the matter of Lady Arabella?"
+
+His companion answered at once, each looking the other straight in
+the eyes during question and answer.
+
+"Lady Arabella, sir, is a charming woman, and I should have deemed
+it a privilege to meet her--to talk to her--even--since I am in the
+confessional--to flirt a little with her.  But if you mean to ask if
+my affections are in any way engaged, I can emphatically answer
+'No!'--as indeed you will understand when presently I give you the
+reason.  Apart from that, there are the unpleasant details we
+discussed the other day."
+
+"Could you--would you mind giving me the reason now?  It will help
+us to understand what is before us, in the way of difficulty."
+
+"Certainly, sir.  My reason, on which I can fully depend, is that I
+love another woman!"
+
+"That clinches it.  May I offer my good wishes, and, I hope, my
+congratulations?"
+
+"I am proud of your good wishes, sir, and I thank you for them.  But
+it is too soon for congratulations--the lady does not even know my
+hopes yet.  Indeed, I hardly knew them myself, as definite, till
+this moment."
+
+"I take it then, Adam, that at the right time I may be allowed to
+know who the lady is?"
+
+Adam laughed a low, sweet laugh, such as ripples from a happy heart.
+
+"There need not be an hour's, a minute's delay.  I shall be glad to
+share my secret with you, sir.  The lady, sir, whom I am so happy as
+to love, and in whom my dreams of life-long happiness are centred,
+is Mimi Watford!"
+
+"Then, my dear Adam, I need not wait to offer congratulations.  She
+is indeed a very charming young lady.  I do not think I ever saw a
+girl who united in such perfection the qualities of strength of
+character and sweetness of disposition.  With all my heart, I
+congratulate you.  Then I may take it that my question as to your
+heart-wholeness is answered in the affirmative?"
+
+"Yes; and now, sir, may I ask in turn why the question?"
+
+"Certainly!  I asked because it seems to me that we are coming to a
+point where my questions might be painful to you."
+
+"It is not merely that I love Mimi, but I have reason to look on
+Lady Arabella as her enemy," Adam continued.
+
+"Her enemy?"
+
+"Yes.  A rank and unscrupulous enemy who is bent on her
+destruction."
+
+Sir Nathaniel went to the door, looked outside it and returned,
+locking it carefully behind him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--METABOLISM
+
+
+
+"Am I looking grave?" asked Sir Nathaniel inconsequently when he re-
+entered the room.
+
+"You certainly are, sir."
+
+"We little thought when first we met that we should be drawn into
+such a vortex.  Already we are mixed up in robbery, and probably
+murder, but--a thousand times worse than all the crimes in the
+calendar--in an affair of ghastly mystery which has no bottom and no
+end--with forces of the most unnerving kind, which had their origin
+in an age when the world was different from the world which we know.
+We are going back to the origin of superstition--to an age when
+dragons tore each other in their slime.  We must fear nothing--no
+conclusion, however improbable, almost impossible it may be.  Life
+and death is hanging on our judgment, not only for ourselves, but
+for others whom we love.  Remember, I count on you as I hope you
+count on me."
+
+"I do, with all confidence."
+
+"Then," said Sir Nathaniel, "let us think justly and boldly and fear
+nothing, however terrifying it may seem.  I suppose I am to take as
+exact in every detail your account of all the strange things which
+happened whilst you were in Diana's Grove?"
+
+"So far as I know, yes.  Of course I may be mistaken in recollection
+of some detail or another, but I am certain that in the main what I
+have said is correct."
+
+"You feel sure that you saw Lady Arabella seize the negro round the
+neck, and drag him down with her into the hole?"
+
+"Absolutely certain, sir, otherwise I should have gone to her
+assistance."
+
+"We have, then, an account of what happened from an eye-witness whom
+we trust--that is yourself.  We have also another account, written
+by Lady Arabella under her own hand.  These two accounts do not
+agree.  Therefore we must take it that one of the two is lying."
+
+"Apparently, sir."
+
+"And that Lady Arabella is the liar!"
+
+"Apparently--as I am not."
+
+"We must, therefore, try to find a reason for her lying.  She has
+nothing to fear from Oolanga, who is dead.  Therefore the only
+reason which could actuate her would be to convince someone else
+that she was blameless.  This 'someone' could not be you, for you
+had the evidence of your own eyes.  There was no one else present;
+therefore it must have been an absent person."
+
+"That seems beyond dispute, sir."
+
+"There is only one other person whose good opinion she could wish to
+keep--Edgar Caswall.  He is the only one who fills the bill.  Her
+lies point to other things besides the death of the African.  She
+evidently wanted it to be accepted that his falling into the well
+was his own act.  I cannot suppose that she expected to convince
+you, the eye-witness; but if she wished later on to spread the
+story, it was wise of her to try to get your acceptance of it."
+
+"That is so!"
+
+"Then there were other matters of untruth.  That, for instance, of
+the ermine collar embroidered with emeralds.  If an understandable
+reason be required for this, it would be to draw attention away from
+the green lights which were seen in the room, and especially in the
+well-hole.  Any unprejudiced person would accept the green lights to
+be the eyes of a great snake, such as tradition pointed to living in
+the well-hole.  In fine, therefore, Lady Arabella wanted the general
+belief to be that there was no snake of the kind in Diana's Grove.
+For my own part, I don't believe in a partial liar--this art does
+not deal in veneer; a liar is a liar right through.  Self-interest
+may prompt falsity of the tongue; but if one prove to be a liar,
+nothing that he says can ever be believed.  This leads us to the
+conclusion that because she said or inferred that there was no
+snake, we should look for one--and expect to find it, too.
+
+"Now let me digress.  I live, and have for many years lived, in
+Derbyshire, a county more celebrated for its caves than any other
+county in England.  I have been through them all, and am familiar
+with every turn of them; as also with other great caves in Kentucky,
+in France, in Germany, and a host of other places--in many of these
+are tremendously deep caves of narrow aperture, which are valued by
+intrepid explorers, who descend narrow gullets of abysmal depth--and
+sometimes never return.  In many of the caverns in the Peak I am
+convinced that some of the smaller passages were used in primeval
+times as the lairs of some of the great serpents of legend and
+tradition.  It may have been that such caverns were formed in the
+usual geologic way--bubbles or flaws in the earth's crust--which
+were later used by the monsters of the period of the young world.
+It may have been, of course, that some of them were worn originally
+by water; but in time they all found a use when suitable for living
+monsters.
+
+"This brings us to another point, more difficult to accept and
+understand than any other requiring belief in a base not usually
+accepted, or indeed entered on--whether such abnormal growths could
+have ever changed in their nature.  Some day the study of metabolism
+may progress so far as to enable us to accept structural changes
+proceeding from an intellectual or moral base.  We may lean towards
+a belief that great animal strength may be a sound base for changes
+of all sorts.  If this be so, what could be a more fitting subject
+than primeval monsters whose strength was such as to allow a
+survival of thousands of years?  We do not know yet if brain can
+increase and develop independently of other parts of the living
+structure.
+
+"After all, the mediaeval belief in the Philosopher's Stone which
+could transmute metals, has its counterpart in the accepted theory
+of metabolism which changes living tissue.  In an age of
+investigation like our own, when we are returning to science as the
+base of wonders--almost of miracles--we should be slow to refuse to
+accept facts, however impossible they may seem to be.
+
+"Let us suppose a monster of the early days of the world--a dragon
+of the prime--of vast age running into thousands of years, to whom
+had been conveyed in some way--it matters not--a brain just
+sufficient for the beginning of growth.  Suppose the monster to be
+of incalculable size and of a strength quite abnormal--a veritable
+incarnation of animal strength.  Suppose this animal is allowed to
+remain in one place, thus being removed from accidents of
+interrupted development; might not, would not this creature, in
+process of time--ages, if necessary--have that rudimentary
+intelligence developed?  There is no impossibility in this; it is
+only the natural process of evolution.  In the beginning, the
+instincts of animals are confined to alimentation, self-protection,
+and the multiplication of their species.  As time goes on and the
+needs of life become more complex, power follows need.  We have been
+long accustomed to consider growth as applied almost exclusively to
+size in its various aspects.  But Nature, who has no doctrinaire
+ideas, may equally apply it to concentration.  A developing thing
+may expand in any given way or form.  Now, it is a scientific law
+that increase implies gain and loss of various kinds; what a thing
+gains in one direction it may lose in another.  May it not be that
+Mother Nature may deliberately encourage decrease as well as
+increase--that it may be an axiom that what is gained in
+concentration is lost in size?  Take, for instance, monsters that
+tradition has accepted and localised, such as the Worm of Lambton or
+that of Spindleston Heugh.  If such a creature were, by its own
+process of metabolism, to change much of its bulk for intellectual
+growth, we should at once arrive at a new class of creature--more
+dangerous, perhaps, than the world has ever had any experience of--a
+force which can think, which has no soul and no morals, and
+therefore no acceptance of responsibility.  A snake would be a good
+illustration of this, for it is cold-blooded, and therefore removed
+from the temptations which often weaken or restrict warm-blooded
+creatures.  If, for instance, the Worm of Lambton--if such ever
+existed--were guided to its own ends by an organised intelligence
+capable of expansion, what form of creature could we imagine which
+would equal it in potentialities of evil?  Why, such a being would
+devastate a whole country.  Now, all these things require much
+thought, and we want to apply the knowledge usefully, and we should
+therefore be exact.  Would it not be well to resume the subject
+later in the day?"
+
+"I quite agree, sir.  I am in a whirl already; and want to attend
+carefully to what you say; so that I may try to digest it."
+
+Both men seemed fresher and better for the "easy," and when they met
+in the afternoon each of them had something to contribute to the
+general stock of information.  Adam, who was by nature of a more
+militant disposition than his elderly friend, was glad to see that
+the conference at once assumed a practical trend.  Sir Nathaniel
+recognised this, and, like an old diplomatist, turned it to present
+use.
+
+"Tell me now, Adam, what is the outcome, in your own mind, of our
+conversation?"
+
+"That the whole difficulty already assumes practical shape; but with
+added dangers, that at first I did not imagine."
+
+"What is the practical shape, and what are the added dangers?  I am
+not disputing, but only trying to clear my own ideas by the
+consideration of yours--"
+
+So Adam went on:
+
+"In the past, in the early days of the world, there were monsters
+who were so vast that they could exist for thousands of years.  Some
+of them must have overlapped the Christian era.  They may have
+progressed intellectually in process of time.  If they had in any
+way so progressed, or even got the most rudimentary form of brain,
+they would be the most dangerous things that ever were in the world.
+Tradition says that one of these monsters lived in the Marsh of the
+East, and came up to a cave in Diana's Grove, which was also called
+the Lair of the White Worm.  Such creatures may have grown down as
+well as up.  They MAY have grown into, or something like, human
+beings.  Lady Arabella March is of snake nature.  She has committed
+crimes to our knowledge.  She retains something of the vast strength
+of her primal being--can see in the dark--has the eyes of a snake.
+She used the nigger, and then dragged him through the snake's hole
+down to the swamp; she is intent on evil, and hates some one we
+love.  Result. . . "
+
+"Yes, the result?"
+
+"First, that Mimi Watford should be taken away at once--then--"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"The monster must be destroyed."
+
+"Bravo!  That is a true and fearless conclusion.  At whatever cost,
+it must be carried out."
+
+"At once?"
+
+"Soon, at all events.  That creature's very existence is a danger.
+Her presence in this neighbourhood makes the danger immediate."
+
+As he spoke, Sir Nathaniel's mouth hardened and his eyebrows came
+down till they met.  There was no doubting his concurrence in the
+resolution, or his readiness to help in carrying it out.  But he was
+an elderly man with much experience and knowledge of law and
+diplomacy.  It seemed to him to be a stern duty to prevent anything
+irrevocable taking place till it had been thought out and all was
+ready.  There were all sorts of legal cruxes to be thought out, not
+only regarding the taking of life, even of a monstrosity in human
+form, but also of property.  Lady Arabella, be she woman or snake or
+devil, owned the ground she moved in, according to British law, and
+the law is jealous and swift to avenge wrongs done within its ken.
+All such difficulties should be--must be--avoided for Mr. Salton's
+sake, for Adam's own sake, and, most of all, for Mimi Watford's
+sake.
+
+Before he spoke again, Sir Nathaniel had made up his mind that he
+must try to postpone decisive action until the circumstances on
+which they depended--which, after all, were only problematical--
+should have been tested satisfactorily, one way or another.  When he
+did speak, Adam at first thought that his friend was wavering in his
+intention, or "funking" the responsibility.  However, his respect
+for Sir Nathaniel was so great that he would not act, or even come
+to a conclusion on a vital point, without his sanction.
+
+He came close and whispered in his ear:
+
+"We will prepare our plans to combat and destroy this horrible
+menace, after we have cleared up some of the more baffling points.
+Meanwhile, we must wait for the night--I hear my uncle's footsteps
+echoing down the hall."
+
+Sir Nathaniel nodded his approval.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--GREEN LIGHT
+
+
+
+When old Mr. Salton had retired for the night, Adam and Sir
+Nathaniel returned to the study.  Things went with great regularity
+at Lesser Hill, so they knew that there would be no interruption to
+their talk.
+
+When their cigars were lighted, Sir Nathaniel began.
+
+"I hope, Adam, that you do not think me either slack or changeable
+of purpose.  I mean to go through this business to the bitter end--
+whatever it may be.  Be satisfied that my first care is, and shall
+be, the protection of Mimi Watford.  To that I am pledged; my dear
+boy, we who are interested are all in the same danger.  That semi-
+human monster out of the pit hates and means to destroy us all--you
+and me certainly, and probably your uncle.  I wanted especially to
+talk with you to-night, for I cannot help thinking that the time is
+fast coming--if it has not come already--when we must take your
+uncle into our confidence.  It was one thing when fancied evils
+threatened, but now he is probably marked for death, and it is only
+right that he should know all."
+
+"I am with you, sir.  Things have changed since we agreed to keep
+him out of the trouble.  Now we dare not; consideration for his
+feelings might cost his life.  It is a duty--and no light or
+pleasant one, either.  I have not a shadow of doubt that he will
+want to be one with us in this.  But remember, we are his guests;
+his name, his honour, have to be thought of as well as his safety."
+
+"All shall be as you wish, Adam.  And now as to what we are to do?
+We cannot murder Lady Arabella off-hand.  Therefore we shall have to
+put things in order for the killing, and in such a way that we
+cannot be taxed with a crime."
+
+"It seems to me, sir, that we are in an exceedingly tight place.
+Our first difficulty is to know where to begin.  I never thought
+this fighting an antediluvian monster would be such a complicated
+job.  This one is a woman, with all a woman's wit, combined with the
+heartlessness of a COCOTTE.  She has the strength and impregnability
+of a diplodocus.  We may be sure that in the fight that is before us
+there will be no semblance of fair-play.  Also that our unscrupulous
+opponent will not betray herself!"
+
+"That is so--but being feminine, she will probably over-reach
+herself.  Now, Adam, it strikes me that, as we have to protect
+ourselves and others against feminine nature, our strong game will
+be to play our masculine against her feminine.  Perhaps we had
+better sleep on it.  She is a thing of the night; and the night may
+give us some ideas."
+
+So they both turned in.
+
+Adam knocked at Sir Nathaniel's door in the grey of the morning,
+and, on being bidden, came into the room.  He had several letters in
+his hand.  Sir Nathaniel sat up in bed.
+
+"Well!"
+
+"I should like to read you a few letters, but, of course, I shall
+not send them unless you approve.  In fact"--with a smile and a
+blush--"there are several things which I want to do; but I hold my
+hand and my tongue till I have your approval."
+
+"Go on!" said the other kindly.  "Tell me all, and count at any rate
+on my sympathy, and on my approval and help if I can see my way."
+
+Accordingly Adam proceeded:
+
+"When I told you the conclusions at which I had arrived, I put in
+the foreground that Mimi Watford should, for the sake of her own
+safety, be removed--and that the monster which had wrought all the
+harm should be destroyed."
+
+"Yes, that is so."
+
+"To carry this into practice, sir, one preliminary is required--
+unless harm of another kind is to be faced.  Mimi should have some
+protector whom all the world would recognise.  The only form
+recognised by convention is marriage!"
+
+Sir Nathaniel smiled in a fatherly way.
+
+"To marry, a husband is required.  And that husband should be you."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"And the marriage should be immediate and secret--or, at least, not
+spoken of outside ourselves.  Would the young lady be agreeable to
+that proceeding?"
+
+"I do not know, sir!"
+
+"Then how are we to proceed?"
+
+"I suppose that we--or one of us--must ask her."
+
+"Is this a sudden idea, Adam, a sudden resolution?"
+
+"A sudden resolution, sir, but not a sudden idea.  If she agrees,
+all is well and good.  The sequence is obvious."
+
+"And it is to be kept a secret amongst ourselves?"
+
+"I want no secret, sir, except for Mimi's good.  For myself, I
+should like to shout it from the house-tops!  But we must be
+discreet; untimely knowledge to our enemy might work incalculable
+harm."
+
+"And how would you suggest, Adam, that we could combine the
+momentous question with secrecy?"
+
+Adam grew red and moved uneasily.
+
+"Someone must ask her--as soon as possible!"
+
+"And that someone?"
+
+"I thought that you, sir, would be so good!"
+
+"God bless my soul!  This is a new kind of duty to take on--at my
+time of life.  Adam, I hope you know that you can count on me to
+help in any way I can!"
+
+"I have already counted on you, sir, when I ventured to make such a
+suggestion.  I can only ask," he added, "that you will be more than
+ever kind to me--to us--and look on the painful duty as a voluntary
+act of grace, prompted by kindness and affection."
+
+"Painful duty!"
+
+"Yes," said Adam boldly.  "Painful to you, though to me it would be
+all joyful."
+
+"It is a strange job for an early morning!  Well, we all live and
+learn.  I suppose the sooner I go the better.  You had better write
+a line for me to take with me.  For, you see, this is to be a
+somewhat unusual transaction, and it may be embarrassing to the
+lady, even to myself.  So we ought to have some sort of warrant,
+something to show that we have been mindful of her feelings.  It
+will not do to take acquiescence for granted--although we act for
+her good."
+
+"Sir Nathaniel, you are a true friend; I am sure that both Mimi and
+I shall be grateful to you for all our lives--however long they may
+be!"
+
+So the two talked it over and agreed as to points to be borne in
+mind by the ambassador.  It was striking ten when Sir Nathaniel left
+the house, Adam seeing him quietly off.
+
+As the young man followed him with wistful eyes--almost jealous of
+the privilege which his kind deed was about to bring him--he felt
+that his own heart was in his friend's breast.
+
+The memory of that morning was like a dream to all those concerned
+in it.  Sir Nathaniel had a confused recollection of detail and
+sequence, though the main facts stood out in his memory boldly and
+clearly.  Adam Salton's recollection was of an illimitable wait,
+filled with anxiety, hope, and chagrin, all dominated by a sense of
+the slow passage of time and accompanied by vague fears.  Mimi could
+not for a long time think at all, or recollect anything, except that
+Adam loved her and was saving her from a terrible danger.  When she
+had time to think, later on, she wondered when she had any ignorance
+of the fact that Adam loved her, and that she loved him with all her
+heart.  Everything, every recollection however small, every feeling,
+seemed to fit into those elemental facts as though they had all been
+moulded together.  The main and crowning recollection was her saying
+goodbye to Sir Nathaniel, and entrusting to him loving messages,
+straight from her heart, to Adam Salton, and of his bearing when--
+with an impulse which she could not check--she put her lips to his
+and kissed him.  Later, when she was alone and had time to think, it
+was a passing grief to her that she would have to be silent, for a
+time, to Lilla on the happy events of that strange mission.
+
+She had, of course, agreed to keep all secret until Adam should give
+her leave to speak.
+
+The advice and assistance of Sir Nathaniel was a great help to Adam
+in carrying out his idea of marrying Mimi Watford without publicity.
+He went with him to London, and, with his influence, the young man
+obtained the license of the Archbishop of Canterbury for a private
+marriage.  Sir Nathaniel then persuaded old Mr. Salton to allow his
+nephew to spend a few weeks with him at Doom Tower, and it was here
+that Mimi became Adam's wife.  But that was only the first step in
+their plans; before going further, however, Adam took his bride off
+to the Isle of Man.  He wished to place a stretch of sea between
+Mimi and the White Worm, while things matured.  On their return, Sir
+Nathaniel met them and drove them at once to Doom, taking care to
+avoid any one that he knew on the journey.
+
+Sir Nathaniel had taken care to have the doors and windows shut and
+locked--all but the door used for their entry.  The shutters were up
+and the blinds down.  Moreover, heavy curtains were drawn across the
+windows.  When Adam commented on this, Sir Nathaniel said in a
+whisper:
+
+"Wait till we are alone, and I'll tell you why this is done; in the
+meantime not a word or a sign.  You will approve when we have had a
+talk together."
+
+They said no more on the subject till after dinner, when they were
+ensconced in Sir Nathaniel's study, which was on the top storey.
+Doom Tower was a lofty structure, situated on an eminence high up in
+the Peak.  The top commanded a wide prospect, ranging from the hills
+above the Ribble to the near side of the Brow, which marked the
+northern bound of ancient Mercia.  It was of the early Norman
+period, less than a century younger than Castra Regis.  The windows
+of the study were barred and locked, and heavy dark curtains closed
+them in.  When this was done not a gleam of light from the tower
+could be seen from outside.
+
+When they were alone, Sir Nathaniel explained that he had taken his
+old friend, Mr. Salton, into full confidence, and that in future all
+would work together.
+
+"It is important for you to be extremely careful.  In spite of the
+fact that our marriage was kept secret, as also your temporary
+absence, both are known."
+
+"How?  To whom?"
+
+"How, I know not; but I am beginning to have an idea."
+
+"To her?" asked Adam, in momentary consternation.
+
+Sir Nathaniel shivered perceptibly.
+
+"The White Worm--yes!"
+
+Adam noticed that from now on, his friend never spoke of Lady
+Arabella otherwise, except when he wished to divert the suspicion of
+others.
+
+Sir Nathaniel switched off the electric light, and when the room was
+pitch dark, he came to Adam, took him by the hand, and led him to a
+seat set in the southern window.  Then he softly drew back a piece
+of the curtain and motioned his companion to look out.
+
+Adam did so, and immediately shrank back as though his eyes had
+opened on pressing danger.  His companion set his mind at rest by
+saying in a low voice:
+
+"It is all right; you may speak, but speak low.  There is no danger
+here--at present!"
+
+Adam leaned forward, taking care, however, not to press his face
+against the glass.  What he saw would not under ordinary
+circumstances have caused concern to anybody.  With his special
+knowledge, it was appalling--though the night was now so dark that
+in reality there was little to be seen.
+
+On the western side of the tower stood a grove of old trees, of
+forest dimensions.  They were not grouped closely, but stood a
+little apart from each other, producing the effect of a row widely
+planted.  Over the tops of them was seen a green light, something
+like the danger signal at a railway-crossing.  It seemed at first
+quite still; but presently, when Adam's eye became accustomed to it,
+he could see that it moved as if trembling.  This at once recalled
+to Adam's mind the light quivering above the well-hole in the
+darkness of that inner room at Diana's Grove, Oolanga's awful
+shriek, and the hideous black face, now grown grey with terror,
+disappearing into the impenetrable gloom of the mysterious orifice.
+Instinctively he laid his hand on his revolver, and stood up ready
+to protect his wife.  Then, seeing that nothing happened, and that
+the light and all outside the tower remained the same, he softly
+pulled the curtain over the window.
+
+Sir Nathaniel switched on the light again, and in its comforting
+glow they began to talk freely.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--AT CLOSE QUARTERS
+
+
+
+"She has diabolical cunning," said Sir Nathaniel.  "Ever since you
+left, she has ranged along the Brow and wherever you were accustomed
+to frequent.  I have not heard whence the knowledge of your
+movements came to her, nor have I been able to learn any data
+whereon to found an opinion.  She seems to have heard both of your
+marriage and your absence; but I gather, by inference, that she does
+not actually know where you and Mimi are, or of your return.  So
+soon as the dusk fails, she goes out on her rounds, and before dawn
+covers the whole ground round the Brow, and away up into the heart
+of the Peak.  The White Worm, in her own proper shape, certainly has
+great facilities for the business on which she is now engaged.  She
+can look into windows of any ordinary kind.  Happily, this house is
+beyond her reach, if she wishes--as she manifestly does--to remain
+unrecognised.  But, even at this height, it is wise to show no
+lights, lest she might learn something of our presence or absence."
+
+"Would it not be well, sir, if one of us could see this monster in
+her real shape at close quarters?  I am willing to run the risk--for
+I take it there would be no slight risk in the doing.  I don't
+suppose anyone of our time has seen her close and lived to tell the
+tale."
+
+Sir Nathaniel held up an expostulatory hand.
+
+"Good God, lad, what are you suggesting?  Think of your wife, and
+all that is at stake."
+
+"It is of Mimi that I think--for her sake that I am willing to risk
+whatever is to be risked."
+
+Adam's young bride was proud of her man, but she blanched at the
+thought of the ghastly White Worm.  Adam saw this and at once
+reassured her.
+
+"So long as her ladyship does not know whereabout I am, I shall have
+as much safety as remains to us; bear in mind, my darling, that we
+cannot be too careful."
+
+Sir Nathaniel realised that Adam was right; the White Worm had no
+supernatural powers and could not harm them until she discovered
+their hiding place.  It was agreed, therefore, that the two men
+should go together.
+
+When the two men slipped out by the back door of the house, they
+walked cautiously along the avenue which trended towards the west.
+Everything was pitch dark--so dark that at times they had to feel
+their way by the palings and tree-trunks.  They could still see,
+seemingly far in front of them and high up, the baleful light which
+at the height and distance seemed like a faint line.  As they were
+now on the level of the ground, the light seemed infinitely higher
+than it had from the top of the tower.  At the sight Adam's heart
+fell; the danger of the desperate enterprise which he had undertaken
+burst upon him.  But this feeling was shortly followed by another
+which restored him to himself--a fierce loathing, and a desire to
+kill, such as he had never experienced before.
+
+They went on for some distance on a level road, fairly wide, from
+which the green light was visible.  Here Sir Nathaniel spoke softly,
+placing his lips to Adam's ear for safety.
+
+"We know nothing whatever of this creature's power of hearing or
+smelling, though I presume that both are of no great strength.  As
+to seeing, we may presume the opposite, but in any case we must try
+to keep in the shade behind the tree-trunks.  The slightest error
+would be fatal to us."
+
+Adam only nodded, in case there should be any chance of the monster
+seeing the movement.
+
+After a time that seemed interminable, they emerged from the
+circling wood.  It was like coming out into sunlight by comparison
+with the misty blackness which had been around them.  There was
+light enough to see by, though not sufficient to distinguish things
+at a distance.  Adam's eyes sought the green light in the sky.  It
+was still in about the same place, but its surroundings were more
+visible.  It was now at the summit of what seemed to be a long white
+pole, near the top of which were two pendant white masses, like
+rudimentary arms or fins.  The green light, strangely enough, did
+not seem lessened by the surrounding starlight, but had a clearer
+effect and a deeper green.  Whilst they were carefully regarding
+this--Adam with the aid of an opera-glass--their nostrils were
+assailed by a horrid stench, something like that which rose from the
+well-hole in Diana's Grove.
+
+By degrees, as their eyes got the right focus, they saw an immense
+towering mass that seemed snowy white.  It was tall and thin.  The
+lower part was hidden by the trees which lay between, but they could
+follow the tall white shaft and the duplicate green lights which
+topped it.  As they looked there was a movement--the shaft seemed to
+bend, and the line of green light descended amongst the trees.  They
+could see the green light twinkle as it passed between the
+obstructing branches.
+
+Seeing where the head of the monster was, the two men ventured a
+little further forward, and saw that the hidden mass at the base of
+the shaft was composed of vast coils of the great serpent's body,
+forming a base from which the upright mass rose.  As they looked,
+this lower mass moved, the glistening folds catching the moonlight,
+and they could see that the monster's progress was along the ground.
+It was coming towards them at a swift pace, so they turned and ran,
+taking care to make as little noise as possible, either by their
+footfalls or by disturbing the undergrowth close to them.  They did
+not stop or pause till they saw before them the high dark tower of
+Doom.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--IN THE ENEMY'S HOUSE
+
+
+
+Sir Nathaniel was in the library next morning, after breakfast, when
+Adam came to him carrying a letter.
+
+"Her ladyship doesn't lose any time.  She has begun work already!"
+
+Sir Nathaniel, who was writing at a table near the window, looked
+up.
+
+"What is it?" said he.
+
+Adam held out the letter he was carrying.  It was in a blazoned
+envelope.
+
+"Ha!" said Sir Nathaniel, "from the White Worm!  I expected
+something of the kind."
+
+"But," said Adam, "how could she have known we were here?  She
+didn't know last night."
+
+"I don't think we need trouble about that, Adam.  There is so much
+we do not understand.  This is only another mystery.  Suffice it
+that she does know--perhaps it is all the better and safer for us."
+
+"How is that?" asked Adam with a puzzled look.
+
+"General process of reasoning, my boy; and the experience of some
+years in the diplomatic world.  This creature is a monster without
+heart or consideration for anything or anyone.  She is not nearly so
+dangerous in the open as when she has the dark to protect her.
+Besides, we know, by our own experience of her movements, that for
+some reason she shuns publicity.  In spite of her vast bulk and
+abnormal strength, she is afraid to attack openly.  After all, she
+is only a snake and with a snake's nature, which is to keep low and
+squirm, and proceed by stealth and cunning.  She will never attack
+when she can run away, although she knows well that running away
+would probably be fatal to her.  What is the letter about?"
+
+Sir Nathaniel's voice was calm and self-possessed.  When he was
+engaged in any struggle of wits he was all diplomatist.
+
+"She asks Mimi and me to tea this afternoon at Diana's Grove, and
+hopes that you also will favour her."
+
+Sir Nathaniel smiled.
+
+"Please ask Mrs. Salton to accept for us all."
+
+"She means some deadly mischief.  Surely--surely it would be wiser
+not."
+
+"It is an old trick that we learn early in diplomacy, Adam--to fight
+on ground of your own choice.  It is true that she suggested the
+place on this occasion; but by accepting it we make it ours.
+Moreover, she will not be able to understand our reason for doing
+so, and her own bad conscience--if she has any, bad or good--and her
+own fears and doubts will play our game for us.  No, my dear boy,
+let us accept, by all means."
+
+Adam said nothing, but silently held out his hand, which his
+companion shook:  no words were necessary.
+
+When it was getting near tea-time, Mimi asked Sir Nathaniel how they
+were going.
+
+"We must make a point of going in state.  We want all possible
+publicity."  Mimi looked at him inquiringly.  "Certainly, my dear,
+in the present circumstances publicity is a part of safety.  Do not
+be surprised if, whilst we are at Diana's Grove, occasional messages
+come for you--for all or any of us."
+
+"I see!" said Mrs. Salton.  "You are taking no chances."
+
+"None, my dear.  All I have learned at foreign courts, and amongst
+civilised and uncivilised people, is going to be utilised within the
+next couple of hours."
+
+Sir Nathaniel's voice was full of seriousness, and it brought to
+Mimi in a convincing way the awful gravity of the occasion
+
+In due course, they set out in a carriage drawn by a fine pair of
+horses, who soon devoured the few miles of their journey.  Before
+they came to the gate, Sir Nathaniel turned to Mimi.
+
+"I have arranged with Adam certain signals which may be necessary if
+certain eventualities occur.  These need be nothing to do with you
+directly.  But bear in mind that if I ask you or Adam to do
+anything, do not lose a second in the doing of it.  We must try to
+pass off such moments with an appearance of unconcern.  In all
+probability, nothing requiring such care will occur.  The White Worm
+will not try force, though she has so much of it to spare.  Whatever
+she may attempt to-day, of harm to any of us, will be in the way of
+secret plot.  Some other time she may try force, but--if I am able
+to judge such a thing--not to-day.  The messengers who may ask for
+any of us will not be witnesses only, they may help to stave off
+danger."  Seeing query in her face, he went on:  "Of what kind the
+danger may be, I know not, and cannot guess.  It will doubtless be
+some ordinary circumstance; but none the less dangerous on that
+account.  Here we are at the gate.  Now, be careful in all matters,
+however small.  To keep your head is half the battle."
+
+There were a number of men in livery in the hall when they arrived.
+The doors of the drawing-room were thrown open, and Lady Arabella
+came forth and offered them cordial welcome.  This having been got
+over, Lady Arabella led them into another room where tea was served.
+
+Adam was acutely watchful and suspicious of everything, and saw on
+the far side of this room a panelled iron door of the same colour
+and configuration as the outer door of the room where was the well-
+hole wherein Oolanga had disappeared.  Something in the sight
+alarmed him, and he quietly stood near the door.  He made no
+movement, even of his eyes, but he could see that Sir Nathaniel was
+watching him intently, and, he fancied, with approval.
+
+They all sat near the table spread for tea, Adam still near the
+door.  Lady Arabella fanned herself, complaining of heat, and told
+one of the footmen to throw all the outer doors open.
+
+Tea was in progress when Mimi suddenly started up with a look of
+fright on her face; at the same moment, the men became cognisant of
+a thick smoke which began to spread through the room--a smoke which
+made those who experienced it gasp and choke.  The footmen began to
+edge uneasily towards the inner door.  Denser and denser grew the
+smoke, and more acrid its smell.  Mimi, towards whom the draught
+from the open door wafted the smoke, rose up choking, and ran to the
+inner door, which she threw open to its fullest extent, disclosing
+on the outside a curtain of thin silk, fixed to the doorposts.  The
+draught from the open door swayed the thin silk towards her, and in
+her fright, she tore down the curtain, which enveloped her from head
+to foot.  Then she ran through the still open door, heedless of the
+fact that she could not see where she was going.  Adam, followed by
+Sir Nathaniel, rushed forward and joined her--Adam catching his wife
+by the arm and holding her tight.  It was well that he did so, for
+just before her lay the black orifice of the well-hole, which, of
+course, she could not see with the silk curtain round her head.  The
+floor was extremely slippery; something like thick oil had been
+spilled where she had to pass; and close to the edge of the hole her
+feet shot from under her, and she stumbled forward towards the well-
+hole.
+
+When Adam saw Mimi slip, he flung himself backward, still holding
+her.  His weight told, and he dragged her up from the hole and they
+fell together on the floor outside the zone of slipperiness.  In a
+moment he had raised her up, and together they rushed out through
+the open door into the sunlight, Sir Nathaniel close behind them.
+They were all pale except the old diplomatist, who looked both calm
+and cool.  It sustained and cheered Adam and his wife to see him
+thus master of himself.  Both managed to follow his example, to the
+wonderment of the footmen, who saw the three who had just escaped a
+terrible danger walking together gaily, as, under the guiding
+pressure of Sir Nathaniel's hand, they turned to re-enter the house.
+
+Lady Arabella, whose face had blanched to a deadly white, now
+resumed her ministrations at the tea-board as though nothing unusual
+had happened.  The slop-basin was full of half-burned brown paper,
+over which tea had been poured.
+
+Sir Nathaniel had been narrowly observing his hostess, and took the
+first opportunity afforded him of whispering to Adam:
+
+"The real attack is to come--she is too quiet.  When I give my hand
+to your wife to lead her out, come with us--and caution her to
+hurry.  Don't lose a second, even if you have to make a scene.  Hs-
+s-s-h!"
+
+Then they resumed their places close to the table, and the servants,
+in obedience to Lady Arabella's order, brought in fresh tea.
+
+Thence on, that tea-party seemed to Adam, whose faculties were at
+their utmost intensity, like a terrible dream.  As for poor Mimi,
+she was so overwrought both with present and future fear, and with
+horror at the danger she had escaped, that her faculties were numb.
+However, she was braced up for a trial, and she felt assured that
+whatever might come she would be able to go through with it.  Sir
+Nathaniel seemed just as usual--suave, dignified, and thoughtful--
+perfect master of himself.
+
+To her husband, it was evident that Mimi was ill at ease.  The way
+she kept turning her head to look around her, the quick coming and
+going of the colour of her face, her hurried breathing, alternating
+with periods of suspicious calm, were evidences of mental
+perturbation.  To her, the attitude of Lady Arabella seemed
+compounded of social sweetness and personal consideration.  It would
+be hard to imagine more thoughtful and tender kindness towards an
+honoured guest.
+
+When tea was over and the servants had come to clear away the cups,
+Lady Arabella, putting her arm round Mimi's waist, strolled with her
+into an adjoining room, where she collected a number of photographs
+which were scattered about, and, sitting down beside her guest,
+began to show them to her.  While she was doing this, the servants
+closed all the doors of the suite of rooms, as well as that which
+opened from the room outside--that of the well-hole into the avenue.
+Suddenly, without any seeming cause, the light in the room began to
+grow dim.  Sir Nathaniel, who was sitting close to Mimi, rose to his
+feet, and, crying, "Quick!" caught hold of her hand and began to
+drag her from the room.  Adam caught her other hand, and between
+them they drew her through the outer door which the servants were
+beginning to close.  It was difficult at first to find the way, the
+darkness was so great; but to their relief when Adam whistled
+shrilly, the carriage and horses, which had been waiting in the
+angle of the avenue, dashed up.  Her husband and Sir Nathaniel
+lifted--almost threw--Mimi into the carriage.  The postillion plied
+whip and spur, and the vehicle, rocking with its speed, swept
+through the gate and tore up the road.  Behind them was a hubbub--
+servants rushing about, orders being shouted out, doors shutting,
+and somewhere, seemingly far back in the house, a strange noise.
+Every nerve of the horses was strained as they dashed recklessly
+along the road.  The two men held Mimi between them, the arms of
+both of them round her as though protectingly.  As they went, there
+was a sudden rise in the ground; but the horses, breathing heavily,
+dashed up it at racing speed, not slackening their pace when the
+hill fell away again, leaving them to hurry along the downgrade.
+
+It would be foolish to say that neither Adam nor Mimi had any fear
+in returning to Doom Tower.  Mimi felt it more keenly than her
+husband, whose nerves were harder, and who was more inured to
+danger.  Still she bore up bravely, and as usual the effort was
+helpful to her.  When once she was in the study in the top of the
+turret, she almost forgot the terrors which lay outside in the dark.
+She did not attempt to peep out of the window; but Adam did--and saw
+nothing.  The moonlight showed all the surrounding country, but
+nowhere was to be observed that tremulous line of green light.
+
+The peaceful night had a good effect on them all; danger, being
+unseen, seemed far off.  At times it was hard to realise that it had
+ever been.  With courage restored, Adam rose early and walked along
+the Brow, seeing no change in the signs of life in Castra Regis.
+What he did see, to his wonder and concern, on his returning
+homeward, was Lady Arabella, in her tight-fitting white dress and
+ermine collar, but without her emeralds; she was emerging from the
+gate of Diana's Grove and walking towards the Castle.  Pondering on
+this and trying to find some meaning in it, occupied his thoughts
+till he joined Mimi and Sir Nathaniel at breakfast.  They began the
+meal in silence.  What had been had been, and was known to them all.
+Moreover, it was not a pleasant topic.
+
+A fillip was given to the conversation when Adam told of his seeing
+Lady Arabella, on her way to Castra Regis.  They each had something
+to say of her, and of what her wishes or intentions were towards
+Edgar Caswall.  Mimi spoke bitterly of her in every aspect.  She had
+not forgotten--and never would--never could--the occasion when, to
+harm Lilla, the woman had consorted even with the nigger.  As a
+social matter, she was disgusted with her for following up the rich
+landowner--"throwing herself at his head so shamelessly," was how
+she expressed it.  She was interested to know that the great kite
+still flew from Caswall's tower.  But beyond such matters she did
+not try to go.  The only comment she made was of strongly expressed
+surprise at her ladyship's "cheek" in ignoring her own criminal
+acts, and her impudence in taking it for granted that others had
+overlooked them also.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--A STARTLING PROPOSITION
+
+
+
+The more Mimi thought over the late events, the more puzzled she
+was.  What did it all mean--what could it mean, except that there
+was an error of fact somewhere.  Could it be possible that some of
+them--all of them had been mistaken, that there had been no White
+Worm at all?  On either side of her was a belief impossible of
+reception.  Not to believe in what seemed apparent was to destroy
+the very foundations of belief. . . yet in old days there had been
+monsters on the earth, and certainly some people had believed in
+just such mysterious changes of identity.  It was all very strange.
+Just fancy how any stranger--say a doctor--would regard her, if she
+were to tell him that she had been to a tea-party with an
+antediluvian monster, and that they had been waited on by up-to-date
+men-servants.
+
+Adam had returned, exhilarated by his walk, and more settled in his
+mind than he had been for some time.  Like Mimi, he had gone through
+the phase of doubt and inability to believe in the reality of
+things, though it had not affected him to the same extent.  The
+idea, however, that his wife was suffering ill-effects from her
+terrible ordeal, braced him up.  He remained with her for a time,
+then he sought Sir Nathaniel in order to talk over the matter with
+him.  He knew that the calm common sense and self-reliance of the
+old man, as well as his experience, would be helpful to them all.
+
+Sir Nathaniel had come to the conclusion that, for some reason which
+he did not understand, Lady Arabella had changed her plans, and, for
+the present at all events, was pacific.  He was inclined to
+attribute her changed demeanour to the fact that her influence over
+Edgar Caswall was so far increased, as to justify a more fixed
+belief in his submission to her charms.
+
+As a matter of fact, she had seen Caswall that morning when she
+visited Castra Regis, and they had had a long talk together, during
+which the possibility of their union had been discussed.  Caswall,
+without being enthusiastic on the subject, had been courteous and
+attentive; as she had walked back to Diana's Grove, she almost
+congratulated herself on her new settlement in life.  That the idea
+was becoming fixed in her mind, was shown by a letter which she
+wrote later in the day to Adam Salton, and sent to him by hand.  It
+ran as follows:
+
+
+"DEAR MR. SALTON,
+
+"I wonder if you would kindly advise, and, if possible, help me in a
+matter of business.  I have been for some time trying to make up my
+mind to sell Diana's Grove, I have put off and put off the doing of
+it till now.  The place is my own property, and no one has to be
+consulted with regard to what I may wish to do about it.  It was
+bought by my late husband, Captain Adolphus Ranger March, who had
+another residence, The Crest, Appleby.  He acquired all rights of
+all kinds, including mining and sporting.  When he died, he left his
+whole property to me.  I shall feel leaving this place, which has
+become endeared to me by many sacred memories and affections--the
+recollection of many happy days of my young married life, and the
+more than happy memories of the man I loved and who loved me so
+much.  I should be willing to sell the place for any fair price--so
+long, of course, as the purchaser was one I liked and of whom I
+approved.  May I say that you yourself would be the ideal person.
+But I dare not hope for so much.  It strikes me, however, that among
+your Australian friends may be someone who wishes to make a
+settlement in the Old Country, and would care to fix the spot in one
+of the most historic regions in England, full of romance and legend,
+and with a never-ending vista of historical interest--an estate
+which, though small, is in perfect condition and with illimitable
+possibilities of development, and many doubtful--or unsettled--
+rights which have existed before the time of the Romans or even
+Celts, who were the original possessors.  In addition, the house has
+been kept up to the DERNIER CRI.  Immediate possession can be
+arranged.  My lawyers can provide you, or whoever you may suggest,
+with all business and historical details.  A word from you of
+acceptance or refusal is all that is necessary, and we can leave
+details to be thrashed out by our agents.  Forgive me, won't you,
+for troubling you in the matter, and believe me, yours very
+sincerely.
+
+"ARABELLA MARCH."
+
+
+Adam read this over several times, and then, his mind being made up,
+he went to Mimi and asked if she had any objection.  She answered--
+after a shudder--that she was, in this, as in all things, willing to
+do whatever he might wish.
+
+"Dearest, I am willing that you should judge what is best for us.
+Be quite free to act as you see your duty, and as your inclination
+calls.  We are in the hands of God, and He has hitherto guided us,
+and will do so to His own end."
+
+From his wife's room Adam Salton went straight to the study in the
+tower, where he knew Sir Nathaniel would be at that hour.  The old
+man was alone, so, when he had entered in obedience to the "Come
+in," which answered his query, he closed the door and sat down
+beside him.
+
+"Do you think, sir, that it would be well for me to buy Diana's
+Grove?"
+
+"God bless my soul!" said the old man, startled, "why on earth would
+you want to do that?"
+
+"Well, I have vowed to destroy that White Worm, and my being able to
+do whatever I may choose with the Lair would facilitate matters and
+avoid complications."
+
+Sir Nathaniel hesitated longer than usual before speaking.  He was
+thinking deeply.
+
+"Yes, Adam, there is much common sense in your suggestion, though it
+startled me at first.  I think that, for all reasons, you would do
+well to buy the property and to have the conveyance settled at once.
+If you want more money than is immediately convenient, let me know,
+so that I may be your banker."
+
+"Thank you, sir, most heartily; but I have more money at immediate
+call than I shall want.  I am glad you approve."
+
+"The property is historic, and as time goes on it will increase in
+value.  Moreover, I may tell you something, which indeed is only a
+surmise, but which, if I am right, will add great value to the
+place."  Adam listened.  "Has it ever struck you why the old name,
+'The Lair of the White Worm,' was given?  We know that there was a
+snake which in early days was called a worm; but why white?"
+
+"I really don't know, sir; I never thought of it.  I simply took it
+for granted."
+
+"So did I at first--long ago.  But later I puzzled my brain for a
+reason."
+
+"And what was the reason, sir?"
+
+"Simply and solely because the snake or worm WAS white.  We are near
+the county of Stafford, where the great industry of china-burning
+was originated and grew.  Stafford owes much of its wealth to the
+large deposits of the rare china clay found in it from time to time.
+These deposits become in time pretty well exhausted; but for
+centuries Stafford adventurers looked for the special clay, as Ohio
+and Pennsylvania farmers and explorers looked for oil.  Anyone
+owning real estate on which china clay can be discovered strikes a
+sort of gold mine."
+
+"Yes, and then--"  The young man looked puzzled.
+
+"The original 'Worm' so-called, from which the name of the place
+came, had to find a direct way down to the marshes and the mud-
+holes.  Now, the clay is easily penetrable, and the original hole
+probably pierced a bed of china clay.  When once the way was made it
+would become a sort of highway for the Worm.  But as much movement
+was necessary to ascend such a great height, some of the clay would
+become attached to its rough skin by attrition.  The downway must
+have been easy work, but the ascent was different, and when the
+monster came to view in the upper world, it would be fresh from
+contact with the white clay.  Hence the name, which has no cryptic
+significance, but only fact.  Now, if that surmise be true--and I do
+not see why not--there must be a deposit of valuable clay--possibly
+of immense depth."
+
+Adam's comment pleased the old gentleman.
+
+"I have it in my bones, sir, that you have struck--or rather
+reasoned out--a great truth."
+
+Sir Nathaniel went on cheerfully.  "When the world of commerce wakes
+up to the value of your find, it will be as well that your title to
+ownership has been perfectly secured.  If anyone ever deserved such
+a gain, it is you."
+
+With his friend's aid, Adam secured the property without loss of
+time.  Then he went to see his uncle, and told him about it.  Mr.
+Salton was delighted to find his young relative already
+constructively the owner of so fine an estate--one which gave him an
+important status in the county.  He made many anxious enquiries
+about Mimi, and the doings of the White Worm, but Adam re-assured
+him.
+
+The next morning, when Adam went to his host in the smoking-room,
+Sir Nathaniel asked him how he purposed to proceed with regard to
+keeping his vow.
+
+"It is a difficult matter which you have undertaken.  To destroy
+such a monster is something like one of the labours of Hercules, in
+that not only its size and weight and power of using them in little-
+known ways are against you, but the occult side is alone an
+unsurpassable difficulty.  The Worm is already master of all the
+elements except fire--and I do not see how fire can be used for the
+attack.  It has only to sink into the earth in its usual way, and
+you could not overtake it if you had the resources of the biggest
+coal-mine in existence.  But I daresay you have mapped out some plan
+in your mind," he added courteously.
+
+"I have, sir.  But, of course, it may not stand the test of
+practice."
+
+"May I know the idea?"
+
+"Well, sir, this was my argument:  At the time of the Chartist
+trouble, an idea spread amongst financial circles that an attack was
+going to be made on the Bank of England.  Accordingly, the directors
+of that institution consulted many persons who were supposed to know
+what steps should be taken, and it was finally decided that the best
+protection against fire--which is what was feared--was not water but
+sand.  To carry the scheme into practice great store of fine sea-
+sand--the kind that blows about and is used to fill hour-glasses--
+was provided throughout the building, especially at the points
+liable to attack, from which it could be brought into use.
+
+"I propose to provide at Diana's Grove, as soon as it comes into my
+possession, an enormous amount of such sand, and shall take an early
+occasion of pouring it into the well-hole, which it will in time
+choke.  Thus Lady Arabella, in her guise of the White Worm, will
+find herself cut off from her refuge.  The hole is a narrow one, and
+is some hundreds of feet deep.  The weight of the sand this can
+contain would not in itself be sufficient to obstruct; but the
+friction of such a body working up against it would be tremendous."
+
+"One moment.  What use would the sand be for destruction?"
+
+"None, directly; but it would hold the struggling body in place till
+the rest of my scheme came into practice."
+
+"And what is the rest?"
+
+"As the sand is being poured into the well-hole, quantities of
+dynamite can also be thrown in!"
+
+"Good.  But how would the dynamite explode--for, of course, that is
+what you intend.  Would not some sort of wire or fuse he required
+for each parcel of dynamite?"
+
+Adam smiled.
+
+"Not in these days, sir.  That was proved in New York.  A thousand
+pounds of dynamite, in sealed canisters, was placed about some
+workings.  At the last a charge of gunpowder was fired, and the
+concussion exploded the dynamite.  It was most successful.  Those
+who were non-experts in high explosives expected that every pane of
+glass in New York would be shattered.  But, in reality, the
+explosive did no harm outside the area intended, although sixteen
+acres of rock had been mined and only the supporting walls and
+pillars had been left intact.  The whole of the rocks were
+shattered."
+
+Sir Nathaniel nodded approval.
+
+"That seems a good plan--a very excellent one.  But if it has to
+tear down so many feet of precipice, it may wreck the whole
+neighbourhood."
+
+"And free it for ever from a monster," added Adam, as he left the
+room to find his wife.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--THE LAST BATTLE
+
+
+
+Lady Arabella had instructed her solicitors to hurry on with the
+conveyance of Diana's Grove, so no time was lost in letting Adam
+Salton have formal possession of the estate.  After his interview
+with Sir Nathaniel, he had taken steps to begin putting his plan
+into action.  In order to accumulate the necessary amount of fine
+sea-sand, he ordered the steward to prepare for an elaborate system
+of top-dressing all the grounds.  A great heap of the sand, brought
+from bays on the Welsh coast, began to grow at the back of the
+Grove.  No one seemed to suspect that it was there for any purpose
+other than what had been given out.
+
+Lady Arabella, who alone could have guessed, was now so absorbed in
+her matrimonial pursuit of Edgar Caswall, that she had neither time
+nor inclination for thought extraneous to this.  She had not yet
+moved from the house, though she had formally handed over the
+estate.
+
+Adam put up a rough corrugated-iron shed behind the Grove, in which
+he stored his explosives.  All being ready for his great attempt
+whenever the time should come, he was now content to wait, and, in
+order to pass the time, interested himself in other things--even in
+Caswall's great kite, which still flew from the high tower of Castra
+Regis.
+
+The mound of fine sand grew to proportions so vast as to puzzle the
+bailiffs and farmers round the Brow.  The hour of the intended
+cataclysm was approaching apace.  Adam wished--but in vain--for an
+opportunity, which would appear to be natural, of visiting Caswall
+in the turret of Castra Regis.  At last, one morning, he met Lady
+Arabella moving towards the Castle, so he took his courage E DEUX
+MAINS and asked to be allowed to accompany her.  She was glad, for
+her own purposes, to comply with his wishes.  So together they
+entered, and found their way to the turret-room.  Caswall was much
+surprised to see Adam come to his house, but lent himself to the
+task of seeming to be pleased.  He played the host so well as to
+deceive even Adam.  They all went out on the turret roof, where he
+explained to his guests the mechanism for raising and lowering the
+kite, taking also the opportunity of testing the movements of the
+multitudes of birds, how they answered almost instantaneously to the
+lowering or raising of the kite.
+
+As Lady Arabella walked home with Adam from Castra Regis, she asked
+him if she might make a request.  Permission having been accorded,
+she explained that before she finally left Diana's Grove, where she
+had lived so long, she had a desire to know the depth of the well-
+hole.  Adam was really happy to meet her wishes, not from any
+sentiment, but because he wished to give some valid and ostensible
+reason for examining the passage of the Worm, which would obviate
+any suspicion resulting from his being on the premises.  He brought
+from London a Kelvin sounding apparatus, with a sufficient length of
+piano-wire for testing any probable depth.  The wire passed easily
+over the running wheel, and when this was once fixed over the hole,
+he was satisfied to wait till the most advantageous time for his
+final experiment.
+
+
+In the meantime, affairs had been going quietly at Mercy Farm.
+Lilla, of course, felt lonely in the absence of her cousin, but the
+even tenor of life went on for her as for others.  After the first
+shock of parting was over, things went back to their accustomed
+routine.  In one respect, however, there was a marked difference.
+So long as home conditions had remained unchanged, Lilla was content
+to put ambition far from her, and to settle down to the life which
+had been hers as long as she could remember.  But Mimi's marriage
+set her thinking; naturally, she came to the conclusion that she too
+might have a mate.  There was not for her much choice--there was
+little movement in the matrimonial direction at the farmhouse.  She
+did not approve of the personality of Edgar Caswall, and his
+struggle with Mimi had frightened her; but he was unmistakably an
+excellent PARTI, much better than she could have any right to
+expect.  This weighs much with a woman, and more particularly one of
+her class.  So, on the whole, she was content to let things take
+their course, and to abide by the issue.
+
+As time went on, she had reason to believe that things did not point
+to happiness.  She could not shut her eyes to certain disturbing
+facts, amongst which were the existence of Lady Arabella and her
+growing intimacy with Edgar Caswall; as well as his own cold and
+haughty nature, so little in accord with the ardour which is the
+foundation of a young maid's dreams of happiness.  How things would,
+of necessity, alter if she were to marry, she was afraid to think.
+All told, the prospect was not happy for her, and she had a secret
+longing that something might occur to upset the order of things as
+at present arranged.
+
+When Lilla received a note from Edgar Caswall asking if he might
+come to tea on the following afternoon, her heart sank within her.
+If it was only for her father's sake, she must not refuse him or
+show any disinclination which he might construe into incivility.
+She missed Mimi more than she could say or even dared to think.
+Hitherto, she had always looked to her cousin for sympathy, for
+understanding, for loyal support.  Now she and all these things, and
+a thousand others--gentle, assuring, supporting--were gone.  And
+instead there was a horrible aching void.
+
+For the whole afternoon and evening, and for the following forenoon,
+poor Lilla's loneliness grew to be a positive agony.  For the first
+time she began to realise the sense of her loss, as though all the
+previous suffering had been merely a preparation.  Everything she
+looked at, everything she remembered or thought of, became laden
+with poignant memory.  Then on the top of all was a new sense of
+dread.  The reaction from the sense of security, which had
+surrounded her all her life, to a never-quieted apprehension, was at
+times almost more than she could bear.  It so filled her with fear
+that she had a haunting feeling that she would as soon die as live.
+However, whatever might be her own feelings, duty had to be done,
+and as she had been brought up to consider duty first, she braced
+herself to go through, to the very best of her ability, what was
+before her.
+
+Still, the severe and prolonged struggle for self-control told upon
+Lilla.  She looked, as she felt, ill and weak.  She was really in a
+nerveless and prostrate condition, with black circles round her
+eyes, pale even to her lips, and with an instinctive trembling which
+she was quite unable to repress.  It was for her a sad mischance
+that Mimi was away, for her love would have seen through all
+obscuring causes, and have brought to light the girl's unhappy
+condition of health.  Lilla was utterly unable to do anything to
+escape from the ordeal before her; but her cousin, with the
+experience of her former struggles with Mr. Caswall and of the
+condition in which these left her, would have taken steps--even
+peremptory ones, if necessary--to prevent a repetition.
+
+Edgar arrived punctually to the time appointed by herself.  When
+Lilla, through the great window, saw him approaching the house, her
+condition of nervous upset was pitiable.  She braced herself up,
+however, and managed to get through the interview in its preliminary
+stages without any perceptible change in her normal appearance and
+bearing.  It had been to her an added terror that the black shadow
+of Oolanga, whom she dreaded, would follow hard on his master.  A
+load was lifted from her mind when he did not make his usual
+stealthy approach.  She had also feared, though in lesser degree,
+lest Lady Arabella should be present to make trouble for her as
+before.
+
+With a woman's natural forethought in a difficult position, she had
+provided the furnishing of the tea-table as a subtle indication of
+the social difference between her and her guest.  She had chosen the
+implements of service, as well as all the provender set forth, of
+the humblest kind.  Instead of arranging the silver teapot and china
+cups, she had set out an earthen tea-pot, such as was in common use
+in the farm kitchen.  The same idea was carried out in the cups and
+saucers of thick homely delft, and in the cream-jug of similar kind.
+The bread was of simple whole-meal, home-baked.  The butter was
+good, since she had made it herself, while the preserves and honey
+came from her own garden.  Her face beamed with satisfaction when
+the guest eyed the appointments with a supercilious glance.  It was
+a shock to the poor girl herself, for she enjoyed offering to a
+guest the little hospitalities possible to her; but that had to be
+sacrificed with other pleasures.
+
+Caswall's face was more set and iron-clad than ever--his piercing
+eyes seemed from the very beginning to look her through and through.
+Her heart quailed when she thought of what would follow--of what
+would be the end, when this was only the beginning.  As some
+protection, though it could be only of a sentimental kind, she
+brought from her own room the photographs of Mimi, of her
+grandfather, and of Adam Salton, whom by now she had grown to look
+on with reliance, as a brother whom she could trust.  She kept the
+pictures near her heart, to which her hand naturally strayed when
+her feelings of constraint, distrust, or fear became so poignant as
+to interfere with the calm which she felt was necessary to help her
+through her ordeal.
+
+At first Edgar Caswall was courteous and polite, even thoughtful;
+but after a little while, when he found her resistance to his
+domination grow, he abandoned all forms of self-control and appeared
+in the same dominance as he had previously shown.  She was prepared,
+however, for this, both by her former experience and the natural
+fighting instinct within her.  By this means, as the minutes went
+on, both developed the power and preserved the equality in which
+they had begun.
+
+Without warning, the psychic battle between the two individualities
+began afresh.  This time both the positive and negative causes were
+all in favour of the man.  The woman was alone and in bad spirits,
+unsupported; nothing at all was in her favour except the memory of
+the two victorious contests; whereas the man, though unaided, as
+before, by either Lady Arabella or Oolanga, was in full strength,
+well rested, and in flourishing circumstances.  It was not,
+therefore, to be wondered at that his native dominance of character
+had full opportunity of asserting itself.  He began his preliminary
+stare with a conscious sense of power, and, as it appeared to have
+immediate effect on the girl, he felt an ever-growing conviction of
+ultimate victory.
+
+After a little Lilla's resolution began to flag.  She felt that the
+contest was unequal--that she was unable to put forth her best
+efforts.  As she was an unselfish person, she could not fight so
+well in her own battle as in that of someone whom she loved and to
+whom she was devoted.  Edgar saw the relaxing of the muscles of face
+and brow, and the almost collapse of the heavy eyelids which seemed
+tumbling downward in sleep.  Lilla made gallant efforts to brace her
+dwindling powers, but for a time unsuccessfully.  At length there
+came an interruption, which seemed like a powerful stimulant.
+Through the wide window she saw Lady Arabella enter the plain
+gateway of the farm, and advance towards the hall door.  She was
+clad as usual in tight-fitting white, which accentuated her thin,
+sinuous figure.
+
+The sight did for Lilla what no voluntary effort could have done.
+Her eyes flashed, and in an instant she felt as though a new life
+had suddenly developed within her.  Lady Arabella's entry, in her
+usual unconcerned, haughty, supercilious way, heightened the effect,
+so that when the two stood close to each other battle was joined.
+Mr. Caswall, too, took new courage from her coming, and all his
+masterfulness and power came back to him.  His looks, intensified,
+had more obvious effect than had been noticeable that day.  Lilla
+seemed at last overcome by his dominance.  Her face became red and
+pale--violently red and ghastly pale--by rapid turns.  Her strength
+seemed gone.  Her knees collapsed, and she was actually sinking on
+the floor, when to her surprise and joy Mimi came into the room,
+running hurriedly and breathing heavily.
+
+Lilla rushed to her, and the two clasped hands.  With that, a new
+sense of power, greater than Lilla had ever seen in her, seemed to
+quicken her cousin.  Her hand swept the air in front of Edgar
+Caswall, seeming to drive him backward more and more by each
+movement, till at last he seemed to be actually hurled through the
+door which Mimi's entrance had left open, and fell at full length on
+the gravel path without.
+
+Then came the final and complete collapse of Lilla, who, without a
+sound, sank down on the floor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI--FACE TO FACE
+
+
+
+Mimi was greatly distressed when she saw her cousin lying prone.
+She had a few times in her life seen Lilla on the verge of fainting,
+but never senseless; and now she was frightened.  She threw herself
+on her knees beside Lilla, and tried, by rubbing her hands and other
+measures commonly known, to restore her.  But all her efforts were
+unavailing.  Lilla still lay white and senseless.  In fact, each
+moment she looked worse; her breast, that had been heaving with the
+stress, became still, and the pallor of her face grew like marble.
+
+At these succeeding changes Mimi's fright grew, till it altogether
+mastered her.  She succeeded in controlling herself only to the
+extent that she did not scream.
+
+Lady Arabella had followed Caswall, when he had recovered
+sufficiently to get up and walk--though stumblingly--in the
+direction of Castra Regis.  When Mimi was quite alone with Lilla and
+the need for effort had ceased, she felt weak and trembled.  In her
+own mind, she attributed it to a sudden change in the weather--it
+was momentarily becoming apparent that a storm was coming on.
+
+She raised Lilla's head and laid it on her warm young breast, but
+all in vain.  The cold of the white features thrilled through her,
+and she utterly collapsed when it was borne in on her that Lilla had
+passed away.
+
+The dusk gradually deepened and the shades of evening closed in, but
+Mimi did not seem to notice or to care.  She sat on the floor with
+her arms round the body of the girl whom she loved.  Darker and
+blacker grew the sky as the coming storm and the closing night
+joined forces.  Still she sat on--alone--tearless--unable to think.
+Mimi did not know how long she sat there.  Though it seemed to her
+that ages had passed, it could not have been more than half-an-hour.
+She suddenly came to herself, and was surprised to find that her
+grandfather had not returned.  For a while she lay quiet, thinking
+of the immediate past.  Lilla's hand was still in hers, and to her
+surprise it was still warm.  Somehow this helped her consciousness,
+and without any special act of will she stood up.  She lit a lamp
+and looked at her cousin.  There was no doubt that Lilla was dead;
+but when the lamp-light fell on her eyes, they seemed to look at
+Mimi with intent--with meaning.  In this state of dark isolation a
+new resolution came to her, and grew and grew until it became a
+fixed definite purpose.  She would face Caswall and call him to
+account for his murder of Lilla--that was what she called it to
+herself.  She would also take steps--she knew not what or how--to
+avenge the part taken by Lady Arabella.
+
+In this frame of mind she lit all the lamps in the room, got water
+and linen from her room, and set about the decent ordering of
+Lilla's body.  This took some time; but when it was finished, she
+put on her hat and cloak, put out the lights, and set out quietly
+for Castra Regis.
+
+As Mimi drew near the Castle, she saw no lights except those in and
+around the tower room.  The lights showed her that Mr. Caswall was
+there, so she entered by the hall door, which as usual was open, and
+felt her way in the darkness up the staircase to the lobby of the
+room.  The door was ajar, and the light from within showed
+brilliantly through the opening.  She saw Edgar Caswall walking
+restlessly to and fro in the room, with his hands clasped behind his
+back.  She opened the door without knocking, and walked right into
+the room.  As she entered, he ceased walking, and stared at her in
+surprise.  She made no remark, no comment, but continued the fixed
+look which he had seen on her entrance.
+
+For a time silence reigned, and the two stood looking fixedly at
+each other.  Mimi was the first to speak.
+
+"You murderer!  Lilla is dead!"
+
+"Dead!  Good God!  When did she die?"
+
+"She died this afternoon, just after you left her."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes--and so are you--or you ought to be.  You killed her!"
+
+"I killed her!  Be careful what you say!"
+
+"As God sees us, it is true; and you know it.  You came to Mercy
+Farm on purpose to break her--if you could.  And the accomplice of
+your guilt, Lady Arabella March, came for the same purpose."
+
+"Be careful, woman," he said hotly.  "Do not use such names in that
+way, or you shall suffer for it."
+
+"I am suffering for it--have suffered for it--shall suffer for it.
+Not for speaking the truth as I have done, but because you two, with
+devilish malignity, did my darling to death.  It is you and your
+accomplice who have to dread punishment, not I."
+
+"Take care!" he said again.
+
+"Oh, I am not afraid of you or your accomplice," she answered
+spiritedly.  "I am content to stand by every word I have said, every
+act I have done.  Moreover, I believe in God's justice.  I fear not
+the grinding of His mills; if necessary I shall set the wheels in
+motion myself.  But you don't care for God, or believe in Him.  Your
+god is your great kite, which cows the birds of a whole district.
+But be sure that His hand, when it rises, always falls at the
+appointed time.  It may be that your name is being called even at
+this very moment at the Great Assize.  Repent while there is still
+time.  Happy you, if you may be allowed to enter those mighty halls
+in the company of the pure-souled angel whose voice has only to
+whisper one word of justice, and you disappear for ever into
+everlasting torment."
+
+The sudden death of Lilla caused consternation among Mimi's friends
+and well-wishers.  Such a tragedy was totally unexpected, as Adam
+and Sir Nathaniel had been expecting the White Worm's vengeance to
+fall upon themselves.
+
+Adam, leaving his wife free to follow her own desires with regard to
+Lilla and her grandfather, busied himself with filling the well-hole
+with the fine sand prepared for the purpose, taking care to have
+lowered at stated intervals quantities of the store of dynamite, so
+as to be ready for the final explosion.  He had under his immediate
+supervision a corps of workmen, and was assisted by Sir Nathaniel,
+who had come over for the purpose, and all were now staying at
+Lesser Hill.
+
+Mr. Salton, too, showed much interest in the job, and was constantly
+coming in and out, nothing escaping his observation.
+
+Since her marriage to Adam and their coming to stay at Doom Tower,
+Mimi had been fettered by fear of the horrible monster at Diana's
+Grove.  But now she dreaded it no longer.  She accepted the fact of
+its assuming at will the form of Lady Arabella.  She had still to
+tax and upbraid her for her part in the unhappiness which had been
+wrought on Lilla, and for her share in causing her death.
+
+One evening, when Mimi entered her own room, she went to the window
+and threw an eager look round the whole circle of sight.  A single
+glance satisfied her that the White Worm in PROPRIA PERSONA was not
+visible.  So she sat down in the window-seat and enjoyed the
+pleasure of a full view, from which she had been so long cut off.
+The maid who waited on her had told her that Mr. Salton had not yet
+returned home, so she felt free to enjoy the luxury of peace and
+quiet.
+
+As she looked out of the window, she saw something thin and white
+move along the avenue.  She thought she recognised the figure of
+Lady Arabella, and instinctively drew back behind the curtain.  When
+she had ascertained, by peeping out several times, that the lady had
+not seen her, she watched more carefully, all her instinctive hatred
+flooding back at the sight of her.  Lady Arabella was moving swiftly
+and stealthily, looking back and around her at intervals, as if she
+feared to be followed.  This gave Mimi an idea that she was up to no
+good, so she determined to seize the occasion for watching her in
+more detail.
+
+Hastily putting on a dark cloak and hat, she ran downstairs and out
+into the avenue.  Lady Arabella had moved, but the sheen of her
+white dress was still to be seen among the young oaks around the
+gateway.  Keeping in shadow, Mimi followed, taking care not to come
+so close as to awake the other's suspicion, and watched her quarry
+pass along the road in the direction of Castra Regis.
+
+She followed on steadily through the gloom of the trees, depending
+on the glint of the white dress to keep her right.  The wood began
+to thicken, and presently, when the road widened and the trees grew
+farther back, she lost sight of any indication of her whereabouts.
+Under the present conditions it was impossible for her to do any
+more, so, after waiting for a while, still hidden in the shadow to
+see if she could catch another glimpse of the white frock, she
+determined to go on slowly towards Castra Regis, and trust to the
+chapter of accidents to pick up the trail again.  She went on
+slowly, taking advantage of every obstacle and shadow to keep
+herself concealed.
+
+At last she entered on the grounds of the Castle, at a spot from
+which the windows of the turret were dimly visible, without having
+seen again any sign of Lady Arabella.
+
+Meanwhile, during most of the time that Mimi Salton had been moving
+warily along in the gloom, she was in reality being followed by Lady
+Arabella, who had caught sight of her leaving the house and had
+never again lost touch with her.  It was a case of the hunter being
+hunted.  For a time Mimi's many turnings, with the natural obstacles
+that were perpetually intervening, caused Lady Arabella some
+trouble; but when she was close to Castra Regis, there was no more
+possibility of concealment, and the strange double following went
+swiftly on.
+
+When she saw Mimi close to the hall door of Castra Regis and
+ascending the steps, she followed.  When Mimi entered the dark hall
+and felt her way up the staircase, still, as she believed, following
+Lady Arabella, the latter kept on her way.  When they reached the
+lobby of the turret-rooms, Mimi believed that the object of her
+search was ahead of her.
+
+Edgar Caswall sat in the gloom of the great room, occasionally
+stirred to curiosity when the drifting clouds allowed a little light
+to fall from the storm-swept sky.  But nothing really interested him
+now.  Since he had heard of Lilla's death, the gloom of his remorse,
+emphasised by Mimi's upbraiding, had made more hopeless his cruel,
+selfish, saturnine nature.  He heard no sound, for his normal
+faculties seemed benumbed.
+
+Mimi, when she came to the door, which stood ajar, gave a light tap.
+So light was it that it did not reach Caswall's ears.  Then, taking
+her courage in both hands, she boldly pushed the door and entered.
+As she did so, her heart sank, for now she was face to face with a
+difficulty which had not, in her state of mental perturbation,
+occurred to her.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII--ON THE TURRET ROOF
+
+
+
+The storm which was coming was already making itself manifest, not
+only in the wide scope of nature, but in the hearts and natures of
+human beings.  Electrical disturbance in the sky and the air is
+reproduced in animals of all kinds, and particularly in the highest
+type of them all--the most receptive--the most electrical.  So it
+was with Edgar Caswall, despite his selfish nature and coldness of
+blood.  So it was with Mimi Salton, despite her unselfish,
+unchanging devotion for those she loved.  So it was even with Lady
+Arabella, who, under the instincts of a primeval serpent, carried
+the ever-varying wishes and customs of womanhood, which is always
+old--and always new.
+
+Edgar, after he had turned his eyes on Mimi, resumed his apathetic
+position and sullen silence.  Mimi quietly took a seat a little way
+apart, whence she could look on the progress of the coming storm and
+study its appearance throughout the whole visible circle of the
+neighbourhood.  She was in brighter and better spirits than she had
+been for many days past.  Lady Arabella tried to efface herself
+behind the now open door.
+
+Without, the clouds grew thicker and blacker as the storm-centre
+came closer.  As yet the forces, from whose linking the lightning
+springs, were held apart, and the silence of nature proclaimed the
+calm before the storm.  Caswall felt the effect of the gathering
+electric force.  A sort of wild exultation grew upon him, such as he
+had sometimes felt just before the breaking of a tropical storm.  As
+he became conscious of this, he raised his head and caught sight of
+Mimi.  He was in the grip of an emotion greater than himself; in the
+mood in which he was he felt the need upon him of doing some
+desperate deed.  He was now absolutely reckless, and as Mimi was
+associated with him in the memory which drove him on, he wished that
+she too should be engaged in this enterprise.  He had no knowledge
+of the proximity of Lady Arabella, and thought that he was far
+removed from all he knew and whose interests he shared--alone with
+the wild elements, which were being lashed to fury, and with the
+woman who had struggled with him and vanquished him, and on whom he
+would shower the full measure of his hate.
+
+The fact was that Edgar Caswall was, if not mad, close to the
+border-line.  Madness in its first stage--monomania--is a lack of
+proportion.  So long as this is general, it is not always
+noticeable, for the uninspired onlooker is without the necessary
+means of comparison.  But in monomania the errant faculty protrudes
+itself in a way that may not be denied.  It puts aside, obscures, or
+takes the place of something else--just as the head of a pin placed
+before the centre of the iris will block out the whole scope of
+vision.  The most usual form of monomania has commonly the same
+beginning as that from which Edgar Caswall suffered--an over-large
+idea of self-importance.  Alienists, who study the matter exactly,
+probably know more of human vanity and its effects than do ordinary
+men.  Caswall's mental disturbance was not hard to identify.  Every
+asylum is full of such cases--men and women, who, naturally selfish
+and egotistical, so appraise to themselves their own importance that
+every other circumstance in life becomes subservient to it.  The
+disease supplies in itself the material for self-magnification.
+When the decadence attacks a nature naturally proud and selfish and
+vain, and lacking both the aptitude and habit of self-restraint, the
+development of the disease is more swift, and ranges to farther
+limits.  It is such persons who become inbued with the idea that
+they have the attributes of the Almighty--even that they themselves
+are the Almighty.
+
+Mimi had a suspicion--or rather, perhaps, an intuition--of the true
+state of things when she heard him speak, and at the same time
+noticed the abnormal flush on his face, and his rolling eyes.  There
+was a certain want of fixedness of purpose which she had certainly
+not noticed before--a quick, spasmodic utterance which belongs
+rather to the insane than to those of intellectual equilibrium.  She
+was a little frightened, not only by his thoughts, but by his
+staccato way of expressing them.
+
+Caswall moved to the door leading to the turret stair by which the
+roof was reached, and spoke in a peremptory way, whose tone alone
+made her feel defiant.
+
+"Come!  I want you."
+
+She instinctively drew back--she was not accustomed to such words,
+more especially to such a tone.  Her answer was indicative of a new
+contest.
+
+"Why should I go?  What for?"
+
+He did not at once reply--another indication of his overwhelming
+egotism.  She repeated her questions; habit reasserted itself, and
+he spoke without thinking the words which were in his heart.
+
+"I want you, if you will be so good, to come with me to the turret
+roof.  I am much interested in certain experiments with the kite,
+which would be, if not a pleasure, at least a novel experience to
+you.  You would see something not easily seen otherwise."
+
+"I will come," she answered simply; Edgar moved in the direction of
+the stair, she following close behind him.
+
+She did not like to be left alone at such a height, in such a place,
+in the darkness, with a storm about to break.  Of himself she had no
+fear; all that had been seemed to have passed away with her two
+victories over him in the struggle of wills.  Moreover, the more
+recent apprehension--that of his madness--had also ceased.  In the
+conversation of the last few minutes he seemed so rational, so
+clear, so unaggressive, that she no longer saw reason for doubt.  So
+satisfied was she that even when he put out a hand to guide her to
+the steep, narrow stairway, she took it without thought in the most
+conventional way.
+
+Lady Arabella, crouching in the lobby behind the door, heard every
+word that had been said, and formed her own opinion of it.  It
+seemed evident to her that there had been some rapprochement between
+the two who had so lately been hostile to each other, and that made
+her furiously angry.  Mimi was interfering with her plans!  She had
+made certain of her capture of Edgar Caswall, and she could not
+tolerate even the lightest and most contemptuous fancy on his part
+which might divert him from the main issue.  When she became aware
+that he wished Mimi to come with him to the roof and that she had
+acquiesced, her rage got beyond bounds.  She became oblivious to any
+danger there might be in a visit to such an exposed place at such a
+time, and to all lesser considerations, and made up her mind to
+forestall them.  She stealthily and noiselessly crept through the
+wicket, and, ascending the stair, stepped out on the roof.  It was
+bitterly cold, for the fierce gusts of the storm which swept round
+the turret drove in through every unimpeded way, whistling at the
+sharp corners and singing round the trembling flagstaff.  The kite-
+string and the wire which controlled the runners made a concourse of
+weird sounds which somehow, perhaps from the violence which
+surrounded them, acting on their length, resolved themselves into
+some kind of harmony--a fitting accompaniment to the tragedy which
+seemed about to begin.
+
+Mimi's heart beat heavily.  Just before leaving the turret-chamber
+she had a shock which she could not shake off.  The lights of the
+room had momentarily revealed to her, as they passed out, Edgar's
+face, concentrated as it was whenever he intended to use his
+mesmeric power.  Now the black eyebrows made a thick line across his
+face, under which his eyes shone and glittered ominously.  Mimi
+recognised the danger, and assumed the defiant attitude that had
+twice already served her so well.  She had a fear that the
+circumstances and the place were against her, and she wanted to be
+forearmed.
+
+The sky was now somewhat lighter than it had been.  Either there was
+lightning afar off, whose reflections were carried by the rolling
+clouds, or else the gathered force, though not yet breaking into
+lightning, had an incipient power of light.  It seemed to affect
+both the man and the woman.  Edgar seemed altogether under its
+influence.  His spirits were boisterous, his mind exalted.  He was
+now at his worst; madder than he had been earlier in the night.
+
+Mimi, trying to keep as far from him as possible, moved across the
+stone floor of the turret roof, and found a niche which concealed
+her.  It was not far from Lady Arabella's place of hiding.
+
+Edgar, left thus alone on the centre of the turret roof, found
+himself altogether his own master in a way which tended to increase
+his madness.  He knew that Mimi was close at hand, though he had
+lost sight of her.  He spoke loudly, and the sound of his own voice,
+though it was carried from him on the sweeping wind as fast as the
+words were spoken, seemed to exalt him still more.  Even the raging
+of the elements round him appeared to add to his exaltation.  To him
+it seemed that these manifestations were obedient to his own will.
+He had reached the sublime of his madness; he was now in his own
+mind actually the Almighty, and whatever might happen would be the
+direct carrying out of his own commands.  As he could not see Mimi,
+nor fix whereabout she was, he shouted loudly:
+
+"Come to me!  You shall see now what you are despising, what you are
+warring against.  All that you see is mine--the darkness as well as
+the light.  I tell you that I am greater than any other who is, or
+was, or shall be.  When the Master of Evil took Christ up on a high
+place and showed Him all the kingdoms of the earth, he was doing
+what he thought no other could do.  He was wrong--he forgot ME.  I
+shall send you light, up to the very ramparts of heaven.  A light so
+great that it shall dissipate those black clouds that are rushing up
+and piling around us.  Look!  Look!  At the very touch of my hand
+that light springs into being and mounts up--and up--and up!"
+
+He made his way whilst he was speaking to the corner of the turret
+whence flew the giant kite, and from which the runners ascended.
+Mimi looked on, appalled and afraid to speak lest she should
+precipitate some calamity.  Within the niche Lady Arabella cowered
+in a paroxysm of fear.
+
+Edgar took up a small wooden box, through a hole in which the wire
+of the runner ran.  This evidently set some machinery in motion, for
+a sound as of whirring came.  From one side of the box floated what
+looked like a piece of stiff ribbon, which snapped and crackled as
+the wind took it.  For a few seconds Mimi saw it as it rushed along
+the sagging line to the kite.  When close to it, there was a loud
+crack, and a sudden light appeared to issue from every chink in the
+box.  Then a quick flame flashed along the snapping ribbon, which
+glowed with an intense light--a light so great that the whole of the
+countryside around stood out against the background of black driving
+clouds.  For a few seconds the light remained, then suddenly
+disappeared in the blackness around.  It was simply a magnesium
+light, which had been fired by the mechanism within the box and
+carried up to the kite.  Edgar was in a state of tumultuous
+excitement, shouting and yelling at the top of his voice and dancing
+about like a lunatic.
+
+This was more than Lady Arabella's curious dual nature could stand--
+the ghoulish element in her rose triumphant, and she abandoned all
+idea of marriage with Edgar Caswall, gloating fiendishly over the
+thought of revenge.
+
+She must lure him to the White Worm's hole--but how?  She glanced
+around and quickly made up her mind.  The man's whole thoughts were
+absorbed by his wonderful kite, which he was showing off, in order
+to fascinate her imaginary rival, Mimi.
+
+On the instant she glided through the darkness to the wheel whereon
+the string of the kite was wound.  With deft fingers she unshipped
+this, took it with her, reeling out the wire as she went, thus
+keeping, in a way, in touch with the kite.  Then she glided swiftly
+to the wicket, through which she passed, locking the gate behind her
+as she went.
+
+Down the turret stair she ran quickly, letting the wire run from the
+wheel which she carried carefully, and, passing out of the hall
+door, hurried down the avenue with all her speed.  She soon reached
+her own gate, ran down the avenue, and with her key opened the iron
+door leading to the well-hole.
+
+She felt well satisfied with herself.  All her plans were maturing,
+or had already matured.  The Master of Castra Regis was within her
+grasp.  The woman whose interference she had feared, Lilla Watford,
+was dead.  Truly, all was well, and she felt that she might pause a
+while and rest.  She tore off her clothes, with feverish fingers,
+and in full enjoyment of her natural freedom, stretched her slim
+figure in animal delight.  Then she lay down on the sofa--to await
+her victim!  Edgar Caswall's life blood would more than satisfy her
+for some time to come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII--THE BREAKING OF THE STORM
+
+
+
+When Lady Arabella had crept away in her usual noiseless fashion,
+the two others remained for a while in their places on the turret
+roof:  Caswall because he had nothing to say, Mimi because she had
+much to say and wished to put her thoughts in order.  For quite a
+while--which seemed interminable--silence reigned between them.  At
+last Mimi made a beginning--she had made up her mind how to act.
+
+"Mr. Caswall," she said loudly, so as to make sure of being heard
+through the blustering of the wind and the perpetual cracking of the
+electricity.
+
+Caswall said something in reply, but his words were carried away on
+the storm.  However, one of her objects was effected:  she knew now
+exactly whereabout on the roof he was.  So she moved close to the
+spot before she spoke again, raising her voice almost to a shout.
+
+"The wicket is shut.  Please to open it.  I can't get out."
+
+As she spoke, she was quietly fingering a revolver which Adam had
+given to her in case of emergency and which now lay in her breast.
+She felt that she was caged like a rat in a trap, but did not mean
+to be taken at a disadvantage, whatever happened.  Caswall also felt
+trapped, and all the brute in him rose to the emergency.  In a voice
+which was raucous and brutal--much like that which is heard when a
+wife is being beaten by her husband in a slum--he hissed out, his
+syllables cutting through the roaring of the storm:
+
+"You came of your own accord--without permission, or even asking it.
+Now you can stay or go as you choose.  But you must manage it for
+yourself; I'll have nothing to do with it."
+
+Her answer was spoken with dangerous suavity
+
+"I am going.  Blame yourself if you do not like the time and manner
+of it.  I daresay Adam--my husband--will have a word to say to you
+about it!"
+
+"Let him say, and be damned to him, and to you too!  I'll show you a
+light.  You shan't be able to say that you could not see what you
+were doing."
+
+As he spoke, he was lighting another piece of the magnesium ribbon,
+which made a blinding glare in which everything was plainly
+discernible, down to the smallest detail.  This exactly suited Mimi.
+She took accurate note of the wicket and its fastening before the
+glare had died away.  She took her revolver out and fired into the
+lock, which was shivered on the instant, the pieces flying round in
+all directions, but happily without causing hurt to anyone.  Then
+she pushed the wicket open and ran down the narrow stair, and so to
+the hall door.  Opening this also, she ran down the avenue, never
+lessening her speed till she stood outside the door of Lesser Hill.
+The door was opened at once on her ringing.
+
+"Is Mr. Adam Salton in?" she asked.
+
+"He has just come in, a few minutes ago.  He has gone up to the
+study," replied a servant.
+
+She ran upstairs at once and joined him.  He seemed relieved when he
+saw her, but scrutinised her face keenly.  He saw that she had been
+in some concern, so led her over to the sofa in the window and sat
+down beside her.
+
+"Now, dear, tell me all about it!" he said.
+
+She rushed breathlessly through all the details of her adventure on
+the turret roof.  Adam listened attentively, helping her all he
+could, and not embarrassing her by any questioning.  His thoughtful
+silence was a great help to her, for it allowed her to collect and
+organise her thoughts.
+
+"I must go and see Caswall to-morrow, to hear what he has to say on
+the subject."
+
+"But, dear, for my sake, don't have any quarrel with Mr. Caswall.  I
+have had too much trial and pain lately to wish it increased by any
+anxiety regarding you."
+
+"You shall not, dear--if I can help it--please God," he said
+solemnly, and he kissed her.
+
+Then, in order to keep her interested so that she might forget the
+fears and anxieties that had disturbed her, he began to talk over
+the details of her adventure, making shrewd comments which attracted
+and held her attention.  Presently, INTER ALIA, he said:
+
+"That's a dangerous game Caswall is up to.  It seems to me that that
+young man--though he doesn't appear to know it--is riding for a
+fall!"
+
+"How, dear?  I don't understand."
+
+"Kite flying on a night like this from a place like the tower of
+Castra Regis is, to say the least of it, dangerous.  It is not
+merely courting death or other accident from lightning, but it is
+bringing the lightning into where he lives.  Every cloud that is
+blowing up here--and they all make for the highest point--is bound
+to develop into a flash of lightning.  That kite is up in the air
+and is bound to attract the lightning.  Its cord makes a road for it
+on which to travel to earth.  When it does come, it will strike the
+top of the tower with a weight a hundred times greater than a whole
+park of artillery, and will knock Castra Regis into pieces.  Where
+it will go after that, no one can tell.  If there should be any
+metal by which it can travel, such will not only point the road, but
+be the road itself."
+
+"Would it be dangerous to be out in the open air when such a thing
+is taking place?" she asked.
+
+"No, little woman.  It would be the safest possible place--so long
+as one was not in the line of the electric current."
+
+"Then, do let us go outside.  I don't want to run into any foolish
+danger--or, far more, to ask you to do so.  But surely if the open
+is safest, that is the place for us."
+
+Without another word, she put on again the cloak she had thrown off,
+and a small, tight-fitting cap.  Adam too put on his cap, and, after
+seeing that his revolver was all right, gave her his hand, and they
+left the house together.
+
+"I think the best thing we can do will be to go round all the places
+which are mixed up in this affair."
+
+"All right, dear, I am ready.  But, if you don't mind, we might go
+first to Mercy.  I am anxious about grandfather, and we might see
+that--as yet, at all events--nothing has happened there."
+
+So they went on the high-hung road along the top of the Brow.  The
+wind here was of great force, and made a strange booming noise as it
+swept high overhead; though not the sound of cracking and tearing as
+it passed through the woods of high slender trees which grew on
+either side of the road.  Mimi could hardly keep her feet.  She was
+not afraid; but the force to which she was opposed gave her a good
+excuse to hold on to her husband extra tight.
+
+At Mercy there was no one up--at least, all the lights were out.
+But to Mimi, accustomed to the nightly routine of the house, there
+were manifest signs that all was well, except in the little room on
+the first floor, where the blinds were down.  Mimi could not bear to
+look at that, to think of it.  Adam understood her pain, for he had
+been keenly interested in poor Lilla.  He bent over and kissed her,
+and then took her hand and held it hard.  Thus they passed on
+together, returning to the high road towards Castra Regis.
+
+At the gate of Castra Regis they were extra careful.  When drawing
+near, Adam stumbled upon the wire that Lady Arabella had left
+trailing on the ground.
+
+Adam drew his breath at this, and spoke in a low, earnest whisper:
+
+"I don't want to frighten you, Mimi dear, but wherever that wire is
+there is danger."
+
+"Danger!  How?"
+
+"That is the track where the lightning will go; at any moment, even
+now whilst we are speaking and searching, a fearful force may be
+loosed upon us.  Run on, dear; you know the way to where the avenue
+joins the highroad.  If you see any sign of the wire, keep away from
+it, for God's sake.  I shall join you at the gateway."
+
+"Are you going to follow that wire alone?"
+
+"Yes, dear.  One is sufficient for that work.  I shall not lose a
+moment till I am with you."
+
+"Adam, when I came with you into the open, my main wish was that we
+should be together if anything serious happened.  You wouldn't deny
+me that right, would you, dear?"
+
+"No, dear, not that or any right.  Thank God that my wife has such a
+wish.  Come; we will go together.  We are in the hands of God.  If
+He wishes, we shall be together at the end, whenever or wherever
+that may be."
+
+They picked up the trail of the wire on the steps and followed it
+down the avenue, taking care not to touch it with their feet.  It
+was easy enough to follow, for the wire, if not bright, was self-
+coloured, and showed clearly.  They followed it out of the gateway
+and into the avenue of Diana's Grove.
+
+Here a new gravity clouded Adam's face, though Mimi saw no cause for
+fresh concern.  This was easily enough explained.  Adam knew of the
+explosive works in progress regarding the well-hole, but the matter
+had been kept from his wife.  As they stood near the house, Adam
+asked Mimi to return to the road, ostensibly to watch the course of
+the wire, telling her that there might be a branch wire leading
+somewhere else.  She was to search the undergrowth, and if she found
+it, was to warn him by the Australian native "Coo-ee!"
+
+Whilst they were standing together, there came a blinding flash of
+lightning, which lit up for several seconds the whole area of earth
+and sky.  It was only the first note of the celestial prelude, for
+it was followed in quick succession by numerous flashes, whilst the
+crash and roll of thunder seemed continuous.
+
+Adam, appalled, drew his wife to him and held her close.  As far as
+he could estimate by the interval between lightning and thunder-
+clap, the heart of the storm was still some distance off, so he felt
+no present concern for their safety.  Still, it was apparent that
+the course of the storm was moving swiftly in their direction.  The
+lightning flashes came faster and faster and closer together; the
+thunder-roll was almost continuous, not stopping for a moment--a new
+crash beginning before the old one had ceased.  Adam kept looking up
+in the direction where the kite strained and struggled at its
+detaining cord, but, of course, the dull evening light prevented any
+distinct scrutiny.
+
+At length there came a flash so appallingly bright that in its glare
+Nature seemed to be standing still.  So long did it last, that there
+was time to distinguish its configuration.  It seemed like a mighty
+tree inverted, pendent from the sky.  The whole country around
+within the angle of vision was lit up till it seemed to glow.  Then
+a broad ribbon of fire seemed to drop on to the tower of Castra
+Regis just as the thunder crashed.  By the glare, Adam could see the
+tower shake and tremble, and finally fall to pieces like a house of
+cards.  The passing of the lightning left the sky again dark, but a
+blue flame fell downward from the tower, and, with inconceivable
+rapidity, running along the ground in the direction of Diana's
+Grove, reached the dark silent house, which in the instant burst
+into flame at a hundred different points.
+
+At the same moment there rose from the house a rending, crashing
+sound of woodwork, broken or thrown about, mixed with a quick scream
+so appalling that Adam, stout of heart as he undoubtedly was, felt
+his blood turn into ice.  Instinctively, despite the danger and
+their consciousness of it, husband and wife took hands and listened,
+trembling.  Something was going on close to them, mysterious,
+terrible, deadly!  The shrieks continued, though less sharp in
+sound, as though muffled.  In the midst of them was a terrific
+explosion, seemingly from deep in the earth.
+
+The flames from Castra Regis and from Diana's Grove made all around
+almost as light as day, and now that the lightning had ceased to
+flash, their eyes, unblinded, were able to judge both perspective
+and detail.  The heat of the burning house caused the iron doors to
+warp and collapse.  Seemingly of their own accord, they fell open,
+and exposed the interior.  The Saltons could now look through to the
+room beyond, where the well-hole yawned, a deep narrow circular
+chasm.  From this the agonised shrieks were rising, growing ever
+more terrible with each second that passed.
+
+But it was not only the heart-rending sound that almost paralysed
+poor Mimi with terror.  What she saw was sufficient to fill her with
+evil dreams for the remainder of her life.  The whole place looked
+as if a sea of blood had been beating against it.  Each of the
+explosions from below had thrown out from the well-hole, as if it
+had been the mouth of a cannon, a mass of fine sand mixed with
+blood, and a horrible repulsive slime in which were great red masses
+of rent and torn flesh and fat.  As the explosions kept on, more and
+more of this repulsive mass was shot up, the great bulk of it
+falling back again.  Many of the awful fragments were of something
+which had lately been alive.  They quivered and trembled and writhed
+as though they were still in torment, a supposition to which the
+unending scream gave a horrible credence.  At moments some
+mountainous mass of flesh surged up through the narrow orifice, as
+though forced by a measureless power through an opening infinitely
+smaller than itself.  Some of these fragments were partially covered
+with white skin as of a human being, and others--the largest and
+most numerous--with scaled skin as of a gigantic lizard or serpent.
+Once, in a sort of lull or pause, the seething contents of the hole
+rose, after the manner of a bubbling spring, and Adam saw part of
+the thin form of Lady Arabella, forced up to the top amid a mass of
+blood and slime, and what looked as if it had been the entrails of a
+monster torn into shreds.  Several times some masses of enormous
+bulk were forced up through the well-hole with inconceivable
+violence, and, suddenly expanding as they came into larger space,
+disclosed sections of the White Worm which Adam and Sir Nathaniel
+had seen looking over the trees with its enormous eyes of emerald-
+green flickering like great lamps in a gale.
+
+At last the explosive power, which was not yet exhausted, evidently
+reached the main store of dynamite which had been lowered into the
+worm hole.  The result was appalling.  The ground for far around
+quivered and opened in long deep chasms, whose edges shook and fell
+in, throwing up clouds of sand which fell back and hissed amongst
+the rising water.  The heavily built house shook to its foundations.
+Great stones were thrown up as from a volcano, some of them, great
+masses of hard stone, squared and grooved with implements wrought by
+human hands, breaking up and splitting in mid air as though riven by
+some infernal power.  Trees near the house--and therefore presumably
+in some way above the hole, which sent up clouds of dust and steam
+and fine sand mingled, and which carried an appalling stench which
+sickened the spectators--were torn up by the roots and hurled into
+the air.  By now, flames were bursting violently from all over the
+ruins, so dangerously that Adam caught up his wife in his arms, and
+ran with her from the proximity of the flames.
+
+Then almost as quickly as it had begun, the whole cataclysm ceased,
+though a deep-down rumbling continued intermittently for some time.
+Then silence brooded over all--silence so complete that it seemed in
+itself a sentient thing--silence which seemed like incarnate
+darkness, and conveyed the same idea to all who came within its
+radius.  To the young people who had suffered the long horror of
+that awful night, it brought relief--relief from the presence or the
+fear of all that was horrible--relief which seemed perfected when
+the red rays of sunrise shot up over the far eastern sea, bringing a
+promise of a new order of things with the coming day.
+
+
+His bed saw little of Adam Salton for the remainder of that night.
+He and Mimi walked hand in hand in the brightening dawn round by the
+Brow to Castra Regis and on to Lesser Hill.  They did so
+deliberately, in an attempt to think as little as possible of the
+terrible experiences of the night.  The morning was bright and
+cheerful, as a morning sometimes is after a devastating storm.  The
+clouds, of which there were plenty in evidence, brought no lingering
+idea of gloom.  All nature was bright and joyous, being in striking
+contrast to the scenes of wreck and devastation, the effects of
+obliterating fire and lasting ruin.
+
+The only evidence of the once stately pile of Castra Regis and its
+inhabitants was a shapeless huddle of shattered architecture, dimly
+seen as the keen breeze swept aside the cloud of acrid smoke which
+marked the site of the once lordly castle.  As for Diana's Grove,
+they looked in vain for a sign which had a suggestion of permanence.
+The oak trees of the Grove were still to be seen--some of them--
+emerging from a haze of smoke, the great trunks solid and erect as
+ever, but the larger branches broken and twisted and rent, with bark
+stripped and chipped, and the smaller branches broken and
+dishevelled looking from the constant stress and threshing of the
+storm.
+
+Of the house as such, there was, even at the short distance from
+which they looked, no trace.  Adam resolutely turned his back on the
+devastation and hurried on.  Mimi was not only upset and shocked in
+many ways, but she was physically "dog tired," and falling asleep on
+her feet.  Adam took her to her room and made her undress and get
+into bed, taking care that the room was well lighted both by
+sunshine and lamps.  The only obstruction was from a silk curtain,
+drawn across the window to keep out the glare.  He sat beside her,
+holding her hand, well knowing that the comfort of his presence was
+the best restorative for her.  He stayed with her till sleep had
+overmastered her wearied body.  Then he went softly away.  He found
+his uncle and Sir Nathaniel in the study, having an early cup of
+tea, amplified to the dimensions of a possible breakfast.  Adam
+explained that he had not told his wife that he was going over the
+horrible places again, lest it should frighten her, for the rest and
+sleep in ignorance would help her and make a gap of peacefulness
+between the horrors.
+
+Sir Nathaniel agreed.
+
+"We know, my boy," he said, "that the unfortunate Lady Arabella is
+dead, and that the foul carcase of the Worm has been torn to pieces-
+-pray God that its evil soul will never more escape from the
+nethermost hell."
+
+They visited Diana's Grove first, not only because it was nearer,
+but also because it was the place where most description was
+required, and Adam felt that he could tell his story best on the
+spot.  The absolute destruction of the place and everything in it
+seen in the broad daylight was almost inconceivable.  To Sir
+Nathaniel, it was as a story of horror full and complete.  But to
+Adam it was, as it were, only on the fringes.  He knew what was
+still to be seen when his friends had got over the knowledge of
+externals.  As yet, they had only seen the outside of the house--or
+rather, where the outside of the house once had been.  The great
+horror lay within.  However, age--and the experience of age--counts.
+
+A strange, almost elemental, change in the aspect had taken place in
+the time which had elapsed since the dawn.  It would almost seem as
+if Nature herself had tried to obliterate the evil signs of what had
+occurred.  True, the utter ruin of the house was made even more
+manifest in the searching daylight; but the more appalling
+destruction which lay beneath was not visible.  The rent, torn, and
+dislocated stonework looked worse than before; the upheaved
+foundations, the piled-up fragments of masonry, the fissures in the
+torn earth--all were at the worst.  The Worm's hole was still
+evident, a round fissure seemingly leading down into the very bowels
+of the earth.  But all the horrid mass of blood and slime, of torn,
+evil-smelling flesh and the sickening remnants of violent death,
+were gone.  Either some of the later explosions had thrown up from
+the deep quantities of water which, though foul and corrupt itself,
+had still some cleansing power left, or else the writhing mass which
+stirred from far below had helped to drag down and obliterate the
+items of horror.  A grey dust, partly of fine sand, partly of the
+waste of the falling ruin, covered everything, and, though ghastly
+itself, helped to mask something still worse.
+
+After a few minutes of watching, it became apparent to the three men
+that the turmoil far below had not yet ceased.  At short irregular
+intervals the hell-broth in the hole seemed as if boiling up.  It
+rose and fell again and turned over, showing in fresh form much of
+the nauseous detail which had been visible earlier.  The worst parts
+were the great masses of the flesh of the monstrous Worm, in all its
+red and sickening aspect.  Such fragments had been bad enough
+before, but now they were infinitely worse.  Corruption comes with
+startling rapidity to beings whose destruction has been due wholly
+or in part to lightning--the whole mass seemed to have become all at
+once corrupt!  The whole surface of the fragments, once alive, was
+covered with insects, worms, and vermin of all kinds.  The sight was
+horrible enough, but, with the awful smell added, was simply
+unbearable.  The Worm's hole appeared to breathe forth death in its
+most repulsive forms.  The friends, with one impulse, moved to the
+top of the Brow, where a fresh breeze from the sea was blowing up.
+
+At the top of the Brow, beneath them as they looked down, they saw a
+shining mass of white, which looked strangely out of place amongst
+such wreckage as they had been viewing.  It appeared so strange that
+Adam suggested trying to find a way down, so that they might see it
+more closely.
+
+"We need not go down; I know what it is," Sir Nathaniel said.  "The
+explosions of last night have blown off the outside of the cliffs--
+that which we see is the vast bed of china clay through which the
+Worm originally found its way down to its lair.  I can catch the
+glint of the water of the deep quags far down below.  Well, her
+ladyship didn't deserve such a funeral--or such a monument."
+
+
+The horrors of the last few hours had played such havoc with Mimi's
+nerves, that a change of scene was imperative--if a permanent
+breakdown was to be avoided.
+
+"I think," said old Mr. Salton, "it is quite time you young people
+departed for that honeymoon of yours!"  There was a twinkle in his
+eye as he spoke.
+
+Mimi's soft shy glance at her stalwart husband, was sufficient
+answer.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
+
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