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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12124 ***
+
+THE LADY OF THE BARGE
+
+AND OTHER STORIES
+
+By W. W. Jacobs
+
+
+
+
+THE WELL
+
+
+Two men stood in the billiard-room of an old country house, talking.
+Play, which had been of a half-hearted nature, was over, and they sat at
+the open window, looking out over the park stretching away beneath them,
+conversing idly.
+
+"Your time's nearly up, Jem," said one at length, "this time six weeks
+you'll be yawning out the honeymoon and cursing the man--woman I mean--
+who invented them."
+
+Jem Benson stretched his long limbs in the chair and grunted in dissent.
+
+"I've never understood it," continued Wilfred Carr, yawning.  "It's not
+in my line at all; I never had enough money for my own wants, let alone
+for two.  Perhaps if I were as rich as you or Croesus I might regard it
+differently."
+
+There was just sufficient meaning in the latter part of the remark for
+his cousin to forbear to reply to it.  He continued to gaze out of the
+window and to smoke slowly.
+
+"Not being as rich as Croesus--or you," resumed Carr, regarding him from
+beneath lowered lids, "I paddle my own canoe down the stream of Time,
+and, tying it to my friends' door-posts, go in to eat their dinners."
+
+"Quite Venetian," said Jem Benson, still looking out of the window.
+"It's not a bad thing for you, Wilfred, that you have the doorposts and
+dinners--and friends."
+
+Carr grunted in his turn.  "Seriously though, Jem," he said, slowly,
+"you're a lucky fellow, a very lucky fellow.  If there is a better girl
+above ground than Olive, I should like to see her."
+
+"Yes," said the other, quietly.
+
+"She's such an exceptional girl," continued Carr, staring out of the
+window.  "She's so good and gentle.  She thinks you are a bundle of all
+the virtues."
+
+He laughed frankly and joyously, but the other man did not join him.
+"Strong sense--of right and wrong, though," continued Carr, musingly.
+"Do you know, I believe that if she found out that you were not----"
+
+"Not what?" demanded Benson, turning upon him fiercely, "Not what?"
+
+"Everything that you are," returned his cousin, with a grin that belied
+his words, "I believe she'd drop you."
+
+"Talk about something else," said Benson, slowly; "your pleasantries are
+not always in the best taste."
+
+Wilfred Carr rose and taking a cue from the rack, bent over the board and
+practiced one or two favourite shots.  "The only other subject I can talk
+about just at present is my own financial affairs," he said slowly, as he
+walked round the table.
+
+"Talk about something else," said Benson again, bluntly.
+
+"And the two things are connected," said Carr, and dropping his cue he
+half sat on the table and eyed his cousin.
+
+There was a long silence.  Benson pitched the end of his cigar out of the
+window, and leaning back closed his eyes.
+
+"Do you follow me?"  inquired Carr at length.
+
+Benson opened his eyes and nodded at the window.
+
+"Do you want to follow my cigar?"  he demanded.
+
+"I should prefer to depart by the usual way for your sake," returned the
+other, unabashed.  "If I left by the window all sorts of questions would
+be asked, and you know what a talkative chap I am."
+
+"So long as you don't talk about my affairs," returned the other,
+restraining himself by an obvious effort, "you can talk yourself hoarse."
+
+"I'm in a mess," said Carr, slowly, "a devil of a mess.  If I don't raise
+fifteen hundred by this day fortnight, I may be getting my board and
+lodging free."
+
+"Would that be any change?"  questioned Benson.
+
+"The quality would," retorted the other.  "The address also would not be
+good.  Seriously, Jem, will you let me have the fifteen hundred?"
+
+"No," said the other, simply.
+
+Carr went white.  "It's to save me from ruin," he said, thickly.
+
+"I've helped you till I'm tired," said Benson, turning and regarding him,
+"and it is all to no good.  If you've got into a mess, get out of it.
+You should not be so fond of giving autographs away."
+
+"It's foolish, I admit," said Carr, deliberately.  "I won't do so any
+more.  By the way, I've got some to sell.  You needn't sneer.  They're
+not my own."
+
+"Whose are they?"  inquired the other.
+
+"Yours."
+
+Benson got up from his chair and crossed over to him.  "What is this?"
+he asked, quietly.  "Blackmail?"
+
+"Call it what you like," said Carr.  "I've got some letters for sale,
+price fifteen hundred.  And I know a man who would buy them at that price
+for the mere chance of getting Olive from you.  I'll give you first
+offer."
+
+"If you have got any letters bearing my signature, you will be good
+enough to give them to me," said Benson, very slowly.
+
+"They're mine," said Carr, lightly; "given to me by the lady you wrote
+them to.  I must say that they are not all in the best possible taste."
+
+His cousin reached forward suddenly, and catching him by the collar of
+his coat pinned him down on the table.
+
+"Give me those letters," he breathed, sticking his face close to Carr's.
+
+"They're not here," said Carr, struggling.  "I'm not a fool.  Let me go,
+or I'll raise the price."
+
+The other man raised him from the table in his powerful hands, apparently
+with the intention of dashing his head against it.  Then suddenly his
+hold relaxed as an astonished-looking maid-servant entered the room with
+letters.  Carr sat up hastily.
+
+"That's how it was done," said Benson, for the girl's benefit as he took
+the letters.
+
+"I don't wonder at the other man making him pay for it, then," said Carr,
+blandly.
+
+"You will give me those letters?"  said Benson, suggestively, as the girl
+left the room.
+
+"At the price I mentioned, yes," said Carr; "but so sure as I am a living
+man, if you lay your clumsy hands on me again, I'll double it.  Now, I'll
+leave you for a time while you think it over."
+
+He took a cigar from the box and lighting it carefully quitted the room.
+His cousin waited until the door had closed behind him, and then turning
+to the window sat there in a fit of fury as silent as it was terrible.
+
+The air was fresh and sweet from the park, heavy with the scent of
+new-mown grass.  The fragrance of a cigar was now added to it, and
+glancing out he saw his cousin pacing slowly by.  He rose and went to the
+door, and then, apparently altering his mind, he returned to the window
+and watched the figure of his cousin as it moved slowly away into the
+moonlight.  Then he rose again, and, for a long time, the room was empty.
+
+                     *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was empty when Mrs. Benson came in some time later to say good-night
+to her son on her way to bed.  She walked slowly round the table, and
+pausing at the window gazed from it in idle thought, until she saw the
+figure of her son advancing with rapid strides toward the house.  He
+looked up at the window.
+
+"Good-night," said she.
+
+"Good-night," said Benson, in a deep voice.
+
+"Where is Wilfred?"
+
+"Oh, he has gone," said Benson.
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"We had a few words; he was wanting money again, and I gave him a piece
+of my mind.  I don't think we shall see him again."
+
+"Poor Wilfred!"  sighed Mrs. Benson.  "He is always in trouble of some
+sort.  I hope that you were not too hard upon him."
+
+"No more than he deserved," said her son, sternly.  "Good night."
+
+
+II.
+
+The well, which had long ago fallen into disuse, was almost hidden by the
+thick tangle of undergrowth which ran riot at that corner of the old
+park.  It was partly covered by the shrunken half of a lid, above which a
+rusty windlass creaked in company with the music of the pines when the
+wind blew strongly.  The full light of the sun never reached it, and the
+ground surrounding it was moist and green when other parts of the park
+were gaping with the heat.
+
+Two people walking slowly round the park in the fragrant stillness of a
+summer evening strayed in the direction of the well.
+
+"No use going through this wilderness, Olive," said Benson, pausing on
+the outskirts of the pines and eyeing with some disfavour the gloom
+beyond.
+
+"Best part of the park," said the girl briskly; "you know it's my
+favourite spot."
+
+"I know you're very fond of sitting on the coping," said the man slowly,
+"and I wish you wouldn't.  One day you will lean back too far and fall
+in."
+
+"And make the acquaintance of Truth," said Olive lightly.  "Come along."
+
+She ran from him and was lost in the shadow of the pines, the bracken
+crackling beneath her feet as she ran.  Her companion followed slowly,
+and emerging from the gloom saw her poised daintily on the edge of the
+well with her feet hidden in the rank grass and nettles which surrounded
+it.  She motioned her companion to take a seat by her side, and smiled
+softly as she felt a strong arm passed about her waist.
+
+"I like this place," said she, breaking a long silence, "it is so dismal
+--so uncanny.  Do you know I wouldn't dare to sit here alone, Jem.  I
+should imagine that all sorts of dreadful things were hidden behind the
+bushes and trees, waiting to spring out on me.  Ugh!"
+
+"You'd better let me take you in," said her companion tenderly; "the well
+isn't always wholesome, especially in the hot weather.
+
+"Let's make a move."
+
+The girl gave an obstinate little shake, and settled herself more
+securely on her seat.
+
+"Smoke your cigar in peace," she said quietly.  "I am settled here for a
+quiet talk.  Has anything been heard of Wilfred yet?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Quite a dramatic disappearance, isn't it?"  she continued.  "Another
+scrape, I suppose, and another letter for you in the same old strain;
+'Dear Jem, help me out.'"
+
+Jem Benson blew a cloud of fragrant smoke into the air, and holding his
+cigar between his teeth brushed away the ash from his coat sleeves.
+
+"I wonder what he would have done without you," said the girl, pressing
+his arm affectionately.  "Gone under long ago, I suppose.  When we are
+married, Jem, I shall presume upon the relationship to lecture him.  He
+is very wild, but he has his good points, poor fellow."
+
+"I never saw them," said Benson, with startling bitterness.  "God knows I
+never saw them."
+
+"He is nobody's enemy but his own," said the girl, startled by this
+outburst.
+
+"You don't know much about him," said the other, sharply.  "He was not
+above blackmail; not above ruining the life of a friend to do himself a
+benefit.  A loafer, a cur, and a liar!"
+
+The girl looked up at him soberly but timidly and took his arm without a
+word, and they both sat silent while evening deepened into night and the
+beams of the moon, filtering through the branches, surrounded them with a
+silver network.  Her head sank upon his shoulder, till suddenly with a
+sharp cry she sprang to her feet.
+
+"What was that?"  she cried breathlessly.
+
+"What was what?"  demanded Benson, springing up and clutching her fast by
+the arm.
+
+She caught her breath and tried to laugh.
+
+"You're hurting me, Jem."
+
+His hold relaxed.
+
+"What is the matter?"  he asked gently.
+
+"What was it startled you?"
+
+"I was startled," she said, slowly, putting her hands on his shoulder.
+"I suppose the words I used just now are ringing in my ears, but I
+fancied that somebody behind us whispered 'Jem, help me out.'"
+
+"Fancy," repeated Benson, and his voice shook; "but these fancies are not
+good for you.  You--are frightened--at the dark and the gloom of these
+trees.  Let me take you back to the house."
+
+"No, I'm not frightened," said the girl, reseating herself.  "I should
+never be really frightened of anything when you were with me, Jem.  I'm
+surprised at myself for being so silly."
+
+The man made no reply but stood, a strong, dark figure, a yard or two
+from the well, as though waiting for her to join him.
+
+"Come and sit down, sir," cried Olive, patting the brickwork with her
+small, white hand, "one would think that you did not like your company."
+
+He obeyed slowly and took a seat by her side, drawing so hard at his
+cigar that the light of it shone upon his fare at every breath.  He
+passed his arm, firm and rigid as steel, behind her, with his hand
+resting on the brickwork beyond.
+
+"Are you warm enough?"  he asked tenderly, as she made a little movement.
+"Pretty fair," she shivered; "one oughtn't to be cold at this time of the
+year, but there's a cold, damp air comes up from the well."
+
+As she spoke a faint splash sounded from the depths below, and for the
+second time that evening, she sprang from the well with a little cry of
+dismay.
+
+"What is it now?"  he asked in a fearful voice.  He stood by her side and
+gazed at the well, as though half expecting to see the cause of her alarm
+emerge from it.
+
+"Oh, my bracelet," she cried in distress, "my poor mother's bracelet.
+I've dropped it down the well."
+
+"Your bracelet!"  repeated Benson, dully.  "Your bracelet?  The diamond
+one?"
+
+"The one that was my mother's," said Olive.  "Oh, we can get it back
+surely.  We must have the water drained off."
+
+"Your bracelet!"  repeated Benson, stupidly.
+
+"Jem," said the girl in terrified tones, "dear Jem, what is the matter?"
+
+For the man she loved was standing regarding her with horror.  The moon
+which touched it was not responsible for all the whiteness of the
+distorted face, and she shrank back in fear to the edge of the well.  He
+saw her fear and by a mighty effort regained his composure and took her
+hand.
+
+"Poor little girl," he murmured, "you frightened me.  I was not looking
+when you cried, and I thought that you were slipping from my arms,
+down--down--"
+
+His voice broke, and the girl throwing herself into his arms clung to him
+convulsively.
+
+"There, there," said Benson, fondly, "don't cry, don't cry."
+
+"To-morrow," said Olive, half-laughing, half-crying, "we will all come
+round the well with hook and line and fish for it.  It will be quite a
+new sport."
+
+"No, we must try some other way," said Benson.  "You shall have it back."
+
+"How?"  asked the girl.
+
+"You shall see," said Benson.  "To-morrow morning at latest you shall
+have it back.  Till then promise me that you will not mention your loss
+to anyone.  Promise."
+
+"I promise," said Olive, wonderingly.  "But why not?"
+
+"It is of great value, for one thing, and--But there--there are many
+reasons.  For one thing it is my duty to get it for you."
+
+"Wouldn't you like to jump down for it?" she asked mischievously.
+"Listen."
+
+She stooped for a stone and dropped it down.
+
+"Fancy being where that is now," she said, peering into the blackness;
+"fancy going round and round like a mouse in a pail, clutching at the
+slimy sides, with the water filling your mouth, and looking up to the
+little patch of sky above."
+
+"You had better come in," said Benson, very quietly.  "You are developing
+a taste for the morbid and horrible."
+
+The girl turned, and taking his arm walked slowly in the direction of the
+house; Mrs. Benson, who was sitting in the porch, rose to receive them.
+
+"You shouldn't have kept her out so long," she said chidingly.  "Where
+have you been?"
+
+"Sitting on the well," said Olive, smiling, "discussing our future."
+
+"I don't believe that place is healthy," said Mrs. Benson, emphatically.
+"I really think it might be filled in, Jem."
+
+"All right," said her son, slowly.  "Pity it wasn't filled in long ago."
+
+He took the chair vacated by his mother as she entered the house with
+Olive, and with his hands hanging limply over the sides sat in deep
+thought.  After a time he rose, and going upstairs to a room which was
+set apart for sporting requisites selected a sea fishing line and some
+hooks and stole softly downstairs again.  He walked swiftly across the
+park in the direction of the well, turning before he entered the shadow
+of the trees to look back at the lighted windows of the house.  Then
+having arranged his line he sat on the edge of the well and cautiously
+lowered it.
+
+He sat with his lips compressed, occasionally looking about him in a
+startled fashion, as though he half expected to see something peering at
+him from the belt of trees.  Time after time he lowered his line until at
+length in pulling it up he heard a little metallic tinkle against the
+side of the well.
+
+He held his breath then, and forgetting his fears drew the line in inch
+by inch, so as not to lose its precious burden.  His pulse beat rapidly,
+and his eyes were bright.  As the line came slowly in he saw the catch
+hanging to the hook, and with a steady hand drew the last few feet in.
+Then he saw that instead of the bracelet he had hooked a bunch of keys.
+
+With a faint cry he shook them from the hook into the water below, and
+stood breathing heavily.  Not a sound broke the stillness of the night.
+He walked up and down a bit and stretched his great muscles; then he came
+back to the well and resumed his task.
+
+For an hour or more the line was lowered without result.  In his
+eagerness he forgot his fears, and with eyes bent down the well fished
+slowly and carefully.  Twice the hook became entangled in something, and
+was with difficulty released.  It caught a third time, and all his
+efforts failed' to free it.  Then he dropped the line down the well,
+and with head bent walked toward the house.
+
+He went first to the stables at the rear, and then retiring to his room
+for some time paced restlessly up and down.  Then without removing his
+clothes he flung himself upon the bed and fell into a troubled sleep.
+
+
+III.
+
+Long before anybody else was astir he arose and stole softly downstairs.
+The sunlight was stealing in at every crevice, and flashing in long
+streaks across the darkened rooms.  The dining-room into which he looked
+struck chill and cheerless in the dark yellow light which came through
+the lowered blinds.  He remembered that it had the same appearance when
+his father lay dead in the house; now, as then, everything seemed ghastly
+and unreal; the very chairs standing as their occupants had left them the
+night before seemed to be indulging in some dark communication of ideas.
+
+Slowly and noiselessly he opened the hall door and passed into the
+fragrant air beyond.  The sun was shining on the drenched grass and
+trees, and a slowly vanishing white mist rolled like smoke about the
+grounds.  For a moment he stood, breathing deeply the sweet air of the
+morning, and then walked slowly in the direction of the stables.
+
+The rusty creaking of a pump-handle and a spatter of water upon the
+red-tiled courtyard showed that somebody else was astir, and a few steps
+farther he beheld a brawny, sandy-haired man gasping wildly under severe
+self-infliction at the pump.
+
+"Everything ready, George?"  he asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, straightening up suddenly and touching his
+forehead.  "Bob's just finishing the arrangements inside.  It's a lovely
+morning for a dip.  The water in that well must be just icy."
+
+"Be as quick as you can," said Benson, impatiently.
+
+"Very good, sir," said George, burnishing his face harshly with a very
+small towel which had been hanging over the top of the pump.  "Hurry up,
+Bob."
+
+In answer to his summons a man appeared at the door of the stable with a
+coil of stout rope over his arm and a large metal candlestick in his
+hand.
+
+"Just to try the air, sir," said George, following his master's glance,
+"a well gets rather foul sometimes, but if a candle can live down it, a
+man can."
+
+His master nodded, and the man, hastily pulling up the neck of his shirt
+and thrusting his arms into his coat, followed him as he led the way
+slowly to the well.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said George, drawing up to his side, "but you are not
+looking over and above well this morning.  If you'll let me go down I'd
+enjoy the bath."
+
+"No, no," said Benson, peremptorily.
+
+"You ain't fit to go down, sir," persisted his follower.  "I've never
+seen you look so before.  Now if--"
+
+"Mind your business," said his master curtly.
+
+George became silent and the three walked with swinging strides through
+the long wet grass to the well.  Bob flung the rope on the ground and at
+a sign from his master handed him the candlestick.
+
+"Here's the line for it, sir," said Bob, fumbling in his pockets.
+
+Benson took it from him and slowly tied it to the candlestick.  Then he
+placed it on the edge of the well, and striking a match, lit the candle
+and began slowly to lower it.
+
+"Hold hard, sir," said George, quickly, laying his hand on his arm, "you
+must tilt it or the string'll burn through."
+
+Even as he spoke the string parted and the candlestick fell into the
+water below.
+
+Benson swore quietly.
+
+"I'll soon get another," said George, starting up.
+
+"Never mind, the well's all right," said Benson.
+
+"It won't take a moment, sir," said the other over his shoulder.
+
+"Are you master here, or am I?"  said Benson hoarsely.
+
+George came back slowly, a glance at his master's face stopping the
+protest upon his tongue, and he stood by watching him sulkily as he sat
+on the well and removed his outer garments.  Both men watched him
+curiously, as having completed his preparations he stood grim and silent
+with his hands by his sides.
+
+"I wish you'd let me go, sir," said George, plucking up courage to
+address him.  "You ain't fit to go, you've got a chill or something.  I
+shouldn't wonder it's the typhoid.  They've got it in the village bad."
+
+For a moment Benson looked at him angrily, then his gaze softened.  "Not
+this time, George," he said, quietly.  He took the looped end of the rope
+and placed it under his arms, and sitting down threw one leg over the
+side of the well.
+
+"How are you going about it, sir?"  queried George, laying hold of the
+rope and signing to Bob to do the same.
+
+"I'll call out when I reach the water," said Benson; "then pay out three
+yards more quickly so that I can get to the bottom."
+
+"Very good, sir," answered both.
+
+Their master threw the other leg over the coping and sat motionless.  His
+back was turned toward the men as he sat with head bent, looking down the
+shaft.  He sat for so long that George became uneasy.
+
+"All right, sir?"  he inquired.
+
+"Yes," said Benson, slowly.  "If I tug at the rope, George, pull up at
+once.  Lower away."
+
+The rope passed steadily through their hands until a hollow cry from the
+darkness below and a faint splashing warned them that he had reached the
+water.  They gave him three yards more and stood with relaxed grasp and
+strained ears, waiting.
+
+"He's gone under," said Bob in a low voice.
+
+The other nodded, and moistening his huge palms took a firmer grip of the
+rope.
+
+Fully a minute passed, and the men began to exchange uneasy glances.
+Then a sudden tremendous jerk followed by a series of feebler ones nearly
+tore the rope from their grasp.
+
+"Pull!"  shouted George, placing one foot on the side and hauling
+desperately.  "Pull! pull!  He's stuck fast; he's not coming; PULL!"
+
+In response to their terrific exertions the rope came slowly in, inch by
+inch, until at length a violent splashing was heard, and at the same
+moment a scream of unutterable horror came echoing up the shaft.
+
+"What a weight he is !"  panted Bob.  "He's stuck fast or something.
+Keep still, sir; for heaven's sake, keep still."
+
+For the taut rope was being jerked violently by the struggles of the
+weight at the end of it.  Both men with grunts and sighs hauled it in
+foot by foot.
+
+"All right, sir," cried George, cheerfully.
+
+He had one foot against the well, and was pulling manfully; the burden
+was nearing the top.  A long pull and a strong pull, and the face of a
+dead man with mud in the eyes and nostrils came peering over the edge.
+Behind it was the ghastly face of his master; but this he saw too late,
+for with a great cry he let go his hold of the rope and stepped back.
+The suddenness overthrew his assistant, and the rope tore through his
+hands.  There was a frightful splash.
+
+"You fool!"  stammered Bob, and ran to the well helplessly.
+
+"Run!" cried George.  "Run for another line."
+
+He bent over the coping and called eagerly down as his assistant sped
+back to the stables shouting wildly.  His voice re-echoed down the shaft,
+but all else was silence.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Well, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12124 ***