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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:33 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:33 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14045-0.txt b/14045-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b865ae --- /dev/null +++ b/14045-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6813 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14045 *** + +AT A WINTER'S FIRE + +by + +BERNARD CAPES + +Author of _The Lake of Wine_, etc. + +1899 + + + + + + + +All except three of the following Tales have already appeared in English +or American Magazines. The best thanks of the author are due to the +Editors of the "Cornhill," "Macmillan's," "Lippincott's" and "Pearson's" +Magazines, and to the Editor of the "Sketch," for permission to reprint +such of the stories as have been published in their pages. + + + + +Contents + +THE MOON STRICKEN + +JACK AND JILL + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + +DARK DIGNUM + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + +A LAZY ROMANCE + +BLACK VENN + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + +THE BLACK REAPER + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + + + +THE MOON STRICKEN + + +It so fell that one dark evening in the month of June I was belated +in the Bernese Oberland. Dusk overtook me toiling along the great +Chamounix Road, and in the heart of a most desolate gorge, whose towering +snow-flung walls seemed--as the day sucked inwards to a point secret as a +leech's mouth--to close about me like a monstrous amphitheatre of ghosts. +The rutted road, dipping and climbing toilfully against the shouldering +of great tumbled boulders, or winning for itself but narrow foothold over +slippery ridges, was thawed clear of snow; but the cold soft peril yet +lay upon its flanks thick enough for a wintry plunge of ten feet, or may +be fifty where the edge of the causeway fell over to the lower furrows +of the ravine. It was a matter of policy to go with caution, and a thing +of some moment to hear the thud and splintering of little distant +icefalls about one in the darkness. Now and again a cold arrow of wind +would sing down from the frosty peaks above or jerk with a squiggle of +laughter among the fallen slabs in the valley. And these were the only +voices to prick me on through a dreariness lonely as death. + +I knew the road, but not its night terrors. Passing along it some days +before in the glory of sunshine, broad paddocks and islands of green had +comforted the shattered white ruin of the place, and I had traversed it +merely as a magnificent episode in the indifferent history of my life. +Now, as it seemed, I became one with it--an awful waif of solemnity, a +thing apart from mankind and its warm intercourse and ruddy inn doors, a +spectral anomaly, whose austere epitaph was once writ upon the snow +coating some fallen slab of those glimmering about me. I thought the +whole gorge smelt of tombs, like the vault of a cathedral. I thought, in +the incomprehensible low moaning sound that ever and again seemed to eddy +about me when the wind had swooped and passed, that I recognised the +forlorn voices of brother spirits long since dead and forgotten of the +world. + +Suddenly I felt the sweat cold under the knapsack that swung upon my +back; stopped, faced about and became human again. Ridge over ridge +to my right the mountain summits fell away against a fathomless sky; and +topping the furthermost was a little paring of silver light, the coronet +of the rising moon. But the glory of the full orb was in the retrospect; +for, closing the savage vista of the ravine, stood up far away a cluster +of jagged pinnacles--opal, translucent, lustrous as the peaks of icebergs +that are the frozen music of the sea. + +It was the toothed summit of the Aiguille Verte, now prosaically bathed +in the light of the full moon; but to me, looking from that grim and +passionless hollow, it stood for the white hand of God lifted in menace +to the evil spirits of the glen. + +I drank my fill of the good sight, and then turned me to my tramp again +with a freshness in my throat as though it had gulped a glass of +champagne. Presently I knew myself descending, leaving, as I felt rather +than saw, the stark horror of the gorge and its glimmering snow patches +above me. Puffs of a warmer air purred past my face with little friendly +sighs of welcome, and the hum of a far-off torrent struck like a wedge +into the indurated fibre of the night. As I dropped, however, the +mountain heads grew up against the moon, and withheld the comfort of her +radiance; and it was not until the whimper of the torrent had quickened +about me to a plunging roar, and my foot was on the striding bridge that +took its waters at a step, that her light broke through a topmost cleft +in the hills, and made glory of the leaping thunder that crashed beneath +my feet. + +Thereafter all was peace. The road led downwards into a broadening +valley, where the smell of flowers came about me, and the mountain walls +withdrew and were no longer overwhelming. The slope eased off, dipping +and rising no more than a ground swell; and by-and-by I was on a level +track that ran straight as a stretched ribbon and was reasonable to my +tired feet. + +Now the first dusky châlets of the hamlet of Bel-Oiseau straggled towards +me, and it was music in my ears to hear the cattle blow and rattle in +their stalls under the sleeping lofts as I passed outside in the +moonlight. Five minutes more, and the great zinc onion on the spire of +the church glistened towards me, and I was in the heart of the silent +village. + +From the deep green shadow cast by the graveyard wall, heavily +buttressed against avalanches, a form wriggled out into the moonlight +and fell with a dusty thud at my feet, mowing and chopping at the air +with its aimless claws. I started back with a sudden jerk of my pulses. +The thing was horrible by reason of its inarticulate voice, which issued +from the shapeless folds of its writhings like the wet gutturizing of a +back-broken horse. Instinct with repulsion, I stood a moment dismayed, +when light flashed from an open doorway a dozen yards further down the +street, and a woman ran across to the prostrate form. + +"Up, graceless one!" she cried; "and carry thy seven devils within +doors!" + +The figure gathered itself together at her voice, and stood in an angle +of the buttresses quaking and shielding its eyes with two gaunt arms. + +"Can I not exchange a word with Mère Pettit," scolded the woman, "but +thou must sneak from behind my back on thy crazed moon-hunting?" + +"Pity, pity," moaned the figure; and then the woman noticed me, and +dropped a curtsy. + +"Pardon," she said; "but he has been affronting Monsieur with his +antics?" + +"He is stricken, Madame?" + +"Ah, yes, Monsieur. Holy Mother, but how stricken!" + +"It is sad." + +"Monsieur knows not how sad. It is so always, but most a great deal when +the moon is full. He was a good lad once." + +Monsieur puts his hand in his pocket. Madame hears the clink of coin and +touches the enclosed fingers with her own delicately. Monsieur withdraws +his hand empty. + +"Pardon, Madame." + +"Monsieur has the courage of a gentleman. Come, Camille, little fool! a +sweet good-night to Monsieur." + +"Stay, Madame. I have walked far and am weary. Is there an hotel in +Bel-Oiseau?" + +"Monsieur is jesting. We are but a hundred of poor châlets." + +"An auberge, then--a cabaret--anything?" + +"_Les Trois Chèvres_. It is not for such as you." + +"Is it, then, that I must toil onwards to Châtelard?" + +"Monsieur does not know? The _Hôtel Royal_ was burned to the walls six +months since." + +"It follows that I must lie in the fields." + +Madame hesitates, ponders, and makes up her mind. + +"I keep Monsieur talking, and the night wind is sharp from the snow. It +is ill for a heated skin, and one should be indoors. I have a bedroom +that is at Monsieur's disposition, if Monsieur will condescend?" + +Monsieur will condescend. Monsieur would condescend to a loft and a truss +of straw, in default of the neat little chilly chamber that is allotted +him, so sick are his very limbs with long tramping, and so uninviting +figures the further stretch in the moonlight to Châtelard, with its +burnt-out carcase of an hotel. + +This is how I came to quarter myself on Madame Barbière and her idiot +son, and how I ultimately learned from the lips of the latter the strange +story of his own immediate fall from reason and the dear light of +intellect. + + * * * * * + +By day Camille Barbière proved to be a young man, some five and twenty +years of age, of a handsome and impressive exterior. His dark hair +lay close about his well-shaped head; his features were regular and cut +bold as an Etruscan cameo; his limbs were elastic and moulded into the +supple finish of one whose life has not been set upon level roads. At a +speculative distance he appeared a straight specimen of a Burgundian +youth--sinewy, clean-formed, and graceful, though slender to gauntness; +and it was only on nearer contact that one marvelled to see the soul die +out of him, as a face set in the shadow of leafage resolves itself into +some accident of twisted branches as one approaches the billowing tree +that presented it. + +The soul of Camille, the idiot, had warped long after its earthly +tabernacle had grown firm and fair to look upon. Cause and effect were +not one from birth in him; and the result was a most wistful expression, +as though the lost intellect were for ever struggling and failing to +recall its ancient mastery. Mostly he was a gentle young man, noteworthy +for nothing but the uncomplaining patience with which he daily observed +the monotonous routine of simple duties that were now all-sufficient for +the poor life that had "crept so long on a broken wing." He milked the +big, red, barrel-bodied cow, and churned industriously for butter; he +kept the little vegetable garden in order and nursed the Savoys into +fatness like plumping babies; he drove the goats to pasture on the +mountain slopes, and all day sat among the rhododendrons, the forgotten +soul behind his eyes conning the dead language of fate, as a foreigner +vainly interrogates the abstruse complexity of an idiom. + +By-and-by I made it an irregular habit to accompany him on these +shepherdings; to join him in his simple midday meal of sour brown bread +and goat-milk cheese; to talk with him desultorily, and study him the +while, inasmuch as he wakened an interest in me that was full of +speculation. For his was not an imbecility either hereditary or +constitutional. From the first there had appeared to me something +abnormal in it--a suspension of intelligence only, a frost-bite in the +brain that presently some April breath of memory might thaw out. This was +not merely conjectural, of course. I had the story of his mental collapse +from his mother in the early days of my sojourn in Bel-Oiseau; for it +came to pass that a fitful caprice induced me to prolong my stay in the +swart little village far into the gracious Swiss summer. + +The "story" I have called it; but it was none. He was out on the hills +one moonlight night, and came home in the early morning mad. That was +all. + +This had happened some eight years before, when he was a lad of +seventeen--a strong, beautiful lad, his mother told me; and with a dreamy +"poet's corner" in his brain, she added, but in her own better way of +putting it. She had no shame that her shepherd should be an Endymion. In +Switzerland they still look upon Nature as a respectable pursuit for a +young man. + +Well, they had thought him possessed of a devil; and his father had at +first sought to exorcise it with a chamois-hide thong, as Munchausen +flogged the black fox out of his skin. But the counter-irritant failed of +its purpose. The devil clung deep, and rent poor Camille with periodic +convulsions of insanity. + +It was noted that his derangement waxed and waned with the monthly moon; +that it assumed a virulent character with the passing of the second +quarter, and culminated, as the orb reached its fulness, in a species of +delirium, during which it was necessary to carefully watch him; that it +diminished with the lessening crescent until it fell away into a quiet +abeyance of faculties that was but a step apart from the normal +intelligence of his kind. At his worst he was a stricken madman +acutely sensitive to impressions; at his best an inoffensive peasant who +said nothing foolish and nothing wise. + +When he was twenty, his father died, and Camille and his mother had to +make out existence in company. + +Now, the veil, in my first knowledge of him, was never rent; yet +occasionally it seemed to me to gape in a manner that let a little +momentary finger of light through, in the flashing of which a soul +kindled and shut in his eyes, like a hard-dying spark in ashes. I wished +to know what gave life to the spark, and I set to pondering the problem. + +"He was not always thus?" I would say to Madame Barbière. + +"But no, Monsieur, truly. This place--bah! we are here imbeciles all to +the great world, without doubt; but Camille!--_he_ was by nature of those +who make the history of cities--a rose in the wilderness. Monsieur +smiles?" + +"By no means. A scholar, Madame?" + +"A scholar of nature, Monsieur; a dreamer of dreams such as they become +who walk much with the spirits on the lonely mountains." + +"Torrents, and avalanches, and the good material forces of nature, Madame +means." + +"Ah! Monsieur may talk, but he knows. He has heard the _föhn_ sweep down +from the hills and spin the great stones off the house-roofs. And one may +look and see nothing, yet the stones go. It is the wind that runs before +the avalanche that snaps the pine trees; and the wind is the spirit that +calls down the great snow-slips." + +"But how may Madame who sees nothing; know then a spirit to be abroad?" + +"My faith; one may know one's foot is on the wild mint without shifting +one's sole to look." + +"Madame will pardon me. No doubt also one may know a spirit by the smell +of sulphur?" + +"Monsieur is a sceptic. It comes with the knowledge of cities. There +are even such in little Bel-Oiseau, since the evil time when they took +to engrossing the contracts of good citizens on the skins of the poor +jew-beards that give us flesh and milk. It is horrible as the Tannery of +Meudon. In my young days, Monsieur, such agreements were inscribed upon +wood." + +"Quite so, Madame, and entirely to the point. Also one may see from whom +Camille inherited his wandering propensities. But for his fall--it was +always unaccountable?" + +"Monsieur, as one trips on the edge of a crevasse and disappears. His +soul dropped into the frozen cleft that one cannot fathom." + +"Madame will forgive my curiosity." + +"But surely. There was no dark secret in my Camille's life. If the little +head held pictures beyond the ken of us simple women, the angels painted +them of a certainty. Moreover, it is that I willingly recount this grief +to the wise friend that may know a solution." + +"At least the little-wise can seek for one." + +"Ah, if Monsieur would only find the remedy!" + +"It is in the hands of fate." + +Madame crossed herself. + +"Of the _Bon Dieu_, Monsieur." + +At another time Madame Barbière said:-- + +"It was in such a parched summer as this threatens to be that my Camille +came home in the mists of the morning possessed. He was often out on the +sweet hills all night--that was nothing. It had been a full moon, and the +whiteness of it was on his face like leprosy, but his hands were hot with +fever. Ah, the dreadful summer! The milk turned sour in the cows' udders +and the tufts of the stone pines on the mountains fell into ashes like +Dead Sea fruit. The springs were dried, and the great cascade of Buet +fell to half its volume." + +"This cascade; I have never seen it. Is it in the neighbourhood?" + +"Of a surety. Monsieur must have passed the rocky ravine that vomits the +torrent, on his way hither." + +"I remember. I will explore it. Camille shall be my guide." + +"Never." + +"And why?" + +Madame shrugged her plump shoulders. + +"Who may say? The ways of the afflicted are not our ways. Only I know +that Camille will never drive his flock to pasture near the lip of that +dark valley." + +"That is strange. Can the place have associations for him connected with +his malady?" + +"It is possible. Only the good God knows." + +But _I_ was to know later on, with a little reeling of the reason also. + + * * * * * + +"Camille, I want to see the Cascade de Buet." + +The hunted eyes of the stricken looked into mine with a piercing glance +of fear. + +"Monsieur must not," he said, in a low voice. + +"And why not?" + +"The waters are bad--bad--haunted!" + +"I fear no ghosts. Wilt thou show me the way, Camille?" + +"I!" The idiot fell upon the grass with a sort of gobbling cry. I thought +it the prelude to a fit of some sort, and was stepping towards him, when +he rose to his feet, waved me off and hurried away down the slope +homewards. + +Here was food for reflection, which I mumbled in secret. + +A day or two afterwards I joined Camille at midday on the heights where +he was pasturing his flocks. He had shifted his ground a little distance +westwards, and I could not find him at once. At last I spied him, his +back to a rock, his hand dabbled for coolness in a little runnel that +trickled at his side. He looked up and greeted me with a smile. He had +conceived an affection for me, this poor lost soul. + +"It will go soon," he said, referring to the miniature streamlet. "It is +safe in the woods; but to-morrow or next day the sun will lap it up ere +it can reach the skirt of the shadow above there. A farewell kiss to you, +little stream!" + +He bent and sipped a mouthful of the clear water. He was in a more +reasonable state than he had shown for long, though it was now close +on the moon's final quarter, a period that should have marked a more +general tenor of placidity in him. The summer solstice, was, however, at +hand, and the weather sultry to a degree--as it had been, I did not fail +to remember, the year of his seizure. + +"Camille," I said, "why to-day hast thou shifted thy ground a little in +the direction of the Buet ravine?" + +He sat up at once, with a curious, eager look in his face. + +"Monsieur has asked it," he said. "It was to impel Monsieur to ask it +that I moved. Does Monsieur seek a guide?" + +"Wilt thou lead me, Camille?" + +"Monsieur, last night I dreamed and one came to me. Was it my father? I +know not, I know not. But he put my forehead to his breast, and the evil +left it, and I remembered without terror. 'Reveal the secret to the +stranger,' he said; 'that he may share thy burden and comfort thee; for +he is strong where thou art weak, and the vision shall not scare him.' +Monsieur, wilt thou come?" + +He leaped to his feet, and I to mine. + +"Lead on, Camille. I follow." + +He called to the leader of his flock: "Petitjean! stray not, my little +one. I shall be back sooner than the daisies close." Then he turned to me +again. I noticed a pallid, desperate look in his face, as though he were +strung to great effort; but it was the face of a mindless one still. + +"Do you not fear?" he said, in a whisper; and the apple in his throat +seemed all choking core. + +"I fear nothing," I answered with a smile; yet the still sombreness of +the woods found a little tremor in my breast. + +"It is good," he answered, regarding me. "The angel spoke truth. Follow, +Monsieur." + +He went off through the trees of a sudden, and I had much ado to keep +pace with him. He ran as one urged on by a sure sense of doom, looking +neither to right nor left. His mountain instincts had remained with him +when memory itself had closed around like a fog, leaving him face to face +and isolated with his one unconfessed point of terror. Swiftly we made +our way, ever slightly climbing, along the rugged hillside, and soon +broke into country very wild and dismal. The pastoral character of the +scene lessened and altogether disappeared. The trees grew matted and +grotesquely gnarled, huddling together in menacing battalions--save +where some plunging rock had burst like a shell, forcing a clearing and +strewing the black moss with a jagged wreck of splinters. Here no +flowers crept for warmth, no sentinel marmot turned his little scut with +a whistle of alarm to vanish like a red shadow. All was melancholy and +silence and the massed defiance of ever-impending ruin. Storm, and +avalanche, and the bitter snap of frost had wrought their havoc year by +year, till an uncrippled branch was a rare distinction. The very +saplings, of stunted growth, bore the air of thieves reared in a rookery +of crime. + +We strode with difficulty in an inhuman twilight through this great dark +quickset of Nature, and had paused a moment where the thronging trunks +thinned somewhat, when a little mouthing moan came towards us on the +crest of a ripple of wind. My companion stopped on the instant, and +clutched my arm, his face twisting with panic. + +"The Cascade, Monsieur!" he shook out in a terrified whisper. + +"Courage, my friend! It is that we come to seek." + +"Ah! My God, yes--it is that! I dare not--I dare not!" + +He drew back livid with fear, but I urged him on. + +"Remember the dream, Camille!" I cried. + +"Yes, yes--it was good. Help me, Monsieur, and I will try--yes, I will +try!" + +I drew his arm within mine, and together we stumbled on. The undergrowth +grew denser and more fantastic; the murmur filled out, increased and +resolved itself into a sound of falling water that ever took shape, and +volume, and depth, till its crash shook the ground at our feet. Then in +a moment a white blaze of sky came at us through the trunks, and we burst +through the fringe of the wood to find ourselves facing the opposite side +of a long cleft in the mountain and the blade's edge of a roaring +cataract. + +It shot out over the lip of the fall, twenty feet above us, in a curve +like a scimitar, passed in one sheet the spot where we stood, and dived +into a sunless pool thirty feet below with a thunderous boom. What it may +have been in full phases of the stream, I know not; yet even now it was +sufficiently magnificent to give pause to a dying soul eager to shake off +the restless horror of the world. The flat of its broad blade divided the +lofty black walls of a deep and savage ravine, on whose jagged shelves +some starved clumps of rhododendron shook in the wind of the torrent. +Far down the narrow gully we could see the passion of water tossing, +champed white with the ravening of its jaws, until it took a bend of the +cliffs at a leap and rushed from sight. + +We stood upon a little platform of coarse grass and bramble, whose fringe +dipped and nodded fitfully as the sprinkle caught it. Beyond, the sliding +sheet of water looked like a great strap of steel, reeled ceaselessly off +a whirling drum pivoted between the hills. The midday sun shot like a +piston down the shaft of the valley, painting purple spears and angles +behind its abutting rocks, and hitting full upon the upper curve of the +fall; but half-way down the cataract slipped into shadow. + +My brain sickened with the endless gliding and turmoil of descent, and I +turned aside to speak to my companion. He was kneeling upon the grass, +his eyes fixed and staring, his white lips mumbling some crippled memory +of a prayer. He started and cowered down as I touched him on the +shoulder. + +"I cannot go, Monsieur; I shall die!" + +"What next, Camille? I will go alone," + +"My God, Monsieur! the cave under the fall! It is there the horror is." + +He pointed to a little gap in the fringing bushes with shaking finger. +I stole gingerly in the direction he indicated. With every step I +took the awful fascination of the descending water increased upon +me. It seemed hideous and abnormal to stand mid-way against a +perpendicularly-rushing torrent. Above or below the effect would have +been different; but here, to look up was to feel one's feet dragging +towards the unseen--to look down and pass from vision of the lip of the +fall was to become the waif of a force that was unaccountable. + +I had a battle with my nerves, and triumphed. As I approached the opening +in the brambles I became conscious of a certain relief. At a little +distance the cataract had seemed to actually wash in its descent the edge +of the platform. Now I found it to be further away than I had imagined, +the ground dropping in a sharp slope to a sort of rocky buttress which +lay obliquely on the slant of the ravine, and was the true margin of the +torrent. Before I essayed the descent, I glanced back at my companion. He +was kneeling where I had left him, his hands pressed to his face, his +features hidden; but looking back once again, when I had with infinite +caution accomplished the downward climb, I saw that he had crept to +the edge of the slope, and was watching me with wide, terrified eyes. I +waved my hand to him and turned to the wonderful vision of water that +now passed almost within reach of my arm. I stood near the point where +the whole glassy breadth glided at once from sunlight into shadow. It +fell silently, without a break, for only its feet far below trod the +thunder. + +Now, as I peered about, I noticed a little cleft in the rocky margin, a +minute's climb above me. I was attracted to this by an appearance of +smoke or steam that incessantly emerged from it, as though some witch's +caldron were simmering alongside the fall. Spray it might be, or the +condensing of water splashed on the granite; but of this I might not be +sure. Therefore I determined to investigate, and straightway began +climbing the rocks--with my heart in my mouth, it must be confessed, for +the foothold was undesirable and the way perilous. And all the time +I was conscious that the white face of Camille watched me from above. As +I reached the cleft I fancied I heard a queer sort of gasping sob issue +from his lips, but to this I could give no heed in the sudden wonder that +broke upon me. For, lo! it appeared that the cleft led straight to a +narrow platform or ledge of rock right underneath the fall itself, but +extending how far I could not see, by reason of the steam that filled the +passage, and for which I was unable to account. Footing it carefully and +groping my way, I set step in the little water-curtained chamber and +advanced a pace or two. Suddenly, light grew about me, and a beautiful +rose of fire appeared on the wall of the passage in the midst of what +seemed a vitrified scoop in the rock. + +Marvelling, I put out my hand to touch it, and fell back on the narrow +floor with a scream of anguish. An inch farther, and these lines had +not been written. As it was, the fall caught me by the fingers with the +suck of a cat-fish, and it was only a gigantic wrench that saved me from +slipping off the ledge. The jerk brought my head against the rock with a +stunning blow, and for some moments I lay dizzy and confused, daring +hardly to breathe, and conscious only of a burning and blistering agony +in my right hand. + +At length I summoned courage to gather my limbs together and crawl out +the way I had entered. The distance was but a few paces, yet to traverse +these seemed an interminable nightmare of swaying and stumbling. I know +only one other occasion upon which the liberal atmosphere of the open +earth seemed sweeter to my senses when I reached it than it did on this. + +I tumbled somehow through the cleft, and sat down, shaking, upon the +grass of the slope beyond; but, happening to throw myself backwards in +the reeling faintness induced by my fright and the pain of my head, my +eyes encountered a sight that woke me at once to full activity. + +Balanced upon the very verge of the slope, his face and neck craned +forward, his jaw dropped, a sick, tranced look upon his features, stood +Camille. I saw him topple, and shouted to him; but before my voice was +well out, he swayed, collapsed, and came down with a running thud that +shook the ground. Once he wheeled over, like a shot rabbit, and, bounding +thwack with his head against a flat boulder not a dozen yards from me, +lay stunned and motionless. + +I scrambled to him, quaking all over. His breath came quick, and a spirt +of blood jerked from a sliced cut in his forehead at every pump of his +heart. + +I kicked out a wad of cool moist turf, and clapped it in a pad over the +wound, my handkerchief under. For his body, he was shaken and bruised, +but otherwise not seriously hurt. + +Presently he came to himself; to himself in the best sense of the +word--for Camille was sane. + +I have no explanation to offer. Only I know that, as a fall will set a +long-stopped watch pulsing again, the blow here seemed to have restored +the misplaced intellect to its normal balance. + +When he woke, there was a new soft light of sanity in his eyes that was +pathetic in the extreme. + +"Monsieur," he whispered, "the terror has passed." + +"God be thanked! Camille," I answered, much moved. + +He jerked his poor battered head in reverence. + +"A little while," he said, "and I shall know. The punishment was just." + +"What punishment, my poor Camille?" + +"Hush! The cloud has rolled away. I stand naked before _le bon Dieu_. +Monsieur, lift me up; I am strong." + +I winced as I complied. The palm of my hand was scorched and blistered in +a dozen places. He noticed at once, and kissed and fondled the wounded +limb as softly as a woman might. + +"Ah, the poor hand!" he murmured. "Monsieur has touched the disc of +fire." + +"Camille," I whispered, "what is it?" + +"Monsieur shall know--ah! yes, he shall know; but not now. Monsieur, my +mother." + +"Thou art right, good son." + +I bound up his bruised forehead and my own burnt hand as well as I was +able, and helped him to his feet. He stood upon them staggering; but +in a minute could essay to stumble on the homeward journey with +assistance. It was a long and toilsome progress; but in time we +accomplished it. Often we had to sit down in the blasted woods and rest +awhile; often moisten our parched mouths at the runnels of snow-water +that thridded the undergrowth. The shadows were slanting eastwards +as we reached the clearing we had quitted some hours earlier, and the +goats had disappeared. Petitjean was leading his charges homewards in +default of a human commander, and presently we overtook them browsingly +loitering and desirous of definite instructions. + +I pass over Camille's meeting with his mother, and the wonder, and fear, +and pity of it all. Our hurts were attended to, and the battery of +questions met with the best armour of tact at command. For myself, I +said that I had scorched my hand against a red-hot rock, which was +strictly true; for Camille, that it were wisest to take no early +advantage of the reason that God had restored to him. She was voluble, +tearful, half-hysterical with joy and the ecstasy of gratitude. + +"That a blow should effect the marvel! Monsieur, but it passes +comprehension." + +All night long I heard her stirring and sobbing softly outside his door, +for I slept little, owing to pain and the wonder in my mind. But towards +morning I dozed, and my dreams were feverish and full of terror. + +The next day Camille kept his bed and I my room. By this I at least +escaped the first onset of local curiosity, for the villagers naturally +made of Camille's restoration a nine-days' wonder. But towards evening +Madame Barbière brought a message from him that he would like to see +Monsieur alone, if Monsieur would condescend to visit him in his room. I +went at once, and found him, as Haydon found Keats, lying in a white bed, +hectic, and on his back. He greeted me with a smile peculiarly sweet and +restful. + +"Does Monsieur wish to know?" he said in a low voice. + +"If it will not hurt thee, Camille." + +"Not now--not now; the good God has made me sound. I remember, and am not +terrified." + +I closed the door and took a seat by his bedside. There, with my hand +shading my eyes from the level glory of sunset that flamed into the room, +I listened to the strange tale of Camille's seizure. + + * * * * * + +"Once, Monsieur, I lived in myself and was exultant with a loneliness of +fancied knowledge. My youth was my excuse; but God could not pardon me +all. I read where I could find books, and chance put an evil choice in my +way, for I learned to sneer at His name, His heaven, His hell. Each man +has his god in self-will, I thought in my pride, and through it alone he +accepts the responsibility of life and death. He is his own curse or +blessing here and hereafter, inheriting no sin and earning no doom but +such as he himself inflicts upon himself. I interpret this from the world +about me, and knowing it, I have no fear and own no tyrant but my own +passions. Monsieur, it was through fear the most terrible that God +asserted Himself to me." + +The light was fading in the west, and a lance of shadow fell upon the +white bed, as though the hushed day were putting a finger to its lips as +it withdrew. + +"I was no coward then, Monsieur--that at least I may say. I lived among +the mountains, and on their ledges the feet of my own goats were not +surer. Often, in summer, I spent the night among the woods and hills, +reading in them the story of the ages, and exploring, exploring till my +feet were wearier than my brain. Strangers came from far to see the great +cascade; but none but I--and you, too, Monsieur, now--know the track +through the thicket that leads to the cave under the waters. I found it +by chance, and, like you, was scorched by the fire, though not badly." + +"Camille--the cause?" + +"Monsieur, I will tell you a wonderful thing. The falling waters there +make a monstrous burning glass, when the hot sun is upon them, which has +melted the rock behind like wax." + +"Can that be so?" + +"It is true--dear Jesus, I have fearful reason to know it." + +He half rose on his elbow, his face, crossed by the bandage, grey as +stone in the gathering dusk. Hereafter he spoke in an awed whisper. + +"When the knowledge broke upon me, I grew great to myself in the +possession of a wonderful secret. Day after day I visited the cave and +examined this phenomenon--and yet another more marvellous in its +connection with the first. The huge lens was a simple accident of curved +rocks and convex water, planed smooth as crystal. In other than a +droughty summer it would probably not exist; the spouting torrent would +overwhelm it--but I know not. Was not this astonishing enough? Yet Nature +had worked a second miracle to mock in anticipation the self-sufficient +plagiarism of little man. I noticed that the rays of the sun concentrated +in the lens only during the half-hour of the orb's apparent crossing of +the ravine. Then the light smote upon a strange curved little fan of +water, that spouted from a high crevice at the mouth of the shallow +vitrified tunnel, and devoured it, and played upon the rocks behind, that +hissed and sputtered like pitch, and the place was blind with steam. But +when the tooth of fire was withdrawn, the tiny inner cascade fell again +and wrought coolness with its sprinkling. + +"I did not discover this all at once, for at first fright took me, and it +was enough to watch for the moment of the light's appearance and then +flee with a little laughter. But one day I ventured back into the cave +after the sun had crossed the valley, and the steam had died away, and +the rock cooled behind the miniature cascade. + +"I looked through the lens, and it seemed full of a great white light +that blazed into my eyes, so that I fell back through the inner fan of +water and was well soused by it; but my sight presently recovering, I +stood forward in the scoop of rock admiring the dainty hollow curve the +fan took in its fall. By-and-by I became aware that I was looking out +through a smaller lens upon the great one, and that strange whirling +mists seemed to be sweeping across a huge disc, within touch of my hand +almost. + +"It was long before I grasped the meaning of this; but, in a flash, it +came upon me. The great lens formed the object glass, the small, the +eyeglass, of a natural telescope of tremendous power, that drew the high +summer clouds down within seeming touch and opened out the heavens before +my staring eyes. + +"Monsieur, when this dawned upon me I was wild. That so astonishing a +discovery should have been reserved for a poor ignorant Swiss peasant +filled me with pride wicked in proportion with its absence of gratitude +to the mighty dispenser of good. I came even to think my individuality +part of the wonder and necessary to its existence. 'Were it not for my +courage and enterprise,' I cried, 'this phenomenon would have remained a +secret of the Nature that gave birth to it. She yields her treasures to +such only as fear not.' + +"I had read in a book of Huyghens, Guinand, Newton, Herschel--the great +high-priests of science who had striven through patient years to read the +hieroglyphics of the heavens. 'The wise imbeciles,' I thought. 'They +toiled and died, and Nature held no mirror up to them. For me, the +poor Camille, she has worked in secret while they grew old and passed +unsatisfied.' + +"Brilliant projects of astronomy whirled in my brain. The evening of my +last discovery I remained out on the hills, and entered the cave as it +grew dusk. A feeling of awe surged in me as dark fell over the valley, +and the first stars glistened faintly. I dipped under the fan of water +and took my stand in the hollow behind it. There was no moon, but my +telescope was inclined, as it were, at a generous angle, and a section of +the firmament was open before me. My heart beat fast as I looked through +the lens. + +"Shall I tell you what I saw then and many nights after? Rings and +crosses in the heavens of golden mist, spangled, as it seemed, with +jewels; stars as big as cart-wheels, twinkling points no longer, but +round, like great bosses of molten fire; things shadowy, luminous, of +strange colours and stranger forms, that seemed to brush the waters +as they passed, but were in reality vast distances away. + +"Sometimes the thrust of wind up the ravine would produce a tremulous +motion in the image at the focus of the mirror; but this was seldom. +For the most part the wonderful lenses presented a steady curvature, not +flawless, but of magnificent capacity. + +"Now it flashed upon me that, when the moon was at the full, she would +top the valley in the direct path of my telescope's range of view. At +the thought I grew exultant. I--I, little Camille, should first read +aright the history of this strange satellite. The instrument that could +give shape to the stars would interpret to me the composition of that +lonely orb as clearly as though I stood upon her surface. + +"As the time of her fulness drew near I grew feverish with excitement. I +was sickening, as it were, to my madness, for never more should I look +upon her willingly, with eyes either speculative or insane." + +At this point Camille broke off for a little space, and lay back on his +pillow. When he spoke again it was out of the darkness, with his face +turned to the wall. + +"Monsieur, I cannot dwell upon it--I must hasten. We have no right to +peer beyond the boundary God has drawn for us. I saw His hell--I saw His +hell, I tell you. It is peopled with the damned--silent, horrible, +distorted in the midst of ashes and desolation. It was a memory that, +like the snake of Aaron, devoured all others till yesterday--till +yesterday, by Christ's mercy." + + * * * * * + +It seemed to me, as the days wore on, that Camille had but recovered his +reason at the expense of his life; that the long rest deemed necessary +for him after his bitter period of brain exhaustion might in the end +prove an everlasting one. Possibly the blow to his head had, in expelling +the seven devils, wounded beyond cure the vital function that had +fostered them. He lay white, patient, and sweet-tempered to all, but +moved by no inclination to rise and re-assume the many-coloured garment +of life. + +His description of the dreadful desert in the sky I looked upon, merely, +as an abiding memory of the brain phantasm that had finally overthrown +a reason, already tottering under the tremendous excitement induced by +his discovery of the lenses, and the magnified images they had presented +to him. That there was truth in the asserted fact of the existence of +these, my own experience convinced me; and curiosity as to this alone +impelled me to the determination of investigating further, when my hand +should be sufficiently recovered to act as no hindrance to me in forcing +my way once more through the dense woods that bounded the waterfall. +Moreover, the dispassionate enquiry of a mind less sensitive to +impressions might, in the result, do more towards restoring the warped +imagination of my friend to its normal state than any amount of spoken +scepticism. + +To Camille I said nothing of my resolve; but waited on, chafing at the +slow healing of my wounds. In the meantime the period of the full +moon approached, and I decided, at whatever cost, to make the venture on +the evening she topped her orbit, if circumstances at the worst should +prevent my doing so sooner--and thus it turned out. + +On the eve of my enterprise, the first fair spring of rain in a drought +of two months fell, to my disappointment, among the hills; for I feared +an increase of the torrent and the effacement of the mighty lens. I set +off, however, on the afternoon of the following day, in hot sunshine, +mentally prognosticating a favourable termination to my expedition, and +telling Madame Barbière not to expect me back till late. + +In leisurely fashion I made my way along the track we had previously +traversed, risking no divergence through overhaste, and carefully +examining all landmarks before deciding on any direction. Thus slowly +proceeding, I had the good fortune to come within sound of the cataract +as the sun was sinking behind the mountain ridges to my front; and +presently emerged from the woods at the very spot we had struck in our +former journey together. + +A chilly twilight reigned in the ravine, and the noise that came up from +the ruin of the torrent seemed doubly accented by reason of it. The +sound of water moving in darkness has always conveyed to me an impression +of something horrible and deadly, be it nothing of more moment than +the drip and hollow tinkle of a gutter pipe. But the crash in this +echoing gorge was appalling indeed. + +For some moments I stood on the brink of the slope, looking across at the +great knife of the fall, with a little shiver of fear. Then I shook +myself, laughed, and without further ado took my courage in hand, and +scrambled down the declivity and up again towards the cleft in the rocks. + +Here the chill of heart gripped me again--the watery sliding tunnel +looked so evil in the contracting gloom. A false step in that humid +chamber, and my bones would pound and crackle on the rocks forty feet +below. It must be gone through with now, however; and, taking a long +breath, I set foot in the passage under the curving downpour that seemed +taut as an arched muscle. + +Reaching the burnt recess, a few moments sufficed to restore my +self-confidence; and without further hesitation I dived under the inner +little fan-shaped fall--which was there, indeed, as Camille had described +it--and recovered my balance with pulses drumming thicker than I could +have desired. + +In a moment I became conscious that some great power was before me. +Across a vast, irregular disc filled with the ashy whiteness of the outer +twilight, strange, unaccountable forms, misty and undefined, passed, and +repassed, and vanished. Cirrus they might have been, or the shadows flung +by homing flights of birds; but of this I could not be certain. As the +dusk deepened they showed no more, and presently I gazed only into a +violet fathomless darkness. + +My own excitement now was great; and I found some difficulty in keeping +it under control. But for the moment, it seemed to me, I pined greatly +for free commune with the liberal atmosphere of earth. Therefore, I +dipped under the little fall and made my cautious way to the margin of +the cataract. + +I was surprised to find for how long a time the phenomenon had absorbed +me. The moon was already high in the heavens, and making towards +the ravine with rapid steps. Far below, the tumbling waters flashed in +her rays, and on all sides great tiers of solemn, trees stood up at +attention to salute her. + +When her disc silvered the inner rim of the slope I had descended, I +returned to my post of observation with tingling nerves. The field of +the great object lens was already suffused with the radiance of her +approach. + +Suddenly my pupils shrank before the apparition of a ghastly grey light, +and all in a moment I was face to face with a segment of desolation +more horrible than any desert. Monstrous growths of leprosy that had +bubbled up and stiffened; fields of ashen slime--the sloughing of a world +of corruption; hills of demon, fungus swollen with the fatness of +putrefaction; and, in the midst of all, dim, convulsed shapes wallowing, +protruding, or stumbling aimlessly onwards, till they sank and +disappeared. + + * * * * * + +Madame Barbière threw up her hands when she let me in at the door. My +appearance, no doubt, was ghastly. I knew not the hour nor the lapse +of time covered by my wanderings about the hills, my face hidden in my +palms, a drawn feeling about my heart, my lips muttering--muttering +fragments of prayers, and my throat jerking with horrible laughter. + +For hours I lay face downwards on my bed. + +"Monsieur has seen it?" + +"I have seen it." + +"I heard the rain on the hills. The lens will have been blurred. Monsieur +has been spared much." + +"God, in His mercy, pity thee! And me--oh, Camille, and me too!" + +"He has held out His white hand to me. I go, when I go, with a safe +conduct." + + * * * * * + +He went before the week was out. The drought had broken and for five days +the thunder crashed and the wild rain swept the mountains. On the +morning of the sixth a drenched shepherd reported in the village that a +landslip had choked the fall of Buet, and completely altered its shape. +Madame Barbière broke into the room where I was sitting with Camille, big +with the news. She little guessed how it affected her listeners. + +"The _bon Dieu_" said Camille, when she had gone, "has thundered His +curse on Nature for revealing His secrets. I, who have penetrated into +the forbidden, must perish." + +"And I, Camille?" + +He turned to me with a melancholy sweet smile, and answered, paraphrasing +the dying words of certain noble lips,-- + +"Be good, Monsieur; be good." + + + + +JACK AND JILL + + +My friend, Monsieur ----, absolutely declines to append his name to these +pages, of which he is the virtual author. Nevertheless, he permits me to +publish them anonymously, being, indeed, a little curious to ascertain +what would have been the public verdict as to his sanity, had he given +his personal imprimatur to a narrative on the face of it so incredible. + +"How!" he says. "Should I have believed it of another, when I have such +astonishing difficulty at this date in realizing that it was I--yes, I, +my friend--this same little callow _poupon_--that was an actual hero of +the adventure? Fidèle" (by which term we cover the identity of his +wife)--"Fidèle will laugh in my face sometimes, crying, 'Not thou, little +cabbage, nor yet thy faithful, was it that dived through half the world +and came up breathless! No, no--I cannot believe it. We folk, so +matter-of-fact and so comical. It was of Hansel and Gretel we had been +reading hand-in-hand, till we fell asleep in the twilight and fancied +this thing.' And then she will trill like a bird at the thought of how +solemn Herr Grabenstock, of the Hôtel du Mont Blanc, would have stared +and edged apart, had we truly recounted to him that which had befallen us +between the rising and the setting of a sun. We go forth; it rains--my +faith! as it will in the Chamounix valley--and we return in the evening +sopped. Very natural. But, for a first cause of our wetting. Ah! there we +must be fastidious of an explanation, or we shall find ourselves in peril +of restraint. + +"Now, write this for me, and believe it if you can. We are not in a +conspiracy of imagination--I and the dear courageous." + +Therefore I _do_ write it, speaking in the person of Monsieur ----, and +largely from his dictation; and my friend shall amuse himself over the +nature of its reception. + + * * * * * + +"One morning (it was in late May)," says Monsieur ----, "my Fidèle and I +left the Hôtel du Mont Blanc for a ramble amongst the hills. We were a +little adventurous, because we were innocent. We took no guide but our +commonsense; and that served us very ill--or very well, according to the +point of view. Ours was that of the birds, singing to the sky and +careless of the snake in the grass so long as they can pipe their tune. +Of a surety that is the only course. If one would make provision against +every chance of accident, one must dematerialize. To die is the only way +to secure oneself from fatality. + +"Still, it is a wise precaution, I will admit, not to eat of all hedge +fruit because blackberries are sweet. Some day, after the fiftieth +stomach-ache, we shall learn wisdom, my Fidèle and I. + +"'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' That, I know, comes into the +English gospel. + +"Well, I will tell you, I am content to be considered of the first; and +my Fidèle is assuredly of the second. Yet did she fear, or I rush in? On +the contrary, I have a little laughing thought that it was the angel +inveighed against the dulness of caution when the fool would have +hesitated. + +"Now, it was before the season of the Alps; and the mountain aubergistes +were, for the most part, not arrived at their desolate hill-taverns. Nor +were guides at all in evidence, being yet engaged, the sturdy souls, over +their winter occupations. One, no doubt, we could have procured, had we +wished it; but we did not. We would explore under the aegis of no +cicerone but our curiosity. That was native to us, if the district was +strange. + +"Following, at first, the instructions of Herr Baedeker, we travelled and +climbed, chattering and singing as we went, in the direction of the +Montenvert, whence we were to descend upon the Mer de Glace, and enjoy +the spectacle of a stupendous glacier. + +"'And that, I am convinced,' said Fidèle, 'is nothing more nor less than +one of those many windows that give light to the monsters of the +under-earth.' + +"'Little imbecile! In some places this window is six hundred feet thick.' + +"'So?' she said. 'That is because their dim eyes could not endure the +full light of the sun.' + +"We had brought a tin box of sandwiches with us; and this, with my large +pewter flask full of wine, was slung upon my back. For we had been told +the Hôtel du Montenvert was yet closed; and, sure enough when we reached +it, the building stood black in a pool of snow, its shuttered windows +forlorn, and long icicles hung from the eaves. + +"The depression induced by this sight was momentary. We turned from it to +the panorama of majestic loveliness that stretched below and around us. +The glacier--that rolling sea of glass--descended from the enormous gates +of the hills. Its source was the white furnace of the skies; its +substance the crystal refuse of the stars; and from its margins the +splintered peaks stood up in a thousand forms of beauty. Right and left, +in the hollows of the mountains, the mist lay like ponds, opal and +translucent; and the shafts of the pine trees standing in it looked like +the reflections of themselves. + +"It made the eyes ache--this silence of greatness; and it became a relief +to shift one's gaze to the reality of one's near neighbourhood--the +grass, and the rhododendron bushes, and even the dull walls of the +deserted auberge. + +"A narrow path dipped over the hill-side and fled into the very jaws of +the moraine. Down the first of this path we raced, hand in hand; but +soon, finding the impetus overmastering us, we pulled up with difficulty, +and descended the rest of the way circumspectly. + +"At the foot of the steep slope we came upon the little wooden hutch +where, ordinarily, one may procure a guide (also rough socks to stretch +over one's boots) for the passage of the glacier. Now, however, the shed +was closed and tenantless; and we must e'en dispense with a conductor, +should we adventure further. + +"Herr Baedeker says, 'Guide unnecessary for the experienced.' + +"'Fidèle, are we experienced?' + +"'We shall be, _mon ami_, when we have crossed. A guide could not alter +that.' + +"'But it is true, _ma petite_. Come, then!' + +"We clambered down amongst huge stones. Fidèle's little feet went in and +out of the crannies like sand-martins. Suddenly, before we realized it, +we were on the glacier. + +"Fidèle exclaimed. + +"'_Mon Dieu_! Is this ice--these blocks of dirty alabaster?' + +"Alas! she was justified. This torrent of majestic crystal--seen from +above so smooth and bountiful--a flood of the milk of Nature dispensed +from the white bosom of the hills! Now, near at hand, what do we find it? +A medley of opaque blocks, smeared with grit and rubbish; a vast ruin of +avalanches hurled together and consolidated, and of the colour of rock +salt. + +"'_Peste!_' I cried. 'We must get to the opposite bank, for all that. + +"_Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, + Qui ce matin avoit desclose_....'" + +"We clasped hands and set forth on our little traversée, our landmark an +odd-shaped needle of spar on the further side. My faith! it was simple. +The _paveurs_ of Nature had left the road a trifle rough, that was all. +Suddenly we came upon a wide fissure stretched obliquely like the mouth +of a sole. Going glibly, we learnt a small lesson of caution therefrom. +Six paces, and we should have tumbled in. + +"We looked over fearfully. Here, in truth, was real ice at last--green as +bottle-glass at the edges, and melting into unfathomable deeps of glowing +blue. + +"In a moment, with a shriek like that of escaping steam, a windy demon +leapt at us from the underneath. It was all of winter in a breath. It +seemed to shrivel the skin from our faces--the flesh from our bones. We +staggered backwards. + +"'_Mon ami! mon ami_!' cried Fidèle, 'my heart is a stone; my eyes are +two blisters of water!' + +"We danced as the blood returned unwilling to our veins. It was minutes +before we could proceed. + +"Afterwards I learned that these hellish eruptions of air betoken a +change of temperature. It was coming then shortly in a dense rainfall. + +"When we were recovered, we sought about for a way to circumambulate the +crevasse. Then we remarked that up a huge boulder of ice that had +seemed to block our path recent steps, or toe-holes, had been cut. In a +twinkling we were over. Fidèle--no, a woman never falls. + +"'For all this,' she says, shaking her head, 'I maintain that a guide +here is a sinecurist.' + +"Well, we made the passage safely, and toiled up the steep, loose moraine +beyond--to find the track over which was harder than crossing the +glacier. But we did it, and struck the path along the hillside, which +leads by the _Mauvais Pas_ (the _mauvais quart d'heure_) to the little +cabaret called the _Chapeau_. This tavern, too, was shut and dismal. +It did not matter. We sat like sparrows on a railing, and munched our +egg-sandwiches and drank our wine in a sort of glorious stupefaction. For +right opposite us was the vast glacier-fall, whose crashing foam was +towers and parapets of ice, that went over and rolled into the valley +below, a ruin of thunder. + +"Far beyond, where the mouth of the gorge spread out littered with +monstrous destruction, we saw the hundred threads of the glacier streams +collect into a single rope of silver, that went drawn between the hills, +a highway of water. It was all a majestic panorama of grey and pearly +white--the sky, the torrents, the mountains; but the blue and rusty green +of the stone pines, flung abroad in hanging woods and coppices, broke up +and distributed the infinite serenity of the snow fields. + +"Presently, having drunk deep of rich content, we rose to retrace our +steps. For, spurred by vanity, we must be returning the way we had come, +to show our confident experience of glaciers. + +"All went well. Actually we had passed over near two-thirds of the +ice-bed, when a touch on my arm stayed me, and _ma mie_ looked into my +eyes, very comical and insolent. + +"'Little cabbage,' she said; 'will you not put your new knowledge to +account?' + +"'But how, my soul?' + +"She laughed and pressed my arm to her side. Her heart fluttered like a +nestling after its first flight. + +"'To rest on the little prowess of a small adventure! No, no! Shall he +who has learnt to swim be always content to bathe in shallow water?' + +"I was speechless as I gazed on her. + +"'Behold, then!' she cried. 'We have opposed ourselves to this problem of +the ice, and we have mastered it. See how it rears itself to the +inaccessible peaks, the which to reach the poor innocents expend +themselves over rocks and drifts. But why should one not climb the +mountain by way of the glacier?' + +"'Fidèle!' I gasped. + +"'Ah!' she exclaimed, nodding her head; 'but poor men! They are mules. +They spill their blood on the scaling ladders when the town gate is +open.' + +"Again I cried 'Fidèle!' + +"'But, yes,' she said, 'it needs a woman to see. It is but two o'clock. +Let us ascend the glacier, like a staircase; and presently we shall stand +upon the summit of the mountain. Those last little peaks above the ice +can be of no importance.' + +"I was touched, astounded by the sublimity of her idea. Had no one, then, +ever thought of this before? + +"We began the ascent. + +"I swear we must have toiled upwards half a mile, when the catastrophe +took place. + +"It was raining then--a dense small mist; and the ice was as if it +had been greased. We were proceeding with infinite care, arm in arm, +tucked close together. A little doubt, I think, was beginning to oppress +us. We could move only with much caution and difficulty; and there were +noises--sounds like the clapping of great hands in those rocky attics +above us. Then there would come a slamming report, as if the window of +the unknown had been burst open by demons; and the moans of the lost +would issue, surging down upon the world. + +"These thunders, as we were afterwards told, are caused by the splitting +of the ice when there comes a fall in the barometer. Then the glacier +will yawn like a sliced junket. + +"My faith! what a simile! But again the point of view, my friend. + +"All in a moment I heard a little cluck. I looked down. Alas! the fine +spirit was obscured. Fidèle was weeping. + +"'_Chut! chut!_' I exclaimed in consternation. 'We will go back at once.' + +"She struggled to smile, the poor _mignonne_. + +"'It is only that my knees are sick,' she said piteously. + +"I took her in my strong arms tenderly. + +"We had paused on a ridge of hard snow. + +"There came a tearing clang--an enormous sucking sound, as of wet lips +opening. The snow sank under our feet. + +"'My God!' shrieked Fidèle. + +"I held her convulsively. It happened in an instant, before one could +leap aside. The bed of snow on which we were standing broke down into +the crevasse it had bridged, and let us through to the depths. + +"Will you believe what follows? Pinch your nose and open your mouth. You +shall take the whole draught at a breath. _The ice at the point where we +entered was five hundred feet thick; and we fell to the very bottom of +it._ + +"Ha! ha! Is it difficult to swallow? But it is true--it is quite true. +Here I sit, sound and safe, and eminently sane, and that after a fall of +five hundred feet. + +"Now, listen. + +"We went down, welded together, with a rush and a buzz like a +cannon-ball. Thoughts? Ah! my friend, I had none. Who can think even +in a high wind? And here the wind of our going would have brained an ox. +Only one desperate instinct I had, one little forlorn remnant of +humanity--to shield the love of my heart. So my arms never left her; and +we fell together. I dreaded nothing, feared nothing, foresaw no terror +in the inevitable mangling crash of the end. For time, that is necessary +to emotion, was annihilated. We had outstripped it, and left sense and +reason sluggishly following in our wake. + +"Sense, yes; but not altogether sensation. Flashingly I was conscious +here of incredibly swift transitions, from cold to deeper wells of frost; +thence down through a stratum of death and negation, between mere blind +walls of frigid inhumanity, to have been stayed a moment by which would +have pointed all our limbs as stiff as icicles, as stiff as those of +frogs plunged into boiling water. But we passed and fell, still crashing +upon no obstruction; and thought pursued us, tailing further behind. + +"It was the passage of the eternal night--frozen, self-contained; awful +as any fancied darkness that is without one tradition of a star. Yet, +struggling hereafter to, in some shadowy sense, renew my feelings of the +moment, it seemed to me that I had not fallen through darkness at all; +but rather that the friction of descent had kindled an inner radiance in +me that was independent of the vision of the eyes, and full of promise of +a sudden illumination of the soul. + +"Now, after falling what depths God knows, I become numbly aware of a +little griding sensation at my back, that communicated a whistling small +vibration to my whole frame. This intensified, became more pronounced. +Perceptibly, in that magnificent refinement of speed, our enormous pace I +felt to decrease ever so little. Still we had so far outstripped +intelligence as that I was incapable of considering the cause of the +change. + +"Suddenly, for the first time, pain made itself known; and immediately +reason, plunging from above, overtook me, and I could think. + +"Then it was I became conscious that, instead of falling, we were +rising, rising with immense swiftness, but at a pace that momently +slackened--rising, slipping over ice and in contact with it, + +"The muscles of my arms, clasped still about Fidèle, involuntarily +swelled to her. My God! there was a tiny answering pressure. I could have +screamed with joy; but physical anguish overmastered me. My back seemed +bursting into flame. + +"The suffering was intolerable. When, at last, I thought I should go mad, +in a moment we took a surging swoop, shot down an easy incline, and +_stopped_. + +"There had been noise in our descent, as only now I knew by its +cessation--a hissing sound as of wire whirring from a draw-plate. In the +profound enormous silence that, at last, enwrapped us, the bliss of +freedom from that metallic accompaniment fell on me like a balm. My +eyelids closed. Possibly I fainted. + +"All in a moment I came to myself, to an undefinable sense of the +tremendous pressure of nothingness. Darkness! it was not that; yet it was +as little light. It was as if we lay in a dim, luminous chaos, ourselves +an integral part of its self-containment. I did not stir; but I spoke: +and my strange voice broke the enchantment. Surely never before or since +was speech exchanged under such conditions. + +"'Fidèle!' + +"'I can speak, but I cannot look. If I hide so for ever I can die +bravely.' + +"'_Ma petite!_ oh, my little one! Are you hurt?' + +"'I don't know. I think not.' + +"Her voice, her dear voice was so odd; but, _Mon Dieu_! how wonderful in +its courage! That, Heaven be praised! is no monopoly of intellect. +Indeed, it is imagination that makes men cowards; and to the lack of this +possibly we owed our salvation. + +"Now, calm and freed of that haunting jar of descent, I became conscious +that a sound, that I had at first taken for the rush of my own arteries, +had an origin apart from us. It was like the wash and thunder of waters +in a deep sewer. + +"'Fidèle!' I said again. + +"'I am listening.' + +"'Hear, then! Canst thou free my right arm, that I may feel for the +lucifers in my pocket?' + +"She moved at once, never raising her face from my breast. I groped for +the box, found it; and manipulating with one hand, succeeded in striking +a match. It flamed up--a long wax vesta. + +"A glory of sleek fires sprang on the instant into life. We lay +imprisoned in a house of glass at the foot of a smooth incline rising +behind us to unknown heights. A wall of porous and opaque ice-rubbish, +into which our feet had plunged deep, had stayed our progress. + +"I placed the box by my side ready for use. Our last moments should be +lavish of splendour. Stooping for another match, to kindle from the flame +of the near-expired one, a thought struck me. Why had we not been at once +frozen to death? Yet we lay where we had brought up, as snug and glowing +as if we were wrapped in bedclothes. + +"The answer came to me in a flash. We had fallen sheer to the glacier +bed, which, warmed by subterraneous heat, was ever in process of melting. +Possibly, but a comparatively thin curtain of perforated ice separated us +from the under torrent. + +"The enforced conclusion was astounding; but as yet it inspired no hope. +We were none the less doomed and buried. + +"I lit a second match, turned about, and gave a start of terror. There, +imbedded in the transparent wall at my very shoulder, was something--the +body of a man. + +"A horrible sight--a horrible, horrible sight--crushed, flattened--a +caricature; the very gouts of blood that had burst from him held poised +in the massed congelations of water. + +"For how long ages had he been travelling to the valley, and from what +heights? He was of a bygone generation, by his huge coat cuffs, his metal +buttons, by his shoe buckles and the white stockings on his legs, which +were pressed thin and sharp, as if cut out of paper. Had he been a +climber, an explorer--a contemporary, perhaps, of Saussure and a rival? +And what had been his unrecorded fate? To slip into a crevasse, and so +for the parted ice to snap upon him again, like a hideous jaw? Its work +done, it might at least have opened and dropped him through--not held him +intact to jog us, out of all that world of despair, with his battered +elbow! + +"Perhaps to witness in others the fate he had himself suffered! + +"I dropped the match I was holding. I tightened my clasp convulsively +about Fidèle. Thank God she, at any rate, was blind to this horror within +a horror! + +"All at once--was it the start I had given, or the natural process of +dissolution beneath our feet?--we were moving again. Swift--swifter! +Fidèle uttered a little moaning cry. The rubbish of ice crashed below us, +and we sank through. + +"I knew nothing, then, but that we were in water--that we had fallen from +a little height, and were being hurried along. The torrent, now deep, now +so shallow that my feet scraped its bed, gushed in my ears and blinded my +eyes. + +"Still I hugged Fidèle, and I could feel by her returning grasp that she +lived. The water was not unbearably cold as yet. The air that came +through cracks and crevasses had not force to overcome the under warmth. + +"I felt something slide against me--clutched and held on. It was a brave +pine log. Could I recover it at this date I would convert it into a +flagstaff for the tricolour. It was our raft, our refuge; and it carried +us to safety. + +"I cannot give the extravagant processes of that long journey. It was all +a rushing, swirling dream--a mad race of mystery and sublimity, to +which the only conscious periods were wild, flitting glimpses of +wonderful ice arabesques, caught momentarily as we passed under fissures +that let the light of day through dimly. + +"Gradually a ghostly radiance grew to encompass us; and by a like +gradation the water waxed intensely cold. Hope then was blazing in our +hearts; but this new deathliness went nigh to quench it altogether. Yet, +had we guessed the reason, we could have foregone the despair. For, in +truth, we were approaching that shallower terrace of the glacier beyond +the fall, through which the light could force some weak passage, and the +air make itself felt, blowing upon the beds of ice. + +"Well, we survived; and still we survive. My faith, what a couple! +Sublimity would have none of us. The glacier rejected souls so +commonplace as not to be properly impressed by its inexorability. + +"This, then, was the end. We swept into a huge cavern of ice--through +it--beyond it, into the green valley and the world that we love. And +there, where the torrent splits up into a score of insignificant streams, +we grounded and crawled to dry land and sat down and laughed. + +"Yes, we could do it--we could laugh. Is that not bathos? But Fidèle and +I have a theory that laughter is the chief earnest of immortality. + +"To _dry_ land I have said. _Mon Dieu!_ the torrent was no wetter. It +rains in the Chamounix valley. We looked to see whence we had fallen, and +not even the _Chapeau_ was visible through the mist. + +"But, as I turned, Fidèle uttered a little cry. + +"'The flask, and the sandwich-box, and your poor coat!' + +"'_Comment?_' I said; and in a moment was in my shirt-sleeves. + +"I stared, and I wondered, and I clucked in my throat. + +"Holy saints! I was adorned with a breastplate on my back. The friction +of descent, first welding together these, the good ministers to our +appetite, had worn the metal down in the end to a mere skin or badge, the +heat generated from which had scorched and frizzled the cloth beneath it. + +"I needed not to seek further explanation of the pain I had suffered--was +suffering then, indeed, as I had reason to know when ecstasy permitted a +return of sensation. My back bears the scars at this moment. + +"'It shall remain there for ever!' I cried, 'like the badge of a _cocher +de fiacre_, who has made the fastest journey on record. 'Coachman! from +the glacier to the valley.' '_Mais oui, monsieur_. Down this crevasse, if +you please.' + +"And that is the history of our adventure. + +"Why we were not dashed to pieces? But that, as I accept it, is easy of +elucidation. Imagine a vast crescent moon, with a downward nick from the +end of the tail. This form the fissure took, in one enormous sweep and +drop towards the mouth of the valley. Now, as we rushed headlong, the +gentle curve received us from space to substance quite gradually, until +we were whirring forward wholly on the latter, my luggage suffering the +brunt of the friction. The upward sweep of the crescent diminished our +progress--more and yet more--until we switched over the lower point and +shot quietly down the incline beyond. And all this in ample room, and +without meeting with a single unfriendly obstacle. + +"'_Voilà , mes chers amis, ce qui me met en peine_.' + +"Fidèle laughs, the rogue! + +"'Ta, ta, ta!' she says. 'But they will not believe a word of it all.'" + + + + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + + +"My grandfather," said the banjo, "drank 'dog's-nose,' my father drank +'dog's-nose,' and I drink 'dog's-nose.' If that ain't heredity, there's +no virtue in the board schools." + +"Ah!" said the piccolo, "you're always a-boasting of your science. And +so, I suppose, your son'll drink 'dog's-nose,' too?" + +"No," retorted the banjo, with a rumbling laugh, like wind in the +bung-hole of an empty cask; "for I ain't got none. The family ends with +me; which is a pity, for I'm a full-stop to be proud on." + +He was an enormous, tun-bellied person--a mere mound of expressionless +flesh, whose size alone was an investment that paid a perpetual dividend +of laughter. When, as with the rest of his company, his face was +blackened, it looked like a specimen coal on a pedestal in a museum. + +There was Christmas company in the Good Intent, and the sanded tap-room, +with its trestle tables and sprigs of holly stuck under sooty beams +reeked with smoke and the steam of hot gin and water. + +"How much could you put down of a night, Jack?" said a little grinning +man by the door. + +"Why," said the banjo, "enough to lay the dustiest ghost as ever walked." + +"Could you, now?" said the little man. + +"Ah!" said the banjo, chuckling. "There's nothing like settin' one sperit +to lay another; and there I could give you proof number two of heredity." + +"What! Don't you go for to say you ever see'd a ghost!" + +"Haven't I? What are you whisperin' about, you blushful chap there by the +winder?" + +"I was only remarking sir, 'twere snawin' like the devil." + +"_Is_ it? Then the devil has been misjudged these eighteen hundred and +ninety odd years." + +"But _did_ you ever see a ghost?" said the little grinning man, pursuing +his subject. + +"No, I didn't, sir," mimicked the banjo, "saving in coffee grounds. But +my grandfather in _his_ cups see'd one; which brings us to number three +in the matter of heredity." + +"Give us the story, Jack," said the "bones," whose agued shins were +extemporizing a rattle on their own account before the fire. + +"Well, I don't mind," said the fat man. "It's seasonable; and I'm +seasonable, like the blessed plum-pudden, I am; and the more burnt brandy +you set about me, the richer and headier I'll go down." + +"You'd be a jolly old pudden to digest," said the piccolo. + +"You blow your aggrawation into your pipe and sealing-wax the stops," +said his friend. + +He drew critically at his "churchwarden" a moment or so, leaned forward, +emptied his glass into his capacious receptacles, and, giving his +stomach a shift, as if to accommodate it to its new burden, proceeded as +follows:-- + +"Music and malt is my nat'ral inheritance. My grandfather blew his +'dog's-nose,' and drank his clarinet like a artist and my father--" + +"What did you say your grandfather did?" asked the piccolo. + +"He played the clarinet." + +"You said he blew his 'dog's-nose.'" + +"Don't be a ass, Fred!" said the banjo, aggrieved. "How the blazes could +a man blow his dog's nose, unless he muzzled it with a handkercher, and +then twisted its tail? He played the clarinet, I say; and my father +played the musical glasses, which was a form of harmony pertiklerly +genial to him. Amongst us we've piped out a good long century--ah! we +have, for all I look sich a babby bursting on sops and spoon meat." + +"What!" said the little man by the door. "You don't include them cockt +hatses in your expeerunce?" + +"My grandfather wore 'em, sir. He wore a play-actin' coat, too, and +buckles to his shoes, when he'd got any; and he and a friend or two made +a permanency of 'waits' (only they called 'em according to the season), +and got their profit goin' from house to house, principally in the +country, and discoursin' music at the low rate of whatever they could get +for it." + +"Ain't you comin' to the ghost, Jack?" said the little man hungrily. + +"All in course, sir. Well, gentlemen, it was hard times pretty often with +my grandfather and his friends, as you may suppose; and never so much +as when they had to trudge it across country, with the nor'-easter +buzzin' in their teeth and the snow piled on their cockt hats like lemon +sponge on entry dishes. The rewards, I've heard him say--for he lived to +be ninety, nevertheless--was poor compensation for the drifts, and the +inflienza, and the broken chilblains; but now and again they'd get a fair +skinful of liquor from a jolly squire, as 'd set 'em up like boggarts +mended wi' new broomsticks." + +"Ho-haw!" broke in a hurdle-maker in a corner; and then, regretting the +publicity of his merriment, put his fingers bashfully to his stubble +lips. + +"Now," said the banjo, "it's of a pertikler night and a pertikler skinful +that I'm a-going to tell you; and that night fell dark, and that skinful +were took a hundred years ago this December, as I'm a Jack-pudden!" + +He paused a moment for effect, before he went on:-- + +"They were down in the sou'-west country, which they little knew; and +were anighing Winchester city, or should 'a' been. But they got muzzed on +the ungodly downs, and before they guessed, they was off the track. My +good hat! there they was, as lost in the snow as three nutshells +a-sinkin' into a hasty pudden. Well, they wandered round; pretty +confident at first, but getting madder and madder as every sense of their +bearings slipped from them. And the bitter cold took their vitals, so as +they saw nothing but a great winding sheet stretched abroad for to wrap +their dead carcasses in. + +"At last my grandfather he stopt and pulled hisself together with an +awful face, and says he: 'We're Christmas pie for the carrying-on crows +if we don't prove ourselves human. Let's fetch out our pipes and blow our +trouble into 'em.' So they stood together, like as if they was before a +house, and they played 'Kate of Aberdare' mighty dismal and flat, for +their fingers froze to the keys. + +"Now, I tell you, they hadn't climbed over the first stave, when there +come a skirl of wind and spindrift of snow as almost took them off of +their feet; and, on the going down of it, Jem Sloke, as played the +hautboy, dropped the reed from his mouth, and called out, 'Sakes alive! +if we fools ain't been standin' outside a gentleman's gate all the time, +and not knowin' it!' + +"You might 'a' knocked the three of 'em down wi' a barley straw, as they +stared and stared, and then fell into a low, enjoyin' laugh. For they was +standin' not six fut from a tall iron gate in a stone wall, and behind +these was a great house showin' out dim, with the winders all lighted up. + +"'Lord!' chuckled my grandfather, 'to think o' the tricks o' this +vagarious country! But, as we're here, we'll go on and give 'em a taste +of our quality.' + +"They put new heart into the next movement, as you may guess; and they +hadn't fair started on it, when the door of the house swung open, and +down the shaft of light that shot out as far as the gate there come a +smiling young gal, with a tray of glasses in her hands. + +"Now she come to the bars; and she took and put a glass through, not +sayin' nothin', but invitin' some one to drink with a silent laugh. + +"Did any one take that glass? Of course he did, you'll be thinkin'; and +you'll be thinkin' wrong. Not a man of the three moved. They was struck +like as stone, and their lips was gone the colour of sloe berries. Not a +man took the glass. For why? The moment the gal presented it, each saw +the face of a thing lookin' out of the winder over the porch, and the +face was hidjus beyond words, and the shadder of it, with the light +behind, stretched out and reached to the gal, and made her hidjus, too. + +"At last my grandfather give a groan and put out his hand; and, as he did +it, the face went, and the gal was beautiful to see agen. + +"'Death and the devil!' said he. 'It's one or both, either way; and I +prefer 'em hot to cold!' + +"He drank off half the glass, smacked his lips, and stood staring a +moment. + +"'Dear, dear!' said the gal, in a voice like falling water, 'you've drunk +blood, sir!' + +"My grandfather gave a yell, slapped the rest of the liquor in the faces +of his friends, and threw the cup agen the bars. It broke with a noise +like thunder, and at that he up'd with his hands and fell full length +into the snow." + +There was a pause. The little man by the door was twisting nervously in +his chair. + +"He came to--of course, he came to?" said he at length. + +"He come to," said the banjo solemnly, "in the bitter break of dawn; that +is, he come to as much of hisself as he ever was after. He give a +squiggle and lifted his head; and there was he and his friends a-lyin' on +the snow of the high downs." + +"And the house and the gal?" + +"Narry a sign of either, sir, but just the sky and the white stretch; and +one other thing." + +"And what was that?" + +"A stain of red sunk in where the cup had spilt." + +There was a second pause, and the banjo blew into the bowl of his pipe. + +"They cleared out of that neighbourhood double quick, you'll bet," said +he. "But my grandfather was never the same man agen. His face took +purple, while his friends' only remained splashed with red, same as birth +marks; and, I tell you, if he ever ventur'd upon 'Kate of Aberdare,' his +cheeks swelled up to the reed of his clarinet, like as a blue plum on a +stalk. And forty year after, he died of what they call solution of blood +to the brain." + +"And you can't have better proof than that," said the little man. + +"That's what _I_ say," said the banjo. "Next player, gentlemen, please." + + + + +DARK DIGNUM + + +"I'd not go higher, sir," said my landlady's father. I made out his +warning through the shrill piping of the wind; and stopped and took in +the plunging seascape from where I stood. The boom of the waves came up +from a vast distance beneath; sky and the horizon of running water seemed +hurrying upon us over the lip of the rearing cliff. + +"It crumbles!" he cried. "It crumbles near the edge like as frosted +mortar. I've seen a noble sheep, sir, eighty pound of mutton, browsing +here one moment, and seen it go down the next in a puff of white dust. +Hark to that! Do you hear it?" + +Through the tumult of the wind in that high place came a liquid vibrant +sound, like the muffled stroke of iron on an anvil. I thought it the +gobble of water in clanging caves deep down below. + +"It might be a bell," I said. + +The old man chuckled joyously. He was my cicerone for the nonce; had +come out of his chair by the ingle-nook to taste a little the salt of +life. The north-easter flashed in the white cataracts of his eyes and +woke a feeble activity in his scrannel limbs. When the wind blew loud, +his daughter had told me, he was always restless, like an imprisoned +sea-gull. He would be up and out. He would rise and flap his old draggled +pinions, as if the great air fanned an expiring spark into flame. + +"It is a bell!" he cried--"the bell of old St. Dunstan's, that was +swallowed by the waters in the dark times." + +"Ah," I said. "That is the legend hereabouts." + +"No legend, sir--no legend. Where be the tombstones of drownded mariners +to prove it such? Not one to forty that they has in other sea-board +parishes. For why? Dunstan bell sounds its warning, and not a craft will +put out." + +"There is the storm cone," I suggested. + +He did not hear me. He was punching with his staff at one of a number of +little green mounds that lay about us. + +"I could tell you a story of these," he said. "Do you know where we +stand?" + +"On the site of the old churchyard?" + +"Ay, sir; though it still bore the name of the new yard in my first +memory of it." + +"Is that so? And what is the story?" + +He dwelt a minute, dense with introspection. Suddenly he sat himself down +upon a mossy bulge in the turf, and waved me imperiously to a place +beside him. + +"The old order changeth," he said. "The only lasting foundations of men's +works shall be godliness and law-biding. Long ago they builded a new +church--here, high up on the cliffs, where the waters could not reach; +and, lo! the waters wrought beneath and sapped the foundations, and the +church fell into the sea." + +"So I understand," I said. + +"The godless are fools," he chattered knowingly. "Look here at these +bents--thirty of 'em, may be. Tombstones, sir; perished like man his +works, and the decayed stumps of them coated with salt grass." + +He pointed to the ragged edge of the cliff a score paces away. + +"They raised it out there," he said, "and further--a temple of bonded +stone. They thought to bribe the Lord to a partnership in their +corruption, and He answered by casting down the fair mansion into the +waves." + +I said, "Who--who, my friend?" + +"They that builded the church," he answered. + +"Well," I said. "It seems a certain foolishness to set the edifice so +close to the margin." + +Again he chuckled. + +"It was close, close, as you say; yet none so close as you might think +nowadays. Time hath gnawed here like a rat on a cheese. But the +foolishness appeared in setting the brave mansion between the winds and +its own graveyard. Let the dead lie seawards, one had thought, and the +church inland where we stand. So had the bell rung to this day; and only +the charnel bones flaked piecemeal into the sea." + +"Certainly, to have done so would show the better providence." + +"Sir, I said the foolishness _appeared_. But, I tell you, there was +foresight in the disposition--in neighbouring the building to the cliff +path. _For so they could the easier enter unobserved, and store their +Tcegs of Nantes brandy in the belly of the organ_." + +"They? Who were they?" + +"Why, who--but two-thirds of all Dunburgh?" + +"Smugglers?"' + +"It was a nest of 'em--traffickers in the eternal fire o' weekdays, and +on the Sabbath, who so sanctimonious? But honesty comes not from the +washing, like a clean shirt, nor can the piety of one day purge the evil +of six. They built their church anigh the margin, forasmuch as it was +handy, and that they thought, 'Surely the Lord will not undermine His +own?' A rare community o' blasphemers, fro' the parson that took his +regular toll of the organ-loft, to him that sounded the keys and pulled +out the joyous stops as if they was so many spigots to what lay behind." + +"Of when do you speak?" + +"I speak of nigh a century and a half ago. I speak of the time o' the +Seven Years' War and of Exciseman Jones, that, twenty year after he were +buried, took his revenge on the cliff side of the man that done him to +death." + +"And who was that?" + +"They called him Dark Dignum, sir--a great feat smuggler, and as wicked +as he was bold," + +"Is your story about him?" + +"Ay, it is; and of my grandfather, that were a boy when they laid, and +was glad to lay, the exciseman deep as they could dig; for the sight of +his sooty face in his coffin was worse than a bad dream." + +"Why was that?" + +The old man edged closer to me, and spoke in a sibilant voice. + +"He were murdered, sir, foully and horribly, for all they could never +bring it home to the culprit." + +"Will you tell me about it?" + +He was nothing loth. The wind, the place of perished tombs, the very +wild-blown locks of this 'withered apple-john', were eerie accompaniments +to the tale he piped in my ear:-- + +"When my grandfather were a boy," he said, "there lighted in Dunburgh +Exciseman Jones. P'r'aps the village had gained an ill reputation. +P'r'aps Exciseman Jones's predecessor had failed to secure the confidence +o' the exekitive. At any rate, the new man was little to the fancy of the +village. He was a grim, sour-looking, brass-bound galloot; and +incorruptible--which was the worst. The keg o' brandy left on his +doorstep o' New Year's Eve had been better unspiled and run into the +gutter; for it led him somehow to the identification of the innocent that +done it, and he had him by the heels in a twinkling. The squire snorted +at the man, and the parson looked askance; but Dark Dignum, he swore he'd +be even with him, if he swung for it. They was hurt and surprised, that +was the truth, over the scrupulosity of certain people; and feelin' +ran high against Exciseman Jones. + +"At that time Dark Dignum was a young man with a reputation above his +years for profaneness and audacity. Ugly things there were said about +him; and amongst many wicked he was feared for his wickedness. Exciseman +Jones had his eye on him; and that was bad for Exciseman Jones. + +"Now one murk December night Exciseman Jones staggered home with a +bloody long slice down his scalp, and the red drip from it spotting the +cobble-stones. + +"'Summut fell on him from a winder,' said Dark Dignum, a little later, as +he were drinkin' hisself hoarse in the Black Boy. 'Summut fell on him +retributive, as you might call it. For, would you believe it, the man had +at the moment been threatenin' me? He did. He said, "I know damn well +about you, Dignum; and for all your damn ingenuity, I'll bring you with a +crack to the ground yet."' + +"What had happened? Nobody knew, sir. But Exciseman Jones was in his bed +for a fortnight; and when he got on his legs again, it was pretty evident +there was a hate between the two men that only blood-spillin' could +satisfy. + +"So far as is known, they never spoke to one another again. They played +their game of death in silence--the lawful, cold and unfathomable; the +unlawful, swaggerin' and crool--and twenty year separated the first move +and the last. + +"This were the first, sir--as Dark Dignum leaked it out long after in his +cups. This were the first; and it brought Exciseman Jones to his grave on +the cliff here. + +"It were a deep soft summer night; and the young smuggler sat by hisself +in the long room of the Black Boy. Now, I tell you he were a fox-ship +intriguer--grand, I should call him, in the aloneness of his villainy. He +would play his dark games out of his own hand; and sure, of all his +wickedness, this game must have seemed the sum. + +"I say he sat by hisself; and I hear the listening ghost of him call me a +liar. For there were another body present, though invisible to mortal +eye; and that second party were Exciseman Jones, who was hidden up the +chimney. + +"How had he inveigled him there? Ah, they've met and worried that point +out since. No other will ever know the truth this side the grave. But +reports come to be whispered; and reports said as how Dignum had made an +appointment with a bodiless master of a smack as never floated, to meet +him in the Black Boy and arrange for to run a cargo as would never be +shipped; and that somehow he managed to acquent Exciseman Jones o' this +dissembling appointment, and to secure his presence in hidin' to witness +it. + +"That's conjecture; for Dignum never let on so far. But what is known for +certain is that Exciseman Jones, who were as daring and determined as +his enemy--p'r'aps more so--for some reason was in the chimney, on to a +grating in which he had managed to lower hisself from the roof; and that +he could, if given time, have scrambled up again with difficulty, but was +debarred from going lower. And, further, this is known--that, as Dignum +sat on, pretendin' to yawn and huggin' his black intent, a little sut +plopped down the chimney and scattered on the coals of the laid fire +beneath. + +"At that--'Curse this waitin'!' said he. 'The room's as chill as a +belfry'; and he got to his feet, with a secret grin, and strolled to the +hearthstone. + +"'I wonder,' said he, 'will the landlord object if I ventur' upon a glint +of fire for comfort's sake?' and he pulled out his flint and steel, +struck a spark, and with no more feelin' than he'd express in lighting +a pipe, set the flame to the sticks. + +"The trapt rat above never stirred or give tongue. My God! what a man! +Sich a nature could afford to bide and bide--ay, for twenty year, if need +be. + +"Dignum would have enjoyed the sound of a cry; but he never got it. He +listened with the grin fixed on his face; and of a sudden he heard a +scrambling struggle, like as a dog with the colic jumping at a wall; and +presently, as the sticks blazed and the smoke rose denser, a thick +coughin', as of a consumptive man under bed-clothes. Still no cry, nor +any appeal for mercy; no, not from the time he lit the fire till a +horrible rattle come down, which was the last twitches of somethin' that +choked and died on the sooty gratin' above. + +"When all was quiet, Dignum he knocks with his foot on the floor and sits +hisself down before the hearth, with a face like a pillow for innocence. + +"'I were chilled and lit it,' says he to the landlord. 'You don't mind?' + +"Mind? Who would have ventur'd to cross Dark Dignum's fancies? + +"He give a boisterous laugh, and ordered in a double noggin of humming +stuff. + +"'Here,' he says, when it comes, 'is to the health of Exciseman Jones, +that swore to bring me to the ground.' + +"'To the ground,' mutters a thick voice from the chimney. + +"'My God!' says the landlord--'there's something up there!' + +"Something there was; and terrible to look upon when they brought it to +light. The creature's struggles had ground the sut into its face, and its +nails were black below the quick. + +"Were those words the last of its death-throe, or an echo from beyond? +Ah! we may question; but they were heard by two men. + +"Dignum went free. What could they prove agen him? Not that he knew there +was aught in the chimney when he lit the fire. The other would scarcely +have acquent him of his plans. And Exciseman Jones was hurried into his +grave alongside the church up here. + +"And therein he lay for twenty year, despite that, not a twelvemonth +after his coming, the sacrilegious house itself sunk roaring into the +waters. For the Lord would have none of it, and, biding His time, struck +through a fortnight of deluge, and hurled church and cliff into ruin. But +the yard remained, and, nighest the seaward edge of it, Exciseman Jones +slept in his fearful winding sheet and bided _his_ time. + +"It came when my grandfather were a young man of thirty, and mighty close +and confidential with Dark Dignum. God forgive him! Doubtless he were +led away by the older smuggler, that had a grace of villainy about him, +'tis said, and used Lord Chesterfield's printed letters for wadding to +his bullets. + +"By then he was a ramping, roaring devil; but, for all his bold hands +were stained with crime, the memory of Exciseman Jones and of his promise +dwelled with him and darkened him ever more and more, and never left him. +So those that knew him said. + +"Now all these years the cliff edge agen the graveyard, where it was +broke off, was scabbing into the sea below. But still they used this way +of ascent for their ungodly traffic; and over the ruin of the cliff they +had drove a new path for to carry up their kegs. + +"It was a cloudy night in March, with scud and a fitful moon, and there +was a sloop in the offing, and under the shore a loaded boat that had +just pulled in with muffled rowlocks. Out of this Dark Dignum was the +first to sling hisself a brace of rundlets; and my grandfather followed +with two more. They made softly for the cliff path--began the ascent--was +half-way up. + +"Whiz!--a stone of chalk went by them with a skirl, and slapped into the +rubble below. + +"'Some more of St. Dunstan's gravel!' cried Dignum, pantin' out a +reckless laugh under his load; and on they went again. + +"Hwish!--a bigger lump came like a thunderbolt, and the wind of it took +the bloody smuggler's hat and sent it swooping into the darkness like a +bird. + +"'Thunder!' said Dignum; 'the cliff's breaking away!' + +"The words was hardly out of his mouth, when there flew such a volley of +chalk stones as made my grandfather, though none had touched him, fall +upon the path where he stood, and begin to gabble out what he could call +to mind of the prayers for the dying. He was in the midst of it, when he +heard a scream come from his companion as froze the very marrow in his +bones. He looked up, thinkin' his hour had come. + +"My God! What a sight he saw! The moon had shone out of a sudden, and the +light of it struck down on Dignum's face, and that was the colour of +dirty parchment. And he looked higher, and give a sort of sob. + +"For there, stickin' out of the cliff side, was half the body of +Exciseman Jones, with its arms stretched abroad, _and it was clawin' out +lumps of chalk and hurling them down at Dignum_! + +"And even as he took this in through his terror, a great ball of white +came hurtling, and went full on to the man's face with a splash--and he +were spun down into the deep night below, a nameless thing." + +The old creature came to a stop, his eyes glinting with a febrile +excitement. + +"And so," I said, "Exciseman Jones was true to his word?" + +The tension of memory was giving--the spring slowly uncoiling itself. + +"Ay," he said doubtfully. "The cliff had flaked away by degrees to his +very grave. They found his skelington stickin' out of the chalk." + +"His _skeleton?"_ said I, with the emphasis of disappointment. + +"The first, sir, the first. Ay, his was the first. There've been a many +exposed since. The work of decay goes on, and the bones they fall into +the sea. Sometimes, sailing off shore, you may see a shank or an arm +protrudin' like a pigeon's leg from a pie. But the wind or the weather +takes it and it goes. There's more to follow yet. Look at 'em! look at +these bents! Every one a grave, with a skelington in it. The wear and +tear from the edge will reach each one in turn, and then the last of the +ungodly will have ceased from the earth." + +"And what became of your grandfather?" + +"My grandfather? There were something happened made him renounce the +devil. He died one of the elect. His youth were heedless and +unregenerate; but, 'tis said, after he were turned thirty he never smiled +agen. There was a reason. Did I ever tell you the story of Dark Dignum +and Exciseman Jones?" + + + + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + + +This is the story of William Tyrwhitt, who went to King's Cobb for rest +and change, and, with the latter, at least, was so far accommodated +as for a time to get beyond himself and into regions foreign to his +experiences or his desires. And for this condition of his I hold myself +something responsible, inasmuch as it was my inquisitiveness was the +means of inducing him to an exploration, of which the result, with its +measure of weirdness, was for him alone. But, it seems, I was appointed +an agent of the unexplainable without my knowledge, and it was simply my +misfortune to find my first unwitting commission in the selling of a +friend. + +I was for a few days, about the end of a particular July, lodged in that +little old seaboard town of Dorset that is called King's Cobb. Thither +there came to me one morning a letter from William Tyrwhitt, the +polemical journalist (a queer fish, like the cuttle, with an ink-bag for +the confusion of enemies), complaining that he was fagged and used up, +and desiring me to say that nowhere could complete rest be obtained as in +King's Cobb. + +I wrote and assured him on this point. The town, I said, lay wrapped in +the hills as in blankets, its head only, winking a sleepy eye, projecting +from the top of the broad steep gully in which it was stretched at ease. +Thither few came to the droning coast; and such as did, looked up at the +High Street baking in the sun, and, thinking of Jacob's ladder, composed +them to slumber upon the sand and left the climbing to the angels. Here, +I said, the air and the sea were so still that one could hear the oysters +snoring in their beds; and the little frizzle of surf on the beach was +like to the sound to dreaming ears of bacon frying in the kitchens of the +blest. + +William Tyrwhitt came, and I met him at the station, six or seven miles +away. He was all strained and springless, like a broken child's toy--"not +like that William who, with lance in rest, shot through the lists in +Fleet Street." A disputative galley-puller could have triumphed over +him morally; a child physically. + +The drive in the inn brake, by undulating roads and scented valleys, +shamed his cheek to a little flush of self-assertion. + +"I will sleep under the vines," he said, "and the grapes shall drop into +my mouth." + +"Beware," I answered, "lest in King's Cobb your repose should be +everlasting. The air of that hamlet has matured like old port in the bin +of its hills, till to drink of it is to swoon." + +We alighted at the crown of the High Street, purposing to descend on +foot the remaining distance to the shore. + +"Behold," I exclaimed, "how the gulls float in the shimmer, like ashes +tossed aloft by the white draught of a fire! Behold these ancient +buildings nodding to the everlasting lullaby of the bay waters! The +cliffs are black with the heat apoplexy; the lobster is drawn scarlet to +the surface. You shall be like an addled egg put into an incubator." + +"So," he said, "I shall rest and not hatch. The very thought is like +sweet oil on a burn." + +He stayed with me a week, and his body waxed wondrous round and rosy, +while his eye acquired a foolish and vacant expression. So it was with +me. We rolled together, by shore and by road of this sluggard place, like +spent billiard balls; and if by chance we cannoned, we swerved sleepily +apart, until, perhaps, one would fall into a pocket of the sand, and the +other bring up against a cushion of sea-wall. + +Yet, for all its enervating atmosphere, King's Cobb has its fine +traditions of a sturdy independence, and a slashing history withal; and +its aspect is as picturesque as that of an opera bouffe fishing-harbour. +Then, too, its High Street, as well as its meandering rivulets of low +streets, is rich in buildings, venerable and antique. + +We took an irresponsible, smiling pleasure in noting these +advantages--particularly after lunch; and sometimes, where an old +house was empty, we would go over it, and stare at beams and +chimneypieces and hear the haunted tale of its fortunes, with a faint +half-memory in our breasts of that one-time bugbear we had known as +"copy." But though more than once a flaccid instinct would move us to +have out our pencils, we would only end by bunging our foolish mouths +with them, as if they were cigarettes, and then vaguely wondering +at them for that, being pencils, they would not draw. + +By then we were so sinewless and demoralized that we could hear in the +distant strains of the European Concert nothing but an orchestra of +sweet sounds, and would have given ourselves away in any situation with a +pound of tea. Therefore, perhaps, it was well for us that, a peremptory +summons to town reaching me after seven days of comradeship with William, +I must make shift to collect my faculties with my effects, and return to +the more bracing climate of Fleet Street. + +And here, you will note, begins the story of William Tyrwhitt, who would +linger yet a few days in that hanging garden of the south coast, and who +would pull himself together and collect matter for "copy." + +He found a very good subject that first evening of his solitude. + +I was to leave in the afternoon, and the morning we spent in aimlessly +rambling about the town. Towards mid-day, a slight shower drove us to +shelter under the green verandah of a house, standing up from the lower +fall of the High Street, that we had often observed in our wanderings. +This house--or rather houses, for it was a block of two--was very tall +and odd-looking, being all built of clean squares of a whitish granite; +and the double porch in the middle base--led up to by side-going steps +behind thin iron railings--roofed with green-painted zinc. In some of the +windows were jalousies, but the general aspect of the exterior was gaunt +and rigid; and the whole block bore a dismal, deserted look, as if it had +not been lived in for years. + +Now we had taken refuge in the porch of that half that lay uppermost on +the slope; and here we noticed that, at a late date, the building was +seemingly in process of repair, painters' pots and brushes lying on a +window-sill, and a pair of steps showing within through the glass. + +"They have gone to dinner," said I. "Supposing we seize the opportunity +to explore?" + +We pushed at the door; it yielded. We entered, shut ourselves in, and +paused to the sound of our own footsteps echoing and laughing from +corners and high places. On the ground floor were two or three good-sized +rooms with modern grates, but cornices, chimney-pieces, embrasures finely +Jacobean. There were innumerable under-stair and over-head cupboards, +too, and pantries, and closets, and passages going off darkly into the +unknown. + +We clomb the stairway--to the first floor--to the second. Here was all +pure Jacobean; but the walls were crumbling, the paper peeling, the +windows dim and foul with dirt. + +I have never known a place with such echoes. They shook from a footstep +like nuts rattling out of a bag; a mouse behind the skirting led a whole +camp-following of them; to ask a question was, as in that other House, to +awaken the derisive shouts of an Opposition. Yet, in the intervals of +silence, there fell a deadliness of quiet that was quite appalling by +force of contrast. + +"Let us go down," I said. "I am feeling creepy." + +"Pooh!" said William Tyrwhitt; "I could take up my abode here with a +feather bed." + +We descended, nevertheless. Arrived at the ground floor, "I am going to +the back," said William. + +I followed him--a little reluctantly, I confess. Gloom and shadow had +fallen upon the town, and this old deserted hulk of an abode was ghostly +to a degree. There was no film of dust on its every shelf or sill that +did not seem to me to bear the impress of some phantom finger feeling its +way along. A glint of stealthy eyes would look from dark uncertain +corners; a thin evil vapour appear to rise through the cracks of the +boards from the unvisited cellars in the basement. + +And here, too, we came suddenly upon an eccentricity of out-building that +wrought upon our souls with wonder. For, penetrating to the rear through +what might have been a cloak-closet or butler's pantry, we found a +supplementary wing, or rather tail of rooms, loosely knocked together, to +proceed from the back, forming a sort of skilling to the main building. +These rooms led direct into one another, and, consisting of little more +than timber and plaster, were in a woeful state of dilapidation. +Everywhere the laths grinned through torn gaps in the ceilings and walls; +everywhere the latter were blotched and mildewed with damp, and the +floor-boards rotting in their tracks. Fallen mortar, rusty tins, yellow +teeth of glass, whitened soot--all the decay and rubbish of a generation +of neglect littered the place and filled it with an acrid odour. From one +of the rooms we looked forth through a little discoloured window upon a +patch of forlorn weedy garden, where the very cats glowered in a +depression that no surfeit of mice could assuage. + +We went on, our nervous feet apologetic to the grit they crunched; and, +when we were come to near the end of this dreary annexe, turned off to +the left into a short gloom of passage that led to a closed door. + +Pushing this open, we found a drop of some half-dozen steps, and, going +gingerly down these, stopped with a common exclamation of surprise on our +lips. + +Perhaps our wonder was justified, for we were in the stern cabin of an +ancient West Indiaman. + +Some twenty feet long by twelve wide--there it all was, from the deck +transoms above, to the side lockers and great curved window, sloping +outwards to the floor and glazed with little panes in galleries, that +filled the whole end of the room. Thereout we looked, over the degraded +garden, to the lower quarters of the town--as if, indeed, we were perched +high up on waves--and even to a segment of the broad bay that swept by +them. + +But the room itself! What phantasy of old sea-dog or master-mariner had +conceived it? What palsied spirit, condemned to rust in inactivity, had +found solace in this burlesque of shipcraft? To renew the past in such a +fixture, to work oneself up to the old glow of flight and action, and +then, while one stamped and rocked maniacally, to feel the refusal of so +much as a timber to respond to one's fervour of animation! It was a +grotesque picture. + +Now, this cherished chamber had shared the fate of the rest. The paint +and gilding were all cracked and blistered away; much of the glass of +the stern-frame was gone or hung loose in its sashes; the elaborately +carved lockers mouldered on the walls. + +These were but dummies when we came to examine them--mere slabs attached +to the brickwork, and decaying with it. + +"There should be a case-bottle and rummers in one, at least," said +William Tyrwhitt. + +"There are, sir, at your service," said a voice behind us. + +We started and turned. + +It had been such a little strained voice that it was with something +like astonishment I looked upon the speaker. Whence he had issued I could +not guess; but there he stood behind us, nodding and smiling--a squab, +thick-set old fellow with a great bald head, and, for all the hair on his +face, a tuft like a teasel sprouting from his under lip. + +He was in his shirt-sleeves, without coat or vest; and I noticed that his +dirty lawn was oddly plaited in front, and that about his ample paunch +was buckled a broad belt of leather. Greased hip-boots encased his lower +limbs, and the heels of these were drawn together as he bowed. + +William Tyrwhitt--a master of nervous English--muttered "Great Scott!" +under his breath. + +"Permit me," said the stranger--and he held out to us a tin pannikin +(produced from Heaven knows where) that swam with fragrance. + +I shook my head. William Tyrwhitt, that fated man, did otherwise. He +accepted the vessel and drained it. + +"It smacks of all Castille," he said, handing it back with a sigh of +ecstasy. "Who the devil are you, sir?" + +The stranger gave a little crow. + +"Peregrine Iron, sir, at your service--Captain Penegrine Iron, of the +_Raven_ sloop amongst others. You are very welcome to the run of my poor +abode." + +"Yours?" I murmured in confusion. "We owe you a thousand apologies." + +"Not at all," he said, addressing all his courtesy to William. Me, since +my rejection of his beaker, he took pains to ignore. + +"Not at all," he said. "Your intrusion was quite natural under the +circumstances. I take a pleasure in being your cicerone. This cabin (he +waved his hand pompously)--a fancy of mine, sir, a fancy of mine. The +actual material of the latest of my commands brought hither and adapted +to the exigencies of shore life. It enables me to live eternally in the +past--a most satisfying illusion. Come to-night and have a pipe and a +glass with me." + +I thought William Tyrwhitt mad. + +"I will come, by all means," he said. + +The stranger bowed us out of the room. + +"That is right," he exclaimed. "You will find me here. Good-bye for the +present." + +As we plunged like dazed men into the street, now grown sunny, I turned +on my friend. + +"William," I said, "did you happen to look back as we left the cabin?" + +"No." + +"I did." + +"Well?" + +"There was no stranger there at all. The place was empty." + +"Well?" + +"You will not go to-night?" + +"You bet I do." + +I shrugged my shoulders. We walked on a little way in silence. Suddenly +my companion turned on me, a most truculent expression on his face. + +"For an independent thinker," he said, "you are rather a pusillanimous +jackass. A man of your convictions to shy at a shadow! Fie, sir, fie! +What if the room _were_ empty? The place was full enough of traps to +permit of Captain Iron's immediate withdrawal." + +Much may be expressed in a sniff. I sniffed. + +That afternoon I went back to town, and left the offensive William to his +fate. + + * * * * * + +It found him at once. + +The very day following that of my retreat, I was polishing phrases by +gaslight in the dull sitting-room of my lodgings in the Lambeth Road, +when he staggered in upon me. His face was like a sheep's, white and +vacant; his hands had caught a trick of groping blindly along the backs +of chairs. + +"You have obtained your 'copy'?" I said. + +I made him out to murmur "yes" in a shaking under-voice. He was so +patently nervous that I put him in a chair and poured him out a +wine-glassful of London brandy. This generally is a powerful emetic, but +it had no more effect upon him than water. Then I was about to lower the +gas, to save his eyes, but he stopped me with a thin shriek. + +"Light, light!" he whispered. "It cannot be too light for me!" + +"Now, William Tyrwhitt," I said, by-and-by, watchful of him, and marking +a faint effusion of colour soak to his cheek, "you would not accept my +warning, and you were extremely rude to me. Therefore you have had an +experience--" + +"An awful one," he murmured. + +"An awful one, no doubt; and to obtain surcease of the haunting memory of +it, you must confide its processes to me. But, first, I must put it to +you, which is the more pusillanimous--to refuse to submit one's manliness +to the tyranny of the unlawful, or to rush into situations you have not +the nerve to adapt yourself to?" + +"I could not foresee, I could not foresee." + +"Neither could I. And that was my very reason for declining the +invitation. Now proceed." + +It was long before he could. But presently he essayed, and gathered voice +with the advance of his narrative, and even unconsciously threw it into +something the form of "copy." And here it is as he murmured it, but with +a gasp for every full-stop. + +"I confess I was so far moved by the tone of your protest as, after your +departure, to make some cautious inquiries about the house we had +visited. I could discover nothing to satisfy my curiosity. It was known +to have been untenanted for a great number of years; but as to who was +the landlord, whether Captain Iron or another, no one could inform me; +and the agent for the property was of the adjacent town where you met me. +I was not fortunate, indeed, in finding that any one even knew of the +oddly appointed room; but considering that, owing to the time the house +had remained vacant, the existence of this eccentricity could be a +tradition only with some casual few, my failure did not strike me as +being at all bodeful. On the contrary, it only whetted my desire to +investigate further in person, and penetrate to the heart of a very +captivating little mystery. But probably, I thought, it is quite simple +of solution, and the fact of the repairers and the landlord being in +evidence at one time, a natural coincidence. + +"I dined well, and sallied forth about nine o'clock. It was a night +pregnant with possibilities. The lower strata of air were calm, but +overhead the wind went down the sea with a noise of baggage-wagons, and +there was an ominous hurrying and gathering together of forces under +the bellying standards of the clouds. + +"As I went up the steps of the lonely building, the High Street seemed to +turn all its staring eyes of lamps in my direction. 'What a droll +fellow!' they appeared to be saying; 'and how will he look when he +reissues?' + +"'There ain't nubbudy in that house,' croaked a small boy, who had paused +below, squinting up at me. + +"'How do you know?' said I. 'Move on, my little man.' + +"He went; and at once it occurred to me that, as no notice was taken of +my repeated knockings, I might as well try the handle. I did, found the +door unlatched, as it had been in the morning, pushed it open, entered, +and swung it to behind me. + +"I found myself in the most profound darkness--that darkness, if I may +use the paradox, of a peopled desolation that men of but little nerve or +resolution find insupportable. To me, trained to a serenity of stoicism, +it could make no demoralizing appeal. I had out my matchbox, opened it at +leisure, and, while the whole vaulting blackness seemed to tick and +rustle with secret movement, took a half-dozen vestas into my hand, +struck one alight, and, by its dim radiance, made my way through the +building by the passages we had penetrated in the morning. If at all I +shrank or perspired on my spectral journey, I swear I was not +conscious of doing so. + +"I came to the door of the cabin. All was black and silent. + +"'Ah!' I thought, 'the rogue has played me false.' + +"Not to subscribe to an uncertainty, I pushed at the door, saw only +swimming dead vacancy before me, and tripping at the instant on the sill, +stumbled crashing into the room below and slid my length on the floor. + +"Now, I must tell you, it was here my heart gave its first somersault. I +had fallen, as I say, into a black vault of emptiness; yet, as I rose, +bruised and dazed, to my feet, there was the cabin all alight from a +great lanthorn that swung from the ceiling, and our friend of the morning +seated at a table, with a case-bottle of rum and glasses before him. + +"I stared incredulous. Yes, there could be no doubt it was he, and pretty +flushed with drink, too, by his appearance. + +"'Incandescent light in a West Indiaman!' I muttered; for not otherwise +could I account for the sudden illumination. 'What the deuce!' + +"'Belay that!' he growled. He seemed to observe me for the first time. + +"'A handsome manner of boarding a craft you've got, sir,' said he, +glooming at me. + +"I was hastening to apologize, but he stopped me coarsely. + +"'Oh, curse the long jaw of him! Fill your cheek with that, you Barbary +ape, and wag your tail if you can, but burn your tongue.' + +"He pointed to the case-bottle with a forefinger that was like a dirty +parsnip. What induced me to swallow the insult, and even some of the +pungent liquor of his rude offering? The itch for 'copy' was, no doubt, +at the bottom of it. + +"I sat down opposite my host, filled and drained a bumper. The fire ran +to my brain, so that the whole room seemed to pitch and courtesy. + +"'This is an odd fancy of yours,' I said. + +"'What is?' said he. + +"'This,' I answered, waving my hand around--'this freak of turning a back +room into a cabin.' + +"He stared at me, and then burst into a malevolent laugh. + +"'Back room, by thunder!' said he. 'Why, of course--just a step into the +garden where the roses and the buttercupses be agrowing.' + +"Now I pricked my ears. + +"'Has the night turned foul?' I muttered. 'What a noise the rain makes +beating on the window!' + +"'It's like to be a foul one for you, at least,' said he. 'But, as for +the rain, it's blazing moonlight.' + +"I turned to the broad casement in astonishment. My God! what did I see? +Oh, my friend, my friend! will you believe me? By the melancholy glow +that spread therethrough I saw that the whole room was rising and sinking +in rhythmical motion; that the lights of King's Cobb had disappeared, and +that in their place was revealed a world of pale and tossing water, the +pursuing waves of which leapt and clutched at the glass with innocuous +fingers. + +"I started to my feet, mad in an instant. + +"'Look, look!' I shrieked. 'They follow us--they struggle to get at you, +you bloody murderer!' + +"They came rising on the crests of the billows; they hurried fast in our +wake, tumbling and swaying, their stretched, drowned faces now lifted to +the moonlight, now over-washed in the long trenches of water. They were +rolled against the galleries of glass, on which their hair slapped like +ribbons of seaweed--a score of ghastly white corpses, with strained black +eyes and pointed stiff elbows crookt up in vain for air. + +"I was mad, but I knew it all now. This was no house, but the good, +ill-fated vessel _Rayo,_ once bound for Jamaica, but on the voyage fallen +into the hands of the bloody buccaneer, Paul Hardman, and her crew made +to walk the plank, and most of her passengers. I knew that the dark +scoundrel had boarded and mastered her, and--having first fired and sunk +his own sloop--had steered her straight for the Cuban coast, making +disposition of what remained of the passengers on the way, and I knew +that my great-grandfather had been one of these doomed survivors, and +that he had been shot and murdered under orders of the ruffian that now +sat before me. All this, as retailed by one who sailed for a season under +Hardman to save his skin, is matter of old private history; and of common +report was it that the monster buccaneer, after years of successful +trading in the ship he had stolen, went into secret and prosperous +retirement under an assumed name, and was never heard of more on the high +seas. But, it seemed, it was for the great-grandson of one of his victims +to play yet a sympathetic part in the grey old tragedy. + +"How did this come to me in a moment--or, rather, what was that dream +buzzing in my brain of 'proof' and 'copy' and all the tame stagnation +of a long delirium of order? I had nothing in common with the latter. In +some telepathic way--influenced by these past-dated surroundings--dropped +into the very den of this Procrustes of the seas, I was there to re-enact +the fearful scene that had found its climax in the brain of my ancestor. + +"I rushed to the window, thence back to within a yard of the glowering +buccaneer, before whom I stood, with tost arms, wild and menacing. + +"'They follow you!' I screamed. 'Passive, relentless, and deadly, they +follow in your wake and will not be denied. The strong, the helpless, +the coarse and the beautiful--all you have killed and mutilated in your +wanton devilry--they are on your heels like a pack of spectre-hounds, and +sooner or later they will have you in their cold arms and hale you down +to the secret places of terror. Look at Beston, who leads, with a fearful +smile on his mouth! Look at that pale girl you tortured, whose hair +writhes and lengthens--a swarm of snakes nosing the hull for some open +port-hole to enter by! Dog and devil, you are betrayed by your own +hideous cruelty!' + +"He rose and struck at me blindly; staggered, and found his filthy voice +in a shriek of rage. + +"'Jorinder! make hell of the galley-fire! Heat some irons red and fetch +out a bucket of pitch. We'll learn this dandy galloot his manners!' + +"Wrought to the snapping-point of desperation, I sprang at and closed +with him; and we went down on the floor together with a heavy crash. +I was weaponless, but I would choke and strangle him with my hands. I had +him under, my fingers crookt in his throat. His eyeballs slipped forward, +like banana ends squeezed from their skins; he could not speak or cry, +but he put up one feeble hand and flapped it aimlessly. At that, in the +midst of my fury, I glanced above me, and saw a press of dim faces +crowding a dusk hatch; and from them a shadowy arm came through, pointing +a weapon; and all my soul reeled sick, and I only longed to be left time +to destroy the venomous horror beneath me before I passed. + +"It was not to be. Something, a physical sensation like the jerk of a +hiccup, shook my frame; and immediately the waters of being seemed to +burst their dam and flow out peaceably into a valley of rest." + +William Tyrwhitt paused, and "Well?" said I. + +"You see me here," he said. "I woke this morning, and found myself lying +on the floor of that shattered and battered closet, and a starved demon +of a cat licking up something from the boards. When I drove her away, +there was a patch there like ancient dried blood." + +"And how about your head?" + +"My head? Why, the bullet seemed stuck in it between the temples; and +there I am afraid it is still." + +"Just so. Now, William Tyrwhitt, you must take a Turkish, bath and some +cooling salts, and then come and tell me all about it again." + +"Ah! you don't believe me, I see. I never supposed you would. +Good-night!" + +But, when he was gone, I sat ruminating. + +"That Captain Iron," I thought, "walked over the great rent in the floor +without falling through. Well, well!" + + + + +A LAZY ROMANCE + + +I had slept but two nights at King's Cobb, when I saw distinctly that the +novel with which I was to revolutionize society and my own fortunes, and +with the purpose of writing which in an unvexed seclusion I had buried +myself in this expedient hamlet on the South Coast, was withered in the +bud beyond redemption. To this lamentable canker of a seedling hope the +eternal harmony of the sea was a principal contributor; but Miss Whiffle +confirmed the blight. I had fled from the jangle of a city, and the +worries incidental to a life of threepenny sociabilities; and the result +was-- + +I had rooms on the Parade--a suggestive mouthful. But then the Parade is +such a modest little affair. The town itself is flung down a steep hill, +at the mouth of a verdurous gorge; and lies pitched so far as the very +waterside, a picturesque jumble of wall and roof. Its banked edges +bristle and stand up in the bight of a vaster bay, with a crooked +breakwater, like a bent finger, beckoning passing sails to its +harbourage--an invitation which most are coy of accepting. For the +attractions of King's Cobb are--comparatively--limited, and its nearest +station is a full six miles distant along a switchback road. + +Possibly this last fact may have militated against the popularity of +King's Cobb as a holiday resort. If so, all the better; and may +enterprise for ever languish in the matter. For vulgarity can claim +no commoner purpose with fashion than is shown in that destruction of +ancient landmarks and double gilding of new which follows the "opening +out" of some unsophisticated colony of simple souls. + +King's Cobb, if "remote and unfriended," is neither "melancholy" nor +"slow"; but it is small, and all its fine little history--for it has had +a stirring one--has ruffled itself out on a liliputian platform. + +Than this, its insignificance, I desired nothing better. I wished to feel +the comparative importance of the individual, which one cannot do in +crowded colonies. I coveted surroundings that should be primitive--an +atmosphere in which my thoughts could speak to me coherent. I would be +as one in a cave, looking forth on sea, and sky, and the buoyant glory of +Nature; unvexed of conventions; untrammelled by social observances; +building up my enchanted palace of the imagination against such a +background as only the unsullied majesty of sky and ocean could present. +For the result was to crown with my name an epoch in literature; and +hither in future ages should the pilgrim stand at gaze, murmuring to +himself, 'And here he wrote it!' + +I laid my head on my pillow, that first night of my stay, with a brimming +brain and a heart of high resolve. The two little windows, under a +thatched roof, of my sleeping place (_that_ lay over my sitting-room, and +both looked oceanwards) were open to the inpour of sweet hot air; and +only the regular wash of the sea below broke the close stillness of the +night. I say this was all; and, with the memory upon me, I could easily, +at any time, break the second commandment. + +I had thought myself fortunate in my lodgings. They were in a most +charming old-world cottage--as I have said on the Parade--and at high +tide I could have thrown a biscuit into the sea with merely a lazy jerk. +My sitting-room put forth a semi-circular window--like a lighthouse +lantern--upon the very pathway, and it had been soothing during the +afternoon to look from out this upon the little world of sea and sky and +striding cliff that was temporarily mine. From the Parade four feet of +stone wall dipped to a second narrow terrace, and this, in its turn, was +but a step above a slope of shingle that ran down to the water. + +Veritably had I pitched my tent on the wide littoral of rest. So I +thought with a smile, as I composed myself for slumber. + +I slept, and I woke, and I lay awake for hours. Every vext problem of my +life and of the hereafter presented itself to me, and had to be argued +out and puzzled over with maddening reiteration. The reason for this was +evident and flagrant. It had woven itself into the tissue of my brief +unconsciousness, and was now recognised as, ineradicably, part of myself. + +The tide was incoming, that was all, and the waves currycombed the beach +with a swishing monotony that would have dehumanized an ostler. + +This rings like the undue inflation of a little theme. I ask no pity for +it, nor do I make apology for my weakness. Men there may be, no doubt, +to whom the unceasing recurrent thump and scream of a coasting tide on +shingle speaks, even in sleep, of the bountiful rhythm of Nature. I am +not one of them--at least, since I visited King's Cobb. The noise of the +waters got into my brain and stayed there. It turned everything else +out--sleep, thought, faith, hope, and charity. From that first awakening +my skull was a mere globe of stagnant fluid, for any disease germs that +listed to propagate in. + +Perhaps I was too near the coast-line. The highest appreciations of +Nature's thunderous forces are conceived, I believe, in the muffled +seclusion of the study. I had heard of still-rooms. I did not quite know +what they were; but they seemed to me an indispensable part of seaside +lodgings, and for the rest of that night I ardently and almost tearfully +longed to be in one. + +I came down in the morning jaded and utterly unrefreshed. It was patent +that I was in no state to so much as outline the preliminaries of my +great undertaking. "Use shall accustom me," I groaned. "I shall scarcely +notice it to-night." + +And it was at this point that Miss Whiffle walked like a banshee into the +disturbed chambers of my life, and completed my demoralization. + +I must premise that I am an exquisitively nervous man--one who would +accept almost ridiculous impositions if the alternative were a "scene." +Strangers, I fancy, are quick to detect the signs of this weakness in me; +but none before had ever ventured to take such outrageous advantage of +it as did Miss Whiffle, with the completest success. + +This lady had secured me for a month. My rights extended over the +lantern-windowed sitting-room and the bedroom above it. They were to +include, moreover, board of a select quality. + +"Select" represented Miss Whiffle's brazen mean of morality; and, indeed, +it is an elastic and accommodating word. One, for instance, may select an +aged gander for its wisdom, knowing that the youthful gosling is +proverbially "green." Miss Whiffle selected the aged gander for me, and I +gnawed its sinewy limbs without a protest. On a similar principle she +appeared to ransack the town shops for prehistoric joints (the locality +was rich in fossils), and vegetables that, like eggs, only grew harder +the more they were boiled. + +I submitted, of course; and should have done no less by a landlady not so +obstreperously constituted. But this terrible person gauged and took me +in hand from the very morning following my arrival. + +She came to receive my _orders_ after breakfast (tepid chicory and an +omelette like a fragment of scorched blanket) with her head wrapped up in +a towel. Thus habited she had the effrontery to trust the meal had been +to my liking. I gave myself away at once by weakly answering, "Oh, +certainly!" + +"As to dinner, sir," she said faintly, "it is agreed, no kitching fire in +the hevening. That is understood." + +I said, "Oh, certainly!" again. + +"What I should recommend," she said--and she winced obtrusively at every +sixth word--"is an 'arty meal at one, and a light supper at height." + +"That will suit me admirably," I said. + +She tapped her fingers together indulgently. + +"So I thought," she murmured. "Now, what do you fancy, sir?" + +"Dear me!" I exclaimed, for her face was horribly contorted. "Are you in +pain?" + +"Agonies!" said Miss Whiffle. + +"Toothache?" + +"Neuralgia, sir, for my sins." + +"Is there--is there no remedy?" + +She was taken with a sharp spasm of laughter, mirthless, but consciously +expressive of all the familiar processes of self-effacement under +torture. + +"I arks nothing but my duty, sir," she said. "That is the myrrh and +balsam to a racking 'ed. Not but what I owns to a shrinking like unto +death over the thought of what lays before me this very morning. Rest and +quiet is needful, but it's little I shall get of either out of a kitching +fire in the dog days. And what would you fancy for your dinner, sir?" + +"I am sorry," I murmured, "that you should suffer on my account. I +suppose there is nothing cold--" + +"Not enough, sir, in all the 'ouse to bait a mousetrap. Nor would I +inconvenience you, if not for your own kind suggestion. But potted meats +is 'andy and ever sweet, and if I might make bold to propose a tin--" + +"Very well. Get me what you like, Miss Whiffle." + +"I must arks your pardin, sir. But to walk out in this 'eat, and every +rolling pebble under my foot a knife through my 'ed--no, sir. I make bold +to claim that consideration for myself." + +"Leave it to me, then. I will do my own catering this morning." + +Then I added, in the forlorn hope of justifying my moral ineptitude to +myself, "If you take my advice, you will lie down." + +"And where, sir?" she answered, with a particularly patient smile. "The +beds is unmade as yet, sir," she went on, in a suffering decline, "and +rumpled sheets is thorns to a bursting brain." + +Then she looked meaningly at the sitting-room sofa. + +"I made bold to think, if you _'ad_ 'appened to been a-going to bathe, +the only quiet place in the 'ouse--" she murmured, in semi-detached +sentences, and put her hand to her brow. + +Five minutes later (I fear no one will credit it) I was outside the +house, and Miss Whiffle was installed, towel and all, upon my sofa. + +For a moment I really think the outrageous absurdity of the situation did +goad me to the tottering point of rebellion. I had not the courage, +however, to let myself go, and, as usual, succumbed to the tyranny of +circumstances. + +It was a blazing morning. The flat sea lay panting on its coasts, as if, +for all its liquid sparkle, it were athirst; and the town, under the oven +of its hills, burned red-hot, like pottery in a kiln. + +I went and bought my tinned meat (a form of preserve quite odious to me) +and strolled back disconsolately to the Parade. Occasionally, flitting +past the lantern window, I would steal a side glance into the cool +luminosity of my own inaccessible parlour; and there always, reclining at +her ease upon my sofa, was the ineradicable presentment of Miss Whiffle. + +At one o'clock I ventured to reclaim my own, and sat me down at table, a +scorched and glutinous wreck, too overcome with lassitude to tackle the +obnoxious meal of my own providing. And to the sofa, already made +familiar of that dishonoured towel, I was fain presently to confide the +empty problem of my own aching head. + +All this was but the forerunner and earnest of a month's long martyrdom. +That night the sea had me by the nerves again, and for many nights +after; and, although I grew in time to a certain tolerance of the booming +monotony, it was the tolerance of a dully resigned, not an indifferent, +brain. + +When it came to the second morning, not only the novel, but the mere idea +of my ever having contemplated writing one, was a thing with me to feebly +marvel over. And from that time I set myself down to exist and broil +only, doling out a languid interest to the locality, the shimmer of whose +baking hill-sides made all life a quivering, glaring phantom of itself. + +Miss Whiffle tyrannized over me more or less according to her mood; but +she did not usurp my sitting-room again. I used to sit by the hour at +the lantern window, in a sort of greasy blankness, like a meat pudding, +and vacantly scrutinize the loiterers who passed by on the hot asphalt of +the Parade. Screened by the window curtains, I could see and hear without +endangering my own privacy; and many were the odd interchanges of speech +that fell from strangers unconscious of a listener. + +One particularly festering day after dinner I had the excitement of quite +a pretty little quarrel for dessert. Miss Whiffle had stuffed me with +suet, in meat and pudding, to a point of stupefaction that stopped short +only of absolute insensibility; and in this state I took up my usual post +at the window, awaiting in swollen vacuity the possibilities of the +afternoon. + +On the horizon violet-hot sea and sky showed scarce a line of demarcation +between them. Nearer in the waves snored stertorously from exhausted +lungs, as if the very tide were in extremis. Not a breath of air fanned +the pitiless Parade, and the sole accent on life came from a droning, +monotonous voice pitched from somewhere in querulous complaint. + +"Frarsty!" it wailed, "Frarsty! I warnt thee!" and again, "I warnt thee, +Frarsty! Frarsty! Frar--r--r--rsty!" drawn out in an inconceivable +passionlessness of desire again and again, till I felt myself absorbing +the ridiculous yearning for an absurd person and inclined to weep +hysterical tears at his unresponsiveness. + +Then through the suffocating miasma thridded another sound--the whine of +a loafing tramp slowly pleading along the house fronts--vainly, too, as +it appeared. + +"Friends," went his formula, nasal and forcibly spasmodic in the best +gull-catcher style, "p'raps you will ask why I, a able-bodied man, are +asking for ass--ist--ance in your town. Friends, I answer, becorse I +cannot get work and becorse I cannot starve. Any honest work I would be +thankful for; but no one will give it to me." + +Then followed an elaborate presentation, in singsong verse, of his own +undeserved indigence and the brutality of employers, and so the +recitation again:-- + +"Friends, the least ass--ist--ance would be welcome. I am a honest +British workman, and employ--ment I cannot ob--tain. You sit in your +com--for--ta--ble 'ouses, and I ask you to ass--ist a fellow creature, +driven to this for no fault of his own--for many can 'elp one where one +cannot 'elp many." + +Then he hove into sight--a gastropodous tub of a fellow, with a rascally +red eye; and I shrank behind my curtains, for I never court parley with +such gentlemen. + +He spotted me, of course,--rogues of his feather have a hawk's eye for +timid quarry,--and his bloated face appeared at the window. + +"Sir--friend," he said, in a confidential, hoarse whisper, "won't you +'elp a starvin' British workman?" + +I gave him sixpence, cursing inwardly this my concession to pure +timorousness, and the bestial mask of depravity vanished with a grin. + +After that I was left to myself, heat and haze alone reigning without; +and presently, I think, I must have fallen into a suetty doze, for I was +semi-conscious of voices raised in dispute for a length of time, before I +roused to the fact that two people were quarrelling just outside my +window. + +They were a young man--almost a boy--and a girl of about his own age; and +both evidently belonged to the labouring classes. + +She was, I took occasion to notice, aggressively pretty in that hot red +and black style that finds its warmest admirers in a class cultivated +above that to which she belonged; and she was scorning and flouting her +slow, perplexed swain with that over-measure of vehemence characteristic +of a sex devoid of the sense of proportion. + +"Aw!" she was saying, as I came into focus of their dispute. "That's the +moral of a mahn, it is. Yer ter work when ye like an' ter play when ye +like, and the girls hahs ter sit and dangle their heels fer yer honours' +convenience." + +"I doan't arlays get my likes, Jenny, or I shud a' met you yesterday." + +"Ay, as yer promused." + +"We worked ower late pulling the lias, I tell yer. 'Twould 'a' meant half +a day's wages garn if I'd com', and theer, my dear, 'ud been reason +for another delay in oor getting spliced." + +"You're fine and vulgar, upon my word! A little free, too, and a little +mistook. I've no mind ter get spliced, as yer carls it, wi' a chap as +cannot see's way ter keep tryst." + +"Yer doan't mean thart?" + +"Doan't I? Yer'll answer fer me in everything, 't seems. But yer've got +enough ter answer fer yerself, Jack Curtice. I'm none of the sort ter go +or stay at anny mahn's pleasure. There's kerps and dabs in the sea yet, +Jack Curtice; and fatter ones ter fish fer, too." + +"But yer doan't understand." + +"I understand my own vally; and that isn't ter be kep' drarging my toes +on the Parade half an a'rtenoon fer a chap as thinks he be better +engaged summer else." + +"And yer gone ter break wi' me fer thart?" + +"Good-bye, Mr. Curtice," she said, and jerked her nose high and walked +off. + +Now here was an inconsistent jade, and I felt sorry and relieved for the +sake of the young fellow. + +He stood, after the manner of his kind, amazed and speechless. Man's +saving faculty of logic was in him, but tongue-tied; and he could not +express his intuitive recognition of the self-contradictory. Such natures +frequently make reason articulate through a blow--a rough way of knocking +her into shape, but commonly effectual. Jack, however, was evidently a +large gentle swain of the dumb-suffering type--one of those unresisting +leviathans of good-humour, upon whom a woman loves to vent that passion +of the illogical which an antipathetic sex has vainly tried to laugh her +out of conceit with. + +I peered a little longer, and presently saw Mr. Curtice walk off in a +state compound of bewilderment and abject depression. + +This was the beginning to me of an interest apart from that which had +brought me to King's Cobb. A real nutshell drama had usurped the place of +that fictitious one that had as yet failed to mark an epoch by so much as +a scratch. I accepted the former as some solace for the intolerable +wrong inflicted upon me by the sea and Miss Whiffle. + +I happened across my unconscious friends fairly frequently after that my +first introduction to them; so often, indeed, that, judged by what +followed, it would almost seem as if Fate, desiring record of an incident +in the lives of these two, had intentionally worked to discomfit me from +a task more engrossing. + +Apart, and judged on their natural merits, I took Jack for a good stolid +fellow, innately and a little aggravatingly virtuous, and perhaps a +trifle more just than generous. + +Jenny, I felt, had the spurious brilliancy of that division of her sex +that claims as intuition an inability to master the processes of thought, +and attributes to this faculty all fortunate conclusions, but none that +is faulty. I thought, with some commiseration for him, that at bottom her +manner showed some real leaning towards the lover she had discarded--that +she felt the need of a pincushion, as it were, into which to stick the +little points of her malevolence. I think I was inclined to be hard on +her. I have felt the same antagonism many times towards beauty that was +unattainable by me. For she was richly pretty, without doubt. + +When in the neighbourhood of one another, however, they were wont to +assume an elaborate artificiality of speech and manner in communion with +their friends, that was designed with each to point the moral of a +complete indifference and forgetfulness. But the girl was by far the +better actor; and not only did she play her own part convincingly, but +she generally managed to show up in her rival that sense of mortification +that it was his fond hope he was effectually concealing. + +A fortnight passed; and, lo! there came the end of the lovers' quarrel in +all dramatic appropriateness. + +By that time the doings of Jack and Jenny had come to be my mind's only +refuge from such a vacancy of outlook as I had never before experienced. +"All down the coast," that summer, "the languid air did swoon." The earth +broiled, and very thought perspired; and Miss Whiffle's voice was like a +steam-whistle. + +One day, as I was exhaustedly trifling with my meridian meal, and +balancing the gratification against the trouble of eating lumpy tapioca +pudding, a muffled, rolling thud broke upon my ears, making the window +and floor vibrate slightly. It seemed so distant and unimportant that I +took no notice of it; and it was only when, ten minutes later, I became +aware that certain excited townsfolk were scurrying past outside that I +roused slowly to the thought that here was something unusual toward. +Then, indeed, a sort of insane _abandon_ flashed into life in me, and I +leapt to my feet with maniac eyes. Something stirring in King's Cobb! I +should have thought nothing less than the last trump could have pricked +it out of its accustomed grooves; and that even then it would have +slipped back into them with a sluggish sense of grievance after the first +flourish. + +I left my congealing dish, snatched up my hat, and joined the attenuated +chase. It was making in one direction--a point, apparently, to the east +of the town. As I sped excited through the narrow and tortuous streets, a +great bulge of acrid dust bellied upon me suddenly at a corner; and, +turning the latter, I plunged into a perfect fog of the same gritty +smoke. In this, phantom figures moved, appeared, and vanished; hoarse +cries resounded, and a general air of wild confusion and alarm prevailed. +For the moment, I felt as if some history of the town's past were +re-enacting, as if a sudden swoop of Frank or Dutchman upon the coast had +called forth all the defensive ardour of its people. There was nothing of +gunpowder in the stringent opacity, however; but, rather, a strong +suggestion of ancient and disintegrated mortar. + +A shape sped by me in the fog, and I managed to stay and question it. + +"What is it all?" I asked. + +"House fell down," was the breathless answer; "and a poor chap left aloft +on the ruins." + +Then I grew as insane as the rest of the company. I strode aimlessly to +and fro, striving at every coign to pierce with my eyesight the white +drift. I pushed back my hat; I gnawed my knuckles; I felt that I could +not stay still, yet knew not for what point to make. Almost I felt that +in another moment I should screech out--when a breath of sea air caught +the skirt of the cloud, and rolled the bulk of it up and away over +the house-tops. + +Then, at once, was revealed to me the cause and object of all this +gaggle, and confusion, and outcry. It was revealed to the crowd, too, +that stood about me, and, in the revelation, the noise of its mouthing +went off and faded, till a tense silence reigned and the murmur of one's +breathing seemed a sacrilege. + +I saw before me a ruinous space--a great ragged gap in a lofty block of +brick and mortar. This block had evidently, at one time, consisted of two +high semi-detached houses, and of these, one lay a monstrous heap of +tumbled and shattered _débris_. A ruin, but not quite; for, as the course +of a landslip will often tower with great spires and pinnacles of rock +and ragged earth that have withstood the pull and onset of the moving +hill-side, so here a high sheet of shattered wall, crowned with a cluster +of toppling chimneys, stood up stark in the midst of the general +overthrow. And there aloft, clinging to the crumbling stack, that might +at any moment part, and fling and crush him into the savage ruin below, +stood the figure of a solitary man. And the man was my friend of the +Parade, Jack Curtice. + +I could see and recognise him plainly--even the frantic clutch of his +hands and the deadly pallor of his face. + +The block--an ancient one--had been, as I afterwards learned, in course +of demolition when the catastrophe took place. At the moment the poor +fellow had been alone at his work, and now his destruction seemed a mere +matter of seconds. + +White dust rose from the heap, like smoke from an extinguished fire; and +ever, as we looked, spars and splinters of brick tore away from the high +fragment yet standing, and plunged with a thud into the wrack underneath. + +It was glaringly evident that not long could elapse before wall and man +would come down with a hideous, shattering run. A slip, a wilder clutch +at his frail support, might in an instant precipitate the calamity. + +Then from the upturned faces of the women cries of pity and anguish broke +forth, and men nipped one another's arms and gasped, and knew not what +counsel to offer. + +"Do summut! do summut!" cried the women; and their mates only shook off +their pleadings with a peevish show of callousness, that was merely the +dumb anguish of undemonstrativeness. For, while their throats were thick, +their practical brains were busy. + +Some one suggested a ladder, and in a moment there was an aimless +scurrying and turning amongst the women. + +"Why don't 'ee stir theeself and hunt for un, Jarge?" panted one that +stood near me, twisting hysterically upon a slow youth at her side. + +"Shut up, 'Liza!" he answered gruffly; then, with a sort of indrawn +gasp--"Look art the wall, lass--look art the wall!" + +It was obvious to the least knowing what he meant. To lean so much as a +broomstick, it seemed, against that tottering ruin would infallibly +complete its destruction. + +One foot of the clinging figure high up was seen to move slightly, and a +little bomb of mortar span out into the air and burst into dust on a +projecting brick. A long shrill sigh broke from the crowd. + +Then the male wiseheads came together, and, desperate to snap the chord +of impotent suspense, mooted and rejected plan after plan that their sane +judgment knew from the first to be impracticable. + +At the outset it was plainly impossible for a soul to approach the ruins. +Apart from the almost certain mangling such a venture would entail upon +the explorer, the least stirring or shifting of the great heap of rubbish +flung about the base of the wall would certainly risk the immediate +collapse of the latter. + +Success, it was evident, must come, if at all, from a distance--but how? + +One suggested slinging a rope from window to window of adjacent houses +across the path of the broken chimney-stack--a good method of rescue had +circumstances lent themselves to it. They did not. On the ruin side a +wide space intervened; on the other, the sister house to that which had +fallen, and which was also included in the order of demolition, was +itself affected by the loss of its support, and leaned in a sinister +manner, its party walls bulged and rent towards the scene of devastation. + +Nothing short of the great Roc itself could, it seemed, snatch the poor +fellow from his death perch. + +There came suddenly an ominous silence. Then strode out in front of his +fellows--and he moved so close to the ruin that the women whimpered and +held one another--an old, rough-bearded chap in stained corduroy. + +"Whart's he gone to do?" gasped the sibilant voices. + +He hollowed his hands to his mouth, he cleared his hoarse throat two or +three times. Only a little trailing screech came from it at first. Then +he cursed his weakness, and pulled himself together. + +"Jark! Jark Curtus!" he hailed, in an explosive voice. + +"Hullo!" + +The weak, small response floated down. + +"My lard! my poor lard! we've thought oor best, arnd we can do nothun +fower 'ee." + +Instantly a shrill protest of horror went up from the women. This was not +what they had expected. + +"What! leave the mis'rable boy to his fate!" + +There followed a storm of hisses from them--absolutely unreasonable, of +course. The old fellow turned to retire, with hanging head. + +At the moment a girl, flushed, blowzed, breathless, broke through the +skirt of the mob and barred his retreat. + +"Oh!" she panted, shaking her jet-black noddle at him--"here's a parcel +o' gor-crows for discussin' help to a Christian marn! What! a score o' +wiselings, and not one to hit oot the means and the way?" + +She had only just heard, and had run a mile to the rescue of her old lad. + +The women caught her enthusiasm, and jeered and cheered formlessly, as +their manner is; for each desired for her own voice a separate +recognition. + +Jenny pushed rudely past the abashed gaffer. She was hatless, and her +hair had tumbled abroad. She raised her face, with the eyes shining. + +"Jack!" she cried, in a shrill voice--"Jack!" + +The little weak response wailed down again. + +"Jenny! I'm anigh done." + +"Hold on a bit longer, Jack!" she screamed. "Don't move till I tell 'ee. +I'm agone to save thee, Jack!" + +Again from the women a rapturous cry broke out. What incompetent noodles +appeared their masters in juxtaposition with this fearless, defiant +creature. + +The man up aloft seemed to shiver in the shock of the outcry; and once +more some fragments of mortar rolled from under his feet and bounded into +the depths. The girl rounded upon the voicers. + +"Hold thee blazing tongues!" she cried in fury. "D'ee warnt to shake un +from his perch?" + +She turned to the foremost group of men. + +"A couple o' long scaffold poles fro' yonder!" she cried hurriedly, "and +twenty fathom o' rope!" + +Her quick eyes and intelligence had found what she wanted in a builder's +yard no great distance away. + +"Follow, a dozen o' you!" she cried; and sped off in the direction she +had indicated. + +Just twelve men, and no more, obeyed her. She was mistress of the +situation, and the crowd felt it. They made room for the dominant +intellect, and awaited developments, watching, in suppressed excitement +and trepidation, the figure--whom exhaustion was slowly mastering--high +up above them. + +Suddenly a sort of huge L-shaped structure moved down the street, until +it stood opposite the ruined house. Then, twisting and rearing itself +aloft, it took to itself the form of a lofty, slender gallows. + +It was formed of a couple of forty-foot scaffolding poles, stoutly bound +and corded together, the base of one to the top of the other, so that +they stood at right angles. Five or six feet of the butt of the +horizontal one was projected beyond its lashings, and to this three +lengths of rope were fastened, and trailed long ends in the dust as the +structure was held aloft and pushed and dragged into position. + +"Now!" shrieked the girl, red-hot, reliant, never still for a moment; "as +marny as can hold to each end there, and swing the blessed boom out +towards him!" + +Fifty may have responded. They swarmed like ants about the upraised pole, +and she drove them into position--a black knot of men hauling on the +triple cordage--left, right, and middle, like the ribs of a tent. + +They saw her meaning and fell into place with a shout. To hold the +projecting pole levered up at that height was a test of weight and +muscle, even without their man on the end of it; but there were plenty +more to help pull, did their united force waver. + +"Jack!" screamed the girl again, in a wildness of excitement. "Only a +second longer, Jack! Hold on by your eyelids, and snatch the stick +the moment it comes agen thee!" + +The horizontal spar pointed down the street. Slowly the men worked round +with the ropes, and slowly the point of the pole turned in the direction +of the chimney-stack and its forlorn burden. There was room and to spare +for the process in the wide gap made by the tumbled house. + +The crowd held its breath. Here and there a strangled sob was rent from +overstrained lungs; here and there the wailing voice of a baby whined +up and subsided. + +The pole swung round with the toiling men--neared him on the ruin. He +turned his head and saw, shifted his position and staggered. Jenny gave a +piercing screech. The men, thinking something was wrong, paused a moment. + +On the instant there came a crackling, tearing sound--a heaving roll--a +splintering crash and uproar. The man aloft was seen to make a flying +leap--or was it only a hurled fragment of the falling chimney?--and white +dust rose in a fog once more and blotted out all the tragedy that +might be enacting behind it. + +A horrible silence succeeded, then a single woman yelled, and her cry was +echoed by fifty hoarse voices. + +The noise came from those at the ropes. They were straining and tugging, +and some of them bobbed up and down like peas on a drum. + +"More on ye! more on ye! We've hooked un, and he's got the pull of a sea +sarpint!" + +The ropes became thick with striving men. The whole street resounded with +a medley of cries. + +Then the point of the boom swung slowly out of the fog, and there was the +rescued man swinging and swaying at the end of it. + +They lowered him gradually into the street. But the strain upon them was +awful, and he came down with a run the last few yards. + +Then they let the angle of the gallows wheel over as it listed, and stood +and mopped their hot foreheads, while the crowd rushed for the poor shaky +subject of all its turmoil. + +I could not get within fifty feet of him; or, I think, I should have +given him and Jenny then and there all my fortune. + +Later, I made their acquaintance in a casual way, and compromised with my +conscience by presenting them with a very pretty tea-service to help them +set up house with. + + + + +BLACK VENN + +I + + +"George," said Plancine. + +"Please say it again," said George. + +She dimpled at him and obeyed, with the soft suggestion of accent that +was like a tender confidence. Her feet were sunk in Devonshire grass; +her name was on the birth register of a little Devonshire sea-town; yet +the sun of France was in her veins as surely as his caress was on her +lips. + +Therefore she said "George" with a sweet dragging sound that greatly +fluttered the sensibilities of the person addressed, and not infrequently +led them to alight, like Prince Dummling's queen bee, on the very mouth +of that honeyed flower of speech. + +Now Plancine put her cheek on her George's rough sleeve, and said she,-- + +"I have a confession to make--about something a little silly. +Consequently I have postponed it till now, when it is too dark for +you to see my face." + +"Never!" he murmured fervently. "A double cataract could not deprive me +of that vision. It is printed here, Plancine." + +He smacked his chest hard on the left side. + +"Yet it sounds hollow, George?" + +"Yes," he said. "It is a sandwich-box, an empty one. I would not consign +your image to such a deplorable casket. My heart was what I meant. How I +hate sandwiches--misers shivering between sheets--a vile gastronomic +economy!" + +"Poor boy! I will make you little dough-cakes when you go apainting." + +"Plancine! Your image here, yes. But your dough-cakes--!" + +"Then keep to your sandwiches, sir." + +"I must. But the person who invented them was no gentleman!" + +"Papa would like to hear you say that." + +"Say what?" + +"Admit the possibility of any social distinction." + +"It is only a question of sandwiches." + +"George, must you be a Chartist and believe in Feargus O'Connor?" + +"My soul, I cannot go back on my principles, for all that the violets of +your eyes have sprouted under the shadow of a venerable family-tree." + +"That is very prettily said. You may kiss my thumb-nail with the white +spot in it for luck. No, sir. That is presuming. Now I am snug, and you +may talk." + +"Plancine, I am a son of the people. I hold by my own. No doubt, if I had +blue blood to boast of, I should keep a vial of it in a prominent place +on the drawing-room mantelpiece. As it is, I confess my desire is to +carve for myself a name in art that shall be independent of all +adventitious support; to answer to my vocation straight, upright, and +manly." + +"That is better than nobility--though I have pride in my own. I wish papa +thought so. Yet he has both himself." + +"The fine soul! For fifty years he has stood square to adversity with a +smile on his face. Could I ever achieve that? Already I cry out on +poverty; because I want an unencumbered field for work, and--yes, one +other trifle." + +"One other trifle, George?" + +He took Plancine's face between his hands and looked very lovingly into +her eyes. + +"I think I did the old man too much honour," he said. "You nestling of +eighteen--what credit to scout misfortune with such a bird at one's +side!" + +"Ah! but papa is sixty-nine and the bird but eighteen." + +"And eighteen years of heaven are a good education in happiness." + +So they coo'd, these two. The June scents of the little garden were +wafted all about them. The moon had come up out of the sea, and, finding +a trellis of branches over their heads, hung their young brows with +coronals of shadowy leaves, like the old dame she was, rummaging in her +trinket box for something for her favourites. + +In the dimly-luminous parlour (that smelt of folios and warm coffee) of +the little dark house in the background, the figure of papa, poring at +the table over geological maps, was visible. + +Fifty years ago an _émigré_, denounced, proscribed, and escaped from the +ruin of a shattered society: here, in '49, a stately, large-boned man, +placidly enjoying the consciousness of a serene dignity maintained at the +expense of much and prolonged self-effacement--this was papa. + +Grey hair, thinning but slightly near the temples; grey moustache and +beard pointed _de bouc_; flowered dressing-gown girdled about a heart +as simple as a child's--this was papa, papa who grubbed over his ordnance +surveys while the young folks outside whispered of the stars. + +Right beneath them--the latter--a broad gully of the hills went plunging +precipitously, all rolled with leaf and flower, to the undercliff of soft +blue lias and the very roof ridges of King's Cobb, whose walls and +chimneys, now snowed with light, fretted a scallop of the striding bay +that swept the land here like a scythe. + +Plancine's village, a lofty appanage or suburb of this little seaboard +town at the hill-foot, seemed rather the parent stock from which the +other had emancipated itself. For all down the steep slope that fled +from Upper to King's Cobb was flung a _débris_ of houses that, like the +ice-fall of a glacier, would appear to have broken from the main body +and gone careering into the valley below. + +It was in point of fact, however, but a subordinate hamlet--a hanging +garden for the jaded tourist in the dog days, when his soul stifled in +the oven of the sea-level cliffs--an eyrie for Plancine, and for George, +the earnest painter, a Paradise before the fall. + +And now says George, "We have talked all round your confession, and still +I wait to give you absolution." + +"I will confess. I read it in one of papa's books that is called the +_Talmud_." + +"Gracious me! you should be careful. What did you read?" + +"That whoever wants to see the souls of the dead--" + +"Plancine!" + +"--must take finely sifted ashes, and strew them round his bed; and in +the morning he will see their foot-tracks, as a cock's. I did it." + +"You did?" + +"Last night, yes. And what a business I had afterwards sweeping them up!" + +"And did you see anything?" + +"Something--yes--I think so. But it might have been mice. There are +plenty up there." + +"Now you are an odd Plancine! What did you want with the ghosts of the +dead?" + +"I will tell you, you tall man; and you will not abuse my confidence. +George, for all your gay independence, you must allow me a little +family pride and a little pathetic interest in the fortunes of the dead +and gone De Jussacs." + +"It is Mademoiselle De Jussac that speaks." + +"It is Plancine, who knows so little:--that 'The Terror' would have +guillotined her father, a boy of fourteen: that he escaped to Prussia, to +Belgium, to England; for six years always a wanderer and a fugitive: that +he was wrecked on this dear coast and, penniless, started life anew +here on his little accomplishments: that he made out a meagre existence, +and late in the order of years (he was fifty) married an expatriated +countrywoman, who died--George, my mother died when I was seventeen +months old--and that is where I stop. My good, big father--so lonely, so +poor, and so silent! He tells me little. He speaks scantily of the past. +But he was a Vicomte and is the last of his line; and I wanted the ghosts +to explain to me so much that I have never learned." + +The moonlight fell upon her sweet, pale, uplifted face. There were tears +in her eyes that glittered like frost. + +But George, for all his love, showed a little masculine impatience. + +"Reserve is very good," he said; "but we can't all be Lord Burleighs by +holding our tongues. There is a sort of silence that is pregnant with +nothing." + +"George, you cannot mean to insult my father?" + +"No, dear. But why does he make such a mystery of his past? I would have +mine as clear as a window, for all to look through. Why does he treat me +with such suave and courteous opposition--permitting my suit, yet +withholding his consent?" + +"If you could be less democratic, dear--" + +"It is a religion with me--not a brutal indulgence." + +"Perhaps he cannot dissociate the two. Then, he admires your genius and +commends your courage; but your poor purse hungers, my lover, and he +desires riches for his Plancine." + +"And Plancine?" + +"She will die a grey-haired maid for thee, 'O Richard! O my king!'" + +"My sweet--my bird--my wife! Oh, that you could be that now and kiss me +on to fortune! I should be double-souled and inspired. A few months, and +Madame la Vicomtesse should 'walk in silk attire.' I flame at the +picture. Why will your father not yield you gracefully, instead of plying +us with that eternal enigma of Black Venn?" + +"Because enthusiasm alone may not command wealth," said a deep voice near +them. + +Papa had come upon them unobserved. The young man wheeled and charged +while his blood was hot. + +"Mr. De Jussac, it is a shame to hold me in this unending suspense." + +"Is it not better than decided rejection?" + +"I have served like Jacob. You cannot doubt my single-hearted devotion?" + +"I doubt nothing, my George" (about _his_ accent there was no tender +compromise)--"I doubt nothing, but that the balance at your bankers' is +excessive." + +"You would not value Plancine at so much bullion?" + +"But yes, my friend; for bullion is the algebraic formula that represents +comfort. When Black Venn slips his apron--" + +George made a gesture of impatience. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron," repeated the father quietly, "I shall +be in a position to consider your suit." + +"That is tantamount to putting me off altogether. It is ungenerous. It is +preposterous. You may or may not be right; but it is simply farcical +(Plancine cried, "George!"--but he went on warmly, nevertheless) to make +our happiness contingent on the possible tumbling down of a bit of old +cliff--an accident that, after all, may never happen." + +"Ah!" the quiet, strong voice went on; and in the old eyes turned +moonwards one might have fancied one could read a certain pathos of +abnegation, or approaching self-sacrifice; "but it will, and shortly, for +I prophesy. It was no idle cruelty of mine that first suggested this +condition, but a natural reluctance to sign myself back to utter +loneliness." + +Plancine cried, "Papa! papa!" and sprang into his arms. + +"A little patience," said De Jussac, pressing his moustache to the round +head, "and you will honour this weary prophet, I think. I was up on the +cliff to-day. The great crack is ever widening. A bowling wind, a loud +thunderstorm, and that apron of the hill will tear from its bondage and +sink sweltering down the slopes." + +In the moment of speaking a tremor seized all his limbs, his eyes glared +maniacal, his outstretched arm pointed seawards. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, "the guillotine!" + +In the offing of the bay was a vessel making for the unseen harbour +below. It stood up black against the moonlight, its sails and yards +presenting some fantastic resemblance to that engine of blood. + +George stepped back and hung his head embarrassed. He had more than once +been witness of a like seizure. It was the guillotine fright--the fright +that had smitten the boy of fourteen, and had pursued the man ever since +with periodic attacks of illusion. Anything--a branch, a door-post, a +window, would suggest the hateful form during those periods--happily +brief--when the poor mind was temporarily unhinged. No doubt, in earlier +years, the fits had occurred frequently. Now they were rare, and +generally, it seemed, attributable to some strong excitement or emotion. + +Plancine knew how to act. She put her hand over the frantic eyes, and led +the old man stumbling up the garden path. She was going to sing to him +from the little sweet folk-ballads of the old gay France before the +trouble came-- + +_"The king would wed his daughter + Over the English sea; +But never across the water + Shall a husband come to me."_ + +Love floated on the freshet of her voice straight into the heart of the +young man who stood without. + + + + +II + + +Perhaps at first it had not been the least of the bitterness in M. De +Jussac's cup of calamity that his mere pride of name must adjust itself +to its altered conditions. That the Vicomte De Jussac should have been +expatriated because he declined when called upon to contribute his +heart's blood to the red conduit in the Faubourg St. Antoine was +certainly an infamy, but one of which the very essence was that +unquestioning acknowledgment of his rank. That the land of his adoption +should have dubbed him Mr. Jussuks--in stolid unconsciousness, too, of +the solecism--was an outrage of a totally different order--an outrage +only to be condoned on the score that an impenetrable insular +_gaucherie_, and not a malicious impertinence, was responsible for it. + +Mr. Jussuks had, however, outlived his sense of the injurious +appellation; had outlived much prejudice, the wear of poverty, his memory +of many things, and, very early, his scorn of the plebeian processes that +to the impecunious are a condition of living at all. He was certainly a +man of courageous independence, inasmuch as from the hour of his setting +foot in England--and that was at the outset of the century--he had +controlled his own little fortunes without a hand to help him over the +deep places. + +Of his first struggles little is known but this--that for years, turning +to account some small knowledge of draughtsmanship he had acquired, he +found employment in ladies' academies, of which there was a plenitude at +that date in King's Cobb. + +That, however, which brought him eventually into a modest prominence--not +only in that same beautiful but indifferently known watering-place (upon +which he had happened, it would appear, fortuitously), but elsewhere and +amongst men of a certain mark--was a discovery--or the practical +application of one--which in its result procured him a definite object in +life, together with the means to pursue it. + +Ammonites, and such small geological fry, were to be found by the +thousand in the petrified mud beds of the Cobb region; but it was left to +the ingenuity, aided by good fortune, of the foreigner to unearth from +the flaking and perishing cliffs of lias some of the earliest and finest +specimens of the ichthyo- and plesio-saurus that a past world has yielded +to the naturalists. + +Out of these the _émigré_ made money, and so was enabled to pursue and +enlarge upon his researches. Presently he prospered into a competence, +married (poor Mademoiselle Belleville, of the Silver Street Academy, who +died of typhoid at the end of a couple of summers), and so grew into the +kindly old age of the absorbed and gentle naturalist, with his Plancine +budding at his side. + +What in all these fifty years had he forgotten? His name, his rank, his +very origin? Much, no doubt. But that there was one haunting memory that +had dwelt with him throughout, his child and her lover were to learn--one +memory, and that dreadful recurring illusion of the guillotine. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron, I shall be in a position to consider +your suit." + +Surely that was an odd and enigmatical condition, entirely remote from +the subject at issue? Yet from the moment of the first impassioned +pleadings of the stricken George, De Jussac had insisted upon it as one +from which there should be no appeal. + +Now the Black Venn referred to was a great mound of lias that rolled up +and inland, in the far sweep of the bay, from the giddy margin of the +lower ruin of cliffs. These--mere compressed mountains of mud, blown by +the winds and battered by the sea--were in a constant state of yawn and +collapse. Yard by yard they yielded to the scourge of Time, and +landslides were of common occurrence. + +All along the middle slope of Black Venn itself, a wide, deep fissure, +dark and impenetrable, had stretched from ages unrecorded. But the +eventual opening-out of this crevasse, and the consequent subsidence of +the incline, or apron, below it, had been foretold by Mr. De Jussac; and +this, in fact, was the condition to which he had alluded. + + + + +III + + +"Mr. De Jussac! do you hear me?" + +"I am coming, my friend." + +The light shining steadily through a front window of the cottage +flickered and shifted. The young man in the rain and storm outside danced +with impatience. + +Suddenly the door opened, and Plancine's father stood there, candle in +hand. + +"What is it, my George?" + +"The hill, sir--the hill! It's fallen! You were right. You must stand by +your word. Black Venn has slipped his apron!" + +"My God, no!" + +There were despair and exultation in his voice. + +"My God, no!" he whispered again, and dived into a cupboard under the +stair. + +Thence he reappeared with a horn lantern and his old blue cloak. + +"Come, then!" he cried. "My hour is upon me!" + +"Mr. De Jussac, it will wait till the morning." + +"No, no, no! Do you trifle with your destiny? It has happened +opportunely, while all are within doors and we have a clear field. How do +you know? have you seen? Is it possible to descend to it from above?" + +"I passed there less than an hour ago. It is possible, I am sure." + +They set off hurriedly through the rain-beaten night. Not a word passed +between them as they left the village and struck into the high-valley +road that ran past, at a moderate distance, the head of the bay. De +Jussac strode rapidly in advance of his companion. His long cloak whirled +in the blast; it flogged his gaunt limbs all set to intense action. He +seemed uplifted, translated--like one in whom the very article of a +life-long faith, or monomania, is about to be justified. + +Toiling onward, like driven cattle, they swerved from the road presently +and breasted a sharp incline. Their boots squelched on the sodden turf; +the wind bore on them heavily. + +George saw the dancing lanthorn go up the slope in front of him like a +will-o'-the-wisp--stop, and swing steady, heard the loud cry of +jubilation that issued from the withered throat. + +"It is true! The moment is realized!" + +They stood together on the verge of the upper lip of the fissure. It was +a cliff now, twenty, thirty feet to its base. The lower ground had +fallen like a dead jaw; had slipped--none so great a distance--down the +slope leading to the under-cliff, and lay a billowing mass subsided upon +itself. + +De Jussac would stand not an instant. + +"We must climb down--somehow, anyhow!" he cried feverishly. "We must +search all along what was once the bottom of the cleft." + +"It is a risk, sir. Why not wait till the morning?" + +"No, no! now! My God! I demand it. Others may forestall us if we delay. +See, my friend, I wish but my own; and what proof of right have I if +another should snatch the treasure?" + +"The treasure?" + +"It is our fortune that lies there--yours, and mine, and the little +Plancine's. Do I know what I say? Hurry, hurry, hurry! while my heart +does not burst." + +He forced the lanthorn into the young man's hands. He was panting and +sobbing like a child. Before the other realized his intention, he had +flung himself upon his hands and knees, had slipped over the edge, and +was scrambling down the broken wall of lias. + +There was nothing for George but to take his own life in hand and humour +his venerated elder. He followed with the lanthorn, thinking of Plancine +a little, and hoping he should fall on a soft place. + +But they got down in safety, breathing hard and extremely dirty. Caution, +it is true, reacts very commonly upon itself. + +The moment his companion's feet touched bottom, De Jussac snatched the +light from his hand, roughly enough to send him off his balance, and went +scurrying to and fro along the face of the cliff like a mad thing. + +"I cannot find it!" he cried, rushing back after an interval--nervous, in +an agony of restlessness--a very pitiable old man. + +George spoke up from the ground. + +"Find what?" said he, feeling all sopped and dazed. + +"The box--the casket! It could never perish. It was of sheet-iron. Look, +look, my friend! Your eyes are younger than mine--a box, a foot long, of +hard iron!" + +"I am sitting upon something hard," said George. + +He sprang to his feet and took the lanthorn. + +"Bones," said he, peering down. "Some old mastodon, I expect. Is this +your treasure?" + +De Jussac was glaring. His head drooped lower and lower. His lips were +parted, and the line of strong white teeth showed between them. His +voice, when he spoke, was quite fearful in its low intensity. + +"Bones--yes, and human. Where they lie, the other must be near. Ah, +Lacombe, Lacombe; you will yield me my own at last!" + +He was shaking a slow finger at the poor remnants--a rib or two, the half +of a yellow skull. + +Suddenly he was down on his knees, tearing at the black, thick soil, +diving into it, tossing it hither and thither. + +A pause, a rending exclamation, and he was on his feet again with a +scream of ecstasy. An oblong casket, rusty, corroded, but unbroken, was +in his hand. + +"Now," he whispered, sibilant through the wind, controlling himself, +though he was shaking from head to foot, "now to return as we have come. +Not a word, not a word till we have this safe in the cottage!" + +They found, after some search, a difficult way up. By-and-by they stood +once more on the lip of the fall, and paused for breath. + +It was at this very instant that De Jussac dropped the box beside him and +threw up his hands. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, and fell headlong into the pit he had just +issued from. + + + + +IV + + +The poor bandaged figure; the approaching death; the dog whining softly +in the yard. + +"I am dying, my little Plancine?" + +The girl's forehead was bowed on the homely quilt. + +"Nay, cry not, little one! I go very happy. That (he indicated by a +motion of his eyelids the fatal box, which, yet unopened, lay on a table +by the sunny window) shall repay thee for thy long devotion, for thy +poverty, and for thy brave sweetness with the old papa." + +"No, no, no!" + +"But they are diamonds, Plancine--such diamonds, my bird. They have +flashed at Versailles, at the little Trianon. They were honoured to lie +on the breast of a beautiful and courageous woman--thine aunt, Plancine; +the most noble the Comtesse de la Morne. She gave her wealth, almost +her life, for her king--all but her diamonds. It was at Brussels, whither +I had escaped from The Terror--I, a weak and desolate boy of but +fourteen. I lived with her, in her common, cheap lodging. For five years +we made out our friendless and deserted existence in company. In truth, +we were an embarrassment, and they looked at us askance. Long after her +mind failed her, the memory of her own former beauty dwelt with her; yet +she could not comprehend but that it was still a talisman to conjure +with. Even to the end she would deck herself and coquet to her glass. But +she was good and faithful, Plancine; and, at the last, when she was +dying, she gave me this box. 'It contains all that is left to me of my +former condition,' she said. 'It shall make thy fortune for thee in +England, my nephew, whither thou must journey when poor Dorine is +underground.' By that I knew it was her cherished diamonds she bequeathed +me. 'They do not want thee here,' she said. 'Thou must take boat for +England when I am gone.' + +"But George, my friend!" + +The young man was standing sorrowful by the open window. He could have +seen the sailing-boats in the bay, the sailing clouds in the sky placidly +floating over a world of serene and verdurous loveliness. But his vision +was all inward, of the piteous calm, following storm and disaster, in +which the dying voice from the bed was like the lapping of little waves. + +He came at once and stood over Plancine, not daring to touch her. + +"It was not wilfulness, but my great love," said the broken, gentle +voice, "that made the condition. All of you I cannot extol, knowing what +I have known. But you are an honest gentleman and a true, my brave; and +you shall make this dearest a noble husband." + +Waveringly George stole his hand towards the bowed head and let it rest +there. + +From the battered face a smile broke like flowers from a blasted soil. + +"Withholding my countenance only as I foresaw the means to enrich you +both were approaching my grasp, I waited for the hill to break away that +I might recover my casket. It was there--it is here; and now my Plancine +shall never know poverty more, or her husband restrict the scope of his +so admirable art on the score of necessity." + +He saw the eyes questioning what the lips would not ask. + +"But how I lost it?" he said. "I took the box; I obeyed her behests. The +moment was acute; the times peremptory. I sailed for England, hurriedly +and secretly, never to this day having feasted my eyes on what lies +within there. With me went Lacombe, Madame's 'runner' in the old days--a +stolid Berrichon, who had lived upon her bounty to the end. The rogue! +the ingrate! We were wrecked upon this coast; we plunged and came ashore. +I know not who were lost or saved; but Lacombe and I clung together and +were thrown upon the land, the box still in my grasp. We climbed the +cliffs where a stair had been cut; we broke eastwards from the upper +slopes and staggered on through the blown darkness. Suddenly Lacombe +stopped. The day was faint then on the watery horizon; and in the +ghostly light I saw his face and read the murder in it. We were standing +on the verge of the cleft under Black Venn. 'No further!' he whispered. +'You must go down there!' He snatched the box from my hand. In the +instant of his doing so, stricken by the death terror, the affection to +which I was then much subject seized me. I screamed, 'My God! the +guillotine!' Taken by surprise, he started back, staggered, and went down +crashing to the fate he had designed for me. I seemed to lie prostrate +for hours, while his moans came up fainter and fainter till they ceased. +Then I rose and faced life, lonely, friendless, and a beggar." + +The restless wandering of his eyes travelled over his daughter's head to +the rusty casket by the window. + +"It was very well," he whispered. "I thank my God that He has permitted +me at the perfect moment to realize my investment in that dead rascal's +dishonesty. Have I ever desired wealth save for my little _pouponne_ +here? And I have sorely tried thee, my George. But the old naturalist +had such faith in his prediction. Now--" + +His vision was glazing; the muscles of his face were quietly settling to +the repose that death only can command. + +"Now, I would see the fruit of my prophecy; would see it all hung on the +neck, in the hair of my child, that I may die rejoicing. Canst thou force +the casket, George?" + +The young man turned with a stifled groan. Some tools lay on a shelf hard +by. He grasped a chisel and went to his task with shaking hands. + +The box was all eaten and corroded. It was a matter of but a few seconds +to prise it open. The lid fell back on the table with a rusty clang. + +"Ah!" cried the dying man. "What now? Dost thou see them? Quick! quick! +to glorify this little head! Are they not exquisite?" + +George was gazing down with a dull, vacant feeling at his heart. + +"Are they not?" repeated the voice, in terrible excitement. + +"They--Mr. De Jussac, they are loveliness itself. Plancine, I will not +touch them. You must be the first." + +He strode to the kneeling girl; lifted, almost roughly dragged her to her +feet. + +"Come!" he said; and, supporting her across the room, whispered madly in +her ear: "Pretend! For God's sake, pretend!" + +Plancine's swimming eyes looked down, looked upon a litter of perished +rags of paper, and, lying in the midst of the rubbish, an ancient stained +and cockled miniature of a powdered Louis _Seize_ coquette. + +This was all. This was the treasure the old crazed vanity had thought +sufficient to build her nephew his fortune. + +The diamonds! Probably these had long before been sacrificed to the +armies ineffectively manoeuvring for the destruction of Monsieur "Veto's" +enemies. + +Plancine lifted her head. Thereafter George never ceased to recall with a +glad pride the nobility that had shone in her eyes. + +"My papa!" she cried softly, going swiftly to the bed; "they are +beautiful as the stars that glittered over the old untroubled France!" + +De Jussac sprang up on his pillow. + +"The guillotine!" he cried. "The beams break into flowers! The axe is a +shaft of light!" + +And so the glowing blade descended. + + + + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + + +PART I + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +WRITTEN FOR, BUT NEVER INSERTED IN, THE ----- FAMILY MAGAZINE + + +The eyes of Polyhistor--as he sat before the fire at night--took in the +tawdry surroundings of his lodging-house room with nothing of that apathy +of resignation to his personal [Greek: anankê] which of all moods is to +Fortune, the goddess of spontaneity, the most antipathetic. Indeed, +he felt his wit, like Romeo's, to be of cheveril; and his conviction that +it needed only the pull of circumstance to stretch it "from an inch +narrow to an ell broad" expressed but the very wooing quality of a +constitutional optimism. + +Now this inherent optimism is at least a serviceable weapon when it takes +the form of self-reliance. It is always at hand in an emergency--a guard +of honour to the soul. The loneliness of individual life must learn +self-respect from within, not without; and were all creeds to be mixed, +that truism should be found their precipitate. + +Therefore Polyhistor was content to draw grass-green rep curtains +across window-panes sloughed with wintry sleet; to place his feet upon a +rug flayed of colour to it dusty sinews; to admit to his close +fellowship--and find a familiar comfort in them, too--three separate +lithographs of affected babies inviting any canine confidences but the +bite one desired for them, and a dismal daguerreotype of his landlady's +deceased husband, slowly perishing in pegtops and a yellow fog of +despondency, out of which only his boots and a very tall hat frowned +insistent, the tabernacles of enduring respectability:--he was content, +because he knew these were only incidents in his career--the slums to be +first traversed on a journey before the rounding breadths of open country +were reached,--and the station in life he purposed stopping at eventually +was the terminus of prosperity, intellectual and material. + +With no present good fortune but the capacity for desiring it; with the +right to affix a letter or so--like grace after skilly--to his name; with +the consciousness that, having overcome theoretical pharmaceutics +masterfully, he was now combatting practical dispensing slavishly; with +full confidence in his social position (he stood under the shadow of +"high connections," like the little winged "Victory" in a conqueror's +hand, he chose to think) to help him to eventual distinction, he toasted +his toes that sour winter evening and reviewed in comfort an army of +prospects. + +Also his thoughts reverted indulgently to the incidents and experiences +of the previous night. + +He had had the pleasure of an invitation to one of those reunions or +séances at the house, in a fashionable quarter, of his distant +connection, Lady Barbara Grille, whereat it was his hostess's humour +to gather together those many birds of alien feather and incongruous +habit that will flock from the hedgerows to the least little flattering +crumb of attention. And scarce one of them but thinks the simple feast is +spread for him alone. And with so cheap a bait may a title lure. + +Lady Barbara, to do her justice, trades upon her position only in so far +as it shapes itself the straight road to her desires. She is a carpet +adventurer--an explorer amongst the nerves of moral sensation, to whom +the discovery of an untrodden mental tract is a pure delight, and the +more delightful the more ephemeral. She flits from guest to guest, +shooting out to each a little proboscis, as it were, and happy if its +point touches a speck of honey. She gathers from all, and stores the +sweet agglomerate, let us hope, to feed upon it in the winter of her +life, when the hive of her busy brain shall be thatched with snow. + +That reference to so charming a personality should be in this place a +digression is Polyhistor's unhappiness. She affects his narrative only +inasmuch as he happened to meet at her house a gentleman who for a time +exerted a considerable influence over his fortunes. + + * * * * * + +Here Polyhistor's narrative must give place to certain editorial +marginalia by Miss Lucy ----, who "runs" the ---- Family Magazine:-- + +"Polyhistor, indeed!" she writes. "The conceit of some people! He seems +to take himself for a sort of _Admirable Crichton_, and all because his +chance meeting with the gentleman referred to (a very _interesting_ +person, who is, I understand, reforming our prisons) brought him the +offer of an appointment quite beyond his deserts. I was very glad to hear +of it, however, and I asked the creature to contribute a paper recording +his first impressions of _this notable man_; instead of which he begins +with an opinionated rigmarole about himself, and goes on from bad to +worse by describing a long conversation he had about prison reform with +that horrid, masculine Mrs. C----, whom all the officers call 'Charlie,' +and who thinks that for men to grow humane is a sign of their +_decadence_. _Of course_ I shall 'cut' the whole of their talk together +(it is a blessed privilege to be an editor), and jump to the part where +_Polyhistor_ (!) describes the _notable person's_ visit to him, which was +due to his (the N.P.'s) having the night before overheard some of the +conversation _between those two_." + + * * * * * + +POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE (_continued_). + + +Now as Polyhistor sat, he humoured his recollection (in the intervals of +scribbling verses to the _beaux yeux_ of a certain Miss L----) with some +of "Charlie's" characteristic last-night utterances. + +She had dated man's decadence from the moment when he began to +"poor-fellow" irreclaimable savagery on the score of heredity. + +She had repudiated the old humbug of sex superiority because she had seen +it fall on its face to howl over a trodden worm, with the result that +it discovered itself hollow behind, like the elf-maiden. + +She had said: "Once you taught us divinely--_argumentum baculinum_," said +she; "(for you are the sons of God, you know). But you have since so +insisted upon the Rights of Humanity that we have learned ourselves in +the phrase, and that the earthy have the best right to precedence on the +earth." + +And thereupon Charlie had launched into abuse of what she called the +latest masculine fad--prison reform, to wit--and a heated discussion +between her and Polyhistor had ensued, in the midst of which she had +happened to glance behind her, to find that very notable person who is +the subject of this narrative vouchsafing a silent attention to her +diatribe. And then-- + +But at this period to his cogitations Polyhistor's landlady entered with +a card, which she presented to his consideration:-- + +MAJOR JAMES SHRIKE, +H.M. PRISON, D----. + +All astonishment, Polyhistor bade his visitor up. + +He entered briskly, fur-collared, hat in hand, and bowed as he stood on +the threshold. He was a very short man--snub-nosed; rusty-whiskered; +indubitably and unimpressively a cockney in appearance. He might have +walked out of a Cruikshank etching. + +Polyhistor was beginning, "May I inquire--" when the other took him up +with a vehement frankness that he found engaging at once. + +"This is a great intrusion. Will you pardon me? I heard some remarks of +yours last night that deeply interested me. I obtained your name and +address of our hostess, and took the liberty of--" + +"Oh! pray be seated. Say no more. My kinswoman's introduction is +all-sufficient. I am happy in having caught your attention in so motley +a crowd." + +"She doesn't--forgive the impertinence--take herself seriously enough." + +"Lady Barbara? Then you've found her out?" + +"Ah!--you're not offended?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Good. It was a motley assemblage, as you say. Yet I'm inclined to think +I found my pearl in the oyster. I'm afraid I interrupted--eh?" + +"No, no, not at all. Only some idle scribbling. I'd finished." + +"You are a poet?" + +"Only a lunatic. I haven't taken my degree." + +"Ah! it's a noble gift--the gift of song; precious through its rarity." + +Polyhistor caught a note of emotion in his visitor's voice, and glanced +at him curiously. + +"Surely," he thought, "that vulgar, ruddy little face is transfigured." + +"But," said the stranger, coming to earth, "I am lingering beside the +mark. I must try to justify my solecism in manners by a straight +reference to the object of my visit. That is, in the first instance, a +matter of business." + +"Business!" + +"I am a man with a purpose, seeking the hopefullest means to an +end. Plainly: if I could procure you the post of resident doctor at +D---- gaol, would you be disposed to accept it?" + +Polyhistor looked his utter astonishment. + +"I can affect no surprise at yours," said the visitor, attentively +regarding Polyhistor. "It is perfectly natural. Let me forestall some +unnecessary expression of it. My offer seems unaccountable to you, seeing +that we never met until last night. But I don't move entirely in the +dark. I have ventured in the interval to inform myself as to the details +of your career. I was entirely one with much of your expression of +opinion as to the treatment of criminals, in which you controverted the +crude and unpleasant scepticism of the lady you talked with." (Poor New +Charlie!) "Combining the two, I come to the immediate conclusion that you +are the man for my purpose." + +"You have dumbfounded me. I don't know what to answer. You have views, I +know, as to prison treatment. Will you sketch them? Will you talk on, +while I try to bring my scattered wits to a focus?" + +"Certainly I will. Let me, in the first instance, recall to you a few +words of your own. They ran somewhat in this fashion: Is not the man of +practical genius the man who is most apt at solving the little problems +of resourcefulness in life? Do you remember them?" + +"Perhaps I do, in a cruder form." + +"They attracted me at once. It is upon such a postulate I base my +practice. Their moral is this: To know the antidote the moment the snake +bites. That is to have the intuition of divinity. We shall rise to it +some day, no doubt, and climb the hither side of the new Olympus. Who +knows? Over the crest the spirit of creation may be ours." + +Polyhistor nodded, still at sea, and the other went on with a smile:-- + +"I once knew a world-famous engineer with whom I used to breakfast +occasionally. He had a patent egg-boiler on the table, with a little +double-sided ladle underneath to hold the spirit. He complained that his +egg was always undercooked. I said, 'Why not reverse the ladle so as +to bring the deeper cup uppermost?' He was charmed with my perspicacity. +The solution had never occurred to him. You remember, too, no doubt, the +story of Coleridge and the horse collar. We aim too much at great +developments. If we cultivate resourcefulness, the rest will follow. +Shall I state my system _in nuce_? It is to encourage this spirit of +resourcefulness." + +"Surely the habitual criminal has it in a marked degree?" + +"Yes; but abnormally developed in a single direction. His one object is +to out-manoeuvre in a game of desperate and immoral chances. The tactical +spirit in him has none of the higher ambition. It has felt itself in the +degree only that stops at defiance." + +"That is perfectly true." + +"It is half self-conscious of an individuality that instinctively assumes +the hopelessness of a recognition by duller intellects. Leaning to +resentment through misguided vanity, it falls 'all oblique.' What is the +cure for this? I answer, the teaching of a divine egotism. The subject +must be led to a pure devotion to self. What he wishes to respect he must +be taught to make beautiful and interesting. The policy of sacrifice to +others has so long stunted his moral nature because it is an hypocritical +policy. We are responsible to ourselves in the first instance; and to +argue an eternal system of blind self-sacrifice is to undervalue the +fine gift of individuality. In such he sees but an indefensible policy +of force applied to the advantage of the community. He is told to be +good--not that he may morally profit, but that others may not suffer +inconvenience." + +Polyhistor was beginning to grasp, through his confusion, a certain clue +of meaning in his visitor's rapid utterance. The stranger spoke fluently, +but in the dry, positive voice that characterizes men of will. + +"Pray go on," Polyhistor said; "I am digesting in silence." + +"We must endeavour to lead him to respect of self by showing him what his +mind is capable of. I argue on no sectarian, no religious grounds even. +Is it possible to make a man's self his most precious possession? Anyhow, +I work to that end. A doctor purges before building up with a tonic. I +eliminate cant and hypocrisy, and then introduce self-respect. It isn't +enough to employ a man's hands only. Initiation in some labour that +should prove wholesome and remunerative is a redeeming factor, but it +isn't all. His mind must work also, and awaken to its capacities. If it +rusts, the body reverts to inhuman instincts." + +"May I ask how you--?" + +"By intercourse--in my own person or through my officials. I wish to have +only those about me who are willing to contribute to my designs, and +with whom I can work in absolute harmony. All my officers are chosen to +that end. No doubt a dash of constitutional sentimentalism gives colour +to my theories. I get it from a human tract in me that circumstances have +obliged me to put a hoarding round." + +"I begin to gather daylight." + +"Quite so. My patients are invited to exchange views with their guardians +in a spirit of perfect friendliness; to solve little problems of +practical moment; to acquire the pride of self-reliance. We have +competitions, such as certain newspapers open to their readers, in a +simple form. I draw up the questions myself. The answers give me insight +into the mental conditions of the competitors. Upon insight I proceed. I +am fortunate in private means, and I am in a position to offer modest +prizes to the winners. Whenever such an one is discharged, he finds +awaiting him the tools most handy to his vocation. I bid him go forth +in no pharisaical spirit, and invite him to communicate with me. I wish +the shadow of the gaol to extend no further than the road whereon it +lies. Henceforth, we are acquaintances with a common interest at heart. +Isn't it monstrous that a state-fixed degree of misconduct should earn a +man social ostracism? Parents are generally inclined to rule extra +tenderness towards a child whose peccadilloes have brought him a +whipping. For myself, I have no faith in police supervision. Give a +culprit his term and have done with it. I find the majority who come back +to me are ticket-of-leave men. + +"Have I said enough? I offer you the reversion of the post. The present +holder of it leaves in a month's time. Please to determine here and at +once." + +"Very good. I have decided." + +"You will accept?" + +"Yes." + + * * * * * + +So far wrote Polyhistor in the bonny days of early manhood--an attempt +made in a spasm of enthusiasm inspired in him and humoured by his most +engaging Mentor, to record his first impressions of a notable personality +not many days after its introduction to him. He has never taken up the +tale again until now, when an insistent sense, as of a task left +unfinished, compels him to the effort. Over his sweet Mentor the grass +lies thick, and flowers of aged stalk bloom perennially, and "Oh, the +difference to me!" + +To _me_, for it is time to drop the poor conceit, the pseudonym that once +served its little purpose to awaken tender derision. + +I take up the old and stained manuscript, with its marginalia, that are +like the dim call from a far-away voice, and I know that, so I am driven +to record the sequel to that gay introduction, it must be in a spirit of +sombreness most deadly by contrast. I look at the faded opening words. +The fire of the first line of the narrative is long out; the grate is +cold some forty years--forty years!--and I think I have been a little +chill during all that time. But, though the room rustle with phantoms and +menace stalk in the retrospect, I shall acquit my conscience of its +burden, refusing to be bullied by the counsel of a destiny that +subpoena'd me entirely against my will. + + + + +PART II + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +CONTINUED AND FINISHED AFTER A LAPSE OF FORTY YEARS + + +With my unexpected appointment as doctor to D---- gaol, I seemed to +have put on the seven-league boots of success. No doubt it was an +extraordinary degree of good fortune, even to one who had looked forward +with a broad view of confidence; yet, I think, perhaps on account of the +very casual nature of my promotion, I never took the post entirely +seriously. + +At the same time I was fully bent on justifying my little cockney +patron's choice by a resolute subscription to his theories of prison +management. + +Major James Shrike inspired me with a curious conceit of impertinent +respect. In person the very embodiment of that insignificant vulgarity, +without extenuating circumstances, which is the type in caricature of the +ultimate cockney, he possessed a force of mind and an earnestness of +purpose that absolutely redeemed him on close acquaintanceship. I found +him all he had stated himself to be, and something more. + +He had a noble object always in view--the employment of sane and +humanitarian methods in the treatment of redeemable criminals, and he +strove towards it with completely untiring devotion. He was of those who +never insist beyond the limits of their own understanding, clear-sighted +in discipline, frank in relaxation, an altruist in the larger sense. + +His undaunted persistence, as I learned, received ample illustration some +few years prior to my acquaintance with him, when--his system being +experimental rather than mature--a devastating endemic of typhoid in the +prison had for the time stultified his efforts. He stuck to his post; but +so virulent was the outbreak that the prison commissioners judged a +complete evacuation of the building and overhauling of the drainage to +be necessary. As a consequence, for some eighteen months--during thirteen +of which the Governor and his household remained sole inmates of the +solitary pile (so sluggishly do we redeem our condemned social +bog-lands)--the "system" stood still for lack of material to mould. At +the end of over a year of stagnation, a contract was accepted and +workmen put in, and another five months saw the prison reordered for +practical purposes. + +The interval of forced inactivity must have sorely tried the patience of +the Governor. Practical theorists condemned to rust too often eat out +their own hearts. Major Shrike never referred to this period, and, +indeed, laboriously snubbed any allusion to it. + +He was, I have a shrewd notion, something of an officially petted +reformer. Anyhow, to his abolition of the insensate barbarism of crank +and treadmill in favour of civilizing methods no opposition was offered. +Solitary confinement--a punishment outside all nature to a gregarious +race--found no advocate in him. "A man's own suffering mind," he argued, +"must be, of all moral food, the most poisonous for him to feed on. +Surround a scorpion with fire and he stings himself to death, they say. +Throw a diseased soul entirely upon its own resources and moral suicide +results." + +To sum up: his nature embodied humanity without sentimentalism, firmness +without obstinacy, individuality without selfishness; his activity was +boundless, his devotion to his system so real as to admit no utilitarian +sophistries into his scheme of personal benevolence. Before I had been +with him a week, I respected him as I had never respected man before. + + * * * * * + +One evening (it was during the second month of my appointment) we were +sitting in his private study--a dark, comfortable room lined with books. +It was an occasion on which a new characteristic of the man was offered +to my inspection. + +A prisoner of a somewhat unusual type had come in that day--a +spiritualistic medium, convicted of imposture. To this person I casually +referred. + +"May I ask how you propose dealing with the new-comer?" + +"On the familiar lines." + +"But, surely--here we have a man of superior education, of imagination +even?" + +"No, no, no! A hawker's opportuneness; that describes it. These fellows +would make death itself a vulgarity." + +"You've no faith in their--" + +"Not a tittle. Heaven forfend! A sheet and a turnip are poetry to their +manifestations. It's as crude and sour soil for us to work on as any I +know. We'll cart it wholesale." + +"I take you--excuse my saying so--for a supremely sceptical man." + +"As to what?" + +"The supernatural." + +There was no answer during a considerable interval. Presently it came, +with deliberate insistence:-- + +"It is a principle with me to oppose bullying. We are here for a definite +purpose--his duty plain to any man who wills to read it. There may be +disembodied spirits who seek to distress or annoy where they can no +longer control. If there are, mine, which is not yet divorced from its +means to material action, declines to be influenced by any irresponsible +whimsey, emanating from a place whose denizens appear to be actuated by a +mere frivolous antagonism to all human order and progress." + +"But supposing you, a murderer, to be haunted by the presentment of your +victim?" + +"I will imagine that to be my case. Well, it makes no difference. My +interest is with the great human system, in one of whose veins I am a +circulating drop. It is my business to help to keep the system sound, +to do my duty without fear or favour. If disease--say a fouled +conscience--contaminates me, it is for me to throw off the incubus, +not accept it, and transmit the poison. Whatever my lapses of nature, I +owe it to the entire system to work for purity in my allotted sphere, and +not to allow any microbe bugbear to ride me roughshod, to the detriment +of my fellow drops." + +I laughed. + +"It should be for you," I said, "to learn to shiver, like the boy in the +fairy tale." + +"I cannot", he answered, with a peculiar quiet smile; "and yet prisons, +above all places, should be haunted." + + * * * * * + +Very shortly after his arrival I was called to the cell of the medium, +F----. He suffered, by his own statement, from severe pains in the head. + +I found the man to be nervous, anemic; his manner characterized by a sort +of hysterical effrontery. + +"Send me to the infirmary", he begged. "This isn't punishment, but +torture." + +"What are your symptoms?" + +"I see things; my case has no comparison with others. To a man of my +super-sensitiveness close confinement is mere cruelty." + +I made a short examination. He was restless under my hands. + +"You'll stay where you are", I said. + +He broke out into violent abuse, and I left him. + +Later in the day I visited him again. He was then white and sullen; but +under his mood I could read real excitement of some sort. + +"Now, confess to me, my man", I said, "what do you see?" + +He eyed me narrowly, with his lips a little shaky. + +"Will you have me moved if I tell you?" + +"I can give no promise till I know." + +He made up his mind after an interval of silence. + +"There's something uncanny in my neighbourhood. Who's confined in the +next cell--there, to the left?" + +"To my knowledge it's empty." + +He shook his head incredulously. + +"Very well," I said, "I don't mean to bandy words with you"; and I turned +to go. + +At that he came after me with a frightened choke. + +"Doctor, your mission's a merciful one. I'm not trying to sauce you. For +God's sake have me moved! I can see further than most, I tell you!" + +The fellow's manner gave me pause. He was patently and beyond the pride +of concealment terrified. + +"What do you see?" I repeated stubbornly. + +"It isn't that I see, but I know. The cell's not empty!" + +I stared at him in considerable wonderment. + +"I will make inquiries," I said. "You may take that for a promise. If the +cell proves empty, you stop where you are." + +I noticed that he dropped his hands with a lost gesture as I left him. I +was sufficiently moved to accost the warder who awaited me on the spot. + +"Johnson," I said, "is that cell--" + +"Empty, sir," answered the man sharply and at once. + +Before I could respond, F---- came suddenly to the door, which I still +held open. + +"You lying cur!" he shouted. "You damned lying cur!" + +The warder thrust the man back with violence. + +"Now you, 49," he said, "dry up, and none of your sauce!" and he banged +to the door with a sounding slap, and turned to me with a lowering face. +The prisoner inside yelped and stormed at the studded panels. + +"That cell's empty, sir," repeated Johnson. + +"Will you, as a matter of conscience, let me convince myself? I promised +the man." + +"No, I can't." + +"You can't?" + +"No, sir." + +"This is a piece of stupid discourtesy. You can have no reason, of +course?" + +"I can't open it--that's all." + +"Oh, Johnson! Then I must go to the fountain-head." + +"Very well, sir." + +Quite baffled by the man's obstinacy, I said no more, but walked off. If +my anger was roused, my curiosity was piqued in proportion. + + * * * * * + +I had no opportunity of interviewing the Governor all day, but at night I +visited him by invitation to play a game of piquet. + +He was a man without "incumbrances"--as a severe conservatism designates +the _lares_ of the cottage--and, at home, lived at his ease and indulged +his amusements without comment. + +I found him "tasting" his books, with which the room was well lined, and +drawing with relish at an excellent cigar in the intervals of the +courses. + +He nodded to me, and held out an open volume in his left hand. + +"Listen to this fellow," he said, tapping the page with his fingers:-- + +"'The most tolerable sort of Revenge, is for those wrongs which there is +no Law to remedy: But then, let a man take heed, the Revenge be such, as +there is no law to punish: Else, a man's Enemy, is still before hand, and +it is two for one. Some, when they take Revenge, are Desirous the party +should know, whence it cometh. This is the more Generous. For the Delight +seemeth to be, not so much in doing the Hurt, as in making the Party +repent: But Base and Crafty _Cowards are like the Arrow that flyeth in +the Dark. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a Desperate Saying against +Perfidious or Neglecting Friends, as if these wrongs were unpardonable. +You shall reade (saith he) that we are commanded to forgive our Enemies: +But you never read, that we are commanded, to forgive our Friends_.' + +"Is he not a rare fellow?" + +"Who?" said I. + +"Francis Bacon, who screwed his wit to his philosophy, like a hammer-head +to its handle, and knocked a nail in at every blow. How many of our +friends round about here would be picking oakum now if they had made a +gospel of that quotation?" + +"You mean they take no heed that the Law may punish for that for which it +gives no remedy?" + +"Precisely; and specifically as to revenge. The criminal, from the +murderer to the petty pilferer, is actuated solely by the spirit of +vengeance--vengeance blind and speechless--towards a system that forces +him into a position quite outside his natural instincts." + +"As to that, we have left Nature in the thicket. It is hopeless hunting +for her now." + +"We hear her breathing sometimes, my friend. Otherwise Her Majesty's +prison locks would rust. But, I grant you, we have grown so unfamiliar +with her that we call her simplest manifestations _super_natural +nowadays." + +"That reminds me. I visited F---- this afternoon. The man was in a queer +way--not foxing, in my opinion. Hysteria, probably." + +"Oh! What was the matter with him?" + +"The form it took was some absurd prejudice about the next cell--number +47, He swore it was not empty--was quite upset about it--said there +was some infernal influence at work in his neighbourhood. Nerves, he +finds, I suppose, may revenge themselves on one who has made a habit of +playing tricks with them. To satisfy him, I asked Johnson to open the +door of the next cell--" + +"Well?" + +"He refused." + +"It is closed by my orders." + +"That settles it, of course. The manner of Johnson's refusal was a bit +uncivil, but--" + +He had been looking at me intently all this time--so intently that I was +conscious of a little embarrassment and confusion. His mouth was set like +a dash between brackets, and his eyes glistened. Now his features +relaxed, and he gave a short high neigh of a laugh. + +"My dear fellow, you must make allowances for the rough old lurcher. He +was a soldier. He is all cut and measured out to the regimental pattern. +With him Major Shrike, like the king, can do no wrong. Did I ever tell +you he served under me in India? He did; and, moreover, I saved his life +there." + +"In an engagement?" + +"Worse--from the bite of a snake. It was a mere question of will. I told +him to wake and walk, and he did. They had thought him already in rigor +mortis; and, as for him--well, his devotion to me since has been single +to the last degree." + +"That's as it should be." + +"To be sure. And he's quite in my confidence. You must pass over the old +beggar's churlishness." + +I laughed an assent. And then an odd thing happened. As I spoke, I had +walked over to a bookcase on the opposite side of the room to that on +which my host stood. Near this bookcase hung a mirror--an oblong affair, +set in brass _repoussé_ work--on the wall; and, happening to glance into +it as I approached, I caught sight of the Major's reflection as he turned +his face to follow my movement. + +I say "turned his face"--a formal description only. What met my startled +gaze was an image of some nameless horror--of features grooved, and +battered, and shapeless, as if they had been torn by a wild beast. + +I gave a little indrawn gasp and turned about. There stood the Major, +plainly himself, with a pleasant smile on his face. + +"What's up?" said he. + +He spoke abstractedly, pulling at his cigar; and I answered rudely, +"That's a damned bad looking-glass of yours!" + +"I didn't know there was anything wrong with it," he said, still +abstracted and apart. And, indeed, when by sheer mental effort I forced +myself to look again, there stood my companion as he stood in the room. + +I gave a tremulous laugh, muttered something or nothing, and fell to +examining the books in the case. But my fingers shook a trifle as I +aimlessly pulled out one volume after another. + +"Am I getting fanciful?" I thought--"I whose business it is to give +practical account of every bugbear of the nerves. Bah! My liver must be +out of order. A speck of bile in one's eye may look a flying dragon." + +I dismissed the folly from my mind, and set myself resolutely to +inspecting the books marshalled before me. Roving amongst them, I pulled +out, entirely at random, a thin, worn duodecimo, that was thrust well +back at a shelf end, as if it shrank from comparison with its prosperous +and portly neighbours. Nothing but chance impelled me to the choice; and +I don't know to this day what the ragged volume was about. It opened +naturally at a marker that lay in it--a folded slip of paper, yellow with +age; and glancing at this, a printed name caught my eye. + +With some stir of curiosity, I spread the slip out. It was a title-page +to a volume, of poems, presumably; and the author was James Shrike. + +I uttered an exclamation, and turned, book in hand. + +"An author!" I said. "You an author, Major Shrike!" + +To my surprise, he snapped round upon me with something like a glare of +fury on his face. This the more startled me as I believed I had reason to +regard him as a man whose principles of conduct had long disciplined a +temper that was naturally hasty enough. + +Before I could speak to explain, he had come hurriedly across the room +and had rudely snatched the paper out of my hand. + +"How did this get--" he began; then in a moment came to himself, and +apologized for his ill manners. + +"I thought every scrap of the stuff had been destroyed", he said, and +tore the page into fragments. "It is an ancient effusion, doctor--perhaps +the greatest folly of my life; but it's something of a sore subject with +me, and I shall be obliged if you'll not refer to it again." + +He courted my forgiveness so frankly that the matter passed without +embarrassment; and we had our game and spent a genial evening together. +But memory of the queer little scene stuck in my mind, and I could not +forbear pondering it fitfully. + +Surely here was a new side-light that played upon my friend and superior +a little fantastically. + + * * * * * + +Conscious of a certain vague wonder in my mind, I was traversing the +prison, lost in thought, after my sociable evening with the Governor, +when the fact that dim light was issuing from the open door of cell +number 49 brought me to myself and to a pause in the corridor outside. + +Then I saw that something was wrong with the cell's inmate, and that my +services were required. + +The medium was struggling on the floor, in what looked like an epileptic +fit, and Johnson and another warder were holding him from doing an injury +to himself. + +The younger man welcomed my appearance with relief. + +"Heerd him guggling," he said, "and thought as something were up. You +come timely, sir." + +More assistance was procured, and I ordered the prisoner's removal to the +infirmary. For a minute, before following him, I was left alone with +Johnson. + +"It came to a climax, then?" I said, looking the man steadily in the +face. + +"He may be subject to 'em, sir", he replied, evasively. + +I walked deliberately up to the closed door of the adjoining cell, which +was the last on that side of the corridor. Huddled against the massive +end wall, and half imbedded in it, as it seemed, it lay in a certain +shadow, and bore every sign of dust and disuse. Looking closely, I saw +that the trap in the door was not only firmly bolted, but _screwed into +its socket_. + +I turned and said to the warder quietly,-- + +"Is it long since this cell was in use?" + +"You're very fond of asking questions", he answered doggedly. + +It was evident he would baffle me by impertinence rather than yield a +confidence. A queer insistence had seized me--a strange desire to know +more about this mysterious chamber. But, for all my curiosity, I flushed +at the man's tone. + +"You have your orders", I said sternly, "and do well to hold by them. I +doubt, nevertheless, if they include impertinence to your superiors." + +"I look straight on my duty, sir," he said, a little abashed. "I don't +wish to give offence." + +He did not, I feel sure. He followed his instinct to throw me off the +scent, that was all. + +I strode off in a fume, and after attending F---- in the infirmary, went +promptly to my own quarters. + +I was in an odd frame of mind, and for long tramped my sitting-room to +and fro, too restless to go to bed, or, as an alternative, to settle down +to a book. There was a welling up in my heart of some emotion that I +could neither trace nor define. It seemed neighbour to terror, neighbour +to an intense fainting pity, yet was not distinctly either of these. +Indeed, where was cause for one, or the subject of the other? F---- might +have endured mental sufferings which it was only human to help to end, +yet F---- was a swindling rogue, who, once relieved, merited no further +consideration. + +It was not on him my sentiments were wasted. Who, then, was responsible +for them? + +There is a very plain line of demarcation between the legitimate spirit +of inquiry and mere apish curiosity. I could recognise it, I have no +doubt, as a rule, yet in my then mood, under the influence of a kind of +morbid seizure, inquisitiveness took me by the throat. I could not +whistle my mind from the chase of a certain graveyard will-o'-the-wisp; +and on it went stumbling and floundering through bog and mire, until it +fell into a state of collapse, and was useful for nothing else. + +I went to bed and to sleep without difficulty, but I was conscious of +myself all the time, and of a shadowless horror that seemed to come +stealthily out of corners and to bend over and look at me, and to be +nothing but a curtain or a hanging coat when I started and stared. + +Over and over again this happened, and my temperature rose by leaps, and +suddenly I saw that if I failed to assert myself, and promptly, fever +would lap me in a consuming fire. Then in a moment I broke into a profuse +perspiration, and sank exhausted into delicious unconsciousness. + +Morning found me restored to vigour, but still with the maggot of +curiosity boring in my brain. It worked there all day, and for many +subsequent days, and at last it seemed as if my every faculty were +honeycombed with its ramifications. Then "this will not do", I thought, +but still the tunnelling process went on. + +At first I would not acknowledge to myself what all this mental to-do was +about. I was ashamed of my new development, in fact, and nervous, too, +in a degree of what it might reveal in the matter of moral degeneration; +but gradually, as the curious devil mastered me, I grew into such harmony +with it that I could shut my eyes no longer to the true purpose of its +insistence. It was the _closed cell_ about which my thoughts hovered like +crows circling round carrion. + + * * * * * + +"In the dead waste and middle" of a certain night I awoke with a strange, +quick recovery of consciousness. There was the passing of a single +expiration, and I had been asleep and was awake. I had gone to bed with +no sense of premonition or of resolve in a particular direction; I sat up +a monomaniac. It was as if, swelling in the silent hours, the tumour of +curiosity had come to a head, and in a moment it was necessary to operate +upon it. + +I make no excuse for my then condition. I am convinced I was the victim +of some undistinguishable force, that I was an agent under the control of +the supernatural, if you like. Some thought had been in my mind of late +that in my position it was my duty to unriddle the mystery of the closed +cell. This was a sop timidly held out to and rejected by my better +reason. I sought--and I knew it in my heart--solution of the puzzle, +because it was a puzzle with an atmosphere that vitiated my moral fibre. +Now, suddenly, I knew I must act, or, by forcing self-control, imperil +my mind's stability. + +All strung to a sort of exaltation, I rose noiselessly and dressed myself +with rapid, nervous hands. My every faculty was focussed upon a +solitary point. Without and around there was nothing but shadow and +uncertainty. I seemed conscious only of a shaft of light, as it were, +traversing the darkness and globing itself in a steady disc of radiance +on a lonely door. + +Slipping out into the great echoing vault of the prison in stockinged +feet, I sped with no hesitation of purpose in the direction of the +corridor that was my goal. Surely some resolute Providence guided and +encompassed me, for no meeting with the night patrol occurred at any +point to embarrass or deter me. Like a ghost myself, I flitted along +the stone flags of the passages, hardly waking a murmur from them in my +progress. + +Without, I knew, a wild and stormy wind thundered on the walls of the +prison. Within, where the very atmosphere was self-contained, a cold and +solemn peace held like an irrevocable judgment. + +I found myself as if in a dream before the sealed door that had for days +harassed my waking thoughts. Dim light from a distant gas jet made a +patch of yellow upon one of its panels; the rest was buttressed with +shadow. + +A sense of fear and constriction was upon me as I drew softly from my +pocket a screwdriver I had brought with me. It never occurred to me, I +swear, that the quest was no business of mine, and that even now I could +withdraw from it, and no one be the wiser. But I was afraid--I was +afraid. And there was not even the negative comfort of knowing that the +neighbouring cell was tenanted. It gaped like a ghostly garret next +door to a deserted house. + +What reason had I to be there at all, or, being there, to fear? I can no +more explain than tell how it was that I, an impartial follower of my +vocation, had allowed myself to be tricked by that in the nerves I had +made it my interest to study and combat in others. + +My hand that held the tool was cold and wet. The stiff little shriek of +the first screw, as it turned at first uneasily in its socket, sent a +jarring thrill through me. But I persevered, and it came out readily +by-and-by, as did the four or five others that held the trap secure. + +Then I paused a moment; and, I confess, the quick pant of fear seemed to +come grey from my lips. There were sounds about me--the deep breathing of +imprisoned men; and I envied the sleepers their hard-wrung repose. + +At last, in one access of determination, I put out my hand, and sliding +back the bolt, hurriedly flung open the trap. An acrid whiff of dust +assailed my nostrils as I stepped back a pace and stood expectant of +anything--or nothing. What did I wish, or dread, or foresee? The complete +absurdity of my behaviour was revealed to me in a moment. I could shake +off the incubus here and now, and be a sane man again. + +I giggled, with an actual ring of self-contempt in my voice, as I made a +forward movement to close the aperture. I advanced my face to it, and +inhaled the sluggish air that stole forth, and--God in heaven! + +I had staggered back with that cry in my throat, when I felt fingers like +iron clamps close on my arm and hold it. The grip, more than the face +I turned to look upon in my surging terror, was forcibly human. + +It was the warder Johnson who had seized me, and my heart bounded as I +met the cold fury of his eyes. + +"Prying!" he said, in a hoarse, savage whisper. "So you will, will you? +And now let the devil help you!" + +It was not this fellow I feared, though his white face was set like a +demon's; and in the thick of my terror I made a feeble attempt to assert +my authority. + +"Let me go!" I muttered. "What! you dare?" + +In his frenzy he shook my arm as a terrier shakes a rat, and, like a dog, +he held on, daring me to release myself. + +For the moment an instinct half-murderous leapt in me. It sank and was +overwhelmed in a slough of some more secret emotion. + +"Oh!" I whispered, collapsing, as it were, to the man's fury, +even pitifully deprecating it. "What is it? What's there? It drew +me--something unnameable". + +He gave a snapping laugh like a cough. His rage waxed second by second. +There was a maniacal suggestiveness in it; and not much longer, it was +evident, could he have it under control. I saw it run and congest in his +eyes; and, on the instant of its accumulation, he tore at me with a +sudden wild strength, and drove me up against the very door of the secret +cell. + +The action, the necessity of self-defence, restored me to some measure of +dignity and sanity. + +"Let me go, you ruffian!" I cried, struggling to free myself from his +grasp. + +It was useless. He held me madly. There was no beating him off: and, so +holding me, he managed to produce a single key from one of his pockets, +and to slip it with a rusty clang into the lock of the door. + +"You dirty, prying civilian!" he panted at me, as he swayed this way and +that with the pull of my body. "You shall have your wish, by G--! You +want to see inside, do you? Look, then!" + +He dashed open the door as he spoke, and pulled me violently into +the opening. A great waft of the cold, dank air came at us, and with +it--what? + +The warder had jerked his dark lantern from his belt, and now--an arm of +his still clasped about one of mine--snapped the slide open. + +"Where is it?" he muttered, directing the disc of light round and about +the floor of the cell. I ceased struggling. Some counter influence was +raising an odd curiosity in me. + +"Ah!" he cried, in a stifled voice, "there you are, my friend!" + +He was setting the light slowly travelling along the stone flags close by +the wall over against us, and now, so guiding it, looked askance at me +with a small, greedy smile. + +"Follow the light, sir," he whispered jeeringly. + +I looked, and saw twirling on the floor, in the patch of radiance cast by +the lamp, _a little eddy of dust_, it seemed. This eddy was never still, +but went circling in that stagnant place without apparent cause or +influence; and, as it circled, it moved slowly on by wall and corner, so +that presently in its progress it must reach us where we stood. + +Now, draughts will play queer freaks in quiet places, and of this +trifling phenomenon I should have taken little note ordinarily. But, I +must say at once, that as I gazed upon the odd moving thing my heart +seemed to fall in upon itself like a drained artery. + +"Johnson!" I cried, "I must get out of this. I don't know what's the +matter, or--Why do you hold me? D--n it! man, let me go; let me go, I +say!" + +As I grappled with him he dropped the lantern with a crash and flung his +arms violently about me. + +"You don't!" he panted, the muscles of his bent and rigid neck seeming +actually to cut into my shoulder-blade. "You don't, by G--! You came +of your own accord, and now you shall take your bellyful!" + +It was a struggle for life or death, or, worse, for life and reason. But +I was young and wiry, and held my own, if I could do little more. Yet +there was something to combat beyond the mere brute strength of the man I +struggled with, for I fought in an atmosphere of horror unexplainable, +and I knew that inch by inch the _thing_ on the floor was circling round +in our direction. + +Suddenly in the breathing darkness I felt it close upon us, gave one +mortal yell of fear, and, with a last despairing fury, tore myself from +the encircling arms, and sprang into the corridor without. As I plunged +and leapt, the warder clutched at me, missed, caught a foot on the edge +of the door, and, as the latter whirled to with a clap, fell heavily at +my feet in a fit. Then, as I stood staring down upon him, steps sounded +along the corridor and the voices of scared men hurrying up. + + * * * * * + +Ill and shaken, and, for the time, little in love with life, yet fearing +death as I had never dreaded it before, I spent the rest of that horrible +night huddled between my crumpled sheets, fearing to look forth, fearing +to think, wild only to be far away, to be housed in some green and +innocent hamlet, where I might forget the madness and the terror in +learning to walk the unvext paths of placid souls. I had not fairly +knocked under until alone with my new dread familiar. That unction I +could lay to my heart, at least. I had done the manly part by the +stricken warder, whom I had attended to his own home, in a row of little +tenements that stood south of the prison walls. I had replied to all +inquiries with some dignity and spirit, attributing my ruffled condition +to an assault on the part of Johnson, when he was already under the +shadow of his seizure. I had directed his removal, and grudged him no +professional attention that it was in my power to bestow. But afterwards, +locked into my room, my whole nervous system broke up like a trodden +ant-hill, leaving me conscious of nothing but an aimless scurrying terror +and the black swarm of thoughts, so that I verily fancied my reason would +give under the strain. + +Yet I had more to endure and to triumph over. + +Near morning I fell into a troubled sleep, throughout which the drawn +twitch of muscle seemed an accent on every word of ill-omen I had ever +spelt out of the alphabet of fear. If my body rested, my brain was an +open chamber for any toad of ugliness that listed to "sit at squat" in. + +Suddenly I woke to the fact that there was a knocking at my door--that +there had been for some little time. + +I cried, "Come in!" finding a weak restorative in the mere sound of my +own human voice; then, remembering the key was turned, bade the visitor +wait until I could come to him. + +Scrambling, feeling dazed and white-livered, out of bed, I opened the +door, and met one of the warders on the threshold. The man looked scared, +and his lips, I noticed, were set in a somewhat boding fashion. + +"Can you come at once, sir?" he said. "There's summat wrong with the +Governor." + +"Wrong? What's the matter with him?" + +"Why,"--he looked down, rubbed an imaginary protuberance smooth with his +foot, and glanced up at me again with a quick, furtive expression,--"he's +got his face set in the grating of 47, and danged if a man Jack of us can +get him to move or speak." + +I turned away, feeling sick. I hurriedly pulled on coat and trousers, and +hurriedly went off with my summoner. Reason was all absorbed in a wildest +phantasy of apprehension. + +"Who found him?" I muttered, as we sped on. + +"Vokins see him go down the corridor about half after eight, sir, and see +him give a start like when he noticed the trap open. It's never been so +before in my time. Johnson must ha' done it last night, before he were +took." + +"Yes, yes." + +"The man said the Governor went to shut it, it seemed, and to draw his +face to'ards the bars in so doin'. Then he see him a-lookin' through, as +he thought; but nat'rally it weren't no business of his'n, and he went +off about his work. But when he come anigh agen, fifteen minutes later, +there were the Governor in the same position; and he got scared over it, +and called out to one or two of us." + +"Why didn't one of you ask the Major if anything was wrong?" + +"Bless you! we did; and no answer. And we pulled him, compatible with +discipline, but--" + +"But what?" + +"He's stuck." + +"Stuck!" + +"See for yourself, sir. That's all I ask." + +I did, a moment later. A little group was collected about the door of +cell 47, and the members of it spoke together in whispers, as if they +were frightened men. One young fellow, with a face white in patches, as +if it had been floured, slid from them as I approached, and accosted me +tremulously. + +"Don't go anigh, sir. There's something wrong about the place." + +I pulled myself together, forcibly beating down the excitement reawakened +by the associations of the spot. In the discomfiture of others' nerves I +found my own restoration. + +"Don't be an ass!" I said, in a determined voice, "There's nothing here +that can't be explained. Make way for me, please!" + +They parted and let me through, and I saw him. He stood, spruce, +frock-coated, dapper, as he always was, with his face pressed against +and _into_ the grill, and either hand raised and clenched tightly round a +bar of the trap. His posture was as of one caught and striving +frantically to release himself; yet the narrowness of the interval +between the rails precluded so extravagant an idea. He stood quite +motionless--taut and on the strain, as it were--and nothing of his face +was visible but the back ridges of his jaw-bones, showing white through a +bush of red whiskers. + +"Major Shrike!" I rapped out, and, allowing myself no hesitation, reached +forth my hand and grasped his shoulder. The body vibrated under my touch, +but he neither answered nor made sign of hearing me. Then I pulled at him +forcibly, and ever with increasing strength. His fingers held like steel +braces. He seemed glued to the trap, like Theseus to the rock. + +Hastily I peered round, to see if I could get glimpse of his face. I +noticed enough to send me back with a little stagger. + +"Has none of you got a key to this door?" I asked, reviewing the scared +faces about me, than which my own was no less troubled, I feel sure. + +"Only the Governor, sir," said the warder who had fetched me. "There's +not a man but him amongst us that ever seen this opened." + +He was wrong there, I could have told him; but held my tongue, for +obvious reasons. + +"I want it opened. Will one of you feel in his pockets?" + +Not a soul stirred. Even had not sense of discipline precluded, that of a +certain inhuman atmosphere made fearful creatures of them all. + +"Then," said I, "I must do it myself." + +I turned once more to the stiff-strung figure, had actually put hand on +it, when an exclamation from Vokins arrested me. + +"There's a key--there, sir!" he said--"stickin' out yonder between its +feet." + +Sure enough there was--Johnson's, no doubt, that had been shot from its +socket by the clapping to of the door, and afterwards kicked aside by the +warder in his convulsive struggles. + +I stooped, only too thankful for the respite, and drew it forth. I had +seen it but once before, yet I recognised it at a glance. + +Now, I confess, my heart felt ill as I slipped the key into the wards, +and a sickness of resentment at the tyranny of Fate in making me its +helpless minister surged up in my veins. Once, with my fingers on the +iron loop, I paused, and ventured a fearful side glance at the figure +whose crookt elbow almost touched my face; then, strung to the high +pitch of inevitability, I shot the lock, pushed at the door, and in the +act, made a back leap into the corridor. + +Scarcely, in doing so, did I look for the totter and collapse outwards of +the rigid form. I had expected to see it fall away, face down, into the +cell, as its support swung from it. Yet it was, I swear, as if something +from within had relaxed its grasp and given the fearful dead man a +swingeing push outwards as the door opened. + +It went on its back, with a dusty slap on the stone flags, and from all +its spectators--me included--came a sudden drawn sound, like wind in a +keyhole. + +What can I say, or how describe it? A dead thing it was--but the face! + +Barred with livid scars where the grating rails had crossed it, the rest +seemed to have been worked and kneaded into a mere featureless plate of +yellow and expressionless flesh. + +And it was this I had seen in the glass! + + * * * * * + +There was an interval following the experience above narrated, during +which a certain personality that had once been mine was effaced or +suspended, and I seemed a passive creature, innocent of the least desire +of independence. It was not that I was actually ill or actually insane. A +merciful Providence set my finer wits slumbering, that was all, leaving +me a sufficiency of the grosser faculties that were necessary to the +right ordering of my behaviour. + +I kept to my room, it is true, and even lay a good deal in bed; but this +was more to satisfy the busy scruples of a _locum tenens_--a practitioner +of the neighbourhood, who came daily to the prison to officiate in my +absence--than to cosset a complaint that in its inactivity was purely +negative. I could review what had happened with a calmness as profound +as if I had read of it in a book. I could have wished to continue my +duties, indeed, had the power of insistence remained to me. But the saner +medicus was acute where I had gone blunt, and bade me to the restful +course. He was right. I was mentally stunned, and had I not slept off my +lethargy, I should have gone mad in an hour--leapt at a bound, probably, +from inertia to flaming lunacy. + +I remembered everything, but through a fluffy atmosphere, so to speak. It +was as if I looked on bygone pictures through ground glass that softened +the ugly outlines. + +Sometimes I referred to these to my substitute, who was wise to answer me +according to my mood; for the truth left me unruffled, whereas an obvious +evasion of it would have distressed me. + +"Hammond," I said one day, "I have never yet asked you. How did I give my +evidence at the inquest?" + +"Like a doctor and a sane man." + +"That's good. But it was a difficult course to steer. You conducted the +post-mortem. Did any peculiarity in the dead man's face strike you?" + +"Nothing but this: that the excessive contraction of the bicipital +muscles had brought the features into such forcible contact with the bars +as to cause bruising and actual abrasion. He must have been dead some +little time when you found him." + +"And nothing else? You noticed nothing else in his face--a sort of +obliteration of what makes one human, I mean?" + +"Oh, dear, no! nothing but the painful constriction that marks any +ordinary fatal attack of _angina pectoris_.--There's a rum breach of +promise case in the paper to-day. You should read it; it'll make you +laugh." + +I had no more inclination to laugh than to sigh; but I accepted the +change of subject with an equanimity now habitual to me. + + * * * * * + +One morning I sat up in bed, and knew that consciousness was wide awake +in me once more. It had slept, and now rose refreshed, but trembling. +Looking back, all in a flutter of new responsibility, along the misty +path by way of which I had recently loitered, I shook with an awful +thankfulness at sight of the pitfalls I had skirted and escaped--of +the demons my witlessness had baffled. + +The joy of life was in my heart again, but chastened and made pitiful by +experience. + +Hammond noticed the change in me directly he entered, and congratulated +me upon it. + +"Go slow at first, old man," he said. "You've fairly sloughed the old +skin; but give the sun time to toughen the new one. Walk in it at +present, and be content." + +I was, in great measure, and I followed his advice. I got leave of +absence, and ran down for a month in the country to a certain house we +wot of, where kindly ministration to my convalescence was only one of the +many blisses to be put to an account of rosy days. + +"_Then did my love awake, + Most like a lily-flower, +And as the lovely queene of heaven, + So shone shee in her bower._" + +Ah, me! ah, me! when was it? A year ago, or two-thirds of a lifetime? +Alas! "Age with stealing steps hath clawde me with his crowch." And will +the yews root in _my_ heart, I wonder? + +I was well, sane, recovered, when one morning, towards the end of my +visit, I received a letter from Hammond, enclosing a packet addressed to +me, and jealously sealed and fastened. My friend's communication ran as +follows:-- + +"There died here yesterday afternoon a warder, Johnson--he who had that +apoplectic seizure, you will remember, the night before poor Shrike's +exit. I attended him to the end, and, being alone with him an hour before +the finish, he took the enclosed from under his pillow, and a solemn oath +from me that I would forward it direct to you, sealed as you will find +it, and permit no other soul to examine or even touch it. I acquit myself +of the charge, but, my dear fellow, with an uneasy sense of the +responsibility I incur in thus possibly suggesting to you a retrospect of +events which you had much best consign to the limbo of the--not +unexplainable, but not worth trying to explain. It was patent from what +I have gathered that you were in an overstrung and excitable condition at +that time, and that your temporary collapse was purely nervous in its +character. It seems there was some nonsense abroad in the prison about a +certain cell, and that there were fools who thought fit to associate +Johnson's attack and the other's death with the opening of that cell's +door. I have given the new Governor a tip, and he has stopped all that. +We have examined the cell in company, and found it, as one might suppose, +a very ordinary chamber. The two men died perfectly natural deaths, and +there is the last to be said on the subject. I mention it only from the +fear that enclosed may contain some allusion to the rubbish, a perusal of +which might check the wholesome convalescence of your thoughts. If you +take my advice, you will throw the packet into the fire unread. At least, +if you do examine it, postpone the duty till you feel yourself absolutely +impervious to any mental trickery, and--bear in mind that you are a +worthy member of a particularly matter-of-fact and unemotional +profession." + + * * * * * + +I smiled at the last clause, for I was now in a condition to feel a +rather warm shame over my erst weak-knee'd collapse before a sheet and an +illuminated turnip. I took the packet to my bedroom, shut the door, and +sat myself down by the open window. The garden lay below me, and the dewy +meadows beyond. In the one, bees were busy ruffling the ruddy +gillyflowers and April stocks; in the other, the hedge twigs were all +frosted with Mary buds, as if Spring had brushed them with the fleece of +her wings in passing. + +I fetched a sigh of content as I broke the seal of the packet and brought +out the enclosure. Somewhere in the garden a little sardonic laugh was +clipt to silence. It came from groom or maid, no doubt; yet it thrilled +me with an odd feeling of uncanniness, and I shivered slightly. + +"Bah!" I said to myself determinedly. "There is a shrewd nip in the wind, +for all the show of sunlight;" and I rose, pulled down the window, and +resumed my seat. + +Then in the closed room, that had become deathly quiet by contrast, I +opened and read the dead man's letter. + + * * * * * + +"Sir,--I hope you will read what I here put down. I lay it on you as a +solemn injunction, for I am a dying man, and I know it. And to who is +my death due, and the Governor's death, if not to you, for your pryin' +and curiosity, as surely as if you had drove a nife through our harts? +Therefore, I say, Read this, and take my burden from me, for it has been +a burden; and now it is right that you that interfered should have it on +your own mortal shoulders. The Major is dead and I am dying, and in the +first of my fit it went on in my head like cimbells that the trap was +left open, and that if he passed he would look in and _it_ would get him. +For he knew not fear, neither would he submit to bullying by God or +devil. + +"Now I will tell you the truth, and Heaven quit you of your +responsibility in our destruction. + +"There wasn't another man to me like the Governor in all the countries of +the world. Once he brought me to life after doctors had given me up for +dead; but he willed it, and I lived; and ever afterwards I loved him as a +dog loves its master. That was in the Punjab; and I came home to England +with him, and was his servant when he got his appointment to the jail +here. I tell you he was a proud and fierce man, but under control and +tender to those he favoured; and I will tell you also a strange thing +about him. Though he was a soldier and an officer, and strict in +discipline as made men fear and admire him, his heart at bottom was all +for books, and literature, and such-like gentle crafts. I had his +confidence, as a man gives his confidence to his dog, and before me +sometimes he unbent as he never would before others. In this way I learnt +the bitter sorrow of his life. He had once hoped to be a poet, +acknowledged as such before the world. He was by natur' an idelist, as +they call it, and God knows what it meant to him to come out of the +woods, so to speak, and sweat in the dust of cities; but he did it, for +his will was of tempered steel. He buried his dreams in the clouds and +came down to earth greatly resolved, but with one undying hate. It is not +good to hate as he could, and worse to be hated by such as him; and I +will tell you the story, and what it led to. + +"It was when he was a subaltern that he made up his mind to the plunge. +For years he had placed all his hopes and confidents in a book of verses +he had wrote, and added to, and improved during that time. A little +encouragement, a little word of praise, was all he looked for, and then +he was ready to buckle to again, profitin' by advice, and do better. He +put all the love and beauty of his heart into that book, and at last, +after doubt, and anguish, and much diffidents, he published it and give +it to the world. Sir, it fell what they call still-born from the press. +It was like a green leaf flutterin' down in a dead wood. To a proud +and hopeful man, bubblin' with music, the pain of neglect, when he come +to realize it, was terrible. But nothing was said, and there was nothing +to say. In silence he had to endure and suffer. + +"But one day, during maneuvers, there came to the camp a grey-faced man, +a newspaper correspondent, and young Shrike knocked up a friendship +with him. Now how it come about I cannot tell, but so it did that this +skip-kennel wormed the lad's sorrow out of him, and his confidents, +swore he'd been damnabilly used, and that when he got back he'd crack up +the book himself in his own paper. He was a fool for his pains, and a +serpent in his cruelty. The notice come out as promised, and, my God! the +author was laughed and mocked at from beginning to end. Even confidentses +he had given to the creature was twisted to his ridicule, and his very +appearance joked over. And the mess got wind of it, and made a rare story +for the dog days. + +"He bore it like a soldier, and that he became heart and liver from the +moment. But he put something to the account of the grey-faced man and +locked it up in his breast. + +"He come across him again years afterwards in India, and told him very +politely that he hadn't forgotten him, and didn't intend to. But he was +anigh losin' sight of him there for ever and a day, for the creature took +cholera, or what looked like it, and rubbed shoulders with death and the +devil before he pulled through. And he come across him again over here, +and that was the last of him, as you shall see presently. + +"Once, after I knew the Major (he were Captain then), I was a-brushin' +his coat, and he stood a long while before the glass. Then he twisted +upon me, with a smile on his mouth, and says he,-- + +"'The dog was right, Johnson: this isn't the face of a poet. I was a +presumtious ass, and born to cast up figgers with a pen behind my ear.' + +"'Captain,' I says, 'if you was skinned, you'd look like any other man +without his. The quality of a soul isn't expressed by a coat.' + +"'Well,' he answers, 'my soul's pretty clean-swept, I think, save for one +Bluebeard chamber in it that's been kep' locked ever so many years. +It's nice and dirty by this time, I expect,' he says. Then the grin comes +on his mouth again. 'I'll open it some day,' he says, 'and look. There's +something in it about comparing me to a dancing dervish, with the wind in +my petticuts. Perhaps I'll get the chance to set somebody else dancing +by-and-by.' + +"He did, and took it, and the Bluebeard chamber come to be opened in this +very jail. + +"It was when the system was lying fallow, so to speak, and the prison was +deserted. Nobody was there but him and me and the echoes from the empty +courts. The contract for restoration hadn't been signed, and for months, +and more than a year, we lay idle, nothing bein' done. + +"Near the beginnin' of this period, one day comes, for the third time of +the Major's seein' him, the grey-faced man. 'Let bygones be bygones,' +he says. 'I was a good friend to you, though you didn't know it; and now, +I expect, you're in the way to thank me.' + +"'I am,' says the Major. + +"'Of course,' he answers. 'Where would be your fame and reputation as one +of the leadin' prison reformers of the day if you had kep' on in that +riming nonsense?' + +"'Have you come for my thanks?' says the Governor. + +"'I've come,' says the grey-faced man, 'to examine and report upon your +system.' + +"'For your paper?' + +"'Possibly; but to satisfy myself of its efficacy, in the first +instance.' + +"'You aren't commissioned, then?' + +"'No; I come on my own responsibility.' + +"'Without consultation with any one?' + +"'Absolutely without. I haven't even a wife to advise me,' he says, with +a yellow grin. What once passed for cholera had set the bile on his skin +like paint, and he had caught a manner of coughing behind his hand like a +toast-master. + +"'I know,' says the Major, looking him steady in the face, 'that what you +say about me and my affairs is sure to be actuated by conscientious +motives.' + +"'Ah,' he answers. 'You're sore about that review still, I see.' + +"'Not at all,' says the Major; 'and, in proof, I invite you to be my +guest for the night, and to-morrow I'll show you over the prison and +explain my system.' + +"The creature cried, 'Done!' and they set to and discussed jail matters +in great earnestness. I couldn't guess the Governor's intentions, but, +somehow, his manner troubled me. And yet I can remember only one point of +his talk. He were always dead against making public show of his +birds. 'They're there for reformation, not ignimony,' he'd say. Prisons +in the old days were often, with the asylum and the work'us, made the +holiday show-places of towns. I've heard of one Justice of the Peace, up +North, who, to save himself trouble, used to sign a lot of blank orders +for leave to view, so that applicants needn't bother him when they wanted +to go over. They've changed all that, and the Governor were instrumental +in the change. + +"'It's against my rule,' he said that night, 'to exhibit to a stranger +without a Government permit; but, seein' the place is empty, and for old +remembrance' sake, I'll make an exception in your favour, and you shall +learn all I can show you of the inside of a prison.' + +"Now this was natural enough; but I was uneasy. + +"He treated his guest royally; so much that when we assembled the next +mornin' for the inspection, the grey-faced man were shaky as a wet dog. +But the Major were all set prim and dry, like the soldier he was. + +"We went straight away down corridor B, and at cell 47 we stopped. + +"'We will begin our inspection here,' said the Governor. 'Johnson, open +the door.' + +"I had the keys of the row; fitted in the right one, and pushed open the +door. + +"'After you, sir,' said the Major; and the creature walked in, and he +shut the door on him. + +"I think he smelt a rat at once, for he began beating on the wood and +calling out to us. But the Major only turned round to me with his face +like a stone. + +"'Take that key from the bunch,' he said, 'and give it to me.' + +"I obeyed, all in a tremble, and he took and put it in his pocket. + +"'My God, Major!' I whispered, 'what are you going to do with him?' + +"'Silence, sir!' he said. 'How dare you question your superior officer!' + +"And the noise inside grew louder. + +"The Governor, he listened to it a moment like music; then he unbolted +and flung open the trap, and the creature's face came at it like a wild +beast's. + +"'Sir,' said the Major to it, 'you can't better understand my system than +by experiencing it. What an article for your paper you could write +already--almost as pungint a one as that in which you ruined the hopes +and prospects of a young cockney poet.' + +"The man mouthed at the bars. He was half-mad, I think, in that one +minute. + +"'Let me out!' he screamed. 'This is a hideous joke! Let me out!' + +"'When you are quite quiet--deathly quiet,' said the Major, 'you shall +come out. Not before;' and he shut the trap in its face very softly. + +"'Come, Johnson, march!' he said, and took the lead, and we walked out of +the prison. + +"I was like to faint, but I dared not disobey, and the man's screeching +followed us all down the empty corridors and halls, until we shut the +first great door on it. + +"It may have gone on for hours, alone in that awful emptiness. The +creature was a reptile, but the thought sickened my heart. + +"And from that hour till his death, five months later, he rotted and +maddened in his dreadful tomb." + + * * * * * + +There was more, but I pushed the ghastly confession from me at this point +in uncontrollable loathing and terror. Was it possible--possible, that +injured vanity could so falsify its victim's every tradition of decency? + +"Oh!" I muttered, "what a disease is ambition! Who takes one step towards +it puts his foot on Alsirat!" + +It was minutes before my shocked nerves were equal to a resumption of the +task; but at last I took it up again, with a groan. + + * * * * * + +"I don't think at first I realized the full mischief the Governor +intended to do. At least, I hoped he only meant to give the man a good +fright and then let him go. I might have known better. How could he ever +release him without ruining himself? + +"The next morning he summoned me to attend him. There was a strange +new look of triumph in his face, and in his hand he held a heavy +hunting-crop. I pray to God he acted in madness, but my duty and +obedience was to him. + +"'There is sport toward, Johnson,' he said. 'My dervish has got to +dance.' + +"I followed him quiet. We listened when I opened the jail door, but the +place was silent as the grave. But from the cell, when we reached it, +came a low, whispering sound. + +"The Governor slipped the trap and looked through. + +"'All right,' he said, and put the key in the door and flung it open. + +"He were sittin' crouched on the ground, and he looked up at us +vacant-like. His face were all fallen down, as it were, and his mouth +never ceased to shake and whisper. + +"The Major shut the door and posted me in a corner. Then he moved to the +creature with his whip. + +"'Up!' he cried. 'Up, you dervish, and dance to us!' and he brought the +thong with a smack across his shoulders. + +"The creature leapt under the blow, and then to his feet with a cry, and +the Major whipped him till he danced. All round the cell he drove him, +lashing and cutting--and again, and many times again, until the poor +thing rolled on the floor whimpering and sobbing. I shall have to give an +account of this some day. I shall have to whip my master with a red-hot +serpent round the blazing furnace of the pit, and I shall do it with +agony, because here my love and my obedience was to him. + +"When it was finished, he bade me put down food and drink that I had +brought with me, and come away with him; and we went, leaving him +rolling on the floor of the cell, and shut him alone in the empty prison +until we should come again at the same time to-morrow. + +"So day by day this went on, and the dancing three or four times a week, +until at last the whip could be left behind, for the man would scream and +begin to dance at the mere turning of the key in the lock. And he danced +for four months, but not the fifth. + +"Nobody official came near us all this time. The prison stood lonely as a +deserted ruin where dark things have been done. + +"Once, with fear and trembling, I asked my master how he would account +for the inmate of 47 if he was suddenly called upon by authority to +open the cell; and he answered, smiling,-- + +"I should say it was my mad brother. By his own account, he showed me a +brother's love, you know. It would be thought a liberty; but the +authorities, I think, would stretch a point for me. But if I got +sufficient notice, I should clear out the cell.' + +"I asked him how, with my eyes rather than my lips, and he answered me +only with a look. + +"And all this time he was, outside the prison, living the life of a good +man--helping the needy, ministering to the poor. He even entertained +occasionally, and had more than one noisy party in his house. + +"But the fifth month the creature danced no more. He was a dumb, silent +animal then, with matted hair and beard; and when one entered he would +only look up at one pitifully, as if he said, 'My long punishment is +nearly ended'. How it came that no inquiry was ever made about him I +know not, but none ever was. Perhaps he was one of the wandering gentry +that nobody ever knows where they are next. He was unmarried, and had +apparently not told of his intended journey to a soul. + +"And at the last he died in the night. We found him lying stiff and +stark in the morning, and scratched with a piece of black crust on a +stone of the wall these strange words: 'An Eddy on the Floor'. Just +that--nothing else. + +"Then the Governor came and looked down, and was silent. Suddenly he +caught me by the shoulder. + +"'Johnson', he cried, 'if it was to do again, I would do it! I repent of +nothing. But he has paid the penalty, and we call quits. May he rest +in peace!' + +"'Amen!' I answered low. Yet I knew our turn must come for this. + +"We buried him in quicklime under the wall where the murderers lie, and I +made the cell trim and rubbed out the writing, and the Governor locked +all up and took away the key. But he locked in more than he bargained +for. + +"For months the place was left to itself, and neither of us went anigh +47. Then one day the workmen was to be put in, and the Major he took +me round with him for a last examination of the place before they come. + +"He hesitated a bit outside a particular cell; but at last he drove in +the key and kicked open the door. + +"'My God!' he says, 'he's dancing still!' + +"My heart was thumpin', I tell you, as I looked over his shoulder. What +did we see? What you well understand, sir; but, for all it was no more +than that, we knew as well as if it was shouted in our ears that it was +him, dancin'. It went round by the walls and drew towards us, and as it +stole near I screamed out, 'An Eddy on the Floor!' and seized and dragged +the Major out and clapped to the door behind us. + +"'Oh!' I said, 'in another moment it would have had us'. + +"He looked at me gloomily. + +"'Johnson', he said, 'I'm not to be frighted or coerced. He may dance, +but he shall dance alone. Get a screwdriver and some screws and fasten up +this trap. No one from this time looks into this cell.' + +"I did as he bid me, sweatin'; and I swear all the time I wrought I +dreaded a hand would come through the trap and clutch mine. + +"On one pretex' or another, from that day till the night you meddled with +it, he kep' that cell as close shut as a tomb. And he went his ways, +discardin' the past from that time forth. Now and again a over-sensitive +prisoner in the next cell would complain of feelin' uncomfortable. If +possible, he would be removed to another; if not, he was damd for his +fancies. And so it might be goin' on to now, if you hadn't pried and +interfered. I don't blame you at this moment, sir. Likely you were an +instrument in the hands of Providence; only, as the instrument, you must +now take the burden of the truth on your own shoulders. I am a dying man, +but I cannot die till I have confessed. Per'aps you may find it in your +hart some day to give up a prayer for me--but it must be for the Major as +well. + +"Your obedient servant, + +"J. JOHNSON." + + * * * * * + +What comment of my own can I append to this wild narrative? +Professionally, and apart from personal experiences, I should rule it the +composition of an epileptic. That a noted journalist, nameless as he was +and is to me, however nomadic in habit, could disappear from human ken, +and his fellows rest content to leave him unaccounted for, seems a tax +upon credulity so stupendous that I cannot seriously endorse the +statement. + +Yet, also--there _is_ that little matter of my personal experience. + + + + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + + +On a day early in the summer of the present year Miss Dinah Groom was +found lying dead off a field-path of the little obscure Wiltshire village +which she had named her "rest and be thankful." At the date of her +decease she was not an old woman, though any one marking her white hair +and much-furrowed features might have supposed her one. The hair, +however, was ample in quantity, the wrinkles rather so many under-scores +of energy than evidences of senility; and until the blinds were down over +her soul, she had looked into and across the world with a pair of eyes +that seemed to reflect the very blue and white of a June sky. No doubt +she had thought to breast the hills and sail the seas again in some +renaissance of vigour. No doubt her "retreat," like a Roman Catholic's, +was designed to be merely temporary. She aped the hermit for the sake of +a sojourn in the hermitage. She came to her island of Avalon to be +restored of her weary limbs and her blistered feet, so to speak; and +there her heart, too weak for her spirit, failed her, and she fell +amongst the young budding poppies, and died. + +I use the word "heart" literally, and in no sentimental sense. To talk of +associations of sentiment in connection with this lady would be +misleading. She herself would not have repudiated any responsibility for +the term as applied to her; she would have simply failed to understand +the term itself. There was no least affectation in this. Throughout her +life of sixty years, as I gather, she acted never once upon principle. +Impulse and inclination dominated her, and she would indulge many +primitive instincts without a thought of conventions. Yet she was not +selfish; or, at least, only in the self-contained and self-protective +meaning of the word. She was a perfect animal, conscious of her supreme +brute caste, shrewd, resourceful, and the plain embodiment of truth. + +Miss Groom had, I think, a boundless feeling of fellowship with beauty of +whatever description; but no least touch of that sorrow of affection +which, in its very humanity, is divine. Her unswerving creed was that +woman was the inheritrix of the earth, the reversion of which she had +wilfully mortgaged to an alien race, and that she had bartered her +material immortality for a sensation. For man she had no vulgar and +jealous contempt; but she feared and shrank from him as something moved +by scruples with which she had no sympathy. She understood the world of +Nature, and could respond to its bloodless caresses and passions. She +could _not_ understand the moodiness that dwells upon a grievance, or +that would sell its birthright of joy for a pitiful memory. + +Yet (and here I must speak with discretion, for I have no sufficient data +to go upon) there was that of contradictoriness in her character that, I +have reason to believe, she had borne children, and had even been right +and particular as to their temporal welfare until such time as, in the +nature of things, they were of an age to make shift for themselves. This, +virtually, I know to be the case; and that, once quit of the primitive +maternal responsibility, she gave no more thought to them than a thrush +gives to its fledglings when she has educated them to their first +flights, and to the useful knack of cracking a snail on a stone. + +My own feeling about Dinah Groom was that she had "thrown back" a long +way over the heads of heredity, and that, in her fearlessness, in her +undegenerate physique, in the animal regularity of her face and form, she +presented to modern days a startling aboriginal type. + +Beautiful--save in the sense of symmetry--she can never have been to the +ordinary man; inasmuch as she would subscribe to no arbitrary standard of +his dictating. She had a high, rich colour; but her complexion must +always have been rough, and a pronounced little moustache crossed her +upper lip, like an accent to the speech that was too distinct and +uncompromising to be melodious. Her every limb and feature, however, was +instinct with capability, and, in her presence, one must always be moved +to marvel over that indescribable worship of disproportion that has grown +to be the religion of a shapely race. + + * * * * * + +How I first became acquainted with Miss Groom it is unnecessary to +explain. During the last three years of her life I was fortunate to be +her guest in the Wiltshire retreat for an aggregate of many months. She +took a fancy to me--to my solitariness and moroseness, perhaps--and she +not only liked to have me with her, but, after a time, she fell into +something of a habit of recalling for my benefit certain passages and +experiences of her past life. In doing this, there was no suggestion of +confidence; and I am breaking no faith in alluding to them. She was a +fine talker--rugged, unpicturesque, but with an instinctive capacity of +selection in words. If I quote her, as I wish to do, I cannot reproduce +her style; and that, no doubt, would appear bald on paper. But, at least, +the matter is all her own. + +Now, I must premise that I arrogate to myself no exhibitory rights in +this lady. She was familiar with and to many from the foremost ranks of +those who "follow knowledge like a sinking star"; those great and +restless spirits to whom inaction reads stagnation. To such, in all +probability, I tell, in speaking of Dinah Groom, a twice-told tale; and, +therefore--inasmuch as I make it my business only to print what is +hitherto unrecorded--to them I give the assurance that I do not claim to +have "discovered" their friend. + + * * * * * + +On a wall of the little embowered sitting-room hung a queer picture, by +Ernest Griset, of the "Overwhelming of the Mammoths in the Ice." From the +first this odd conception had engaged my curiosity,--purely for its +fanciful side,--and one evening, in alluding to it, I made the not very +profound remark that Imagination had no anatomy. + +"They are true beasts," said Dinah. + +"They are the mastodons of Cuvier, no doubt; but, then, Cuvier never saw +a mastodon, you know." + +"But I have; and I tell you Griset and Cuvier are very nearly right." + +I expressed no surprise. + +"In what were they astray?" I asked. + +"The mammoth, as I saw it, had a huge hump--like the steam-chest of an +enormous engine--over its shoulders." + +"And where did you see it, and when?" + +"You are curious to know?" + +"Yes, I think I am; and there is a quiet of expectancy abroad. I hear the +ghost of my dead brother walking in the corridor, Dinah; and we are all +waiting for you to speak." + +She smiled, and said, "Push me over the cigarettes." + +She struck a match, kindled the little crackling tube, and threw the +light out into the shrubbery. It traced a tiny arc of flame and vanished. +The sky was full of the mewing of lost kittens, it seemed. The sound came +from innumerable peewits, that fled and circled above the slopes of the +darkening meadows below. + +"What an uncomfortable seer you are!" she said, "to people this dear +human night with your fancies. No doubt, now, you will read between +the lines of that bird speech down there?" (She looked at me curiously, +but with none of the mournful speculativeness of a soul struggling +against the dimness of its own vision.) "To me it is articulate +happiness--nothing more abstruse. Yes, I have seen a mastodon; and I was +as glad to happen on the beast as a naturalist is glad to find a missing +link in a chain of evidence. From the moment, I knew myself quite clearly +to be the recovered heir to this abused planet." + +She paused a moment, and contracted her brows, as if regretfully and in +anger. "If I had only seen it sooner!" she cried, low; "before I had, in +my pride of strength, tested the poison that has bewildered the brains of +my sisters!" + +Her general reserve was her self-armour against the bolts of the +Philistines. What worldling would not have read mania in much that was +spoken by this sane woman? Yet, indeed, if we were all to find the power +to give expression to our inmost thoughts, madness and sanity would have +to change places in the order of affairs. + +"Once," said Dinah--"and it was when I was a young woman--a man in whom I +was interested shipped as passenger on a whaling vessel. This friend was +what is called a degenerate. Physically and morally he had yielded his +claim to any share in that province of the sun, that his race had +conquered and annexed only to find it antipathetic to its needs. +Combative effort was grown impossible to him, as in time it will grow to +you all. You drop from the world like dead flies from a wall. He could +not physic his soul with woods, and groves, and waters. To his +perceptions, life was become an abnormality--a disease of which he +sickened, as you all must when the last of the fever of aggression has +been diluted out of your veins. You die of your triumph, as the bee dies +of his own weapon of offence; and you can find no antidote to the poison +in the nature you have inoculated with your own virus. + +"This man contemplated self-destruction as the only escape. He had sought +distraction of his moral torments in travel long and varied. Many of the +most beautiful, of the historically interesting places of the world, he +had visited and sojourned in--without avail. His haunting feeling, he +said, was that he did not belong to himself. Pursued by this Nemesis, he +came home to end it all. He still proclaimed his spiritual independence; +but it was immeshed, and he must tear the strands. This was wonderfully +perplexing to me, and, out of my curiosity, I must persuade him to make +one more attempt. His late efforts, I assured him, were nothing but an +endeavour to cure nausea with sweet syrups. He would not get his change +out of nature by such pitiful wooing. Let him, rather, emulate, if he +could not feel, the spirit of his remote forbears, and rally his nerves +to an expedition into the harsh and awful places of the earth. I would +accompany him, and watch with and for him, and supply that of the fibre +he lacked. + +"He consented, and, after some difficulty (for there is an economy of +room in whalers), we obtained passage in a vessel and sailed into the +unknown. Our life and our food were simple and rugged; but the keen air, +the relief from luxury, the novelty and the wonder, wrought upon my +companion and renewed him, so that presently I was amused to note in him +signs of a moral preening--some smug resumption of that arrogant air of +superiority that is a tradition with your race." + +Miss Groom here puckered her lips, and breathed a little destructive +laugh upon her cigarette ash. + +"It did not last long," she said. "We encountered very bad weather, and +his nerves again went by the board. That was in the 60th longitude, I +think (where whales were still to be found in those years), and seven +hundred miles or so to the east of Spitzbergen. On the day--it was in +August--that the storm first overtook us, the boats were out in pursuit +of a 'right' whale, as, I believe, the men called it--a great bull +creature, and piebald like a horse; and I saw the spouting of his breath +as if a water main had burst in a London fog. The wind came in a sudden +charge from the northwest, and the whale dived with a harpoon in its +back; and in the confusion a reel fouled, and one of the boats was whipt +under in a moment--half a mile down, perhaps--and its crew drawn with +it, and their lungs, full of air, burst like bubbles. We had no time to +think of them. We got the other boat-load on board, and then the gale +sent us crashing down the slopes of the sea. I have no knowledge of how +long we were curst of the tempest and the sport of its ravings. I only +know that when it released us at last, we had been hurled a thousand +miles eastwards. The long interval was all a hellish jangle in which time +seemed obliterated. Sometimes we saw the sun--a furious red globe; and we +seemed to stand still while it raced down the sky and ricocheted over the +furthermost waves like a red-hot cannon ball. Sometimes in pitch darkness +the wild sense of flight and expectation was an ecstasy. But through all +my friend lay in a half-delirious stupor. + +"At length a morning broke, full of icy scud, but the sea panting and +exhausted of its rage. As a child catches its breath after a storm of +tears, so it would heave up suddenly, and vibrate, and sink; and we +rocked upon it, a ruined hulk. We were off a flat, vacant shore--if shore +you could call it--whose margin, for miles inland, it seemed, undulated +with the lifting of the swell. It was treeless desolation manifest; and +on our sea side, as far as the eye could reach, the water bobbed and +winked with countless spars of ice. + +"I will tell you at once, my friend,--we were brought to opposite an +inhuman swamp on the coast of Siberia, fifty miles or more to the west +of North-east Cape; and there what remained of the crew made shift to +cast anchor; and for a day and night the ragged ship curtsied to the +land, like a blind beggar to an empty street, and we only dozed in our +corners and wondered at the silence. + +"By-and-by the men made a raft, and that took us all ashore. There was +something like a definite coast-line, then; but for long before we +touched it the undersides of the planks were scraping and hissing over +vegetation. This was the winter fur of the land--thick, coarse tundra +moss; and on that we pitched a camp, and on that we remained for long +weeks while the ship was mending. It was a weird, lonely time. Once +or twice strange, wandering creatures came our way--little, belted men, +with hairless faces, who rode up on strong horses, and liked to exhibit +their skilful management of them. They talked to us in their chirpy +jargon (Toongus, I think it was called); but jargon it must needs remain +to us. + +"Well, we made a patch of the hulk, and we shipped in her again. We were +fortunate to be able to do that, for, with every stiffish wind blowing +inshore, we had feared she would drag her moorings and ground immovably +on the swamps. The land, indeed, was so flat and low that, whenever the +sea rose at all, it threshed the very plains and crackled in the moss; +and we were glad, despite the risk, to leave so lifeless a place." + +Dinah paused to light another cigarette, and to inhale the ecstasy of the +first puff or so before she continued. Up through the still evening, from +a curve of the main road that crooked an elbow to her front garden, came +what sounded like the purring of a great cat--the wind in the telegraph +wires. + +"And I am now to tell you," she said, "about the mastodon?" + +"As you please," I answered. + +"I do please; for why should I keep it to myself? It makes no difference; +only I warn you, if you quote me, you will be writ down a fool or a +maniac. This relation lacks witnesses, for the whaler--that I +subsequently quitted for another homing vessel--was never heard of in +port any more." + +She looked at me with some serious scrutiny before she went on. + +"For these regions, it had been an extraordinarily hot +summer--phenomenally hot, I understand; and to this--to the melting and +breaking away of the ice from hitherto century-locked fastnesses, the +captain attributed the wonderful experience that befell us. The sea was +strewn with blocks and bergs, all hurrying onwards in the strong +currents, as if in haste to escape the pursuing demon of frost that +should re-fetter them; and their multitude kept the steersman's arms +spinning till the man would fall half-fainting over the spoke-handles. + +"Now, one morning early in September, a dense bright fog dropped suddenly +upon the waters. We were making what sail we could--with our crippled +spars and stunted trees of masts--and this it were useless to shorten, +and so invite a rearward bombardment from the chasing hummocks. So we +kept our course by the compass, and trailed on through a blind mist while +fear drummed in our throats. The demoralization of my friend was by this +time complete. For myself, I seldom had a thought but that Nature would +sheathe her claws when she played with me. + +"'This cannot last long!' said the captain. + +"The words were on his lips when we struck with a noise like the +splintering of glass. We were all thrown down, and my companion screamed +like a mad thing. The captain rose and ran to the bows; and in a moment +he came back and his beard was shaking. + +"'God save us!' he cried, 'and fetch aft the rum!' + +"There you have man in his invincible moods. They drank till they were in +a condition to face death; and then they found that our situation was +rather improved than otherwise by the collision. For--so it appeared--we +had run full tilt for a perpendicular fissure in a huge block, and +into that our bows were firmly wedged, the nature of the impact +distributing the shock, and the berg itself carrying us along with it and +protecting us. + +"Now the dipping motion of the vessel was exchanged for a heavy regular +wash along its stern quarters; for the bows were so much raised as that I +felt a little strain on my knees as I went forward to satisfy my +curiosity with a view of the icy mass into which we were penetrated. I +waited, indeed, until the crew were come aft again from looking, and my +friend crept timidly at my shoulder; but when we reached the stem, there +was one of the hands, a little soberer than his fellows, sprawled over +the bulwarks, and staring with all his eyes into the green lift of the +wall against him. + +"'Is it a mermaid you see, Killigrew?' I asked. + +"The man shifted his gaze to me slowly and solemnly. + +"'Nowt, nowt,' said he; 'but a turble monster, like a pram stuck in +jelly.' + +"I laughed, and went to his side. The fog, as I have said, was dense and +bright, and one could see into it a little way, as into a milky white +agate. But now and again a film of it would pull thin, and then sunlight +came through and made a dim radiance of the ice. + +"'I can make out nothing,' I said. + +"He cocked an eye and leered up at me. 'Look steady and sober,' he said, +'and you'll make en owut like as in a glass darkly.' + +"I gave a little gasp and my friend a cry before the words were issued +from the man's mouth. Drawn by some current of air, the fog at the +moment blew out of the cleft, like smoke from a chimney; and there, +before our gaze, was a great curved tusk coming up through the ice and +inside it. + +"Now I clapped my hands in an agony, lest the fog should close in again, +and the vision fade before my eyes; for, following the sweep of the tusk, +I was aware of the phantom presentment of some monster creature lying +imbedded within the ice, its mighty carcase prostrate as it had fallen; +the conformation of its enormous forehead presented directly to our +gaze. Its little toffee-ball eyes--little proportionately, that is to +say--squinted at us, it seemed, through half-closed lids, and a huge, +hairy trunk lay curled, like the proboscis of a dead moth, between its +tree-like fore-legs. Away beyond, the great red-brown drum of its hide +bellied upward on ribs as thick as a Dutch galliot's, and sprouting from +its shoulders was the hump I have mentioned, but here, from its position, +sprawled abroad and lying over in a shapeless mass. + +"There was something else--horribly nauseating but for its strangeness. +The brute had been partly disembowelled, as there was ample evidence to +show, for the ice had preserved all. + +"Suddenly my companion gave a high nervous shriek. + +"'Look!' he cried--'the hand! the hand sticking out of the side!' + +"I saw in a moment; turned, and called excitedly to the captain. He--all +the crew--came tumbling forward up the slippery deck. I seized him by the +shoulder. + +"'Do you see?' I screamed--'the human hand beckoning to us from that +great body!' + +"He gazed stupidly, swaying where he stood. + +"'One o' them bloomin' pre-hadymite cows!' he muttered; 'caught in the +cold nip, by thunder! and some unfortnit crept into her for warmth.' + +"I believed the creature's rude intuition had flown true. + +"'Cannot you get at it?' I gasped. + +"He stared at me. All in an instant a little paltry demon of avarice +blinked out of his eye-holes. + +"'Why,' he said slowly, 'who knows but it mayn't be a gal a-jingling from +top to toe with gold curtain rings!' + +"He was a furious dare-devil immediately, and quick, and savage, and +peremptory. His spirit entered into his men. They went over the side +with pikes and axes, and, scrambling for any foothold, set to work on the +ice like maniacs. In the lust of cupidity they did not even think how +they wrought against their own safety and that of the ship. + +"The point of the uppermost tusk came to within a foot of the +ice-surface. This they soon reached, and, prising frantically with +crowbars, flaked off and rolled away half-ton blocks of the +superincumbent mass. I need not detail the fierce process. In half an +hour they had laid bare a great segment of that part of the trunk whence +the hand protruded, and then they paused, and at a word flung down their +tools. + +"I was leaning over the bulwarks watching them. I could contain my +excitement no longer. + +"'Come,' I said to my friend, 'help me down, for I must go.' + +"He climbed over, trembling, and assisted me to a standing on the ice. We +scrambled along the track of _débris_ left by the crew. At the moment +half a dozen of the latter were rolling back a broad flap of the hide, in +which they had found a long L-shaped rent revealed. Then a hoarse cry +broke from them, and I stumbled forward and looked down, and saw. + +"They lay beneath the mighty ribs as in a cage, of which the intercostal +spaces were a foot in width, and the bars of a strength to maintain the +enormous pressure of that which had surrounded and entombed them; they +lay in one close group, their naked limbs smeared with the stain of their +prison--a man, a woman, and a tiny child. From their faces, and their +unfallen flesh, they might have been sleeping; but they were not; they +were come down to us, a transfixture of death--prehistoric people in a +prehistoric brute, and their eyes--their eyes!" + +Dinah's voice trailed off into silence. Some expression that I could not +interpret was on her face. There was regret in it, but nothing of pathos +or mysticism. Suddenly she breathed out a great sigh and resumed her +narrative. + +"You will want to know how they looked, these lifeless survivors of a +remote race from a remote time? I will try to tell you. The men hacked +away the ribs with their axes, and laid bare the group lying in the +hollow scooped out of the fallen beast. They were little people, and the +man, according to your modern canons of taste, was by far the most +beautiful of the three. He sat erect, with one uplifted arm projected +through the ribs; as if, surprised by the frost-stroke, he had started to +escape, and had been petrified in the act. His face, wondering and +delicate as a baby's, was hairless; and his head only a pretty infantile +down covered--a curling floss as radiant as spun glass. His wide-open +eyes glinted yet with a hyacinth blue, and it was difficult to realize +that they were dead and vacant. + +"The woman was of coarser mould, ruddy, vigorous, brown-haired and eyed. +She looked the very hamadryad of some blossoming tree, a sweet capricious +daughter of the blameless earth. Everything luxuriated in her--colour, +hair, and lusty flesh; and the child she held to her bosom with a manner +that indescribably commingled contempt, and resentment, and a passion of +proprietorship. + +"This baby--joining the prominent characteristics of the two--was the +oddest little mortal I have ever seen. What did its expression convey to +me? 'I am fairly caught, and must brazen out the situation!' There! that +was what it was; I cannot put it more lucidly. Only the thing's wee face +was animal conscious for the first time of itself, and inclined to +rejoice in that primitive energy of knowledge. + +"Now, my friend, I must tell you how the sight operated upon me and upon +my companion. For myself, I can only say that, looking upon that fine, +independent fore-mother of my race, I felt the sun in my veins and the +winy fragrance of antique woods and pastures. I laughed; I clapped my +hands; I danced on the ice-rubbish, so that they thought me mad. But, for +the other--the man--he was in a different plight. He was transfigured; +his nervousness was gone in a flash. He cast himself down upon his knees, +and gazed and gazed, his hands clasped, upon that sleek, mild progenitor +of his, that pure image of gentle self-containment, whose very meekness +suggested an indomitable will. + +"Suddenly he, my friend, cried out: 'This is one caught in the process of +materialization! It is not flesh; my God, no!' + +"It seemed, indeed, as if it were as he said. I stopped in my capering +and looked down. The tarry hinds standing by grinned and jeered. + +"On the instant there came a splintering snap, and the floe rocked and +curtsied. + +"'Back!' yelled the captain. 'She's breaking through by the head!' + +"He shrieked of the ship. She was clearing herself, had already shaken +her prow free of the ice. + +"There was a wild scamper for safety. I was carried with the throng. It +was not until I was hauled on board once more that I thought of my +friend. He still knelt where we had fled from him, a wrapt, strange +expression on his face. + +"'Come back!' I screamed. 'You will be lost!' + +"Now at that he turned his head and looked at me; but he never moved, and +his voice came to me quiet and exultant. + +"'Lost!' he said, 'ay, for forty-three years: and here, here I find +myself!' + +"We dipped, and the wash of the water came about our bows. The block of +ice swerved, made a sluggish half-pirouette and dropped astern. + +"'Come!' I shrieked again faintly. + +"With the echo of my cry he was a phantom, a blot, had vanished in the +rearward fog; and thereout a little joyous laugh came to me. + +"And that was a queer good-bye for ever, wasn't it?" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + + +PROEM + +Heaven's Nursery + + +"Sinner, sinner, whence do you come?" + "From the bitter earth they called my home." + +"Sinner, sinner, why do you wait?" + "I fear to knock at the golden gate: + +"My crimes were heavy; my doom is sure, + And I dread the anguish I must endure." + +"Had you ever a child down there?" + "One--but it died, and I learnt despair." + +"Here you will find it, behind the gate." + "God forbid! for it felt my hate-- + +"Shrunk in the frost of my cruelties. + More than the Judge's I fear its eyes." + +"Hist! At the keyhole place your ear. + Sinner, what is the sound you hear? + +"Is it ten thousand babes at play? + Heaven's nursery lies that way. + +"Through it to judgment all must fare + It was God's pity placed it there." + +The gate swung open; the sinner past; + Little hands caught and held him fast. + +"While you wait the call of the Nameless One, + There's time for a game at 'Touch-and-Run'!" + +He played with them there in that shining place, + With the hot tears scorching his furrowed face-- + +Played, till the voice rang dread and clear: + "Where is the sinner? I wait him here!" + +Then shouting with laughter one and all + They pushed him on to the Judgment Hall; + +Stood by him; swarmed to the daïs steps, + A jumble of gleeful eyes and lips. + +The Judge leaned stern from His Judgment Throne: + _"I gave thee--where is thy littte one?"_ + +Wildly the culprit caught his breath: + "Lord, I have sinned. My doom be death." + +He hung his head with a broken sob. + There sprang a child from the rosy mob-- + +"Daddy!" it cried, with a joyful shriek; + Leapt to his arms and kissed his cheek. + +But he put it from him with bursting sighs, + And looked on the Judge with swimming eyes; + +Stood abashed in his bitter shame, + Waiting the sentence that never came. + +From the Throne spoke out the thundered Word: + _"This be thy doom!"_ No more he heard, + +For a chime of laughter from baby throats + Took up those crashing organ notes, + +Mixed with; silenced them; made them void-- + And the children's laughter was unalloyed, + +"This be thy doom," came a little squeak, + "To play with us here at 'hide-and-seek'!" + +Thrice did the Judge essay to frown; + Thrice did the children laugh Him down-- + +Till at the last, He caught and kissed + The maddest of all and the merriest; + +Turned to the sinner, with smiling face: + "These render futile the Judgment Place. + +"Sunniest rascals, imp and elf, + Who think they can better the Judge Himself. + +"Sinner--whatever thy sins may be, + Theirs is the sentence--go from Me!" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + +TAKEN FROM THE Q---- REGISTER OF LOCAL EVENTS, AS COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC +NARRATIVES + +I + + +Now I am to tell you of a thing that befell in the year 1665 of the Great +Plague, when the hearts of certain amongst men, grown callous in +wickedness upon that rebound from an inhuman austerity, were opened to +the vision of a terror that moved and spoke not in the silent places of +the fields. Forasmuch as, however, in the recovery from delirium a +patient may marvel over the incredulity of neighbours who refuse to give +credence to the presentments that have been _ipso facto_ to him, so, the +nation being sound again, and its constitution hale, I expect little but +a laugh for my piety in relating of the following incident; which, +nevertheless, is as essential true as that he who shall look through the +knot-hole in the plank of a coffin shall acquire the evil eye. + +For, indeed, in those days of a wild fear and confusion, when every +condition that maketh for reason was set wandering by a devious path, and +all men sitting as in a theatre of death looked to see the curtain rise +upon God knows what horrors, it was vouchsafed to many to witness sights +and sounds beyond the compass of Nature, and that as if the devil and his +minions had profited by the anarchy to slip unobserved into the world. +And I know that this is so, for all the insolence of a recovered +scepticism; and, as to the unseen, we are like one that traverseth the +dark with a lanthorn, himself the skipper of a little moving blot of +light, but a positive mark for any secret foe without the circumference +of its radiance. + +Be that as it may, and whether it was our particular ill-fortune, or, as +some asserted, our particular wickedness, that made of our village an +inviting back-door of entrance to the Prince of Darkness, I know not; but +so it is that disease and contagion are ever inclined to penetrate by way +of flaws or humours where the veil of the flesh is already perforated, +as a kite circleth round its quarry, looking for the weak place to +strike: and, without doubt, in that land of corruption we were a very +foul blot indeed. + +How this came about it were idle to speculate; yet no man shall have the +hardihood to affirm that it was otherwise. Nor do I seek to extenuate +myself, who was in truth no better than my neighbours in most that made +us a community of drunkards and forswearers both lewd and abominable. +For in that village a depravity that was like madness had come to possess +the heads of the people, and no man durst take his stand on honesty or +even common decency, for fear he should be set upon by his comrades and +drummed out of his government on a pint pot. Yet for myself I will say +was one only redeeming quality, and that was the pure love I bore to my +solitary orphaned child, the little Margery. + +Now, our Vicar--a patient and God-fearing man, for all his predial tithes +were impropriated by his lord, that was an absentee and a sheriff in +London--did little to stem that current of lewdness that had set in +strong with the Restoration. And this was from no lack of virtue in +himself, but rather from a natural invertebracy, as one may say, and an +order of mind that, yet being no order, is made the sport of any +sophister with a wit for paragram. Thus it always is that mere example is +of little avail without precept,--of which, however, it is an important +condition,--and that the successful directors of men be not those who go +to the van and lead, unconscious of the gibes and mockery in their rear, +but such rather as drive the mob before them with a smiting hand and no +infirmity of purpose. So, if a certain affection for our pastor dwelt in +our hearts, no title of respect was there to leaven it and justify his +high office before Him that consigned the trust; and ever deeper and +deeper we sank in the slough of corruption, until was brought about this +pass--that naught but some scourging despotism of the Church should +acquit us of the fate of Sodom. That such, at the eleventh hour, was +vouchsafed us of God's mercy, it is my purpose to show; and, doubtless, +this offering of a loop-hole was to account by reason of the devil's +having debarked his reserves, as it were, in our port; and so quartering +upon us a soldiery that we were, at no invitation of our own, to +maintain, stood us a certain extenuation. + +It was late in the order of things before in our village so much as a +rumour of the plague reached us. Newspapers were not in those days, and +reports, being by word of mouth, travelled slowly, and were often spent +bullets by the time they fell amongst us. Yet, by May, some gossip there +was of the distemper having gotten a hold in certain quarters of London +and increasing, and this alarmed our people, though it made no abatement +of their profligacy. But presently the reports coming thicker, with +confirmation of the terror and panic that was enlarging on all sides, we +must take measures for our safety; though into June and July, when the +pestilence was raging, none infected had come our way, and that from our +remote and isolated position. Yet it needs but fear for the crown to that +wickedness that is self-indulgence; and forasmuch as this fear fattens +like a toadstool on the decomposition it springs from, it grew with us to +the proportions that we were set to kill or destroy any that should +approach us from the stricken districts. + +And then suddenly there appeared in our midst _he_ that was appointed to +be our scourge and our cautery. + +Whence he came, or how, no man of us could say. Only one day we were a +community of roysterers and scoffers, impious and abominable, and the +next he was amongst us smiting and thundering. + +Some would have it that he was an old collegiate of our Vicar's, but at +last one of those wandering Dissenters that found never as now the times +opportune to their teachings--a theory to which our minister's treatment +of the stranger gave colour. For from the moment of his appearance he +took the reins of government, as it were, appropriating the pulpit and +launching his bolts therefrom, with the full consent and encouragement of +the other. There were those, again, who were resolved that his commission +was from a high place, whither news of our infamy had reached, and that +we had best give him a respectful hearing, lest we should run a chance of +having our hearing stopped altogether. A few were convinced he was no man +at all, but rather a fiend sent to thresh us with the scourge of our own +contriving, that we might be tender, like steak, for the cooking; and yet +other few regarded him with terror, as an actual figure or embodiment of +the distemper. + +But, generally, after the first surprise, the feeling of resentment at +his intrusion woke and gained ground, and we were much put about that he +should have thus assumed the pastorship without invitation, quartering +with our Vicar; who kept himself aloof and was little seen, and seeking +to drive us by terror, and amazement, and a great menace of retribution. +For, in truth, this was not the method to which we were wont, and it both +angered and disturbed us. + +This feeling would have enlarged the sooner, perhaps, were it not for a +certain restraining influence possessed of the new-comer, which +neighboured him with darkness and mystery. For he was above the common +tall, and ever appeared in public with a slouched hat, that concealed all +the upper part of his face and showed little otherwise but the dense +black beard that dropped upon his breast like a shadow. + +Now with August came a fresh burst of panic, how the desolation increased +and the land was overrun with swarms of infected persons seeking an +asylum from the city; and our anger rose high against the stranger, who +yet dwelt with us and encouraged the distemper of our minds by furious +denunciations of our guilt. + +Thus far, for all the corruption of our hearts, we had maintained the +practice of church-going, thinking, maybe, poor fools! to hoodwink the +Almighty with a show of reverence; but now, as by a common consent, we +neglected the observances and loitered of a Sabbath in the fields, and +thither at the last the strange man pursued us and ended the matter. + +For so it fell that at the time of the harvest's ripening a goodish body +of us males was gathered one Sunday for coolness about the neighbourhood +of the dripping well, whose waters were a tradition, for they had long +gone dry. This well was situate in a sort of cave or deep scoop at the +foot of a cliff of limestone, to which the cultivated ground that led up +to it fell somewhat. High above, the cliff broke away into a wide stretch +of pasture land, but the face of the rock itself was all patched with +bramble and little starved birch-trees clutching for foothold; and in +like manner the excavation beneath was half-stifled and gloomed over with +undergrowth, so that it looked a place very dismal and uninviting, save +in the ardour of the dog-days. + +Within, where had been the basin, was a great shattered hole going down +to unknown depths; and this no man had thought to explore, for a mystery +held about the spot that was doubtless the foster-child of ignorance. + +But to the front of the well and of the cliff stretched a noble field of +corn, and this field was of an uncommon shape, being, roughly, a vast +circle and a little one joined by a neck and in suggestion not unlike an +hour-glass; and into the crop thereof, which was of goodly weight and +condition, were the first sickles to be put on the morrow. + +Now as we stood or lay around, idly discussing of the news, and +congratulating ourselves that we were featly quit of our incubus, to us +along the meadow path, his shadow jumping on the corn, came the very +subject of our gossip. + +He strode up, looking neither to right nor left, and with the first word +that fell, low and damnatory, from his lips, we knew that the moment had +come when, whether for good or evil, he intended to cast us from him and +acquit himself of further responsibility in our direction. + +"Behold!" he cried, pausing over against us, "I go from among ye! Behold, +ye that have not obeyed nor inclined your ear, but have walked every one +in the imagination of his evil heart! Saith the Lord, 'I will bring evil +upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall +cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them.'" + +His voice rang out, and a dark silence fell among us. It was pregnant, +but with little of humility. We had had enough of this interloper and his +abuse. Then, like Jeremiah, he went to prophesy:-- + +"I read ye, men of Anathoth, and the murder in your hearts. Ye that have +worshipped the shameful thing and burned incense to Baal--shall I cringe +that ye devise against me, or not rather pray to the Lord of Hosts, 'Let +me see Thy vengeance on them'? And He answereth, 'I will bring evil upon +the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.'" + +Now, though I was no participator in that direful thing that followed, I +stood by, nor interfered, and so must share the blame. For there were men +risen all about, and their faces lowering, and it seemed that it would go +hard with the stranger were he not more particular. + +But he moved forward, with a stately and commanding gesture, and stood +with his back to the well-scoop and threatened us and spoke. + +"Lo!" he shrieked, "your hour is upon you! Ye shall be mowed down like +ripe corn, and the shadow of your name shall be swept from the earth! The +glass of your iniquity is turned, and when its sand is run through, not a +man of ye shall be!" + +He raised his arm aloft, and in a moment he was overborne. Even then, as +all say, none got sight of his face; but he fought with lowered head, and +his black beard flapped like a wounded crow. But suddenly a boy-child ran +forward of the bystanders, crying and screaming,-- + +"Hurt him not! They are hurting him--oh, me! oh, me!" + +And from the sweat and struggle came his voice, gasping, "I spare the +little children!" + +Then only I know of the surge and the crash towards the well-mouth, of an +instant cessation of motion, and immediately of men toiling hither and +thither with boulders and huge blocks, which they piled over the rent, +and so sealed it with a cromlech of stone. + + + + +II + + +That, in the heat of rage and of terror, we had gone farther than we had +at first designed, our gloom and our silence on the morrow attested. True +we were quit of our incubus, but on such terms as not even the severity +of the times could excuse. For the man had but chastised us to our +improvement; and to destroy the scourge is not to condone the offence. +For myself, as I bore up the little Margery to my shoulder on my way to +the reaping, I felt the burden of guilt so great as that I found myself +muttering of an apology to the Lord that I durst put myself into touch +with innocence. "But the walk would fatigue her otherwise," I murmured; +and, when we were come to the field, I took and carried her into the +upper or little meadow, out of reach of the scythes, and placed her to +sleep amongst the corn, and so left her with a groan. + +But when I was come anew to my comrades, who stood at the lower extremity +of the field--and this was the bottom of the hour-glass, so to speak--I +was aware of a stir amongst them, and, advancing closer, that they were +all intent upon the neighbourhood of the field I had left, staring like +distraught creatures, and holding well together, as if in a panic. +Therefore, following the direction of their eyes, and of one that pointed +with rigid finger, I turned me about, and looked whence I had come; and +my heart went with a somersault, and in a moment I was all sick and +dazed. + +For I saw, at the upper curve of the meadow, where the well lay in gloom, +that a man had sprung out of the earth, as it seemed, and was started +reaping; and the face of this man was all in shadow, from which his beard +ran out and down like a stream of gall. + +He reaped swiftly and steadily, swinging like a pendulum; but, though the +sheaves fell to him right and left, no swish of the scythe came to us, +nor any sound but the beating of our own hearts. + +Now, from the first moment of my looking, no doubt was in my lost soul +but that this was him we had destroyed come back to verify his prophecy +in ministering to the vengeance of the Lord of Hosts; and at the thought +a deep groan rent my bosom, and was echoed by those about me. But +scarcely was it issued when a second terror smote me as that I near +reeled. Margery--my babe! put to sleep there in the path of the Black +Reaper! + +At that, though they called to me, I sprang forward like a madman, and +running along the meadow, through the neck of the glass, reached the +little thing, and stooped and snatched her into my arms. She was sound +and unfrighted, as I felt with a burst of thankfulness; but, looking +about me, as I turned again to fly, I had near dropped in my tracks for +the sickness and horror I experienced in the nearer neighbourhood of the +apparition. For, though it never raised its head, or changed the steady +swing of its shoulders, I knew that it was aware of and was reaping at +me. Now, I tell you, it was ten yards away, yet the point of the scythe +came gliding upon me silently, like a snake, through the stalks, and at +that I screamed out and ran for my life. + +I escaped, sweating with terror; but when I was sped back to the men, +there was all the village collected, and our Vicar to the front, praying +from a throat that rattled like a dead leaf in a draught. I know not what +he said, for the low cries of the women filled the air; but his face was +white as a smock, and his fingers writhed in one another like a knot of +worms. + +"The plague is upon us!" they wailed. "We shall be mowed down like ripe +corn!" + +And even as they shrieked the Black Reaper paused, and, putting away his +scythe, stooped and gathered up a sheaf in his arms and stood it on end. +And, with the very act, a man--one that had been forward in yesterday's +business--fell down amongst us yelling and foaming; and he rent his +breast in his frenzy, revealing the purple blot thereon, and he passed +blaspheming. And the reaper stooped and stooped again, and with every +sheaf he gathered together one of us fell stricken and rolled in his +agony, while the rest stood by palsied. + +But, when at length all that was cut was accounted for, and a dozen of us +were gone each to his judgment, and he had taken up his scythe to reap +anew, a wild fury woke in the breasts of some of the more abandoned and +reckless amongst us. + +"It is not to be tolerated!" they cried. "Let us at once fire the corn +and burn this sorcerer!" + +And with that, some fire or six of them, emboldened by despair, ran up +into the little field, and, separating, had out each his flint and fired +the crop in his own place, and retreated to the narrow part for safety. + +Now the reaper rested on his scythe, as if unexpectedly acquitted of a +part of his labour; but the corn flamed up in these five or six +directions, and was consumed in each to the compass of a single sheaf: +whereat the fire died away. And with its dying the faces of those that +had ventured went black as coal; and they flung up their arms, screaming, +and fell prone where they stood, and were hidden from our view. + +Then, indeed, despair seized upon all of us that survived, and we made no +doubt but that we were to be exterminated and wiped from the earth for +our sins, as were the men of Anathoth. And for an hour the Black Reaper +mowed and trussed, till he had cut all from the little upper field and +was approached to the neck of juncture with the lower and larger. And +before us that remained, and who were drawn back amongst the trees, +weeping and praying, a fifth of our comrades lay foul, and dead, and +sweltering, and all blotched over with the dreadful mark of the +pestilence. + +Now, as I say, the reaper was nearing the neck of juncture; and so we +knew that if he should once pass into the great field towards us and +continue his mowing, not one of us should be left to give earnest of our +repentance. + +Then, as it seemed, our Vicar came to a resolution, moving forward with a +face all wrapt and entranced; and he strode up the meadow path and +approached the apparition, and stretched out his arms to it entreating. +And we saw the other pause, awaiting him; and, as he came near, put +forth his hand, and so, gently, on the good old head. But as we looked, +catching at our breaths with a little pathos of hope, the priestly face +was thrown back radiant, and the figure of him that would give his life +for us sank amongst the yet standing corn and disappeared from our sight. + +So at last we yielded ourselves fully to our despair; for if our pastor +should find no mercy, what possibility of it could be for us! + +It was in this moment of an uttermost grief and horror, when each stood +apart from his neighbour, fearing the contamination of his presence, that +there was vouchsafed to me, of God's pity, a wild and sudden inspiration. +Still to my neck fastened the little Margery--not frighted, it seemed, +but mazed--and other babes there were in plenty, that clung to their +mothers' skirts and peeped out, wondering at the strange show. + +I ran to the front and shrieked: "The children! the children! He will not +touch the little children! Bring them and set them in his path!" And so +crying I sped to the neck of meadow, and loosened the soft arms from my +throat, and put the little one down within the corn. + +Now at once the women saw what I would be at, and full a score of them +snatched up their babes and followed me. And here we were reckless for +ourselves; but we knelt the innocents in one close line across the neck +of land, so that the Black Reaper should not find space between any of +them to swing his scythe. And having done this, we fell back with our +hearts bubbling in our breasts, and we stood panting and watched. + +He had paused over that one full sheaf of his reaping; but now, with the +sound of the women's running, he seized his weapon again and set to upon +the narrow belt of corn that yet separated him from the children. But +presently, coming out upon the tender array, his scythe stopped and +trailed in his hand, and for a full minute he stood like a figure of +stone. Then thrice he walked slowly backwards and forwards along the +line, seeking for an interval whereby he might pass; and the children +laughed at him like silver bells, showing no fear, and perchance meeting +that of love in his eyes that was hidden from us. + +Then of a sudden he came to before the midmost of the line, and, while we +drew our breath like dying souls, stooped and snapped his blade across +his knee, and, holding the two parts in his hand, turned and strode back +into the shadow of the dripping well. There arrived, he paused once more, +and, twisting him about, waved his hand once to us and vanished into the +blackness. But there were those who affirmed that in that instant of his +turning, his face was revealed, and that it was a face radiant and +beautiful as an angel's. + +Such is the history of the wild judgment that befell us, and by grace of +the little children was foregone; and such was the stranger whose name +no man ever heard tell, but whom many have since sought to identify with +that spirit of the pestilence that entered into men's hearts and +confounded them, so that they saw visions and were afterwards confused in +their memories. + +But this I may say, that when at last our courage would fetch us to that +little field of death, we found it to be all blackened and blasted, so as +nothing would take root there then or ever since; and it was as if, after +all the golden sand of the hour-glass was run away and the lives of the +most impious with it, the destroyer saw fit to stay his hand for sake of +the babes that he had pronounced innocent, and for such as were spared to +witness to His judgment. And this I do here, with a heart as contrite as +if it were the morrow of the visitation, the which with me it ever has +remained. + + + + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + +"Signor, we are arrived," whispered the old man in my ear; and he put out +a sudden cold hand, corded like melon rind, to stay me in the stumbling +darkness. + +We were on a tilted table-land of the mountain; and, looking forth and +below, the far indigo crescent of the bay, where it swept towards +Castellamare, seemed to rise up at me, as if it were a perpendicular +wall, across which the white crests of the waves flew like ghost moths. + +We skirted a boulder, and came upon a field of sleek purple lava sown all +over with little lemon jets of silent smoke, which in their wan and +melancholy glow might have been the corpse lights of those innumerable +dead whose tombstone was the mountain itself. + +Far away to the right the great projecting socket of the crater flickered +intermittently with a nerve of fire. It was like the glinting of the +watchful eye of some vast Crustacean, and in that harsh and stupendous +desolation seemed the final crown and expression of utter inhumanity. + +I started upon hearing the low whisper of my companion at my ear. + +"In the bay yesterday the Signor saved my life. I give the Signor, in +return, my life's secret." + +He seized my right hand in his left with a sinewy clutch, and pointed a +stiff finger at the luminous blots. + +"See there, and there, and there," he shrilled. "One floats and wavers +like a spineless ribbon of seaweed in the water; another burns with a +steady radiance; a third blares from its fissure like a flame driven by +the blowpipe. It is all a question of the under-draught, and some may +feel it a little, and some a little more or a little less. Ah! but I will +show you one that feels it not at all--a hole, a narrow shaft that goes +straight down into the pit of the great hell, and is cold as the mouth of +a barbel." + +The bones of his face stood out like rocks against sand, and the pupils +of his maniac eyes were glazed or fell into shadow as the volcano +lightnings fluttered. + +Suddenly he drew me to a broken pile of sulphur rock lying tumbled +against a ridge of the mountain that ran towards the crater. It lay +heaped, a fused and fantastic ruin; and in a moment the old man leapt +from me, and was tugging by main strength a vast fragment from its place. + +I leaned over his shoulder, and looked down upon the hollow revealed by +the displaced boulder. It was like the bell of a mighty trumpet, and in +the middle a puckered opening seemed to suck inwards, as it were the +mouth of some subterranean monster risen to the surface of the world for +air. + +"Quick! quick!" muttered Paolo. "The Signor must place his ear to the +hole." + +With a little odd stir at my heart, I dropped upon my knees and leaned my +head deep into the cup. I must have stayed thus for a full minute before +I drew myself back and looked up at the old mountaineer. His eyes gazed +down into mine with mad intensity. + +"_Si! si!_" he whispered. "What didst thou hear?" + +"I heard a long surging thunder, Paolo, and the deep shrill screaming of +many gas jets." + +He bent down, with livid face. + +"Signor, it is the booming of the everlasting fire, and thou hast heard +the voices of the damned." + +"No, my friend, no. But it is a marvellous transmission of the uproar of +hidden forces." + +He leapt to the shallow pit. + +"Listen and believe!" he cried; and funnelling his hands about his lips, +he stooped over the central hole. + +"Marco! Marco!" he screeched, in a piercing voice. + +Something answered back. What was it? A malformed and twisted echo? A +whistle of imprisoned steam tricked into some horrible caricature of a +human voice? + +"Paolo!" it seemed to wail, weak and faint with agony. "_L'arqua, +l'arqua_, Paolo!" + +The old man sprang to his feet and, looking down upon me in a sort of +terrible triumph, unslung a water-flask from his belt, and, pulling out +the cork, poured the cold liquid down into the puckered orifice. Then I +felt his clutch on my arm again. + +"He drinks!" he cried. "Listen and thou wilt understand." + +I rose with a ghost of a laugh, and once more addressed my ear to the +opening. + +From unthinkable depths came up a strange, gloating sound, as from a +ravenous throat made vibrant with ecstasy. + +"Paolo," I cried, as I rose and stood before him--and there was an +admonitory note in my voice--"a feather may decide the balance. Beware +meddling with hidden thunders, or thou mayst set rolling such another +tombstone as that on which these corpse fires are yet flaming." + +And he only answered me, set and deathly,-- + +"We of the mountains, Signor, know more things than we may tell of." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14045 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..958d10f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14045 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14045) diff --git a/old/14045-8.txt b/old/14045-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a8ef86 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14045-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7203 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, At a Winter's Fire, by Bernard Edward J. Capes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: At a Winter's Fire + +Author: Bernard Edward J. Capes + +Release Date: November 14, 2004 [eBook #14045] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT A WINTER'S FIRE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +AT A WINTER'S FIRE + +by + +BERNARD CAPES + +Author of _The Lake of Wine_, etc. + +1899 + + + + + + + +All except three of the following Tales have already appeared in English +or American Magazines. The best thanks of the author are due to the +Editors of the "Cornhill," "Macmillan's," "Lippincott's" and "Pearson's" +Magazines, and to the Editor of the "Sketch," for permission to reprint +such of the stories as have been published in their pages. + + + + +Contents + +THE MOON STRICKEN + +JACK AND JILL + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + +DARK DIGNUM + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + +A LAZY ROMANCE + +BLACK VENN + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + +THE BLACK REAPER + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + + + +THE MOON STRICKEN + + +It so fell that one dark evening in the month of June I was belated +in the Bernese Oberland. Dusk overtook me toiling along the great +Chamounix Road, and in the heart of a most desolate gorge, whose towering +snow-flung walls seemed--as the day sucked inwards to a point secret as a +leech's mouth--to close about me like a monstrous amphitheatre of ghosts. +The rutted road, dipping and climbing toilfully against the shouldering +of great tumbled boulders, or winning for itself but narrow foothold over +slippery ridges, was thawed clear of snow; but the cold soft peril yet +lay upon its flanks thick enough for a wintry plunge of ten feet, or may +be fifty where the edge of the causeway fell over to the lower furrows +of the ravine. It was a matter of policy to go with caution, and a thing +of some moment to hear the thud and splintering of little distant +icefalls about one in the darkness. Now and again a cold arrow of wind +would sing down from the frosty peaks above or jerk with a squiggle of +laughter among the fallen slabs in the valley. And these were the only +voices to prick me on through a dreariness lonely as death. + +I knew the road, but not its night terrors. Passing along it some days +before in the glory of sunshine, broad paddocks and islands of green had +comforted the shattered white ruin of the place, and I had traversed it +merely as a magnificent episode in the indifferent history of my life. +Now, as it seemed, I became one with it--an awful waif of solemnity, a +thing apart from mankind and its warm intercourse and ruddy inn doors, a +spectral anomaly, whose austere epitaph was once writ upon the snow +coating some fallen slab of those glimmering about me. I thought the +whole gorge smelt of tombs, like the vault of a cathedral. I thought, in +the incomprehensible low moaning sound that ever and again seemed to eddy +about me when the wind had swooped and passed, that I recognised the +forlorn voices of brother spirits long since dead and forgotten of the +world. + +Suddenly I felt the sweat cold under the knapsack that swung upon my +back; stopped, faced about and became human again. Ridge over ridge +to my right the mountain summits fell away against a fathomless sky; and +topping the furthermost was a little paring of silver light, the coronet +of the rising moon. But the glory of the full orb was in the retrospect; +for, closing the savage vista of the ravine, stood up far away a cluster +of jagged pinnacles--opal, translucent, lustrous as the peaks of icebergs +that are the frozen music of the sea. + +It was the toothed summit of the Aiguille Verte, now prosaically bathed +in the light of the full moon; but to me, looking from that grim and +passionless hollow, it stood for the white hand of God lifted in menace +to the evil spirits of the glen. + +I drank my fill of the good sight, and then turned me to my tramp again +with a freshness in my throat as though it had gulped a glass of +champagne. Presently I knew myself descending, leaving, as I felt rather +than saw, the stark horror of the gorge and its glimmering snow patches +above me. Puffs of a warmer air purred past my face with little friendly +sighs of welcome, and the hum of a far-off torrent struck like a wedge +into the indurated fibre of the night. As I dropped, however, the +mountain heads grew up against the moon, and withheld the comfort of her +radiance; and it was not until the whimper of the torrent had quickened +about me to a plunging roar, and my foot was on the striding bridge that +took its waters at a step, that her light broke through a topmost cleft +in the hills, and made glory of the leaping thunder that crashed beneath +my feet. + +Thereafter all was peace. The road led downwards into a broadening +valley, where the smell of flowers came about me, and the mountain walls +withdrew and were no longer overwhelming. The slope eased off, dipping +and rising no more than a ground swell; and by-and-by I was on a level +track that ran straight as a stretched ribbon and was reasonable to my +tired feet. + +Now the first dusky châlets of the hamlet of Bel-Oiseau straggled towards +me, and it was music in my ears to hear the cattle blow and rattle in +their stalls under the sleeping lofts as I passed outside in the +moonlight. Five minutes more, and the great zinc onion on the spire of +the church glistened towards me, and I was in the heart of the silent +village. + +From the deep green shadow cast by the graveyard wall, heavily +buttressed against avalanches, a form wriggled out into the moonlight +and fell with a dusty thud at my feet, mowing and chopping at the air +with its aimless claws. I started back with a sudden jerk of my pulses. +The thing was horrible by reason of its inarticulate voice, which issued +from the shapeless folds of its writhings like the wet gutturizing of a +back-broken horse. Instinct with repulsion, I stood a moment dismayed, +when light flashed from an open doorway a dozen yards further down the +street, and a woman ran across to the prostrate form. + +"Up, graceless one!" she cried; "and carry thy seven devils within +doors!" + +The figure gathered itself together at her voice, and stood in an angle +of the buttresses quaking and shielding its eyes with two gaunt arms. + +"Can I not exchange a word with Mère Pettit," scolded the woman, "but +thou must sneak from behind my back on thy crazed moon-hunting?" + +"Pity, pity," moaned the figure; and then the woman noticed me, and +dropped a curtsy. + +"Pardon," she said; "but he has been affronting Monsieur with his +antics?" + +"He is stricken, Madame?" + +"Ah, yes, Monsieur. Holy Mother, but how stricken!" + +"It is sad." + +"Monsieur knows not how sad. It is so always, but most a great deal when +the moon is full. He was a good lad once." + +Monsieur puts his hand in his pocket. Madame hears the clink of coin and +touches the enclosed fingers with her own delicately. Monsieur withdraws +his hand empty. + +"Pardon, Madame." + +"Monsieur has the courage of a gentleman. Come, Camille, little fool! a +sweet good-night to Monsieur." + +"Stay, Madame. I have walked far and am weary. Is there an hotel in +Bel-Oiseau?" + +"Monsieur is jesting. We are but a hundred of poor châlets." + +"An auberge, then--a cabaret--anything?" + +"_Les Trois Chèvres_. It is not for such as you." + +"Is it, then, that I must toil onwards to Châtelard?" + +"Monsieur does not know? The _Hôtel Royal_ was burned to the walls six +months since." + +"It follows that I must lie in the fields." + +Madame hesitates, ponders, and makes up her mind. + +"I keep Monsieur talking, and the night wind is sharp from the snow. It +is ill for a heated skin, and one should be indoors. I have a bedroom +that is at Monsieur's disposition, if Monsieur will condescend?" + +Monsieur will condescend. Monsieur would condescend to a loft and a truss +of straw, in default of the neat little chilly chamber that is allotted +him, so sick are his very limbs with long tramping, and so uninviting +figures the further stretch in the moonlight to Châtelard, with its +burnt-out carcase of an hotel. + +This is how I came to quarter myself on Madame Barbière and her idiot +son, and how I ultimately learned from the lips of the latter the strange +story of his own immediate fall from reason and the dear light of +intellect. + + * * * * * + +By day Camille Barbière proved to be a young man, some five and twenty +years of age, of a handsome and impressive exterior. His dark hair +lay close about his well-shaped head; his features were regular and cut +bold as an Etruscan cameo; his limbs were elastic and moulded into the +supple finish of one whose life has not been set upon level roads. At a +speculative distance he appeared a straight specimen of a Burgundian +youth--sinewy, clean-formed, and graceful, though slender to gauntness; +and it was only on nearer contact that one marvelled to see the soul die +out of him, as a face set in the shadow of leafage resolves itself into +some accident of twisted branches as one approaches the billowing tree +that presented it. + +The soul of Camille, the idiot, had warped long after its earthly +tabernacle had grown firm and fair to look upon. Cause and effect were +not one from birth in him; and the result was a most wistful expression, +as though the lost intellect were for ever struggling and failing to +recall its ancient mastery. Mostly he was a gentle young man, noteworthy +for nothing but the uncomplaining patience with which he daily observed +the monotonous routine of simple duties that were now all-sufficient for +the poor life that had "crept so long on a broken wing." He milked the +big, red, barrel-bodied cow, and churned industriously for butter; he +kept the little vegetable garden in order and nursed the Savoys into +fatness like plumping babies; he drove the goats to pasture on the +mountain slopes, and all day sat among the rhododendrons, the forgotten +soul behind his eyes conning the dead language of fate, as a foreigner +vainly interrogates the abstruse complexity of an idiom. + +By-and-by I made it an irregular habit to accompany him on these +shepherdings; to join him in his simple midday meal of sour brown bread +and goat-milk cheese; to talk with him desultorily, and study him the +while, inasmuch as he wakened an interest in me that was full of +speculation. For his was not an imbecility either hereditary or +constitutional. From the first there had appeared to me something +abnormal in it--a suspension of intelligence only, a frost-bite in the +brain that presently some April breath of memory might thaw out. This was +not merely conjectural, of course. I had the story of his mental collapse +from his mother in the early days of my sojourn in Bel-Oiseau; for it +came to pass that a fitful caprice induced me to prolong my stay in the +swart little village far into the gracious Swiss summer. + +The "story" I have called it; but it was none. He was out on the hills +one moonlight night, and came home in the early morning mad. That was +all. + +This had happened some eight years before, when he was a lad of +seventeen--a strong, beautiful lad, his mother told me; and with a dreamy +"poet's corner" in his brain, she added, but in her own better way of +putting it. She had no shame that her shepherd should be an Endymion. In +Switzerland they still look upon Nature as a respectable pursuit for a +young man. + +Well, they had thought him possessed of a devil; and his father had at +first sought to exorcise it with a chamois-hide thong, as Munchausen +flogged the black fox out of his skin. But the counter-irritant failed of +its purpose. The devil clung deep, and rent poor Camille with periodic +convulsions of insanity. + +It was noted that his derangement waxed and waned with the monthly moon; +that it assumed a virulent character with the passing of the second +quarter, and culminated, as the orb reached its fulness, in a species of +delirium, during which it was necessary to carefully watch him; that it +diminished with the lessening crescent until it fell away into a quiet +abeyance of faculties that was but a step apart from the normal +intelligence of his kind. At his worst he was a stricken madman +acutely sensitive to impressions; at his best an inoffensive peasant who +said nothing foolish and nothing wise. + +When he was twenty, his father died, and Camille and his mother had to +make out existence in company. + +Now, the veil, in my first knowledge of him, was never rent; yet +occasionally it seemed to me to gape in a manner that let a little +momentary finger of light through, in the flashing of which a soul +kindled and shut in his eyes, like a hard-dying spark in ashes. I wished +to know what gave life to the spark, and I set to pondering the problem. + +"He was not always thus?" I would say to Madame Barbière. + +"But no, Monsieur, truly. This place--bah! we are here imbeciles all to +the great world, without doubt; but Camille!--_he_ was by nature of those +who make the history of cities--a rose in the wilderness. Monsieur +smiles?" + +"By no means. A scholar, Madame?" + +"A scholar of nature, Monsieur; a dreamer of dreams such as they become +who walk much with the spirits on the lonely mountains." + +"Torrents, and avalanches, and the good material forces of nature, Madame +means." + +"Ah! Monsieur may talk, but he knows. He has heard the _föhn_ sweep down +from the hills and spin the great stones off the house-roofs. And one may +look and see nothing, yet the stones go. It is the wind that runs before +the avalanche that snaps the pine trees; and the wind is the spirit that +calls down the great snow-slips." + +"But how may Madame who sees nothing; know then a spirit to be abroad?" + +"My faith; one may know one's foot is on the wild mint without shifting +one's sole to look." + +"Madame will pardon me. No doubt also one may know a spirit by the smell +of sulphur?" + +"Monsieur is a sceptic. It comes with the knowledge of cities. There +are even such in little Bel-Oiseau, since the evil time when they took +to engrossing the contracts of good citizens on the skins of the poor +jew-beards that give us flesh and milk. It is horrible as the Tannery of +Meudon. In my young days, Monsieur, such agreements were inscribed upon +wood." + +"Quite so, Madame, and entirely to the point. Also one may see from whom +Camille inherited his wandering propensities. But for his fall--it was +always unaccountable?" + +"Monsieur, as one trips on the edge of a crevasse and disappears. His +soul dropped into the frozen cleft that one cannot fathom." + +"Madame will forgive my curiosity." + +"But surely. There was no dark secret in my Camille's life. If the little +head held pictures beyond the ken of us simple women, the angels painted +them of a certainty. Moreover, it is that I willingly recount this grief +to the wise friend that may know a solution." + +"At least the little-wise can seek for one." + +"Ah, if Monsieur would only find the remedy!" + +"It is in the hands of fate." + +Madame crossed herself. + +"Of the _Bon Dieu_, Monsieur." + +At another time Madame Barbière said:-- + +"It was in such a parched summer as this threatens to be that my Camille +came home in the mists of the morning possessed. He was often out on the +sweet hills all night--that was nothing. It had been a full moon, and the +whiteness of it was on his face like leprosy, but his hands were hot with +fever. Ah, the dreadful summer! The milk turned sour in the cows' udders +and the tufts of the stone pines on the mountains fell into ashes like +Dead Sea fruit. The springs were dried, and the great cascade of Buet +fell to half its volume." + +"This cascade; I have never seen it. Is it in the neighbourhood?" + +"Of a surety. Monsieur must have passed the rocky ravine that vomits the +torrent, on his way hither." + +"I remember. I will explore it. Camille shall be my guide." + +"Never." + +"And why?" + +Madame shrugged her plump shoulders. + +"Who may say? The ways of the afflicted are not our ways. Only I know +that Camille will never drive his flock to pasture near the lip of that +dark valley." + +"That is strange. Can the place have associations for him connected with +his malady?" + +"It is possible. Only the good God knows." + +But _I_ was to know later on, with a little reeling of the reason also. + + * * * * * + +"Camille, I want to see the Cascade de Buet." + +The hunted eyes of the stricken looked into mine with a piercing glance +of fear. + +"Monsieur must not," he said, in a low voice. + +"And why not?" + +"The waters are bad--bad--haunted!" + +"I fear no ghosts. Wilt thou show me the way, Camille?" + +"I!" The idiot fell upon the grass with a sort of gobbling cry. I thought +it the prelude to a fit of some sort, and was stepping towards him, when +he rose to his feet, waved me off and hurried away down the slope +homewards. + +Here was food for reflection, which I mumbled in secret. + +A day or two afterwards I joined Camille at midday on the heights where +he was pasturing his flocks. He had shifted his ground a little distance +westwards, and I could not find him at once. At last I spied him, his +back to a rock, his hand dabbled for coolness in a little runnel that +trickled at his side. He looked up and greeted me with a smile. He had +conceived an affection for me, this poor lost soul. + +"It will go soon," he said, referring to the miniature streamlet. "It is +safe in the woods; but to-morrow or next day the sun will lap it up ere +it can reach the skirt of the shadow above there. A farewell kiss to you, +little stream!" + +He bent and sipped a mouthful of the clear water. He was in a more +reasonable state than he had shown for long, though it was now close +on the moon's final quarter, a period that should have marked a more +general tenor of placidity in him. The summer solstice, was, however, at +hand, and the weather sultry to a degree--as it had been, I did not fail +to remember, the year of his seizure. + +"Camille," I said, "why to-day hast thou shifted thy ground a little in +the direction of the Buet ravine?" + +He sat up at once, with a curious, eager look in his face. + +"Monsieur has asked it," he said. "It was to impel Monsieur to ask it +that I moved. Does Monsieur seek a guide?" + +"Wilt thou lead me, Camille?" + +"Monsieur, last night I dreamed and one came to me. Was it my father? I +know not, I know not. But he put my forehead to his breast, and the evil +left it, and I remembered without terror. 'Reveal the secret to the +stranger,' he said; 'that he may share thy burden and comfort thee; for +he is strong where thou art weak, and the vision shall not scare him.' +Monsieur, wilt thou come?" + +He leaped to his feet, and I to mine. + +"Lead on, Camille. I follow." + +He called to the leader of his flock: "Petitjean! stray not, my little +one. I shall be back sooner than the daisies close." Then he turned to me +again. I noticed a pallid, desperate look in his face, as though he were +strung to great effort; but it was the face of a mindless one still. + +"Do you not fear?" he said, in a whisper; and the apple in his throat +seemed all choking core. + +"I fear nothing," I answered with a smile; yet the still sombreness of +the woods found a little tremor in my breast. + +"It is good," he answered, regarding me. "The angel spoke truth. Follow, +Monsieur." + +He went off through the trees of a sudden, and I had much ado to keep +pace with him. He ran as one urged on by a sure sense of doom, looking +neither to right nor left. His mountain instincts had remained with him +when memory itself had closed around like a fog, leaving him face to face +and isolated with his one unconfessed point of terror. Swiftly we made +our way, ever slightly climbing, along the rugged hillside, and soon +broke into country very wild and dismal. The pastoral character of the +scene lessened and altogether disappeared. The trees grew matted and +grotesquely gnarled, huddling together in menacing battalions--save +where some plunging rock had burst like a shell, forcing a clearing and +strewing the black moss with a jagged wreck of splinters. Here no +flowers crept for warmth, no sentinel marmot turned his little scut with +a whistle of alarm to vanish like a red shadow. All was melancholy and +silence and the massed defiance of ever-impending ruin. Storm, and +avalanche, and the bitter snap of frost had wrought their havoc year by +year, till an uncrippled branch was a rare distinction. The very +saplings, of stunted growth, bore the air of thieves reared in a rookery +of crime. + +We strode with difficulty in an inhuman twilight through this great dark +quickset of Nature, and had paused a moment where the thronging trunks +thinned somewhat, when a little mouthing moan came towards us on the +crest of a ripple of wind. My companion stopped on the instant, and +clutched my arm, his face twisting with panic. + +"The Cascade, Monsieur!" he shook out in a terrified whisper. + +"Courage, my friend! It is that we come to seek." + +"Ah! My God, yes--it is that! I dare not--I dare not!" + +He drew back livid with fear, but I urged him on. + +"Remember the dream, Camille!" I cried. + +"Yes, yes--it was good. Help me, Monsieur, and I will try--yes, I will +try!" + +I drew his arm within mine, and together we stumbled on. The undergrowth +grew denser and more fantastic; the murmur filled out, increased and +resolved itself into a sound of falling water that ever took shape, and +volume, and depth, till its crash shook the ground at our feet. Then in +a moment a white blaze of sky came at us through the trunks, and we burst +through the fringe of the wood to find ourselves facing the opposite side +of a long cleft in the mountain and the blade's edge of a roaring +cataract. + +It shot out over the lip of the fall, twenty feet above us, in a curve +like a scimitar, passed in one sheet the spot where we stood, and dived +into a sunless pool thirty feet below with a thunderous boom. What it may +have been in full phases of the stream, I know not; yet even now it was +sufficiently magnificent to give pause to a dying soul eager to shake off +the restless horror of the world. The flat of its broad blade divided the +lofty black walls of a deep and savage ravine, on whose jagged shelves +some starved clumps of rhododendron shook in the wind of the torrent. +Far down the narrow gully we could see the passion of water tossing, +champed white with the ravening of its jaws, until it took a bend of the +cliffs at a leap and rushed from sight. + +We stood upon a little platform of coarse grass and bramble, whose fringe +dipped and nodded fitfully as the sprinkle caught it. Beyond, the sliding +sheet of water looked like a great strap of steel, reeled ceaselessly off +a whirling drum pivoted between the hills. The midday sun shot like a +piston down the shaft of the valley, painting purple spears and angles +behind its abutting rocks, and hitting full upon the upper curve of the +fall; but half-way down the cataract slipped into shadow. + +My brain sickened with the endless gliding and turmoil of descent, and I +turned aside to speak to my companion. He was kneeling upon the grass, +his eyes fixed and staring, his white lips mumbling some crippled memory +of a prayer. He started and cowered down as I touched him on the +shoulder. + +"I cannot go, Monsieur; I shall die!" + +"What next, Camille? I will go alone," + +"My God, Monsieur! the cave under the fall! It is there the horror is." + +He pointed to a little gap in the fringing bushes with shaking finger. +I stole gingerly in the direction he indicated. With every step I +took the awful fascination of the descending water increased upon +me. It seemed hideous and abnormal to stand mid-way against a +perpendicularly-rushing torrent. Above or below the effect would have +been different; but here, to look up was to feel one's feet dragging +towards the unseen--to look down and pass from vision of the lip of the +fall was to become the waif of a force that was unaccountable. + +I had a battle with my nerves, and triumphed. As I approached the opening +in the brambles I became conscious of a certain relief. At a little +distance the cataract had seemed to actually wash in its descent the edge +of the platform. Now I found it to be further away than I had imagined, +the ground dropping in a sharp slope to a sort of rocky buttress which +lay obliquely on the slant of the ravine, and was the true margin of the +torrent. Before I essayed the descent, I glanced back at my companion. He +was kneeling where I had left him, his hands pressed to his face, his +features hidden; but looking back once again, when I had with infinite +caution accomplished the downward climb, I saw that he had crept to +the edge of the slope, and was watching me with wide, terrified eyes. I +waved my hand to him and turned to the wonderful vision of water that +now passed almost within reach of my arm. I stood near the point where +the whole glassy breadth glided at once from sunlight into shadow. It +fell silently, without a break, for only its feet far below trod the +thunder. + +Now, as I peered about, I noticed a little cleft in the rocky margin, a +minute's climb above me. I was attracted to this by an appearance of +smoke or steam that incessantly emerged from it, as though some witch's +caldron were simmering alongside the fall. Spray it might be, or the +condensing of water splashed on the granite; but of this I might not be +sure. Therefore I determined to investigate, and straightway began +climbing the rocks--with my heart in my mouth, it must be confessed, for +the foothold was undesirable and the way perilous. And all the time +I was conscious that the white face of Camille watched me from above. As +I reached the cleft I fancied I heard a queer sort of gasping sob issue +from his lips, but to this I could give no heed in the sudden wonder that +broke upon me. For, lo! it appeared that the cleft led straight to a +narrow platform or ledge of rock right underneath the fall itself, but +extending how far I could not see, by reason of the steam that filled the +passage, and for which I was unable to account. Footing it carefully and +groping my way, I set step in the little water-curtained chamber and +advanced a pace or two. Suddenly, light grew about me, and a beautiful +rose of fire appeared on the wall of the passage in the midst of what +seemed a vitrified scoop in the rock. + +Marvelling, I put out my hand to touch it, and fell back on the narrow +floor with a scream of anguish. An inch farther, and these lines had +not been written. As it was, the fall caught me by the fingers with the +suck of a cat-fish, and it was only a gigantic wrench that saved me from +slipping off the ledge. The jerk brought my head against the rock with a +stunning blow, and for some moments I lay dizzy and confused, daring +hardly to breathe, and conscious only of a burning and blistering agony +in my right hand. + +At length I summoned courage to gather my limbs together and crawl out +the way I had entered. The distance was but a few paces, yet to traverse +these seemed an interminable nightmare of swaying and stumbling. I know +only one other occasion upon which the liberal atmosphere of the open +earth seemed sweeter to my senses when I reached it than it did on this. + +I tumbled somehow through the cleft, and sat down, shaking, upon the +grass of the slope beyond; but, happening to throw myself backwards in +the reeling faintness induced by my fright and the pain of my head, my +eyes encountered a sight that woke me at once to full activity. + +Balanced upon the very verge of the slope, his face and neck craned +forward, his jaw dropped, a sick, tranced look upon his features, stood +Camille. I saw him topple, and shouted to him; but before my voice was +well out, he swayed, collapsed, and came down with a running thud that +shook the ground. Once he wheeled over, like a shot rabbit, and, bounding +thwack with his head against a flat boulder not a dozen yards from me, +lay stunned and motionless. + +I scrambled to him, quaking all over. His breath came quick, and a spirt +of blood jerked from a sliced cut in his forehead at every pump of his +heart. + +I kicked out a wad of cool moist turf, and clapped it in a pad over the +wound, my handkerchief under. For his body, he was shaken and bruised, +but otherwise not seriously hurt. + +Presently he came to himself; to himself in the best sense of the +word--for Camille was sane. + +I have no explanation to offer. Only I know that, as a fall will set a +long-stopped watch pulsing again, the blow here seemed to have restored +the misplaced intellect to its normal balance. + +When he woke, there was a new soft light of sanity in his eyes that was +pathetic in the extreme. + +"Monsieur," he whispered, "the terror has passed." + +"God be thanked! Camille," I answered, much moved. + +He jerked his poor battered head in reverence. + +"A little while," he said, "and I shall know. The punishment was just." + +"What punishment, my poor Camille?" + +"Hush! The cloud has rolled away. I stand naked before _le bon Dieu_. +Monsieur, lift me up; I am strong." + +I winced as I complied. The palm of my hand was scorched and blistered in +a dozen places. He noticed at once, and kissed and fondled the wounded +limb as softly as a woman might. + +"Ah, the poor hand!" he murmured. "Monsieur has touched the disc of +fire." + +"Camille," I whispered, "what is it?" + +"Monsieur shall know--ah! yes, he shall know; but not now. Monsieur, my +mother." + +"Thou art right, good son." + +I bound up his bruised forehead and my own burnt hand as well as I was +able, and helped him to his feet. He stood upon them staggering; but +in a minute could essay to stumble on the homeward journey with +assistance. It was a long and toilsome progress; but in time we +accomplished it. Often we had to sit down in the blasted woods and rest +awhile; often moisten our parched mouths at the runnels of snow-water +that thridded the undergrowth. The shadows were slanting eastwards +as we reached the clearing we had quitted some hours earlier, and the +goats had disappeared. Petitjean was leading his charges homewards in +default of a human commander, and presently we overtook them browsingly +loitering and desirous of definite instructions. + +I pass over Camille's meeting with his mother, and the wonder, and fear, +and pity of it all. Our hurts were attended to, and the battery of +questions met with the best armour of tact at command. For myself, I +said that I had scorched my hand against a red-hot rock, which was +strictly true; for Camille, that it were wisest to take no early +advantage of the reason that God had restored to him. She was voluble, +tearful, half-hysterical with joy and the ecstasy of gratitude. + +"That a blow should effect the marvel! Monsieur, but it passes +comprehension." + +All night long I heard her stirring and sobbing softly outside his door, +for I slept little, owing to pain and the wonder in my mind. But towards +morning I dozed, and my dreams were feverish and full of terror. + +The next day Camille kept his bed and I my room. By this I at least +escaped the first onset of local curiosity, for the villagers naturally +made of Camille's restoration a nine-days' wonder. But towards evening +Madame Barbière brought a message from him that he would like to see +Monsieur alone, if Monsieur would condescend to visit him in his room. I +went at once, and found him, as Haydon found Keats, lying in a white bed, +hectic, and on his back. He greeted me with a smile peculiarly sweet and +restful. + +"Does Monsieur wish to know?" he said in a low voice. + +"If it will not hurt thee, Camille." + +"Not now--not now; the good God has made me sound. I remember, and am not +terrified." + +I closed the door and took a seat by his bedside. There, with my hand +shading my eyes from the level glory of sunset that flamed into the room, +I listened to the strange tale of Camille's seizure. + + * * * * * + +"Once, Monsieur, I lived in myself and was exultant with a loneliness of +fancied knowledge. My youth was my excuse; but God could not pardon me +all. I read where I could find books, and chance put an evil choice in my +way, for I learned to sneer at His name, His heaven, His hell. Each man +has his god in self-will, I thought in my pride, and through it alone he +accepts the responsibility of life and death. He is his own curse or +blessing here and hereafter, inheriting no sin and earning no doom but +such as he himself inflicts upon himself. I interpret this from the world +about me, and knowing it, I have no fear and own no tyrant but my own +passions. Monsieur, it was through fear the most terrible that God +asserted Himself to me." + +The light was fading in the west, and a lance of shadow fell upon the +white bed, as though the hushed day were putting a finger to its lips as +it withdrew. + +"I was no coward then, Monsieur--that at least I may say. I lived among +the mountains, and on their ledges the feet of my own goats were not +surer. Often, in summer, I spent the night among the woods and hills, +reading in them the story of the ages, and exploring, exploring till my +feet were wearier than my brain. Strangers came from far to see the great +cascade; but none but I--and you, too, Monsieur, now--know the track +through the thicket that leads to the cave under the waters. I found it +by chance, and, like you, was scorched by the fire, though not badly." + +"Camille--the cause?" + +"Monsieur, I will tell you a wonderful thing. The falling waters there +make a monstrous burning glass, when the hot sun is upon them, which has +melted the rock behind like wax." + +"Can that be so?" + +"It is true--dear Jesus, I have fearful reason to know it." + +He half rose on his elbow, his face, crossed by the bandage, grey as +stone in the gathering dusk. Hereafter he spoke in an awed whisper. + +"When the knowledge broke upon me, I grew great to myself in the +possession of a wonderful secret. Day after day I visited the cave and +examined this phenomenon--and yet another more marvellous in its +connection with the first. The huge lens was a simple accident of curved +rocks and convex water, planed smooth as crystal. In other than a +droughty summer it would probably not exist; the spouting torrent would +overwhelm it--but I know not. Was not this astonishing enough? Yet Nature +had worked a second miracle to mock in anticipation the self-sufficient +plagiarism of little man. I noticed that the rays of the sun concentrated +in the lens only during the half-hour of the orb's apparent crossing of +the ravine. Then the light smote upon a strange curved little fan of +water, that spouted from a high crevice at the mouth of the shallow +vitrified tunnel, and devoured it, and played upon the rocks behind, that +hissed and sputtered like pitch, and the place was blind with steam. But +when the tooth of fire was withdrawn, the tiny inner cascade fell again +and wrought coolness with its sprinkling. + +"I did not discover this all at once, for at first fright took me, and it +was enough to watch for the moment of the light's appearance and then +flee with a little laughter. But one day I ventured back into the cave +after the sun had crossed the valley, and the steam had died away, and +the rock cooled behind the miniature cascade. + +"I looked through the lens, and it seemed full of a great white light +that blazed into my eyes, so that I fell back through the inner fan of +water and was well soused by it; but my sight presently recovering, I +stood forward in the scoop of rock admiring the dainty hollow curve the +fan took in its fall. By-and-by I became aware that I was looking out +through a smaller lens upon the great one, and that strange whirling +mists seemed to be sweeping across a huge disc, within touch of my hand +almost. + +"It was long before I grasped the meaning of this; but, in a flash, it +came upon me. The great lens formed the object glass, the small, the +eyeglass, of a natural telescope of tremendous power, that drew the high +summer clouds down within seeming touch and opened out the heavens before +my staring eyes. + +"Monsieur, when this dawned upon me I was wild. That so astonishing a +discovery should have been reserved for a poor ignorant Swiss peasant +filled me with pride wicked in proportion with its absence of gratitude +to the mighty dispenser of good. I came even to think my individuality +part of the wonder and necessary to its existence. 'Were it not for my +courage and enterprise,' I cried, 'this phenomenon would have remained a +secret of the Nature that gave birth to it. She yields her treasures to +such only as fear not.' + +"I had read in a book of Huyghens, Guinand, Newton, Herschel--the great +high-priests of science who had striven through patient years to read the +hieroglyphics of the heavens. 'The wise imbeciles,' I thought. 'They +toiled and died, and Nature held no mirror up to them. For me, the +poor Camille, she has worked in secret while they grew old and passed +unsatisfied.' + +"Brilliant projects of astronomy whirled in my brain. The evening of my +last discovery I remained out on the hills, and entered the cave as it +grew dusk. A feeling of awe surged in me as dark fell over the valley, +and the first stars glistened faintly. I dipped under the fan of water +and took my stand in the hollow behind it. There was no moon, but my +telescope was inclined, as it were, at a generous angle, and a section of +the firmament was open before me. My heart beat fast as I looked through +the lens. + +"Shall I tell you what I saw then and many nights after? Rings and +crosses in the heavens of golden mist, spangled, as it seemed, with +jewels; stars as big as cart-wheels, twinkling points no longer, but +round, like great bosses of molten fire; things shadowy, luminous, of +strange colours and stranger forms, that seemed to brush the waters +as they passed, but were in reality vast distances away. + +"Sometimes the thrust of wind up the ravine would produce a tremulous +motion in the image at the focus of the mirror; but this was seldom. +For the most part the wonderful lenses presented a steady curvature, not +flawless, but of magnificent capacity. + +"Now it flashed upon me that, when the moon was at the full, she would +top the valley in the direct path of my telescope's range of view. At +the thought I grew exultant. I--I, little Camille, should first read +aright the history of this strange satellite. The instrument that could +give shape to the stars would interpret to me the composition of that +lonely orb as clearly as though I stood upon her surface. + +"As the time of her fulness drew near I grew feverish with excitement. I +was sickening, as it were, to my madness, for never more should I look +upon her willingly, with eyes either speculative or insane." + +At this point Camille broke off for a little space, and lay back on his +pillow. When he spoke again it was out of the darkness, with his face +turned to the wall. + +"Monsieur, I cannot dwell upon it--I must hasten. We have no right to +peer beyond the boundary God has drawn for us. I saw His hell--I saw His +hell, I tell you. It is peopled with the damned--silent, horrible, +distorted in the midst of ashes and desolation. It was a memory that, +like the snake of Aaron, devoured all others till yesterday--till +yesterday, by Christ's mercy." + + * * * * * + +It seemed to me, as the days wore on, that Camille had but recovered his +reason at the expense of his life; that the long rest deemed necessary +for him after his bitter period of brain exhaustion might in the end +prove an everlasting one. Possibly the blow to his head had, in expelling +the seven devils, wounded beyond cure the vital function that had +fostered them. He lay white, patient, and sweet-tempered to all, but +moved by no inclination to rise and re-assume the many-coloured garment +of life. + +His description of the dreadful desert in the sky I looked upon, merely, +as an abiding memory of the brain phantasm that had finally overthrown +a reason, already tottering under the tremendous excitement induced by +his discovery of the lenses, and the magnified images they had presented +to him. That there was truth in the asserted fact of the existence of +these, my own experience convinced me; and curiosity as to this alone +impelled me to the determination of investigating further, when my hand +should be sufficiently recovered to act as no hindrance to me in forcing +my way once more through the dense woods that bounded the waterfall. +Moreover, the dispassionate enquiry of a mind less sensitive to +impressions might, in the result, do more towards restoring the warped +imagination of my friend to its normal state than any amount of spoken +scepticism. + +To Camille I said nothing of my resolve; but waited on, chafing at the +slow healing of my wounds. In the meantime the period of the full +moon approached, and I decided, at whatever cost, to make the venture on +the evening she topped her orbit, if circumstances at the worst should +prevent my doing so sooner--and thus it turned out. + +On the eve of my enterprise, the first fair spring of rain in a drought +of two months fell, to my disappointment, among the hills; for I feared +an increase of the torrent and the effacement of the mighty lens. I set +off, however, on the afternoon of the following day, in hot sunshine, +mentally prognosticating a favourable termination to my expedition, and +telling Madame Barbière not to expect me back till late. + +In leisurely fashion I made my way along the track we had previously +traversed, risking no divergence through overhaste, and carefully +examining all landmarks before deciding on any direction. Thus slowly +proceeding, I had the good fortune to come within sound of the cataract +as the sun was sinking behind the mountain ridges to my front; and +presently emerged from the woods at the very spot we had struck in our +former journey together. + +A chilly twilight reigned in the ravine, and the noise that came up from +the ruin of the torrent seemed doubly accented by reason of it. The +sound of water moving in darkness has always conveyed to me an impression +of something horrible and deadly, be it nothing of more moment than +the drip and hollow tinkle of a gutter pipe. But the crash in this +echoing gorge was appalling indeed. + +For some moments I stood on the brink of the slope, looking across at the +great knife of the fall, with a little shiver of fear. Then I shook +myself, laughed, and without further ado took my courage in hand, and +scrambled down the declivity and up again towards the cleft in the rocks. + +Here the chill of heart gripped me again--the watery sliding tunnel +looked so evil in the contracting gloom. A false step in that humid +chamber, and my bones would pound and crackle on the rocks forty feet +below. It must be gone through with now, however; and, taking a long +breath, I set foot in the passage under the curving downpour that seemed +taut as an arched muscle. + +Reaching the burnt recess, a few moments sufficed to restore my +self-confidence; and without further hesitation I dived under the inner +little fan-shaped fall--which was there, indeed, as Camille had described +it--and recovered my balance with pulses drumming thicker than I could +have desired. + +In a moment I became conscious that some great power was before me. +Across a vast, irregular disc filled with the ashy whiteness of the outer +twilight, strange, unaccountable forms, misty and undefined, passed, and +repassed, and vanished. Cirrus they might have been, or the shadows flung +by homing flights of birds; but of this I could not be certain. As the +dusk deepened they showed no more, and presently I gazed only into a +violet fathomless darkness. + +My own excitement now was great; and I found some difficulty in keeping +it under control. But for the moment, it seemed to me, I pined greatly +for free commune with the liberal atmosphere of earth. Therefore, I +dipped under the little fall and made my cautious way to the margin of +the cataract. + +I was surprised to find for how long a time the phenomenon had absorbed +me. The moon was already high in the heavens, and making towards +the ravine with rapid steps. Far below, the tumbling waters flashed in +her rays, and on all sides great tiers of solemn, trees stood up at +attention to salute her. + +When her disc silvered the inner rim of the slope I had descended, I +returned to my post of observation with tingling nerves. The field of +the great object lens was already suffused with the radiance of her +approach. + +Suddenly my pupils shrank before the apparition of a ghastly grey light, +and all in a moment I was face to face with a segment of desolation +more horrible than any desert. Monstrous growths of leprosy that had +bubbled up and stiffened; fields of ashen slime--the sloughing of a world +of corruption; hills of demon, fungus swollen with the fatness of +putrefaction; and, in the midst of all, dim, convulsed shapes wallowing, +protruding, or stumbling aimlessly onwards, till they sank and +disappeared. + + * * * * * + +Madame Barbière threw up her hands when she let me in at the door. My +appearance, no doubt, was ghastly. I knew not the hour nor the lapse +of time covered by my wanderings about the hills, my face hidden in my +palms, a drawn feeling about my heart, my lips muttering--muttering +fragments of prayers, and my throat jerking with horrible laughter. + +For hours I lay face downwards on my bed. + +"Monsieur has seen it?" + +"I have seen it." + +"I heard the rain on the hills. The lens will have been blurred. Monsieur +has been spared much." + +"God, in His mercy, pity thee! And me--oh, Camille, and me too!" + +"He has held out His white hand to me. I go, when I go, with a safe +conduct." + + * * * * * + +He went before the week was out. The drought had broken and for five days +the thunder crashed and the wild rain swept the mountains. On the +morning of the sixth a drenched shepherd reported in the village that a +landslip had choked the fall of Buet, and completely altered its shape. +Madame Barbière broke into the room where I was sitting with Camille, big +with the news. She little guessed how it affected her listeners. + +"The _bon Dieu_" said Camille, when she had gone, "has thundered His +curse on Nature for revealing His secrets. I, who have penetrated into +the forbidden, must perish." + +"And I, Camille?" + +He turned to me with a melancholy sweet smile, and answered, paraphrasing +the dying words of certain noble lips,-- + +"Be good, Monsieur; be good." + + + + +JACK AND JILL + + +My friend, Monsieur ----, absolutely declines to append his name to these +pages, of which he is the virtual author. Nevertheless, he permits me to +publish them anonymously, being, indeed, a little curious to ascertain +what would have been the public verdict as to his sanity, had he given +his personal imprimatur to a narrative on the face of it so incredible. + +"How!" he says. "Should I have believed it of another, when I have such +astonishing difficulty at this date in realizing that it was I--yes, I, +my friend--this same little callow _poupon_--that was an actual hero of +the adventure? Fidèle" (by which term we cover the identity of his +wife)--"Fidèle will laugh in my face sometimes, crying, 'Not thou, little +cabbage, nor yet thy faithful, was it that dived through half the world +and came up breathless! No, no--I cannot believe it. We folk, so +matter-of-fact and so comical. It was of Hansel and Gretel we had been +reading hand-in-hand, till we fell asleep in the twilight and fancied +this thing.' And then she will trill like a bird at the thought of how +solemn Herr Grabenstock, of the Hôtel du Mont Blanc, would have stared +and edged apart, had we truly recounted to him that which had befallen us +between the rising and the setting of a sun. We go forth; it rains--my +faith! as it will in the Chamounix valley--and we return in the evening +sopped. Very natural. But, for a first cause of our wetting. Ah! there we +must be fastidious of an explanation, or we shall find ourselves in peril +of restraint. + +"Now, write this for me, and believe it if you can. We are not in a +conspiracy of imagination--I and the dear courageous." + +Therefore I _do_ write it, speaking in the person of Monsieur ----, and +largely from his dictation; and my friend shall amuse himself over the +nature of its reception. + + * * * * * + +"One morning (it was in late May)," says Monsieur ----, "my Fidèle and I +left the Hôtel du Mont Blanc for a ramble amongst the hills. We were a +little adventurous, because we were innocent. We took no guide but our +commonsense; and that served us very ill--or very well, according to the +point of view. Ours was that of the birds, singing to the sky and +careless of the snake in the grass so long as they can pipe their tune. +Of a surety that is the only course. If one would make provision against +every chance of accident, one must dematerialize. To die is the only way +to secure oneself from fatality. + +"Still, it is a wise precaution, I will admit, not to eat of all hedge +fruit because blackberries are sweet. Some day, after the fiftieth +stomach-ache, we shall learn wisdom, my Fidèle and I. + +"'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' That, I know, comes into the +English gospel. + +"Well, I will tell you, I am content to be considered of the first; and +my Fidèle is assuredly of the second. Yet did she fear, or I rush in? On +the contrary, I have a little laughing thought that it was the angel +inveighed against the dulness of caution when the fool would have +hesitated. + +"Now, it was before the season of the Alps; and the mountain aubergistes +were, for the most part, not arrived at their desolate hill-taverns. Nor +were guides at all in evidence, being yet engaged, the sturdy souls, over +their winter occupations. One, no doubt, we could have procured, had we +wished it; but we did not. We would explore under the aegis of no +cicerone but our curiosity. That was native to us, if the district was +strange. + +"Following, at first, the instructions of Herr Baedeker, we travelled and +climbed, chattering and singing as we went, in the direction of the +Montenvert, whence we were to descend upon the Mer de Glace, and enjoy +the spectacle of a stupendous glacier. + +"'And that, I am convinced,' said Fidèle, 'is nothing more nor less than +one of those many windows that give light to the monsters of the +under-earth.' + +"'Little imbecile! In some places this window is six hundred feet thick.' + +"'So?' she said. 'That is because their dim eyes could not endure the +full light of the sun.' + +"We had brought a tin box of sandwiches with us; and this, with my large +pewter flask full of wine, was slung upon my back. For we had been told +the Hôtel du Montenvert was yet closed; and, sure enough when we reached +it, the building stood black in a pool of snow, its shuttered windows +forlorn, and long icicles hung from the eaves. + +"The depression induced by this sight was momentary. We turned from it to +the panorama of majestic loveliness that stretched below and around us. +The glacier--that rolling sea of glass--descended from the enormous gates +of the hills. Its source was the white furnace of the skies; its +substance the crystal refuse of the stars; and from its margins the +splintered peaks stood up in a thousand forms of beauty. Right and left, +in the hollows of the mountains, the mist lay like ponds, opal and +translucent; and the shafts of the pine trees standing in it looked like +the reflections of themselves. + +"It made the eyes ache--this silence of greatness; and it became a relief +to shift one's gaze to the reality of one's near neighbourhood--the +grass, and the rhododendron bushes, and even the dull walls of the +deserted auberge. + +"A narrow path dipped over the hill-side and fled into the very jaws of +the moraine. Down the first of this path we raced, hand in hand; but +soon, finding the impetus overmastering us, we pulled up with difficulty, +and descended the rest of the way circumspectly. + +"At the foot of the steep slope we came upon the little wooden hutch +where, ordinarily, one may procure a guide (also rough socks to stretch +over one's boots) for the passage of the glacier. Now, however, the shed +was closed and tenantless; and we must e'en dispense with a conductor, +should we adventure further. + +"Herr Baedeker says, 'Guide unnecessary for the experienced.' + +"'Fidèle, are we experienced?' + +"'We shall be, _mon ami_, when we have crossed. A guide could not alter +that.' + +"'But it is true, _ma petite_. Come, then!' + +"We clambered down amongst huge stones. Fidèle's little feet went in and +out of the crannies like sand-martins. Suddenly, before we realized it, +we were on the glacier. + +"Fidèle exclaimed. + +"'_Mon Dieu_! Is this ice--these blocks of dirty alabaster?' + +"Alas! she was justified. This torrent of majestic crystal--seen from +above so smooth and bountiful--a flood of the milk of Nature dispensed +from the white bosom of the hills! Now, near at hand, what do we find it? +A medley of opaque blocks, smeared with grit and rubbish; a vast ruin of +avalanches hurled together and consolidated, and of the colour of rock +salt. + +"'_Peste!_' I cried. 'We must get to the opposite bank, for all that. + +"_Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, + Qui ce matin avoit desclose_....'" + +"We clasped hands and set forth on our little traversée, our landmark an +odd-shaped needle of spar on the further side. My faith! it was simple. +The _paveurs_ of Nature had left the road a trifle rough, that was all. +Suddenly we came upon a wide fissure stretched obliquely like the mouth +of a sole. Going glibly, we learnt a small lesson of caution therefrom. +Six paces, and we should have tumbled in. + +"We looked over fearfully. Here, in truth, was real ice at last--green as +bottle-glass at the edges, and melting into unfathomable deeps of glowing +blue. + +"In a moment, with a shriek like that of escaping steam, a windy demon +leapt at us from the underneath. It was all of winter in a breath. It +seemed to shrivel the skin from our faces--the flesh from our bones. We +staggered backwards. + +"'_Mon ami! mon ami_!' cried Fidèle, 'my heart is a stone; my eyes are +two blisters of water!' + +"We danced as the blood returned unwilling to our veins. It was minutes +before we could proceed. + +"Afterwards I learned that these hellish eruptions of air betoken a +change of temperature. It was coming then shortly in a dense rainfall. + +"When we were recovered, we sought about for a way to circumambulate the +crevasse. Then we remarked that up a huge boulder of ice that had +seemed to block our path recent steps, or toe-holes, had been cut. In a +twinkling we were over. Fidèle--no, a woman never falls. + +"'For all this,' she says, shaking her head, 'I maintain that a guide +here is a sinecurist.' + +"Well, we made the passage safely, and toiled up the steep, loose moraine +beyond--to find the track over which was harder than crossing the +glacier. But we did it, and struck the path along the hillside, which +leads by the _Mauvais Pas_ (the _mauvais quart d'heure_) to the little +cabaret called the _Chapeau_. This tavern, too, was shut and dismal. +It did not matter. We sat like sparrows on a railing, and munched our +egg-sandwiches and drank our wine in a sort of glorious stupefaction. For +right opposite us was the vast glacier-fall, whose crashing foam was +towers and parapets of ice, that went over and rolled into the valley +below, a ruin of thunder. + +"Far beyond, where the mouth of the gorge spread out littered with +monstrous destruction, we saw the hundred threads of the glacier streams +collect into a single rope of silver, that went drawn between the hills, +a highway of water. It was all a majestic panorama of grey and pearly +white--the sky, the torrents, the mountains; but the blue and rusty green +of the stone pines, flung abroad in hanging woods and coppices, broke up +and distributed the infinite serenity of the snow fields. + +"Presently, having drunk deep of rich content, we rose to retrace our +steps. For, spurred by vanity, we must be returning the way we had come, +to show our confident experience of glaciers. + +"All went well. Actually we had passed over near two-thirds of the +ice-bed, when a touch on my arm stayed me, and _ma mie_ looked into my +eyes, very comical and insolent. + +"'Little cabbage,' she said; 'will you not put your new knowledge to +account?' + +"'But how, my soul?' + +"She laughed and pressed my arm to her side. Her heart fluttered like a +nestling after its first flight. + +"'To rest on the little prowess of a small adventure! No, no! Shall he +who has learnt to swim be always content to bathe in shallow water?' + +"I was speechless as I gazed on her. + +"'Behold, then!' she cried. 'We have opposed ourselves to this problem of +the ice, and we have mastered it. See how it rears itself to the +inaccessible peaks, the which to reach the poor innocents expend +themselves over rocks and drifts. But why should one not climb the +mountain by way of the glacier?' + +"'Fidèle!' I gasped. + +"'Ah!' she exclaimed, nodding her head; 'but poor men! They are mules. +They spill their blood on the scaling ladders when the town gate is +open.' + +"Again I cried 'Fidèle!' + +"'But, yes,' she said, 'it needs a woman to see. It is but two o'clock. +Let us ascend the glacier, like a staircase; and presently we shall stand +upon the summit of the mountain. Those last little peaks above the ice +can be of no importance.' + +"I was touched, astounded by the sublimity of her idea. Had no one, then, +ever thought of this before? + +"We began the ascent. + +"I swear we must have toiled upwards half a mile, when the catastrophe +took place. + +"It was raining then--a dense small mist; and the ice was as if it +had been greased. We were proceeding with infinite care, arm in arm, +tucked close together. A little doubt, I think, was beginning to oppress +us. We could move only with much caution and difficulty; and there were +noises--sounds like the clapping of great hands in those rocky attics +above us. Then there would come a slamming report, as if the window of +the unknown had been burst open by demons; and the moans of the lost +would issue, surging down upon the world. + +"These thunders, as we were afterwards told, are caused by the splitting +of the ice when there comes a fall in the barometer. Then the glacier +will yawn like a sliced junket. + +"My faith! what a simile! But again the point of view, my friend. + +"All in a moment I heard a little cluck. I looked down. Alas! the fine +spirit was obscured. Fidèle was weeping. + +"'_Chut! chut!_' I exclaimed in consternation. 'We will go back at once.' + +"She struggled to smile, the poor _mignonne_. + +"'It is only that my knees are sick,' she said piteously. + +"I took her in my strong arms tenderly. + +"We had paused on a ridge of hard snow. + +"There came a tearing clang--an enormous sucking sound, as of wet lips +opening. The snow sank under our feet. + +"'My God!' shrieked Fidèle. + +"I held her convulsively. It happened in an instant, before one could +leap aside. The bed of snow on which we were standing broke down into +the crevasse it had bridged, and let us through to the depths. + +"Will you believe what follows? Pinch your nose and open your mouth. You +shall take the whole draught at a breath. _The ice at the point where we +entered was five hundred feet thick; and we fell to the very bottom of +it._ + +"Ha! ha! Is it difficult to swallow? But it is true--it is quite true. +Here I sit, sound and safe, and eminently sane, and that after a fall of +five hundred feet. + +"Now, listen. + +"We went down, welded together, with a rush and a buzz like a +cannon-ball. Thoughts? Ah! my friend, I had none. Who can think even +in a high wind? And here the wind of our going would have brained an ox. +Only one desperate instinct I had, one little forlorn remnant of +humanity--to shield the love of my heart. So my arms never left her; and +we fell together. I dreaded nothing, feared nothing, foresaw no terror +in the inevitable mangling crash of the end. For time, that is necessary +to emotion, was annihilated. We had outstripped it, and left sense and +reason sluggishly following in our wake. + +"Sense, yes; but not altogether sensation. Flashingly I was conscious +here of incredibly swift transitions, from cold to deeper wells of frost; +thence down through a stratum of death and negation, between mere blind +walls of frigid inhumanity, to have been stayed a moment by which would +have pointed all our limbs as stiff as icicles, as stiff as those of +frogs plunged into boiling water. But we passed and fell, still crashing +upon no obstruction; and thought pursued us, tailing further behind. + +"It was the passage of the eternal night--frozen, self-contained; awful +as any fancied darkness that is without one tradition of a star. Yet, +struggling hereafter to, in some shadowy sense, renew my feelings of the +moment, it seemed to me that I had not fallen through darkness at all; +but rather that the friction of descent had kindled an inner radiance in +me that was independent of the vision of the eyes, and full of promise of +a sudden illumination of the soul. + +"Now, after falling what depths God knows, I become numbly aware of a +little griding sensation at my back, that communicated a whistling small +vibration to my whole frame. This intensified, became more pronounced. +Perceptibly, in that magnificent refinement of speed, our enormous pace I +felt to decrease ever so little. Still we had so far outstripped +intelligence as that I was incapable of considering the cause of the +change. + +"Suddenly, for the first time, pain made itself known; and immediately +reason, plunging from above, overtook me, and I could think. + +"Then it was I became conscious that, instead of falling, we were +rising, rising with immense swiftness, but at a pace that momently +slackened--rising, slipping over ice and in contact with it, + +"The muscles of my arms, clasped still about Fidèle, involuntarily +swelled to her. My God! there was a tiny answering pressure. I could have +screamed with joy; but physical anguish overmastered me. My back seemed +bursting into flame. + +"The suffering was intolerable. When, at last, I thought I should go mad, +in a moment we took a surging swoop, shot down an easy incline, and +_stopped_. + +"There had been noise in our descent, as only now I knew by its +cessation--a hissing sound as of wire whirring from a draw-plate. In the +profound enormous silence that, at last, enwrapped us, the bliss of +freedom from that metallic accompaniment fell on me like a balm. My +eyelids closed. Possibly I fainted. + +"All in a moment I came to myself, to an undefinable sense of the +tremendous pressure of nothingness. Darkness! it was not that; yet it was +as little light. It was as if we lay in a dim, luminous chaos, ourselves +an integral part of its self-containment. I did not stir; but I spoke: +and my strange voice broke the enchantment. Surely never before or since +was speech exchanged under such conditions. + +"'Fidèle!' + +"'I can speak, but I cannot look. If I hide so for ever I can die +bravely.' + +"'_Ma petite!_ oh, my little one! Are you hurt?' + +"'I don't know. I think not.' + +"Her voice, her dear voice was so odd; but, _Mon Dieu_! how wonderful in +its courage! That, Heaven be praised! is no monopoly of intellect. +Indeed, it is imagination that makes men cowards; and to the lack of this +possibly we owed our salvation. + +"Now, calm and freed of that haunting jar of descent, I became conscious +that a sound, that I had at first taken for the rush of my own arteries, +had an origin apart from us. It was like the wash and thunder of waters +in a deep sewer. + +"'Fidèle!' I said again. + +"'I am listening.' + +"'Hear, then! Canst thou free my right arm, that I may feel for the +lucifers in my pocket?' + +"She moved at once, never raising her face from my breast. I groped for +the box, found it; and manipulating with one hand, succeeded in striking +a match. It flamed up--a long wax vesta. + +"A glory of sleek fires sprang on the instant into life. We lay +imprisoned in a house of glass at the foot of a smooth incline rising +behind us to unknown heights. A wall of porous and opaque ice-rubbish, +into which our feet had plunged deep, had stayed our progress. + +"I placed the box by my side ready for use. Our last moments should be +lavish of splendour. Stooping for another match, to kindle from the flame +of the near-expired one, a thought struck me. Why had we not been at once +frozen to death? Yet we lay where we had brought up, as snug and glowing +as if we were wrapped in bedclothes. + +"The answer came to me in a flash. We had fallen sheer to the glacier +bed, which, warmed by subterraneous heat, was ever in process of melting. +Possibly, but a comparatively thin curtain of perforated ice separated us +from the under torrent. + +"The enforced conclusion was astounding; but as yet it inspired no hope. +We were none the less doomed and buried. + +"I lit a second match, turned about, and gave a start of terror. There, +imbedded in the transparent wall at my very shoulder, was something--the +body of a man. + +"A horrible sight--a horrible, horrible sight--crushed, flattened--a +caricature; the very gouts of blood that had burst from him held poised +in the massed congelations of water. + +"For how long ages had he been travelling to the valley, and from what +heights? He was of a bygone generation, by his huge coat cuffs, his metal +buttons, by his shoe buckles and the white stockings on his legs, which +were pressed thin and sharp, as if cut out of paper. Had he been a +climber, an explorer--a contemporary, perhaps, of Saussure and a rival? +And what had been his unrecorded fate? To slip into a crevasse, and so +for the parted ice to snap upon him again, like a hideous jaw? Its work +done, it might at least have opened and dropped him through--not held him +intact to jog us, out of all that world of despair, with his battered +elbow! + +"Perhaps to witness in others the fate he had himself suffered! + +"I dropped the match I was holding. I tightened my clasp convulsively +about Fidèle. Thank God she, at any rate, was blind to this horror within +a horror! + +"All at once--was it the start I had given, or the natural process of +dissolution beneath our feet?--we were moving again. Swift--swifter! +Fidèle uttered a little moaning cry. The rubbish of ice crashed below us, +and we sank through. + +"I knew nothing, then, but that we were in water--that we had fallen from +a little height, and were being hurried along. The torrent, now deep, now +so shallow that my feet scraped its bed, gushed in my ears and blinded my +eyes. + +"Still I hugged Fidèle, and I could feel by her returning grasp that she +lived. The water was not unbearably cold as yet. The air that came +through cracks and crevasses had not force to overcome the under warmth. + +"I felt something slide against me--clutched and held on. It was a brave +pine log. Could I recover it at this date I would convert it into a +flagstaff for the tricolour. It was our raft, our refuge; and it carried +us to safety. + +"I cannot give the extravagant processes of that long journey. It was all +a rushing, swirling dream--a mad race of mystery and sublimity, to +which the only conscious periods were wild, flitting glimpses of +wonderful ice arabesques, caught momentarily as we passed under fissures +that let the light of day through dimly. + +"Gradually a ghostly radiance grew to encompass us; and by a like +gradation the water waxed intensely cold. Hope then was blazing in our +hearts; but this new deathliness went nigh to quench it altogether. Yet, +had we guessed the reason, we could have foregone the despair. For, in +truth, we were approaching that shallower terrace of the glacier beyond +the fall, through which the light could force some weak passage, and the +air make itself felt, blowing upon the beds of ice. + +"Well, we survived; and still we survive. My faith, what a couple! +Sublimity would have none of us. The glacier rejected souls so +commonplace as not to be properly impressed by its inexorability. + +"This, then, was the end. We swept into a huge cavern of ice--through +it--beyond it, into the green valley and the world that we love. And +there, where the torrent splits up into a score of insignificant streams, +we grounded and crawled to dry land and sat down and laughed. + +"Yes, we could do it--we could laugh. Is that not bathos? But Fidèle and +I have a theory that laughter is the chief earnest of immortality. + +"To _dry_ land I have said. _Mon Dieu!_ the torrent was no wetter. It +rains in the Chamounix valley. We looked to see whence we had fallen, and +not even the _Chapeau_ was visible through the mist. + +"But, as I turned, Fidèle uttered a little cry. + +"'The flask, and the sandwich-box, and your poor coat!' + +"'_Comment?_' I said; and in a moment was in my shirt-sleeves. + +"I stared, and I wondered, and I clucked in my throat. + +"Holy saints! I was adorned with a breastplate on my back. The friction +of descent, first welding together these, the good ministers to our +appetite, had worn the metal down in the end to a mere skin or badge, the +heat generated from which had scorched and frizzled the cloth beneath it. + +"I needed not to seek further explanation of the pain I had suffered--was +suffering then, indeed, as I had reason to know when ecstasy permitted a +return of sensation. My back bears the scars at this moment. + +"'It shall remain there for ever!' I cried, 'like the badge of a _cocher +de fiacre_, who has made the fastest journey on record. 'Coachman! from +the glacier to the valley.' '_Mais oui, monsieur_. Down this crevasse, if +you please.' + +"And that is the history of our adventure. + +"Why we were not dashed to pieces? But that, as I accept it, is easy of +elucidation. Imagine a vast crescent moon, with a downward nick from the +end of the tail. This form the fissure took, in one enormous sweep and +drop towards the mouth of the valley. Now, as we rushed headlong, the +gentle curve received us from space to substance quite gradually, until +we were whirring forward wholly on the latter, my luggage suffering the +brunt of the friction. The upward sweep of the crescent diminished our +progress--more and yet more--until we switched over the lower point and +shot quietly down the incline beyond. And all this in ample room, and +without meeting with a single unfriendly obstacle. + +"'_Voilà, mes chers amis, ce qui me met en peine_.' + +"Fidèle laughs, the rogue! + +"'Ta, ta, ta!' she says. 'But they will not believe a word of it all.'" + + + + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + + +"My grandfather," said the banjo, "drank 'dog's-nose,' my father drank +'dog's-nose,' and I drink 'dog's-nose.' If that ain't heredity, there's +no virtue in the board schools." + +"Ah!" said the piccolo, "you're always a-boasting of your science. And +so, I suppose, your son'll drink 'dog's-nose,' too?" + +"No," retorted the banjo, with a rumbling laugh, like wind in the +bung-hole of an empty cask; "for I ain't got none. The family ends with +me; which is a pity, for I'm a full-stop to be proud on." + +He was an enormous, tun-bellied person--a mere mound of expressionless +flesh, whose size alone was an investment that paid a perpetual dividend +of laughter. When, as with the rest of his company, his face was +blackened, it looked like a specimen coal on a pedestal in a museum. + +There was Christmas company in the Good Intent, and the sanded tap-room, +with its trestle tables and sprigs of holly stuck under sooty beams +reeked with smoke and the steam of hot gin and water. + +"How much could you put down of a night, Jack?" said a little grinning +man by the door. + +"Why," said the banjo, "enough to lay the dustiest ghost as ever walked." + +"Could you, now?" said the little man. + +"Ah!" said the banjo, chuckling. "There's nothing like settin' one sperit +to lay another; and there I could give you proof number two of heredity." + +"What! Don't you go for to say you ever see'd a ghost!" + +"Haven't I? What are you whisperin' about, you blushful chap there by the +winder?" + +"I was only remarking sir, 'twere snawin' like the devil." + +"_Is_ it? Then the devil has been misjudged these eighteen hundred and +ninety odd years." + +"But _did_ you ever see a ghost?" said the little grinning man, pursuing +his subject. + +"No, I didn't, sir," mimicked the banjo, "saving in coffee grounds. But +my grandfather in _his_ cups see'd one; which brings us to number three +in the matter of heredity." + +"Give us the story, Jack," said the "bones," whose agued shins were +extemporizing a rattle on their own account before the fire. + +"Well, I don't mind," said the fat man. "It's seasonable; and I'm +seasonable, like the blessed plum-pudden, I am; and the more burnt brandy +you set about me, the richer and headier I'll go down." + +"You'd be a jolly old pudden to digest," said the piccolo. + +"You blow your aggrawation into your pipe and sealing-wax the stops," +said his friend. + +He drew critically at his "churchwarden" a moment or so, leaned forward, +emptied his glass into his capacious receptacles, and, giving his +stomach a shift, as if to accommodate it to its new burden, proceeded as +follows:-- + +"Music and malt is my nat'ral inheritance. My grandfather blew his +'dog's-nose,' and drank his clarinet like a artist and my father--" + +"What did you say your grandfather did?" asked the piccolo. + +"He played the clarinet." + +"You said he blew his 'dog's-nose.'" + +"Don't be a ass, Fred!" said the banjo, aggrieved. "How the blazes could +a man blow his dog's nose, unless he muzzled it with a handkercher, and +then twisted its tail? He played the clarinet, I say; and my father +played the musical glasses, which was a form of harmony pertiklerly +genial to him. Amongst us we've piped out a good long century--ah! we +have, for all I look sich a babby bursting on sops and spoon meat." + +"What!" said the little man by the door. "You don't include them cockt +hatses in your expeerunce?" + +"My grandfather wore 'em, sir. He wore a play-actin' coat, too, and +buckles to his shoes, when he'd got any; and he and a friend or two made +a permanency of 'waits' (only they called 'em according to the season), +and got their profit goin' from house to house, principally in the +country, and discoursin' music at the low rate of whatever they could get +for it." + +"Ain't you comin' to the ghost, Jack?" said the little man hungrily. + +"All in course, sir. Well, gentlemen, it was hard times pretty often with +my grandfather and his friends, as you may suppose; and never so much +as when they had to trudge it across country, with the nor'-easter +buzzin' in their teeth and the snow piled on their cockt hats like lemon +sponge on entry dishes. The rewards, I've heard him say--for he lived to +be ninety, nevertheless--was poor compensation for the drifts, and the +inflienza, and the broken chilblains; but now and again they'd get a fair +skinful of liquor from a jolly squire, as 'd set 'em up like boggarts +mended wi' new broomsticks." + +"Ho-haw!" broke in a hurdle-maker in a corner; and then, regretting the +publicity of his merriment, put his fingers bashfully to his stubble +lips. + +"Now," said the banjo, "it's of a pertikler night and a pertikler skinful +that I'm a-going to tell you; and that night fell dark, and that skinful +were took a hundred years ago this December, as I'm a Jack-pudden!" + +He paused a moment for effect, before he went on:-- + +"They were down in the sou'-west country, which they little knew; and +were anighing Winchester city, or should 'a' been. But they got muzzed on +the ungodly downs, and before they guessed, they was off the track. My +good hat! there they was, as lost in the snow as three nutshells +a-sinkin' into a hasty pudden. Well, they wandered round; pretty +confident at first, but getting madder and madder as every sense of their +bearings slipped from them. And the bitter cold took their vitals, so as +they saw nothing but a great winding sheet stretched abroad for to wrap +their dead carcasses in. + +"At last my grandfather he stopt and pulled hisself together with an +awful face, and says he: 'We're Christmas pie for the carrying-on crows +if we don't prove ourselves human. Let's fetch out our pipes and blow our +trouble into 'em.' So they stood together, like as if they was before a +house, and they played 'Kate of Aberdare' mighty dismal and flat, for +their fingers froze to the keys. + +"Now, I tell you, they hadn't climbed over the first stave, when there +come a skirl of wind and spindrift of snow as almost took them off of +their feet; and, on the going down of it, Jem Sloke, as played the +hautboy, dropped the reed from his mouth, and called out, 'Sakes alive! +if we fools ain't been standin' outside a gentleman's gate all the time, +and not knowin' it!' + +"You might 'a' knocked the three of 'em down wi' a barley straw, as they +stared and stared, and then fell into a low, enjoyin' laugh. For they was +standin' not six fut from a tall iron gate in a stone wall, and behind +these was a great house showin' out dim, with the winders all lighted up. + +"'Lord!' chuckled my grandfather, 'to think o' the tricks o' this +vagarious country! But, as we're here, we'll go on and give 'em a taste +of our quality.' + +"They put new heart into the next movement, as you may guess; and they +hadn't fair started on it, when the door of the house swung open, and +down the shaft of light that shot out as far as the gate there come a +smiling young gal, with a tray of glasses in her hands. + +"Now she come to the bars; and she took and put a glass through, not +sayin' nothin', but invitin' some one to drink with a silent laugh. + +"Did any one take that glass? Of course he did, you'll be thinkin'; and +you'll be thinkin' wrong. Not a man of the three moved. They was struck +like as stone, and their lips was gone the colour of sloe berries. Not a +man took the glass. For why? The moment the gal presented it, each saw +the face of a thing lookin' out of the winder over the porch, and the +face was hidjus beyond words, and the shadder of it, with the light +behind, stretched out and reached to the gal, and made her hidjus, too. + +"At last my grandfather give a groan and put out his hand; and, as he did +it, the face went, and the gal was beautiful to see agen. + +"'Death and the devil!' said he. 'It's one or both, either way; and I +prefer 'em hot to cold!' + +"He drank off half the glass, smacked his lips, and stood staring a +moment. + +"'Dear, dear!' said the gal, in a voice like falling water, 'you've drunk +blood, sir!' + +"My grandfather gave a yell, slapped the rest of the liquor in the faces +of his friends, and threw the cup agen the bars. It broke with a noise +like thunder, and at that he up'd with his hands and fell full length +into the snow." + +There was a pause. The little man by the door was twisting nervously in +his chair. + +"He came to--of course, he came to?" said he at length. + +"He come to," said the banjo solemnly, "in the bitter break of dawn; that +is, he come to as much of hisself as he ever was after. He give a +squiggle and lifted his head; and there was he and his friends a-lyin' on +the snow of the high downs." + +"And the house and the gal?" + +"Narry a sign of either, sir, but just the sky and the white stretch; and +one other thing." + +"And what was that?" + +"A stain of red sunk in where the cup had spilt." + +There was a second pause, and the banjo blew into the bowl of his pipe. + +"They cleared out of that neighbourhood double quick, you'll bet," said +he. "But my grandfather was never the same man agen. His face took +purple, while his friends' only remained splashed with red, same as birth +marks; and, I tell you, if he ever ventur'd upon 'Kate of Aberdare,' his +cheeks swelled up to the reed of his clarinet, like as a blue plum on a +stalk. And forty year after, he died of what they call solution of blood +to the brain." + +"And you can't have better proof than that," said the little man. + +"That's what _I_ say," said the banjo. "Next player, gentlemen, please." + + + + +DARK DIGNUM + + +"I'd not go higher, sir," said my landlady's father. I made out his +warning through the shrill piping of the wind; and stopped and took in +the plunging seascape from where I stood. The boom of the waves came up +from a vast distance beneath; sky and the horizon of running water seemed +hurrying upon us over the lip of the rearing cliff. + +"It crumbles!" he cried. "It crumbles near the edge like as frosted +mortar. I've seen a noble sheep, sir, eighty pound of mutton, browsing +here one moment, and seen it go down the next in a puff of white dust. +Hark to that! Do you hear it?" + +Through the tumult of the wind in that high place came a liquid vibrant +sound, like the muffled stroke of iron on an anvil. I thought it the +gobble of water in clanging caves deep down below. + +"It might be a bell," I said. + +The old man chuckled joyously. He was my cicerone for the nonce; had +come out of his chair by the ingle-nook to taste a little the salt of +life. The north-easter flashed in the white cataracts of his eyes and +woke a feeble activity in his scrannel limbs. When the wind blew loud, +his daughter had told me, he was always restless, like an imprisoned +sea-gull. He would be up and out. He would rise and flap his old draggled +pinions, as if the great air fanned an expiring spark into flame. + +"It is a bell!" he cried--"the bell of old St. Dunstan's, that was +swallowed by the waters in the dark times." + +"Ah," I said. "That is the legend hereabouts." + +"No legend, sir--no legend. Where be the tombstones of drownded mariners +to prove it such? Not one to forty that they has in other sea-board +parishes. For why? Dunstan bell sounds its warning, and not a craft will +put out." + +"There is the storm cone," I suggested. + +He did not hear me. He was punching with his staff at one of a number of +little green mounds that lay about us. + +"I could tell you a story of these," he said. "Do you know where we +stand?" + +"On the site of the old churchyard?" + +"Ay, sir; though it still bore the name of the new yard in my first +memory of it." + +"Is that so? And what is the story?" + +He dwelt a minute, dense with introspection. Suddenly he sat himself down +upon a mossy bulge in the turf, and waved me imperiously to a place +beside him. + +"The old order changeth," he said. "The only lasting foundations of men's +works shall be godliness and law-biding. Long ago they builded a new +church--here, high up on the cliffs, where the waters could not reach; +and, lo! the waters wrought beneath and sapped the foundations, and the +church fell into the sea." + +"So I understand," I said. + +"The godless are fools," he chattered knowingly. "Look here at these +bents--thirty of 'em, may be. Tombstones, sir; perished like man his +works, and the decayed stumps of them coated with salt grass." + +He pointed to the ragged edge of the cliff a score paces away. + +"They raised it out there," he said, "and further--a temple of bonded +stone. They thought to bribe the Lord to a partnership in their +corruption, and He answered by casting down the fair mansion into the +waves." + +I said, "Who--who, my friend?" + +"They that builded the church," he answered. + +"Well," I said. "It seems a certain foolishness to set the edifice so +close to the margin." + +Again he chuckled. + +"It was close, close, as you say; yet none so close as you might think +nowadays. Time hath gnawed here like a rat on a cheese. But the +foolishness appeared in setting the brave mansion between the winds and +its own graveyard. Let the dead lie seawards, one had thought, and the +church inland where we stand. So had the bell rung to this day; and only +the charnel bones flaked piecemeal into the sea." + +"Certainly, to have done so would show the better providence." + +"Sir, I said the foolishness _appeared_. But, I tell you, there was +foresight in the disposition--in neighbouring the building to the cliff +path. _For so they could the easier enter unobserved, and store their +Tcegs of Nantes brandy in the belly of the organ_." + +"They? Who were they?" + +"Why, who--but two-thirds of all Dunburgh?" + +"Smugglers?"' + +"It was a nest of 'em--traffickers in the eternal fire o' weekdays, and +on the Sabbath, who so sanctimonious? But honesty comes not from the +washing, like a clean shirt, nor can the piety of one day purge the evil +of six. They built their church anigh the margin, forasmuch as it was +handy, and that they thought, 'Surely the Lord will not undermine His +own?' A rare community o' blasphemers, fro' the parson that took his +regular toll of the organ-loft, to him that sounded the keys and pulled +out the joyous stops as if they was so many spigots to what lay behind." + +"Of when do you speak?" + +"I speak of nigh a century and a half ago. I speak of the time o' the +Seven Years' War and of Exciseman Jones, that, twenty year after he were +buried, took his revenge on the cliff side of the man that done him to +death." + +"And who was that?" + +"They called him Dark Dignum, sir--a great feat smuggler, and as wicked +as he was bold," + +"Is your story about him?" + +"Ay, it is; and of my grandfather, that were a boy when they laid, and +was glad to lay, the exciseman deep as they could dig; for the sight of +his sooty face in his coffin was worse than a bad dream." + +"Why was that?" + +The old man edged closer to me, and spoke in a sibilant voice. + +"He were murdered, sir, foully and horribly, for all they could never +bring it home to the culprit." + +"Will you tell me about it?" + +He was nothing loth. The wind, the place of perished tombs, the very +wild-blown locks of this 'withered apple-john', were eerie accompaniments +to the tale he piped in my ear:-- + +"When my grandfather were a boy," he said, "there lighted in Dunburgh +Exciseman Jones. P'r'aps the village had gained an ill reputation. +P'r'aps Exciseman Jones's predecessor had failed to secure the confidence +o' the exekitive. At any rate, the new man was little to the fancy of the +village. He was a grim, sour-looking, brass-bound galloot; and +incorruptible--which was the worst. The keg o' brandy left on his +doorstep o' New Year's Eve had been better unspiled and run into the +gutter; for it led him somehow to the identification of the innocent that +done it, and he had him by the heels in a twinkling. The squire snorted +at the man, and the parson looked askance; but Dark Dignum, he swore he'd +be even with him, if he swung for it. They was hurt and surprised, that +was the truth, over the scrupulosity of certain people; and feelin' +ran high against Exciseman Jones. + +"At that time Dark Dignum was a young man with a reputation above his +years for profaneness and audacity. Ugly things there were said about +him; and amongst many wicked he was feared for his wickedness. Exciseman +Jones had his eye on him; and that was bad for Exciseman Jones. + +"Now one murk December night Exciseman Jones staggered home with a +bloody long slice down his scalp, and the red drip from it spotting the +cobble-stones. + +"'Summut fell on him from a winder,' said Dark Dignum, a little later, as +he were drinkin' hisself hoarse in the Black Boy. 'Summut fell on him +retributive, as you might call it. For, would you believe it, the man had +at the moment been threatenin' me? He did. He said, "I know damn well +about you, Dignum; and for all your damn ingenuity, I'll bring you with a +crack to the ground yet."' + +"What had happened? Nobody knew, sir. But Exciseman Jones was in his bed +for a fortnight; and when he got on his legs again, it was pretty evident +there was a hate between the two men that only blood-spillin' could +satisfy. + +"So far as is known, they never spoke to one another again. They played +their game of death in silence--the lawful, cold and unfathomable; the +unlawful, swaggerin' and crool--and twenty year separated the first move +and the last. + +"This were the first, sir--as Dark Dignum leaked it out long after in his +cups. This were the first; and it brought Exciseman Jones to his grave on +the cliff here. + +"It were a deep soft summer night; and the young smuggler sat by hisself +in the long room of the Black Boy. Now, I tell you he were a fox-ship +intriguer--grand, I should call him, in the aloneness of his villainy. He +would play his dark games out of his own hand; and sure, of all his +wickedness, this game must have seemed the sum. + +"I say he sat by hisself; and I hear the listening ghost of him call me a +liar. For there were another body present, though invisible to mortal +eye; and that second party were Exciseman Jones, who was hidden up the +chimney. + +"How had he inveigled him there? Ah, they've met and worried that point +out since. No other will ever know the truth this side the grave. But +reports come to be whispered; and reports said as how Dignum had made an +appointment with a bodiless master of a smack as never floated, to meet +him in the Black Boy and arrange for to run a cargo as would never be +shipped; and that somehow he managed to acquent Exciseman Jones o' this +dissembling appointment, and to secure his presence in hidin' to witness +it. + +"That's conjecture; for Dignum never let on so far. But what is known for +certain is that Exciseman Jones, who were as daring and determined as +his enemy--p'r'aps more so--for some reason was in the chimney, on to a +grating in which he had managed to lower hisself from the roof; and that +he could, if given time, have scrambled up again with difficulty, but was +debarred from going lower. And, further, this is known--that, as Dignum +sat on, pretendin' to yawn and huggin' his black intent, a little sut +plopped down the chimney and scattered on the coals of the laid fire +beneath. + +"At that--'Curse this waitin'!' said he. 'The room's as chill as a +belfry'; and he got to his feet, with a secret grin, and strolled to the +hearthstone. + +"'I wonder,' said he, 'will the landlord object if I ventur' upon a glint +of fire for comfort's sake?' and he pulled out his flint and steel, +struck a spark, and with no more feelin' than he'd express in lighting +a pipe, set the flame to the sticks. + +"The trapt rat above never stirred or give tongue. My God! what a man! +Sich a nature could afford to bide and bide--ay, for twenty year, if need +be. + +"Dignum would have enjoyed the sound of a cry; but he never got it. He +listened with the grin fixed on his face; and of a sudden he heard a +scrambling struggle, like as a dog with the colic jumping at a wall; and +presently, as the sticks blazed and the smoke rose denser, a thick +coughin', as of a consumptive man under bed-clothes. Still no cry, nor +any appeal for mercy; no, not from the time he lit the fire till a +horrible rattle come down, which was the last twitches of somethin' that +choked and died on the sooty gratin' above. + +"When all was quiet, Dignum he knocks with his foot on the floor and sits +hisself down before the hearth, with a face like a pillow for innocence. + +"'I were chilled and lit it,' says he to the landlord. 'You don't mind?' + +"Mind? Who would have ventur'd to cross Dark Dignum's fancies? + +"He give a boisterous laugh, and ordered in a double noggin of humming +stuff. + +"'Here,' he says, when it comes, 'is to the health of Exciseman Jones, +that swore to bring me to the ground.' + +"'To the ground,' mutters a thick voice from the chimney. + +"'My God!' says the landlord--'there's something up there!' + +"Something there was; and terrible to look upon when they brought it to +light. The creature's struggles had ground the sut into its face, and its +nails were black below the quick. + +"Were those words the last of its death-throe, or an echo from beyond? +Ah! we may question; but they were heard by two men. + +"Dignum went free. What could they prove agen him? Not that he knew there +was aught in the chimney when he lit the fire. The other would scarcely +have acquent him of his plans. And Exciseman Jones was hurried into his +grave alongside the church up here. + +"And therein he lay for twenty year, despite that, not a twelvemonth +after his coming, the sacrilegious house itself sunk roaring into the +waters. For the Lord would have none of it, and, biding His time, struck +through a fortnight of deluge, and hurled church and cliff into ruin. But +the yard remained, and, nighest the seaward edge of it, Exciseman Jones +slept in his fearful winding sheet and bided _his_ time. + +"It came when my grandfather were a young man of thirty, and mighty close +and confidential with Dark Dignum. God forgive him! Doubtless he were +led away by the older smuggler, that had a grace of villainy about him, +'tis said, and used Lord Chesterfield's printed letters for wadding to +his bullets. + +"By then he was a ramping, roaring devil; but, for all his bold hands +were stained with crime, the memory of Exciseman Jones and of his promise +dwelled with him and darkened him ever more and more, and never left him. +So those that knew him said. + +"Now all these years the cliff edge agen the graveyard, where it was +broke off, was scabbing into the sea below. But still they used this way +of ascent for their ungodly traffic; and over the ruin of the cliff they +had drove a new path for to carry up their kegs. + +"It was a cloudy night in March, with scud and a fitful moon, and there +was a sloop in the offing, and under the shore a loaded boat that had +just pulled in with muffled rowlocks. Out of this Dark Dignum was the +first to sling hisself a brace of rundlets; and my grandfather followed +with two more. They made softly for the cliff path--began the ascent--was +half-way up. + +"Whiz!--a stone of chalk went by them with a skirl, and slapped into the +rubble below. + +"'Some more of St. Dunstan's gravel!' cried Dignum, pantin' out a +reckless laugh under his load; and on they went again. + +"Hwish!--a bigger lump came like a thunderbolt, and the wind of it took +the bloody smuggler's hat and sent it swooping into the darkness like a +bird. + +"'Thunder!' said Dignum; 'the cliff's breaking away!' + +"The words was hardly out of his mouth, when there flew such a volley of +chalk stones as made my grandfather, though none had touched him, fall +upon the path where he stood, and begin to gabble out what he could call +to mind of the prayers for the dying. He was in the midst of it, when he +heard a scream come from his companion as froze the very marrow in his +bones. He looked up, thinkin' his hour had come. + +"My God! What a sight he saw! The moon had shone out of a sudden, and the +light of it struck down on Dignum's face, and that was the colour of +dirty parchment. And he looked higher, and give a sort of sob. + +"For there, stickin' out of the cliff side, was half the body of +Exciseman Jones, with its arms stretched abroad, _and it was clawin' out +lumps of chalk and hurling them down at Dignum_! + +"And even as he took this in through his terror, a great ball of white +came hurtling, and went full on to the man's face with a splash--and he +were spun down into the deep night below, a nameless thing." + +The old creature came to a stop, his eyes glinting with a febrile +excitement. + +"And so," I said, "Exciseman Jones was true to his word?" + +The tension of memory was giving--the spring slowly uncoiling itself. + +"Ay," he said doubtfully. "The cliff had flaked away by degrees to his +very grave. They found his skelington stickin' out of the chalk." + +"His _skeleton?"_ said I, with the emphasis of disappointment. + +"The first, sir, the first. Ay, his was the first. There've been a many +exposed since. The work of decay goes on, and the bones they fall into +the sea. Sometimes, sailing off shore, you may see a shank or an arm +protrudin' like a pigeon's leg from a pie. But the wind or the weather +takes it and it goes. There's more to follow yet. Look at 'em! look at +these bents! Every one a grave, with a skelington in it. The wear and +tear from the edge will reach each one in turn, and then the last of the +ungodly will have ceased from the earth." + +"And what became of your grandfather?" + +"My grandfather? There were something happened made him renounce the +devil. He died one of the elect. His youth were heedless and +unregenerate; but, 'tis said, after he were turned thirty he never smiled +agen. There was a reason. Did I ever tell you the story of Dark Dignum +and Exciseman Jones?" + + + + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + + +This is the story of William Tyrwhitt, who went to King's Cobb for rest +and change, and, with the latter, at least, was so far accommodated +as for a time to get beyond himself and into regions foreign to his +experiences or his desires. And for this condition of his I hold myself +something responsible, inasmuch as it was my inquisitiveness was the +means of inducing him to an exploration, of which the result, with its +measure of weirdness, was for him alone. But, it seems, I was appointed +an agent of the unexplainable without my knowledge, and it was simply my +misfortune to find my first unwitting commission in the selling of a +friend. + +I was for a few days, about the end of a particular July, lodged in that +little old seaboard town of Dorset that is called King's Cobb. Thither +there came to me one morning a letter from William Tyrwhitt, the +polemical journalist (a queer fish, like the cuttle, with an ink-bag for +the confusion of enemies), complaining that he was fagged and used up, +and desiring me to say that nowhere could complete rest be obtained as in +King's Cobb. + +I wrote and assured him on this point. The town, I said, lay wrapped in +the hills as in blankets, its head only, winking a sleepy eye, projecting +from the top of the broad steep gully in which it was stretched at ease. +Thither few came to the droning coast; and such as did, looked up at the +High Street baking in the sun, and, thinking of Jacob's ladder, composed +them to slumber upon the sand and left the climbing to the angels. Here, +I said, the air and the sea were so still that one could hear the oysters +snoring in their beds; and the little frizzle of surf on the beach was +like to the sound to dreaming ears of bacon frying in the kitchens of the +blest. + +William Tyrwhitt came, and I met him at the station, six or seven miles +away. He was all strained and springless, like a broken child's toy--"not +like that William who, with lance in rest, shot through the lists in +Fleet Street." A disputative galley-puller could have triumphed over +him morally; a child physically. + +The drive in the inn brake, by undulating roads and scented valleys, +shamed his cheek to a little flush of self-assertion. + +"I will sleep under the vines," he said, "and the grapes shall drop into +my mouth." + +"Beware," I answered, "lest in King's Cobb your repose should be +everlasting. The air of that hamlet has matured like old port in the bin +of its hills, till to drink of it is to swoon." + +We alighted at the crown of the High Street, purposing to descend on +foot the remaining distance to the shore. + +"Behold," I exclaimed, "how the gulls float in the shimmer, like ashes +tossed aloft by the white draught of a fire! Behold these ancient +buildings nodding to the everlasting lullaby of the bay waters! The +cliffs are black with the heat apoplexy; the lobster is drawn scarlet to +the surface. You shall be like an addled egg put into an incubator." + +"So," he said, "I shall rest and not hatch. The very thought is like +sweet oil on a burn." + +He stayed with me a week, and his body waxed wondrous round and rosy, +while his eye acquired a foolish and vacant expression. So it was with +me. We rolled together, by shore and by road of this sluggard place, like +spent billiard balls; and if by chance we cannoned, we swerved sleepily +apart, until, perhaps, one would fall into a pocket of the sand, and the +other bring up against a cushion of sea-wall. + +Yet, for all its enervating atmosphere, King's Cobb has its fine +traditions of a sturdy independence, and a slashing history withal; and +its aspect is as picturesque as that of an opera bouffe fishing-harbour. +Then, too, its High Street, as well as its meandering rivulets of low +streets, is rich in buildings, venerable and antique. + +We took an irresponsible, smiling pleasure in noting these +advantages--particularly after lunch; and sometimes, where an old +house was empty, we would go over it, and stare at beams and +chimneypieces and hear the haunted tale of its fortunes, with a faint +half-memory in our breasts of that one-time bugbear we had known as +"copy." But though more than once a flaccid instinct would move us to +have out our pencils, we would only end by bunging our foolish mouths +with them, as if they were cigarettes, and then vaguely wondering +at them for that, being pencils, they would not draw. + +By then we were so sinewless and demoralized that we could hear in the +distant strains of the European Concert nothing but an orchestra of +sweet sounds, and would have given ourselves away in any situation with a +pound of tea. Therefore, perhaps, it was well for us that, a peremptory +summons to town reaching me after seven days of comradeship with William, +I must make shift to collect my faculties with my effects, and return to +the more bracing climate of Fleet Street. + +And here, you will note, begins the story of William Tyrwhitt, who would +linger yet a few days in that hanging garden of the south coast, and who +would pull himself together and collect matter for "copy." + +He found a very good subject that first evening of his solitude. + +I was to leave in the afternoon, and the morning we spent in aimlessly +rambling about the town. Towards mid-day, a slight shower drove us to +shelter under the green verandah of a house, standing up from the lower +fall of the High Street, that we had often observed in our wanderings. +This house--or rather houses, for it was a block of two--was very tall +and odd-looking, being all built of clean squares of a whitish granite; +and the double porch in the middle base--led up to by side-going steps +behind thin iron railings--roofed with green-painted zinc. In some of the +windows were jalousies, but the general aspect of the exterior was gaunt +and rigid; and the whole block bore a dismal, deserted look, as if it had +not been lived in for years. + +Now we had taken refuge in the porch of that half that lay uppermost on +the slope; and here we noticed that, at a late date, the building was +seemingly in process of repair, painters' pots and brushes lying on a +window-sill, and a pair of steps showing within through the glass. + +"They have gone to dinner," said I. "Supposing we seize the opportunity +to explore?" + +We pushed at the door; it yielded. We entered, shut ourselves in, and +paused to the sound of our own footsteps echoing and laughing from +corners and high places. On the ground floor were two or three good-sized +rooms with modern grates, but cornices, chimney-pieces, embrasures finely +Jacobean. There were innumerable under-stair and over-head cupboards, +too, and pantries, and closets, and passages going off darkly into the +unknown. + +We clomb the stairway--to the first floor--to the second. Here was all +pure Jacobean; but the walls were crumbling, the paper peeling, the +windows dim and foul with dirt. + +I have never known a place with such echoes. They shook from a footstep +like nuts rattling out of a bag; a mouse behind the skirting led a whole +camp-following of them; to ask a question was, as in that other House, to +awaken the derisive shouts of an Opposition. Yet, in the intervals of +silence, there fell a deadliness of quiet that was quite appalling by +force of contrast. + +"Let us go down," I said. "I am feeling creepy." + +"Pooh!" said William Tyrwhitt; "I could take up my abode here with a +feather bed." + +We descended, nevertheless. Arrived at the ground floor, "I am going to +the back," said William. + +I followed him--a little reluctantly, I confess. Gloom and shadow had +fallen upon the town, and this old deserted hulk of an abode was ghostly +to a degree. There was no film of dust on its every shelf or sill that +did not seem to me to bear the impress of some phantom finger feeling its +way along. A glint of stealthy eyes would look from dark uncertain +corners; a thin evil vapour appear to rise through the cracks of the +boards from the unvisited cellars in the basement. + +And here, too, we came suddenly upon an eccentricity of out-building that +wrought upon our souls with wonder. For, penetrating to the rear through +what might have been a cloak-closet or butler's pantry, we found a +supplementary wing, or rather tail of rooms, loosely knocked together, to +proceed from the back, forming a sort of skilling to the main building. +These rooms led direct into one another, and, consisting of little more +than timber and plaster, were in a woeful state of dilapidation. +Everywhere the laths grinned through torn gaps in the ceilings and walls; +everywhere the latter were blotched and mildewed with damp, and the +floor-boards rotting in their tracks. Fallen mortar, rusty tins, yellow +teeth of glass, whitened soot--all the decay and rubbish of a generation +of neglect littered the place and filled it with an acrid odour. From one +of the rooms we looked forth through a little discoloured window upon a +patch of forlorn weedy garden, where the very cats glowered in a +depression that no surfeit of mice could assuage. + +We went on, our nervous feet apologetic to the grit they crunched; and, +when we were come to near the end of this dreary annexe, turned off to +the left into a short gloom of passage that led to a closed door. + +Pushing this open, we found a drop of some half-dozen steps, and, going +gingerly down these, stopped with a common exclamation of surprise on our +lips. + +Perhaps our wonder was justified, for we were in the stern cabin of an +ancient West Indiaman. + +Some twenty feet long by twelve wide--there it all was, from the deck +transoms above, to the side lockers and great curved window, sloping +outwards to the floor and glazed with little panes in galleries, that +filled the whole end of the room. Thereout we looked, over the degraded +garden, to the lower quarters of the town--as if, indeed, we were perched +high up on waves--and even to a segment of the broad bay that swept by +them. + +But the room itself! What phantasy of old sea-dog or master-mariner had +conceived it? What palsied spirit, condemned to rust in inactivity, had +found solace in this burlesque of shipcraft? To renew the past in such a +fixture, to work oneself up to the old glow of flight and action, and +then, while one stamped and rocked maniacally, to feel the refusal of so +much as a timber to respond to one's fervour of animation! It was a +grotesque picture. + +Now, this cherished chamber had shared the fate of the rest. The paint +and gilding were all cracked and blistered away; much of the glass of +the stern-frame was gone or hung loose in its sashes; the elaborately +carved lockers mouldered on the walls. + +These were but dummies when we came to examine them--mere slabs attached +to the brickwork, and decaying with it. + +"There should be a case-bottle and rummers in one, at least," said +William Tyrwhitt. + +"There are, sir, at your service," said a voice behind us. + +We started and turned. + +It had been such a little strained voice that it was with something +like astonishment I looked upon the speaker. Whence he had issued I could +not guess; but there he stood behind us, nodding and smiling--a squab, +thick-set old fellow with a great bald head, and, for all the hair on his +face, a tuft like a teasel sprouting from his under lip. + +He was in his shirt-sleeves, without coat or vest; and I noticed that his +dirty lawn was oddly plaited in front, and that about his ample paunch +was buckled a broad belt of leather. Greased hip-boots encased his lower +limbs, and the heels of these were drawn together as he bowed. + +William Tyrwhitt--a master of nervous English--muttered "Great Scott!" +under his breath. + +"Permit me," said the stranger--and he held out to us a tin pannikin +(produced from Heaven knows where) that swam with fragrance. + +I shook my head. William Tyrwhitt, that fated man, did otherwise. He +accepted the vessel and drained it. + +"It smacks of all Castille," he said, handing it back with a sigh of +ecstasy. "Who the devil are you, sir?" + +The stranger gave a little crow. + +"Peregrine Iron, sir, at your service--Captain Penegrine Iron, of the +_Raven_ sloop amongst others. You are very welcome to the run of my poor +abode." + +"Yours?" I murmured in confusion. "We owe you a thousand apologies." + +"Not at all," he said, addressing all his courtesy to William. Me, since +my rejection of his beaker, he took pains to ignore. + +"Not at all," he said. "Your intrusion was quite natural under the +circumstances. I take a pleasure in being your cicerone. This cabin (he +waved his hand pompously)--a fancy of mine, sir, a fancy of mine. The +actual material of the latest of my commands brought hither and adapted +to the exigencies of shore life. It enables me to live eternally in the +past--a most satisfying illusion. Come to-night and have a pipe and a +glass with me." + +I thought William Tyrwhitt mad. + +"I will come, by all means," he said. + +The stranger bowed us out of the room. + +"That is right," he exclaimed. "You will find me here. Good-bye for the +present." + +As we plunged like dazed men into the street, now grown sunny, I turned +on my friend. + +"William," I said, "did you happen to look back as we left the cabin?" + +"No." + +"I did." + +"Well?" + +"There was no stranger there at all. The place was empty." + +"Well?" + +"You will not go to-night?" + +"You bet I do." + +I shrugged my shoulders. We walked on a little way in silence. Suddenly +my companion turned on me, a most truculent expression on his face. + +"For an independent thinker," he said, "you are rather a pusillanimous +jackass. A man of your convictions to shy at a shadow! Fie, sir, fie! +What if the room _were_ empty? The place was full enough of traps to +permit of Captain Iron's immediate withdrawal." + +Much may be expressed in a sniff. I sniffed. + +That afternoon I went back to town, and left the offensive William to his +fate. + + * * * * * + +It found him at once. + +The very day following that of my retreat, I was polishing phrases by +gaslight in the dull sitting-room of my lodgings in the Lambeth Road, +when he staggered in upon me. His face was like a sheep's, white and +vacant; his hands had caught a trick of groping blindly along the backs +of chairs. + +"You have obtained your 'copy'?" I said. + +I made him out to murmur "yes" in a shaking under-voice. He was so +patently nervous that I put him in a chair and poured him out a +wine-glassful of London brandy. This generally is a powerful emetic, but +it had no more effect upon him than water. Then I was about to lower the +gas, to save his eyes, but he stopped me with a thin shriek. + +"Light, light!" he whispered. "It cannot be too light for me!" + +"Now, William Tyrwhitt," I said, by-and-by, watchful of him, and marking +a faint effusion of colour soak to his cheek, "you would not accept my +warning, and you were extremely rude to me. Therefore you have had an +experience--" + +"An awful one," he murmured. + +"An awful one, no doubt; and to obtain surcease of the haunting memory of +it, you must confide its processes to me. But, first, I must put it to +you, which is the more pusillanimous--to refuse to submit one's manliness +to the tyranny of the unlawful, or to rush into situations you have not +the nerve to adapt yourself to?" + +"I could not foresee, I could not foresee." + +"Neither could I. And that was my very reason for declining the +invitation. Now proceed." + +It was long before he could. But presently he essayed, and gathered voice +with the advance of his narrative, and even unconsciously threw it into +something the form of "copy." And here it is as he murmured it, but with +a gasp for every full-stop. + +"I confess I was so far moved by the tone of your protest as, after your +departure, to make some cautious inquiries about the house we had +visited. I could discover nothing to satisfy my curiosity. It was known +to have been untenanted for a great number of years; but as to who was +the landlord, whether Captain Iron or another, no one could inform me; +and the agent for the property was of the adjacent town where you met me. +I was not fortunate, indeed, in finding that any one even knew of the +oddly appointed room; but considering that, owing to the time the house +had remained vacant, the existence of this eccentricity could be a +tradition only with some casual few, my failure did not strike me as +being at all bodeful. On the contrary, it only whetted my desire to +investigate further in person, and penetrate to the heart of a very +captivating little mystery. But probably, I thought, it is quite simple +of solution, and the fact of the repairers and the landlord being in +evidence at one time, a natural coincidence. + +"I dined well, and sallied forth about nine o'clock. It was a night +pregnant with possibilities. The lower strata of air were calm, but +overhead the wind went down the sea with a noise of baggage-wagons, and +there was an ominous hurrying and gathering together of forces under +the bellying standards of the clouds. + +"As I went up the steps of the lonely building, the High Street seemed to +turn all its staring eyes of lamps in my direction. 'What a droll +fellow!' they appeared to be saying; 'and how will he look when he +reissues?' + +"'There ain't nubbudy in that house,' croaked a small boy, who had paused +below, squinting up at me. + +"'How do you know?' said I. 'Move on, my little man.' + +"He went; and at once it occurred to me that, as no notice was taken of +my repeated knockings, I might as well try the handle. I did, found the +door unlatched, as it had been in the morning, pushed it open, entered, +and swung it to behind me. + +"I found myself in the most profound darkness--that darkness, if I may +use the paradox, of a peopled desolation that men of but little nerve or +resolution find insupportable. To me, trained to a serenity of stoicism, +it could make no demoralizing appeal. I had out my matchbox, opened it at +leisure, and, while the whole vaulting blackness seemed to tick and +rustle with secret movement, took a half-dozen vestas into my hand, +struck one alight, and, by its dim radiance, made my way through the +building by the passages we had penetrated in the morning. If at all I +shrank or perspired on my spectral journey, I swear I was not +conscious of doing so. + +"I came to the door of the cabin. All was black and silent. + +"'Ah!' I thought, 'the rogue has played me false.' + +"Not to subscribe to an uncertainty, I pushed at the door, saw only +swimming dead vacancy before me, and tripping at the instant on the sill, +stumbled crashing into the room below and slid my length on the floor. + +"Now, I must tell you, it was here my heart gave its first somersault. I +had fallen, as I say, into a black vault of emptiness; yet, as I rose, +bruised and dazed, to my feet, there was the cabin all alight from a +great lanthorn that swung from the ceiling, and our friend of the morning +seated at a table, with a case-bottle of rum and glasses before him. + +"I stared incredulous. Yes, there could be no doubt it was he, and pretty +flushed with drink, too, by his appearance. + +"'Incandescent light in a West Indiaman!' I muttered; for not otherwise +could I account for the sudden illumination. 'What the deuce!' + +"'Belay that!' he growled. He seemed to observe me for the first time. + +"'A handsome manner of boarding a craft you've got, sir,' said he, +glooming at me. + +"I was hastening to apologize, but he stopped me coarsely. + +"'Oh, curse the long jaw of him! Fill your cheek with that, you Barbary +ape, and wag your tail if you can, but burn your tongue.' + +"He pointed to the case-bottle with a forefinger that was like a dirty +parsnip. What induced me to swallow the insult, and even some of the +pungent liquor of his rude offering? The itch for 'copy' was, no doubt, +at the bottom of it. + +"I sat down opposite my host, filled and drained a bumper. The fire ran +to my brain, so that the whole room seemed to pitch and courtesy. + +"'This is an odd fancy of yours,' I said. + +"'What is?' said he. + +"'This,' I answered, waving my hand around--'this freak of turning a back +room into a cabin.' + +"He stared at me, and then burst into a malevolent laugh. + +"'Back room, by thunder!' said he. 'Why, of course--just a step into the +garden where the roses and the buttercupses be agrowing.' + +"Now I pricked my ears. + +"'Has the night turned foul?' I muttered. 'What a noise the rain makes +beating on the window!' + +"'It's like to be a foul one for you, at least,' said he. 'But, as for +the rain, it's blazing moonlight.' + +"I turned to the broad casement in astonishment. My God! what did I see? +Oh, my friend, my friend! will you believe me? By the melancholy glow +that spread therethrough I saw that the whole room was rising and sinking +in rhythmical motion; that the lights of King's Cobb had disappeared, and +that in their place was revealed a world of pale and tossing water, the +pursuing waves of which leapt and clutched at the glass with innocuous +fingers. + +"I started to my feet, mad in an instant. + +"'Look, look!' I shrieked. 'They follow us--they struggle to get at you, +you bloody murderer!' + +"They came rising on the crests of the billows; they hurried fast in our +wake, tumbling and swaying, their stretched, drowned faces now lifted to +the moonlight, now over-washed in the long trenches of water. They were +rolled against the galleries of glass, on which their hair slapped like +ribbons of seaweed--a score of ghastly white corpses, with strained black +eyes and pointed stiff elbows crookt up in vain for air. + +"I was mad, but I knew it all now. This was no house, but the good, +ill-fated vessel _Rayo,_ once bound for Jamaica, but on the voyage fallen +into the hands of the bloody buccaneer, Paul Hardman, and her crew made +to walk the plank, and most of her passengers. I knew that the dark +scoundrel had boarded and mastered her, and--having first fired and sunk +his own sloop--had steered her straight for the Cuban coast, making +disposition of what remained of the passengers on the way, and I knew +that my great-grandfather had been one of these doomed survivors, and +that he had been shot and murdered under orders of the ruffian that now +sat before me. All this, as retailed by one who sailed for a season under +Hardman to save his skin, is matter of old private history; and of common +report was it that the monster buccaneer, after years of successful +trading in the ship he had stolen, went into secret and prosperous +retirement under an assumed name, and was never heard of more on the high +seas. But, it seemed, it was for the great-grandson of one of his victims +to play yet a sympathetic part in the grey old tragedy. + +"How did this come to me in a moment--or, rather, what was that dream +buzzing in my brain of 'proof' and 'copy' and all the tame stagnation +of a long delirium of order? I had nothing in common with the latter. In +some telepathic way--influenced by these past-dated surroundings--dropped +into the very den of this Procrustes of the seas, I was there to re-enact +the fearful scene that had found its climax in the brain of my ancestor. + +"I rushed to the window, thence back to within a yard of the glowering +buccaneer, before whom I stood, with tost arms, wild and menacing. + +"'They follow you!' I screamed. 'Passive, relentless, and deadly, they +follow in your wake and will not be denied. The strong, the helpless, +the coarse and the beautiful--all you have killed and mutilated in your +wanton devilry--they are on your heels like a pack of spectre-hounds, and +sooner or later they will have you in their cold arms and hale you down +to the secret places of terror. Look at Beston, who leads, with a fearful +smile on his mouth! Look at that pale girl you tortured, whose hair +writhes and lengthens--a swarm of snakes nosing the hull for some open +port-hole to enter by! Dog and devil, you are betrayed by your own +hideous cruelty!' + +"He rose and struck at me blindly; staggered, and found his filthy voice +in a shriek of rage. + +"'Jorinder! make hell of the galley-fire! Heat some irons red and fetch +out a bucket of pitch. We'll learn this dandy galloot his manners!' + +"Wrought to the snapping-point of desperation, I sprang at and closed +with him; and we went down on the floor together with a heavy crash. +I was weaponless, but I would choke and strangle him with my hands. I had +him under, my fingers crookt in his throat. His eyeballs slipped forward, +like banana ends squeezed from their skins; he could not speak or cry, +but he put up one feeble hand and flapped it aimlessly. At that, in the +midst of my fury, I glanced above me, and saw a press of dim faces +crowding a dusk hatch; and from them a shadowy arm came through, pointing +a weapon; and all my soul reeled sick, and I only longed to be left time +to destroy the venomous horror beneath me before I passed. + +"It was not to be. Something, a physical sensation like the jerk of a +hiccup, shook my frame; and immediately the waters of being seemed to +burst their dam and flow out peaceably into a valley of rest." + +William Tyrwhitt paused, and "Well?" said I. + +"You see me here," he said. "I woke this morning, and found myself lying +on the floor of that shattered and battered closet, and a starved demon +of a cat licking up something from the boards. When I drove her away, +there was a patch there like ancient dried blood." + +"And how about your head?" + +"My head? Why, the bullet seemed stuck in it between the temples; and +there I am afraid it is still." + +"Just so. Now, William Tyrwhitt, you must take a Turkish, bath and some +cooling salts, and then come and tell me all about it again." + +"Ah! you don't believe me, I see. I never supposed you would. +Good-night!" + +But, when he was gone, I sat ruminating. + +"That Captain Iron," I thought, "walked over the great rent in the floor +without falling through. Well, well!" + + + + +A LAZY ROMANCE + + +I had slept but two nights at King's Cobb, when I saw distinctly that the +novel with which I was to revolutionize society and my own fortunes, and +with the purpose of writing which in an unvexed seclusion I had buried +myself in this expedient hamlet on the South Coast, was withered in the +bud beyond redemption. To this lamentable canker of a seedling hope the +eternal harmony of the sea was a principal contributor; but Miss Whiffle +confirmed the blight. I had fled from the jangle of a city, and the +worries incidental to a life of threepenny sociabilities; and the result +was-- + +I had rooms on the Parade--a suggestive mouthful. But then the Parade is +such a modest little affair. The town itself is flung down a steep hill, +at the mouth of a verdurous gorge; and lies pitched so far as the very +waterside, a picturesque jumble of wall and roof. Its banked edges +bristle and stand up in the bight of a vaster bay, with a crooked +breakwater, like a bent finger, beckoning passing sails to its +harbourage--an invitation which most are coy of accepting. For the +attractions of King's Cobb are--comparatively--limited, and its nearest +station is a full six miles distant along a switchback road. + +Possibly this last fact may have militated against the popularity of +King's Cobb as a holiday resort. If so, all the better; and may +enterprise for ever languish in the matter. For vulgarity can claim +no commoner purpose with fashion than is shown in that destruction of +ancient landmarks and double gilding of new which follows the "opening +out" of some unsophisticated colony of simple souls. + +King's Cobb, if "remote and unfriended," is neither "melancholy" nor +"slow"; but it is small, and all its fine little history--for it has had +a stirring one--has ruffled itself out on a liliputian platform. + +Than this, its insignificance, I desired nothing better. I wished to feel +the comparative importance of the individual, which one cannot do in +crowded colonies. I coveted surroundings that should be primitive--an +atmosphere in which my thoughts could speak to me coherent. I would be +as one in a cave, looking forth on sea, and sky, and the buoyant glory of +Nature; unvexed of conventions; untrammelled by social observances; +building up my enchanted palace of the imagination against such a +background as only the unsullied majesty of sky and ocean could present. +For the result was to crown with my name an epoch in literature; and +hither in future ages should the pilgrim stand at gaze, murmuring to +himself, 'And here he wrote it!' + +I laid my head on my pillow, that first night of my stay, with a brimming +brain and a heart of high resolve. The two little windows, under a +thatched roof, of my sleeping place (_that_ lay over my sitting-room, and +both looked oceanwards) were open to the inpour of sweet hot air; and +only the regular wash of the sea below broke the close stillness of the +night. I say this was all; and, with the memory upon me, I could easily, +at any time, break the second commandment. + +I had thought myself fortunate in my lodgings. They were in a most +charming old-world cottage--as I have said on the Parade--and at high +tide I could have thrown a biscuit into the sea with merely a lazy jerk. +My sitting-room put forth a semi-circular window--like a lighthouse +lantern--upon the very pathway, and it had been soothing during the +afternoon to look from out this upon the little world of sea and sky and +striding cliff that was temporarily mine. From the Parade four feet of +stone wall dipped to a second narrow terrace, and this, in its turn, was +but a step above a slope of shingle that ran down to the water. + +Veritably had I pitched my tent on the wide littoral of rest. So I +thought with a smile, as I composed myself for slumber. + +I slept, and I woke, and I lay awake for hours. Every vext problem of my +life and of the hereafter presented itself to me, and had to be argued +out and puzzled over with maddening reiteration. The reason for this was +evident and flagrant. It had woven itself into the tissue of my brief +unconsciousness, and was now recognised as, ineradicably, part of myself. + +The tide was incoming, that was all, and the waves currycombed the beach +with a swishing monotony that would have dehumanized an ostler. + +This rings like the undue inflation of a little theme. I ask no pity for +it, nor do I make apology for my weakness. Men there may be, no doubt, +to whom the unceasing recurrent thump and scream of a coasting tide on +shingle speaks, even in sleep, of the bountiful rhythm of Nature. I am +not one of them--at least, since I visited King's Cobb. The noise of the +waters got into my brain and stayed there. It turned everything else +out--sleep, thought, faith, hope, and charity. From that first awakening +my skull was a mere globe of stagnant fluid, for any disease germs that +listed to propagate in. + +Perhaps I was too near the coast-line. The highest appreciations of +Nature's thunderous forces are conceived, I believe, in the muffled +seclusion of the study. I had heard of still-rooms. I did not quite know +what they were; but they seemed to me an indispensable part of seaside +lodgings, and for the rest of that night I ardently and almost tearfully +longed to be in one. + +I came down in the morning jaded and utterly unrefreshed. It was patent +that I was in no state to so much as outline the preliminaries of my +great undertaking. "Use shall accustom me," I groaned. "I shall scarcely +notice it to-night." + +And it was at this point that Miss Whiffle walked like a banshee into the +disturbed chambers of my life, and completed my demoralization. + +I must premise that I am an exquisitively nervous man--one who would +accept almost ridiculous impositions if the alternative were a "scene." +Strangers, I fancy, are quick to detect the signs of this weakness in me; +but none before had ever ventured to take such outrageous advantage of +it as did Miss Whiffle, with the completest success. + +This lady had secured me for a month. My rights extended over the +lantern-windowed sitting-room and the bedroom above it. They were to +include, moreover, board of a select quality. + +"Select" represented Miss Whiffle's brazen mean of morality; and, indeed, +it is an elastic and accommodating word. One, for instance, may select an +aged gander for its wisdom, knowing that the youthful gosling is +proverbially "green." Miss Whiffle selected the aged gander for me, and I +gnawed its sinewy limbs without a protest. On a similar principle she +appeared to ransack the town shops for prehistoric joints (the locality +was rich in fossils), and vegetables that, like eggs, only grew harder +the more they were boiled. + +I submitted, of course; and should have done no less by a landlady not so +obstreperously constituted. But this terrible person gauged and took me +in hand from the very morning following my arrival. + +She came to receive my _orders_ after breakfast (tepid chicory and an +omelette like a fragment of scorched blanket) with her head wrapped up in +a towel. Thus habited she had the effrontery to trust the meal had been +to my liking. I gave myself away at once by weakly answering, "Oh, +certainly!" + +"As to dinner, sir," she said faintly, "it is agreed, no kitching fire in +the hevening. That is understood." + +I said, "Oh, certainly!" again. + +"What I should recommend," she said--and she winced obtrusively at every +sixth word--"is an 'arty meal at one, and a light supper at height." + +"That will suit me admirably," I said. + +She tapped her fingers together indulgently. + +"So I thought," she murmured. "Now, what do you fancy, sir?" + +"Dear me!" I exclaimed, for her face was horribly contorted. "Are you in +pain?" + +"Agonies!" said Miss Whiffle. + +"Toothache?" + +"Neuralgia, sir, for my sins." + +"Is there--is there no remedy?" + +She was taken with a sharp spasm of laughter, mirthless, but consciously +expressive of all the familiar processes of self-effacement under +torture. + +"I arks nothing but my duty, sir," she said. "That is the myrrh and +balsam to a racking 'ed. Not but what I owns to a shrinking like unto +death over the thought of what lays before me this very morning. Rest and +quiet is needful, but it's little I shall get of either out of a kitching +fire in the dog days. And what would you fancy for your dinner, sir?" + +"I am sorry," I murmured, "that you should suffer on my account. I +suppose there is nothing cold--" + +"Not enough, sir, in all the 'ouse to bait a mousetrap. Nor would I +inconvenience you, if not for your own kind suggestion. But potted meats +is 'andy and ever sweet, and if I might make bold to propose a tin--" + +"Very well. Get me what you like, Miss Whiffle." + +"I must arks your pardin, sir. But to walk out in this 'eat, and every +rolling pebble under my foot a knife through my 'ed--no, sir. I make bold +to claim that consideration for myself." + +"Leave it to me, then. I will do my own catering this morning." + +Then I added, in the forlorn hope of justifying my moral ineptitude to +myself, "If you take my advice, you will lie down." + +"And where, sir?" she answered, with a particularly patient smile. "The +beds is unmade as yet, sir," she went on, in a suffering decline, "and +rumpled sheets is thorns to a bursting brain." + +Then she looked meaningly at the sitting-room sofa. + +"I made bold to think, if you _'ad_ 'appened to been a-going to bathe, +the only quiet place in the 'ouse--" she murmured, in semi-detached +sentences, and put her hand to her brow. + +Five minutes later (I fear no one will credit it) I was outside the +house, and Miss Whiffle was installed, towel and all, upon my sofa. + +For a moment I really think the outrageous absurdity of the situation did +goad me to the tottering point of rebellion. I had not the courage, +however, to let myself go, and, as usual, succumbed to the tyranny of +circumstances. + +It was a blazing morning. The flat sea lay panting on its coasts, as if, +for all its liquid sparkle, it were athirst; and the town, under the oven +of its hills, burned red-hot, like pottery in a kiln. + +I went and bought my tinned meat (a form of preserve quite odious to me) +and strolled back disconsolately to the Parade. Occasionally, flitting +past the lantern window, I would steal a side glance into the cool +luminosity of my own inaccessible parlour; and there always, reclining at +her ease upon my sofa, was the ineradicable presentment of Miss Whiffle. + +At one o'clock I ventured to reclaim my own, and sat me down at table, a +scorched and glutinous wreck, too overcome with lassitude to tackle the +obnoxious meal of my own providing. And to the sofa, already made +familiar of that dishonoured towel, I was fain presently to confide the +empty problem of my own aching head. + +All this was but the forerunner and earnest of a month's long martyrdom. +That night the sea had me by the nerves again, and for many nights +after; and, although I grew in time to a certain tolerance of the booming +monotony, it was the tolerance of a dully resigned, not an indifferent, +brain. + +When it came to the second morning, not only the novel, but the mere idea +of my ever having contemplated writing one, was a thing with me to feebly +marvel over. And from that time I set myself down to exist and broil +only, doling out a languid interest to the locality, the shimmer of whose +baking hill-sides made all life a quivering, glaring phantom of itself. + +Miss Whiffle tyrannized over me more or less according to her mood; but +she did not usurp my sitting-room again. I used to sit by the hour at +the lantern window, in a sort of greasy blankness, like a meat pudding, +and vacantly scrutinize the loiterers who passed by on the hot asphalt of +the Parade. Screened by the window curtains, I could see and hear without +endangering my own privacy; and many were the odd interchanges of speech +that fell from strangers unconscious of a listener. + +One particularly festering day after dinner I had the excitement of quite +a pretty little quarrel for dessert. Miss Whiffle had stuffed me with +suet, in meat and pudding, to a point of stupefaction that stopped short +only of absolute insensibility; and in this state I took up my usual post +at the window, awaiting in swollen vacuity the possibilities of the +afternoon. + +On the horizon violet-hot sea and sky showed scarce a line of demarcation +between them. Nearer in the waves snored stertorously from exhausted +lungs, as if the very tide were in extremis. Not a breath of air fanned +the pitiless Parade, and the sole accent on life came from a droning, +monotonous voice pitched from somewhere in querulous complaint. + +"Frarsty!" it wailed, "Frarsty! I warnt thee!" and again, "I warnt thee, +Frarsty! Frarsty! Frar--r--r--rsty!" drawn out in an inconceivable +passionlessness of desire again and again, till I felt myself absorbing +the ridiculous yearning for an absurd person and inclined to weep +hysterical tears at his unresponsiveness. + +Then through the suffocating miasma thridded another sound--the whine of +a loafing tramp slowly pleading along the house fronts--vainly, too, as +it appeared. + +"Friends," went his formula, nasal and forcibly spasmodic in the best +gull-catcher style, "p'raps you will ask why I, a able-bodied man, are +asking for ass--ist--ance in your town. Friends, I answer, becorse I +cannot get work and becorse I cannot starve. Any honest work I would be +thankful for; but no one will give it to me." + +Then followed an elaborate presentation, in singsong verse, of his own +undeserved indigence and the brutality of employers, and so the +recitation again:-- + +"Friends, the least ass--ist--ance would be welcome. I am a honest +British workman, and employ--ment I cannot ob--tain. You sit in your +com--for--ta--ble 'ouses, and I ask you to ass--ist a fellow creature, +driven to this for no fault of his own--for many can 'elp one where one +cannot 'elp many." + +Then he hove into sight--a gastropodous tub of a fellow, with a rascally +red eye; and I shrank behind my curtains, for I never court parley with +such gentlemen. + +He spotted me, of course,--rogues of his feather have a hawk's eye for +timid quarry,--and his bloated face appeared at the window. + +"Sir--friend," he said, in a confidential, hoarse whisper, "won't you +'elp a starvin' British workman?" + +I gave him sixpence, cursing inwardly this my concession to pure +timorousness, and the bestial mask of depravity vanished with a grin. + +After that I was left to myself, heat and haze alone reigning without; +and presently, I think, I must have fallen into a suetty doze, for I was +semi-conscious of voices raised in dispute for a length of time, before I +roused to the fact that two people were quarrelling just outside my +window. + +They were a young man--almost a boy--and a girl of about his own age; and +both evidently belonged to the labouring classes. + +She was, I took occasion to notice, aggressively pretty in that hot red +and black style that finds its warmest admirers in a class cultivated +above that to which she belonged; and she was scorning and flouting her +slow, perplexed swain with that over-measure of vehemence characteristic +of a sex devoid of the sense of proportion. + +"Aw!" she was saying, as I came into focus of their dispute. "That's the +moral of a mahn, it is. Yer ter work when ye like an' ter play when ye +like, and the girls hahs ter sit and dangle their heels fer yer honours' +convenience." + +"I doan't arlays get my likes, Jenny, or I shud a' met you yesterday." + +"Ay, as yer promused." + +"We worked ower late pulling the lias, I tell yer. 'Twould 'a' meant half +a day's wages garn if I'd com', and theer, my dear, 'ud been reason +for another delay in oor getting spliced." + +"You're fine and vulgar, upon my word! A little free, too, and a little +mistook. I've no mind ter get spliced, as yer carls it, wi' a chap as +cannot see's way ter keep tryst." + +"Yer doan't mean thart?" + +"Doan't I? Yer'll answer fer me in everything, 't seems. But yer've got +enough ter answer fer yerself, Jack Curtice. I'm none of the sort ter go +or stay at anny mahn's pleasure. There's kerps and dabs in the sea yet, +Jack Curtice; and fatter ones ter fish fer, too." + +"But yer doan't understand." + +"I understand my own vally; and that isn't ter be kep' drarging my toes +on the Parade half an a'rtenoon fer a chap as thinks he be better +engaged summer else." + +"And yer gone ter break wi' me fer thart?" + +"Good-bye, Mr. Curtice," she said, and jerked her nose high and walked +off. + +Now here was an inconsistent jade, and I felt sorry and relieved for the +sake of the young fellow. + +He stood, after the manner of his kind, amazed and speechless. Man's +saving faculty of logic was in him, but tongue-tied; and he could not +express his intuitive recognition of the self-contradictory. Such natures +frequently make reason articulate through a blow--a rough way of knocking +her into shape, but commonly effectual. Jack, however, was evidently a +large gentle swain of the dumb-suffering type--one of those unresisting +leviathans of good-humour, upon whom a woman loves to vent that passion +of the illogical which an antipathetic sex has vainly tried to laugh her +out of conceit with. + +I peered a little longer, and presently saw Mr. Curtice walk off in a +state compound of bewilderment and abject depression. + +This was the beginning to me of an interest apart from that which had +brought me to King's Cobb. A real nutshell drama had usurped the place of +that fictitious one that had as yet failed to mark an epoch by so much as +a scratch. I accepted the former as some solace for the intolerable +wrong inflicted upon me by the sea and Miss Whiffle. + +I happened across my unconscious friends fairly frequently after that my +first introduction to them; so often, indeed, that, judged by what +followed, it would almost seem as if Fate, desiring record of an incident +in the lives of these two, had intentionally worked to discomfit me from +a task more engrossing. + +Apart, and judged on their natural merits, I took Jack for a good stolid +fellow, innately and a little aggravatingly virtuous, and perhaps a +trifle more just than generous. + +Jenny, I felt, had the spurious brilliancy of that division of her sex +that claims as intuition an inability to master the processes of thought, +and attributes to this faculty all fortunate conclusions, but none that +is faulty. I thought, with some commiseration for him, that at bottom her +manner showed some real leaning towards the lover she had discarded--that +she felt the need of a pincushion, as it were, into which to stick the +little points of her malevolence. I think I was inclined to be hard on +her. I have felt the same antagonism many times towards beauty that was +unattainable by me. For she was richly pretty, without doubt. + +When in the neighbourhood of one another, however, they were wont to +assume an elaborate artificiality of speech and manner in communion with +their friends, that was designed with each to point the moral of a +complete indifference and forgetfulness. But the girl was by far the +better actor; and not only did she play her own part convincingly, but +she generally managed to show up in her rival that sense of mortification +that it was his fond hope he was effectually concealing. + +A fortnight passed; and, lo! there came the end of the lovers' quarrel in +all dramatic appropriateness. + +By that time the doings of Jack and Jenny had come to be my mind's only +refuge from such a vacancy of outlook as I had never before experienced. +"All down the coast," that summer, "the languid air did swoon." The earth +broiled, and very thought perspired; and Miss Whiffle's voice was like a +steam-whistle. + +One day, as I was exhaustedly trifling with my meridian meal, and +balancing the gratification against the trouble of eating lumpy tapioca +pudding, a muffled, rolling thud broke upon my ears, making the window +and floor vibrate slightly. It seemed so distant and unimportant that I +took no notice of it; and it was only when, ten minutes later, I became +aware that certain excited townsfolk were scurrying past outside that I +roused slowly to the thought that here was something unusual toward. +Then, indeed, a sort of insane _abandon_ flashed into life in me, and I +leapt to my feet with maniac eyes. Something stirring in King's Cobb! I +should have thought nothing less than the last trump could have pricked +it out of its accustomed grooves; and that even then it would have +slipped back into them with a sluggish sense of grievance after the first +flourish. + +I left my congealing dish, snatched up my hat, and joined the attenuated +chase. It was making in one direction--a point, apparently, to the east +of the town. As I sped excited through the narrow and tortuous streets, a +great bulge of acrid dust bellied upon me suddenly at a corner; and, +turning the latter, I plunged into a perfect fog of the same gritty +smoke. In this, phantom figures moved, appeared, and vanished; hoarse +cries resounded, and a general air of wild confusion and alarm prevailed. +For the moment, I felt as if some history of the town's past were +re-enacting, as if a sudden swoop of Frank or Dutchman upon the coast had +called forth all the defensive ardour of its people. There was nothing of +gunpowder in the stringent opacity, however; but, rather, a strong +suggestion of ancient and disintegrated mortar. + +A shape sped by me in the fog, and I managed to stay and question it. + +"What is it all?" I asked. + +"House fell down," was the breathless answer; "and a poor chap left aloft +on the ruins." + +Then I grew as insane as the rest of the company. I strode aimlessly to +and fro, striving at every coign to pierce with my eyesight the white +drift. I pushed back my hat; I gnawed my knuckles; I felt that I could +not stay still, yet knew not for what point to make. Almost I felt that +in another moment I should screech out--when a breath of sea air caught +the skirt of the cloud, and rolled the bulk of it up and away over +the house-tops. + +Then, at once, was revealed to me the cause and object of all this +gaggle, and confusion, and outcry. It was revealed to the crowd, too, +that stood about me, and, in the revelation, the noise of its mouthing +went off and faded, till a tense silence reigned and the murmur of one's +breathing seemed a sacrilege. + +I saw before me a ruinous space--a great ragged gap in a lofty block of +brick and mortar. This block had evidently, at one time, consisted of two +high semi-detached houses, and of these, one lay a monstrous heap of +tumbled and shattered _débris_. A ruin, but not quite; for, as the course +of a landslip will often tower with great spires and pinnacles of rock +and ragged earth that have withstood the pull and onset of the moving +hill-side, so here a high sheet of shattered wall, crowned with a cluster +of toppling chimneys, stood up stark in the midst of the general +overthrow. And there aloft, clinging to the crumbling stack, that might +at any moment part, and fling and crush him into the savage ruin below, +stood the figure of a solitary man. And the man was my friend of the +Parade, Jack Curtice. + +I could see and recognise him plainly--even the frantic clutch of his +hands and the deadly pallor of his face. + +The block--an ancient one--had been, as I afterwards learned, in course +of demolition when the catastrophe took place. At the moment the poor +fellow had been alone at his work, and now his destruction seemed a mere +matter of seconds. + +White dust rose from the heap, like smoke from an extinguished fire; and +ever, as we looked, spars and splinters of brick tore away from the high +fragment yet standing, and plunged with a thud into the wrack underneath. + +It was glaringly evident that not long could elapse before wall and man +would come down with a hideous, shattering run. A slip, a wilder clutch +at his frail support, might in an instant precipitate the calamity. + +Then from the upturned faces of the women cries of pity and anguish broke +forth, and men nipped one another's arms and gasped, and knew not what +counsel to offer. + +"Do summut! do summut!" cried the women; and their mates only shook off +their pleadings with a peevish show of callousness, that was merely the +dumb anguish of undemonstrativeness. For, while their throats were thick, +their practical brains were busy. + +Some one suggested a ladder, and in a moment there was an aimless +scurrying and turning amongst the women. + +"Why don't 'ee stir theeself and hunt for un, Jarge?" panted one that +stood near me, twisting hysterically upon a slow youth at her side. + +"Shut up, 'Liza!" he answered gruffly; then, with a sort of indrawn +gasp--"Look art the wall, lass--look art the wall!" + +It was obvious to the least knowing what he meant. To lean so much as a +broomstick, it seemed, against that tottering ruin would infallibly +complete its destruction. + +One foot of the clinging figure high up was seen to move slightly, and a +little bomb of mortar span out into the air and burst into dust on a +projecting brick. A long shrill sigh broke from the crowd. + +Then the male wiseheads came together, and, desperate to snap the chord +of impotent suspense, mooted and rejected plan after plan that their sane +judgment knew from the first to be impracticable. + +At the outset it was plainly impossible for a soul to approach the ruins. +Apart from the almost certain mangling such a venture would entail upon +the explorer, the least stirring or shifting of the great heap of rubbish +flung about the base of the wall would certainly risk the immediate +collapse of the latter. + +Success, it was evident, must come, if at all, from a distance--but how? + +One suggested slinging a rope from window to window of adjacent houses +across the path of the broken chimney-stack--a good method of rescue had +circumstances lent themselves to it. They did not. On the ruin side a +wide space intervened; on the other, the sister house to that which had +fallen, and which was also included in the order of demolition, was +itself affected by the loss of its support, and leaned in a sinister +manner, its party walls bulged and rent towards the scene of devastation. + +Nothing short of the great Roc itself could, it seemed, snatch the poor +fellow from his death perch. + +There came suddenly an ominous silence. Then strode out in front of his +fellows--and he moved so close to the ruin that the women whimpered and +held one another--an old, rough-bearded chap in stained corduroy. + +"Whart's he gone to do?" gasped the sibilant voices. + +He hollowed his hands to his mouth, he cleared his hoarse throat two or +three times. Only a little trailing screech came from it at first. Then +he cursed his weakness, and pulled himself together. + +"Jark! Jark Curtus!" he hailed, in an explosive voice. + +"Hullo!" + +The weak, small response floated down. + +"My lard! my poor lard! we've thought oor best, arnd we can do nothun +fower 'ee." + +Instantly a shrill protest of horror went up from the women. This was not +what they had expected. + +"What! leave the mis'rable boy to his fate!" + +There followed a storm of hisses from them--absolutely unreasonable, of +course. The old fellow turned to retire, with hanging head. + +At the moment a girl, flushed, blowzed, breathless, broke through the +skirt of the mob and barred his retreat. + +"Oh!" she panted, shaking her jet-black noddle at him--"here's a parcel +o' gor-crows for discussin' help to a Christian marn! What! a score o' +wiselings, and not one to hit oot the means and the way?" + +She had only just heard, and had run a mile to the rescue of her old lad. + +The women caught her enthusiasm, and jeered and cheered formlessly, as +their manner is; for each desired for her own voice a separate +recognition. + +Jenny pushed rudely past the abashed gaffer. She was hatless, and her +hair had tumbled abroad. She raised her face, with the eyes shining. + +"Jack!" she cried, in a shrill voice--"Jack!" + +The little weak response wailed down again. + +"Jenny! I'm anigh done." + +"Hold on a bit longer, Jack!" she screamed. "Don't move till I tell 'ee. +I'm agone to save thee, Jack!" + +Again from the women a rapturous cry broke out. What incompetent noodles +appeared their masters in juxtaposition with this fearless, defiant +creature. + +The man up aloft seemed to shiver in the shock of the outcry; and once +more some fragments of mortar rolled from under his feet and bounded into +the depths. The girl rounded upon the voicers. + +"Hold thee blazing tongues!" she cried in fury. "D'ee warnt to shake un +from his perch?" + +She turned to the foremost group of men. + +"A couple o' long scaffold poles fro' yonder!" she cried hurriedly, "and +twenty fathom o' rope!" + +Her quick eyes and intelligence had found what she wanted in a builder's +yard no great distance away. + +"Follow, a dozen o' you!" she cried; and sped off in the direction she +had indicated. + +Just twelve men, and no more, obeyed her. She was mistress of the +situation, and the crowd felt it. They made room for the dominant +intellect, and awaited developments, watching, in suppressed excitement +and trepidation, the figure--whom exhaustion was slowly mastering--high +up above them. + +Suddenly a sort of huge L-shaped structure moved down the street, until +it stood opposite the ruined house. Then, twisting and rearing itself +aloft, it took to itself the form of a lofty, slender gallows. + +It was formed of a couple of forty-foot scaffolding poles, stoutly bound +and corded together, the base of one to the top of the other, so that +they stood at right angles. Five or six feet of the butt of the +horizontal one was projected beyond its lashings, and to this three +lengths of rope were fastened, and trailed long ends in the dust as the +structure was held aloft and pushed and dragged into position. + +"Now!" shrieked the girl, red-hot, reliant, never still for a moment; "as +marny as can hold to each end there, and swing the blessed boom out +towards him!" + +Fifty may have responded. They swarmed like ants about the upraised pole, +and she drove them into position--a black knot of men hauling on the +triple cordage--left, right, and middle, like the ribs of a tent. + +They saw her meaning and fell into place with a shout. To hold the +projecting pole levered up at that height was a test of weight and +muscle, even without their man on the end of it; but there were plenty +more to help pull, did their united force waver. + +"Jack!" screamed the girl again, in a wildness of excitement. "Only a +second longer, Jack! Hold on by your eyelids, and snatch the stick +the moment it comes agen thee!" + +The horizontal spar pointed down the street. Slowly the men worked round +with the ropes, and slowly the point of the pole turned in the direction +of the chimney-stack and its forlorn burden. There was room and to spare +for the process in the wide gap made by the tumbled house. + +The crowd held its breath. Here and there a strangled sob was rent from +overstrained lungs; here and there the wailing voice of a baby whined +up and subsided. + +The pole swung round with the toiling men--neared him on the ruin. He +turned his head and saw, shifted his position and staggered. Jenny gave a +piercing screech. The men, thinking something was wrong, paused a moment. + +On the instant there came a crackling, tearing sound--a heaving roll--a +splintering crash and uproar. The man aloft was seen to make a flying +leap--or was it only a hurled fragment of the falling chimney?--and white +dust rose in a fog once more and blotted out all the tragedy that +might be enacting behind it. + +A horrible silence succeeded, then a single woman yelled, and her cry was +echoed by fifty hoarse voices. + +The noise came from those at the ropes. They were straining and tugging, +and some of them bobbed up and down like peas on a drum. + +"More on ye! more on ye! We've hooked un, and he's got the pull of a sea +sarpint!" + +The ropes became thick with striving men. The whole street resounded with +a medley of cries. + +Then the point of the boom swung slowly out of the fog, and there was the +rescued man swinging and swaying at the end of it. + +They lowered him gradually into the street. But the strain upon them was +awful, and he came down with a run the last few yards. + +Then they let the angle of the gallows wheel over as it listed, and stood +and mopped their hot foreheads, while the crowd rushed for the poor shaky +subject of all its turmoil. + +I could not get within fifty feet of him; or, I think, I should have +given him and Jenny then and there all my fortune. + +Later, I made their acquaintance in a casual way, and compromised with my +conscience by presenting them with a very pretty tea-service to help them +set up house with. + + + + +BLACK VENN + +I + + +"George," said Plancine. + +"Please say it again," said George. + +She dimpled at him and obeyed, with the soft suggestion of accent that +was like a tender confidence. Her feet were sunk in Devonshire grass; +her name was on the birth register of a little Devonshire sea-town; yet +the sun of France was in her veins as surely as his caress was on her +lips. + +Therefore she said "George" with a sweet dragging sound that greatly +fluttered the sensibilities of the person addressed, and not infrequently +led them to alight, like Prince Dummling's queen bee, on the very mouth +of that honeyed flower of speech. + +Now Plancine put her cheek on her George's rough sleeve, and said she,-- + +"I have a confession to make--about something a little silly. +Consequently I have postponed it till now, when it is too dark for +you to see my face." + +"Never!" he murmured fervently. "A double cataract could not deprive me +of that vision. It is printed here, Plancine." + +He smacked his chest hard on the left side. + +"Yet it sounds hollow, George?" + +"Yes," he said. "It is a sandwich-box, an empty one. I would not consign +your image to such a deplorable casket. My heart was what I meant. How I +hate sandwiches--misers shivering between sheets--a vile gastronomic +economy!" + +"Poor boy! I will make you little dough-cakes when you go apainting." + +"Plancine! Your image here, yes. But your dough-cakes--!" + +"Then keep to your sandwiches, sir." + +"I must. But the person who invented them was no gentleman!" + +"Papa would like to hear you say that." + +"Say what?" + +"Admit the possibility of any social distinction." + +"It is only a question of sandwiches." + +"George, must you be a Chartist and believe in Feargus O'Connor?" + +"My soul, I cannot go back on my principles, for all that the violets of +your eyes have sprouted under the shadow of a venerable family-tree." + +"That is very prettily said. You may kiss my thumb-nail with the white +spot in it for luck. No, sir. That is presuming. Now I am snug, and you +may talk." + +"Plancine, I am a son of the people. I hold by my own. No doubt, if I had +blue blood to boast of, I should keep a vial of it in a prominent place +on the drawing-room mantelpiece. As it is, I confess my desire is to +carve for myself a name in art that shall be independent of all +adventitious support; to answer to my vocation straight, upright, and +manly." + +"That is better than nobility--though I have pride in my own. I wish papa +thought so. Yet he has both himself." + +"The fine soul! For fifty years he has stood square to adversity with a +smile on his face. Could I ever achieve that? Already I cry out on +poverty; because I want an unencumbered field for work, and--yes, one +other trifle." + +"One other trifle, George?" + +He took Plancine's face between his hands and looked very lovingly into +her eyes. + +"I think I did the old man too much honour," he said. "You nestling of +eighteen--what credit to scout misfortune with such a bird at one's +side!" + +"Ah! but papa is sixty-nine and the bird but eighteen." + +"And eighteen years of heaven are a good education in happiness." + +So they coo'd, these two. The June scents of the little garden were +wafted all about them. The moon had come up out of the sea, and, finding +a trellis of branches over their heads, hung their young brows with +coronals of shadowy leaves, like the old dame she was, rummaging in her +trinket box for something for her favourites. + +In the dimly-luminous parlour (that smelt of folios and warm coffee) of +the little dark house in the background, the figure of papa, poring at +the table over geological maps, was visible. + +Fifty years ago an _émigré_, denounced, proscribed, and escaped from the +ruin of a shattered society: here, in '49, a stately, large-boned man, +placidly enjoying the consciousness of a serene dignity maintained at the +expense of much and prolonged self-effacement--this was papa. + +Grey hair, thinning but slightly near the temples; grey moustache and +beard pointed _de bouc_; flowered dressing-gown girdled about a heart +as simple as a child's--this was papa, papa who grubbed over his ordnance +surveys while the young folks outside whispered of the stars. + +Right beneath them--the latter--a broad gully of the hills went plunging +precipitously, all rolled with leaf and flower, to the undercliff of soft +blue lias and the very roof ridges of King's Cobb, whose walls and +chimneys, now snowed with light, fretted a scallop of the striding bay +that swept the land here like a scythe. + +Plancine's village, a lofty appanage or suburb of this little seaboard +town at the hill-foot, seemed rather the parent stock from which the +other had emancipated itself. For all down the steep slope that fled +from Upper to King's Cobb was flung a _débris_ of houses that, like the +ice-fall of a glacier, would appear to have broken from the main body +and gone careering into the valley below. + +It was in point of fact, however, but a subordinate hamlet--a hanging +garden for the jaded tourist in the dog days, when his soul stifled in +the oven of the sea-level cliffs--an eyrie for Plancine, and for George, +the earnest painter, a Paradise before the fall. + +And now says George, "We have talked all round your confession, and still +I wait to give you absolution." + +"I will confess. I read it in one of papa's books that is called the +_Talmud_." + +"Gracious me! you should be careful. What did you read?" + +"That whoever wants to see the souls of the dead--" + +"Plancine!" + +"--must take finely sifted ashes, and strew them round his bed; and in +the morning he will see their foot-tracks, as a cock's. I did it." + +"You did?" + +"Last night, yes. And what a business I had afterwards sweeping them up!" + +"And did you see anything?" + +"Something--yes--I think so. But it might have been mice. There are +plenty up there." + +"Now you are an odd Plancine! What did you want with the ghosts of the +dead?" + +"I will tell you, you tall man; and you will not abuse my confidence. +George, for all your gay independence, you must allow me a little +family pride and a little pathetic interest in the fortunes of the dead +and gone De Jussacs." + +"It is Mademoiselle De Jussac that speaks." + +"It is Plancine, who knows so little:--that 'The Terror' would have +guillotined her father, a boy of fourteen: that he escaped to Prussia, to +Belgium, to England; for six years always a wanderer and a fugitive: that +he was wrecked on this dear coast and, penniless, started life anew +here on his little accomplishments: that he made out a meagre existence, +and late in the order of years (he was fifty) married an expatriated +countrywoman, who died--George, my mother died when I was seventeen +months old--and that is where I stop. My good, big father--so lonely, so +poor, and so silent! He tells me little. He speaks scantily of the past. +But he was a Vicomte and is the last of his line; and I wanted the ghosts +to explain to me so much that I have never learned." + +The moonlight fell upon her sweet, pale, uplifted face. There were tears +in her eyes that glittered like frost. + +But George, for all his love, showed a little masculine impatience. + +"Reserve is very good," he said; "but we can't all be Lord Burleighs by +holding our tongues. There is a sort of silence that is pregnant with +nothing." + +"George, you cannot mean to insult my father?" + +"No, dear. But why does he make such a mystery of his past? I would have +mine as clear as a window, for all to look through. Why does he treat me +with such suave and courteous opposition--permitting my suit, yet +withholding his consent?" + +"If you could be less democratic, dear--" + +"It is a religion with me--not a brutal indulgence." + +"Perhaps he cannot dissociate the two. Then, he admires your genius and +commends your courage; but your poor purse hungers, my lover, and he +desires riches for his Plancine." + +"And Plancine?" + +"She will die a grey-haired maid for thee, 'O Richard! O my king!'" + +"My sweet--my bird--my wife! Oh, that you could be that now and kiss me +on to fortune! I should be double-souled and inspired. A few months, and +Madame la Vicomtesse should 'walk in silk attire.' I flame at the +picture. Why will your father not yield you gracefully, instead of plying +us with that eternal enigma of Black Venn?" + +"Because enthusiasm alone may not command wealth," said a deep voice near +them. + +Papa had come upon them unobserved. The young man wheeled and charged +while his blood was hot. + +"Mr. De Jussac, it is a shame to hold me in this unending suspense." + +"Is it not better than decided rejection?" + +"I have served like Jacob. You cannot doubt my single-hearted devotion?" + +"I doubt nothing, my George" (about _his_ accent there was no tender +compromise)--"I doubt nothing, but that the balance at your bankers' is +excessive." + +"You would not value Plancine at so much bullion?" + +"But yes, my friend; for bullion is the algebraic formula that represents +comfort. When Black Venn slips his apron--" + +George made a gesture of impatience. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron," repeated the father quietly, "I shall +be in a position to consider your suit." + +"That is tantamount to putting me off altogether. It is ungenerous. It is +preposterous. You may or may not be right; but it is simply farcical +(Plancine cried, "George!"--but he went on warmly, nevertheless) to make +our happiness contingent on the possible tumbling down of a bit of old +cliff--an accident that, after all, may never happen." + +"Ah!" the quiet, strong voice went on; and in the old eyes turned +moonwards one might have fancied one could read a certain pathos of +abnegation, or approaching self-sacrifice; "but it will, and shortly, for +I prophesy. It was no idle cruelty of mine that first suggested this +condition, but a natural reluctance to sign myself back to utter +loneliness." + +Plancine cried, "Papa! papa!" and sprang into his arms. + +"A little patience," said De Jussac, pressing his moustache to the round +head, "and you will honour this weary prophet, I think. I was up on the +cliff to-day. The great crack is ever widening. A bowling wind, a loud +thunderstorm, and that apron of the hill will tear from its bondage and +sink sweltering down the slopes." + +In the moment of speaking a tremor seized all his limbs, his eyes glared +maniacal, his outstretched arm pointed seawards. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, "the guillotine!" + +In the offing of the bay was a vessel making for the unseen harbour +below. It stood up black against the moonlight, its sails and yards +presenting some fantastic resemblance to that engine of blood. + +George stepped back and hung his head embarrassed. He had more than once +been witness of a like seizure. It was the guillotine fright--the fright +that had smitten the boy of fourteen, and had pursued the man ever since +with periodic attacks of illusion. Anything--a branch, a door-post, a +window, would suggest the hateful form during those periods--happily +brief--when the poor mind was temporarily unhinged. No doubt, in earlier +years, the fits had occurred frequently. Now they were rare, and +generally, it seemed, attributable to some strong excitement or emotion. + +Plancine knew how to act. She put her hand over the frantic eyes, and led +the old man stumbling up the garden path. She was going to sing to him +from the little sweet folk-ballads of the old gay France before the +trouble came-- + +_"The king would wed his daughter + Over the English sea; +But never across the water + Shall a husband come to me."_ + +Love floated on the freshet of her voice straight into the heart of the +young man who stood without. + + + + +II + + +Perhaps at first it had not been the least of the bitterness in M. De +Jussac's cup of calamity that his mere pride of name must adjust itself +to its altered conditions. That the Vicomte De Jussac should have been +expatriated because he declined when called upon to contribute his +heart's blood to the red conduit in the Faubourg St. Antoine was +certainly an infamy, but one of which the very essence was that +unquestioning acknowledgment of his rank. That the land of his adoption +should have dubbed him Mr. Jussuks--in stolid unconsciousness, too, of +the solecism--was an outrage of a totally different order--an outrage +only to be condoned on the score that an impenetrable insular +_gaucherie_, and not a malicious impertinence, was responsible for it. + +Mr. Jussuks had, however, outlived his sense of the injurious +appellation; had outlived much prejudice, the wear of poverty, his memory +of many things, and, very early, his scorn of the plebeian processes that +to the impecunious are a condition of living at all. He was certainly a +man of courageous independence, inasmuch as from the hour of his setting +foot in England--and that was at the outset of the century--he had +controlled his own little fortunes without a hand to help him over the +deep places. + +Of his first struggles little is known but this--that for years, turning +to account some small knowledge of draughtsmanship he had acquired, he +found employment in ladies' academies, of which there was a plenitude at +that date in King's Cobb. + +That, however, which brought him eventually into a modest prominence--not +only in that same beautiful but indifferently known watering-place (upon +which he had happened, it would appear, fortuitously), but elsewhere and +amongst men of a certain mark--was a discovery--or the practical +application of one--which in its result procured him a definite object in +life, together with the means to pursue it. + +Ammonites, and such small geological fry, were to be found by the +thousand in the petrified mud beds of the Cobb region; but it was left to +the ingenuity, aided by good fortune, of the foreigner to unearth from +the flaking and perishing cliffs of lias some of the earliest and finest +specimens of the ichthyo- and plesio-saurus that a past world has yielded +to the naturalists. + +Out of these the _émigré_ made money, and so was enabled to pursue and +enlarge upon his researches. Presently he prospered into a competence, +married (poor Mademoiselle Belleville, of the Silver Street Academy, who +died of typhoid at the end of a couple of summers), and so grew into the +kindly old age of the absorbed and gentle naturalist, with his Plancine +budding at his side. + +What in all these fifty years had he forgotten? His name, his rank, his +very origin? Much, no doubt. But that there was one haunting memory that +had dwelt with him throughout, his child and her lover were to learn--one +memory, and that dreadful recurring illusion of the guillotine. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron, I shall be in a position to consider +your suit." + +Surely that was an odd and enigmatical condition, entirely remote from +the subject at issue? Yet from the moment of the first impassioned +pleadings of the stricken George, De Jussac had insisted upon it as one +from which there should be no appeal. + +Now the Black Venn referred to was a great mound of lias that rolled up +and inland, in the far sweep of the bay, from the giddy margin of the +lower ruin of cliffs. These--mere compressed mountains of mud, blown by +the winds and battered by the sea--were in a constant state of yawn and +collapse. Yard by yard they yielded to the scourge of Time, and +landslides were of common occurrence. + +All along the middle slope of Black Venn itself, a wide, deep fissure, +dark and impenetrable, had stretched from ages unrecorded. But the +eventual opening-out of this crevasse, and the consequent subsidence of +the incline, or apron, below it, had been foretold by Mr. De Jussac; and +this, in fact, was the condition to which he had alluded. + + + + +III + + +"Mr. De Jussac! do you hear me?" + +"I am coming, my friend." + +The light shining steadily through a front window of the cottage +flickered and shifted. The young man in the rain and storm outside danced +with impatience. + +Suddenly the door opened, and Plancine's father stood there, candle in +hand. + +"What is it, my George?" + +"The hill, sir--the hill! It's fallen! You were right. You must stand by +your word. Black Venn has slipped his apron!" + +"My God, no!" + +There were despair and exultation in his voice. + +"My God, no!" he whispered again, and dived into a cupboard under the +stair. + +Thence he reappeared with a horn lantern and his old blue cloak. + +"Come, then!" he cried. "My hour is upon me!" + +"Mr. De Jussac, it will wait till the morning." + +"No, no, no! Do you trifle with your destiny? It has happened +opportunely, while all are within doors and we have a clear field. How do +you know? have you seen? Is it possible to descend to it from above?" + +"I passed there less than an hour ago. It is possible, I am sure." + +They set off hurriedly through the rain-beaten night. Not a word passed +between them as they left the village and struck into the high-valley +road that ran past, at a moderate distance, the head of the bay. De +Jussac strode rapidly in advance of his companion. His long cloak whirled +in the blast; it flogged his gaunt limbs all set to intense action. He +seemed uplifted, translated--like one in whom the very article of a +life-long faith, or monomania, is about to be justified. + +Toiling onward, like driven cattle, they swerved from the road presently +and breasted a sharp incline. Their boots squelched on the sodden turf; +the wind bore on them heavily. + +George saw the dancing lanthorn go up the slope in front of him like a +will-o'-the-wisp--stop, and swing steady, heard the loud cry of +jubilation that issued from the withered throat. + +"It is true! The moment is realized!" + +They stood together on the verge of the upper lip of the fissure. It was +a cliff now, twenty, thirty feet to its base. The lower ground had +fallen like a dead jaw; had slipped--none so great a distance--down the +slope leading to the under-cliff, and lay a billowing mass subsided upon +itself. + +De Jussac would stand not an instant. + +"We must climb down--somehow, anyhow!" he cried feverishly. "We must +search all along what was once the bottom of the cleft." + +"It is a risk, sir. Why not wait till the morning?" + +"No, no! now! My God! I demand it. Others may forestall us if we delay. +See, my friend, I wish but my own; and what proof of right have I if +another should snatch the treasure?" + +"The treasure?" + +"It is our fortune that lies there--yours, and mine, and the little +Plancine's. Do I know what I say? Hurry, hurry, hurry! while my heart +does not burst." + +He forced the lanthorn into the young man's hands. He was panting and +sobbing like a child. Before the other realized his intention, he had +flung himself upon his hands and knees, had slipped over the edge, and +was scrambling down the broken wall of lias. + +There was nothing for George but to take his own life in hand and humour +his venerated elder. He followed with the lanthorn, thinking of Plancine +a little, and hoping he should fall on a soft place. + +But they got down in safety, breathing hard and extremely dirty. Caution, +it is true, reacts very commonly upon itself. + +The moment his companion's feet touched bottom, De Jussac snatched the +light from his hand, roughly enough to send him off his balance, and went +scurrying to and fro along the face of the cliff like a mad thing. + +"I cannot find it!" he cried, rushing back after an interval--nervous, in +an agony of restlessness--a very pitiable old man. + +George spoke up from the ground. + +"Find what?" said he, feeling all sopped and dazed. + +"The box--the casket! It could never perish. It was of sheet-iron. Look, +look, my friend! Your eyes are younger than mine--a box, a foot long, of +hard iron!" + +"I am sitting upon something hard," said George. + +He sprang to his feet and took the lanthorn. + +"Bones," said he, peering down. "Some old mastodon, I expect. Is this +your treasure?" + +De Jussac was glaring. His head drooped lower and lower. His lips were +parted, and the line of strong white teeth showed between them. His +voice, when he spoke, was quite fearful in its low intensity. + +"Bones--yes, and human. Where they lie, the other must be near. Ah, +Lacombe, Lacombe; you will yield me my own at last!" + +He was shaking a slow finger at the poor remnants--a rib or two, the half +of a yellow skull. + +Suddenly he was down on his knees, tearing at the black, thick soil, +diving into it, tossing it hither and thither. + +A pause, a rending exclamation, and he was on his feet again with a +scream of ecstasy. An oblong casket, rusty, corroded, but unbroken, was +in his hand. + +"Now," he whispered, sibilant through the wind, controlling himself, +though he was shaking from head to foot, "now to return as we have come. +Not a word, not a word till we have this safe in the cottage!" + +They found, after some search, a difficult way up. By-and-by they stood +once more on the lip of the fall, and paused for breath. + +It was at this very instant that De Jussac dropped the box beside him and +threw up his hands. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, and fell headlong into the pit he had just +issued from. + + + + +IV + + +The poor bandaged figure; the approaching death; the dog whining softly +in the yard. + +"I am dying, my little Plancine?" + +The girl's forehead was bowed on the homely quilt. + +"Nay, cry not, little one! I go very happy. That (he indicated by a +motion of his eyelids the fatal box, which, yet unopened, lay on a table +by the sunny window) shall repay thee for thy long devotion, for thy +poverty, and for thy brave sweetness with the old papa." + +"No, no, no!" + +"But they are diamonds, Plancine--such diamonds, my bird. They have +flashed at Versailles, at the little Trianon. They were honoured to lie +on the breast of a beautiful and courageous woman--thine aunt, Plancine; +the most noble the Comtesse de la Morne. She gave her wealth, almost +her life, for her king--all but her diamonds. It was at Brussels, whither +I had escaped from The Terror--I, a weak and desolate boy of but +fourteen. I lived with her, in her common, cheap lodging. For five years +we made out our friendless and deserted existence in company. In truth, +we were an embarrassment, and they looked at us askance. Long after her +mind failed her, the memory of her own former beauty dwelt with her; yet +she could not comprehend but that it was still a talisman to conjure +with. Even to the end she would deck herself and coquet to her glass. But +she was good and faithful, Plancine; and, at the last, when she was +dying, she gave me this box. 'It contains all that is left to me of my +former condition,' she said. 'It shall make thy fortune for thee in +England, my nephew, whither thou must journey when poor Dorine is +underground.' By that I knew it was her cherished diamonds she bequeathed +me. 'They do not want thee here,' she said. 'Thou must take boat for +England when I am gone.' + +"But George, my friend!" + +The young man was standing sorrowful by the open window. He could have +seen the sailing-boats in the bay, the sailing clouds in the sky placidly +floating over a world of serene and verdurous loveliness. But his vision +was all inward, of the piteous calm, following storm and disaster, in +which the dying voice from the bed was like the lapping of little waves. + +He came at once and stood over Plancine, not daring to touch her. + +"It was not wilfulness, but my great love," said the broken, gentle +voice, "that made the condition. All of you I cannot extol, knowing what +I have known. But you are an honest gentleman and a true, my brave; and +you shall make this dearest a noble husband." + +Waveringly George stole his hand towards the bowed head and let it rest +there. + +From the battered face a smile broke like flowers from a blasted soil. + +"Withholding my countenance only as I foresaw the means to enrich you +both were approaching my grasp, I waited for the hill to break away that +I might recover my casket. It was there--it is here; and now my Plancine +shall never know poverty more, or her husband restrict the scope of his +so admirable art on the score of necessity." + +He saw the eyes questioning what the lips would not ask. + +"But how I lost it?" he said. "I took the box; I obeyed her behests. The +moment was acute; the times peremptory. I sailed for England, hurriedly +and secretly, never to this day having feasted my eyes on what lies +within there. With me went Lacombe, Madame's 'runner' in the old days--a +stolid Berrichon, who had lived upon her bounty to the end. The rogue! +the ingrate! We were wrecked upon this coast; we plunged and came ashore. +I know not who were lost or saved; but Lacombe and I clung together and +were thrown upon the land, the box still in my grasp. We climbed the +cliffs where a stair had been cut; we broke eastwards from the upper +slopes and staggered on through the blown darkness. Suddenly Lacombe +stopped. The day was faint then on the watery horizon; and in the +ghostly light I saw his face and read the murder in it. We were standing +on the verge of the cleft under Black Venn. 'No further!' he whispered. +'You must go down there!' He snatched the box from my hand. In the +instant of his doing so, stricken by the death terror, the affection to +which I was then much subject seized me. I screamed, 'My God! the +guillotine!' Taken by surprise, he started back, staggered, and went down +crashing to the fate he had designed for me. I seemed to lie prostrate +for hours, while his moans came up fainter and fainter till they ceased. +Then I rose and faced life, lonely, friendless, and a beggar." + +The restless wandering of his eyes travelled over his daughter's head to +the rusty casket by the window. + +"It was very well," he whispered. "I thank my God that He has permitted +me at the perfect moment to realize my investment in that dead rascal's +dishonesty. Have I ever desired wealth save for my little _pouponne_ +here? And I have sorely tried thee, my George. But the old naturalist +had such faith in his prediction. Now--" + +His vision was glazing; the muscles of his face were quietly settling to +the repose that death only can command. + +"Now, I would see the fruit of my prophecy; would see it all hung on the +neck, in the hair of my child, that I may die rejoicing. Canst thou force +the casket, George?" + +The young man turned with a stifled groan. Some tools lay on a shelf hard +by. He grasped a chisel and went to his task with shaking hands. + +The box was all eaten and corroded. It was a matter of but a few seconds +to prise it open. The lid fell back on the table with a rusty clang. + +"Ah!" cried the dying man. "What now? Dost thou see them? Quick! quick! +to glorify this little head! Are they not exquisite?" + +George was gazing down with a dull, vacant feeling at his heart. + +"Are they not?" repeated the voice, in terrible excitement. + +"They--Mr. De Jussac, they are loveliness itself. Plancine, I will not +touch them. You must be the first." + +He strode to the kneeling girl; lifted, almost roughly dragged her to her +feet. + +"Come!" he said; and, supporting her across the room, whispered madly in +her ear: "Pretend! For God's sake, pretend!" + +Plancine's swimming eyes looked down, looked upon a litter of perished +rags of paper, and, lying in the midst of the rubbish, an ancient stained +and cockled miniature of a powdered Louis _Seize_ coquette. + +This was all. This was the treasure the old crazed vanity had thought +sufficient to build her nephew his fortune. + +The diamonds! Probably these had long before been sacrificed to the +armies ineffectively manoeuvring for the destruction of Monsieur "Veto's" +enemies. + +Plancine lifted her head. Thereafter George never ceased to recall with a +glad pride the nobility that had shone in her eyes. + +"My papa!" she cried softly, going swiftly to the bed; "they are +beautiful as the stars that glittered over the old untroubled France!" + +De Jussac sprang up on his pillow. + +"The guillotine!" he cried. "The beams break into flowers! The axe is a +shaft of light!" + +And so the glowing blade descended. + + + + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + + +PART I + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +WRITTEN FOR, BUT NEVER INSERTED IN, THE ----- FAMILY MAGAZINE + + +The eyes of Polyhistor--as he sat before the fire at night--took in the +tawdry surroundings of his lodging-house room with nothing of that apathy +of resignation to his personal [Greek: anankê] which of all moods is to +Fortune, the goddess of spontaneity, the most antipathetic. Indeed, +he felt his wit, like Romeo's, to be of cheveril; and his conviction that +it needed only the pull of circumstance to stretch it "from an inch +narrow to an ell broad" expressed but the very wooing quality of a +constitutional optimism. + +Now this inherent optimism is at least a serviceable weapon when it takes +the form of self-reliance. It is always at hand in an emergency--a guard +of honour to the soul. The loneliness of individual life must learn +self-respect from within, not without; and were all creeds to be mixed, +that truism should be found their precipitate. + +Therefore Polyhistor was content to draw grass-green rep curtains +across window-panes sloughed with wintry sleet; to place his feet upon a +rug flayed of colour to it dusty sinews; to admit to his close +fellowship--and find a familiar comfort in them, too--three separate +lithographs of affected babies inviting any canine confidences but the +bite one desired for them, and a dismal daguerreotype of his landlady's +deceased husband, slowly perishing in pegtops and a yellow fog of +despondency, out of which only his boots and a very tall hat frowned +insistent, the tabernacles of enduring respectability:--he was content, +because he knew these were only incidents in his career--the slums to be +first traversed on a journey before the rounding breadths of open country +were reached,--and the station in life he purposed stopping at eventually +was the terminus of prosperity, intellectual and material. + +With no present good fortune but the capacity for desiring it; with the +right to affix a letter or so--like grace after skilly--to his name; with +the consciousness that, having overcome theoretical pharmaceutics +masterfully, he was now combatting practical dispensing slavishly; with +full confidence in his social position (he stood under the shadow of +"high connections," like the little winged "Victory" in a conqueror's +hand, he chose to think) to help him to eventual distinction, he toasted +his toes that sour winter evening and reviewed in comfort an army of +prospects. + +Also his thoughts reverted indulgently to the incidents and experiences +of the previous night. + +He had had the pleasure of an invitation to one of those reunions or +séances at the house, in a fashionable quarter, of his distant +connection, Lady Barbara Grille, whereat it was his hostess's humour +to gather together those many birds of alien feather and incongruous +habit that will flock from the hedgerows to the least little flattering +crumb of attention. And scarce one of them but thinks the simple feast is +spread for him alone. And with so cheap a bait may a title lure. + +Lady Barbara, to do her justice, trades upon her position only in so far +as it shapes itself the straight road to her desires. She is a carpet +adventurer--an explorer amongst the nerves of moral sensation, to whom +the discovery of an untrodden mental tract is a pure delight, and the +more delightful the more ephemeral. She flits from guest to guest, +shooting out to each a little proboscis, as it were, and happy if its +point touches a speck of honey. She gathers from all, and stores the +sweet agglomerate, let us hope, to feed upon it in the winter of her +life, when the hive of her busy brain shall be thatched with snow. + +That reference to so charming a personality should be in this place a +digression is Polyhistor's unhappiness. She affects his narrative only +inasmuch as he happened to meet at her house a gentleman who for a time +exerted a considerable influence over his fortunes. + + * * * * * + +Here Polyhistor's narrative must give place to certain editorial +marginalia by Miss Lucy ----, who "runs" the ---- Family Magazine:-- + +"Polyhistor, indeed!" she writes. "The conceit of some people! He seems +to take himself for a sort of _Admirable Crichton_, and all because his +chance meeting with the gentleman referred to (a very _interesting_ +person, who is, I understand, reforming our prisons) brought him the +offer of an appointment quite beyond his deserts. I was very glad to hear +of it, however, and I asked the creature to contribute a paper recording +his first impressions of _this notable man_; instead of which he begins +with an opinionated rigmarole about himself, and goes on from bad to +worse by describing a long conversation he had about prison reform with +that horrid, masculine Mrs. C----, whom all the officers call 'Charlie,' +and who thinks that for men to grow humane is a sign of their +_decadence_. _Of course_ I shall 'cut' the whole of their talk together +(it is a blessed privilege to be an editor), and jump to the part where +_Polyhistor_ (!) describes the _notable person's_ visit to him, which was +due to his (the N.P.'s) having the night before overheard some of the +conversation _between those two_." + + * * * * * + +POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE (_continued_). + + +Now as Polyhistor sat, he humoured his recollection (in the intervals of +scribbling verses to the _beaux yeux_ of a certain Miss L----) with some +of "Charlie's" characteristic last-night utterances. + +She had dated man's decadence from the moment when he began to +"poor-fellow" irreclaimable savagery on the score of heredity. + +She had repudiated the old humbug of sex superiority because she had seen +it fall on its face to howl over a trodden worm, with the result that +it discovered itself hollow behind, like the elf-maiden. + +She had said: "Once you taught us divinely--_argumentum baculinum_," said +she; "(for you are the sons of God, you know). But you have since so +insisted upon the Rights of Humanity that we have learned ourselves in +the phrase, and that the earthy have the best right to precedence on the +earth." + +And thereupon Charlie had launched into abuse of what she called the +latest masculine fad--prison reform, to wit--and a heated discussion +between her and Polyhistor had ensued, in the midst of which she had +happened to glance behind her, to find that very notable person who is +the subject of this narrative vouchsafing a silent attention to her +diatribe. And then-- + +But at this period to his cogitations Polyhistor's landlady entered with +a card, which she presented to his consideration:-- + +MAJOR JAMES SHRIKE, +H.M. PRISON, D----. + +All astonishment, Polyhistor bade his visitor up. + +He entered briskly, fur-collared, hat in hand, and bowed as he stood on +the threshold. He was a very short man--snub-nosed; rusty-whiskered; +indubitably and unimpressively a cockney in appearance. He might have +walked out of a Cruikshank etching. + +Polyhistor was beginning, "May I inquire--" when the other took him up +with a vehement frankness that he found engaging at once. + +"This is a great intrusion. Will you pardon me? I heard some remarks of +yours last night that deeply interested me. I obtained your name and +address of our hostess, and took the liberty of--" + +"Oh! pray be seated. Say no more. My kinswoman's introduction is +all-sufficient. I am happy in having caught your attention in so motley +a crowd." + +"She doesn't--forgive the impertinence--take herself seriously enough." + +"Lady Barbara? Then you've found her out?" + +"Ah!--you're not offended?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Good. It was a motley assemblage, as you say. Yet I'm inclined to think +I found my pearl in the oyster. I'm afraid I interrupted--eh?" + +"No, no, not at all. Only some idle scribbling. I'd finished." + +"You are a poet?" + +"Only a lunatic. I haven't taken my degree." + +"Ah! it's a noble gift--the gift of song; precious through its rarity." + +Polyhistor caught a note of emotion in his visitor's voice, and glanced +at him curiously. + +"Surely," he thought, "that vulgar, ruddy little face is transfigured." + +"But," said the stranger, coming to earth, "I am lingering beside the +mark. I must try to justify my solecism in manners by a straight +reference to the object of my visit. That is, in the first instance, a +matter of business." + +"Business!" + +"I am a man with a purpose, seeking the hopefullest means to an +end. Plainly: if I could procure you the post of resident doctor at +D---- gaol, would you be disposed to accept it?" + +Polyhistor looked his utter astonishment. + +"I can affect no surprise at yours," said the visitor, attentively +regarding Polyhistor. "It is perfectly natural. Let me forestall some +unnecessary expression of it. My offer seems unaccountable to you, seeing +that we never met until last night. But I don't move entirely in the +dark. I have ventured in the interval to inform myself as to the details +of your career. I was entirely one with much of your expression of +opinion as to the treatment of criminals, in which you controverted the +crude and unpleasant scepticism of the lady you talked with." (Poor New +Charlie!) "Combining the two, I come to the immediate conclusion that you +are the man for my purpose." + +"You have dumbfounded me. I don't know what to answer. You have views, I +know, as to prison treatment. Will you sketch them? Will you talk on, +while I try to bring my scattered wits to a focus?" + +"Certainly I will. Let me, in the first instance, recall to you a few +words of your own. They ran somewhat in this fashion: Is not the man of +practical genius the man who is most apt at solving the little problems +of resourcefulness in life? Do you remember them?" + +"Perhaps I do, in a cruder form." + +"They attracted me at once. It is upon such a postulate I base my +practice. Their moral is this: To know the antidote the moment the snake +bites. That is to have the intuition of divinity. We shall rise to it +some day, no doubt, and climb the hither side of the new Olympus. Who +knows? Over the crest the spirit of creation may be ours." + +Polyhistor nodded, still at sea, and the other went on with a smile:-- + +"I once knew a world-famous engineer with whom I used to breakfast +occasionally. He had a patent egg-boiler on the table, with a little +double-sided ladle underneath to hold the spirit. He complained that his +egg was always undercooked. I said, 'Why not reverse the ladle so as +to bring the deeper cup uppermost?' He was charmed with my perspicacity. +The solution had never occurred to him. You remember, too, no doubt, the +story of Coleridge and the horse collar. We aim too much at great +developments. If we cultivate resourcefulness, the rest will follow. +Shall I state my system _in nuce_? It is to encourage this spirit of +resourcefulness." + +"Surely the habitual criminal has it in a marked degree?" + +"Yes; but abnormally developed in a single direction. His one object is +to out-manoeuvre in a game of desperate and immoral chances. The tactical +spirit in him has none of the higher ambition. It has felt itself in the +degree only that stops at defiance." + +"That is perfectly true." + +"It is half self-conscious of an individuality that instinctively assumes +the hopelessness of a recognition by duller intellects. Leaning to +resentment through misguided vanity, it falls 'all oblique.' What is the +cure for this? I answer, the teaching of a divine egotism. The subject +must be led to a pure devotion to self. What he wishes to respect he must +be taught to make beautiful and interesting. The policy of sacrifice to +others has so long stunted his moral nature because it is an hypocritical +policy. We are responsible to ourselves in the first instance; and to +argue an eternal system of blind self-sacrifice is to undervalue the +fine gift of individuality. In such he sees but an indefensible policy +of force applied to the advantage of the community. He is told to be +good--not that he may morally profit, but that others may not suffer +inconvenience." + +Polyhistor was beginning to grasp, through his confusion, a certain clue +of meaning in his visitor's rapid utterance. The stranger spoke fluently, +but in the dry, positive voice that characterizes men of will. + +"Pray go on," Polyhistor said; "I am digesting in silence." + +"We must endeavour to lead him to respect of self by showing him what his +mind is capable of. I argue on no sectarian, no religious grounds even. +Is it possible to make a man's self his most precious possession? Anyhow, +I work to that end. A doctor purges before building up with a tonic. I +eliminate cant and hypocrisy, and then introduce self-respect. It isn't +enough to employ a man's hands only. Initiation in some labour that +should prove wholesome and remunerative is a redeeming factor, but it +isn't all. His mind must work also, and awaken to its capacities. If it +rusts, the body reverts to inhuman instincts." + +"May I ask how you--?" + +"By intercourse--in my own person or through my officials. I wish to have +only those about me who are willing to contribute to my designs, and +with whom I can work in absolute harmony. All my officers are chosen to +that end. No doubt a dash of constitutional sentimentalism gives colour +to my theories. I get it from a human tract in me that circumstances have +obliged me to put a hoarding round." + +"I begin to gather daylight." + +"Quite so. My patients are invited to exchange views with their guardians +in a spirit of perfect friendliness; to solve little problems of +practical moment; to acquire the pride of self-reliance. We have +competitions, such as certain newspapers open to their readers, in a +simple form. I draw up the questions myself. The answers give me insight +into the mental conditions of the competitors. Upon insight I proceed. I +am fortunate in private means, and I am in a position to offer modest +prizes to the winners. Whenever such an one is discharged, he finds +awaiting him the tools most handy to his vocation. I bid him go forth +in no pharisaical spirit, and invite him to communicate with me. I wish +the shadow of the gaol to extend no further than the road whereon it +lies. Henceforth, we are acquaintances with a common interest at heart. +Isn't it monstrous that a state-fixed degree of misconduct should earn a +man social ostracism? Parents are generally inclined to rule extra +tenderness towards a child whose peccadilloes have brought him a +whipping. For myself, I have no faith in police supervision. Give a +culprit his term and have done with it. I find the majority who come back +to me are ticket-of-leave men. + +"Have I said enough? I offer you the reversion of the post. The present +holder of it leaves in a month's time. Please to determine here and at +once." + +"Very good. I have decided." + +"You will accept?" + +"Yes." + + * * * * * + +So far wrote Polyhistor in the bonny days of early manhood--an attempt +made in a spasm of enthusiasm inspired in him and humoured by his most +engaging Mentor, to record his first impressions of a notable personality +not many days after its introduction to him. He has never taken up the +tale again until now, when an insistent sense, as of a task left +unfinished, compels him to the effort. Over his sweet Mentor the grass +lies thick, and flowers of aged stalk bloom perennially, and "Oh, the +difference to me!" + +To _me_, for it is time to drop the poor conceit, the pseudonym that once +served its little purpose to awaken tender derision. + +I take up the old and stained manuscript, with its marginalia, that are +like the dim call from a far-away voice, and I know that, so I am driven +to record the sequel to that gay introduction, it must be in a spirit of +sombreness most deadly by contrast. I look at the faded opening words. +The fire of the first line of the narrative is long out; the grate is +cold some forty years--forty years!--and I think I have been a little +chill during all that time. But, though the room rustle with phantoms and +menace stalk in the retrospect, I shall acquit my conscience of its +burden, refusing to be bullied by the counsel of a destiny that +subpoena'd me entirely against my will. + + + + +PART II + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +CONTINUED AND FINISHED AFTER A LAPSE OF FORTY YEARS + + +With my unexpected appointment as doctor to D---- gaol, I seemed to +have put on the seven-league boots of success. No doubt it was an +extraordinary degree of good fortune, even to one who had looked forward +with a broad view of confidence; yet, I think, perhaps on account of the +very casual nature of my promotion, I never took the post entirely +seriously. + +At the same time I was fully bent on justifying my little cockney +patron's choice by a resolute subscription to his theories of prison +management. + +Major James Shrike inspired me with a curious conceit of impertinent +respect. In person the very embodiment of that insignificant vulgarity, +without extenuating circumstances, which is the type in caricature of the +ultimate cockney, he possessed a force of mind and an earnestness of +purpose that absolutely redeemed him on close acquaintanceship. I found +him all he had stated himself to be, and something more. + +He had a noble object always in view--the employment of sane and +humanitarian methods in the treatment of redeemable criminals, and he +strove towards it with completely untiring devotion. He was of those who +never insist beyond the limits of their own understanding, clear-sighted +in discipline, frank in relaxation, an altruist in the larger sense. + +His undaunted persistence, as I learned, received ample illustration some +few years prior to my acquaintance with him, when--his system being +experimental rather than mature--a devastating endemic of typhoid in the +prison had for the time stultified his efforts. He stuck to his post; but +so virulent was the outbreak that the prison commissioners judged a +complete evacuation of the building and overhauling of the drainage to +be necessary. As a consequence, for some eighteen months--during thirteen +of which the Governor and his household remained sole inmates of the +solitary pile (so sluggishly do we redeem our condemned social +bog-lands)--the "system" stood still for lack of material to mould. At +the end of over a year of stagnation, a contract was accepted and +workmen put in, and another five months saw the prison reordered for +practical purposes. + +The interval of forced inactivity must have sorely tried the patience of +the Governor. Practical theorists condemned to rust too often eat out +their own hearts. Major Shrike never referred to this period, and, +indeed, laboriously snubbed any allusion to it. + +He was, I have a shrewd notion, something of an officially petted +reformer. Anyhow, to his abolition of the insensate barbarism of crank +and treadmill in favour of civilizing methods no opposition was offered. +Solitary confinement--a punishment outside all nature to a gregarious +race--found no advocate in him. "A man's own suffering mind," he argued, +"must be, of all moral food, the most poisonous for him to feed on. +Surround a scorpion with fire and he stings himself to death, they say. +Throw a diseased soul entirely upon its own resources and moral suicide +results." + +To sum up: his nature embodied humanity without sentimentalism, firmness +without obstinacy, individuality without selfishness; his activity was +boundless, his devotion to his system so real as to admit no utilitarian +sophistries into his scheme of personal benevolence. Before I had been +with him a week, I respected him as I had never respected man before. + + * * * * * + +One evening (it was during the second month of my appointment) we were +sitting in his private study--a dark, comfortable room lined with books. +It was an occasion on which a new characteristic of the man was offered +to my inspection. + +A prisoner of a somewhat unusual type had come in that day--a +spiritualistic medium, convicted of imposture. To this person I casually +referred. + +"May I ask how you propose dealing with the new-comer?" + +"On the familiar lines." + +"But, surely--here we have a man of superior education, of imagination +even?" + +"No, no, no! A hawker's opportuneness; that describes it. These fellows +would make death itself a vulgarity." + +"You've no faith in their--" + +"Not a tittle. Heaven forfend! A sheet and a turnip are poetry to their +manifestations. It's as crude and sour soil for us to work on as any I +know. We'll cart it wholesale." + +"I take you--excuse my saying so--for a supremely sceptical man." + +"As to what?" + +"The supernatural." + +There was no answer during a considerable interval. Presently it came, +with deliberate insistence:-- + +"It is a principle with me to oppose bullying. We are here for a definite +purpose--his duty plain to any man who wills to read it. There may be +disembodied spirits who seek to distress or annoy where they can no +longer control. If there are, mine, which is not yet divorced from its +means to material action, declines to be influenced by any irresponsible +whimsey, emanating from a place whose denizens appear to be actuated by a +mere frivolous antagonism to all human order and progress." + +"But supposing you, a murderer, to be haunted by the presentment of your +victim?" + +"I will imagine that to be my case. Well, it makes no difference. My +interest is with the great human system, in one of whose veins I am a +circulating drop. It is my business to help to keep the system sound, +to do my duty without fear or favour. If disease--say a fouled +conscience--contaminates me, it is for me to throw off the incubus, +not accept it, and transmit the poison. Whatever my lapses of nature, I +owe it to the entire system to work for purity in my allotted sphere, and +not to allow any microbe bugbear to ride me roughshod, to the detriment +of my fellow drops." + +I laughed. + +"It should be for you," I said, "to learn to shiver, like the boy in the +fairy tale." + +"I cannot", he answered, with a peculiar quiet smile; "and yet prisons, +above all places, should be haunted." + + * * * * * + +Very shortly after his arrival I was called to the cell of the medium, +F----. He suffered, by his own statement, from severe pains in the head. + +I found the man to be nervous, anemic; his manner characterized by a sort +of hysterical effrontery. + +"Send me to the infirmary", he begged. "This isn't punishment, but +torture." + +"What are your symptoms?" + +"I see things; my case has no comparison with others. To a man of my +super-sensitiveness close confinement is mere cruelty." + +I made a short examination. He was restless under my hands. + +"You'll stay where you are", I said. + +He broke out into violent abuse, and I left him. + +Later in the day I visited him again. He was then white and sullen; but +under his mood I could read real excitement of some sort. + +"Now, confess to me, my man", I said, "what do you see?" + +He eyed me narrowly, with his lips a little shaky. + +"Will you have me moved if I tell you?" + +"I can give no promise till I know." + +He made up his mind after an interval of silence. + +"There's something uncanny in my neighbourhood. Who's confined in the +next cell--there, to the left?" + +"To my knowledge it's empty." + +He shook his head incredulously. + +"Very well," I said, "I don't mean to bandy words with you"; and I turned +to go. + +At that he came after me with a frightened choke. + +"Doctor, your mission's a merciful one. I'm not trying to sauce you. For +God's sake have me moved! I can see further than most, I tell you!" + +The fellow's manner gave me pause. He was patently and beyond the pride +of concealment terrified. + +"What do you see?" I repeated stubbornly. + +"It isn't that I see, but I know. The cell's not empty!" + +I stared at him in considerable wonderment. + +"I will make inquiries," I said. "You may take that for a promise. If the +cell proves empty, you stop where you are." + +I noticed that he dropped his hands with a lost gesture as I left him. I +was sufficiently moved to accost the warder who awaited me on the spot. + +"Johnson," I said, "is that cell--" + +"Empty, sir," answered the man sharply and at once. + +Before I could respond, F---- came suddenly to the door, which I still +held open. + +"You lying cur!" he shouted. "You damned lying cur!" + +The warder thrust the man back with violence. + +"Now you, 49," he said, "dry up, and none of your sauce!" and he banged +to the door with a sounding slap, and turned to me with a lowering face. +The prisoner inside yelped and stormed at the studded panels. + +"That cell's empty, sir," repeated Johnson. + +"Will you, as a matter of conscience, let me convince myself? I promised +the man." + +"No, I can't." + +"You can't?" + +"No, sir." + +"This is a piece of stupid discourtesy. You can have no reason, of +course?" + +"I can't open it--that's all." + +"Oh, Johnson! Then I must go to the fountain-head." + +"Very well, sir." + +Quite baffled by the man's obstinacy, I said no more, but walked off. If +my anger was roused, my curiosity was piqued in proportion. + + * * * * * + +I had no opportunity of interviewing the Governor all day, but at night I +visited him by invitation to play a game of piquet. + +He was a man without "incumbrances"--as a severe conservatism designates +the _lares_ of the cottage--and, at home, lived at his ease and indulged +his amusements without comment. + +I found him "tasting" his books, with which the room was well lined, and +drawing with relish at an excellent cigar in the intervals of the +courses. + +He nodded to me, and held out an open volume in his left hand. + +"Listen to this fellow," he said, tapping the page with his fingers:-- + +"'The most tolerable sort of Revenge, is for those wrongs which there is +no Law to remedy: But then, let a man take heed, the Revenge be such, as +there is no law to punish: Else, a man's Enemy, is still before hand, and +it is two for one. Some, when they take Revenge, are Desirous the party +should know, whence it cometh. This is the more Generous. For the Delight +seemeth to be, not so much in doing the Hurt, as in making the Party +repent: But Base and Crafty _Cowards are like the Arrow that flyeth in +the Dark. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a Desperate Saying against +Perfidious or Neglecting Friends, as if these wrongs were unpardonable. +You shall reade (saith he) that we are commanded to forgive our Enemies: +But you never read, that we are commanded, to forgive our Friends_.' + +"Is he not a rare fellow?" + +"Who?" said I. + +"Francis Bacon, who screwed his wit to his philosophy, like a hammer-head +to its handle, and knocked a nail in at every blow. How many of our +friends round about here would be picking oakum now if they had made a +gospel of that quotation?" + +"You mean they take no heed that the Law may punish for that for which it +gives no remedy?" + +"Precisely; and specifically as to revenge. The criminal, from the +murderer to the petty pilferer, is actuated solely by the spirit of +vengeance--vengeance blind and speechless--towards a system that forces +him into a position quite outside his natural instincts." + +"As to that, we have left Nature in the thicket. It is hopeless hunting +for her now." + +"We hear her breathing sometimes, my friend. Otherwise Her Majesty's +prison locks would rust. But, I grant you, we have grown so unfamiliar +with her that we call her simplest manifestations _super_natural +nowadays." + +"That reminds me. I visited F---- this afternoon. The man was in a queer +way--not foxing, in my opinion. Hysteria, probably." + +"Oh! What was the matter with him?" + +"The form it took was some absurd prejudice about the next cell--number +47, He swore it was not empty--was quite upset about it--said there +was some infernal influence at work in his neighbourhood. Nerves, he +finds, I suppose, may revenge themselves on one who has made a habit of +playing tricks with them. To satisfy him, I asked Johnson to open the +door of the next cell--" + +"Well?" + +"He refused." + +"It is closed by my orders." + +"That settles it, of course. The manner of Johnson's refusal was a bit +uncivil, but--" + +He had been looking at me intently all this time--so intently that I was +conscious of a little embarrassment and confusion. His mouth was set like +a dash between brackets, and his eyes glistened. Now his features +relaxed, and he gave a short high neigh of a laugh. + +"My dear fellow, you must make allowances for the rough old lurcher. He +was a soldier. He is all cut and measured out to the regimental pattern. +With him Major Shrike, like the king, can do no wrong. Did I ever tell +you he served under me in India? He did; and, moreover, I saved his life +there." + +"In an engagement?" + +"Worse--from the bite of a snake. It was a mere question of will. I told +him to wake and walk, and he did. They had thought him already in rigor +mortis; and, as for him--well, his devotion to me since has been single +to the last degree." + +"That's as it should be." + +"To be sure. And he's quite in my confidence. You must pass over the old +beggar's churlishness." + +I laughed an assent. And then an odd thing happened. As I spoke, I had +walked over to a bookcase on the opposite side of the room to that on +which my host stood. Near this bookcase hung a mirror--an oblong affair, +set in brass _repoussé_ work--on the wall; and, happening to glance into +it as I approached, I caught sight of the Major's reflection as he turned +his face to follow my movement. + +I say "turned his face"--a formal description only. What met my startled +gaze was an image of some nameless horror--of features grooved, and +battered, and shapeless, as if they had been torn by a wild beast. + +I gave a little indrawn gasp and turned about. There stood the Major, +plainly himself, with a pleasant smile on his face. + +"What's up?" said he. + +He spoke abstractedly, pulling at his cigar; and I answered rudely, +"That's a damned bad looking-glass of yours!" + +"I didn't know there was anything wrong with it," he said, still +abstracted and apart. And, indeed, when by sheer mental effort I forced +myself to look again, there stood my companion as he stood in the room. + +I gave a tremulous laugh, muttered something or nothing, and fell to +examining the books in the case. But my fingers shook a trifle as I +aimlessly pulled out one volume after another. + +"Am I getting fanciful?" I thought--"I whose business it is to give +practical account of every bugbear of the nerves. Bah! My liver must be +out of order. A speck of bile in one's eye may look a flying dragon." + +I dismissed the folly from my mind, and set myself resolutely to +inspecting the books marshalled before me. Roving amongst them, I pulled +out, entirely at random, a thin, worn duodecimo, that was thrust well +back at a shelf end, as if it shrank from comparison with its prosperous +and portly neighbours. Nothing but chance impelled me to the choice; and +I don't know to this day what the ragged volume was about. It opened +naturally at a marker that lay in it--a folded slip of paper, yellow with +age; and glancing at this, a printed name caught my eye. + +With some stir of curiosity, I spread the slip out. It was a title-page +to a volume, of poems, presumably; and the author was James Shrike. + +I uttered an exclamation, and turned, book in hand. + +"An author!" I said. "You an author, Major Shrike!" + +To my surprise, he snapped round upon me with something like a glare of +fury on his face. This the more startled me as I believed I had reason to +regard him as a man whose principles of conduct had long disciplined a +temper that was naturally hasty enough. + +Before I could speak to explain, he had come hurriedly across the room +and had rudely snatched the paper out of my hand. + +"How did this get--" he began; then in a moment came to himself, and +apologized for his ill manners. + +"I thought every scrap of the stuff had been destroyed", he said, and +tore the page into fragments. "It is an ancient effusion, doctor--perhaps +the greatest folly of my life; but it's something of a sore subject with +me, and I shall be obliged if you'll not refer to it again." + +He courted my forgiveness so frankly that the matter passed without +embarrassment; and we had our game and spent a genial evening together. +But memory of the queer little scene stuck in my mind, and I could not +forbear pondering it fitfully. + +Surely here was a new side-light that played upon my friend and superior +a little fantastically. + + * * * * * + +Conscious of a certain vague wonder in my mind, I was traversing the +prison, lost in thought, after my sociable evening with the Governor, +when the fact that dim light was issuing from the open door of cell +number 49 brought me to myself and to a pause in the corridor outside. + +Then I saw that something was wrong with the cell's inmate, and that my +services were required. + +The medium was struggling on the floor, in what looked like an epileptic +fit, and Johnson and another warder were holding him from doing an injury +to himself. + +The younger man welcomed my appearance with relief. + +"Heerd him guggling," he said, "and thought as something were up. You +come timely, sir." + +More assistance was procured, and I ordered the prisoner's removal to the +infirmary. For a minute, before following him, I was left alone with +Johnson. + +"It came to a climax, then?" I said, looking the man steadily in the +face. + +"He may be subject to 'em, sir", he replied, evasively. + +I walked deliberately up to the closed door of the adjoining cell, which +was the last on that side of the corridor. Huddled against the massive +end wall, and half imbedded in it, as it seemed, it lay in a certain +shadow, and bore every sign of dust and disuse. Looking closely, I saw +that the trap in the door was not only firmly bolted, but _screwed into +its socket_. + +I turned and said to the warder quietly,-- + +"Is it long since this cell was in use?" + +"You're very fond of asking questions", he answered doggedly. + +It was evident he would baffle me by impertinence rather than yield a +confidence. A queer insistence had seized me--a strange desire to know +more about this mysterious chamber. But, for all my curiosity, I flushed +at the man's tone. + +"You have your orders", I said sternly, "and do well to hold by them. I +doubt, nevertheless, if they include impertinence to your superiors." + +"I look straight on my duty, sir," he said, a little abashed. "I don't +wish to give offence." + +He did not, I feel sure. He followed his instinct to throw me off the +scent, that was all. + +I strode off in a fume, and after attending F---- in the infirmary, went +promptly to my own quarters. + +I was in an odd frame of mind, and for long tramped my sitting-room to +and fro, too restless to go to bed, or, as an alternative, to settle down +to a book. There was a welling up in my heart of some emotion that I +could neither trace nor define. It seemed neighbour to terror, neighbour +to an intense fainting pity, yet was not distinctly either of these. +Indeed, where was cause for one, or the subject of the other? F---- might +have endured mental sufferings which it was only human to help to end, +yet F---- was a swindling rogue, who, once relieved, merited no further +consideration. + +It was not on him my sentiments were wasted. Who, then, was responsible +for them? + +There is a very plain line of demarcation between the legitimate spirit +of inquiry and mere apish curiosity. I could recognise it, I have no +doubt, as a rule, yet in my then mood, under the influence of a kind of +morbid seizure, inquisitiveness took me by the throat. I could not +whistle my mind from the chase of a certain graveyard will-o'-the-wisp; +and on it went stumbling and floundering through bog and mire, until it +fell into a state of collapse, and was useful for nothing else. + +I went to bed and to sleep without difficulty, but I was conscious of +myself all the time, and of a shadowless horror that seemed to come +stealthily out of corners and to bend over and look at me, and to be +nothing but a curtain or a hanging coat when I started and stared. + +Over and over again this happened, and my temperature rose by leaps, and +suddenly I saw that if I failed to assert myself, and promptly, fever +would lap me in a consuming fire. Then in a moment I broke into a profuse +perspiration, and sank exhausted into delicious unconsciousness. + +Morning found me restored to vigour, but still with the maggot of +curiosity boring in my brain. It worked there all day, and for many +subsequent days, and at last it seemed as if my every faculty were +honeycombed with its ramifications. Then "this will not do", I thought, +but still the tunnelling process went on. + +At first I would not acknowledge to myself what all this mental to-do was +about. I was ashamed of my new development, in fact, and nervous, too, +in a degree of what it might reveal in the matter of moral degeneration; +but gradually, as the curious devil mastered me, I grew into such harmony +with it that I could shut my eyes no longer to the true purpose of its +insistence. It was the _closed cell_ about which my thoughts hovered like +crows circling round carrion. + + * * * * * + +"In the dead waste and middle" of a certain night I awoke with a strange, +quick recovery of consciousness. There was the passing of a single +expiration, and I had been asleep and was awake. I had gone to bed with +no sense of premonition or of resolve in a particular direction; I sat up +a monomaniac. It was as if, swelling in the silent hours, the tumour of +curiosity had come to a head, and in a moment it was necessary to operate +upon it. + +I make no excuse for my then condition. I am convinced I was the victim +of some undistinguishable force, that I was an agent under the control of +the supernatural, if you like. Some thought had been in my mind of late +that in my position it was my duty to unriddle the mystery of the closed +cell. This was a sop timidly held out to and rejected by my better +reason. I sought--and I knew it in my heart--solution of the puzzle, +because it was a puzzle with an atmosphere that vitiated my moral fibre. +Now, suddenly, I knew I must act, or, by forcing self-control, imperil +my mind's stability. + +All strung to a sort of exaltation, I rose noiselessly and dressed myself +with rapid, nervous hands. My every faculty was focussed upon a +solitary point. Without and around there was nothing but shadow and +uncertainty. I seemed conscious only of a shaft of light, as it were, +traversing the darkness and globing itself in a steady disc of radiance +on a lonely door. + +Slipping out into the great echoing vault of the prison in stockinged +feet, I sped with no hesitation of purpose in the direction of the +corridor that was my goal. Surely some resolute Providence guided and +encompassed me, for no meeting with the night patrol occurred at any +point to embarrass or deter me. Like a ghost myself, I flitted along +the stone flags of the passages, hardly waking a murmur from them in my +progress. + +Without, I knew, a wild and stormy wind thundered on the walls of the +prison. Within, where the very atmosphere was self-contained, a cold and +solemn peace held like an irrevocable judgment. + +I found myself as if in a dream before the sealed door that had for days +harassed my waking thoughts. Dim light from a distant gas jet made a +patch of yellow upon one of its panels; the rest was buttressed with +shadow. + +A sense of fear and constriction was upon me as I drew softly from my +pocket a screwdriver I had brought with me. It never occurred to me, I +swear, that the quest was no business of mine, and that even now I could +withdraw from it, and no one be the wiser. But I was afraid--I was +afraid. And there was not even the negative comfort of knowing that the +neighbouring cell was tenanted. It gaped like a ghostly garret next +door to a deserted house. + +What reason had I to be there at all, or, being there, to fear? I can no +more explain than tell how it was that I, an impartial follower of my +vocation, had allowed myself to be tricked by that in the nerves I had +made it my interest to study and combat in others. + +My hand that held the tool was cold and wet. The stiff little shriek of +the first screw, as it turned at first uneasily in its socket, sent a +jarring thrill through me. But I persevered, and it came out readily +by-and-by, as did the four or five others that held the trap secure. + +Then I paused a moment; and, I confess, the quick pant of fear seemed to +come grey from my lips. There were sounds about me--the deep breathing of +imprisoned men; and I envied the sleepers their hard-wrung repose. + +At last, in one access of determination, I put out my hand, and sliding +back the bolt, hurriedly flung open the trap. An acrid whiff of dust +assailed my nostrils as I stepped back a pace and stood expectant of +anything--or nothing. What did I wish, or dread, or foresee? The complete +absurdity of my behaviour was revealed to me in a moment. I could shake +off the incubus here and now, and be a sane man again. + +I giggled, with an actual ring of self-contempt in my voice, as I made a +forward movement to close the aperture. I advanced my face to it, and +inhaled the sluggish air that stole forth, and--God in heaven! + +I had staggered back with that cry in my throat, when I felt fingers like +iron clamps close on my arm and hold it. The grip, more than the face +I turned to look upon in my surging terror, was forcibly human. + +It was the warder Johnson who had seized me, and my heart bounded as I +met the cold fury of his eyes. + +"Prying!" he said, in a hoarse, savage whisper. "So you will, will you? +And now let the devil help you!" + +It was not this fellow I feared, though his white face was set like a +demon's; and in the thick of my terror I made a feeble attempt to assert +my authority. + +"Let me go!" I muttered. "What! you dare?" + +In his frenzy he shook my arm as a terrier shakes a rat, and, like a dog, +he held on, daring me to release myself. + +For the moment an instinct half-murderous leapt in me. It sank and was +overwhelmed in a slough of some more secret emotion. + +"Oh!" I whispered, collapsing, as it were, to the man's fury, +even pitifully deprecating it. "What is it? What's there? It drew +me--something unnameable". + +He gave a snapping laugh like a cough. His rage waxed second by second. +There was a maniacal suggestiveness in it; and not much longer, it was +evident, could he have it under control. I saw it run and congest in his +eyes; and, on the instant of its accumulation, he tore at me with a +sudden wild strength, and drove me up against the very door of the secret +cell. + +The action, the necessity of self-defence, restored me to some measure of +dignity and sanity. + +"Let me go, you ruffian!" I cried, struggling to free myself from his +grasp. + +It was useless. He held me madly. There was no beating him off: and, so +holding me, he managed to produce a single key from one of his pockets, +and to slip it with a rusty clang into the lock of the door. + +"You dirty, prying civilian!" he panted at me, as he swayed this way and +that with the pull of my body. "You shall have your wish, by G--! You +want to see inside, do you? Look, then!" + +He dashed open the door as he spoke, and pulled me violently into +the opening. A great waft of the cold, dank air came at us, and with +it--what? + +The warder had jerked his dark lantern from his belt, and now--an arm of +his still clasped about one of mine--snapped the slide open. + +"Where is it?" he muttered, directing the disc of light round and about +the floor of the cell. I ceased struggling. Some counter influence was +raising an odd curiosity in me. + +"Ah!" he cried, in a stifled voice, "there you are, my friend!" + +He was setting the light slowly travelling along the stone flags close by +the wall over against us, and now, so guiding it, looked askance at me +with a small, greedy smile. + +"Follow the light, sir," he whispered jeeringly. + +I looked, and saw twirling on the floor, in the patch of radiance cast by +the lamp, _a little eddy of dust_, it seemed. This eddy was never still, +but went circling in that stagnant place without apparent cause or +influence; and, as it circled, it moved slowly on by wall and corner, so +that presently in its progress it must reach us where we stood. + +Now, draughts will play queer freaks in quiet places, and of this +trifling phenomenon I should have taken little note ordinarily. But, I +must say at once, that as I gazed upon the odd moving thing my heart +seemed to fall in upon itself like a drained artery. + +"Johnson!" I cried, "I must get out of this. I don't know what's the +matter, or--Why do you hold me? D--n it! man, let me go; let me go, I +say!" + +As I grappled with him he dropped the lantern with a crash and flung his +arms violently about me. + +"You don't!" he panted, the muscles of his bent and rigid neck seeming +actually to cut into my shoulder-blade. "You don't, by G--! You came +of your own accord, and now you shall take your bellyful!" + +It was a struggle for life or death, or, worse, for life and reason. But +I was young and wiry, and held my own, if I could do little more. Yet +there was something to combat beyond the mere brute strength of the man I +struggled with, for I fought in an atmosphere of horror unexplainable, +and I knew that inch by inch the _thing_ on the floor was circling round +in our direction. + +Suddenly in the breathing darkness I felt it close upon us, gave one +mortal yell of fear, and, with a last despairing fury, tore myself from +the encircling arms, and sprang into the corridor without. As I plunged +and leapt, the warder clutched at me, missed, caught a foot on the edge +of the door, and, as the latter whirled to with a clap, fell heavily at +my feet in a fit. Then, as I stood staring down upon him, steps sounded +along the corridor and the voices of scared men hurrying up. + + * * * * * + +Ill and shaken, and, for the time, little in love with life, yet fearing +death as I had never dreaded it before, I spent the rest of that horrible +night huddled between my crumpled sheets, fearing to look forth, fearing +to think, wild only to be far away, to be housed in some green and +innocent hamlet, where I might forget the madness and the terror in +learning to walk the unvext paths of placid souls. I had not fairly +knocked under until alone with my new dread familiar. That unction I +could lay to my heart, at least. I had done the manly part by the +stricken warder, whom I had attended to his own home, in a row of little +tenements that stood south of the prison walls. I had replied to all +inquiries with some dignity and spirit, attributing my ruffled condition +to an assault on the part of Johnson, when he was already under the +shadow of his seizure. I had directed his removal, and grudged him no +professional attention that it was in my power to bestow. But afterwards, +locked into my room, my whole nervous system broke up like a trodden +ant-hill, leaving me conscious of nothing but an aimless scurrying terror +and the black swarm of thoughts, so that I verily fancied my reason would +give under the strain. + +Yet I had more to endure and to triumph over. + +Near morning I fell into a troubled sleep, throughout which the drawn +twitch of muscle seemed an accent on every word of ill-omen I had ever +spelt out of the alphabet of fear. If my body rested, my brain was an +open chamber for any toad of ugliness that listed to "sit at squat" in. + +Suddenly I woke to the fact that there was a knocking at my door--that +there had been for some little time. + +I cried, "Come in!" finding a weak restorative in the mere sound of my +own human voice; then, remembering the key was turned, bade the visitor +wait until I could come to him. + +Scrambling, feeling dazed and white-livered, out of bed, I opened the +door, and met one of the warders on the threshold. The man looked scared, +and his lips, I noticed, were set in a somewhat boding fashion. + +"Can you come at once, sir?" he said. "There's summat wrong with the +Governor." + +"Wrong? What's the matter with him?" + +"Why,"--he looked down, rubbed an imaginary protuberance smooth with his +foot, and glanced up at me again with a quick, furtive expression,--"he's +got his face set in the grating of 47, and danged if a man Jack of us can +get him to move or speak." + +I turned away, feeling sick. I hurriedly pulled on coat and trousers, and +hurriedly went off with my summoner. Reason was all absorbed in a wildest +phantasy of apprehension. + +"Who found him?" I muttered, as we sped on. + +"Vokins see him go down the corridor about half after eight, sir, and see +him give a start like when he noticed the trap open. It's never been so +before in my time. Johnson must ha' done it last night, before he were +took." + +"Yes, yes." + +"The man said the Governor went to shut it, it seemed, and to draw his +face to'ards the bars in so doin'. Then he see him a-lookin' through, as +he thought; but nat'rally it weren't no business of his'n, and he went +off about his work. But when he come anigh agen, fifteen minutes later, +there were the Governor in the same position; and he got scared over it, +and called out to one or two of us." + +"Why didn't one of you ask the Major if anything was wrong?" + +"Bless you! we did; and no answer. And we pulled him, compatible with +discipline, but--" + +"But what?" + +"He's stuck." + +"Stuck!" + +"See for yourself, sir. That's all I ask." + +I did, a moment later. A little group was collected about the door of +cell 47, and the members of it spoke together in whispers, as if they +were frightened men. One young fellow, with a face white in patches, as +if it had been floured, slid from them as I approached, and accosted me +tremulously. + +"Don't go anigh, sir. There's something wrong about the place." + +I pulled myself together, forcibly beating down the excitement reawakened +by the associations of the spot. In the discomfiture of others' nerves I +found my own restoration. + +"Don't be an ass!" I said, in a determined voice, "There's nothing here +that can't be explained. Make way for me, please!" + +They parted and let me through, and I saw him. He stood, spruce, +frock-coated, dapper, as he always was, with his face pressed against +and _into_ the grill, and either hand raised and clenched tightly round a +bar of the trap. His posture was as of one caught and striving +frantically to release himself; yet the narrowness of the interval +between the rails precluded so extravagant an idea. He stood quite +motionless--taut and on the strain, as it were--and nothing of his face +was visible but the back ridges of his jaw-bones, showing white through a +bush of red whiskers. + +"Major Shrike!" I rapped out, and, allowing myself no hesitation, reached +forth my hand and grasped his shoulder. The body vibrated under my touch, +but he neither answered nor made sign of hearing me. Then I pulled at him +forcibly, and ever with increasing strength. His fingers held like steel +braces. He seemed glued to the trap, like Theseus to the rock. + +Hastily I peered round, to see if I could get glimpse of his face. I +noticed enough to send me back with a little stagger. + +"Has none of you got a key to this door?" I asked, reviewing the scared +faces about me, than which my own was no less troubled, I feel sure. + +"Only the Governor, sir," said the warder who had fetched me. "There's +not a man but him amongst us that ever seen this opened." + +He was wrong there, I could have told him; but held my tongue, for +obvious reasons. + +"I want it opened. Will one of you feel in his pockets?" + +Not a soul stirred. Even had not sense of discipline precluded, that of a +certain inhuman atmosphere made fearful creatures of them all. + +"Then," said I, "I must do it myself." + +I turned once more to the stiff-strung figure, had actually put hand on +it, when an exclamation from Vokins arrested me. + +"There's a key--there, sir!" he said--"stickin' out yonder between its +feet." + +Sure enough there was--Johnson's, no doubt, that had been shot from its +socket by the clapping to of the door, and afterwards kicked aside by the +warder in his convulsive struggles. + +I stooped, only too thankful for the respite, and drew it forth. I had +seen it but once before, yet I recognised it at a glance. + +Now, I confess, my heart felt ill as I slipped the key into the wards, +and a sickness of resentment at the tyranny of Fate in making me its +helpless minister surged up in my veins. Once, with my fingers on the +iron loop, I paused, and ventured a fearful side glance at the figure +whose crookt elbow almost touched my face; then, strung to the high +pitch of inevitability, I shot the lock, pushed at the door, and in the +act, made a back leap into the corridor. + +Scarcely, in doing so, did I look for the totter and collapse outwards of +the rigid form. I had expected to see it fall away, face down, into the +cell, as its support swung from it. Yet it was, I swear, as if something +from within had relaxed its grasp and given the fearful dead man a +swingeing push outwards as the door opened. + +It went on its back, with a dusty slap on the stone flags, and from all +its spectators--me included--came a sudden drawn sound, like wind in a +keyhole. + +What can I say, or how describe it? A dead thing it was--but the face! + +Barred with livid scars where the grating rails had crossed it, the rest +seemed to have been worked and kneaded into a mere featureless plate of +yellow and expressionless flesh. + +And it was this I had seen in the glass! + + * * * * * + +There was an interval following the experience above narrated, during +which a certain personality that had once been mine was effaced or +suspended, and I seemed a passive creature, innocent of the least desire +of independence. It was not that I was actually ill or actually insane. A +merciful Providence set my finer wits slumbering, that was all, leaving +me a sufficiency of the grosser faculties that were necessary to the +right ordering of my behaviour. + +I kept to my room, it is true, and even lay a good deal in bed; but this +was more to satisfy the busy scruples of a _locum tenens_--a practitioner +of the neighbourhood, who came daily to the prison to officiate in my +absence--than to cosset a complaint that in its inactivity was purely +negative. I could review what had happened with a calmness as profound +as if I had read of it in a book. I could have wished to continue my +duties, indeed, had the power of insistence remained to me. But the saner +medicus was acute where I had gone blunt, and bade me to the restful +course. He was right. I was mentally stunned, and had I not slept off my +lethargy, I should have gone mad in an hour--leapt at a bound, probably, +from inertia to flaming lunacy. + +I remembered everything, but through a fluffy atmosphere, so to speak. It +was as if I looked on bygone pictures through ground glass that softened +the ugly outlines. + +Sometimes I referred to these to my substitute, who was wise to answer me +according to my mood; for the truth left me unruffled, whereas an obvious +evasion of it would have distressed me. + +"Hammond," I said one day, "I have never yet asked you. How did I give my +evidence at the inquest?" + +"Like a doctor and a sane man." + +"That's good. But it was a difficult course to steer. You conducted the +post-mortem. Did any peculiarity in the dead man's face strike you?" + +"Nothing but this: that the excessive contraction of the bicipital +muscles had brought the features into such forcible contact with the bars +as to cause bruising and actual abrasion. He must have been dead some +little time when you found him." + +"And nothing else? You noticed nothing else in his face--a sort of +obliteration of what makes one human, I mean?" + +"Oh, dear, no! nothing but the painful constriction that marks any +ordinary fatal attack of _angina pectoris_.--There's a rum breach of +promise case in the paper to-day. You should read it; it'll make you +laugh." + +I had no more inclination to laugh than to sigh; but I accepted the +change of subject with an equanimity now habitual to me. + + * * * * * + +One morning I sat up in bed, and knew that consciousness was wide awake +in me once more. It had slept, and now rose refreshed, but trembling. +Looking back, all in a flutter of new responsibility, along the misty +path by way of which I had recently loitered, I shook with an awful +thankfulness at sight of the pitfalls I had skirted and escaped--of +the demons my witlessness had baffled. + +The joy of life was in my heart again, but chastened and made pitiful by +experience. + +Hammond noticed the change in me directly he entered, and congratulated +me upon it. + +"Go slow at first, old man," he said. "You've fairly sloughed the old +skin; but give the sun time to toughen the new one. Walk in it at +present, and be content." + +I was, in great measure, and I followed his advice. I got leave of +absence, and ran down for a month in the country to a certain house we +wot of, where kindly ministration to my convalescence was only one of the +many blisses to be put to an account of rosy days. + +"_Then did my love awake, + Most like a lily-flower, +And as the lovely queene of heaven, + So shone shee in her bower._" + +Ah, me! ah, me! when was it? A year ago, or two-thirds of a lifetime? +Alas! "Age with stealing steps hath clawde me with his crowch." And will +the yews root in _my_ heart, I wonder? + +I was well, sane, recovered, when one morning, towards the end of my +visit, I received a letter from Hammond, enclosing a packet addressed to +me, and jealously sealed and fastened. My friend's communication ran as +follows:-- + +"There died here yesterday afternoon a warder, Johnson--he who had that +apoplectic seizure, you will remember, the night before poor Shrike's +exit. I attended him to the end, and, being alone with him an hour before +the finish, he took the enclosed from under his pillow, and a solemn oath +from me that I would forward it direct to you, sealed as you will find +it, and permit no other soul to examine or even touch it. I acquit myself +of the charge, but, my dear fellow, with an uneasy sense of the +responsibility I incur in thus possibly suggesting to you a retrospect of +events which you had much best consign to the limbo of the--not +unexplainable, but not worth trying to explain. It was patent from what +I have gathered that you were in an overstrung and excitable condition at +that time, and that your temporary collapse was purely nervous in its +character. It seems there was some nonsense abroad in the prison about a +certain cell, and that there were fools who thought fit to associate +Johnson's attack and the other's death with the opening of that cell's +door. I have given the new Governor a tip, and he has stopped all that. +We have examined the cell in company, and found it, as one might suppose, +a very ordinary chamber. The two men died perfectly natural deaths, and +there is the last to be said on the subject. I mention it only from the +fear that enclosed may contain some allusion to the rubbish, a perusal of +which might check the wholesome convalescence of your thoughts. If you +take my advice, you will throw the packet into the fire unread. At least, +if you do examine it, postpone the duty till you feel yourself absolutely +impervious to any mental trickery, and--bear in mind that you are a +worthy member of a particularly matter-of-fact and unemotional +profession." + + * * * * * + +I smiled at the last clause, for I was now in a condition to feel a +rather warm shame over my erst weak-knee'd collapse before a sheet and an +illuminated turnip. I took the packet to my bedroom, shut the door, and +sat myself down by the open window. The garden lay below me, and the dewy +meadows beyond. In the one, bees were busy ruffling the ruddy +gillyflowers and April stocks; in the other, the hedge twigs were all +frosted with Mary buds, as if Spring had brushed them with the fleece of +her wings in passing. + +I fetched a sigh of content as I broke the seal of the packet and brought +out the enclosure. Somewhere in the garden a little sardonic laugh was +clipt to silence. It came from groom or maid, no doubt; yet it thrilled +me with an odd feeling of uncanniness, and I shivered slightly. + +"Bah!" I said to myself determinedly. "There is a shrewd nip in the wind, +for all the show of sunlight;" and I rose, pulled down the window, and +resumed my seat. + +Then in the closed room, that had become deathly quiet by contrast, I +opened and read the dead man's letter. + + * * * * * + +"Sir,--I hope you will read what I here put down. I lay it on you as a +solemn injunction, for I am a dying man, and I know it. And to who is +my death due, and the Governor's death, if not to you, for your pryin' +and curiosity, as surely as if you had drove a nife through our harts? +Therefore, I say, Read this, and take my burden from me, for it has been +a burden; and now it is right that you that interfered should have it on +your own mortal shoulders. The Major is dead and I am dying, and in the +first of my fit it went on in my head like cimbells that the trap was +left open, and that if he passed he would look in and _it_ would get him. +For he knew not fear, neither would he submit to bullying by God or +devil. + +"Now I will tell you the truth, and Heaven quit you of your +responsibility in our destruction. + +"There wasn't another man to me like the Governor in all the countries of +the world. Once he brought me to life after doctors had given me up for +dead; but he willed it, and I lived; and ever afterwards I loved him as a +dog loves its master. That was in the Punjab; and I came home to England +with him, and was his servant when he got his appointment to the jail +here. I tell you he was a proud and fierce man, but under control and +tender to those he favoured; and I will tell you also a strange thing +about him. Though he was a soldier and an officer, and strict in +discipline as made men fear and admire him, his heart at bottom was all +for books, and literature, and such-like gentle crafts. I had his +confidence, as a man gives his confidence to his dog, and before me +sometimes he unbent as he never would before others. In this way I learnt +the bitter sorrow of his life. He had once hoped to be a poet, +acknowledged as such before the world. He was by natur' an idelist, as +they call it, and God knows what it meant to him to come out of the +woods, so to speak, and sweat in the dust of cities; but he did it, for +his will was of tempered steel. He buried his dreams in the clouds and +came down to earth greatly resolved, but with one undying hate. It is not +good to hate as he could, and worse to be hated by such as him; and I +will tell you the story, and what it led to. + +"It was when he was a subaltern that he made up his mind to the plunge. +For years he had placed all his hopes and confidents in a book of verses +he had wrote, and added to, and improved during that time. A little +encouragement, a little word of praise, was all he looked for, and then +he was ready to buckle to again, profitin' by advice, and do better. He +put all the love and beauty of his heart into that book, and at last, +after doubt, and anguish, and much diffidents, he published it and give +it to the world. Sir, it fell what they call still-born from the press. +It was like a green leaf flutterin' down in a dead wood. To a proud +and hopeful man, bubblin' with music, the pain of neglect, when he come +to realize it, was terrible. But nothing was said, and there was nothing +to say. In silence he had to endure and suffer. + +"But one day, during maneuvers, there came to the camp a grey-faced man, +a newspaper correspondent, and young Shrike knocked up a friendship +with him. Now how it come about I cannot tell, but so it did that this +skip-kennel wormed the lad's sorrow out of him, and his confidents, +swore he'd been damnabilly used, and that when he got back he'd crack up +the book himself in his own paper. He was a fool for his pains, and a +serpent in his cruelty. The notice come out as promised, and, my God! the +author was laughed and mocked at from beginning to end. Even confidentses +he had given to the creature was twisted to his ridicule, and his very +appearance joked over. And the mess got wind of it, and made a rare story +for the dog days. + +"He bore it like a soldier, and that he became heart and liver from the +moment. But he put something to the account of the grey-faced man and +locked it up in his breast. + +"He come across him again years afterwards in India, and told him very +politely that he hadn't forgotten him, and didn't intend to. But he was +anigh losin' sight of him there for ever and a day, for the creature took +cholera, or what looked like it, and rubbed shoulders with death and the +devil before he pulled through. And he come across him again over here, +and that was the last of him, as you shall see presently. + +"Once, after I knew the Major (he were Captain then), I was a-brushin' +his coat, and he stood a long while before the glass. Then he twisted +upon me, with a smile on his mouth, and says he,-- + +"'The dog was right, Johnson: this isn't the face of a poet. I was a +presumtious ass, and born to cast up figgers with a pen behind my ear.' + +"'Captain,' I says, 'if you was skinned, you'd look like any other man +without his. The quality of a soul isn't expressed by a coat.' + +"'Well,' he answers, 'my soul's pretty clean-swept, I think, save for one +Bluebeard chamber in it that's been kep' locked ever so many years. +It's nice and dirty by this time, I expect,' he says. Then the grin comes +on his mouth again. 'I'll open it some day,' he says, 'and look. There's +something in it about comparing me to a dancing dervish, with the wind in +my petticuts. Perhaps I'll get the chance to set somebody else dancing +by-and-by.' + +"He did, and took it, and the Bluebeard chamber come to be opened in this +very jail. + +"It was when the system was lying fallow, so to speak, and the prison was +deserted. Nobody was there but him and me and the echoes from the empty +courts. The contract for restoration hadn't been signed, and for months, +and more than a year, we lay idle, nothing bein' done. + +"Near the beginnin' of this period, one day comes, for the third time of +the Major's seein' him, the grey-faced man. 'Let bygones be bygones,' +he says. 'I was a good friend to you, though you didn't know it; and now, +I expect, you're in the way to thank me.' + +"'I am,' says the Major. + +"'Of course,' he answers. 'Where would be your fame and reputation as one +of the leadin' prison reformers of the day if you had kep' on in that +riming nonsense?' + +"'Have you come for my thanks?' says the Governor. + +"'I've come,' says the grey-faced man, 'to examine and report upon your +system.' + +"'For your paper?' + +"'Possibly; but to satisfy myself of its efficacy, in the first +instance.' + +"'You aren't commissioned, then?' + +"'No; I come on my own responsibility.' + +"'Without consultation with any one?' + +"'Absolutely without. I haven't even a wife to advise me,' he says, with +a yellow grin. What once passed for cholera had set the bile on his skin +like paint, and he had caught a manner of coughing behind his hand like a +toast-master. + +"'I know,' says the Major, looking him steady in the face, 'that what you +say about me and my affairs is sure to be actuated by conscientious +motives.' + +"'Ah,' he answers. 'You're sore about that review still, I see.' + +"'Not at all,' says the Major; 'and, in proof, I invite you to be my +guest for the night, and to-morrow I'll show you over the prison and +explain my system.' + +"The creature cried, 'Done!' and they set to and discussed jail matters +in great earnestness. I couldn't guess the Governor's intentions, but, +somehow, his manner troubled me. And yet I can remember only one point of +his talk. He were always dead against making public show of his +birds. 'They're there for reformation, not ignimony,' he'd say. Prisons +in the old days were often, with the asylum and the work'us, made the +holiday show-places of towns. I've heard of one Justice of the Peace, up +North, who, to save himself trouble, used to sign a lot of blank orders +for leave to view, so that applicants needn't bother him when they wanted +to go over. They've changed all that, and the Governor were instrumental +in the change. + +"'It's against my rule,' he said that night, 'to exhibit to a stranger +without a Government permit; but, seein' the place is empty, and for old +remembrance' sake, I'll make an exception in your favour, and you shall +learn all I can show you of the inside of a prison.' + +"Now this was natural enough; but I was uneasy. + +"He treated his guest royally; so much that when we assembled the next +mornin' for the inspection, the grey-faced man were shaky as a wet dog. +But the Major were all set prim and dry, like the soldier he was. + +"We went straight away down corridor B, and at cell 47 we stopped. + +"'We will begin our inspection here,' said the Governor. 'Johnson, open +the door.' + +"I had the keys of the row; fitted in the right one, and pushed open the +door. + +"'After you, sir,' said the Major; and the creature walked in, and he +shut the door on him. + +"I think he smelt a rat at once, for he began beating on the wood and +calling out to us. But the Major only turned round to me with his face +like a stone. + +"'Take that key from the bunch,' he said, 'and give it to me.' + +"I obeyed, all in a tremble, and he took and put it in his pocket. + +"'My God, Major!' I whispered, 'what are you going to do with him?' + +"'Silence, sir!' he said. 'How dare you question your superior officer!' + +"And the noise inside grew louder. + +"The Governor, he listened to it a moment like music; then he unbolted +and flung open the trap, and the creature's face came at it like a wild +beast's. + +"'Sir,' said the Major to it, 'you can't better understand my system than +by experiencing it. What an article for your paper you could write +already--almost as pungint a one as that in which you ruined the hopes +and prospects of a young cockney poet.' + +"The man mouthed at the bars. He was half-mad, I think, in that one +minute. + +"'Let me out!' he screamed. 'This is a hideous joke! Let me out!' + +"'When you are quite quiet--deathly quiet,' said the Major, 'you shall +come out. Not before;' and he shut the trap in its face very softly. + +"'Come, Johnson, march!' he said, and took the lead, and we walked out of +the prison. + +"I was like to faint, but I dared not disobey, and the man's screeching +followed us all down the empty corridors and halls, until we shut the +first great door on it. + +"It may have gone on for hours, alone in that awful emptiness. The +creature was a reptile, but the thought sickened my heart. + +"And from that hour till his death, five months later, he rotted and +maddened in his dreadful tomb." + + * * * * * + +There was more, but I pushed the ghastly confession from me at this point +in uncontrollable loathing and terror. Was it possible--possible, that +injured vanity could so falsify its victim's every tradition of decency? + +"Oh!" I muttered, "what a disease is ambition! Who takes one step towards +it puts his foot on Alsirat!" + +It was minutes before my shocked nerves were equal to a resumption of the +task; but at last I took it up again, with a groan. + + * * * * * + +"I don't think at first I realized the full mischief the Governor +intended to do. At least, I hoped he only meant to give the man a good +fright and then let him go. I might have known better. How could he ever +release him without ruining himself? + +"The next morning he summoned me to attend him. There was a strange +new look of triumph in his face, and in his hand he held a heavy +hunting-crop. I pray to God he acted in madness, but my duty and +obedience was to him. + +"'There is sport toward, Johnson,' he said. 'My dervish has got to +dance.' + +"I followed him quiet. We listened when I opened the jail door, but the +place was silent as the grave. But from the cell, when we reached it, +came a low, whispering sound. + +"The Governor slipped the trap and looked through. + +"'All right,' he said, and put the key in the door and flung it open. + +"He were sittin' crouched on the ground, and he looked up at us +vacant-like. His face were all fallen down, as it were, and his mouth +never ceased to shake and whisper. + +"The Major shut the door and posted me in a corner. Then he moved to the +creature with his whip. + +"'Up!' he cried. 'Up, you dervish, and dance to us!' and he brought the +thong with a smack across his shoulders. + +"The creature leapt under the blow, and then to his feet with a cry, and +the Major whipped him till he danced. All round the cell he drove him, +lashing and cutting--and again, and many times again, until the poor +thing rolled on the floor whimpering and sobbing. I shall have to give an +account of this some day. I shall have to whip my master with a red-hot +serpent round the blazing furnace of the pit, and I shall do it with +agony, because here my love and my obedience was to him. + +"When it was finished, he bade me put down food and drink that I had +brought with me, and come away with him; and we went, leaving him +rolling on the floor of the cell, and shut him alone in the empty prison +until we should come again at the same time to-morrow. + +"So day by day this went on, and the dancing three or four times a week, +until at last the whip could be left behind, for the man would scream and +begin to dance at the mere turning of the key in the lock. And he danced +for four months, but not the fifth. + +"Nobody official came near us all this time. The prison stood lonely as a +deserted ruin where dark things have been done. + +"Once, with fear and trembling, I asked my master how he would account +for the inmate of 47 if he was suddenly called upon by authority to +open the cell; and he answered, smiling,-- + +"I should say it was my mad brother. By his own account, he showed me a +brother's love, you know. It would be thought a liberty; but the +authorities, I think, would stretch a point for me. But if I got +sufficient notice, I should clear out the cell.' + +"I asked him how, with my eyes rather than my lips, and he answered me +only with a look. + +"And all this time he was, outside the prison, living the life of a good +man--helping the needy, ministering to the poor. He even entertained +occasionally, and had more than one noisy party in his house. + +"But the fifth month the creature danced no more. He was a dumb, silent +animal then, with matted hair and beard; and when one entered he would +only look up at one pitifully, as if he said, 'My long punishment is +nearly ended'. How it came that no inquiry was ever made about him I +know not, but none ever was. Perhaps he was one of the wandering gentry +that nobody ever knows where they are next. He was unmarried, and had +apparently not told of his intended journey to a soul. + +"And at the last he died in the night. We found him lying stiff and +stark in the morning, and scratched with a piece of black crust on a +stone of the wall these strange words: 'An Eddy on the Floor'. Just +that--nothing else. + +"Then the Governor came and looked down, and was silent. Suddenly he +caught me by the shoulder. + +"'Johnson', he cried, 'if it was to do again, I would do it! I repent of +nothing. But he has paid the penalty, and we call quits. May he rest +in peace!' + +"'Amen!' I answered low. Yet I knew our turn must come for this. + +"We buried him in quicklime under the wall where the murderers lie, and I +made the cell trim and rubbed out the writing, and the Governor locked +all up and took away the key. But he locked in more than he bargained +for. + +"For months the place was left to itself, and neither of us went anigh +47. Then one day the workmen was to be put in, and the Major he took +me round with him for a last examination of the place before they come. + +"He hesitated a bit outside a particular cell; but at last he drove in +the key and kicked open the door. + +"'My God!' he says, 'he's dancing still!' + +"My heart was thumpin', I tell you, as I looked over his shoulder. What +did we see? What you well understand, sir; but, for all it was no more +than that, we knew as well as if it was shouted in our ears that it was +him, dancin'. It went round by the walls and drew towards us, and as it +stole near I screamed out, 'An Eddy on the Floor!' and seized and dragged +the Major out and clapped to the door behind us. + +"'Oh!' I said, 'in another moment it would have had us'. + +"He looked at me gloomily. + +"'Johnson', he said, 'I'm not to be frighted or coerced. He may dance, +but he shall dance alone. Get a screwdriver and some screws and fasten up +this trap. No one from this time looks into this cell.' + +"I did as he bid me, sweatin'; and I swear all the time I wrought I +dreaded a hand would come through the trap and clutch mine. + +"On one pretex' or another, from that day till the night you meddled with +it, he kep' that cell as close shut as a tomb. And he went his ways, +discardin' the past from that time forth. Now and again a over-sensitive +prisoner in the next cell would complain of feelin' uncomfortable. If +possible, he would be removed to another; if not, he was damd for his +fancies. And so it might be goin' on to now, if you hadn't pried and +interfered. I don't blame you at this moment, sir. Likely you were an +instrument in the hands of Providence; only, as the instrument, you must +now take the burden of the truth on your own shoulders. I am a dying man, +but I cannot die till I have confessed. Per'aps you may find it in your +hart some day to give up a prayer for me--but it must be for the Major as +well. + +"Your obedient servant, + +"J. JOHNSON." + + * * * * * + +What comment of my own can I append to this wild narrative? +Professionally, and apart from personal experiences, I should rule it the +composition of an epileptic. That a noted journalist, nameless as he was +and is to me, however nomadic in habit, could disappear from human ken, +and his fellows rest content to leave him unaccounted for, seems a tax +upon credulity so stupendous that I cannot seriously endorse the +statement. + +Yet, also--there _is_ that little matter of my personal experience. + + + + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + + +On a day early in the summer of the present year Miss Dinah Groom was +found lying dead off a field-path of the little obscure Wiltshire village +which she had named her "rest and be thankful." At the date of her +decease she was not an old woman, though any one marking her white hair +and much-furrowed features might have supposed her one. The hair, +however, was ample in quantity, the wrinkles rather so many under-scores +of energy than evidences of senility; and until the blinds were down over +her soul, she had looked into and across the world with a pair of eyes +that seemed to reflect the very blue and white of a June sky. No doubt +she had thought to breast the hills and sail the seas again in some +renaissance of vigour. No doubt her "retreat," like a Roman Catholic's, +was designed to be merely temporary. She aped the hermit for the sake of +a sojourn in the hermitage. She came to her island of Avalon to be +restored of her weary limbs and her blistered feet, so to speak; and +there her heart, too weak for her spirit, failed her, and she fell +amongst the young budding poppies, and died. + +I use the word "heart" literally, and in no sentimental sense. To talk of +associations of sentiment in connection with this lady would be +misleading. She herself would not have repudiated any responsibility for +the term as applied to her; she would have simply failed to understand +the term itself. There was no least affectation in this. Throughout her +life of sixty years, as I gather, she acted never once upon principle. +Impulse and inclination dominated her, and she would indulge many +primitive instincts without a thought of conventions. Yet she was not +selfish; or, at least, only in the self-contained and self-protective +meaning of the word. She was a perfect animal, conscious of her supreme +brute caste, shrewd, resourceful, and the plain embodiment of truth. + +Miss Groom had, I think, a boundless feeling of fellowship with beauty of +whatever description; but no least touch of that sorrow of affection +which, in its very humanity, is divine. Her unswerving creed was that +woman was the inheritrix of the earth, the reversion of which she had +wilfully mortgaged to an alien race, and that she had bartered her +material immortality for a sensation. For man she had no vulgar and +jealous contempt; but she feared and shrank from him as something moved +by scruples with which she had no sympathy. She understood the world of +Nature, and could respond to its bloodless caresses and passions. She +could _not_ understand the moodiness that dwells upon a grievance, or +that would sell its birthright of joy for a pitiful memory. + +Yet (and here I must speak with discretion, for I have no sufficient data +to go upon) there was that of contradictoriness in her character that, I +have reason to believe, she had borne children, and had even been right +and particular as to their temporal welfare until such time as, in the +nature of things, they were of an age to make shift for themselves. This, +virtually, I know to be the case; and that, once quit of the primitive +maternal responsibility, she gave no more thought to them than a thrush +gives to its fledglings when she has educated them to their first +flights, and to the useful knack of cracking a snail on a stone. + +My own feeling about Dinah Groom was that she had "thrown back" a long +way over the heads of heredity, and that, in her fearlessness, in her +undegenerate physique, in the animal regularity of her face and form, she +presented to modern days a startling aboriginal type. + +Beautiful--save in the sense of symmetry--she can never have been to the +ordinary man; inasmuch as she would subscribe to no arbitrary standard of +his dictating. She had a high, rich colour; but her complexion must +always have been rough, and a pronounced little moustache crossed her +upper lip, like an accent to the speech that was too distinct and +uncompromising to be melodious. Her every limb and feature, however, was +instinct with capability, and, in her presence, one must always be moved +to marvel over that indescribable worship of disproportion that has grown +to be the religion of a shapely race. + + * * * * * + +How I first became acquainted with Miss Groom it is unnecessary to +explain. During the last three years of her life I was fortunate to be +her guest in the Wiltshire retreat for an aggregate of many months. She +took a fancy to me--to my solitariness and moroseness, perhaps--and she +not only liked to have me with her, but, after a time, she fell into +something of a habit of recalling for my benefit certain passages and +experiences of her past life. In doing this, there was no suggestion of +confidence; and I am breaking no faith in alluding to them. She was a +fine talker--rugged, unpicturesque, but with an instinctive capacity of +selection in words. If I quote her, as I wish to do, I cannot reproduce +her style; and that, no doubt, would appear bald on paper. But, at least, +the matter is all her own. + +Now, I must premise that I arrogate to myself no exhibitory rights in +this lady. She was familiar with and to many from the foremost ranks of +those who "follow knowledge like a sinking star"; those great and +restless spirits to whom inaction reads stagnation. To such, in all +probability, I tell, in speaking of Dinah Groom, a twice-told tale; and, +therefore--inasmuch as I make it my business only to print what is +hitherto unrecorded--to them I give the assurance that I do not claim to +have "discovered" their friend. + + * * * * * + +On a wall of the little embowered sitting-room hung a queer picture, by +Ernest Griset, of the "Overwhelming of the Mammoths in the Ice." From the +first this odd conception had engaged my curiosity,--purely for its +fanciful side,--and one evening, in alluding to it, I made the not very +profound remark that Imagination had no anatomy. + +"They are true beasts," said Dinah. + +"They are the mastodons of Cuvier, no doubt; but, then, Cuvier never saw +a mastodon, you know." + +"But I have; and I tell you Griset and Cuvier are very nearly right." + +I expressed no surprise. + +"In what were they astray?" I asked. + +"The mammoth, as I saw it, had a huge hump--like the steam-chest of an +enormous engine--over its shoulders." + +"And where did you see it, and when?" + +"You are curious to know?" + +"Yes, I think I am; and there is a quiet of expectancy abroad. I hear the +ghost of my dead brother walking in the corridor, Dinah; and we are all +waiting for you to speak." + +She smiled, and said, "Push me over the cigarettes." + +She struck a match, kindled the little crackling tube, and threw the +light out into the shrubbery. It traced a tiny arc of flame and vanished. +The sky was full of the mewing of lost kittens, it seemed. The sound came +from innumerable peewits, that fled and circled above the slopes of the +darkening meadows below. + +"What an uncomfortable seer you are!" she said, "to people this dear +human night with your fancies. No doubt, now, you will read between +the lines of that bird speech down there?" (She looked at me curiously, +but with none of the mournful speculativeness of a soul struggling +against the dimness of its own vision.) "To me it is articulate +happiness--nothing more abstruse. Yes, I have seen a mastodon; and I was +as glad to happen on the beast as a naturalist is glad to find a missing +link in a chain of evidence. From the moment, I knew myself quite clearly +to be the recovered heir to this abused planet." + +She paused a moment, and contracted her brows, as if regretfully and in +anger. "If I had only seen it sooner!" she cried, low; "before I had, in +my pride of strength, tested the poison that has bewildered the brains of +my sisters!" + +Her general reserve was her self-armour against the bolts of the +Philistines. What worldling would not have read mania in much that was +spoken by this sane woman? Yet, indeed, if we were all to find the power +to give expression to our inmost thoughts, madness and sanity would have +to change places in the order of affairs. + +"Once," said Dinah--"and it was when I was a young woman--a man in whom I +was interested shipped as passenger on a whaling vessel. This friend was +what is called a degenerate. Physically and morally he had yielded his +claim to any share in that province of the sun, that his race had +conquered and annexed only to find it antipathetic to its needs. +Combative effort was grown impossible to him, as in time it will grow to +you all. You drop from the world like dead flies from a wall. He could +not physic his soul with woods, and groves, and waters. To his +perceptions, life was become an abnormality--a disease of which he +sickened, as you all must when the last of the fever of aggression has +been diluted out of your veins. You die of your triumph, as the bee dies +of his own weapon of offence; and you can find no antidote to the poison +in the nature you have inoculated with your own virus. + +"This man contemplated self-destruction as the only escape. He had sought +distraction of his moral torments in travel long and varied. Many of the +most beautiful, of the historically interesting places of the world, he +had visited and sojourned in--without avail. His haunting feeling, he +said, was that he did not belong to himself. Pursued by this Nemesis, he +came home to end it all. He still proclaimed his spiritual independence; +but it was immeshed, and he must tear the strands. This was wonderfully +perplexing to me, and, out of my curiosity, I must persuade him to make +one more attempt. His late efforts, I assured him, were nothing but an +endeavour to cure nausea with sweet syrups. He would not get his change +out of nature by such pitiful wooing. Let him, rather, emulate, if he +could not feel, the spirit of his remote forbears, and rally his nerves +to an expedition into the harsh and awful places of the earth. I would +accompany him, and watch with and for him, and supply that of the fibre +he lacked. + +"He consented, and, after some difficulty (for there is an economy of +room in whalers), we obtained passage in a vessel and sailed into the +unknown. Our life and our food were simple and rugged; but the keen air, +the relief from luxury, the novelty and the wonder, wrought upon my +companion and renewed him, so that presently I was amused to note in him +signs of a moral preening--some smug resumption of that arrogant air of +superiority that is a tradition with your race." + +Miss Groom here puckered her lips, and breathed a little destructive +laugh upon her cigarette ash. + +"It did not last long," she said. "We encountered very bad weather, and +his nerves again went by the board. That was in the 60th longitude, I +think (where whales were still to be found in those years), and seven +hundred miles or so to the east of Spitzbergen. On the day--it was in +August--that the storm first overtook us, the boats were out in pursuit +of a 'right' whale, as, I believe, the men called it--a great bull +creature, and piebald like a horse; and I saw the spouting of his breath +as if a water main had burst in a London fog. The wind came in a sudden +charge from the northwest, and the whale dived with a harpoon in its +back; and in the confusion a reel fouled, and one of the boats was whipt +under in a moment--half a mile down, perhaps--and its crew drawn with +it, and their lungs, full of air, burst like bubbles. We had no time to +think of them. We got the other boat-load on board, and then the gale +sent us crashing down the slopes of the sea. I have no knowledge of how +long we were curst of the tempest and the sport of its ravings. I only +know that when it released us at last, we had been hurled a thousand +miles eastwards. The long interval was all a hellish jangle in which time +seemed obliterated. Sometimes we saw the sun--a furious red globe; and we +seemed to stand still while it raced down the sky and ricocheted over the +furthermost waves like a red-hot cannon ball. Sometimes in pitch darkness +the wild sense of flight and expectation was an ecstasy. But through all +my friend lay in a half-delirious stupor. + +"At length a morning broke, full of icy scud, but the sea panting and +exhausted of its rage. As a child catches its breath after a storm of +tears, so it would heave up suddenly, and vibrate, and sink; and we +rocked upon it, a ruined hulk. We were off a flat, vacant shore--if shore +you could call it--whose margin, for miles inland, it seemed, undulated +with the lifting of the swell. It was treeless desolation manifest; and +on our sea side, as far as the eye could reach, the water bobbed and +winked with countless spars of ice. + +"I will tell you at once, my friend,--we were brought to opposite an +inhuman swamp on the coast of Siberia, fifty miles or more to the west +of North-east Cape; and there what remained of the crew made shift to +cast anchor; and for a day and night the ragged ship curtsied to the +land, like a blind beggar to an empty street, and we only dozed in our +corners and wondered at the silence. + +"By-and-by the men made a raft, and that took us all ashore. There was +something like a definite coast-line, then; but for long before we +touched it the undersides of the planks were scraping and hissing over +vegetation. This was the winter fur of the land--thick, coarse tundra +moss; and on that we pitched a camp, and on that we remained for long +weeks while the ship was mending. It was a weird, lonely time. Once +or twice strange, wandering creatures came our way--little, belted men, +with hairless faces, who rode up on strong horses, and liked to exhibit +their skilful management of them. They talked to us in their chirpy +jargon (Toongus, I think it was called); but jargon it must needs remain +to us. + +"Well, we made a patch of the hulk, and we shipped in her again. We were +fortunate to be able to do that, for, with every stiffish wind blowing +inshore, we had feared she would drag her moorings and ground immovably +on the swamps. The land, indeed, was so flat and low that, whenever the +sea rose at all, it threshed the very plains and crackled in the moss; +and we were glad, despite the risk, to leave so lifeless a place." + +Dinah paused to light another cigarette, and to inhale the ecstasy of the +first puff or so before she continued. Up through the still evening, from +a curve of the main road that crooked an elbow to her front garden, came +what sounded like the purring of a great cat--the wind in the telegraph +wires. + +"And I am now to tell you," she said, "about the mastodon?" + +"As you please," I answered. + +"I do please; for why should I keep it to myself? It makes no difference; +only I warn you, if you quote me, you will be writ down a fool or a +maniac. This relation lacks witnesses, for the whaler--that I +subsequently quitted for another homing vessel--was never heard of in +port any more." + +She looked at me with some serious scrutiny before she went on. + +"For these regions, it had been an extraordinarily hot +summer--phenomenally hot, I understand; and to this--to the melting and +breaking away of the ice from hitherto century-locked fastnesses, the +captain attributed the wonderful experience that befell us. The sea was +strewn with blocks and bergs, all hurrying onwards in the strong +currents, as if in haste to escape the pursuing demon of frost that +should re-fetter them; and their multitude kept the steersman's arms +spinning till the man would fall half-fainting over the spoke-handles. + +"Now, one morning early in September, a dense bright fog dropped suddenly +upon the waters. We were making what sail we could--with our crippled +spars and stunted trees of masts--and this it were useless to shorten, +and so invite a rearward bombardment from the chasing hummocks. So we +kept our course by the compass, and trailed on through a blind mist while +fear drummed in our throats. The demoralization of my friend was by this +time complete. For myself, I seldom had a thought but that Nature would +sheathe her claws when she played with me. + +"'This cannot last long!' said the captain. + +"The words were on his lips when we struck with a noise like the +splintering of glass. We were all thrown down, and my companion screamed +like a mad thing. The captain rose and ran to the bows; and in a moment +he came back and his beard was shaking. + +"'God save us!' he cried, 'and fetch aft the rum!' + +"There you have man in his invincible moods. They drank till they were in +a condition to face death; and then they found that our situation was +rather improved than otherwise by the collision. For--so it appeared--we +had run full tilt for a perpendicular fissure in a huge block, and +into that our bows were firmly wedged, the nature of the impact +distributing the shock, and the berg itself carrying us along with it and +protecting us. + +"Now the dipping motion of the vessel was exchanged for a heavy regular +wash along its stern quarters; for the bows were so much raised as that I +felt a little strain on my knees as I went forward to satisfy my +curiosity with a view of the icy mass into which we were penetrated. I +waited, indeed, until the crew were come aft again from looking, and my +friend crept timidly at my shoulder; but when we reached the stem, there +was one of the hands, a little soberer than his fellows, sprawled over +the bulwarks, and staring with all his eyes into the green lift of the +wall against him. + +"'Is it a mermaid you see, Killigrew?' I asked. + +"The man shifted his gaze to me slowly and solemnly. + +"'Nowt, nowt,' said he; 'but a turble monster, like a pram stuck in +jelly.' + +"I laughed, and went to his side. The fog, as I have said, was dense and +bright, and one could see into it a little way, as into a milky white +agate. But now and again a film of it would pull thin, and then sunlight +came through and made a dim radiance of the ice. + +"'I can make out nothing,' I said. + +"He cocked an eye and leered up at me. 'Look steady and sober,' he said, +'and you'll make en owut like as in a glass darkly.' + +"I gave a little gasp and my friend a cry before the words were issued +from the man's mouth. Drawn by some current of air, the fog at the +moment blew out of the cleft, like smoke from a chimney; and there, +before our gaze, was a great curved tusk coming up through the ice and +inside it. + +"Now I clapped my hands in an agony, lest the fog should close in again, +and the vision fade before my eyes; for, following the sweep of the tusk, +I was aware of the phantom presentment of some monster creature lying +imbedded within the ice, its mighty carcase prostrate as it had fallen; +the conformation of its enormous forehead presented directly to our +gaze. Its little toffee-ball eyes--little proportionately, that is to +say--squinted at us, it seemed, through half-closed lids, and a huge, +hairy trunk lay curled, like the proboscis of a dead moth, between its +tree-like fore-legs. Away beyond, the great red-brown drum of its hide +bellied upward on ribs as thick as a Dutch galliot's, and sprouting from +its shoulders was the hump I have mentioned, but here, from its position, +sprawled abroad and lying over in a shapeless mass. + +"There was something else--horribly nauseating but for its strangeness. +The brute had been partly disembowelled, as there was ample evidence to +show, for the ice had preserved all. + +"Suddenly my companion gave a high nervous shriek. + +"'Look!' he cried--'the hand! the hand sticking out of the side!' + +"I saw in a moment; turned, and called excitedly to the captain. He--all +the crew--came tumbling forward up the slippery deck. I seized him by the +shoulder. + +"'Do you see?' I screamed--'the human hand beckoning to us from that +great body!' + +"He gazed stupidly, swaying where he stood. + +"'One o' them bloomin' pre-hadymite cows!' he muttered; 'caught in the +cold nip, by thunder! and some unfortnit crept into her for warmth.' + +"I believed the creature's rude intuition had flown true. + +"'Cannot you get at it?' I gasped. + +"He stared at me. All in an instant a little paltry demon of avarice +blinked out of his eye-holes. + +"'Why,' he said slowly, 'who knows but it mayn't be a gal a-jingling from +top to toe with gold curtain rings!' + +"He was a furious dare-devil immediately, and quick, and savage, and +peremptory. His spirit entered into his men. They went over the side +with pikes and axes, and, scrambling for any foothold, set to work on the +ice like maniacs. In the lust of cupidity they did not even think how +they wrought against their own safety and that of the ship. + +"The point of the uppermost tusk came to within a foot of the +ice-surface. This they soon reached, and, prising frantically with +crowbars, flaked off and rolled away half-ton blocks of the +superincumbent mass. I need not detail the fierce process. In half an +hour they had laid bare a great segment of that part of the trunk whence +the hand protruded, and then they paused, and at a word flung down their +tools. + +"I was leaning over the bulwarks watching them. I could contain my +excitement no longer. + +"'Come,' I said to my friend, 'help me down, for I must go.' + +"He climbed over, trembling, and assisted me to a standing on the ice. We +scrambled along the track of _débris_ left by the crew. At the moment +half a dozen of the latter were rolling back a broad flap of the hide, in +which they had found a long L-shaped rent revealed. Then a hoarse cry +broke from them, and I stumbled forward and looked down, and saw. + +"They lay beneath the mighty ribs as in a cage, of which the intercostal +spaces were a foot in width, and the bars of a strength to maintain the +enormous pressure of that which had surrounded and entombed them; they +lay in one close group, their naked limbs smeared with the stain of their +prison--a man, a woman, and a tiny child. From their faces, and their +unfallen flesh, they might have been sleeping; but they were not; they +were come down to us, a transfixture of death--prehistoric people in a +prehistoric brute, and their eyes--their eyes!" + +Dinah's voice trailed off into silence. Some expression that I could not +interpret was on her face. There was regret in it, but nothing of pathos +or mysticism. Suddenly she breathed out a great sigh and resumed her +narrative. + +"You will want to know how they looked, these lifeless survivors of a +remote race from a remote time? I will try to tell you. The men hacked +away the ribs with their axes, and laid bare the group lying in the +hollow scooped out of the fallen beast. They were little people, and the +man, according to your modern canons of taste, was by far the most +beautiful of the three. He sat erect, with one uplifted arm projected +through the ribs; as if, surprised by the frost-stroke, he had started to +escape, and had been petrified in the act. His face, wondering and +delicate as a baby's, was hairless; and his head only a pretty infantile +down covered--a curling floss as radiant as spun glass. His wide-open +eyes glinted yet with a hyacinth blue, and it was difficult to realize +that they were dead and vacant. + +"The woman was of coarser mould, ruddy, vigorous, brown-haired and eyed. +She looked the very hamadryad of some blossoming tree, a sweet capricious +daughter of the blameless earth. Everything luxuriated in her--colour, +hair, and lusty flesh; and the child she held to her bosom with a manner +that indescribably commingled contempt, and resentment, and a passion of +proprietorship. + +"This baby--joining the prominent characteristics of the two--was the +oddest little mortal I have ever seen. What did its expression convey to +me? 'I am fairly caught, and must brazen out the situation!' There! that +was what it was; I cannot put it more lucidly. Only the thing's wee face +was animal conscious for the first time of itself, and inclined to +rejoice in that primitive energy of knowledge. + +"Now, my friend, I must tell you how the sight operated upon me and upon +my companion. For myself, I can only say that, looking upon that fine, +independent fore-mother of my race, I felt the sun in my veins and the +winy fragrance of antique woods and pastures. I laughed; I clapped my +hands; I danced on the ice-rubbish, so that they thought me mad. But, for +the other--the man--he was in a different plight. He was transfigured; +his nervousness was gone in a flash. He cast himself down upon his knees, +and gazed and gazed, his hands clasped, upon that sleek, mild progenitor +of his, that pure image of gentle self-containment, whose very meekness +suggested an indomitable will. + +"Suddenly he, my friend, cried out: 'This is one caught in the process of +materialization! It is not flesh; my God, no!' + +"It seemed, indeed, as if it were as he said. I stopped in my capering +and looked down. The tarry hinds standing by grinned and jeered. + +"On the instant there came a splintering snap, and the floe rocked and +curtsied. + +"'Back!' yelled the captain. 'She's breaking through by the head!' + +"He shrieked of the ship. She was clearing herself, had already shaken +her prow free of the ice. + +"There was a wild scamper for safety. I was carried with the throng. It +was not until I was hauled on board once more that I thought of my +friend. He still knelt where we had fled from him, a wrapt, strange +expression on his face. + +"'Come back!' I screamed. 'You will be lost!' + +"Now at that he turned his head and looked at me; but he never moved, and +his voice came to me quiet and exultant. + +"'Lost!' he said, 'ay, for forty-three years: and here, here I find +myself!' + +"We dipped, and the wash of the water came about our bows. The block of +ice swerved, made a sluggish half-pirouette and dropped astern. + +"'Come!' I shrieked again faintly. + +"With the echo of my cry he was a phantom, a blot, had vanished in the +rearward fog; and thereout a little joyous laugh came to me. + +"And that was a queer good-bye for ever, wasn't it?" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + + +PROEM + +Heaven's Nursery + + +"Sinner, sinner, whence do you come?" + "From the bitter earth they called my home." + +"Sinner, sinner, why do you wait?" + "I fear to knock at the golden gate: + +"My crimes were heavy; my doom is sure, + And I dread the anguish I must endure." + +"Had you ever a child down there?" + "One--but it died, and I learnt despair." + +"Here you will find it, behind the gate." + "God forbid! for it felt my hate-- + +"Shrunk in the frost of my cruelties. + More than the Judge's I fear its eyes." + +"Hist! At the keyhole place your ear. + Sinner, what is the sound you hear? + +"Is it ten thousand babes at play? + Heaven's nursery lies that way. + +"Through it to judgment all must fare + It was God's pity placed it there." + +The gate swung open; the sinner past; + Little hands caught and held him fast. + +"While you wait the call of the Nameless One, + There's time for a game at 'Touch-and-Run'!" + +He played with them there in that shining place, + With the hot tears scorching his furrowed face-- + +Played, till the voice rang dread and clear: + "Where is the sinner? I wait him here!" + +Then shouting with laughter one and all + They pushed him on to the Judgment Hall; + +Stood by him; swarmed to the daïs steps, + A jumble of gleeful eyes and lips. + +The Judge leaned stern from His Judgment Throne: + _"I gave thee--where is thy littte one?"_ + +Wildly the culprit caught his breath: + "Lord, I have sinned. My doom be death." + +He hung his head with a broken sob. + There sprang a child from the rosy mob-- + +"Daddy!" it cried, with a joyful shriek; + Leapt to his arms and kissed his cheek. + +But he put it from him with bursting sighs, + And looked on the Judge with swimming eyes; + +Stood abashed in his bitter shame, + Waiting the sentence that never came. + +From the Throne spoke out the thundered Word: + _"This be thy doom!"_ No more he heard, + +For a chime of laughter from baby throats + Took up those crashing organ notes, + +Mixed with; silenced them; made them void-- + And the children's laughter was unalloyed, + +"This be thy doom," came a little squeak, + "To play with us here at 'hide-and-seek'!" + +Thrice did the Judge essay to frown; + Thrice did the children laugh Him down-- + +Till at the last, He caught and kissed + The maddest of all and the merriest; + +Turned to the sinner, with smiling face: + "These render futile the Judgment Place. + +"Sunniest rascals, imp and elf, + Who think they can better the Judge Himself. + +"Sinner--whatever thy sins may be, + Theirs is the sentence--go from Me!" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + +TAKEN FROM THE Q---- REGISTER OF LOCAL EVENTS, AS COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC +NARRATIVES + +I + + +Now I am to tell you of a thing that befell in the year 1665 of the Great +Plague, when the hearts of certain amongst men, grown callous in +wickedness upon that rebound from an inhuman austerity, were opened to +the vision of a terror that moved and spoke not in the silent places of +the fields. Forasmuch as, however, in the recovery from delirium a +patient may marvel over the incredulity of neighbours who refuse to give +credence to the presentments that have been _ipso facto_ to him, so, the +nation being sound again, and its constitution hale, I expect little but +a laugh for my piety in relating of the following incident; which, +nevertheless, is as essential true as that he who shall look through the +knot-hole in the plank of a coffin shall acquire the evil eye. + +For, indeed, in those days of a wild fear and confusion, when every +condition that maketh for reason was set wandering by a devious path, and +all men sitting as in a theatre of death looked to see the curtain rise +upon God knows what horrors, it was vouchsafed to many to witness sights +and sounds beyond the compass of Nature, and that as if the devil and his +minions had profited by the anarchy to slip unobserved into the world. +And I know that this is so, for all the insolence of a recovered +scepticism; and, as to the unseen, we are like one that traverseth the +dark with a lanthorn, himself the skipper of a little moving blot of +light, but a positive mark for any secret foe without the circumference +of its radiance. + +Be that as it may, and whether it was our particular ill-fortune, or, as +some asserted, our particular wickedness, that made of our village an +inviting back-door of entrance to the Prince of Darkness, I know not; but +so it is that disease and contagion are ever inclined to penetrate by way +of flaws or humours where the veil of the flesh is already perforated, +as a kite circleth round its quarry, looking for the weak place to +strike: and, without doubt, in that land of corruption we were a very +foul blot indeed. + +How this came about it were idle to speculate; yet no man shall have the +hardihood to affirm that it was otherwise. Nor do I seek to extenuate +myself, who was in truth no better than my neighbours in most that made +us a community of drunkards and forswearers both lewd and abominable. +For in that village a depravity that was like madness had come to possess +the heads of the people, and no man durst take his stand on honesty or +even common decency, for fear he should be set upon by his comrades and +drummed out of his government on a pint pot. Yet for myself I will say +was one only redeeming quality, and that was the pure love I bore to my +solitary orphaned child, the little Margery. + +Now, our Vicar--a patient and God-fearing man, for all his predial tithes +were impropriated by his lord, that was an absentee and a sheriff in +London--did little to stem that current of lewdness that had set in +strong with the Restoration. And this was from no lack of virtue in +himself, but rather from a natural invertebracy, as one may say, and an +order of mind that, yet being no order, is made the sport of any +sophister with a wit for paragram. Thus it always is that mere example is +of little avail without precept,--of which, however, it is an important +condition,--and that the successful directors of men be not those who go +to the van and lead, unconscious of the gibes and mockery in their rear, +but such rather as drive the mob before them with a smiting hand and no +infirmity of purpose. So, if a certain affection for our pastor dwelt in +our hearts, no title of respect was there to leaven it and justify his +high office before Him that consigned the trust; and ever deeper and +deeper we sank in the slough of corruption, until was brought about this +pass--that naught but some scourging despotism of the Church should +acquit us of the fate of Sodom. That such, at the eleventh hour, was +vouchsafed us of God's mercy, it is my purpose to show; and, doubtless, +this offering of a loop-hole was to account by reason of the devil's +having debarked his reserves, as it were, in our port; and so quartering +upon us a soldiery that we were, at no invitation of our own, to +maintain, stood us a certain extenuation. + +It was late in the order of things before in our village so much as a +rumour of the plague reached us. Newspapers were not in those days, and +reports, being by word of mouth, travelled slowly, and were often spent +bullets by the time they fell amongst us. Yet, by May, some gossip there +was of the distemper having gotten a hold in certain quarters of London +and increasing, and this alarmed our people, though it made no abatement +of their profligacy. But presently the reports coming thicker, with +confirmation of the terror and panic that was enlarging on all sides, we +must take measures for our safety; though into June and July, when the +pestilence was raging, none infected had come our way, and that from our +remote and isolated position. Yet it needs but fear for the crown to that +wickedness that is self-indulgence; and forasmuch as this fear fattens +like a toadstool on the decomposition it springs from, it grew with us to +the proportions that we were set to kill or destroy any that should +approach us from the stricken districts. + +And then suddenly there appeared in our midst _he_ that was appointed to +be our scourge and our cautery. + +Whence he came, or how, no man of us could say. Only one day we were a +community of roysterers and scoffers, impious and abominable, and the +next he was amongst us smiting and thundering. + +Some would have it that he was an old collegiate of our Vicar's, but at +last one of those wandering Dissenters that found never as now the times +opportune to their teachings--a theory to which our minister's treatment +of the stranger gave colour. For from the moment of his appearance he +took the reins of government, as it were, appropriating the pulpit and +launching his bolts therefrom, with the full consent and encouragement of +the other. There were those, again, who were resolved that his commission +was from a high place, whither news of our infamy had reached, and that +we had best give him a respectful hearing, lest we should run a chance of +having our hearing stopped altogether. A few were convinced he was no man +at all, but rather a fiend sent to thresh us with the scourge of our own +contriving, that we might be tender, like steak, for the cooking; and yet +other few regarded him with terror, as an actual figure or embodiment of +the distemper. + +But, generally, after the first surprise, the feeling of resentment at +his intrusion woke and gained ground, and we were much put about that he +should have thus assumed the pastorship without invitation, quartering +with our Vicar; who kept himself aloof and was little seen, and seeking +to drive us by terror, and amazement, and a great menace of retribution. +For, in truth, this was not the method to which we were wont, and it both +angered and disturbed us. + +This feeling would have enlarged the sooner, perhaps, were it not for a +certain restraining influence possessed of the new-comer, which +neighboured him with darkness and mystery. For he was above the common +tall, and ever appeared in public with a slouched hat, that concealed all +the upper part of his face and showed little otherwise but the dense +black beard that dropped upon his breast like a shadow. + +Now with August came a fresh burst of panic, how the desolation increased +and the land was overrun with swarms of infected persons seeking an +asylum from the city; and our anger rose high against the stranger, who +yet dwelt with us and encouraged the distemper of our minds by furious +denunciations of our guilt. + +Thus far, for all the corruption of our hearts, we had maintained the +practice of church-going, thinking, maybe, poor fools! to hoodwink the +Almighty with a show of reverence; but now, as by a common consent, we +neglected the observances and loitered of a Sabbath in the fields, and +thither at the last the strange man pursued us and ended the matter. + +For so it fell that at the time of the harvest's ripening a goodish body +of us males was gathered one Sunday for coolness about the neighbourhood +of the dripping well, whose waters were a tradition, for they had long +gone dry. This well was situate in a sort of cave or deep scoop at the +foot of a cliff of limestone, to which the cultivated ground that led up +to it fell somewhat. High above, the cliff broke away into a wide stretch +of pasture land, but the face of the rock itself was all patched with +bramble and little starved birch-trees clutching for foothold; and in +like manner the excavation beneath was half-stifled and gloomed over with +undergrowth, so that it looked a place very dismal and uninviting, save +in the ardour of the dog-days. + +Within, where had been the basin, was a great shattered hole going down +to unknown depths; and this no man had thought to explore, for a mystery +held about the spot that was doubtless the foster-child of ignorance. + +But to the front of the well and of the cliff stretched a noble field of +corn, and this field was of an uncommon shape, being, roughly, a vast +circle and a little one joined by a neck and in suggestion not unlike an +hour-glass; and into the crop thereof, which was of goodly weight and +condition, were the first sickles to be put on the morrow. + +Now as we stood or lay around, idly discussing of the news, and +congratulating ourselves that we were featly quit of our incubus, to us +along the meadow path, his shadow jumping on the corn, came the very +subject of our gossip. + +He strode up, looking neither to right nor left, and with the first word +that fell, low and damnatory, from his lips, we knew that the moment had +come when, whether for good or evil, he intended to cast us from him and +acquit himself of further responsibility in our direction. + +"Behold!" he cried, pausing over against us, "I go from among ye! Behold, +ye that have not obeyed nor inclined your ear, but have walked every one +in the imagination of his evil heart! Saith the Lord, 'I will bring evil +upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall +cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them.'" + +His voice rang out, and a dark silence fell among us. It was pregnant, +but with little of humility. We had had enough of this interloper and his +abuse. Then, like Jeremiah, he went to prophesy:-- + +"I read ye, men of Anathoth, and the murder in your hearts. Ye that have +worshipped the shameful thing and burned incense to Baal--shall I cringe +that ye devise against me, or not rather pray to the Lord of Hosts, 'Let +me see Thy vengeance on them'? And He answereth, 'I will bring evil upon +the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.'" + +Now, though I was no participator in that direful thing that followed, I +stood by, nor interfered, and so must share the blame. For there were men +risen all about, and their faces lowering, and it seemed that it would go +hard with the stranger were he not more particular. + +But he moved forward, with a stately and commanding gesture, and stood +with his back to the well-scoop and threatened us and spoke. + +"Lo!" he shrieked, "your hour is upon you! Ye shall be mowed down like +ripe corn, and the shadow of your name shall be swept from the earth! The +glass of your iniquity is turned, and when its sand is run through, not a +man of ye shall be!" + +He raised his arm aloft, and in a moment he was overborne. Even then, as +all say, none got sight of his face; but he fought with lowered head, and +his black beard flapped like a wounded crow. But suddenly a boy-child ran +forward of the bystanders, crying and screaming,-- + +"Hurt him not! They are hurting him--oh, me! oh, me!" + +And from the sweat and struggle came his voice, gasping, "I spare the +little children!" + +Then only I know of the surge and the crash towards the well-mouth, of an +instant cessation of motion, and immediately of men toiling hither and +thither with boulders and huge blocks, which they piled over the rent, +and so sealed it with a cromlech of stone. + + + + +II + + +That, in the heat of rage and of terror, we had gone farther than we had +at first designed, our gloom and our silence on the morrow attested. True +we were quit of our incubus, but on such terms as not even the severity +of the times could excuse. For the man had but chastised us to our +improvement; and to destroy the scourge is not to condone the offence. +For myself, as I bore up the little Margery to my shoulder on my way to +the reaping, I felt the burden of guilt so great as that I found myself +muttering of an apology to the Lord that I durst put myself into touch +with innocence. "But the walk would fatigue her otherwise," I murmured; +and, when we were come to the field, I took and carried her into the +upper or little meadow, out of reach of the scythes, and placed her to +sleep amongst the corn, and so left her with a groan. + +But when I was come anew to my comrades, who stood at the lower extremity +of the field--and this was the bottom of the hour-glass, so to speak--I +was aware of a stir amongst them, and, advancing closer, that they were +all intent upon the neighbourhood of the field I had left, staring like +distraught creatures, and holding well together, as if in a panic. +Therefore, following the direction of their eyes, and of one that pointed +with rigid finger, I turned me about, and looked whence I had come; and +my heart went with a somersault, and in a moment I was all sick and +dazed. + +For I saw, at the upper curve of the meadow, where the well lay in gloom, +that a man had sprung out of the earth, as it seemed, and was started +reaping; and the face of this man was all in shadow, from which his beard +ran out and down like a stream of gall. + +He reaped swiftly and steadily, swinging like a pendulum; but, though the +sheaves fell to him right and left, no swish of the scythe came to us, +nor any sound but the beating of our own hearts. + +Now, from the first moment of my looking, no doubt was in my lost soul +but that this was him we had destroyed come back to verify his prophecy +in ministering to the vengeance of the Lord of Hosts; and at the thought +a deep groan rent my bosom, and was echoed by those about me. But +scarcely was it issued when a second terror smote me as that I near +reeled. Margery--my babe! put to sleep there in the path of the Black +Reaper! + +At that, though they called to me, I sprang forward like a madman, and +running along the meadow, through the neck of the glass, reached the +little thing, and stooped and snatched her into my arms. She was sound +and unfrighted, as I felt with a burst of thankfulness; but, looking +about me, as I turned again to fly, I had near dropped in my tracks for +the sickness and horror I experienced in the nearer neighbourhood of the +apparition. For, though it never raised its head, or changed the steady +swing of its shoulders, I knew that it was aware of and was reaping at +me. Now, I tell you, it was ten yards away, yet the point of the scythe +came gliding upon me silently, like a snake, through the stalks, and at +that I screamed out and ran for my life. + +I escaped, sweating with terror; but when I was sped back to the men, +there was all the village collected, and our Vicar to the front, praying +from a throat that rattled like a dead leaf in a draught. I know not what +he said, for the low cries of the women filled the air; but his face was +white as a smock, and his fingers writhed in one another like a knot of +worms. + +"The plague is upon us!" they wailed. "We shall be mowed down like ripe +corn!" + +And even as they shrieked the Black Reaper paused, and, putting away his +scythe, stooped and gathered up a sheaf in his arms and stood it on end. +And, with the very act, a man--one that had been forward in yesterday's +business--fell down amongst us yelling and foaming; and he rent his +breast in his frenzy, revealing the purple blot thereon, and he passed +blaspheming. And the reaper stooped and stooped again, and with every +sheaf he gathered together one of us fell stricken and rolled in his +agony, while the rest stood by palsied. + +But, when at length all that was cut was accounted for, and a dozen of us +were gone each to his judgment, and he had taken up his scythe to reap +anew, a wild fury woke in the breasts of some of the more abandoned and +reckless amongst us. + +"It is not to be tolerated!" they cried. "Let us at once fire the corn +and burn this sorcerer!" + +And with that, some fire or six of them, emboldened by despair, ran up +into the little field, and, separating, had out each his flint and fired +the crop in his own place, and retreated to the narrow part for safety. + +Now the reaper rested on his scythe, as if unexpectedly acquitted of a +part of his labour; but the corn flamed up in these five or six +directions, and was consumed in each to the compass of a single sheaf: +whereat the fire died away. And with its dying the faces of those that +had ventured went black as coal; and they flung up their arms, screaming, +and fell prone where they stood, and were hidden from our view. + +Then, indeed, despair seized upon all of us that survived, and we made no +doubt but that we were to be exterminated and wiped from the earth for +our sins, as were the men of Anathoth. And for an hour the Black Reaper +mowed and trussed, till he had cut all from the little upper field and +was approached to the neck of juncture with the lower and larger. And +before us that remained, and who were drawn back amongst the trees, +weeping and praying, a fifth of our comrades lay foul, and dead, and +sweltering, and all blotched over with the dreadful mark of the +pestilence. + +Now, as I say, the reaper was nearing the neck of juncture; and so we +knew that if he should once pass into the great field towards us and +continue his mowing, not one of us should be left to give earnest of our +repentance. + +Then, as it seemed, our Vicar came to a resolution, moving forward with a +face all wrapt and entranced; and he strode up the meadow path and +approached the apparition, and stretched out his arms to it entreating. +And we saw the other pause, awaiting him; and, as he came near, put +forth his hand, and so, gently, on the good old head. But as we looked, +catching at our breaths with a little pathos of hope, the priestly face +was thrown back radiant, and the figure of him that would give his life +for us sank amongst the yet standing corn and disappeared from our sight. + +So at last we yielded ourselves fully to our despair; for if our pastor +should find no mercy, what possibility of it could be for us! + +It was in this moment of an uttermost grief and horror, when each stood +apart from his neighbour, fearing the contamination of his presence, that +there was vouchsafed to me, of God's pity, a wild and sudden inspiration. +Still to my neck fastened the little Margery--not frighted, it seemed, +but mazed--and other babes there were in plenty, that clung to their +mothers' skirts and peeped out, wondering at the strange show. + +I ran to the front and shrieked: "The children! the children! He will not +touch the little children! Bring them and set them in his path!" And so +crying I sped to the neck of meadow, and loosened the soft arms from my +throat, and put the little one down within the corn. + +Now at once the women saw what I would be at, and full a score of them +snatched up their babes and followed me. And here we were reckless for +ourselves; but we knelt the innocents in one close line across the neck +of land, so that the Black Reaper should not find space between any of +them to swing his scythe. And having done this, we fell back with our +hearts bubbling in our breasts, and we stood panting and watched. + +He had paused over that one full sheaf of his reaping; but now, with the +sound of the women's running, he seized his weapon again and set to upon +the narrow belt of corn that yet separated him from the children. But +presently, coming out upon the tender array, his scythe stopped and +trailed in his hand, and for a full minute he stood like a figure of +stone. Then thrice he walked slowly backwards and forwards along the +line, seeking for an interval whereby he might pass; and the children +laughed at him like silver bells, showing no fear, and perchance meeting +that of love in his eyes that was hidden from us. + +Then of a sudden he came to before the midmost of the line, and, while we +drew our breath like dying souls, stooped and snapped his blade across +his knee, and, holding the two parts in his hand, turned and strode back +into the shadow of the dripping well. There arrived, he paused once more, +and, twisting him about, waved his hand once to us and vanished into the +blackness. But there were those who affirmed that in that instant of his +turning, his face was revealed, and that it was a face radiant and +beautiful as an angel's. + +Such is the history of the wild judgment that befell us, and by grace of +the little children was foregone; and such was the stranger whose name +no man ever heard tell, but whom many have since sought to identify with +that spirit of the pestilence that entered into men's hearts and +confounded them, so that they saw visions and were afterwards confused in +their memories. + +But this I may say, that when at last our courage would fetch us to that +little field of death, we found it to be all blackened and blasted, so as +nothing would take root there then or ever since; and it was as if, after +all the golden sand of the hour-glass was run away and the lives of the +most impious with it, the destroyer saw fit to stay his hand for sake of +the babes that he had pronounced innocent, and for such as were spared to +witness to His judgment. And this I do here, with a heart as contrite as +if it were the morrow of the visitation, the which with me it ever has +remained. + + + + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + +"Signor, we are arrived," whispered the old man in my ear; and he put out +a sudden cold hand, corded like melon rind, to stay me in the stumbling +darkness. + +We were on a tilted table-land of the mountain; and, looking forth and +below, the far indigo crescent of the bay, where it swept towards +Castellamare, seemed to rise up at me, as if it were a perpendicular +wall, across which the white crests of the waves flew like ghost moths. + +We skirted a boulder, and came upon a field of sleek purple lava sown all +over with little lemon jets of silent smoke, which in their wan and +melancholy glow might have been the corpse lights of those innumerable +dead whose tombstone was the mountain itself. + +Far away to the right the great projecting socket of the crater flickered +intermittently with a nerve of fire. It was like the glinting of the +watchful eye of some vast Crustacean, and in that harsh and stupendous +desolation seemed the final crown and expression of utter inhumanity. + +I started upon hearing the low whisper of my companion at my ear. + +"In the bay yesterday the Signor saved my life. I give the Signor, in +return, my life's secret." + +He seized my right hand in his left with a sinewy clutch, and pointed a +stiff finger at the luminous blots. + +"See there, and there, and there," he shrilled. "One floats and wavers +like a spineless ribbon of seaweed in the water; another burns with a +steady radiance; a third blares from its fissure like a flame driven by +the blowpipe. It is all a question of the under-draught, and some may +feel it a little, and some a little more or a little less. Ah! but I will +show you one that feels it not at all--a hole, a narrow shaft that goes +straight down into the pit of the great hell, and is cold as the mouth of +a barbel." + +The bones of his face stood out like rocks against sand, and the pupils +of his maniac eyes were glazed or fell into shadow as the volcano +lightnings fluttered. + +Suddenly he drew me to a broken pile of sulphur rock lying tumbled +against a ridge of the mountain that ran towards the crater. It lay +heaped, a fused and fantastic ruin; and in a moment the old man leapt +from me, and was tugging by main strength a vast fragment from its place. + +I leaned over his shoulder, and looked down upon the hollow revealed by +the displaced boulder. It was like the bell of a mighty trumpet, and in +the middle a puckered opening seemed to suck inwards, as it were the +mouth of some subterranean monster risen to the surface of the world for +air. + +"Quick! quick!" muttered Paolo. "The Signor must place his ear to the +hole." + +With a little odd stir at my heart, I dropped upon my knees and leaned my +head deep into the cup. I must have stayed thus for a full minute before +I drew myself back and looked up at the old mountaineer. His eyes gazed +down into mine with mad intensity. + +"_Si! si!_" he whispered. "What didst thou hear?" + +"I heard a long surging thunder, Paolo, and the deep shrill screaming of +many gas jets." + +He bent down, with livid face. + +"Signor, it is the booming of the everlasting fire, and thou hast heard +the voices of the damned." + +"No, my friend, no. But it is a marvellous transmission of the uproar of +hidden forces." + +He leapt to the shallow pit. + +"Listen and believe!" he cried; and funnelling his hands about his lips, +he stooped over the central hole. + +"Marco! Marco!" he screeched, in a piercing voice. + +Something answered back. What was it? A malformed and twisted echo? A +whistle of imprisoned steam tricked into some horrible caricature of a +human voice? + +"Paolo!" it seemed to wail, weak and faint with agony. "_L'arqua, +l'arqua_, Paolo!" + +The old man sprang to his feet and, looking down upon me in a sort of +terrible triumph, unslung a water-flask from his belt, and, pulling out +the cork, poured the cold liquid down into the puckered orifice. Then I +felt his clutch on my arm again. + +"He drinks!" he cried. "Listen and thou wilt understand." + +I rose with a ghost of a laugh, and once more addressed my ear to the +opening. + +From unthinkable depths came up a strange, gloating sound, as from a +ravenous throat made vibrant with ecstasy. + +"Paolo," I cried, as I rose and stood before him--and there was an +admonitory note in my voice--"a feather may decide the balance. Beware +meddling with hidden thunders, or thou mayst set rolling such another +tombstone as that on which these corpse fires are yet flaming." + +And he only answered me, set and deathly,-- + +"We of the mountains, Signor, know more things than we may tell of." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT A WINTER'S FIRE*** + + +******* This file should be named 14045-8.txt or 14045-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/4/14045 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/14045-8.zip b/old/14045-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..95e46ef --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14045-8.zip diff --git a/old/14045.txt b/old/14045.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf2b1b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14045.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7203 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, At a Winter's Fire, by Bernard Edward J. Capes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: At a Winter's Fire + +Author: Bernard Edward J. Capes + +Release Date: November 14, 2004 [eBook #14045] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT A WINTER'S FIRE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +AT A WINTER'S FIRE + +by + +BERNARD CAPES + +Author of _The Lake of Wine_, etc. + +1899 + + + + + + + +All except three of the following Tales have already appeared in English +or American Magazines. The best thanks of the author are due to the +Editors of the "Cornhill," "Macmillan's," "Lippincott's" and "Pearson's" +Magazines, and to the Editor of the "Sketch," for permission to reprint +such of the stories as have been published in their pages. + + + + +Contents + +THE MOON STRICKEN + +JACK AND JILL + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + +DARK DIGNUM + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + +A LAZY ROMANCE + +BLACK VENN + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + +THE BLACK REAPER + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + + + +THE MOON STRICKEN + + +It so fell that one dark evening in the month of June I was belated +in the Bernese Oberland. Dusk overtook me toiling along the great +Chamounix Road, and in the heart of a most desolate gorge, whose towering +snow-flung walls seemed--as the day sucked inwards to a point secret as a +leech's mouth--to close about me like a monstrous amphitheatre of ghosts. +The rutted road, dipping and climbing toilfully against the shouldering +of great tumbled boulders, or winning for itself but narrow foothold over +slippery ridges, was thawed clear of snow; but the cold soft peril yet +lay upon its flanks thick enough for a wintry plunge of ten feet, or may +be fifty where the edge of the causeway fell over to the lower furrows +of the ravine. It was a matter of policy to go with caution, and a thing +of some moment to hear the thud and splintering of little distant +icefalls about one in the darkness. Now and again a cold arrow of wind +would sing down from the frosty peaks above or jerk with a squiggle of +laughter among the fallen slabs in the valley. And these were the only +voices to prick me on through a dreariness lonely as death. + +I knew the road, but not its night terrors. Passing along it some days +before in the glory of sunshine, broad paddocks and islands of green had +comforted the shattered white ruin of the place, and I had traversed it +merely as a magnificent episode in the indifferent history of my life. +Now, as it seemed, I became one with it--an awful waif of solemnity, a +thing apart from mankind and its warm intercourse and ruddy inn doors, a +spectral anomaly, whose austere epitaph was once writ upon the snow +coating some fallen slab of those glimmering about me. I thought the +whole gorge smelt of tombs, like the vault of a cathedral. I thought, in +the incomprehensible low moaning sound that ever and again seemed to eddy +about me when the wind had swooped and passed, that I recognised the +forlorn voices of brother spirits long since dead and forgotten of the +world. + +Suddenly I felt the sweat cold under the knapsack that swung upon my +back; stopped, faced about and became human again. Ridge over ridge +to my right the mountain summits fell away against a fathomless sky; and +topping the furthermost was a little paring of silver light, the coronet +of the rising moon. But the glory of the full orb was in the retrospect; +for, closing the savage vista of the ravine, stood up far away a cluster +of jagged pinnacles--opal, translucent, lustrous as the peaks of icebergs +that are the frozen music of the sea. + +It was the toothed summit of the Aiguille Verte, now prosaically bathed +in the light of the full moon; but to me, looking from that grim and +passionless hollow, it stood for the white hand of God lifted in menace +to the evil spirits of the glen. + +I drank my fill of the good sight, and then turned me to my tramp again +with a freshness in my throat as though it had gulped a glass of +champagne. Presently I knew myself descending, leaving, as I felt rather +than saw, the stark horror of the gorge and its glimmering snow patches +above me. Puffs of a warmer air purred past my face with little friendly +sighs of welcome, and the hum of a far-off torrent struck like a wedge +into the indurated fibre of the night. As I dropped, however, the +mountain heads grew up against the moon, and withheld the comfort of her +radiance; and it was not until the whimper of the torrent had quickened +about me to a plunging roar, and my foot was on the striding bridge that +took its waters at a step, that her light broke through a topmost cleft +in the hills, and made glory of the leaping thunder that crashed beneath +my feet. + +Thereafter all was peace. The road led downwards into a broadening +valley, where the smell of flowers came about me, and the mountain walls +withdrew and were no longer overwhelming. The slope eased off, dipping +and rising no more than a ground swell; and by-and-by I was on a level +track that ran straight as a stretched ribbon and was reasonable to my +tired feet. + +Now the first dusky chalets of the hamlet of Bel-Oiseau straggled towards +me, and it was music in my ears to hear the cattle blow and rattle in +their stalls under the sleeping lofts as I passed outside in the +moonlight. Five minutes more, and the great zinc onion on the spire of +the church glistened towards me, and I was in the heart of the silent +village. + +From the deep green shadow cast by the graveyard wall, heavily +buttressed against avalanches, a form wriggled out into the moonlight +and fell with a dusty thud at my feet, mowing and chopping at the air +with its aimless claws. I started back with a sudden jerk of my pulses. +The thing was horrible by reason of its inarticulate voice, which issued +from the shapeless folds of its writhings like the wet gutturizing of a +back-broken horse. Instinct with repulsion, I stood a moment dismayed, +when light flashed from an open doorway a dozen yards further down the +street, and a woman ran across to the prostrate form. + +"Up, graceless one!" she cried; "and carry thy seven devils within +doors!" + +The figure gathered itself together at her voice, and stood in an angle +of the buttresses quaking and shielding its eyes with two gaunt arms. + +"Can I not exchange a word with Mere Pettit," scolded the woman, "but +thou must sneak from behind my back on thy crazed moon-hunting?" + +"Pity, pity," moaned the figure; and then the woman noticed me, and +dropped a curtsy. + +"Pardon," she said; "but he has been affronting Monsieur with his +antics?" + +"He is stricken, Madame?" + +"Ah, yes, Monsieur. Holy Mother, but how stricken!" + +"It is sad." + +"Monsieur knows not how sad. It is so always, but most a great deal when +the moon is full. He was a good lad once." + +Monsieur puts his hand in his pocket. Madame hears the clink of coin and +touches the enclosed fingers with her own delicately. Monsieur withdraws +his hand empty. + +"Pardon, Madame." + +"Monsieur has the courage of a gentleman. Come, Camille, little fool! a +sweet good-night to Monsieur." + +"Stay, Madame. I have walked far and am weary. Is there an hotel in +Bel-Oiseau?" + +"Monsieur is jesting. We are but a hundred of poor chalets." + +"An auberge, then--a cabaret--anything?" + +"_Les Trois Chevres_. It is not for such as you." + +"Is it, then, that I must toil onwards to Chatelard?" + +"Monsieur does not know? The _Hotel Royal_ was burned to the walls six +months since." + +"It follows that I must lie in the fields." + +Madame hesitates, ponders, and makes up her mind. + +"I keep Monsieur talking, and the night wind is sharp from the snow. It +is ill for a heated skin, and one should be indoors. I have a bedroom +that is at Monsieur's disposition, if Monsieur will condescend?" + +Monsieur will condescend. Monsieur would condescend to a loft and a truss +of straw, in default of the neat little chilly chamber that is allotted +him, so sick are his very limbs with long tramping, and so uninviting +figures the further stretch in the moonlight to Chatelard, with its +burnt-out carcase of an hotel. + +This is how I came to quarter myself on Madame Barbiere and her idiot +son, and how I ultimately learned from the lips of the latter the strange +story of his own immediate fall from reason and the dear light of +intellect. + + * * * * * + +By day Camille Barbiere proved to be a young man, some five and twenty +years of age, of a handsome and impressive exterior. His dark hair +lay close about his well-shaped head; his features were regular and cut +bold as an Etruscan cameo; his limbs were elastic and moulded into the +supple finish of one whose life has not been set upon level roads. At a +speculative distance he appeared a straight specimen of a Burgundian +youth--sinewy, clean-formed, and graceful, though slender to gauntness; +and it was only on nearer contact that one marvelled to see the soul die +out of him, as a face set in the shadow of leafage resolves itself into +some accident of twisted branches as one approaches the billowing tree +that presented it. + +The soul of Camille, the idiot, had warped long after its earthly +tabernacle had grown firm and fair to look upon. Cause and effect were +not one from birth in him; and the result was a most wistful expression, +as though the lost intellect were for ever struggling and failing to +recall its ancient mastery. Mostly he was a gentle young man, noteworthy +for nothing but the uncomplaining patience with which he daily observed +the monotonous routine of simple duties that were now all-sufficient for +the poor life that had "crept so long on a broken wing." He milked the +big, red, barrel-bodied cow, and churned industriously for butter; he +kept the little vegetable garden in order and nursed the Savoys into +fatness like plumping babies; he drove the goats to pasture on the +mountain slopes, and all day sat among the rhododendrons, the forgotten +soul behind his eyes conning the dead language of fate, as a foreigner +vainly interrogates the abstruse complexity of an idiom. + +By-and-by I made it an irregular habit to accompany him on these +shepherdings; to join him in his simple midday meal of sour brown bread +and goat-milk cheese; to talk with him desultorily, and study him the +while, inasmuch as he wakened an interest in me that was full of +speculation. For his was not an imbecility either hereditary or +constitutional. From the first there had appeared to me something +abnormal in it--a suspension of intelligence only, a frost-bite in the +brain that presently some April breath of memory might thaw out. This was +not merely conjectural, of course. I had the story of his mental collapse +from his mother in the early days of my sojourn in Bel-Oiseau; for it +came to pass that a fitful caprice induced me to prolong my stay in the +swart little village far into the gracious Swiss summer. + +The "story" I have called it; but it was none. He was out on the hills +one moonlight night, and came home in the early morning mad. That was +all. + +This had happened some eight years before, when he was a lad of +seventeen--a strong, beautiful lad, his mother told me; and with a dreamy +"poet's corner" in his brain, she added, but in her own better way of +putting it. She had no shame that her shepherd should be an Endymion. In +Switzerland they still look upon Nature as a respectable pursuit for a +young man. + +Well, they had thought him possessed of a devil; and his father had at +first sought to exorcise it with a chamois-hide thong, as Munchausen +flogged the black fox out of his skin. But the counter-irritant failed of +its purpose. The devil clung deep, and rent poor Camille with periodic +convulsions of insanity. + +It was noted that his derangement waxed and waned with the monthly moon; +that it assumed a virulent character with the passing of the second +quarter, and culminated, as the orb reached its fulness, in a species of +delirium, during which it was necessary to carefully watch him; that it +diminished with the lessening crescent until it fell away into a quiet +abeyance of faculties that was but a step apart from the normal +intelligence of his kind. At his worst he was a stricken madman +acutely sensitive to impressions; at his best an inoffensive peasant who +said nothing foolish and nothing wise. + +When he was twenty, his father died, and Camille and his mother had to +make out existence in company. + +Now, the veil, in my first knowledge of him, was never rent; yet +occasionally it seemed to me to gape in a manner that let a little +momentary finger of light through, in the flashing of which a soul +kindled and shut in his eyes, like a hard-dying spark in ashes. I wished +to know what gave life to the spark, and I set to pondering the problem. + +"He was not always thus?" I would say to Madame Barbiere. + +"But no, Monsieur, truly. This place--bah! we are here imbeciles all to +the great world, without doubt; but Camille!--_he_ was by nature of those +who make the history of cities--a rose in the wilderness. Monsieur +smiles?" + +"By no means. A scholar, Madame?" + +"A scholar of nature, Monsieur; a dreamer of dreams such as they become +who walk much with the spirits on the lonely mountains." + +"Torrents, and avalanches, and the good material forces of nature, Madame +means." + +"Ah! Monsieur may talk, but he knows. He has heard the _foehn_ sweep down +from the hills and spin the great stones off the house-roofs. And one may +look and see nothing, yet the stones go. It is the wind that runs before +the avalanche that snaps the pine trees; and the wind is the spirit that +calls down the great snow-slips." + +"But how may Madame who sees nothing; know then a spirit to be abroad?" + +"My faith; one may know one's foot is on the wild mint without shifting +one's sole to look." + +"Madame will pardon me. No doubt also one may know a spirit by the smell +of sulphur?" + +"Monsieur is a sceptic. It comes with the knowledge of cities. There +are even such in little Bel-Oiseau, since the evil time when they took +to engrossing the contracts of good citizens on the skins of the poor +jew-beards that give us flesh and milk. It is horrible as the Tannery of +Meudon. In my young days, Monsieur, such agreements were inscribed upon +wood." + +"Quite so, Madame, and entirely to the point. Also one may see from whom +Camille inherited his wandering propensities. But for his fall--it was +always unaccountable?" + +"Monsieur, as one trips on the edge of a crevasse and disappears. His +soul dropped into the frozen cleft that one cannot fathom." + +"Madame will forgive my curiosity." + +"But surely. There was no dark secret in my Camille's life. If the little +head held pictures beyond the ken of us simple women, the angels painted +them of a certainty. Moreover, it is that I willingly recount this grief +to the wise friend that may know a solution." + +"At least the little-wise can seek for one." + +"Ah, if Monsieur would only find the remedy!" + +"It is in the hands of fate." + +Madame crossed herself. + +"Of the _Bon Dieu_, Monsieur." + +At another time Madame Barbiere said:-- + +"It was in such a parched summer as this threatens to be that my Camille +came home in the mists of the morning possessed. He was often out on the +sweet hills all night--that was nothing. It had been a full moon, and the +whiteness of it was on his face like leprosy, but his hands were hot with +fever. Ah, the dreadful summer! The milk turned sour in the cows' udders +and the tufts of the stone pines on the mountains fell into ashes like +Dead Sea fruit. The springs were dried, and the great cascade of Buet +fell to half its volume." + +"This cascade; I have never seen it. Is it in the neighbourhood?" + +"Of a surety. Monsieur must have passed the rocky ravine that vomits the +torrent, on his way hither." + +"I remember. I will explore it. Camille shall be my guide." + +"Never." + +"And why?" + +Madame shrugged her plump shoulders. + +"Who may say? The ways of the afflicted are not our ways. Only I know +that Camille will never drive his flock to pasture near the lip of that +dark valley." + +"That is strange. Can the place have associations for him connected with +his malady?" + +"It is possible. Only the good God knows." + +But _I_ was to know later on, with a little reeling of the reason also. + + * * * * * + +"Camille, I want to see the Cascade de Buet." + +The hunted eyes of the stricken looked into mine with a piercing glance +of fear. + +"Monsieur must not," he said, in a low voice. + +"And why not?" + +"The waters are bad--bad--haunted!" + +"I fear no ghosts. Wilt thou show me the way, Camille?" + +"I!" The idiot fell upon the grass with a sort of gobbling cry. I thought +it the prelude to a fit of some sort, and was stepping towards him, when +he rose to his feet, waved me off and hurried away down the slope +homewards. + +Here was food for reflection, which I mumbled in secret. + +A day or two afterwards I joined Camille at midday on the heights where +he was pasturing his flocks. He had shifted his ground a little distance +westwards, and I could not find him at once. At last I spied him, his +back to a rock, his hand dabbled for coolness in a little runnel that +trickled at his side. He looked up and greeted me with a smile. He had +conceived an affection for me, this poor lost soul. + +"It will go soon," he said, referring to the miniature streamlet. "It is +safe in the woods; but to-morrow or next day the sun will lap it up ere +it can reach the skirt of the shadow above there. A farewell kiss to you, +little stream!" + +He bent and sipped a mouthful of the clear water. He was in a more +reasonable state than he had shown for long, though it was now close +on the moon's final quarter, a period that should have marked a more +general tenor of placidity in him. The summer solstice, was, however, at +hand, and the weather sultry to a degree--as it had been, I did not fail +to remember, the year of his seizure. + +"Camille," I said, "why to-day hast thou shifted thy ground a little in +the direction of the Buet ravine?" + +He sat up at once, with a curious, eager look in his face. + +"Monsieur has asked it," he said. "It was to impel Monsieur to ask it +that I moved. Does Monsieur seek a guide?" + +"Wilt thou lead me, Camille?" + +"Monsieur, last night I dreamed and one came to me. Was it my father? I +know not, I know not. But he put my forehead to his breast, and the evil +left it, and I remembered without terror. 'Reveal the secret to the +stranger,' he said; 'that he may share thy burden and comfort thee; for +he is strong where thou art weak, and the vision shall not scare him.' +Monsieur, wilt thou come?" + +He leaped to his feet, and I to mine. + +"Lead on, Camille. I follow." + +He called to the leader of his flock: "Petitjean! stray not, my little +one. I shall be back sooner than the daisies close." Then he turned to me +again. I noticed a pallid, desperate look in his face, as though he were +strung to great effort; but it was the face of a mindless one still. + +"Do you not fear?" he said, in a whisper; and the apple in his throat +seemed all choking core. + +"I fear nothing," I answered with a smile; yet the still sombreness of +the woods found a little tremor in my breast. + +"It is good," he answered, regarding me. "The angel spoke truth. Follow, +Monsieur." + +He went off through the trees of a sudden, and I had much ado to keep +pace with him. He ran as one urged on by a sure sense of doom, looking +neither to right nor left. His mountain instincts had remained with him +when memory itself had closed around like a fog, leaving him face to face +and isolated with his one unconfessed point of terror. Swiftly we made +our way, ever slightly climbing, along the rugged hillside, and soon +broke into country very wild and dismal. The pastoral character of the +scene lessened and altogether disappeared. The trees grew matted and +grotesquely gnarled, huddling together in menacing battalions--save +where some plunging rock had burst like a shell, forcing a clearing and +strewing the black moss with a jagged wreck of splinters. Here no +flowers crept for warmth, no sentinel marmot turned his little scut with +a whistle of alarm to vanish like a red shadow. All was melancholy and +silence and the massed defiance of ever-impending ruin. Storm, and +avalanche, and the bitter snap of frost had wrought their havoc year by +year, till an uncrippled branch was a rare distinction. The very +saplings, of stunted growth, bore the air of thieves reared in a rookery +of crime. + +We strode with difficulty in an inhuman twilight through this great dark +quickset of Nature, and had paused a moment where the thronging trunks +thinned somewhat, when a little mouthing moan came towards us on the +crest of a ripple of wind. My companion stopped on the instant, and +clutched my arm, his face twisting with panic. + +"The Cascade, Monsieur!" he shook out in a terrified whisper. + +"Courage, my friend! It is that we come to seek." + +"Ah! My God, yes--it is that! I dare not--I dare not!" + +He drew back livid with fear, but I urged him on. + +"Remember the dream, Camille!" I cried. + +"Yes, yes--it was good. Help me, Monsieur, and I will try--yes, I will +try!" + +I drew his arm within mine, and together we stumbled on. The undergrowth +grew denser and more fantastic; the murmur filled out, increased and +resolved itself into a sound of falling water that ever took shape, and +volume, and depth, till its crash shook the ground at our feet. Then in +a moment a white blaze of sky came at us through the trunks, and we burst +through the fringe of the wood to find ourselves facing the opposite side +of a long cleft in the mountain and the blade's edge of a roaring +cataract. + +It shot out over the lip of the fall, twenty feet above us, in a curve +like a scimitar, passed in one sheet the spot where we stood, and dived +into a sunless pool thirty feet below with a thunderous boom. What it may +have been in full phases of the stream, I know not; yet even now it was +sufficiently magnificent to give pause to a dying soul eager to shake off +the restless horror of the world. The flat of its broad blade divided the +lofty black walls of a deep and savage ravine, on whose jagged shelves +some starved clumps of rhododendron shook in the wind of the torrent. +Far down the narrow gully we could see the passion of water tossing, +champed white with the ravening of its jaws, until it took a bend of the +cliffs at a leap and rushed from sight. + +We stood upon a little platform of coarse grass and bramble, whose fringe +dipped and nodded fitfully as the sprinkle caught it. Beyond, the sliding +sheet of water looked like a great strap of steel, reeled ceaselessly off +a whirling drum pivoted between the hills. The midday sun shot like a +piston down the shaft of the valley, painting purple spears and angles +behind its abutting rocks, and hitting full upon the upper curve of the +fall; but half-way down the cataract slipped into shadow. + +My brain sickened with the endless gliding and turmoil of descent, and I +turned aside to speak to my companion. He was kneeling upon the grass, +his eyes fixed and staring, his white lips mumbling some crippled memory +of a prayer. He started and cowered down as I touched him on the +shoulder. + +"I cannot go, Monsieur; I shall die!" + +"What next, Camille? I will go alone," + +"My God, Monsieur! the cave under the fall! It is there the horror is." + +He pointed to a little gap in the fringing bushes with shaking finger. +I stole gingerly in the direction he indicated. With every step I +took the awful fascination of the descending water increased upon +me. It seemed hideous and abnormal to stand mid-way against a +perpendicularly-rushing torrent. Above or below the effect would have +been different; but here, to look up was to feel one's feet dragging +towards the unseen--to look down and pass from vision of the lip of the +fall was to become the waif of a force that was unaccountable. + +I had a battle with my nerves, and triumphed. As I approached the opening +in the brambles I became conscious of a certain relief. At a little +distance the cataract had seemed to actually wash in its descent the edge +of the platform. Now I found it to be further away than I had imagined, +the ground dropping in a sharp slope to a sort of rocky buttress which +lay obliquely on the slant of the ravine, and was the true margin of the +torrent. Before I essayed the descent, I glanced back at my companion. He +was kneeling where I had left him, his hands pressed to his face, his +features hidden; but looking back once again, when I had with infinite +caution accomplished the downward climb, I saw that he had crept to +the edge of the slope, and was watching me with wide, terrified eyes. I +waved my hand to him and turned to the wonderful vision of water that +now passed almost within reach of my arm. I stood near the point where +the whole glassy breadth glided at once from sunlight into shadow. It +fell silently, without a break, for only its feet far below trod the +thunder. + +Now, as I peered about, I noticed a little cleft in the rocky margin, a +minute's climb above me. I was attracted to this by an appearance of +smoke or steam that incessantly emerged from it, as though some witch's +caldron were simmering alongside the fall. Spray it might be, or the +condensing of water splashed on the granite; but of this I might not be +sure. Therefore I determined to investigate, and straightway began +climbing the rocks--with my heart in my mouth, it must be confessed, for +the foothold was undesirable and the way perilous. And all the time +I was conscious that the white face of Camille watched me from above. As +I reached the cleft I fancied I heard a queer sort of gasping sob issue +from his lips, but to this I could give no heed in the sudden wonder that +broke upon me. For, lo! it appeared that the cleft led straight to a +narrow platform or ledge of rock right underneath the fall itself, but +extending how far I could not see, by reason of the steam that filled the +passage, and for which I was unable to account. Footing it carefully and +groping my way, I set step in the little water-curtained chamber and +advanced a pace or two. Suddenly, light grew about me, and a beautiful +rose of fire appeared on the wall of the passage in the midst of what +seemed a vitrified scoop in the rock. + +Marvelling, I put out my hand to touch it, and fell back on the narrow +floor with a scream of anguish. An inch farther, and these lines had +not been written. As it was, the fall caught me by the fingers with the +suck of a cat-fish, and it was only a gigantic wrench that saved me from +slipping off the ledge. The jerk brought my head against the rock with a +stunning blow, and for some moments I lay dizzy and confused, daring +hardly to breathe, and conscious only of a burning and blistering agony +in my right hand. + +At length I summoned courage to gather my limbs together and crawl out +the way I had entered. The distance was but a few paces, yet to traverse +these seemed an interminable nightmare of swaying and stumbling. I know +only one other occasion upon which the liberal atmosphere of the open +earth seemed sweeter to my senses when I reached it than it did on this. + +I tumbled somehow through the cleft, and sat down, shaking, upon the +grass of the slope beyond; but, happening to throw myself backwards in +the reeling faintness induced by my fright and the pain of my head, my +eyes encountered a sight that woke me at once to full activity. + +Balanced upon the very verge of the slope, his face and neck craned +forward, his jaw dropped, a sick, tranced look upon his features, stood +Camille. I saw him topple, and shouted to him; but before my voice was +well out, he swayed, collapsed, and came down with a running thud that +shook the ground. Once he wheeled over, like a shot rabbit, and, bounding +thwack with his head against a flat boulder not a dozen yards from me, +lay stunned and motionless. + +I scrambled to him, quaking all over. His breath came quick, and a spirt +of blood jerked from a sliced cut in his forehead at every pump of his +heart. + +I kicked out a wad of cool moist turf, and clapped it in a pad over the +wound, my handkerchief under. For his body, he was shaken and bruised, +but otherwise not seriously hurt. + +Presently he came to himself; to himself in the best sense of the +word--for Camille was sane. + +I have no explanation to offer. Only I know that, as a fall will set a +long-stopped watch pulsing again, the blow here seemed to have restored +the misplaced intellect to its normal balance. + +When he woke, there was a new soft light of sanity in his eyes that was +pathetic in the extreme. + +"Monsieur," he whispered, "the terror has passed." + +"God be thanked! Camille," I answered, much moved. + +He jerked his poor battered head in reverence. + +"A little while," he said, "and I shall know. The punishment was just." + +"What punishment, my poor Camille?" + +"Hush! The cloud has rolled away. I stand naked before _le bon Dieu_. +Monsieur, lift me up; I am strong." + +I winced as I complied. The palm of my hand was scorched and blistered in +a dozen places. He noticed at once, and kissed and fondled the wounded +limb as softly as a woman might. + +"Ah, the poor hand!" he murmured. "Monsieur has touched the disc of +fire." + +"Camille," I whispered, "what is it?" + +"Monsieur shall know--ah! yes, he shall know; but not now. Monsieur, my +mother." + +"Thou art right, good son." + +I bound up his bruised forehead and my own burnt hand as well as I was +able, and helped him to his feet. He stood upon them staggering; but +in a minute could essay to stumble on the homeward journey with +assistance. It was a long and toilsome progress; but in time we +accomplished it. Often we had to sit down in the blasted woods and rest +awhile; often moisten our parched mouths at the runnels of snow-water +that thridded the undergrowth. The shadows were slanting eastwards +as we reached the clearing we had quitted some hours earlier, and the +goats had disappeared. Petitjean was leading his charges homewards in +default of a human commander, and presently we overtook them browsingly +loitering and desirous of definite instructions. + +I pass over Camille's meeting with his mother, and the wonder, and fear, +and pity of it all. Our hurts were attended to, and the battery of +questions met with the best armour of tact at command. For myself, I +said that I had scorched my hand against a red-hot rock, which was +strictly true; for Camille, that it were wisest to take no early +advantage of the reason that God had restored to him. She was voluble, +tearful, half-hysterical with joy and the ecstasy of gratitude. + +"That a blow should effect the marvel! Monsieur, but it passes +comprehension." + +All night long I heard her stirring and sobbing softly outside his door, +for I slept little, owing to pain and the wonder in my mind. But towards +morning I dozed, and my dreams were feverish and full of terror. + +The next day Camille kept his bed and I my room. By this I at least +escaped the first onset of local curiosity, for the villagers naturally +made of Camille's restoration a nine-days' wonder. But towards evening +Madame Barbiere brought a message from him that he would like to see +Monsieur alone, if Monsieur would condescend to visit him in his room. I +went at once, and found him, as Haydon found Keats, lying in a white bed, +hectic, and on his back. He greeted me with a smile peculiarly sweet and +restful. + +"Does Monsieur wish to know?" he said in a low voice. + +"If it will not hurt thee, Camille." + +"Not now--not now; the good God has made me sound. I remember, and am not +terrified." + +I closed the door and took a seat by his bedside. There, with my hand +shading my eyes from the level glory of sunset that flamed into the room, +I listened to the strange tale of Camille's seizure. + + * * * * * + +"Once, Monsieur, I lived in myself and was exultant with a loneliness of +fancied knowledge. My youth was my excuse; but God could not pardon me +all. I read where I could find books, and chance put an evil choice in my +way, for I learned to sneer at His name, His heaven, His hell. Each man +has his god in self-will, I thought in my pride, and through it alone he +accepts the responsibility of life and death. He is his own curse or +blessing here and hereafter, inheriting no sin and earning no doom but +such as he himself inflicts upon himself. I interpret this from the world +about me, and knowing it, I have no fear and own no tyrant but my own +passions. Monsieur, it was through fear the most terrible that God +asserted Himself to me." + +The light was fading in the west, and a lance of shadow fell upon the +white bed, as though the hushed day were putting a finger to its lips as +it withdrew. + +"I was no coward then, Monsieur--that at least I may say. I lived among +the mountains, and on their ledges the feet of my own goats were not +surer. Often, in summer, I spent the night among the woods and hills, +reading in them the story of the ages, and exploring, exploring till my +feet were wearier than my brain. Strangers came from far to see the great +cascade; but none but I--and you, too, Monsieur, now--know the track +through the thicket that leads to the cave under the waters. I found it +by chance, and, like you, was scorched by the fire, though not badly." + +"Camille--the cause?" + +"Monsieur, I will tell you a wonderful thing. The falling waters there +make a monstrous burning glass, when the hot sun is upon them, which has +melted the rock behind like wax." + +"Can that be so?" + +"It is true--dear Jesus, I have fearful reason to know it." + +He half rose on his elbow, his face, crossed by the bandage, grey as +stone in the gathering dusk. Hereafter he spoke in an awed whisper. + +"When the knowledge broke upon me, I grew great to myself in the +possession of a wonderful secret. Day after day I visited the cave and +examined this phenomenon--and yet another more marvellous in its +connection with the first. The huge lens was a simple accident of curved +rocks and convex water, planed smooth as crystal. In other than a +droughty summer it would probably not exist; the spouting torrent would +overwhelm it--but I know not. Was not this astonishing enough? Yet Nature +had worked a second miracle to mock in anticipation the self-sufficient +plagiarism of little man. I noticed that the rays of the sun concentrated +in the lens only during the half-hour of the orb's apparent crossing of +the ravine. Then the light smote upon a strange curved little fan of +water, that spouted from a high crevice at the mouth of the shallow +vitrified tunnel, and devoured it, and played upon the rocks behind, that +hissed and sputtered like pitch, and the place was blind with steam. But +when the tooth of fire was withdrawn, the tiny inner cascade fell again +and wrought coolness with its sprinkling. + +"I did not discover this all at once, for at first fright took me, and it +was enough to watch for the moment of the light's appearance and then +flee with a little laughter. But one day I ventured back into the cave +after the sun had crossed the valley, and the steam had died away, and +the rock cooled behind the miniature cascade. + +"I looked through the lens, and it seemed full of a great white light +that blazed into my eyes, so that I fell back through the inner fan of +water and was well soused by it; but my sight presently recovering, I +stood forward in the scoop of rock admiring the dainty hollow curve the +fan took in its fall. By-and-by I became aware that I was looking out +through a smaller lens upon the great one, and that strange whirling +mists seemed to be sweeping across a huge disc, within touch of my hand +almost. + +"It was long before I grasped the meaning of this; but, in a flash, it +came upon me. The great lens formed the object glass, the small, the +eyeglass, of a natural telescope of tremendous power, that drew the high +summer clouds down within seeming touch and opened out the heavens before +my staring eyes. + +"Monsieur, when this dawned upon me I was wild. That so astonishing a +discovery should have been reserved for a poor ignorant Swiss peasant +filled me with pride wicked in proportion with its absence of gratitude +to the mighty dispenser of good. I came even to think my individuality +part of the wonder and necessary to its existence. 'Were it not for my +courage and enterprise,' I cried, 'this phenomenon would have remained a +secret of the Nature that gave birth to it. She yields her treasures to +such only as fear not.' + +"I had read in a book of Huyghens, Guinand, Newton, Herschel--the great +high-priests of science who had striven through patient years to read the +hieroglyphics of the heavens. 'The wise imbeciles,' I thought. 'They +toiled and died, and Nature held no mirror up to them. For me, the +poor Camille, she has worked in secret while they grew old and passed +unsatisfied.' + +"Brilliant projects of astronomy whirled in my brain. The evening of my +last discovery I remained out on the hills, and entered the cave as it +grew dusk. A feeling of awe surged in me as dark fell over the valley, +and the first stars glistened faintly. I dipped under the fan of water +and took my stand in the hollow behind it. There was no moon, but my +telescope was inclined, as it were, at a generous angle, and a section of +the firmament was open before me. My heart beat fast as I looked through +the lens. + +"Shall I tell you what I saw then and many nights after? Rings and +crosses in the heavens of golden mist, spangled, as it seemed, with +jewels; stars as big as cart-wheels, twinkling points no longer, but +round, like great bosses of molten fire; things shadowy, luminous, of +strange colours and stranger forms, that seemed to brush the waters +as they passed, but were in reality vast distances away. + +"Sometimes the thrust of wind up the ravine would produce a tremulous +motion in the image at the focus of the mirror; but this was seldom. +For the most part the wonderful lenses presented a steady curvature, not +flawless, but of magnificent capacity. + +"Now it flashed upon me that, when the moon was at the full, she would +top the valley in the direct path of my telescope's range of view. At +the thought I grew exultant. I--I, little Camille, should first read +aright the history of this strange satellite. The instrument that could +give shape to the stars would interpret to me the composition of that +lonely orb as clearly as though I stood upon her surface. + +"As the time of her fulness drew near I grew feverish with excitement. I +was sickening, as it were, to my madness, for never more should I look +upon her willingly, with eyes either speculative or insane." + +At this point Camille broke off for a little space, and lay back on his +pillow. When he spoke again it was out of the darkness, with his face +turned to the wall. + +"Monsieur, I cannot dwell upon it--I must hasten. We have no right to +peer beyond the boundary God has drawn for us. I saw His hell--I saw His +hell, I tell you. It is peopled with the damned--silent, horrible, +distorted in the midst of ashes and desolation. It was a memory that, +like the snake of Aaron, devoured all others till yesterday--till +yesterday, by Christ's mercy." + + * * * * * + +It seemed to me, as the days wore on, that Camille had but recovered his +reason at the expense of his life; that the long rest deemed necessary +for him after his bitter period of brain exhaustion might in the end +prove an everlasting one. Possibly the blow to his head had, in expelling +the seven devils, wounded beyond cure the vital function that had +fostered them. He lay white, patient, and sweet-tempered to all, but +moved by no inclination to rise and re-assume the many-coloured garment +of life. + +His description of the dreadful desert in the sky I looked upon, merely, +as an abiding memory of the brain phantasm that had finally overthrown +a reason, already tottering under the tremendous excitement induced by +his discovery of the lenses, and the magnified images they had presented +to him. That there was truth in the asserted fact of the existence of +these, my own experience convinced me; and curiosity as to this alone +impelled me to the determination of investigating further, when my hand +should be sufficiently recovered to act as no hindrance to me in forcing +my way once more through the dense woods that bounded the waterfall. +Moreover, the dispassionate enquiry of a mind less sensitive to +impressions might, in the result, do more towards restoring the warped +imagination of my friend to its normal state than any amount of spoken +scepticism. + +To Camille I said nothing of my resolve; but waited on, chafing at the +slow healing of my wounds. In the meantime the period of the full +moon approached, and I decided, at whatever cost, to make the venture on +the evening she topped her orbit, if circumstances at the worst should +prevent my doing so sooner--and thus it turned out. + +On the eve of my enterprise, the first fair spring of rain in a drought +of two months fell, to my disappointment, among the hills; for I feared +an increase of the torrent and the effacement of the mighty lens. I set +off, however, on the afternoon of the following day, in hot sunshine, +mentally prognosticating a favourable termination to my expedition, and +telling Madame Barbiere not to expect me back till late. + +In leisurely fashion I made my way along the track we had previously +traversed, risking no divergence through overhaste, and carefully +examining all landmarks before deciding on any direction. Thus slowly +proceeding, I had the good fortune to come within sound of the cataract +as the sun was sinking behind the mountain ridges to my front; and +presently emerged from the woods at the very spot we had struck in our +former journey together. + +A chilly twilight reigned in the ravine, and the noise that came up from +the ruin of the torrent seemed doubly accented by reason of it. The +sound of water moving in darkness has always conveyed to me an impression +of something horrible and deadly, be it nothing of more moment than +the drip and hollow tinkle of a gutter pipe. But the crash in this +echoing gorge was appalling indeed. + +For some moments I stood on the brink of the slope, looking across at the +great knife of the fall, with a little shiver of fear. Then I shook +myself, laughed, and without further ado took my courage in hand, and +scrambled down the declivity and up again towards the cleft in the rocks. + +Here the chill of heart gripped me again--the watery sliding tunnel +looked so evil in the contracting gloom. A false step in that humid +chamber, and my bones would pound and crackle on the rocks forty feet +below. It must be gone through with now, however; and, taking a long +breath, I set foot in the passage under the curving downpour that seemed +taut as an arched muscle. + +Reaching the burnt recess, a few moments sufficed to restore my +self-confidence; and without further hesitation I dived under the inner +little fan-shaped fall--which was there, indeed, as Camille had described +it--and recovered my balance with pulses drumming thicker than I could +have desired. + +In a moment I became conscious that some great power was before me. +Across a vast, irregular disc filled with the ashy whiteness of the outer +twilight, strange, unaccountable forms, misty and undefined, passed, and +repassed, and vanished. Cirrus they might have been, or the shadows flung +by homing flights of birds; but of this I could not be certain. As the +dusk deepened they showed no more, and presently I gazed only into a +violet fathomless darkness. + +My own excitement now was great; and I found some difficulty in keeping +it under control. But for the moment, it seemed to me, I pined greatly +for free commune with the liberal atmosphere of earth. Therefore, I +dipped under the little fall and made my cautious way to the margin of +the cataract. + +I was surprised to find for how long a time the phenomenon had absorbed +me. The moon was already high in the heavens, and making towards +the ravine with rapid steps. Far below, the tumbling waters flashed in +her rays, and on all sides great tiers of solemn, trees stood up at +attention to salute her. + +When her disc silvered the inner rim of the slope I had descended, I +returned to my post of observation with tingling nerves. The field of +the great object lens was already suffused with the radiance of her +approach. + +Suddenly my pupils shrank before the apparition of a ghastly grey light, +and all in a moment I was face to face with a segment of desolation +more horrible than any desert. Monstrous growths of leprosy that had +bubbled up and stiffened; fields of ashen slime--the sloughing of a world +of corruption; hills of demon, fungus swollen with the fatness of +putrefaction; and, in the midst of all, dim, convulsed shapes wallowing, +protruding, or stumbling aimlessly onwards, till they sank and +disappeared. + + * * * * * + +Madame Barbiere threw up her hands when she let me in at the door. My +appearance, no doubt, was ghastly. I knew not the hour nor the lapse +of time covered by my wanderings about the hills, my face hidden in my +palms, a drawn feeling about my heart, my lips muttering--muttering +fragments of prayers, and my throat jerking with horrible laughter. + +For hours I lay face downwards on my bed. + +"Monsieur has seen it?" + +"I have seen it." + +"I heard the rain on the hills. The lens will have been blurred. Monsieur +has been spared much." + +"God, in His mercy, pity thee! And me--oh, Camille, and me too!" + +"He has held out His white hand to me. I go, when I go, with a safe +conduct." + + * * * * * + +He went before the week was out. The drought had broken and for five days +the thunder crashed and the wild rain swept the mountains. On the +morning of the sixth a drenched shepherd reported in the village that a +landslip had choked the fall of Buet, and completely altered its shape. +Madame Barbiere broke into the room where I was sitting with Camille, big +with the news. She little guessed how it affected her listeners. + +"The _bon Dieu_" said Camille, when she had gone, "has thundered His +curse on Nature for revealing His secrets. I, who have penetrated into +the forbidden, must perish." + +"And I, Camille?" + +He turned to me with a melancholy sweet smile, and answered, paraphrasing +the dying words of certain noble lips,-- + +"Be good, Monsieur; be good." + + + + +JACK AND JILL + + +My friend, Monsieur ----, absolutely declines to append his name to these +pages, of which he is the virtual author. Nevertheless, he permits me to +publish them anonymously, being, indeed, a little curious to ascertain +what would have been the public verdict as to his sanity, had he given +his personal imprimatur to a narrative on the face of it so incredible. + +"How!" he says. "Should I have believed it of another, when I have such +astonishing difficulty at this date in realizing that it was I--yes, I, +my friend--this same little callow _poupon_--that was an actual hero of +the adventure? Fidele" (by which term we cover the identity of his +wife)--"Fidele will laugh in my face sometimes, crying, 'Not thou, little +cabbage, nor yet thy faithful, was it that dived through half the world +and came up breathless! No, no--I cannot believe it. We folk, so +matter-of-fact and so comical. It was of Hansel and Gretel we had been +reading hand-in-hand, till we fell asleep in the twilight and fancied +this thing.' And then she will trill like a bird at the thought of how +solemn Herr Grabenstock, of the Hotel du Mont Blanc, would have stared +and edged apart, had we truly recounted to him that which had befallen us +between the rising and the setting of a sun. We go forth; it rains--my +faith! as it will in the Chamounix valley--and we return in the evening +sopped. Very natural. But, for a first cause of our wetting. Ah! there we +must be fastidious of an explanation, or we shall find ourselves in peril +of restraint. + +"Now, write this for me, and believe it if you can. We are not in a +conspiracy of imagination--I and the dear courageous." + +Therefore I _do_ write it, speaking in the person of Monsieur ----, and +largely from his dictation; and my friend shall amuse himself over the +nature of its reception. + + * * * * * + +"One morning (it was in late May)," says Monsieur ----, "my Fidele and I +left the Hotel du Mont Blanc for a ramble amongst the hills. We were a +little adventurous, because we were innocent. We took no guide but our +commonsense; and that served us very ill--or very well, according to the +point of view. Ours was that of the birds, singing to the sky and +careless of the snake in the grass so long as they can pipe their tune. +Of a surety that is the only course. If one would make provision against +every chance of accident, one must dematerialize. To die is the only way +to secure oneself from fatality. + +"Still, it is a wise precaution, I will admit, not to eat of all hedge +fruit because blackberries are sweet. Some day, after the fiftieth +stomach-ache, we shall learn wisdom, my Fidele and I. + +"'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' That, I know, comes into the +English gospel. + +"Well, I will tell you, I am content to be considered of the first; and +my Fidele is assuredly of the second. Yet did she fear, or I rush in? On +the contrary, I have a little laughing thought that it was the angel +inveighed against the dulness of caution when the fool would have +hesitated. + +"Now, it was before the season of the Alps; and the mountain aubergistes +were, for the most part, not arrived at their desolate hill-taverns. Nor +were guides at all in evidence, being yet engaged, the sturdy souls, over +their winter occupations. One, no doubt, we could have procured, had we +wished it; but we did not. We would explore under the aegis of no +cicerone but our curiosity. That was native to us, if the district was +strange. + +"Following, at first, the instructions of Herr Baedeker, we travelled and +climbed, chattering and singing as we went, in the direction of the +Montenvert, whence we were to descend upon the Mer de Glace, and enjoy +the spectacle of a stupendous glacier. + +"'And that, I am convinced,' said Fidele, 'is nothing more nor less than +one of those many windows that give light to the monsters of the +under-earth.' + +"'Little imbecile! In some places this window is six hundred feet thick.' + +"'So?' she said. 'That is because their dim eyes could not endure the +full light of the sun.' + +"We had brought a tin box of sandwiches with us; and this, with my large +pewter flask full of wine, was slung upon my back. For we had been told +the Hotel du Montenvert was yet closed; and, sure enough when we reached +it, the building stood black in a pool of snow, its shuttered windows +forlorn, and long icicles hung from the eaves. + +"The depression induced by this sight was momentary. We turned from it to +the panorama of majestic loveliness that stretched below and around us. +The glacier--that rolling sea of glass--descended from the enormous gates +of the hills. Its source was the white furnace of the skies; its +substance the crystal refuse of the stars; and from its margins the +splintered peaks stood up in a thousand forms of beauty. Right and left, +in the hollows of the mountains, the mist lay like ponds, opal and +translucent; and the shafts of the pine trees standing in it looked like +the reflections of themselves. + +"It made the eyes ache--this silence of greatness; and it became a relief +to shift one's gaze to the reality of one's near neighbourhood--the +grass, and the rhododendron bushes, and even the dull walls of the +deserted auberge. + +"A narrow path dipped over the hill-side and fled into the very jaws of +the moraine. Down the first of this path we raced, hand in hand; but +soon, finding the impetus overmastering us, we pulled up with difficulty, +and descended the rest of the way circumspectly. + +"At the foot of the steep slope we came upon the little wooden hutch +where, ordinarily, one may procure a guide (also rough socks to stretch +over one's boots) for the passage of the glacier. Now, however, the shed +was closed and tenantless; and we must e'en dispense with a conductor, +should we adventure further. + +"Herr Baedeker says, 'Guide unnecessary for the experienced.' + +"'Fidele, are we experienced?' + +"'We shall be, _mon ami_, when we have crossed. A guide could not alter +that.' + +"'But it is true, _ma petite_. Come, then!' + +"We clambered down amongst huge stones. Fidele's little feet went in and +out of the crannies like sand-martins. Suddenly, before we realized it, +we were on the glacier. + +"Fidele exclaimed. + +"'_Mon Dieu_! Is this ice--these blocks of dirty alabaster?' + +"Alas! she was justified. This torrent of majestic crystal--seen from +above so smooth and bountiful--a flood of the milk of Nature dispensed +from the white bosom of the hills! Now, near at hand, what do we find it? +A medley of opaque blocks, smeared with grit and rubbish; a vast ruin of +avalanches hurled together and consolidated, and of the colour of rock +salt. + +"'_Peste!_' I cried. 'We must get to the opposite bank, for all that. + +"_Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, + Qui ce matin avoit desclose_....'" + +"We clasped hands and set forth on our little traversee, our landmark an +odd-shaped needle of spar on the further side. My faith! it was simple. +The _paveurs_ of Nature had left the road a trifle rough, that was all. +Suddenly we came upon a wide fissure stretched obliquely like the mouth +of a sole. Going glibly, we learnt a small lesson of caution therefrom. +Six paces, and we should have tumbled in. + +"We looked over fearfully. Here, in truth, was real ice at last--green as +bottle-glass at the edges, and melting into unfathomable deeps of glowing +blue. + +"In a moment, with a shriek like that of escaping steam, a windy demon +leapt at us from the underneath. It was all of winter in a breath. It +seemed to shrivel the skin from our faces--the flesh from our bones. We +staggered backwards. + +"'_Mon ami! mon ami_!' cried Fidele, 'my heart is a stone; my eyes are +two blisters of water!' + +"We danced as the blood returned unwilling to our veins. It was minutes +before we could proceed. + +"Afterwards I learned that these hellish eruptions of air betoken a +change of temperature. It was coming then shortly in a dense rainfall. + +"When we were recovered, we sought about for a way to circumambulate the +crevasse. Then we remarked that up a huge boulder of ice that had +seemed to block our path recent steps, or toe-holes, had been cut. In a +twinkling we were over. Fidele--no, a woman never falls. + +"'For all this,' she says, shaking her head, 'I maintain that a guide +here is a sinecurist.' + +"Well, we made the passage safely, and toiled up the steep, loose moraine +beyond--to find the track over which was harder than crossing the +glacier. But we did it, and struck the path along the hillside, which +leads by the _Mauvais Pas_ (the _mauvais quart d'heure_) to the little +cabaret called the _Chapeau_. This tavern, too, was shut and dismal. +It did not matter. We sat like sparrows on a railing, and munched our +egg-sandwiches and drank our wine in a sort of glorious stupefaction. For +right opposite us was the vast glacier-fall, whose crashing foam was +towers and parapets of ice, that went over and rolled into the valley +below, a ruin of thunder. + +"Far beyond, where the mouth of the gorge spread out littered with +monstrous destruction, we saw the hundred threads of the glacier streams +collect into a single rope of silver, that went drawn between the hills, +a highway of water. It was all a majestic panorama of grey and pearly +white--the sky, the torrents, the mountains; but the blue and rusty green +of the stone pines, flung abroad in hanging woods and coppices, broke up +and distributed the infinite serenity of the snow fields. + +"Presently, having drunk deep of rich content, we rose to retrace our +steps. For, spurred by vanity, we must be returning the way we had come, +to show our confident experience of glaciers. + +"All went well. Actually we had passed over near two-thirds of the +ice-bed, when a touch on my arm stayed me, and _ma mie_ looked into my +eyes, very comical and insolent. + +"'Little cabbage,' she said; 'will you not put your new knowledge to +account?' + +"'But how, my soul?' + +"She laughed and pressed my arm to her side. Her heart fluttered like a +nestling after its first flight. + +"'To rest on the little prowess of a small adventure! No, no! Shall he +who has learnt to swim be always content to bathe in shallow water?' + +"I was speechless as I gazed on her. + +"'Behold, then!' she cried. 'We have opposed ourselves to this problem of +the ice, and we have mastered it. See how it rears itself to the +inaccessible peaks, the which to reach the poor innocents expend +themselves over rocks and drifts. But why should one not climb the +mountain by way of the glacier?' + +"'Fidele!' I gasped. + +"'Ah!' she exclaimed, nodding her head; 'but poor men! They are mules. +They spill their blood on the scaling ladders when the town gate is +open.' + +"Again I cried 'Fidele!' + +"'But, yes,' she said, 'it needs a woman to see. It is but two o'clock. +Let us ascend the glacier, like a staircase; and presently we shall stand +upon the summit of the mountain. Those last little peaks above the ice +can be of no importance.' + +"I was touched, astounded by the sublimity of her idea. Had no one, then, +ever thought of this before? + +"We began the ascent. + +"I swear we must have toiled upwards half a mile, when the catastrophe +took place. + +"It was raining then--a dense small mist; and the ice was as if it +had been greased. We were proceeding with infinite care, arm in arm, +tucked close together. A little doubt, I think, was beginning to oppress +us. We could move only with much caution and difficulty; and there were +noises--sounds like the clapping of great hands in those rocky attics +above us. Then there would come a slamming report, as if the window of +the unknown had been burst open by demons; and the moans of the lost +would issue, surging down upon the world. + +"These thunders, as we were afterwards told, are caused by the splitting +of the ice when there comes a fall in the barometer. Then the glacier +will yawn like a sliced junket. + +"My faith! what a simile! But again the point of view, my friend. + +"All in a moment I heard a little cluck. I looked down. Alas! the fine +spirit was obscured. Fidele was weeping. + +"'_Chut! chut!_' I exclaimed in consternation. 'We will go back at once.' + +"She struggled to smile, the poor _mignonne_. + +"'It is only that my knees are sick,' she said piteously. + +"I took her in my strong arms tenderly. + +"We had paused on a ridge of hard snow. + +"There came a tearing clang--an enormous sucking sound, as of wet lips +opening. The snow sank under our feet. + +"'My God!' shrieked Fidele. + +"I held her convulsively. It happened in an instant, before one could +leap aside. The bed of snow on which we were standing broke down into +the crevasse it had bridged, and let us through to the depths. + +"Will you believe what follows? Pinch your nose and open your mouth. You +shall take the whole draught at a breath. _The ice at the point where we +entered was five hundred feet thick; and we fell to the very bottom of +it._ + +"Ha! ha! Is it difficult to swallow? But it is true--it is quite true. +Here I sit, sound and safe, and eminently sane, and that after a fall of +five hundred feet. + +"Now, listen. + +"We went down, welded together, with a rush and a buzz like a +cannon-ball. Thoughts? Ah! my friend, I had none. Who can think even +in a high wind? And here the wind of our going would have brained an ox. +Only one desperate instinct I had, one little forlorn remnant of +humanity--to shield the love of my heart. So my arms never left her; and +we fell together. I dreaded nothing, feared nothing, foresaw no terror +in the inevitable mangling crash of the end. For time, that is necessary +to emotion, was annihilated. We had outstripped it, and left sense and +reason sluggishly following in our wake. + +"Sense, yes; but not altogether sensation. Flashingly I was conscious +here of incredibly swift transitions, from cold to deeper wells of frost; +thence down through a stratum of death and negation, between mere blind +walls of frigid inhumanity, to have been stayed a moment by which would +have pointed all our limbs as stiff as icicles, as stiff as those of +frogs plunged into boiling water. But we passed and fell, still crashing +upon no obstruction; and thought pursued us, tailing further behind. + +"It was the passage of the eternal night--frozen, self-contained; awful +as any fancied darkness that is without one tradition of a star. Yet, +struggling hereafter to, in some shadowy sense, renew my feelings of the +moment, it seemed to me that I had not fallen through darkness at all; +but rather that the friction of descent had kindled an inner radiance in +me that was independent of the vision of the eyes, and full of promise of +a sudden illumination of the soul. + +"Now, after falling what depths God knows, I become numbly aware of a +little griding sensation at my back, that communicated a whistling small +vibration to my whole frame. This intensified, became more pronounced. +Perceptibly, in that magnificent refinement of speed, our enormous pace I +felt to decrease ever so little. Still we had so far outstripped +intelligence as that I was incapable of considering the cause of the +change. + +"Suddenly, for the first time, pain made itself known; and immediately +reason, plunging from above, overtook me, and I could think. + +"Then it was I became conscious that, instead of falling, we were +rising, rising with immense swiftness, but at a pace that momently +slackened--rising, slipping over ice and in contact with it, + +"The muscles of my arms, clasped still about Fidele, involuntarily +swelled to her. My God! there was a tiny answering pressure. I could have +screamed with joy; but physical anguish overmastered me. My back seemed +bursting into flame. + +"The suffering was intolerable. When, at last, I thought I should go mad, +in a moment we took a surging swoop, shot down an easy incline, and +_stopped_. + +"There had been noise in our descent, as only now I knew by its +cessation--a hissing sound as of wire whirring from a draw-plate. In the +profound enormous silence that, at last, enwrapped us, the bliss of +freedom from that metallic accompaniment fell on me like a balm. My +eyelids closed. Possibly I fainted. + +"All in a moment I came to myself, to an undefinable sense of the +tremendous pressure of nothingness. Darkness! it was not that; yet it was +as little light. It was as if we lay in a dim, luminous chaos, ourselves +an integral part of its self-containment. I did not stir; but I spoke: +and my strange voice broke the enchantment. Surely never before or since +was speech exchanged under such conditions. + +"'Fidele!' + +"'I can speak, but I cannot look. If I hide so for ever I can die +bravely.' + +"'_Ma petite!_ oh, my little one! Are you hurt?' + +"'I don't know. I think not.' + +"Her voice, her dear voice was so odd; but, _Mon Dieu_! how wonderful in +its courage! That, Heaven be praised! is no monopoly of intellect. +Indeed, it is imagination that makes men cowards; and to the lack of this +possibly we owed our salvation. + +"Now, calm and freed of that haunting jar of descent, I became conscious +that a sound, that I had at first taken for the rush of my own arteries, +had an origin apart from us. It was like the wash and thunder of waters +in a deep sewer. + +"'Fidele!' I said again. + +"'I am listening.' + +"'Hear, then! Canst thou free my right arm, that I may feel for the +lucifers in my pocket?' + +"She moved at once, never raising her face from my breast. I groped for +the box, found it; and manipulating with one hand, succeeded in striking +a match. It flamed up--a long wax vesta. + +"A glory of sleek fires sprang on the instant into life. We lay +imprisoned in a house of glass at the foot of a smooth incline rising +behind us to unknown heights. A wall of porous and opaque ice-rubbish, +into which our feet had plunged deep, had stayed our progress. + +"I placed the box by my side ready for use. Our last moments should be +lavish of splendour. Stooping for another match, to kindle from the flame +of the near-expired one, a thought struck me. Why had we not been at once +frozen to death? Yet we lay where we had brought up, as snug and glowing +as if we were wrapped in bedclothes. + +"The answer came to me in a flash. We had fallen sheer to the glacier +bed, which, warmed by subterraneous heat, was ever in process of melting. +Possibly, but a comparatively thin curtain of perforated ice separated us +from the under torrent. + +"The enforced conclusion was astounding; but as yet it inspired no hope. +We were none the less doomed and buried. + +"I lit a second match, turned about, and gave a start of terror. There, +imbedded in the transparent wall at my very shoulder, was something--the +body of a man. + +"A horrible sight--a horrible, horrible sight--crushed, flattened--a +caricature; the very gouts of blood that had burst from him held poised +in the massed congelations of water. + +"For how long ages had he been travelling to the valley, and from what +heights? He was of a bygone generation, by his huge coat cuffs, his metal +buttons, by his shoe buckles and the white stockings on his legs, which +were pressed thin and sharp, as if cut out of paper. Had he been a +climber, an explorer--a contemporary, perhaps, of Saussure and a rival? +And what had been his unrecorded fate? To slip into a crevasse, and so +for the parted ice to snap upon him again, like a hideous jaw? Its work +done, it might at least have opened and dropped him through--not held him +intact to jog us, out of all that world of despair, with his battered +elbow! + +"Perhaps to witness in others the fate he had himself suffered! + +"I dropped the match I was holding. I tightened my clasp convulsively +about Fidele. Thank God she, at any rate, was blind to this horror within +a horror! + +"All at once--was it the start I had given, or the natural process of +dissolution beneath our feet?--we were moving again. Swift--swifter! +Fidele uttered a little moaning cry. The rubbish of ice crashed below us, +and we sank through. + +"I knew nothing, then, but that we were in water--that we had fallen from +a little height, and were being hurried along. The torrent, now deep, now +so shallow that my feet scraped its bed, gushed in my ears and blinded my +eyes. + +"Still I hugged Fidele, and I could feel by her returning grasp that she +lived. The water was not unbearably cold as yet. The air that came +through cracks and crevasses had not force to overcome the under warmth. + +"I felt something slide against me--clutched and held on. It was a brave +pine log. Could I recover it at this date I would convert it into a +flagstaff for the tricolour. It was our raft, our refuge; and it carried +us to safety. + +"I cannot give the extravagant processes of that long journey. It was all +a rushing, swirling dream--a mad race of mystery and sublimity, to +which the only conscious periods were wild, flitting glimpses of +wonderful ice arabesques, caught momentarily as we passed under fissures +that let the light of day through dimly. + +"Gradually a ghostly radiance grew to encompass us; and by a like +gradation the water waxed intensely cold. Hope then was blazing in our +hearts; but this new deathliness went nigh to quench it altogether. Yet, +had we guessed the reason, we could have foregone the despair. For, in +truth, we were approaching that shallower terrace of the glacier beyond +the fall, through which the light could force some weak passage, and the +air make itself felt, blowing upon the beds of ice. + +"Well, we survived; and still we survive. My faith, what a couple! +Sublimity would have none of us. The glacier rejected souls so +commonplace as not to be properly impressed by its inexorability. + +"This, then, was the end. We swept into a huge cavern of ice--through +it--beyond it, into the green valley and the world that we love. And +there, where the torrent splits up into a score of insignificant streams, +we grounded and crawled to dry land and sat down and laughed. + +"Yes, we could do it--we could laugh. Is that not bathos? But Fidele and +I have a theory that laughter is the chief earnest of immortality. + +"To _dry_ land I have said. _Mon Dieu!_ the torrent was no wetter. It +rains in the Chamounix valley. We looked to see whence we had fallen, and +not even the _Chapeau_ was visible through the mist. + +"But, as I turned, Fidele uttered a little cry. + +"'The flask, and the sandwich-box, and your poor coat!' + +"'_Comment?_' I said; and in a moment was in my shirt-sleeves. + +"I stared, and I wondered, and I clucked in my throat. + +"Holy saints! I was adorned with a breastplate on my back. The friction +of descent, first welding together these, the good ministers to our +appetite, had worn the metal down in the end to a mere skin or badge, the +heat generated from which had scorched and frizzled the cloth beneath it. + +"I needed not to seek further explanation of the pain I had suffered--was +suffering then, indeed, as I had reason to know when ecstasy permitted a +return of sensation. My back bears the scars at this moment. + +"'It shall remain there for ever!' I cried, 'like the badge of a _cocher +de fiacre_, who has made the fastest journey on record. 'Coachman! from +the glacier to the valley.' '_Mais oui, monsieur_. Down this crevasse, if +you please.' + +"And that is the history of our adventure. + +"Why we were not dashed to pieces? But that, as I accept it, is easy of +elucidation. Imagine a vast crescent moon, with a downward nick from the +end of the tail. This form the fissure took, in one enormous sweep and +drop towards the mouth of the valley. Now, as we rushed headlong, the +gentle curve received us from space to substance quite gradually, until +we were whirring forward wholly on the latter, my luggage suffering the +brunt of the friction. The upward sweep of the crescent diminished our +progress--more and yet more--until we switched over the lower point and +shot quietly down the incline beyond. And all this in ample room, and +without meeting with a single unfriendly obstacle. + +"'_Voila, mes chers amis, ce qui me met en peine_.' + +"Fidele laughs, the rogue! + +"'Ta, ta, ta!' she says. 'But they will not believe a word of it all.'" + + + + +THE VANISHING HOUSE + + +"My grandfather," said the banjo, "drank 'dog's-nose,' my father drank +'dog's-nose,' and I drink 'dog's-nose.' If that ain't heredity, there's +no virtue in the board schools." + +"Ah!" said the piccolo, "you're always a-boasting of your science. And +so, I suppose, your son'll drink 'dog's-nose,' too?" + +"No," retorted the banjo, with a rumbling laugh, like wind in the +bung-hole of an empty cask; "for I ain't got none. The family ends with +me; which is a pity, for I'm a full-stop to be proud on." + +He was an enormous, tun-bellied person--a mere mound of expressionless +flesh, whose size alone was an investment that paid a perpetual dividend +of laughter. When, as with the rest of his company, his face was +blackened, it looked like a specimen coal on a pedestal in a museum. + +There was Christmas company in the Good Intent, and the sanded tap-room, +with its trestle tables and sprigs of holly stuck under sooty beams +reeked with smoke and the steam of hot gin and water. + +"How much could you put down of a night, Jack?" said a little grinning +man by the door. + +"Why," said the banjo, "enough to lay the dustiest ghost as ever walked." + +"Could you, now?" said the little man. + +"Ah!" said the banjo, chuckling. "There's nothing like settin' one sperit +to lay another; and there I could give you proof number two of heredity." + +"What! Don't you go for to say you ever see'd a ghost!" + +"Haven't I? What are you whisperin' about, you blushful chap there by the +winder?" + +"I was only remarking sir, 'twere snawin' like the devil." + +"_Is_ it? Then the devil has been misjudged these eighteen hundred and +ninety odd years." + +"But _did_ you ever see a ghost?" said the little grinning man, pursuing +his subject. + +"No, I didn't, sir," mimicked the banjo, "saving in coffee grounds. But +my grandfather in _his_ cups see'd one; which brings us to number three +in the matter of heredity." + +"Give us the story, Jack," said the "bones," whose agued shins were +extemporizing a rattle on their own account before the fire. + +"Well, I don't mind," said the fat man. "It's seasonable; and I'm +seasonable, like the blessed plum-pudden, I am; and the more burnt brandy +you set about me, the richer and headier I'll go down." + +"You'd be a jolly old pudden to digest," said the piccolo. + +"You blow your aggrawation into your pipe and sealing-wax the stops," +said his friend. + +He drew critically at his "churchwarden" a moment or so, leaned forward, +emptied his glass into his capacious receptacles, and, giving his +stomach a shift, as if to accommodate it to its new burden, proceeded as +follows:-- + +"Music and malt is my nat'ral inheritance. My grandfather blew his +'dog's-nose,' and drank his clarinet like a artist and my father--" + +"What did you say your grandfather did?" asked the piccolo. + +"He played the clarinet." + +"You said he blew his 'dog's-nose.'" + +"Don't be a ass, Fred!" said the banjo, aggrieved. "How the blazes could +a man blow his dog's nose, unless he muzzled it with a handkercher, and +then twisted its tail? He played the clarinet, I say; and my father +played the musical glasses, which was a form of harmony pertiklerly +genial to him. Amongst us we've piped out a good long century--ah! we +have, for all I look sich a babby bursting on sops and spoon meat." + +"What!" said the little man by the door. "You don't include them cockt +hatses in your expeerunce?" + +"My grandfather wore 'em, sir. He wore a play-actin' coat, too, and +buckles to his shoes, when he'd got any; and he and a friend or two made +a permanency of 'waits' (only they called 'em according to the season), +and got their profit goin' from house to house, principally in the +country, and discoursin' music at the low rate of whatever they could get +for it." + +"Ain't you comin' to the ghost, Jack?" said the little man hungrily. + +"All in course, sir. Well, gentlemen, it was hard times pretty often with +my grandfather and his friends, as you may suppose; and never so much +as when they had to trudge it across country, with the nor'-easter +buzzin' in their teeth and the snow piled on their cockt hats like lemon +sponge on entry dishes. The rewards, I've heard him say--for he lived to +be ninety, nevertheless--was poor compensation for the drifts, and the +inflienza, and the broken chilblains; but now and again they'd get a fair +skinful of liquor from a jolly squire, as 'd set 'em up like boggarts +mended wi' new broomsticks." + +"Ho-haw!" broke in a hurdle-maker in a corner; and then, regretting the +publicity of his merriment, put his fingers bashfully to his stubble +lips. + +"Now," said the banjo, "it's of a pertikler night and a pertikler skinful +that I'm a-going to tell you; and that night fell dark, and that skinful +were took a hundred years ago this December, as I'm a Jack-pudden!" + +He paused a moment for effect, before he went on:-- + +"They were down in the sou'-west country, which they little knew; and +were anighing Winchester city, or should 'a' been. But they got muzzed on +the ungodly downs, and before they guessed, they was off the track. My +good hat! there they was, as lost in the snow as three nutshells +a-sinkin' into a hasty pudden. Well, they wandered round; pretty +confident at first, but getting madder and madder as every sense of their +bearings slipped from them. And the bitter cold took their vitals, so as +they saw nothing but a great winding sheet stretched abroad for to wrap +their dead carcasses in. + +"At last my grandfather he stopt and pulled hisself together with an +awful face, and says he: 'We're Christmas pie for the carrying-on crows +if we don't prove ourselves human. Let's fetch out our pipes and blow our +trouble into 'em.' So they stood together, like as if they was before a +house, and they played 'Kate of Aberdare' mighty dismal and flat, for +their fingers froze to the keys. + +"Now, I tell you, they hadn't climbed over the first stave, when there +come a skirl of wind and spindrift of snow as almost took them off of +their feet; and, on the going down of it, Jem Sloke, as played the +hautboy, dropped the reed from his mouth, and called out, 'Sakes alive! +if we fools ain't been standin' outside a gentleman's gate all the time, +and not knowin' it!' + +"You might 'a' knocked the three of 'em down wi' a barley straw, as they +stared and stared, and then fell into a low, enjoyin' laugh. For they was +standin' not six fut from a tall iron gate in a stone wall, and behind +these was a great house showin' out dim, with the winders all lighted up. + +"'Lord!' chuckled my grandfather, 'to think o' the tricks o' this +vagarious country! But, as we're here, we'll go on and give 'em a taste +of our quality.' + +"They put new heart into the next movement, as you may guess; and they +hadn't fair started on it, when the door of the house swung open, and +down the shaft of light that shot out as far as the gate there come a +smiling young gal, with a tray of glasses in her hands. + +"Now she come to the bars; and she took and put a glass through, not +sayin' nothin', but invitin' some one to drink with a silent laugh. + +"Did any one take that glass? Of course he did, you'll be thinkin'; and +you'll be thinkin' wrong. Not a man of the three moved. They was struck +like as stone, and their lips was gone the colour of sloe berries. Not a +man took the glass. For why? The moment the gal presented it, each saw +the face of a thing lookin' out of the winder over the porch, and the +face was hidjus beyond words, and the shadder of it, with the light +behind, stretched out and reached to the gal, and made her hidjus, too. + +"At last my grandfather give a groan and put out his hand; and, as he did +it, the face went, and the gal was beautiful to see agen. + +"'Death and the devil!' said he. 'It's one or both, either way; and I +prefer 'em hot to cold!' + +"He drank off half the glass, smacked his lips, and stood staring a +moment. + +"'Dear, dear!' said the gal, in a voice like falling water, 'you've drunk +blood, sir!' + +"My grandfather gave a yell, slapped the rest of the liquor in the faces +of his friends, and threw the cup agen the bars. It broke with a noise +like thunder, and at that he up'd with his hands and fell full length +into the snow." + +There was a pause. The little man by the door was twisting nervously in +his chair. + +"He came to--of course, he came to?" said he at length. + +"He come to," said the banjo solemnly, "in the bitter break of dawn; that +is, he come to as much of hisself as he ever was after. He give a +squiggle and lifted his head; and there was he and his friends a-lyin' on +the snow of the high downs." + +"And the house and the gal?" + +"Narry a sign of either, sir, but just the sky and the white stretch; and +one other thing." + +"And what was that?" + +"A stain of red sunk in where the cup had spilt." + +There was a second pause, and the banjo blew into the bowl of his pipe. + +"They cleared out of that neighbourhood double quick, you'll bet," said +he. "But my grandfather was never the same man agen. His face took +purple, while his friends' only remained splashed with red, same as birth +marks; and, I tell you, if he ever ventur'd upon 'Kate of Aberdare,' his +cheeks swelled up to the reed of his clarinet, like as a blue plum on a +stalk. And forty year after, he died of what they call solution of blood +to the brain." + +"And you can't have better proof than that," said the little man. + +"That's what _I_ say," said the banjo. "Next player, gentlemen, please." + + + + +DARK DIGNUM + + +"I'd not go higher, sir," said my landlady's father. I made out his +warning through the shrill piping of the wind; and stopped and took in +the plunging seascape from where I stood. The boom of the waves came up +from a vast distance beneath; sky and the horizon of running water seemed +hurrying upon us over the lip of the rearing cliff. + +"It crumbles!" he cried. "It crumbles near the edge like as frosted +mortar. I've seen a noble sheep, sir, eighty pound of mutton, browsing +here one moment, and seen it go down the next in a puff of white dust. +Hark to that! Do you hear it?" + +Through the tumult of the wind in that high place came a liquid vibrant +sound, like the muffled stroke of iron on an anvil. I thought it the +gobble of water in clanging caves deep down below. + +"It might be a bell," I said. + +The old man chuckled joyously. He was my cicerone for the nonce; had +come out of his chair by the ingle-nook to taste a little the salt of +life. The north-easter flashed in the white cataracts of his eyes and +woke a feeble activity in his scrannel limbs. When the wind blew loud, +his daughter had told me, he was always restless, like an imprisoned +sea-gull. He would be up and out. He would rise and flap his old draggled +pinions, as if the great air fanned an expiring spark into flame. + +"It is a bell!" he cried--"the bell of old St. Dunstan's, that was +swallowed by the waters in the dark times." + +"Ah," I said. "That is the legend hereabouts." + +"No legend, sir--no legend. Where be the tombstones of drownded mariners +to prove it such? Not one to forty that they has in other sea-board +parishes. For why? Dunstan bell sounds its warning, and not a craft will +put out." + +"There is the storm cone," I suggested. + +He did not hear me. He was punching with his staff at one of a number of +little green mounds that lay about us. + +"I could tell you a story of these," he said. "Do you know where we +stand?" + +"On the site of the old churchyard?" + +"Ay, sir; though it still bore the name of the new yard in my first +memory of it." + +"Is that so? And what is the story?" + +He dwelt a minute, dense with introspection. Suddenly he sat himself down +upon a mossy bulge in the turf, and waved me imperiously to a place +beside him. + +"The old order changeth," he said. "The only lasting foundations of men's +works shall be godliness and law-biding. Long ago they builded a new +church--here, high up on the cliffs, where the waters could not reach; +and, lo! the waters wrought beneath and sapped the foundations, and the +church fell into the sea." + +"So I understand," I said. + +"The godless are fools," he chattered knowingly. "Look here at these +bents--thirty of 'em, may be. Tombstones, sir; perished like man his +works, and the decayed stumps of them coated with salt grass." + +He pointed to the ragged edge of the cliff a score paces away. + +"They raised it out there," he said, "and further--a temple of bonded +stone. They thought to bribe the Lord to a partnership in their +corruption, and He answered by casting down the fair mansion into the +waves." + +I said, "Who--who, my friend?" + +"They that builded the church," he answered. + +"Well," I said. "It seems a certain foolishness to set the edifice so +close to the margin." + +Again he chuckled. + +"It was close, close, as you say; yet none so close as you might think +nowadays. Time hath gnawed here like a rat on a cheese. But the +foolishness appeared in setting the brave mansion between the winds and +its own graveyard. Let the dead lie seawards, one had thought, and the +church inland where we stand. So had the bell rung to this day; and only +the charnel bones flaked piecemeal into the sea." + +"Certainly, to have done so would show the better providence." + +"Sir, I said the foolishness _appeared_. But, I tell you, there was +foresight in the disposition--in neighbouring the building to the cliff +path. _For so they could the easier enter unobserved, and store their +Tcegs of Nantes brandy in the belly of the organ_." + +"They? Who were they?" + +"Why, who--but two-thirds of all Dunburgh?" + +"Smugglers?"' + +"It was a nest of 'em--traffickers in the eternal fire o' weekdays, and +on the Sabbath, who so sanctimonious? But honesty comes not from the +washing, like a clean shirt, nor can the piety of one day purge the evil +of six. They built their church anigh the margin, forasmuch as it was +handy, and that they thought, 'Surely the Lord will not undermine His +own?' A rare community o' blasphemers, fro' the parson that took his +regular toll of the organ-loft, to him that sounded the keys and pulled +out the joyous stops as if they was so many spigots to what lay behind." + +"Of when do you speak?" + +"I speak of nigh a century and a half ago. I speak of the time o' the +Seven Years' War and of Exciseman Jones, that, twenty year after he were +buried, took his revenge on the cliff side of the man that done him to +death." + +"And who was that?" + +"They called him Dark Dignum, sir--a great feat smuggler, and as wicked +as he was bold," + +"Is your story about him?" + +"Ay, it is; and of my grandfather, that were a boy when they laid, and +was glad to lay, the exciseman deep as they could dig; for the sight of +his sooty face in his coffin was worse than a bad dream." + +"Why was that?" + +The old man edged closer to me, and spoke in a sibilant voice. + +"He were murdered, sir, foully and horribly, for all they could never +bring it home to the culprit." + +"Will you tell me about it?" + +He was nothing loth. The wind, the place of perished tombs, the very +wild-blown locks of this 'withered apple-john', were eerie accompaniments +to the tale he piped in my ear:-- + +"When my grandfather were a boy," he said, "there lighted in Dunburgh +Exciseman Jones. P'r'aps the village had gained an ill reputation. +P'r'aps Exciseman Jones's predecessor had failed to secure the confidence +o' the exekitive. At any rate, the new man was little to the fancy of the +village. He was a grim, sour-looking, brass-bound galloot; and +incorruptible--which was the worst. The keg o' brandy left on his +doorstep o' New Year's Eve had been better unspiled and run into the +gutter; for it led him somehow to the identification of the innocent that +done it, and he had him by the heels in a twinkling. The squire snorted +at the man, and the parson looked askance; but Dark Dignum, he swore he'd +be even with him, if he swung for it. They was hurt and surprised, that +was the truth, over the scrupulosity of certain people; and feelin' +ran high against Exciseman Jones. + +"At that time Dark Dignum was a young man with a reputation above his +years for profaneness and audacity. Ugly things there were said about +him; and amongst many wicked he was feared for his wickedness. Exciseman +Jones had his eye on him; and that was bad for Exciseman Jones. + +"Now one murk December night Exciseman Jones staggered home with a +bloody long slice down his scalp, and the red drip from it spotting the +cobble-stones. + +"'Summut fell on him from a winder,' said Dark Dignum, a little later, as +he were drinkin' hisself hoarse in the Black Boy. 'Summut fell on him +retributive, as you might call it. For, would you believe it, the man had +at the moment been threatenin' me? He did. He said, "I know damn well +about you, Dignum; and for all your damn ingenuity, I'll bring you with a +crack to the ground yet."' + +"What had happened? Nobody knew, sir. But Exciseman Jones was in his bed +for a fortnight; and when he got on his legs again, it was pretty evident +there was a hate between the two men that only blood-spillin' could +satisfy. + +"So far as is known, they never spoke to one another again. They played +their game of death in silence--the lawful, cold and unfathomable; the +unlawful, swaggerin' and crool--and twenty year separated the first move +and the last. + +"This were the first, sir--as Dark Dignum leaked it out long after in his +cups. This were the first; and it brought Exciseman Jones to his grave on +the cliff here. + +"It were a deep soft summer night; and the young smuggler sat by hisself +in the long room of the Black Boy. Now, I tell you he were a fox-ship +intriguer--grand, I should call him, in the aloneness of his villainy. He +would play his dark games out of his own hand; and sure, of all his +wickedness, this game must have seemed the sum. + +"I say he sat by hisself; and I hear the listening ghost of him call me a +liar. For there were another body present, though invisible to mortal +eye; and that second party were Exciseman Jones, who was hidden up the +chimney. + +"How had he inveigled him there? Ah, they've met and worried that point +out since. No other will ever know the truth this side the grave. But +reports come to be whispered; and reports said as how Dignum had made an +appointment with a bodiless master of a smack as never floated, to meet +him in the Black Boy and arrange for to run a cargo as would never be +shipped; and that somehow he managed to acquent Exciseman Jones o' this +dissembling appointment, and to secure his presence in hidin' to witness +it. + +"That's conjecture; for Dignum never let on so far. But what is known for +certain is that Exciseman Jones, who were as daring and determined as +his enemy--p'r'aps more so--for some reason was in the chimney, on to a +grating in which he had managed to lower hisself from the roof; and that +he could, if given time, have scrambled up again with difficulty, but was +debarred from going lower. And, further, this is known--that, as Dignum +sat on, pretendin' to yawn and huggin' his black intent, a little sut +plopped down the chimney and scattered on the coals of the laid fire +beneath. + +"At that--'Curse this waitin'!' said he. 'The room's as chill as a +belfry'; and he got to his feet, with a secret grin, and strolled to the +hearthstone. + +"'I wonder,' said he, 'will the landlord object if I ventur' upon a glint +of fire for comfort's sake?' and he pulled out his flint and steel, +struck a spark, and with no more feelin' than he'd express in lighting +a pipe, set the flame to the sticks. + +"The trapt rat above never stirred or give tongue. My God! what a man! +Sich a nature could afford to bide and bide--ay, for twenty year, if need +be. + +"Dignum would have enjoyed the sound of a cry; but he never got it. He +listened with the grin fixed on his face; and of a sudden he heard a +scrambling struggle, like as a dog with the colic jumping at a wall; and +presently, as the sticks blazed and the smoke rose denser, a thick +coughin', as of a consumptive man under bed-clothes. Still no cry, nor +any appeal for mercy; no, not from the time he lit the fire till a +horrible rattle come down, which was the last twitches of somethin' that +choked and died on the sooty gratin' above. + +"When all was quiet, Dignum he knocks with his foot on the floor and sits +hisself down before the hearth, with a face like a pillow for innocence. + +"'I were chilled and lit it,' says he to the landlord. 'You don't mind?' + +"Mind? Who would have ventur'd to cross Dark Dignum's fancies? + +"He give a boisterous laugh, and ordered in a double noggin of humming +stuff. + +"'Here,' he says, when it comes, 'is to the health of Exciseman Jones, +that swore to bring me to the ground.' + +"'To the ground,' mutters a thick voice from the chimney. + +"'My God!' says the landlord--'there's something up there!' + +"Something there was; and terrible to look upon when they brought it to +light. The creature's struggles had ground the sut into its face, and its +nails were black below the quick. + +"Were those words the last of its death-throe, or an echo from beyond? +Ah! we may question; but they were heard by two men. + +"Dignum went free. What could they prove agen him? Not that he knew there +was aught in the chimney when he lit the fire. The other would scarcely +have acquent him of his plans. And Exciseman Jones was hurried into his +grave alongside the church up here. + +"And therein he lay for twenty year, despite that, not a twelvemonth +after his coming, the sacrilegious house itself sunk roaring into the +waters. For the Lord would have none of it, and, biding His time, struck +through a fortnight of deluge, and hurled church and cliff into ruin. But +the yard remained, and, nighest the seaward edge of it, Exciseman Jones +slept in his fearful winding sheet and bided _his_ time. + +"It came when my grandfather were a young man of thirty, and mighty close +and confidential with Dark Dignum. God forgive him! Doubtless he were +led away by the older smuggler, that had a grace of villainy about him, +'tis said, and used Lord Chesterfield's printed letters for wadding to +his bullets. + +"By then he was a ramping, roaring devil; but, for all his bold hands +were stained with crime, the memory of Exciseman Jones and of his promise +dwelled with him and darkened him ever more and more, and never left him. +So those that knew him said. + +"Now all these years the cliff edge agen the graveyard, where it was +broke off, was scabbing into the sea below. But still they used this way +of ascent for their ungodly traffic; and over the ruin of the cliff they +had drove a new path for to carry up their kegs. + +"It was a cloudy night in March, with scud and a fitful moon, and there +was a sloop in the offing, and under the shore a loaded boat that had +just pulled in with muffled rowlocks. Out of this Dark Dignum was the +first to sling hisself a brace of rundlets; and my grandfather followed +with two more. They made softly for the cliff path--began the ascent--was +half-way up. + +"Whiz!--a stone of chalk went by them with a skirl, and slapped into the +rubble below. + +"'Some more of St. Dunstan's gravel!' cried Dignum, pantin' out a +reckless laugh under his load; and on they went again. + +"Hwish!--a bigger lump came like a thunderbolt, and the wind of it took +the bloody smuggler's hat and sent it swooping into the darkness like a +bird. + +"'Thunder!' said Dignum; 'the cliff's breaking away!' + +"The words was hardly out of his mouth, when there flew such a volley of +chalk stones as made my grandfather, though none had touched him, fall +upon the path where he stood, and begin to gabble out what he could call +to mind of the prayers for the dying. He was in the midst of it, when he +heard a scream come from his companion as froze the very marrow in his +bones. He looked up, thinkin' his hour had come. + +"My God! What a sight he saw! The moon had shone out of a sudden, and the +light of it struck down on Dignum's face, and that was the colour of +dirty parchment. And he looked higher, and give a sort of sob. + +"For there, stickin' out of the cliff side, was half the body of +Exciseman Jones, with its arms stretched abroad, _and it was clawin' out +lumps of chalk and hurling them down at Dignum_! + +"And even as he took this in through his terror, a great ball of white +came hurtling, and went full on to the man's face with a splash--and he +were spun down into the deep night below, a nameless thing." + +The old creature came to a stop, his eyes glinting with a febrile +excitement. + +"And so," I said, "Exciseman Jones was true to his word?" + +The tension of memory was giving--the spring slowly uncoiling itself. + +"Ay," he said doubtfully. "The cliff had flaked away by degrees to his +very grave. They found his skelington stickin' out of the chalk." + +"His _skeleton?"_ said I, with the emphasis of disappointment. + +"The first, sir, the first. Ay, his was the first. There've been a many +exposed since. The work of decay goes on, and the bones they fall into +the sea. Sometimes, sailing off shore, you may see a shank or an arm +protrudin' like a pigeon's leg from a pie. But the wind or the weather +takes it and it goes. There's more to follow yet. Look at 'em! look at +these bents! Every one a grave, with a skelington in it. The wear and +tear from the edge will reach each one in turn, and then the last of the +ungodly will have ceased from the earth." + +"And what became of your grandfather?" + +"My grandfather? There were something happened made him renounce the +devil. He died one of the elect. His youth were heedless and +unregenerate; but, 'tis said, after he were turned thirty he never smiled +agen. There was a reason. Did I ever tell you the story of Dark Dignum +and Exciseman Jones?" + + + + +WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY" + + +This is the story of William Tyrwhitt, who went to King's Cobb for rest +and change, and, with the latter, at least, was so far accommodated +as for a time to get beyond himself and into regions foreign to his +experiences or his desires. And for this condition of his I hold myself +something responsible, inasmuch as it was my inquisitiveness was the +means of inducing him to an exploration, of which the result, with its +measure of weirdness, was for him alone. But, it seems, I was appointed +an agent of the unexplainable without my knowledge, and it was simply my +misfortune to find my first unwitting commission in the selling of a +friend. + +I was for a few days, about the end of a particular July, lodged in that +little old seaboard town of Dorset that is called King's Cobb. Thither +there came to me one morning a letter from William Tyrwhitt, the +polemical journalist (a queer fish, like the cuttle, with an ink-bag for +the confusion of enemies), complaining that he was fagged and used up, +and desiring me to say that nowhere could complete rest be obtained as in +King's Cobb. + +I wrote and assured him on this point. The town, I said, lay wrapped in +the hills as in blankets, its head only, winking a sleepy eye, projecting +from the top of the broad steep gully in which it was stretched at ease. +Thither few came to the droning coast; and such as did, looked up at the +High Street baking in the sun, and, thinking of Jacob's ladder, composed +them to slumber upon the sand and left the climbing to the angels. Here, +I said, the air and the sea were so still that one could hear the oysters +snoring in their beds; and the little frizzle of surf on the beach was +like to the sound to dreaming ears of bacon frying in the kitchens of the +blest. + +William Tyrwhitt came, and I met him at the station, six or seven miles +away. He was all strained and springless, like a broken child's toy--"not +like that William who, with lance in rest, shot through the lists in +Fleet Street." A disputative galley-puller could have triumphed over +him morally; a child physically. + +The drive in the inn brake, by undulating roads and scented valleys, +shamed his cheek to a little flush of self-assertion. + +"I will sleep under the vines," he said, "and the grapes shall drop into +my mouth." + +"Beware," I answered, "lest in King's Cobb your repose should be +everlasting. The air of that hamlet has matured like old port in the bin +of its hills, till to drink of it is to swoon." + +We alighted at the crown of the High Street, purposing to descend on +foot the remaining distance to the shore. + +"Behold," I exclaimed, "how the gulls float in the shimmer, like ashes +tossed aloft by the white draught of a fire! Behold these ancient +buildings nodding to the everlasting lullaby of the bay waters! The +cliffs are black with the heat apoplexy; the lobster is drawn scarlet to +the surface. You shall be like an addled egg put into an incubator." + +"So," he said, "I shall rest and not hatch. The very thought is like +sweet oil on a burn." + +He stayed with me a week, and his body waxed wondrous round and rosy, +while his eye acquired a foolish and vacant expression. So it was with +me. We rolled together, by shore and by road of this sluggard place, like +spent billiard balls; and if by chance we cannoned, we swerved sleepily +apart, until, perhaps, one would fall into a pocket of the sand, and the +other bring up against a cushion of sea-wall. + +Yet, for all its enervating atmosphere, King's Cobb has its fine +traditions of a sturdy independence, and a slashing history withal; and +its aspect is as picturesque as that of an opera bouffe fishing-harbour. +Then, too, its High Street, as well as its meandering rivulets of low +streets, is rich in buildings, venerable and antique. + +We took an irresponsible, smiling pleasure in noting these +advantages--particularly after lunch; and sometimes, where an old +house was empty, we would go over it, and stare at beams and +chimneypieces and hear the haunted tale of its fortunes, with a faint +half-memory in our breasts of that one-time bugbear we had known as +"copy." But though more than once a flaccid instinct would move us to +have out our pencils, we would only end by bunging our foolish mouths +with them, as if they were cigarettes, and then vaguely wondering +at them for that, being pencils, they would not draw. + +By then we were so sinewless and demoralized that we could hear in the +distant strains of the European Concert nothing but an orchestra of +sweet sounds, and would have given ourselves away in any situation with a +pound of tea. Therefore, perhaps, it was well for us that, a peremptory +summons to town reaching me after seven days of comradeship with William, +I must make shift to collect my faculties with my effects, and return to +the more bracing climate of Fleet Street. + +And here, you will note, begins the story of William Tyrwhitt, who would +linger yet a few days in that hanging garden of the south coast, and who +would pull himself together and collect matter for "copy." + +He found a very good subject that first evening of his solitude. + +I was to leave in the afternoon, and the morning we spent in aimlessly +rambling about the town. Towards mid-day, a slight shower drove us to +shelter under the green verandah of a house, standing up from the lower +fall of the High Street, that we had often observed in our wanderings. +This house--or rather houses, for it was a block of two--was very tall +and odd-looking, being all built of clean squares of a whitish granite; +and the double porch in the middle base--led up to by side-going steps +behind thin iron railings--roofed with green-painted zinc. In some of the +windows were jalousies, but the general aspect of the exterior was gaunt +and rigid; and the whole block bore a dismal, deserted look, as if it had +not been lived in for years. + +Now we had taken refuge in the porch of that half that lay uppermost on +the slope; and here we noticed that, at a late date, the building was +seemingly in process of repair, painters' pots and brushes lying on a +window-sill, and a pair of steps showing within through the glass. + +"They have gone to dinner," said I. "Supposing we seize the opportunity +to explore?" + +We pushed at the door; it yielded. We entered, shut ourselves in, and +paused to the sound of our own footsteps echoing and laughing from +corners and high places. On the ground floor were two or three good-sized +rooms with modern grates, but cornices, chimney-pieces, embrasures finely +Jacobean. There were innumerable under-stair and over-head cupboards, +too, and pantries, and closets, and passages going off darkly into the +unknown. + +We clomb the stairway--to the first floor--to the second. Here was all +pure Jacobean; but the walls were crumbling, the paper peeling, the +windows dim and foul with dirt. + +I have never known a place with such echoes. They shook from a footstep +like nuts rattling out of a bag; a mouse behind the skirting led a whole +camp-following of them; to ask a question was, as in that other House, to +awaken the derisive shouts of an Opposition. Yet, in the intervals of +silence, there fell a deadliness of quiet that was quite appalling by +force of contrast. + +"Let us go down," I said. "I am feeling creepy." + +"Pooh!" said William Tyrwhitt; "I could take up my abode here with a +feather bed." + +We descended, nevertheless. Arrived at the ground floor, "I am going to +the back," said William. + +I followed him--a little reluctantly, I confess. Gloom and shadow had +fallen upon the town, and this old deserted hulk of an abode was ghostly +to a degree. There was no film of dust on its every shelf or sill that +did not seem to me to bear the impress of some phantom finger feeling its +way along. A glint of stealthy eyes would look from dark uncertain +corners; a thin evil vapour appear to rise through the cracks of the +boards from the unvisited cellars in the basement. + +And here, too, we came suddenly upon an eccentricity of out-building that +wrought upon our souls with wonder. For, penetrating to the rear through +what might have been a cloak-closet or butler's pantry, we found a +supplementary wing, or rather tail of rooms, loosely knocked together, to +proceed from the back, forming a sort of skilling to the main building. +These rooms led direct into one another, and, consisting of little more +than timber and plaster, were in a woeful state of dilapidation. +Everywhere the laths grinned through torn gaps in the ceilings and walls; +everywhere the latter were blotched and mildewed with damp, and the +floor-boards rotting in their tracks. Fallen mortar, rusty tins, yellow +teeth of glass, whitened soot--all the decay and rubbish of a generation +of neglect littered the place and filled it with an acrid odour. From one +of the rooms we looked forth through a little discoloured window upon a +patch of forlorn weedy garden, where the very cats glowered in a +depression that no surfeit of mice could assuage. + +We went on, our nervous feet apologetic to the grit they crunched; and, +when we were come to near the end of this dreary annexe, turned off to +the left into a short gloom of passage that led to a closed door. + +Pushing this open, we found a drop of some half-dozen steps, and, going +gingerly down these, stopped with a common exclamation of surprise on our +lips. + +Perhaps our wonder was justified, for we were in the stern cabin of an +ancient West Indiaman. + +Some twenty feet long by twelve wide--there it all was, from the deck +transoms above, to the side lockers and great curved window, sloping +outwards to the floor and glazed with little panes in galleries, that +filled the whole end of the room. Thereout we looked, over the degraded +garden, to the lower quarters of the town--as if, indeed, we were perched +high up on waves--and even to a segment of the broad bay that swept by +them. + +But the room itself! What phantasy of old sea-dog or master-mariner had +conceived it? What palsied spirit, condemned to rust in inactivity, had +found solace in this burlesque of shipcraft? To renew the past in such a +fixture, to work oneself up to the old glow of flight and action, and +then, while one stamped and rocked maniacally, to feel the refusal of so +much as a timber to respond to one's fervour of animation! It was a +grotesque picture. + +Now, this cherished chamber had shared the fate of the rest. The paint +and gilding were all cracked and blistered away; much of the glass of +the stern-frame was gone or hung loose in its sashes; the elaborately +carved lockers mouldered on the walls. + +These were but dummies when we came to examine them--mere slabs attached +to the brickwork, and decaying with it. + +"There should be a case-bottle and rummers in one, at least," said +William Tyrwhitt. + +"There are, sir, at your service," said a voice behind us. + +We started and turned. + +It had been such a little strained voice that it was with something +like astonishment I looked upon the speaker. Whence he had issued I could +not guess; but there he stood behind us, nodding and smiling--a squab, +thick-set old fellow with a great bald head, and, for all the hair on his +face, a tuft like a teasel sprouting from his under lip. + +He was in his shirt-sleeves, without coat or vest; and I noticed that his +dirty lawn was oddly plaited in front, and that about his ample paunch +was buckled a broad belt of leather. Greased hip-boots encased his lower +limbs, and the heels of these were drawn together as he bowed. + +William Tyrwhitt--a master of nervous English--muttered "Great Scott!" +under his breath. + +"Permit me," said the stranger--and he held out to us a tin pannikin +(produced from Heaven knows where) that swam with fragrance. + +I shook my head. William Tyrwhitt, that fated man, did otherwise. He +accepted the vessel and drained it. + +"It smacks of all Castille," he said, handing it back with a sigh of +ecstasy. "Who the devil are you, sir?" + +The stranger gave a little crow. + +"Peregrine Iron, sir, at your service--Captain Penegrine Iron, of the +_Raven_ sloop amongst others. You are very welcome to the run of my poor +abode." + +"Yours?" I murmured in confusion. "We owe you a thousand apologies." + +"Not at all," he said, addressing all his courtesy to William. Me, since +my rejection of his beaker, he took pains to ignore. + +"Not at all," he said. "Your intrusion was quite natural under the +circumstances. I take a pleasure in being your cicerone. This cabin (he +waved his hand pompously)--a fancy of mine, sir, a fancy of mine. The +actual material of the latest of my commands brought hither and adapted +to the exigencies of shore life. It enables me to live eternally in the +past--a most satisfying illusion. Come to-night and have a pipe and a +glass with me." + +I thought William Tyrwhitt mad. + +"I will come, by all means," he said. + +The stranger bowed us out of the room. + +"That is right," he exclaimed. "You will find me here. Good-bye for the +present." + +As we plunged like dazed men into the street, now grown sunny, I turned +on my friend. + +"William," I said, "did you happen to look back as we left the cabin?" + +"No." + +"I did." + +"Well?" + +"There was no stranger there at all. The place was empty." + +"Well?" + +"You will not go to-night?" + +"You bet I do." + +I shrugged my shoulders. We walked on a little way in silence. Suddenly +my companion turned on me, a most truculent expression on his face. + +"For an independent thinker," he said, "you are rather a pusillanimous +jackass. A man of your convictions to shy at a shadow! Fie, sir, fie! +What if the room _were_ empty? The place was full enough of traps to +permit of Captain Iron's immediate withdrawal." + +Much may be expressed in a sniff. I sniffed. + +That afternoon I went back to town, and left the offensive William to his +fate. + + * * * * * + +It found him at once. + +The very day following that of my retreat, I was polishing phrases by +gaslight in the dull sitting-room of my lodgings in the Lambeth Road, +when he staggered in upon me. His face was like a sheep's, white and +vacant; his hands had caught a trick of groping blindly along the backs +of chairs. + +"You have obtained your 'copy'?" I said. + +I made him out to murmur "yes" in a shaking under-voice. He was so +patently nervous that I put him in a chair and poured him out a +wine-glassful of London brandy. This generally is a powerful emetic, but +it had no more effect upon him than water. Then I was about to lower the +gas, to save his eyes, but he stopped me with a thin shriek. + +"Light, light!" he whispered. "It cannot be too light for me!" + +"Now, William Tyrwhitt," I said, by-and-by, watchful of him, and marking +a faint effusion of colour soak to his cheek, "you would not accept my +warning, and you were extremely rude to me. Therefore you have had an +experience--" + +"An awful one," he murmured. + +"An awful one, no doubt; and to obtain surcease of the haunting memory of +it, you must confide its processes to me. But, first, I must put it to +you, which is the more pusillanimous--to refuse to submit one's manliness +to the tyranny of the unlawful, or to rush into situations you have not +the nerve to adapt yourself to?" + +"I could not foresee, I could not foresee." + +"Neither could I. And that was my very reason for declining the +invitation. Now proceed." + +It was long before he could. But presently he essayed, and gathered voice +with the advance of his narrative, and even unconsciously threw it into +something the form of "copy." And here it is as he murmured it, but with +a gasp for every full-stop. + +"I confess I was so far moved by the tone of your protest as, after your +departure, to make some cautious inquiries about the house we had +visited. I could discover nothing to satisfy my curiosity. It was known +to have been untenanted for a great number of years; but as to who was +the landlord, whether Captain Iron or another, no one could inform me; +and the agent for the property was of the adjacent town where you met me. +I was not fortunate, indeed, in finding that any one even knew of the +oddly appointed room; but considering that, owing to the time the house +had remained vacant, the existence of this eccentricity could be a +tradition only with some casual few, my failure did not strike me as +being at all bodeful. On the contrary, it only whetted my desire to +investigate further in person, and penetrate to the heart of a very +captivating little mystery. But probably, I thought, it is quite simple +of solution, and the fact of the repairers and the landlord being in +evidence at one time, a natural coincidence. + +"I dined well, and sallied forth about nine o'clock. It was a night +pregnant with possibilities. The lower strata of air were calm, but +overhead the wind went down the sea with a noise of baggage-wagons, and +there was an ominous hurrying and gathering together of forces under +the bellying standards of the clouds. + +"As I went up the steps of the lonely building, the High Street seemed to +turn all its staring eyes of lamps in my direction. 'What a droll +fellow!' they appeared to be saying; 'and how will he look when he +reissues?' + +"'There ain't nubbudy in that house,' croaked a small boy, who had paused +below, squinting up at me. + +"'How do you know?' said I. 'Move on, my little man.' + +"He went; and at once it occurred to me that, as no notice was taken of +my repeated knockings, I might as well try the handle. I did, found the +door unlatched, as it had been in the morning, pushed it open, entered, +and swung it to behind me. + +"I found myself in the most profound darkness--that darkness, if I may +use the paradox, of a peopled desolation that men of but little nerve or +resolution find insupportable. To me, trained to a serenity of stoicism, +it could make no demoralizing appeal. I had out my matchbox, opened it at +leisure, and, while the whole vaulting blackness seemed to tick and +rustle with secret movement, took a half-dozen vestas into my hand, +struck one alight, and, by its dim radiance, made my way through the +building by the passages we had penetrated in the morning. If at all I +shrank or perspired on my spectral journey, I swear I was not +conscious of doing so. + +"I came to the door of the cabin. All was black and silent. + +"'Ah!' I thought, 'the rogue has played me false.' + +"Not to subscribe to an uncertainty, I pushed at the door, saw only +swimming dead vacancy before me, and tripping at the instant on the sill, +stumbled crashing into the room below and slid my length on the floor. + +"Now, I must tell you, it was here my heart gave its first somersault. I +had fallen, as I say, into a black vault of emptiness; yet, as I rose, +bruised and dazed, to my feet, there was the cabin all alight from a +great lanthorn that swung from the ceiling, and our friend of the morning +seated at a table, with a case-bottle of rum and glasses before him. + +"I stared incredulous. Yes, there could be no doubt it was he, and pretty +flushed with drink, too, by his appearance. + +"'Incandescent light in a West Indiaman!' I muttered; for not otherwise +could I account for the sudden illumination. 'What the deuce!' + +"'Belay that!' he growled. He seemed to observe me for the first time. + +"'A handsome manner of boarding a craft you've got, sir,' said he, +glooming at me. + +"I was hastening to apologize, but he stopped me coarsely. + +"'Oh, curse the long jaw of him! Fill your cheek with that, you Barbary +ape, and wag your tail if you can, but burn your tongue.' + +"He pointed to the case-bottle with a forefinger that was like a dirty +parsnip. What induced me to swallow the insult, and even some of the +pungent liquor of his rude offering? The itch for 'copy' was, no doubt, +at the bottom of it. + +"I sat down opposite my host, filled and drained a bumper. The fire ran +to my brain, so that the whole room seemed to pitch and courtesy. + +"'This is an odd fancy of yours,' I said. + +"'What is?' said he. + +"'This,' I answered, waving my hand around--'this freak of turning a back +room into a cabin.' + +"He stared at me, and then burst into a malevolent laugh. + +"'Back room, by thunder!' said he. 'Why, of course--just a step into the +garden where the roses and the buttercupses be agrowing.' + +"Now I pricked my ears. + +"'Has the night turned foul?' I muttered. 'What a noise the rain makes +beating on the window!' + +"'It's like to be a foul one for you, at least,' said he. 'But, as for +the rain, it's blazing moonlight.' + +"I turned to the broad casement in astonishment. My God! what did I see? +Oh, my friend, my friend! will you believe me? By the melancholy glow +that spread therethrough I saw that the whole room was rising and sinking +in rhythmical motion; that the lights of King's Cobb had disappeared, and +that in their place was revealed a world of pale and tossing water, the +pursuing waves of which leapt and clutched at the glass with innocuous +fingers. + +"I started to my feet, mad in an instant. + +"'Look, look!' I shrieked. 'They follow us--they struggle to get at you, +you bloody murderer!' + +"They came rising on the crests of the billows; they hurried fast in our +wake, tumbling and swaying, their stretched, drowned faces now lifted to +the moonlight, now over-washed in the long trenches of water. They were +rolled against the galleries of glass, on which their hair slapped like +ribbons of seaweed--a score of ghastly white corpses, with strained black +eyes and pointed stiff elbows crookt up in vain for air. + +"I was mad, but I knew it all now. This was no house, but the good, +ill-fated vessel _Rayo,_ once bound for Jamaica, but on the voyage fallen +into the hands of the bloody buccaneer, Paul Hardman, and her crew made +to walk the plank, and most of her passengers. I knew that the dark +scoundrel had boarded and mastered her, and--having first fired and sunk +his own sloop--had steered her straight for the Cuban coast, making +disposition of what remained of the passengers on the way, and I knew +that my great-grandfather had been one of these doomed survivors, and +that he had been shot and murdered under orders of the ruffian that now +sat before me. All this, as retailed by one who sailed for a season under +Hardman to save his skin, is matter of old private history; and of common +report was it that the monster buccaneer, after years of successful +trading in the ship he had stolen, went into secret and prosperous +retirement under an assumed name, and was never heard of more on the high +seas. But, it seemed, it was for the great-grandson of one of his victims +to play yet a sympathetic part in the grey old tragedy. + +"How did this come to me in a moment--or, rather, what was that dream +buzzing in my brain of 'proof' and 'copy' and all the tame stagnation +of a long delirium of order? I had nothing in common with the latter. In +some telepathic way--influenced by these past-dated surroundings--dropped +into the very den of this Procrustes of the seas, I was there to re-enact +the fearful scene that had found its climax in the brain of my ancestor. + +"I rushed to the window, thence back to within a yard of the glowering +buccaneer, before whom I stood, with tost arms, wild and menacing. + +"'They follow you!' I screamed. 'Passive, relentless, and deadly, they +follow in your wake and will not be denied. The strong, the helpless, +the coarse and the beautiful--all you have killed and mutilated in your +wanton devilry--they are on your heels like a pack of spectre-hounds, and +sooner or later they will have you in their cold arms and hale you down +to the secret places of terror. Look at Beston, who leads, with a fearful +smile on his mouth! Look at that pale girl you tortured, whose hair +writhes and lengthens--a swarm of snakes nosing the hull for some open +port-hole to enter by! Dog and devil, you are betrayed by your own +hideous cruelty!' + +"He rose and struck at me blindly; staggered, and found his filthy voice +in a shriek of rage. + +"'Jorinder! make hell of the galley-fire! Heat some irons red and fetch +out a bucket of pitch. We'll learn this dandy galloot his manners!' + +"Wrought to the snapping-point of desperation, I sprang at and closed +with him; and we went down on the floor together with a heavy crash. +I was weaponless, but I would choke and strangle him with my hands. I had +him under, my fingers crookt in his throat. His eyeballs slipped forward, +like banana ends squeezed from their skins; he could not speak or cry, +but he put up one feeble hand and flapped it aimlessly. At that, in the +midst of my fury, I glanced above me, and saw a press of dim faces +crowding a dusk hatch; and from them a shadowy arm came through, pointing +a weapon; and all my soul reeled sick, and I only longed to be left time +to destroy the venomous horror beneath me before I passed. + +"It was not to be. Something, a physical sensation like the jerk of a +hiccup, shook my frame; and immediately the waters of being seemed to +burst their dam and flow out peaceably into a valley of rest." + +William Tyrwhitt paused, and "Well?" said I. + +"You see me here," he said. "I woke this morning, and found myself lying +on the floor of that shattered and battered closet, and a starved demon +of a cat licking up something from the boards. When I drove her away, +there was a patch there like ancient dried blood." + +"And how about your head?" + +"My head? Why, the bullet seemed stuck in it between the temples; and +there I am afraid it is still." + +"Just so. Now, William Tyrwhitt, you must take a Turkish, bath and some +cooling salts, and then come and tell me all about it again." + +"Ah! you don't believe me, I see. I never supposed you would. +Good-night!" + +But, when he was gone, I sat ruminating. + +"That Captain Iron," I thought, "walked over the great rent in the floor +without falling through. Well, well!" + + + + +A LAZY ROMANCE + + +I had slept but two nights at King's Cobb, when I saw distinctly that the +novel with which I was to revolutionize society and my own fortunes, and +with the purpose of writing which in an unvexed seclusion I had buried +myself in this expedient hamlet on the South Coast, was withered in the +bud beyond redemption. To this lamentable canker of a seedling hope the +eternal harmony of the sea was a principal contributor; but Miss Whiffle +confirmed the blight. I had fled from the jangle of a city, and the +worries incidental to a life of threepenny sociabilities; and the result +was-- + +I had rooms on the Parade--a suggestive mouthful. But then the Parade is +such a modest little affair. The town itself is flung down a steep hill, +at the mouth of a verdurous gorge; and lies pitched so far as the very +waterside, a picturesque jumble of wall and roof. Its banked edges +bristle and stand up in the bight of a vaster bay, with a crooked +breakwater, like a bent finger, beckoning passing sails to its +harbourage--an invitation which most are coy of accepting. For the +attractions of King's Cobb are--comparatively--limited, and its nearest +station is a full six miles distant along a switchback road. + +Possibly this last fact may have militated against the popularity of +King's Cobb as a holiday resort. If so, all the better; and may +enterprise for ever languish in the matter. For vulgarity can claim +no commoner purpose with fashion than is shown in that destruction of +ancient landmarks and double gilding of new which follows the "opening +out" of some unsophisticated colony of simple souls. + +King's Cobb, if "remote and unfriended," is neither "melancholy" nor +"slow"; but it is small, and all its fine little history--for it has had +a stirring one--has ruffled itself out on a liliputian platform. + +Than this, its insignificance, I desired nothing better. I wished to feel +the comparative importance of the individual, which one cannot do in +crowded colonies. I coveted surroundings that should be primitive--an +atmosphere in which my thoughts could speak to me coherent. I would be +as one in a cave, looking forth on sea, and sky, and the buoyant glory of +Nature; unvexed of conventions; untrammelled by social observances; +building up my enchanted palace of the imagination against such a +background as only the unsullied majesty of sky and ocean could present. +For the result was to crown with my name an epoch in literature; and +hither in future ages should the pilgrim stand at gaze, murmuring to +himself, 'And here he wrote it!' + +I laid my head on my pillow, that first night of my stay, with a brimming +brain and a heart of high resolve. The two little windows, under a +thatched roof, of my sleeping place (_that_ lay over my sitting-room, and +both looked oceanwards) were open to the inpour of sweet hot air; and +only the regular wash of the sea below broke the close stillness of the +night. I say this was all; and, with the memory upon me, I could easily, +at any time, break the second commandment. + +I had thought myself fortunate in my lodgings. They were in a most +charming old-world cottage--as I have said on the Parade--and at high +tide I could have thrown a biscuit into the sea with merely a lazy jerk. +My sitting-room put forth a semi-circular window--like a lighthouse +lantern--upon the very pathway, and it had been soothing during the +afternoon to look from out this upon the little world of sea and sky and +striding cliff that was temporarily mine. From the Parade four feet of +stone wall dipped to a second narrow terrace, and this, in its turn, was +but a step above a slope of shingle that ran down to the water. + +Veritably had I pitched my tent on the wide littoral of rest. So I +thought with a smile, as I composed myself for slumber. + +I slept, and I woke, and I lay awake for hours. Every vext problem of my +life and of the hereafter presented itself to me, and had to be argued +out and puzzled over with maddening reiteration. The reason for this was +evident and flagrant. It had woven itself into the tissue of my brief +unconsciousness, and was now recognised as, ineradicably, part of myself. + +The tide was incoming, that was all, and the waves currycombed the beach +with a swishing monotony that would have dehumanized an ostler. + +This rings like the undue inflation of a little theme. I ask no pity for +it, nor do I make apology for my weakness. Men there may be, no doubt, +to whom the unceasing recurrent thump and scream of a coasting tide on +shingle speaks, even in sleep, of the bountiful rhythm of Nature. I am +not one of them--at least, since I visited King's Cobb. The noise of the +waters got into my brain and stayed there. It turned everything else +out--sleep, thought, faith, hope, and charity. From that first awakening +my skull was a mere globe of stagnant fluid, for any disease germs that +listed to propagate in. + +Perhaps I was too near the coast-line. The highest appreciations of +Nature's thunderous forces are conceived, I believe, in the muffled +seclusion of the study. I had heard of still-rooms. I did not quite know +what they were; but they seemed to me an indispensable part of seaside +lodgings, and for the rest of that night I ardently and almost tearfully +longed to be in one. + +I came down in the morning jaded and utterly unrefreshed. It was patent +that I was in no state to so much as outline the preliminaries of my +great undertaking. "Use shall accustom me," I groaned. "I shall scarcely +notice it to-night." + +And it was at this point that Miss Whiffle walked like a banshee into the +disturbed chambers of my life, and completed my demoralization. + +I must premise that I am an exquisitively nervous man--one who would +accept almost ridiculous impositions if the alternative were a "scene." +Strangers, I fancy, are quick to detect the signs of this weakness in me; +but none before had ever ventured to take such outrageous advantage of +it as did Miss Whiffle, with the completest success. + +This lady had secured me for a month. My rights extended over the +lantern-windowed sitting-room and the bedroom above it. They were to +include, moreover, board of a select quality. + +"Select" represented Miss Whiffle's brazen mean of morality; and, indeed, +it is an elastic and accommodating word. One, for instance, may select an +aged gander for its wisdom, knowing that the youthful gosling is +proverbially "green." Miss Whiffle selected the aged gander for me, and I +gnawed its sinewy limbs without a protest. On a similar principle she +appeared to ransack the town shops for prehistoric joints (the locality +was rich in fossils), and vegetables that, like eggs, only grew harder +the more they were boiled. + +I submitted, of course; and should have done no less by a landlady not so +obstreperously constituted. But this terrible person gauged and took me +in hand from the very morning following my arrival. + +She came to receive my _orders_ after breakfast (tepid chicory and an +omelette like a fragment of scorched blanket) with her head wrapped up in +a towel. Thus habited she had the effrontery to trust the meal had been +to my liking. I gave myself away at once by weakly answering, "Oh, +certainly!" + +"As to dinner, sir," she said faintly, "it is agreed, no kitching fire in +the hevening. That is understood." + +I said, "Oh, certainly!" again. + +"What I should recommend," she said--and she winced obtrusively at every +sixth word--"is an 'arty meal at one, and a light supper at height." + +"That will suit me admirably," I said. + +She tapped her fingers together indulgently. + +"So I thought," she murmured. "Now, what do you fancy, sir?" + +"Dear me!" I exclaimed, for her face was horribly contorted. "Are you in +pain?" + +"Agonies!" said Miss Whiffle. + +"Toothache?" + +"Neuralgia, sir, for my sins." + +"Is there--is there no remedy?" + +She was taken with a sharp spasm of laughter, mirthless, but consciously +expressive of all the familiar processes of self-effacement under +torture. + +"I arks nothing but my duty, sir," she said. "That is the myrrh and +balsam to a racking 'ed. Not but what I owns to a shrinking like unto +death over the thought of what lays before me this very morning. Rest and +quiet is needful, but it's little I shall get of either out of a kitching +fire in the dog days. And what would you fancy for your dinner, sir?" + +"I am sorry," I murmured, "that you should suffer on my account. I +suppose there is nothing cold--" + +"Not enough, sir, in all the 'ouse to bait a mousetrap. Nor would I +inconvenience you, if not for your own kind suggestion. But potted meats +is 'andy and ever sweet, and if I might make bold to propose a tin--" + +"Very well. Get me what you like, Miss Whiffle." + +"I must arks your pardin, sir. But to walk out in this 'eat, and every +rolling pebble under my foot a knife through my 'ed--no, sir. I make bold +to claim that consideration for myself." + +"Leave it to me, then. I will do my own catering this morning." + +Then I added, in the forlorn hope of justifying my moral ineptitude to +myself, "If you take my advice, you will lie down." + +"And where, sir?" she answered, with a particularly patient smile. "The +beds is unmade as yet, sir," she went on, in a suffering decline, "and +rumpled sheets is thorns to a bursting brain." + +Then she looked meaningly at the sitting-room sofa. + +"I made bold to think, if you _'ad_ 'appened to been a-going to bathe, +the only quiet place in the 'ouse--" she murmured, in semi-detached +sentences, and put her hand to her brow. + +Five minutes later (I fear no one will credit it) I was outside the +house, and Miss Whiffle was installed, towel and all, upon my sofa. + +For a moment I really think the outrageous absurdity of the situation did +goad me to the tottering point of rebellion. I had not the courage, +however, to let myself go, and, as usual, succumbed to the tyranny of +circumstances. + +It was a blazing morning. The flat sea lay panting on its coasts, as if, +for all its liquid sparkle, it were athirst; and the town, under the oven +of its hills, burned red-hot, like pottery in a kiln. + +I went and bought my tinned meat (a form of preserve quite odious to me) +and strolled back disconsolately to the Parade. Occasionally, flitting +past the lantern window, I would steal a side glance into the cool +luminosity of my own inaccessible parlour; and there always, reclining at +her ease upon my sofa, was the ineradicable presentment of Miss Whiffle. + +At one o'clock I ventured to reclaim my own, and sat me down at table, a +scorched and glutinous wreck, too overcome with lassitude to tackle the +obnoxious meal of my own providing. And to the sofa, already made +familiar of that dishonoured towel, I was fain presently to confide the +empty problem of my own aching head. + +All this was but the forerunner and earnest of a month's long martyrdom. +That night the sea had me by the nerves again, and for many nights +after; and, although I grew in time to a certain tolerance of the booming +monotony, it was the tolerance of a dully resigned, not an indifferent, +brain. + +When it came to the second morning, not only the novel, but the mere idea +of my ever having contemplated writing one, was a thing with me to feebly +marvel over. And from that time I set myself down to exist and broil +only, doling out a languid interest to the locality, the shimmer of whose +baking hill-sides made all life a quivering, glaring phantom of itself. + +Miss Whiffle tyrannized over me more or less according to her mood; but +she did not usurp my sitting-room again. I used to sit by the hour at +the lantern window, in a sort of greasy blankness, like a meat pudding, +and vacantly scrutinize the loiterers who passed by on the hot asphalt of +the Parade. Screened by the window curtains, I could see and hear without +endangering my own privacy; and many were the odd interchanges of speech +that fell from strangers unconscious of a listener. + +One particularly festering day after dinner I had the excitement of quite +a pretty little quarrel for dessert. Miss Whiffle had stuffed me with +suet, in meat and pudding, to a point of stupefaction that stopped short +only of absolute insensibility; and in this state I took up my usual post +at the window, awaiting in swollen vacuity the possibilities of the +afternoon. + +On the horizon violet-hot sea and sky showed scarce a line of demarcation +between them. Nearer in the waves snored stertorously from exhausted +lungs, as if the very tide were in extremis. Not a breath of air fanned +the pitiless Parade, and the sole accent on life came from a droning, +monotonous voice pitched from somewhere in querulous complaint. + +"Frarsty!" it wailed, "Frarsty! I warnt thee!" and again, "I warnt thee, +Frarsty! Frarsty! Frar--r--r--rsty!" drawn out in an inconceivable +passionlessness of desire again and again, till I felt myself absorbing +the ridiculous yearning for an absurd person and inclined to weep +hysterical tears at his unresponsiveness. + +Then through the suffocating miasma thridded another sound--the whine of +a loafing tramp slowly pleading along the house fronts--vainly, too, as +it appeared. + +"Friends," went his formula, nasal and forcibly spasmodic in the best +gull-catcher style, "p'raps you will ask why I, a able-bodied man, are +asking for ass--ist--ance in your town. Friends, I answer, becorse I +cannot get work and becorse I cannot starve. Any honest work I would be +thankful for; but no one will give it to me." + +Then followed an elaborate presentation, in singsong verse, of his own +undeserved indigence and the brutality of employers, and so the +recitation again:-- + +"Friends, the least ass--ist--ance would be welcome. I am a honest +British workman, and employ--ment I cannot ob--tain. You sit in your +com--for--ta--ble 'ouses, and I ask you to ass--ist a fellow creature, +driven to this for no fault of his own--for many can 'elp one where one +cannot 'elp many." + +Then he hove into sight--a gastropodous tub of a fellow, with a rascally +red eye; and I shrank behind my curtains, for I never court parley with +such gentlemen. + +He spotted me, of course,--rogues of his feather have a hawk's eye for +timid quarry,--and his bloated face appeared at the window. + +"Sir--friend," he said, in a confidential, hoarse whisper, "won't you +'elp a starvin' British workman?" + +I gave him sixpence, cursing inwardly this my concession to pure +timorousness, and the bestial mask of depravity vanished with a grin. + +After that I was left to myself, heat and haze alone reigning without; +and presently, I think, I must have fallen into a suetty doze, for I was +semi-conscious of voices raised in dispute for a length of time, before I +roused to the fact that two people were quarrelling just outside my +window. + +They were a young man--almost a boy--and a girl of about his own age; and +both evidently belonged to the labouring classes. + +She was, I took occasion to notice, aggressively pretty in that hot red +and black style that finds its warmest admirers in a class cultivated +above that to which she belonged; and she was scorning and flouting her +slow, perplexed swain with that over-measure of vehemence characteristic +of a sex devoid of the sense of proportion. + +"Aw!" she was saying, as I came into focus of their dispute. "That's the +moral of a mahn, it is. Yer ter work when ye like an' ter play when ye +like, and the girls hahs ter sit and dangle their heels fer yer honours' +convenience." + +"I doan't arlays get my likes, Jenny, or I shud a' met you yesterday." + +"Ay, as yer promused." + +"We worked ower late pulling the lias, I tell yer. 'Twould 'a' meant half +a day's wages garn if I'd com', and theer, my dear, 'ud been reason +for another delay in oor getting spliced." + +"You're fine and vulgar, upon my word! A little free, too, and a little +mistook. I've no mind ter get spliced, as yer carls it, wi' a chap as +cannot see's way ter keep tryst." + +"Yer doan't mean thart?" + +"Doan't I? Yer'll answer fer me in everything, 't seems. But yer've got +enough ter answer fer yerself, Jack Curtice. I'm none of the sort ter go +or stay at anny mahn's pleasure. There's kerps and dabs in the sea yet, +Jack Curtice; and fatter ones ter fish fer, too." + +"But yer doan't understand." + +"I understand my own vally; and that isn't ter be kep' drarging my toes +on the Parade half an a'rtenoon fer a chap as thinks he be better +engaged summer else." + +"And yer gone ter break wi' me fer thart?" + +"Good-bye, Mr. Curtice," she said, and jerked her nose high and walked +off. + +Now here was an inconsistent jade, and I felt sorry and relieved for the +sake of the young fellow. + +He stood, after the manner of his kind, amazed and speechless. Man's +saving faculty of logic was in him, but tongue-tied; and he could not +express his intuitive recognition of the self-contradictory. Such natures +frequently make reason articulate through a blow--a rough way of knocking +her into shape, but commonly effectual. Jack, however, was evidently a +large gentle swain of the dumb-suffering type--one of those unresisting +leviathans of good-humour, upon whom a woman loves to vent that passion +of the illogical which an antipathetic sex has vainly tried to laugh her +out of conceit with. + +I peered a little longer, and presently saw Mr. Curtice walk off in a +state compound of bewilderment and abject depression. + +This was the beginning to me of an interest apart from that which had +brought me to King's Cobb. A real nutshell drama had usurped the place of +that fictitious one that had as yet failed to mark an epoch by so much as +a scratch. I accepted the former as some solace for the intolerable +wrong inflicted upon me by the sea and Miss Whiffle. + +I happened across my unconscious friends fairly frequently after that my +first introduction to them; so often, indeed, that, judged by what +followed, it would almost seem as if Fate, desiring record of an incident +in the lives of these two, had intentionally worked to discomfit me from +a task more engrossing. + +Apart, and judged on their natural merits, I took Jack for a good stolid +fellow, innately and a little aggravatingly virtuous, and perhaps a +trifle more just than generous. + +Jenny, I felt, had the spurious brilliancy of that division of her sex +that claims as intuition an inability to master the processes of thought, +and attributes to this faculty all fortunate conclusions, but none that +is faulty. I thought, with some commiseration for him, that at bottom her +manner showed some real leaning towards the lover she had discarded--that +she felt the need of a pincushion, as it were, into which to stick the +little points of her malevolence. I think I was inclined to be hard on +her. I have felt the same antagonism many times towards beauty that was +unattainable by me. For she was richly pretty, without doubt. + +When in the neighbourhood of one another, however, they were wont to +assume an elaborate artificiality of speech and manner in communion with +their friends, that was designed with each to point the moral of a +complete indifference and forgetfulness. But the girl was by far the +better actor; and not only did she play her own part convincingly, but +she generally managed to show up in her rival that sense of mortification +that it was his fond hope he was effectually concealing. + +A fortnight passed; and, lo! there came the end of the lovers' quarrel in +all dramatic appropriateness. + +By that time the doings of Jack and Jenny had come to be my mind's only +refuge from such a vacancy of outlook as I had never before experienced. +"All down the coast," that summer, "the languid air did swoon." The earth +broiled, and very thought perspired; and Miss Whiffle's voice was like a +steam-whistle. + +One day, as I was exhaustedly trifling with my meridian meal, and +balancing the gratification against the trouble of eating lumpy tapioca +pudding, a muffled, rolling thud broke upon my ears, making the window +and floor vibrate slightly. It seemed so distant and unimportant that I +took no notice of it; and it was only when, ten minutes later, I became +aware that certain excited townsfolk were scurrying past outside that I +roused slowly to the thought that here was something unusual toward. +Then, indeed, a sort of insane _abandon_ flashed into life in me, and I +leapt to my feet with maniac eyes. Something stirring in King's Cobb! I +should have thought nothing less than the last trump could have pricked +it out of its accustomed grooves; and that even then it would have +slipped back into them with a sluggish sense of grievance after the first +flourish. + +I left my congealing dish, snatched up my hat, and joined the attenuated +chase. It was making in one direction--a point, apparently, to the east +of the town. As I sped excited through the narrow and tortuous streets, a +great bulge of acrid dust bellied upon me suddenly at a corner; and, +turning the latter, I plunged into a perfect fog of the same gritty +smoke. In this, phantom figures moved, appeared, and vanished; hoarse +cries resounded, and a general air of wild confusion and alarm prevailed. +For the moment, I felt as if some history of the town's past were +re-enacting, as if a sudden swoop of Frank or Dutchman upon the coast had +called forth all the defensive ardour of its people. There was nothing of +gunpowder in the stringent opacity, however; but, rather, a strong +suggestion of ancient and disintegrated mortar. + +A shape sped by me in the fog, and I managed to stay and question it. + +"What is it all?" I asked. + +"House fell down," was the breathless answer; "and a poor chap left aloft +on the ruins." + +Then I grew as insane as the rest of the company. I strode aimlessly to +and fro, striving at every coign to pierce with my eyesight the white +drift. I pushed back my hat; I gnawed my knuckles; I felt that I could +not stay still, yet knew not for what point to make. Almost I felt that +in another moment I should screech out--when a breath of sea air caught +the skirt of the cloud, and rolled the bulk of it up and away over +the house-tops. + +Then, at once, was revealed to me the cause and object of all this +gaggle, and confusion, and outcry. It was revealed to the crowd, too, +that stood about me, and, in the revelation, the noise of its mouthing +went off and faded, till a tense silence reigned and the murmur of one's +breathing seemed a sacrilege. + +I saw before me a ruinous space--a great ragged gap in a lofty block of +brick and mortar. This block had evidently, at one time, consisted of two +high semi-detached houses, and of these, one lay a monstrous heap of +tumbled and shattered _debris_. A ruin, but not quite; for, as the course +of a landslip will often tower with great spires and pinnacles of rock +and ragged earth that have withstood the pull and onset of the moving +hill-side, so here a high sheet of shattered wall, crowned with a cluster +of toppling chimneys, stood up stark in the midst of the general +overthrow. And there aloft, clinging to the crumbling stack, that might +at any moment part, and fling and crush him into the savage ruin below, +stood the figure of a solitary man. And the man was my friend of the +Parade, Jack Curtice. + +I could see and recognise him plainly--even the frantic clutch of his +hands and the deadly pallor of his face. + +The block--an ancient one--had been, as I afterwards learned, in course +of demolition when the catastrophe took place. At the moment the poor +fellow had been alone at his work, and now his destruction seemed a mere +matter of seconds. + +White dust rose from the heap, like smoke from an extinguished fire; and +ever, as we looked, spars and splinters of brick tore away from the high +fragment yet standing, and plunged with a thud into the wrack underneath. + +It was glaringly evident that not long could elapse before wall and man +would come down with a hideous, shattering run. A slip, a wilder clutch +at his frail support, might in an instant precipitate the calamity. + +Then from the upturned faces of the women cries of pity and anguish broke +forth, and men nipped one another's arms and gasped, and knew not what +counsel to offer. + +"Do summut! do summut!" cried the women; and their mates only shook off +their pleadings with a peevish show of callousness, that was merely the +dumb anguish of undemonstrativeness. For, while their throats were thick, +their practical brains were busy. + +Some one suggested a ladder, and in a moment there was an aimless +scurrying and turning amongst the women. + +"Why don't 'ee stir theeself and hunt for un, Jarge?" panted one that +stood near me, twisting hysterically upon a slow youth at her side. + +"Shut up, 'Liza!" he answered gruffly; then, with a sort of indrawn +gasp--"Look art the wall, lass--look art the wall!" + +It was obvious to the least knowing what he meant. To lean so much as a +broomstick, it seemed, against that tottering ruin would infallibly +complete its destruction. + +One foot of the clinging figure high up was seen to move slightly, and a +little bomb of mortar span out into the air and burst into dust on a +projecting brick. A long shrill sigh broke from the crowd. + +Then the male wiseheads came together, and, desperate to snap the chord +of impotent suspense, mooted and rejected plan after plan that their sane +judgment knew from the first to be impracticable. + +At the outset it was plainly impossible for a soul to approach the ruins. +Apart from the almost certain mangling such a venture would entail upon +the explorer, the least stirring or shifting of the great heap of rubbish +flung about the base of the wall would certainly risk the immediate +collapse of the latter. + +Success, it was evident, must come, if at all, from a distance--but how? + +One suggested slinging a rope from window to window of adjacent houses +across the path of the broken chimney-stack--a good method of rescue had +circumstances lent themselves to it. They did not. On the ruin side a +wide space intervened; on the other, the sister house to that which had +fallen, and which was also included in the order of demolition, was +itself affected by the loss of its support, and leaned in a sinister +manner, its party walls bulged and rent towards the scene of devastation. + +Nothing short of the great Roc itself could, it seemed, snatch the poor +fellow from his death perch. + +There came suddenly an ominous silence. Then strode out in front of his +fellows--and he moved so close to the ruin that the women whimpered and +held one another--an old, rough-bearded chap in stained corduroy. + +"Whart's he gone to do?" gasped the sibilant voices. + +He hollowed his hands to his mouth, he cleared his hoarse throat two or +three times. Only a little trailing screech came from it at first. Then +he cursed his weakness, and pulled himself together. + +"Jark! Jark Curtus!" he hailed, in an explosive voice. + +"Hullo!" + +The weak, small response floated down. + +"My lard! my poor lard! we've thought oor best, arnd we can do nothun +fower 'ee." + +Instantly a shrill protest of horror went up from the women. This was not +what they had expected. + +"What! leave the mis'rable boy to his fate!" + +There followed a storm of hisses from them--absolutely unreasonable, of +course. The old fellow turned to retire, with hanging head. + +At the moment a girl, flushed, blowzed, breathless, broke through the +skirt of the mob and barred his retreat. + +"Oh!" she panted, shaking her jet-black noddle at him--"here's a parcel +o' gor-crows for discussin' help to a Christian marn! What! a score o' +wiselings, and not one to hit oot the means and the way?" + +She had only just heard, and had run a mile to the rescue of her old lad. + +The women caught her enthusiasm, and jeered and cheered formlessly, as +their manner is; for each desired for her own voice a separate +recognition. + +Jenny pushed rudely past the abashed gaffer. She was hatless, and her +hair had tumbled abroad. She raised her face, with the eyes shining. + +"Jack!" she cried, in a shrill voice--"Jack!" + +The little weak response wailed down again. + +"Jenny! I'm anigh done." + +"Hold on a bit longer, Jack!" she screamed. "Don't move till I tell 'ee. +I'm agone to save thee, Jack!" + +Again from the women a rapturous cry broke out. What incompetent noodles +appeared their masters in juxtaposition with this fearless, defiant +creature. + +The man up aloft seemed to shiver in the shock of the outcry; and once +more some fragments of mortar rolled from under his feet and bounded into +the depths. The girl rounded upon the voicers. + +"Hold thee blazing tongues!" she cried in fury. "D'ee warnt to shake un +from his perch?" + +She turned to the foremost group of men. + +"A couple o' long scaffold poles fro' yonder!" she cried hurriedly, "and +twenty fathom o' rope!" + +Her quick eyes and intelligence had found what she wanted in a builder's +yard no great distance away. + +"Follow, a dozen o' you!" she cried; and sped off in the direction she +had indicated. + +Just twelve men, and no more, obeyed her. She was mistress of the +situation, and the crowd felt it. They made room for the dominant +intellect, and awaited developments, watching, in suppressed excitement +and trepidation, the figure--whom exhaustion was slowly mastering--high +up above them. + +Suddenly a sort of huge L-shaped structure moved down the street, until +it stood opposite the ruined house. Then, twisting and rearing itself +aloft, it took to itself the form of a lofty, slender gallows. + +It was formed of a couple of forty-foot scaffolding poles, stoutly bound +and corded together, the base of one to the top of the other, so that +they stood at right angles. Five or six feet of the butt of the +horizontal one was projected beyond its lashings, and to this three +lengths of rope were fastened, and trailed long ends in the dust as the +structure was held aloft and pushed and dragged into position. + +"Now!" shrieked the girl, red-hot, reliant, never still for a moment; "as +marny as can hold to each end there, and swing the blessed boom out +towards him!" + +Fifty may have responded. They swarmed like ants about the upraised pole, +and she drove them into position--a black knot of men hauling on the +triple cordage--left, right, and middle, like the ribs of a tent. + +They saw her meaning and fell into place with a shout. To hold the +projecting pole levered up at that height was a test of weight and +muscle, even without their man on the end of it; but there were plenty +more to help pull, did their united force waver. + +"Jack!" screamed the girl again, in a wildness of excitement. "Only a +second longer, Jack! Hold on by your eyelids, and snatch the stick +the moment it comes agen thee!" + +The horizontal spar pointed down the street. Slowly the men worked round +with the ropes, and slowly the point of the pole turned in the direction +of the chimney-stack and its forlorn burden. There was room and to spare +for the process in the wide gap made by the tumbled house. + +The crowd held its breath. Here and there a strangled sob was rent from +overstrained lungs; here and there the wailing voice of a baby whined +up and subsided. + +The pole swung round with the toiling men--neared him on the ruin. He +turned his head and saw, shifted his position and staggered. Jenny gave a +piercing screech. The men, thinking something was wrong, paused a moment. + +On the instant there came a crackling, tearing sound--a heaving roll--a +splintering crash and uproar. The man aloft was seen to make a flying +leap--or was it only a hurled fragment of the falling chimney?--and white +dust rose in a fog once more and blotted out all the tragedy that +might be enacting behind it. + +A horrible silence succeeded, then a single woman yelled, and her cry was +echoed by fifty hoarse voices. + +The noise came from those at the ropes. They were straining and tugging, +and some of them bobbed up and down like peas on a drum. + +"More on ye! more on ye! We've hooked un, and he's got the pull of a sea +sarpint!" + +The ropes became thick with striving men. The whole street resounded with +a medley of cries. + +Then the point of the boom swung slowly out of the fog, and there was the +rescued man swinging and swaying at the end of it. + +They lowered him gradually into the street. But the strain upon them was +awful, and he came down with a run the last few yards. + +Then they let the angle of the gallows wheel over as it listed, and stood +and mopped their hot foreheads, while the crowd rushed for the poor shaky +subject of all its turmoil. + +I could not get within fifty feet of him; or, I think, I should have +given him and Jenny then and there all my fortune. + +Later, I made their acquaintance in a casual way, and compromised with my +conscience by presenting them with a very pretty tea-service to help them +set up house with. + + + + +BLACK VENN + +I + + +"George," said Plancine. + +"Please say it again," said George. + +She dimpled at him and obeyed, with the soft suggestion of accent that +was like a tender confidence. Her feet were sunk in Devonshire grass; +her name was on the birth register of a little Devonshire sea-town; yet +the sun of France was in her veins as surely as his caress was on her +lips. + +Therefore she said "George" with a sweet dragging sound that greatly +fluttered the sensibilities of the person addressed, and not infrequently +led them to alight, like Prince Dummling's queen bee, on the very mouth +of that honeyed flower of speech. + +Now Plancine put her cheek on her George's rough sleeve, and said she,-- + +"I have a confession to make--about something a little silly. +Consequently I have postponed it till now, when it is too dark for +you to see my face." + +"Never!" he murmured fervently. "A double cataract could not deprive me +of that vision. It is printed here, Plancine." + +He smacked his chest hard on the left side. + +"Yet it sounds hollow, George?" + +"Yes," he said. "It is a sandwich-box, an empty one. I would not consign +your image to such a deplorable casket. My heart was what I meant. How I +hate sandwiches--misers shivering between sheets--a vile gastronomic +economy!" + +"Poor boy! I will make you little dough-cakes when you go apainting." + +"Plancine! Your image here, yes. But your dough-cakes--!" + +"Then keep to your sandwiches, sir." + +"I must. But the person who invented them was no gentleman!" + +"Papa would like to hear you say that." + +"Say what?" + +"Admit the possibility of any social distinction." + +"It is only a question of sandwiches." + +"George, must you be a Chartist and believe in Feargus O'Connor?" + +"My soul, I cannot go back on my principles, for all that the violets of +your eyes have sprouted under the shadow of a venerable family-tree." + +"That is very prettily said. You may kiss my thumb-nail with the white +spot in it for luck. No, sir. That is presuming. Now I am snug, and you +may talk." + +"Plancine, I am a son of the people. I hold by my own. No doubt, if I had +blue blood to boast of, I should keep a vial of it in a prominent place +on the drawing-room mantelpiece. As it is, I confess my desire is to +carve for myself a name in art that shall be independent of all +adventitious support; to answer to my vocation straight, upright, and +manly." + +"That is better than nobility--though I have pride in my own. I wish papa +thought so. Yet he has both himself." + +"The fine soul! For fifty years he has stood square to adversity with a +smile on his face. Could I ever achieve that? Already I cry out on +poverty; because I want an unencumbered field for work, and--yes, one +other trifle." + +"One other trifle, George?" + +He took Plancine's face between his hands and looked very lovingly into +her eyes. + +"I think I did the old man too much honour," he said. "You nestling of +eighteen--what credit to scout misfortune with such a bird at one's +side!" + +"Ah! but papa is sixty-nine and the bird but eighteen." + +"And eighteen years of heaven are a good education in happiness." + +So they coo'd, these two. The June scents of the little garden were +wafted all about them. The moon had come up out of the sea, and, finding +a trellis of branches over their heads, hung their young brows with +coronals of shadowy leaves, like the old dame she was, rummaging in her +trinket box for something for her favourites. + +In the dimly-luminous parlour (that smelt of folios and warm coffee) of +the little dark house in the background, the figure of papa, poring at +the table over geological maps, was visible. + +Fifty years ago an _emigre_, denounced, proscribed, and escaped from the +ruin of a shattered society: here, in '49, a stately, large-boned man, +placidly enjoying the consciousness of a serene dignity maintained at the +expense of much and prolonged self-effacement--this was papa. + +Grey hair, thinning but slightly near the temples; grey moustache and +beard pointed _de bouc_; flowered dressing-gown girdled about a heart +as simple as a child's--this was papa, papa who grubbed over his ordnance +surveys while the young folks outside whispered of the stars. + +Right beneath them--the latter--a broad gully of the hills went plunging +precipitously, all rolled with leaf and flower, to the undercliff of soft +blue lias and the very roof ridges of King's Cobb, whose walls and +chimneys, now snowed with light, fretted a scallop of the striding bay +that swept the land here like a scythe. + +Plancine's village, a lofty appanage or suburb of this little seaboard +town at the hill-foot, seemed rather the parent stock from which the +other had emancipated itself. For all down the steep slope that fled +from Upper to King's Cobb was flung a _debris_ of houses that, like the +ice-fall of a glacier, would appear to have broken from the main body +and gone careering into the valley below. + +It was in point of fact, however, but a subordinate hamlet--a hanging +garden for the jaded tourist in the dog days, when his soul stifled in +the oven of the sea-level cliffs--an eyrie for Plancine, and for George, +the earnest painter, a Paradise before the fall. + +And now says George, "We have talked all round your confession, and still +I wait to give you absolution." + +"I will confess. I read it in one of papa's books that is called the +_Talmud_." + +"Gracious me! you should be careful. What did you read?" + +"That whoever wants to see the souls of the dead--" + +"Plancine!" + +"--must take finely sifted ashes, and strew them round his bed; and in +the morning he will see their foot-tracks, as a cock's. I did it." + +"You did?" + +"Last night, yes. And what a business I had afterwards sweeping them up!" + +"And did you see anything?" + +"Something--yes--I think so. But it might have been mice. There are +plenty up there." + +"Now you are an odd Plancine! What did you want with the ghosts of the +dead?" + +"I will tell you, you tall man; and you will not abuse my confidence. +George, for all your gay independence, you must allow me a little +family pride and a little pathetic interest in the fortunes of the dead +and gone De Jussacs." + +"It is Mademoiselle De Jussac that speaks." + +"It is Plancine, who knows so little:--that 'The Terror' would have +guillotined her father, a boy of fourteen: that he escaped to Prussia, to +Belgium, to England; for six years always a wanderer and a fugitive: that +he was wrecked on this dear coast and, penniless, started life anew +here on his little accomplishments: that he made out a meagre existence, +and late in the order of years (he was fifty) married an expatriated +countrywoman, who died--George, my mother died when I was seventeen +months old--and that is where I stop. My good, big father--so lonely, so +poor, and so silent! He tells me little. He speaks scantily of the past. +But he was a Vicomte and is the last of his line; and I wanted the ghosts +to explain to me so much that I have never learned." + +The moonlight fell upon her sweet, pale, uplifted face. There were tears +in her eyes that glittered like frost. + +But George, for all his love, showed a little masculine impatience. + +"Reserve is very good," he said; "but we can't all be Lord Burleighs by +holding our tongues. There is a sort of silence that is pregnant with +nothing." + +"George, you cannot mean to insult my father?" + +"No, dear. But why does he make such a mystery of his past? I would have +mine as clear as a window, for all to look through. Why does he treat me +with such suave and courteous opposition--permitting my suit, yet +withholding his consent?" + +"If you could be less democratic, dear--" + +"It is a religion with me--not a brutal indulgence." + +"Perhaps he cannot dissociate the two. Then, he admires your genius and +commends your courage; but your poor purse hungers, my lover, and he +desires riches for his Plancine." + +"And Plancine?" + +"She will die a grey-haired maid for thee, 'O Richard! O my king!'" + +"My sweet--my bird--my wife! Oh, that you could be that now and kiss me +on to fortune! I should be double-souled and inspired. A few months, and +Madame la Vicomtesse should 'walk in silk attire.' I flame at the +picture. Why will your father not yield you gracefully, instead of plying +us with that eternal enigma of Black Venn?" + +"Because enthusiasm alone may not command wealth," said a deep voice near +them. + +Papa had come upon them unobserved. The young man wheeled and charged +while his blood was hot. + +"Mr. De Jussac, it is a shame to hold me in this unending suspense." + +"Is it not better than decided rejection?" + +"I have served like Jacob. You cannot doubt my single-hearted devotion?" + +"I doubt nothing, my George" (about _his_ accent there was no tender +compromise)--"I doubt nothing, but that the balance at your bankers' is +excessive." + +"You would not value Plancine at so much bullion?" + +"But yes, my friend; for bullion is the algebraic formula that represents +comfort. When Black Venn slips his apron--" + +George made a gesture of impatience. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron," repeated the father quietly, "I shall +be in a position to consider your suit." + +"That is tantamount to putting me off altogether. It is ungenerous. It is +preposterous. You may or may not be right; but it is simply farcical +(Plancine cried, "George!"--but he went on warmly, nevertheless) to make +our happiness contingent on the possible tumbling down of a bit of old +cliff--an accident that, after all, may never happen." + +"Ah!" the quiet, strong voice went on; and in the old eyes turned +moonwards one might have fancied one could read a certain pathos of +abnegation, or approaching self-sacrifice; "but it will, and shortly, for +I prophesy. It was no idle cruelty of mine that first suggested this +condition, but a natural reluctance to sign myself back to utter +loneliness." + +Plancine cried, "Papa! papa!" and sprang into his arms. + +"A little patience," said De Jussac, pressing his moustache to the round +head, "and you will honour this weary prophet, I think. I was up on the +cliff to-day. The great crack is ever widening. A bowling wind, a loud +thunderstorm, and that apron of the hill will tear from its bondage and +sink sweltering down the slopes." + +In the moment of speaking a tremor seized all his limbs, his eyes glared +maniacal, his outstretched arm pointed seawards. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, "the guillotine!" + +In the offing of the bay was a vessel making for the unseen harbour +below. It stood up black against the moonlight, its sails and yards +presenting some fantastic resemblance to that engine of blood. + +George stepped back and hung his head embarrassed. He had more than once +been witness of a like seizure. It was the guillotine fright--the fright +that had smitten the boy of fourteen, and had pursued the man ever since +with periodic attacks of illusion. Anything--a branch, a door-post, a +window, would suggest the hateful form during those periods--happily +brief--when the poor mind was temporarily unhinged. No doubt, in earlier +years, the fits had occurred frequently. Now they were rare, and +generally, it seemed, attributable to some strong excitement or emotion. + +Plancine knew how to act. She put her hand over the frantic eyes, and led +the old man stumbling up the garden path. She was going to sing to him +from the little sweet folk-ballads of the old gay France before the +trouble came-- + +_"The king would wed his daughter + Over the English sea; +But never across the water + Shall a husband come to me."_ + +Love floated on the freshet of her voice straight into the heart of the +young man who stood without. + + + + +II + + +Perhaps at first it had not been the least of the bitterness in M. De +Jussac's cup of calamity that his mere pride of name must adjust itself +to its altered conditions. That the Vicomte De Jussac should have been +expatriated because he declined when called upon to contribute his +heart's blood to the red conduit in the Faubourg St. Antoine was +certainly an infamy, but one of which the very essence was that +unquestioning acknowledgment of his rank. That the land of his adoption +should have dubbed him Mr. Jussuks--in stolid unconsciousness, too, of +the solecism--was an outrage of a totally different order--an outrage +only to be condoned on the score that an impenetrable insular +_gaucherie_, and not a malicious impertinence, was responsible for it. + +Mr. Jussuks had, however, outlived his sense of the injurious +appellation; had outlived much prejudice, the wear of poverty, his memory +of many things, and, very early, his scorn of the plebeian processes that +to the impecunious are a condition of living at all. He was certainly a +man of courageous independence, inasmuch as from the hour of his setting +foot in England--and that was at the outset of the century--he had +controlled his own little fortunes without a hand to help him over the +deep places. + +Of his first struggles little is known but this--that for years, turning +to account some small knowledge of draughtsmanship he had acquired, he +found employment in ladies' academies, of which there was a plenitude at +that date in King's Cobb. + +That, however, which brought him eventually into a modest prominence--not +only in that same beautiful but indifferently known watering-place (upon +which he had happened, it would appear, fortuitously), but elsewhere and +amongst men of a certain mark--was a discovery--or the practical +application of one--which in its result procured him a definite object in +life, together with the means to pursue it. + +Ammonites, and such small geological fry, were to be found by the +thousand in the petrified mud beds of the Cobb region; but it was left to +the ingenuity, aided by good fortune, of the foreigner to unearth from +the flaking and perishing cliffs of lias some of the earliest and finest +specimens of the ichthyo- and plesio-saurus that a past world has yielded +to the naturalists. + +Out of these the _emigre_ made money, and so was enabled to pursue and +enlarge upon his researches. Presently he prospered into a competence, +married (poor Mademoiselle Belleville, of the Silver Street Academy, who +died of typhoid at the end of a couple of summers), and so grew into the +kindly old age of the absorbed and gentle naturalist, with his Plancine +budding at his side. + +What in all these fifty years had he forgotten? His name, his rank, his +very origin? Much, no doubt. But that there was one haunting memory that +had dwelt with him throughout, his child and her lover were to learn--one +memory, and that dreadful recurring illusion of the guillotine. + +"When Black Venn slips his apron, I shall be in a position to consider +your suit." + +Surely that was an odd and enigmatical condition, entirely remote from +the subject at issue? Yet from the moment of the first impassioned +pleadings of the stricken George, De Jussac had insisted upon it as one +from which there should be no appeal. + +Now the Black Venn referred to was a great mound of lias that rolled up +and inland, in the far sweep of the bay, from the giddy margin of the +lower ruin of cliffs. These--mere compressed mountains of mud, blown by +the winds and battered by the sea--were in a constant state of yawn and +collapse. Yard by yard they yielded to the scourge of Time, and +landslides were of common occurrence. + +All along the middle slope of Black Venn itself, a wide, deep fissure, +dark and impenetrable, had stretched from ages unrecorded. But the +eventual opening-out of this crevasse, and the consequent subsidence of +the incline, or apron, below it, had been foretold by Mr. De Jussac; and +this, in fact, was the condition to which he had alluded. + + + + +III + + +"Mr. De Jussac! do you hear me?" + +"I am coming, my friend." + +The light shining steadily through a front window of the cottage +flickered and shifted. The young man in the rain and storm outside danced +with impatience. + +Suddenly the door opened, and Plancine's father stood there, candle in +hand. + +"What is it, my George?" + +"The hill, sir--the hill! It's fallen! You were right. You must stand by +your word. Black Venn has slipped his apron!" + +"My God, no!" + +There were despair and exultation in his voice. + +"My God, no!" he whispered again, and dived into a cupboard under the +stair. + +Thence he reappeared with a horn lantern and his old blue cloak. + +"Come, then!" he cried. "My hour is upon me!" + +"Mr. De Jussac, it will wait till the morning." + +"No, no, no! Do you trifle with your destiny? It has happened +opportunely, while all are within doors and we have a clear field. How do +you know? have you seen? Is it possible to descend to it from above?" + +"I passed there less than an hour ago. It is possible, I am sure." + +They set off hurriedly through the rain-beaten night. Not a word passed +between them as they left the village and struck into the high-valley +road that ran past, at a moderate distance, the head of the bay. De +Jussac strode rapidly in advance of his companion. His long cloak whirled +in the blast; it flogged his gaunt limbs all set to intense action. He +seemed uplifted, translated--like one in whom the very article of a +life-long faith, or monomania, is about to be justified. + +Toiling onward, like driven cattle, they swerved from the road presently +and breasted a sharp incline. Their boots squelched on the sodden turf; +the wind bore on them heavily. + +George saw the dancing lanthorn go up the slope in front of him like a +will-o'-the-wisp--stop, and swing steady, heard the loud cry of +jubilation that issued from the withered throat. + +"It is true! The moment is realized!" + +They stood together on the verge of the upper lip of the fissure. It was +a cliff now, twenty, thirty feet to its base. The lower ground had +fallen like a dead jaw; had slipped--none so great a distance--down the +slope leading to the under-cliff, and lay a billowing mass subsided upon +itself. + +De Jussac would stand not an instant. + +"We must climb down--somehow, anyhow!" he cried feverishly. "We must +search all along what was once the bottom of the cleft." + +"It is a risk, sir. Why not wait till the morning?" + +"No, no! now! My God! I demand it. Others may forestall us if we delay. +See, my friend, I wish but my own; and what proof of right have I if +another should snatch the treasure?" + +"The treasure?" + +"It is our fortune that lies there--yours, and mine, and the little +Plancine's. Do I know what I say? Hurry, hurry, hurry! while my heart +does not burst." + +He forced the lanthorn into the young man's hands. He was panting and +sobbing like a child. Before the other realized his intention, he had +flung himself upon his hands and knees, had slipped over the edge, and +was scrambling down the broken wall of lias. + +There was nothing for George but to take his own life in hand and humour +his venerated elder. He followed with the lanthorn, thinking of Plancine +a little, and hoping he should fall on a soft place. + +But they got down in safety, breathing hard and extremely dirty. Caution, +it is true, reacts very commonly upon itself. + +The moment his companion's feet touched bottom, De Jussac snatched the +light from his hand, roughly enough to send him off his balance, and went +scurrying to and fro along the face of the cliff like a mad thing. + +"I cannot find it!" he cried, rushing back after an interval--nervous, in +an agony of restlessness--a very pitiable old man. + +George spoke up from the ground. + +"Find what?" said he, feeling all sopped and dazed. + +"The box--the casket! It could never perish. It was of sheet-iron. Look, +look, my friend! Your eyes are younger than mine--a box, a foot long, of +hard iron!" + +"I am sitting upon something hard," said George. + +He sprang to his feet and took the lanthorn. + +"Bones," said he, peering down. "Some old mastodon, I expect. Is this +your treasure?" + +De Jussac was glaring. His head drooped lower and lower. His lips were +parted, and the line of strong white teeth showed between them. His +voice, when he spoke, was quite fearful in its low intensity. + +"Bones--yes, and human. Where they lie, the other must be near. Ah, +Lacombe, Lacombe; you will yield me my own at last!" + +He was shaking a slow finger at the poor remnants--a rib or two, the half +of a yellow skull. + +Suddenly he was down on his knees, tearing at the black, thick soil, +diving into it, tossing it hither and thither. + +A pause, a rending exclamation, and he was on his feet again with a +scream of ecstasy. An oblong casket, rusty, corroded, but unbroken, was +in his hand. + +"Now," he whispered, sibilant through the wind, controlling himself, +though he was shaking from head to foot, "now to return as we have come. +Not a word, not a word till we have this safe in the cottage!" + +They found, after some search, a difficult way up. By-and-by they stood +once more on the lip of the fall, and paused for breath. + +It was at this very instant that De Jussac dropped the box beside him and +threw up his hands. + +"The guillotine!" he shrieked, and fell headlong into the pit he had just +issued from. + + + + +IV + + +The poor bandaged figure; the approaching death; the dog whining softly +in the yard. + +"I am dying, my little Plancine?" + +The girl's forehead was bowed on the homely quilt. + +"Nay, cry not, little one! I go very happy. That (he indicated by a +motion of his eyelids the fatal box, which, yet unopened, lay on a table +by the sunny window) shall repay thee for thy long devotion, for thy +poverty, and for thy brave sweetness with the old papa." + +"No, no, no!" + +"But they are diamonds, Plancine--such diamonds, my bird. They have +flashed at Versailles, at the little Trianon. They were honoured to lie +on the breast of a beautiful and courageous woman--thine aunt, Plancine; +the most noble the Comtesse de la Morne. She gave her wealth, almost +her life, for her king--all but her diamonds. It was at Brussels, whither +I had escaped from The Terror--I, a weak and desolate boy of but +fourteen. I lived with her, in her common, cheap lodging. For five years +we made out our friendless and deserted existence in company. In truth, +we were an embarrassment, and they looked at us askance. Long after her +mind failed her, the memory of her own former beauty dwelt with her; yet +she could not comprehend but that it was still a talisman to conjure +with. Even to the end she would deck herself and coquet to her glass. But +she was good and faithful, Plancine; and, at the last, when she was +dying, she gave me this box. 'It contains all that is left to me of my +former condition,' she said. 'It shall make thy fortune for thee in +England, my nephew, whither thou must journey when poor Dorine is +underground.' By that I knew it was her cherished diamonds she bequeathed +me. 'They do not want thee here,' she said. 'Thou must take boat for +England when I am gone.' + +"But George, my friend!" + +The young man was standing sorrowful by the open window. He could have +seen the sailing-boats in the bay, the sailing clouds in the sky placidly +floating over a world of serene and verdurous loveliness. But his vision +was all inward, of the piteous calm, following storm and disaster, in +which the dying voice from the bed was like the lapping of little waves. + +He came at once and stood over Plancine, not daring to touch her. + +"It was not wilfulness, but my great love," said the broken, gentle +voice, "that made the condition. All of you I cannot extol, knowing what +I have known. But you are an honest gentleman and a true, my brave; and +you shall make this dearest a noble husband." + +Waveringly George stole his hand towards the bowed head and let it rest +there. + +From the battered face a smile broke like flowers from a blasted soil. + +"Withholding my countenance only as I foresaw the means to enrich you +both were approaching my grasp, I waited for the hill to break away that +I might recover my casket. It was there--it is here; and now my Plancine +shall never know poverty more, or her husband restrict the scope of his +so admirable art on the score of necessity." + +He saw the eyes questioning what the lips would not ask. + +"But how I lost it?" he said. "I took the box; I obeyed her behests. The +moment was acute; the times peremptory. I sailed for England, hurriedly +and secretly, never to this day having feasted my eyes on what lies +within there. With me went Lacombe, Madame's 'runner' in the old days--a +stolid Berrichon, who had lived upon her bounty to the end. The rogue! +the ingrate! We were wrecked upon this coast; we plunged and came ashore. +I know not who were lost or saved; but Lacombe and I clung together and +were thrown upon the land, the box still in my grasp. We climbed the +cliffs where a stair had been cut; we broke eastwards from the upper +slopes and staggered on through the blown darkness. Suddenly Lacombe +stopped. The day was faint then on the watery horizon; and in the +ghostly light I saw his face and read the murder in it. We were standing +on the verge of the cleft under Black Venn. 'No further!' he whispered. +'You must go down there!' He snatched the box from my hand. In the +instant of his doing so, stricken by the death terror, the affection to +which I was then much subject seized me. I screamed, 'My God! the +guillotine!' Taken by surprise, he started back, staggered, and went down +crashing to the fate he had designed for me. I seemed to lie prostrate +for hours, while his moans came up fainter and fainter till they ceased. +Then I rose and faced life, lonely, friendless, and a beggar." + +The restless wandering of his eyes travelled over his daughter's head to +the rusty casket by the window. + +"It was very well," he whispered. "I thank my God that He has permitted +me at the perfect moment to realize my investment in that dead rascal's +dishonesty. Have I ever desired wealth save for my little _pouponne_ +here? And I have sorely tried thee, my George. But the old naturalist +had such faith in his prediction. Now--" + +His vision was glazing; the muscles of his face were quietly settling to +the repose that death only can command. + +"Now, I would see the fruit of my prophecy; would see it all hung on the +neck, in the hair of my child, that I may die rejoicing. Canst thou force +the casket, George?" + +The young man turned with a stifled groan. Some tools lay on a shelf hard +by. He grasped a chisel and went to his task with shaking hands. + +The box was all eaten and corroded. It was a matter of but a few seconds +to prise it open. The lid fell back on the table with a rusty clang. + +"Ah!" cried the dying man. "What now? Dost thou see them? Quick! quick! +to glorify this little head! Are they not exquisite?" + +George was gazing down with a dull, vacant feeling at his heart. + +"Are they not?" repeated the voice, in terrible excitement. + +"They--Mr. De Jussac, they are loveliness itself. Plancine, I will not +touch them. You must be the first." + +He strode to the kneeling girl; lifted, almost roughly dragged her to her +feet. + +"Come!" he said; and, supporting her across the room, whispered madly in +her ear: "Pretend! For God's sake, pretend!" + +Plancine's swimming eyes looked down, looked upon a litter of perished +rags of paper, and, lying in the midst of the rubbish, an ancient stained +and cockled miniature of a powdered Louis _Seize_ coquette. + +This was all. This was the treasure the old crazed vanity had thought +sufficient to build her nephew his fortune. + +The diamonds! Probably these had long before been sacrificed to the +armies ineffectively manoeuvring for the destruction of Monsieur "Veto's" +enemies. + +Plancine lifted her head. Thereafter George never ceased to recall with a +glad pride the nobility that had shone in her eyes. + +"My papa!" she cried softly, going swiftly to the bed; "they are +beautiful as the stars that glittered over the old untroubled France!" + +De Jussac sprang up on his pillow. + +"The guillotine!" he cried. "The beams break into flowers! The axe is a +shaft of light!" + +And so the glowing blade descended. + + + + +AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR + + +PART I + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +WRITTEN FOR, BUT NEVER INSERTED IN, THE ----- FAMILY MAGAZINE + + +The eyes of Polyhistor--as he sat before the fire at night--took in the +tawdry surroundings of his lodging-house room with nothing of that apathy +of resignation to his personal [Greek: ananke] which of all moods is to +Fortune, the goddess of spontaneity, the most antipathetic. Indeed, +he felt his wit, like Romeo's, to be of cheveril; and his conviction that +it needed only the pull of circumstance to stretch it "from an inch +narrow to an ell broad" expressed but the very wooing quality of a +constitutional optimism. + +Now this inherent optimism is at least a serviceable weapon when it takes +the form of self-reliance. It is always at hand in an emergency--a guard +of honour to the soul. The loneliness of individual life must learn +self-respect from within, not without; and were all creeds to be mixed, +that truism should be found their precipitate. + +Therefore Polyhistor was content to draw grass-green rep curtains +across window-panes sloughed with wintry sleet; to place his feet upon a +rug flayed of colour to it dusty sinews; to admit to his close +fellowship--and find a familiar comfort in them, too--three separate +lithographs of affected babies inviting any canine confidences but the +bite one desired for them, and a dismal daguerreotype of his landlady's +deceased husband, slowly perishing in pegtops and a yellow fog of +despondency, out of which only his boots and a very tall hat frowned +insistent, the tabernacles of enduring respectability:--he was content, +because he knew these were only incidents in his career--the slums to be +first traversed on a journey before the rounding breadths of open country +were reached,--and the station in life he purposed stopping at eventually +was the terminus of prosperity, intellectual and material. + +With no present good fortune but the capacity for desiring it; with the +right to affix a letter or so--like grace after skilly--to his name; with +the consciousness that, having overcome theoretical pharmaceutics +masterfully, he was now combatting practical dispensing slavishly; with +full confidence in his social position (he stood under the shadow of +"high connections," like the little winged "Victory" in a conqueror's +hand, he chose to think) to help him to eventual distinction, he toasted +his toes that sour winter evening and reviewed in comfort an army of +prospects. + +Also his thoughts reverted indulgently to the incidents and experiences +of the previous night. + +He had had the pleasure of an invitation to one of those reunions or +seances at the house, in a fashionable quarter, of his distant +connection, Lady Barbara Grille, whereat it was his hostess's humour +to gather together those many birds of alien feather and incongruous +habit that will flock from the hedgerows to the least little flattering +crumb of attention. And scarce one of them but thinks the simple feast is +spread for him alone. And with so cheap a bait may a title lure. + +Lady Barbara, to do her justice, trades upon her position only in so far +as it shapes itself the straight road to her desires. She is a carpet +adventurer--an explorer amongst the nerves of moral sensation, to whom +the discovery of an untrodden mental tract is a pure delight, and the +more delightful the more ephemeral. She flits from guest to guest, +shooting out to each a little proboscis, as it were, and happy if its +point touches a speck of honey. She gathers from all, and stores the +sweet agglomerate, let us hope, to feed upon it in the winter of her +life, when the hive of her busy brain shall be thatched with snow. + +That reference to so charming a personality should be in this place a +digression is Polyhistor's unhappiness. She affects his narrative only +inasmuch as he happened to meet at her house a gentleman who for a time +exerted a considerable influence over his fortunes. + + * * * * * + +Here Polyhistor's narrative must give place to certain editorial +marginalia by Miss Lucy ----, who "runs" the ---- Family Magazine:-- + +"Polyhistor, indeed!" she writes. "The conceit of some people! He seems +to take himself for a sort of _Admirable Crichton_, and all because his +chance meeting with the gentleman referred to (a very _interesting_ +person, who is, I understand, reforming our prisons) brought him the +offer of an appointment quite beyond his deserts. I was very glad to hear +of it, however, and I asked the creature to contribute a paper recording +his first impressions of _this notable man_; instead of which he begins +with an opinionated rigmarole about himself, and goes on from bad to +worse by describing a long conversation he had about prison reform with +that horrid, masculine Mrs. C----, whom all the officers call 'Charlie,' +and who thinks that for men to grow humane is a sign of their +_decadence_. _Of course_ I shall 'cut' the whole of their talk together +(it is a blessed privilege to be an editor), and jump to the part where +_Polyhistor_ (!) describes the _notable person's_ visit to him, which was +due to his (the N.P.'s) having the night before overheard some of the +conversation _between those two_." + + * * * * * + +POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE (_continued_). + + +Now as Polyhistor sat, he humoured his recollection (in the intervals of +scribbling verses to the _beaux yeux_ of a certain Miss L----) with some +of "Charlie's" characteristic last-night utterances. + +She had dated man's decadence from the moment when he began to +"poor-fellow" irreclaimable savagery on the score of heredity. + +She had repudiated the old humbug of sex superiority because she had seen +it fall on its face to howl over a trodden worm, with the result that +it discovered itself hollow behind, like the elf-maiden. + +She had said: "Once you taught us divinely--_argumentum baculinum_," said +she; "(for you are the sons of God, you know). But you have since so +insisted upon the Rights of Humanity that we have learned ourselves in +the phrase, and that the earthy have the best right to precedence on the +earth." + +And thereupon Charlie had launched into abuse of what she called the +latest masculine fad--prison reform, to wit--and a heated discussion +between her and Polyhistor had ensued, in the midst of which she had +happened to glance behind her, to find that very notable person who is +the subject of this narrative vouchsafing a silent attention to her +diatribe. And then-- + +But at this period to his cogitations Polyhistor's landlady entered with +a card, which she presented to his consideration:-- + +MAJOR JAMES SHRIKE, +H.M. PRISON, D----. + +All astonishment, Polyhistor bade his visitor up. + +He entered briskly, fur-collared, hat in hand, and bowed as he stood on +the threshold. He was a very short man--snub-nosed; rusty-whiskered; +indubitably and unimpressively a cockney in appearance. He might have +walked out of a Cruikshank etching. + +Polyhistor was beginning, "May I inquire--" when the other took him up +with a vehement frankness that he found engaging at once. + +"This is a great intrusion. Will you pardon me? I heard some remarks of +yours last night that deeply interested me. I obtained your name and +address of our hostess, and took the liberty of--" + +"Oh! pray be seated. Say no more. My kinswoman's introduction is +all-sufficient. I am happy in having caught your attention in so motley +a crowd." + +"She doesn't--forgive the impertinence--take herself seriously enough." + +"Lady Barbara? Then you've found her out?" + +"Ah!--you're not offended?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Good. It was a motley assemblage, as you say. Yet I'm inclined to think +I found my pearl in the oyster. I'm afraid I interrupted--eh?" + +"No, no, not at all. Only some idle scribbling. I'd finished." + +"You are a poet?" + +"Only a lunatic. I haven't taken my degree." + +"Ah! it's a noble gift--the gift of song; precious through its rarity." + +Polyhistor caught a note of emotion in his visitor's voice, and glanced +at him curiously. + +"Surely," he thought, "that vulgar, ruddy little face is transfigured." + +"But," said the stranger, coming to earth, "I am lingering beside the +mark. I must try to justify my solecism in manners by a straight +reference to the object of my visit. That is, in the first instance, a +matter of business." + +"Business!" + +"I am a man with a purpose, seeking the hopefullest means to an +end. Plainly: if I could procure you the post of resident doctor at +D---- gaol, would you be disposed to accept it?" + +Polyhistor looked his utter astonishment. + +"I can affect no surprise at yours," said the visitor, attentively +regarding Polyhistor. "It is perfectly natural. Let me forestall some +unnecessary expression of it. My offer seems unaccountable to you, seeing +that we never met until last night. But I don't move entirely in the +dark. I have ventured in the interval to inform myself as to the details +of your career. I was entirely one with much of your expression of +opinion as to the treatment of criminals, in which you controverted the +crude and unpleasant scepticism of the lady you talked with." (Poor New +Charlie!) "Combining the two, I come to the immediate conclusion that you +are the man for my purpose." + +"You have dumbfounded me. I don't know what to answer. You have views, I +know, as to prison treatment. Will you sketch them? Will you talk on, +while I try to bring my scattered wits to a focus?" + +"Certainly I will. Let me, in the first instance, recall to you a few +words of your own. They ran somewhat in this fashion: Is not the man of +practical genius the man who is most apt at solving the little problems +of resourcefulness in life? Do you remember them?" + +"Perhaps I do, in a cruder form." + +"They attracted me at once. It is upon such a postulate I base my +practice. Their moral is this: To know the antidote the moment the snake +bites. That is to have the intuition of divinity. We shall rise to it +some day, no doubt, and climb the hither side of the new Olympus. Who +knows? Over the crest the spirit of creation may be ours." + +Polyhistor nodded, still at sea, and the other went on with a smile:-- + +"I once knew a world-famous engineer with whom I used to breakfast +occasionally. He had a patent egg-boiler on the table, with a little +double-sided ladle underneath to hold the spirit. He complained that his +egg was always undercooked. I said, 'Why not reverse the ladle so as +to bring the deeper cup uppermost?' He was charmed with my perspicacity. +The solution had never occurred to him. You remember, too, no doubt, the +story of Coleridge and the horse collar. We aim too much at great +developments. If we cultivate resourcefulness, the rest will follow. +Shall I state my system _in nuce_? It is to encourage this spirit of +resourcefulness." + +"Surely the habitual criminal has it in a marked degree?" + +"Yes; but abnormally developed in a single direction. His one object is +to out-manoeuvre in a game of desperate and immoral chances. The tactical +spirit in him has none of the higher ambition. It has felt itself in the +degree only that stops at defiance." + +"That is perfectly true." + +"It is half self-conscious of an individuality that instinctively assumes +the hopelessness of a recognition by duller intellects. Leaning to +resentment through misguided vanity, it falls 'all oblique.' What is the +cure for this? I answer, the teaching of a divine egotism. The subject +must be led to a pure devotion to self. What he wishes to respect he must +be taught to make beautiful and interesting. The policy of sacrifice to +others has so long stunted his moral nature because it is an hypocritical +policy. We are responsible to ourselves in the first instance; and to +argue an eternal system of blind self-sacrifice is to undervalue the +fine gift of individuality. In such he sees but an indefensible policy +of force applied to the advantage of the community. He is told to be +good--not that he may morally profit, but that others may not suffer +inconvenience." + +Polyhistor was beginning to grasp, through his confusion, a certain clue +of meaning in his visitor's rapid utterance. The stranger spoke fluently, +but in the dry, positive voice that characterizes men of will. + +"Pray go on," Polyhistor said; "I am digesting in silence." + +"We must endeavour to lead him to respect of self by showing him what his +mind is capable of. I argue on no sectarian, no religious grounds even. +Is it possible to make a man's self his most precious possession? Anyhow, +I work to that end. A doctor purges before building up with a tonic. I +eliminate cant and hypocrisy, and then introduce self-respect. It isn't +enough to employ a man's hands only. Initiation in some labour that +should prove wholesome and remunerative is a redeeming factor, but it +isn't all. His mind must work also, and awaken to its capacities. If it +rusts, the body reverts to inhuman instincts." + +"May I ask how you--?" + +"By intercourse--in my own person or through my officials. I wish to have +only those about me who are willing to contribute to my designs, and +with whom I can work in absolute harmony. All my officers are chosen to +that end. No doubt a dash of constitutional sentimentalism gives colour +to my theories. I get it from a human tract in me that circumstances have +obliged me to put a hoarding round." + +"I begin to gather daylight." + +"Quite so. My patients are invited to exchange views with their guardians +in a spirit of perfect friendliness; to solve little problems of +practical moment; to acquire the pride of self-reliance. We have +competitions, such as certain newspapers open to their readers, in a +simple form. I draw up the questions myself. The answers give me insight +into the mental conditions of the competitors. Upon insight I proceed. I +am fortunate in private means, and I am in a position to offer modest +prizes to the winners. Whenever such an one is discharged, he finds +awaiting him the tools most handy to his vocation. I bid him go forth +in no pharisaical spirit, and invite him to communicate with me. I wish +the shadow of the gaol to extend no further than the road whereon it +lies. Henceforth, we are acquaintances with a common interest at heart. +Isn't it monstrous that a state-fixed degree of misconduct should earn a +man social ostracism? Parents are generally inclined to rule extra +tenderness towards a child whose peccadilloes have brought him a +whipping. For myself, I have no faith in police supervision. Give a +culprit his term and have done with it. I find the majority who come back +to me are ticket-of-leave men. + +"Have I said enough? I offer you the reversion of the post. The present +holder of it leaves in a month's time. Please to determine here and at +once." + +"Very good. I have decided." + +"You will accept?" + +"Yes." + + * * * * * + +So far wrote Polyhistor in the bonny days of early manhood--an attempt +made in a spasm of enthusiasm inspired in him and humoured by his most +engaging Mentor, to record his first impressions of a notable personality +not many days after its introduction to him. He has never taken up the +tale again until now, when an insistent sense, as of a task left +unfinished, compels him to the effort. Over his sweet Mentor the grass +lies thick, and flowers of aged stalk bloom perennially, and "Oh, the +difference to me!" + +To _me_, for it is time to drop the poor conceit, the pseudonym that once +served its little purpose to awaken tender derision. + +I take up the old and stained manuscript, with its marginalia, that are +like the dim call from a far-away voice, and I know that, so I am driven +to record the sequel to that gay introduction, it must be in a spirit of +sombreness most deadly by contrast. I look at the faded opening words. +The fire of the first line of the narrative is long out; the grate is +cold some forty years--forty years!--and I think I have been a little +chill during all that time. But, though the room rustle with phantoms and +menace stalk in the retrospect, I shall acquit my conscience of its +burden, refusing to be bullied by the counsel of a destiny that +subpoena'd me entirely against my will. + + + + +PART II + +OF POLYHISTOR'S NARRATIVE + +CONTINUED AND FINISHED AFTER A LAPSE OF FORTY YEARS + + +With my unexpected appointment as doctor to D---- gaol, I seemed to +have put on the seven-league boots of success. No doubt it was an +extraordinary degree of good fortune, even to one who had looked forward +with a broad view of confidence; yet, I think, perhaps on account of the +very casual nature of my promotion, I never took the post entirely +seriously. + +At the same time I was fully bent on justifying my little cockney +patron's choice by a resolute subscription to his theories of prison +management. + +Major James Shrike inspired me with a curious conceit of impertinent +respect. In person the very embodiment of that insignificant vulgarity, +without extenuating circumstances, which is the type in caricature of the +ultimate cockney, he possessed a force of mind and an earnestness of +purpose that absolutely redeemed him on close acquaintanceship. I found +him all he had stated himself to be, and something more. + +He had a noble object always in view--the employment of sane and +humanitarian methods in the treatment of redeemable criminals, and he +strove towards it with completely untiring devotion. He was of those who +never insist beyond the limits of their own understanding, clear-sighted +in discipline, frank in relaxation, an altruist in the larger sense. + +His undaunted persistence, as I learned, received ample illustration some +few years prior to my acquaintance with him, when--his system being +experimental rather than mature--a devastating endemic of typhoid in the +prison had for the time stultified his efforts. He stuck to his post; but +so virulent was the outbreak that the prison commissioners judged a +complete evacuation of the building and overhauling of the drainage to +be necessary. As a consequence, for some eighteen months--during thirteen +of which the Governor and his household remained sole inmates of the +solitary pile (so sluggishly do we redeem our condemned social +bog-lands)--the "system" stood still for lack of material to mould. At +the end of over a year of stagnation, a contract was accepted and +workmen put in, and another five months saw the prison reordered for +practical purposes. + +The interval of forced inactivity must have sorely tried the patience of +the Governor. Practical theorists condemned to rust too often eat out +their own hearts. Major Shrike never referred to this period, and, +indeed, laboriously snubbed any allusion to it. + +He was, I have a shrewd notion, something of an officially petted +reformer. Anyhow, to his abolition of the insensate barbarism of crank +and treadmill in favour of civilizing methods no opposition was offered. +Solitary confinement--a punishment outside all nature to a gregarious +race--found no advocate in him. "A man's own suffering mind," he argued, +"must be, of all moral food, the most poisonous for him to feed on. +Surround a scorpion with fire and he stings himself to death, they say. +Throw a diseased soul entirely upon its own resources and moral suicide +results." + +To sum up: his nature embodied humanity without sentimentalism, firmness +without obstinacy, individuality without selfishness; his activity was +boundless, his devotion to his system so real as to admit no utilitarian +sophistries into his scheme of personal benevolence. Before I had been +with him a week, I respected him as I had never respected man before. + + * * * * * + +One evening (it was during the second month of my appointment) we were +sitting in his private study--a dark, comfortable room lined with books. +It was an occasion on which a new characteristic of the man was offered +to my inspection. + +A prisoner of a somewhat unusual type had come in that day--a +spiritualistic medium, convicted of imposture. To this person I casually +referred. + +"May I ask how you propose dealing with the new-comer?" + +"On the familiar lines." + +"But, surely--here we have a man of superior education, of imagination +even?" + +"No, no, no! A hawker's opportuneness; that describes it. These fellows +would make death itself a vulgarity." + +"You've no faith in their--" + +"Not a tittle. Heaven forfend! A sheet and a turnip are poetry to their +manifestations. It's as crude and sour soil for us to work on as any I +know. We'll cart it wholesale." + +"I take you--excuse my saying so--for a supremely sceptical man." + +"As to what?" + +"The supernatural." + +There was no answer during a considerable interval. Presently it came, +with deliberate insistence:-- + +"It is a principle with me to oppose bullying. We are here for a definite +purpose--his duty plain to any man who wills to read it. There may be +disembodied spirits who seek to distress or annoy where they can no +longer control. If there are, mine, which is not yet divorced from its +means to material action, declines to be influenced by any irresponsible +whimsey, emanating from a place whose denizens appear to be actuated by a +mere frivolous antagonism to all human order and progress." + +"But supposing you, a murderer, to be haunted by the presentment of your +victim?" + +"I will imagine that to be my case. Well, it makes no difference. My +interest is with the great human system, in one of whose veins I am a +circulating drop. It is my business to help to keep the system sound, +to do my duty without fear or favour. If disease--say a fouled +conscience--contaminates me, it is for me to throw off the incubus, +not accept it, and transmit the poison. Whatever my lapses of nature, I +owe it to the entire system to work for purity in my allotted sphere, and +not to allow any microbe bugbear to ride me roughshod, to the detriment +of my fellow drops." + +I laughed. + +"It should be for you," I said, "to learn to shiver, like the boy in the +fairy tale." + +"I cannot", he answered, with a peculiar quiet smile; "and yet prisons, +above all places, should be haunted." + + * * * * * + +Very shortly after his arrival I was called to the cell of the medium, +F----. He suffered, by his own statement, from severe pains in the head. + +I found the man to be nervous, anemic; his manner characterized by a sort +of hysterical effrontery. + +"Send me to the infirmary", he begged. "This isn't punishment, but +torture." + +"What are your symptoms?" + +"I see things; my case has no comparison with others. To a man of my +super-sensitiveness close confinement is mere cruelty." + +I made a short examination. He was restless under my hands. + +"You'll stay where you are", I said. + +He broke out into violent abuse, and I left him. + +Later in the day I visited him again. He was then white and sullen; but +under his mood I could read real excitement of some sort. + +"Now, confess to me, my man", I said, "what do you see?" + +He eyed me narrowly, with his lips a little shaky. + +"Will you have me moved if I tell you?" + +"I can give no promise till I know." + +He made up his mind after an interval of silence. + +"There's something uncanny in my neighbourhood. Who's confined in the +next cell--there, to the left?" + +"To my knowledge it's empty." + +He shook his head incredulously. + +"Very well," I said, "I don't mean to bandy words with you"; and I turned +to go. + +At that he came after me with a frightened choke. + +"Doctor, your mission's a merciful one. I'm not trying to sauce you. For +God's sake have me moved! I can see further than most, I tell you!" + +The fellow's manner gave me pause. He was patently and beyond the pride +of concealment terrified. + +"What do you see?" I repeated stubbornly. + +"It isn't that I see, but I know. The cell's not empty!" + +I stared at him in considerable wonderment. + +"I will make inquiries," I said. "You may take that for a promise. If the +cell proves empty, you stop where you are." + +I noticed that he dropped his hands with a lost gesture as I left him. I +was sufficiently moved to accost the warder who awaited me on the spot. + +"Johnson," I said, "is that cell--" + +"Empty, sir," answered the man sharply and at once. + +Before I could respond, F---- came suddenly to the door, which I still +held open. + +"You lying cur!" he shouted. "You damned lying cur!" + +The warder thrust the man back with violence. + +"Now you, 49," he said, "dry up, and none of your sauce!" and he banged +to the door with a sounding slap, and turned to me with a lowering face. +The prisoner inside yelped and stormed at the studded panels. + +"That cell's empty, sir," repeated Johnson. + +"Will you, as a matter of conscience, let me convince myself? I promised +the man." + +"No, I can't." + +"You can't?" + +"No, sir." + +"This is a piece of stupid discourtesy. You can have no reason, of +course?" + +"I can't open it--that's all." + +"Oh, Johnson! Then I must go to the fountain-head." + +"Very well, sir." + +Quite baffled by the man's obstinacy, I said no more, but walked off. If +my anger was roused, my curiosity was piqued in proportion. + + * * * * * + +I had no opportunity of interviewing the Governor all day, but at night I +visited him by invitation to play a game of piquet. + +He was a man without "incumbrances"--as a severe conservatism designates +the _lares_ of the cottage--and, at home, lived at his ease and indulged +his amusements without comment. + +I found him "tasting" his books, with which the room was well lined, and +drawing with relish at an excellent cigar in the intervals of the +courses. + +He nodded to me, and held out an open volume in his left hand. + +"Listen to this fellow," he said, tapping the page with his fingers:-- + +"'The most tolerable sort of Revenge, is for those wrongs which there is +no Law to remedy: But then, let a man take heed, the Revenge be such, as +there is no law to punish: Else, a man's Enemy, is still before hand, and +it is two for one. Some, when they take Revenge, are Desirous the party +should know, whence it cometh. This is the more Generous. For the Delight +seemeth to be, not so much in doing the Hurt, as in making the Party +repent: But Base and Crafty _Cowards are like the Arrow that flyeth in +the Dark. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a Desperate Saying against +Perfidious or Neglecting Friends, as if these wrongs were unpardonable. +You shall reade (saith he) that we are commanded to forgive our Enemies: +But you never read, that we are commanded, to forgive our Friends_.' + +"Is he not a rare fellow?" + +"Who?" said I. + +"Francis Bacon, who screwed his wit to his philosophy, like a hammer-head +to its handle, and knocked a nail in at every blow. How many of our +friends round about here would be picking oakum now if they had made a +gospel of that quotation?" + +"You mean they take no heed that the Law may punish for that for which it +gives no remedy?" + +"Precisely; and specifically as to revenge. The criminal, from the +murderer to the petty pilferer, is actuated solely by the spirit of +vengeance--vengeance blind and speechless--towards a system that forces +him into a position quite outside his natural instincts." + +"As to that, we have left Nature in the thicket. It is hopeless hunting +for her now." + +"We hear her breathing sometimes, my friend. Otherwise Her Majesty's +prison locks would rust. But, I grant you, we have grown so unfamiliar +with her that we call her simplest manifestations _super_natural +nowadays." + +"That reminds me. I visited F---- this afternoon. The man was in a queer +way--not foxing, in my opinion. Hysteria, probably." + +"Oh! What was the matter with him?" + +"The form it took was some absurd prejudice about the next cell--number +47, He swore it was not empty--was quite upset about it--said there +was some infernal influence at work in his neighbourhood. Nerves, he +finds, I suppose, may revenge themselves on one who has made a habit of +playing tricks with them. To satisfy him, I asked Johnson to open the +door of the next cell--" + +"Well?" + +"He refused." + +"It is closed by my orders." + +"That settles it, of course. The manner of Johnson's refusal was a bit +uncivil, but--" + +He had been looking at me intently all this time--so intently that I was +conscious of a little embarrassment and confusion. His mouth was set like +a dash between brackets, and his eyes glistened. Now his features +relaxed, and he gave a short high neigh of a laugh. + +"My dear fellow, you must make allowances for the rough old lurcher. He +was a soldier. He is all cut and measured out to the regimental pattern. +With him Major Shrike, like the king, can do no wrong. Did I ever tell +you he served under me in India? He did; and, moreover, I saved his life +there." + +"In an engagement?" + +"Worse--from the bite of a snake. It was a mere question of will. I told +him to wake and walk, and he did. They had thought him already in rigor +mortis; and, as for him--well, his devotion to me since has been single +to the last degree." + +"That's as it should be." + +"To be sure. And he's quite in my confidence. You must pass over the old +beggar's churlishness." + +I laughed an assent. And then an odd thing happened. As I spoke, I had +walked over to a bookcase on the opposite side of the room to that on +which my host stood. Near this bookcase hung a mirror--an oblong affair, +set in brass _repousse_ work--on the wall; and, happening to glance into +it as I approached, I caught sight of the Major's reflection as he turned +his face to follow my movement. + +I say "turned his face"--a formal description only. What met my startled +gaze was an image of some nameless horror--of features grooved, and +battered, and shapeless, as if they had been torn by a wild beast. + +I gave a little indrawn gasp and turned about. There stood the Major, +plainly himself, with a pleasant smile on his face. + +"What's up?" said he. + +He spoke abstractedly, pulling at his cigar; and I answered rudely, +"That's a damned bad looking-glass of yours!" + +"I didn't know there was anything wrong with it," he said, still +abstracted and apart. And, indeed, when by sheer mental effort I forced +myself to look again, there stood my companion as he stood in the room. + +I gave a tremulous laugh, muttered something or nothing, and fell to +examining the books in the case. But my fingers shook a trifle as I +aimlessly pulled out one volume after another. + +"Am I getting fanciful?" I thought--"I whose business it is to give +practical account of every bugbear of the nerves. Bah! My liver must be +out of order. A speck of bile in one's eye may look a flying dragon." + +I dismissed the folly from my mind, and set myself resolutely to +inspecting the books marshalled before me. Roving amongst them, I pulled +out, entirely at random, a thin, worn duodecimo, that was thrust well +back at a shelf end, as if it shrank from comparison with its prosperous +and portly neighbours. Nothing but chance impelled me to the choice; and +I don't know to this day what the ragged volume was about. It opened +naturally at a marker that lay in it--a folded slip of paper, yellow with +age; and glancing at this, a printed name caught my eye. + +With some stir of curiosity, I spread the slip out. It was a title-page +to a volume, of poems, presumably; and the author was James Shrike. + +I uttered an exclamation, and turned, book in hand. + +"An author!" I said. "You an author, Major Shrike!" + +To my surprise, he snapped round upon me with something like a glare of +fury on his face. This the more startled me as I believed I had reason to +regard him as a man whose principles of conduct had long disciplined a +temper that was naturally hasty enough. + +Before I could speak to explain, he had come hurriedly across the room +and had rudely snatched the paper out of my hand. + +"How did this get--" he began; then in a moment came to himself, and +apologized for his ill manners. + +"I thought every scrap of the stuff had been destroyed", he said, and +tore the page into fragments. "It is an ancient effusion, doctor--perhaps +the greatest folly of my life; but it's something of a sore subject with +me, and I shall be obliged if you'll not refer to it again." + +He courted my forgiveness so frankly that the matter passed without +embarrassment; and we had our game and spent a genial evening together. +But memory of the queer little scene stuck in my mind, and I could not +forbear pondering it fitfully. + +Surely here was a new side-light that played upon my friend and superior +a little fantastically. + + * * * * * + +Conscious of a certain vague wonder in my mind, I was traversing the +prison, lost in thought, after my sociable evening with the Governor, +when the fact that dim light was issuing from the open door of cell +number 49 brought me to myself and to a pause in the corridor outside. + +Then I saw that something was wrong with the cell's inmate, and that my +services were required. + +The medium was struggling on the floor, in what looked like an epileptic +fit, and Johnson and another warder were holding him from doing an injury +to himself. + +The younger man welcomed my appearance with relief. + +"Heerd him guggling," he said, "and thought as something were up. You +come timely, sir." + +More assistance was procured, and I ordered the prisoner's removal to the +infirmary. For a minute, before following him, I was left alone with +Johnson. + +"It came to a climax, then?" I said, looking the man steadily in the +face. + +"He may be subject to 'em, sir", he replied, evasively. + +I walked deliberately up to the closed door of the adjoining cell, which +was the last on that side of the corridor. Huddled against the massive +end wall, and half imbedded in it, as it seemed, it lay in a certain +shadow, and bore every sign of dust and disuse. Looking closely, I saw +that the trap in the door was not only firmly bolted, but _screwed into +its socket_. + +I turned and said to the warder quietly,-- + +"Is it long since this cell was in use?" + +"You're very fond of asking questions", he answered doggedly. + +It was evident he would baffle me by impertinence rather than yield a +confidence. A queer insistence had seized me--a strange desire to know +more about this mysterious chamber. But, for all my curiosity, I flushed +at the man's tone. + +"You have your orders", I said sternly, "and do well to hold by them. I +doubt, nevertheless, if they include impertinence to your superiors." + +"I look straight on my duty, sir," he said, a little abashed. "I don't +wish to give offence." + +He did not, I feel sure. He followed his instinct to throw me off the +scent, that was all. + +I strode off in a fume, and after attending F---- in the infirmary, went +promptly to my own quarters. + +I was in an odd frame of mind, and for long tramped my sitting-room to +and fro, too restless to go to bed, or, as an alternative, to settle down +to a book. There was a welling up in my heart of some emotion that I +could neither trace nor define. It seemed neighbour to terror, neighbour +to an intense fainting pity, yet was not distinctly either of these. +Indeed, where was cause for one, or the subject of the other? F---- might +have endured mental sufferings which it was only human to help to end, +yet F---- was a swindling rogue, who, once relieved, merited no further +consideration. + +It was not on him my sentiments were wasted. Who, then, was responsible +for them? + +There is a very plain line of demarcation between the legitimate spirit +of inquiry and mere apish curiosity. I could recognise it, I have no +doubt, as a rule, yet in my then mood, under the influence of a kind of +morbid seizure, inquisitiveness took me by the throat. I could not +whistle my mind from the chase of a certain graveyard will-o'-the-wisp; +and on it went stumbling and floundering through bog and mire, until it +fell into a state of collapse, and was useful for nothing else. + +I went to bed and to sleep without difficulty, but I was conscious of +myself all the time, and of a shadowless horror that seemed to come +stealthily out of corners and to bend over and look at me, and to be +nothing but a curtain or a hanging coat when I started and stared. + +Over and over again this happened, and my temperature rose by leaps, and +suddenly I saw that if I failed to assert myself, and promptly, fever +would lap me in a consuming fire. Then in a moment I broke into a profuse +perspiration, and sank exhausted into delicious unconsciousness. + +Morning found me restored to vigour, but still with the maggot of +curiosity boring in my brain. It worked there all day, and for many +subsequent days, and at last it seemed as if my every faculty were +honeycombed with its ramifications. Then "this will not do", I thought, +but still the tunnelling process went on. + +At first I would not acknowledge to myself what all this mental to-do was +about. I was ashamed of my new development, in fact, and nervous, too, +in a degree of what it might reveal in the matter of moral degeneration; +but gradually, as the curious devil mastered me, I grew into such harmony +with it that I could shut my eyes no longer to the true purpose of its +insistence. It was the _closed cell_ about which my thoughts hovered like +crows circling round carrion. + + * * * * * + +"In the dead waste and middle" of a certain night I awoke with a strange, +quick recovery of consciousness. There was the passing of a single +expiration, and I had been asleep and was awake. I had gone to bed with +no sense of premonition or of resolve in a particular direction; I sat up +a monomaniac. It was as if, swelling in the silent hours, the tumour of +curiosity had come to a head, and in a moment it was necessary to operate +upon it. + +I make no excuse for my then condition. I am convinced I was the victim +of some undistinguishable force, that I was an agent under the control of +the supernatural, if you like. Some thought had been in my mind of late +that in my position it was my duty to unriddle the mystery of the closed +cell. This was a sop timidly held out to and rejected by my better +reason. I sought--and I knew it in my heart--solution of the puzzle, +because it was a puzzle with an atmosphere that vitiated my moral fibre. +Now, suddenly, I knew I must act, or, by forcing self-control, imperil +my mind's stability. + +All strung to a sort of exaltation, I rose noiselessly and dressed myself +with rapid, nervous hands. My every faculty was focussed upon a +solitary point. Without and around there was nothing but shadow and +uncertainty. I seemed conscious only of a shaft of light, as it were, +traversing the darkness and globing itself in a steady disc of radiance +on a lonely door. + +Slipping out into the great echoing vault of the prison in stockinged +feet, I sped with no hesitation of purpose in the direction of the +corridor that was my goal. Surely some resolute Providence guided and +encompassed me, for no meeting with the night patrol occurred at any +point to embarrass or deter me. Like a ghost myself, I flitted along +the stone flags of the passages, hardly waking a murmur from them in my +progress. + +Without, I knew, a wild and stormy wind thundered on the walls of the +prison. Within, where the very atmosphere was self-contained, a cold and +solemn peace held like an irrevocable judgment. + +I found myself as if in a dream before the sealed door that had for days +harassed my waking thoughts. Dim light from a distant gas jet made a +patch of yellow upon one of its panels; the rest was buttressed with +shadow. + +A sense of fear and constriction was upon me as I drew softly from my +pocket a screwdriver I had brought with me. It never occurred to me, I +swear, that the quest was no business of mine, and that even now I could +withdraw from it, and no one be the wiser. But I was afraid--I was +afraid. And there was not even the negative comfort of knowing that the +neighbouring cell was tenanted. It gaped like a ghostly garret next +door to a deserted house. + +What reason had I to be there at all, or, being there, to fear? I can no +more explain than tell how it was that I, an impartial follower of my +vocation, had allowed myself to be tricked by that in the nerves I had +made it my interest to study and combat in others. + +My hand that held the tool was cold and wet. The stiff little shriek of +the first screw, as it turned at first uneasily in its socket, sent a +jarring thrill through me. But I persevered, and it came out readily +by-and-by, as did the four or five others that held the trap secure. + +Then I paused a moment; and, I confess, the quick pant of fear seemed to +come grey from my lips. There were sounds about me--the deep breathing of +imprisoned men; and I envied the sleepers their hard-wrung repose. + +At last, in one access of determination, I put out my hand, and sliding +back the bolt, hurriedly flung open the trap. An acrid whiff of dust +assailed my nostrils as I stepped back a pace and stood expectant of +anything--or nothing. What did I wish, or dread, or foresee? The complete +absurdity of my behaviour was revealed to me in a moment. I could shake +off the incubus here and now, and be a sane man again. + +I giggled, with an actual ring of self-contempt in my voice, as I made a +forward movement to close the aperture. I advanced my face to it, and +inhaled the sluggish air that stole forth, and--God in heaven! + +I had staggered back with that cry in my throat, when I felt fingers like +iron clamps close on my arm and hold it. The grip, more than the face +I turned to look upon in my surging terror, was forcibly human. + +It was the warder Johnson who had seized me, and my heart bounded as I +met the cold fury of his eyes. + +"Prying!" he said, in a hoarse, savage whisper. "So you will, will you? +And now let the devil help you!" + +It was not this fellow I feared, though his white face was set like a +demon's; and in the thick of my terror I made a feeble attempt to assert +my authority. + +"Let me go!" I muttered. "What! you dare?" + +In his frenzy he shook my arm as a terrier shakes a rat, and, like a dog, +he held on, daring me to release myself. + +For the moment an instinct half-murderous leapt in me. It sank and was +overwhelmed in a slough of some more secret emotion. + +"Oh!" I whispered, collapsing, as it were, to the man's fury, +even pitifully deprecating it. "What is it? What's there? It drew +me--something unnameable". + +He gave a snapping laugh like a cough. His rage waxed second by second. +There was a maniacal suggestiveness in it; and not much longer, it was +evident, could he have it under control. I saw it run and congest in his +eyes; and, on the instant of its accumulation, he tore at me with a +sudden wild strength, and drove me up against the very door of the secret +cell. + +The action, the necessity of self-defence, restored me to some measure of +dignity and sanity. + +"Let me go, you ruffian!" I cried, struggling to free myself from his +grasp. + +It was useless. He held me madly. There was no beating him off: and, so +holding me, he managed to produce a single key from one of his pockets, +and to slip it with a rusty clang into the lock of the door. + +"You dirty, prying civilian!" he panted at me, as he swayed this way and +that with the pull of my body. "You shall have your wish, by G--! You +want to see inside, do you? Look, then!" + +He dashed open the door as he spoke, and pulled me violently into +the opening. A great waft of the cold, dank air came at us, and with +it--what? + +The warder had jerked his dark lantern from his belt, and now--an arm of +his still clasped about one of mine--snapped the slide open. + +"Where is it?" he muttered, directing the disc of light round and about +the floor of the cell. I ceased struggling. Some counter influence was +raising an odd curiosity in me. + +"Ah!" he cried, in a stifled voice, "there you are, my friend!" + +He was setting the light slowly travelling along the stone flags close by +the wall over against us, and now, so guiding it, looked askance at me +with a small, greedy smile. + +"Follow the light, sir," he whispered jeeringly. + +I looked, and saw twirling on the floor, in the patch of radiance cast by +the lamp, _a little eddy of dust_, it seemed. This eddy was never still, +but went circling in that stagnant place without apparent cause or +influence; and, as it circled, it moved slowly on by wall and corner, so +that presently in its progress it must reach us where we stood. + +Now, draughts will play queer freaks in quiet places, and of this +trifling phenomenon I should have taken little note ordinarily. But, I +must say at once, that as I gazed upon the odd moving thing my heart +seemed to fall in upon itself like a drained artery. + +"Johnson!" I cried, "I must get out of this. I don't know what's the +matter, or--Why do you hold me? D--n it! man, let me go; let me go, I +say!" + +As I grappled with him he dropped the lantern with a crash and flung his +arms violently about me. + +"You don't!" he panted, the muscles of his bent and rigid neck seeming +actually to cut into my shoulder-blade. "You don't, by G--! You came +of your own accord, and now you shall take your bellyful!" + +It was a struggle for life or death, or, worse, for life and reason. But +I was young and wiry, and held my own, if I could do little more. Yet +there was something to combat beyond the mere brute strength of the man I +struggled with, for I fought in an atmosphere of horror unexplainable, +and I knew that inch by inch the _thing_ on the floor was circling round +in our direction. + +Suddenly in the breathing darkness I felt it close upon us, gave one +mortal yell of fear, and, with a last despairing fury, tore myself from +the encircling arms, and sprang into the corridor without. As I plunged +and leapt, the warder clutched at me, missed, caught a foot on the edge +of the door, and, as the latter whirled to with a clap, fell heavily at +my feet in a fit. Then, as I stood staring down upon him, steps sounded +along the corridor and the voices of scared men hurrying up. + + * * * * * + +Ill and shaken, and, for the time, little in love with life, yet fearing +death as I had never dreaded it before, I spent the rest of that horrible +night huddled between my crumpled sheets, fearing to look forth, fearing +to think, wild only to be far away, to be housed in some green and +innocent hamlet, where I might forget the madness and the terror in +learning to walk the unvext paths of placid souls. I had not fairly +knocked under until alone with my new dread familiar. That unction I +could lay to my heart, at least. I had done the manly part by the +stricken warder, whom I had attended to his own home, in a row of little +tenements that stood south of the prison walls. I had replied to all +inquiries with some dignity and spirit, attributing my ruffled condition +to an assault on the part of Johnson, when he was already under the +shadow of his seizure. I had directed his removal, and grudged him no +professional attention that it was in my power to bestow. But afterwards, +locked into my room, my whole nervous system broke up like a trodden +ant-hill, leaving me conscious of nothing but an aimless scurrying terror +and the black swarm of thoughts, so that I verily fancied my reason would +give under the strain. + +Yet I had more to endure and to triumph over. + +Near morning I fell into a troubled sleep, throughout which the drawn +twitch of muscle seemed an accent on every word of ill-omen I had ever +spelt out of the alphabet of fear. If my body rested, my brain was an +open chamber for any toad of ugliness that listed to "sit at squat" in. + +Suddenly I woke to the fact that there was a knocking at my door--that +there had been for some little time. + +I cried, "Come in!" finding a weak restorative in the mere sound of my +own human voice; then, remembering the key was turned, bade the visitor +wait until I could come to him. + +Scrambling, feeling dazed and white-livered, out of bed, I opened the +door, and met one of the warders on the threshold. The man looked scared, +and his lips, I noticed, were set in a somewhat boding fashion. + +"Can you come at once, sir?" he said. "There's summat wrong with the +Governor." + +"Wrong? What's the matter with him?" + +"Why,"--he looked down, rubbed an imaginary protuberance smooth with his +foot, and glanced up at me again with a quick, furtive expression,--"he's +got his face set in the grating of 47, and danged if a man Jack of us can +get him to move or speak." + +I turned away, feeling sick. I hurriedly pulled on coat and trousers, and +hurriedly went off with my summoner. Reason was all absorbed in a wildest +phantasy of apprehension. + +"Who found him?" I muttered, as we sped on. + +"Vokins see him go down the corridor about half after eight, sir, and see +him give a start like when he noticed the trap open. It's never been so +before in my time. Johnson must ha' done it last night, before he were +took." + +"Yes, yes." + +"The man said the Governor went to shut it, it seemed, and to draw his +face to'ards the bars in so doin'. Then he see him a-lookin' through, as +he thought; but nat'rally it weren't no business of his'n, and he went +off about his work. But when he come anigh agen, fifteen minutes later, +there were the Governor in the same position; and he got scared over it, +and called out to one or two of us." + +"Why didn't one of you ask the Major if anything was wrong?" + +"Bless you! we did; and no answer. And we pulled him, compatible with +discipline, but--" + +"But what?" + +"He's stuck." + +"Stuck!" + +"See for yourself, sir. That's all I ask." + +I did, a moment later. A little group was collected about the door of +cell 47, and the members of it spoke together in whispers, as if they +were frightened men. One young fellow, with a face white in patches, as +if it had been floured, slid from them as I approached, and accosted me +tremulously. + +"Don't go anigh, sir. There's something wrong about the place." + +I pulled myself together, forcibly beating down the excitement reawakened +by the associations of the spot. In the discomfiture of others' nerves I +found my own restoration. + +"Don't be an ass!" I said, in a determined voice, "There's nothing here +that can't be explained. Make way for me, please!" + +They parted and let me through, and I saw him. He stood, spruce, +frock-coated, dapper, as he always was, with his face pressed against +and _into_ the grill, and either hand raised and clenched tightly round a +bar of the trap. His posture was as of one caught and striving +frantically to release himself; yet the narrowness of the interval +between the rails precluded so extravagant an idea. He stood quite +motionless--taut and on the strain, as it were--and nothing of his face +was visible but the back ridges of his jaw-bones, showing white through a +bush of red whiskers. + +"Major Shrike!" I rapped out, and, allowing myself no hesitation, reached +forth my hand and grasped his shoulder. The body vibrated under my touch, +but he neither answered nor made sign of hearing me. Then I pulled at him +forcibly, and ever with increasing strength. His fingers held like steel +braces. He seemed glued to the trap, like Theseus to the rock. + +Hastily I peered round, to see if I could get glimpse of his face. I +noticed enough to send me back with a little stagger. + +"Has none of you got a key to this door?" I asked, reviewing the scared +faces about me, than which my own was no less troubled, I feel sure. + +"Only the Governor, sir," said the warder who had fetched me. "There's +not a man but him amongst us that ever seen this opened." + +He was wrong there, I could have told him; but held my tongue, for +obvious reasons. + +"I want it opened. Will one of you feel in his pockets?" + +Not a soul stirred. Even had not sense of discipline precluded, that of a +certain inhuman atmosphere made fearful creatures of them all. + +"Then," said I, "I must do it myself." + +I turned once more to the stiff-strung figure, had actually put hand on +it, when an exclamation from Vokins arrested me. + +"There's a key--there, sir!" he said--"stickin' out yonder between its +feet." + +Sure enough there was--Johnson's, no doubt, that had been shot from its +socket by the clapping to of the door, and afterwards kicked aside by the +warder in his convulsive struggles. + +I stooped, only too thankful for the respite, and drew it forth. I had +seen it but once before, yet I recognised it at a glance. + +Now, I confess, my heart felt ill as I slipped the key into the wards, +and a sickness of resentment at the tyranny of Fate in making me its +helpless minister surged up in my veins. Once, with my fingers on the +iron loop, I paused, and ventured a fearful side glance at the figure +whose crookt elbow almost touched my face; then, strung to the high +pitch of inevitability, I shot the lock, pushed at the door, and in the +act, made a back leap into the corridor. + +Scarcely, in doing so, did I look for the totter and collapse outwards of +the rigid form. I had expected to see it fall away, face down, into the +cell, as its support swung from it. Yet it was, I swear, as if something +from within had relaxed its grasp and given the fearful dead man a +swingeing push outwards as the door opened. + +It went on its back, with a dusty slap on the stone flags, and from all +its spectators--me included--came a sudden drawn sound, like wind in a +keyhole. + +What can I say, or how describe it? A dead thing it was--but the face! + +Barred with livid scars where the grating rails had crossed it, the rest +seemed to have been worked and kneaded into a mere featureless plate of +yellow and expressionless flesh. + +And it was this I had seen in the glass! + + * * * * * + +There was an interval following the experience above narrated, during +which a certain personality that had once been mine was effaced or +suspended, and I seemed a passive creature, innocent of the least desire +of independence. It was not that I was actually ill or actually insane. A +merciful Providence set my finer wits slumbering, that was all, leaving +me a sufficiency of the grosser faculties that were necessary to the +right ordering of my behaviour. + +I kept to my room, it is true, and even lay a good deal in bed; but this +was more to satisfy the busy scruples of a _locum tenens_--a practitioner +of the neighbourhood, who came daily to the prison to officiate in my +absence--than to cosset a complaint that in its inactivity was purely +negative. I could review what had happened with a calmness as profound +as if I had read of it in a book. I could have wished to continue my +duties, indeed, had the power of insistence remained to me. But the saner +medicus was acute where I had gone blunt, and bade me to the restful +course. He was right. I was mentally stunned, and had I not slept off my +lethargy, I should have gone mad in an hour--leapt at a bound, probably, +from inertia to flaming lunacy. + +I remembered everything, but through a fluffy atmosphere, so to speak. It +was as if I looked on bygone pictures through ground glass that softened +the ugly outlines. + +Sometimes I referred to these to my substitute, who was wise to answer me +according to my mood; for the truth left me unruffled, whereas an obvious +evasion of it would have distressed me. + +"Hammond," I said one day, "I have never yet asked you. How did I give my +evidence at the inquest?" + +"Like a doctor and a sane man." + +"That's good. But it was a difficult course to steer. You conducted the +post-mortem. Did any peculiarity in the dead man's face strike you?" + +"Nothing but this: that the excessive contraction of the bicipital +muscles had brought the features into such forcible contact with the bars +as to cause bruising and actual abrasion. He must have been dead some +little time when you found him." + +"And nothing else? You noticed nothing else in his face--a sort of +obliteration of what makes one human, I mean?" + +"Oh, dear, no! nothing but the painful constriction that marks any +ordinary fatal attack of _angina pectoris_.--There's a rum breach of +promise case in the paper to-day. You should read it; it'll make you +laugh." + +I had no more inclination to laugh than to sigh; but I accepted the +change of subject with an equanimity now habitual to me. + + * * * * * + +One morning I sat up in bed, and knew that consciousness was wide awake +in me once more. It had slept, and now rose refreshed, but trembling. +Looking back, all in a flutter of new responsibility, along the misty +path by way of which I had recently loitered, I shook with an awful +thankfulness at sight of the pitfalls I had skirted and escaped--of +the demons my witlessness had baffled. + +The joy of life was in my heart again, but chastened and made pitiful by +experience. + +Hammond noticed the change in me directly he entered, and congratulated +me upon it. + +"Go slow at first, old man," he said. "You've fairly sloughed the old +skin; but give the sun time to toughen the new one. Walk in it at +present, and be content." + +I was, in great measure, and I followed his advice. I got leave of +absence, and ran down for a month in the country to a certain house we +wot of, where kindly ministration to my convalescence was only one of the +many blisses to be put to an account of rosy days. + +"_Then did my love awake, + Most like a lily-flower, +And as the lovely queene of heaven, + So shone shee in her bower._" + +Ah, me! ah, me! when was it? A year ago, or two-thirds of a lifetime? +Alas! "Age with stealing steps hath clawde me with his crowch." And will +the yews root in _my_ heart, I wonder? + +I was well, sane, recovered, when one morning, towards the end of my +visit, I received a letter from Hammond, enclosing a packet addressed to +me, and jealously sealed and fastened. My friend's communication ran as +follows:-- + +"There died here yesterday afternoon a warder, Johnson--he who had that +apoplectic seizure, you will remember, the night before poor Shrike's +exit. I attended him to the end, and, being alone with him an hour before +the finish, he took the enclosed from under his pillow, and a solemn oath +from me that I would forward it direct to you, sealed as you will find +it, and permit no other soul to examine or even touch it. I acquit myself +of the charge, but, my dear fellow, with an uneasy sense of the +responsibility I incur in thus possibly suggesting to you a retrospect of +events which you had much best consign to the limbo of the--not +unexplainable, but not worth trying to explain. It was patent from what +I have gathered that you were in an overstrung and excitable condition at +that time, and that your temporary collapse was purely nervous in its +character. It seems there was some nonsense abroad in the prison about a +certain cell, and that there were fools who thought fit to associate +Johnson's attack and the other's death with the opening of that cell's +door. I have given the new Governor a tip, and he has stopped all that. +We have examined the cell in company, and found it, as one might suppose, +a very ordinary chamber. The two men died perfectly natural deaths, and +there is the last to be said on the subject. I mention it only from the +fear that enclosed may contain some allusion to the rubbish, a perusal of +which might check the wholesome convalescence of your thoughts. If you +take my advice, you will throw the packet into the fire unread. At least, +if you do examine it, postpone the duty till you feel yourself absolutely +impervious to any mental trickery, and--bear in mind that you are a +worthy member of a particularly matter-of-fact and unemotional +profession." + + * * * * * + +I smiled at the last clause, for I was now in a condition to feel a +rather warm shame over my erst weak-knee'd collapse before a sheet and an +illuminated turnip. I took the packet to my bedroom, shut the door, and +sat myself down by the open window. The garden lay below me, and the dewy +meadows beyond. In the one, bees were busy ruffling the ruddy +gillyflowers and April stocks; in the other, the hedge twigs were all +frosted with Mary buds, as if Spring had brushed them with the fleece of +her wings in passing. + +I fetched a sigh of content as I broke the seal of the packet and brought +out the enclosure. Somewhere in the garden a little sardonic laugh was +clipt to silence. It came from groom or maid, no doubt; yet it thrilled +me with an odd feeling of uncanniness, and I shivered slightly. + +"Bah!" I said to myself determinedly. "There is a shrewd nip in the wind, +for all the show of sunlight;" and I rose, pulled down the window, and +resumed my seat. + +Then in the closed room, that had become deathly quiet by contrast, I +opened and read the dead man's letter. + + * * * * * + +"Sir,--I hope you will read what I here put down. I lay it on you as a +solemn injunction, for I am a dying man, and I know it. And to who is +my death due, and the Governor's death, if not to you, for your pryin' +and curiosity, as surely as if you had drove a nife through our harts? +Therefore, I say, Read this, and take my burden from me, for it has been +a burden; and now it is right that you that interfered should have it on +your own mortal shoulders. The Major is dead and I am dying, and in the +first of my fit it went on in my head like cimbells that the trap was +left open, and that if he passed he would look in and _it_ would get him. +For he knew not fear, neither would he submit to bullying by God or +devil. + +"Now I will tell you the truth, and Heaven quit you of your +responsibility in our destruction. + +"There wasn't another man to me like the Governor in all the countries of +the world. Once he brought me to life after doctors had given me up for +dead; but he willed it, and I lived; and ever afterwards I loved him as a +dog loves its master. That was in the Punjab; and I came home to England +with him, and was his servant when he got his appointment to the jail +here. I tell you he was a proud and fierce man, but under control and +tender to those he favoured; and I will tell you also a strange thing +about him. Though he was a soldier and an officer, and strict in +discipline as made men fear and admire him, his heart at bottom was all +for books, and literature, and such-like gentle crafts. I had his +confidence, as a man gives his confidence to his dog, and before me +sometimes he unbent as he never would before others. In this way I learnt +the bitter sorrow of his life. He had once hoped to be a poet, +acknowledged as such before the world. He was by natur' an idelist, as +they call it, and God knows what it meant to him to come out of the +woods, so to speak, and sweat in the dust of cities; but he did it, for +his will was of tempered steel. He buried his dreams in the clouds and +came down to earth greatly resolved, but with one undying hate. It is not +good to hate as he could, and worse to be hated by such as him; and I +will tell you the story, and what it led to. + +"It was when he was a subaltern that he made up his mind to the plunge. +For years he had placed all his hopes and confidents in a book of verses +he had wrote, and added to, and improved during that time. A little +encouragement, a little word of praise, was all he looked for, and then +he was ready to buckle to again, profitin' by advice, and do better. He +put all the love and beauty of his heart into that book, and at last, +after doubt, and anguish, and much diffidents, he published it and give +it to the world. Sir, it fell what they call still-born from the press. +It was like a green leaf flutterin' down in a dead wood. To a proud +and hopeful man, bubblin' with music, the pain of neglect, when he come +to realize it, was terrible. But nothing was said, and there was nothing +to say. In silence he had to endure and suffer. + +"But one day, during maneuvers, there came to the camp a grey-faced man, +a newspaper correspondent, and young Shrike knocked up a friendship +with him. Now how it come about I cannot tell, but so it did that this +skip-kennel wormed the lad's sorrow out of him, and his confidents, +swore he'd been damnabilly used, and that when he got back he'd crack up +the book himself in his own paper. He was a fool for his pains, and a +serpent in his cruelty. The notice come out as promised, and, my God! the +author was laughed and mocked at from beginning to end. Even confidentses +he had given to the creature was twisted to his ridicule, and his very +appearance joked over. And the mess got wind of it, and made a rare story +for the dog days. + +"He bore it like a soldier, and that he became heart and liver from the +moment. But he put something to the account of the grey-faced man and +locked it up in his breast. + +"He come across him again years afterwards in India, and told him very +politely that he hadn't forgotten him, and didn't intend to. But he was +anigh losin' sight of him there for ever and a day, for the creature took +cholera, or what looked like it, and rubbed shoulders with death and the +devil before he pulled through. And he come across him again over here, +and that was the last of him, as you shall see presently. + +"Once, after I knew the Major (he were Captain then), I was a-brushin' +his coat, and he stood a long while before the glass. Then he twisted +upon me, with a smile on his mouth, and says he,-- + +"'The dog was right, Johnson: this isn't the face of a poet. I was a +presumtious ass, and born to cast up figgers with a pen behind my ear.' + +"'Captain,' I says, 'if you was skinned, you'd look like any other man +without his. The quality of a soul isn't expressed by a coat.' + +"'Well,' he answers, 'my soul's pretty clean-swept, I think, save for one +Bluebeard chamber in it that's been kep' locked ever so many years. +It's nice and dirty by this time, I expect,' he says. Then the grin comes +on his mouth again. 'I'll open it some day,' he says, 'and look. There's +something in it about comparing me to a dancing dervish, with the wind in +my petticuts. Perhaps I'll get the chance to set somebody else dancing +by-and-by.' + +"He did, and took it, and the Bluebeard chamber come to be opened in this +very jail. + +"It was when the system was lying fallow, so to speak, and the prison was +deserted. Nobody was there but him and me and the echoes from the empty +courts. The contract for restoration hadn't been signed, and for months, +and more than a year, we lay idle, nothing bein' done. + +"Near the beginnin' of this period, one day comes, for the third time of +the Major's seein' him, the grey-faced man. 'Let bygones be bygones,' +he says. 'I was a good friend to you, though you didn't know it; and now, +I expect, you're in the way to thank me.' + +"'I am,' says the Major. + +"'Of course,' he answers. 'Where would be your fame and reputation as one +of the leadin' prison reformers of the day if you had kep' on in that +riming nonsense?' + +"'Have you come for my thanks?' says the Governor. + +"'I've come,' says the grey-faced man, 'to examine and report upon your +system.' + +"'For your paper?' + +"'Possibly; but to satisfy myself of its efficacy, in the first +instance.' + +"'You aren't commissioned, then?' + +"'No; I come on my own responsibility.' + +"'Without consultation with any one?' + +"'Absolutely without. I haven't even a wife to advise me,' he says, with +a yellow grin. What once passed for cholera had set the bile on his skin +like paint, and he had caught a manner of coughing behind his hand like a +toast-master. + +"'I know,' says the Major, looking him steady in the face, 'that what you +say about me and my affairs is sure to be actuated by conscientious +motives.' + +"'Ah,' he answers. 'You're sore about that review still, I see.' + +"'Not at all,' says the Major; 'and, in proof, I invite you to be my +guest for the night, and to-morrow I'll show you over the prison and +explain my system.' + +"The creature cried, 'Done!' and they set to and discussed jail matters +in great earnestness. I couldn't guess the Governor's intentions, but, +somehow, his manner troubled me. And yet I can remember only one point of +his talk. He were always dead against making public show of his +birds. 'They're there for reformation, not ignimony,' he'd say. Prisons +in the old days were often, with the asylum and the work'us, made the +holiday show-places of towns. I've heard of one Justice of the Peace, up +North, who, to save himself trouble, used to sign a lot of blank orders +for leave to view, so that applicants needn't bother him when they wanted +to go over. They've changed all that, and the Governor were instrumental +in the change. + +"'It's against my rule,' he said that night, 'to exhibit to a stranger +without a Government permit; but, seein' the place is empty, and for old +remembrance' sake, I'll make an exception in your favour, and you shall +learn all I can show you of the inside of a prison.' + +"Now this was natural enough; but I was uneasy. + +"He treated his guest royally; so much that when we assembled the next +mornin' for the inspection, the grey-faced man were shaky as a wet dog. +But the Major were all set prim and dry, like the soldier he was. + +"We went straight away down corridor B, and at cell 47 we stopped. + +"'We will begin our inspection here,' said the Governor. 'Johnson, open +the door.' + +"I had the keys of the row; fitted in the right one, and pushed open the +door. + +"'After you, sir,' said the Major; and the creature walked in, and he +shut the door on him. + +"I think he smelt a rat at once, for he began beating on the wood and +calling out to us. But the Major only turned round to me with his face +like a stone. + +"'Take that key from the bunch,' he said, 'and give it to me.' + +"I obeyed, all in a tremble, and he took and put it in his pocket. + +"'My God, Major!' I whispered, 'what are you going to do with him?' + +"'Silence, sir!' he said. 'How dare you question your superior officer!' + +"And the noise inside grew louder. + +"The Governor, he listened to it a moment like music; then he unbolted +and flung open the trap, and the creature's face came at it like a wild +beast's. + +"'Sir,' said the Major to it, 'you can't better understand my system than +by experiencing it. What an article for your paper you could write +already--almost as pungint a one as that in which you ruined the hopes +and prospects of a young cockney poet.' + +"The man mouthed at the bars. He was half-mad, I think, in that one +minute. + +"'Let me out!' he screamed. 'This is a hideous joke! Let me out!' + +"'When you are quite quiet--deathly quiet,' said the Major, 'you shall +come out. Not before;' and he shut the trap in its face very softly. + +"'Come, Johnson, march!' he said, and took the lead, and we walked out of +the prison. + +"I was like to faint, but I dared not disobey, and the man's screeching +followed us all down the empty corridors and halls, until we shut the +first great door on it. + +"It may have gone on for hours, alone in that awful emptiness. The +creature was a reptile, but the thought sickened my heart. + +"And from that hour till his death, five months later, he rotted and +maddened in his dreadful tomb." + + * * * * * + +There was more, but I pushed the ghastly confession from me at this point +in uncontrollable loathing and terror. Was it possible--possible, that +injured vanity could so falsify its victim's every tradition of decency? + +"Oh!" I muttered, "what a disease is ambition! Who takes one step towards +it puts his foot on Alsirat!" + +It was minutes before my shocked nerves were equal to a resumption of the +task; but at last I took it up again, with a groan. + + * * * * * + +"I don't think at first I realized the full mischief the Governor +intended to do. At least, I hoped he only meant to give the man a good +fright and then let him go. I might have known better. How could he ever +release him without ruining himself? + +"The next morning he summoned me to attend him. There was a strange +new look of triumph in his face, and in his hand he held a heavy +hunting-crop. I pray to God he acted in madness, but my duty and +obedience was to him. + +"'There is sport toward, Johnson,' he said. 'My dervish has got to +dance.' + +"I followed him quiet. We listened when I opened the jail door, but the +place was silent as the grave. But from the cell, when we reached it, +came a low, whispering sound. + +"The Governor slipped the trap and looked through. + +"'All right,' he said, and put the key in the door and flung it open. + +"He were sittin' crouched on the ground, and he looked up at us +vacant-like. His face were all fallen down, as it were, and his mouth +never ceased to shake and whisper. + +"The Major shut the door and posted me in a corner. Then he moved to the +creature with his whip. + +"'Up!' he cried. 'Up, you dervish, and dance to us!' and he brought the +thong with a smack across his shoulders. + +"The creature leapt under the blow, and then to his feet with a cry, and +the Major whipped him till he danced. All round the cell he drove him, +lashing and cutting--and again, and many times again, until the poor +thing rolled on the floor whimpering and sobbing. I shall have to give an +account of this some day. I shall have to whip my master with a red-hot +serpent round the blazing furnace of the pit, and I shall do it with +agony, because here my love and my obedience was to him. + +"When it was finished, he bade me put down food and drink that I had +brought with me, and come away with him; and we went, leaving him +rolling on the floor of the cell, and shut him alone in the empty prison +until we should come again at the same time to-morrow. + +"So day by day this went on, and the dancing three or four times a week, +until at last the whip could be left behind, for the man would scream and +begin to dance at the mere turning of the key in the lock. And he danced +for four months, but not the fifth. + +"Nobody official came near us all this time. The prison stood lonely as a +deserted ruin where dark things have been done. + +"Once, with fear and trembling, I asked my master how he would account +for the inmate of 47 if he was suddenly called upon by authority to +open the cell; and he answered, smiling,-- + +"I should say it was my mad brother. By his own account, he showed me a +brother's love, you know. It would be thought a liberty; but the +authorities, I think, would stretch a point for me. But if I got +sufficient notice, I should clear out the cell.' + +"I asked him how, with my eyes rather than my lips, and he answered me +only with a look. + +"And all this time he was, outside the prison, living the life of a good +man--helping the needy, ministering to the poor. He even entertained +occasionally, and had more than one noisy party in his house. + +"But the fifth month the creature danced no more. He was a dumb, silent +animal then, with matted hair and beard; and when one entered he would +only look up at one pitifully, as if he said, 'My long punishment is +nearly ended'. How it came that no inquiry was ever made about him I +know not, but none ever was. Perhaps he was one of the wandering gentry +that nobody ever knows where they are next. He was unmarried, and had +apparently not told of his intended journey to a soul. + +"And at the last he died in the night. We found him lying stiff and +stark in the morning, and scratched with a piece of black crust on a +stone of the wall these strange words: 'An Eddy on the Floor'. Just +that--nothing else. + +"Then the Governor came and looked down, and was silent. Suddenly he +caught me by the shoulder. + +"'Johnson', he cried, 'if it was to do again, I would do it! I repent of +nothing. But he has paid the penalty, and we call quits. May he rest +in peace!' + +"'Amen!' I answered low. Yet I knew our turn must come for this. + +"We buried him in quicklime under the wall where the murderers lie, and I +made the cell trim and rubbed out the writing, and the Governor locked +all up and took away the key. But he locked in more than he bargained +for. + +"For months the place was left to itself, and neither of us went anigh +47. Then one day the workmen was to be put in, and the Major he took +me round with him for a last examination of the place before they come. + +"He hesitated a bit outside a particular cell; but at last he drove in +the key and kicked open the door. + +"'My God!' he says, 'he's dancing still!' + +"My heart was thumpin', I tell you, as I looked over his shoulder. What +did we see? What you well understand, sir; but, for all it was no more +than that, we knew as well as if it was shouted in our ears that it was +him, dancin'. It went round by the walls and drew towards us, and as it +stole near I screamed out, 'An Eddy on the Floor!' and seized and dragged +the Major out and clapped to the door behind us. + +"'Oh!' I said, 'in another moment it would have had us'. + +"He looked at me gloomily. + +"'Johnson', he said, 'I'm not to be frighted or coerced. He may dance, +but he shall dance alone. Get a screwdriver and some screws and fasten up +this trap. No one from this time looks into this cell.' + +"I did as he bid me, sweatin'; and I swear all the time I wrought I +dreaded a hand would come through the trap and clutch mine. + +"On one pretex' or another, from that day till the night you meddled with +it, he kep' that cell as close shut as a tomb. And he went his ways, +discardin' the past from that time forth. Now and again a over-sensitive +prisoner in the next cell would complain of feelin' uncomfortable. If +possible, he would be removed to another; if not, he was damd for his +fancies. And so it might be goin' on to now, if you hadn't pried and +interfered. I don't blame you at this moment, sir. Likely you were an +instrument in the hands of Providence; only, as the instrument, you must +now take the burden of the truth on your own shoulders. I am a dying man, +but I cannot die till I have confessed. Per'aps you may find it in your +hart some day to give up a prayer for me--but it must be for the Major as +well. + +"Your obedient servant, + +"J. JOHNSON." + + * * * * * + +What comment of my own can I append to this wild narrative? +Professionally, and apart from personal experiences, I should rule it the +composition of an epileptic. That a noted journalist, nameless as he was +and is to me, however nomadic in habit, could disappear from human ken, +and his fellows rest content to leave him unaccounted for, seems a tax +upon credulity so stupendous that I cannot seriously endorse the +statement. + +Yet, also--there _is_ that little matter of my personal experience. + + + + +DINAH'S MAMMOTH + + +On a day early in the summer of the present year Miss Dinah Groom was +found lying dead off a field-path of the little obscure Wiltshire village +which she had named her "rest and be thankful." At the date of her +decease she was not an old woman, though any one marking her white hair +and much-furrowed features might have supposed her one. The hair, +however, was ample in quantity, the wrinkles rather so many under-scores +of energy than evidences of senility; and until the blinds were down over +her soul, she had looked into and across the world with a pair of eyes +that seemed to reflect the very blue and white of a June sky. No doubt +she had thought to breast the hills and sail the seas again in some +renaissance of vigour. No doubt her "retreat," like a Roman Catholic's, +was designed to be merely temporary. She aped the hermit for the sake of +a sojourn in the hermitage. She came to her island of Avalon to be +restored of her weary limbs and her blistered feet, so to speak; and +there her heart, too weak for her spirit, failed her, and she fell +amongst the young budding poppies, and died. + +I use the word "heart" literally, and in no sentimental sense. To talk of +associations of sentiment in connection with this lady would be +misleading. She herself would not have repudiated any responsibility for +the term as applied to her; she would have simply failed to understand +the term itself. There was no least affectation in this. Throughout her +life of sixty years, as I gather, she acted never once upon principle. +Impulse and inclination dominated her, and she would indulge many +primitive instincts without a thought of conventions. Yet she was not +selfish; or, at least, only in the self-contained and self-protective +meaning of the word. She was a perfect animal, conscious of her supreme +brute caste, shrewd, resourceful, and the plain embodiment of truth. + +Miss Groom had, I think, a boundless feeling of fellowship with beauty of +whatever description; but no least touch of that sorrow of affection +which, in its very humanity, is divine. Her unswerving creed was that +woman was the inheritrix of the earth, the reversion of which she had +wilfully mortgaged to an alien race, and that she had bartered her +material immortality for a sensation. For man she had no vulgar and +jealous contempt; but she feared and shrank from him as something moved +by scruples with which she had no sympathy. She understood the world of +Nature, and could respond to its bloodless caresses and passions. She +could _not_ understand the moodiness that dwells upon a grievance, or +that would sell its birthright of joy for a pitiful memory. + +Yet (and here I must speak with discretion, for I have no sufficient data +to go upon) there was that of contradictoriness in her character that, I +have reason to believe, she had borne children, and had even been right +and particular as to their temporal welfare until such time as, in the +nature of things, they were of an age to make shift for themselves. This, +virtually, I know to be the case; and that, once quit of the primitive +maternal responsibility, she gave no more thought to them than a thrush +gives to its fledglings when she has educated them to their first +flights, and to the useful knack of cracking a snail on a stone. + +My own feeling about Dinah Groom was that she had "thrown back" a long +way over the heads of heredity, and that, in her fearlessness, in her +undegenerate physique, in the animal regularity of her face and form, she +presented to modern days a startling aboriginal type. + +Beautiful--save in the sense of symmetry--she can never have been to the +ordinary man; inasmuch as she would subscribe to no arbitrary standard of +his dictating. She had a high, rich colour; but her complexion must +always have been rough, and a pronounced little moustache crossed her +upper lip, like an accent to the speech that was too distinct and +uncompromising to be melodious. Her every limb and feature, however, was +instinct with capability, and, in her presence, one must always be moved +to marvel over that indescribable worship of disproportion that has grown +to be the religion of a shapely race. + + * * * * * + +How I first became acquainted with Miss Groom it is unnecessary to +explain. During the last three years of her life I was fortunate to be +her guest in the Wiltshire retreat for an aggregate of many months. She +took a fancy to me--to my solitariness and moroseness, perhaps--and she +not only liked to have me with her, but, after a time, she fell into +something of a habit of recalling for my benefit certain passages and +experiences of her past life. In doing this, there was no suggestion of +confidence; and I am breaking no faith in alluding to them. She was a +fine talker--rugged, unpicturesque, but with an instinctive capacity of +selection in words. If I quote her, as I wish to do, I cannot reproduce +her style; and that, no doubt, would appear bald on paper. But, at least, +the matter is all her own. + +Now, I must premise that I arrogate to myself no exhibitory rights in +this lady. She was familiar with and to many from the foremost ranks of +those who "follow knowledge like a sinking star"; those great and +restless spirits to whom inaction reads stagnation. To such, in all +probability, I tell, in speaking of Dinah Groom, a twice-told tale; and, +therefore--inasmuch as I make it my business only to print what is +hitherto unrecorded--to them I give the assurance that I do not claim to +have "discovered" their friend. + + * * * * * + +On a wall of the little embowered sitting-room hung a queer picture, by +Ernest Griset, of the "Overwhelming of the Mammoths in the Ice." From the +first this odd conception had engaged my curiosity,--purely for its +fanciful side,--and one evening, in alluding to it, I made the not very +profound remark that Imagination had no anatomy. + +"They are true beasts," said Dinah. + +"They are the mastodons of Cuvier, no doubt; but, then, Cuvier never saw +a mastodon, you know." + +"But I have; and I tell you Griset and Cuvier are very nearly right." + +I expressed no surprise. + +"In what were they astray?" I asked. + +"The mammoth, as I saw it, had a huge hump--like the steam-chest of an +enormous engine--over its shoulders." + +"And where did you see it, and when?" + +"You are curious to know?" + +"Yes, I think I am; and there is a quiet of expectancy abroad. I hear the +ghost of my dead brother walking in the corridor, Dinah; and we are all +waiting for you to speak." + +She smiled, and said, "Push me over the cigarettes." + +She struck a match, kindled the little crackling tube, and threw the +light out into the shrubbery. It traced a tiny arc of flame and vanished. +The sky was full of the mewing of lost kittens, it seemed. The sound came +from innumerable peewits, that fled and circled above the slopes of the +darkening meadows below. + +"What an uncomfortable seer you are!" she said, "to people this dear +human night with your fancies. No doubt, now, you will read between +the lines of that bird speech down there?" (She looked at me curiously, +but with none of the mournful speculativeness of a soul struggling +against the dimness of its own vision.) "To me it is articulate +happiness--nothing more abstruse. Yes, I have seen a mastodon; and I was +as glad to happen on the beast as a naturalist is glad to find a missing +link in a chain of evidence. From the moment, I knew myself quite clearly +to be the recovered heir to this abused planet." + +She paused a moment, and contracted her brows, as if regretfully and in +anger. "If I had only seen it sooner!" she cried, low; "before I had, in +my pride of strength, tested the poison that has bewildered the brains of +my sisters!" + +Her general reserve was her self-armour against the bolts of the +Philistines. What worldling would not have read mania in much that was +spoken by this sane woman? Yet, indeed, if we were all to find the power +to give expression to our inmost thoughts, madness and sanity would have +to change places in the order of affairs. + +"Once," said Dinah--"and it was when I was a young woman--a man in whom I +was interested shipped as passenger on a whaling vessel. This friend was +what is called a degenerate. Physically and morally he had yielded his +claim to any share in that province of the sun, that his race had +conquered and annexed only to find it antipathetic to its needs. +Combative effort was grown impossible to him, as in time it will grow to +you all. You drop from the world like dead flies from a wall. He could +not physic his soul with woods, and groves, and waters. To his +perceptions, life was become an abnormality--a disease of which he +sickened, as you all must when the last of the fever of aggression has +been diluted out of your veins. You die of your triumph, as the bee dies +of his own weapon of offence; and you can find no antidote to the poison +in the nature you have inoculated with your own virus. + +"This man contemplated self-destruction as the only escape. He had sought +distraction of his moral torments in travel long and varied. Many of the +most beautiful, of the historically interesting places of the world, he +had visited and sojourned in--without avail. His haunting feeling, he +said, was that he did not belong to himself. Pursued by this Nemesis, he +came home to end it all. He still proclaimed his spiritual independence; +but it was immeshed, and he must tear the strands. This was wonderfully +perplexing to me, and, out of my curiosity, I must persuade him to make +one more attempt. His late efforts, I assured him, were nothing but an +endeavour to cure nausea with sweet syrups. He would not get his change +out of nature by such pitiful wooing. Let him, rather, emulate, if he +could not feel, the spirit of his remote forbears, and rally his nerves +to an expedition into the harsh and awful places of the earth. I would +accompany him, and watch with and for him, and supply that of the fibre +he lacked. + +"He consented, and, after some difficulty (for there is an economy of +room in whalers), we obtained passage in a vessel and sailed into the +unknown. Our life and our food were simple and rugged; but the keen air, +the relief from luxury, the novelty and the wonder, wrought upon my +companion and renewed him, so that presently I was amused to note in him +signs of a moral preening--some smug resumption of that arrogant air of +superiority that is a tradition with your race." + +Miss Groom here puckered her lips, and breathed a little destructive +laugh upon her cigarette ash. + +"It did not last long," she said. "We encountered very bad weather, and +his nerves again went by the board. That was in the 60th longitude, I +think (where whales were still to be found in those years), and seven +hundred miles or so to the east of Spitzbergen. On the day--it was in +August--that the storm first overtook us, the boats were out in pursuit +of a 'right' whale, as, I believe, the men called it--a great bull +creature, and piebald like a horse; and I saw the spouting of his breath +as if a water main had burst in a London fog. The wind came in a sudden +charge from the northwest, and the whale dived with a harpoon in its +back; and in the confusion a reel fouled, and one of the boats was whipt +under in a moment--half a mile down, perhaps--and its crew drawn with +it, and their lungs, full of air, burst like bubbles. We had no time to +think of them. We got the other boat-load on board, and then the gale +sent us crashing down the slopes of the sea. I have no knowledge of how +long we were curst of the tempest and the sport of its ravings. I only +know that when it released us at last, we had been hurled a thousand +miles eastwards. The long interval was all a hellish jangle in which time +seemed obliterated. Sometimes we saw the sun--a furious red globe; and we +seemed to stand still while it raced down the sky and ricocheted over the +furthermost waves like a red-hot cannon ball. Sometimes in pitch darkness +the wild sense of flight and expectation was an ecstasy. But through all +my friend lay in a half-delirious stupor. + +"At length a morning broke, full of icy scud, but the sea panting and +exhausted of its rage. As a child catches its breath after a storm of +tears, so it would heave up suddenly, and vibrate, and sink; and we +rocked upon it, a ruined hulk. We were off a flat, vacant shore--if shore +you could call it--whose margin, for miles inland, it seemed, undulated +with the lifting of the swell. It was treeless desolation manifest; and +on our sea side, as far as the eye could reach, the water bobbed and +winked with countless spars of ice. + +"I will tell you at once, my friend,--we were brought to opposite an +inhuman swamp on the coast of Siberia, fifty miles or more to the west +of North-east Cape; and there what remained of the crew made shift to +cast anchor; and for a day and night the ragged ship curtsied to the +land, like a blind beggar to an empty street, and we only dozed in our +corners and wondered at the silence. + +"By-and-by the men made a raft, and that took us all ashore. There was +something like a definite coast-line, then; but for long before we +touched it the undersides of the planks were scraping and hissing over +vegetation. This was the winter fur of the land--thick, coarse tundra +moss; and on that we pitched a camp, and on that we remained for long +weeks while the ship was mending. It was a weird, lonely time. Once +or twice strange, wandering creatures came our way--little, belted men, +with hairless faces, who rode up on strong horses, and liked to exhibit +their skilful management of them. They talked to us in their chirpy +jargon (Toongus, I think it was called); but jargon it must needs remain +to us. + +"Well, we made a patch of the hulk, and we shipped in her again. We were +fortunate to be able to do that, for, with every stiffish wind blowing +inshore, we had feared she would drag her moorings and ground immovably +on the swamps. The land, indeed, was so flat and low that, whenever the +sea rose at all, it threshed the very plains and crackled in the moss; +and we were glad, despite the risk, to leave so lifeless a place." + +Dinah paused to light another cigarette, and to inhale the ecstasy of the +first puff or so before she continued. Up through the still evening, from +a curve of the main road that crooked an elbow to her front garden, came +what sounded like the purring of a great cat--the wind in the telegraph +wires. + +"And I am now to tell you," she said, "about the mastodon?" + +"As you please," I answered. + +"I do please; for why should I keep it to myself? It makes no difference; +only I warn you, if you quote me, you will be writ down a fool or a +maniac. This relation lacks witnesses, for the whaler--that I +subsequently quitted for another homing vessel--was never heard of in +port any more." + +She looked at me with some serious scrutiny before she went on. + +"For these regions, it had been an extraordinarily hot +summer--phenomenally hot, I understand; and to this--to the melting and +breaking away of the ice from hitherto century-locked fastnesses, the +captain attributed the wonderful experience that befell us. The sea was +strewn with blocks and bergs, all hurrying onwards in the strong +currents, as if in haste to escape the pursuing demon of frost that +should re-fetter them; and their multitude kept the steersman's arms +spinning till the man would fall half-fainting over the spoke-handles. + +"Now, one morning early in September, a dense bright fog dropped suddenly +upon the waters. We were making what sail we could--with our crippled +spars and stunted trees of masts--and this it were useless to shorten, +and so invite a rearward bombardment from the chasing hummocks. So we +kept our course by the compass, and trailed on through a blind mist while +fear drummed in our throats. The demoralization of my friend was by this +time complete. For myself, I seldom had a thought but that Nature would +sheathe her claws when she played with me. + +"'This cannot last long!' said the captain. + +"The words were on his lips when we struck with a noise like the +splintering of glass. We were all thrown down, and my companion screamed +like a mad thing. The captain rose and ran to the bows; and in a moment +he came back and his beard was shaking. + +"'God save us!' he cried, 'and fetch aft the rum!' + +"There you have man in his invincible moods. They drank till they were in +a condition to face death; and then they found that our situation was +rather improved than otherwise by the collision. For--so it appeared--we +had run full tilt for a perpendicular fissure in a huge block, and +into that our bows were firmly wedged, the nature of the impact +distributing the shock, and the berg itself carrying us along with it and +protecting us. + +"Now the dipping motion of the vessel was exchanged for a heavy regular +wash along its stern quarters; for the bows were so much raised as that I +felt a little strain on my knees as I went forward to satisfy my +curiosity with a view of the icy mass into which we were penetrated. I +waited, indeed, until the crew were come aft again from looking, and my +friend crept timidly at my shoulder; but when we reached the stem, there +was one of the hands, a little soberer than his fellows, sprawled over +the bulwarks, and staring with all his eyes into the green lift of the +wall against him. + +"'Is it a mermaid you see, Killigrew?' I asked. + +"The man shifted his gaze to me slowly and solemnly. + +"'Nowt, nowt,' said he; 'but a turble monster, like a pram stuck in +jelly.' + +"I laughed, and went to his side. The fog, as I have said, was dense and +bright, and one could see into it a little way, as into a milky white +agate. But now and again a film of it would pull thin, and then sunlight +came through and made a dim radiance of the ice. + +"'I can make out nothing,' I said. + +"He cocked an eye and leered up at me. 'Look steady and sober,' he said, +'and you'll make en owut like as in a glass darkly.' + +"I gave a little gasp and my friend a cry before the words were issued +from the man's mouth. Drawn by some current of air, the fog at the +moment blew out of the cleft, like smoke from a chimney; and there, +before our gaze, was a great curved tusk coming up through the ice and +inside it. + +"Now I clapped my hands in an agony, lest the fog should close in again, +and the vision fade before my eyes; for, following the sweep of the tusk, +I was aware of the phantom presentment of some monster creature lying +imbedded within the ice, its mighty carcase prostrate as it had fallen; +the conformation of its enormous forehead presented directly to our +gaze. Its little toffee-ball eyes--little proportionately, that is to +say--squinted at us, it seemed, through half-closed lids, and a huge, +hairy trunk lay curled, like the proboscis of a dead moth, between its +tree-like fore-legs. Away beyond, the great red-brown drum of its hide +bellied upward on ribs as thick as a Dutch galliot's, and sprouting from +its shoulders was the hump I have mentioned, but here, from its position, +sprawled abroad and lying over in a shapeless mass. + +"There was something else--horribly nauseating but for its strangeness. +The brute had been partly disembowelled, as there was ample evidence to +show, for the ice had preserved all. + +"Suddenly my companion gave a high nervous shriek. + +"'Look!' he cried--'the hand! the hand sticking out of the side!' + +"I saw in a moment; turned, and called excitedly to the captain. He--all +the crew--came tumbling forward up the slippery deck. I seized him by the +shoulder. + +"'Do you see?' I screamed--'the human hand beckoning to us from that +great body!' + +"He gazed stupidly, swaying where he stood. + +"'One o' them bloomin' pre-hadymite cows!' he muttered; 'caught in the +cold nip, by thunder! and some unfortnit crept into her for warmth.' + +"I believed the creature's rude intuition had flown true. + +"'Cannot you get at it?' I gasped. + +"He stared at me. All in an instant a little paltry demon of avarice +blinked out of his eye-holes. + +"'Why,' he said slowly, 'who knows but it mayn't be a gal a-jingling from +top to toe with gold curtain rings!' + +"He was a furious dare-devil immediately, and quick, and savage, and +peremptory. His spirit entered into his men. They went over the side +with pikes and axes, and, scrambling for any foothold, set to work on the +ice like maniacs. In the lust of cupidity they did not even think how +they wrought against their own safety and that of the ship. + +"The point of the uppermost tusk came to within a foot of the +ice-surface. This they soon reached, and, prising frantically with +crowbars, flaked off and rolled away half-ton blocks of the +superincumbent mass. I need not detail the fierce process. In half an +hour they had laid bare a great segment of that part of the trunk whence +the hand protruded, and then they paused, and at a word flung down their +tools. + +"I was leaning over the bulwarks watching them. I could contain my +excitement no longer. + +"'Come,' I said to my friend, 'help me down, for I must go.' + +"He climbed over, trembling, and assisted me to a standing on the ice. We +scrambled along the track of _debris_ left by the crew. At the moment +half a dozen of the latter were rolling back a broad flap of the hide, in +which they had found a long L-shaped rent revealed. Then a hoarse cry +broke from them, and I stumbled forward and looked down, and saw. + +"They lay beneath the mighty ribs as in a cage, of which the intercostal +spaces were a foot in width, and the bars of a strength to maintain the +enormous pressure of that which had surrounded and entombed them; they +lay in one close group, their naked limbs smeared with the stain of their +prison--a man, a woman, and a tiny child. From their faces, and their +unfallen flesh, they might have been sleeping; but they were not; they +were come down to us, a transfixture of death--prehistoric people in a +prehistoric brute, and their eyes--their eyes!" + +Dinah's voice trailed off into silence. Some expression that I could not +interpret was on her face. There was regret in it, but nothing of pathos +or mysticism. Suddenly she breathed out a great sigh and resumed her +narrative. + +"You will want to know how they looked, these lifeless survivors of a +remote race from a remote time? I will try to tell you. The men hacked +away the ribs with their axes, and laid bare the group lying in the +hollow scooped out of the fallen beast. They were little people, and the +man, according to your modern canons of taste, was by far the most +beautiful of the three. He sat erect, with one uplifted arm projected +through the ribs; as if, surprised by the frost-stroke, he had started to +escape, and had been petrified in the act. His face, wondering and +delicate as a baby's, was hairless; and his head only a pretty infantile +down covered--a curling floss as radiant as spun glass. His wide-open +eyes glinted yet with a hyacinth blue, and it was difficult to realize +that they were dead and vacant. + +"The woman was of coarser mould, ruddy, vigorous, brown-haired and eyed. +She looked the very hamadryad of some blossoming tree, a sweet capricious +daughter of the blameless earth. Everything luxuriated in her--colour, +hair, and lusty flesh; and the child she held to her bosom with a manner +that indescribably commingled contempt, and resentment, and a passion of +proprietorship. + +"This baby--joining the prominent characteristics of the two--was the +oddest little mortal I have ever seen. What did its expression convey to +me? 'I am fairly caught, and must brazen out the situation!' There! that +was what it was; I cannot put it more lucidly. Only the thing's wee face +was animal conscious for the first time of itself, and inclined to +rejoice in that primitive energy of knowledge. + +"Now, my friend, I must tell you how the sight operated upon me and upon +my companion. For myself, I can only say that, looking upon that fine, +independent fore-mother of my race, I felt the sun in my veins and the +winy fragrance of antique woods and pastures. I laughed; I clapped my +hands; I danced on the ice-rubbish, so that they thought me mad. But, for +the other--the man--he was in a different plight. He was transfigured; +his nervousness was gone in a flash. He cast himself down upon his knees, +and gazed and gazed, his hands clasped, upon that sleek, mild progenitor +of his, that pure image of gentle self-containment, whose very meekness +suggested an indomitable will. + +"Suddenly he, my friend, cried out: 'This is one caught in the process of +materialization! It is not flesh; my God, no!' + +"It seemed, indeed, as if it were as he said. I stopped in my capering +and looked down. The tarry hinds standing by grinned and jeered. + +"On the instant there came a splintering snap, and the floe rocked and +curtsied. + +"'Back!' yelled the captain. 'She's breaking through by the head!' + +"He shrieked of the ship. She was clearing herself, had already shaken +her prow free of the ice. + +"There was a wild scamper for safety. I was carried with the throng. It +was not until I was hauled on board once more that I thought of my +friend. He still knelt where we had fled from him, a wrapt, strange +expression on his face. + +"'Come back!' I screamed. 'You will be lost!' + +"Now at that he turned his head and looked at me; but he never moved, and +his voice came to me quiet and exultant. + +"'Lost!' he said, 'ay, for forty-three years: and here, here I find +myself!' + +"We dipped, and the wash of the water came about our bows. The block of +ice swerved, made a sluggish half-pirouette and dropped astern. + +"'Come!' I shrieked again faintly. + +"With the echo of my cry he was a phantom, a blot, had vanished in the +rearward fog; and thereout a little joyous laugh came to me. + +"And that was a queer good-bye for ever, wasn't it?" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + + +PROEM + +Heaven's Nursery + + +"Sinner, sinner, whence do you come?" + "From the bitter earth they called my home." + +"Sinner, sinner, why do you wait?" + "I fear to knock at the golden gate: + +"My crimes were heavy; my doom is sure, + And I dread the anguish I must endure." + +"Had you ever a child down there?" + "One--but it died, and I learnt despair." + +"Here you will find it, behind the gate." + "God forbid! for it felt my hate-- + +"Shrunk in the frost of my cruelties. + More than the Judge's I fear its eyes." + +"Hist! At the keyhole place your ear. + Sinner, what is the sound you hear? + +"Is it ten thousand babes at play? + Heaven's nursery lies that way. + +"Through it to judgment all must fare + It was God's pity placed it there." + +The gate swung open; the sinner past; + Little hands caught and held him fast. + +"While you wait the call of the Nameless One, + There's time for a game at 'Touch-and-Run'!" + +He played with them there in that shining place, + With the hot tears scorching his furrowed face-- + +Played, till the voice rang dread and clear: + "Where is the sinner? I wait him here!" + +Then shouting with laughter one and all + They pushed him on to the Judgment Hall; + +Stood by him; swarmed to the dais steps, + A jumble of gleeful eyes and lips. + +The Judge leaned stern from His Judgment Throne: + _"I gave thee--where is thy littte one?"_ + +Wildly the culprit caught his breath: + "Lord, I have sinned. My doom be death." + +He hung his head with a broken sob. + There sprang a child from the rosy mob-- + +"Daddy!" it cried, with a joyful shriek; + Leapt to his arms and kissed his cheek. + +But he put it from him with bursting sighs, + And looked on the Judge with swimming eyes; + +Stood abashed in his bitter shame, + Waiting the sentence that never came. + +From the Throne spoke out the thundered Word: + _"This be thy doom!"_ No more he heard, + +For a chime of laughter from baby throats + Took up those crashing organ notes, + +Mixed with; silenced them; made them void-- + And the children's laughter was unalloyed, + +"This be thy doom," came a little squeak, + "To play with us here at 'hide-and-seek'!" + +Thrice did the Judge essay to frown; + Thrice did the children laugh Him down-- + +Till at the last, He caught and kissed + The maddest of all and the merriest; + +Turned to the sinner, with smiling face: + "These render futile the Judgment Place. + +"Sunniest rascals, imp and elf, + Who think they can better the Judge Himself. + +"Sinner--whatever thy sins may be, + Theirs is the sentence--go from Me!" + + + + +THE BLACK REAPER + +TAKEN FROM THE Q---- REGISTER OF LOCAL EVENTS, AS COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC +NARRATIVES + +I + + +Now I am to tell you of a thing that befell in the year 1665 of the Great +Plague, when the hearts of certain amongst men, grown callous in +wickedness upon that rebound from an inhuman austerity, were opened to +the vision of a terror that moved and spoke not in the silent places of +the fields. Forasmuch as, however, in the recovery from delirium a +patient may marvel over the incredulity of neighbours who refuse to give +credence to the presentments that have been _ipso facto_ to him, so, the +nation being sound again, and its constitution hale, I expect little but +a laugh for my piety in relating of the following incident; which, +nevertheless, is as essential true as that he who shall look through the +knot-hole in the plank of a coffin shall acquire the evil eye. + +For, indeed, in those days of a wild fear and confusion, when every +condition that maketh for reason was set wandering by a devious path, and +all men sitting as in a theatre of death looked to see the curtain rise +upon God knows what horrors, it was vouchsafed to many to witness sights +and sounds beyond the compass of Nature, and that as if the devil and his +minions had profited by the anarchy to slip unobserved into the world. +And I know that this is so, for all the insolence of a recovered +scepticism; and, as to the unseen, we are like one that traverseth the +dark with a lanthorn, himself the skipper of a little moving blot of +light, but a positive mark for any secret foe without the circumference +of its radiance. + +Be that as it may, and whether it was our particular ill-fortune, or, as +some asserted, our particular wickedness, that made of our village an +inviting back-door of entrance to the Prince of Darkness, I know not; but +so it is that disease and contagion are ever inclined to penetrate by way +of flaws or humours where the veil of the flesh is already perforated, +as a kite circleth round its quarry, looking for the weak place to +strike: and, without doubt, in that land of corruption we were a very +foul blot indeed. + +How this came about it were idle to speculate; yet no man shall have the +hardihood to affirm that it was otherwise. Nor do I seek to extenuate +myself, who was in truth no better than my neighbours in most that made +us a community of drunkards and forswearers both lewd and abominable. +For in that village a depravity that was like madness had come to possess +the heads of the people, and no man durst take his stand on honesty or +even common decency, for fear he should be set upon by his comrades and +drummed out of his government on a pint pot. Yet for myself I will say +was one only redeeming quality, and that was the pure love I bore to my +solitary orphaned child, the little Margery. + +Now, our Vicar--a patient and God-fearing man, for all his predial tithes +were impropriated by his lord, that was an absentee and a sheriff in +London--did little to stem that current of lewdness that had set in +strong with the Restoration. And this was from no lack of virtue in +himself, but rather from a natural invertebracy, as one may say, and an +order of mind that, yet being no order, is made the sport of any +sophister with a wit for paragram. Thus it always is that mere example is +of little avail without precept,--of which, however, it is an important +condition,--and that the successful directors of men be not those who go +to the van and lead, unconscious of the gibes and mockery in their rear, +but such rather as drive the mob before them with a smiting hand and no +infirmity of purpose. So, if a certain affection for our pastor dwelt in +our hearts, no title of respect was there to leaven it and justify his +high office before Him that consigned the trust; and ever deeper and +deeper we sank in the slough of corruption, until was brought about this +pass--that naught but some scourging despotism of the Church should +acquit us of the fate of Sodom. That such, at the eleventh hour, was +vouchsafed us of God's mercy, it is my purpose to show; and, doubtless, +this offering of a loop-hole was to account by reason of the devil's +having debarked his reserves, as it were, in our port; and so quartering +upon us a soldiery that we were, at no invitation of our own, to +maintain, stood us a certain extenuation. + +It was late in the order of things before in our village so much as a +rumour of the plague reached us. Newspapers were not in those days, and +reports, being by word of mouth, travelled slowly, and were often spent +bullets by the time they fell amongst us. Yet, by May, some gossip there +was of the distemper having gotten a hold in certain quarters of London +and increasing, and this alarmed our people, though it made no abatement +of their profligacy. But presently the reports coming thicker, with +confirmation of the terror and panic that was enlarging on all sides, we +must take measures for our safety; though into June and July, when the +pestilence was raging, none infected had come our way, and that from our +remote and isolated position. Yet it needs but fear for the crown to that +wickedness that is self-indulgence; and forasmuch as this fear fattens +like a toadstool on the decomposition it springs from, it grew with us to +the proportions that we were set to kill or destroy any that should +approach us from the stricken districts. + +And then suddenly there appeared in our midst _he_ that was appointed to +be our scourge and our cautery. + +Whence he came, or how, no man of us could say. Only one day we were a +community of roysterers and scoffers, impious and abominable, and the +next he was amongst us smiting and thundering. + +Some would have it that he was an old collegiate of our Vicar's, but at +last one of those wandering Dissenters that found never as now the times +opportune to their teachings--a theory to which our minister's treatment +of the stranger gave colour. For from the moment of his appearance he +took the reins of government, as it were, appropriating the pulpit and +launching his bolts therefrom, with the full consent and encouragement of +the other. There were those, again, who were resolved that his commission +was from a high place, whither news of our infamy had reached, and that +we had best give him a respectful hearing, lest we should run a chance of +having our hearing stopped altogether. A few were convinced he was no man +at all, but rather a fiend sent to thresh us with the scourge of our own +contriving, that we might be tender, like steak, for the cooking; and yet +other few regarded him with terror, as an actual figure or embodiment of +the distemper. + +But, generally, after the first surprise, the feeling of resentment at +his intrusion woke and gained ground, and we were much put about that he +should have thus assumed the pastorship without invitation, quartering +with our Vicar; who kept himself aloof and was little seen, and seeking +to drive us by terror, and amazement, and a great menace of retribution. +For, in truth, this was not the method to which we were wont, and it both +angered and disturbed us. + +This feeling would have enlarged the sooner, perhaps, were it not for a +certain restraining influence possessed of the new-comer, which +neighboured him with darkness and mystery. For he was above the common +tall, and ever appeared in public with a slouched hat, that concealed all +the upper part of his face and showed little otherwise but the dense +black beard that dropped upon his breast like a shadow. + +Now with August came a fresh burst of panic, how the desolation increased +and the land was overrun with swarms of infected persons seeking an +asylum from the city; and our anger rose high against the stranger, who +yet dwelt with us and encouraged the distemper of our minds by furious +denunciations of our guilt. + +Thus far, for all the corruption of our hearts, we had maintained the +practice of church-going, thinking, maybe, poor fools! to hoodwink the +Almighty with a show of reverence; but now, as by a common consent, we +neglected the observances and loitered of a Sabbath in the fields, and +thither at the last the strange man pursued us and ended the matter. + +For so it fell that at the time of the harvest's ripening a goodish body +of us males was gathered one Sunday for coolness about the neighbourhood +of the dripping well, whose waters were a tradition, for they had long +gone dry. This well was situate in a sort of cave or deep scoop at the +foot of a cliff of limestone, to which the cultivated ground that led up +to it fell somewhat. High above, the cliff broke away into a wide stretch +of pasture land, but the face of the rock itself was all patched with +bramble and little starved birch-trees clutching for foothold; and in +like manner the excavation beneath was half-stifled and gloomed over with +undergrowth, so that it looked a place very dismal and uninviting, save +in the ardour of the dog-days. + +Within, where had been the basin, was a great shattered hole going down +to unknown depths; and this no man had thought to explore, for a mystery +held about the spot that was doubtless the foster-child of ignorance. + +But to the front of the well and of the cliff stretched a noble field of +corn, and this field was of an uncommon shape, being, roughly, a vast +circle and a little one joined by a neck and in suggestion not unlike an +hour-glass; and into the crop thereof, which was of goodly weight and +condition, were the first sickles to be put on the morrow. + +Now as we stood or lay around, idly discussing of the news, and +congratulating ourselves that we were featly quit of our incubus, to us +along the meadow path, his shadow jumping on the corn, came the very +subject of our gossip. + +He strode up, looking neither to right nor left, and with the first word +that fell, low and damnatory, from his lips, we knew that the moment had +come when, whether for good or evil, he intended to cast us from him and +acquit himself of further responsibility in our direction. + +"Behold!" he cried, pausing over against us, "I go from among ye! Behold, +ye that have not obeyed nor inclined your ear, but have walked every one +in the imagination of his evil heart! Saith the Lord, 'I will bring evil +upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall +cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them.'" + +His voice rang out, and a dark silence fell among us. It was pregnant, +but with little of humility. We had had enough of this interloper and his +abuse. Then, like Jeremiah, he went to prophesy:-- + +"I read ye, men of Anathoth, and the murder in your hearts. Ye that have +worshipped the shameful thing and burned incense to Baal--shall I cringe +that ye devise against me, or not rather pray to the Lord of Hosts, 'Let +me see Thy vengeance on them'? And He answereth, 'I will bring evil upon +the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.'" + +Now, though I was no participator in that direful thing that followed, I +stood by, nor interfered, and so must share the blame. For there were men +risen all about, and their faces lowering, and it seemed that it would go +hard with the stranger were he not more particular. + +But he moved forward, with a stately and commanding gesture, and stood +with his back to the well-scoop and threatened us and spoke. + +"Lo!" he shrieked, "your hour is upon you! Ye shall be mowed down like +ripe corn, and the shadow of your name shall be swept from the earth! The +glass of your iniquity is turned, and when its sand is run through, not a +man of ye shall be!" + +He raised his arm aloft, and in a moment he was overborne. Even then, as +all say, none got sight of his face; but he fought with lowered head, and +his black beard flapped like a wounded crow. But suddenly a boy-child ran +forward of the bystanders, crying and screaming,-- + +"Hurt him not! They are hurting him--oh, me! oh, me!" + +And from the sweat and struggle came his voice, gasping, "I spare the +little children!" + +Then only I know of the surge and the crash towards the well-mouth, of an +instant cessation of motion, and immediately of men toiling hither and +thither with boulders and huge blocks, which they piled over the rent, +and so sealed it with a cromlech of stone. + + + + +II + + +That, in the heat of rage and of terror, we had gone farther than we had +at first designed, our gloom and our silence on the morrow attested. True +we were quit of our incubus, but on such terms as not even the severity +of the times could excuse. For the man had but chastised us to our +improvement; and to destroy the scourge is not to condone the offence. +For myself, as I bore up the little Margery to my shoulder on my way to +the reaping, I felt the burden of guilt so great as that I found myself +muttering of an apology to the Lord that I durst put myself into touch +with innocence. "But the walk would fatigue her otherwise," I murmured; +and, when we were come to the field, I took and carried her into the +upper or little meadow, out of reach of the scythes, and placed her to +sleep amongst the corn, and so left her with a groan. + +But when I was come anew to my comrades, who stood at the lower extremity +of the field--and this was the bottom of the hour-glass, so to speak--I +was aware of a stir amongst them, and, advancing closer, that they were +all intent upon the neighbourhood of the field I had left, staring like +distraught creatures, and holding well together, as if in a panic. +Therefore, following the direction of their eyes, and of one that pointed +with rigid finger, I turned me about, and looked whence I had come; and +my heart went with a somersault, and in a moment I was all sick and +dazed. + +For I saw, at the upper curve of the meadow, where the well lay in gloom, +that a man had sprung out of the earth, as it seemed, and was started +reaping; and the face of this man was all in shadow, from which his beard +ran out and down like a stream of gall. + +He reaped swiftly and steadily, swinging like a pendulum; but, though the +sheaves fell to him right and left, no swish of the scythe came to us, +nor any sound but the beating of our own hearts. + +Now, from the first moment of my looking, no doubt was in my lost soul +but that this was him we had destroyed come back to verify his prophecy +in ministering to the vengeance of the Lord of Hosts; and at the thought +a deep groan rent my bosom, and was echoed by those about me. But +scarcely was it issued when a second terror smote me as that I near +reeled. Margery--my babe! put to sleep there in the path of the Black +Reaper! + +At that, though they called to me, I sprang forward like a madman, and +running along the meadow, through the neck of the glass, reached the +little thing, and stooped and snatched her into my arms. She was sound +and unfrighted, as I felt with a burst of thankfulness; but, looking +about me, as I turned again to fly, I had near dropped in my tracks for +the sickness and horror I experienced in the nearer neighbourhood of the +apparition. For, though it never raised its head, or changed the steady +swing of its shoulders, I knew that it was aware of and was reaping at +me. Now, I tell you, it was ten yards away, yet the point of the scythe +came gliding upon me silently, like a snake, through the stalks, and at +that I screamed out and ran for my life. + +I escaped, sweating with terror; but when I was sped back to the men, +there was all the village collected, and our Vicar to the front, praying +from a throat that rattled like a dead leaf in a draught. I know not what +he said, for the low cries of the women filled the air; but his face was +white as a smock, and his fingers writhed in one another like a knot of +worms. + +"The plague is upon us!" they wailed. "We shall be mowed down like ripe +corn!" + +And even as they shrieked the Black Reaper paused, and, putting away his +scythe, stooped and gathered up a sheaf in his arms and stood it on end. +And, with the very act, a man--one that had been forward in yesterday's +business--fell down amongst us yelling and foaming; and he rent his +breast in his frenzy, revealing the purple blot thereon, and he passed +blaspheming. And the reaper stooped and stooped again, and with every +sheaf he gathered together one of us fell stricken and rolled in his +agony, while the rest stood by palsied. + +But, when at length all that was cut was accounted for, and a dozen of us +were gone each to his judgment, and he had taken up his scythe to reap +anew, a wild fury woke in the breasts of some of the more abandoned and +reckless amongst us. + +"It is not to be tolerated!" they cried. "Let us at once fire the corn +and burn this sorcerer!" + +And with that, some fire or six of them, emboldened by despair, ran up +into the little field, and, separating, had out each his flint and fired +the crop in his own place, and retreated to the narrow part for safety. + +Now the reaper rested on his scythe, as if unexpectedly acquitted of a +part of his labour; but the corn flamed up in these five or six +directions, and was consumed in each to the compass of a single sheaf: +whereat the fire died away. And with its dying the faces of those that +had ventured went black as coal; and they flung up their arms, screaming, +and fell prone where they stood, and were hidden from our view. + +Then, indeed, despair seized upon all of us that survived, and we made no +doubt but that we were to be exterminated and wiped from the earth for +our sins, as were the men of Anathoth. And for an hour the Black Reaper +mowed and trussed, till he had cut all from the little upper field and +was approached to the neck of juncture with the lower and larger. And +before us that remained, and who were drawn back amongst the trees, +weeping and praying, a fifth of our comrades lay foul, and dead, and +sweltering, and all blotched over with the dreadful mark of the +pestilence. + +Now, as I say, the reaper was nearing the neck of juncture; and so we +knew that if he should once pass into the great field towards us and +continue his mowing, not one of us should be left to give earnest of our +repentance. + +Then, as it seemed, our Vicar came to a resolution, moving forward with a +face all wrapt and entranced; and he strode up the meadow path and +approached the apparition, and stretched out his arms to it entreating. +And we saw the other pause, awaiting him; and, as he came near, put +forth his hand, and so, gently, on the good old head. But as we looked, +catching at our breaths with a little pathos of hope, the priestly face +was thrown back radiant, and the figure of him that would give his life +for us sank amongst the yet standing corn and disappeared from our sight. + +So at last we yielded ourselves fully to our despair; for if our pastor +should find no mercy, what possibility of it could be for us! + +It was in this moment of an uttermost grief and horror, when each stood +apart from his neighbour, fearing the contamination of his presence, that +there was vouchsafed to me, of God's pity, a wild and sudden inspiration. +Still to my neck fastened the little Margery--not frighted, it seemed, +but mazed--and other babes there were in plenty, that clung to their +mothers' skirts and peeped out, wondering at the strange show. + +I ran to the front and shrieked: "The children! the children! He will not +touch the little children! Bring them and set them in his path!" And so +crying I sped to the neck of meadow, and loosened the soft arms from my +throat, and put the little one down within the corn. + +Now at once the women saw what I would be at, and full a score of them +snatched up their babes and followed me. And here we were reckless for +ourselves; but we knelt the innocents in one close line across the neck +of land, so that the Black Reaper should not find space between any of +them to swing his scythe. And having done this, we fell back with our +hearts bubbling in our breasts, and we stood panting and watched. + +He had paused over that one full sheaf of his reaping; but now, with the +sound of the women's running, he seized his weapon again and set to upon +the narrow belt of corn that yet separated him from the children. But +presently, coming out upon the tender array, his scythe stopped and +trailed in his hand, and for a full minute he stood like a figure of +stone. Then thrice he walked slowly backwards and forwards along the +line, seeking for an interval whereby he might pass; and the children +laughed at him like silver bells, showing no fear, and perchance meeting +that of love in his eyes that was hidden from us. + +Then of a sudden he came to before the midmost of the line, and, while we +drew our breath like dying souls, stooped and snapped his blade across +his knee, and, holding the two parts in his hand, turned and strode back +into the shadow of the dripping well. There arrived, he paused once more, +and, twisting him about, waved his hand once to us and vanished into the +blackness. But there were those who affirmed that in that instant of his +turning, his face was revealed, and that it was a face radiant and +beautiful as an angel's. + +Such is the history of the wild judgment that befell us, and by grace of +the little children was foregone; and such was the stranger whose name +no man ever heard tell, but whom many have since sought to identify with +that spirit of the pestilence that entered into men's hearts and +confounded them, so that they saw visions and were afterwards confused in +their memories. + +But this I may say, that when at last our courage would fetch us to that +little field of death, we found it to be all blackened and blasted, so as +nothing would take root there then or ever since; and it was as if, after +all the golden sand of the hour-glass was run away and the lives of the +most impious with it, the destroyer saw fit to stay his hand for sake of +the babes that he had pronounced innocent, and for such as were spared to +witness to His judgment. And this I do here, with a heart as contrite as +if it were the morrow of the visitation, the which with me it ever has +remained. + + + + +A VOICE FROM THE PIT + + +"Signor, we are arrived," whispered the old man in my ear; and he put out +a sudden cold hand, corded like melon rind, to stay me in the stumbling +darkness. + +We were on a tilted table-land of the mountain; and, looking forth and +below, the far indigo crescent of the bay, where it swept towards +Castellamare, seemed to rise up at me, as if it were a perpendicular +wall, across which the white crests of the waves flew like ghost moths. + +We skirted a boulder, and came upon a field of sleek purple lava sown all +over with little lemon jets of silent smoke, which in their wan and +melancholy glow might have been the corpse lights of those innumerable +dead whose tombstone was the mountain itself. + +Far away to the right the great projecting socket of the crater flickered +intermittently with a nerve of fire. It was like the glinting of the +watchful eye of some vast Crustacean, and in that harsh and stupendous +desolation seemed the final crown and expression of utter inhumanity. + +I started upon hearing the low whisper of my companion at my ear. + +"In the bay yesterday the Signor saved my life. I give the Signor, in +return, my life's secret." + +He seized my right hand in his left with a sinewy clutch, and pointed a +stiff finger at the luminous blots. + +"See there, and there, and there," he shrilled. "One floats and wavers +like a spineless ribbon of seaweed in the water; another burns with a +steady radiance; a third blares from its fissure like a flame driven by +the blowpipe. It is all a question of the under-draught, and some may +feel it a little, and some a little more or a little less. Ah! but I will +show you one that feels it not at all--a hole, a narrow shaft that goes +straight down into the pit of the great hell, and is cold as the mouth of +a barbel." + +The bones of his face stood out like rocks against sand, and the pupils +of his maniac eyes were glazed or fell into shadow as the volcano +lightnings fluttered. + +Suddenly he drew me to a broken pile of sulphur rock lying tumbled +against a ridge of the mountain that ran towards the crater. It lay +heaped, a fused and fantastic ruin; and in a moment the old man leapt +from me, and was tugging by main strength a vast fragment from its place. + +I leaned over his shoulder, and looked down upon the hollow revealed by +the displaced boulder. It was like the bell of a mighty trumpet, and in +the middle a puckered opening seemed to suck inwards, as it were the +mouth of some subterranean monster risen to the surface of the world for +air. + +"Quick! quick!" muttered Paolo. "The Signor must place his ear to the +hole." + +With a little odd stir at my heart, I dropped upon my knees and leaned my +head deep into the cup. I must have stayed thus for a full minute before +I drew myself back and looked up at the old mountaineer. His eyes gazed +down into mine with mad intensity. + +"_Si! si!_" he whispered. "What didst thou hear?" + +"I heard a long surging thunder, Paolo, and the deep shrill screaming of +many gas jets." + +He bent down, with livid face. + +"Signor, it is the booming of the everlasting fire, and thou hast heard +the voices of the damned." + +"No, my friend, no. But it is a marvellous transmission of the uproar of +hidden forces." + +He leapt to the shallow pit. + +"Listen and believe!" he cried; and funnelling his hands about his lips, +he stooped over the central hole. + +"Marco! Marco!" he screeched, in a piercing voice. + +Something answered back. What was it? A malformed and twisted echo? A +whistle of imprisoned steam tricked into some horrible caricature of a +human voice? + +"Paolo!" it seemed to wail, weak and faint with agony. "_L'arqua, +l'arqua_, Paolo!" + +The old man sprang to his feet and, looking down upon me in a sort of +terrible triumph, unslung a water-flask from his belt, and, pulling out +the cork, poured the cold liquid down into the puckered orifice. Then I +felt his clutch on my arm again. + +"He drinks!" he cried. "Listen and thou wilt understand." + +I rose with a ghost of a laugh, and once more addressed my ear to the +opening. + +From unthinkable depths came up a strange, gloating sound, as from a +ravenous throat made vibrant with ecstasy. + +"Paolo," I cried, as I rose and stood before him--and there was an +admonitory note in my voice--"a feather may decide the balance. Beware +meddling with hidden thunders, or thou mayst set rolling such another +tombstone as that on which these corpse fires are yet flaming." + +And he only answered me, set and deathly,-- + +"We of the mountains, Signor, know more things than we may tell of." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT A WINTER'S FIRE*** + + +******* This file should be named 14045.txt or 14045.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/4/14045 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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