CHAPTER XXVIII--THE BREAKING OF THE STORM
When Lady Arabella had crept away in her usual noiseless fashion,
the two others remained for a while in their places on the turret
roof: Caswall because he had nothing to say, Mimi because she had
much to say and wished to put her thoughts in order. For quite a
while--which seemed interminable--silence reigned between them. At
last Mimi made a beginning--she had made up her mind how to act.
"Mr. Caswall," she said loudly, so as to make sure of being heard
through the blustering of the wind and the perpetual cracking of the
electricity.
Caswall said something in reply, but his words were carried away on
the storm. However, one of her objects was effected: she knew now
exactly whereabout on the roof he was. So she moved close to the
spot before she spoke again, raising her voice almost to a shout.
"The wicket is shut. Please to open it. I can't get out."
As she spoke, she was quietly fingering a revolver which Adam had
given to her in case of emergency and which now lay in her breast.
She felt that she was caged like a rat in a trap, but did not mean
to be taken at a disadvantage, whatever happened. Caswall also felt
trapped, and all the brute in him rose to the emergency. In a voice
which was raucous and brutal--much like that which is heard when a
wife is being beaten by her husband in a slum--he hissed out, his
syllables cutting through the roaring of the storm:
"You came of your own accord--without permission, or even asking it.
Now you can stay or go as you choose. But you must manage it for
yourself; I'll have nothing to do with it."
Her answer was spoken with dangerous suavity
"I am going. Blame yourself if you do not like the time and manner
of it. I daresay Adam--my husband--will have a word to say to you
about it!"
"Let him say, and be damned to him, and to you too! I'll show you a
light. You shan't be able to say that you could not see what you
were doing."
As he spoke, he was lighting another piece of the magnesium ribbon,
which made a blinding glare in which everything was plainly
discernible, down to the smallest detail. This exactly suited Mimi.
She took accurate note of the wicket and its fastening before the
glare had died away. She took her revolver out and fired into the
lock, which was shivered on the instant, the pieces flying round in
all directions, but happily without causing hurt to anyone. Then
she pushed the wicket open and ran down the narrow stair, and so to
the hall door. Opening this also, she ran down the avenue, never
lessening her speed till she stood outside the door of Lesser Hill.
The door was opened at once on her ringing.
"Is Mr. Adam Salton in?" she asked.
"He has just come in, a few minutes ago. He has gone up to the
study," replied a servant.
She ran upstairs at once and joined him. He seemed relieved when he
saw her, but scrutinised her face keenly. He saw that she had been
in some concern, so led her over to the sofa in the window and sat
down beside her.
"Now, dear, tell me all about it!" he said.
She rushed breathlessly through all the details of her adventure on
the turret roof. Adam listened attentively, helping her all he
could, and not embarrassing her by any questioning. His thoughtful
silence was a great help to her, for it allowed her to collect and
organise her thoughts.
"I must go and see Caswall to-morrow, to hear what he has to say on
the subject."
"But, dear, for my sake, don't have any quarrel with Mr. Caswall. I
have had too much trial and pain lately to wish it increased by any
anxiety regarding you."
"You shall not, dear--if I can help it--please God," he said
solemnly, and he kissed her.
Then, in order to keep her interested so that she might forget the
fears and anxieties that had disturbed her, he began to talk over
the details of her adventure, making shrewd comments which attracted
and held her attention. Presently, INTER ALIA, he said:
"That's a dangerous game Caswall is up to. It seems to me that that
young man--though he doesn't appear to know it--is riding for a
fall!"
"How, dear? I don't understand."
"Kite flying on a night like this from a place like the tower of
Castra Regis is, to say the least of it, dangerous. It is not
merely courting death or other accident from lightning, but it is
bringing the lightning into where he lives. Every cloud that is
blowing up here--and they all make for the highest point--is bound
to develop into a flash of lightning. That kite is up in the air
and is bound to attract the lightning. Its cord makes a road for it
on which to travel to earth. When it does come, it will strike the
top of the tower with a weight a hundred times greater than a whole
park of artillery, and will knock Castra Regis into pieces. Where
it will go after that, no one can tell. If there should be any
metal by which it can travel, such will not only point the road, but
be the road itself."
"Would it be dangerous to be out in the open air when such a thing
is taking place?" she asked.
"No, little woman. It would be the safest possible place--so long
as one was not in the line of the electric current."
"Then, do let us go outside. I don't want to run into any foolish
danger--or, far more, to ask you to do so. But surely if the open
is safest, that is the place for us."
Without another word, she put on again the cloak she had thrown off,
and a small, tight-fitting cap. Adam too put on his cap, and, after
seeing that his revolver was all right, gave her his hand, and they
left the house together.
"I think the best thing we can do will be to go round all the places
which are mixed up in this affair."
"All right, dear, I am ready. But, if you don't mind, we might go
first to Mercy. I am anxious about grandfather, and we might see
that--as yet, at all events--nothing has happened there."
So they went on the high-hung road along the top of the Brow. The
wind here was of great force, and made a strange booming noise as it
swept high overhead; though not the sound of cracking and tearing as
it passed through the woods of high slender trees which grew on
either side of the road. Mimi could hardly keep her feet. She was
not afraid; but the force to which she was opposed gave her a good
excuse to hold on to her husband extra tight.
At Mercy there was no one up--at least, all the lights were out.
But to Mimi, accustomed to the nightly routine of the house, there
were manifest signs that all was well, except in the little room on
the first floor, where the blinds were down. Mimi could not bear to
look at that, to think of it. Adam understood her pain, for he had
been keenly interested in poor Lilla. He bent over and kissed her,
and then took her hand and held it hard. Thus they passed on
together, returning to the high road towards Castra Regis.
At the gate of Castra Regis they were extra careful. When drawing
near, Adam stumbled upon the wire that Lady Arabella had left
trailing on the ground.
Adam drew his breath at this, and spoke in a low, earnest whisper:
"I don't want to frighten you, Mimi dear, but wherever that wire is
there is danger."
"Danger! How?"
"That is the track where the lightning will go; at any moment, even
now whilst we are speaking and searching, a fearful force may be
loosed upon us. Run on, dear; you know the way to where the avenue
joins the highroad. If you see any sign of the wire, keep away from
it, for God's sake. I shall join you at the gateway."
"Are you going to follow that wire alone?"
"Yes, dear. One is sufficient for that work. I shall not lose a
moment till I am with you."
"Adam, when I came with you into the open, my main wish was that we
should be together if anything serious happened. You wouldn't deny
me that right, would you, dear?"
"No, dear, not that or any right. Thank God that my wife has such a
wish. Come; we will go together. We are in the hands of God. If
He wishes, we shall be together at the end, whenever or wherever
that may be."
They picked up the trail of the wire on the steps and followed it
down the avenue, taking care not to touch it with their feet. It
was easy enough to follow, for the wire, if not bright, was self-
coloured, and showed clearly. They followed it out of the gateway
and into the avenue of Diana's Grove.
Here a new gravity clouded Adam's face, though Mimi saw no cause for
fresh concern. This was easily enough explained. Adam knew of the
explosive works in progress regarding the well-hole, but the matter
had been kept from his wife. As they stood near the house, Adam
asked Mimi to return to the road, ostensibly to watch the course of
the wire, telling her that there might be a branch wire leading
somewhere else. She was to search the undergrowth, and if she found
it, was to warn him by the Australian native "Coo-ee!"
Whilst they were standing together, there came a blinding flash of
lightning, which lit up for several seconds the whole area of earth
and sky. It was only the first note of the celestial prelude, for
it was followed in quick succession by numerous flashes, whilst the
crash and roll of thunder seemed continuous.
Adam, appalled, drew his wife to him and held her close. As far as
he could estimate by the interval between lightning and thunder-
clap, the heart of the storm was still some distance off, so he felt
no present concern for their safety. Still, it was apparent that
the course of the storm was moving swiftly in their direction. The
lightning flashes came faster and faster and closer together; the
thunder-roll was almost continuous, not stopping for a moment--a new
crash beginning before the old one had ceased. Adam kept looking up
in the direction where the kite strained and struggled at its
detaining cord, but, of course, the dull evening light prevented any
distinct scrutiny.
At length there came a flash so appallingly bright that in its glare
Nature seemed to be standing still. So long did it last, that there
was time to distinguish its configuration. It seemed like a mighty
tree inverted, pendent from the sky. The whole country around
within the angle of vision was lit up till it seemed to glow. Then
a broad ribbon of fire seemed to drop on to the tower of Castra
Regis just as the thunder crashed. By the glare, Adam could see the
tower shake and tremble, and finally fall to pieces like a house of
cards. The passing of the lightning left the sky again dark, but a
blue flame fell downward from the tower, and, with inconceivable
rapidity, running along the ground in the direction of Diana's
Grove, reached the dark silent house, which in the instant burst
into flame at a hundred different points.
At the same moment there rose from the house a rending, crashing
sound of woodwork, broken or thrown about, mixed with a quick scream
so appalling that Adam, stout of heart as he undoubtedly was, felt
his blood turn into ice. Instinctively, despite the danger and
their consciousness of it, husband and wife took hands and listened,
trembling. Something was going on close to them, mysterious,
terrible, deadly! The shrieks continued, though less sharp in
sound, as though muffled. In the midst of them was a terrific
explosion, seemingly from deep in the earth.
The flames from Castra Regis and from Diana's Grove made all around
almost as light as day, and now that the lightning had ceased to
flash, their eyes, unblinded, were able to judge both perspective
and detail. The heat of the burning house caused the iron doors to
warp and collapse. Seemingly of their own accord, they fell open,
and exposed the interior. The Saltons could now look through to the
room beyond, where the well-hole yawned, a deep narrow circular
chasm. From this the agonised shrieks were rising, growing ever
more terrible with each second that passed.
But it was not only the heart-rending sound that almost paralysed
poor Mimi with terror. What she saw was sufficient to fill her with
evil dreams for the remainder of her life. The whole place looked
as if a sea of blood had been beating against it. Each of the
explosions from below had thrown out from the well-hole, as if it
had been the mouth of a cannon, a mass of fine sand mixed with
blood, and a horrible repulsive slime in which were great red masses
of rent and torn flesh and fat. As the explosions kept on, more and
more of this repulsive mass was shot up, the great bulk of it
falling back again. Many of the awful fragments were of something
which had lately been alive. They quivered and trembled and writhed
as though they were still in torment, a supposition to which the
unending scream gave a horrible credence. At moments some
mountainous mass of flesh surged up through the narrow orifice, as
though forced by a measureless power through an opening infinitely
smaller than itself. Some of these fragments were partially covered
with white skin as of a human being, and others--the largest and
most numerous--with scaled skin as of a gigantic lizard or serpent.
Once, in a sort of lull or pause, the seething contents of the hole
rose, after the manner of a bubbling spring, and Adam saw part of
the thin form of Lady Arabella, forced up to the top amid a mass of
blood and slime, and what looked as if it had been the entrails of a
monster torn into shreds. Several times some masses of enormous
bulk were forced up through the well-hole with inconceivable
violence, and, suddenly expanding as they came into larger space,
disclosed sections of the White Worm which Adam and Sir Nathaniel
had seen looking over the trees with its enormous eyes of emerald-
green flickering like great lamps in a gale.
At last the explosive power, which was not yet exhausted, evidently
reached the main store of dynamite which had been lowered into the
worm hole. The result was appalling. The ground for far around
quivered and opened in long deep chasms, whose edges shook and fell
in, throwing up clouds of sand which fell back and hissed amongst
the rising water. The heavily built house shook to its foundations.
Great stones were thrown up as from a volcano, some of them, great
masses of hard stone, squared and grooved with implements wrought by
human hands, breaking up and splitting in mid air as though riven by
some infernal power. Trees near the house--and therefore presumably
in some way above the hole, which sent up clouds of dust and steam
and fine sand mingled, and which carried an appalling stench which
sickened the spectators--were torn up by the roots and hurled into
the air. By now, flames were bursting violently from all over the
ruins, so dangerously that Adam caught up his wife in his arms, and
ran with her from the proximity of the flames.
Then almost as quickly as it had begun, the whole cataclysm ceased,
though a deep-down rumbling continued intermittently for some time.
Then silence brooded over all--silence so complete that it seemed in
itself a sentient thing--silence which seemed like incarnate
darkness, and conveyed the same idea to all who came within its
radius. To the young people who had suffered the long horror of
that awful night, it brought relief--relief from the presence or the
fear of all that was horrible--relief which seemed perfected when
the red rays of sunrise shot up over the far eastern sea, bringing a
promise of a new order of things with the coming day.
His bed saw little of Adam Salton for the remainder of that night.
He and Mimi walked hand in hand in the brightening dawn round by the
Brow to Castra Regis and on to Lesser Hill. They did so
deliberately, in an attempt to think as little as possible of the
terrible experiences of the night. The morning was bright and
cheerful, as a morning sometimes is after a devastating storm. The
clouds, of which there were plenty in evidence, brought no lingering
idea of gloom. All nature was bright and joyous, being in striking
contrast to the scenes of wreck and devastation, the effects of
obliterating fire and lasting ruin.
The only evidence of the once stately pile of Castra Regis and its
inhabitants was a shapeless huddle of shattered architecture, dimly
seen as the keen breeze swept aside the cloud of acrid smoke which
marked the site of the once lordly castle. As for Diana's Grove,
they looked in vain for a sign which had a suggestion of permanence.
The oak trees of the Grove were still to be seen--some of them--
emerging from a haze of smoke, the great trunks solid and erect as
ever, but the larger branches broken and twisted and rent, with bark
stripped and chipped, and the smaller branches broken and
dishevelled looking from the constant stress and threshing of the
storm.
Of the house as such, there was, even at the short distance from
which they looked, no trace. Adam resolutely turned his back on the
devastation and hurried on. Mimi was not only upset and shocked in
many ways, but she was physically "dog tired," and falling asleep on
her feet. Adam took her to her room and made her undress and get
into bed, taking care that the room was well lighted both by
sunshine and lamps. The only obstruction was from a silk curtain,
drawn across the window to keep out the glare. He sat beside her,
holding her hand, well knowing that the comfort of his presence was
the best restorative for her. He stayed with her till sleep had
overmastered her wearied body. Then he went softly away. He found
his uncle and Sir Nathaniel in the study, having an early cup of
tea, amplified to the dimensions of a possible breakfast. Adam
explained that he had not told his wife that he was going over the
horrible places again, lest it should frighten her, for the rest and
sleep in ignorance would help her and make a gap of peacefulness
between the horrors.
Sir Nathaniel agreed.
"We know, my boy," he said, "that the unfortunate Lady Arabella is
dead, and that the foul carcase of the Worm has been torn to pieces-
-pray God that its evil soul will never more escape from the
nethermost hell."
They visited Diana's Grove first, not only because it was nearer,
but also because it was the place where most description was
required, and Adam felt that he could tell his story best on the
spot. The absolute destruction of the place and everything in it
seen in the broad daylight was almost inconceivable. To Sir
Nathaniel, it was as a story of horror full and complete. But to
Adam it was, as it were, only on the fringes. He knew what was
still to be seen when his friends had got over the knowledge of
externals. As yet, they had only seen the outside of the house--or
rather, where the outside of the house once had been. The great
horror lay within. However, age--and the experience of age--counts.
A strange, almost elemental, change in the aspect had taken place in
the time which had elapsed since the dawn. It would almost seem as
if Nature herself had tried to obliterate the evil signs of what had
occurred. True, the utter ruin of the house was made even more
manifest in the searching daylight; but the more appalling
destruction which lay beneath was not visible. The rent, torn, and
dislocated stonework looked worse than before; the upheaved
foundations, the piled-up fragments of masonry, the fissures in the
torn earth--all were at the worst. The Worm's hole was still
evident, a round fissure seemingly leading down into the very bowels
of the earth. But all the horrid mass of blood and slime, of torn,
evil-smelling flesh and the sickening remnants of violent death,
were gone. Either some of the later explosions had thrown up from
the deep quantities of water which, though foul and corrupt itself,
had still some cleansing power left, or else the writhing mass which
stirred from far below had helped to drag down and obliterate the
items of horror. A grey dust, partly of fine sand, partly of the
waste of the falling ruin, covered everything, and, though ghastly
itself, helped to mask something still worse.
After a few minutes of watching, it became apparent to the three men
that the turmoil far below had not yet ceased. At short irregular
intervals the hell-broth in the hole seemed as if boiling up. It
rose and fell again and turned over, showing in fresh form much of
the nauseous detail which had been visible earlier. The worst parts
were the great masses of the flesh of the monstrous Worm, in all its
red and sickening aspect. Such fragments had been bad enough
before, but now they were infinitely worse. Corruption comes with
startling rapidity to beings whose destruction has been due wholly
or in part to lightning--the whole mass seemed to have become all at
once corrupt! The whole surface of the fragments, once alive, was
covered with insects, worms, and vermin of all kinds. The sight was
horrible enough, but, with the awful smell added, was simply
unbearable. The Worm's hole appeared to breathe forth death in its
most repulsive forms. The friends, with one impulse, moved to the
top of the Brow, where a fresh breeze from the sea was blowing up.
At the top of the Brow, beneath them as they looked down, they saw a
shining mass of white, which looked strangely out of place amongst
such wreckage as they had been viewing. It appeared so strange that
Adam suggested trying to find a way down, so that they might see it
more closely.
"We need not go down; I know what it is," Sir Nathaniel said. "The
explosions of last night have blown off the outside of the cliffs--
that which we see is the vast bed of china clay through which the
Worm originally found its way down to its lair. I can catch the
glint of the water of the deep quags far down below. Well, her
ladyship didn't deserve such a funeral--or such a monument."
The horrors of the last few hours had played such havoc with Mimi's
nerves, that a change of scene was imperative--if a permanent
breakdown was to be avoided.
"I think," said old Mr. Salton, "it is quite time you young people
departed for that honeymoon of yours!" There was a twinkle in his
eye as he spoke.
Mimi's soft shy glance at her stalwart husband, was sufficient
answer.
