The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker (pdf ebook reader TXT) 📗

appearance of the snowy birds, with the cowls of Saint Columba, heightened the impression.  With this conviction strong upon her, she continued the strange battle with fresh vigour.  She seemed to tower over Caswall, and he to give back before her oncoming.  Once again her vigorous passes drove him to the door.  He was just going out backward when Lady Arabella, who had been gazing at him with fixed eyes, caught his hand and tried to stop his movement.  She was, however, unable to do any good, and so, holding hands, they passed out together.  As they did so, the strange music which had so alarmed Lady Arabella suddenly stopped.  Instinctively they all looked towards the tower of Castra Regis, and saw that the workmen had refixed the kite, which had risen again and was beginning to float out to its former station.

As they were looking, the door opened and Michael Watford came into the room.  By that time all had recovered their self-possession, and there was nothing out of the common to attract his attention.  As he came in, seeing inquiring looks all around him, he said:

“The new influx of birds is only the annual migration of pigeons from Africa.  I am told that it will soon be over.”

The second victory of Mimi Watford made Edgar Caswall more moody than ever.  He felt thrown back on himself, and this, added to his absorbing interest in the hope of a victory of his mesmeric powers, became a deep and settled purpose of revenge.  The chief object of his animosity was, of course, Mimi, whose will had overcome his, but it was obscured in greater or lesser degree by all who had opposed him.  Lilla was next to Mimi in his hate—Lilla, the harmless, tender-hearted, sweet-natured girl, whose heart was so full of love for all things that in it was no room for the passions of ordinary life—whose nature resembled those doves of St. Columba, whose colour she wore, whose appearance she reflected.  Adam Salton came next—after a gap; for against him Caswall had no direct animosity.  He regarded him as an interference, a difficulty to be got rid of or destroyed.  The young Australian had been so discreet that the most he had against him was his knowledge of what had been.  Caswall did not understand him, and to such a nature as his, ignorance was a cause of alarm, of dread.

Caswall resumed his habit of watching the great kite straining at its cord, varying his vigils in this way by a further examination of the mysterious treasures of his house, especially Mesmer’s chest.  He sat much on the roof of the tower, brooding over his thwarted passion.  The vast extent of his possessions, visible to him at that altitude, might, one would have thought, have restored some of his complacency.  But the very extent of his ownership, thus perpetually brought before him, created a fresh sense of grievance.  How was it, he thought, that with so much at command that others wished for, he could not achieve the dearest wishes of his heart?

In this state of intellectual and moral depravity, he found a solace in the renewal of his experiments with the mechanical powers of the kite.  For a couple of weeks he did not see Lady Arabella, who was always on the watch for a chance of meeting him; neither did he see the Watford girls, who studiously kept out of his way.  Adam Salton simply marked time, keeping ready to deal with anything that might affect his friends.  He called at the farm and heard from Mimi of the last battle of wills, but it had only one consequence.  He got from Ross several more mongooses, including a second king-cobra-killer, which he generally carried with him in its box whenever he walked out.

Mr. Caswall’s experiments with the kite went on successfully.  Each day he tried the lifting of greater weight, and it seemed almost as if the machine had a sentience of its own, which was increasing with the obstacles placed before it.  All this time the kite hung in the sky at an enormous height.  The wind was steadily from the north, so the trend of the kite was to the south.  All day long, runners of increasing magnitude were sent up.  These were only of paper or thin cardboard, or leather, or other flexible materials.  The great height at which the kite hung made a great concave curve in the string, so that as the runners went up they made a flapping sound.  If one laid a finger on the string, the sound answered to the flapping of the runner in a sort of hollow intermittent murmur.  Edgar Caswall, who was now wholly obsessed by the kite and all belonging to it, found a distinct resemblance between that intermittent rumble and the snake-charming music produced by the pigeons flying through the dry reeds.

One day he made a discovery in Mesmer’s chest which he thought he would utilise with regard to the runners.  This was a great length of wire, “fine as human hair,” coiled round a finely made wheel, which ran to a wondrous distance freely, and as lightly.  He tried this on runners, and found it work admirably.  Whether the runner was alone, or carried something much more weighty than itself, it worked equally well.  Also it was strong enough and light enough to draw back the runner without undue strain.  He tried this a good many times successfully, but it was now growing dusk and he found some difficulty in keeping the runner in sight.  So he looked for something heavy enough to keep it still.  He placed the Egyptian image of Bes on the fine wire, which crossed the wooden ledge which protected it.  Then, the darkness growing, he went indoors and forgot all about it.

He had a strange feeling of uneasiness that night—not sleeplessness, for he seemed conscious of being asleep.  At daylight he rose, and as usual looked out for the kite.  He did not see it in its usual position in the sky, so looked round the points of the compass.  He was more than astonished when presently he saw the missing kite struggling as usual against the controlling cord.  But it had gone to the further side of the tower, and now hung and strained against the wind to the north.  He thought it so strange that he determined to investigate the phenomenon, and to say nothing about it in the meantime.

In his many travels, Edgar Caswall had been accustomed to use the sextant, and was now an expert in the matter.  By the aid of this and other instruments, he was able to fix the position of the kite and the point over which it hung.  He was startled to find that exactly under it—so far as he could ascertain—was Diana’s Grove.  He had an inclination to take Lady Arabella into his confidence in the matter, but he thought better of it and wisely refrained.  For some reason which he did not try to explain to himself, he was glad of his silence, when, on the following morning, he found, on looking out, that the point over which the kite then hovered was Mercy Farm.  When he had verified this with his instruments, he sat before the window of the tower, looking out and thinking.  The new locality was more to his liking than the other; but the why of it puzzled him, all the same.  He spent the rest of the day in the turret-room, which he did not leave all day.  It seemed to him that he was now drawn by forces which he could not control—of which, indeed, he had no knowledge—in directions which he did not understand, and which were without his own volition.  In sheer helpless inability to think the problem out satisfactorily, he called up a servant and told him to tell Oolanga that he wanted to see him at once in the turret-room.  The answer came back that the African had not been seen since the previous evening.

Caswall was now so irritable that even this small thing upset him.  As he was distrait and wanted to talk to somebody, he sent for Simon Chester, who came at once, breathless with hurrying and upset by the unexpected summons.  Caswall bade him sit down, and when the old man was in a less uneasy frame of mind, he again asked him if he had ever seen what was in Mesmer’s chest or heard it spoken about.

Chester admitted that he had once, in the time of “the then Mr. Edgar,” seen the chest open, which, knowing something of its history and guessing more, so upset him that he had fainted.  When he recovered, the chest was closed.  From that time the then Mr. Edgar had never spoken about it again.

When Caswall asked him to describe what he had seen when the chest was open, he got very agitated, and, despite all his efforts to remain calm, he suddenly went off into a faint.  Caswall summoned servants, who applied the usual remedies.  Still the old man did not recover.  After the lapse of a considerable time, the doctor who had been summoned made his appearance.  A glance was sufficient for him to make up his mind.  Still, he knelt down by the old man, and made a careful examination.  Then he rose to his feet, and in a hushed voice said:

“I grieve to say, sir, that he has passed away.”

CHAPTER XV—ON THE TRACK

Those who had seen Edgar Caswall familiarly since his arrival, and had already estimated his cold-blooded nature at something of its true value, were surprised that he took so to heart the death of old Chester.  The fact was that not one of them had guessed correctly at his character.  They thought, naturally enough, that the concern which he felt was that of a master for a faithful old servant of his family.  They little thought that it was merely the selfish expression of his disappointment, that he had thus lost the only remaining clue to an interesting piece of family history—one which was now and would be for ever wrapped in mystery.  Caswall knew enough about the life of his ancestor in Paris to wish to know more fully and more thoroughly all that had been.  The period covered by that ancestor’s life in Paris was one inviting every form of curiosity.

Lady Arabella, who had her own game to play, saw in the métier of sympathetic friend, a series of meetings with the man she wanted to secure.  She made the first use of the opportunity the day after old Chester’s death; indeed, as soon as the news had filtered in through the back door of Diana’s Grove.  At that meeting, she played her part so well that even Caswall’s cold nature was impressed.

Oolanga was the only one who did not credit her with at least some sense of fine feeling in the matter.  In emotional, as in other matters, Oolanga was distinctly a utilitarian, and as he could not understand anyone feeling grief except for his own suffering, pain, or for the loss of money, he could not understand anyone simulating such an emotion except for show intended to deceive.  He thought that she had come to Castra Regis again for the opportunity of stealing something, and was determined that on this occasion the chance of pressing his advantage over her should not pass.  He felt, therefore, that the occasion was one for extra carefulness in the watching of all that went on.  Ever since he had come to the conclusion that Lady Arabella was trying to steal the treasure-chest, he suspected nearly everyone of the same design, and made it a point to watch all suspicious persons and places.  As Adam was engaged on his own researches regarding Lady Arabella, it was only natural that there should be some crossing of each other’s tracks.  This is what did actually happen.

Adam had gone for an early morning survey of the place in which he was interested, taking with him the mongoose in its box.  He arrived at the gate of Diana’s Grove just as Lady Arabella was preparing to set out for Castra Regis on what she considered her mission of comfort.  Seeing Adam from her window going through the shadows of the trees round the gate, she thought that he must be engaged on some purpose similar to her own.  So, quickly making her toilet, she quietly left the house, and, taking advantage of every shadow and substance which could hide her, followed him on his walk.

Oolanga, the experienced tracker, followed her, but succeeded in hiding his movements better than she did.  He saw that Adam had on his shoulder a mysterious box, which he took to contain something valuable.  Seeing that Lady Arabella was secretly following Adam, he was confirmed in this idea.  His mind—such as it was—was fixed on her trying to steal, and