"It will perhaps be a less dangerous topic for us to discuss than morerecent ones."
"All right, sir," said Adam heartily. "I think you may depend on me nowwith regard to any topic. I can even discuss Mr. Caswall. Indeed, I maymeet him to-morrow. He is going, as I said, to call at Mercy Farm atthree o'clock--but I have an appointment at two."
"I notice," said Mr. Salton, "that you do not lose any time."
The two old men once more looked at each other steadily. Then, lest themood of his listener should change with delay, Sir Nathaniel began atonce:
"I don't propose to tell you all the legends of Mercia, or even to make aselection of them. It will be better, I think, for our purpose if weconsider a few facts--recorded or unrecorded--about this neighbourhood. Ithink we might begin with Diana's Grove. It has roots in the differentepochs of our history, and each has its special crop of legend. TheDruid and the Roman are too far off for matters of detail; but it seemsto me the Saxon and the Angles are near enough to yield material forlegendary lore. We find that this particular place had another namebesides Diana's Grove. This was manifestly of Roman origin, or ofGrecian accepted as Roman. The other is more pregnant of adventure andromance than the Roman name. In Mercian tongue it was 'The Lair of theWhite Worm.' This needs a word of explanation at the beginning.
"In the dawn of the language, the word 'worm' had a somewhat differentmeaning from that in use to-day. It was an adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon'wyrm,' meaning a dragon or snake; or from the Gothic 'waurms,' aserpent; or the Icelandic 'ormur,' or the German 'wurm.' We gather thatit conveyed originally an idea of size and power, not as now in thediminutive of both these meanings. Here legendary history helps us. Wehave the well-known legend of the 'Worm Well' of Lambton Castle, and thatof the 'Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh' near Bamborough. In both theselegends the 'worm' was a monster of vast size and power--a veritabledragon or serpent, such as legend attributes to vast fens or quags wherethere was illimitable room for expansion. A glance at a geological mapwill show that whatever truth there may have been of the actuality ofsuch monsters in the early geologic periods, at least there was plenty ofpossibility. In England there were originally vast plains where theplentiful supply of water could gather. The streams were deep and slow,and there were holes of abysmal depth, where any kind and size ofantediluvian monster could find a habitat. In places, which now we cansee from our windows, were mud-holes a hundred or more feet deep. Whocan tell us when the age of the monsters which flourished in slime cameto an end? There must have been places and conditions which made forgreater longevity, greater size, greater strength than was usual. Suchover-lappings may have come down even to our earlier centuries. Nay, arethere not now creatures of a vastness of bulk regarded by the generalityof men as impossible? Even in our own day there are seen the traces ofanimals, if not the animals themselves, of stupendous
size--veritablesurvivals from earlier ages, preserved by some special qualities in theirhabitats. I remember meeting a distinguished man in India, who had thereputation of being a great shikaree, who told me that the greatesttemptation he had ever had in his life was to shoot a giant snake whichhe had come across in the Terai of Upper India. He was on atiger-shooting expedition, and as his elephant was crossing a nullah, itsquealed. He looked down from his howdah and saw that the elephant hadstepped across the body of a snake which was dragging itself through thejungle. 'So far as I could see,' he said, 'it must have been eighty orone hundred feet in length. Fully forty or fifty feet was on each sideof the track, and though the weight which it dragged had thinned it, itwas as thick round as a man's body. I suppose you know that when you areafter tiger, it is a point of honour not to shoot at anything else, aslife may depend on it. I could easily have spined this monster, but Ifelt that I must not--so, with regret, I had to let it go.'
"Just imagine such a monster anywhere in this country, and at once wecould get a sort of idea of the 'worms,' which possibly did frequent thegreat morasses which spread round the mouths of many of the greatEuropean rivers."
"I haven't the least doubt, sir, that there may have been such monstersas you have spoken of still existing at a much later period than isgenerally accepted," replied Adam. "Also, if there were such things,that this was the very place for them. I have tried to think over thematter since you pointed out the configuration of the ground. But itseems to me that there is a hiatus somewhere. Are there not mechanicaldifficulties?"
"In what way?"
"Well, our antique monster must have been mighty heavy, and the distanceshe had to travel were long and the ways difficult. From where we are nowsitting down to the level of the mud-holes is a distance of severalhundred feet--I am leaving out of consideration altogether any lateraldistance. Is it possible that there was a way by which a monster couldtravel up and down, and yet no chance recorder have ever seen him? Ofcourse we have the legends; but is not some more exact evidence necessaryin a scientific investigation?"
"My dear Adam, all you say is perfectly right, and, were we starting onsuch an investigation, we could not do better than follow your reasoning.But, my dear boy, you must remember that all this took place thousands ofyears ago. You must remember, too, that all records of the kind thatwould help us are lacking. Also, that the places to be considered weredesert, so far as human habitation or population are considered. In thevast desolation of such a place as complied with the necessaryconditions, there must have been such profusion of natural growth aswould bar the progress of men formed as we are. The lair of such amonster would not have been disturbed for hundreds--or thousands--ofyears. Moreover, these creatures must have occupied places quiteinaccessible to man. A snake who could make himself comfortable in aquagmire, a hundred feet deep, would be protected on the outskirts bysuch stupendous morasses as now no longer exist, or which, if they existanywhere at all, can be on very few places on the earth's surface. Farbe it from me to say that in more elemental times such things could nothave been. The condition belongs to the geologic age--the great birthand growth of the world, when natural forces ran riot, when the strugglefor existence was so savage that no vitality which was not founded in agigantic form could have even a possibility of survival. That such atime existed, we have evidences in geology, but there only; we can neverexpect proofs such as this age demands. We can only imagine or surmisesuch things--or such conditions and such forces as overcame them."
CHAPTER VI--HAWK AND PIGEON
At breakfast-time next morning Sir Nathaniel and Mr. Salton were seatedwhen Adam came hurriedly into the room.
"Any news?" asked his uncle mechanically.
"Four."
"Four what?" asked Sir Nathaniel.
"Snakes," said Adam, helping himself to a grilled kidney.
"Four snakes. I don't understand."
"Mongoose," said Adam, and then added explanatorily: "I was out with themongoose just after three."
"Four snakes in one morning! Why, I didn't know there were so many onthe Brow"--the local name for the western cliff. "I hope that wasn't theconsequence of our talk of last night?"
"It was, sir. But not directly."
"But, God bless my soul, you didn't expect to get a snake like theLambton worm, did you? Why, a mongoose, to tackle a monster like that--ifthere were one--would have to be bigger than a haystack."
"These were ordinary snakes, about as big as a walking-stick."
"Well, it's pleasant to be rid of them, big or little. That is a goodmongoose, I am sure; he'll clear out all such vermin round here," saidMr. Salton.
Adam went quietly on with his breakfast. Killing a few snakes in amorning was no new experience to him. He left the room the momentbreakfast was finished and went to the study that his uncle had arrangedfor him. Both Sir Nathaniel and Mr. Salton took it that he wanted to beby himself, so as to avoid any questioning or talk of the visit that hewas to make that afternoon. They saw nothing further of him till abouthalf-an-hour before dinner-time. Then he came quietly into the smoking-room, where Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel were sitting together, readydressed.
"I suppose there is no use waiting. We had better get it over at once,"remarked Adam.
His uncle, thinking to make things easier for him, said: "Get what over?"
There was a sign of shyness about him at this. He stammered a little atfirst, but his voice became more even as he went on.
"My visit to Mercy Farm."