"Most certainly I say so, your honour. How could I? It was entrusted tome with the other things by my master. To open it would have been abreach of trust."
Caswall sneered.
"Quite remarkable! Leave it with me. Close the door behind you.Stay--did no one ever tell you about it--say anything regarding it--makeany remark?"
Old Simon turned pale, and put his trembling hands together.
"Oh, sir, I entreat you not to touch it. That trunk probably containssecrets which Dr. Mesmer told my master. Told them to his ruin!"
"How do you mean? What ruin?"
"Sir, he it was who, men said, sold his soul to the Evil One; I hadthought that that time and the evil of it had all
passed away."
"That will do. Go away; but remain in your own room, or within call. Imay want you."
The old man bowed deeply and went out trembling, but without speaking aword.
CHAPTER XII--THE CHEST OPENED
Left alone in the turret-room, Edgar Caswall carefully locked the doorand hung a handkerchief over the keyhole. Next, he inspected thewindows, and saw that they were not overlooked from any angle of the mainbuilding. Then he carefully examined the trunk, going over it with amagnifying glass. He found it intact: the steel bands were flawless; thewhole trunk was compact. After sitting opposite to it for some time, andthe shades of evening beginning to melt into darkness, he gave up thetask and went to his bedroom, after locking the door of the turret-roombehind him and taking away the key.
He woke in the morning at daylight, and resumed his patient butunavailing study of the metal trunk. This he continued during the wholeday with the same result--humiliating disappointment, which overwroughthis nerves and made his head ache. The result of the long strain wasseen later in the afternoon, when he sat locked within the turret-roombefore the still baffling trunk, distrait, listless and yet agitated,sunk in a settled gloom. As the dusk was falling he told the steward tosend him two men, strong ones. These he ordered to take the trunk to hisbedroom. In that room he then sat on into the night, without pausingeven to take any food. His mind was in a whirl, a fever of excitement.The result was that when, late in the night, he locked himself in hisroom his brain was full of odd fancies; he was on the high road to mentaldisturbance. He lay down on his bed in the dark, still brooding over themystery of the closed trunk.
Gradually he yielded to the influences of silence and darkness. Afterlying there quietly for some time, his mind became active again. Butthis time there were round him no disturbing influences; his brain wasactive and able to work freely and to deal with memory. A thousandforgotten--or only half-known--incidents, fragments of conversations ortheories long ago guessed at and long forgotten, crowded on his mind. Heseemed to hear again around him the legions of whirring wings to which hehad been so lately accustomed. Even to himself he knew that that was aneffort of imagination founded on imperfect memory. But he was contentthat imagination should work, for out of it might come some solution ofthe mystery which surrounded him. And in this frame of mind, sleep madeanother and more successful essay. This time he enjoyed peacefulslumber, restful alike to his wearied body and his overwrought brain.
In his sleep he arose, and, as if in obedience to some influence beyondand greater than himself, lifted the great trunk and set it on a strongtable at one side of the room, from which he had previously removed aquantity of books. To do this, he had to use an amount of strength whichwas, he knew, far beyond him in his normal state. As it was, it seemedeasy enough; everything yielded before his touch. Then he becameconscious that somehow--how, he never could remember--the chest was open.He unlocked his door, and, taking the chest on his shoulder, carried itup to the turret-room, the door of which also he unlocked. Even at thetime he was amazed at his own strength, and wondered whence it had come.His mind, lost in conjecture, was too far off to realise more immediatethings. He knew that the chest was enormously heavy. He seemed, in asort of vision which lit up the absolute blackness around, to see the twosturdy servant men staggering under its great weight. He locked himselfagain in the turret-room, and laid the opened chest on a table, and inthe darkness began to unpack it, laying out the contents, which weremainly of metal and glass--great pieces in strange forms--on anothertable. He was conscious of being still asleep, and of acting rather inobedience to some unseen and unknown command than in accordance with anyreasonable plan, to be followed by results which he understood. Thisphase completed, he proceeded to arrange in order the component parts ofsome large instruments, formed mostly of glass. His fingers seemed tohave acquired a new and exquisite subtlety and even a volition of theirown. Then weariness of brain came upon him; his head sank down on hisbreast, and little by little everything became wrapped in gloom.
He awoke in the early morning in his bedroom, and looked around him, nowclear-headed, in amazement. In its usual place on the strong table stoodthe great steel-hooped chest without lock or key. But it was now locked.He arose quietly and stole to the turret-room. There everything was asit had been on the previous evening. He looked out of the window wherehigh in air flew, as usual, the giant kite. He unlocked the wicket gateof the turret stair and went out on the roof. Close to him was the greatcoil of cord on its reel. It was humming in the morning breeze, and whenhe touched the string it sent a quick thrill through hand and arm. Therewas no sign anywhere that there had been any disturbance or displacementof anything during the night.
Utterly bewildered, he sat down in his room to think. Now for the firsttime he _felt_ that he was asleep and dreaming. Presently he fell asleepagain, and slept for a long time. He awoke hungry and made a heartymeal. Then towards evening, having locked himself in, he fell asleepagain. When he woke he was in darkness, and was quite at sea as to hiswhereabouts. He began feeling about the dark room, and was recalled tothe consequences of his position by the breaking of a large piece ofglass. Having obtained a light, he discovered this to be a glass wheel,part of an elaborate piece of mechanism which he must in his sleep havetaken from the chest, which was now opened. He had once again opened itwhilst asleep, but he had no recollection of the circumstances.
Caswall came to the conclusion that there had been some sort of dualaction of his mind, which might lead to some catastrophe or somediscovery of his secret plans; so he resolved to forgo for a while thepleasure of making discoveries regarding the chest. To this end, heapplied himself to quite another matter--an investigation of the othertreasures and rare objects in his collections. He went amongst them insimple, idle curiosity, his main object being to discover some strangeitem which he might use for experiment with the kite. He had alreadyresolved to try some runners other than those made of paper. He had avague idea that with such a force as the great kite straining at itsleash, this might be used to lift to the altitude of the kite itselfheavier articles. His first experiment with articles of little butincreasing weight was eminently successful. So he added by degrees moreand more weight, until he found out that the lifting power of the kitewas considerable. He then determined to take a step further, and send tothe kite some of the articles which lay in the steel-hooped chest. Thelast time he had opened it in sleep, it had not been shut again, and hehad inserted a wedge so that he could open it at will. He madeexamination of the contents, but came to the conclusion that the glassobjects were unsuitable. They were too light for testing weight, andthey were so frail as to be dangerous to send to such a height.
So he looked around for something more solid with which to experiment.His eye caught sight of an object which at once attracted him. This wasa small copy of one of the ancient Egyptian gods--that of Bes, whorepresented the destructive power of nature. It was so bizarre andmysterious as to commend itself to his mad humour. In lifting it fromthe cabinet, he was struck by its great weight in proportion to its size.He made accurate examination of it by the aid of some instruments, andcame to the conclusion that it was carved from a lump of lodestone. Heremembered that he had read somewhere of an ancient Egyptian god cut froma similar substance, and, thinking it over, he came to the conclusionthat he must have read it in Sir Thomas Brown's _Popular Errors_, a bookof the seventeenth century. He got the book from the library, and lookedout the passage:
"A great example we have from the observation of our learned friend Mr.Graves, in an AEgyptian idol cut out of Loadstone and found among theMummies; which still retains its attraction, though probably taken out ofthe mine about two thousand years ago."
The strangeness of the figure, and its being so close akin to his ownnature, attracted him. He made from thin wood a large circular runner,and in front of it placed the weighty god, sending it up to the flyingkite along the throbbing cord.
CHAPTER XIII--OOLANGA'S HALLUCINATIONS
During the last few days Lady Arabella had been getting exceedinglyimpatient. Her debts, always pressing, were growing to an embarrassingamount. The only hope she had of comfort in life was a good marriage;but the good marriage on which she had fixed her eye did not seem to movequickly enough--indeed, it did not seem to move at all--in the rightdirection. Edgar Caswall was not an ardent wooer. From the very firsthe seemed _difficile_, but he had been keeping to his own room ever sincehis struggle with Mimi Watford. On that occasion Lady Arabella had shownhim in an unmistakable way what her feelings were; indeed, she had madeit known to him, in a more overt way than pride should allow, that shewished to help and support him. The moment when she had gone across theroom to stand beside him in his mesmeric struggle, had been the verylimit of her voluntary action. It was quite bitter enough, she felt,that he did not come to her, but now that she had made that advance, shefelt that any withdrawal on his part would, to a woman of her class, benothing less than a flaming insult. Had she not classed herself with hisnigger servant, an unreformed savage? Had she not shown her preferencefor him at the festival of his home-coming? Had she not . . . LadyArabella was cold-blooded, and she was prepared to go through all thatmight be necessary of indifference, and even insult, to become chatelaineof Castra Regis. In the meantime, she would show no hurry--she mustwait. She might, in an unostentatious way, come to him again. She knewhim now, and could make a keen guess at his desires with regard to LillaWatford. With that secret in her possession, she could bring pressure tobear on Caswall which would make it no easy matter for him to evade her.The great difficulty was how to get near him. He was shut up within hisCastle, and guarded by a defence of convention which she could not passwithout danger of ill repute to herself. Over this question she thoughtand thought for days and nights. At last she decided that the only waywould be to go to him openly at Castra Regis. Her rank and positionwould make such a thing possible, if carefully done. She could explainmatters afterwards if necessary. Then when they were alone, she woulduse her arts and her experience to make him commit himself. After all,he was only a man, with a man's dislike of difficult or awkwardsituations. She felt quite sufficient confidence in her own womanhood tocarry her through any difficulty which might arise.
From Diana's Grove she heard each day the luncheon-gong from Castra Regissound, and knew the hour when the servants would be in the back of thehouse. She would enter the house at that hour, and, pretending that shecould not make anyone hear her, would seek him in his own rooms. Thetower was, she knew, away from all the usual sounds of the house, andmoreover she knew that the servants had strict orders not to interrupthim when he was in the turret chamber. She had found out, partly by theaid of an opera-glass and partly by judicious questioning, that severaltimes lately a heavy chest had been carried to and from his room, andthat it rested in the room each night. She was, therefore, confidentthat he had some important work on hand which would keep him busy forlong spells.
Meanwhile, another member of the household at Castra Regis had schemeswhich he thought were working to fruition. A man in the position of aservant has plenty of opportunity of watching his betters and formingopinions regarding them. Oolanga was in his way a clever, unscrupulousrogue, and he felt that with things moving round him in this greathousehold there should be opportunities of self-advancement. Beingunscrupulous and stealthy--and a savage--he looked to dishonest means. Hesaw plainly enough that Lady Arabella was making a dead set at hismaster, and he was watchful of the slightest sign of anything which mightenhance this knowledge. Like the other men in the house, he knew of thecarrying to and fro of the great chest, and had got it into his head thatthe care exercised in its porterage indicated that it was full oftreasure. He was for ever lurking around the turret-rooms on the chanceof making some useful discovery. But he was as cautious as he wasstealthy, and took care that no one else watched him.
It was thus that the negro became aware of Lady Arabella's venture intothe house, as she thought, unseen. He took more care than ever, since hewas watching another, that the positions were not reversed. More thanever he kept his eyes and ears open and his mouth shut. Seeing LadyArabella gliding up the stairs towards his master's room, he took it forgranted that she was there for no good, and doubled his watchingintentness and caution.
Oolanga was disappointed, but he dared not exhibit any feeling lest itshould betray that he was hiding. Therefore he slunk downstairs againnoiselessly, and waited for a more favourable opportunity of furtheringhis plans. It must be borne in mind that he thought that the heavy trunkwas full of valuables, and that he believed that Lady Arabella had cometo try to steal it. His purpose of using for his own advantage thecombination of these two ideas was seen later in the day. Oolangasecretly followed her home. He was an expert at this game, and succeededadmirably on this occasion. He watched her enter the private gate ofDiana's Grove, and then, taking a roundabout course and keeping out ofher sight, he at last overtook her in a thick part of the Grove where noone could see the meeting.
Lady Arabella was much surprised. She had not seen the negro for severaldays, and had almost forgotten his existence. Oolanga would have beenstartled had he known and been capable of understanding the real valueplaced on him, his beauty, his worthiness, by other persons, and comparedit with the value in these matters in which he held himself. DoubtlessOolanga had his dreams like other men. In such cases he saw himself as ayoung sun-god, as beautiful as the eye of dusky or even white womanhoodhad ever dwelt upon. He would have been filled with all noble andcaptivating qualities--or those regarded as such in West Africa. Womenwould have loved him, and would have told him so in the overt and fervidmanner usual in affairs of the heart in the shadowy depths of the forestof the Gold Coast.
Oolanga came close behind Lady Arabella, and in a hushed voice, suitableto the importance of his task, and in deference to the respect he had forher and the place, began to unfold the story of his love. Lady Arabellawas not usually a humorous person, but no man or woman of the white racecould have checked the laughter which rose spontaneously to her lips. Thecircumstances were too grotesque, the contrast too violent, for subduedmirth. The man a debased specimen of one of the most primitive races ofthe earth, and of an ugliness which was simply devilish; the woman ofhigh degree, beautiful, accomplished. She thought that her firstmoment's consideration of the outrage--it was nothing less in hereyes--had given her the full material for thought. But every instantafter threw new and varied lights on the affront. Her indignation wastoo great for passion; only irony or satire would meet the situation. Hercold, cruel nature helped, and she did not shrink to subject thisignorant savage to the merciless fire-lash of her scorn.
Oolanga was dimly conscious that he was being flouted; but his anger wasno less keen because of the measure of his ignorance. So he gave way toit, as does a tortured beast. He ground his great teeth together, raved,stamped, and swore in barbarous tongues and with barbarous imagery. EvenLady Arabella felt that it was well she was within reach of help, or hemight have offered her brutal violence--even have killed her.