The flames from Castra Regis and from Diana's Grove made all aroundalmost 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 agonisedshrieks were rising, growing ever more terrible with each second thatpassed.
But it was not only the heart-rending sound that almost paralysed poorMimi with terror. What she saw was sufficient to fill her with evildreams for the remainder of her life. The whole place looked as if a seaof blood had been beating against it. Each of the explosions from belowhad thrown out from the well-hole, as if it had been the mouth of acannon, a mass of fine sand mixed with blood, and a horrible repulsiveslime in which were great red masses of rent and torn flesh and fat. Asthe 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 fragmentswere of something which had lately been alive. They quivered andtrembled and writhed as though they were still in torment, a suppositionto which the unending scream gave a horrible credence. At moments somemountainous mass of flesh surged up through the narrow orifice, as thoughforced by a measureless power through an opening infinitely smaller thanitself. Some of these fragments were partially covered with white skinas of a human being, and others--the largest and most numerous--withscaled skin as of a gigantic lizard or serpent. Once, in a sort of lullor pause, the seething contents of the hole rose, after
the manner of abubbling 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 asif it had been the entrails of a monster torn into shreds. Several timessome masses of enormous bulk were forced up through the well-hole withinconceivable violence, and, suddenly expanding as they came into largerspace, disclosed sections of the White Worm which Adam and Sir Nathanielhad seen looking over the trees with its enormous eyes of emerald-greenflickering like great lamps in a gale.
At last the explosive power, which was not yet exhausted, evidentlyreached the main store of dynamite which had been lowered into the wormhole. The result was appalling. The ground for far around quivered andopened in long deep chasms, whose edges shook and fell in, throwing upclouds of sand which fell back and hissed amongst the rising water. Theheavily built house shook to its foundations. Great stones were thrownup as from a volcano, some of them, great masses of hard stone, squaredand grooved with implements wrought by human hands, breaking up andsplitting in mid air as though riven by some infernal power. Trees nearthe house--and therefore presumably in some way above the hole, whichsent up clouds of dust and steam and fine sand mingled, and which carriedan appalling stench which sickened the spectators--were torn up by theroots and hurled into the air. By now, flames were bursting violentlyfrom all over the ruins, so dangerously that Adam caught up his wife inhis 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. Thensilence brooded over all--silence so complete that it seemed in itself asentient thing--silence which seemed like incarnate darkness, andconveyed the same idea to all who came within its radius. To the youngpeople who had suffered the long horror of that awful night, it broughtrelief--relief from the presence or the fear of all that washorrible--relief which seemed perfected when the red rays of sunrise shotup over the far eastern sea, bringing a promise of a new order of thingswith the coming day.
* * * * *
His bed saw little of Adam Salton for the remainder of that night. Heand Mimi walked hand in hand in the brightening dawn round by the Brow toCastra Regis and on to Lesser Hill. They did so deliberately, in anattempt to think as little as possible of the terrible experiences of thenight. The morning was bright and cheerful, as a morning sometimes isafter a devastating storm. The clouds, of which there were plenty inevidence, brought no lingering idea of gloom. All nature was bright andjoyous, being in striking contrast to the scenes of wreck anddevastation, the effects of obliterating fire and lasting ruin.
The only evidence of the once stately pile of Castra Regis and itsinhabitants was a shapeless huddle of shattered architecture, dimly seenas the keen breeze swept aside the cloud of acrid smoke which marked thesite of the once lordly castle. As for Diana's Grove, they looked invain for a sign which had a suggestion of permanence. The oak trees ofthe Grove were still to be seen--some of them--emerging from a haze ofsmoke, the great trunks solid and erect as ever, but the larger branchesbroken and twisted and rent, with bark stripped and chipped, and thesmaller branches broken and dishevelled looking from the constant stressand threshing of the storm.
Of the house as such, there was, even at the short distance from whichthey looked, no trace. Adam resolutely turned his back on thedevastation and hurried on. Mimi was not only upset and shocked in manyways, 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, takingcare that the room was well lighted both by sunshine and lamps. The onlyobstruction was from a silk curtain, drawn across the window to keep outthe glare. He sat beside her, holding her hand, well knowing that thecomfort of his presence was the best restorative for her. He stayed withher till sleep had overmastered her wearied body. Then he went softlyaway. He found his uncle and Sir Nathaniel in the study, having an earlycup of tea, amplified to the dimensions of a possible breakfast. Adamexplained that he had not told his wife that he was going over thehorrible places again, lest it should frighten her, for the rest andsleep in ignorance would help her and make a gap of peacefulness betweenthe 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 Godthat its evil soul will never more escape from the nethermost hell."
They visited Diana's Grove first, not only because it was nearer, butalso because it was the place where most description was required, andAdam felt that he could tell his story best on the spot. The absolutedestruction of the place and everything in it seen in the broad daylightwas almost inconceivable. To Sir Nathaniel, it was as a story of horrorfull 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 theknowledge of externals. As yet, they had only seen the outside of thehouse--or rather, where the outside of the house once had been. Thegreat horror lay within. However, age--and the experience of age--counts.
A strange, almost elemental, change in the aspect had taken place in thetime which had elapsed since the dawn. It would almost seem as if Natureherself had tried to obliterate the evil signs of what had occurred.True, the utter ruin of the house was made even more manifest in thesearching daylight; but the more appalling destruction which lay beneathwas not visible. The rent, torn, and dislocated stonework looked worsethan before; the upheaved foundations, the piled-up fragments of masonry,the fissures in the torn earth--all were at the worst. The Worm's holewas still evident, a round fissure seemingly leading down into the verybowels of the earth. But all the horrid mass of blood and slime, oftorn, evil-smelling flesh and the sickening remnants of violent death,were gone. Either some of the later explosions had thrown up from thedeep quantities of water which, though foul and corrupt itself, had stillsome cleansing power left, or else the writhing mass which stirred fromfar below had helped to drag down and obliterate the items of horror. Agrey dust, partly of fine sand, partly of the waste of the falling ruin,covered everything, and, though ghastly itself, helped to mask somethingstill worse.
After a few minutes of watching, it became apparent to the three men thatthe turmoil far below had not yet ceased. At short irregular intervalsthe hell-broth in the hole seemed as if boiling up. It rose and fellagain and turned over, showing in fresh form much of the nauseous detailwhich had been visible earlier. The worst parts were the great masses ofthe flesh of the monstrous Worm, in all its red and sickening aspect.Such fragments had been bad enough before, but now they were infinitelyworse. Corruption comes with startling rapidity to beings whosedestruction has been due wholly or in part to lightning--the whole massseemed to have become all at once corrupt! The whole surface of thefragments, once alive, was covered with insects, worms, and vermin of allkinds. The sight was horrible enough, but, with the awful smell added,was simply unbearable. The Worm's hole appeared to breathe forth deathin its most repulsive forms. The friends, with one impulse, moved to thetop 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 ashining mass of white, which looked strangely out of place amongst suchwreckage as they had been viewing. It appeared so strange that Adamsuggested trying to find a way down, so that they might see it moreclosely.
"We need not go down; I know what it is," Sir Nathaniel said. "Theexplosions of last night have blown off the outside of the cliffs--thatwhich we see is the vast bed of china clay through which the Wormoriginally found its way down to its lair. I can catch the glint of thewater of the deep quags far down below. Well, her ladyship didn'tdeserve such a funeral--or such a monument."
* * * * *
The horrors of the last few hours had played such havoc with Mimi'snerves, that a change of scene was imperative--if a permanent breakdownwas to be avoided.
"I think," said old Mr. Salton, "it is quite time you young peopledeparted for that honeymoon of yours!" There was a twinkle in his eye ashe spoke.
Mimi's soft shy glance at her stalwart husband, was sufficient answer.