"Yes, and wanted to bribe me to do it by sharing a chest of treasure--atleast, he thought it was--stolen from Mr. Caswall. Why do you distrusthim, Mr. Salton?"
"Did you notice that box he had slung on his shoulder? That belongs tome. I left it in the gun-room when I went to lunch. He must have creptin and stolen it. Doubtless he thinks that it, too, is full oftreasure."
"He does!"
"How on earth do you know?" asked Adam.
"A little while ago he offered to give it to me--another bribe to accepthim. Faugh! I am ashamed to tell you such a thing. The beast!"
Whilst they had been speaking, she had opened the door, a narrow ironone, well hung, for it opened easily and closed tightly without anycreaking or sound of any kind. Within all was dark; but she entered asfreely and with as little misgiving or restraint as if it had been broaddaylight. For Adam, there was just sufficient green light from somewherefor him to see that there was a broad flight of heavy stone steps leadingupward; but Lady Arabella, after shutting the door behind her, when itclosed tightly without a clang, tripped up the steps lightly and swiftly.For an instant all was dark, but there came again the faint green lightwhich enabled him to see the outlines of things. Another iron door,narrow like the first and fairly high, led into another large room, thewalls of which were of massive stones, so closely joined together as toexhibit only one smooth surface. This presented the appearance of havingat one time been polished. On the far side, also smooth like the walls,was the reverse of a wide, but not high, iron door. Here there was alittle more light, for the high-up aperture over the door opened to theair.
Lady Arabella took from her girdle another small key, which she insertedin a keyhole in the centre of a massive lock. The great bolt seemedwonderfully hung, for the moment the small key was turned, the bolts ofthe great lock moved noiselessly and the iron doors swung open. On thestone steps outside stood Oolanga, with the mongoose box slung over hisshoulder. Lady Arabella stood a little on one side, and the African,accepting the movement as an invitation, entered in an obsequious way.The moment, however, that he was inside, he gave a quick look around him.
"Much death here--big death. Many deaths. Good, good!"
He sniffed round as if he was enjoying the scent. The matter and mannerof his speech were so revolting that instinctively Adam's hand wanderedto his revolver, and, with his finger on the trigger, he rested satisfiedthat he was ready for any emergency.
There was certainly opportunity for the nigger's enjoyment, for the openwell-hole was almost under his nose, sending up such a stench as almostmade Adam sick, though Lady Arabella seemed not to mind it at all. Itwas like nothing that Adam had ever met with. He compared it with allthe noxious experiences he had ever had--the drainage of war hospitals,of slaughter-houses, the refuse of dissecting rooms. None of these waslike it, though it had something of them all, with, added, the sournessof chemical waste and the poisonous effluvium of the bilge of a water-logged ship whereon a multitude of rats had been drowned.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the negro noticed the presence of a thirdperson--Adam Salton! He pulled out a pistol and shot at him, happilymissing. Adam was himself usually a quick shot, but this time his mindhad been on something else and he was not ready. However, he was quickto carry out an intention, and he was not a coward. In another momentboth men were in grips. Beside them was the dark well-hole, with thathorrid effluvium stealing up from its mysterious depths.
Adam and Oolanga both had pistols; Lady Arabella, who had not one, wasprobably the most ready of them all in the theory of shooting, but thatbeing impossible, she made her effort in another way. Gliding forward,she tried to seize the African; but he eluded her grasp, just missing, indoing so, falling into the mysterious hole. As he swayed back to firmfoothold, he turned his own gun on her and shot. Instinctively Adamleaped at his assailant; clutching at each other, they tottered on thevery brink.
Lady Arabella's anger, now fully awake, was all for Oolanga. She movedtowards him with her hands extended, and had just seized him when thecatch of the locked box--due to some movement from within--flew open, andthe king-cobra-killer flew at her with a venomous fury impossible todescribe. As it seized her throat, she caught hold of it, and, with afury superior to its own, tore it in two just as if it had been a sheetof paper. The strength used for such an act must have been terrific. Inan instant, it seemed to spout blood and entrails, and was hurled intothe well-hole. In another instant she had seized Oolanga, and with aswift rush had drawn him, her white arms encircling him, down with herinto the gaping aperture.
Adam saw a medley of green and red lights blaze in a whirling circle, andas it sank down into the well, a pair of blazing green eyes became fixed,sank lower and lower with frightful rapidity, and disappeared, throwingupward the green light which grew more and more vivid every moment. Asthe light sank into the noisome depths, there came a shriek which chilledAdam's blood--a prolonged agony of pain and terror which seemed to haveno end.
Adam Salton felt that he would never be able to free his mind from thememory of those dreadful moments. The gloom which surrounded thathorrible charnel pit, which seemed to go down to the very bowels of theearth, conveyed from far down the sights and sounds of the nethermosthell. The ghastly fate of the African as he sank down to his terribledoom, his black face growing grey with terror, his white eyeballs, nowlike veined bloodstone, rolling in the helpless extremity of fear. Themysterious green light was in itself a milieu of horror. And through itall the awful cry came up from that fathomless pit, whose entrance wasflooded with spots of fresh blood. Even the death of the fearless littlesnake-killer--so fierce, so frightful, as if stained with a ferocitywhich told of no living force above earth, but only of the devils of thepit--was only an incident. Adam was in a state of intellectual tumult,which had no parallel in his experience. He tried to rush away from thehorrible place; even the baleful green light, thrown up through thegloomy well-shaft, was dying away as its source sank deeper into theprimeval ooze. The darkness was closing in on him in overwhelmingdensity--darkness in such a place and with such a memory of it!
He made a wild rush forward--slipt on the steps in some sticky, acrid-smelling mass that felt and smelt like blood, and, falling forward, felthis way into the inner room, where the well-shaft was not.
Then he rubbed his eyes in sheer amazement. Up the stone steps from thenarrow door by which he had entered, glided the white-clad figure of LadyArabella, the only colour to be seen on her being blood-marks on her faceand hands and throat. Otherwise, she was calm and unruffled, as whenearlier she stood aside for him to pass in through the narrow iron door.
CHAPTER XIX--AN ENEMY IN THE DARK
Adam Salton went for a walk before returning to Lesser Hill; he felt thatit might be well, not only to steady his nerves, shaken by the horriblescene, but to get his thoughts into some sort of order, so as to be readyto enter on the matter with Sir Nathaniel. He was a little embarrassedas to telling his uncle, for affairs had so vastly progressed beyond hisoriginal view that he felt a little doubtful as to what would be the oldgentleman's attitude when he should hear of the strange events for thefirst time. Mr. Salton would certainly not be satisfied at being treatedas an outsider with regard to such things, most of which had points ofcontact with the inmates of his own house. It was with an immense senseof relief that Adam heard that his uncle had telegraphed to thehousekeeper that he was detained by business at Walsall, where he wouldremain for the night; and that he would be back in the morning in timefor lunch.
When Adam got home after his walk, he found Sir Nathaniel just going tobed. He did not say anything to him then of what had happened, butcontented himself with arranging that they would walk together in theearly morning, as he had much to say that would require seriousattention.
Strangely enough he slept well, and awoke at dawn with his mind clear andhis nerves in their usual unshaken condition. The maid brought up, withhis early morning cup of tea, a note which had been found in the letter-box. It was from Lady Arabella, and was evidently intended to put him onhis guard as to what he should say about the previous evening.
He read it over carefully several times, before he was satisfied that hehad taken in its full import.
"DEAR MR. SALTON,
"I cannot go to bed until I have written to you, so you must forgive me if I disturb you, and at an unseemly time. Indeed, you must also forgive me if, in trying to do what is right, I err in saying too much or too little. The fact is that I am quite upset and unnerved by all that has happened in this terrible night. I find it difficult even to write; my hands shake so that they are not under control, and I am trembling all over with memory of the horrors we saw enacted before our eyes. I am grieved beyond measure that I should be, however remotely, a cause of this horror coming on you. Forgive me if you can, and do not think too hardly of me. This I ask with confidence, for since we shared together the danger--the very pangs--of death, I feel that we should be to one another something more than mere friends, that I may lean on you and trust you, assured that your sympathy and pity are for me. You really must let me thank you for the friendliness, the help, the confidence, the real aid at a time of deadly danger and deadly fear which you showed me. That awful man--I shall see him for ever in my dreams. His black, malignant face will shut out all memory of sunshine and happiness. I shall eternally see his evil eyes as he threw himself into that well-hole in a vain effort to escape from the consequences of his own misdoing. The more I think of it, the more apparent it seems to me that he had premeditated the whole thing--of course, except his own horrible death.
"Perhaps you have noticed a fur collar I occasionally wear. It is one of my most valued treasures--an ermine collar studded with emeralds. I had often seen the nigger's eyes gleam covetously when he looked at it. Unhappily, I wore it yesterday. That may have been the cause that lured the poor man to his doom. On the very brink of the abyss he tore the collar from my neck--that was the last I saw of him. When he sank into the hole, I was rushing to the iron door, which I pulled behind me. When I heard that soul-sickening yell, which marked his disappearance in the chasm, I was more glad than I can say that my eyes were spared the pain and horror which my ears had to endure.
"When I tore myself out of the negro's grasp as he sank into the well- hole; I realised what freedom meant. Freedom! Freedom! Not only from that noisome prison-house, which has now such a memory, but from the more noisome embrace of that hideous monster. Whilst I live, I shall always thank you for my freedom. A woman must sometimes express her gratitude; otherwise it becomes too great to bear. I am not a sentimental girl, who merely likes to thank a man; I am a woman who knows all, of bad as well as good, that life can give. I have known what it is to love and to lose. But you must not let me bring any unhappiness into your life. I must live on--as I have lived--alone, and, in addition, bear with other woes the memory of this latest insult and horror. In the meantime, I must get away as quickly as possible from Diana's Grove. In the morning I shall go up to town, where I shall remain for a week--I cannot stay longer, as business affairs demand my presence here. I think, however, that a week in the rush of busy London, surrounded with multitudes of commonplace people, will help to soften--I cannot expect total obliteration--the terrible images of the bygone night. When I can sleep easily--which will be, I hope, after a day or two--I shall be fit to return home and take up again the burden which will, I suppose, always be with me.
"I shall be most happy to see you on my return--or earlier, if my good fortune sends you on any errand to London. I shall stay at the Mayfair Hotel. In that busy spot we may forget some of the dangers and horrors we have shared together. Adieu, and thank you, again and again, for all your kindness and consideration to me.
"ARABELLA MARSH."
Adam was surprised by this effusive epistle, but he determined to saynothing of it to Sir Nathaniel until he should have thought it well over.When Adam met Sir Nathaniel at breakfast, he was glad that he had takentime to turn things over in his mind. The result had been that not onlywas he familiar with the facts in all their bearings, but he had alreadyso far differentiated them that he was able to arrange them in his ownmind according to their values. Breakfast had been a silent function, soit did not interfere in any way with the process of thought.
So soon as the door was closed, Sir Nathaniel began: