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except--" here he began to shake and tremble it--"except the chest which Mr. Edgar--he who was Mr. Edgar
when I first took service--brought back from France, after he had been with Dr. Mesmer. The trunk has
been kept in my room for safety; but I shall send it down here now."
"What is in it?" asked Edgar sharply.
"That I do not know. Moreover, it is a peculiar trunk, without any visible means of opening."
"Is there no lock?"
"I suppose so, sir; but I do not know. There is no keyhole."
"Send it here; and then come to me yourself."
The trunk, a heavy one with steel bands round it, but no lock or keyhole, was carried in by two men.
Shortly afterwards old Simon attended his master. When he came into the room, Mr. Caswall himself went
and closed the door; then he asked:
"How do you open it?"
"I do not know, sir."
"Do you mean to say that you never opened it?"
"Most certainly I say so, your honour. How could I? It was entrusted to me with the other things by my
master. To open it would have been a breach 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-- make any remark?"
Old Simon turned pale, and put his trembling hands together.
"Oh, sir, I entreat you not to touch it. That trunk probably contains secrets 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 had thought 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. I may want you."
The old man bowed deeply and went out trembling, but without speaking a word.
CHAPTER XII
THE CHEST OPENED
Left alone in the turret-room, Edgar Caswall carefully locked the door and hung a handkerchief over the
keyhole. Next, he inspected the windows, and saw that they were not overlooked from any angle of the
main building. Then he carefully examined the trunk, going over it with a magnifying glass. He found it
intact: the steel bands were flawless; the whole trunk was compact. After sitting opposite to it for some
time, and the shades of evening beginning to melt into darkness, he gave up the task and went to his
bedroom, after locking the door of the turret-room behind him and taking away the key.
He woke in the morning at daylight, and resumed his patient but unavailing study of the metal trunk.
This he continued during the whole day with the same result--humiliating disappointment, which
overwrought his nerves and made his head ache. The result of the long strain was seen later in the
afternoon, when he sat locked within the turret-room before the still baffling trunk, distrait, listless and yet
agitated, sunk in a settled gloom. As the dusk was falling he told the steward to send him two men, strong
ones. These he ordered to take the trunk to his bedroom. In that room he then sat on into the night, without
pausing even 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 his room his brain was full of odd fancies; he was on the high road to
mental disturbance. He lay down on his bed in the dark, still brooding over the mystery of the closed trunk.
Gradually he yielded to the influences of silence and darkness. After lying there quietly for some time,
his mind became active again. But this time there were round him no disturbing influences; his brain was
active and able to work freely and to deal with memory. A thousand forgotten--or only half-known--
incidents, fragments of conversations or theories long ago guessed at and long forgotten, crowded on his
mind. He seemed to hear again around him the legions of whirring wings to which he had been so lately
accustomed. Even to himself he knew that that was an effort of imagination founded on imperfect memory.
But he was content that imagination should work, for out of it might come some solution of the mystery
which surrounded him. And in this frame of mind, sleep made another and more successful essay. This
time he enjoyed peaceful slumber, restful alike to his wearied body and his overwrought brain.
In his sleep he arose, and, as if in obedience to some influence beyond and greater than himself, lifted the
great trunk and set it on a strong table at one side of the room, from which he had previously removed a
quantity of books. To do this, he had to use an amount of strength which was, he knew, far beyond him in
his normal state. As it was, it seemed easy enough; everything yielded before his touch. Then he became
conscious that somehow--how, he never could remember--the chest was open. He unlocked his door, and,
taking the chest on his shoulder, carried it up to the turret- room, the door of which also he unlocked. Even
at the time 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 immediate things. He knew that the chest was enormously heavy.
He seemed, in a sort of vision which lit up the absolute blackness around, to see the two sturdy servant men
staggering under its great weight. He locked himself again in the turret-room, and laid the opened chest on a
table, and in the darkness began to unpack it, laying out the contents, which were mainly of metal and glass-
-great pieces in strange forms--on another table. He was conscious of being still asleep, and of acting rather
in obedience to some unseen and unknown command than in accordance with any reasonable plan, to be
followed by results which he understood. This phase completed, he proceeded to arrange in order the
component parts of some large instruments, formed mostly of glass. His fingers seemed to have acquired a
new and exquisite subtlety and even a volition of their own. Then weariness of brain came upon him; his
head sank down on his breast, and little by little everything became wrapped in gloom.
He awoke in the early morning in his bedroom, and looked around him, now clear-headed, in amazement.
In its usual place on the strong table stood the 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 as it had been on the previous
evening. He looked out of the window where high in air flew, as usual, the giant kite. He unlocked the
wicket gate of the turret stair and went out on the roof. Close to him was the great coil of cord on its reel. It
was humming in the morning breeze, and when he touched the string it sent a quick thrill through hand and
arm. There was no sign anywhere that there had been any disturbance or displacement of anything during
the night.
Utterly bewildered, he sat down in his room to think. Now for the first time he FELT that he was asleep
and dreaming. Presently he fell asleep again, and slept for a long time. He awoke hungry and made a hearty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]