Chapter V: The White Worm

by Bram Stoker

　　Mr. Salton introduced Adam to Mr. Watford and his grand-daughters,and they all moved on together. Of course neighbours in theposition of the Watfords knew all about Adam Salton, hisrelationship, circumstances, and prospects. So it would have beenstrange indeed if both girls did not dream of possibilities of thefuture. In agricultural England, eligible men of any class arerare. This particular man was specially eligible, for he did notbelong to a class in which barriers of caste were strong. So whenit began to be noticed that he walked beside Mimi Watford and seemedto desire her society, all their friends endeavoured to give thepromising affair a helping hand. When the gongs sounded for thebanquet, he went with her into the tent where her grandfather hadseats. Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel noticed that the young man didnot come to claim his appointed place at the dais table; but theyunderstood and made no remark, or indeed did not seem to notice hisabsence.Lady Arabella sat as before at Edgar Caswall's right hand. She wascertainly a striking and unusual woman, and to all it seemed fittingfrom her rank and personal qualities that she should be the chosenpartner of the heir on his first appearance. Of course nothing wassaid openly by those of her own class who were present; but wordswere not necessary when so much could be expressed by nods andsmiles. It seemed to be an accepted thing that at last there was tobe a mistress of Castra Regis, and that she was present amongstthem. There were not lacking some who, whilst admitting all hercharm and beauty, placed her in the second rank, Lilla Watford beingmarked as first. There was sufficient divergence of type, as wellas of individual beauty, to allow of fair comment; Lady Arabellarepresented the aristocratic type, and Lilla that of the commonalty.When the dusk began to thicken, Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel walkedhome--the trap had been sent away early in the day--leaving Adam tofollow in his own time. He came in earlier than was expected, andseemed upset about something. Neither of the elders made anycomment. They all lit cigarettes, and, as dinner-time was close athand, went to their rooms to get ready.Adam had evidently been thinking in the interval. He joined theothers in the drawing-room, looking ruffled and impatient--acondition of things seen for the first time. The others, with thepatience--or the experience--of age, trusted to time to unfold andexplain things. They had not long to wait. After sitting down andstanding up several times, Adam suddenly burst out."That fellow seems to think he owns the earth. Can't he let peoplealone! He seems to think that he has only to throw his handkerchiefto any woman, and be her master."This outburst was in itself enlightening. Only thwarted affectionin some guise could produce this feeling in an amiable young man.Sir Nathaniel, as an old diplomatist, had a way of understanding, asif by foreknowledge, the true inwardness of things, and askedsuddenly, but in a matter-of-fact, indifferent voice:"Was he after Lilla?""Yes, and the fellow didn't lose any time either. Almost as soon asthey met, he began to butter her up, and tell her how beautiful shewas. Why, before he left her side, he had asked himself to tea to-morrow at Mercy Farm. Stupid ass! He might see that the girl isn'this sort! I never saw anything like it. It was just like a hawkand a pigeon."As he spoke, Sir Nathaniel turned and looked at Mr. Salton--a keenlook which implied a full understanding."Tell us all about it, Adam. There are still a few minutes beforedinner, and we shall all have better appetites when we have come tosome conclusion on this matter.""There is nothing to tell, sir; that is the worst of it. I am boundto say that there was not a word said that a human being couldobject to. He was very civil, and all that was proper--just what alandlord might be to a tenant's daughter. . . Yet--yet--well, Idon't know how it was, but it made my blood boil.""How did the hawk and the pigeon come in?" Sir Nathaniel's voicewas soft and soothing, nothing of contradiction or overdonecuriosity in it--a tone eminently suited to win confidence."I can hardly explain. I can only say that he looked like a hawkand she like a dove--and, now that I think of it, that is what theyeach did look like; and do look like in their normal condition.""That is so!" came the soft voice of Sir Nathaniel.Adam went on:"Perhaps that early Roman look of his set me off. But I wanted toprotect her; she seemed in danger.""She seems in danger, in a way, from all you young men. I couldn'thelp noticing the way that even you looked--as if you wished toabsorb her!""I hope both you young men will keep your heads cool," put in Mr.Salton. "You know, Adam, it won't do to have any quarrel betweenyou, especially so soon after his home-coming and your arrival here.We must think of the feelings and happiness of our neighbours;mustn't we?""I hope so, sir. I assure you that, whatever may happen, or eventhreaten, I shall obey your wishes in this as in all things.""Hush!" whispered Sir Nathaniel, who heard the servants in thepassage bringing dinner.After dinner, over the walnuts and the wine, Sir Nathaniel returnedto the subject of the local legends."It will perhaps be a less dangerous topic for us to discuss thanmore recent ones.""All right, sir," said Adam heartily. "I think you may depend on menow with regard to any topic. I can even discuss Mr. Caswall.Indeed, I may meet him to-morrow. He is going, as I said, to callat Mercy Farm at three 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, lestthe mood of his listener should change with delay, Sir Nathanielbegan at once:"I don't propose to tell you all the legends of Mercia, or even tomake a selection of them. It will be better, I think, for ourpurpose if we consider a few facts--recorded or unrecorded--aboutthis neighbourhood. I think we might begin with Diana's Grove. Ithas roots in the different epochs of our history, and each has itsspecial crop of legend. The Druid and the Roman are too far off formatters of detail; but it seems to me the Saxon and the Angles arenear enough to yield material for legendary lore. We find that thisparticular place had another name besides Diana's Grove. This wasmanifestly of Roman origin, or of Grecian accepted as Roman. Theother is more pregnant of adventure and romance than the Roman name.In Mercian tongue it was 'The Lair of the White Worm.' This needs aword of explanation at the beginning."In the dawn of the language, the word 'worm' had a somewhatdifferent meaning from that in use to-day. It was an adaptation ofthe Anglo-Saxon 'wyrm,' meaning a dragon or snake; or from theGothic 'waurms,' a serpent; or the Icelandic 'ormur,' or the German'wurm.' We gather that it conveyed originally an idea of size andpower, not as now in the diminutive of both these meanings. Herelegendary history helps us. We have the well-known legend of the'Worm Well' of Lambton Castle, and that of the 'Laidly Worm ofSpindleston Heugh' near Bamborough. In both these legends the'worm' was a monster of vast size and power--a veritable dragon orserpent, such as legend attributes to vast fens or quags where therewas illimitable room for expansion. A glance at a geological mapwill show that whatever truth there may have been of the actualityof such monsters in the early geologic periods, at least there wasplenty of possibility. In England there were originally vast plainswhere the plentiful supply of water could gather. The streams weredeep and slow, and there were holes of abysmal depth, where any kindand size of antediluvian monster could find a habitat. In places,which now we can see from our windows, were mud-holes a hundred ormore feet deep. Who can tell us when the age of the monsters whichflourished in slime came to an end? There must have been places andconditions which made for greater longevity, greater size, greaterstrength than was usual. Such over-lappings may have come down evento our earlier centuries. Nay, are there not now creatures of avastness of bulk regarded by the generality of men as impossible?Even in our own day there are seen the traces of animals, if not theanimals themselves, of stupendous size--veritable survivals fromearlier ages, preserved by some special qualities in their habitats.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 snakewhich he had come across in the Terai of Upper India. He was on atiger-shooting expedition, and as his elephant was crossing anullah, it squealed. He looked down from his howdah and saw thatthe elephant had stepped across the body of a snake which wasdragging itself through the jungle. 'So far as I could see,' hesaid, 'it must have been eighty or one hundred feet in length.Fully forty or fifty feet was on each side of the track, and thoughthe weight which it dragged had thinned it, it was as thick round asa man's body. I suppose you know that when you are after tiger, itis a point of honour not to shoot at anything else, as life maydepend on it. I could easily have spined this monster, but I feltthat I must not--so, with regret, I had to let it go.'"Just imagine such a monster anywhere in this country, and at oncewe could get a sort of idea of the 'worms,' which possibly didfrequent the great morasses which spread round the mouths of many ofthe great European rivers.""I haven't the least doubt, sir, that there may have been suchmonsters as you have spoken of still existing at a much later periodthan is generally accepted," replied Adam. "Also, if there weresuch things, that this was the very place for them. I have tried tothink over the matter since you pointed out the configuration of theground. But it seems to me that there is a hiatus somewhere. Arethere not mechanical difficulties?""In what way?""Well, our antique monster must have been mighty heavy, and thedistances he had to travel were long and the ways difficult. Fromwhere we are now sitting down to the level of the mud-holes is adistance of several hundred feet--I am leaving out of considerationaltogether any lateral distance. Is it possible that there was away by which a monster could travel up and down, and yet no chancerecorder have ever seen him? Of course we have the legends; but isnot some more exact evidence necessary in a scientificinvestigation?""My dear Adam, all you say is perfectly right, and, were we startingon such an investigation, we could not do better than follow yourreasoning. But, my dear boy, you must remember that all this tookplace thousands of years ago. You must remember, too, that allrecords of the kind that would help us are lacking. Also, that theplaces to be considered were desert, so far as human habitation orpopulation are considered. In the vast desolation of such a placeas complied with the necessary conditions, there must have been suchprofusion of natural growth as would bar the progress of men formedas we are. The lair of such a monster would not have been disturbedfor hundreds--or thousands--of years. Moreover, these creaturesmust have occupied places quite inaccessible to man. A snake whocould make himself comfortable in a quagmire, a hundred feet deep,would be protected on the outskirts by such stupendous morasses asnow no longer exist, or which, if they exist anywhere at all, can beon very few places on the earth's surface. Far be it from me to saythat in more elemental times such things could not have been. Thecondition belongs to the geologic age--the great birth and growth ofthe world, when natural forces ran riot, when the struggle forexistence was so savage that no vitality which was not founded in agigantic form could have even a possibility of survival. That sucha time existed, we have evidences in geology, but there only; we cannever expect proofs such as this age demands. We can only imagineor surmise such things--or such conditions and such forces asovercame them."