Chapter X: The Kite

by Bram Stoker

　　On the following day, a little after four o'clock, Adam set out forMercy.He was home just as the clocks were striking six. He was pale andupset, but otherwise looked strong and alert. The old man summed uphis appearance and manner thus: "Braced up for battle.""Now!" said Sir Nathaniel, and settled down to listen, looking atAdam steadily and listening attentively that he might miss nothing--even the inflection of a word."I found Lilla and Mimi at home. Watford had been detained bybusiness on the farm. Miss Watford received me as kindly as before;Mimi, too, seemed glad to see me. Mr. Caswall came so soon after Iarrived, that he, or someone on his behalf, must have been watchingfor me. He was followed closely by the negro, who was puffing hardas if he had been running--so it was probably he who watched. Mr.Caswall was very cool and collected, but there was a more thanusually iron look about his face that I did not like. However, wegot on very well. He talked pleasantly on all sorts of questions.The nigger waited a while and then disappeared as on the otheroccasion. Mr. Caswall's eyes were as usual fixed on Lilla. True,they seemed to be very deep and earnest, but there was no offence inthem. Had it not been for the drawing down of the brows and thestern set of the jaws, I should not at first have noticed anything.But the stare, when presently it began, increased in intensity. Icould see that Lilla began to suffer from nervousness, as on thefirst occasion; but she carried herself bravely. However, the morenervous she grew, the harder Mr. Caswall stared. It was evident tome that he had come prepared for some sort of mesmeric or hypnoticbattle. After a while he began to throw glances round him and thenraised his hand, without letting either Lilla or Mimi see theaction. It was evidently intended to give some sign to the negro,for he came, in his usual stealthy way, quietly in by the hall door,which was open. Then Mr. Caswall's efforts at staring becameintensified, and poor Lilla's nervousness grew greater. Mimi,seeing that her cousin was distressed, came close to her, as if tocomfort or strengthen her with the consciousness of her presence.This evidently made a difficulty for Mr. Caswall, for his efforts,without appearing to get feebler, seemed less effective. Thiscontinued for a little while, to the gain of both Lilla and Mimi.Then there was a diversion. Without word or apology the dooropened, and Lady Arabella March entered the room. I had seen hercoming through the great window. Without a word she crossed theroom and stood beside Mr. Caswall. It really was very like a fightof a peculiar kind; and the longer it was sustained the moreearnest--the fiercer--it grew. That combination of forces--theover-lord, the white woman, and the black man--would have cost some--probably all of them--their lives in the Southern States ofAmerica. To us it was simply horrible. But all that you canunderstand. This time, to go on in sporting phrase, it wasunderstood by all to be a 'fight to a finish,' and the mixed groupdid not slacken a moment or relax their efforts. On Lilla thestrain began to tell disastrously. She grew pale--a patchy pallor,which meant that her nerves were out of order. She trembled like anaspen, and though she struggled bravely, I noticed that her legswould hardly support her. A dozen times she seemed about tocollapse in a faint, but each time, on catching sight of Mimi'seyes, she made a fresh struggle and pulled through."By now Mr. Caswall's face had lost its appearance of passivity.His eyes glowed with a fiery light. He was still the old Roman ininflexibility of purpose; but grafted on to the Roman was a newBerserker fury. His companions in the baleful work seemed to havetaken on something of his feeling. Lady Arabella looked like asoulless, pitiless being, not human, unless it revived old legendsof transformed human beings who had lost their humanity in sometransformation or in the sweep of natural savagery. As for thenegro--well, I can only say that it was solely due to the self-restraint which you impressed on me that I did not wipe him out ashe stood--without warning, without fair play--without a single oneof the graces of life and death. Lilla was silent in the helplessconcentration of deadly fear; Mimi was all resolve and self-forgetfulness, so intent on the soul-struggle in which she wasengaged that there was no possibility of any other thought. As formyself, the bonds of will which held me inactive seemed like bandsof steel which numbed all my faculties, except sight and hearing.We seemed fixed in an impasse. Something must happen, though thepower of guessing was inactive. As in a dream, I saw Mimi's handmove restlessly, as if groping for something. Mechanically ittouched that of Lilla, and in that instant she was transformed. Itwas as if youth and strength entered afresh into something alreadydead to sensibility and intention. As if by inspiration, shegrasped the other's band with a force which blenched the knuckles.Her face suddenly flamed, as if some divine light shone through it.Her form expanded till it stood out majestically. Lifting her righthand, she stepped forward towards Caswall, and with a bold sweep ofher arm seemed to drive some strange force towards him. Again andagain was the gesture repeated, the man falling back from her ateach movement. Towards the door he retreated, she following. Therewas a sound as of the cooing sob of doves, which seemed to multiplyand intensify with each second. The sound from the unseen sourcerose and rose as he retreated, till finally it swelled out in atriumphant peal, as she with a fierce sweep of her arm, seemed tohurl something at her foe, and he, moving his hands blindly beforehis face, appeared to be swept through the doorway and out into theopen sunlight."All at once my own faculties were fully restored; I could see andhear everything, and be fully conscious of what was going on. Eventhe figures of the baleful group were there, though dimly seen asthrough a veil--a shadowy veil. I saw Lilla sink down in a swoon,and Mimi throw up her arms in a gesture of triumph. As I saw herthrough the great window, the sunshine flooded the landscape, which,however, was momentarily becoming eclipsed by an onrush of a myriadbirds."By the next morning, daylight showed the actual danger whichthreatened. From every part of the eastern counties reports werereceived concerning the enormous immigration of birds. Experts weresending--on their own account, on behalf of learned societies, andthrough local and imperial governing bodies--reports dealing withthe matter, and suggesting remedies.The reports closer to home were even more disturbing. All day longit would seem that the birds were coming thicker from all quarters.Doubtless many were going as well as coming, but the mass seemednever to get less. Each bird seemed to sound some note of fear oranger or seeking, and the whirring of wings never ceased norlessened. The air was full of a muttered throb. No window orbarrier could shut out the sound, till the ears of any listenerbecame dulled by the ceaseless murmur. So monotonous it was, socheerless, so disheartening, so melancholy, that all longed, but invain, for any variety, no matter how terrible it might be.The second morning the reports from all the districts round weremore alarming than ever. Farmers began to dread the coming ofwinter as they saw the dwindling of the timely fruitfulness of theearth. And as yet it was only a warning of evil, not the evilaccomplished; the ground began to look bare whenever some passingsound temporarily frightened the birds.Edgar Caswall tortured his brain for a long time unavailingly, tothink of some means of getting rid of what he, as well as hisneighbours, had come to regard as a plague of birds. At last herecalled a circumstance which promised a solution of the difficulty.The experience was of some years ago in China, far up-country,towards the head-waters of the Yang-tze-kiang, where the smallertributaries spread out in a sort of natural irrigation scheme tosupply the wilderness of paddy-fields. It was at the time of theripening rice, and the myriads of birds which came to feed on thecoming crop was a serious menace, not only to the district, but tothe country at large. The farmers, who were more or less afflictedwith the same trouble every season, knew how to deal with it. Theymade a vast kite, which they caused to be flown over the centre spotof the incursion. The kite was shaped like a great hawk; and themoment it rose into the air the birds began to cower and seekprotection--and then to disappear. So long as that kite was flyingoverhead the birds lay low and the crop was saved. AccordinglyCaswall ordered his men to construct an immense kite, adhering aswell as they could to the lines of a hawk. Then he and his men,with a sufficiency of cord, began to fly it high overhead. Theexperience of China was repeated. The moment the kite rose, thebirds hid or sought shelter. The following morning, the kite wasstill flying high, no bird was to be seen as far as the eye couldreach from Castra Regis. But there followed in turn what provedeven a worse evil. All the birds were cowed; their sounds stopped.Neither song nor chirp was heard--silence seemed to have taken theplace of the normal voices of bird life. But that was not all. Thesilence spread to all animals.The fear and restraint which brooded amongst the denizens of the airbegan to affect all life. Not only did the birds cease song orchirp, but the lowing of the cattle ceased in the fields and thevaried sounds of life died away. In place of these things was onlya soundless gloom, more dreadful, more disheartening, more soul-killing than any concourse of sounds, no matter how full of fear anddread. Pious individuals put up constant prayers for relief fromthe intolerable solitude. After a little there were signs ofuniversal depression which those who ran might read. One and all,the faces of men and women seemed bereft of vitality, of interest,of thought, and, most of all, of hope. Men seemed to have lost thepower of expression of their thoughts. The soundless air seemed tohave the same effect as the universal darkness when men gnawed theirtongues with pain.From this infliction of silence there was no relief. Everything wasaffected; gloom was the predominant note. Joy appeared to havepassed away as a factor of life, and this creative impulse hadnothing to take its place. That giant spot in high air was a plagueof evil influence. It seemed like a new misanthropic belief whichhad fallen on human beings, carrying with it the negation of allhope.After a few days, men began to grow desperate; their very words aswell as their senses seemed to be in chains. Edgar Caswall againtortured his brain to find any antidote or palliative of thisgreater evil than before. He would gladly have destroyed the kite,or caused its flying to cease; but the instant it was pulled down,the birds rose up in even greater numbers; all those who depended inany way on agriculture sent pitiful protests to Castra Regis.It was strange indeed what influence that weird kite seemed toexercise. Even human beings were affected by it, as if both it andthey were realities. As for the people at Mercy Farm, it was like ataste of actual death. Lilla felt it most. If she had been indeeda real dove, with a real kite hanging over her in the air, she couldnot have been more frightened or more affected by the terror thiscreated.Of course, some of those already drawn into the vortex noticed theeffect on individuals. Those who were interested took care tocompare their information. Strangely enough, as it seemed to theothers, the person who took the ghastly silence least to heart wasthe negro. By nature he was not sensitive to, or afflicted by,nerves. This alone would not have produced the seemingindifference, so they set their minds to discover the real cause.Adam came quickly to the conclusion that there was for him somecompensation that the others did not share; and he soon believedthat that compensation was in one form or another the enjoyment ofthe sufferings of others. Thus the black had a never-failing sourceof amusement.Lady Arabella's cold nature rendered her immune to anything in theway of pain or trouble concerning others. Edgar Caswall was far toohaughty a person, and too stern of nature, to concern himself aboutpoor or helpless people, much less the lower order of mere animals.Mr. Watford, Mr. Salton, and Sir Nathaniel were all concerned in theissue, partly from kindness of heart--for none of them could seesuffering, even of wild birds, unmoved--and partly on account oftheir property, which had to be protected, or ruin would stare themin the face before long.Lilla suffered acutely. As time went on, her face became pinched,and her eyes dull with watching and crying. Mimi suffered too onaccount of her cousin's suffering. But as she could do nothing, sheresolutely made up her mind to self-restraint and patience. Adam'sfrequent visits comforted her.