Chapter XII: The Chest Opened

by Bram Stoker

　　Left alone in the turret-room, Edgar Caswall carefully locked thedoor and hung a handkerchief over the keyhole. Next, he inspectedthe windows, and saw that they were not overlooked from any angle ofthe main building. Then he carefully examined the trunk, going overit with a magnifying glass. He found it intact: the steel bandswere flawless; the whole trunk was compact. After sitting oppositeto it for some time, and the shades of evening beginning to meltinto darkness, he gave up the task and went to his bedroom, afterlocking the door of the turret-room behind him and taking away thekey.He woke in the morning at daylight, and resumed his patient butunavailing study of the metal trunk. This he continued during thewhole day with the same result--humiliating disappointment, whichoverwrought his nerves and made his head ache. The result of thelong strain was seen later in the afternoon, when he sat lockedwithin the turret-room before the still baffling trunk, distrait,listless and yet agitated, sunk in a settled gloom. As the dusk wasfalling he told the steward to send him two men, strong ones. Thesehe ordered to take the trunk to his bedroom. In that room he thensat on into the night, without pausing even to take any food. Hismind was in a whirl, a fever of excitement. The result was thatwhen, late in the night, he locked himself in his room his brain wasfull 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 mysteryof the closed trunk.Gradually he yielded to the influences of silence and darkness.After lying there quietly for some time, his mind became activeagain. But this time there were round him no disturbing influences;his brain was active and able to work freely and to deal withmemory. A thousand forgotten--or only half-known--incidents,fragments of conversations or theories long ago guessed at and longforgotten, crowded on his mind. He seemed to hear again around himthe legions of whirring wings to which he had been so latelyaccustomed. Even to himself he knew that that was an effort ofimagination founded on imperfect memory. But he was content thatimagination should work, for out of it might come some solution ofthe mystery which surrounded him. And in this frame of mind, sleepmade another and more successful essay. This time he enjoyedpeaceful slumber, restful alike to his wearied body and hisoverwrought brain.In his sleep he arose, and, as if in obedience to some influencebeyond and greater than himself, lifted the great trunk and set iton a strong table at one side of the room, from which he hadpreviously removed a quantity of books. To do this, he had to usean amount of strength which was, he knew, far beyond him in hisnormal state. As it was, it seemed easy enough; everything yieldedbefore his touch. Then he became conscious that somehow--how, henever 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 wasamazed at his own strength, and wondered whence it had come. Hismind, lost in conjecture, was too far off to realise more immediatethings. He knew that the chest was enormously heavy. He seemed, ina sort of vision which lit up the absolute blackness around, to seethe two sturdy servant men staggering under its great weight. Helocked himself again in the turret-room, and laid the opened cheston a table, and in the darkness began to unpack it, laying out thecontents, which were mainly of metal and glass--great pieces instrange forms--on another table. He was conscious of being stillasleep, and of acting rather in obedience to some unseen and unknowncommand than in accordance with any reasonable plan, to be followedby results which he understood. This phase completed, he proceededto arrange in order the component parts of some large instruments,formed mostly of glass. His fingers seemed to have acquired a newand exquisite subtlety and even a volition of their own. Thenweariness 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 strongtable stood the great steel-hooped chest without lock or key. Butit was now locked. He arose quietly and stole to the turret-room.There everything was as it had been on the previous evening. Helooked out of the window where high in air flew, as usual, the giantkite. He unlocked the wicket gate of the turret stair and went outon 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 stringit sent a quick thrill through hand and arm. There was no signanywhere that there had been any disturbance or displacement ofanything during the night.Utterly bewildered, he sat down in his room to think. Now for thefirst time he felt that he was asleep and dreaming. Presently hefell asleep again, and slept for a long time. He awoke hungry andmade a hearty meal. Then towards evening, having locked himself in,he fell asleep again. When he woke he was in darkness, and wasquite at sea as to his whereabouts. He began feeling about the darkroom, and was recalled to the consequences of his position by thebreaking of a large piece of glass. Having obtained a light, hediscovered this to be a glass wheel, part of an elaborate piece ofmechanism which he must in his sleep have taken from the chest,which was now opened. He had once again opened it whilst asleep,but he had no recollection of the circumstances.Caswall came to the conclusion that there had been some sort of dualaction of his mind, which might lead to some catastrophe or somediscovery of his secret plans; so he resolved to forgo for a whilethe pleasure of making discoveries regarding the chest. To thisend, he applied himself to quite another matter--an investigation ofthe other treasures and rare objects in his collections. He wentamongst them in simple, idle curiosity, his main object being todiscover some strange item which he might use for experiment withthe kite. He had already resolved to try some runners other thanthose made of paper. He had a vague idea that with such a force asthe great kite straining at its leash, this might be used to lift tothe altitude of the kite itself heavier articles. His firstexperiment with articles of little but increasing weight waseminently successful. So he added by degrees more and more weight,until he found out that the lifting power of the kite wasconsiderable. He then determined to take a step further, and sendto the kite some of the articles which lay in the steel-hoopedchest. The last time he had opened it in sleep, it had not beenshut again, and he had inserted a wedge so that he could open it atwill. He made examination of the contents, but came to theconclusion that the glass objects were unsuitable. They were toolight for testing weight, and they were so frail as to be dangerousto send to such a height.So he looked around for something more solid with which toexperiment. His eye caught sight of an object which at onceattracted him. This was a small copy of one of the ancient Egyptiangods--that of Bes, who represented the destructive power of nature.It was so bizarre and mysterious as to commend itself to his madhumour. In lifting it from the cabinet, he was struck by its greatweight in proportion to its size. He made accurate examination ofit by the aid of some instruments, and came to the conclusion thatit was carved from a lump of lodestone. He remembered that he hadread somewhere of an ancient Egyptian god cut from a similarsubstance, and, thinking it over, he came to the conclusion that hemust have read it in Sir Thomas Brown's Popular Errors, a book ofthe seventeenth century. He got the book from the library, andlooked out the passage:"A great example we have from the observation of our learned friendMr. Graves, in an Aegyptian idol cut out of Loadstone and foundamong the Mummies; which still retains its attraction, thoughprobably taken out of the mine about two thousand years ago."The strangeness of the figure, and its being so close akin to hisown nature, attracted him. He made from thin wood a large circularrunner, and in front of it placed the weighty god, sending it up tothe flying kite along the throbbing cord.