Chapter XX: Metabolism

by Bram Stoker

　　"Am I looking grave?" asked Sir Nathaniel inconsequently when he re-entered the room."You certainly are, sir.""We little thought when first we met that we should be drawn intosuch a vortex. Already we are mixed up in robbery, and probablymurder, but--a thousand times worse than all the crimes in thecalendar--in an affair of ghastly mystery which has no bottom and noend--with forces of the most unnerving kind, which had their originin an age when the world was different from the world which we know.We are going back to the origin of superstition--to an age whendragons tore each other in their slime. We must fear nothing--noconclusion, however improbable, almost impossible it may be. Lifeand death is hanging on our judgment, not only for ourselves, butfor others whom we love. Remember, I count on you as I hope youcount on me.""I do, with all confidence.""Then," said Sir Nathaniel, "let us think justly and boldly and fearnothing, however terrifying it may seem. I suppose I am to take asexact in every detail your account of all the strange things whichhappened whilst you were in Diana's Grove?""So far as I know, yes. Of course I may be mistaken in recollectionof some detail or another, but I am certain that in the main what Ihave said is correct.""You feel sure that you saw Lady Arabella seize the negro round theneck, and drag him down with her into the hole?""Absolutely certain, sir, otherwise I should have gone to herassistance.""We have, then, an account of what happened from an eye-witness whomwe trust--that is yourself. We have also another account, writtenby Lady Arabella under her own hand. These two accounts do notagree. Therefore we must take it that one of the two is lying.""Apparently, sir.""And that Lady Arabella is the liar!""Apparently--as I am not.""We must, therefore, try to find a reason for her lying. She hasnothing to fear from Oolanga, who is dead. Therefore the onlyreason which could actuate her would be to convince someone elsethat she was blameless. This 'someone' could not be you, for youhad the evidence of your own eyes. There was no one else present;therefore it must have been an absent person.""That seems beyond dispute, sir.""There is only one other person whose good opinion she could wish tokeep--Edgar Caswall. He is the only one who fills the bill. Herlies point to other things besides the death of the African. Sheevidently wanted it to be accepted that his falling into the wellwas his own act. I cannot suppose that she expected to convinceyou, the eye-witness; but if she wished later on to spread thestory, it was wise of her to try to get your acceptance of it.""That is so!""Then there were other matters of untruth. That, for instance, ofthe ermine collar embroidered with emeralds. If an understandablereason be required for this, it would be to draw attention away fromthe green lights which were seen in the room, and especially in thewell-hole. Any unprejudiced person would accept the green lights tobe the eyes of a great snake, such as tradition pointed to living inthe well-hole. In fine, therefore, Lady Arabella wanted the generalbelief to be that there was no snake of the kind in Diana's Grove.For my own part, I don't believe in a partial liar--this art doesnot deal in veneer; a liar is a liar right through. Self-interestmay prompt falsity of the tongue; but if one prove to be a liar,nothing that he says can ever be believed. This leads us to theconclusion that because she said or inferred that there was nosnake, we should look for one--and expect to find it, too."Now let me digress. I live, and have for many years lived, inDerbyshire, a county more celebrated for its caves than any othercounty in England. I have been through them all, and am familiarwith every turn of them; as also with other great caves in Kentucky,in France, in Germany, and a host of other places--in many of theseare tremendously deep caves of narrow aperture, which are valued byintrepid explorers, who descend narrow gullets of abysmal depth--andsometimes never return. In many of the caverns in the Peak I amconvinced that some of the smaller passages were used in primevaltimes as the lairs of some of the great serpents of legend andtradition. It may have been that such caverns were formed in theusual geologic way--bubbles or flaws in the earth's crust--whichwere later used by the monsters of the period of the young world.It may have been, of course, that some of them were worn originallyby water; but in time they all found a use when suitable for livingmonsters."This brings us to another point, more difficult to accept andunderstand than any other requiring belief in a base not usuallyaccepted, or indeed entered on--whether such abnormal growths couldhave ever changed in their nature. Some day the study of metabolismmay progress so far as to enable us to accept structural changesproceeding from an intellectual or moral base. We may lean towardsa belief that great animal strength may be a sound base for changesof all sorts. If this be so, what could be a more fitting subjectthan primeval monsters whose strength was such as to allow asurvival of thousands of years? We do not know yet if brain canincrease and develop independently of other parts of the livingstructure."After all, the mediaeval belief in the Philosopher's Stone whichcould transmute metals, has its counterpart in the accepted theoryof metabolism which changes living tissue. In an age ofinvestigation like our own, when we are returning to science as thebase of wonders--almost of miracles--we should be slow to refuse toaccept facts, however impossible they may seem to be."Let us suppose a monster of the early days of the world--a dragonof the prime--of vast age running into thousands of years, to whomhad been conveyed in some way--it matters not--a brain justsufficient for the beginning of growth. Suppose the monster to beof incalculable size and of a strength quite abnormal--a veritableincarnation of animal strength. Suppose this animal is allowed toremain in one place, thus being removed from accidents ofinterrupted development; might not, would not this creature, inprocess of time--ages, if necessary--have that rudimentaryintelligence developed? There is no impossibility in this; it isonly the natural process of evolution. In the beginning, theinstincts of animals are confined to alimentation, self-protection,and the multiplication of their species. As time goes on and theneeds of life become more complex, power follows need. We have beenlong accustomed to consider growth as applied almost exclusively tosize in its various aspects. But Nature, who has no doctrinaireideas, may equally apply it to concentration. A developing thingmay expand in any given way or form. Now, it is a scientific lawthat increase implies gain and loss of various kinds; what a thinggains in one direction it may lose in another. May it not be thatMother Nature may deliberately encourage decrease as well asincrease--that it may be an axiom that what is gained inconcentration is lost in size? Take, for instance, monsters thattradition has accepted and localised, such as the Worm of Lambton orthat of Spindleston Heugh. If such a creature were, by its ownprocess of metabolism, to change much of its bulk for intellectualgrowth, we should at once arrive at a new class of creature--moredangerous, perhaps, than the world has ever had any experience of--aforce which can think, which has no soul and no morals, andtherefore no acceptance of responsibility. A snake would be a goodillustration of this, for it is cold-blooded, and therefore removedfrom the temptations which often weaken or restrict warm-bloodedcreatures. If, for instance, the Worm of Lambton--if such everexisted--were guided to its own ends by an organised intelligencecapable of expansion, what form of creature could we imagine whichwould equal it in potentialities of evil? Why, such a being woulddevastate a whole country. Now, all these things require muchthought, and we want to apply the knowledge usefully, and we shouldtherefore be exact. Would it not be well to resume the subjectlater in the day?""I quite agree, sir. I am in a whirl already; and want to attendcarefully to what you say; so that I may try to digest it."Both men seemed fresher and better for the "easy," and when they metin the afternoon each of them had something to contribute to thegeneral stock of information. Adam, who was by nature of a moremilitant disposition than his elderly friend, was glad to see thatthe conference at once assumed a practical trend. Sir Nathanielrecognised this, and, like an old diplomatist, turned it to presentuse."Tell me now, Adam, what is the outcome, in your own mind, of ourconversation?""That the whole difficulty already assumes practical shape; but withadded dangers, that at first I did not imagine.""What is the practical shape, and what are the added dangers? I amnot disputing, but only trying to clear my own ideas by theconsideration of yours--"So Adam went on:"In the past, in the early days of the world, there were monsterswho were so vast that they could exist for thousands of years. Someof them must have overlapped the Christian era. They may haveprogressed intellectually in process of time. If they had in anyway so progressed, or even got the most rudimentary form of brain,they would be the most dangerous things that ever were in the world.Tradition says that one of these monsters lived in the Marsh of theEast, and came up to a cave in Diana's Grove, which was also calledthe Lair of the White Worm. Such creatures may have grown down aswell as up. They MAY have grown into, or something like, humanbeings. Lady Arabella March is of snake nature. She has committedcrimes to our knowledge. She retains something of the vast strengthof her primal being--can see in the dark--has the eyes of a snake.She used the nigger, and then dragged him through the snake's holedown to the swamp; she is intent on evil, and hates some one welove. Result. . . ""Yes, the result?""First, that Mimi Watford should be taken away at once--then--""Yes?""The monster must be destroyed.""Bravo! That is a true and fearless conclusion. At whatever cost,it must be carried out.""At once?""Soon, at all events. That creature's very existence is a danger.Her presence in this neighbourhood makes the danger immediate."As he spoke, Sir Nathaniel's mouth hardened and his eyebrows camedown till they met. There was no doubting his concurrence in theresolution, or his readiness to help in carrying it out. But he wasan elderly man with much experience and knowledge of law anddiplomacy. It seemed to him to be a stern duty to prevent anythingirrevocable taking place till it had been thought out and all wasready. There were all sorts of legal cruxes to be thought out, notonly regarding the taking of life, even of a monstrosity in humanform, but also of property. Lady Arabella, be she woman or snake ordevil, owned the ground she moved in, according to British law, andthe law is jealous and swift to avenge wrongs done within its ken.All such difficulties should be--must be--avoided for Mr. Salton'ssake, for Adam's own sake, and, most of all, for Mimi Watford'ssake.Before he spoke again, Sir Nathaniel had made up his mind that hemust try to postpone decisive action until the circumstances onwhich they depended--which, after all, were only problematical--should have been tested satisfactorily, one way or another. When hedid speak, Adam at first thought that his friend was wavering in hisintention, or "funking" the responsibility. However, his respectfor Sir Nathaniel was so great that he would not act, or even cometo a conclusion on a vital point, without his sanction.He came close and whispered in his ear:"We will prepare our plans to combat and destroy this horriblemenace, after we have cleared up some of the more baffling points.Meanwhile, we must wait for the night--I hear my uncle's footstepsechoing down the hall."Sir Nathaniel nodded his approval.