Chapter XVII. The Cavern

by Bram Stoker

　　In the evening Mr Trelawny took again the whole party into thestudy. When we were all attention he began to unfold his plans:'I have come to the conclusion that for the proper carrying out ofwhat we will call our Great Experiment we must have absolute andcomplete isolation. Isolation not merely for a day or two, but for aslong as we may require. Here such a thing would be impossible; theneeds and habits of a great city with its ingrained possibilities ofinterruption would, or might, quite upset us. Telegrams, registeredletters, or express messengers would alone be sufficient; but the greatarmy of those who want to get something would make disaster certain. Inaddition, the occurrences of the last week have drawn police attentionto this house. Even if special instructions to keep an eye on it havenot been issued from Scotland Yard or the District Station, you may besure that the individual policeman on his rounds Will keep it wellunder observation. Besides, the servants whohave discharged themselves will before long begin to talk. Theymust; for they have, for the sake of their own characters, to give somereason for the termination of a service which has I should say aposition in the neighbourhood. The servants of the neighbours willbegin to talk, and, perhaps the neighbours themselves. Then the activeand intelligent Press will, with its usual zeal for the enlightenmentof the public and its eye to increase of circulation, get hold of thematter. When the reporter is after us we shall not have much chance ofprivacy. Even if we were to bar ourselves in, we should not be freefrom interruption, possibly from intrusion. Either would ruin ourplans, and so we must take measures to effect a retreat, carrying allour impedimenta with us. For this I am prepared. For a long time past Ihave foreseen such a possibility, and have made preparation for it. Ofcourse, I had no foreknowledge of what has happened; but I knewsomething would, or might, happen. For more than two years past myhouse in Cornwall has been made ready to receive all the curios whichare preserved here. When Corbeck went off on his search for the lamps Ihad the old house at Kyllion made ready; it is fitted with electriclight all over, and all the appliances for manufacture of the light arecomplete. I had perhaps better tell you, for none of you, not evenMargaret, knows anything of it, that the house is absolutely shut outfrom public access or even from view. It stands on a little rockypromontory behind a steep hill, and except from the sea cannot be seen.Of old it was fenced in by a high stone wall, for the house which issucceeded was built -by an ancestor of mine in the days when a greathouse far away from a centre had to be prepared to defend itself. Here,then, is a place so well adapted to our needs that it. might have beenprepared on purpose. I shall explain it to you when we are all there.This will not be long, for already our movement is in train. I havesent word to Marvin to have all preparation for our transport ready. Heis to have a special train, which is to run at night so as to avoidnotice. Also a number of carts and stone-wagons, with sufficient menand appliances to take all our packing-cases to Paddington. We shall beaway before the Argus-eyed Pressman is on the watch. We shall todaybegin our packing up; and I dare say that by tomorrow night we shall beready. In the outhouses I have all the packing-cases which were usedfor bringing the things from Egypt, and I am satisfied that as theywere sufficient for the journey across the desert and down the Nile toAlexandria and thence on to London, they will serve without failbetween here and Kyllion. We four men, with Margaret to hand us suchthings as we may require, will be able to get the things packed safely;and the carrier's men will take them to the trucks.'Today the servants go to Kyllion, and Mrs. Grant will make sucharrangements as may be required. She will take a stock of necessarieswith her, so that we will not attract local attention by our dailyneeds; and will keep us supplied with perishable food from London.Thanks to Margaret's wise and generous treatment of the servants whodecided to remain, we have got a staff on which we can depend. Theyhave been already cautioned to secrecy, so that we need not fear gossipfrom within. Indeed, as the servants will be in London after theirpreparations at Kyllion are complete, there will not be much subjectfor gossip, in detail at any rate.'As, however, we should commence the immediate work of packing atonce, we will leave over the after proceedings till later when we have leisure.'Accordingly we set about our work Under Mr. Trelawny's guidance, andaided by the servants, we took from the outhouses great packing-cases.Some of these were of enormous strength, fortified by many thicknessesof wood, and by iron bands and rods with screw-ends and nuts. We placedthem throughout the house, each close to the object which it was tocontain. When this preliminary work had been effected, and there hadbeen placed in each room and in the hall great masses of new hay,cotton-waste, and paper, the servants were sent away. Then we set aboutpacking.No one, not accustomed to packing, could have the slightest idea ofthe amount of work involved in such a task as that in which we wereengaged. For my own part I had had a vague idea that there were a largenumber of Egyptian objects in Mr. Trelawny's house; but until I came todeal with them seriatim I had little idea of either theirimportance, the size of some of them, or of their endless number. Farinto the night we worked. At times we used all the strength which wecould muster on a single object; again we worked separately, but alwaysunder Mr. Trelawny's immediate direction. He himself, assisted byMargaret, kept an exact tally of each piece.It was only when we sat down, utterly wearied, to a long-delayedsupper that we began to realise that a large part of the work was done.Only a few of the packing-cases, however, were closed; for a vastamount of work still remained. We had finished some of the cases, eachof which held only one of the great sarcophagi. The cases which heldmany objects could not be closed till all had been differentiated andpacked.I slept that night without movement or without dreams; and onour comparing notes in the morning, I found that each of the others hadhad the same experience.By dinnertime next evening the whole work was complete, and all wasready for the carriers who were to come at midnight. A little beforethe appointed time we heard the rumble of carts; then we were shortlyinvaded by an army of workmen, who seemed by sheer force of numbers tomove without effort, in an endless procession, all our preparedpackages. A little over an hour sufficed them, and when the carts hadrumbled away; we all got ready to follow them to Paddington. Silvio wasof course to be taken as one of our party.Before leaving we went in a body over the house, which lookeddesolate indeed. As the servants had all gone to Cornwall there hadbeen no attempt at tidying up; every room and passage in which we hadworked, and all the stairways, were strewn with paper and waste, andmarked with dirty feet.The last-thing which Mr. Trelawny did before coming away was to takefrom the great safe the Ruby with the Seven Stars. As he put it safelyinto his pocketbook, Margaret, who had all at once seemed to growdeadly tired and stood beside her father pale and rigid, suddenlybecame all aglow, as though the sight of the Jewel had inspired her.She smiled at her father approvingly as she said:'You are right, Father. There will not be any trouble tonight. Shewill not wreck your arrangements for any cause. I would stake my lifeupon it.''She--or something--wrecked us in the desert when we had come fromthe tomb in the Valley of the Sorcerer!' was the grimcomment of Corbeck, who was standing by. Margaret answered him like aflash:'Ah! she was then near her tomb from which for thousands of yearsher body had not been moved. She must know that things are differentnow.''How must she know?' asked Corbeck keenly.'If she has that astral body that Father spoke of, surely she mustknow! How can she fail to, with an invisible presence and an intellectthat can roam abroad even to the stars and the worlds beyond us!' Shepaused, and her father said solemnly:'It is on that supposition that we are proceeding. We must have thecourage of our convictions, and act on them--to the last!'Margaret took his hand and held it in a dreamy kind of way as wefiled out of the house. She was holding it still when he locked thehall door, and when we moved up the road to the gateway whence we tooka cab to Paddington.When all the goods were loaded at the station, the whole of theworkmen went on to the train; this took also some of the stone-wagonsused for carrying the cases with the great sarcophagi. Ordinary cartsand plenty of horses were to be found at Westerton, which was ourstation for Kyllion. Mr. Trelawny had ordered a sleeping-carriage forour party; as soon as the train had started we all turned into ourcubicles.That night I slept sound. There was over me a conviction of securitywhich was absolute and supreme. Margaret's definite announcement:'There will not be any trouble tonight!' seemed to carry assurance withit. I did not question it; nor did anyone else. It was only afterwardsthat I began to think as to how she was so sure. The train was a slowone, stopping many times and for considerable intervals. As Mr.Trelawny did not wish to arrive at Westerton before dark, there was noneed to hurry; and arrangements had been made to feed the workmen atcertain places on the journey. We had our own hampers with us in theprivate car.All that afternoon we talked over the Great Experiment, which seemedto have become a definite entity in our thoughts. Mr. Trelawny becamemore and more enthusiastic as the time wore on; hope was with himbecoming certainty. Doctor Winchester seemed to become imbued with someof his spirit, though at times he would throw out some scientific factwhich would either make an impasse to the other's line of argument, orwould come as an arresting shock. Mr. Corbeck, on the other hand,seemed slightly antagonistic to the theory. It may have been thatwhilst the opinions of the others advanced, his own stood still; butthe effect was an attitude which appeared negative, if not wholly oneof negation.As for Margaret, she seemed to be in some way overcome. Either itwas some new phase of feeling with her, or else she was taking theissue more seriously than she had. yet done. She was generally more orless distraite, as though sunk in a brown study; from this shewould recover herself with a start. This was usually when thereoccurred some marked episode in the journey, such as stopping at astation, or when the thunderous rumble of crossing a viaduct woke theechoes of the hills or cliffs around us. On each such occasion shewould plunge into the conversation, taking such a part in it as to showthat, whatever had been her abstracted thought, her senses had taken infully all that had gone on around her. Towards myself her manner wasstrange. Sometimes it was marked by a distance, half shy half haughty,which was new to me. At other times there were moments of passion inlook and gesture and voice which almost made me dizzy with delight.Little, however, of a marked nature transpired during the journey.There was but one episode which had in it any element of alarm, but aswe were all asleep at the time it did not disturb us. We only learnedit from a communicative guard in the morning. Whilst running betweenDawlish and Teignmouth the train was stopped by a warning given bysomeone who moved a torch to and fro right on the very track. Thedriver had found on puffing up that just ahead of the train a smalllandslip had taken place, some of the red earth from the high bankhaving fallen away. It did riot however reach to the metals; and thedriver had resumed his way, none too well pleased at the delay. To usehis own words, the guard thought 'there was too much bally caution onthis 'ere line!' We arrived at Westerton about nine o'clock in the evening. Carts andhorses were in waiting, and the work of unloading the train began atonce. Our own party did not wait to see the work done, as it was in thehands of competent people. We took the carriage which was in waiting,and through the darkness of the night sped on to Kyllion.We were all impressed by the house as it appeared in the brightmoonlight. A great grey stone mansion of the Jacobean period; vast andspacious, standing high over the sea on the very verge of a high cliff.When we had swept round the curve of the avenue cut through the rock,and come out on the high plateau on which the house stood, the crashand murmur of waves breaking against rock far below us came with aninvigorating breath of moist sea air. We understood then in an instanthow well we were shut out from the world on that rocky shelf above thesea.Within the house we found all ready. Mrs. Grant and her staff hadworked well, and all was bright and fresh and clean. We took a briefsurvey-of the chief rooms, and then separated to have a wash and tochange our clothes after our long journey of more than four-and-twentyhours.We had supper in the great dining-room on the south side, the wallsof which actually hung over the sea. The' murmur came up muffled, butit never ceased. As the little promontory stood well out into the sea,the northern side of the house was open; and the due north was in noway shut out by the great mass of rock, which reared high above us,shut out the rest of the world. Far off across the bay we could see thetrembling lights of the castle, and here and there along the shore thefaint light of a fisher's window. For the rest the sea was a dark blueplain with here and there a flicker of light as the gleam of starlightfell on the slope of a swelling wave.When supper was over we all adjourned to the room which Mr. Trelawnyhad set aside as his study, his bedroom being close to it. As weentered, the first thing I noticed was a great safe, somewhat similarto that which stood in his room in London. When we were in the room Mr.Trelawny went over to the table, and, taking out his pocket-book, laidit on the table. As he did so he pressed down on it with the palm ofhis hand. A strange pallor came over his face. With ringers thattrembled he opened the book, saying as he did so:'Its bulk does not seem the same; I hope nothing has happened!'All three of us men crowded round close. Margaret alone remainedcalm: she stood erect and silent, and still as a statue. She had afaraway look in her eyes, as though she did not either know or carewhat was going on around her.With a despairing gesture Trelawny threw open the pouchof the pocketbook wherein he had placed the Jewel of Seven Stars. Ashe sank down on the chair which stood close to him, he said in a hoarsevoice:'My God! it is gone. Without it the Great Experiment can come tonothing!'His words seemed to wake Margaret from her introspective mood. Anagonized spasm swept her face; but almost on the instant she was calm.She almost smiled as she said:'You may have left it in your room, Father. Perhaps it has fallenout of the pocketbook whilst you were changing.' Without a word we allhurried into the next room through the open door between the study andthe bedroom. And then a sudden calm fell on us like a cloud of fear.There! on the table, lay the Jewel of Seven Stars, shining andsparkling with lurid light, as though each of the seven points of eachof the seven stars gleamed through blood!Timidly we each looked behind us, and then at each other. Margaretwas now like the rest of us. She had lost her statuesque calm. All theintrospective rigidity had gone from her; and she clasped her handstogether till the knuckles were white.Without a word Mr. Trelawny raised the Jewel, and hurried with itinto the next room. As quietly as he could he opened the door of thesafe with the key fastened to his wrist and placed the Jewel within.When the heavy doors were closed and locked he seemed to breathe morefreely.Somehow this episode, though a disturbing one in many ways, seemedto bring us back to our old selves. Since we had left London we had allbeen overstrained; and this was a sort of relief. Another step in ourstrange enterprise had been effected.The change back was more marked in Margaret than in any of us.Perhaps it was that she was a woman, whilst we were men; perhaps it wasthat she was younger than the rest; perhaps both reasons wereeffective, each in its own way. At any rate the change was there, and Iwas happier than I had been through the long journey. All her buoyancy,her tenderness, her deep feeling seemed to shine forth once more; nowand again as her father's eyes rested on her, his face seemed to lightup. Whilst we waited for the carts to arrive, Mr. Trelawny took usthrough the house, pointing out and explaining where the objects whichwe had brought with us were to be placed. In one respect only did hewithhold confidence. The positions of all those things which hadconnection with the Great Experiment were not indicated. The casescontaining them were to be left in the outer hall, for the present.By the time we had made the survey, the carts began to arrive; andthe stir and bustle of the previous night were renewed. Mr. Trelawnystood in the hall beside the massive ironbound door, and gavedirections as to the placing of each of the great packing-cases. Thosecontaining many items were placed in the inner hall where they were tobe unpacked.In an incredibly short time the whole consignment was delivered; andthe men departed with a douceur for each, given through theirforeman, which made them effusive in their thanks. Then we all went toour own rooms. There was a strange confidence over us all. I do notthink that any one of us had a doubt as to the quiet passing of theremainder of the night.The faith was justified, for on our reassembling in the morning wefound that all had slept well and peaceably.During that day all the curios, except those required for the GreatExperiment, were put into the places designed for them. Then it wasarranged that all the servants should go back with Mrs. Grant to London'on the next morning.When they had all gone Mr. Trelawny, having seen the doors locked,took us into the study.'Now,' said he when we were seated, 'I have a secret to impart; but,according to an old promise which does not leave me free, I must askyou each to give me a solemn promise not to reveal it. For threehundred years at least such a promise has been exacted from everyone towhom it was told, and more than once life and safety were securedthrough loyal observance of the promise. Even as it is, I am breakingthe spirit, if not the letter of the tradition; for I should only tellit to the intimate members of my family."We all gave the promise required. Then he went on:'There is a secret place in this house, a cave, natural originallybut finished by labour, underneath this house. I will not undertake tosay that it has always been used according to the law. During theBloody Assize more than a few Cornishmen found refuge in it; and later,and earlier, it formed, I have no doubt whatever, a useful place forstoring contraband goods. "Tre Pol and Pert", I suppose you know, havealways been smugglers; and their relations and friends and neighbours have not held back from the enterprise.For all such reasons a safe hiding-place was always considered avaluable possession; and as die. heads of our House have alwaysinsisted on preserving the secret, I am in honour bound to it. Lateron, if all be well, I shall of course tell you, Margaret, andyou too, Ross, under the conditions that I am bound to make.'He rose up, and we all followed him. Leaving us in the outer hall,he went away alone for a few minutes; and returning, beckoned us tofollow him.In the inside hall we found a whole section of an outstanding anglemoved away, and from the cavity saw a great hole dimly dark, and thebeginning of a rough staircase cut in the rock. As it was not pitchdark there was manifestly some means of lighting it naturally, sowithout pause we followed our host as he descended. After some forty orfifty steps cut in a winding passage, we came to a great cave whosefurther end tapered away into blackness. It was a huge place, dimly litby a few irregular long slits of eccentric shape. Manifestly these werefaults in the rock which would easily allow the windows to bedisguised; Close to each of them was a hanging shutter which could beeasily swung across by means of a dangling rope. The sound of theceaseless beat of the waves came up muffled from far below. Mr.Trelawny at once began to speak:'This is the spot which I have chosen, as the best I know, for thescene of our Great Experiment. In a hundred different ways it fulfilsthe conditions which I am led to believe are primary with regard tosuccess. Here, we are, and shall be, as isolated as Queen Tera herselfwould have been in her rocky tomb in the Valley of the Sorcerer, andstill in a rocky cavern. For good or ill we must here stand by ourchances, and abide by results. If we are successful we shall be able tolet in on the world of modern science such a flood of light from theOld World as will change every condition of thought and experiment andpractice. If we fail, then even the knowledge of our attempt will thewith us. For this, and all else which may come, I believe we areprepared!' He paused. No one spoke, but we all bowed our heads gravelyin acquiescence. He resumed, but with a certain hesitancy:'It is not yet too late! If any of you have a doubt or a misgiving,for God's sake speak it now! Whoever it may be, can go hence withoutlet or hindrance. The rest of us can go on our way alone!'Again he paused, and looked keenly at us in turn. We looked at eachother; but no one quailed. For my own part, if I had had any doubt asto going on, the look on Margaret's face would have reassured me. Itwas fearless; it was intense; it was full of a divine calm.Mr. Trelawny took a long breath, and in a more cheerful, as well asin a more decided, tone went on:'As we are all of one mind, the sooner we get the necessary mattersin train the better. Let me tell you that this place, like all the restof the house, can be lit with electricity. We could not join the wiresto the mains lest our secret should become known, but I have a cablehere which we can attach in the hall and complete the circuit!' As hewas speaking, he began to ascend the steps. From close to the entrancehe took the end of a cable; this he drew forward and attached to aswitch in the wall. Then, turning on a tap, he flooded the whole vaultand staircase below with light. I could now see from the volume oflight streaming up into the hallway that the hole beside the staircasewent direct into the cave. Above it was a pulley and a mass of strongtackle with multiplying blocks of the Smeaton order. Mr. Trelawny,seeing me looking at this, said, correctly interpreting my thoughts:"Yes! it is new. I hung it myself there on purpose. I knew we shouldhave to lower great weights; and as I did not wish to take too manyinto my confidence, I arranged a tackle which I could work alone ifnecessary.'We set to work at once; and before nightfall had lowered, hadunhooked, and placed in the positions designated for each by Trelawny,all the great sarcophagi and all the curios and other matters which wehad taken with us.It was a strange and weird proceeding the placing of those wonderfulmonuments of a bygone age in that great cavern, which represented inits cutting and purpose and up-to-date mechanism and electric lightsboth the old world and the new. But as time went on I grew more andmore to recognize the wisdom and correctness of Mr. Trelawny's choice.I was much disturbed when Silvio, who had been brought into the cave inthe arms of his mistress, and who was lying asleep on my coat which Ihad taken off, sprang up when the cat mummy had been unpacked, and flewat it with the same ferocity which he had previously exhibited. Theincident showed Margaret in a new phase, and one which gave my heart apang. She had been standing quite still at one side of the cave leaningon a sarcophagus, in one of those fits of abstraction which had of latecome upon her; but on hearing the sound, and seeing Silvio's violentonslaught, she seemed to fall into a positive fury of passion. Her eyesblazed, and her mouth took a hard, cruel tension which was new to me.Instinctively she stepped towards Silvio as if to interfere in theattack. But I too had stepped forward; and as she caught my eye astrange spasm came upon her, and she stopped. Its intensity made mehold my breath; and I put up my hand to clear my eyes. When I had donethis, she had on the instant recovered her calm, and, there was a lookof brief wonder on her face. With all her old grace and sweetness sheswept over and lifted Silvio, just as she had done on former occasions,and held him in her arms, petting him and treating him as though hewere a little child who had erred. As I looked a strange fear came over me. The Margaret that I knewseemed to be changing; and in my inmost heart I prayed that thedisturbing cause might soon come to an end. More than ever I longed atthat moment that our terrible Experiment should come to a prosperoustermination.When all had been arranged in the room as Mr. Trelawny wished heturned to us, one after another, till he had concentrated theintelligence of us all upon him. Then he said:'All is now ready in this place. We must only await the proper timeto begin.'We were silent for a while. Doctor Winchester was the first to speak:' 'What is the proper time? Have you any approximation, even if youare not satisfied as to the exact day.' He answered at once:'After the most anxious thought I have fixed on July 31!''May I ask why that date?' He spoke his answer slowly:'Queen Tera was ruled in great degree by mysticism and there are somany evidences that she looked for resurrection that naturally shewould choose a period ruled over by a God specialized to such apurpose. Now, the fourth month of the season of Inundation was ruled byHarmachis, this being the name for "Ra" the Sun-God, at his rising inthe morning, and therefore typifying the awakening or arising. Thisarising is manifestly to physical life, since it is of the mid-world ofhuman daily life. Now as this month begins on our 25th July, theseventh day would be July 31st, for you may be sure that the mysticQueen would not have chosen any day but the seventh or some power ofseven.'I dare say that some of you have wondered why our preparations havebeen so deliberately undertaken. This is why! We must be ready in everypossible way when the time comes; but there was no use in having towait round for a needless number of days.'And so we waited only for the 31st of July, the next day but one,when the Great Experiment would be made.