Lair of the White Worm

had inserted a wedge so that he could open it at will.  He made
examination of the contents, but came to the conclusion that the glass
objects were unsuitable.  They were too light for testing weight, and
they were so frail as to be dangerous to send to such a height.

So he looked around for something more solid with which to experiment.
His eye caught sight of an object which at once attracted him.  This was
a small copy of one of the ancient Egyptian gods--that of Bes, who
represented the destructive power of nature.  It was so bizarre and
mysterious as to commend itself to his mad humour.  In lifting it from
the cabinet, he was struck by its great weight in proportion to its size.
He made accurate examination of it by the aid of some instruments, and
came to the conclusion that it was carved from a lump of lodestone.  He
remembered that he had read somewhere of an ancient Egyptian god cut from
a similar substance, and, thinking it over, he came to the conclusion
that he must have read it in Sir Thomas Brown's _Popular Errors_, a book
of the seventeenth century.  He got the book from the library, and looked
out the passage:

"A great example we have from the observation of our learned friend Mr.
Graves, in an AEgyptian idol cut out of Loadstone and found among the
Mummies; which still retains its attraction, though probably taken out of
the mine about two thousand years ago."

The strangeness of the figure, and its being so close akin to his own
nature, attracted him.  He made from thin wood a large circular runner,
and in front of it placed the weighty god, sending it up to the flying
kite along the throbbing cord.




CHAPTER XIII--OOLANGA'S HALLUCINATIONS


During the last few days Lady Arabella had been getting exceedingly
impatient.  Her debts, always pressing, were growing to an embarrassing
amount.  The only hope she had of comfort in life was a good marriage;
but the good marriage on which she had fixed her eye did not seem to move
quickly enough--indeed, it did not seem to move at all--in the right
direction.  Edgar Caswall was not an ardent wooer.  From the very first
he seemed _difficile_, but he had been keeping to his own room ever since
his struggle with Mimi Watford.  On that occasion Lady Arabella had shown
him in an unmistakable way what her feelings were; indeed, she had made
it known to him, in a more overt way than pride should allow, that she
wished to help and support him.  The moment when she had gone across the
room to stand beside him in his mesmeric struggle, had been the very
limit of her voluntary action.  It was quite bitter enough, she felt,
that he did not come to her, but now that she had made that advance, she
felt that any withdrawal on his part would, to a woman of her class, be
nothing less than a flaming insult.  Had she not classed herself with his
nigger servant, an unreformed savage?  Had she not shown her preference
for him at the festival of his home-coming?  Had she not . . . Lady
Arabella was cold-blooded, and she was prepared to go through all that
might be necessary of indifference, and even insult, to become chatelaine
of Castra Regis.  In the meantime, she would show no hurry--she must
wait.  She might, in an unostentatious way, come to him again.  She knew
him now, and could make a keen guess at his desires with regard to Lilla
Watford.  With that secret in her possession, she could bring pressure to
bear on Caswall which would make it no easy matter for him to evade her.
The great difficulty was how to get near him.  He was shut up within his
Castle, and guarded by a defence of convention which she could not pass
without danger of ill repute to herself.  Over this question she thought
and thought for days and nights.  At last she decided that the only way
would be to go to him openly at Castra Regis.  Her rank and position
would make such a thing possible, if carefully done.  She could explain
matters afterwards if necessary.  Then when they were alone, she would
use her arts and her experience to make him commit himself.  After all,
he was only a man, with a man's dislike of difficult or awkward
situations.  She felt quite sufficient confidence in her own womanhood to
carry her through any difficulty which might arise.

From Diana's Grove she heard each day the luncheon-gong from Castra Regis
sound, and knew the hour when the servants would be in the back of the
house.  She would enter the house at that hour, and, pretending that she
could not make anyone hear her, would seek him in his own rooms.  The
tower was, she knew, away from all the usual sounds of the house, and
moreover she knew that the servants had strict orders not to interrupt
him when he was in the turret chamber.  She had found out, partly by the
aid of an opera-glass and partly by judicious questioning, that several
times lately a heavy chest had been carried to and from his room, and
that it rested in the room each night.  She was, therefore, confident
that he had some important work on hand which would keep him busy for
long spells.

Meanwhile, another member of the household at Castra Regis had schemes
which he thought were working to fruition.  A man in the position of a
servant has plenty of opportunity of watching his betters and forming
opinions regarding them.  Oolanga was in his way a clever, unscrupulous
rogue, and he felt that with things moving round him in this great
household there should be opportunities of self-advancement.  Being
unscrupulous and stealthy--and a savage--he looked to dishonest means.  He
saw plainly enough that Lady Arabella was making a dead set at his
master, and he was watchful of the slightest sign of anything which might
enhance this knowledge.  Like the other men in the house, he knew of the
carrying to and fro of the great chest, and had got it into his head that
the care exercised in its porterage indicated that it was full of
treasure.  He was for ever lurking around the turret-rooms on the chance
of making some useful discovery.  But he was as cautious as he was
stealthy, and took care that no one else watched him.