The Lair of the White Worm

  CHAPTER XVIII--EXIT OOLANGA

  The woman turned sharply as Adam touched her shoulder.

  "One moment whilst we are alone. You had better not trust that nigger!"he whispered.

  Her answer was crisp and concise:

  "I don't."

  "Forewarned is forearmed. Tell me if you will--it is for your ownprotection. Why do you mistrust him?"

  "My friend, you have no idea of that man's impudence. Would you believethat he wants me to marry him?"

  "No!" said Adam incredulously, amused in spite of himself.

  "Yes, and wanted to bribe me to do it by sharing a chest of treasure--atleast, he thought it was--stolen from Mr. Caswall. Why do you distrusthim, Mr. Salton?"

  "Did you notice that box he had slung on his shoulder? That belongs tome. I left it in the gun-room when I went to lunch. He must have creptin and stolen it. Doubtless he thinks that it, too, is full oftreasure."

  "He does!"

  "How on earth do you know?" asked Adam.

  "A little while ago he offered to give it to me--another bribe to accepthim. Faugh! I am ashamed to tell you such a thing. The beast!"

  Whilst they had been speaking, she had opened the door, a narrow ironone, well hung, for it opened easily and closed tightly without anycreaking or sound of any kind. Within all was dark; but she entered asfreely and with as little misgiving or restraint as if it had been broaddaylight. For Adam, there was just sufficient green light from somewherefor him to see that there was a broad flight of heavy stone steps leadingupward; but Lady Arabella, after shutting the door behind her, when itclosed tightly without a clang, tripped up the steps lightly and swiftly.For an instant all was dark, but there came again the faint green lightwhich enabled him to see the outlines of things. Another iron door,narrow like the first and fairly high, led into another large room, thewalls of which were of massive stones, so closely joined together as toexhibit only one smooth surface. This presented the appearance of havingat one time been polished. On the far side, also smooth like the walls,was the reverse of a wide, but not high, iron door. Here there was alittle more light, for the high-up aperture over the door opened to theair.

  Lady Arabella took from her girdle another small key, which she insertedin a keyhole in the centre of a massive lock. The great bolt seemedwonderfully hung, for the moment the small key was turned, the bolts ofthe great lock moved noiselessly and the iron doors swung open. On thestone steps outside stood Oolanga, with the mongoose box slung over hisshoulder. Lady Arabella stood a little on one side, and the African,accepting the movement as an invitation, entered in an obsequious way.The moment, however, that he was inside, he gave a quick look around him.

  "Much death here--big death. Many deaths. Good, good!"

  He sniffed round as if he was enjoying the scent. The matter and mannerof his speech were so revolting that instinctively Adam's hand wanderedto his revolver, and, with his finger on the trigger, he rested satisfiedthat he was ready for any emergency.

  There was certainly opportunity for the nigger's enjoyment, for the openwell-hole was almost under his nose, sending up such a stench as almostmade Adam sick, though Lady Arabella seemed not to mind it at all. Itwas like nothing that Adam had ever met with. He compared it with allthe noxious experiences he had ever had--the drainage of war hospitals,of slaughter-houses, the refuse of dissecting rooms. None of these waslike it, though it had something of them all, with, added, the sournessof chemical waste and the poisonous effluvium of the bilge of a water-logged ship whereon a multitude of rats had been drowned.

  Then, quite unexpectedly, the negro noticed the presence of a thirdperson--Adam Salton! He pulled out a pistol and shot at him, happilymissing. Adam was himself usually a quick shot, but this time his mindhad been on something else and he was not ready. However, he was quickto carry out an intention, and he was not a coward. In another momentboth men were in grips. Beside them was the dark well-hole, with thathorrid effluvium stealing up from its mysterious depths.

  Adam and Oolanga both had pistols; Lady Arabella, who had not one, wasprobably the most ready of them all in the theory of shooting, but thatbeing impossible, she made her effort in another way. Gliding forward,she tried to seize the African; but he eluded her grasp, just missing, indoing so, falling into the mysterious hole. As he swayed back to firmfoothold, he turned his own gun on her and shot. Instinctively Adamleaped at his assailant; clutching at each other, they tottered on thevery brink.

  Lady Arabella's anger, now fully awake, was all for Oolanga. She movedtowards him with her hands extended, and had just seized him when thecatch of the locked box--due to some movement from within--flew open, andthe king-cobra-killer flew at her with a venomous fury impossible todescribe. As it seized her throat, she caught hold of it, and, with afury superior to its own, tore it in two just as if it had been a sheetof paper. The strength used for such an act must have been terrific. Inan instant, it seemed to spout blood and entrails, and was hurled intothe well-hole. In another instant she had seized Oolanga, and with aswift rush had drawn him, her white arms encircling him, down with herinto the gaping aperture.

  Adam saw a medley of green and red lights blaze in a whirling circle, andas it sank down into the well, a pair of blazing green eyes became fixed,sank lower and lower with frightful rapidity, and disappeared, throwingupward the green light which grew more and more vivid every moment. Asthe light sank into the noisome depths, there came a shriek which chilledAdam's blood--a prolonged agony of pain and terror which seemed to haveno end.

  Adam Salton felt that he would never be able to free his mind from thememory of those dreadful moments. The gloom which surrounded thathorrible charnel pit, which seemed to go down to the very bowels of theearth, conveyed from far down the sights and sounds of the nethermosthell. The ghastly fate of the African as he sank down to his terribledoom, his black face growing grey with terror, his white eyeballs, nowlike veined bloodstone, rolling in the helpless extremity of fear. Themysterious green light was in itself a milieu of horror. And through itall the awful cry came up from that fathomless pit, whose entrance wasflooded with spots of fresh blood. Even the death of the fearless littlesnake-killer--so fierce, so frightful, as if stained with a ferocitywhich told of no living force above earth, but only of the devils of thepit--was only an incident. Adam was in a state of intellectual tumult,which had no parallel in his experience. He tried to rush away from thehorrible place; even the baleful green light, thrown up through thegloomy well-shaft, was dying away as its source sank deeper into theprimeval ooze. The darkness was closing in on him in overwhelmingdensity--darkness in such a place and with such a memory of it!

  He made a wild rush forward--slipt on the steps in some sticky, acrid-smelling mass that felt and smelt like blood, and, falling forward, felthis way into the inner room, where the well-shaft was not.

  Then he rubbed his eyes in sheer amazement. Up the stone steps from thenarrow door by which he had entered, glided the white-clad figure of LadyArabella, the only colour to be seen on her being blood-marks on her faceand hands and throat. Otherwise, she was calm and unruffled, as whenearlier she stood aside for him to pass in through the narrow iron door.