It was only the first note of the celestial prelude, for it was
followed in quick succession by numerous flashes, whilst the crash and
roll of thunder seemed continuous. Adam, appalled, drew his wife to him and held her close. As far as he
could estimate by the interval between lightning and thunder-clap, the
heart of the storm was still some distance off, so he felt no present
concern for their safety. Still, it was apparent that the course of the
storm was moving swiftly in their direction. The lightning flashes came
faster and faster and closer together; the thunder-roll was almost
continuous, not stopping for a moment--a new crash beginning before the
old one had ceased. Adam kept looking up in the direction where the kite
strained and struggled at its detaining cord, but, of course, the dull
evening light prevented any distinct scrutiny. At length there came a flash so appallingly bright that in its glare
Nature seemed to be standing still. So long did it last, that there was
time to distinguish its configuration. It seemed like a mighty tree
inverted, pendent from the sky. The whole country around within the
angle of vision was lit up till it seemed to glow. Then a broad ribbon
of fire seemed to drop on to the tower of Castra Regis just as the
thunder crashed. By the glare, Adam could see the tower shake and
tremble, and finally fall to pieces like a house of cards. The passing
of the lightning left the sky again dark, but a blue flame fell downward
from the tower, and, with inconceivable rapidity, running along the
ground in the direction of Diana's Grove, reached the dark silent house,
which in the instant burst into flame at a hundred different points. At the same moment there rose from the house a rending, crashing sound of
woodwork, broken or thrown about, mixed with a quick scream so appalling
that Adam, stout of heart as he undoubtedly was, felt his blood turn into
ice. Instinctively, despite the danger and their consciousness of it,
husband and wife took hands and listened, trembling. Something was going
on close to them, mysterious, terrible, deadly! The shrieks continued,
though less sharp in sound, as though muffled. In the midst of them was
a terrific explosion, seemingly from deep in the earth. The flames from Castra Regis and from Diana's Grove made all around
almost as light as day, and now that the lightning had ceased to flash,
their eyes, unblinded, were able to judge both perspective and detail. The heat of the burning house caused the iron doors to warp and collapse. Seemingly of their own accord, they fell open, and exposed the interior. The Saltons could now look through to the room beyond, where the well-
hole yawned, a deep narrow circular chasm. From this the agonised
shrieks were rising, growing ever more terrible with each second that
passed. But it was not only the heart-rending sound that almost paralysed poor
Mimi with terror. What she saw was sufficient to fill her with evil
dreams for the remainder of her life. The whole place looked as if a sea
of blood had been beating against it. Each of the explosions from below
had thrown out from the well-hole, as if it had been the mouth of a
cannon, a mass of fine sand mixed with blood, and a horrible repulsive
slime in which were great red masses of rent and torn flesh and fat. As
the explosions kept on, more and more of this repulsive mass was shot up,
the great bulk of it falling back again. Many of the awful fragments
were of something which had lately been alive. They quivered and
trembled and writhed as though they were still in torment, a supposition
to which the unending scream gave a horrible credence. At moments some
mountainous mass of flesh surged up through the narrow orifice, as though
forced by a measureless power through an opening infinitely smaller than
itself. Some of these fragments were partially covered with white skin
as of a human being, and others--the largest and most numerous--with
scaled skin as of a gigantic lizard or serpent. Once, in a sort of lull
or pause, the seething contents of the hole rose, after the manner of a
bubbling spring, and Adam saw part of the thin form of Lady Arabella,
forced up to the top amid a mass of blood and slime, and what looked as
if it had been the entrails of a monster torn into shreds. Several times
some masses of enormous bulk were forced up through the well-hole with
inconceivable violence, and, suddenly expanding as they came into larger
space, disclosed sections of the White Worm which Adam and Sir Nathaniel
had seen looking over the trees with its enormous eyes of emerald-green
flickering like great lamps in a gale. At last the explosive power, which was not yet exhausted, evidently
reached the main store of dynamite which had been lowered into the worm
hole. The result was appalling. The ground for far around quivered and
opened in long deep chasms, whose edges shook and fell in, throwing up
clouds of sand which fell back and hissed amongst the rising water. The
heavily built house shook to its foundations. Great stones were thrown
up as from a volcano, some of them, great masses of hard stone, squared
and grooved with implements wrought by human hands, breaking up and
splitting in mid air as though riven by some infernal power. Trees near
the house--and therefore presumably in some way above the hole, which
sent up clouds of dust and steam and fine sand mingled, and which carried
an appalling stench which sickened the spectators--were torn up by the
roots and hurled into the air. By now, flames were bursting violently
from all over the ruins, so dangerously that Adam caught up his wife in
his arms, and ran with her from the proximity of the flames. Then almost as quickly as it had begun, the whole cataclysm ceased,
though a deep-down rumbling continued intermittently for some time. Then
silence brooded over all--silence so complete that it seemed in itself a
sentient thing--silence which seemed like incarnate darkness, and
conveyed the same idea to all who came within its radius. To the young
people who had suffered the long horror of that awful night, it brought
relief--relief from the presence or the fear of all that was
horrible--relief which seemed perfected when the red rays of sunrise shot
up over the far eastern sea, bringing a promise of a new order of things
with the coming day. * * * * *

His bed saw little of Adam Salton for the remainder of that night. He
and Mimi walked hand in hand in the brightening dawn round by the Brow to
Castra Regis and on to Lesser Hill. They did so deliberately, in an
attempt to think as little as possible of the terrible experiences of the
night. The morning was bright and cheerful, as a morning sometimes is
after a devastating storm. The clouds, of which there were plenty in
evidence, brought no lingering idea of gloom. All nature was bright and
joyous, being in striking contrast to the scenes of wreck and
devastation, the effects of obliterating fire and lasting ruin.