CHAPTER LVII.
THE LONELY WATCH, AND THE ADVENTURE IN THE DESERTED HOUSE.
It is now quite night, and so peculiar and solemn a stillness reigns inand about Bannerworth Hall and its surrounding grounds, that one mighthave supposed it a place of the dead, deserted completely after sunsetby all who would still hold kindred with the living. There was not abreath of air stirring, and this circumstance added greatly to theimpression of profound repose which the whole scene exhibited.
The wind during the day had been rather of a squally character, buttowards nightfall, as is often usual after a day of such a character, ithad completely lulled, and the serenity of the scene was unbroken evenby the faintest sigh from a wandering zephyr.
The moon rose late at that period, and as is always the case at thatinterval between sunset and the rising of that luminary which makes thenight so beautiful, the darkness was of the most profound character.
It was one of those nights to produce melancholy reflections--a night onwhich a man would be apt to review his past life, and to look into thehidden recesses of his soul to see if conscience could make a coward ofhim in the loneliness and stillness that breathed around.
It was one of those nights in which wanderers in the solitude of naturefeel that the eye of Heaven is upon them, and on which there seems to bea more visible connection between the world and its great Creator thanupon ordinary occasions.
The solemn and melancholy appear places once instinct with life, whendeserted by those familiar forms and faces that have long inhabitedthem. There is no desert, no uninhabited isle in the far ocean, no wild,barren, pathless tract of unmitigated sterility, which could for onemoment compare in point of loneliness and desolation to a deserted city.
Strip London, mighty and majestic as it is, of the busy swarm ofhumanity that throng its streets, its suburbs, its temples, its publicedifices, and its private dwellings, and how awful would be the walk ofone solitary man throughout its noiseless thoroughfares.
If madness seized not upon him ere he had been long the sole survivor ofa race, it would need be cast in no common mould.
And to descend from great things to smaller--from the huge leviathancity to one mansion far removed from the noise and bustle ofconventional life, we may imagine the sort of desolation that reignedthrough Bannerworth Hall, when, for the first time, after nearly ahundred and fifty years of occupation, it was deserted by therepresentatives of that family, so many members of which had lived anddied beneath its roof. The house, and everything within, without, andaround it, seemed actually to sympathize with its own desolation anddesertion.
It seemed as if twenty years of continued occupation could not haveproduced such an effect upon the ancient edifice as had those few hoursof neglect and desertion.
And yet it was not as if it had been stripped of those time-worn andancient relics of ornament and furnishing that so long had appertainedto it. No, nothing but the absence of those forms which had beenaccustomed quietly to move from room to room, and to be met here upon astaircase, there upon a corridor, and even in some of the ancientpanelled apartments, which give it an air of dreary repose andlistlessness.
The shutters, too, were all closed, and that circumstance contributedlargely to the production of that gloomy effect which otherwise couldnot have ensued.
In fact, what could be done without attracting very special observationwas done to prove to any casual observer that the house was untenanted.
But such was not really the case. In that very room where the muchdreaded Varney the vampyre had made one of his dreaded appearances toFlora Bannerworth and her mother, sat two men.
It was from that apartment that Flora had discharged the pistol, whichhad been left to her by her brother, and the shot from which it wasbelieved by the whole family had most certainly taken effect upon theperson of the vampyre.
It was a room peculiarly accessible from the gardens, for it had longFrench windows opening to the very ground, and but a stone stepintervened between the flooring of the apartment and a broad gravel walkwhich wound round that entire portion of the house.
It was in this room, then, that two men sat in silence, and nearly indarkness.
Before them, and on a table, were several articles of refreshment, aswell of defence and offence, according as their intentions might be.
There were a bottle and three glasses, and lying near the elbow of oneof the men was a large pair of pistols, such as might have adorned thebelt of some desperate character, who wished to instil an opinion of hisprowess into his foes by the magnitude of his weapons.
Close at hand, by the same party, lay some more modern fire arms, aswell as a long dirk, with a silver mounted handle.
The light they had consisted of a large lantern, so constructed with aslide, that it could be completely obscured at a moment's notice; butnow as it was placed, the rays that were allowed to come from it weredirected as much from the window of the apartment, as possible, and fellupon the faces of the two men, revealing them to be Admiral Bell and Dr.Chillingworth.
It might have been the effect of the particular light in which he sat,but the doctor looked extremely pale, and did not appear at all at hisease.
The admiral, on the contrary, appeared in as placable a state of mind aspossible and had his arms folded across his breast, and his head shrunkdown between his shoulders as if he had made up his mind to somethingthat was to last a long time, and, therefore he was making the best ofit.
"I do hope," said Mr. Chillingworth, after a long pause, "that ourefforts will be crowned with success--you know, my dear sir, that I havealways been of your opinion, that there was a great deal more in thismatter than met the eye."
"To be sure," said the admiral, "and as to our efforts being crownedwith success, why, I'll give you a toast, doctor, 'may the morning'sreflection provide for the evening's amusement.'"
"Ha! ha!" said Chillingworth, faintly; "I'd rather not drink any more,and you seem, admiral, to have transposed the toast in some way. Ibelieve it runs, 'may the evening's amusement bear the morning'sreflection.'"
"Transpose the devil!" said the admiral; "what do I care how it runs? Igave you my toast, and as to that you mention, it's another onealtogether, and a sneaking, shore-going one too: but why don't youdrink?"
"Why, my dear sir, medically speaking, I am strongly of opinion that,when the human stomach is made to contain a large quantity of alcohol,it produces bad effects upon the system. Now, I've certainly taken oneglass of this infernally strong Hollands, and it is now lying in mystomach like the red-hot heater of a tea-urn."
"Is it? put it out with another, then."
"Ay, I'm afraid that would not answer, but do you really think, admiral,that we shall effect anything by waiting here, and keeping watch andward, not under the most comfortable circumstances, this first night ofthe Hall being empty."
"Well, I don't know that we shall," said the admiral; "but when youreally want to steal a march upon the enemy, there is nothing likebeginning betimes. We are both of opinion that Varney's great objectthroughout has been, by some means or another, to get possession of thehouse."
"Yes; true, true."
"We know that he has been unceasing in his endeavours to get theBannerworth family out of it; that he has offered them their own priceto become its tenant, and that the whole gist of his quiet and placidinterview with Flora in the garden, was to supply her with a new set ofreasons for urging her mother and brother to leave Bannerworth Hall,because the old ones were certainly not found sufficient."
"True, true, most true," said Mr. Chillingworth, emphatically. "Youknow, sir, that from the first time you broached that view of thesubject to me, how entirely I coincided with you."
"Of course you did, for you are a honest fellow, and a right-thinkingfellow, though you are a doctor, and I don't know that I like doctorsmuch better than I like lawyers--they're only humbugs in a differentsort of way. But I wish to be liberal; there is such a thing as anhonest lawyer, and, d----e, yo
u're an honest doctor!"
"Of course I'm much obliged, admiral, for your good opinion. I only wishit had struck me to bring something of a solid nature in the shape offood, to sustain the waste of the animal economy during the hours weshall have to wait here."
"Don't trouble yourself about that," said the admiral. "Do you think I'ma donkey, and would set out on a cruise without victualling my ship? Ishould think not. Jack Pringle will be here soon, and he has my ordersto bring in something to eat."
"Well," said the doctor, "that's very provident of you, admiral, and Ifeel personally obliged; but tell me, how do you intend to conduct thewatch?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, I mean, if we sit here with the window fastened so as to preventour light from being seen, and the door closed, how are we by anypossibility to know if the house is attacked or not?"
"Hark'ee, my friend," said the admiral; "I've left a weak point for theenemy."
"A what, admiral?"
"A weak point. I've taken good care to secure everything but one of thewindows on the ground floor, and that I've left open, or so nearly open,that it will look like the most natural place in the world to get in at.Now, just inside that window, I've placed a lot of the family crockery.I'll warrant, if anybody so much as puts his foot in, you'll hear thesmash;--and, d----e, there it is!"
There was a loud crash at this moment, followed by a succession ofsimilar sounds, but of a lesser degree; and both the admiral and Mr.Chillingworth sprung to their feet.
"Come on," cried the former; "here'll be a precious row--take thelantern."
Mr. Chillingworth did so, but he did not seem possessed of a great dealof presence of mind; for, before they got out of the room, he twiceaccidentally put on the dark slide, and produced a total darkness.
"D--n!" said the admiral; "don't make it wink and wink in that way; holdit up, and run after me as hard as you can."
"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Mr. Chillingworth.
It was one of the windows of a long room, containing five, fronting thegarden, which the admiral had left purposely unguarded; and it was notfar from the apartment in which they had been sitting, so that,probably, not half a minute's time elapsed between the moment of thefirst alarm, and their reaching the spot from whence it was presumed toarise.
The admiral had armed himself with one of the huge pistols, and hedashed forward, with all the vehemence of his character, towards thewindow, where he knew he had placed the family crockery, and where hefully expected to meet the reward of his exertion by discovering someone lying amid its fragments.
In this, however, he was disappointed; for, although there was evidentlya great smash amongst the plates and dishes, the window remained closed,and there was no indication whatever of the presence of any one.
"Well, that's odd," said the admiral; "I balanced them up amazinglycareful, and two of 'em edgeways--d---e, a fly would have knocked themdown."
"Mew," said, a great cat, emerging from under a chair.
"Curse you, there you are," said the admiral. "Put out the light, putout the light; here we're illuminating the whole house for nothing."
With, a click went the darkening slide over the lantern, and all wasobscurity.
At that instant a shrill, clear whistle came from the garden.
Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood Page 56