change had come about that verymoment in the room. A swift readjustment of the forces within the fourwalls had taken place--a new disposition of their personal equations.The balance was destroyed, the former harmony gone. Smoke, mostsensitive of barometers, had been the first to feel it, but the dog wasnot slow to follow suit, for on looking down he noted that Flame was nolonger asleep. He was lying with eyes wide open, and that same instanthe sat up on his great haunches and began to growl.
Dr. Silence was in the act of taking the matches to re-light the lampwhen an audible movement in the room behind him made him pause. Smokeleaped down from his knee and moved forward a few paces across thecarpet. Then it stopped and stared fixedly; and the doctor stood up onthe rug to watch.
As he rose the sound was repeated, and he discovered that it was not inthe room as he first thought, but outside, and that it came from moredirections than one. There was a rushing, sweeping noise against thewindow-panes, and simultaneously a sound of something brushing againstthe door--out in the hall. Smoke advanced sedately across the carpet,twitching his tail, and sat down within a foot of the door. Theinfluence that had destroyed the harmonious conditions of the room hadapparently moved in advance of its cause. Clearly, something was aboutto happen.
For the first time that night John Silence hesitated; the thought ofthat dark narrow hall-way, choked with fog, and destitute of humancomfort, was unpleasant. He became aware of a faint creeping of hisflesh. He knew, of course, that the actual opening of the door was notnecessary to the invasion of the room that was about to take place,since neither doors nor windows, nor any other solid barriers couldinterpose an obstacle to what was seeking entrance. Yet the opening ofthe door would be significant and symbolic, and he distinctly shrankfrom it.
But for a moment only. Smoke, turning with a show of impatience,recalled him to his purpose, and he moved past the sitting, watchingcreature, and deliberately opened the door to its full width.
What subsequently happened, happened in the feeble and flickering lightof the solitary candle on the mantlepiece.
Through the opened door he saw the hall, dimly lit and thick with fog.Nothing, of course, was visible--nothing but the hat-stand, the Africanspears in dark lines upon the wall and the high-backed wooden chairstanding grotesquely underneath on the oilcloth floor. For one instantthe fog seemed to move and thicken oddly; but he set that down to thescore of the imagination. The door had opened upon nothing.
Yet Smoke apparently thought otherwise, and the deep growling of thecollie from the mat at the back of the room seemed to confirm hisjudgment.
For, proud and self-possessed, the cat had again risen to his feet, andhaving advanced to the door, was now ushering some one slowly into theroom. Nothing could have been more evident. He paced from side to side,bowing his little head with great _empressement_ and holding hisstiffened tail aloft like a flag-staff. He turned this way and that,mincing to and fro, and showing signs of supreme satisfaction. He was inhis element. He welcomed the intrusion, and apparently reckoned that hiscompanions, the doctor and the dog, would welcome it likewise.
The Intruder had returned for a second attack.
Dr. Silence moved slowly backwards and took up his position on thehearthrug, keying himself up to a condition of concentrated attention.
He noted that Flame stood beside him, facing the room, with bodymotionless, and head moving swiftly from side to side with a curiousswaying movement. His eyes were wide open, his back rigid, his neck andjaws thrust forward, his legs tense and ready to leap. Savage, ready forattack or defence, yet dreadfully puzzled and perhaps already a littlecowed, he stood and stared, the hair on his spine and sides positivelybristling outwards as though a wind played through it. In the dimfirelight he looked like a great yellow-haired wolf, silent, eyesshooting dark fire, exceedingly formidable. It was Flame, the terrible.
Smoke, meanwhile, advanced from the door towards the middle of the room,adopting the very slow pace of an invisible companion. A few feet awayit stopped and began to smile and blink its eyes. There was somethingdeliberately coaxing in its attitude as it stood there undecided on thecarpet, clearly wishing to effect some sort of introduction between theIntruder and its canine friend and ally. It assumed its most winningmanners, purring, smiling, looking persuasively from one to the other,and making quick tentative steps first in one direction and then in theother. There had always existed such perfect understanding between themin everything. Surely Flame would appreciate Smoke's intention now, andacquiesce.
But the old collie made no advances. He bared his teeth, lifting hislips till the gums showed, and stood stockstill with fixed eyes andheaving sides. The doctor moved a little farther back, watching intentlythe smallest movement, and it was just then he divined suddenly from thecat's behaviour and attitude that it was not only a single companion ithad ushered into the room, but _several_. It kept crossing over from oneto the other, looking up at each in turn. It sought to win over the dogto friendliness with them all. The original Intruder had come back withreinforcements. And at the same time he further realised that theIntruder was something more than a blindly acting force, impersonalthough destructive. It was a Personality, and moreover a greatpersonality. And it was accompanied for the purposes of assistance by ahost of other personalities, minor in degree, but similar in kind.
He braced himself in the corner against the mantelpiece and waited, hiswhole being roused to defence, for he was now fully aware that theattack had spread to include himself as well as the animals, and hemust be on the alert. He strained his eyes through the foggy atmosphere,trying in vain to see what the cat and dog saw; but the candlelightthrew an uncertain and flickering light across the room and his eyesdiscerned nothing. On the floor Smoke moved softly in front of him likea black shadow, his eyes gleaming as he turned his head, still tryingwith many insinuating gestures and much purring to bring about theintroductions he desired.
But it was all in vain. Flame stood riveted to one spot, motionless as afigure carved in stone.
Some minutes passed, during which only the cat moved, and then therecame a sharp change. Flame began to back towards the wall. He moved hishead from side to side as he went, sometimes turning to snap atsomething almost behind him. They were advancing upon him, trying tosurround him. His distress became very marked from now onwards, and itseemed to the doctor that his anger merged into genuine terror andbecame overwhelmed by it. The savage growl sounded perilously like awhine, and more than once he tried to dive past his master's legs, asthough hunting for a way of escape. He was trying to avoid somethingthat everywhere blocked the way.
This terror of the indomitable fighter impressed the doctor enormously;yet also painfully; stirring his impatience; for he had never beforeseen the dog show signs of giving in, and it distressed him to witnessit. He knew, however, that he was not giving in easily, and understoodthat it was really impossible for him to gauge the animal's sensationsproperly at all. What Flame felt, and saw, must be terrible indeed toturn him all at once into a coward. He faced something that made himafraid of more than his life merely. The doctor spoke a few quick wordsof encouragement to him, and stroked the bristling hair. But withoutmuch success. The collie seemed already beyond the reach of comfort suchas that, and the collapse of the old dog followed indeed very speedilyafter this.
And Smoke, meanwhile, remained behind, watching the advance, but notjoining in it; sitting, pleased and expectant, considering that all wasgoing well and as it wished. It was kneading on the carpet with itsfront paws--slowly, laboriously, as though its feet were dipped intreacle. The sound its claws made as they caught in the threads wasdistinctly audible. It was still smiling, blinking, purring.
Suddenly the collie uttered a poignant short bark and leaped heavily toone side. His bared teeth traced a line of whiteness through the gloom.The next instant he dashed past his master's legs, almost upsetting hisbalance, and shot out into the room, where he went blundering wildlyagainst walls and furniture. But that bark was significant; the doctorhad
heard it before and knew what it meant: for it was the cry of thefighter against odds and it meant that the old beast had found hiscourage again. Possibly it was only the courage of despair, but at anyrate the fighting would be terrific. And Dr. Silence understood, too,that he dared not interfere. Flame must fight his own enemies in his ownway.
But the cat, too, had heard that dreadful bark; and it, too, hadunderstood. This was more than it had bargained for. Across the dimshadows of that haunted room there must have passed some secret signalof distress between the animals. Smoke stood up and looked swiftly abouthim. He uttered a piteous meow and trotted smartly away into the greaterdarkness by the windows. What his object was only those endowed with thespirit-like intelligence of cats might know. But, at any rate, he had atlast ranged himself on the side of his friend. And the little beastmeant business.
At the same moment the collie managed to gain the door. The doctor sawhim rush through into the hall like a flash of yellow light. He
Three John Silence Stories Page 8
