cried, in a voice thinwith terror, running about in circles.
And then the group on the stairs scattered as at the sound of a shot,and the Colonel and Dr. Silence came down three steps at a time, leavingthe afflicted Miss Wragge to the care of her single attendant.
We were out across the front lawn in a moment and round the corner ofthe house, the Colonel leading, Silence and I at his heels, and theportly butler puffing some distance in the rear, getting more and moremixed in his addresses to God and the devil; and the moment we passedthe stables and came into view of the laundry building, we saw awicked-looking volume of smoke pouring out of the narrow windows, andthe frightened women-servants and grooms running hither and thither,calling aloud as they ran.
The arrival of the master restored order instantly, and this retiredsoldier, poor thinker perhaps, but capable man of action, had the matterin hand from the start. He issued orders like a martinet, and, almostbefore I could realise it, there were streaming buckets on the scene anda line of men and women formed between the building and the stable pump.
"Inside," I heard John Silence cry, and the Colonel followed him throughthe door, while I was just quick enough at their heels to hear him add,"the smoke's the worst part of it. There's no fire yet, I think."
And, true enough, there was no fire. The interior was thick with smoke,but it speedily cleared and not a single bucket was used upon the flooror walls. The air was stifling, the heat fearful.
"There's precious little to burn in here; it's all stone," the Colonelexclaimed, coughing. But the doctor was pointing to the wooden covers ofthe great cauldron in which the clothes were washed, and we saw thatthese were smouldering and charred. And when we sprinkled half a bucketof water on them the surrounding bricks hissed and fizzed and sent upclouds of steam. Through the open door and windows this passed out withthe rest of the smoke, and we three stood there on the brick floorstaring at the spot and wondering, each in our own fashion, how in thename of natural law the place could have caught fire or smoked at all.And each was silent--myself from sheer incapacity and befuddlement, theColonel from the quiet pluck that faces all things yet speaks little,and John Silence from the intense mental grappling with this latestmanifestation of a profound problem that called for concentration ofthought rather than for any words.
There was really nothing to say. The facts were indisputable.
Colonel Wragge was the first to utter.
"My sister," he said briefly, and moved off. In the yard I heard himsending the frightened servants about their business in an excellentlymatter-of-fact voice, scolding some one roundly for making such a bigfire and letting the flues get over-heated, and paying no heed to thestammering reply that no fire had been lit there for several days. Thenhe dispatched a groom on horseback for the local doctor.
Then Dr. Silence turned and looked at me. The absolute control hepossessed, not only over the outward expression of emotion by gesture,change of colour, light in the eyes, and so forth, but also, as I wellknew, over its very birth in his heart, the masklike face of the dead hecould assume at will, made it extremely difficult to know at any givenmoment what was at work in his inner consciousness. But now, when heturned and looked at me, there was no sphinx-expression there, butrather the keen triumphant face of a man who had solved a dangerous andcomplicated problem, and saw his way to a clean victory.
"_Now_ do you guess?" he asked quietly, as though it were the simplestmatter in the world, and ignorance were impossible.
I could only stare stupidly and remain silent. He glanced down at thecharred cauldron-lids, and traced a figure in the air with his finger.But I was too excited, or too mortified, or still too dazed, perhaps, tosee what it was he outlined, or what it was he meant to convey. I couldonly go on staring and shaking my puzzled head.
"A fire-elemental," he cried, "a fire-elemental of the most powerful andmalignant kind--"
"A what?" thundered the voice of Colonel Wragge behind us, havingreturned suddenly and overheard.
"It's a fire-elemental," repeated Dr. Silence more calmly, but with anote of triumph in his voice he could not keep out, "and afire-elemental enraged."
The light began to dawn in my mind at last. But the Colonel--who hadnever heard the term before, and was besides feeling considerably workedup for a plain man with all this mystery he knew not how to grapplewith--the Colonel stood, with the most dumfoundered look ever seen on ahuman countenance, and continued to roar, and stammer, and stare.
"And why," he began, savage with the desire to find something visible hecould fight--"why, in the name of all the blazes--?" and then stopped asJohn Silence moved up and took his arm.
"There, my dear Colonel Wragge," he said gently, "you touch the heart ofthe whole thing. You ask 'Why.' That is precisely our problem." He heldthe soldier's eyes firmly with his own. "And that, too, I think, weshall soon know. Come and let us talk over a plan of action--that roomwith the double doors, perhaps."
The word "action" calmed him a little, and he led the way, withoutfurther speech, back into the house, and down the long stone passage tothe room where we had heard his stories on the night of our arrival. Iunderstood from the doctor's glance that my presence would not make theinterview easier for our host, and I went upstairs to my ownroom--shaking.
But in the solitude of my room the vivid memories of the last hourrevived so mercilessly that I began to feel I should never in my wholelife lose the dreadful picture of Miss Wragge running--that dreadfulhuman climax after all the non-human mystery in the wood--and I was notsorry when a servant knocked at my door and said that Colonel Wraggewould be glad if I would join them in the little smoking-room.
"I think it is better you should be present," was all Colonel Wraggesaid as I entered the room. I took the chair with my back to the window.There was still an hour before lunch, though I imagine that the usualdivisions of the day hardly found a place in the thoughts of any one ofus.
The atmosphere of the room was what I might call electric. The Colonelwas positively bristling; he stood with his back to the fire, fingeringan unlit black cigar, his face flushed, his being obviously roused andready for action. He hated this mystery. It was poisonous to his nature,and he longed to meet something face to face--something he could gaugeand fight. Dr. Silence, I noticed at once, was sitting before the map ofthe estate which was spread upon a table. I knew by his expression thestate of his mind. He was in the thick of it all, knew it, delighted init, and was working at high pressure. He recognised my presence with alifted eyelid, and the flash of the eye, contrasted with his stillnessand composure, told me volumes.
"I was about to explain to our host briefly what seems to me afoot inall this business," he said without looking up, "when he asked that youshould join us so that we can all work together." And, while signifyingmy assent, I caught myself wondering what quality it was in the calmspeech of this undemonstrative man that was so full of power, so chargedwith the strange, virile personality behind it and that seemed toinspire us with his own confidence as by a process of radiation.
"Mr. Hubbard," he went on gravely, turning to the soldier, "knowssomething of my methods, and in more than one--er--interesting situationhas proved of assistance. What we want now"--and here he suddenly got upand took his place on the mat beside the Colonel, and looked hard athim--"is men who have self-control, who are sure of themselves, whoseminds at the critical moment will emit positive forces, instead of thewavering and uncertain currents due to negative feelings--due, forinstance, to fear."
He looked at us each in turn. Colonel Wragge moved his feet fartherapart, and squared his shoulders; and I felt guilty but said nothing,conscious that my latent store of courage was being deliberately hauledto the front. He was winding me up like a clock.
"So that, in what is yet to come," continued our leader, "each of uswill contribute his share of power, and ensure success for my plan."
"I'm not afraid of anything I can _see_," said the Colonel bluntly.
"I'm ready," I heard myself say, as
it were automatically, "foranything," and then added, feeling the declaration was lamelyinsufficient, "and everything."
Dr. Silence left the mat and began walking to and fro about the room,both hands plunged deep into the pockets of his shooting-jacket.Tremendous vitality streamed from him. I never took my eyes off thesmall, moving figure; small yes,--and yet somehow making me think of agiant plotting the destruction of worlds. And his manner was gentle, asalways, soothing almost, and his words uttered quietly without emphasisor emotion. Most of what he said was addressed, though not tooobviously, to the Colonel.
"The violence of this sudden attack," he said softly, pacing to and frobeneath the bookcase at the end of the room, "is due, of course, partlyto the fact that tonight the
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