Bimbam just then entered the room and whispered something to Mrs. Chard, bending low with the respectful air of a trained elephant.
"It is very odd," said Gwendoline. "Tell him to send something else. Just fancy," she continued, turning to the others, " Celestin has sent word that the ice-cream won't freeze—he says 'he is at the despair but that congeals not.' It is very provoking— the first time I have ordered it."
"Don't look at me like that," said Augustus, laughing, "it is not my fault."
"I believe it is," said Gwendoline, making a little face and then laughing too.
"Do you seriously suspect me of having put Nature's nose out of joint?" asked her husband.
"Never mind, dear! It is not the least matter," said Lady Brenda to her daughter. " Those things will happen sometimes, you know. Celestin will turn the ice-cream into something else, of course. Dear me! I feel as though the room were full of people — it is very warm."
"Open that window," said Augustus to Bimbam, the butler. The servant obeyed and a gust of hot air blew in, almost stifling in its oppressiveness, but the stars shone brightly in the dark and there seemed to be no clouds in the sky. The party sat in silence for some time, going through the form of eating, but the sultry weight in the atmosphere increased with every minute until it seemed as though the simoon of the desert had broken into the dining-room.
"I cannot stand this a moment longer," said Gwendoline, rising to her feet. "I cannot breathe."
"Let us go out," said Augustus. "I will amuse you with my new fireworks. It must be cooler outside."
The three ladies left the table, and Augustus sent for a lantern. He meant the surprise to be complete, produced by a turn of his fingers, in the twinkling of an eye. Bearing the lantern in his hand he left the house with his three companions and began to ascend a short steep path which led to the stone hut where he had centralised his apparatus. .
"It is weird — almost ghastly," said Diana in a low voice.
"One feels afraid to speak," answered Gwendoline.
"Does not it sometimes feel like this when there is to be an earthquake ? " asked Lady Brenda.
"Exactly like this," said Augustus, reassuringly.
"Good gracious! You don't think there is going to be one ? "
"No, I never heard of an earthquake on this peninsula. There will very probably be one in Naples to-night. Take care — the stones are loose. Here we are. Now take a good look. I want you to stand here — so — facing the sea and turning a little towards the castle. Don't move or turn your eyes away — it will be very curious. You are not afraid? I must go inside the hut to do it."
Augustus entered the low door, carrying his lantern with him, and leaving the three ladies outside in the dark. He went straight to the commutator and having assured himself that the connections were properly made he laid his hand on the switch.
"Ready," he called aloud. " Look where I told you — now!"
The key turned under his fingers and almost at the same instant a cry of surprise and delight broke from the little party outside. Augustus went out and joined them, and gazed on the wonderful effects of his discovery.
The rocks and the shore were as bright as day. High on the castle burned a beacon which must have been visible thirty miles away at sea; from every point of rock a little sun shed a broad circle of daylight, and from deep fissures and crevices straight, broad shafts of light beamed upwards to the dark sky like radiant ladders to heaven. The frightened quail, at that season just settling on the southern shore after their flight from Africa, flew whirring up towards the lights, uttering their peculiar short cry. White gulls shot from the rocks and sped in huge circles like gigantic flakes of snow whirling down to the dark, placid water. The rocks threw weird and unimagined shadows under the light which had never shone on them before. The four spectators of the wonderful scene looked out, and held their breath, and then looked at each other.
"How did you do it, Augustus ? " asked Gwendoline.
"I suppose they are electric lights," said Diana, "but the effect is like magic."
"Perfectly wonderful! " exclaimed Lady Brenda. " I never saw anything like it. There is some real practical use in this sort of thing."
"You did not seem to think there was much use in my glass bowl oracle the other day," remarked Augustus.
"No — that was ridiculous," answered his motherin-law.
"It was the same thing on a smaller scale. I was only teasing you — it was an experiment with electricity; it was not an oracle at all."
"How could you make fun of me in that way ? " asked Lady Brenda, half hurt, half laughing.
"Only to see what you would say," replied Augustus. "Come, let us take a walk among the lights and see the effect from different places."
"It is hotter out of doors than it was at dinner," said Lady Brenda. " It is like a sirocco in August — it burns one's skin."
It was quite true; as they moved along the narrow paths, puffs of burning air blew from the rocks on all sides, unexpectedly, and so violently that it seemed as though the party were struck by clouds of hot whirling feathers. The wind seemed palpable and thick. One would almost have said that the gusts cast shadows in the brilliant light of the countless lamps. At the same time, in the dark distance above the illumination, the stars were dimmed and went out one by one. Then as the four persons emerged upon a little platform of rock from which they could view the wild scene, the blasts of scorching wind suddenly ceased and the air settled down upon them like a thick warm blanket. They panted for breath, and by a common impulse they all sat down upon the blocks of stone to rest.
An indescribable awe seized upon them all, like the creeping shadow of an event to come. Gwendoline sat by her husband's side and laid her hand upon his clasped fingers. Lady Brenda chose the place where the light was brightest, while Diana, sitting a little apart, leaned her cheek upon her hand and stared out into the strange mixture of daylight and darkness, half startled by a feeling of weird horror, half delighted by the delicious sense of confused reality and dreamy illusion which her brother had conjured up.
The four sat there for nearly a quarter of an hour without exchanging a word. There are times when the most loquacious being alive must be silent; moments when the unwonted consciousness of the limitless unknown lies heavily upon the little body of our poor knowledge, as the weight of some huge beast that stretches its vast bulk across a tiny trail of toiling ants. The ants are too small to be all crushed by anything so big and rough, but they lie paralysed and helpless till it pleases the giant to relieve them of his burden and let them move again. The mind sticks like a fly in a pot of honey when transported to an atmosphere not its own, and seems to struggle with an element in which its consciousness is redoubled while its activity is destroyed. No one of the four could have given a reason for the silence, nor can any one find explanations for such things without assuming a theory which one half of the world considers absurd and the other half believes to be dangerous. The fact that for thousands of years man has been trying experiments with a view to finding out something about himself, and that his efforts have uniformly resulted in failure, has not made him more lenient to beliefs which he dislikes, nor more willing to admit his own well-demonstrated ignorance. He still explains as accident that which he knows not how to explain by law, and rocks himself to sleep in the security of self-deceived vanity, until he is roused from his slumber to tremble at those terrors which his fatuous self-satisfaction has so deservedly incurred. Science, what follies are committed in thy name! What blind faith is placed in thy feeble utterances, which might more worthily be fixed on higher and truer things!
Silently the four sat together and looked down upon the scene, breathing with difficulty in the hot thick air. The wind had entirely ceased and the silence was so profound as to be almost terrifying. Then, suddenly and without the smallest warning, a fearful crash of thunder burst above their heads and struck the rocks, and echoed back in horrible reverberation, peal upon peal,