_XI_
THE SEARCHING OF THE GARDENS
How slowly the time went; and never a thing to indicate that any of thebrutes still infested the gardens.
It was on the ninth day that, finally, I decided to run the risk, ifany there were, and sally out. With this purpose in view, I loaded oneof the shotguns, carefully--choosing it, as being more deadly than arifle, at close quarters; and then, after a final scrutiny of thegrounds, from the tower, I called Pepper to follow me, and made my waydown to the basement.
At the door, I must confess to hesitating a moment. The thought of whatmight be awaiting me among the dark shrubberies, was by no meanscalculated to encourage my resolution. It was but a second, though, andthen I had drawn the bolts, and was standing on the path outsidethe door.
Pepper followed, stopping at the doorstep to sniff, suspiciously; andcarrying his nose up and down the jambs, as though following a scent.Then, suddenly, he turned, sharply, and started to run here and there,in semicircles and circles, all around the door; finally returning tothe threshold. Here, he began again to nose about.
Hitherto, I had stood, watching the dog; yet, all the time, with halfmy gaze on the wild tangle of gardens, stretching 'round me. Now, I wenttoward him, and, bending down, examined the surface of the door, wherehe was smelling. I found that the wood was covered with a network ofscratches, crossing and recrossing one another, in inextricableconfusion. In addition to this, I noticed that the doorposts,themselves, were gnawed in places. Beyond these, I could find nothing;and so, standing up, I began to make the tour of the house wall.
Pepper, as soon as I walked away, left the door, and ran ahead, stillnosing and sniffing as he went along. At times, he stopped toinvestigate. Here, it would be a bullet-hole in the pathway, or,perhaps, a powder stained wad. Anon, it might be a piece of torn sod, ora disturbed patch of weedy path; but, save for such trifles, he foundnothing. I observed him, critically, as he went along, and coulddiscover nothing of uneasiness, in his demeanor, to indicate that hefelt the nearness of any of the creatures. By this, I was assured thatthe gardens were empty, at least for the present, of those hatefulThings. Pepper could not be easily deceived, and it was a relief to feelthat he would know, and give me timely warning, if there wereany danger.
Reaching the place where I had shot that first creature, I stopped, andmade a careful scrutiny; but could see nothing. From there, I went on towhere the great copingstone had fallen. It lay on its side, apparentlyjust as it had been left when I shot the brute that was moving it. Acouple of feet to the right of the nearer end, was a great dent in theground; showing where it had struck. The other end was still within theindentation--half in, and half out. Going nearer, I looked at the stone,more closely. What a huge piece of masonry it was! And that creature hadmoved it, single-handed, in its attempt to reach what lay below.
I went 'round to the further end of the stone. Here, I found that itwas possible to see under it, for a distance of nearly a couple of feet.Still, I could see nothing of the stricken creatures, and I felt muchsurprised. I had, as I have before said, guessed that the remains hadbeen removed; yet, I could not conceive that it had been done sothoroughly as not to leave some certain sign, beneath the stone,indicative of their fate. I had seen several of the brutes struck downbeneath it, with such force that they must have been literally driveninto the earth; and now, not a vestige of them was to be seen--not evena bloodstain.
I felt more puzzled, than ever, as I turned the matter over in my mind;but could think of no plausible explanation; and so, finally, gave itup, as one of the many things that were unexplainable.
From there, I transferred my attention to the study door. I could see,now, even more plainly, the effects of the tremendous strain, to whichit had been subjected; and I marveled how, even with the supportafforded by the props, it had withstood the attacks, so well. There wereno marks of blows--indeed, none had been given--but the door had beenliterally riven from its hinges, by the application of enormous, silentforce. One thing that I observed affected me profoundly--the head of oneof the props had been driven right through a panel. This was, of itself,sufficient to show how huge an effort the creatures had made to breakdown the door, and how nearly they had succeeded.
Leaving, I continued my tour 'round the house, finding little else ofinterest; save at the back, where I came across the piece of piping Ihad torn from the wall, lying among the long grass underneath thebroken window.
Then, I returned to the house, and, having re-bolted the back door,went up to the tower. Here, I spent the afternoon, reading, andoccasionally glancing down into the gardens. I had determined, if thenight passed quietly, to go as far as the Pit, on the morrow. Perhaps, Ishould be able to learn, then, something of what had happened. The dayslipped away, and the night came, and went much as the last fewnights had gone.
When I rose the morning had broken, fine and clear; and I determined toput my project into action. During breakfast, I considered the matter,carefully; after which, I went to the study for my shotgun. In addition,I loaded, and slipped into my pocket, a small, but heavy, pistol. Iquite understood that, if there were any danger, it lay in the directionof the Pit and I intended to be prepared.
Leaving the study, I went down to the back door, followed by Pepper.Once outside, I took a quick survey of the surrounding gardens, and thenset off toward the Pit. On the way, I kept a sharp outlook, holding mygun, handily. Pepper was running ahead, I noticed, without any apparenthesitation. From this, I augured that there was no imminent danger to beapprehended, and I stepped out more quickly in his wake. He had reachedthe top of the Pit, now, and was nosing his way along the edge.
A minute later, I was beside him, looking down into the Pit. For amoment, I could scarcely believe that it was the same place, so greatlywas it changed. The dark, wooded ravine of a fortnight ago, with afoliage-hidden stream, running sluggishly, at the bottom, existed nolonger. Instead, my eyes showed me a ragged chasm, partly filled with agloomy lake of turbid water. All one side of the ravine was stripped ofunderwood, showing the bare rock.
A little to my left, the side of the Pit appeared to have collapsedaltogether, forming a deep V-shaped cleft in the face of the rockycliff. This rift ran, from the upper edge of the ravine, nearly down tothe water, and penetrated into the Pit side, to a distance of some fortyfeet. Its opening was, at least, six yards across; and, from this, itseemed to taper into about two. But, what attracted my attention, morethan even the stupendous split itself, was a great hole, some distancedown the cleft, and right in the angle of the V. It was clearly defined,and not unlike an arched doorway in shape; though, lying as it did inthe shadow, I could not see it very distinctly.
The opposite side of the Pit, still retained its verdure; but so tornin places, and everywhere covered with dust and rubbish, that it washardly distinguishable as such.
My first impression, that there had been a land slip, was, I began tosee, not sufficient, of itself, to account for all the changes Iwitnessed. And the water--? I turned, suddenly; for I had become awarethat, somewhere to my right, there was a noise of running water. I couldsee nothing; but, now that my attention had been caught, Idistinguished, easily, that it came from somewhere at the East endof the Pit.
Slowly, I made my way in that direction; the sound growing plainer as Iadvanced, until in a little, I stood right above it. Even then, I couldnot perceive the cause, until I knelt down, and thrust my head over thecliff. Here, the noise came up to me, plainly; and I saw, below me, atorrent of clear water, issuing from a small fissure in the Pit side,and rushing down the rocks, into the lake beneath. A little furtheralong the cliff, I saw another, and, beyond that again, two smallerones. These, then, would help to account for the quantity of water inthe Pit; and, if the fall of rock and earth had blocked the outlet ofthe stream at the bottom, there was little doubt but that it wascontributing a very large share.
Yet, I puzzled my head to account for the generally _shaken_ appearanceof the place--these streamlets, and
that huge cleft, further up theravine! It seemed to me, that more than the landslip was necessary toaccount for these. I could imagine an earthquake, or a great_explosion_, creating some such condition of affairs as existed; but, ofthese, there had been neither. Then, I stood up, quickly, rememberingthat crash, and the cloud of dust that had followed, directly, rushinghigh into the air. But I shook my head, unbelievingly. No! It must havebeen the noise of the falling rocks and earth, I had heard; of course,the dust would fly, naturally. Still, in spite of my reasoning, I had anuneasy feeling, that this theory did not satisfy my sense of theprobable; and yet, was any other, that I could suggest, likely to behalf so plausible? Pepper had been sitting on the grass, while Iconducted my examination. Now, as I turned up the North side of theravine, he rose and followed.
Slowly, and keeping a careful watch in all directions, I made thecircuit of the Pit; but found little else, that I had not already seen.From the West end, I could see the four waterfalls, uninterruptedly.They were some considerable distance up from the surface of thelake--about fifty feet, I calculated.
For a little while longer, I loitered about; keeping my eyes and earsopen, but still, without seeing or hearing anything suspicious. Thewhole place was wonderfully quiet; indeed, save for the continuousmurmur of the water, at the top end, no sound, of any description, brokethe silence.
All this while, Pepper had shown no signs of uneasiness. This seemed,to me, to indicate that, for the time being, at least, there was none ofthe Swine-creatures in the vicinity. So far as I could see, hisattention appeared to have been taken, chiefly, with scratching andsniffing among the grass at the edge of the Pit. At times, he wouldleave the edge, and run along toward the house, as though followinginvisible tracks; but, in all cases, returning after a few minutes. Ihad little doubt but that he was really tracing out the footsteps of theSwine-things; and the very fact that each one seemed to lead him back tothe Pit, appeared to me, a proof that the brutes had all returned whencethey came.
At noon, I went home, for dinner. During the afternoon, I made apartial search of the gardens, accompanied by Pepper; but, withoutcoming upon anything to indicate the presence of the creatures.
Once, as we made our way through the shrubberies, Pepper rushed inamong some bushes, with a fierce yelp. At that, I jumped back, in suddenfright, and threw my gun forward, in readiness; only to laugh,nervously, as Pepper reappeared, chasing an unfortunate cat. Towardevening, I gave up the search, and returned to the house. All at once,as we were passing a great clump of bushes, on our right, Pepperdisappeared, and I could hear him sniffing and growling among them, in asuspicious manner. With my gun barrel, I parted the interveningshrubbery, and looked inside. There was nothing to be seen, save thatmany of the branches were bent down, and broken; as though some animalhad made a lair there, at no very previous date. It was probably, Ithought, one of the places occupied by some of the Swine-creatures, onthe night of the attack.
Next day, I resumed my search through the gardens; but without result.By evening, I had been right through them, and now, I knew, beyond thepossibility of doubt, that there were no longer any of the Thingsconcealed about the place. Indeed, I have often thought since, that Iwas correct in my earlier surmise, that they had left soon afterthe attack.