Among the Ashes; or, Doomsday (with illustration) (Christmas Supplement) [pp. A001-A032]

1572.]
TIlE QUEE~ (?iOCi~f
21
flavor. It was very potent liquor. We
seemed to be drinking foaming laudanum. The man was particularly careful
to fill our glasses to the brim.
This was not the waiter who had
previously attended upon us. I was
struck by a certain strangeness in this
new man's aspect. lle was tall and painfully tbin, with long, gAm, attenuated
features, his pale face wearing an acrid,
sardonic expression. lle was very bald,
save that on his brow there grew a solitary lock of dark twisted hair, fl~e shape
of an inverted comma. I felt sure that
be and I had met before. Suddenly it
occurred to me that he bore a startling
resemblance to the grisly Mephistophelean figure of Time, pointing to the dial
of the green bronze French clock on the
mantel-piece.
The wind had now risen, and an' angry gust flung the windows wide open.
The lightning appeared t6 play about the
room, and especially to be attracted to
the bronze clock. It was lit up again
and again, as though it had been smeared
with phosphorus; fl~ere was, moreover,
a prevalent odor of sulphur in the atmosphere that overcame all the fumes of the
dinner and the wine. The air was dense
and heavy, as though loaded with the
vapors of some narcotic drug.
Then came a deafening peal of thunder. Tlie house seemed to be shaken to
its foundations. This was followed by
an awful silence; even Mrs. Carberry's
fan was still. We were all in truth too
scared to speak. The wind had gone
down for the moment; no sound was audible, save only the ticking of the French
clock. Duriug the hum of dinner this
could not have been heard; now it was
-distinctly, almost noisily. Suddenly
all was still; the clock, after a kind of
gasp and, so to speak, a death-rattle in
its throat, had stopped.
The strange waiter reentered very
quietly, and proceeded to set the clock
going again. lle wound it up very deliberately; it seemed quite a long process. We sat motionless and dumb,
watching him the while.
The waiter quitted the room. What
had he done to the clock? Something
strange. Its tick had quickened marvdlously, and the hands were whizzing
round the dial with scarcely conceivable
rapidity. Faster and faster they whiAed
round, until they were now almost imperceptible. A faint blur could be discerned upon the'white face of il~e clock,
but nothing in ore. Time was flying, indeed, at express speed! llours, days,
months, years, were hurrying away at a
frightful pace!
Still we sat silent; no one moved.
I glanced round the room. Immediately
I perceived that an extraordinary change
was coining over my fellow-guests. Time
was telling upon them most strangely and
rapidly; so rapidly that his work could
no longer be described as gradual. If
for a minute I chanced to avert my eyes
from one of them, during that brief interval the work of years had been
wrought. Even as I looked at them, I
could plainly note the process of change
surely going on. I could see them grow
old-old-very old, indeed! I could
watch and note each step of natural decay; I was only disturbed by the rapidity of the operation. Color fled, hair
was stripped ow, light wrinkles deepened
into furrows, faces fell in, forms withered
and bent, eyes dimmed and faded, and
expired like burnt-out candles; dotage
and senility and decrepitude did not
creep, but fell suddenly, as it were, upon
all. It was horrible, it was appalling,
fl~is extraordinary spectacle of certain
and swift decay! I was frembling all
over; my brain seemed on fire. Still,
though my trepidation was extreme and
scarcely to be borne, in the midst of this
frightful scene I felt that I preserved
consciousness. I was perfectly sane
my recollection of that strange scene,
even to minute points, is still vivid.
I turned' to look at Nettlefold; he
was a wizen, bent wreck of a man, with
only a mere flicker of intelligence left
upon his face. Presently it was clear to
me that he was hopelessly insane. The
change that had occurred in him during
the long period that had elapsed between
my quitting him at school and meeting
hiin again a middle-aged man was nothing to this, though it had been effected
in some few minutes only.
Still the hands of the clock were
whirling round and round, and time
went flying on. The grim bronze figure
was pointing to the dial, as though
boasting of his handiwoM~, and grinning
defiance at our discomfiture and decline.
The storm raged on without, the lightning flashed furiously, and the wind was
roaring and dasl~ing hail and rain into
the room. Nettlefold, I fancy, said or
tried to say something, I know not
wl~at; I saw his jaws work spasmodically, but he mumbled from loss of teeil~,
or my sense of hearing was lost to me.
For I grew old with the rest; I felt my
head droop until my chin rested on my
chest; my limbs were shrunk and enfeebled, and ached with age, and I could
see that my hands were as il~e hands of
a very old man-thin, tremulous, nerveless, and swollen at the joints. As to
the other guests-but indeed I cannot
continue. It was931;11]horrible!
I was in a strange bed, in a strange
room; the windows were barred, and I
could disccrn snow upon the house-tops
without. A strap bound mc to iay
couch Ice was being applied to my
forehead; my hair had been cut quite
close; shaved ow, indeed.
"What has happened? Where ain
I?"
I was told afterward that these were
the first intelligible words I had spoken
for many months.
"You're all safe —in St. Thomas's
llospital."
"What~s been the matter?"
"Well, we'll call it brain-fever. But
you'll do now."
I was forbidden to ask any more
questions. It was some time before I
could find any who would reply to me,
or give me information I much desired
upon certain points.
"Xettlefold?"I was able to inquire
at length of one who consented to supply
me with intelligence of a concise kind,
provided that I promised not to excite
myself "Nettlefold?
"In Newgate, charged under fl~e
Fraudulent Trustee Act."
"Carberry?"
Bankrupt — absconded."
"Alicia?"
"Eloped with her cousin. You've
nofl~ing more tb ask?"
I had not. My mind was in an incoherent and shattered state.
"A drink of water, please."
"llere it is; now try and go to
sleep, and don't bother yourself with
thinking-there's a good fellow-and
you'll soon get well; that is, as wAl as
you've ever been."
I don't know sometimes whether I
have ever got well or not.
Ur~znixa these last words in a dazed
manner, and with a nervous hand playing idly about his chin, the speaker
turned quickly round and disappeared in
the darkness, leaving his hearers convinced that they at least had very clear
notions as to his chances of ultimate recovery, whatever his own doubts on the
subject might be. Indeed, Mn Croffut
seemed to express the general sentiment
when he gave it as his opinion t}~at two,
or at the most iliree, more drinks of
Bourbon whiskey would be more than
enough to bring on a recurrence of the
singular symptoms experienced by the
stranger at Nettlefold's dinner.
"And," continued the president, "as
we shall want somethin' pleasant after
that, I shall ask another lady to volunteer for next turn."