Lair of the White Worm

THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM


To my friend Bertha Nicoll with affectionate esteem.




CHAPTER I--ADAM SALTON ARRIVES


Adam Salton sauntered into the Empire Club, Sydney, and found awaiting
him a letter from his grand-uncle.  He had first heard from the old
gentleman less than a year before, when Richard Salton had claimed
kinship, stating that he had been unable to write earlier, as he had
found it very difficult to trace his grand-nephew's address.  Adam was
delighted and replied cordially; he had often heard his father speak of
the older branch of the family with whom his people had long lost touch.
Some interesting correspondence had ensued.  Adam eagerly opened the
letter which had only just arrived, and conveyed a cordial invitation to
stop with his grand-uncle at Lesser Hill, for as long a time as he could
spare.

"Indeed," Richard Salton went on, "I am in hopes that you will make your
permanent home here.  You see, my dear boy, you and I are all that remain
of our race, and it is but fitting that you should succeed me when the
time comes.  In this year of grace, 1860, I am close on eighty years of
age, and though we have been a long-lived race, the span of life cannot
be prolonged beyond reasonable bounds.  I am prepared to like you, and to
make your home with me as happy as you could wish.  So do come at once on
receipt of this, and find the welcome I am waiting to give you.  I send,
in case such may make matters easy for you, a banker's draft for 200
pounds.  Come soon, so that we may both of us enjoy many happy days
together.  If you are able to give me the pleasure of seeing you, send me
as soon as you can a letter telling me when to expect you.  Then when you
arrive at Plymouth or Southampton or whatever port you are bound for,
wait on board, and I will meet you at the earliest hour possible."

* * * * *

Old Mr. Salton was delighted when Adam's reply arrived and sent a groom
hot-foot to his crony, Sir Nathaniel de Salis, to inform him that his
grand-nephew was due at Southampton on the twelfth of June.

Mr. Salton gave instructions to have ready a carriage early on the
important day, to start for Stafford, where he would catch the 11.40 a.m.
train.  He would stay that night with his grand-nephew, either on the
ship, which would be a new experience for him, or, if his guest should
prefer it, at a hotel.  In either case they would start in the early
morning for home.  He had given instructions to his bailiff to send the
postillion carriage on to Southampton, to be ready for their journey
home, and to arrange for relays of his own horses to be sent on at once.
He intended that his grand-nephew, who had been all his life in
Australia, should see something of rural England on the drive.  He had
plenty of young horses of his own breeding and breaking, and could depend
on a journey memorable to the young man.  The luggage would be sent on by
rail to Stafford, where one of his carts would meet it.  Mr. Salton,
during the journey to Southampton, often wondered if his grand-nephew was
as much excited as he was at the idea of meeting so near a relation for
the first time; and it was with an effort that he controlled himself.  The
endless railway lines and switches round the Southampton Docks fired his
anxiety afresh.

As the train drew up on the dockside, he was getting his hand traps
together, when the carriage door was wrenched open and a young man jumped
in.

"How are you, uncle?  I recognised you from the photo you sent me!  I
wanted to meet you as soon as I could, but everything is so strange to me
that I didn't quite know what to do.  However, here I am.  I am glad to
see you, sir.  I have been dreaming of this happiness for thousands of
miles; now I find that the reality beats all the dreaming!"  As he spoke
the old man and the young one were heartily wringing each other's hands.

The meeting so auspiciously begun proceeded well.  Adam, seeing that the
old man was interested in the novelty of the ship, suggested that he
should stay the night on board, and that he would himself be ready to
start at any hour and go anywhere that the other suggested.  This
affectionate willingness to fall in with his own plans quite won the old
man's heart.  He warmly accepted the invitation, and at once they became
not only on terms of affectionate relationship, but almost like old
friends.  The heart of the old man, which had been empty for so long,
found a new delight.  The young man found, on landing in the old country,
a welcome and a surrounding in full harmony with all his dreams
throughout his wanderings and solitude, and the promise of a fresh and
adventurous life.  It was not long before the old man accepted him to
full relationship by calling him by his Christian name.  After a long
talk on affairs of interest, they retired to the cabin, which the elder
was to share.  Richard Salton put his hands affectionately on the boy's
shoulders--though Adam was in his twenty-seventh year, he was a boy, and
always would be, to his grand-uncle.

"I am so glad to find you as you are, my dear boy--just such a young man
as I had always hoped for as a son, in the days when I still had such
hopes.  However, that is all past.  But thank God there is a new life to
begin for both of us.  To you must be the larger part--but there is still
time for some of it to be shared in common.  I have waited till we should
have seen each other to enter upon the subject; for I thought it better
not to tie up your young life to my old one till we should have
sufficient personal knowledge to justify such a venture.  Now I can, so