第98章 THE CLOSED DOOR(19)

But he was not absolutely certain that the woman was his mother till he stooped and beheld her face, pallid, and with closed eyes.

His breath went, as it were, out of his body and the cry of anguish which would have escaped him died upon his lips.

During the momentary interval that elapsed before he became conscious that something must be done all sense of time and place left him, and it seemed as if he and his mother were as when he was a child with her many years ago on this heath at hours similar to the present.

Then he awoke to activity; and bending yet lower he found that she still breathed, and that her breath though feeble was regular, except when disturbed by an occasional gasp.

"O, what is it! Mother, are you very ill--you are not dying?"he cried, pressing his lips to her face."I am your Clym.

How did you come here? What does it all mean?"At that moment the chasm in their lives which his love for Eustacia had caused was not remembered by Yeobright, and to him the present joined continuously with that friendly past that had been their experience before the division.

She moved her lips, appeared to know him, but could not speak;and then Clym strove to consider how best to move her, as it would be necessary to get her away from the spot before the dews were intense.He was able-bodied, and his mother was thin.He clasped his arms round her, lifted her a little, and said, "Does that hurt you?"She shook her head, and he lifted her up; then, at a slow pace, went onward with his load.The air was now completely cool;but whenever he passed over a sandy patch of ground uncarpeted with vegetation there was reflected from its surface into his face the heat which it had imbibed during the day.At the beginning of his undertaking he had thought but little of the distance which yet would have to be traversed before Blooms-End could be reached;but though he had slept that afternoon he soon began to feel the weight of his burden.Thus he proceeded, like Aeneas with his father; the bats circling round his head, nightjars flapping their wings within a yard of his face, and not a human being within call.

While he was yet nearly a mile from the house his mother exhibited signs of restlessness under the constraint of being borne along, as if his arms were irksome to her.

He lowered her upon his knees and looked around.

The point they had now reached, though far from any road, was not more than a mile from the Blooms-End cottages occupied by Fairway, Sam, Humphrey, and the Cantles.

Moreover, fifty yards off stood a hut, built of clods and covered with thin turves, but now entirely disused.

The simple outline of the lonely shed was visible, and thither he determined to direct his steps.As soon as he arrived he laid her down carefully by the entrance, and then ran and cut with his pocketknife an armful of the dryest fern.Spreading this within the shed, which was entirely open on one side, he placed his mother thereon;then he ran with all his might towards the dwelling of Fairway.

Nearly a quarter of an hour had passed, disturbed only by the broken breathing of the sufferer, when moving figures began to animate the line between heath and sky.In a few moments Clym arrived with Fairway, Humphrey, and Susan Nunsuch;Olly Dowden, who had chanced to be at Fairway's, Christian and Grandfer Cantle following helter-skelter behind.

They had brought a lantern and matches, water, a pillow, and a few other articles which had occurred to their minds in the hurry of the moment.Sam had been despatched back again for brandy, and a boy brought Fairway's pony, upon which he rode off to the nearest medical man, with directions to call at Wildeve's on his way, and inform Thomasin that her aunt was unwell.

Sam and the brandy soon arrived, and it was administered by the light of the lantern; after which she became sufficiently conscious to signify by signs that something was wrong with her foot.Olly Dowden at length understood her meaning, and examined the foot indicated.

It was swollen and red.Even as they watched the red began to assume a more livid colour, in the midst of which appeared a scarlet speck, smaller than a pea, and it was found to consist of a drop of blood, which rose above the smooth flesh of her ankle in a hemisphere.

"I know what it is," cried Sam."She has been stung by an adder!""Yes," said Clym instantly."I remember when I was a child seeing just such a bite.O, my poor mother!""It was my father who was bit," said Sam."And there's only one way to cure it.You must rub the place with the fat of other adders, and the only way to get that is by frying them.That's what they did for him.""'Tis an old remedy," said Clym distrustfully, "and Ihave doubts about it.But we can do nothing else till the doctor comes.""'Tis a sure cure," said Olly Dowden, with emphasis.

"I've used it when I used to go out nursing.""Then we must pray for daylight, to catch them,"said Clym gloomily.

"I will see what I can do," said Sam.

He took a green hazel which he had used as a walking stick, split it at the end, inserted a small pebble, and with the lantern in his hand went out into the heath.

Clym had by this time lit a small fire, and despatched Susan Nunsuch for a frying pan.Before she had returned Sam came in with three adders, one briskly coiling and uncoiling in the cleft of the stick, and the other two hanging dead across it.

"I have only been able to get one alive and fresh as he ought to be," said Sam."These limp ones are two Ikilled today at work; but as they don't die till the sun goes down they can't be very stale meat."The live adder regarded the assembled group with a sinister look in its small black eye, and the beautiful brown and jet pattern on its back seemed to intensify with indignation.

Mrs.Yeobright saw the creature, and the creature saw her--she quivered throughout, and averted her eyes.

"Look at that," murmured Christian Cantle."Neighbours, how do we know but that something of the old serpent in God's garden, that gied the apple to the young woman with no clothes, lives on in adders and snakes still?