SATURDAY noon I went to the well and looked on a while. Merlin was still burning smoke-powders, and pawing the air, and muttering gibberish as hard as ever, but looking pretty down-hearted, for of course he had not started even a perspiration1 in that well yet. Finally I said:
"How does the thing promise by this time, partner?"
"Behold2, I am even now busied with trial of the powerfulest enchantment3 known to the princes of the occult arts in the lands of the East; an it fail me, naught4 can avail. Peace, until I finish."
He raised a smoke this time that darkened all the region, and must have made matters uncomfortable for the hermits5, for the wind was their way, and it rolled down over their dens6 in a dense7 and billowy fog. He poured out volumes of speech to match, and contorted his body and sawed the air with his hands in a most extraordinary way. At the end of twenty minutes he dropped down panting, and about exhausted8. Now arrived the abbot and several hundred monks9 and nuns10, and behind them a multitude of pilgrims and a couple of acres of foundlings, all drawn11 by the prodigious12 smoke, and all in a grand state of excitement. The abbot inquired anxiously for results. Merlin said:
"If any labor13 of mortal might break the spell that binds14 these waters, this which I have but just essayed had done it. It has failed; whereby I do now know that that which I had feared is a truth established; the sign of this failure is, that the most potent15 spirit known to the magicians of the East, and whose name none may utter and live, has laid his spell upon this well. The mortal does not breathe, nor ever will, who can penetrate16 the secret of that spell, and without that secret none can break it. The water will flow no more forever, good Father. I have done what man could. Suffer me to go."
Of course this threw the abbot into a good deal of a consternation17. He turned to me with the signs of it in his face, and said:
"Ye have heard him. Is it true?"
"Part of it is."
"Not all, then, not all! What part is true?"
"That that spirit with the Russian name has put his spell upon the well."
"God's wownds, then are we ruined!"
"Possibly."
"But not certainly? Ye mean, not certainly?"
"That is it."
"Wherefore, ye also mean that when he saith none can break the spell --"
"Yes, when he says that, he says what isn't necessarily true. There are conditions under which an effort to break it may have some chance -- that is, some small, some trifling18 chance -- of success."
"The conditions --"
"Oh, they are nothing difficult. Only these: I want the well and the surroundings for the space of half a mile, entirely19 to myself from sunset to-day until I remove the ban -- and nobody allowed to cross the ground but by my authority."
"Are these all?"
"Yes."
"And you have no fear to try?"
"Oh, none. One may fail, of course; and one may also succeed. One can try, and I am ready to chance it. I have my conditions?"
"These and all others ye may name. I will issue commandment to that effect."
"Wait," said Merlin, with an evil smile. "Ye wit that he that would break this spell must know that spirit's name?"
"Yes, I know his name."
"And wit you also that to know it skills not of itself, but ye must likewise pronounce it? Ha-ha! Knew ye that?"
"Yes, I knew that, too."
"You had that knowledge! Art a fool? Are ye minded to utter that name and die?"
"Utter it? Why certainly. I would utter it if it was Welsh."
"Ye are even a dead man, then; and I go to tell Arthur."
"That's all right. Take your gripsack and get along. The thing for YOU to do is to go home and work the weather, John W. Merlin."
It was a home shot, and it made him wince20; for he was the worst weather-failure in the kingdom. Whenever he ordered up the danger-signals along the coast there was a week's dead calm, sure, and every time he prophesied21 fair weather it rained brickbats. But I kept him in the weather bureau right along, to undermine his reputation. However, that shot raised his bile, and instead of starting home to report my death, he said he would remain and enjoy it.
My two experts arrived in the evening, and pretty well fagged, for they had traveled double tides. They had pack-mules along, and had brought everything I needed -- tools, pump, lead pipe, Greek fire, sheaves of big rockets, roman candles, colored fire sprays, electric apparatus22, and a lot of sundries -- everything necessary for the stateliest kind of a miracle. They got their supper and a nap, and about midnight we sallied out through a solitude23 so wholly vacant and complete that it quite overpassed the required conditions. We took possession of the well and its surroundings. My boys were experts in all sorts of things, from the stoning up of a well to the constructing of a mathematical instrument. An hour before sunrise we had that leak mended in ship-shape fashion, and the water began to rise. Then we stowed our fireworks in the chapel24, locked up the place, and went home to bed.
Before the noon mass was over, we were at the well again; for there was a deal to do yet, and I was determined25 to spring the miracle before midnight, for business reasons: for whereas a miracle worked for the Church on a week-day is worth a good deal, it is worth six times as much if you get it in on a Sunday. In nine hours the water had risen to its customary level -that is to say, it was within twenty-three feet of the top. We put in a little iron pump, one of the first turned out by my works near the capital; we bored into a stone reservoir which stood against the outer wall of the well-chamber and inserted a section of lead pipe that was long enough to reach to the door of the chapel and project beyond the threshold, where the gushing27 water would be visible to the two hundred and fifty acres of people I was intending should be present on the flat plain in front of this little holy hillock at the proper time.
We knocked the head out of an empty hogshead and hoisted28 this hogshead to the flat roof of the chapel, where we clamped it down fast, poured in gunpowder29 till it lay loosely an inch deep on the bottom, then we stood up rockets in the hogshead as thick as they could loosely stand, all the different breeds of rockets there are; and they made a portly and imposing30 sheaf, I can tell you. We grounded the wire of a pocket electrical battery in that powder, we placed a whole magazine of Greek fire on each corner of the roof -blue on one corner, green on another, red on another, and purple on the last -- and grounded a wire in each.
About two hundred yards off, in the flat, we built a pen of scantlings, about four feet high, and laid planks31 on it, and so made a platform. We covered it with swell32 tapestries33 borrowed for the occasion, and topped it off with the abbot's own throne. When you are going to do a miracle for an ignorant race, you want to get in every detail that will count; you want to make all the properties impressive to the public eye; you want to make matters comfortable for your head guest; then you can turn yourself loose and play your effects for all they are worth. I know the value of these things, for I know human nature. You can't throw too much style into a miracle. It costs trouble, and work, and sometimes money; but it pays in the end. Well, we brought the wires to the ground at the chapel, and then brought them under the ground to the platform, and hid the batteries there. We put a rope fence a hundred feet square around the platform to keep off the common multitude, and that finished the work. My idea was, doors open at 10:30, performance to begin at 11:25 sharp. I wished I could charge admission, but of course that wouldn't answer. I instructed my boys to be in the chapel as early as 10, before anybody was around, and be ready to man the pumps at the proper time, and make the fur fly. Then we went home to supper.
The news of the disaster to the well had traveled far by this time; and now for two or three days a steady avalanche34 of people had been pouring into the valley. The lower end of the valley was become one huge camp; we should have a good house, no question about that. Criers went the rounds early in the evening and announced the coming attempt, which put every pulse up to fever heat. They gave notice that the abbot and his official suite35 would move in state and occupy the platform at 10:30, up to which time all the region which was under my ban must be clear; the bells would then cease from tolling36, and this sign should be permission to the multitudes to close in and take their places.
I was at the platform and all ready to do the honors when the abbot's solemn procession hove in sight -which it did not do till it was nearly to the rope fence, because it was a starless black night and no torches permitted. With it came Merlin, and took a front seat on the platform; he was as good as his word for once. One could not see the multitudes banked together beyond the ban, but they were there, just the same. The moment the bells stopped, those banked masses broke and poured over the line like a vast black wave, and for as much as a half hour it continued to flow, and then it solidified37 itself, and you could have walked upon a pavement of human heads to -- well, miles.
We had a solemn stage-wait, now, for about twenty minutes -- a thing I had counted on for effect; it is always good to let your audience have a chance to work up its expectancy38. At length, out of the silence a noble Latin chant -- men's voices -- broke and swelled39 up and rolled away into the night, a majestic40 tide of melody. I had put that up, too, and it was one of the best effects I ever invented. When it was finished I stood up on the platform and extended my hands abroad, for two minutes, with my face uplifted -- that always produces a dead hush41 -- and then slowly pronounced this ghastly word with a kind of awfulness which caused hundreds to tremble, and many women to faint:
"Constantinopolitanischerdudelsackspfeifen machersgesellschafft!"
Just as I was moaning out the closing hunks of that word, I touched off one of my electric connections and all that murky42 world of people stood revealed in a hideous43 blue glare! It was immense -- that effect! Lots of people shrieked44, women curled up and quit in every direction, foundlings collapsed45 by platoons. The abbot and the monks crossed themselves nimbly and their lips fluttered with agitated46 prayers. Merlin held his grip, but he was astonished clear down to his corns; he had never seen anything to begin with that, before. Now was the time to pile in the effects. I lifted my hands and groaned47 out this word -- as it were in agony:
"Nihilistendynamittheaterkaestchensspreng ungsattentaetsversuchungen!"
-- and turned on the red fire! You should have heard that Atlantic of people moan and howl when that crimson49 hell joined the blue! After sixty seconds I shouted:
"Transvaaltruppentropentransporttrampelthier treibertrauungsthraenentragoedie!"
-- and lit up the green fire! After waiting only forty seconds this time, I spread my arms abroad and thundered out the devastating50 syllables51 of this word of words:
"Mekkamuselmannenmassenmenchenmoerdermohrenmutter marmormonumentenmacher!"
-- and whirled on the purple glare! There they were, all going at once, red, blue, green, purple! -- four furious volcanoes pouring vast clouds of radiant smoke aloft, and spreading a blinding rainbowed noonday to the furthest confines of that valley. In the distance one could see that fellow on the pillar standing52 rigid53 against the background of sky, his seesaw54 stopped for the first time in twenty years. I knew the boys were at the pump now and ready. So I said to the abbot:
"The time is come, Father. I am about to pronounce the dread55 name and command the spell to dissolve. You want to brace56 up, and take hold of something." Then I shouted to the people: "Behold, in another minute the spell will be broken, or no mortal can break it. If it break, all will know it, for you will see the sacred water gush26 from the chapel door!"
I stood a few moments, to let the hearers have a chance to spread my announcement to those who couldn't hear, and so convey it to the furthest ranks, then I made a grand exhibition of extra posturing57 and gesturing, and shouted:
"Lo, I command the fell spirit that possesses the holy fountain to now disgorge into the skies all the infernal fires that still remain in him, and straightway dissolve his spell and flee hence to the pit, there to lie bound a thousand years. By his own dread name I command it -- BGWJJILLIGKKK!"
Then I touched off the hogshead of rockets, and a vast fountain of dazzling lances of fire vomited58 itself toward the zenith with a hissing59 rush, and burst in mid-sky into a storm of flashing jewels! One mighty60 groan48 of terror started up from the massed people -then suddenly broke into a wild hosannah of joy -- for there, fair and plain in the uncanny glare, they saw the freed water leaping forth61! The old abbot could not speak a word, for tears and the chokings in his throat; without utterance62 of any sort, he folded me in his arms and mashed63 me. It was more eloquent64 than speech. And harder to get over, too, in a country where there were really no doctors that were worth a damaged nickel.
You should have seen those acres of people throw themselves down in that water and kiss it; kiss it, and pet it, and fondle it, and talk to it as if it were alive, and welcome it back with the dear names they gave their darlings, just as if it had been a friend who was long gone away and lost, and was come home again. Yes, it was pretty to see, and made me think more of them than I had done before.
I sent Merlin home on a shutter65. He had caved in and gone down like a landslide66 when I pronounced that fearful name, and had never come to since. He never had heard that name before, -- neither had I -- but to him it was the right one. Any jumble67 would have been the right one. He admitted, afterward68, that that spirit's own mother could not have pronounced that name better than I did. He never could understand how I survived it, and I didn't tell him. It is only young magicians that give away a secret like that. Merlin spent three months working enchantments69 to try to find out the deep trick of how to pronounce that name and outlive it. But he didn't arrive.
When I started to the chapel, the populace uncovered and fell back reverently70 to make a wide way for me, as if I had been some kind of a superior being -- and I was. I was aware of that. I took along a night shift of monks, and taught them the mystery of the pump, and set them to work, for it was plain that a good part of the people out there were going to sit up with the water all night, consequently it was but right that they should have all they wanted of it. To those monks that pump was a good deal of a miracle itself, and they were full of wonder over it; and of admiration71, too, of the exceeding effectiveness of its performance.
It was a great night, an immense night. There was reputation in it. I could hardly get to sleep for glorying over it.
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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dens
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| n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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14
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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wince
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| n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避 | |
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prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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tapestries
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| n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 ) | |
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avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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tolling
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| [财]来料加工 | |
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solidified
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| （使）成为固体，（使）变硬，（使）变得坚固( solidify的过去式和过去分词 )； 使团结一致； 充实，巩固； 具体化 | |
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expectancy
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| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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seesaw
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| n.跷跷板 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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posturing
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| 做出某种姿势( posture的现在分词 ) | |
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vomited
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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landslide
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| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
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jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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69
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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70
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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71
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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