When the Sleeper Wakes, Page 3

  CHAPTER III. THE AWAKENING

  But Warming was wrong in that. An awakening came.

  What a wonderfully complex thing! this simple seeming unity--the self!Who can trace its reintegration as morning after morning we awaken, theflux and confluence of its countless factors interweaving, rebuilding,the dim first stirrings of the soul, the growth and synthesis ofthe unconscious to the subconscious, the sub-conscious to dawningconsciousness, until at last we recognise ourselves again. And as ithappens to most of us after the night's sleep, so it was with Graham atthe end of his vast slumber. A dim cloud of sensation taking shape, acloudy dreariness, and he found himself vaguely somewhere, recumbent,faint, but alive.

  The pilgrimage towards a personal being seemed to traverse vast gulfs,to occupy epochs. Gigantic dreams that were terrible realities at thetime, left vague perplexing memories, strange creatures, strangescenery, as if from another planet. There was a distinct impression,too, of a momentous conversation, of a name--he could not tell whatname--that was subsequently to recur, of some queer long-forgottensensation of vein and muscle, of a feeling of vast hopeless effort, theeffort of a man near drowning in darkness. Then came a panorama ofdazzling unstable confluent scenes.

  Graham became aware his eyes were open and regarding some unfamiliarthing.

  It was something white, the edge of something, a frame of wood. Hemoved his head slightly, following the contour of this shape. It went upbeyond the top of his eyes. He tried to think where he might be. Did itmatter, seeing he was so wretched? The colour of his thoughts was a darkdepression. He felt the featureless misery of one who wakes towardsthe hour of dawn. He had an uncertain sense of whispers and footstepshastily receding.

  The movement of his head involved a perception of extreme physicalweakness. He supposed he was in bed in the hotel at the place in thevalley--but he could not recall that white edge. He must have slept. Heremembered now that he had wanted to sleep. He recalled the cliff andwaterfall again, and then recollected something about talking to apasser-by.

  How long had he slept? What was that sound of pattering feet? And thatrise and fall, like the murmur of breakers on pebbles? He put out alanguid hand to reach his watch from the chair whereon it was his habitto place it, and touched some smooth hard surface like glass. This wasso unexpected that it startled him extremely. Quite suddenly he rolledover, stared for a moment, and struggled into a sitting position. Theeffort was unexpectedly difficult, and it left him giddy and weak--andamazed.

  He rubbed his eyes. The riddle of his surroundings was confusing but hismind was quite clear--evidently his sleep had benefited him. He was notin a bed at all as he understood the word, but lying naked on a verysoft and yielding mattress, in a trough of dark glass. The mattresswas partly transparent, a fact he observed with a strange sense ofinsecurity, and below it was a mirror reflecting him greyly. Abouthis arm--and he saw with a shock that his skin was strangely dry andyellow--was bound a curious apparatus of rubber, bound so cunningly thatit seemed to pass into his skin above and below. And this strange bedwas placed in a case of greenish coloured glass (as it seemed to him), abar in the white framework of which had first arrested his attention.In the corner of the case was a stand of glittering and delicately madeapparatus, for the most part quite strange appliances, though a maximumand minimum thermometer was recognisable.

  The slightly greenish tint of the glass-like substance which surroundedhim on every hand obscured what lay behind, but he perceived it was avast apartment of splendid appearance, and with a very large and simplewhite archway facing him. Close to the walls of the cage were articlesof furniture, a table covered with a silvery cloth, silvery like theside of a fish, a couple of graceful chairs, and on the table a numberof dishes with substances piled on them, a bottle and two glasses. Herealised that he was intensely hungry.

  He could see no human being, and after a period of hesitation scrambledoff the translucent mattress and tried to stand on the clean white floorof his little apartment. He had miscalculated his strength, however,and staggered and put his hand against the glasslike pane before him tosteady himself. For a moment it resisted his hand, bending outward likea distended bladder, then it broke with a slight report and vanished--apricked bubble. He reeled out into the general space of the hall,greatly astonished. He caught at the table to save himself, knocking oneof the glasses to the floor--it rang but did not break--and sat down inone of the armchairs.

  When he had a little recovered he filled the remaining glass from thebottle and drank--a colourless liquid it was, but not water, with apleasing faint aroma and taste and a quality of immediate support andstimulus. He put down the vessel and looked about him.

  The apartment lost none of its size and magnificence now that thegreenish transparency that had intervened was removed. The archway hesaw led to a flight of steps, going downward without the intermediationof a door, to a spacious transverse passage. This passage ran betweenpolished pillars of some white-veined substance of deep ultramarine,and along it came the sound of human movements and voices and a deepundeviating droning note. He sat, now fully awake, listening alertly,forgetting the viands in his attention.

  Then with a shock he remembered that he was naked, and casting about himfor covering, saw a long black robe thrown on one of the chairs besidehim. This he wrapped about him and sat down again, trembling.

  His mind was still a surging perplexity. Clearly he had slept, and hadbeen removed in his sleep. But here? And who were those people, thedistant crowd beyond the deep blue pillars? Boscastle? He poured out andpartially drank another glass of the colourless fluid.

  What was this place?--this place that to his senses seemed subtlyquivering like a thing alive? He looked about him at the clean andbeautiful form of the apartment, unstained by ornament, and saw that theroof was broken in one place by a circular shaft full of light, and, ashe looked, a steady, sweeping shadow blotted it out and passed, and cameagain and passed. "Beat, beat," that sweeping shadow had a note of itsown in the subdued tumult that filled the air.

  He would have called out, but only a little sound came into his throat.Then he stood up, and, with the uncertain steps of a drunkard, made hisway towards the archway. He staggered down the steps, tripped on thecorner of the black cloak he had wrapped about himself, and savedhimself by catching at one of the blue pillars.

  The passage ran down a cool vista of blue and purple, and ended remotelyin a railed space like a balcony, brightly lit and projecting into aspace of haze, a space like the interior of some gigantic building.Beyond and remote were vast and vague architectural forms. The tumult ofvoices rose now loud and clear, and on the balcony and with their backsto him, gesticulating and apparently in animated conversation, werethree figures, richly dressed in loose and easy garments of bright softcolourings. The noise of a great multitude of people poured up over thebalcony, and once it seemed the top of a banner passed, and once somebrightly coloured object, a pale blue cap or garment thrown up into theair perhaps, flashed athwart the space and fell. The shouts sounded likeEnglish, there was a reiteration of "Wake!" He heard some indistinctshrill cry, and abruptly the three men began laughing.

  "Ha, ha, ha!" laughed one--a red-haired man in a short purple robe."When the Sleeper wakes--_When!_"

  He turned his eyes full of merriment along the passage. His facechanged, the whole man changed, became rigid. The other two turnedswiftly at his exclamation and stood motionless. Their faces assumed anexpression of consternation, an expression that deepened into awe.

  Suddenly Graham's knees bent beneath him, his arm against the pillarcollapsed limply, he staggered forward and fell upon his face.