<p><SPAN name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CHAPTER VI. A CONTINUATION OF THE REMINISCENCES OF JOHN WATSON, M.D. </h2>
<p>OUR prisoner's furious resistance did not apparently indicate any ferocity
in his disposition towards ourselves, for on finding himself powerless, he
smiled in an affable manner, and expressed his hopes that he had not hurt
any of us in the scuffle. "I guess you're going to take me to the
police-station," he remarked to Sherlock Holmes. "My cab's at the door. If
you'll loose my legs I'll walk down to it. I'm not so light to lift as I
used to be."</p>
<p>Gregson and Lestrade exchanged glances as if they thought this proposition
rather a bold one; but Holmes at once took the prisoner at his word, and
loosened the towel which we had bound round his ancles. <SPAN href="#linknote-23" name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></SPAN>
He rose and stretched his legs, as though to assure himself that they were
free once more. I remember that I thought to myself, as I eyed him, that I
had seldom seen a more powerfully built man; and his dark sunburned face
bore an expression of determination and energy which was as formidable as
his personal strength.</p>
<p>"If there's a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon you are the
man for it," he said, gazing with undisguised admiration at my
fellow-lodger. "The way you kept on my trail was a caution."</p>
<p>"You had better come with me," said Holmes to the two detectives.</p>
<p>"I can drive you," said Lestrade.</p>
<p>"Good! and Gregson can come inside with me. You too, Doctor, you have
taken an interest in the case and may as well stick to us."</p>
<p>I assented gladly, and we all descended together. Our prisoner made no
attempt at escape, but stepped calmly into the cab which had been his, and
we followed him. Lestrade mounted the box, whipped up the horse, and
brought us in a very short time to our destination. We were ushered into a
small chamber where a police Inspector noted down our prisoner's name and
the names of the men with whose murder he had been charged. The official
was a white-faced unemotional man, who went through his duties in a dull
mechanical way. "The prisoner will be put before the magistrates in the
course of the week," he said; "in the mean time, Mr. Jefferson Hope, have
you anything that you wish to say? I must warn you that your words will be
taken down, and may be used against you."</p>
<p>"I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner said slowly. "I want to tell
you gentlemen all about it."</p>
<p>"Hadn't you better reserve that for your trial?" asked the Inspector.</p>
<p>"I may never be tried," he answered. "You needn't look startled. It isn't
suicide I am thinking of. Are you a Doctor?" He turned his fierce dark
eyes upon me as he asked this last question.</p>
<p>"Yes; I am," I answered.</p>
<p>"Then put your hand here," he said, with a smile, motioning with his
manacled wrists towards his chest.</p>
<p>I did so; and became at once conscious of an extraordinary throbbing and
commotion which was going on inside. The walls of his chest seemed to
thrill and quiver as a frail building would do inside when some powerful
engine was at work. In the silence of the room I could hear a dull humming
and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source.</p>
<p>"Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!"</p>
<p>"That's what they call it," he said, placidly. "I went to a Doctor last
week about it, and he told me that it is bound to burst before many days
passed. It has been getting worse for years. I got it from over-exposure
and under-feeding among the Salt Lake Mountains. I've done my work now,
and I don't care how soon I go, but I should like to leave some account of
the business behind me. I don't want to be remembered as a common
cut-throat."</p>
<p>The Inspector and the two detectives had a hurried discussion as to the
advisability of allowing him to tell his story.</p>
<p>"Do you consider, Doctor, that there is immediate danger?" the former
asked, <SPAN href="#linknote-24" name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></SPAN></p>
<p>"Most certainly there is," I answered.</p>
<p>"In that case it is clearly our duty, in the interests of justice, to take
his statement," said the Inspector. "You are at liberty, sir, to give your
account, which I again warn you will be taken down."</p>
<p>"I'll sit down, with your leave," the prisoner said, suiting the action to
the word. "This aneurism of mine makes me easily tired, and the tussle we
had half an hour ago has not mended matters. I'm on the brink of the
grave, and I am not likely to lie to you. Every word I say is the absolute
truth, and how you use it is a matter of no consequence to me."</p>
<p>With these words, Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair and began the
following remarkable statement. He spoke in a calm and methodical manner,
as though the events which he narrated were commonplace enough. I can
vouch for the accuracy of the subjoined account, for I have had access to
Lestrade's note-book, in which the prisoner's words were taken down
exactly as they were uttered.</p>
<p>"It don't much matter to you why I hated these men," he said; "it's enough
that they were guilty of the death of two human beings—a father and
a daughter—and that they had, therefore, forfeited their own lives.
After the lapse of time that has passed since their crime, it was
impossible for me to secure a conviction against them in any court. I knew
of their guilt though, and I determined that I should be judge, jury, and
executioner all rolled into one. You'd have done the same, if you have any
manhood in you, if you had been in my place.</p>
<p>"That girl that I spoke of was to have married me twenty years ago. She
was forced into marrying that same Drebber, and broke her heart over it. I
took the marriage ring from her dead finger, and I vowed that his dying
eyes should rest upon that very ring, and that his last thoughts should be
of the crime for which he was punished. I have carried it about with me,
and have followed him and his accomplice over two continents until I
caught them. They thought to tire me out, but they could not do it. If I
die to-morrow, as is likely enough, I die knowing that my work in this
world is done, and well done. They have perished, and by my hand. There is
nothing left for me to hope for, or to desire.</p>
<p>"They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy matter for me to
follow them. When I got to London my pocket was about empty, and I found
that I must turn my hand to something for my living. Driving and riding
are as natural to me as walking, so I applied at a cabowner's office, and
soon got employment. I was to bring a certain sum a week to the owner, and
whatever was over that I might keep for myself. There was seldom much
over, but I managed to scrape along somehow. The hardest job was to learn
my way about, for I reckon that of all the mazes that ever were contrived,
this city is the most confusing. I had a map beside me though, and when
once I had spotted the principal hotels and stations, I got on pretty
well.</p>
<p>"It was some time before I found out where my two gentlemen were living;
but I inquired and inquired until at last I dropped across them. They were
at a boarding-house at Camberwell, over on the other side of the river.
When once I found them out I knew that I had them at my mercy. I had grown
my beard, and there was no chance of their recognizing me. I would dog
them and follow them until I saw my opportunity. I was determined that
they should not escape me again.</p>
<p>"They were very near doing it for all that. Go where they would about
London, I was always at their heels. Sometimes I followed them on my cab,
and sometimes on foot, but the former was the best, for then they could
not get away from me. It was only early in the morning or late at night
that I could earn anything, so that I began to get behind hand with my
employer. I did not mind that, however, as long as I could lay my hand
upon the men I wanted.</p>
<p>"They were very cunning, though. They must have thought that there was
some chance of their being followed, for they would never go out alone,
and never after nightfall. During two weeks I drove behind them every day,
and never once saw them separate. Drebber himself was drunk half the time,
but Stangerson was not to be caught napping. I watched them late and
early, but never saw the ghost of a chance; but I was not discouraged, for
something told me that the hour had almost come. My only fear was that
this thing in my chest might burst a little too soon and leave my work
undone.</p>
<p>"At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay Terrace, as the
street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive up to
their door. Presently some luggage was brought out, and after a time
Drebber and Stangerson followed it, and drove off. I whipped up my horse
and kept within sight of them, feeling very ill at ease, for I feared that
they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston Station they got out,
and I left a boy to hold my horse, and followed them on to the platform. I
heard them ask for the Liverpool train, and the guard answer that one had
just gone and there would not be another for some hours. Stangerson seemed
to be put out at that, but Drebber was rather pleased than otherwise. I
got so close to them in the bustle that I could hear every word that
passed between them. Drebber said that he had a little business of his own
to do, and that if the other would wait for him he would soon rejoin him.
His companion remonstrated with him, and reminded him that they had
resolved to stick together. Drebber answered that the matter was a
delicate one, and that he must go alone. I could not catch what Stangerson
said to that, but the other burst out swearing, and reminded him that he
was nothing more than his paid servant, and that he must not presume to
dictate to him. On that the Secretary gave it up as a bad job, and simply
bargained with him that if he missed the last train he should rejoin him
at Halliday's Private Hotel; to which Drebber answered that he would be
back on the platform before eleven, and made his way out of the station.</p>
<p>"The moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had my
enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but
singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue
precipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction in
vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes
him, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans arranged by
which I should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged me
understand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced that some days
before a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses in the
Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of them in my carriage. It was
claimed that same evening, and returned; but in the interval I had taken a
moulding of it, and had a duplicate constructed. By means of this I had
access to at least one spot in this great city where I could rely upon
being free from interruption. How to get Drebber to that house was the
difficult problem which I had now to solve.</p>
<p>"He walked down the road and went into one or two liquor shops, staying
for nearly half-an-hour in the last of them. When he came out he staggered
in his walk, and was evidently pretty well on. There was a hansom just in
front of me, and he hailed it. I followed it so close that the nose of my
horse was within a yard of his driver the whole way. We rattled across
Waterloo Bridge and through miles of streets, until, to my astonishment,
we found ourselves back in the Terrace in which he had boarded. I could
not imagine what his intention was in returning there; but I went on and
pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so from the house. He entered it, and
his hansom drove away. Give me a glass of water, if you please. My mouth
gets dry with the talking."</p>
<p>I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.</p>
<p>"That's better," he said. "Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour, or
more, when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling inside the
house. Next moment the door was flung open and two men appeared, one of
whom was Drebber, and the other was a young chap whom I had never seen
before. This fellow had Drebber by the collar, and when they came to the
head of the steps he gave him a shove and a kick which sent him half
across the road. 'You hound,' he cried, shaking his stick at him; 'I'll
teach you to insult an honest girl!' He was so hot that I think he would
have thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered away
down the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as far as the
corner, and then, seeing my cab, he hailed me and jumped in. 'Drive me to
Halliday's Private Hotel,' said he.</p>
<p>"When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so with joy that I
feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong. I drove along
slowly, weighing in my own mind what it was best to do. I might take him
right out into the country, and there in some deserted lane have my last
interview with him. I had almost decided upon this, when he solved the
problem for me. The craze for drink had seized him again, and he ordered
me to pull up outside a gin palace. He went in, leaving word that I should
wait for him. There he remained until closing time, and when he came out
he was so far gone that I knew the game was in my own hands.</p>
<p>"Don't imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It would only
have been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could not bring myself to
do it. I had long determined that he should have a show for his life if he
chose to take advantage of it. Among the many billets which I have filled
in America during my wandering life, I was once janitor and sweeper out of
the laboratory at York College. One day the professor was lecturing on
poisions, <SPAN href="#linknote-25" name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></SPAN>
and he showed his students some alkaloid, as he called it, which he had
extracted from some South American arrow poison, and which was so powerful
that the least grain meant instant death. I spotted the bottle in which
this preparation was kept, and when they were all gone, I helped myself to
a little of it. I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid
into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with a similar
pill made without the poison. I determined at the time that when I had my
chance, my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes,
while I ate the pill that remained. It would be quite as deadly, and a
good deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. From that day I
had always my pill boxes about with me, and the time had now come when I
was to use them.</p>
<p>"It was nearer one than twelve, and a wild, bleak night, blowing hard and
raining in torrents. Dismal as it was outside, I was glad within—so
glad that I could have shouted out from pure exultation. If any of you
gentlemen have ever pined for a thing, and longed for it during twenty
long years, and then suddenly found it within your reach, you would
understand my feelings. I lit a cigar, and puffed at it to steady my
nerves, but my hands were trembling, and my temples throbbing with
excitement. As I drove, I could see old John Ferrier and sweet Lucy
looking at me out of the darkness and smiling at me, just as plain as I
see you all in this room. All the way they were ahead of me, one on each
side of the horse until I pulled up at the house in the Brixton Road.</p>
<p>"There was not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be heard, except the
dripping of the rain. When I looked in at the window, I found Drebber all
huddled together in a drunken sleep. I shook him by the arm, 'It's time to
get out,' I said.</p>
<p>"'All right, cabby,' said he.</p>
<p>"I suppose he thought we had come to the hotel that he had mentioned, for
he got out without another word, and followed me down the garden. I had to
walk beside him to keep him steady, for he was still a little top-heavy.
When we came to the door, I opened it, and led him into the front room. I
give you my word that all the way, the father and the daughter were
walking in front of us.</p>
<p>"'It's infernally dark,' said he, stamping about.</p>
<p>"'We'll soon have a light,' I said, striking a match and putting it to a
wax candle which I had brought with me. 'Now, Enoch Drebber,' I continued,
turning to him, and holding the light to my own face, 'who am I?'</p>
<p>"He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then I saw a
horror spring up in them, and convulse his whole features, which showed me
that he knew me. He staggered back with a livid face, and I saw the
perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth chattered in his
head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the door and laughed loud and
long. I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but I had never
hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me.</p>
<p>"'You dog!' I said; 'I have hunted you from Salt Lake City to St.
Petersburg, and you have always escaped me. Now, at last your wanderings
have come to an end, for either you or I shall never see to-morrow's sun
rise.' He shrunk still further away as I spoke, and I could see on his
face that he thought I was mad. So I was for the time. The pulses in my
temples beat like sledge-hammers, and I believe I would have had a fit of
some sort if the blood had not gushed from my nose and relieved me.</p>
<p>"'What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now?' I cried, locking the door, and
shaking the key in his face. 'Punishment has been slow in coming, but it
has overtaken you at last.' I saw his coward lips tremble as I spoke. He
would have begged for his life, but he knew well that it was useless.</p>
<p>"'Would you murder me?' he stammered.</p>
<p>"'There is no murder,' I answered. 'Who talks of murdering a mad dog? What
mercy had you upon my poor darling, when you dragged her from her
slaughtered father, and bore her away to your accursed and shameless
harem.'</p>
<p>"'It was not I who killed her father,' he cried.</p>
<p>"'But it was you who broke her innocent heart,' I shrieked, thrusting the
box before him. 'Let the high God judge between us. Choose and eat. There
is death in one and life in the other. I shall take what you leave. Let us
see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruled by chance.'</p>
<p>"He cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, but I drew my
knife and held it to his throat until he had obeyed me. Then I swallowed
the other, and we stood facing one another in silence for a minute or
more, waiting to see which was to live and which was to die. Shall I ever
forget the look which came over his face when the first warning pangs told
him that the poison was in his system? I laughed as I saw it, and held
Lucy's marriage ring in front of his eyes. It was but for a moment, for
the action of the alkaloid is rapid. A spasm of pain contorted his
features; he threw his hands out in front of him, staggered, and then,
with a hoarse cry, fell heavily upon the floor. I turned him over with my
foot, and placed my hand upon his heart. There was no movement. He was
dead!</p>
<p>"The blood had been streaming from my nose, but I had taken no notice of
it. I don't know what it was that put it into my head to write upon the
wall with it. Perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the police
upon a wrong track, for I felt light-hearted and cheerful. I remembered a
German being found in New York with RACHE written up above him, and it was
argued at the time in the newspapers that the secret societies must have
done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzle the
Londoners, so I dipped my finger in my own blood and printed it on a
convenient place on the wall. Then I walked down to my cab and found that
there was nobody about, and that the night was still very wild. I had
driven some distance when I put my hand into the pocket in which I usually
kept Lucy's ring, and found that it was not there. I was thunderstruck at
this, for it was the only memento that I had of her. Thinking that I might
have dropped it when I stooped over Drebber's body, I drove back, and
leaving my cab in a side street, I went boldly up to the house—for I
was ready to dare anything rather than lose the ring. When I arrived
there, I walked right into the arms of a police-officer who was coming
out, and only managed to disarm his suspicions by pretending to be
hopelessly drunk.</p>
<p>"That was how Enoch Drebber came to his end. All I had to do then was to
do as much for Stangerson, and so pay off John Ferrier's debt. I knew that
he was staying at Halliday's Private Hotel, and I hung about all day, but
he never came out. <SPAN href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26" id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></SPAN> fancy that he suspected
something when Drebber failed to put in an appearance. He was cunning, was
Stangerson, and always on his guard. If he thought he could keep me off by
staying indoors he was very much mistaken. I soon found out which was the
window of his bedroom, and early next morning I took advantage of some
ladders which were lying in the lane behind the hotel, and so made my way
into his room in the grey of the dawn. I woke him up and told him that the
hour had come when he was to answer for the life he had taken so long
before. I described Drebber's death to him, and I gave him the same choice
of the poisoned pills. Instead of grasping at the chance of safety which
that offered him, he sprang from his bed and flew at my throat. In
self-defence I stabbed him to the heart. It would have been the same in
any case, for Providence would never have allowed his guilty hand to pick
out anything but the poison.</p>
<p>"I have little more to say, and it's as well, for I am about done up. I
went on cabbing it for a day or so, intending to keep at it until I could
save enough to take me back to America. I was standing in the yard when a
ragged youngster asked if there was a cabby there called Jefferson Hope,
and said that his cab was wanted by a gentleman at 221B, Baker Street. I
went round, suspecting no harm, and the next thing I knew, this young man
here had the bracelets on my wrists, and as neatly snackled <SPAN href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></SPAN>
as ever I saw in my life. That's the whole of my story, gentlemen. You may
consider me to be a murderer; but I hold that I am just as much an officer
of justice as you are."</p>
<p>So thrilling had the man's narrative been, and his manner was so
impressive that we had sat silent and absorbed. Even the professional
detectives, <i>blas�</i> as they were in every detail of crime, appeared
to be keenly interested in the man's story. When he finished we sat for
some minutes in a stillness which was only broken by the scratching of
Lestrade's pencil as he gave the finishing touches to his shorthand
account.</p>
<p>"There is only one point on which I should like a little more
information," Sherlock Holmes said at last. "Who was your accomplice who
came for the ring which I advertised?"</p>
<p>The prisoner winked at my friend jocosely. "I can tell my own secrets," he
said, "but I don't get other people into trouble. I saw your
advertisement, and I thought it might be a plant, or it might be the ring
which I wanted. My friend volunteered to go and see. I think you'll own he
did it smartly."</p>
<p>"Not a doubt of that," said Holmes heartily.</p>
<p>"Now, gentlemen," the Inspector remarked gravely, "the forms of the law
must be complied with. On Thursday the prisoner will be brought before the
magistrates, and your attendance will be required. Until then I will be
responsible for him." He rang the bell as he spoke, and Jefferson Hope was
led off by a couple of warders, while my friend and I made our way out of
the Station and took a cab back to Baker Street.</p>
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