"I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner said slowly. "I want to tellyou gentlemen all about it."
"Hadn't you better reserve that for your trial?" asked the Inspector.
"I may never be tried," he answered. "You needn't look startled. Itisn't suicide I am thinking of. Are you a Doctor?" He turned his fiercedark eyes upon me as he asked this last question.
"Yes; I am," I answered.
"Then put your hand here," he said, with a smile, motioning with hismanacled wrists towards his chest.
I did so; and became at once conscious of an extraordinary throbbing andcommotion which was going on inside. The walls of his chest seemed tothrill and quiver as a frail building would do inside when some powerfulengine was at work. In the silence of the room I could hear a dullhumming and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source.
"Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!"
"That's what they call it," he said, placidly. "I went to a Doctor lastweek about it, and he told me that it is bound to burst before many dayspassed. It has been getting worse for years. I got it from over-exposureand 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 accountof the business behind me. I don't want to be remembered as a commoncut-throat."
The Inspector and the two detectives had a hurried discussion as to theadvisability of allowing him to tell his story.
"Do you consider, Doctor, that there is immediate danger?" the formerasked, [24]
"Most certainly there is," I answered.
"In that case it is clearly our duty, in the interests of justice, totake his statement," said the Inspector. "You are at liberty, sir, togive your account, which I again warn you will be taken down."
"I'll sit down, with your leave," the prisoner said, suiting the actionto the word. "This aneurism of mine makes me easily tired, and thetussle we had half an hour ago has not mended matters. I'm on the brinkof the grave, and I am not likely to lie to you. Every word I say is theabsolute truth, and how you use it is a matter of no consequence to me."
With these words, Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair and beganthe following remarkable statement. He spoke in a calm and methodicalmanner, as though the events which he narrated were commonplace enough.I can vouch for the accuracy of the subjoined account, for I have hadaccess to Lestrade's note-book, in which the prisoner's words were takendown exactly as they were uttered.
"It don't much matter to you why I hated these men," he said; "it'senough that they were guilty of the death of two human beings--a fatherand a daughter--and that they had, therefore, forfeited their ownlives. After the lapse of time that has passed since their crime, it wasimpossible for me to secure a conviction against them in any court. Iknew 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, ifyou have any manhood in you, if you had been in my place.
"That girl that I spoke of was to have married me twenty years ago. Shewas forced into marrying that same Drebber, and broke her heart overit. I took the marriage ring from her dead finger, and I vowed that hisdying eyes should rest upon that very ring, and that his last thoughtsshould be of the crime for which he was punished. I have carriedit about with me, and have followed him and his accomplice over twocontinents until I caught them. They thought to tire me out, but theycould not do it. If I die to-morrow, as is likely enough, I die knowingthat 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.
"They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy matter for me tofollow them. When I got to London my pocket was about empty, and I foundthat I must turn my hand to something for my living. Driving and ridingare 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 theowner, and whatever was over that I might keep for myself. There wasseldom much over, but I managed to scrape along somehow. The hardest jobwas to learn my way about, for I reckon that of all the mazes that everwere contrived, this city is the most confusing. I had a map beside methough, and when once I had spotted the principal hotels and stations, Igot on pretty well.
"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. Theywere at a boarding-house at Camberwell, over on the other side of theriver. When once I found them out I knew that I had them at my mercy. Ihad 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 wasdetermined that they should not escape me again.
"They were very near doing it for all that. Go where they would aboutLondon, I was always at their heels. Sometimes I followed them on mycab, and sometimes on foot, but the former was the best, for then theycould not get away from me. It was only early in the morning or lateat night that I could earn anything, so that I began to get behind handwith my employer. I did not mind that, however, as long as I could laymy hand upon the men I wanted.
"They were very cunning, though. They must have thought that there wassome chance of their being followed, for they would never go out alone,and never after nightfall. During two weeks I drove behind them everyday, and never once saw them separate. Drebber himself was drunk halfthe time, but Stangerson was not to be caught napping. I watched themlate and early, but never saw the ghost of a chance; but I was notdiscouraged, for something told me that the hour had almost come. Myonly fear was that this thing in my chest might burst a little too soonand leave my work undone.
"At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay Terrace, as thestreet was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive up totheir door. Presently some luggage was brought out, and after a timeDrebber and Stangerson followed it, and drove off. I whipped up my horseand k
ept within sight of them, feeling very ill at ease, for I fearedthat they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston Station theygot out, and I left a boy to hold my horse, and followed them on to theplatform. I heard them ask for the Liverpool train, and the guard answerthat 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 pleasedthan otherwise. I got so close to them in the bustle that I could hearevery word that passed between them. Drebber said that he had a littlebusiness of his own to do, and that if the other would wait for him hewould soon rejoin him. His companion remonstrated with him, and remindedhim that they had resolved to stick together. Drebber answered that thematter was a delicate one, and that he must go alone. I could not catchwhat Stangerson said to that, but the other burst out swearing, andreminded him that he was nothing more than his paid servant, and that hemust not presume to dictate to him. On that the Secretary gave it upas a bad job, and simply bargained with him that if he missed the lasttrain he should rejoin him at Halliday's Private Hotel; to which Drebberanswered that he would be back on the platform before eleven, and madehis way out of the station.
"The moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had myenemies within my power. Together they could protect each other,but singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undueprecipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction invengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikeshim, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans arranged bywhich I should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged meunderstand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced that some daysbefore a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses inthe Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of them in my carriage. Itwas claimed that same evening, and returned; but in the interval I hadtaken a moulding of it, and had a duplicate constructed. By means ofthis I had access to at least one spot in this great city where I couldrely upon being free from interruption. How to get Drebber to that housewas the difficult problem which I had now to solve.
"He walked down the road and went into one or two liquor shops, stayingfor nearly half-an-hour in the last of them. When he came out hestaggered in his walk, and was evidently pretty well on. There was ahansom just in front of me, and he hailed it. I followed it so closethat 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 hehad boarded. I could not imagine what his intention was in returningthere; but I went on and pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so fromthe house. He entered it, and his hansom drove away. Give me a glass ofwater, if you please. My mouth gets dry with the talking."
I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.
"That's better," he said. "Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour, ormore, when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling inside thehouse. Next moment the door was flung open and two men appeared, one ofwhom was Drebber, and the other was a young chap whom I had never seenbefore. This fellow had Drebber by the collar, and when they came tothe head of the steps he gave him a shove and a kick which sent him halfacross the road. 'You hound,' he cried, shaking his stick at him; 'I'llteach you to insult an honest girl!' He was so hot that I think he wouldhave thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the cur staggered awaydown the road as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as far as thecorner, and then, seeing my cab, he hailed me and jumped in. 'Drive meto Halliday's Private Hotel,' said he.
"When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so with joy thatI feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong. I drovealong slowly, weighing in my own mind what it was best to do. I mighttake him right out into the country, and there in some deserted lanehave my last interview with him. I had almost decided upon this, when hesolved the problem for me. The craze for drink had seized him again, andhe ordered me to pull up outside a gin palace. He went in, leaving wordthat I should wait for him. There he remained until closing time, andwhen he came out he was so far gone that I knew the game was in my ownhands.
"Don't imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It would onlyhave been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could not bring myselfto do it. I had long determined that he should have a show for his lifeif he chose to take advantage of it. Among the many billets which Ihave filled in America during my wandering life, I was once janitor andsweeper out of the laboratory at York College. One day the professor waslecturing on poisions, [25] and he showed his students some alkaloid,as he called it, which he had extracted from some South American arrowpoison, and which was so powerful that the least grain meant instantdeath. I spotted the bottle in which this preparation was kept, and whenthey were all gone, I helped myself to a little of it. I was a fairlygood dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills, andeach 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 shouldeach have a draw out of one of these boxes, while I ate the pill thatremained. It would be quite as deadly, and a good deal less noisy thanfiring across a handkerchief. From that day I had always my pill boxesabout with me, and the time had now come when I was to use them.
"It was nearer one than twelve, and a wild, bleak night, blowing hardand raining in torrents. Dismal as it was outside, I was glad within--soglad that I could have shouted out from pure exultation. If any of yougentlemen have ever pined for a thing, and longed for it during twentylong years, and then suddenly found it within your reach, you wouldunderstand my feelings. I lit a cigar, and puffed at it to steady mynerves, but my hands were trembling, and my temples throbbing withexcitement. As I drove, I could see old John Ferrier and sweet Lucylooking at me out of the darkness and smiling at me, just as plain as Isee you all in this room. All the way they were ahead of me, one on eachside of the horse until I pulled up at the house in the Brixton Road.
"There was not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be heard, except thedripping of the rain. When I looked in at the window, I found Drebberall huddled together in a drunken sleep. I shook him by the arm, 'It'stime to get out,' I said.