"'All right, cabby,' said he.
"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 littletop-heavy. When we came to the door, I opened it, and led him into thefront room. I give you my word that all the way, the father and thedaughter were walking in front of us.
"'It's infernally dark,' said he, stamping about.
"'We'll soon have a light,' I said, striking a match and putting it toa wax candle which I had brought with me. 'Now, Enoch Drebber,' Icontinued, turning to him, and holding the light to my own face, 'who amI?'
"He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then Isaw a horror spring up in them, and convulse his whole features, whichshowed me that he knew me. He staggered back with a livid face, and Isaw the perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth chatteredin his head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the door and laughedloud and long. I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but Ihad never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me.
"'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 wanderingshave come to an end, for either you or I shall never see to-morrow's sunrise.' He shrunk still further away as I spoke, and I could see on hisface that he thought I was mad. So I was for the time. The pulses in mytemples beat like sledge-hammers, and I believe I would have had a fitof some sort if the blood had not gushed from my nose and relieved me.
"'What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now?' I cried, locking the door, andshaking the key in his face. 'Punishment has been slow in coming, but ithas overtaken you at last.' I saw his coward lips tremble as I spoke. Hewould have begged for his li
fe, but he knew well that it was useless.
"'Would you murder me?' he stammered.
"'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 herslaughtered father, and bore her away to your accursed and shamelessharem.'
"'It was not I who killed her father,' he cried.
"'But it was you who broke her innocent heart,' I shrieked, thrustingthe box before him. 'Let the high God judge between us. Choose andeat. There is death in one and life in the other. I shall take what youleave. Let us see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we are ruledby chance.'
"He cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, but I drew myknife and held it to his throat until he had obeyed me. Then I swallowedthe other, and we stood facing one another in silence for a minute ormore, waiting to see which was to live and which was to die. Shall Iever forget the look which came over his face when the first warningpangs told him that the poison was in his system? I laughed as I sawit, and held Lucy's marriage ring in front of his eyes. It was but fora moment, for the action of the alkaloid is rapid. A spasm of paincontorted his features; he threw his hands out in front of him,staggered, and then, with a hoarse cry, fell heavily upon the floor. Iturned him over with my foot, and placed my hand upon his heart. Therewas no movement. He was dead!
"The blood had been streaming from my nose, but I had taken no notice ofit. I don't know what it was that put it into my head to write upon thewall with it. Perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the policeupon a wrong track, for I felt light-hearted and cheerful. I remembereda German being found in New York with RACHE written up above him, and itwas argued at the time in the newspapers that the secret societies musthave done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New Yorkers would puzzlethe Londoners, so I dipped my finger in my own blood and printed it ona convenient place on the wall. Then I walked down to my cab and foundthat there was nobody about, and that the night was still very wild. Ihad driven some distance when I put my hand into the pocket in whichI usually kept Lucy's ring, and found that it was not there. I wasthunderstruck 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'sbody, I drove back, and leaving my cab in a side street, I went boldlyup to the house--for I was ready to dare anything rather than losethe ring. When I arrived there, I walked right into the arms of apolice-officer who was coming out, and only managed to disarm hissuspicions by pretending to be hopelessly drunk.
"That was how Enoch Drebber came to his end. All I had to do then wasto do as much for Stangerson, and so pay off John Ferrier's debt. I knewthat he was staying at Halliday's Private Hotel, and I hung about allday, but he never came out. [26] fancy that he suspected something whenDrebber 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 stayingindoors he was very much mistaken. I soon found out which was the windowof his bedroom, and early next morning I took advantage of some ladderswhich were lying in the lane behind the hotel, and so made my way intohis room in the grey of the dawn. I woke him up and told him that thehour had come when he was to answer for the life he had taken so longbefore. I described Drebber's death to him, and I gave him the samechoice of the poisoned pills. Instead of grasping at the chance ofsafety which that offered him, he sprang from his bed and flew at mythroat. In self-defence I stabbed him to the heart. It would have beenthe same in any case, for Providence would never have allowed his guiltyhand to pick out anything but the poison.
"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 Icould save enough to take me back to America. I was standing in theyard when a ragged youngster asked if there was a cabby there calledJefferson 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 Iknew, this young man here had the bracelets on my wrists, and as neatlysnackled [27] 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 amjust as much an officer of justice as you are."
So thrilling had the man's narrative been, and his manner was soimpressive that we had sat silent and absorbed. Even the professionaldetectives, _blase_ as they were in every detail of crime, appeared tobe keenly interested in the man's story. When he finished we sat forsome minutes in a stillness which was only broken by the scratchingof Lestrade's pencil as he gave the finishing touches to his shorthandaccount.
"There is only one point on which I should like a little moreinformation," Sherlock Holmes said at last. "Who was your accomplice whocame for the ring which I advertised?"
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 youradvertisement, and I thought it might be a plant, or it might be thering which I wanted. My friend volunteered to go and see. I think you'llown he did it smartly."
"Not a doubt of that," said Holmes heartily.
"Now, gentlemen," the Inspector remarked gravely, "the forms of the lawmust be complied with. On Thursday the prisoner will be brought beforethe magistrates, and your attendance will be required. Until then I willbe responsible for him." He rang the bell as he spoke, and JeffersonHope was led off by a couple of warders, while my friend and I made ourway out of the Station and took a cab back to Baker Street.
CHAPTER VII. THE CONCLUSION.
WE had all been warned to appear before the magistrates upon theThursday; but when the Thursday came there was no occasion for ourtestimony. A higher Judge had taken the matter in hand, and JeffersonHope had been summoned before a tribunal where strict justice wouldbe meted out to him. On the very night after his capture the aneurismburst, and he was found in the morning stretched upon the floor of thecell, with a placid smile upon his face, as though he had been ablein his dying moments to look back upon a useful life, and on work welldone.
"Gregson and Lestrade will be wild about his death," Holmes remarked, aswe chatted it over next evening. "Where will their grand advertisementbe now?"
"I don't see that they had very much to do with his capture," Ianswered.
"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence," returned mycompanion, bitterly. "The question is, what can you make people believethat you have done. Never mind," he continued, more brightly, after apause. "I would not have missed the investigation for anything. Therehas been no better case within my recollection. Simple as it was, therewere several most instructive points about it."
"Simple!" I ejaculated.
"Well, really, it can hardly be described as otherwise," said SherlockHolmes, smiling at my surprise. "The proof of its intrinsic simplicityis, that without any help save a few very ordinary deductions I was ableto lay my hand upon the criminal within three days."
"That is true," said I.
"I have already explained to you that what is out of the common isusually a guide rather than a hindrance. In solving a problem of thissort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. That is a veryuseful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practiseit much. In the every-day affairs of life it is more useful to reasonforwards, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty whocan reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically."