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Again the avenger had been foiled, and again his concentrated hatred urged him to continue the pursuit. Funds were wanting, however, and for some time he had to return to work, saving every dollar for his approaching journey. At last, having collected enough to keep life in him he departed for Europe, and tracked his enemies from city to city, working his way in any menial capacity, but never over-taking the fugitives. When he reached St. Petersburg, they had departed for Paris; and when he followed them there, he learned that they had just set off for Copenhagen. At the Danish capital he was again a few days late, for they had journeyed on to London, where he at last succeeded in ru
Chapter VI
A continuation of the reminiscences of John Watson, M.D.
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 ma
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 ankles. 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, sunburnt face bore an expression of determination and energy which was as formidable as his personal strength.
‘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.’
‘You had better come with me,’ said Holmes to the two detectives.
‘I can drive you,’ said Lestrade.
‘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.’
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 meantime, 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.’
‘I’ve got a good deal to say,’ our prisoner said slowly. ‘I want to tell you 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. 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.
‘Yes, I am,’ I answered.
‘Then put your hand here,’ he said, with a smile, motioning with his manacled wrist towards his chest.
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.
‘Why,’ I cried, ‘you have an aortic aneurism[141]!’
‘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.’
The inspector and the two detectives had an hurried discussion as to the advisability of allowing him to tell his story.
‘Do you consider, Doctor, that there is immediate danger?’ the former asked.
‘Most certainly there is,’ I answered.
‘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.’
‘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.’
With these words, Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair and began the following remarkable statement. He spoke in a calm and methodical ma
‘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.
‘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.
‘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 cab-owner’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.
‘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.
141
aortic aneurism – widening of aorta, a serious and even fatal disease