Helena for her companion, had been thinking of the same matter, and her
wise little head had reached almost the same conclusion. When Drood came
they walked out together under the trees by the cathedral. Their talk
was not so difficult after all as each had feared it would be, and both
felt relieved when they decided they could be far happier to remain as
brother and sister, and not become husband and wife. So they agreed
without pain on either side.
Drood's only anxiety was for his uncle. He thought Jasper had looked
forward to his marriage to Rosebud so long that he would be pained and
disappointed to learn it was not to be. So he concluded he would not
tell him as yet. Poor Rosebud! She was greatly agitated. She felt the
falseness of Jasper, and knew that he loved her himself, but she
realized the impossibility of telling this to the nephew who believed in
him. So she was silent. Drood, for his part, since the betrothal was
ended, said nothing to her of the ring Grewgious had given to him,
intending to return it to the lawyer.
They kissed each other when they parted. The wicked choir master, who
happened to be walking near, saw the embrace and thought it the kiss of
lovers soon to be wed. Drood left Rosebud then, to pass the time till
the hour of the dinner in Jasper's rooms.
Neville that day had determined, the dinner over, to start at dawn next
morning on a walking tour, to be absent a fortnight. He bought a
knapsack and a heavy steel-shod stick in preparation for this
expedition, and bade his sister Helena and Mr. Crisparkle good-by before
he went to the appointed meeting at the choir master's.
Jasper himself, it was noticed, had never seemed in better spirits than
on that day, nor had he ever sung more sweetly than in the afternoon
service before the dinner which he gave to the two young men. If he was
contemplating a terrible crime, no one would have guessed it from his
serene face and his agreeable manner.
Edwin Drood had one warning just before he went up the postern stair
that led to his Uncle Jasper's. The old hag who mixed the opium in the
London garret where the choir master smoked the drug, had more than once
tried to find out who her strange, gentlemanly visitor was. She had
listened to his mutterings in his drunken slumber, and at length that
day had followed him from London to Cloisterham, only to lose track of
him there. As Drood strolled, waiting for the dinner hour to strike from
the cathedral chimes, he passed her and she begged money from him.
He gave it to her and she asked him his name and whether he had a
sweetheart. He answered Edwin, and that he had none. "Be thankful your
name's not Ned," she said, "for it's a bad name and a threatened name!"
"Ned" was the name Jasper always called him by, but Drood did not think
seriously of the old woman's words. He could not have guessed that the
threats she spoke of against the Ned who had a sweetheart had been
murmured in his drugged slumber by his own uncle against himself. And
yet something at just that moment made him shudder.
So the chimes struck, and Edwin Drood went on to Jasper's rooms to meet
his uncle and Neville Landless--went to his doom! For from that time no
one who loved him ever saw him again in this world!
IV
JASPER SHOWS HIS TEETH
That night a fearful tempest howled over Cloisterham. In the morning
early, as the storm was breaking, Jasper, the choir master, came pale,
panting and half-dressed, to Mr. Crisparkle's, asking for Edwin Drood.
He said his nephew had left his rooms the evening before with Neville
Landless to go to the river to look at the storm, and had not returned.
Strange rumors sprang up at once. Neville had left for his walking tour
and an ugly suspicion flew from house to house. He had got only a few
miles from the town when he was overtaken by a party of men, who
surrounded him. Thinking at first that they were thieves, he fought
them, but was soon rendered helpless and bleeding, and in the midst of
them was taken back toward Cloisterham. Mr. Crisparkle and Jasper met
them on the way, and from the former Neville first learned of what he
was suspected.
The blood from his encounter with his captors was on his clothes and
stick. Jasper pointed it out, and even those who had seen it fall there
looked darkly at the stains. He was taken back to the town and to Mr.
Crisparkle's house, who promised that he should remain in his own
custody.
Neville's story was simple. He said they had gone to the river, as
Jasper had said, and returned together, he to Mr. Crisparkle's, Edwin
Drood to his uncle's. He had not seen the other since that time.
The river was dragged and its banks searched, but to no purpose, till
Mr. Crisparkle himself found Drood's watch caught among some timbers in
a weir.
But as the body could not be found, it could not be definitely proven
that Drood was dead, or that any murder had been committed, so at last
Neville was released. The whole neighborhood, however, believed him
guilty of the murder. No one spoke to him and he was obliged to quit the
place.
Beside his sister Helena and Rosebud, who, of course, believed in his
innocence, he had but one friend there--Mr. Crisparkle. The latter
stoutly refused to believe him guilty. When Neville left for London,
through Mr. Grewgious, Rosebud's guardian, the minister found him a
cheap lodging and made frequent trips to the city to help and advise him
in his studies.
Mr. Grewgious had his own opinion of the affair. One day he went to
Cloisterham to see Jasper, and there told him a thing the other did not
yet know--that before that last night Edwin Drood and Rosebud had
agreed not to marry. When he heard this the choir master's face turned
the color of lead. He shrieked and fell senseless at the lawyer's feet.
Mr. Grewgious went back to the city more thoughtful than ever, and it
was not long before a detective came from London to Cloisterham and
began to interest himself in all the doings of John Jasper.
The detective, to be sure, was not known as such. He called himself
"Dick Datchery" and gave it out that he was an idle dog who lived on his
money and had nothing to do. He was a curious-looking man, with a great
shock of white hair, black eyebrows and a military air. He rented
lodgings next door to the choir master, and before long had made friends
with Durdles, the tombstone maker, and even with The Deputy of the
"wake-cock warning."
Meanwhile Jasper, haggard and red-eyed, took again his place in the
cathedral choir, while Neville Landless worked sadly and alone in his
London garret. The latter made but one friend in this time--a lodger
whose window adjoined his own. This lodger was Lieutenant Tartar, a
retired young naval officer. Tartar might have lived in fine apartments,
for he was rich, but he had been so long on shipboard that he felt more
at home where the walls were low enough for him to knock his head on the
ceiling. He used to climb across to Neville's room by the window ledges,
and they became friendly--the warmer friends when Mr. Crisparkle
discovered in the lieutenant a schoolmate who had once saved his life.
Later, too, Helena left Miss Twinkleton's Seminary and came to be with
her brother. And so a year went by.
Vacation arrived, and one day when Rosebud was alone at Nun's House,
Jasper, for the first time since Edwin Drood's disappearance, came to
see her.
He found her in the garden, and she felt again the repulsion and fear
she had always felt at sight of him. This time the choir master threw
away all concealment. He told her that he had always loved her
hopelessly and madly, though while she was betrothed to his nephew he
had hidden the fact. She answered indignantly that, by look if not by
word, he had always been false to Edwin Drood; that he had made her life
unhappy by his pursuit of her, and that, though she had shrunk from
opening his nephew's eyes, she had always known he was a wicked man.
Then, maddened by her dislike, Jasper swore that no one else should ever
marry her--that he would pursue her to the death, and that if she
repulsed him he would bring dreadful ruin upon Neville Landless. He said
this, no doubt, knowing that Neville loved Rosebud, and thinking,
perhaps, that she loved him in return.
When Jasper left her, Rosebud was faint from fear of his wicked eyes.
She made up her mind to go at once for protection to Mr. Grewgious in
London, and, leaving a note for Miss Twinkleton, she left by the next
omnibus.
She told her guardian her story, he told it to Mr. Crisparkle, who came
to London next morning, and between them they told Lieutenant Tartar.
While Rosebud visited with Helena the three men took counsel together,
agreeing that Jasper was a villain and planning how best to deal with
him.
The next time the choir master visited the opium garret the old woman
tracked him back to Cloisterham, with more success--with such success,
indeed, that she heard him sing in the cathedral and found out his name
from a stranger whom she encountered. This stranger was Dick Datchery,
the detective, who discovered so much, before he left her, of Jasper's
London habits that he went home in high good humor.
Datchery had a trick, whenever he was following a particular search, of
marking each step of his progress by a chalk mark on a wall or door.
To-day he must have been highly pleased, for he drew a thick line from
the very top of the cupboard door to the bottom!
* * * * *
_When Charles Dickens, the master story-teller, had told this tale thus
far, he fell ill and died, and it was never finished. The mystery of the
disappearance of Edwin Drood, what became of Rosebud and of Mr.
Crisparkle, how Neville and Helena fared and what was the end of Jasper,
are matters for each one of us to guess. Many have tried to finish this
story and they have ended it in various ways. Before Dickens died,
however, he told to a friend the part of the story that remained
unwritten, and this, the friend has recorded, was to be as follows_:
By means of the old woman of the opium den, Durdles, the tombstone
maker, and The Deputy, the ragged stone-thrower, Dick Datchery unraveled
the threads which finally, made into a net, caught Jasper, the murderer,
in its meshes. Little by little, word by word, he was made at last to
betray himself.
He had killed Edwin Drood, had hidden his body in one of the vaults and
covered it with lime. But there had been one thing in the dead man's
pocket which the lime could not destroy: this was the ring set with
diamonds and rubies, that had been given to him by Mr. Grewgious. By
this the murder was proven. Mr. Crisparkle and Mr. Grewgious worked hard
to clear Neville Landless (of whose guilt, by the way, Mr. Honeythunder
remained always sure), but poor Neville himself perished in aiding
Lieutenant Tartar to seize the murderer.
Finding all hope of escape gone, Jasper confessed his crime in the cell
in which he waited for death.
But, after all, the story closed happily, with the marriage of Mr.
Crisparkle to Neville's sister Helena, and that of Lieutenant Tartar to
pretty little Rosebud.
INDEX TO CHARACTERS
AFFERY _Little Dorrit_
AGNES _David Copperfield_
ALLEN, ARABELLA _Pickwick Papers_
ALLEN, BEN _Pickwick Papers_
"ARTFUL DODGER, THE" _Oliver Twist_
BAGSTOCK, MAJOR _Dombey and Son_
BANTAM, ANGELO CYRUS _Pickwick Papers_
BARDELL, MRS. _Pickwick Papers_
BARKIS _David Copperfield_
BARNABY RUDGE _Barnaby Rudge_
BARNACLE, MR. TITE _Little Dorrit_
BARSAD _Tale of Two Cities_
BEVAN _Martin Chuzzlewit_
BIDDY _Great Expectations_
BLACKPOOL, STEPHEN _Hard Times_
BLIMBER, DOCTOR _Dombey and Son_
BOFFIN, MR. _Our Mutual Friend_
BOFFIN, MRS. _Our Mutual Friend_
BOUNDERBY, JOSIAH _Hard Times_
BOYTHORN, MR. _Bleak House_
BRASS _Old Curiosity Shop_
BRASS, SALLY _Old Curiosity Shop_
BRAY _Nicholas Nickleby_
BRAY, MADELINE _Nicholas Nickleby_
BROWNLOW, MR. _Oliver Twist_
BUD, ROSA _Edwin Drood_
BUDGER, MRS. _Pickwick Papers_
BUMBLE, MR. _Oliver Twist_
BUMBLE, MRS. _Oliver Twist_
BUZFUZ, SERGEANT _Pickwick Papers_
CARKER _Dombey and Son_
CARSTONE, RICHARD _Bleak House_
CARTON, SYDNEY _Tale of Two Cities_
CHEERYBLE BROTHERS, THE _Nicholas Nickleby_
CHESTER, EDWARD _Barnaby Rudge_
CHESTER, SIR JOHN _Barnaby Rudge_
CHIVERY, JOHN _Little Dorrit_
CHUFFEY _Martin Chuzzlewit_
CHUZZLEWIT _Martin Chuzzlewit_
CHUZZLEWIT, MARTIN _Martin Chuzzlewit_
CLARE, ADA _Bleak House_
CLENNAM, ARTHUR _Little Dorrit_
CLENNAM, MR. _Little Dorrit_
CLENNAM, MRS. _Little Dorrit_
COMPEYSON _Great Expectations_
COPPERFIELD, DAVID _David Copperfield_
CREAKLE, MR. _David Copperfield_
CRISPARKLE, REVEREND MR. _Edwin Drood_
CRUMMLES, MRS. _Nicholas Nickleby_
CRUMMLES, NINETTA _Nicholas Nickleby_
CRUMMLES, VINCENT _Nicholas Nickleby_
CUTTLE, CAPTAIN _Dombey and Son_
DARNAY, CHARLES _Tale of Two Cities_
DATCHERY, DICK _Edwin Drood_
DEDLOCK, LADY _Bleak House_
DEDLOCK, SIR LEICESTER _Bleak House_
DEFARGE _Tale of Two Cities_
DEFARGE, MADAME _Tale of Two Cities_
DENNIS _Barnaby Rudge_
"DEPUTY, THE" _Edwin Drood_
"DICK, MR." _David Copperfield_
"DIOGENES" _Dombey and Son_
"DODGER, THE ARTFUL" _Oliver Twist_
DOMBEY, FLORENCE _Dombey and Son_
DOMBEY, MR. _Dombey and Son_
DOMBEY, PAUL _Dombey and Son_
DORRIT, AMY _Little Dorrit_
DORRIT, FANNY _Little Dorrit_
"DORRIT, LITTLE" _Little Dorrit_
DORRIT, MR. _Little Dorrit_
DORRIT, "TIP" _Little Dorrit_
DOWLER, MR. _Pickwick Papers_
DOWLER, MRS. _Pickwick Papers_
DOYCE _Little Dorrit_
DROOD, EDWIN _Edwin Drood_
DURDLES _Edwin Drood_
"EM'LY, LITTLE" _David Copperfield_
ESTELLA _Great Expectations_
FAGIN _Oliver Twist_
"FAT BOY, THE" _Pickwick Papers_
"FATHER OF THE MARSHALSEA, THE" _Little Dorrit_
"FITZ-MARSHALL, MR." _Pickwick Papers_
"FITZ-MARSHALL, CAPTAIN" _Pickwick Papers_
FLINTWINCH _Little Dorrit_
FLITE, MISS _Bleak House_
"FLOY" _Dombey and Son_
GABELLE _Tale of Two Cities_
GAMP, "SAIREY" _Martin Chuzzlewit_
GARGERY, JOE _Great Expectations_
GARGERY, MRS. _Great Expectations_
GASHFORD _Barnaby Rudge_
GAY, WALTER _Dombey and Son_
GENERAL, MRS. _Little Dorrit_
"GEORGE, MR." _Bleak House_
"GOLDEN DUSTMAN, THE" _Our Mutual Friend_
GORDON, LORD GEORGE _Barnaby Rudge_
GILLS, SOLOMON _Dombey and Son_
GRADGRIND, LOUISA _Hard Times_
GRADGRIND, MR. _Hard Times_
GRADGRIND, MRS. _Hard Times_
GRADGRIND, TOM _Hard Times_
GRAHAM, MARY _Martin Chuzzlewit_
GRANDFATHER SMALLWEED _Bleak House_
GRANGER, EDITH _Dombey and Son_
GREWGIOUS, MR. _Edwin Drood_
GRIDE _Nicholas Nickleby_
"GRIP" _Barnaby Rudge_
GUMMIDGE, MRS. _David Copperfield_
HAM _David Copperfield_
HAREDALE, EMMA _Barnaby Rudge_
HAREDALE, GEOFFREY _Barnaby Rudge_
HARMON, JOHN _Our Mutual Friend_
HARMON, MR. _Our Mutual Friend_
"HARRIS, MRS." _Martin Chuzzlewit_
HARTHOUSE, JAMES _Hard Times_
HAVISHAM, MISS _Great Expectations_
HAWDON, CAPTAIN _Bleak House_
HAWK, SIR MULBERRY _Nicholas Nickleby_
HEADSTONE _Our Mutual Friend_
HEEP, URIAH _David Copperfield_
HEXAM _Our Mutual Friend_
HEXAM, CHARLIE _Our Mutual Friend_
HEXAM, LIZZIE _Our Mutual Friend_
HONEYTHUNDER, LUKE _Edwin Drood_
HORTENSE _Bleak House_
"HUGH, MAYPOLE" _Barnaby Rudge_
HUNTER, MRS. LEO _Pickwick Papers_
"INFANT PHENOMENON, THE" _Nicholas Nickleby_
JAGGERS, MR. _Great Expectations_
JARLEY, MRS. _Old Curiosity Shop_
JARNDYCE, MR. _Bleak House_
JASPER, JOHN _Edwin Drood_
JELLYBY, CADDY _Bleak House_
JELLYBY, MRS. _Bleak House_
"JENNY WREN" _Our Mutual Friend_
JINGLE, ALFRED _Pickwick Papers_
JOE _Pickwick Papers_
JOE _Bleak House_
"JOE, MRS." _Great Expectations_
JONAS _Martin Chuzzlewit_
JUPE, CECELIA _Hard Times_
"JUPE, SIGNOR" _Hard Times_
"KIT" _Old Curiosity Shop_
KNAG, MISS _Nicholas Nickleby_
KROOK _Bleak House_
"LADY JANE" _Bleak House_
LANDLESS, HELENA _Edwin Drood_
LANDLESS, NEVILLE _Edwin Drood_
"LITTLE EM'LY" _David Copperfield_
"LITTLE NELL" _Old Curiosity Shop_
"LITTLE PAUL" _Dombey and Son_
LORRY, MR. _Tale of Two Cities_
MAGGIE _Little Dorrit_
MAGNUS, MR. PETER _Pickwick Papers_
MAGWITCH, ABEL _Great Expectations_
MANETTE, DOCTOR _Tale of Two Cities_
MANETTE, LUCIE _Tale of Two Cities_
MANTALINI, MR. _Nicholas Nickleby_
MANTALINI, MADAME _Nicholas Nickleby_
MARY _Pickwick Papers_
MAYLIE, MRS. _Oliver Twist_
"MAYPOLE HUGH" _Barnaby Rudge_
M'CHOAKUMCHILD, MR. _Hard Times_
MEAGLES, MR. _Little Dorrit_
MEAGLES, MRS. _Little Dorrit_
MEAGLES, "PET" _Little Dorrit_
MERDLE, MR. _Little Dorrit_
MERDLE, MRS. _Little Dorrit_
"MERRYLEGS" _Hard Times_
MICAWBER, MR. _David Copperfield_
MONKS _Oliver Twist_
MONTAGUE, TIGG _Martin Chuzzlewit_
MURDSTONE, MISS _David Copperfield_
MURDSTONE, MR. _David Copperfield_
NADGETT _Martin Chuzzlewit_
NANCY _Oliver Twist_
"NELL, LITTLE" _Old Curiosity Shop_
"NEMO" _Bleak House_
NICKLEBY, KATE _Nicholas Nickleby_
NICKLEBY, MRS. _Nicholas Nickleby_
NICKLEBY, NICHOLAS _Nicholas Nickleby_
NICKLEBY, RALPH _Nicholas Nickleby_
NOGGS _Nicholas Nickleby_
NUBBLES, CHRISTOPHER _Old Curiosity Shop_
NUPKINS _Pickwick Papers_
NUPKINS, MISS _Pickwick Papers_
NUPKINS, MRS. _Pickwick Papers_
"OLD SOL" _Dombey and Son_
ORLICK _Great Expectations_
PANCKS _Little Dorrit_
"PAUL, LITTLE" _Dombey and Son_
PECKSNIFF _Martin Chuzzlewit_
PECKSNIFF, CHARITY _Martin Chuzzlewit_
PECKSNIFF, MERCY _Martin Chuzzlewit_
PEGGOTTY _David Copperfield_
PEGGOTTY, MR. _David Copperfield_
"PEGLER, MRS." _Hard Times_
PICKWICK, MR. SAMUEL _Pickwick Papers_
PINCH, TOM _Martin Chuzzlewit_
PINCH, RUTH _Martin Chuzzlewit_
"PIP" _Great Expectations_
PIPCHIN, MRS. _Dombey and Son_
PIRRIP, PHILIP _Great Expectations_
POCKET, HERBERT _Great Expectations_
POCKET, MR. _Great Expectations_
POCKET, MRS. _Great Expectations_
PROSS, MISS _Tale of Two Cities_
PUMBLECHOOK, UNCLE _Great Expectations_
QUILP _Old Curiosity Shop_
QUILP, MRS. _Old Curiosity Shop_
RACHEL _Hard Times_
RIGAUD _Little Dorrit_
RIDERHOOD, "ROGUE" _Our Mutual Friend_
"ROKESMITH," JOHN _Our Mutual Friend_
"ROSEBUD" _Edwin Drood_
ROSE, MISS _Oliver Twist_
ROUNCEWELL, MRS. _Bleak House_
RUDGE _Barnaby Rudge_
RUDGE, BARNABY _Barnaby Rudge_
RUDGE, MRS. _Barnaby Rudge_
ST. EVRÉMONDE, CHARLES _Tale of Two Cities_
ST. EVRÉMONDE, MARQUIS DE _Tale of Two Cities_
SAWYER, BOB _Pickwick Papers_
SIKES, BILL _Oliver Twist_
"SISSY" _Hard Times_
SKIMPOLE, HAROLD _Bleak House_
SLAMMER, DOCTOR _Pickwick Papers_
SLEARY _Hard Times_
SMALLWEED, GRANDFATHER _Bleak House_
SMALLWEED, MRS. _Bleak House_
SMIKE _Nicholas Nickleby_
SNODGRASS _Pickwick Papers_
"SOL, OLD" _Dombey and Son_
SPARSIT, MRS. _Hard Times_
SPENLOW, DORA _David Copperfield_
SQUEERS _Nicholas Nickleby_
SQUEERS, FANNY _Nicholas Nickleby_
SQUEERS, MRS. _Nicholas Nickleby_
SQUEERS, WACKFORD _Nicholas Nickleby_
STEERFORTH, JAMES _David Copperfield_
"STRANGER, THE" _Old Curiosity Shop_
STRONG, DOCTOR _David Copperfield_
SUMMERSON, ESTHER _Bleak House_
SWIVELLER, DICK _Old Curiosity Shop_
TAPLEY, MARK _Martin Chuzzlewit_
TAPPERTIT, SIMON _Barnaby Rudge_
TARTAR, LIEUTENANT _Edwin Drood_
"TATTYCORAM" _Little Dorrit_
TIGG, MONTAGUE _Martin Chuzzlewit_
TODGERS, MRS. _Martin Chuzzlewit_
TRADDLES, TOMMY _David Copperfield_
TRENT, MR. _Old Curiosity Shop_
TROTTER, JOB _Pickwick Papers_
TROTWOOD, MISS BETSY _David Copperfield_
TULKINGHORN, MR. _Bleak House_
TUPMAN _Pickwick Papers_
TURVEYDROP, MR. _Bleak House_
TURVEYDROP, PRINCE _Bleak House_
TWINKLETON, MISS _Edwin Drood_
TWIST, OLIVER _Oliver Twist_
UNCLE PUMBLECHOOK _Great Expectations_
VARDEN _Barnaby Rudge_
VARDEN, DOLLY _Barnaby Rudge_
VENEERING, MR. _Our Mutual Friend_
VENUS, MR. _Our Mutual Friend_
VERISOPHT, LORD FREDERICK _Nicholas Nickleby_
VHOLES _Bleak House_
WARDLE, EMILY _Pickwick Papers_
WARDLE, MR. _Pickwick Papers_
WARDLE, MISS _Pickwick Papers_
WEGG, SILAS _Our Mutual Friend_
WELLER, MRS. _Pickwick Papers_
WELLER, SAM _Pickwick Papers_
WELLER, TONY _Pickwick Papers_
WEMMICK _Great Expectations_
WESTLOCK, JOHN _Martin Chuzzlewit_
WICKFIELD, AGNES _David Copperfield_
WICKFIELD, MR. _David Copperfield_
WILFER, BELLA _Our Mutual Friend_
WILFER, MR. _Our Mutual Friend_
WILLET, JOE _Barnaby Rudge_
WINKLE _Pickwick Papers_
WITITTERLY, MRS. _Nicholas Nickleby_
WOODCOURT, ALLAN _Bleak House_
WOPSLE _Great Expectations_
WRAYBURN, EUGENE _Our Mutual Friend_
"WREN, JENNIE" _Our Mutual Friend_