Mr. Proctor’s theory of the story is that Jasper, after Edwin’s return at
midnight on Christmas Eve, recommended a warm drink—mulled wine,
drugged—and then proposed another stroll of inspection of the effects of
the storm. He then strangled him, somewhere, and placed him in the
quicklime in the Sapsea vault, locked him in, and went to bed. Next,
according to Mr. Proctor, Durdles, then, “lying drunk in the precincts,”
for some reason taps with his hammer on the wall of the Sapsea vault,
detects the presence of a foreign body, opens the tomb, and finds Drood
in the quicklime, “his face fortunately protected by the strong silk
shawl with which Jasper has intended to throttle him.”