I BID THE DOCTOR FAREWELL.
I did my best to calm the man Capper. I feared that in his excitement he
might betray his purpose to someone else, and someone not so well
disposed towards him. I soothed him as well as I could, and presently
got him by the arm and walked him away. For a long way we went in
silence, until at last, having climbed to Hampstead Heath, I led him
into a by-path there, and presently sat beside him on a seat, prepared
to listen to his story. He was calmer by this time; the only evidence of
the passions, so long suppressed and now working in him, was shown when,
every now and then, he ground his right fist into the palm of his other
hand, as though in that action he ground the face of his enemy.
"I want you to tell me, if you will, sir," he said at last, "where the
man has gone. I was a fool when I lost him; I have not done my work
well."
"I will tell you presently, when I have heard your story," I said. "You
have made a threat of murder. I don't think it would be quite wise on my
part to let you loose on anyone in your present frame of mind."
"Then hear me, and judge for yourself, sir," he answered solemnly.
"What I know is this," I said. "I know that Mr. Gregory Pennington went
to the doctor's house on one particular night, and that he hanged
himself in a room there. I, who found him hanging, found you in the
room, apparently dazed."
"I have to think back a long way," said Capper, leaning forward on the
seat, and resting his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands.
"It's all so much like a dream, and yet all so clear. Let me try to tell
you, sir, what happened that night."
He sat for a long time in that attitude, as though striving to piece
together all his recollections of that time; as though even yet he
feared that his memory might play him false.
"I don't need to say anything about myself, sir, except just this: that
Mr. Pennington picked me out of the gutter, and made a man of me. If
ever one man worshipped another on this earth, I worshipped him; I would
have died for him. He made me his servant, and yet his friend. He knew
that I had been something better in the days before he found me; he made
me something better again. He was quite alone in the world, and his
income was administered by a trustee, a lawyer. That's all you need know
about it. We wandered about all over the world. He thought nothing of
starting off for the other side of the world, taking me with him always,
at a moment's notice--which, perhaps, accounts for the fact that no one
has made any enquiries about him.'"
I did not answer that; perhaps the time was coming when I should have to
tell him the sequel to what he was now telling me.
"Then he met the young lady--Miss Debora Matchwick--and he used often to
go and see her. One night he came home raging, and told me that Dr. Just
had turned him out of the house, and had told him he was not to go there
again. He was very much in love with the young lady, and the affair
upset him a lot. But he told me that he had made up his mind to go there
as often as he thought fit; he meant to defy the doctor."
He paused so long again that I was almost minded to speak to him; he
seemed to be brooding. All at once he sat upright, and folded his arms,
and went on again. His voice had taken on a new sternness.
"I took to going with him--or rather following him without his
knowledge," he said slowly. "I didn't like the look of the doctor; I
knew that he meant mischief. Night after night, when Mr. Pennington went
to the house, I hid myself in the grounds, and waited and watched; then
I followed him home again. You see, sir, he was everything to me, all I
had in the world; it drove me mad almost to think that anything might
happen to him. So the time went on, until at last that night arrived
when, as it seemed, I fell asleep and forgot everything. But I remember
that night now perfectly."
In his rising excitement he got up, and began to pace about, stopping
every now and then to clap his hands together softly, and to nod his
head as some point in the story recurred to his memory. At last he came
back to me, and sat down, and faced me.
"He had told me before he went out that he intended to see the doctor
that night. 'I'll have a turn-up with him,' he said to me, and laughed.
I dreaded that; I made up my mind that I would be very near to him,
indeed, that night. It was difficult, because if once he had discovered
that I was following him, and watching him like that, he might have been
angry, and might have ordered me to remain at home. So, you see, I had
to be discreet. I went ahead of him on that occasion, and I concealed
myself in the grounds quite near to the house. There I waited, and
waited so long that I came almost to think that he had changed his mind,
and would not come at all."
"Did you see no one else in the grounds?" I asked, thinking of my own
unceremonious coming on that wonderful night.
He stared at me, and shook his head. "No one," he said. "Presently Mr.
Pennington arrived, and the young lady crept out of the house to meet
him; I saw them talking together for a long time. Then I saw Mr.
Pennington go towards the house, and enter it."
I remembered how I had lain in the grass that night, and had seen the
same scene he now described, although from a different point of view. I
knew that Capper must have been between them and the house, whilst I,
for my part, had been on the other side of them, so that they were
between me and this man.
"Now, I will tell you, as well as I can recollect, exactly what
happened," he said, speaking slowly, and ticking off his points one by
one on his fingers. "I was so nervous that night--nervous for him, I
mean--that I thought, sir, I would go into the house, so as to see that
all was well with him. Everything was very silent, except that I could
hear the murmur of voices--of men talking. You will understand, sir,
that I did not know what the house was like, nor my way about it; but I
found a door unfastened at the back, and I went in. I went towards where
the voices were sounding, and I recognised Mr. Pennington's voice, and
then the doctor's. Both the voices were loud and angry; I guessed that
they were quarrelling."
"And what did you do then?" I asked him quickly.
"God help me!" he cried, wringing his hands. "I could not find the room.
The place was in darkness, and I was afraid to make a noise, lest I
should disturb some of the servants, and perhaps be turned out. I groped
my way about among the passages, opening first one door and then
another, and hearing the voices now near to me, and now further away; it
was as though I had been in a maze. And then the voices ceased suddenly,
and I heard the sound of a blow."
"What sort of blow?" I asked him breathlessly.
"It was like the sound of a weapon striking a man's head. It was
followed by a sort of quick cry; and then there was silence. In my
agitation I must have turned away from the spot; and I had now nothing
to guide me, as the voices had guided me before. I could only stand
there, waiting, and hoping to hear something. It was all so horrible,
and I so helpless, that I wonder I did not go mad then. I was near to it
when presently I heard a sound as though someone were dragging a heavy
body across a room. I began again to move in the direction of that
sound, and presently came to a door, and after listening to another
sound I did not understand, opened it, and went in. I must be quick now
to tell you what I saw, for it is at this point that the darkness falls
upon me, and I seem to sink down and down into the depths that swallowed
me up for so long a time."
I was really afraid that he might, indeed, forget before he could tell
me; I watched him eagerly. After but a little pause he went on again,
and now the horror was growing in his face, and stamping it, so that I
could not take my eyes from him.
"As I opened the door of the room the doctor had his back to me, and he
was hauling on something. I did not understand at first, until I saw
that he was pulling on a rope that ran over a hook in the ceiling. That
which he pulled was hidden from me by himself; I could not see what it
was. It all happened in a second, because as I opened the door he swung
away from me, still clinging to the rope--and then, dear God!--I saw
what it was. Only for a flash did I see up there before me the dead
face of my master--the master I loved, and for whom I would have given
my life; then, as I put up my hand to hide the sight, everything went
from me; and I seemed to fall, as I have said, into some great
blackness, with all my life blotted out! That," he said, with a little,
quick, helpless gesture of the hands--"that is all."
I felt my blood run cold at the horror of his tale; the whole scene
seemed to be enacted before me, as though I had myself been present.
"And did you really forget everything until a little time ago?" I asked.
"Everything, sir," he assured me solemnly. "I was like one groping in
the dark. People I had known I knew again--as with Miss Debora; but I
could not remember anything else. I had a vague idea that I had lost my
master somewhere about that house; that made me cling to it. The rest
was a blank. And then one day, when I saw the doctor raise his stick to
strike a man down, it was as though something had been passed across my
brain, and I remembered. If I can make myself clear, sir," went on
Capper eagerly, "it was as though I had gone back to that night; that
was why I sprang at the doctor, and wanted to kill him."
"And you tried again in the train," I reminded him. "But why on each
occasion did you sham madness?--why did you pretend you were still the
simple creature everyone supposed you to be?"
"Because I knew that if once Dr. Just guessed that I remembered the
events of that night, he would take means to have me shut up; I might
have been taken for a lunatic, and disposed of for the rest of my life.
I knew that if I could once deceive him into believing that my mind was
gone, he would not be suspicious of me. Unfortunately for my plan, I
gave the game away when I tried to throw him out of that train."
"How was that?" I asked.
"I had managed things very well up to that point," he said. "I knew
pretty well how the trains ran, and I knew that if I could throw him out
on the line at a certain spot between the stations it would look like an
accident, and the train on the other line would cut him to pieces. I was
so sure of success that I threw off that disguise I had worn so long,
and I cried out to him that I remembered he had killed my master, and
that I meant to kill him. I dare say you remember, sir, that you asked
him what I had said, and he would not tell you."
I remembered it distinctly, and I remembered how the doctor had watched
that little drooping figure in the corner of the railway carriage, and
how he had refused to tell me what the man had said before attacking
him.
"After that, you see, there was no more chance of doing the thing
secretly," went on Capper, speaking of the appalling business in the
most easy and natural fashion. "He shut me out of the house; he would
not let me come near him. Twice I followed him, and the second time I
lost him. Now, sir,"--he clasped his hands, and looked at me with an
agony of entreaty in his eyes--"now, sir, will you let me know where I
can find him?"
"Answer me one question first," I said, looking into his eager eyes. "If
you kill this man, what will become of you?"
He spread out his hands, and smiled the strangest smile I have ever
seen. "What does that matter?" he asked simply. "If I am found out they
may say that I am a madman; they may shut me away for life. They may
even hang me. It will not matter--my life finished when the man who
saved me from myself died."
I did not hesitate any further; I told Capper that Dr. Bardolph Just was
living down at a place called Green Barn, near Comerford, in Essex. He
thanked me in the strangest fashion, with the tears in his eyes; he
asked if he might shake hands with me. I had a weird feeling that he
felt he might be going to his own death as I gripped his hand and let
him go. I watched him for a long time while he went across the heath; he
walked quickly, and without once looking to right or left, or even
looking back at me. And I wondered what manner of death was preparing
for Dr. Just.
Let it be understood clearly that I was so amazed by the whole business
that for some time I could not decide what to do. There was no thought
in my mind of saving Bardolph Just, or of warning him; I felt that in
this grim business I had no right to interfere. The man who had meted
out death to another man, and had striven so hard to kill an innocent
girl, was no subject for pity. If I had desired to do anything to stop
the business, it would have been on account of the man Capper; and so
far as he was concerned, I knew that I might as well try to turn some
strong river from its course as hold him back.
But I thought now of Debora. Strange as it may appear, in my own mind I
regarded the death of Dr. Just as something inevitable--something
arranged and settled. Capper had given away his secret to me; I knew
that in some fashion Dr. Just would meet his death at Green Barn, unless
by a miracle it happened that he had already gone away. And even then
Capper was capable of following him, in that deadly hunt, to the other
side of the world. I determined that I must go to Green Barn--not with
any intention of standing between Capper and his intended victim, but
in the hope to be of service to Debora. Debora would be alone with
Bardolph Just, and Bardolph Just was marked for death!
I hurried back to my lodging, in the hope to find Andrew Ferkoe, and to
let him know what I was doing; but I found that he had not yet returned
to the house, and the landlady had no knowledge of his movements. There
was nothing for it but for me to leave a message, saying that I was
called away into the country, and hoped to be back within a day or so. I
said nothing more definite than that.
I got out at Comerford Station in a heavy fall of summer rain. I had no
knowledge of whether Capper was in front of me, or behind me in London;
whether he had yet come face to face with the doctor, or whether that
was still to happen. I was passing rapidly through the little
booking-hall when I saw a big man lounging on a seat there, with his
arms folded and his legs stretched out before him. It was Harvey
Scoffold, and half involuntarily I stopped.
He looked up at me with a scowl, which changed the next moment to a
grin. "Hullo!" he said, with an attempt at joviality, "what brings you
down here?"
"You should be able to guess," I reminded him.
"There's no welcome for you--nor for anyone else," he said sourly. "Look
at me, my boy; I'm turned out. Simply given my marching orders, if you
please, and sent packing."
"Have you been to Green Barn?" I asked him.
He nodded. "Went down in the friendliest fashion, to see a man I've been
devilish useful to--and what do I get? A meal, of course; then I'm
calmly told that the doctor is in retirement, and is not receiving
guests. More than that, I'll tell you something else that may not be to
your liking."
He leaned forward, thrusting his heavy face towards me, and dropping a
hand on each knee. I had always disliked the man; I could have struck
him full in his smiling face now for the look it wore.
"I don't suppose it'll be a bit to your liking, Mr. John New, or
whatever your confounded name is," he said. "But the doctor has sent
everyone away--servants and all--sent 'em packing to-day. He's a bit
mad, I think, over that girl--or else he really means to kill her. But
there they are--just the pair of 'em--alone together in that house. If
you ask me," he added with a leer, "I wouldn't mind changing places with
him, and I should say----"
I waited for no more; I left the man, and almost ran out of the station
in my excitement. I heard him call after me, but could not know what the
words were; nor did I greatly care. One picture, and one only, possessed
my mind, to the exclusion of everything else. The figure of Capper was
blotted out by that more tragic figure of Debora, at the mercy of
Bardolph Just, in that lonely Essex house. More than all else, I
realised that my hands would be in a sense tied by Debora, because she
would believe that my liberty would be endangered if she left the
doctor.
I found that to be true enough. So confident was the man of his power
over her that he had given her a certain amount of liberty; so that, to
my surprise and my delight, I suddenly came face to face with her within
an hour of my reaching Green Barn--and that, too, near to the little hut
at the edge of the abandoned chalk pit.
The meeting was so surprising to both of us that for a time we could
only hold hands, and talk incoherently, each in a great relief at
finding the other safe and well. But at last we came down to more
prosaic things, and she told me something of what was happening.
Bardolph Just had sworn to carry his threat into execution if she saw me
again, or had anything further to do with me; he had determined to risk
everything, and to give me up to the authorities. I tried to show her
that the man would never dare proceed to that extremity, because of the
danger in which he would place himself by so doing. And then I told her
about Capper, and about Capper's threat.
"Capper is here!" she exclaimed, startlingly enough.
"Have you seen him?" I demanded.
She nodded quickly. "I was walking in the grounds a little while ago,
and I saw him. He came up to me, and said how glad he was to see me, and
asked about the doctor--all quite innocently and simply, I thought."
"There is no innocence and no simplicity about him," I said. "He means
murder. I don't think anything will turn him from it. That's why I want
you to leave all this behind and to go away."
"With you?" she asked.
"No, not with me," I said, reluctantly enough. I could not tell her then
all that was in my mind; I might have broken down in the telling. "I
must remain here until I know what Capper means to do. I must, if
possible, dissuade him from that, if only for his own sake. Tell me, my
dear girl," I went on earnestly, "is there no one to whom you could go,
and who would befriend you? Set the doctor out of your mind altogether;
I have a presentiment that, whatever happens, he will not trouble you
again. Is there no one to whom you could turn?"
"No one but you in all the world," she said, looking at me curiously.
"Your father must have had some lawyer--some friend," I suggested.
"The same lawyer that Dr. Just employs," she said. "He looks after my
money, as well as that of the doctor."
"I want you to promise, Debora, that if anything happens to me you will
go to that man, and will see to it that he makes proper provision for
you out of your money, and provides you with a settled home. He will do
that for his own sake."
"But what should happen to you?" she whispered, clinging to me. "And in
any case how will anyone help me if the doctor is here to interfere?"
"I am only asking you to promise something, in case something
else--something quite impossible, if you like--should happen," I assured
her lightly.
"Very well then, I promise," she answered.
It was a more difficult matter to persuade her to run away, and
especially to run away and leave me in that place. For I could not tell
her my reasons, and I saw that she did not think it possible that that
weak little creature Capper could carry out his threat against the
stronger man Bardolph Just; the thing was a sheer impossibility.
Nevertheless, I so worked upon her terrors of the house, and of the man
who had her prisoner there, that at last she consented to go. I pressed
what money I had upon her, and arranged that she should go back to
London that night, and should make her way to the little quiet hotel
near the Charterhouse where she was known; there she could await a
letter from me. I was to keep out of the way until she was gone, that I
might not seem to be connected with her flight. The rest was a matter on
my part of vague promises as to the future.
And then it was that I held her in my arms as I had never held her
before, and as though I could never let her go. For I had made up my
mind that I would not see her again; it was my purpose to keep away
from her, and to take myself out of her life from that hour. It seemed
to me then as though all the strange business that had brought us
together was closing, and I felt now, as I had not clearly felt before,
that mine was no life to link with hers. She was rich, and she was
young, and she was fair; any love she might have felt for me was more a
matter of gratitude than anything else. I had been able to stand her
friend when no other friend was near, but I was that creature without a
name, who might some day by chance be sent back to his prison. I must
not link my name with hers.
However, I would not let her suspect that this was the parting of the
ways. I made her repeat her promise to me to go to this lawyer, an
elderly man, as I understood, and one who had dealt honestly with her
father; and with that we parted. I knew that she would slip out of the
house, and would go off to London. From some other place I would write
to her, and would tell her of my decision. I felt also that I might have
news to tell of Dr. Bardolph Just.
And now I come to that strangest happening of all--the death of that
celebrated physician and scientist, Dr. Bardolph Just. Of all that was
written about it at the time, and the many eulogies that were printed
concerning the man, you will doubtless have heard; but the true story of
it is given here for the first time, and it is only given now because
the man who killed him is dead also, and is beyond the reach of
everyone.
The thing is presented to me in a series of scenes, so strange and weird
in their character that it is almost as though I had dreamt them, when
now, after years, I strive to recollect them. The gaunt old house,
standing surrounded by its grounds; the solitary man shut up alone in
it, not dreaming that Debora had gone, and that I was so near at hand;
and above all and before all, that strange figure of William Capper. I
find myself shuddering now when I remember all the elements of the
story, and how that story ended.
I was a mere spectator of the business--something outside it--and I
looked on helplessly through the amazing scenes, with always that
feeling that I was in a dream. Long after Debora had stolen away from
the house that night, I wandered restlessly about the place, wondering a
little at the silence, and remembering always that somewhere among the
shadows lurked Capper, watching this man he had come to kill. I
remembered also that in the strangest fashion Bardolph Just had prepared
the way for him by actually sending everyone who might have protected
him out of the house.
Exactly how Capper got into the place I was never able to discover.
Whether Bardolph Just had grown careless, and did not think it likely
that the man would discover where he was, or whether Capper, with
cunning, forced an entrance somewhere, I never knew. But it was after
midnight when I heard a cry in the house, and knew that what I dreaded
had begun to happen. A minute or two afterwards the door opened, and
Bardolph Just came out, staggering down the steps, and looking back into
the lighted house. He seemed frightened, and I guessed what had
frightened him.
He stopped still at a little distance from the house, and then turned
slowly, and retraced his steps. Capper stood framed in the lighted
doorway, looking out at him, but I saw that he appeared to have no
weapon. In the dead silence all about us I heard Bardolph Just's words
clearly.
"Where the devil did you come from?" he asked in a shrill voice.
"From my dead master!" came Capper's answer, clear and strong.
"Get out of my house, you madman!" exclaimed the doctor, taking a step
towards him; but the other did not move. "What do you want with me?"
"I want to remain near you; I never mean to leave you again on this side
of the grave," said Capper.
"Are you going to kill me?" asked the other. "Do you mean murder?"
"I don't mean to kill you--yet," replied the other. In the strangest
fashion he seated himself on the top step, and folded his arms and
waited.
Bardolph Just walked away a little, and then came back. I could see
that, apart from his dread of the other man, he did not know what to do,
nor how to meet this amazing situation. He took out a cigar from his
case and lighted it, and strolled up and down there, alternately
watching the little man seated above him, and studying the ground as
though seeking for a solution of the difficulty. At last he decided to
drop threatening, and to try if he might not win the man over.
"Look here, my good Capper," he said, "I've no reason to love you, but I
think you're merely a poor, half-witted creature, who should be more
pitied than blamed. I don't want to have any trouble with you, but most
decidedly I don't want to be subjected to your violence. I want to come
into my house.'"
"Come in by all means," said the little man, getting to his feet; "and I
will not use violence."
Seeing that the doctor still hesitated, I thought I might at least show
myself. I was, above all things, anxious to see the end of the business.
My concern was with Capper chiefly. I could not see for the life of me
what he would do in trying conclusions with a man of the physique of
Bardolph Just. Above all things, I did not want it to happen that the
doctor should gain a victory.
"You're not afraid of the man?" was my somewhat contemptuous greeting of
him.
"What are _you_ doing here?" he demanded. "Are you in the plot?"
"I've done with plots," I said. "I am merely a spectator."
He said nothing about Debora, and I rightly guessed that he had not yet
discovered her absence, but had merely concluded that she had retired
for the night. After looking at me for a moment or two doubtfully, he
took a step or two in my direction, and lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Look here," he said, with a nervous glance towards the man in the
doorway, "I'm all alone in this house except for a weak girl, and I'm
afraid of this fellow. What shall I do?"
"He's smaller than you are," I reminded him. "Turn him out!"
"I'm half afraid to go near him," he said. "You've seen him fly at me on
two occasions; he can be like a wild beast when he likes."
"He has said that he will offer you no violence," I replied. "I don't
know what he's got in his mind, but it seems to me, if you're afraid to
turn him out, you've got to put up with him. He seems very fond of you,"
I added caustically.
He shot a glance at me, as though wondering what I meant; then turned
and walked towards the house. I saw Capper retreat before him, so as to
give him free entry to the place. On the door-step he turned, and called
out into the darkness to me.
"You, at any rate, can stop outside; one madman is bad enough." Then the
door was shut, and I was left to wonder what was going on inside.
I was not to be left long in doubt. In something less than half an hour,
while I was hesitating whether to go, or whether to stay, the door was
pulled open again, and a voice so querulous and nervous that I scarcely
recognised it for that of the doctor called out into the darkness,
"John New! John New, are you there?"
I showed myself at once, and he ran down the steps to me. I saw that he
was shaking from head to foot; the hand with which he gripped me, while
he stared over his shoulder back into the house, was a hand of ice.
"For the love of God," he whispered, "come into the house with me! I
shall go mad if this goes on. I can't shake him off."
"Lock yourself in your room, and go to bed," I said disdainfully.
"I can't; he's taken every key of every lock in the house and hidden
them. I can't shut a door against him anywhere; upstairs and downstairs,
wherever I go he is there, just behind me. Will you come in?"
I went in; the sheer fascination of the thing was growing on me. Capper
took not the faintest notice of me; he was waiting just inside the door,
and he followed us into a room. There he seated himself, with his hands
on his knees, and waited. The doctor made a pretence of drinking, and
even of lighting a cigar, but he set the glass down almost untasted, and
allowed the cigar to go out. No words were exchanged between us, and
still Capper kept up that relentless watch.
At last Bardolph Just sank down into a chair, and closed his eyes. "If
he won't let me go to bed, I'll sleep here," he murmured.
But in a moment Capper had sprung up, and had gone to the man and shaken
him roughly by the shoulder. "Wake up!" he ordered. "You'll sleep no
more until you sleep at the last until the Judgment Day."
I saw then with horror what his purpose was. I knew not what the end was
to be, but I saw that his immediate purpose was to wear the other man
down until he could do what he liked with him. I thought he was a fool
not to understand that in striving to break down the strength of the
other he was breaking himself down too; but that never seemed to occur
to him. For the whole of that night he kept Bardolph Just awake,
followed him from room to room in that house where no door would lock,
and where he gave his victim no time to barricade himself in; he never
left him for a moment. More than once Bardolph Just turned on him, and
then the eyes of Capper flashed, and he drew back as if about to spring;
and the doctor waited. He threw himself on his bed once, in sheer
exhaustion, and Capper made such a din in the room by overturning tables
and smashing things that the wretched man got up and fled downstairs,
and out into the grounds. But Capper fled with him.
For my part, I slept at intervals, dropping on to a couch, or into a
deep chair, and closing my eyes from sheer weariness. I found myself
murmuring in my sleep sometimes, incoherently begging Capper to give the
game up, and to let the man alone; but he took no notice of me, and I
might indeed have been a shadow in the house, so little did he seem to
be aware of my presence. When I could, after waking from a fitful sleep,
I would stumble about the house in a search for them, and even out into
the grounds; and always there was the man striving for rest, and the
other man keeping him awake.
Once Bardolph Just armed himself with a stick, and ran out of the house;
Capper snatched up another, and ran after him. I thought that this was
the end; I ran out too, crying to Capper to beware what he did. When I
got to them--and this was the noon of the following day--Bardolph Just
had flung aside his stick, and stood there in a dejected attitude,
looking at his persecutor.
"It's no good," he said hoarsely, "I give in. Do what you will with me;
ask what you will; this is the end."
"Not yet," said Capper, leaning upon the stick and watching him. "Not
yet."
That strange hunt went on for the whole of that day, and during the next
night. I only saw part of it all, because, of course, I fell asleep, and
slept longer than I had done at first. But I saw once the wretched man
fall upon his knees before Capper, and beg for mercy; saw him struggle
with Capper with his uninjured arm, so that the two of them swayed
about, dazed with want of sleep; saw him fall to the ground, and try to
sleep, and the other kick him viciously into a wakeful state again. And
at last came the end, when the doctor went swaying and stumbling up the
stairs towards his bedroom, muttering that the other man could do his
worst, but that he must sleep. So utterly worn out was he that he got no
further than the landing; there he fell, and lay as one dead.
The sun was streaming in through a high window; it fell upon the
exhausted man, and upon Capper standing beside him. Capper was swaying a
little, but otherwise seemed alert enough.
"This will serve," he muttered as if to himself. "This is the end."
He went away, and after a little time came back with a rope and a
hatchet. In my horror at what he might be going to do, I would have
taken the hatchet from him; but now he threatened me with it, with a
snarl like that of a wild beast; and I drew away from him, and watched.
He proceeded to hack away the rails of the landing, leaving only the
broad balustrade; he cut away six rails, and tossed them aside. Then he
made a running noose in the rope, and fastened the other end of it
securely to the balustrade. There was thus left a space under where the
rope was fastened, and sheer down from that a drop into the hall below.
He knelt down beside the unconscious man, and lifted his head, and put
the noose about his neck. He tightened it viciously, but the sleeping
man never even murmured.
Then I saw him begin to push the sleeping man slowly and with effort
towards the gap he had made in the staircase rail.
* * * * *
When I could look (and it was a long time before I could make up my mind
to do so), the body of Bardolph Just swung high above me, suspended by
the neck. On the landing, prone upon the floor, lay William Capper,
sleeping soundly.