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
cabowner'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.
"They were very near doing it for all that. Go where they would about
London, I was always at their heels. Sometimes I followed them on my
cab, and sometimes on foot, but the former was the best, for then
they could not get away from me. It was only early in the morning or
late at night that I could earn anything, so that I began to get
behind hand with my employer. I did not mind that, however, as long
as I could lay my hand upon the men I wanted.
"They were very cunning, though. They must have thought that there
was some chance of their being followed, for they would never go out
alone, and never after nightfall. During two weeks I drove behind
them every day, and never once saw them separate. Drebber himself was
drunk half the time, but Stangerson was not to be caught napping. I
watched them late and early, but never saw the ghost of a chance; but
I was not discouraged, for something told me that the hour had almost
come. My only fear was that this thing in my chest might burst a
little too soon and leave my work undone.
"At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay Terrace, as
the street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive
up to their door. Presently some luggage was brought out, and after a
time Drebber and Stangerson followed it, and drove off. I whipped up
my horse and kept within sight of them, feeling very ill at ease, for
I feared that they were going to shift their quarters. At Euston
Station they got out, and I left a boy to hold my horse, and followed
them on to the platform. I heard them ask for the Liverpool train,
and the guard answer that one had just gone and there would not be
another for some hours. Stangerson seemed to be put out at that, but
Drebber was rather pleased than otherwise. I got so close to them in
the bustle that I could hear every word that passed between them.
Drebber said that he had a little business of his own to do, and that
if the other would wait for him he would soon rejoin him. His
companion remonstrated with him, and reminded him that they had
resolved to stick together. Drebber answered that the matter was a
delicate one, and that he must go alone. I could not catch what
Stangerson said to that, but the other burst out swearing, and
reminded him that he was nothing more than his paid servant, and that
he must not presume to dictate to him. On that the Secretary gave it
up as a bad job, and simply bargained with him that if he missed the
last train he should rejoin him at Halliday's Private Hotel; to which
Drebber answered that he would be back on the platform before eleven,
and made his way out of the station.
"The moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had my
enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but
singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue
precipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction
in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that
strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans
arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making the man who
had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out. It
chanced that some days before a gentleman who had been engaged in
looking over some houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key of
one of them in my carriage. It was claimed that same evening, and
returned; but in the interval I had taken a moulding of it, and had a
duplicate constructed. By means of this I had access to at least one
spot in this great city where I could rely upon being free from
interruption. How to get Drebber to that house was the difficult
problem which I had now to solve.
"He walked down the road and went into one or two liquor shops,
staying for nearly half-an-hour in the last of them. When he came out
he staggered in his walk, and was evidently pretty well on. There was
a hansom just in front of me, and he hailed it. I followed it so
close that the nose of my horse was within a yard of his driver the
whole way. We rattled across Waterloo Bridge and through miles of
streets, until, to my astonishment, we found ourselves back in the
Terrace in which he had boarded. I could not imagine what his
intention was in returning there; but I went on and pulled up my cab
a hundred yards or so from the house. He entered it, and his hansom
drove away. Give me a glass of water, if you please. My mouth gets
dry with the talking."
I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.
"That's better," he said. "Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour,
or more, when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling
inside the house. Next moment the door was flung open and two men
appeared, one of whom was Drebber, and the other was a young chap
whom I had never seen before. This fellow had Drebber by the collar,
and when they came to the head of the steps he gave him a shove and a
kick which sent him half across the road. 'You hound,' he cried,
shaking his stick at him; 'I'll teach you to insult an honest girl!'
He was so hot that I think he would have thrashed Drebber with his
cudgel, only that the cur staggered away down the road as fast as his
legs would carry him. He ran as far as the corner, and then, seeing
my cab, he hailed me and jumped in. 'Drive me to Halliday's Private
Hotel,' said he.
"When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped so with joy
that I feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong. I
drove along slowly, weighing in my own mind what it was best to do. I
might take him right out into the country, and there in some deserted
lane have my last interview with him. I had almost decided upon this,
when he solved the problem for me. The craze for drink had seized him
again, and he ordered me to pull up outside a gin palace. He went in,
leaving word that I should wait for him. There he remained until
closing time, and when he came out he was so far gone that I knew the
game was in my own hands.
"Don't imagine that I intended to kill him in cold blood. It would
only have been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could not bring
myself to do it. I had long determined that he should have a show for
his life if he chose to take advantage of it. Among the many billets
which I have filled in America during my wandering life, I was once
janitor and sweeper out of the laboratory at York College. One day
the professor was lecturing on poisons, and he showed his students
some alkaloid, as he called it, which he had extracted from some
South American arrow poison, and which was so powerful that the least
grain meant instant death. I spotted the bottle in which this
preparation was kept, and when they were all gone, I helped myself to
a little of it. I was a fairly good dispenser, so I worked this
alkaloid into small, soluble pills, and each pill I put in a box with
a similar pill made without the poison. I determined at the time that
when I had my chance, my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one
of these boxes, while I ate the pill that remained. It would be quite
as deadly, and a good deal less noisy than firing across a
handkerchief. From that day I had always my pill boxes about with me,
and the time had now come when I was to use them.
"It was nearer one than twelve, and a wild, bleak night, blowing hard
and raining in torrents. Dismal as it was outside, I was glad
within--so glad that I could have shouted out from pure exultation.
If any of you gentlemen have ever pined for a thing, and longed for
it during twenty long years, and then suddenly found it within your
reach, you would understand my feelings. I lit a cigar, and puffed at
it to steady my nerves, but my hands were trembling, and my temples
throbbing with excitement. As I drove, I could see old John Ferrier
and sweet Lucy looking at me out of the darkness and smiling at me,
just as plain as I see you all in this room. All the way they were
ahead of me, one on each side of the horse until I pulled up at the
house in the Brixton Road.
"There was not a soul to be seen, nor a sound to be heard, except the
dripping of the rain. When I looked in at the window, I found Drebber
all huddled together in a drunken sleep. I shook him by the arm,
'It's time to get out,' I said.
"'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
little top-heavy. When we came to the door, I opened it, and led him
into the front room. I give you my word that all the way, the father
and the daughter 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
to a wax candle which I had brought with me. 'Now, Enoch Drebber,' I
continued, turning to him, and holding the light to my own face, 'who
am I?'
"He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then I
saw a horror spring up in them, and convulse his whole features,
which showed me that he knew me. He staggered back with a livid face,
and I saw the perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth
chattered in his head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the
door and laughed loud and long. I had always known that vengeance
would be sweet, but I had 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
wanderings have come to an end, for either you or I shall never see
to-morrow's sun rise.' He shrunk still further away as I spoke, and I
could see on his face that he thought I was mad. So I was for the
time. The pulses in my temples beat like sledge-hammers, and I
believe I would have had a fit of 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,
and shaking the key in his face. 'Punishment has been slow in coming,
but it has overtaken you at last.' I saw his coward lips tremble as I
spoke. He would have begged for his life, 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
her slaughtered father, and bore her away to your accursed and
shameless harem.'
"'It was not I who killed her father,' he cried.
"'But it was you who broke her innocent heart,' I shrieked, thrusting
the box before him. 'Let the high God judge between us. Choose and
eat. There is death in one and life in the other. I shall take what
you leave. Let us see if there is justice upon the earth, or if we
are ruled by chance.'
"He cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy, but I drew my
knife and held it to his throat until he had obeyed me. Then I
swallowed the other, and we stood facing one another in silence for a
minute or more, waiting to see which was to live and which was to
die. Shall I ever forget the look which came over his face when the
first warning pangs told him that the poison was in his system? I
laughed as I saw it, and held Lucy's marriage ring in front of his
