“That’s better,” he said. “Well, I waited for a quarter of an hour,or more, when suddenly there came a noise like people strugglinginside the house. Next moment the door was flung open andtwo men appeared, one of whom was Drebber, and the otherwas a young chap whom I had never seen before. This fellow hadDrebber by the collar, and when they came to the head of thesteps he gave him a shove and a kick which sent him half acrossthe road. ‘You hound!’ he cried, shaking his stick at him; ‘I’llteach you to insult an honest girl!’ He was so hot that I think hewould have thrashed Drebber with his cudgel, only that the curstaggered 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 meand jumped in. ‘Drive me to Halliday’s Private Hotel,’ said he.
“When I had him fairly inside my cab, my heart jumped sowith joy that I feared lest at this last moment my aneurism mightgo wrong. I drove along slowly, weighing in my own mind whatit was best to do. I might take him right out into the country, andthere in some deserted lane have my last interview with him. I hadalmost decided upon this, when he solved the problem for me. Thecraze for drink had seized him again, and he ordered me to pull upoutside a gin palace. He went in, leaving word that I should wait forhim. There he remained until closing time, and when he came outhe 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. Itwould only have been rigid justice if I had done so, but I could notbring myself to do it. I had long determined that he should havea show for his life if he chose to take advantage of it. Among themany billets which I have filled in America during my wanderinglife, I was once janitor and sweeper-out of the laboratory at YorkCollege. One day the professor was lecturing on poisions, andhe showed his students some alkaloid, as he called it, which hehad extracted from some South American arrow poison, andwhich was so powerful that the least grain meant instant death. Ispotted the bottle in which this preparation was kept, and whenthey were all gone, I helped myself to a little of it. I was a fairlygood dispenser, so I worked this alkaloid into small, soluble pills,and each pill I put in a box with a similar pill made without thepoison. I determined at the time that when I had my chance mygentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes,while I ate the pill that remained. It would be quite as deadly anda good deal less noisy than firing across a handkerchief. From thatday I had always my pill boxes about with me, and the time hadnow come when I was to use them.
“It was nearer one than twelve, and a wild, bleak night, blowinghard and raining in torrents. Dismal as it was outside, I wasglad within—so glad that I could have shouted out from pureexultation. If any of you gentlemen have ever pined for a thing,and longed for it during twenty long years, and then suddenlyfound it within your reach, you would understand my feelings. Ilit a cigar, and puffed at it to steady my nerves, but my hands weretrembling and my temples throbbing with excitement. As I drove,I could see old John Ferrier and sweet Lucy looking at me out ofthe darkness and smiling at me, just as plain as I see you all in thisroom. All the way they were ahead of me, one on each side of thehorse 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 shookhim 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 hadmentioned, for he got out without another word, and followed medown the garden. I had to walk beside him to keep him steady, forhe was still a little top-heavy. When we came to the door, I openedit and led him into the front room. I give you my word that all theway, 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 puttingit to a wax candle which I had brought with me. ‘Now, EnochDrebber,’ I continued, turning to him, and holding the light to myown face, ‘who am I?’He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, andthen I saw a horror spring up in them, and convulse his wholefeatures, which showed me that he knew me. He staggered backwith a livid face, and I saw the perspiration break out upon hisbrow, while his teeth chattered in his head. At the sight, I leanedmy back against the door and laughed loud and long. I had alwaysknown that vengeance would be sweet, but I had never hoped forthe contentment of soul which now possessed me.
You dog!’ I said; ‘I have hunted you from Salt Lake City toSt. Petersburg, and you have always escaped me. Now, at last yourwanderings have come to an end, for either you or I shall neversee 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 forthe time. The pulses in my temples beat like sledgehammers, andI believe I would have had a fit of some sort if the blood had notgushed from my nose and relieved me.
What do you think of Lucy Ferrier now?’ I cried, locking thedoor, and shaking the key in his face. ‘Punishment has been slowin coming, but it has overtaken you at last.’ I saw his coward lipstremble as I spoke. He would have begged for his life, but he knewwell that it was useless.
Would you murder me?’ he stammered.
There is no murder,’ I answered. ‘Who talks of murdering amad dog? What mercy had you upon my poor darling, when youdragged her from her slaughtered father, and bore her away toyour 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.
