A Study in Scarlet - Part 2, Chapter 6: A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part two, Chapter six of A Study in Scarlet. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Laurie Ann Walden. A Study
in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Cunnan Doyle, Part two, Chapter six,
a continuation of the reminiscences of John Watson m d Our.

(00:25):
Prisoner's furious resistance did not apparently indicate any ferocity in
his disposition towards ourselves, For on finding himself powerless, he
smiled in an affable manner and expressed his hopes that
he had not hurt any office in the scuffle. I
guess you're going to take me to the police station,
he remarked to Sherlock Holmes. My CAB's at the door.

(00:47):
If you'll loose my legs, I'll walk down to it.
I'm not so light to lift as I used to be.
Gregson and Lestrade exchanged glances as if they thought this
proposition rather a bold one, But Holmes at once took
the prisoner at his word and loosened the towel which
we had bound round his ankles. He rose and stretched
his legs as though to assure himself that they were

(01:09):
free once more. I remember that, I thought to myself
as I eyed him, that I had seldom seen a
more powerfully built man, and his dark, sunburned face bore
an expression of determination and energy which was as formidable
as his personal strength. If there's a vacant place for
a chief of the police, I reckon you are the

(01:29):
man for it, he said, gazing with undisguised admiration at
my fellow lodger. The way you kept on my trail
was a caution. You had better come with me, said
Holmes to the two detectives. I can drive you, said Lestrade,
Good and Gregson can come inside with me. You too, Doctor,

(01:51):
you have taken an interest in the case, and may
as well stick to us. I assented gladly, and we
all descended together. Our prisoner made no attempt at escape,
but stepped calmly into the cab which had been his,
and we followed him. Lestrade mounted the box, whipped up
the horse, and brought us in a very short time
to our destination. We were ushered into a small chamber,

(02:14):
where a police inspector noted down our prisoner's name and
the names of the men with whose murder he had
been charged. The official was a white faced, unemotional man
who went through his duties in a dull, mechanical way.
The prisoner will be put before the magistrates in the
course of the week, he said. In the meantime, mister Jefferson, hope,

(02:34):
have you anything that you wish to say. I must
warn you that your words will be taken down and
may be used against you. I've got a good deal
to say, our prisoner said, slowly. I want to tell you, gentlemen,
all about it. Hadn't you better reserve that for your trial,
asked the inspector. I may never be tried. He answered,

(02:59):
you needn't look startled. It isn't suicide I am thinking of.
Are you a doctor? He turned his fierce, dark eyes
upon me as he asked this last question. Yes I am,
I answered. Then put your hand here, he said, with
a smile, motioning with his manacled wrists towards his chest.

(03:19):
I did so and became at once conscious of an
extraordinary throbbing and commotion which was going on inside the
walls of his chest seemed to thrill and quiver as
a frail building would do inside when some powerful engine
was at work. In the silence of the room, I
could hear a dull, humming and buzzing noise which proceeded
from the same source. Why, I cried, You have an aorticnyurism.

(03:45):
That's what they call it, he said, placidly. I went
to a doctor last week about it, and he told
me that it is bound to burst. For many days past.
It has been getting worse for years. I got it
from over exposure and under feeding among the lake mountains.
I've done my work now and I don't care how
soon I go, but I should like to leave some

(04:06):
account of the business behind me. I don't want to
be remembered as a common cut throat. The inspector and
the two detectives had a hurried discussion as to the
advisability of allowing him to tell his story. Do you
consider a doctor that there is immediate danger, the former asked,
most certainly there is, I answered. In that case, it

(04:30):
is clearly our duty in the interests of justice to
take his statement, said the inspector. You are at liberty, sir,
to give your account, which I again warn you will
be taken down I'll sit down with your leave, the
prisoner said, suiting the action to the word. This anneurism
of mine makes me easily tired, and the tussle we

(04:51):
had half an hour ago has not mended matters. I'm
on the brink of the grave, and I am not
likely to lie to you. Every word I say day
is the absolute truth, and how you use it is
a matter of no consequence to me. With these words,
Jefferson Hope leaned back in his chair and began the
following remarkable statement. He spoke in a calm and methodical manner,

(05:14):
as though the events which he narrated were commonplace enough.
I can vouch for the accuracy of the subjoint account,
for I have had access to Lestrade's note book, in
which the prisoner's words were taken down exactly as they
were uttered. It don't much matter to you why I
hated these men, he said. It's enough that they were

(05:35):
guilty of the death of two human beings, a father
and daughter, and that they had therefore forfeited their own lives.
After the lapse of time that has passed since their crime,
it was impossible for me to secure a conviction against
them in any court. I knew of their guilt, though,
and I determined that I should be judge, jury and executioner,

(05:55):
all rolled into one. You'd have done the same if
you have any man who had in you, if you
had been in my place. That girl that I spoke
of was to have married me twenty years ago. She
was forced into marrying that same drebber, and broke her
heart over it. I took the marriage ring from her
dead finger, and I vowed that his dying eyes should
rest upon that very ring, and that his last thoughts

(06:18):
should be of the crime for which he was punished.
I have carried it about with me, and have followed
him and his accomplice over two continents until I caught them.
They thought to tire me out, but they could not
do it. If I die tomorrow, as is likely enough,
I die knowing that my work in this world is
done and well done. They have perished, and by my

(06:39):
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 writing are
as natural to me as walking. So I applied at

(07:01):
a cab owner'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

(07:23):
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

(07:46):
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

(08:09):
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 behindhand 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

(08:29):
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

(08:49):
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
torquy Terrace, as the street was called in which they boarded,
when I saw a cab drive up to their door. Presently,

(09:11):
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 the mask

(09:33):
for the Liverpool train, and the guard answered 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

(09:54):
that if the other would wait for him, he would
soon rejoin him. His companion remased 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,

(10:17):
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,

(10:38):
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.

(11:03):
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

(11:25):
the interval I had taken a molding 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

(11:45):
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 known. There was a hansom just
in front of me, and he hailed it a followed
it so close that the nose of my horse was
within a yard of his driver. The whole way we

(12:06):
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.

(12:27):
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

(12:47):
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 across the road.
You hound, he cried, shaking his stick at him. I'll
teach you to insult an honest girl. He was so

(13:08):
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

(13:30):
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

(13:51):
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

(14:11):
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,

(14:33):
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,

(14:57):
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

(15:18):
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,

(15:40):
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 Joe Ferrier and

(16:00):
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.

(16:21):
When I looked in at the window, A found Drebber,
all huddled together in a drunken sweep. 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

(16:43):
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'd 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

(17:04):
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

(17:26):
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,

(17:46):
I said, I have hunted you from Salt Lake City
to Saint 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 tomorrow's sun rise.
He shrunk still farther 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

(18:08):
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.

(18:31):
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

(18:54):
was not I who killed her father, he cried, But
it was you who broke her innocence 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

(19:18):
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

(19:39):
that the poison was in his system. I laughed as
I saw it, and held Lucy's marriage ring in front
of his eyes. It was but for a moment, for
the action of the alkaloid is rapid. A spasm of
pain contorted his features. He threw his hands out in
front of him, staggered, and then, with a hoarse cry,
fell heavily upon the floor. I turned him over with

(20:02):
my foot and placed my hand upon his heart. There
was no movement. He was dead. The blood had been
streaming from my nose, but I had taken no notice
of it. I don't know what it was that put
it into my head to write upon the wall with it.
Perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the police
upon a wrong track, for I felt light hearted and cheerful.

(20:25):
I remember a German being found in New York with
Racheh written up above him, and it was argued at
the time in the newspapers that the secret societies must
have done it. I guessed that what puzzled the New
Yorkers would puzzle the Londoners. So I dipped my finger
in my own blood and printed it on a convenient
place on the wall. Then I walked down to my
cab and found that there was nobody about and that

(20:47):
the night was still very wild. I had driven some
distance when I put my hand into the pocket in
which I usually kept Lucy's ring and found that it
was not there. I was thunderstruck at this, for it
was the only memento that I had of her, thinking
that I might have dropped it when I stooped overt
Drebber's body, I drove back, and, leaving my cab in

(21:09):
a side street, I went boldly up to the house,
for I was ready to dare anything rather than lose
the ring. When I arrived there, I walked right into
the arms of a police officer who was coming out,
and only managed to disarm his suspicions by pretending to
be hopelessly drunk. That was how Enoch Drebber came to
his end. All I had to do then was to

(21:30):
do as much for Stangerson and so pay off John
Ferrier's debt. I knew that he was staying at Halliday's
private hotel, and I hung about all day, but he
never came out. I fancied that he suspected something when
Drebber failed to put in an appearance. He was cunning,
was Stangerson, and always on his guard. If he thought
he could keep me off by staying indoors, he was

(21:52):
very much mistaken. I soon found out which was the
window of his bedroom, and early next morning I took
advantage of some ladder which were lying in the lane
behind the hotel, and so made my way into his
room in the gray of the dawn. I woke him
up and told him that the hour had come when
he was to answer for the life which he had
taken so long before. I described Drebber's death to him,

(22:15):
and I gave him the same choice of the poisoned pills.
Instead of grasping at the chance of safety, which that
offered him. He sprang from his bed and flew at
my throat. In self defense, I stabbed him to the heart.
It would have been the same in any case, for
Providence would never have allowed his guilty hand to pick
out anything but the poison. I have little more to say,

(22:38):
and it's as well, for I am about done up.
I went on cabbing it for a day or so,
intending to keep at it until I could save enough
to take me back to America. I was standing in
the yard when a ragged youngster asked if there was
a cabby there, called Jefferson Hope, and said that his
cab was wanted by a gentleman at two twenty one B.
Baker Street. I went round, suspecting no harm, and the

(23:01):
next thing I knew, this young man here had the
bracelets on my wrists and as neatly shackled as ever
I saw in my life. That's the whole of my story. Gentlemen,
you may consider me to be a murderer, but I
hold that I am just as much an officer of
justice as you are. So thrilling had the man's narrative been,

(23:21):
and his manner was so impressive that we had sat
silent and absorbed. Even the professional detectives, blase as they
were in every detail of crime, appeared to be keenly
interested in the man's story. When he finished, we sat
for some minutes in a stillness which was only broken
by the scratching of Lestrade's pencil as he gave the
finishing touches to his short hand account. There is only

(23:45):
one point on which I should like a little more information,
Sherlock Holms said, at last, Who was your accomplice who
came for the ring which I advertised? The prisoner winked
at my friend jocosely. I can tell my own secrets,
he said, but I don't get other people into trouble.
I saw your advertisement and I thought it might be

(24:05):
a plant, or it might be the ring which I wanted.
My friend volunteered to go and see. I think you'll
own He did it smartly. Not a doubt of that,
said Holmes heartily. Now, gentlemen, the inspector remarked gravely, the
forms of the law must be complied with. On Thursday,

(24:25):
the prisoner will be brought before the magistrates, and your
attendants will be required. Until then, I will be responsible
for him. He rang the bell as he spoke, and
Jefferson Hope was led off by a couple of warders,
while my friend and I made our way out of
the station and took a cab back to Baker Street.
End of Part two, Chapter six,