Impeached

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter fifteen of the Mystery of Edwin Drude. This is
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Recording by Alan Chant. The Mystery of Edwin Drude, the

(00:21):
Unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, Chapter fifteen impeached Neville Landless
had started so early and walked at so good a pace,
that when the church bells began to ring in Cloisterum
for morning service, he was eight miles away, as he
wanted his breakfast by that time, having set forth on

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a crust of bread, he stopped at the next roadside
tavern to refresh visitors in want of breakfast, unless they
were horses or cattle, for which class of guests there
was preparation enough in the way of water. Trough and
hay were so unusual at the sign of the tilted
wagon that it took a long time to get the

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wagon into the track of tea and toast and bacon.
Neville in the interval, sitting in a sanded parlor, wondering
in how long a time after he had gone the
sneezy fire of damp faggots would begin to make somebody
else warm. Indeed, the tilted wagon as a cool establishment

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on the top of a hill, where the ground before
the door was puddled with damp hoofs and trodden straw,
where a scolding landlady slapped a moist baby with one
red sock on and one wanting in the bar, where
the cheese was cast aground upon a shelf, in company
with a moldy tablecloth and a green handled knife, in

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a sort of cast iron canoe, where the pale faced
bread shed tears of crumb over its shipwreck. In another canoe,
where the family linen, half washed and half dried, led
a public life of lying about, where everything to drink
was drunk out of mugs, and everything else was suggestive

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of a rhyme to mugs. The tilted Wagon, all these
things considered, hardly kept its painted promise of providing good
entertainment for man and beast. However, man in the present
case was not critical, but took what entertainment he could
get and went on again. After a longer rest than

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he needed, he stopped at some quarter of a mile
from the house, hesitating whether to pursue the road or
to follow a cart track between two high hedgerows, which
led across the slope of a breezy heath, and evidently
struck into the road again by and by. He decided

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in favor of this latter track and pursued it with
some toil, the rise being steep and the way worn
into deep ruts. He was laboring along when he became
aware of some other pedestrians behind him. As they were
coming up at a faster pace than his, he stood

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aside against one of the high banks to let them pass,
But their manner was very curious. Only four of them passed.
Other four slackened speed and loitered, as intending to follow
him when he should go on. The remainder of the party,
half a dozen perhaps, turned and went back at a

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great rate. He looked at the four behind him, and
he looked at the four before him. They all returned
his look. He resumed his way. The four in advance
went on constantly looking back. The four in the rear
came closing up. When they all ranged out from the

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narrow track upon the open slope of the heath, and
this order was maintained. Let him diverge as he would
to either side. There was no longer room to doubt
that he was beset by these fellows. He stopped as
a last test, and they all stopped. Why do you

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attend upon me in this way? He asked the whole body.
Are you a pack of thieves? Don't aunt swer em?
Said one of the number he did not see. Which
better be quiet? Better be quiet, repeated Neville, who said so.
Nobody replied. It's good advice, whichever of you sulkers gave it.

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He went on angrily. I will not submit to be
penned in between four men there and four men there.
I wished to pass, and I mean to pass those
four in front. They were all standing still. Him included.
If eight men or four men or two men set

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upon one, he proceeded, growing more enraged. The one has
no chance but to set his mark upon some of them,
And by the Lord, I'll do it if I am
interrupted any farther. Shouldering his heavy stick and quickening his pace,
he shot on to pass the fore ahead. The largest

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and strongest man of the numbers changed swiftly to the
side on which he came up, and dexterously closed with him,
and went down with him, but not before the heavy
stick had descended. Smartly, let him be, said this man
in a suppressed voice, as they struggled together on the grass.

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Fair play. His is the build of a girl to mine,
and he's got a white strap to his back. Besides,
let him alone, I'll manage him. After a little rolling
about in a close scuffle, which caused the faces of
both to be besmeared with blood, the man took his
knee from Nevill's chest and rose, saying, there, now take

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him arm in arm, any two of you. It was
immediately done. As to raw being a pack of thieves,
mister Landless, said the man, as he spat out some
blood and wiped more from his face. You know better
than that at midday, we wouldn't a touched you if

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you hadn't forced us. We're going to take you round
to the high road anyhow, and you'll find help enough
against thieves there if you want it. Wap his face, somebody,
see how it's a trickling down him. When his face
was cleansed, Neville recognized in the speaker Joe Driver of

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the Cloister Omnibus, whom he had seen but once, and
that on the day of his arrival and what are
you recommend you for the present is? Don't talk, mister Landless.
You'll find a friend waiting for you at the high road.
Gone ahead by the other way when we split into

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two parties, and you had much better say nothing till
you come up with him. Bring that stick along somebody else,
and let's be moving. Utterly bewildered, Neville stared around him
and said not a word. Walking between his two conductors,
who held his arms in theirs, he went on as

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in a dream, until they came again into the high
road and into the midst of a little group of people.
The men who had turned back were among the group,
and its central figures were mister Jasper and mister Chris Sparkle.
Nevill's conductors took him up to the minor cannon and
there released him as an act of deference to that gentleman.

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What is all this, sir? What is the matter? I
feel as if I had lost my senses, cried Neville,
the group closing in around him. Where is my nephew,
asked mister Jasper wildly. Where is your nephew? Repeated Neville?
Why do you ask me? I ask you, retorted Jasper,

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because you were the last person in his company, and
he is not to be found. Not to be found,
cried Nevill. Aghast stay, stay, said mister Chris Sparkle. Permit me, Jasper.
Mister Neville, you are confounded. Collect your thoughts. It is

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of great importance that you should collect your thoughts. Attend
to me. I will try, sir, but I seem mad.
You left, mister Jasper last night night with Edwin Drood. Yes?
At what hour? Oh? Was it at twelve o'clock, asked Neville,

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with his hand to his confused head, and appealing to Jasper.
Quite right, said mister Chris Sparkle. The hour mister Jasper
has already named to me. You went down to the
river together, undoubtedly to see the action of the wind there.
What followed? How long did you stay there? About ten minutes,

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I should say not more. We then walked together to
your house, and he took leave of me at the door.
Did he say that he was going down to the
river again? No, he said that he was going straight back.
The bystanders looked at one another and at mister Chris Sparkle,

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to whom mister Jasper, who had been intensely watching Neville,
said in a low, distinct, suspicious voice. What are those
stains upon his dress? All eyes were turned towards the
blood upon his clothes, And here are the same stains
upon this stick, said Jasper, taking it from the hand

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of the man who held it. I know the stick
to be his, and he carried it last night. What
does this mean? In the name of God, say what
it means, Neville urged mister Chris Sparkle. That man, and
I said Neville, pointing out his late adversary, had a

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struggle for the stick just now, and you may see
the same marks on him. Sir, What was I to
suppose when I found myself molested by eight people? Could
I dream of the true reason? When they would give
me none at all? They admitted that they had thought

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it discreet to be silent, and that the struggle had
taken place. And yet the very men who had seen
it looked darkly at the smears, which the bright, cold
air had already dried. We must return, Neville, said mister Chrisparkle.
Of course you will be glad to come back to

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clear yourself. Of course, sir, mister Landless will walk at
my side. The minor cannon continued, looking around him come Neville.
They set forth on the walk back, and the others,
with one exception, straggled after them at various distances. Jasper

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walked on the other side of Neville and never quitted
that position. He was silent while mister Chrisparkle more than
once repeated his former questions, and while Neville repeated his
former answers, also while they both hazarded some explanatory conjecture.
He was obstinately silent because mister Chrisparkle's manner directly appealed

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to him to take some part in the discussion, and
no appeal would move his fixed face. When they drew
near to the city, and it was suggested by the
minor Canon that they might do well in calling on
the mayor. At once he assented with a stern nod.
But he spake no word until they stood in mister

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Sapsey's parlor, mister Sapsey being informed by mister Chris Sparkle
of the circumstances under which they desired to make a
voluntary statement before him, Mister Jasper broke silence by declaring
that he placed his whole reliance humanly speaking on mister
Sapsey's penetration. There was no conceivable reason why his Neview

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should have suddenly absconded, unless mister Sapsey could suggest one,
and then he would defer there was no intelligible likelihood
of his having returned to the river and been accidentally
drowned in the dark, unless it should appear likely to
mister Sapsey, And then again he would defer. He washed

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his hands as clean as he could of all horrible suspicions,
unless it should appear to mister Sapsey that some such
were inseparable from his last companion before his disappearance, not
on good terms with previously, And then once more he
would defer his own state of mind. He, being distracted

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with doubts and laboring under dismal apprehensions, was not to
be safely trusted, but mister Sapsey's was. Mister Sapsey expressed
his opinion that the case had a dark look In short,
and here his eyes rested full on Nevill's countenance, an
un English complexion. Having made this grand point, he wandered

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into a denser hays and maze of nonsense than even
a mare might have been expected to disport. Himself in
and came out of it with the brilliant discovery that
to take the life of a fellow creature was to
take something that didn't belong to you. He wavered whether
or no he should at once issue his warrant for

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the committal of Neville Landless to jail under circumstances of
grave suspicion, and he might have gone so far as
to do it, but for the indignant protest of the
minor Cannon, who undertook for the young man's remaining in
his own house and being produced by his own hands
whenever demanded. Mister Jasper then understood mister Sapsey to suggest

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that the river should be dragged, that its banks should
be rigidly examined, that particulars of the disappearance should be
sent to all outlying places and to London, and that
placards and advertisements should be widely circulated. Imploring Edwin Drood,
if for any unknown reason he had withdrawn himself from

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his uncle's home and society, to take pity on that
loving kinsman's sore bereavement and distress, and somehow inform him
that he was yet alive. Mister Sapsey was perfectly understood,
for this was exactly his meaning, though he had said
nothing about it, and measures were taken towards all these

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ends immediately. It would be difficult to determine which was
the more oppressed with horror and amazement, never Landless or
John Jasper, but that Jasper's position forced him to be active,
while Nevills forced him to be passive, there would have
been nothing to choose between them. Each was bowed down

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and broken with the earliest light of the next morning.
Men were at work upon the river, and other men,
most of whom volunteered for the service, were examining the banks.
All the livelong day. The search went on upon the
river with barge and pole and drag and net, upon
the muddy and rushy shore, with jack boots, hatchets, spade, rope, dogs,

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and all imaginable appliances. Even at night. The river was
specked with lanterns and lurid with fires. Far off creeks
into which the tide washed as it changed, had their
knots of watchers listening to the lapping of the stream
and looking out for any burden it might bear. Remote
shingle causeways near the sea, and lonely points off which

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there was a race of water, had their unwonted flaring
cressets and rough coated figures. When the next day dawned,
but no trace of Edwin Drood revisited the light of
the sun. All that day again, the search went on
in barge and boat, and now ashore among the osiers,

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or trampling amidst mud and stakes and jagged stones in
low lying places, where solitary water marks and signals of
strange shapes showed like specters. John Jasper worked and toiled,
but to no purpose, For still no trace of Edwin
Drood revisited the light of the sun, setting his watches

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for that night again, so that vigilant eyes should be
kept on every change of tide. He went home, exhausted,
unkempt and disordered, bedaubed with mud that had dried upon him,
and with much of his clothing torn to rags. He
had but just dropped into his easy chair when mister
Grugius stood before him. This is strange news, said mister Grugious,

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strange and fearful news. Jasper had merely lifted up his
heavy eyes to say it, and now dropped them again.
As he drooped, worn out over one side of his
easy chair, Mister Grudius smoothed his head and face and
stood looking at the fire. How is your ward, asked

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Jasper after a time, in a faint, fatigued voice. Poor
little thing, who may imagine her condition? Have you seen?
His sister? Inquired Jasper as before whose the curtness of
the counter question and the cool, slow manner in which,
as he put it, mister Grugius moved his eyes from

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the fire to his companion's face, might at any other
time have been exasperating. In his depression and exhaustion. Jasper
merely opened his eyes to say the suspected young man's
Do you suspect him? Asked mister Grudius. I don't know

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what to think. I cannot make up my mind, nor,
I said mister Grugius. But you spoke of him as
the suspected young man. I thought you had made up
your mind. I have just left miss landless. What is

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her state? Defiance of all suspicion and unbounded faith in
her brother? Poor thing, however, pursued Miss Grugius. It is
not of her that I came to speak. It is
of my ward, I have a communication to make that

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will surprise you. At least it has surprised me. Jasper,
with a groaning sigh, turned wearily in his chair. Shall
I put it off till to morrow? Said mister Grugius.
Mind I warn you that I think it will surprise you.

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More attention and concentration came into John Jasper's eyes as
they caught sight of mister Grugius smoothing his hair again
and again, looking at the fire, but now with a
compressed and determined mouth. What is it? Demanded Jasper, becoming
upright in his chair. To be sure, said mister Grugius, provokingly,

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slow and internal, as he kept his eyes on the fire.
I might have known it sooner she gave me the opening,
But I am such an exceedingly angular man that it
never occurred to me. I took all for granted. What

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is it? Demanded Jasper. Once more, mister Grougius, alternately opening
and shutting the palms of his hand as he warmed
them at the fire, and looking fixedly at him sideways,
and never changing either his action or his look in
all that followed, went on to reply this young couple,

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the lost youth and miss Rosa my ward, though so
long betrothed and so long recognizing their betrothal, and so
near being married. Mister Grudges saw a staring white face
and two quivering white lips in the easy chair, and

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saw two muddy hands gripping its sides. But for the hands,
he might have thought he had never seen the face.
This young couple came gradually to the discovery made on
both sides pretty equally. I think that they would be

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happier and better both in their present and their future lives,
as affectionate friends, or say, rather as brother and sister,
than as husband and wife. Mister Grugius saw a lead
colored face in the easy chair, and on its surface

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dreadful starting drops or bubbles, as if of steel. This
young couple formed at length the healthy resolution of interchanging
their discoveries openly, sensibly, and tenderly. They met for that purpose.

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After some innocent and generous talk, they agreed to dissolve
their existing and their intended relations for ever and ever.
Mister Grugius saw a ghastly figure rise open mouthed from
the easy chair and lift it outspread hands towards its head.

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One of this young couple and that one your nephew.
Fearful however, that in the tenderness of your affection for him,
you would be bitterly disappointed by so wide a departure
from his projected life. Forbore to tell you the secret

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for a few days, and left it to be disclosed
by me. When I should come down to speak to you,
and he would be gone. I speak to you, and
he is gone. Mister Grugius saw the ghastly figure throw
back its head, clutch its hair with its hands, and

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turn with a writhing action from him. I have now
said all I have to say, except that this young
couple parted firmly, though not without tears and sorrow. On
the evening when you last saw them together, mister Grougius

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heard a terrible shriek, and saw no ghastly figure sitting
or standing, saw nothing but a heap of torn and
miry clothes upon the floor. Not changing his action even then,
he opened and shut the palms of his hands as

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he warmed them, and looked down at it. End of
Chapter fifteen read by all Enchant of Tunbridging, Kent, England,
during the winter of two thousand and eight,