A Study In Scarlet Part 7 (2/2)

”I don't fear them, or their warrant,” Hope said, earnestly ”Youof thisyou hold dear to answer a few questions We have always been friends For God's sake, don't refuse to answer me”

”What is it?” the Mormon asked uneasily ”Be quick The very rocks have ears and the trees eyes”

”What has beco Drebber Hold up, man, hold up, you have no life left in you”

”Don't mind me,” said Hope faintly He hite to the very lips, and had sunk down on the stone against which he had been leaning ”Married, you say?”

”Married yesterday -- that's what those flags are for on the Endow Drebber and young Stangerson as to which was to have her They'd both been in the party that followed theive hiued it out in council, Drebber's party was the stronger, so the Prophet gave her over to hih, for I saw death in her face yesterday She is host than a woman Are you off, then?”

”Yes, I am off,” said Jefferson Hope, who had risen froht have been chiselled out of loith a baleful light

”Where are you going?”

”Neverhis weapon over his shoulder, strode off down the gorge and so away into the heart of the st theerous as himself

The prediction of the Mormon was only too well fulfilled Whether it was the terrible death of her father or the effects of the hateful e into which she had been forced, poor Lucy never held up her head again, but pined away and died within a month Her sottish husband, who had married her principally for the sake of John Ferrier's property, did not affect any great grief at his bereavement; but his other wives ht before the burial, as is the Morrouped round the bier in the early hours of the , when, to their inexpressible fear and astonish, weather-beaten lance or a word to the cowering woure which had once contained the pure soul of Lucy Ferrier Stooping over her, he pressed his lips reverently to her cold forehead, and then, snatching up her hand, he took the wedding-ring froer ”She shall not be buried in that,” he cried with a fierce snarl, and before an alarone So strange and so brief was the episode, that the watchers ht have found it hard to believe it themselves or persuade other people of it, had it not been for the undeniable fact that the circlet of gold whichbeen a bride had disappeared

For so a strange wild life, and nursing in his heart the fierce desire for vengeance which possessed hiure which was seen prowling about the suburbs, and which haunted the lonely erson'sand flattened itself upon the ithin a foot of hireat boulder crashed down on hi hi in discovering the reason of these attempts upon their lives, and led repeated expeditions into thetheir enemy, but alithout success Then they adopted the precaution of never going out alone or after nightfall, and of having their houses guarded After a ti was either heard or seen of their opponent, and they hoped that ti so, it had, if anything, aug nature, and the predoe had taken such complete possession of it that there was no roos practical He soon realized that even his iron constitution could not stand the incessant strain which he was putting upon it Exposure and want of wholeso the e then? And yet such a death was sure to overtake hiame, so he reluctantly returned to the old Nevada h to allow him to pursue his object without privation

His intention had been to be absent a year at the most, but a co the mines for nearly five At the end of that ti for revenge were quite as keen as on that rave Disguised, and under an assumed name, he returned to Salt Lake City, careless what beca as he obtained what he knew to be justice There he found evil tidings awaiting hi the Chosen People a few er ainst the authority of the Elders, and the result had been the secession of a certain number of thethese had been Drebber and Stangerson; and no one knehither they had gone Rue part of his property into money, and that he had departed a wealthy erson, was comparatively poor There was no clue at all, however, as to their whereabouts

Many a ht of revenge in the face of such a difficulty, but Jefferson Hope never faltered for a moment With the small competence he possessed, eked out by such employment as he could pick up, he travelled froh the United States in quest of his enerizzled, but still he wandered on, a human bloodhound, with his mind wholly set upon the one object upon which he had devoted his life At last his perseverance was rewarded It was but a glance of a face in a , but that one glance told him that Cleveland in Ohio possessed the men whos with his plan of vengeance all arranged It chanced, however, that Drebber, looking frorant in the street, and had read murder in his eyes He hurried before a justice of the peace, accoerson, who had become his private secretary, and represented to hier of their lives fro Jefferson Hope was taken into custody, and not being able to find sureties, was detained for some weeks When at last he was liberated, it was only to find that Drebber's house was deserted, and that he and his secretary had departed for Europe

Again the avenger had been foiled, and again his concentrated hatred urged hi, however, and for so every dollar for his approaching journey At last, having collected enough to keep life in him, he departed for Europe, and tracked his ene his way in any itives When he reached St Petersburg they had departed for Paris; and when he followed theen At the Danish capital he was again a few days late, for they had journeyed on to London, where he at last succeeded in running them to earth As to what occurred there, we cannot do better than quote the old hunter's own account, as duly recorded in Dr Watson's Journal, to which we are already under such obligations

CHAPTER VI

A CONTINUATION OF THE REMINISCENCES OF JOHN WATSON, MD

OUR 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 of us in the scuffle ”I guess you're going to take me to the police-station,” he remarked to Sherlock Hols I'll walk down to it I'son 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 tohich we had bound round his ancles {23} He rose and stretched his legs, as though to assure hiht 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 detery which was as forth

”If there's a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon you are the uised ader ”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, you have taken an interest in the case and ladly, 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 hiht us in a very short time to our destination We were ushered into a small chamber where a police Inspector noted down our prisoner's name and the naed The official was a white-faced uneh his duties in a dull istrates in the course of the week,” he said; ”in thethat you wish to say? I must warn you that your words will be taken down, and ood 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 ”You needn't look startled It isn't suicide I a 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 s with his manacled wrists towards his chest

I did so; and beca and co on inside The walls of his chest see would do inside when soine was at work In the silence of the roo noise which proceeded from the same source

”Why,” I cried, ”you have an aortic aneurism!”

”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 before ot it fro the Salt Lake Mountains I've done o, but I should like to leave some 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, Doctor, that there is ier?” the former asked, {24} ”Most certainly there is,” I answered

”In that case it is clearly our duty, in the interests of justice, to take his stateive your account, which I again warn you will be taken down”

”I'll sit doith your leave,” the prisoner said, suiting the action to the word ”This aneurism of mine o has not rave, and I am not likely to lie to you Every word I say 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 stateh the events which he narrated were coh I can vouch for the accuracy of the subjoined 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 h that they were guilty of the death of two huhter -- and that they had, therefore, forfeited their own lives After the lapse of time that has passed since their criainst theh, and I detere, jury, and executioner all rolled into one You'd have done the same, if you have any irl that I spoke of was to havethat sae ring fro eyes should rest upon that very ring, and that his last thoughts should be of the crime for which he was punished I have carried it about with me, and have followed hiht theht to tire me out, but they could not do it If I die to- that my work in this world is done, and well done They have perished, and byleft for me to hope for, or to desire

”They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy ot to London my pocket was about e for , so I applied at a cabowner's office, and soon got e a certain suht keep for ed 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 h, and when once I had spotted the principal hotels and stations, I got on pretty well

”It was so; but I inquired and inquired until at last I dropped across the-house at Camberwell, over on the other side of the river When once I found therownthem and follow them until I saw my opportunity I was deterain

”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 foret away froht that I could earn anything, so that I began to get behind hand withas I could lay , though Theyfollowed, for they would never go out alone, and never after nightfall During teeks I drove behind them every day, and never once saw theerson was not to be caught napping I watched thehost of a chance; but I was not discouraged, for so told me that the hour had alht burst a little too soon and leaveup and down Torquay Terrace, as the street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cab drive up to their door Presently soerson followed it, and drove off I whipped upvery ill at ease, for I feared that they were going to shi+ft their quarters At Euston Station they got out, and I left a boy to hold my horse, and followed them on to the platforuard answer that one had just gone and there would not be another for soerson 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 hiether Drebber answered that the o alone I could not catch what Stangerson said to that, but the other burst out swearing, and re more than his paid servant, and that he ave it up as a bad job, and siained 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

”Thehad at last coether they could protect each other, but singly they were at my mercy I did not act, however, with undue precipitation My plans were already foreance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has coed by which I should have the opportunity of ed me understand that his old sin had found hientle over some houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of the, and returned; but in the interval I had taken aof it, and had a duplicate constructed By reat city where I could rely upon being free froet Drebber to that house was the difficult problem which I had now to solve