that night a fearful tempest howled over cloisterham. in the morning early, as the storm was breaking, jasper, the choir master, came pale, panting and half-dressed, to mr. crisparkle's, asking for edwin drood. he said his nephew had left his rooms the evening before with neville landless to go to the river to look at the storm, and had not returned.
strange rumors sprang up at once. neville had left for his walking tour and an ugly suspicion flew from house to house. he had got only a few miles from the town when he was overtaken by a party of men, who surrounded him. thinking at first that they were thieves, he fought them, but was soon rendered helpless and bleeding, and in the midst of them was taken back toward cloisterham. mr. crisparkle and jasper met them on the way, and from the former neville first learned of what he was suspected.
the blood from his encounter with his captors was on his clothes and stick. jasper pointed it out, and even those who had seen it fall there looked darkly at the stains. he was taken back[pg 456] to the town and to mr. crisparkle's house, who promised that he should remain in his own custody.
neville's story was simple. he said they had gone to the river, as jasper had said, and returned together, he to mr. crisparkle's, edwin drood to his uncle's. he had not seen the other since that time.
the river was dragged and its banks searched, but to no purpose, till mr. crisparkle himself found drood's watch caught among some timbers in a weir.
but as the body could not be found, it could not be definitely proven that drood was dead, or that any murder had been committed, so at last neville was released. the whole neighborhood, however, believed him guilty of the murder. no one spoke to him and he was obliged to quit the place.
beside his sister helena and rosebud, who, of course, believed in his innocence, he had but one friend there—mr. crisparkle. the latter stoutly refused to believe him guilty. when neville left for london, through mr. grewgious, rosebud's guardian, the minister found him a cheap lodging and made frequent trips to the city to help and advise him in his studies.
mr. grewgious had his own opinion of the affair. one day he went to cloisterham to see jasper, and there told him a thing the other did not yet know—that before that last night edwin[pg 457] drood and rosebud had agreed not to marry. when he heard this the choir master's face turned the color of lead. he shrieked and fell senseless at the lawyer's feet. mr. grewgious went back to the city more thoughtful than ever, and it was not long before a detective came from london to cloisterham and began to interest himself in all the doings of john jasper.
the detective, to be sure, was not known as such. he called himself "dick datchery" and gave it out that he was an idle dog who lived on his money and had nothing to do. he was a curious-looking man, with a great shock of white hair, black eyebrows and a military air. he rented lodgings next door to the choir master, and before long had made friends with durdles, the tombstone maker, and even with the deputy of the "wake-cock warning."
meanwhile jasper, haggard and red-eyed, took again his place in the cathedral choir, while neville landless worked sadly and alone in his london garret. the latter made but one friend in this time—a lodger whose window adjoined his own. this lodger was lieutenant tartar, a retired young naval officer. tartar might have lived in fine apartments, for he was rich, but he had been so long on shipboard that he felt more at home where the walls were low enough for him to knock his head on the ceiling. he used to climb across to neville's room by the window ledges, and[pg 458] they became friendly—the warmer friends when mr. crisparkle discovered in the lieutenant a schoolmate who had once saved his life.
later, too, helena left miss twinkleton's seminary and came to be with her brother. and so a year went by.
vacation arrived, and one day when rosebud was alone at nun's house, jasper, for the first time since edwin drood's disappearance, came to see her.
he found her in the garden, and she felt again the repulsion and fear she had always felt at sight of him. this time the choir master threw away all concealment. he told her that he had always loved her hopelessly and madly, though while she was betrothed to his nephew he had hidden the fact. she answered indignantly that, by look if not by word, he had always been false to edwin drood; that he had made her life unhappy by his pursuit of her, and that, though she had shrunk from opening his nephew's eyes, she had always known he was a wicked man.
then, maddened by her dislike, jasper swore that no one else should ever marry her—that he would pursue her to the death, and that if she repulsed him he would bring dreadful ruin upon neville landless. he said this, no doubt, knowing that neville loved rosebud, and thinking, perhaps, that she loved him in return.
when jasper left her, rosebud was faint from[pg 459] fear of his wicked eyes. she made up her mind to go at once for protection to mr. grewgious in london, and, leaving a note for miss twinkleton, she left by the next omnibus.
she told her guardian her story, he told it to mr. crisparkle, who came to london next morning, and between them they told lieutenant tartar. while rosebud visited with helena the three men took counsel together, agreeing that jasper was a villain and planning how best to deal with him.
the next time the choir master visited the opium garret the old woman tracked him back to cloisterham, with more success—with such success, indeed, that she heard him sing in the cathedral and found out his name from a stranger whom she encountered. this stranger was dick datchery, the detective, who discovered so much, before he left her, of jasper's london habits that he went home in high good humor.
datchery had a trick, whenever he was following a particular search, of marking each step of his progress by a chalk mark on a wall or door. to-day he must have been highly pleased, for he drew a thick line from the very top of the cupboard door to the bottom!
when charles dickens, the master story-teller, had told this tale thus far, he fell ill and died, and it was never finished. the mystery of the disappearance[pg 460] of edwin drood, what became of rosebud and of mr. crisparkle, how neville and helena fared and what was the end of jasper, are matters for each one of us to guess. many have tried to finish this story and they have ended it in various ways. before dickens died, however, he told to a friend the part of the story that remained unwritten, and this, the friend has recorded, was to be as follows:
by means of the old woman of the opium den, durdles, the tombstone maker, and the deputy, the ragged stone-thrower, dick datchery unraveled the threads which finally, made into a net, caught jasper, the murderer, in its meshes. little by little, word by word, he was made at last to betray himself.
he had killed edwin drood, had hidden his body in one of the vaults and covered it with lime. but there had been one thing in the dead man's pocket which the lime could not destroy: this was the ring set with diamonds and rubies, that had been given to him by mr. grewgious. by this the murder was proven. mr. crisparkle and mr. grewgious worked hard to clear neville landless (of whose guilt, by the way, mr. honeythunder remained always sure), but poor neville himself perished in aiding lieutenant tartar to seize the murderer.
finding all hope of escape gone, jasper confessed[pg 461] his crime in the cell in which he waited for death.
but, after all, the story closed happily, with the marriage of mr. crisparkle to neville's sister helena, and that of lieutenant tartar to pretty little rosebud.
