Strange rumors2 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 pointed3 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 custody4.
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 weir6.
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 spoke8 to him and he was obliged to quit the place.
Beside his sister Helena and Rosebud9, who, of course, believed in his innocence10, he had but one friend there—Mr. Crisparkle. The latter stoutly11 refused to believe him guilty. When Neville left for London, through Mr. Grewgious, Rosebud's guardian12, the minister found him a cheap lodging13 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 shrieked14 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 eyebrows15 and a military air. He rented lodgings16 next door to the choir master, and before long had made friends with Durdles, the tombstone maker17, 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 lodger18 whose window adjoined his own. This lodger was Lieutenant19 Tartar, a retired20 young naval21 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 ledges22, 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 disappearance23, 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 concealment25. He told her that he had always loved her hopelessly and madly, though while she was betrothed26 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 repulsed27 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 villain28 and planning how best to deal with him.
The next time the choir master visited the opium29 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 den24, Durdles, the tombstone maker, and The Deputy, the ragged5 stone-thrower, Dick Datchery unraveled the threads which finally, made into a net, caught Jasper, the murderer, in its meshes30. 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 vaults31 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 rubies32, 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 guilt7, 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.
The End
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1
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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2
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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3
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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4
custody
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| n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留 | |
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5
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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6
weir
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| n.堰堤，拦河坝 | |
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7
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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8
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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9
rosebud
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| n.蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女 | |
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10
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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11
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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12
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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13
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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14
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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16
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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17
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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18
lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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19
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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20
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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21
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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22
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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23
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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24
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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26
betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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27
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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28
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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29
opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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30
meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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31
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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32
rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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