It was not summer yet, but spring; and it was not gentle spring ethereally mild, as in Thomson’s Seasons, but nipping spring with an easterly wind, as in Johnson’s, Jackson’s, Dickson’s, Smith’s, and Jones’s Seasons. The grating wind sawed rather than blew; and as it sawed, the sawdust whirled about the sawpit. Every street was a sawpit, and there were no top-sawyers; every passenger was an under-sawyer, with the sawdust blinding him and choking him.
That mysterious paper currency which circulates in London when the wind blows, gyrated here and there and everywhere. Whence can it come, whither can it go? It hangs on every bush, flutters in every tree, is caught flying by the electric wires, haunts every enclosure, drinks at every pump, cowers3 at every grating, shudders4 upon every plot of grass, seeks rest in vain behind the legions of iron rails. In Paris, where nothing is wasted, costly5 and luxurious6 city though it be, but where wonderful human ants creep out of holes and pick up every scrap7, there is no such thing. There, it blows nothing but dust. There, sharp eyes and sharp stomachs reap even the east wind, and get something out of it.
The wind sawed, and the sawdust whirled. The shrubs8 wrung9 their many hands, bemoaning10 that they had been over-persuaded by the sun to bud; the young leaves pined; the sparrows repented11 of their early marriages, like men and women; the colours of the rainbow were discernible, not in floral spring, but in the faces of the people whom it nibbled12 and pinched. And ever the wind sawed, and the sawdust whirled.
When the spring evenings are too long and light to shut out, and such weather is rife13, the city which Mr Podsnap so explanatorily called London, Londres, London, is at its worst. Such a black shrill14 city, combining the qualities of a smoky house and a scolding wife; such a gritty city; such a hopeless city, with no rent in the leaden canopy15 of its sky; such a beleaguered16 city, invested by the great Marsh17 Forces of Essex and Kent. So the two old schoolfellows felt it to be, as, their dinner done, they turned towards the fire to smoke. Young Blight18 was gone, the coffeehouse waiter was gone, the plates and dishes were gone, the wine was going — but not in the same direction.
‘The wind sounds up here,’ quoth Eugene, stirring the fire, ‘as if we were keeping a lighthouse. I wish we were.’
‘Don’t you think it would bore us?’ Lightwood asked.
‘Not more than any other place. And there would be no Circuit to go. But that’s a selfish consideration, personal to me.’
‘And no clients to come,’ added Lightwood. ‘Not that that’s a selfish consideration at all personal to ME.’
‘If we were on an isolated19 rock in a stormy sea,’ said Eugene, smoking with his eyes on the fire, ‘Lady Tippins couldn’t put off to visit us, or, better still, might put off and get swamped. People couldn’t ask one to wedding breakfasts. There would be no Precedents21 to hammer at, except the plain-sailing Precedent20 of keeping the light up. It would be exciting to look out for wrecks22.’
‘But otherwise,’ suggested Lightwood, ‘there might be a degree of sameness in the life.’
‘I have thought of that also,’ said Eugene, as if he really had been considering the subject in its various bearings with an eye to the business; ‘but it would be a defined and limited monotony. It would not extend beyond two people. Now, it’s a question with me, Mortimer, whether a monotony defined with that precision and limited to that extent, might not be more endurable than the unlimited23 monotony of one’s fellow-creatures.’
As Lightwood laughed and passed the wine, he remarked, ‘We shall have an opportunity, in our boating summer, of trying the question.’
‘An imperfect one,’ Eugene acquiesced24, with a sigh, ‘but so we shall. I hope we may not prove too much for one another.’
‘Now, regarding your respected father,’ said Lightwood, bringing him to a subject they had expressly appointed to discuss: always the most slippery eel25 of eels26 of subjects to lay hold of.
‘Yes, regarding my respected father,’ assented27 Eugene, settling himself in his arm-chair. ‘I would rather have approached my respected father by candlelight, as a theme requiring a little artificial brilliancy; but we will take him by twilight28, enlivened with a glow of Wallsend.’
He stirred the fire again as he spoke29, and having made it blaze, resumed.
‘My respected father has found, down in the parental30 neighbourhood, a wife for his not-generally-respected son.’
‘With some money, of course?’
‘With some money, of course, or he would not have found her. My respected father — let me shorten the dutiful tautology31 by substituting in future M. R. F., which sounds military, and rather like the Duke of Wellington.’
‘What an absurd fellow you are, Eugene!’
‘Not at all, I assure you. M. R. F. having always in the clearest manner provided (as he calls it) for his children by pre-arranging from the hour of the birth of each, and sometimes from an earlier period, what the devoted32 little victim’s calling and course in life should be, M. R. F. pre-arranged for myself that I was to be the barrister I am (with the slight addition of an enormous practice, which has not accrued), and also the married man I am not.’
‘The first you have often told me.’
‘The first I have often told you. Considering myself sufficiently33 incongruous on my legal eminence34, I have until now suppressed my domestic destiny. You know M. R. F., but not as well as I do. If you knew him as well as I do, he would amuse you.’
‘Filially spoken, Eugene!’
‘Perfectly so, believe me; and with every sentiment of affectionate deference35 towards M. R. F. But if he amuses me, I can’t help it. When my eldest36 brother was born, of course the rest of us knew (I mean the rest of us would have known, if we had been in existence) that he was heir to the Family Embarrassments37 — we call it before the company the Family Estate. But when my second brother was going to be born by-and-by, “this,” says M. R. F., “is a little pillar of the church.” WAS born, and became a pillar of the church; a very shaky one. My third brother appeared, considerably38 in advance of his engagement to my mother; but M. R. F., not at all put out by surprise, instantly declared him a Circumnavigator. Was pitch-forked into the Navy, but has not circumnavigated. I announced myself and was disposed of with the highly satisfactory results embodied39 before you. When my younger brother was half an hour old, it was settled by M. R. F. that he should have a mechanical genius. And so on. Therefore I say that M. R. F. amuses me.’
‘Touching40 the lady, Eugene.’
‘There M. R. F. ceases to be amusing, because my intentions are opposed to touching the lady.’
‘Do you know her?’
‘Not in the least.’
‘Hadn’t you better see her?’
‘My dear Mortimer, you have studied my character. Could I possibly go down there, labelled “ELIGIBLE. ON VIEW,” and meet the lady, similarly labelled? Anything to carry out M. R. F.’s arrangements, I am sure, with the greatest pleasure — except matrimony. Could I possibly support it? I, so soon bored, so constantly, so fatally?’
‘But you are not a consistent fellow, Eugene.’
‘In susceptibility to boredom,’ returned that worthy41, ‘I assure you I am the most consistent of mankind.’
‘Why, it was but now that you were dwelling42 in the advantages of a monotony of two.’
‘In a lighthouse. Do me the justice to remember the condition. In a lighthouse.’
Mortimer laughed again, and Eugene, having laughed too for the first time, as if he found himself on reflection rather entertaining, relapsed into his usual gloom, and drowsily43 said, as he enjoyed his cigar, ‘No, there is no help for it; one of the prophetic deliveries of M. R. F. must for ever remain unfulfilled. With every disposition44 to oblige him, he must submit to a failure.’
It had grown darker as they talked, and the wind was sawing and the sawdust was whirling outside paler windows. The underlying45 churchyard was already settling into deep dim shade, and the shade was creeping up to the housetops among which they sat. ‘As if,’ said Eugene, ‘as if the churchyard ghosts were rising.’
He had walked to the window with his cigar in his mouth, to exalt46 its flavour by comparing the fireside with the outside, when he stopped midway on his return to his arm-chair, and said:
‘Apparently47 one of the ghosts has lost its way, and dropped in to be directed. Look at this phantom48!’
Lightwood, whose back was towards the door, turned his head, and there, in the darkness of the entry, stood a something in the likeness49 of a man: to whom he addressed the not irrelevant50 inquiry51, ‘Who the devil are you?’
‘I ask your pardons, Governors,’ replied the ghost, in a hoarse52 double-barrelled whisper, ‘but might either on you be Lawyer Lightwood?’
‘What do you mean by not knocking at the door?’ demanded Mortimer.
‘I ask your pardons, Governors,’ replied the ghost, as before, ‘but probable you was not aware your door stood open.’
‘What do you want?’
Hereunto the ghost again hoarsely53 replied, in its double-barrelled manner, ‘I ask your pardons, Governors, but might one on you be Lawyer Lightwood?’
‘One of us is,’ said the owner of that name.
‘All right, Governors Both,’ returned the ghost, carefully closing the room door; ‘’tickler business.’
Mortimer lighted the candles. They showed the visitor to be an illlooking visitor with a squinting55 leer, who, as he spoke, fumbled56 at an old sodden57 fur cap, formless and mangey, that looked like a furry58 animal, dog or cat, puppy or kitten, drowned and decaying.
‘Now,’ said Mortimer, ‘what is it?’
‘Governors Both,’ returned the man, in what he meant to be a wheedling59 tone, ‘which on you might be Lawyer Lightwood?’
‘I am.’
‘Lawyer Lightwood,’ ducking at him with a servile air, ‘I am a man as gets my living, and as seeks to get my living, by the sweat of my brow. Not to risk being done out of the sweat of my brow, by any chances, I should wish afore going further to be swore in.’
‘I am not a swearer in of people, man.’
The visitor, clearly anything but reliant on this assurance, doggedly60 muttered ‘Alfred David.’
‘Is that your name?’ asked Lightwood.
‘My name?’ returned the man. ‘No; I want to take a Alfred David.’
(Which Eugene, smoking and contemplating61 him, interpreted as meaning Affidavit62.)
‘I tell you, my good fellow,’ said Lightwood, with his indolent laugh, ‘that I have nothing to do with swearing.’
‘He can swear AT you,’ Eugene explained; ‘and so can I. But we can’t do more for you.’
Much discomfited63 by this information, the visitor turned the drowned dog or cat, puppy or kitten, about and about, and looked from one of the Governors Both to the other of the Governors Both, while he deeply considered within himself. At length he decided64:
‘Then I must be took down.’
‘Where?’ asked Lightwood.
‘Here,’ said the man. ‘In pen and ink.’
‘First, let us know what your business is about.’
‘It’s about,’ said the man, taking a step forward, dropping his hoarse voice, and shading it with his hand, ‘it’s about from five to ten thousand pound reward. That’s what it’s about. It’s about Murder. That’s what it’s about.’
‘Come nearer the table. Sit down. Will you have a glass of wine?’
‘Yes, I will,’ said the man; ‘and I don’t deceive you, Governors.’
It was given him. Making a stiff arm to the elbow, he poured the wine into his mouth, tilted65 it into his right cheek, as saying, ‘What do you think of it?’ tilted it into his left cheek, as saying, ‘What do YOU think of it?’ jerked it into his stomach, as saying, ‘What do YOU think of it?’ To conclude, smacked66 his lips, as if all three replied, ‘We think well of it.’
‘Will you have another?’
‘Yes, I will,’ he repeated, ‘and I don’t deceive you, Governors.’ And also repeated the other proceedings67.
‘Now,’ began Lightwood, ‘what’s your name?’
‘Why, there you’re rather fast, Lawyer Lightwood,’ he replied, in a remonstrant manner. ‘Don’t you see, Lawyer Lightwood? There you’re a little bit fast. I’m going to earn from five to ten thousand pound by the sweat of my brow; and as a poor man doing justice to the sweat of my brow, is it likely I can afford to part with so much as my name without its being took down?’
Deferring68 to the man’s sense of the binding69 powers of pen and ink and paper, Lightwood nodded acceptance of Eugene’s nodded proposal to take those spells in hand. Eugene, bringing them to the table, sat down as clerk or notary70.
‘Now,’ said Lightwood, ‘what’s your name?’
But further precaution was still due to the sweat of this honest fellow’s brow.
‘I should wish, Lawyer Lightwood,’ he stipulated71, ‘to have that T’other Governor as my witness that what I said I said. Consequent, will the T’other Governor be so good as chuck me his name and where he lives?’
Eugene, cigar in mouth and pen in hand, tossed him his card. After spelling it out slowly, the man made it into a little roll, and tied it up in an end of his neckerchief still more slowly.
‘Now,’ said Lightwood, for the third time, ‘if you have quite completed your various preparations, my friend, and have fully54 ascertained72 that your spirits are cool and not in any way hurried, what’s your name?’
‘Roger Riderhood.’
‘Dwelling-place?’
‘Lime’us Hole.’
‘Calling or occupation?’
Not quite so glib73 with this answer as with the previous two, Mr Riderhood gave in the definition, ‘Waterside character.’
‘Anything against you?’ Eugene quietly put in, as he wrote.
Rather baulked, Mr Riderhood evasively remarked, with an innocent air, that he believed the T’other Governor had asked him summa’t.
‘Ever in trouble?’ said Eugene.
‘Once.’ (Might happen to any man, Mr Riderhood added incidentally.)
‘On suspicion of —’
‘Of seaman’s pocket,’ said Mr Riderhood. ‘Whereby I was in reality the man’s best friend, and tried to take care of him.’
‘With the sweat of your brow?’ asked Eugene.
‘Till it poured down like rain,’ said Roger Riderhood.
Eugene leaned back in his chair, and smoked with his eyes negligently74 turned on the informer, and his pen ready to reduce him to more writing. Lightwood also smoked, with his eyes negligently turned on the informer.
‘Now let me be took down again,’ said Riderhood, when he had turned the drowned cap over and under, and had brushed it the wrong way (if it had a right way) with his sleeve. ‘I give information that the man that done the Harmon Murder is Gaffer Hexam, the man that found the body. The hand of Jesse Hexam, commonly called Gaffer on the river and along shore, is the hand that done that deed. His hand and no other.’
The two friends glanced at one another with more serious faces than they had shown yet.
‘Tell us on what grounds you make this accusation,’ said Mortimer Lightwood.
‘On the grounds,’ answered Riderhood, wiping his face with his sleeve, ‘that I was Gaffer’s pardner, and suspected of him many a long day and many a dark night. On the grounds that I knowed his ways. On the grounds that I broke the pardnership because I see the danger; which I warn you his daughter may tell you another story about that, for anythink I can say, but you know what it’ll be worth, for she’d tell you lies, the world round and the heavens broad, to save her father. On the grounds that it’s well understood along the cause’ays and the stairs that he done it. On the grounds that he’s fell off from, because he done it. On the grounds that I will swear he done it. On the grounds that you may take me where you will, and get me sworn to it. I don’t want to back out of the consequences. I have made up MY mind. Take me anywheres.’
‘All this is nothing,’ said Lightwood.
‘Nothing?’ repeated Riderhood, indignantly and amazedly.
‘Merely nothing. It goes to no more than that you suspect this man of the crime. You may do so with some reason, or you may do so with no reason, but he cannot be convicted on your suspicion.’
‘Haven’t I said — I appeal to the T’other Governor as my witness — haven’t I said from the first minute that I opened my mouth in this here world-without-end-everlasting chair’ (he evidently used that form of words as next in force to an affidavit), ‘that I was willing to swear that he done it? Haven’t I said, Take me and get me sworn to it? Don’t I say so now? You won’t deny it, Lawyer Lightwood?’
‘Surely not; but you only offer to swear to your suspicion, and I tell you it is not enough to swear to your suspicion.’
‘Not enough, ain’t it, Lawyer Lightwood?’ he cautiously demanded.
‘Positively not.’
‘And did I say it WAS enough? Now, I appeal to the T’other Governor. Now, fair! Did I say so?’
‘He certainly has not said that he had no more to tell,’ Eugene observed in a low voice without looking at him, ‘whatever he seemed to imply.’ -
‘Hah!’ cried the informer, triumphantly76 perceiving that the remark was generally in his favour, though apparently not closely understanding it. ‘Fort’nate for me I had a witness!’
‘Go on, then,’ said Lightwood. ‘Say out what you have to say. No after-thought.’
‘Let me be took down then!’ cried the informer, eagerly and anxiously. ‘Let me be took down, for by George and the Draggin I’m a coming to it now! Don’t do nothing to keep back from a honest man the fruits of the sweat of his brow! I give information, then, that he told me that he done it. Is THAT enough?’
‘Take care what you say, my friend,’ returned Mortimer.
‘Lawyer Lightwood, take care, you, what I say; for I judge you’ll be answerable for follering it up!’ Then, slowly and emphatically beating it all out with his open right hand on the palm of his left; ‘I, Roger Riderhood, Lime’us Hole, Waterside character, tell you, Lawyer Lightwood, that the man Jesse Hexam, commonly called upon the river and along-shore Gaffer, told me that he done the deed. What’s more, he told me with his own lips that he done the deed. What’s more, he said that he done the deed. And I’ll swear it!’
‘Where did he tell you so?’
‘Outside,’ replied Riderhood, always beating it out, with his head determinedly78 set askew79, and his eyes watchfully80 dividing their attention between his two auditors81, ‘outside the door of the Six Jolly Fellowships, towards a quarter after twelve o’clock at midnight — but I will not in my conscience undertake to swear to so fine a matter as five minutes — on the night when he picked up the body. The Six Jolly Fellowships won’t run away. If it turns out that he warn’t at the Six Jolly Fellowships that night at midnight, I’m a liar82.’
‘What did he say?’
‘I’ll tell you (take me down, T’other Governor, I ask no better). He come out first; I come out last. I might be a minute arter him; I might be half a minute, I might be a quarter of a minute; I cannot swear to that, and therefore I won’t. That’s knowing the obligations of a Alfred David, ain’t it?’
‘Go on.’
‘I found him a waiting to speak to me. He says to me, “Rogue83 Riderhood”— for that’s the name I’m mostly called by — not for any meaning in it, for meaning it has none, but because of its being similar to Roger.’
‘Never mind that.’
‘‘Scuse ME, Lawyer Lightwood, it’s a part of the truth, and as such I do mind it, and I must mind it and I will mind it. “Rogue Riderhood,” he says, “words passed betwixt us on the river tonight.” Which they had; ask his daughter! “I threatened you,” he says, “to chop you over the fingers with my boat’s stretcher, or take a aim at your brains with my boathook. I did so on accounts of your looking too hard at what I had in tow, as if you was suspicious, and on accounts of your holding on to the gunwale of my boat.” I says to him, “Gaffer, I know it.” He says to me, “Rogue Riderhood, you are a man in a dozen”— I think he said in a score, but of that I am not positive, so take the lowest figure, for precious be the obligations of a Alfred David. “And,” he says, “when your fellow-men is up, be it their lives or be it their watches, sharp is ever the word with you. Had you suspicions?” I says, “Gaffer, I had; and what’s more, I have.” He falls a shaking, and he says, “Of what?” I says, “Of foul84 play.” He falls a shaking worse, and he says, “There WAS foul play then. I done it for his money. Don’t betray me!” Those were the words as ever he used.’
There was a silence, broken only by the fall of the ashes in the grate. An opportunity which the informer improved by smearing85 himself all over the head and neck and face with his drowned cap, and not at all improving his own appearance.
‘What more?’ asked Lightwood.
‘Of him, d’ye mean, Lawyer Lightwood?’
‘Of anything to the purpose.’
‘Now, I’m blest if I understand you, Governors Both,’ said the informer, in a creeping manner: propitiating86 both, though only one had spoken. ‘What? Ain’t THAT enough?’
‘Did you ask him how he did it, where he did it, when he did it?’
‘Far be it from me, Lawyer Lightwood! I was so troubled in my mind, that I wouldn’t have knowed more, no, not for the sum as I expect to earn from you by the sweat of my brow, twice told! I had put an end to the pardnership. I had cut the connexion. I couldn’t undo87 what was done; and when he begs and prays, “Old pardner, on my knees, don’t split upon me!” I only makes answer “Never speak another word to Roger Riderhood, nor look him in the face!” and I shuns88 that man.’
Having given these words a swing to make them mount the higher and go the further, Rogue Riderhood poured himself out another glass of wine unbidden, and seemed to chew it, as, with the halfemptied glass in his hand, he stared at the candles.
Mortimer glanced at Eugene, but Eugene sat glowering89 at his paper, and would give him no responsive glance. Mortimer again turned to the informer, to whom he said:
‘You have been troubled in your mind a long time, man?’
Giving his wine a final chew, and swallowing it, the informer answered in a single word:
‘Hages!’
‘When all that stir was made, when the Government reward was offered, when the police were on the alert, when the whole country rang with the crime!’ said Mottimer, impatiently.
‘Hah!’ Mr Riderhood very slowly and hoarsely chimed in, with several retrospective nods of his head. ‘Warn’t I troubled in my mind then!’
‘When conjecture90 ran wild, when the most extravagant91 suspicions were afloat, when half a dozen innocent people might have been laid by the heels any hour in the day!’ said Mortimer, almost warming.
‘Hah!’ Mr Riderhood chimed in, as before. ‘Warn’t I troubled in my mind through it all!’
‘But he hadn’t,’ said Eugene, drawing a lady’s head upon his writing-paper, and touching it at intervals92, ‘the opportunity then of earning so much money, you see.’
‘The T’other Governor hits the nail, Lawyer Lightwood! It was that as turned me. I had many times and again struggled to relieve myself of the trouble on my mind, but I couldn’t get it off. I had once very nigh got it off to Miss Abbey Potterson which keeps the Six Jolly Fellowships — there is the ‘ouse, it won’t run away — there lives the lady, she ain’t likely to be struck dead afore you get there — ask her! — but I couldn’t do it. At last, out comes the new bill with your own lawful94 name, Lawyer Lightwood, printed to it, and then I asks the question of my own intellects, Am I to have this trouble on my mind for ever? Am I never to throw it off? Am I always to think more of Gaffer than of my own self? If he’s got a daughter, ain’t I got a daughter?’
‘And echo answered —?’ Eugene suggested.
‘”You have,”’ said Mr Riderhood, in a firm tone.
‘Incidentally mentioning, at the same time, her age?’ inquired Eugene.
‘Yes, governor. Two-and-twenty last October. And then I put it to myself, “Regarding the money. It is a pot of money.” For it IS a pot,’ said Mr Riderhood, with candour, ‘and why deny it?’
‘Hear!’ from Eugene as he touched his drawing.
‘”It is a pot of money; but is it a sin for a labouring man that moistens every crust of bread he earns, with his tears — or if not with them, with the colds he catches in his head — is it a sin for that man to earn it? Say there is anything again earning it.” This I put to myself strong, as in duty bound; “how can it be said without blaming Lawyer Lightwood for offering it to be earned?” And was it for ME to blame Lawyer Lightwood? No.’
‘No,’ said Eugene.
‘Certainly not, Governor,’ Mr Riderhood acquiesced. ‘So I made up my mind to get my trouble off my mind, and to earn by the sweat of my brow what was held out to me. And what’s more, he added, suddenly turning bloodthirsty, ‘I mean to have it! And now I tell you, once and away, Lawyer Lightwood, that Jesse Hexam, commonly called Gaffer, his hand and no other, done the deed, on his own confession95 to me. And I give him up to you, and I want him took. This night!’
After another silence, broken only by the fall of the ashes in the grate, which attracted the informer’s attention as if it were the chinking of money, Mortimer Lightwood leaned over his friend, and said in a whisper:
‘I suppose I must go with this fellow to our imperturbable96 friend at the police-station.’
‘I suppose,’ said Eugene, ‘there is no help for it.’
‘Do you believe him?’
‘I believe him to be a thorough rascal97. But he may tell the truth, for his own purpose, and for this occasion only.’
‘It doesn’t look like it.’
‘HE doesn’t,’ said Eugene. ‘But neither is his late partner, whom he denounces, a prepossessing person. The firm are cut-throat Shepherds both, in appearance. I should like to ask him one thing.’
The subject of this conference sat leering at the ashes, trying with all his might to overhear what was said, but feigning98 abstraction as the ‘Governors Both’ glanced at him.
‘You mentioned (twice, I think) a daughter of this Hexam’s,’ said Eugene, aloud. ‘You don’t mean to imply that she had any guilty knowledge of the crime?’
The honest man, after considering — perhaps considering how his answer might affect the fruits of the sweat of his brow — replied, unreservedly, ‘No, I don’t.’
‘And you implicate99 no other person?’
‘It ain’t what I implicate, it’s what Gaffer implicated,’ was the dogged and determined77 answer. ‘I don’t pretend to know more than that his words to me was, “I done it.” Those was his words.’
‘I must see this out, Mortimer,’ whispered Eugene, rising. ‘How shall we go?’
‘Let us walk,’ whispered Lightwood, ‘and give this fellow time to think of it.’
Having exchanged the question and answer, they prepared themselves for going out, and Mr Riderhood rose. While extinguishing the candles, Lightwood, quite as a matter of course took up the glass from which that honest gentleman had drunk, and coolly tossed it under the grate, where it fell shivering into fragments.
‘Now, if you will take the lead,’ said Lightwood, ‘Mr Wrayburn and I will follow. You know where to go, I suppose?’
‘I suppose I do, Lawyer Lightwood.’
‘Take the lead, then.’
The waterside character pulled his drowned cap over his ears with both hands, and making himself more round-shouldered than nature had made him, by the sullen100 and persistent101 slouch with which he went, went down the stairs, round by the Temple Church, across the Temple into Whitefriars, and so on by the waterside streets.
‘Look at his hang-dog air,’ said Lightwood, following.
‘It strikes me rather as a hang-MAN air,’ returned Eugene. ‘He has undeniable intentions that way.’
They said little else as they followed. He went on before them as an ugly Fate might have done, and they kept him in view, and would have been glad enough to lose sight of him. But on he went before them, always at the same distance, and the same rate. Aslant102 against the hard implacable weather and the rough wind, he was no more to be driven back than hurried forward, but held on like an advancing Destiny. There came, when they were about midway on their journey, a heavy rush of hail, which in a few minutes pelted103 the streets clear, and whitened them. It made no difference to him. A man’s life being to be taken and the price of it got, the hailstones to arrest the purpose must lie larger and deeper than those. He crnshed through them, leaving marks in the fastmelting slush that were mere75 shapeless holes; one might have fancied, following, that the very fashion of humanity had departed from his feet.
The blast went by, and the moon contended with the fast-flying clouds, and the wild disorder104 reigning105 up there made the pitiful little tumults106 in the streets of no account. It was not that the wind swept all the brawlers into places of shelter, as it had swept the hail still lingering in heaps wherever there was refuge for it; but that it seemed as if the streets were absorbed by the sky, and the night were all in the air.
‘If he has had time to think of it,’ said Eugene, he has not had time to think better of it — or differently of it, if that’s better. There is no sign of drawing back in him; and as I recollect107 this place, we must be close upon the corner where we alighted that night.’
In fact, a few abrupt108 turns brought them to the river side, where they had slipped about among the stones, and where they now slipped more; the wind coming against them in slants109 and flaws, across the tide and the windings110 of the river, in a furious way. With that habit of getting under the lee of any shelter which waterside characters acquire, the waterside character at present in question led the way to the leeside of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters before he spoke.
‘Look round here, Lawyer Lightwood, at them red curtains. It’s the Fellowships, the ‘ouse as I told you wouldn’t run away. And has it run away?’
Not showing himself much impressed by this remarkable111 confirmation112 of the informer’s evidence, Lightwood inquired what other business they had there?
‘I wished you to see the Fellowships for yourself, Lawyer Lightwood, that you might judge whether I’m a liar; and now I’ll see Gaffer’s window for myself, that we may know whether he’s at home.’
With that, he crept away.
‘He’ll come back, I suppose?’ murmured Lightwood.
‘Ay! and go through with it,’ murmured Eugene.
He came back after a very short interval93 indeed.
‘Gaffer’s out, and his boat’s out. His daughter’s at home, sitting alooking at the fire. But there’s some supper getting ready, so Gaffer’s expected. I can find what move he’s upon, easy enough, presently.’
Then he beckoned113 and led the way again, and they came to the police-station, still as clean and cool and steady as before, saving that the flame of its lamp — being but a lamp-flame, and only attached to the Force as an outsider — flickered114 in the wind.
Also, within doors, Mr Inspector115 was at his studies as of yore. He recognized the friends the instant they reappeared, but their reappearance had no effect on his composure. Not even the circumstance that Riderhood was their conductor moved him, otherwise than that as he took a dip of ink he seemed, by a settlement of his chin in his stock, to propound116 to that personage, without looking at him, the question, ‘What have YOU been up to, last?’
Mortimer Lightwood asked him, would he be so good as look at those notes? Handing him Eugene’s.
Having read the first few lines, Mr Inspector mounted to that (for him) extraordinary pitch of emotion that he said, ‘Does either of you two gentlemen happen to have a pinch of snuff about him?’ Finding that neither had, he did quite as well without it, and read on.
‘Have you heard these read?’ he then demanded of the honest man.
‘No,’ said Riderhood.
‘Then you had better hear them.’ And so read them aloud, in an official manner.
‘Are these notes correct, now, as to the information you bring here and the evidence you mean to give?’ he asked, when he had finished reading.
‘They are. They are as correct,’ returned Mr Riderhood, ‘as I am. I can’t say more than that for ‘em.’
‘I’ll take this man myself, sir,’ said Mr Inspector to Lightwood. Then to Riderhood, ‘Is he at home? Where is he? What’s he doing? You have made it your business to know all ahout him, no doubt.’
Riderhood said what he did know, and promised to find out in a few minutes what he didn’t know.
‘Stop,’ said Mr Inspector; ‘not till I tell you: We mustn’t look like business. Would you two gentlemen object to making a pretence117 of taking a glass of something in my company at the Fellowships? Well-conducted house, and highly respectable landlady118.’
They replied that they would be happy to substitute a reality for the pretence, which, in the main, appeared to be as one with Mr Inspector’s meaning.
‘Very good,’ said he, taking his hat from its peg119, and putting a pair of handcuffs in his pocket as if they were his gloves. ‘Reserve!’ Reserve saluted120. ‘You know where to find me?’ Reserve again saluted. ‘Riderhood, when you have found out concerning his coming home, come round to the window of Cosy121, tap twice at it, and wait for me. Now, gentlemen.’
As the three went out together, and Riderhood slouched off from under the trembling lamp his separate way, Lightwood asked the officer what he thought of this?
Mr Inspector replied, with due generality and reticence122, that it was always more likely that a man had done a bad thing than that he hadn’t. That he himself had several times ‘reckoned up’ Gaffer, but had never been able to bring him to a satisfactory criminal total. That if this story was true, it was only in part true. That the two men, very shy characters, would have been jointly123 and pretty equally ‘in it;’ but that this man had ‘spotted’ the other, to save himself and get the money.
‘And I think,’ added Mr Inspector, in conclusion, ‘that if all goes well with him, he’s in a tolerable way of getting it. But as this is the Fellowships, gentlemen, where the lights are, I recommend dropping the subject. You can’t do better than be interested in some lime works anywhere down about Northfleet, and doubtful whether some of your lime don’t get into bad company as it comes up in barges124.’
‘You hear Eugene?’ said Lightwood, over his shoulder. ‘You are deeply interested in lime.’
‘Without lime,’ returned that unmoved barrister-at-law, ‘my existence would be unilluminated by a ray of hope.’
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1
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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3
cowers
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的第三人称单数 ) | |
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shudders
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| n.颤动，打颤，战栗( shudder的名词复数 )v.战栗( shudder的第三人称单数 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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7
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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9
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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10
bemoaning
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| v.为（某人或某事）抱怨( bemoan的现在分词 )；悲悼；为…恸哭；哀叹 | |
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repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
nibbled
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的过去式和过去分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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13
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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14
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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15
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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16
beleaguered
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| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
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17
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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18
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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19
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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20
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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21
precedents
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| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
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22
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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23
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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24
acquiesced
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| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
eel
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| n.鳗鲡 | |
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26
eels
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| abbr. 电子发射器定位系统（=electronic emitter location system） | |
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27
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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29
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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30
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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31
tautology
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| n.无谓的重复；恒真命题 | |
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32
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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33
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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34
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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35
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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36
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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37
embarrassments
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| n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 )；难堪；局促不安；令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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38
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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39
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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40
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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41
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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42
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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43
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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44
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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45
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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46
exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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47
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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48
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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49
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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50
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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51
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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52
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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53
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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54
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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55
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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56
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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57
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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58
furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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59
wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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60
doggedly
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| adv.顽强地，固执地 | |
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61
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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62
affidavit
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| n.宣誓书 | |
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63
discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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64
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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65
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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66
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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68
deferring
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| v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的现在分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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69
binding
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| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
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70
notary
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| n.公证人，公证员 | |
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71
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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72
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
glib
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| adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的 | |
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74
negligently
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75
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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76
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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77
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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78
determinedly
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| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
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79
askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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80
watchfully
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| 警惕地，留心地 | |
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81
auditors
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| n.审计员，稽核员( auditor的名词复数 )；（大学课程的）旁听生 | |
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82
liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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83
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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84
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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85
smearing
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| 污点，拖尾效应 | |
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86
propitiating
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的现在分词 ) | |
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87
undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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88
shuns
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的第三人称单数 ) | |
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89
glowering
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| v.怒视( glower的现在分词 ) | |
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90
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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91
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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92
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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93
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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94
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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95
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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96
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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97
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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98
feigning
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| 假装，伪装( feign的现在分词 )； 捏造（借口、理由等） | |
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99
implicate
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| vt.使牵连其中，涉嫌 | |
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100
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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101
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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102
aslant
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| adv.倾斜地；adj.斜的 | |
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103
pelted
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| （连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮 | |
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104
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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105
reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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106
tumults
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| 吵闹( tumult的名词复数 )； 喧哗； 激动的吵闹声； 心烦意乱 | |
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107
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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108
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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109
slants
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| （使）倾斜，歪斜( slant的第三人称单数 )； 有倾向性地编写或报道 | |
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110
windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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111
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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confirmation
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| n.证实，确认，批准 | |
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113
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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115
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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116
propound
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| v.提出 | |
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117
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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118
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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120
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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121
cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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122
reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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123
jointly
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| ad.联合地，共同地 | |
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barges
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| 驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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