BY j. CUMING WALTERS' Author iff" 4* Titmj>« Dedicated to The President, Vice-Presidents, and Members of THE DICKENS FELLOWSHIP, ENGLAND, AND THE ALL-AROUND DICKENS CLUB, BOSTON, U.S.A. "Tot homines, quot sentential." Charles Dickens : " A very curipus and new idea . . . not a communicable one, though difficult to work." •Longfellow : " Certainly one of his most beautiful works, if not the most beautiful of all." An Eminent Novelist: " Far below what Dickens had before written." R. A. Proctor : " Far above the average of his other writings." George Gissing : '"Edwin Drood's ' paltry mystery ... I cannot believe that we lost much by the non-completion." Andrew Lang : " The plot is more of a mystery than it seemed to be." F. T. Marzials : " A good novel unquestionably. As for the mystery, I do not think that need baffle us altogether . . We need have no difficulty in working out its conclusion.'' Hain Friswell : " The work did not promise to be very good." T. Foster: " We have no direct indications of the end towards which the story was to tend." W. R. Hughes: " An exquisite fragment . . . the mystery still unsolved." A. W. Ward : " It must be allowed that few plots have ever been more effectively laid than this, of which the untying will never be known." CONTENTS. Chapter. Page. I. — The Half-told Tale and The Method of Telling 13 II. — The Story Analysed ... 23 III. — The First Mystery: Dead or Alive? 31 IV. — The Second Mystery: "Mr. Datchery" 45 V. — Mr. Datchery by Deduction 61 VI. — The Datchery Proofs - 73 VII. — The Third Mystery : The Opium Woman 87 VIII. — From Clue to Conclusion - 97 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. The Gatehouse of Cathedral Close, Cloisterham Opposite 16 Facsimile of Charles Collins's Cover to " Edwin Drood" - - Opposite 105 CLUES TO DICKENS'S "Mystery of Edwin Drood. vf^erpfer 1. THE HALF-TOLD TALE AND THE METHOD OF TELLING. Charles Dickens died June 9th, 1870. On April 1st of that year he had issued the first number of " The Mystery of Edwin Drood." It was to be completed in twelve monthly parts. Only three had been published when death over- took him; another three were in manuscript, and subsequently published; but there was not, with the exception of a rough draft of a discarded chapter, one more line or note to be found. The author had carried his secret to the grave, with just one-half the work completed.* * Forster, the biographer, mentions that the last instalment was two pages short. " The last page of ' Edwin Drood,' " he says, " was written in the Chalet [the Swiss Chalet presented to him by Fechter] in the afternoon of his last day of consciousness. . He had worked unusually late in order to finish the chapter. It has very much the character, in its excessive care of correction and interlineation, of all his later manuscripts. 1 ' 14 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. The purpose of "Edwin Drood " was not literary in the purest sense. Dickens had achieved all that was possible to him in that respect. As a maker of plots of the truly dramatic order he had only distinguished himself on a few occasions. Both during his lifetime and since his death he incurred the criticism of deficiency in that respect. But he had become possessed with the idea that he could frame a plot entirely novel, original, and baffling. The elucidation was to be his own secret, and a surprise to the reader. He prided himself on having hit upon something " very new and curious," " not a communicable idea . . . very strong, though difficult to work." The interest also was "steadily to work up" from the first. It becomes a most interesting problem whether Dickens was equal to his self- assigned task. Most of the critics say he was not, or, by offering a poor solution to his story,, show that they had little faith in his ability and no conviction of the truth of his assertion. " One defect forced upon our attention," wrote George Gissing, "is characteristic of Dickens: his inability to make skilful revela- tion of circumstances which, for the purpose of the story, he has kept long concealed. This skill never came to him. . . . There can be no doubt that the revealing of the mystery THE HALF-TOLD TALE. 1 5 of ' Edwin Drood ' would have betrayed the old inability." Mr. Marzials and Mr. Lang are of the same opinion. But the fact is overlooked that it was exactly this task that Dickens had set himself — to overcome the old difficulty, and to prove he was equal to doing that which he had so frequently been told he could not accomplish. We must judge him on new lines, give him credit for new intentions, when we come to " Edwin Drood." And even Mr. Gissing, the adverse critic, admitted in defiance of his previous contention that " Edwin Drood " would " probably have been his best-constructed book : as far as it goes, the story hangs well together, showing a care in the contrivance of detail which is more than commonly justified by the result." Seldom has a serious critic within a few pages expressed such diverse opinions. There are others, however, who hold "Edwin Drood" lightly or in contempt, and declare that* the mystery is no mystery at all. It is so easy to say this when the first guess is made — and that guess a wrong one. The fact that the mystery has been "solved" a dozen times in a dozen different ways, that there is divergence of opinion as to the whole scheme of the work, that Richard Proctor believed the story would end " pleasantly," and that others are equally con- vinced it would close in blackest tragedy—- 1 6 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. surely all this indicates that the mystery was a very real one after all. In reality, though the facts are seldom recognised, there are two leading mysteries, and one other, almost as confusing in its possibilities, which is subsidiary. The first mystery, partly solved by Dickens himself, is the fate of Edwin Drood. Was he murdered? — if so, how and by whom, and where was his body hidden ? If not, how did he escape, what became of him, and did he reappear ? The second mystery is — Who was Mr. Datchery, the "stranger who appeared in Cloisterham " after Drood's disappearance? The third mystery is — Who was the old opium woman, called the Princess Puffer, and why did she pursue John Jasper ? The two first mysteries are bound up in each other. The third has no direct connection with the fate of Edwin Drood, and must be treated as a detached episode. Dickens had sufficiently progressed with his work to enable the first problem, embodying his leading idea, to be solved almost conclusively on the evidence he had supplied. There are so many clues to John Jasper's design and actions that insuperable difficulties no longer present themselves to impede our arriving at a definite W . Pin^more.UeV. The Gatehouse of Cathedral Close, Cloisterham. (The Rochester Scene referred to in "Edwin Drood") THE HALF-TOLD TALE. I 7 conclusion. Yet there is far from unanimity as to what the conclusion should be. Jasper failed and Drood escaped, argue one side. Jasper succeeded and Drood was slain, argue the other. It this difference arises on the mystery which was more than half explained, how much greater must the conflict of opinion be on the remaining mysteries which are left entirely open to conjecture ! Had Dickens lived to complete his project there is little doubt that the first mystery would have proved to be relatively the most important. Owing to the manner in which the work was left, the minor problems in the undeveloped portions — those problems only just presented in outline — become far more baffling. In other words, the creator of the plot had said enough to dissipate obscurity on the main theme, but he had advanced so little in the subsidiary portion as to leave the interpretation entirely open to individual judgment. We can deduce the fate of Edwin Drood with almost mathe- matical certainty from the clues supplied. When we try to learn by what agency the truth was to be revealed, and what person or persons were to play the part of Nemesis, we only handle the most delicate threads, any of which may snap in a moment. Dickens, who was working enthusiastically B J 8 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. to the last under the belief that his purpose had succeeded, and that the secret had not been discovered, made it no small part of his ingenious design to lead readers to believe that the discovery was easy. His crowning triumph would have been to confound that mass of superficial solvers who have since arisen. " Edwin Drood " is in more than one way the most deceptive book that Dickens ever wrote. It abounds in pitfalls and in "blinds." It seems to yield up most of its secrets at the first perusal. But the experience of those who have read it oftenest is that the seemingly obvious explanations must be suspected or ignored. We have to pierce deep to get to the core, The subtlety with which Dickens lures his readers confidently on to false ground is one of the most important successes to be placed to his credit. ' ' Edwin Drood ' ' is perhaps the profoundest and most complex problem presented in this class of literature. Dickens displayed con- summate science in the precision with which he arranged every detail, and weighted with significance the minutest facts. How well he threw the hunters off the trail can best be understood by examining the contradictory results of the most expert attempts to solve the mystery. It may at once be stated that neither from THE HALF-TOLD TALE. 10 data left by Dickens, nor from memoranda discovered, has any sequel been justified. " Nothing had been written," John Forster said, " of the main parts of the design excepting what is found in the published numbers; there was no hint or preparation for the sequel in any notes of chapters in advance. . . . The evidence of matured designs never to be accom- plished, intentions planned never to be executed, roads of thought marked out never to be traversed, goals shining in the distance never to be reached, was wanting here. It was all a blank." Forster proceeded, a few pages further on, to show that it was not all a blank, and that an early draft of a Sapsea scene — ■" How Mr. Sapsea ceased to be a member of the Eight Club," had been discovered. This chapter has at least one bearing upon the denouement. To this must be added the fact that Dickens's publishers have always repudiated any con- clusion of a fonmal character, and "Have refused to commission the writing of one more word which would suggest that the unfinished work could be completed in the author's vein. By an act of effrontery an American volume bore on its title-page the names of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens the younger, but the actual authorship was afterwards acknowledged. In the same year that " Edwin Drood " was 20 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. begun and prematurely ended, Orpheus C. Kerr published in New York "The Cloven Foot: being an adaptation of the English novel, ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood ' to American scenes, characters, customs, and nomenclature." This was followed up by the same author with "The Mystery of Mr. E. Drood" in the Piccadilly Annual, of December, 1870. Far more important was "John Jasper's Secret" (Philadelphia, 1871), a volume almost of the same size as the original work, and an attempt to supply the missing half. Two years later an extraordinary and fantastic work appeared, also of American production, from "the spirit pen of Charles Dickens," and was boldly announced as " Part II." of " Edwin Drood." In 1878 a Manchester lady, writing under the pen-name of Gillan Vase, published in three volumes " A Great Mystery Solved ; being a sequel to ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' " The actual value and the literary merits of these volumes were discussed by the critics, who, on the whole, were unfavourable and even scornful. The interest of the various sequels is purely of a negative character so far as our present purpose is concerned, inasmuch as none of them suggests any such solution as is offered in these pages. Doubtless the most serious contribution was Proctor's "Watched by the Dead" series of THE HALF-TOLD TALE. 21 articles (in answer to the Comhill Magazine of February, 1864) which originally appeared in Knowledge, and a summary of which was reprinted in his "Leisure Readings" in 1882, under the pen-name of " Thomas Foster." His theory was that Jasper's scheme failed, and that Drood re-appeared as Dick Datchery. He offered many ingenious suggestions, but left important points untouched or unresolved. His conclusion was particularly weak, and a number of his dogmatic assertions will not stand examination. He entirely misunderstood the meeting of Datchery with the opium woman, and all that the conversation and the actions imply; he did not properly account for the record of the chalk marks ; and he was absolutely mistaken in declaring that " everyone of the dramatis personce, except Drood himself, can be shown to be for one reason or another out of the question " — that is, so far as the " Datchery assumption " is concerned. But no conclusion can be held to be good and justified which departs from Dickens's own lines. We must take it that the author's case has been duly presented, and from that presenta- tion we must elicit the answer to the enigma. ©tjerpiep II. THE STORY ANALYSED. The ingredients which go to the making of the plot of " Edwin Drood " are so numerous that a mere recapitulation of the " points " — none omitted, however slight or casual, lest we should lose a clue — becomes an unusually long and difficult process. Dickens has. given us, as it were, the medley details of a Chinese puzzle which we must piece together as best we can after ascertaining the precise value of each, and discovering their appointed places. The points in the story, catalogued in the briefest style, are these — Edwin Drood and Rosa Bud were betrothed by their dead parents. They grew up liking each other, but were not in love. John Jasper, Drood's uncle, only a few years his elder, is madly in love with Rosa. She knows it, and fears him. Jasper is a musician, and as Lay Precentor at Cloisterham Cathedral is much respected; but secretly he is addicted to the opium vice, and haunts a den in London. Jasper affects the most extravagant regard for Edwin Drood, but none the less is jealous 24 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. of him, and resolves to murder him. His plan is to strangle him with a silk scarf, and cast the body into one of the vaults in the Cathedral. A pompous auctioneer named Sapsea has lately buried his wife. Jasper spends an even- ing with him, and is introduced to an eccentric drunken mason, " Stony " Durdles, who has the keys of the crypt and the tombs. Jasper handles the keys, clinks them together, and detects the peculiar sound given out by the one that unlocks the Sapsea vault. Thus he would, if in the dark, know the key by its weight and sound. But Durdles gives Jasper the unexpected and startling information that he can by tapping with his hammer tell whether any vault contains one body or two, and whether the corpse has turned to dust or not. Jasper consequently inquires into the action of quicklime, which, he is told, will consume everything — except metal. An incident to be noted is that whenever Durdles is out " arter ten " he is pelted home by a boy called " Deputy " — a gamin con- nected with a cheap Lodging House. Jasper is greatly enraged on encountering this watchful boy, and they regard each other with the greatest antipathy. New characters are now introduced — Neville THE STORY ANALYSED. 2$ and Helena Landless, twins, who have had a wild and unhappy youth in Ceylon with a harsh stepfather, and are brought by an aggressive self-styled philanthropist, Mr. Honeythunder, to Mr. Crisparkle, Minor Canon, to be dis- ciplined and educated. Neville, resenting Drood's cool treatment of Rosa (with whom he falls in love at first sight), quarrels with him. Jasper adroitly foments the ill-feeling, and then reports to the Canon that Neville is dangerous, and that Edwin's life is in jeopardy. In the meantime Edwin and Rosa, after- consultation with Mr. Grewgious, Rosa's "angular," old-fashioned, good-hearted family solicitor and guardian, decide to break off their engagement. Jasper is not told because Edwin thinks the news would distress him. Grewgious had given to Edwin a ring-—" a rose of diamonds and rubies delicately set in gold " — to place on Rosa's finger if the marriage were fixed. This Edwin now retains, and it is the one piece of jewellery in his possession of which Jasper knows nothing. We now have the preliminaries of the story, and the leading personages are all introduced. From this point the development is rapid, and every event must be taken as moving the story onward to its climax. At the same time nothing is explained, and most of the Occurrences are 26 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. susceptible of more explanations than one. We might compare it to traversing a dark road along which signals are constantly flashed out; yet the signals themselves may be delusive to the uninitiated, and some which beckon us on may be positive warnings to stand back. Dickens's ingenuity was devoted to the placing of these false lights. Jasper next visits the Crypt with Durdles, who tells him of a strange dream he had the previous Christmas Eve, when he heard "the ghost of a cry." Jasper drugs Durdles, watches the effects, and then examines the vaults at leisure. Dickens calls this " the unaccountable expedition." An arrangement is made for Neville and Edwin to meet at Christmas at Jasper's house and end their feud. On that day Edwin meets in Cloisterham an old opium woman, who says she is searching for some one, and tells him that " Ned," which Jasper alone calls him, is " a threatened name." Neville prepares to start on a lonely walking tour on the morrow. At night, a night of terri-fic storm, the meeting takes place: in the morning Drood has dis- appeared. Jasper at once accuses Neville, who had been with Edwin to the riverside at midnight, of THE STORY ANALYSED. 27 murder. The case breaks down for want of evidence, but a dark suspicion remains. Neville goes to London, and takes a room near Mr. Grewgious's chambers. His sister remains for a time in Cloisterham, and lives down malignity. Canon Crisparkle finds Drood's watch and chain and scarf pin in the river. This confirms the suspicion of foul play. Jasper resolves to devote himself to finding and destroying the murderer. Grewgious tells Jasper of the broken engage- ment. The news has an extraordinary effect on him, and he swoons. The second section of the story, which is all mystery, may be said to conclude here, and the third, which would have begun the elucidation, opens. When some months have passed a mysterious stranger arrives in Cloisterham. He has a big head of white hair, and black eyebrows. His name is Dick Datchery, " an idle buffer living on his means." He takes lodgings at Tope's, next to Jasper's, and at once makes the latter's acquaintance. Jasper now boldly avows his love to Rosa. She flies to Grewgious. He for some time has been observing Jasper's stealthy visits to London. An arrangement is made whereby Rosa and 28 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Helena can meet unobserved in the rooms of a young sailor, Mr. Tartar. The story pauses whilst an amusing description is given of Rosa's experience with Mrs. Billickin in lodgings, and of Mr. Grewgious's curious relationship with his clerk, Bazzard, the unsuccessful writer of a tragedy. We next trace Jasper back in the opium den, babbling to the eagerly-listening old woman of a strange journey he undertook with a com- panion. She tries to learn more from him, but fails, and follows him to Cloisterham. There she meets Datchery and informs him of her previous meeting with Edwin Drood. She inquires after Jasper, goes to the Cathedral, hears him sing, and menaces him with her fist. Datchery observes this, and as he is keeping an account of all he learns by the old-fashioned tavern methods of chalk marks, he goes home and " adds one thick line to the score." And here the story abruptly ends. Here, too, the whole speculation as to the author's designs begins. The triple mystery has been presented; the triple solution is to be sought. Proctor's theory is that Dickens, as in " Hunted Down," intended the supposed murdered man to watch the deluded and baffled murderer. Drood, who disappeared after the THE STORY ANALYSED. 2G. attack, returned to Cloisterham disguised as Dick Datchery, in order to convict Jasper. Had this been the plot it would have been so very commonplace, melodramatic, and even amateurish, that we could but assume Dickens had deceived himself as to the " incommunicable idea." But what is the alternative? To ascertain this, we must learn as best we may, what, according to the author's design, was to be the actual fate of Drood. Was he to escape, and if so, how ? If his life was to be preserved, what purpose would be served in concluding the story ? If he perished, how was the crime to be discovered, and its perpetrator brought to justice ? These are the questions now to occupy attention, and they demand a close analysis of Dickens's methods which, if it should do nothing else, at least will increase admiration for the resource and ingenuity of the brain that planned the mystery. Sljapfei III. THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? Was Edwin Drood murdered? That his murder was intended, and that it was planned with the utmost circumstance and precision by John Jasper, is not a part of the mystery. The motive for the crime, the desperate determination of the uncle to remove from his path the nephew who stood between him and Rosa Bud, seems comparatively slight unless we study and understand Jasper's nature.* Jasper believed that the marriage of the betrothed pair was inevitable and imminent, and it had not entered into his philosophy that they might separate of their own free will. He was therefore resolved upon a crime which was subsequently'' proved to be unnecessary, all of which perfectly accords with the version of the story so far as it was made known by Dickens * Dickens seems to have felt this. In Chapter XX. he puts into Rosa's lips the words " 'What motive could he have?' She was ashamed to answer in her mind ' The motive of gaining me ! ' and covered her face as if the lightest shadow of the idea of founding murder on such an idle vanity were a crime almost as great." 32 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. to John Forster. The idea from first to last was murder, followed by a confession in the condemned cell. Those who- accept the theory of Drood's escape must believe that Dickens's well-formed plot underwent a change, and must account for the condemnation of Jasper as best they may. They must also reject the whole of Forster's explanation as he had it from Dickens (see Book XI., chap, ii., of " Life "). As further bearing out the fact that it was actual murder that was to be the basis of the plot, and not an attempt at murder that failed, it should be mentioned that in Rochester itself, which is Cloisterham, a real event is believed to have provided Dickens with his idea. The story is given in W. R. Hughes's " Week's Tramp in Dickens-land." A well-to-do person, a bachelor, was the guardian and trustee of a nephew (a minor), who was the inheritor of a large property. The nephew went to the West Indies and returned unexpectedly. He suddenly disappeared, and was thought to have gone on another voyage. The uncle's house was near the site of the Savings Bank in High Street, and when excavations were made years later the skeleton of a young man was discovered. The local tradition is that the uncle murdered the nephew, and thus concealed the body. Here is the germ of the plot of " Edwin Drood," and THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 33 the mystery is not so much the nature of the crime as its concealment and eventual detection. Jasper was an artist in temperament, an artist in crime. He was well aware of the use of drugs. He tried them on himself as an opiate; he tried them on Neville Landless as a stimulant; he tried them on Durdles as a sleeping draught. To kill a man was easy; to kill him in a new way and leave no trace of him called for a master-effort. The inventive and resourceful artist was equal to both tasks, just as he was equal to building up the strongest case of suspicion against an innocent man. Having duly inveigled Neville Landless, he proceeded to put his terribly remorseless plot into execution. The whole idea was worthy of the artist's conception. At a convenient moment — one when Neville would be most com- promised — Drood was to be encountered near the Cathedral, drugged, and then strangled with the black silk scarf that Jasper wore round his own neck. His body was forthwith to be hidden in a vault, one not likely to be disturbed for some time. The crime would be committed at night — by calculation, on a moonless night — and Jasper would therefore have to make every preparation for working in complete darkness. He must know the exact position of the vault, and reach it quickly and unerringly. He must 34 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. be able to single out the key from a bunch by weight and sound, not by sight. The merest clink would suffice for his practised ear. But Durdles had startled him by boasting that by merely tapping a vault with his hammer he could detect whether it contained one body or two, something solid or merely dust. " Just you give me my hammer," said Durdles. " You pitch your note, don't you, Mr. Jasper ? So I sound for mine. I take my hammer and I tap. Tap, tap, tap. Solid! I go on tapping. Solid still! Tap again. Holloa! Hollow! . . . There you are. Old 'un crumbled away in stone coffin, in vault!" (Chap. V.) Jasper was doubtless not only astonished, as he said, at the man's faculty, but secretly alarmed. What if Durdles should go tapping Mrs. Sapsea's tomb, and discover there was something in it that was not there before? The bare suggestion of this hitherto unthought-of danger was enough. Jasper could incur no risk. A few more questions and his mind was made up. Directly the second corpse was in the vault it must be covered with quicklime, " which will eat your boots, and with a little handy stirring eat your bones." But it will not destroy metal. Consequently Drood's jewellery — a very small amount, of which Jasper had a complete inventory — must THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 35 be otherwise disposed of. The ready brain of the artist sees another chance here. Remove it from the body, cast it into the river (where, of course, it will not float away), select a spot where it is likely to be found, trust to its discovery, or, in the worst event, personally lead to its dis- covery, and then follow up the suggestion that Drood has been drowned. Better still if foul play can be mooted, and if the man upon whom suspicion is to be fastened can be enticed to the river in Drood's company just before the com- mission of the crime. Then there is not only a powerful false clue as to the nature of the tragedy, but an additional link in the chain of circumstantial evidence being forged against the guiltless person. Such was the plot. Was it carried out? No, say the majority of the theorists, Proctor loudest of all. In some miraculous and mysterious way Edwin Drood escaped, although the attempt at murder was made, and although Jasper himself, the consummate artist, was confident that it had succeeded perfectly. The escape must indeed have been marvellous. Drugs, strangling, and quicklime were alike of no avail. Something was done, because Drood's jewellery was removed. Something which carried conviction to the murderer's own mind was done because Jasper was perfectly 36 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. easy on the subject — he accused Neville, he betrayed himself to Rosa, he could afford to be threatening and defiant. No fear of Drood's return haunted him. He was even bold enough to say to Rosa — and it reads like a covert hint of his deed — "Judge for yourself whether any other admirer shall love you and live, whose life is in my hand." The sentence is packed with meaning. He had rid himself of the one nearest and dearest to him, and what others would he not sacrifice without a qualm ? If Drood were not dead, if Jasper had left the slightest loop- hole of escape, then what a fool this clever villain becomes. But, the theorists argue, Drood is merely in hiding, allowing Neville Landless to be falsely accused of murder, under arrest for a time, and in terrible danger; allowing Helena Landless, whom he admired, to rest under the darkest cloud of malignity; allowing Rosa, once his sweetheart, afterwards his cherished friend, to be persecuted by the man he must have known to be a monster; and then re-appearing months later as Dick Datchery to watch his assailant and to obtain roundabout evidence of the guilt of which he was .already aware. "Fancy can suggest no -reason," writes Mr. Andrew Lang, " why Edwin Drood, if he escaped from his wicked uncle, should go spying THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 37 about instead of coming openly forward. No plausible, unfantastic reason could be invented." Yet this is the theory which up to the present almost has the field to 'itself, and a chief argument set forth in its favour is the ingenious one that this ' ' watched-by-the-dead ' ' idea was one of Dickens's favourite methods of working. This point must-be considered. It is correct, and it is striking enough, that Dickens on several occasions caused supposed murderers to be watched by their supposed victims. We immediately recall the case of John Rokesmith in " Our Mutual Friend," which, however, Dickens said he never intended to be regarded as a mystery, but was ' ' at great pains to suggest." Better still, we recall the case of Meltham in that powerfully dramatic story " Hunted Down " — a story written quite in the Drood vein : Meltham, who watched his murderous enemy awake and asleep, and "rifled every secret of his life." In a minor way, and with some change, the case of Nadgett who watched Jonas Chuzzlewit may also be cited. Admitted that these coincidences are vivid, strange and suggestive, they are still singularly inconclusive. Dickens promised an insoluble mystery, a new idea that had struck him as original, a secret which he could not communicate. Was it likely, was it reason- 38 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. able, that he would in 1870 offer as a novel and incommunicable idea, the mystery he had " taken no pains to conceal " in " Our Mutual Friend " in 1864, and the mystery which he had utilised to the utmost, and resolved, in " Hunted Down " so early as 1859? In other words, why should he vaunt of a problem which was hard to guess if he had given the answer in two previous volumes which he did not even pretend were of a baffling character? It is most important and most significant to know that Mr. Luke Fildes, the artist selected to illustrate " Edwin Drood," utterly rejects the late R. A. Proctor's "Watched by the, Dead" theory. He is convinced, so the late Mr. W. R. Hughes (author of "A Week's Tramp in Dickens-land ") learnt from him first hand, that " Dickens intended that Edwin Drood should be killed by his uncle; and this opinion is supported by the fact of the introduction of the ' large black scarf of strong close-woven silk ' which Jasper wears for the first time in the fourteenth chapter of the story, and was likely to have been the means of death — i.e., by strangulation. Mr. Fildes said that Dickens seemed much surprised wfien he called his attention to this change of dress — very notice- able and embarrassing to an artist who had studied the character — and appeared as though THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 39 he had unintentionally disclosed the secret. He further stated that it was Dickens's intention to take him to a condemned cell in Maidstone or some other gaol in order that he might make a drawing. ' Surely this,' remarked Mr. Fildes, ' points to our witnessing the condemned culprit Jasper in his cell before he met his fate.' " Mr. Hughes added that Charles Dickens, junior, informed him that " Drood was dead," and that " his father had told him so himself." The fact is, it is exactly because he had worked on the " watched-by-the-dead " lines before that we must look for something entirely different in " Edwin Drood." The " recurring idea " theory fails. The further question has seldom presented itself: Why should Drood expose himself to failure and danger in learning everything that came to him in one flash of terrible revelation, and why should he allow a monster, whose power of mischief he knew, to remain at large and add to his crimes ? In the case of Meltham and Rokesmith there were circumstances which justified the process ; in the case of Drood, none. By revealing himself he would have removed all danger to those who were dearest to him, and who were doubly imperilled by his non- discovery. Nor is this theory, which fails entirely on 40 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. facts — which, too, as I shall presently show, would only lead to a weak and an illogical conclusion — supported in the slightest measure when tested by what is known as " literary art." No author who understands his craft loads his work with unnecessary details. No one erects a stupendous fabric if it is to remain empty. If Jasper failed, half the material that Dickens accumulated with such care, was wasted, and the solemn problem becomes an irritating inanity. More than that, the story as a story weakens, and Drood, who is little more than a name-label attached to a body, a man who never excites sympathy, and whose fate causes no emotion, is saved for no useful or sentimental purpose, and lags superfluous on the stage. All of which is bad art, so grossly bad, that Dickens would never have been guilty of it. Proctor, who adopts the theory of a survival and resurrection of Edwin Drood, can conceive no better ending for him than this : — " Rosa was to give her hand to Tartar, Helena Landless to Crisparkle, while Edwin and Mr. Grewgious were to look on approvingly, though Edwin a little sadly." To topple over a well-constructed scheme and save a hero for an impotent purpose like this would have been quite unworthy of Charles Dickens. Proctor's special gift was in analysis, and he THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 4 1 minutely examines and cleverly explains Jasper's line of conduct. But the unfortunate part of his case is that, having proved everything possible, he immediately proceeds to show that everything was ineffective. Undoubtedly the best part of his work was his excellent elucida- tion of Dickens's most significant and most cunning chapters — the interview between Jasper, Sapsea, and Durdles, the examination of the keys of the monument, and the facts and the deductions to be drawn from those facts, of the " unaccountable expedition " of Jasper and Durdles to the crypt. His astronomical know- ledge also came in useful in showing how Jasper had calculated on there being no moon on the night of the intended crime, and therefore the more reason existed for being able to distinguish by its weight and sound the Sapsea key in the dark. Proctor is excellent again in explaining the correspondence of Durdles' dream (while drugged) with Jasper's actual movements. ' ' Jasper has taken from the sleeping stone- mason the key of the crypt; has sounded the keys in the bundle; has assured himself which is the key he wants (the key of the Sapsea monu- ment), and has gone out of the crypt, the door of which, We had been expressly told, they bad locked on entering. How Jasper had employed the long time passed outside the crypt is not 42 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. clear. He had time to take the all-important key to his own room, and the solitude of the midnight hours would have allowed him to do so unobserved. He had time to have opened the monument, and to remove to it a quantity of the quicklime near the yard gate. What he is supposed actually to have done in the interval would have been told in the sequel." But Proctor, strangely enough, attaches little or no importance to the ring which Edwin was to have given to Rosa. To support his theory he must necessarily abandon the most important clue that would have remained of the crime. He falls back on the idea that the ring, with its " invincible force to hold and drag," was one of Dickens's little deceptions. This is a weak evasion of a very great difficulty. . We must conclude that Dickens was a poor artist indeed if he introduced this ring with so much impres- siveness only " to mislead the reader," and to make no adequate use of it. Proctor seems to be equally at fault when he declares that Edwin Drood was not of the class of characters doomed to die. The fact is, he is entirely uninteresting. He excites no emotion. We really know very little of him. His fate is only worth considering as a problem, and not as a matter of personal concern. He is almost colourless, and the little THE FIRST MYSTERY: DEAD OR ALIVE? 43 told us of him shows him to be priggish, credulous, easily irritated. " His fatuity," writes Mr. Lang, "makes him entirely unsympathetic." He is certainly not of the class of characters that either Dickens or his readers would care to survive. Finally, Proctor is absolutely wrong in his inferences concerning Datchery and the inter- view with the opium woman ; he is even self- contradictory. His clever article excites a suspicion that the theory was formed before the evidence was minutely examined, and was then adhered to in spite of all that was opposed to it. Forster's hints as to how the story was to conclude seem to me to mark out the line of progress to be followed. The theme, he tells us, was "the murder of a nephew by his uncle " — not an attempt at murder. The murderer was to confess all in the condemned cell, review his life, and admit the needlessness of the crime. And the discovery was to be brought about by means of a ring. These details exactly fit in with the theory now to be suggested, a theory which logically bases itself upon the fact that Dickens would not have planned a murder in such detail, and arranged the damning evidence to convict the perpetrator, if, after all, the scheme were to fail and the evidence to be rendered useless. Stopfer VS. THE SECOND MYSTERY: * MR. DATCHERY. Edwin Drood, then, must be accounted dead. Murder was plotted, and murder was done. It was Dickens's original idea, and the internal evidence all goes to show that he adhered to it. The murderer was John Jasper. We trace every preparation, every movement, and every part of the design up to the moment that the blow was struck. And we know so well what course this artist in crime had mapped out, and we understand so thoroughly his inexorable character, that we can almost see the carrying out of the deed on that midnight of furious storm, of elemental strife. Jasper was guilty of murder in his thoughts long before the crime was committed, " What is the matter? Who did it? " was the cry with which he sprang from a delirious sleep; and it must be linked on to his maudlin confessions in the opium den, after the crime, when he said — " I have done it hundreds of thousands of times in this room. ... It was pleasant to do. , . , I did it so often, that when it was really done, it seemed not worth the doing, 46 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. it was done so soon." (Chap. XXIII.) The passages in his diary, before and after, tend to the same conclusion. He began with the " morbid dread of some horrible consequences resulting to my dear boy"; and the dark intangible presentiments of evil were of course fulfilled, as he intended they should be. " My dear boy is murdered." But Dickens wished for his own purpose to keep the doubt alive, and so, in a later chapter, he endeavoured to ensnare the unwary by calling particular attention to the fact that " no dis- covery was made which proved the lost man to be dead." That was true. But remembering Jasper's plan, we easily arrive at the conclusion that it is exactly because Drood was dead that no evidence of the fact was possibly available. His body had been reduced to dust by quick- lime. It is Jasper's bold conduct, his defiance of suspicion, his positiveness that, search as they all may, nothing will be found, which con- vinces us that the scheme was executed. And it is because all evidence seemed lacking that the one overlooked and unsurmised item of the ring was required. Fate turned upon that trifle. In his sixteenth chapter Dickens showed what the case was against Neville Landless, and we see at once that it is poor, artificial, and uncon- THE SECOND MYSTERY: "MR. DATCHERY." 47 vincing. In the twentieth chapter he shows, not what was the case against Jasper, but what was the case for him. Here again we see the art that would, if possible, lead us on to a false trail. Rosa had suspected Jasper. On what grounds could he be accused? Could love for her have tempted him to murder his own kins- man ? Yes, when it was revealed as so mad a passion, a consuming mania. Then Rosa argued speciously but plausibly thus — " He had persisted in treating the disappearance as murder. If he were afraid of the crime being traced out, would he not rather encourage the idea of a voluntary disappearance? " Dickens, eager to throw us off the scent, did not stop to show how much better for Jasper was the positive denunciation of Neville as the assassin, than allowing doubts to gather as they would because all was vague. In that case the accusa- tion might settle upon himself any day; mean- while, it was warded off. Jasper, in short, acted exactly as any keen-witted and far-seeing murderer might be expected to do. Drood had disappeared never to be found again, and now the supreme question is — Will the secret, locked in one man's guilty heart, ever be discovered? Thus we come to the real problem. After the crime, after the impeachment of Neville 48 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Landless, after his acquittal for want of evidence, and after his departure for London, " a stranger appeared in Cloisterham." The exact time of his arrival is not divulged, but it was some months after the eventful Christmas, and probably summer. The stranger gave the name of Datchery, " Dick " Datchery. He announced his intention of lodging in the city for a month or two, " with a view to settling down there altogether." He took apartments with Tope, the verger, in the little house over the gateway, Jasper's room being exactly opposite. The question is — Who was Datchery? This is the actual mystery. This was the surprise Dickens had in store, steadily working up from the first. And it says much for his triumph that either this point has been belittled or entirely over- looked. In dealing with the subject we must acquaint ourselves with Dickens's style and methods, and his means of obtaining dramatic effects. At the same time, though we cannot dissociate the man and his characteristics, we must be on" the alert for all possible changes and the avoidance of repetition. In "Edwin Drood " Dickens evidently had arranged not only that his points should tell, but that none should be wasted; one and all are introduced for a specific purpose, and have their place in a definite plan. This THE SECOND MYSTERY : " MR. DATCHERY. 49 conclusion is enforced the more the story is read and analysed. Dickens thought his problem practically insoluble. Therefore, when- ever he is apparently helping to a solution, suggesting explanations, offering to elucidate an obscure phrase or a dim fact, the correct attitude of the reader is one of scepticism. Dickens assumed, and events have justified him, that every one who concluded Drood was not dead would " jump " at Datchery as the missing man. The very obviousness of it should have acted as a warning; the very simplicity of it should have compelled the question — " Would this be so baffling? " It becomes necessary to examine more closely the details of the story and the acts of the characters. We must arrive by a process of exhaustion at the conclusion as to who Datchery was ; we must be able to say ' ' it was this person or that because it can be no other"; and we must then see if that person could really act the part, and had a reason for doing so. We must next ascertain if Dickens himself had, secretly but none the less surely, marked out that person consistently, fitted that person for the task, and supplied that person with an adequate motive. Finally, we must learn whether throughout the course of the story he has deliberately diverted attention from that person so that the ultimate D 50 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. surprise shall be complete. To assume that Datchery was the most obvious of all the characters who had come and gone is to reduce the mystery to juvenility. Three points are apparent enough and need no argument — Datchery was someone in dis- guise, he had come to Cloisterham to watch Jasper, and he was seeking for evidence to convict Jasper of the crime of which he was suspected, but could not be pronounced guilty. Datchery had a strong personal interest in tracking down the man, though whether the interest was confined to avenging Drood's death or went beyond that, we are not told. But the personal interest being obvious we must look for someone who had that interest, some- one inside the story, and not a new or indepen- dent character, someone directly concerned in the sequel. We must also look for someone who, however strongly suspecting Jasper's guilt, has no substantial proof of it, but is compelled to search for that proof. Otherwise the elaborate and roundabout proceedings are foolish and unjustified. In the last place, let us look for someone who could temporarily disappear from real life in order to act the assumed part, and yet not be missed, one whose absence at the most would only be known to a few persons who would have every reason to THE SECOND MYSTERY : " MR. DATCHERY. 5 1 keep the secret. Datchery would, of course, be a person whom Jasper was unlikely to recognise even under a disguise, one he had seldom or never seen, one whose very voice was unfamiliar to him. Who fulfils these conditions ? A few of the characters may be at once dis- posed of. Datchery could not be Sapsea, Durdles, Deputy, or Tope, if for no other reason than that by meeting and conversing with him (Chapter XVIII.) they are shown to be separate identities. He could not be the loud- voiced philanthropist Honeythunder, for he believed in the guilt of Neville Landless, and therefore would not spy on Jasper. He could not be Crisparkle, who could not disappear. He could not be Neville himself, who was definitely located in London, and would have every reason for avoiding Jasper. Other minor characters are equally out of court, have no motive, and it would be preposterous to suggest them. We are therefore reduced to a very few possibilities. Was it Bazzard? Mr. Grewgious, the solicitor, had a curious clerk who deemed himself superior to his master, because he had written a tragedy which no one would bring out. This Bazzard is sometimes mentioned as possibly being Datchery, chiefly 52 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. on the ground that he was a somewhat mysterious person, and that, when Rosa visited her legal adviser, she was told that Bazzard "goes his way, after office hours. In fact, he is off duty here, altogether, at present." But Bazzard is purely a burlesque character, and Mr. Grewgious, who affects to hold him in awe because he has written the tragedy which every- one has rejected, is in reality poking fun at the pretentious and stupid brother of Mrs. Billickin the whole time. Such a character would never be utilised for tracking down a murderer, and could not be expected to risk his own life in such an enterprise. Literary art rebels against the idea. Bazzard was one of Dickens's favourite low-comedy characters, and though he may have been introduced as a "blind," he certainly was never intended to serve a serious purpose. Datchery must have had a personal motive in watching Jasper: Bazzard had none, and at best could only have been hired for the task, which theory entirely destroys the value of Dickens's idea. But if Grewgious had given him this task, and been credulous enough to think him capable of performing it, he could not have sent him to Cloisterham until after he had heard Rosa's story of Jasper's perfidy. Yet Datchery had been in Cloisterham before that time — that is, before either Grewgious or Bazzard THE SECOND MYSTERY : " MR. DATCHERY. 53 knew of the urgent need for placing Jasper under supervision. The " big white wig " — so useless, so full of risk, unless necessary — would not have been required by Bazzard. The little we see of this ungainly and ridiculous person shows that he would have been unequal to putting on Datchery's demeanour; and the little we get of his fatuous conversation proves that he never could have talked as Datchery talked. He was purely an egotist, to be covered with ridicule and confusion at the end, and not to be reserved for a supreme act requiring strength of character, complete self-abnegation, and invincible courage. Therefore, Bazzard was not Datchery. Was it Drood? Suppose, after all, the theory of Drood's murder is incorrect. Does it then follow that he would re-appear in Cloisterham as Datchery ? Proctor replies affirmatively, but forgets that his walk, his style, his figure, his voice would have been detected by Jasper. Drood would not have run needless risk in taking up his residence with the Topes who knew him so well, but would have gone to strangers as an addi- tional precaution ; nor would he have selected so close a proximity to Jasper, who had studied his every movement, and who, with the know- ledge of his crime, would be on the alert when- 54 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. ever a possible spy came upon the scene. It is extremely doubtful from Dickens's delineation whether Edwin Drood, weak, hot-tempered, credulous, and impulsive, had the force of character for so exacting a role. There is nothing in Datchery to suggest Drood in even the slightest degree, and there is much to suggest a very different person. It is incon- ceivable that any man, knowing who had attacked him, and knowing of the danger lurking near others, should consent to conceal instead of to reveal himself. Dickens knew human nature profoundly. Let us give him credit for it in this, as in all previous, cases; and let us give him credit for logical reasoning as well. But Dickens, in a casual but ingenious manner, introduces one circumstance which should entirely dispel the notion that Datchery and Drood could be one and the same. On the eventful Christmas Eve Edwin had met and been greatly struck by the old opium woman. Her appearance had startled him because she looked like Jasper in one of his fits. He had given her money. She in return had warned him of the danger to "Ned" — a "threatened name " — the name that Jasper alone called him. In a few hours the warning was fulfilled. If Drood survived he would certainly remember the event. THE SECOND MYSTERY : MR. DATCHERY. 55 Later on, Datchery met this same woman — apd did not recognise her ! He was startled when she told him her story. What was information to Datchery would have been an unforgettable personal experience to Drood; what was valuable new testimony gained by the one, would be stale news to the other. There- fore Drood was not Datchery. Was it Grewgious? We now come to a far more serious specula- tion. Mr. Grewgious was Rosa's guardian, and he paid a memorable visit to Jasper a few days after Drood's disappearance, to inform him of the broken engagement. The interview was remarkable alike for what was said and what was not said. " This is strange news " was his opening remark. His second was to bait Jasper as to his belief in Neville Landless's guilt. His third was — " I have a communica- tion to make that will surprise you." He spoke in " a cool, slow manner " and " provokingly." Bit by bit, as if with design to cause the deepest wounds, he told of the severing of the relations between " the lost youth " and Rosa. He saw Jasper swoon at the news, and ' ' wooden of aspect, sitting stiffly in his chair, watched his recovery." Undoubtedly Grewgious knew what Jasper really was. He was in the confidence of Rosa and Neville. He alone knew of the 56 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. existence of the betrothal ring. At a later stage he watched Jasper's stealthy movements in London, and he did not hesitate to denounce him as a scoundrel. On what evidence? Grewgious had every motive for convicting Jasper as the implacable enemy of Neville and the persecutor of Rosa. He probably suspected him of deeper crimes. He was a lawyer, and knew how to procure facts. He was stimulated by intense personal interest. The character of this man was steadily developed by Dickens as if he were reserved for an important part. London, his residence, was only half a day's journey from Cloisterham. His professional business could be done by Bazzard. Some of his private business he deputed to Mr. Tartar. The case for Grewgious grows decidedly strong. And yet it falls to pieces: Grewgious, after all, is among the impossibilities. His character is as much against the idea as is his physique, and doubtless Dickens had a purpose in supply- ing such unmistakable details of each. Datchery appeared in Cloisterham before Mr. Grewgious knew from Rosa's own lips how serious the state of affairs had become, and how necessary it was to keep a close watch upon Jasper. From all that we can learn he remained in London, and was at hand whenever wanted for consultation. If he had disappeared for THE SECOND MYSTERY : " MR. DATCHERY. 57 long periods there would have been a blank in the story, and his absence would have been conspicuous. The lawyer could not have gone masquerading, and he would have been fore- doomed to failure had he tried. Jasper would have immediately detected the man of such marked angularity that no disguise could have concealed it. The differences between Datchery and Grew- gious stand forth with all the sharpness of absolute contrast. Datchery was a man with "a military air." Grewgious, we are told, had a "shambling walk." Datchery had " a shock of white hair that was unusually thick and ample " (doubtless a large wig). Grewgious had no need of -a. wig of uncommon size, for he only had a "scanty flat crop of hair " and a " smooth head." Any disguise which attracted attention as a disguise was foolish — unless necessary. Grewgious had "short sight." Everything that Datchery did — his watching of persons at a distance, his quick observation of all that was passing — indicates that his sight was particularly keen. Grewgious had " an awkward and hesitating manner." Datchery had "a grand address," and spoke and acted in such a way that he could allow it to be inferred he had been a diplomat. Grewgious had " too much ankle-bone and 58 CLUES TO MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. heel." Datchery was courtly, "made a leg" to the Mayor — a motion requiring grace and freedom of attitude — and gave the impression of one "accustomed to rank and dignity." Grewgious was notoriously and admittedly " an angular man." Datchery was all courtesy and formality, with perfect self-control. Grewgious- spoke in jerks, and could seldom remember two sentences even in a prepared interview. Datchery was an amiable and fluent conversa- tionalist. Grewgious had a marked individuality and an eccentricity that betrayed him. Datchery could sink his own characteristics and adapt himself to his company. Of Datchery's actual appearance we really know little that would enable his portrait to be drawn, and, parenthetically, it is worth noting here that the original illustrations which Dickens supervised contained no figure of the mysterious stranger at all. But one fact is pushed into prominence. Though Datchery's hair was white (whether natural or artificial does not matter for the moment), his eyebrows, we are distinctly informed, were black. "A white-haired per- sonage, with black eyebrows "—that is the description. We must assume for two sufficient reasons that black was the natural colour, first, because in any attempt at disguise the hair and eyebrows would have been made to correspond THE SECOND MYSTERY : " MR. DATCHERY. 59 to divert suspicion ; and, secondly, because on close inspection a painting of the eyebrows would certainly have been detected. Black . eyebrows betoken black, or at least dark, hair. But Grewgious's hair was "mangy yellow," like a fur tippet, and he was himself " an arid, sandy man," the colour of " high-dried snuff." This point needs no further enforcing. Every definite fact concerning Grewgious proves that he could not have been Datchery. It was necessary to sweep away this case more than all the others in order to have the ground clear for the remaining solution, the only one, I venture to believe, which stands every test and meets every requirement. €It)