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been committed, so at last Neville was released. The whole neighborhood, however, believed him guilty of the murder. No one spoke to him and he was obliged to quit the place.

Beside his sister Helena and Rosebud, who, of course, believed in his innocence, he had but one friend thereβ€”Mr. Crisparkle. The latter stoutly refused to believe him guilty. When Neville left for London, through Mr. Grewgious, Rosebud's guardian, the minister found him a cheap lodging and made frequent trips to the city to help and advise him in his studies.

Mr. Grewgious had his own opinion of the affair. One day he went to Cloisterham to see Jasper, and there told him a thing the other did not yet knowβ€”that before that last night Edwin Drood and Rosebud had agreed not to marry. When he heard this the choir master's face turned the color of lead. He shrieked and fell senseless at the lawyer's feet. Mr. Grewgious went back to the city more thoughtful than ever, and it was not long before a detective came from London to Cloisterham and began to interest himself in all the doings of John Jasper.

The detective, to be sure, was not known as such. He called himself "Dick Datchery" and gave it out that he was an idle dog who lived on his money and had nothing to do. He was a curious-looking man, with a great shock of white hair, black eyebrows and a military air. He rented lodgings next door to the choir master, and before long had made friends with Durdles, the tombstone maker, and even with The Deputy of the "wake-cock warning."

Meanwhile Jasper, haggard and red-eyed, took again his place in the cathedral choir, while Neville Landless worked sadly and alone in his London garret. The latter made but one friend in this timeβ€”a lodger whose window adjoined his own. This lodger was Lieutenant Tartar, a retired young naval officer. Tartar might have lived in fine apartments, for he was rich, but he had been so long on shipboard that he felt more at home where the walls were low enough for him to knock his head on the ceiling. He used to climb across to Neville's room by the window ledges, and they became friendlyβ€”the warmer friends when Mr. Crisparkle discovered in the lieutenant a schoolmate who had once saved his life.

Later, too, Helena left Miss Twinkleton's Seminary and came to be with her brother. And so a year went by.

Vacation arrived, and one day when Rosebud was alone at Nun's House, Jasper, for the first time since Edwin Drood's disappearance, came to see her.

He found her in the garden, and she felt again the repulsion and fear she had always felt at sight of him. This time the choir master threw away all concealment. He told her that he had always loved her hopelessly and madly, though while she was betrothed to his nephew he had hidden the fact. She answered indignantly that, by look if not by word, he had always been false to Edwin Drood; that he had made her life unhappy by his pursuit of her, and that, though she had shrunk from opening his nephew's eyes, she had always known he was a wicked man.

Then, maddened by her dislike, Jasper swore that no one else should ever marry herβ€”that he would pursue her to the death, and that if she repulsed him he would bring dreadful ruin upon Neville Landless. He said this, no doubt, knowing that Neville loved Rosebud, and thinking, perhaps, that she loved him in return.

When Jasper left her, Rosebud was faint from fear of his wicked eyes. She made up her mind to go at once for protection to Mr. Grewgious in London, and, leaving a note for Miss Twinkleton, she left by the next omnibus.

She told her guardian her story, he told it to Mr. Crisparkle, who came to London next morning, and between them they told Lieutenant Tartar. While Rosebud visited with Helena the three men took counsel together, agreeing that Jasper was a villain and planning how best to deal with him.

The next time the choir master visited the opium garret the old woman tracked him back to Cloisterham, with more successβ€”with such success, indeed, that she heard him sing in the cathedral and found out his name from a stranger whom she encountered. This stranger was Dick Datchery, the detective, who discovered so much, before he left her, of Jasper's London habits that he went home in high good humor.

Datchery had a trick, whenever he was following a particular search, of marking each step of his progress by a chalk mark on a wall or door. To-day he must have been highly pleased, for he drew a thick line from the very top of the cupboard door to the bottom!

When Charles Dickens, the master story-teller, had told this tale thus far, he fell ill and died, and it was never finished. The mystery of the disappearance of Edwin Drood, what became of Rosebud and of Mr. Crisparkle, how Neville and Helena fared and what was the end of Jasper, are matters for each one of us to guess. Many have tried to finish this story and they have ended it in various ways. Before Dickens died, however, he told to a friend the part of the story that remained unwritten, and this, the friend has recorded, was to be as follows:

By means of the old woman of the opium den, Durdles, the tombstone maker, and The Deputy, the ragged stone-thrower, Dick Datchery unraveled the threads which finally, made into a net, caught Jasper, the murderer, in its meshes. Little by little, word by word, he was made at last to betray himself.

He had killed Edwin Drood, had hidden his body in one of the vaults and covered it with lime. But there had been one thing in the dead man's pocket which the lime could not destroy: this was the ring set with diamonds and rubies, that had been given to him by Mr. Grewgious. By this the murder was proven. Mr. Crisparkle and Mr. Grewgious worked hard to clear Neville Landless (of whose guilt, by the way, Mr. Honeythunder remained always sure), but poor Neville himself perished in aiding Lieutenant Tartar to seize the murderer.

Finding all hope of escape gone, Jasper confessed his crime in the cell in which he waited for death.

But, after all, the story closed happily, with the marriage of Mr. Crisparkle to Neville's sister Helena, and that of Lieutenant Tartar to pretty little Rosebud.

INDEX TO CHARACTERS

Affery Little Dorrit Agnes David Copperfield Allen, Arabella Pickwick Papers Allen, Ben Pickwick Papers "Artful Dodger, The" Oliver Twist Bagstock, Major Dombey and Son Bantam, Angelo Cyrus Pickwick Papers Bardell, Mrs. Pickwick Papers Barkis David Copperfield Barnaby Rudge Barnaby Rudge Barnacle, Mr. Tite Little Dorrit Barsad Tale of Two Cities Bevan Martin Chuzzlewit Biddy Great Expectations Blackpool, Stephen Hard Times Blimber, Doctor Dombey and Son Boffin, Mr. Our Mutual Friend Boffin, Mrs. Our Mutual Friend Bounderby, Josiah Hard Times Boythorn, Mr. Bleak House Brass Old Curiosity Shop Brass, Sally Old Curiosity Shop Bray Nicholas Nickleby Bray, Madeline Nicholas Nickleby Brownlow, Mr. Oliver Twist Bud, Rosa Edwin Drood Budger, Mrs. Pickwick Papers Bumble, Mr. Oliver Twist Bumble, Mrs. Oliver Twist Buzfuz, Sergeant Pickwick Papers Carker Dombey and Son Carstone, Richard Bleak House Carton, Sydney Tale of Two Cities Cheeryble Brothers, The Nicholas Nickleby Chester, Edward Barnaby Rudge Chester, Sir John Barnaby Rudge Chivery, John Little Dorrit Chuffey Martin Chuzzlewit Chuzzlewit Martin Chuzzlewit Chuzzlewit, Martin Martin Chuzzlewit Clare, Ada Bleak House Clennam, Arthur Little Dorrit Clennam, Mr. Little Dorrit Clennam, Mrs. Little Dorrit Compeyson Great Expectations Copperfield, David David Copperfield Creakle, Mr. David Copperfield Crisparkle, Reverend Mr. Edwin Drood Crummles, Mrs. Nicholas Nickleby Crummles, Ninetta Nicholas Nickleby Crummles, Vincent Nicholas Nickleby Cuttle, Captain Dombey and Son Darnay, Charles Tale of Two Cities Datchery, Dick Edwin Drood Dedlock, Lady Bleak House Dedlock, Sir Leicester Bleak House Defarge Tale of Two Cities Defarge, Madame Tale of Two Cities Dennis Barnaby Rudge "Deputy, The" Edwin Drood "Dick, Mr." David Copperfield "Diogenes" Dombey and Son "Dodger, The Artful" Oliver Twist Dombey, Florence Dombey and Son Dombey, Mr. Dombey and Son Dombey, Paul Dombey and Son Dorrit, Amy Little Dorrit Dorrit, Fanny Little Dorrit "Dorrit, Little" Little Dorrit Dorrit, Mr. Little Dorrit Dorrit, "Tip" Little Dorrit Dowler, Mr. Pickwick Papers Dowler, Mrs. Pickwick Papers Doyce Little Dorrit Drood, Edwin Edwin Drood Durdles Edwin Drood "Em'ly, Little" David Copperfield Estella Great Expectations Fagin Oliver Twist "Fat Boy, The" Pickwick Papers "Father of the Marshalsea, The" Little Dorrit "Fitz-Marshall, Mr." Pickwick Papers "Fitz-Marshall, Captain" Pickwick Papers Flintwinch Little Dorrit Flite, Miss Bleak House "Floy" Dombey and Son Gabelle Tale of Two Cities Gamp, "Sairey" Martin Chuzzlewit Gargery, Joe Great Expectations Gargery, Mrs. Great Expectations Gashford Barnaby Rudge Gay, Walter Dombey and Son General, Mrs. Little Dorrit
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