The Not of an English Opium-Eater | Page 8

And on the following consideration:--that which prevented
Williams from commencing even earlier, was the exposure of the
shop's whole interior to the gaze of street passengers. It was
indispensable that the shutters should be accurately closed before
Williams could safely get to work. But, as soon as ever this preliminary
precaution had been completed, once having secured that concealment
from the public eye it then became of still greater importance not to
lose a moment by delay, than previously it had been not to hazard any
thing by precipitance. For all depended upon going in before Marr
should have locked the door. On any other mode of effecting an
entrance (as, for instance, by waiting for the return of Mary, and
making his entrance simultaneously with her), it will be seen that
Williams must have forfeited that particular advantage which mute
facts, when read into their true construction, will soon show the reader
that he must have employed. Williams waited, of necessity, for the
sound of the watchman's retreating steps; waited, perhaps, for thirty
seconds; but when that danger was past, the next danger was, lest Marr
should lock the door; one turn of the key, and the murderer would have
been locked out. In, therefore, he bolted, and by a dexterous movement
of his left hand, no doubt, turned the key, without letting Marr perceive
this fatal stratagem. It is really wonderful and most interesting to
pursue the successive steps of this monster, and to notice the absolute
certainty with which the silent hieroglyphics of the case betray to us the
whole process and movements of the bloody drama, not less surely and
fully than if we had been ourselves hidden in Marr's shop, or had
looked down from the heavens of mercy upon this hell-kite, that knew
not what mercy meant. That he had concealed from Marr his trick,
secret and rapid, upon the lock, is evident; because else, Marr would
instantly have taken the alarm, especially after what the watchman had
communicated. But it will soon be seen that Marr had not been alarmed.
In reality, towards the full success of Williams, it was important, in the
last degree, to intercept and forestall any yell or shout of agony from
Marr. Such an outcry, and in a situation so slenderly fenced off from
the street, viz., by walls the very thinnest, makes itself heard outside
pretty nearly as well as if it were uttered in the street. Such an outcry it
was indispensable to stifle. It was stifled; and the reader will soon

understand how. Meantime, at this point, let us leave the murderer
alone with his victims. For fifty minutes let him work his pleasure. The
front-door, as we know, is now fastened against all help. Help there is
none. Let us, therefore, in vision, attach ourselves to Mary; and, when
all is over, let us come back with her, again raise the curtain, and read
the dreadful record of all that has passed in her absence.
The poor girl, uneasy in her mind to an extent that she could but half
understand, roamed up and down in search of an oyster shop; and
finding none that was still open, within any circuit that her ordinary
experience had made her acquainted with, she fancied it best to try the
chances of some remoter district. Lights she saw gleaming or twinkling
at a distance, that still tempted her onwards; and thus, amongst
unknown streets poorly lighted, [4] and on a night of peculiar darkness,
and in a region of London where ferocious tumults were continually
turning her out of what seemed to be the direct course, naturally she got
bewildered. The purpose with which she started, had by this time
become hopeless. Nothing remained for her now but to retrace her steps.
But this was difficult; for she was afraid to ask directions from chance
passengers, whose appearance the darkness prevented her from
reconnoitring. At length by his lantern she recognized a watchman;
through him she was guided into the right road; and in ten minutes
more, she found herself back at the door of No. 29, in Ratcliffe
Highway. But by this time she felt satisfied that she must have been
absent for fifty or sixty minutes; indeed, she had heard, at a distance,
the cry of _past one o'clock_, which, commencing a few seconds after
one, lasted intermittingly for ten or thirteen minutes.
In the tumult of agonizing thoughts that very soon surprised her,
naturally it became hard for her to recall distinctly the whole succession
of doubts, and jealousies, and shadowy misgivings that soon opened
upon her. But, so far as could be collected, she had not in the first
moment of reaching home noticed anything decisively alarming. In
very many cities bells are the