“They were rich and I was poor, so that it was no easy matterfor me to follow them. When I got to London my pocket wasabout empty, and I found that I must turn my hand to somethingfor my living. Driving and riding are as natural to me as walking,so I applied at a cab-owner’s office, and soon got employment. Iwas to bring a certain sum a week to the owner, and whatever wasover that I might keep for myself. There was seldom much over,but I managed to scrape along somehow. The hardest job was tolearn my way about, for I reckon that of all the mazes that everwere contrived, this city is the most confusing. I had a map besideme, though, and when once I had spotted the principal hotels andstations, I got on pretty well.
“It was some time before I found out where my two gentlemenwere living; but I inquired and inquired until at last I droppedacross them. They were at a boarding-house at Camberwell, overon the other side of the river. When once I found them out, Iknew that I had them at my mercy. I had grown my beard, andthere was no chance of their recognizing me. I would dog themand follow them until I saw my opportunity. I was determinedthat they should not escape me again.
“They were very near doing it for all that. Go where they wouldabout London, I was always at their heels. Sometimes I followedthem on my cab, and sometimes on foot, but the former was thebest, for then they could not get away from me. It was only earlyin the morning or late at night that I could earn anything, so that Ibegan to get behind hand with my employer. I did not mind that,however, as long as I could lay my hand upon the men I wanted.
“They were very cunning, though. They must have thought thatthere was some chance of their being followed, for they wouldnever go out alone, and never after nightfall. During two weeks Idrove behind them every day, and never once saw them separate.
Drebber himself was drunk half the time, but Stangerson was notto be caught napping. I watched them late and early, but never sawthe ghost of a chance; but I was not discouraged, for somethingtold me that the hour had almost come. My only fear was that thisthing in my chest might burst a little too soon and leave my workundone.
“At last, one evening I was driving up and down Torquay Terrace,as the street was called in which they boarded, when I saw a cabdrive up to their door. Presently some luggage was brought outand after a time Drebber and Stangerson followed it, and droveoff. I whipped up my horse and kept within sight of them, feelingvery ill at ease, for I feared that they were going to shift theirquarters. At Euston Station they got out, and I left a boy to holdmy horse, and followed them on to the platform. I heard themask for the Liverpool train, and the guard answer that one had justgone, and there would not be another for some hours. Stangersonseemed to be put out at that, but Drebber was rather pleased thanotherwise. I got so close to them in the bustle that I could hearevery word that passed between them. Drebber said that he hada little business of his own to do, and that if the other would waitfor him he would soon rejoin him. His companion remonstratedwith him, and reminded him that they had resolved to sticktogether. Drebber answered that the matter was a delicate one,and that he must go alone. I could not catch what Stangerson saidto that, but the other burst out swearing, and reminded him thathe was nothing more than his paid servant, and that he must notpresume to dictate to him. On that the Secretary gave it up as abad job, and simply bargained with him that if he missed the lasttrain he should rejoin him at Halliday’s Private Hotel; to whichDrebber answered that he would be back on the platform beforeeleven, and made his way out of the station.
“The moment for which I had waited so long had at lastcome. I had my enemies within my power. Together they couldprotect each other, but singly they were at my mercy. I did notact, however, with undue precipitation. My plans were alreadyformed. There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offenderhas time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retributionhas come upon him. I had my plans arranged by which I shouldhave the opportunity of making the man who had wronged meunderstand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced thatsome days before a gentleman who had been engaged in lookingover some houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key ofone of them in my carriage. It was claimed that same evening, andreturned; but in the interval I had taken a moulding of it, and hada duplicate constructed. By means of this I had access to at leastone spot in this great city where I could rely upon being free frominterruption. How to get Drebber to that house was the difficultproblem which I had now to solve.
“He walked down the road and went into one or two liquorshops, staying for nearly half an hour in the last of them. Whenhe came out, he staggered in his walk, and was evidently prettywell on. There was a hansom just in front of me, and he hailed it.
I followed it so close that the nose of my horse was within a yardof his driver the whole way. We rattled across Waterloo Bridgeand through miles of streets, until, to my astonishment, we foundourselves back in the Terrace in which he had boarded. I could notimagine what his intention was in returning there; but I went onand pulled up my cab a hundred yards or so from the house. Heentered it, and his hansom drove away. Give me a glass of water, ifyou please. My mouth gets dry with the talking.”
I handed him the glass, and he drank it down.
