This suspicion may well be supposed to
overpower my courage, and to call forth desperate efforts for my
deliverance. I extended my hands and went forward. I had been too little attentive to
the situation and direction of these vaults and passages, to go forward
with undeviating accuracy. My fears likewise tended to confuse my
perceptions and bewilder my steps. Notwithstanding the danger of
encountering obstructions, I rushed towards the entrance with
precipitation. My temerity was quickly punished. In a moment, I was repelled by a
jutting angle of the wall, with such force that I staggered backward and
fell. The blow was stunning, and, when I recovered my senses, I
perceived that a torrent of blood was gushing from my nostrils. My
clothes were moistened with this unwelcome effusion, and I could not but
reflect on the hazard which I should incur by being detected in this
recess, covered by these accusing stains. This reflection once more set me on my feet and incited my exertions. I
now proceeded with greater wariness and caution. I had lost all distinct
notions of my way. My motions were at random. All my labour was to shun
obstructions and to advance whenever the vacuity would permit. By this
means, the entrance was at length found, and, after various efforts, I
arrived, beyond my hopes, at the foot of the staircase. I ascended, but quickly encountered an insuperable impediment. The door
at the stair-head was closed and barred. My utmost strength was exerted
in vain, to break the lock or the hinges. Thus were my direst
apprehensions fulfilled. Welbeck had left me to sustain the charge of
murder; to obviate suspicions the most atrocious and plausible that the
course of human events is capable of producing. Here I must remain till the morrow; till some one can be made to
overhear my calls and come to my deliverance. What effects will my
appearance produce on the spectator? Terrified by phantoms and stained
with blood, shall I not exhibit the tokens of a maniac as well as an
assassin? The corpse of Watson will quickly be discovered. If, previous to this
disclosure, I should change my blood-stained garments and withdraw into
the country, shall I not be pursued by the most vehement suspicions,
and, perhaps, hunted to my obscurest retreat by the ministers of
justice? I am innocent; but my tale, however circumstantial or true,
will scarcely suffice for my vindication. My flight will be construed
into a proof of incontestable guilt. While harassed by these thoughts, my attention was attracted by a faint
gleam cast upon the bottom of the staircase. It grew stronger, hovered
for a moment in my sight, and then disappeared. That it proceeded from a
lamp or candle, borne by some one along the passages, was no untenable
opinion, but was far less probable than that the effulgence was
meteorous. I confided in the latter supposition, and fortified myself
anew against the dread of preternatural dangers. My thoughts reverted to
the contemplation of the hazards and suspicions which flowed from my
continuance in this spot. In the midst of my perturbed musing, my attention was again recalled by
an illumination like the former. Instead of hovering and vanishing, it
was permanent. No ray could be more feeble; but the tangible obscurity
to which it succeeded rendered it conspicuous as an electrical flash. For a while I eyed it without moving from my place, and in momentary
expectation of its disappearance. Remarking its stability, the propriety of scrutinizing it more nearly,
and of ascertaining the source whence it flowed, was at length
suggested. Hope, as well as curiosity, was the parent of my conduct. Though utterly at a loss to assign the cause of this appearance, I was
willing to believe some connection between that cause and the means of
my deliverance. I had scarcely formed the resolution of descending the stair, when my
hope was extinguished by the recollection that the cellar had narrow and
grated windows, through which light from the street might possibly have
found access. A second recollection supplanted this belief, for in my
way to this staircase my attention would have been solicited, and my
steps, in some degree, been guided, by light coming through these
avenues. Having returned to the bottom of the stair, I perceived every part of
the long-drawn passage illuminated. I threw a glance forward to the
quarter whence the rays seemed to proceed, and beheld, at a considerable
distance, Welbeck in the cell which I had left, turning up the earth
with a spade. After a pause of astonishment, the nature of the error which I had
committed rushed upon my apprehension. I now perceived that the darkness
had misled me to a different staircase from that which I had originally
descended. It was apparent that Welbeck intended me no evil, but had
really gone in search of the instrument which he had mentioned. This discovery overwhelmed me with contrition and shame, though it freed
me from the terrors of imprisonment and accusation. To return to the
cell which I had left, and where Welbeck was employed in his disastrous
office, was the expedient which regard to my own safety unavoidably
suggested. Welbeck paused, at my approach, and betrayed a momentary consternation
at the sight of my ensanguined visage. The blood, by some inexplicable
process of nature, perhaps by the counteracting influence of fear, had
quickly ceased to flow. Whether the cause of my evasion, and of my flux
of blood, was guessed, or whether his attention was withdrawn, by more
momentous objects, from my condition, he proceeded in his task in
silence. A shallow bed and a slight covering of clay were provided for the
hapless Watson. Welbeck's movements were hurried and tremulous. His
countenance betokened a mind engrossed by a single purpose, in some
degree foreign to the scene before him. An intensity and fixedness of
features were conspicuous, that led me to suspect the subversion of his
reason. Having finished the task, he threw aside his implement. He then put into
my hand a pocket-book, saying it belonged to Watson, and might contain
something serviceable to the living. I might make what use of it I
thought proper. He then remounted the stairs, and, placing the candle on
a table in the hall, opened the principal door and went forth. I was
driven, by a sort of mechanical impulse, in his footsteps. I followed
him because it was agreeable to him and because I knew not whither else
to direct my steps. The streets were desolate and silent. The watchman's call, remotely and
faintly heard, added to the general solemnity. I followed my companion
in a state of mind not easily described. I had no spirit even to inquire
whither he was going. It was not till we arrived at the water's edge
that I persuaded myself to break silence. I then began to reflect on the
degree in which his present schemes might endanger Welbeck or myself. I
had acted long enough a servile and mechanical part; and been guided by
blind and foreign impulses.