“I remember him in the dock,” replied the Professor. “A tall, slim, clean-shaven man, with an intellectual face, and a pleasant soft voice.”
“You remember his appearance,” exclaimed the sailor impatiently, “you never knew the man’s soul, as I did. Dr. Morlandson loved two things in this world with a passion which filled his whole being, his wife and his profession. His sympathy with suffering was unlimited, and his nature recoiled from the spectacle of any pain which could be prevented. And you, twelve good men and true, took it upon yourselves to condemn him to death because he had the courage to put one of God’s creatures out of his agony. At one blow you took from him all that he loved and lived for, his profession, and his wife who died under the shock of her husband’s conviction. Can you wonder that during those long years of torment in prison, his thoughts turned from sympathy to vengeance? Yet, even in his vengeance he was merciful and killed swiftly.”
Dr. Priestley nodded. “Yes, I guessed that was the motive,” he said in a matter of fact tone. “I took the trouble to look up the names of the jurymen, as soon as I remembered that it was while I was serving on that jury that I had met a man bearing the name of Copperdock. The others were Tovey, Colburn, Pargent, Martin, Goodwin, Thomas, Bailey, Underhill, Abbott and Hewlett.”
“Quite right, Thomas, Bailey, Underhill, Abbott and Hewlett were already dead when Dr. Morlandson was released. Their punishment has passed into other hands. Of the remaining seven, six have paid the penalty which they wished to inflict upon Dr. Morlandson. You only are left, Dr. Priestley.”
“I had realized that my life was threatened,” replied the Professor calmly. “As you have probably guessed, it was for the purpose of verifying the fact of Dr. Morlandson’s death that I came here.”
“Dr. Morlandson is dead, but he left his vengeance behind him,” said the sailor sombrely. “You killed him as surely as though the law had taken its course upon your cruel verdict. He came here, a broken man, to die in solitude like a stricken animal. I met him, not a hundred yards from this very spot, a few days after he had come to live in the cottage. I was desperate that evening. I had murder in my soul, no matter why. I would have killed him then and there for what he might have had about him, but I was afraid. There was something about him that prevented me from touching him, I did not know what it was. He took me to the cottage with him, and talked to me all night. And at last I found out that he was in the grip of a hate greater than mine.
“I saw him every day after that. I was the only person he spoke to, except that fool of a police superintendent who used to come out to see him. He’d have been glad enough to lay his hands on me, if he had known that I was hiding within a few yards of him. Hour after hour we talked, Dr. Morlandson and I, while he fed me and sheltered me. He told me his whole story, and at last, when he knew he could trust me, he made me an offer. If I would become the heir to his vengeance, I should also be heir to a very large sum of money he had safely concealed.
“He explained his plans to me in detail. During his years in prison he had thought over every little thing, and his scheme was complete. But one thing he had not allowed for, and that was the fact that prison life had broken him up. He, who had gone to prison a strong man, came out ruined in health and body. His mind had eaten him up, as he put it. The awful hours of solitude, when his only means of diverting his thoughts from his wrecked life was to perfect his plans for vengeance, had sapped his youth and his strength. He came out an old man, utterly incapable of the task before him.
“I had told him my story, such as it was, and he saw in me the one man who could take his place. I was an educated man once, Dr. Priestley, forced by circumstances to abandon my former life and become what you see me now. In those months I was in Morlandson’s company he taught me more than I had ever learnt before. He told me the names of the men who had formed the jury, and showed me how I was to trace each of them. He had thought out dozens of ways of killing them undetected, and he explained to me how each should be employed according to circumstances. In that laboratory which he built he spent long hours working at poisons which should be swift and effective, in preparing weapons which could not fail in the clumsiest hands. He taught me anatomy, where the vital organs of the body lay, how to strike so as to produce instant death. Within a few months I was fitted to undertake the task which he had delegated to me.”
The Black Sailor paused, and looked intently at the Professor, as though to assure himself that he was taking in all that was being said to him. “It was Dr. Morlandson’s wish that you should fully understand the reasons for your punishment before you died,” he continued. “You, at least, we had no difficulty in tracing. Your name was frequently in the papers, you were the only one of the twelve who had attained any fame whatever, except perhaps that conceited ass Pargent. It was only fitting that you, as foreman, should be reserved until the last. Morlandson hoped
