unavailingly to Marr, had been turned to account by Williams. There can be
still less doubt, that the bloodhound had commenced his work within one
minute of the watchman's assisting Marr to put up his shutters. 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,