exterminated, were this indeed true, such a scale of bloodshed would seem
to argue that there must have been two persons as the perpetrators; or if
one singly had accomplished such a ruin, in that case how colossal must
have been his audacity! probably, also, his skill and animal power!
Moreover, the unknown enemy (whether single or double) would, doubtless,
be elaborately armed. Yet, under all these disadvantages, did this
fearless man rush at once to the field of butchery in his neighbor's
house. Waiting only to draw on his trousers, and to arm himself with the
kitchen poker, he went down into his own little back-yard. On this mode of
approach, he would have a chance of intercepting the murderer; whereas
from the front there would be no such chance; and there would also be
considerable delay in the process of breaking open the door. A brick wall,
nine or ten feet high, divided his own back premises from those of Marr.
Over this he vaulted; and at the moment when he was recalling himself to
the necessity of going back for a candle, he suddenly perceived a feeble
ray of light already glimmering on some part of Marr's premises. Marr's
back-door stood wide open. Probably the murderer had passed through it one
half minute before. Rapidly the brave man passed onwards to the shop, and
there beheld the carnage of the night stretched out on the floor, and the
narrow premises so floated with gore, that it was hardly possible to
escape the pollution of blood in picking out a path to the front-door. In
the lock of the door still remained the key which had given to the unknown
murderer so fatal an advantage over his victims. By this time, the heart-
shaking news involved in the outcries of Mary (to whom it occurred that by
possibility some one out of so many victims might still be within the
reach of medical aid, but that all would depend upon speed) had availed,
even at that late hour, to gather a small mob about the house. The
pawnbroker threw open the door. One or two watchmen headed the crowd; but
the soul-harrowing spectacle checked them, and impressed sudden silence
upon their voices, previously so loud. The tragic drama read aloud its own