He was, I think, to have a lesson, and to become a good fellow.
Mr. Proctor rightly argues (and Forster "thinks"), that Dickens
meant to kill Neville Landless: Mr. Cuming Walters agrees with
him, but Mr. Proctor truly adds that Edwin has none of the signs of
Dickens's doomed men, his Sidney Cartons, and the rest. You can
tell, as it were by the sound of the voice of Dickens, says Mr.
Proctor, that Edwin is to live. The impression is merely
subjective, but I feel the impression. The doom of Landless is
conspicuously fixed, and why is Landless to be killed by Jasper?
Merely to have a count on which to hang Jasper! He cannot be
hanged for killing Drood, if Drood is alive.


MR. PROCTOR'S THEORY CONTINUED


Mr. Proctor next supposes that Datchery and others, by aid of the
opium hag, have found out a great deal of evidence against Jasper.
They have discovered from the old woman that his crime was long
premeditated: he had threatened "Ned" in his opiated dreams: and
had clearly removed Edwin's trinkets and watch, because they would
not be destroyed, with his body, by the quicklime. This is all
very well, but there is still, so far, no legal evidence, on my
theory, that Jasper attempted to take Edwin's life. Jasper's
enemies, therefore, can only do their best to make his life a
burden to him, and to give him a good fright, probably with the
hope of terrifying him into avowals.

Now the famous ring begins "to drag and hold" the murderer. He is