Drood, if he escaped alive, did not at once openly denounce Jasper,
is removed when we remember, as Mr. Archer and I have independently
pointed out, that Drood, when attacked by Jasper, was (like Durdles
in the "unaccountable expedition") stupefied by drugs, and so had
no valid evidence against his uncle. Whether science is acquainted
with the drugs necessary for such purposes is another question.
They are always kept in stock by starving and venal apothecaries in
fiction and the drama, and are a recognized convention of romance.

So ends our unfolding of the Mystery of Edwin Drood.



Footnotes:

{1} Landless is not "Lackland," but a form of de Laundeles, a
Lothian name of the twelfth century, merged later in that of
Ormistoun.

{2} Life of Dickens, vol. iii. pp. 425-439.

{3} J. Cuming Walters, p. 102; Proctor, pp. 131-135. Mr. Cuming
Walters used an edition of 1896, apparently a reprint of a paper by
Proctor, written earlier than his final book of 1887. Hence the
error as to Mr. Proctor's last theory.

{4} Mrs. Perugini, the books say, but certainly a daughter.

{5} What would Weissmann say to all this?