Detective and mystery stories; Jack, the Ripper -- Fiction; Serial murders -- Fiction; Whitechapel (London, England) -- Fiction
“DEAR SIR—I have a suggestion to put forward for which I think there is
a great deal to be said. It seems to me very probable that The
Avenger—to give him the name by which he apparently wishes to be
known—comprises in his own person the peculiarities of Jekyll and Hyde,
Mr. Louis Stevenson’s now famous hero.
“The culprit, according to my point of view, is a quiet,
pleasant-looking gentleman who lives somewhere in the West End of
London. He has, however, a tragedy in his past life. He is the
husband of a dipsomaniac wife. She is, of course, under care, and
is never mentioned in the house where he lives, maybe with his
widowed mother and perhaps a maiden sister. They notice that he has
become gloomy and brooding of late, but he lives his usual life,
occupying himself each day with some harmless hobby. On foggy
nights, once the quiet household is plunged in sleep, he creeps out
of the house, maybe between one and two o’clock, and swiftly makes
his way straight to what has become The Avenger’s murder area.
Picking out a likely victim, he approaches her with Judas-like
gentleness, and having committed his awful crime, goes quietly home
again. After a good bath and breakfast, he turns up happy, once
more the quiet individual who is an excellent son, a kind brother,
esteemed and even beloved by a large circle of friends and
acquaintances. Meantime, the police are searching about the scene
of the tragedy for what they regard as the usual type of criminal
lunatic.
“I give this theory, Sir, for what it is worth, but I confess that
I am amazed the police have so wholly confined their inquiries to
the part of London where these murders have been actually
committed. I am quite sure from all that has come out—and we must
remember that full information is never given to the newspapers—The
Avenger should be sought for in the West and not in the East End of
London—Believe me to remain, Sir, yours very truly—”
Again Daisy hesitated, and then with an effort she brought out the word
“Gab-o-ri-you,” said she.
“What a funny name!” said Bunting wonderingly.
And then Joe broke in: “That’s the name of a French chap what wrote
detective stories,” he said. “Pretty good, some of them are, too!”
“Then this Gaboriyou has come over to study these Avenger murders, I
take it?” said Bunting.
“Oh, no,” Joe spoke with confidence. “Whoever’s written that silly
letter just signed that name for fun.”
“It is a silly letter,” Mrs. Bunting had broken in resentfully. “I
wonder a respectable paper prints such rubbish.”
“Fancy if The Avenger did turn out to be a gentleman!” cried Daisy, in
an awe-struck voice. “There’d be a how-to-do!”
“There may be something in the notion,” said her father thoughtfully.
“After all, the monster must be somewhere. This very minute he must be
somewhere a-hiding of himself.”
“Of course he’s somewhere,” said Mrs. Bunting scornfully.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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