Having made his inspection when the epitaph was put on, Durdles would have no further curiosity about the tomb until, in the following summer, he took Mr. Datchery on a rambling expedition as he had taken Jasper. His peculiar gift, like that of the bloodhound, is to aid in tracking down the quarry. Deputy has also his part to play. From the first Jasper hates and fears Deputy, and there are signs near the close of _Edwin Drood_ that this strange boy, who has some characteristics in common with Dickie Sludge, of _Kenilworth_, is to form a close alliance with Datchery. The ugliest side of Jasper’s character displays itself in his treatment of the ‘young imp employed by Durdles.’ The chanting of the line, ‘Widdy Widdy Wake-cock warning,’ has for him a note of menace. With the fury of a devil he leaps upon the boy when he emerges from the crypt with Durdles, and hears a sharp whistle rending the silence. ‘I will shed the blood of that impish wretch!’ he cries; ‘I know I shall do it.’ Durdles has to appeal to him not to hurt the boy. ‘He followed us to-night, when we first came here,’ says Jasper. ‘He has been prowling near us ever since.’ Deputy denies both accusations. ‘I’d only just come out for my ’elth when I see you two a-coming out of the Kinfreederal.’ What has Deputy actually seen? He may have testimony to give of the most vital consequence, but even if he has seen nothing of Jasper’s movements while Durdles lies asleep, or of his approach to the Sapsea monument, he will tell Mr. Datchery of that furious onslaught when Jasper clutched his throat and threatened to kill him. He will prove a very useful ally of the hunters. It seems quite inconceivable that either Durdles or Deputy could have known the whole secret and kept it. Neither of them was capable of keeping a secret long. But they might have suspicions, and they might and would know circumstances which when rightly interpreted led to the inevitable conclusion. I cannot but think that the chief part in the coming narrative was to be played by the opium woman. The novel from the very first page has a touch of the East. In Wilkie Collins’s _The Moonstone_ the Indians did their part, and then vanished from the scene. But in _Edwin Drood_ we have the Landlesses from Ceylon with a touch of dark blood, or at least of the Eastern spirit. Mr. Lang is in excess of the facts when he calls them Eurasians, and Dickens hesitates in ascribing black blood to them. They are more probably gypsies. We have also the connection of Edwin Drood with the East. There is more than a suggestion of dark blood in John Jasper. Above all, we have the opium woman. What was the connection between John Jasper and the opium woman? What was John Jasper’s history before he came to Cloisterham?