I have toiled, until I grew gray with the wearing
away of mind and body; because the soul of life is gone. I do it out of
revenge against that person. There is no remorse; no conscience; but it's
revenge. Look at me; that person has blasted me. Do I not show it in every
feature and limb? Now you understand me. My schemes are abandoned; and I
shall soon be where neither man nor law can reach me. My secret can do me
no good; why should I keep it? Perhaps the recollection of past days and
of past favors from one whom I have wronged, may have had its weight;
perhaps not. I've come to tell the truth. If you will hear it, well; if
not, I go, and it goes with me.'

Holmes and Harson exchanged looks, and Harson nodded, as if in
acquiescence to some proposition which he supposed the looks of the other
to indicate.

'Well, Sir,' replied Holmes, 'we will hear what you have to say.'

'Stop,' said Rust; 'before uttering a word, I must have a promise.'

The lawyer looked at him, and then at Harson, as much as to say: 'I
expected it. There's some trick in it.'

Rust observed it, and said: 'Spare your suspicions; I have come here to be
frank and honest in word and deed; and Michael Rust can be so, when the
fancy seizes him. The promise I require is this; whatever I may reveal, no
matter what the penalty, you will not set the blood-hounds of the law on
my track within forty-eight hours. I have yet one act to perform in the
great farce of life. _That_ accomplished, you may do your worst.'

'This is all very strange,' said Holmes, eyeing the thin, excited features
of his visitor, as if not altogether sure of his sanity; 'if you fear the
punishment of your misdeeds, why reveal them? Why place yourself in our
power, or run the risk of our interfering with your future movements?'

Rust replied bitterly: 'You shall hear. My whole life has been spent for
one person, my own child. Every faculty of mind and body has been devoted
to her, and every crime I have committed was for her. Scruples were
disregarded; ties of blood set at defiance; every thing that binds man to
man, that deters from wrong, were disregarded, if they stood in the way of
that one grand aim of life. _She_ forgot all! She has broken me down,
heart and spirit. Love and devotion were crushed with them, and revenge
has sprung up from their ruins. Ay! revenge against my own child! Should
any thing prevent my doing what I have yet to do, and should my brother
die, and his ch