daily sight to see him
perched on a tombstone eating his dinner out of a bundle. When he was
not feeling well he used to say he had a touch of "tomb-atism," instead
of rheumatism.

Durdles was drunk so much that he was never certain about getting home
at night, so he had hired, at a penny a day, a hideous small boy, known
as "The Deputy" to throw stones at him whenever he found him out of
doors after ten o'clock, and drive him home to his little hole of an
unfurnished stone house.

The Deputy used to watch for Durdles after this hour, and when he saw
him he would dance up and sing:

"Widdy, widdy, wen!
I ketches--him--out--arter ten!
Widdy, widdy wy!
When he--don't--go--then--I shy!
Widdy, widdy, Wake-Cock-Warning!"

It was a part of the bargain that he must give this warning before he
began to throw the stones, and when Durdles heard this yell he knew what
was coming.

Before the Christmas Eve dinner Jasper picked a friendship with
Durdles, and, pretending he wanted to make a trip by moonlight with him
among the vaults, he persuaded him one night to be his guide. While they
were in the crypt of the cathedral Jasper plied him with liquor which he
had brought, to such purpose that Durdles went fast asleep and the key
of the crypt fell from his hand. He had a dim idea that Jasper picked up
the key and went away with it, and was a long time gone, but when he
awoke he could not tell whether this had really happened or not. And
this, when The Deputy stoned him home that night, was all he could
remember of the expedition.

But what Jasper had really done while Durdles was asleep--whether he had
taken away the key to make a copy of it so as to make one like it for
some evil purpose of his own, or whether he wanted to be able to unlock
that dark underground place and hide something in it sometime when no
one would be with him--this only Jasper himself knew!

The Christmas season arrived, and Edwin Drood, according to his promise,
came to Cloisterham to his uncle's dinner, at which he was to meet
Neville.

Before leaving, however, he called upon Mr. Grewgious, Rosebud's
guardian, who had sent for him with a particular purpose. This purpose
was to give into his hands a ring set with diamonds and rubies that had
belonged to Rosebud's mother. It had been left in trust to Mr.
Grewgious to give to the man who married her, that he might himself put
it on her finger. And in accordance with the trust, th