The trail of the serpent

MISS BRADDON’S NOVELS AUTHOR’S AUTOGRAPH EDITION Cloth Gilt 2s. 6d. Picture Boards 2s. 1. LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET. 29. HOSTAGES TO FORTUNE. 2. HENRY DUNBAR. 30. DEAD MEN’S SHOES. 3. ELEANOR’S VICTORY. 31. JOSHUA HAGGARD. 4. AURORA FLOYD. 32. WEAVERS AND WEFT. 5. JOHN MARCHMONT’S LEGACY. 33. AN OPEN VERDICT. 6. THE DOCTOR’S WIFE. 34. VIXEN. 7. ONLY A CLOD. 35. THE CLOVEN FOOT. 8. SIR JASPER’S TENANT. 36. THE STORY OF BARBARA. 9. TRAIL OF THE SERPENT. 37. JUST AS I AM. 10. LADY’S MILE. 38. ASPHODEL. 11. LADY LISLE. 39. MOUNT ROYAL. 12. CAPTAIN OF THE VULTURE. 40. THE GOLDEN CALF. 13. BIRDS OF PREY. 41. PHANTOM FORTUNE. 14. CHARLOTTE’S INHERITANCE. 42. FLOWER AND WEED. 15. RUPERT GODWIN. 43. ISHMAEL. 16. RUN TO EARTH. 44. WYLLARD’S WEIRD. 17. DEAD SEA FRUIT. 45. UNDER THE RED FLAG. 18. RALPH THE BAILIFF. 46. ONE THING NEEDFUL. 19. FENTON’S QUEST. 47. MOHAWKS. 20. LOVELS OF ARDEN. 48. LIKE AND UNLIKE. 21. ROBERT AINSLEIGH. 49. THE FATAL THREE. 22. TO THE BITTER END. 50. THE DAY WILL COME. 23. MILLY DARRELL. 51. ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE. 24. STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. 52. GERARD. 25. LUCIUS DAVOREN. 53. THE VENETIANS. 26. TAKEN AT THE FLOOD. 54. ALL ALONG THE RIVER. 27. LOST FOR LOVE. 55. THOU ART THE MAN. 28. A STRANGE WORLD. 56. SONS OF FIRE. THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT A Novel BY THE AUTHOR OF ‘LADY AUDLEY’S SECRET,’ ‘AURORA FLOYD,’ ‘VIXEN,’ ‘ISHMAEL,’ ETC., ETC. “Poor race of men, said the pitying Spirit, Dearly ye pay for your primal fall; Some flowers of Eden ye yet inherit, But the trail of the Serpent is over them all” _Moore._ Stereotyped Edition LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LIMITED. STATIONERS’ HALL COURT [_All rights reserved._] MISS BRADDON’S NOVELS. NOW READY AT ALL BOOKSELLERS’ AND BOOKSTALLS, PRICE 2_s._ 6_d._ EACH, CLOTH GILT. THE AUTHOR’S AUTOGRAPH EDITION OF MISS BRADDON’S NOVELS. “No one can be dull who has a novel by Miss Braddon in hand. The most tiresome journey is beguiled, and the most wearisome illness is brightened, by any one of her books.” “Miss Braddon is the Queen of the circulating libraries.” _The World._ LONDON: SIMPKIN & CO., LIMITED, STATIONERS’ HALL COURT. _And at all Railway Bookstalls, Booksellers’, and Libraries._ CONTENTS =Book the First.= A RESPECTABLE YOUNG MAN. CHAP. PAGE I. THE GOOD SCHOOLMASTER 5 II. GOOD FOR NOTHING 10 III. THE USHER WASHES HIS HANDS 17 IV. RICHARD MARWOOD LIGHTS HIS PIPE 21 V. THE HEALING WATERS 28 VI. TWO CORONER’S INQUESTS 34 VII. THE DUMB DETECTIVE A PHILANTHROPIST 38 VIII. SEVEN LETTERS ON THE DIRTY ALPHABET 43 IX. “MAD, GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY” 48 =Book the Second.= A CLEARANCE OF ALL SCORES. I. BLIND PETER 58 II. LIKE AND UNLIKE 63 III. A GOLDEN SECRET 66 IV. JIM LOOKS OVER THE BRINK OF THE TERRIBLE GULF 71 V. MIDNIGHT BY THE SLOPPERTON CLOCKS 78 VI. THE QUIET FIGURE ON THE HEATH 82 VII. THE USHER RESIGNS HIS SITUATION 91 =Book the Third.= A HOLY INSTITUTION. I. THE VALUE OF AN OPERA-GLASS 95 II. WORKING IN THE DARK 99 III. THE WRONG FOOTSTEP 104 IV. OCULAR DEMONSTRATION 111 V. THE KING OF SPADES 116 VI. A GLASS OF WINE 124 VII. THE LAST ACT OF LUCRETIA BORGIA 129 VIII. BAD DREAMS AND A WORSE WAKING 133 IX. A MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE 141 X. ANIMAL MAGNETISM 145 =Book the Fourth.= NAPOLEON THE GREAT. I. THE BOY FROM SLOPPERTON 150 II. MR. AUGUSTUS DARLEY AND MR. JOSEPH PETERS GO OUT FISHING 162 III. THE EMPEROR BIDS ADIEU TO ELBA 167 IV. JOY AND HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY 177 V. THE CHEROKEES TAKE AN OATH 181 VI. MR. PETERS RELATES HOW HE THOUGHT HE HAD A CLUE, AND HOW HE LOST IT 187 =Book the Fifth.= THE DUMB DETECTIVE. I. THE COUNT DE MAROLLES AT HOME 200 II. MR. PETERS SEES A GHOST 205 III. THE CHEROKEES MARK THEIR MAN 212 IV. THE CAPTAIN, THE CHEMIST, AND THE LASCAR 217 V. THE NEW MILKMAN IN PARK LANE 221 VI. SIGNOR MOSQUETTI RELATES AN ADVENTURE 225 VII. THE GOLDEN SECRET IS TOLD, AND THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN 230 VIII. ONE STEP FURTHER ON THE RIGHT TRACK 235 IX. CAPTAIN LANDSOWN OVERHEARS A CONVERSATION WHICH APPEARS TO INTEREST HIM 241 =Book the Sixth.= ON THE TRACK. I. FATHER AND SON 247 II. RAYMOND DE MAROLLES SHOWS HIMSELF BETTER THAN ALL BOW STREET 258 III. THE LEFT-HANDED SMASHER MAKES HIS MARK 263 IV. WHAT THEY FIND IN THE ROOM IN WHICH THE MURDER WAS COMMITTED 271 V. MR. PETERS DECIDES ON A STRANGE STEP, AND ARRESTS THE DEAD 282 VI. THE END OF THE DARK ROAD 300 VII. FAREWELL TO ENGLAND 313 THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT =Book the First.= A RESPECTABLE YOUNG MAN. CHAPTER I. THE GOOD SCHOOLMASTER. I DON’T suppose it rained harder in the good town of Slopperton-on-the-Sloshy than it rained anywhere else. But it did rain. There was scarcely an umbrella in Slopperton that could hold its own against the rain that came pouring down that November afternoon, between the hours of four and five. Every gutter in High Street, Slopperton; every gutter in Broad Street (which was of course the narrowest street); in New Street (which by the same rule was the oldest street); in East Street, West Street, Blue Dragon Street, and Windmill Street; every gutter in every one of these thoroughfares was a little Niagara, with a maelstrom at the corner, down which such small craft as bits of orange-peel, old boots and shoes, scraps of paper, and fragments of rag were absorbed--as better ships have been in the great northern whirlpool. That dingy stream, the Sloshy, was swollen into a kind of dirty Mississippi, and the graceful coal-barges which adorned its bosom were stripped of the clothes-lines and fluttering linen which usually were to be seen on their decks. A bad, determined, black-minded November day. A day on which the fog shaped itself into a demon, and lurked behind men’s shoulders, whispering into their ears, “Cut your throat!--you know you’ve got a razor, and can’t shave with it, because you’ve been drinking and your hand shakes; one little gash under the left ear, and the business is done. It’s the best thing you can do. It is, really.” A day on which the rain, the monotonous ceaseless persevering rain, has a voice as it comes down, and says, “Don’t you think you could go melancholy mad? Look at me; be good enough to watch me for a couple of hours or so, and think, while you watch me, of the girl who jilted you ten years ago; and of what a much better man you would be to-day if she had only loved you truly. Oh, I think, if you’ll only be so good as watch me, you might really contrive to go mad.” Then again the wind. What does the wind say, as it comes cutting through the dark passage, and stabbing you, like a coward as it is, in the back, just between the shoulders--what does it say? Why, it whistles in your ear a reminder of the little bottle of laudanum you’ve got upstairs, which you had for your toothache last week, and never used. A foggy wet windy November day. A bad day--a dangerous day. Keep us from bad thoughts to-day, and keep us out of the Police Reports next week. Give us a glass of something hot and strong, and a bit of something nice for supper, and bear with us a little this day; for if the strings of yonder piano--an instrument fashioned on mechanical principles by mortal hands--if they are depressed and slackened by the influence of damp and fog, how do we know that there may not be some string in this more critical instrument, the human mind, not made on mechanical principles or by mortal hands, a little out of order on this bad November day? But of course bad influences can only come to bad men; and of course he must be a very bad man whose spirits go up and down with every fluctuation of the weather-glass. Virtuous people no doubt are virtuous always; and by no chance, or change, or trial, or temptation, can they ever become other than virtuous. Therefore why should a wet day or a dark day depress them? No; they look out of the windows at houseless men and women and fatherless and motherless children wet through to