A Study in Scarlet: Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The narrative shifts to the present, where Hope is recounting his story. Recognizing his powerlessness, Hope does not resist any further and appears resigned to being arrested. Hope openly admires the way Holmes followed his trail. He calmly lets himself into his own cab, and at Holmes’ suggestion, Gregson and Dr. Watson accompany him, with Lestrade driving the cab. At the Scotland Yard, Hope is allowed to make a statement before his meeting with the magistrates later in the week. Hope decides to confess everything right then, and asks Watson to examine his chest. Watson is surprised to discover that the man has an aortic aneurysm, which Hope claims is due to overexposure and malnutrition from his time in the mountains. As Watson confirms Hope’s precarious health, Hope is allowed to make a full statement.

Hope begins by saying that the men he killed were responsible for the deaths of a father and daughter, and that they therefore deserved to die. Since no one else would have convicted them, Hope decided to take matters into his own hands. The daughter was Hope’s fiancée. Forced into marrying Drebber, she died, according to Hope, of a broken heart. After her death, Hope took her wedding ring, vowing to himself that it would be the last thing Drebber saw and thought about. Hope pursued Drebber and Stangerson all over America and Europe, a difficult feat as he had little money. When he arrived at London, he found work as a cab driver and eventually discovered that his enemies were staying at a boarding house in Camberwell. However, they cleverly eluded capture, as they never went out alone or in the dark.

One night, however, Hope followed the men from the boarding house to the train station. He heard the men ask for the train to Liverpool, but the next train wouldn’t be coming for hours. Drebber decided to go off on his own and stubbornly dismissed a warning from Stangerson, who told Drebber to meet him at the Halliday’s Private Hotel. At last Hope had an opportunity to catch the men alone. He had been planning to take Drebber back to an empty house of Brixton Road, and the only problem now was getting him to that house.

Hope followed Drebber and watched him go in and out of liquor shops before taking a cab back to the boarding house. Hope then saw a young man chase Drebber out of the house for “insult[ing] an honest girl,” and Drebber, seeking refuge, got into Hope’s cab, asking to be driven to the Halliday’s Private Hotel. Hope was elated, as Drebber walked right into his hands. Drebber decided to stop by another liquor shop and told Hope to wait for him outside.

At this point, Hope breaks from his narrative, claiming that he did not intended to kill Drebber “in cold blood” and that he wanted Drebber to “have a show for his life.” As Hope was once a janitor in a university lab, he had learned about alkaloid poison, some of which Hope stole and made into soluble pills. He began to carry pillboxes with him, each carrying one of the poisonous pills and one harmless pill. He decided that his enemies should choose one of the pills, while he would take the other.

Returning to his story, Hope claims that he saw John and Lucy Ferrier smiling at him as he was about to enact his revenge. As Drebber was heavily drunk, he did not realize that Hope was bringing him not to the hotel but to an empty house on Brixton Street. Once they made their way into the house, Hope lit a candle, asking Drebber if he recognized him. Drebber was horrified when he realized that it was Hope, who declared that one of them would die that night. Hope claimed that “There is no murder,” as “Who talks of murdering a mad dog?” Hope reminded Drebber of his crimes, and held a knife to force him to choose one of the pills from his pillbox. God, Hope claimed, would decide whether Drebber received the poisonous pill or the harmless pill. Hope held up Lucy’s ring before Drebber’s eyes and laughed as he watched Drebber die.

During this encounter, Hope’s nose had been bleeding, and on a whim he decided to write “RACHE” on the wall with his own blood to throw the police off his trail. Leaving the house in high spirits, he drove away until he realized that Lucy’s ring was missing. When he came back, however, he ran into a police officer, but managed to escape by pretending to be drunk. Now that Drebber was dead, Hope’s only other goal was to kill Stangerson as well. Early in the morning, Hope decided to climb up to Stangerson’s window. Catching Stangerson off guard, Hope described Drebber’s death and offered him one of the pills from another pillbox. However, unlike Drebber, who had taken a pill, Stangerson attacked Hope, who then stabbed Stangerson in self-defense. Hope believes that Stangerson would have died anyway, “for Providence would never have allowed his guilty hand to pick out anything but the poison.”

After killing Drebber and Stangerson, Hope continued to drive his cab until a youngster asked for him by name, requesting his cab for a man at 221B, Baker Street. Unsuspecting, Hope arrived at the apartment only to be captured. He remarks to his listeners that though they may regard him as a mere killer, he believes that he is “just as much an officer of justice as you are.” When Holmes asks for the identity of the accomplice who retrieved the ring, Hope amiably tells him that he doesn’t want to get his friend into trouble. Holmes, agreeing with Hope that the friend had retrieved the ring and escaped skillfully, doesn’t press the matter. At that point, an inspector announces that Hope must be put in prison, and Watson and Holmes set off for Baker Street.