CHAPTER XVI.

_An Ill Excuse--Strange Behaviour--Discovery--The Threat--Unavailing Arguments--The Last Bargain._

About nine o'clock on the morning of Saturday, the 1st of November, Burke went round at Hare's house to see about his lodgers, who had been forced to change their quarters for the night. He was anxious to know how they had rested, and having offered Gray a "dram of spirits," he invited the family along to his own home to have breakfast. This they were not loath to do, as there was no prospect of them readily obtaining their food in their temporary lodgings. When they entered Burke's house they found there Mrs. Law and Mrs. Connoway, two neighbours, Broggan, and Helen M'Dougal. They naturally missed the woman for whom they had been shifted, and Mrs. Gray asked M'Dougal where the "little old woman" had gone. The reply was that Mrs. Docherty had grown very impudent to Burke, perhaps through having taken too much liquor, and they had found it necessary to put her out. Breakfast was served without further ado, and then Mrs. Gray set about the dressing of her child. Burke was behaving in a very curious manner, for he had the whisky bottle in his hand, and was throwing some of the contents under the bed, on the bed, and up to the roof of the apartment, at times put a little on his breast, and occasionally took a sip internally. His explanation of this remarkable proceeding was that he wished the bottle "toom," that he might again have it filled. Mrs. Gray, it would seem, was taking a smoke, and had a pipe in her mouth when she was looking for her child's stocking. In the course of her search she went to the corner of the room where the body of Docherty was lying covered with straw, but Burke called to her to keep out of there; and when she made to go beneath the bed to get some potatoes he asked her what she was doing there with a lighted pipe. He offered to look after them himself, but Mrs. Gray dispensed with his help, and collected the potatoes without having disturbed anything. All these circumstances created a suspicion in the woman's mind that something was wrong; but later in the day that surmise was strengthened by Burke, when about to go out, telling Broggan to sit on a chair which was near the straw, until he returned. Broggan either did not know of the mystery underneath the straw, or did not care, for Burke was not long away until he went out also. M'Dougal left the house too, and Mrs. Gray had then an opportunity of clearing up the suspicions she had formed. The straw in the corner had appeared to be the great object of attention, and she went direct there. She lifted the straw, and the first thing she caught hold of was the arm of a dead woman. Gray himself went over, and there they saw the naked body of the old Irishwoman who had been brought into the house by Burke the day before. The man lifted the head by the hair, and saw there was blood about the mouth and the ears. The horrified couple hastily threw the straw over the corpse, and collected what property they had in the house in order to leave it immediately. Gray went out first, leaving his wife to complete their packing arrangements. On the stair he met Helen M'Dougal, and asked her what that was she had in the house. The woman made a feeble pretence at ignorance, but when Gray said to her, "I suppose you know very well what it is," she dropped on her knees, and implored him not to say anything of what she had seen, and offered him five or six shillings to put him over till Monday. She urged that the woman's death had been caused by her having taken an overdose of drink--alcoholic poisoning is now the respectable name for it--and tried to make the man believe that the incident was such as might occur in anybody's house. Finding this line of explanation thrown away upon him, she tried another which she seemed to think more powerful. In her intense anxiety for concealment, she told him there never would be a week after that but what he might be worth ten pounds. It seemed to suggest itself to her that Gray, by such promises, might be induced to join their murdering gang. He, however, replied that his conscience would not allow him to remain silent. Just as M'Dougal left Gray to enter the house, Mrs. Gray came out, and the two women met. Mrs. Gray turned back, and asked M'Dougal about the body among the straw; but the reply was similar to that given to Gray himself. The unfortunate creature offered the same inducements, but all to no effect, as Mrs. Gray exclaimed with unction--"God forbid that I should be worth money with dead people!" M'Dougal, seeing the end was near, cried out, "My God, I cannot help it!" to which Mrs. Gray replied, "You surely can help it, or you would not stay in the house." The husband and wife then left the place together, followed by M'Dougal, and when in the street they were met by Mrs. Hare, who asked them what they were making a noise about, and told them to go into the house and settle their disputes there. The two women invited Gray and his wife into a neighbouring public house, and there, over a round of liquor, they plied them with arguments and entreaties to keep silence as to what they had seen, and the benefit would be ultimately theirs. But all to no purpose. Gray was obdurate, and his wife supported him in his intention to inform the authorities of what they had reason to believe was a foul murder. Finding they were simply wasting their time, Mrs. Hare and M'Dougal, in a state of great anxiety, hurriedly left the place, as if to prepare for flight; and Gray made his way to the police office to lodge the information.

In the meantime, Burke and Hare were busy making arrangements for the removal of the body to Dr. Knox's premises. They applied at the rooms in Surgeon's Square for a box in which to put it for safe conveyance, but they could not be supplied with one; and later on, between five and six o'clock in the evening, Burke purchased an empty tea-chest in Rymer's shop. He had engaged John M'Culloch, a street porter, to call at the house for a box, and before this man arrived the two colleagues had wrapped the body of Docherty in a sheet, placed it in the box among some straw, and roped down the lid. Whether they knew of the discovery by Gray, and his subsequent threat, is uncertain: that they did not is probable from the manner in which they went about the work of removing the corpse. When everything was ready, M'Culloch was called in, and told to carry it to the place to which they would take him. As the porter was raising the box on to his back he saw some long hair hanging out of a crevice in the lid, and, having probably been in the service of resurrectionists before, he endeavoured to press it inside. This done, he went on his way with his burden, the two men who employed him walking by his side. Mrs. Hare and Helen M'Dougal, apparently beside themselves with excitement, had been near all the time, and followed some distance behind. It was now well on in the evening, and after the box and its contents were placed in the cellar at Surgeon's Square, Burke, Hare, and M'Culloch, accompanied by Paterson, "the keeper of Knox's museum," and still followed by the women, walked to Newington, where Paterson received from the doctor five pounds in part payment for the body. In a public-house in the vicinity the division was made. Knox's man handed M'Culloch five shillings for his services as porter, and Burke and Hare each received two pounds seven shillings and sixpence; but on Monday, it was understood, when the doctor would have had time to examine the body, they were to receive other five pounds, making ten pounds in all.

The end had now come; the murdering career of these terrible beings was closed. They seemed to feel that it could last no longer; their whole manner of working on that Saturday indicated impending discovery, and helped towards it.