The Ruby In The Smoke summary
Chapter 1: the seven blessings
Sally Lockhart was within fifteen minutes going to kill a man. When she stepped out of the cab, she
was standing infront of the building. She came to visit Mr.Selby. When she said she was the daughter
of Mr. Lockhart the porter became friendlier. He tells her he’s sorry to hear about her father, that he
was surprised a ship could going down like that. (he died three months ago when the schooner
Lavinia had sunk in the South China Sea) The porter said to her: ‘Im sorry but Mr. Selby is at the West
India Docks on business. But Mr Higgs is here- the company secretary, I will call him.’ Sally asked the
young man who brought her to Mr. Higgs: ‘Have you ever heard of the seven blessings? It’s
important!’ but he didn’t know any of it. Sally said to forget it.
When she entered the room of Mr. Higgs it was full of smoke, silver inkwells and leather. When the
man in the room (Higgs) finished rolling up a map his expression became solemn (plechtig) and pious
(vrome). She asked him if her father ever mentioned a Mr. Marchbanks. ‘Marchbanks’ he said, and
was considering the question; ‘There is a ship’s chandler in Rotherhithe called that- spelled Marjo-ri-
banks, you know. I don’t recall your poor father ever having dealings with him though.’ She asked for
his address: Tasmania Wharf, he believed. She was feeling that she was bothering him but she asked
another question: ‘have you ever heard the phrase the seven blessings?’ he took a step forward and
darkness flooded his face. Sally’s mind was in turmoil (onrust) but her hands were perfectly steady.
Good. She thought; when im frightened, I can rely on my hands.
He was dead, Higgs was dead. When Mr. Selby came in he called the police. Sally said that when she
was talking he just, died. When she went downstairs the porter said: ‘you killed old Higgs’. But she
was confused and said that she didn’t. He said that he was listening at the door and that she should
be carefull who she asked about those ‘seven blessings’. She opened her back and showed him (jim)
a note from Singapore: ‘Sali beware of the seven blessings. Marchbanks will help chattum bware
darling.’ ‘’Blimey’’ he said, he can’t spell. He said she could trust him and he said that if she wants to
meet him he lives at Thirteen fortune building, clerkenwell. Jim taylor was his name. And if she wants
to write him she has to do it to Nine Peveril Square, Islington.
So it was not sally’s intention to kill- despite the gun in her bag-. The real cause of Mr. Higgs’s death,
the letter, had arrived only that morning, forward by her father’s lawyer to the house in Peveril
Square, Islington, where sally was living. The house belonged to a distant relative, Mrs. Rees.
(caroline rees)
(Dutchman Van Eeden was trustworthy said her father) Sally’s mother died during the Indian
Mutiny. The bullet grazed the baby her arm, so sally has a scar left and her mother was dead.
Chapter 2: the web
Several days went by. There was an inquest that sally had to attend: Mrs Rees had arranged a visit to
her great friend miss Tulett. No one appeared surprised by the death of Mr. Higgs. A verdict of death
by naturel causes was returned; the medical evidence had disclosed a weakness of the heart, and
that case was dealt with in less than half an hour. Sally went back to Peveril Square; life went back to
normal. But there was a difference. Without knowing it, she had shaken the edge of a web, and the
spider at the heart of it had awoken. Three events took place, first a gentleman in a cold house read
, a newspaper (Major Marchbanks), second, an old lady who entertained a lawyer at tea (Ms.Holland)
and third a sailer in unhappy circumstances came ashore at the West India Docks and looked for a
lodging house. First: When George Marchbanks sat outside his house on the coast of Kent he
enjoyed the view of waves and ships passed further by. But he was not looking at the sea right now,
he was reading a newspaper. He turned the pages, holding the paper up to the fading daylight so as
to defer till the last possible moment the expense of lighting the lamps. The paragraph which
interested him the most was (zie blz 20) he read it twice and rubbed his eyes. Then he got up and
went to write a letter.
Second: Beyond the tower of London, between St. Katherine’s Docks and Shadwell New Basin, lies
the area known as Wapping. Of all the grim corners of Wapping, none is grimmer than Hangman’s
Wharf. Lodgings, in the East End, is a word used that covers a multitude of horrors. Somewhere in
between there is Holland’s Lodgings. You were never alone there. If the fleas disdained your flesh,
the bedbugs had no snobbery. To this house came Mr. Jeremiah Blyth, a shady lawyer of Hoxton.
When Mr. Blyth came to Mrs Holland. He told her he went down to Swaleness on Wednesday and
secured the agreement of the gentlemen to the terms they discussed at their last meeting.
Third: Matthew Bedwell. He was a second mate on a tramp ship in the Far East, but more than one
year ago. He was wondering through the maze dark streets behind the West India Docks. He had a
slip of paper in his pocket with an address on it. From time to time he took it out and checked around
him. Anyone watching him would have thought he was drunk, but if you looked more compassionate
you think he is ill or in pain, and that’s more close. Bedwell was passing through an alley in
Limehouse and found himself in Wapping. He ordered a gin like it was needed as a medicine. (in mrs
Hollands lodging he stayed)
Chapter 3: the gentlemen of Kent
Three nights later Sally had a nightmare again. She felt herself protesting, it felt too real. She heard
herself sobbing and gasping, and remembered: there’s no father. You’re alone. You must do without
him. You must be strong. Next morning, another letter arrived. She evaded Mrs.Rees as soon as
breakfast was over and opened her letter in her bedroom. It had been forwarded by the lawyer, like
the previous one, but the stamp was British this time, and the writing educated. She took out the
single sheet of cheap paper and read (blz 29/30)
Sally read it twice, astonished beyond measure. If her father and Mr. Marchbanks had been friends,
why had she not heard his name until the letter from the Far East? And what was this danger? The
seven blessings… ofcourse. He must knw what her father had discovered. She left the house and sat
in the train on her way to Mr. Marchbanks.
She ran in Swaleness into a photographer, Frederick Garland. When she asked the way he said that
there was an old woman before who asked for the same address. When she went through the woods
and saw the house, she wanted to knock. But there was someone at the door before she got the
chance to knock. ‘Please, Not a word. This way, quickly.’ She went in and followed the man and came
in a room with Marchbanks. When she said the words: seven blessings, it did nothing on him… major
Marchbanks was not able to answer her questions. He gave her a box that she could open when she
was on her way back. He only said: ‘’Listen, I have an enemy, and that enemy is yours now too. She is
in this house right now, you should leave. (Mrs. Holland was that enemy)’ when she walked out she
noticed that she was being followed by an old lady dressed in all black… she ran into the main road
and then saw the photographer, Frederick. He told her she was being followed and he hide Sally (ook
wel veronica genoemd) in his tent. When the lady came to him he pointed an other road to her.
