The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 203: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

200 THE CHIED OF WATERLOO. ate position. The mendicant gently touched two of these, which lay contiguous to each other, and the motion completely pumned them over, and down they fell just as he had intended them. They reached their destination exactly, for they fell flat upon the cheeks of the two men, to their intense astonishment and horror; for they were completely beaten down, not only with the force of the blow, but with amazement likewise. In an in- stant after, the mendicant, by rapid strides, entered the room on the first floor, and then going into a small closet, he pushed aside the shelves which opened unto a flight of stairs, and then having closed the door, he paused. He could hear the voices of the two men who had been listening, and who had been treated so unceremoniously by the fall of the tiles, and who, after the first surprise had subsided, recovered themselves, and one of them exclaimed— “‘There’s somebody up-stairs.” “T think not,” replied his companion; ‘‘we haven’t heard a sound, and nobody could move about those empty rooms with- out being heard, much less kick tiles over.” ‘““You may say what you please, but there’s somebody u stairs; but what an infernal blow on the face I have received; why, it was enough to have broken my jaw.” ‘*And mine; see, my face is cut.” ‘A little.” ‘‘Quite enough: at all events, I'll go up; come on, we can’t remain in this state of uncertainty; we may have some game carried on that we little think of, if we do not take proper care; Iam sure of that.” ‘¢ Very well; let’s make a thorough search over the place, and in the meantime we may as well secure the door.” ** Let down the bar.” Having secured the door, the two men then ascended the stairs and examined the staircase closet, for there was one; it was a large. old-fashioned rambling house, where there were capabilities almost sufficient to conceal a troop of cavalry. ‘* Well, I must say that this is the oddest old pile ever I saw; there ain’t a place but what has some hole, or cupboard, or something of the sort; I can’t tell how they could have been in- genious enough to have built a house with them.” ‘* Why, it does seem as though the house had been built with a view to the construction of cupboards.” * Ah, it does; I suppose they built it up first, and tried their hand at what they could make of it afterward, and in all the odd corners they placed a cupboard.” ‘‘ There’s been nobody here, I think.” ‘* Well, I think not, too; but 1t was very strange all that noise should have arisen from nothing, or from no cause at il. I can't understand it.” ‘“Very likely some one came by and did it for the sake of amusement, and then turned tail.” | ‘*T heard no one run away.” comicbooks. com