Ivan the Terrible; or, Dark Deeds of Night — page 105: what you’re looking at

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IVAN THE Again and again did the cart, with its feeble and helpless burden, jolt and jog into deep ruts and gullies, Mid oaths and curses and many vicious strokes on the tired steed, did the cart and its burden reach the spot. _\ “Here we are,” said one of the sheriffs. ‘“‘ Here is the eibbet ; it’s along time since anything hung on it before. Make haste, Jinks; hang him up as soon as_possible; I _ want to get home, I’m almost frozen to death.” “‘ But where is the rope ?” asked the other, “ Oh, Jinks will see to that, won’t you?” Aye, aye, master, leave that matter to me, No man un- derstands another man’s business better than himself. The . culprit has got a piece o’ the rope round his neck now, I see, so we'll fasten it to t’other piece that swings on the gibbet, and that'll settle him, or my nameé isn’t Jinks, that’s all.” So saying, Jinks drove his cart right under one of the arms of the gibbet, and tied both ends together. **T think that'll do, eh, master?” —_. “Yes, Jinks ; you seem to understand your trade perfectly, Make haste.” ‘‘T suppose as how you ain’t goin’ to read the sarvice for him, cause if so, I’ve got a prayer-book in my pocket,” said the old hangman, with marked solemnity. ‘‘Sarvice, the devil |’? answered both sheriffs, in disgust. “ Make short work of him; swing him off. He’s half dead now, and if he hadn’t as many lives as a cat, he’d a died long ago. Be quick ; let us see him swinging up, and that will be quite sufficient. You will attend to the rest; the blacksmith will be here with the chains soon. When he’s dead have him securely cased in them. It don’t matter ; if hanging won't kill him, the chains will, so there’s an end of it.” ‘True, master, true, just as you say. Come, now then, Zekiel,” he said, addressing the read-headed youth, his assist- ant, ‘ now, then, lead on the horse a few feet further, and let us cast him off, Ha! ha! we'll soon make him dance on nothing.” The cart moved a few feet onward, but owing to Zekiel’s stupidity one of the wheels went into a very deep rut in the road, and in a second not only was Will Winter “cast off”’ and swinging on the gibbet, but old Jinks was tossed out of the cart very violently to the ground among the mud puddles, and the cart itself turned completely over in the ditch. The sheriffs laughed boisterously indeed at the mishap, but what was sport for them was pain for Jinks, for he bumped his head so violently that it began to swell to considerably more than its ordinary size, and he accordingly swore roundly at everything and everybody, not forgetting Zekiel, who stood grinning like a half-tamed baboon. Having witnessed the re-hanging of their prisoner, the sheriffs turned their horses’ heads towards London again, leaving old Jinks and his gawky assistant to wait for the blacksmith and complete the business, and to curse each other to their heart’s content, which they really did until out of breath and almost black in the face. CHAPTER LIL THE ALTERCATION BETWEEN THE HANGMAN AND HIS APPRENTICE—WILL WINTER STILL ALIVE. To and fro swayed gently the body of Will Winter in the cold and whistling night winds on the lonely heath. ° The old hangman, with his strange-looking youth, alone remained beside the fatal tree. , This lad was about sixteen years of age, tall for his age, and ugly ; his limbs and body were so at variance with each other in his attitudes, that if the old and sour-tempered hangman had picked him up piece by piece in some old churchyard, and had then put them together, he could not have had a more hideous-looking creature for an assistant 1n his hideous trade. . : The hangman, after having cursed until he was hoarse, put a sack over his head and shoulders, and sat down upon the ground smoking @ short black pipe, somewhat composed in mind as his work was now all but finished. « Zekiel,” the old hangman grunted at last, TERRIBLE. 101 * Well,” Zekiel answered, snarling, ‘‘ The snow ism my eye again.’ “ Hold your row, you ape, I tell ye. Look along the road and see if you can see the blacksmith with his donkey cart coming along.” “ Shan’t! Do it yourself. You wouldn’t lend me a sack to cover me from the snow—look out yourself.” * Shan’t, eh ?” the old man growled. “ Now, for half a pin ’'d —— But no matter, we shall see by and bye what you’re made of. You turned over the cart on purpose, Don’t tell me; and if I don’t give you a sound trouncing by and bye my name ain’t Jinks,” “T don’t care whether we see or not,” laughed Zekiel, “and as to your learning me the trade of hangman, you can keep it, unless you let me commence first on you.” The hangman muttered several rude oaths and rose. Shading his eyes with his hand, he said, . “Ah, that’s him; that’s old Jones, the blacksmith, *He ig coming, true to his word as usual, Ah! many a fine hanging job he and I have had together. I can justsee the red glow of his pipe through the snow drift, What would a man do without his pipe, eh? and on such a day as this?” ‘“ They will just fit me, Z know,” said Zekiel, muttering to himself, ‘s What are youtalking about now, stupid?” growled Jinks. ‘¢ His boots. The bootsof the dead man. When you cut him down, you must give his boots to me, As I’m going to have nothing for the job, I ought to have ’em.” “ Tdiot ! don’t you know as well. as I do that he is to be hung in chains ?” - “Oh, ishe? Ha, ha!’ “Oh, is he! I thought every fool knew that! Do you think I would have stood here shivering in all the rain and snow if it wasn’t to be done ?” “Tt’ll do you good—make you grow like me, Jinks, Ha, ha !” “T tell you what it is, you laughing hyena, I am bringing you up to a profession that will make a man of you, mind that, and without one penny of premium, mark me; and if you don’t behave yourself I’ll put you in the workhouse again, where I got you.” ‘“ Better there than here this shivering night, anyway,” Zekiel answered, ‘Ah, that’s all very well, my lad, but——Oh, here is old Jones at last; I can’t take my time up with you, but I tell you what you will have to do, Master Zeke, you'll have to climb up to the top of that tree the young man hangs on.” ‘‘ What, me?” ‘“ Just so, and then you will have to put the iron mask on him,” “A mask? what mask ?” ‘Why, the iron——Oh, but I forgot, the young idiot knows nothing of the profession yet,” sighed the old man. “You must be joking, old’un,” said Zeke, shaking and blowing his fingers. ‘Not me, Mr. Jinks ; you don’t have any climbing out of me, to-night.” During this altercation between master and apprentice a man in a fustian coat, leading a donkey and cart, reached the foot of the gallows-tree. ‘“’Woa! Woa, will you?” The donkey paused, and flapped the snow out of his long ars. ‘Well, here I am,” said old Jones, “ and the sooner this job is over the better. Here’s the irons. Woa, will you? My donkey is getting worse and worse, Jinks; he always wants to go galloping off. Oats don’t seem to do him any good, He was bred on thistles.”’ Jones, the blacksmith let down the tilt-board of the cart, and then rolled out of it, on to the snow, a large quantity of black iron bars, with chains, and loose pieces hanging to oddly-shaped long ribs of metal, and huge rings for the purpose of encircling the body of the hanging outh. s “They ought to be welded,” said old Jinks, the hangman, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful and serio-comic manner, and assuming an attitude of much dignity and professional pride, EComichbooksreom