Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTHBER. 55 Hal Hetherington ran up, a pistol still smoking in his hand, The footmen followed. Then came a large rabble, consisting of the watch with their staves and lanterns, and a crowd of the inhabitants, some shoeless and stockingless, others in their shirt-sleeves, and not a few scarcely suffi- ciently attired to meet the claims of decency ; in their hands they carried weapons of every variety, carbines, pistols, blunderbusses, cudgels, with a sprinkling of pokers and mop-sticks, Hal rushed to our hero’s assistance, and seized Dick Turpin by the collar. “Hold him fast, Hal!” panted Jack, disengaging himself from the robber’s grip, and rising on his knees, “ It—it is—th—the villain Dick Turpin |” “TURPIN !” shouted the crowd in astonishment. “Yes, yes!’ gasped Jack, who was completely exhausted, and gasped for breath. ‘Seize him, ye fools !” Jack’s impatient exclamation was certainly quite pardonable under the circumstances. The poor impotent old Charlies stared at the re- doubtable highwayman with evident disinclination to tackle him, while the crowd, who had just ‘been roused from their quiet sleep, stared in' bewilder- ment. “Will you let him escape?” shouted Hal, who with the two footmen, were struggling to hold the powerful fellow. “ Not trapped yet,” roared Dick Turpin, hurling Hal one way and the footmen another. He bourded across the road and sprang into the “ Black Lion.” No sooner had he disappeared than the crowd seemed to be suddenly roused from its apathy, Bang! bang! flew the bullets after the fugitive, rattling against the wooden posts of the door, and smashing several window panes. “We'll capture him yet,” cried Roving Jack, waving his sword. ‘Come, my brave folks, re- member the reward offered for the miscreant; I will add to it myself five hundred pounds to the first man who catches him,” “ Hurrah !’”? shouted the watch and the mob, in deafening tones. “A highwayman! A highway- man! After him! Stop thief!” Rattles whirred and crackled ; staves and brown- bills clattered ; the mob hustled and yelled, and, close following Jack and Hal, poured into the narrow passage of the old tavern. “ Hulloa! bulloa! What means all this?’ cried Joe Hind. ‘‘ Here’s a pretty rumpus. What’s amiss, neighbours ?” Amiss, you rascal |!” cried a kindly, respectable- looking man, ina brown coat with brass buttons. “ This young gentleman has been assaulted, robbed, and well-nigh murdered by highwaymen; the villains have taken refuge in your godless house, which is a very synagogue of the devil, a sink-pool of vice and villany—the harbour for cut-throats, thieves, and prostitutes. It was here my poor ap- prentice lad, Jack Sheppard, was first seduced from the paths of honesty ; it was here—” “Tut, tut, neighbour Wood,” returned Joe Hind ; ‘“T can’t be held responsible for the character of every guest who orders a bowl of punch or a flagon of hucklemybuff. Come to the gist of the matter,” “ Truly the Psalmist hath said-——” One of the bystanders uttered a somewhat pro- fane expression with respect to the sacred monarch, and hastily pushed past the worthy old carpenter. * Don’t you see, neighbours, that while we are confabbing here the rogue is escaping, and with him our chance of the reward? A hundred pounds is something to me, and earning that I’d risk my life to capture the scoundrel,”’ “Well said,” cried Roving Jack; “and so, Mr Joe Hind, you had better give the fellow up quietly, else we'll ransack this den, and tumble its four walls about your ears.” “ Aye, that we will,” cried a valiant button maker. ‘This vile house is the curse and pest of the neigh- bourhood. What say, neighbours all? We haye found all our applications for the removal of this crying nuisance are vain, That scoundrel, Jonathan Wild, for his own ends, screens the rogues who in- fest this hole. Let’s take the law into our own hands, and smoke the vermin out of their nest !”’ « Aye, let’s fire the house!” cried others, “let’s burn it to the ground.’’ “ Hurrah |” And several of the enraged inhabitants, who carried lanterns and links in their hands, were actually preparing to put their threat into execu- tion. But, by the intervention of our hero and the watchmen, they were dissuaded from such a violent measure; then they returned to their former cry and shouting, “A highwayman! Down with the scoundrel!” rushed along the passage, and burst open the doors of the various chambers in search of the fugitiv robber. Joe Hind was knocked down and trampled under foot. Our hero and Hal, followed by the watch and the most determined of the rest of the party, burst into the tap-room which had so lately been crowded by the desperate and debauched frequenters of this flash,ken, but it was now quite deserted. Tables and benches lay overturned. Windows and doors were thrown wide open ; and men and women were seen scrambling over walls and roofs. The exasperated besiegers did not scruple to dis- charge their fire-arms at the escaping thieves and bona robas, and more than one shriek or yell told that some of the shots had taken effect. ‘‘ What ho, there !”’ thundered a stern and terri- ble voice. ‘Keep the peace, I say |” The commander-in-chief of the thief-takers and the autocrat of thieves sprang into the room, savagely scowling and brandishing a heavy blud- geon. ‘What means this outrage?” ‘Heed him not!’ shouted Jack. ‘‘ Knock the villain down! Yonder flies Dick Turpin over the roofs of the outhouses! Afterhim! Five hundred gold guineas for the bloody wolf, dead or alive |” With an oath the thief-taker rushed up. to our hero. ** Audacious whelp ! Jonathan Wild !”’ * And I am—Roying Jack !” responded our hero, sending his fist smash into the ruffian’s face and knocking him backwards. | “Down with the traitor, the double-dealing wretch who lives upon the blood of his misguided victims |!” shouted Jack, indignantly. ‘* Hang him up! Beat out his brains with his own tipstaff | He is the law’s disgrace, and it is no breach of law to slay such a hyena !” The mob uttered a shout of execration, and flew upon the thief-taker. But Jonathan Wild was a man of indomitable courage, and fought like a rampant lion. Whirling round his heavy sword, he carved a way through the crowd and escaped from the house. Do ye know me? I am Gomichook (CO) LL SS