Black Bess; or, the Knight of the Road — page 398: what you’re looking at

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

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J =f ; Me a wl xg ot 4 J ie - ~~) mS aa N : Pw = Pigs . v5 »” ‘ . , fit a> 49 Dick’s certainly was a bold manner of thinking, and aa gues tere thera, and this euspicion it was almost impossibte certainly was it full uf sound philosophy. | tkat they should entertain. | oe What farther might have been said just thea upon} On the present occasion, then, Dick Turpin and his this topte we know not, for it was just at this moment | associates may very fairly bs excrsed for giving them- jhat Tom King reached the little wirdow. selves over to the belief that ike a time they were He found it in precisely the same condition as he had | perfectly secure. left it, and this he and all the rest looked upon as a mest; After some ttle deliberation, it was determined that favourable omen. ' they would make the apartment which the officers nad Before entering, however, they listened at the open | ocrgpied their head quarters. window for the space of several moments. Their feeling of security, however, was not s0 great aa The same silence continued to reign. to cause them to emit the precautions which they usually Encouraged by this, ‘Tom King made his way in. took. Dick Turpin came next, and assisted Maud § follow. It was unanimously agreea woon that one should keep The others quickly entered too, and then the window | good watch and ward while the others slept, with the was closed. express understanding that the alarm should be given is The darkness was intense. case of the occurrence of ta slightest circumstance of an “T think we might venture to risk a light,” said Dick. | unusual nature. ‘We shall never grope our way if we donot, I am|_ If the reader will think over the events which we have thinking,” said Claude, who at once busied himself in | recently related he will discover that our friends had but producing the necessary materials. few opportunities of enjoying rest. A small lantern was quickly lighted, which did not} Asthey had all been very ‘busily engaged, they were ‘give a vory brilliant illumination, but yet quite sufficient | now consequently terribly fatigued, and the feeling grew to enable them to find their way across the room, which, | upon tieza now that there was no Immediate need foz it will be remembered, was the kitchen of the inn. active excrion. ‘On gaining the passage beyond, greater caution than} On this account it was determined that all discussion ever was made use of, though it was almost beyond doubt | as to their future movement should be postponed for a that no oflicers were in the place, or they must have | few hours. heard the noise made by the entrance of so manyj In the meantime, they would all do their best to re- people. cuperate their wasted energies by sleep. At length the room was gained where Tom had hadso{ Dick Turpin kept watch for the first hour, and then ho narrow an escape of discovery. was relieved by Tom King. Here all was dark and silent too. “T think we may venture to make ourselves contented now,” said Tom. “I told you I was convinced that nothing would induce the officers to remain.” “You were right,” said Dick, as he pushed open the door and entered the apartment which had been made the head quarters of the officers. There were pienty of evidences of their presence to be seen, and from various indications the highwaymen con- cluded that their foes could not have taken their departure very long before. For instance, the wood-ashes on the hearth were by no means cold, and dim wreaths of tobacco smcke hung sbout here and there. ‘‘] hope we shall be safe for an hour or two, at all events,” said Dick. “So dol,” responded Tom. “ QOur first care ought to be to go thoroughly over the premises, and see that every door and window is secured; we should then have nothing to fear from being suddenJ7 taken by surprise.” All saw in a moment the absolute necessity of the adoption of this course, so it was set about beizg carried out without any more discussion. But Claude was especially careful to carry the lantern in such a manner as to preclude, as far as possible, the chance of any of its beams being seen by any chance passer-by outside. They came first to the front door. ‘This was fastened, but only by meane of the lock, the key of which was absent. “They would be able to enter readily enough, would they not?” said Tom. “But this will rathe» interfere with their arrangements.” While he made the last remark he put up a neavy iron bar, and pushed two heavy bolts into their sockets. ‘“‘ Yes,” said Claude, “they cannot enter that way with- out making a little noise—that is certain.” “They are excellent bolts and bars,” remarked Dick ; ‘and so far as this means of entrance is concorned I | for they, reasonably enough, looked upon their freedom shall not feel in the least degree alarmed.” from melestation so far as an earnest that they woulc ‘he remainder of the inn was then carefully gone over, | cemcinae to remain so. ® and every available fastening was made use of. The rest which they all enjoyed enabled thers to think When on the upper storey, tho chamber of death was { clearly upon the different matters about to be discussed, peeped into and assist them in coming to satisfactory conclusions. | The result was that Tom’s conjevicrc was provedto| All noticed what a look of intense expectation the 3 be quite correct. | cuuntenance of Tom Davis wore. The two dead bodies had been reraoved. They were not ignorant of the cause. When this fact was made known to all tho rest, a f{se:- As for Davis himself, however, he did nee give uiter- fag of increased security took possession of their | ance toa word, but merely looked on anxiously. breasts. ~It seems to me,” exclaimed Dick, after some» pres Go fsr as they could tell, there was nothing to induce} liminary but not very important observations had bess the officers to make a return to the premises, unless they | exchanged—“it seems to mo that the first thing to bs should suspect that our friends had taken vp their | considered is as regards our so.onrn in this placa” ~~ , : . F j — tv Ts . . . ¥ ’ A a : ~ ee £ «© ‘ * 4 ‘ ra ¢ -* > ee a os . —— 4 ~— An >< . Te Ae Oo » CHAPTER MXLI. IN WHICH THE HIGHWAYMEN HOLD A CONFERENCE AND ARRIVE AT SOME HIGIILY-IMPCRTANT CONCLUSIONS. ALTERNATING in this manner, many hours were passed. The place chose for keeping guard was the small attic at the top of the house, and this, with a little trouble, was made to answer the purpose required of it as well as though it had been especially constructed and designed to answer the end in view, As it stood, this attic had but one window, and this was Wituated in the front of the inn. But the roof of the attic was composed of nothing but thatch, andin the highest place was not much above siz feet from the floor. It came sloping down equally on both sides from a point in the centre. What our friends did then was to remove just as much of the thatch as was necessary to make a hole large enough for them to look through. This was done on both sides, aud opposite to the window as well. The consequence of this arrangement was that, pro- vided a good look-out was continually kept, it was not possible for anyone to approach unseen. Here then, turn by turn, the highwaymen and T'om Davis kept watch. A large expanse of country was presented to their view. Night approached, however, without anything having been seen to give rise to the least alarm. When darkness fairly closed in, of course this look-out from above became impossible. All assembled, therefore, in the room below, which they had made as comfortable as the means at their disposal would admit of. Without exception, everyone was in excellent spirits, <— NS LL LEE LLL, LL LL LL LL EE LE AY RE of 2/ « 4 oe > eae ova *e/ “ee MS, ok BT 8 ¥ ote Cea Bie,