Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

SE ESAS rt rs EE Lee nk a 126 BLUESKIN: A ROMANCE. a EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDRRRRE learned by the words Jack spoke that the secret exit from He turned on his heel as he spoke, and retraced his steps the cells was known to him. through the market to the cells. It was, he thought, a secret whose existence was locked | He did not pause at Jack’s cell door, though he had half in his own breast, and he was furious at the thought 1t @ mind to do so. He was quite safe there, he thought, so should have been discovered. It had cost much time and ; he let him be. money in construction. He had intended it as a means | Moreover, he had been for a long time absent and thought by which he should be able to escape, should things so | best to return. . | aa change as to make it necessary for him so to do. | ire aa at the grating, hearmg his approach, let him Now it was known, and, consequently, valueless, for the | OUsh. a X worth of such a thing depended entirely upon its being | _ “ 1 will go to Newgate,” said Wild, as he walked to the kept a secret front door of Ins house. ‘“‘I cannot understand how ; heppard could have got here. Iwill goand see. There Jonathan, too, was much enfeebled by his wounds, or Jack would have never been able to prolong the struggle etee sek been great neghgence, or else they have con- as he did. Wild had lost a vast quantity of blood, and | a ene ee ner of the Old Bail h though he moved about his house as usual, yet he was e went round the corner or the ailey as he spoke, very far from being so strong as he appeared. and nae oh fore ae cl aut the Polit eee ae at Jack anxiously estimated the time it would take tor Made panels. as almost to split the stout oak iron- Bess to get quite clear of Mr. Wild's house. He clung all the time with such tenacity to Jonathan | that he was unable to shake him off. i CHAPTER LXXXVI. But at last the limit of Jack’s strength and endurance ne was reached, and Jonathan forced him with his back to the | BLUESKIN STARTS FOR LONDON, AND IS ROBBED ON THE anwar ground. HIGHWAY. The thief-taker knelt with one knee upon his breast and | UNDER the care and skilful treatment of old Ann, Blue- clutched him by the throat. skin gradually recovered from what was as nearly a mortal At that moment consciousness left him. He swooned | wound as any wound could possibly be. from exhaustion. But the fact is, the iron bands, which were placed For a second or so Wild thought he was dead, and | triangularly in his hat, shielded him in a great measure released his grip. from the blow, and, in addition to this, he happened to Then he saw what had happened. possess a skull of tolerable thickness. He caught him again by the throat as though he intended | Nevertheless, the blow had been enough to fracture it. to convert that seeming death into a reality. Fortunately none of the splinters of bone pressed upon But at that moment a change came over his intentions. | his brain. Had such been the case, either death or in- “* He willkeep,” he said, in a significant tone, as he rose | sanity would have been the result. to his feet. ‘The girl cannot have gone far, and I will go His constitution, too, was strong, and so, 1n what might after her. Curses on the young viper; had it not been | be termed an ineredib!y short space of time, he was able for him I should by this time have achieved iny purpose. | to leave his bed and move about. How came he out of Newgate? Curses on their negli- After that his recovery was rapid. gence. But I will have it seen to.” When trying to think back upon the past he was much While he muttered these sentences, Jonathan left the | puzzled to separate the real from the unreal. The last cell, and, locking the door after him, placed the key care- | circumstance he could recollect with anything like dis. fully in his pocket. | tinctness was the sudden irruption of Jonathan Wild and Then he hurried along the passage to the secret door | his myrmidons into the turret-chamber. leading to the second lot of cells. Through this he passed! Nor was he able to imagine by what means the thief- and slammed it after him; then through the hole in| taker had become acquainted with the secret place of the stonework which led to the httle winding staircase. refuge in the old abbey, though, as the reader knows, that This he also closed. He was not desirous of making | information came to him in about the simplest manner any more people acquainted with the secret, and those who | possible. did know it he determined should pay for that knowledge; But Blueskin was firmly under the impression that with their lives. Geoffrey had confided the secret to no oue else, and yet Up the staircase, into the yard—taking the same pains | Jonathau walked in as though he was perfectly aware of to conceal the mode by which he had made his exit—down | his exact location. the passage and into the old market he went, with all; He was forced at last to give up the attempt in possible speed. despair. But when he reached it all was dark and deserted. As soon, though, as he was well and strong enough, he The intricacies of the place were very familiar to him, | made his way to the ruins, but without acquainting any- but he hesitated which way to take. one with his purpose. He fancied that there he might She would run straight on, no doubt,” he muttered; | find something that would afford him a clue. “and that is the course I will follow. She cannot get far| Of his recovery from the death-like trance in which he away, and I shall be sure to find her.”’ had lain for so many hours, and his insane flight into But in this he miscalculated. the wood, he recollected nothing, for when those things About a minute and a half brought him into Warwick- | happened he was under the influence of delirium. He lane. could, however, hazily remember his encounter with the There no one was either in sight or hearing. poachers, and the appeal he made to them for his life. {t would be folly for him to attempt to pursue her, for | All after that was a blank until he woke up in the cottage. he could have no possible idea of the route which she had} It was a glorious morning when he started on his visit taken. to the abbey. The sky was clear, the air pure, and the He rested his chin on his hands in deep thought. sun diffused a comfortable warmth. In the trees the {f he summoned any of his men to his assistance, and | birds sang sweetly, and all seemed beautiful. It was, in he could have done so without any further trouble than | fine, one of those fine autumnal days which come, perhaps, blowing a whistle, which he carried suspended round his | once or twice during the season, in order to recall to our neck, they would not only be surprised to find him there, } minds a more vivid idea of what the departed summer but the intelligence that they were to search for an escaped | was like. prisoner would at once open their eyes to the fact that It was a day which could not fail to brace the nerves there was some inode of leaving the cells with which they | and invic-orate the frame of the invalid, and Blueskin were unacquainted. found it made a great difference to him. Jonathan swore awfully. The abbey was but about a quarter of an hour’s walk “Tt’s that Jack Sheppard, curse him! Until he came | from the eottage, so he accomplished the distance with to me I never had this trouble in executing my designs. ease, and without fatiguing himself. But he shall pay the full penalty {for his interterence. The{ Indeed, he was surprised at his own strength. girl has gone. But how came he ont of Newgate? I} The general appearance of the place, as he drew near must see to that; but I must first go back by the way I | to it, differed in no respect from that which it bore upon have just come and make all secure.” ‘he occasion of his first visit. All seemed unchanged. COmiIcboooks.com