Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

ae BLUESKIN: aN, ‘This is a doorway been bricked up,’ said Tom; “ there can’t be no mietake about that. Oh! it is as plair = ean ** Go to work, then.’’ **On this wall ?” “Yes; you must fetch it down somehow or other, and don’t make any more noise than you can help. It wll be easy enough after you get the first brick out.” ‘Its lucky I brought this, ‘then,’ said Tom, as he pulled the mattock out of his pocket. This will soon do the business.”’ He soon found, when he began to work, that the mortar | id soft, which materially lessened the difficulty of the task. He nevertheless found it tedious, even with the help ' that Jonathan gave him. The wall was three bricks in| thickness, and every one had to be pulled out separate, | and laid down carefully, for they were, above all, careful a to make noise enough to rouse the people in the next ouse. J All things, however, must have an end, and s0, after | about twenty minutes or half-an-hour’s work, a breach in| the wall was made, large enough to allow them to craw] ‘ through. CHAPTER XCII. : THE BODY OF WILLIAM STANSBURY IS FOUND BENEATH THE FLOORING OF THE CELLAR. JONATHAN went first. Pinching Tor: followed, and held the lantern high above his head. It was in a vaulted apartment, in no way differing from that under the front of the house, that they now found themselves. In one end, however, was a door, which, from its posi- tion, seemed to indicate a means of communication between that house and the ‘* Pied Bull.” The floor, too, was very different—unlike the other cellar, there was no dust or dirt upon the floor to speak of. It was composed of small flag-stones. At these Jonathan Wild looked narrowly, and every now and then pressed upon the mortar with his thnmb- nail, in order to judge, by the hardness exhibited, how long it had remained there. inching Tom held the light, and watched him with the greatest interest. Presently Wild gave vent to an ejaculation. ** Here is what we seek,” he cried, springing to his feet. ** Put the lantern down on the floor, and get your toole. Now then.” *¢ Where am I to begin, Mr. Wild ? ” ** Here, and then work your way round the stone. When the mortar is all loosened, we shall easily be able to lift the stone from its setting.” ** We shall, sir; and it won't take very long to loosen the mortar.” Both set to work with the blades of their clasp-kunives, as being the most convenient instruments, and very soon indeed—in much less time, in fact, than one would have expected, they had the whole of the mortar dug out of the interstices. The end of the crowbar was then inserted at one of the corners, and after one or two trials, they succeeded in raising the stone up a little way. The advantage was taken of it to turn it quite over. Some blackish-looking earth was disclosed by the stone. Pinching Tom took up the spade with the intention of removing some of it, but Jonathan took the implement from him, and with nervous impatience began to scrape orey the mould. This he did to a depth of net more than two inches, when his spade struck against some object harder than the soil iteelf. He laid this object bare. It was the lower portion of a human body. “And do you think this is the young man you spoke of, Mr. Wild ?” “I have very little doubt of it. Help me raise these other stones, and then we shall be ab!e to see his face.’ _ Now that one flag was taken out, there was no difficulty in displacing the remainder, and Pinching Tom laid them bret in a few monienis. en OO Rafe tte Dia sat on Neth Ree arctan ee So Ry et ay > el (Pwe * » Ls A ROMANCE. 135 All that uow yemained was to remove the mould from the surface of the body. This Pinching Tom did, while Wild folded his arms and looked on. At length the corpse was fully exposed to view. It was that of a young man, whose appearance in life must have been tolerably prepossessing, though now, of course, its effect was marred, for decomposition had already made some progress. And now we may as well take the opportunity of ex- plaining what may seem strange in Wild’s behaviour on this occasion, for 1t 1s no part of our plan to wish to main- tain unnecessary mysteries. In brief, then, about a month before the commencement of our story, Jonathan received an anonymous communi- cation to the effect that if he would look iu a certain place in a certain house he would there find the evidence of a diabolical murder which had just been committed, and which was only one of a long series of similar crimes. But it so happened that other things turned up to pre- vent him from attending to this note, and then, as the reader is aware, since he made Jack’s acquaintance, that individual found him plenty to do. Indeed, the circumstance was utterly forgotten until the old man strangely cnough called upon him, as we have related, and then he all at once recollected the anony- mous letter he had received, and thought that probably enough the victim there spoken of might be William Stansbury. The house referred to was the “ Pied Bull,” and the reader is already aware how he called Pinching Tom aside and gave him his instructions. The result, too, has been seen, so that the contents of the letter were completely verified. The only link wanted was the preof that the dead body which they discovered was that. 1e young farmer. Morally, however, there could be little doub* of it, and, so far as Wild and his janizary could tell, the corpse agreed with the description the old man had given of his son. Having found the body, Jonathan’s course was now clear and straightforward enough, and he would have sufficient grounds for arresting the occupants of the pub- lic-house. He could yet see that the affair would redound very much to his oredit, since he would undoubtedly be the means of breaking up one of those horrible dens into Hane unsuspecting travellers were decoyed and mur- ered. e ** So far all is satisfactory,” said Jonathan, after a brief interval of silence. ‘‘ All has turned out exactly as I wished and anticipated. Whether this is, or is not, the body of William Stansbury, matters little, though of the two I would rather that it were.” “There is that door, Mr. Wild,’ said Pinching Tom. |“ I don’t know what more you think of doing.’ ** Tt is merely a communication between the two houses —at least, so I have been informed. We may as well see. It will not take much longer?”’ The pair upon this advanced to the door, and easily opened it. They had to pull it towards them to pass through. va the other side was merely an ordinary public. house cellar. , ‘All right,’ said Wild, ‘‘ olose the door. It will be best to secure it in someway.” ‘* The door opens inwards, so it ought to be done easily enough,” said Pinching Tom. ‘* There are the flag-stones we have takeu up. I will help you place them against the door, so that if any one tries to seek an entrance here they will find it rather a difficult matter.” Between them they moved the stones and piled them up against the door, in such a manner that it was next to an Pr oem Orns ne te ~. Sad gS TRS VY eT AVS C8 EOE, rE ESM 2” we BP ee 7 NO , Ae oe bo alneed em a pre gern wee 78 OST TY, impossibility tor any one from the public-house to push it ; open. This being done, Jonathan had things left just as they then were, and retraced his steps. The man outside was waiting for them. On reaching the street, Wild again summoned his men cvound him, and gave them orders to keep careful watch during the remainder of the night until he came in the morning. Jonathaz determined that he would make as much we Eo 8 te ge Oia etigs a em ee et ee ee ad ee or (SO) Cc NOOLKS (SO) >