Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

a EE nT eee ee BLUESKIN: A ROMANCE, 4 with which Jack Sheppard had poured forth this torrent of passionate invective had precluded all ideas of inter- ruption. ‘“‘ Begone, villain! begone, I say. Come no more near my house. Begone at once! I will not be sursed and abused thus in the open street by such as you. I tell you yon are a thief! The gallows is imprinted on your face, and to it you will surely come at last !” Jack tried to utter the passionate words that sprang to his lips, but he could only give utterance to an in*rticulate howl of rage. “Here, here: stop that, if you please! stop that! People can’t be woke up out of their blessed sleep by the likes of you. Stop it, or it will be the worse for you!” As these words were spoken in a whcszing, gasping sort of voice, Jack felt himself clutched tightly round the throat by some one behind him, who had stolen unawares upon the scene. CHAPTER II. GIVES THE REAPER SOME IDEA OF THE MANNER IN WHICH JONATHAN WILD CARRIED ON BUSINESS, Next door to Newgate! That was where Jonathan Wild lived. Jonathan Wild, the great! That extraordinary man, who combined so skilfully and well those two seemingly antagonistic occupations, thief, and thief-taker. The house which he inhabited adjoined the prison- wall. Gloomy—rambling—dilapidated. Those three words contain the essence of a description of its appearance without and within. We are really sorry, for the sake of our readers, that this house is no longer in eststence. We are quite sure if it was, they would, one and all, at the very first opportunity, take a stroll along Newgate- street, and have a good look at it. It would have amply repaid them for their trouble. Unfortunately, the house was burned down to the ground nearly a hundred and fifty years ago. Our readers will, therefore, be deprived of the pleasure of seeing it with any other eyes than those of their imagi- nation. Should, however, they feel sufficient interest in the inatter to go and look at the spot on which it stood, they will be able to form a tolerable idea of its size, from the fact that three large houses have since been built upon the ground it occupied. At precisely twelve o’clock noon, on Monday, the tenth day of August, iu the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-one, Jonathan Wild entered one of the rooms in his mansion, and slammed the door behind him. This room he facetious!y designated as his “‘ office.” Why we know not, for only a small portion of his busi- ness was conducted there. It was a low-ceilinged, dingy-looking room at the back of the house, and very scantily furnished. The floor was bare. So were the walls. One window only was in the room, and that was so incrusted with dirt, and festooned with the cobwebs of industrious spiders, who had gone on year after year Spinning away undisturbed, that but a very small and insufficient quantity of daylight found its way in. There was, however, one inquisitive sunbeam who used, with praiseworthy perseverance, to try for about an hour every day to take a peep at the interior of Wild’s office, but he always had to give up the attempt in disgust. But, although he had been bathed some hundreds of times, he did not relinquish the hope of grattfying his curiosity, but renewed the attack every day—that is, when the envious clouds would let him—until at last it grew into-quite a settled habit. On this particular morning, however, the carious sun- berm fouud the atmosphere in the yard at the back of Wild’s house so clear and free from smoke that he re- solved to make one last and desperate effort to acermplish lis purpose... He succeeded, and actnally had the audacity, when Wild entered the office, to look the great thief-taker full in the ene & a eee — Oe? SS. eee Ne ee ae ates eT me wesw mR wee Jonathan winked and blinked like an owl. But Wild was too full of thought that morning to take rouch notice of the intrusion of a prying sunbeam into his sauctum. He merely gave a zoological sort of snarl. qben he seated himself at his desk, along the front of which was a row of little wooden railings placed about uaff-an-inch apart. Just in the middle, three or four of these railings had been knocked out, leaving an upening large enough to allow of a hand being passed through it. This desk divided the office into two portions, and was so placed that, as Jonathan sat at it, the window was behind him. An advantageous arrangement in two respects. Whoever stood in front of this desk had his face to the hight, so that Wild could narrowly watch every expression of it, and form an estimate of how far the person who stood before him was speaking the truth. But those who were thus scrutinized could not scrutinize Wild in return. Ob! no. As he sat with his back to the grimy window, his face was in deep shadow. Wild settled himself on his stool. He took off his hat, and deliberately laid it down on the desk. Then, with a very peculiar twitch, he pulled his dirty white wig over his forehead and eyebrows. This gave him a very remarkable appearance, and added to his natural ugliness in no small degree. It was one of Wild’s little eccentricities to endeavour to make himself look as hideous as he possibly could. We give him credit for succeeding in his efforts. His face could never have been a very handsome one but now it was seamed and scarred by the numerous wounds he had received. This done, Wild produced from the side pocket in his coat a shart, thick bludgeon. At the end at which it was held it was just large enough to be gripped firmly, while it swelled out gradually until at the top it was between three and four inches in circum- ference. This upper part had been hollowed out, and then filled up again with about two pounds of lead. It was a most murderous weapon. Jonathan looked at it, and as he did so his mouth ex- panded into a grin of extreme satisfaction. He laid it across his hat with great care. To have seen him one would have thought it was made of the most fragile materials. That bludgeon was Jonathan’s pet. He had made it with his own hands. It w s his inseparable companion. The smile of complacency with which he regarded it gave »lace presently to a peculiar cackling noise. H:; rubbed his hands slowly over one another, only tote srupting that operation to give his wig another tw ch. (Jue of his intimate associates would have known how to :ranslate these movements. Vild was pleased! 4. ud that was the strange way he had of showing it. Sc ne complicated scheme of villainy, hatched from his fertile brain, had doubtless come to a successful issue. Tap ~tap. Some one knocked very deferentially with his knuckles npon the office door. Wild ga te his wig such a twitch that it got completely reversed, a_,d the tail hung down most ludicrously over his forehead. ‘Come in,” he growled. The door was opened about six inches, and a man put lis head into the apartment. “Mr. Wild, sir,” said a voice in very respectful tones. “* Tf you please, Mr. Wild, sir!” “VYa—ah! Whiat is it?” “Yes, Mr. Wild. Pinching Tom, if you please, sir!” “ What are you grinning at, you villain ? Tell me at once, or—ya—ah !” Wild seized his cudgel and shook it menacingly. “1, Mr. Wild? I grin in your presence, sir?” said the man, whose fancy had been tickled by the way Jonathan had twitched his wig. “ No, Mr. Wild, sir! hopes as I knows myself and you know me too well te think of doing such a thing for a moment, sir! ~—— aw en eee - = a connicloooks (CO)