Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 230: what you’re looking at

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

232 next moment the dcor was clused, and the light, disappeared. | | Jack rose to his feet, and cautiously stepped along the roof for fear of again displacing any of the loose timber, and catching hold of a stout piece of wood which had been driven into the brickwork of the house, to help support the weighty row of boards and laths which formed the dormer, drew himself up by it till he stood upon the tiled roof of the dwelling. If he was cautious not to displace the loose| ° timber on the shed, he was doubly so now not to pull down the loose tiles, for scarcely one was firm, the pigeons having so pecked away the mortar from between them that it was a wonder the wind had not hurled them into the street and yard below long before. The dormer was fast falling to ruin. The door, by which he had entered it on his previous visit, was gone, so Jack found no difficulty in obtaining an entrance into the strange, cage-like place, and had the gratification of finding that the trap in the roof was still there, and un- fastened. He stooped and softly raised it, and peered down on to the landing, across the floor of which a thin streak of light shone as it pene- trated a crack in one of the panels of the door of the room over that occupied by the poor seamstress. Jack did not immediately descend, but, lean- ing over the trap, listened intently. He heard the low, subdued tones of Grasper, as he spoke in persuasive accents, and then the blood ran cold and chill through his veins as, in a louder key, the tones of Jane Slater’s voice reached his ears. ‘Tis her! *tis her!” hegasped. ‘Oh, God! am I too late?” He thrust his legs through the trap, and seizing the sides of the hole with his hands, lowered himself gently to the floor of the landing. He clenched his teeth, and his breath came quick and short as he placed his eye to the crack in the door. On a table, in the centre of the room, a thin candle burned with a long wick, and cast a sickly ray upon the features of two persons who stood near the window—the persons of Ralph Grasper and the imbecile Jane. The villain’s arm encircled the waist of the idiot, who, with a vacant stare, gazed up into his face, evidently as unconscious as a new-born babe that she stood in the presence of her dead- liest foe. The blood in Jack’s veins ceased to run through its channels, and his heart seemed to}. stand still fora moment. Then, as a pang of in- dignation and horror pervaded his frame, he sory placed his hand upon the knob of the ock, It was fastened. A cold sweat broke out upon his forehead, as through the chink he perceived the head of the imbecile drop upon the bosom of the merchant, and the smile of triumph that played over his face as, like a fiend, he gazed down upon the form he held in his arms. Then the life-fluid coursed like molten lead El SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON. through itschannels. The momentary fear had passed, and Jack was a man again—a man filled with indignation, horror, and disgust. Taking one step backwards, he hurled his stout body against the panels of the door, shiver- ing them to splinters, and forcing off the lock. ‘Then, with a bound, he sprang into the apart- ment, and stood before the surprised and alarmed Ralph Grasper. CHAPTER LXXX. GRASPER DEFEATED—RESCUE OF JANE SLATER. Hap a thunderbolt dropped at the feet of the merchant, he could not have been more terrified. His horror was literally speechless, and, dumb- founded, he stood glaring upon Jack’s hideous mask and cloaked form drawn up to its full heicht before him. His arm fell from the waist of Jane Slater, and dropped powerless to hisside. Heseemed to have become fixed in his head, and, like a statue, he stood powerless to move hand or foot... ‘¢ Villain !” hissed Jack. ‘‘ Base, despicable, .designing villain! Providence has guided me hither to thwart your aceursed designs. Man! fiend! devil! why should I not strike you at my feet 2” | | Jane, who had looked upon his sudden en- trance, first shrunk back from him, but as his tones fell upon her ears, a sudden light sparkled in her eyes, and she sprang towards him. » But recoiling on the instant, she clasped her hands together, and sinking into a_ sitting pos- ture on the floor, murmured, as she swayed her body to and fro— : . “ Poor James! poor James! Do not harm my husband. He is not guilty. He has told me he did not forge the cheque, and he would not lie to me, whom he loves so dearly. Do not harm my James—my husband !”” alad Jack had raised his clenched hand, and the power of a giant seemed centered in that arm ; but as the imbecile’s words fell upon his ear, he suffered it to fall by his side, as a sigh broke from his manly bosom. | J “Mad!” he said. ‘‘ Powerless to know right from wrong—powerless to discriminate ; and he can take advantage of her fearful malady. Great heaven ! can it be murder to slay such a wretch as this ?”’ it “ Murder! murder! Who talks of murder ?”’ cried, Jame, springing to her feet. “ Murder! blood !| See! see how it runs along the boards from that gash in hisneck! Look! red, red streams of fresh, warm blood! ’*Tis his—his! James! Oh, my God! my poor, poor James !”’ And flinging her arms wildly above her head, she again sank upon the floor at Jack’s feet, and covered her eyes with her hands, as if to shut out the imaginary sight. A moment Jack stood gazing upon her with pity, swelling his heart almost to bursting. Then turning quickly, he sprang forward and clutched the panic-stricken Ralph Grasper by the throat, and holding him at arm’s length, hissed ketween his clenched teeth— ‘¢ Are you human ?” For the first moment, since Jack’s unexpected entry, the wretch seemed to possess life, for he | IOO (E(o) AME dead | —. mM “S:CcO