Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 56: what you’re looking at

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ue ee eee 50 aud over the stage-coach he went, to the opposite side of the road. Another. bound, and he was lost to sight.) -) /f. (» CHAPTER. XIX. OLD CHARACTERS IN A NEW SCENE. ‘CREMANDED—yes, remanded for a week. The magistrate might as well have sent him for trial to-day. But the woman is discharged. Con- found it! But, no! Let me think. Perhaps, after all, justice plays into my hands, and helps me to the consummation of my wishes. Humph! Remandéd for a week, and then—why, then, of course, over the herring pond he goes, to a cer- tainty, unless ’”— Ralph Grasper—for he it was—who thus soli- loquized as he sat alone in his small apartment, where we first made his acquaintance, paused, and rubbed his hands together, while his eyes sparkled with the thoughts that ran through his mind. “Unless,” he continued, after a pause, ‘‘ unless in that short week the woman who loves him so well may feel disposed to save him. She is at liberty ; but what can liberty be to her with her husband a branded felon far away, with the finger of scorn pointed at her at every turn, with her bread-winner no longer able to procure for her the necessaries of life, with all lost to her—all, all, save honour? Honour? Pish! Honour is a commodity the well-provided-for may boast of ; but when all else is gone, it is not worth retention. Honour is all very well, but had I clung to it, what should I now have been? A poor, pleading fool, obeying where I now com- mand. Honour? Bah!” He curled his lip contemptuously, and tossed off a glass of port wine which stood before him, Placing the glass on the table, and uncon- sconne toying with its stem, he continued, half aloud— : “ A day or two will bring her to my wishes. She will never sacrifice him to her feelings. There is no hope of escape for him if I again appear against ‘him, and she alone can’ prevent me, J will see her again at her now wretched home. Her Lee rushed and broken as it is, cannot enable her to resist my appeal.” He refilled the glass, and emptied it three or four times in quick succession, Then he rose from his seat. face. Nay, more; it had drowned every feeling of manliness in his heart, | He smiled as he drew on his overcoat and gloves. But it was a smile which told plainly that villainy lurked beneath it—that the soul of that man was black and dead within him. He wiped his silk hat round with his -hand- kerchief, smiling all the while at its glossy nap ; but he saw it not. | Hig ,glances rested on no outward object ; they were turned upon his own eyil thoughts. Slowly, yet erect, he, strode from the room and out into the open air. | A. moment he halted on the threshold, stared — The liquor had fired his blood and flushed his SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON. vacantly along the street, and still with that smile upon his harsh features, strode away along the gravel footpath. © 9 © “a So intently absorbed was his- mind by the one subject of his thoughts, that even when he looked along the road ‘in the contrary direction to that which he was about to pursue, he saw not the tall form of a gentlemanly attired man leaning languidly against the gate-post of the next house. No sooner did he start on his. journey, than this personage drew himself up, and, as a pecu- liar light seemed to shoot from his eyes, he com- menced following Grasper along the road. The pace at which he walked was the same as that the merchant felt disposed to adopt. If Grasper halted follower, ' If the merchant, following the impulse of his— thoughts, redoubled his speed, so did the other. Twilight was fast giving place to the deeper gloom of night, and few persons were about, albeit the hour was but nine; for scarcely in half a mile did they meet more than two, and those two servant girls who had been sent for the supper beer to the new public-house, which is ever inseparable from a new neighbourhood. Opposite one of these establishments, which occupied the corner of two roads, and through the modern glass front of which the gaslight streamed out into the street, Grasper paused, and taking his watch from his pocket examined it by the flood of light which made that part more gay than any other for some distance either way. : The tall gentleman in the rear paused also, and drawing back into the shadow watched the rascally merchant intently. | He observed the peculiar smile which still hung upon his features, and a shade of contempt passed across his own, and his fingers twitched nervously at the folds of the long Spanish cloak which hung gracefully from his shoulders, and which he now drew closer around him. Giving vent to a cough of satisfaction as he returned the time-piece to his fob, Grasper was about to pursue his way, when two persons made their way out of the door of the public-house, evidently engaged in deep conversation. __ As the light played upon their features, the cloaked stranger drew still further back into the | shadow With a low chuckle, : Perceiving talk and advanced towards him. Grasper is eC which the smile disappeared from his face, ap- peared anything but pleased at seeing them. redo? How d’yedo?” — ye do A y Still, he held forth his hand towards the ex- — tended one of the person who addressed him, | and said— “Oh! it’s you, Baker, is it, and your friend Perkins? How do you find yourselves?” — -“ Cant say very well,” said Baker. ‘Can't, eh? How's that?” | “Well, you see, Grasper, policeman’s stafflast night °-—— Si, “Oh!—ah! yes.’ T heard something of it,” said Grasper, Mi a short, vacant tone, as ifohis | — —_—- ——_— = : . - ~ —_, Gomicdioe (Sac O. for a moment. so did his . * Grasper, the two men ceased their | z iareeper cried one, ‘glad to see — ed, and by the suddenness with | : a. , ‘= that confounded { | |