The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

¢ THR TILE ‘MYATERIES OF THE COURT. ; her like a barren waste—and the pvor girl felt*that; “Lato! it’s on’y “just midnight,” was the re aho,had uow naught worth living for: sponse; “and you told me as how I was to be here It was about cleven o’clock when Florina reached | as the clocks was a-striking tgvelvo—didn't yoy?” the house in Cavendish Square; and she succeeded! %They have struck twelve at least ten minutes in cffecting her -entrance unperceived by any of | ago returned the Cannibal.” the inmates. Her absence, thanks to the precaution | “Well, ten minutes moré or less,” ‘cbserved she had taken, was not discovered; and on gaihing | Wilkins, “isn’t no great thing. Von can’t be quite her own aparttnont she really felt as sho had de- | so particular.”,, scribed herself to her lady's-maid two hours back—| “ Yos—but what was the yse of kceping me namely, exceedingly unwell. trudging about here at the risk of being twigged by | | the blue-bottles?' «Lowsomever, we won't loso uny — Snore time. So come along.” ' CHAPTER XXX. 4 NIGHT-ADVENTURE. clutching the Cannibal by the arn, “I don’t over and above like this here affair. You say you’vo never been inside the: pretises—that you don’t Ir was about twelve o'clock of the same night of | know nuffin about ’em—that you ain’t got no pals which we havo been writing itt the previous chapter, | amung the slaveys——" that Chitfti the Cannibal emerged from the Edge-| “ But I know that thate's plenty of away to bo ware Road, nd crosging Oxford Street, entered | gote-andsto L suppose that’s enough,” interrupted Park Lane. But instead of immedigtely pursuing | Chiffin fletcely. “Why, here you are as down in his way, he stopped short—looked up ahd down— | your luck as you well can be; and here mn I ready and not perceiving the person whorti ke okpocted to | to take you by the hand gnd put a good thing in mvet him at that spot; he garo vent to @ déep im-| your way.” °¢ precation, muttebihg likdwise, “If he don’t como,| “All right; Chillin!” exclaimed Tony. “If you're I'll make him fepent it the next time I meet him | 0 deuced fire of the busincss £ supposo it’s all —baug the if I don’t!” | aaifa. So here goes—and I’m the man to second Fearful of encountering « policgnan, the Cans pxpu; old feller.” a | aibal walked a little way down Park Lane, and thei| “But I fell you what ib is, Tony,” growled the turned back; but when he found that the petéoit) Cannibal, as he fitod his reptile-like gaze upon his whom he awaited did not make his appeatatice, & | companion, “if ao ba you feel afraid, suy 80 at once, deeper and more tattible imprecation daricted the | atid there’s an end of the matter—'eause why, I rullian’s ferocious rage. | don’t like dealing with cowards.” | In order to dvoid attracting ay inconvenieit| “Ootite, Chiffin—nore of this here sort of talk notice, his bludgeon was conbealed bensath hia loose | with ihe!” exclaimed Wilkins angrily. “I'm no shaggy coat; and he kept as siitch as possible in | coward—but I don't want to ru my neck bang the deep shades of the place whdte he was now | into a hooss. You know deuced well I ain't ateard loitering. For it Wis a cledr bright fight; and |—I never wor afeard of nuffin in my life. Fear and “To tell yet the truth, Chiffiu,” said Tony, SS SS Sa NN NR IE eS SES ANP SaaS SESS AS SS > a PET, moreuver the sttvét-lamps in front of the iiansiuns | prudérico is*two wety different things, I tat.cs it. | in Park Lane gave forth a light which rendered it | If so be you was to see a mad bull a-thundering all the more necessary for him to observé the utmost ; alotg this ire lane, I ®’poso yer wouldn’t go and caution. : a gtapple him by the ‘orns—would yer? Not you, “ Perbaps he thinks because it’s a fine night, I indeed—you'd precious. soon bolt a von side. Well shouldn't do the trick,” muttered the Cannibal to , then, that’s prudence. But it sv be he coined right himself: “but he’s no business to have any opinion | up and ‘tacked yer, then I knows wery well you'd of his own in the matter. For the job of getting let fly at him with yer club in a jiffey. Well, then, into & strange place without a confederate inside, , that’s walouy.” and uo put-up alfuir, LT rather like a clear night.{ “Do hold your jaw, Tony, ‘and como along,” One sees better how to go tg work. Sum® cracks-.: growled tlie Cannibal. “There—I’ll go on in frat,’ men always do their busidess in the dark; and: and you foller at a distance. Slip bang round the ° though it’s a good rule on most occasions, it isn’t | second turning to the Ictt, and you'll find me always t6 bo followed. But hero’s Tony after all, | a-waiting.” ae blow him !” ‘ | Having thus spoken, Chiffin the Cannibal walked The reader will remember a@ certain individual | rapidly on, Tony Wilkins keeping in his track, but naned Tuny. Wilkins, who belonged to the gang that | at an interval of about fifty yards. They encountered infested Agar’ Town and made Solomon Patch’s | no policemen in their way: the truth is, there very house their head-quartets. This Tony Wilkins was | seldom are policemen to be found on théir beats in the person whom Lady Bees had especially chosen | that fashionable region, between the hours of eloven to be tho bearer of the small sealed packet which | and one—those officials being either at eome publio- she hag ordered him to deliver to a gentleman at | house which keeps open all night, or else supping King's Cross ; and we have described him as a young ! cosily with the female domestics in tho kitchen of man of about four-and-twenty, clad in a squalid some mansion whore danging and card-playing are garb, and with a countenance as sinister in its ex-! going on up-stairs in the drawing-rooms. Thus was progsion as that of any one of his wonted com- it that Chiffin the: Cannibal and Tony Wilkins panions. It was this same Tony Wilkins for whom passed on unmolested, and the former halted at a the Cannibal had been waiting, and who now at side-door in a garden-wall, where he was speedily length mede his appearance. | joined by, his confederate. “Woll, what the deuce has made you so late?” | “Now, hush—and ‘tis all right!” whispered said Chiffin in & growling tone. | oni, he flung‘a rope over the wall; and the ecomniclacclks Ww = =n ue q (CO)