The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

ap PP a i OT re Se LS ES Te ON On ee een re - ; she once more stood in the presence of Mobbs, who was just emptying his tambier as she opened the docr. “Well—is all quiet below ™ he demanded sig- nificantly. “Yes” replied Mrs. Brace. “Two of the domes- tics were sitting up: but I sent them to their respec- tive ch3:nbers. You may come now, Mr. Mobbs, if you please.” “Lead the way, ma’am—and I'll follow,” said the ex-constable. “Come, Toby, you ugly blackguard.” These last words were addressed to his dog, which kept close at his master’s heels, as the master him- self followed Mrs. Brace, who carried a candle in her hand. Down to the lower regions of the spacious dwell- ing they descended; and on reaching the bottom of the stairs, Mrs. Brace paused for a moment under pretext of trimming with a pin the flaring wick of the candle—but really to subdue the sudden feel- ing of horror which sprang up in her mind as she felt that she was now standing as it were upon the threshold of anew crime. For from the short pas- asge leading to the back kitchen did the pantry open on the right hand; and the woman knew that Frede- sick Dray was concealed there with a murderous in- tent “ Be quiet, Toby!” exclaimed Mobbs, in a savage tone to the dog, which was beginning to give vent to a low and peculiar growl in which there was also something plaintive, as if the animal’s instinct were already receiving some strange and mysterious at- traction towards the spot where murder’s dire work was concealed. “Come along, ma’am,” said the ex-constable, turning towards Mrs. Brace: “ for if yon don’t act as a guide, this beast will.” The milliner shuddered with a profound sensation of horror: for it seemed to her as if the very in- stinct of animals were sublimated to the degree of refinement necessary to espy, accuse, and expose the perpetrator of the foul crime of murder! But gathering all the remains of that moral energy which had been so terribly shaken within the last hour, Mra. Brace led the way along the pas- sage; and it was a respite to this miserahle woman to reflect that the new crime was not to be perpe- trated until she and Mobbs should be retracing their way back from the spot where the murdered victim lay. Thus, even while she had hardened her soul to contemplate the death of her companion as an im- perious necessity, she nevertheless experienced an immense relief in the postponement of the fatal in- stant even for a few minutes! The passage was threaded: she strained her ears —QOh! how tensely she strained them to catch a sound—the slightest—that might assure her whether Frederick Dray was in the pantry or not;—but all was still in that direction | She now threw open the door of the back kitchen : but so hideous a sensation of terror once more seized upon her as her eyes fell on the atone that covered the unblest grave of the corpse, that she staggered on the threshold and leant against the door-post for support. - “Ah! I understand,” muttered Mobbs, in a tone which would have been inaudible under any leas motnentous circumstances, but which was as easily heard as the roar of a cannon now that every one of the wretched woman’s senses was strung to the ex- tramest tension. .. . “ My God! my God!” she murmured, her teeth chattering and her knees knocking together. “Come, ma’am—don’t take on like this,” said Mobbe, gradually divesting himself of his wonted brutality of manner in proportion as he found her getting deeper and deeper into his power: “the thing’s done and can’t be helped now. So we must make the best of it.” What Mr. Mobbs meant by making the best of » murder, we must leave our readers to judge for themselves; certain however it was that the remark carried a sort of philosophical, or rather desperate consolation to the mind of Mra Brace—and she said in a tone of reviving assurance, “ You speak truly enongh, heaven knows, Mr. Mobbs. Bat would to God that it had never happened!” she added with the most unfeigned—the most heartfelt “There, ma’am—you see it’s just as I told you,” observed the ex-constable, pointing towards the dog, who was smelling round the very identical stone and giving vent at the same time to a low and hideous sound which can only be described as a subdued moaning howl: “that there animal is as sagacious as a Christian—and I needn’t ask where my partner has been buried.” Mrs. Brace was about to remind the ex-constable for the tenth time of his promise not to betray her, when she suddenly remembered that the reiteration of the pledge on his part was unnecessary, inasmuch as Frederick Dray was no doubt lying in ambush te silence his lips for ever; and now that she had con- quered the first feeling of terror and consternation on revisiting the spot where her victim lay buried, she derived a sudden and strange hardihood from the thought that a second crime was about to render the Ars onc as safe as it could possibly be made. But ecarcely had this reflection braced her mind with that unnatural courage, — scarcely, too, had Mobbs entered the back kitchen and begun to gase upon the stone beneath which his murdered superior lay, — when they were both startled by piercing screams which appeared to come from above and penetrate through the floor, and wall, and chamber after chamber, down unto that lowest region of the milliner’s establishment. For a few moments Mobbe paused and listened with breathless attention—as if al] his thoughts were in an instant diverted from the murder to this new and suddenly transpiring subject of interest: then, as the shrieks continued in louder waves of thrilling, rending, agonising sound, he yielded to the impulse of his own instincts—and, forgetting that he was no longer a constable nor bound to take notice of any such occurrence, he snatched the candle from Mra Brace's hand and darted away like one demented with the dog at his heels. P So sudden was this movement on his part that the rush which he made along the passage struck a panic to the heart and paralyzed the arm of Frederick Dray, who had been holding himself in readiness to spring forth from the pantry; and the club which he had provided for his murderous purpose fell from his grasp. As for Mrs. Brace, she stood petrified and stricken dumb for a moment,—inasmuch as she suspected only too well whence those rending shrieks eraanated, and she was transfixed by the idea of such a ruffian as Mobbs interfering in the matter: but almost at the Very next instant the appalling, maddening, hor- DOO qe eee Eee Eee eee eee ~—— zn eee” eee i ee ee ee ee eee eee 4, . 2 Wee eee ee, eee: eee eee ee, See SS