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

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

\ So i | me al a a aE 138 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ptr ee her like a barren waste—and the poor girl felt that; “Late! it’s on’y just midnight,” was the re she had now naught worth living for ' sponse; “and you told me as how I was to be here It was about eleven o'clock when Florina reached | as the clocks was a-striking twelve—didn’t yer?” the house in Cavendish Square; and she sucoceeded| “They have struck twelve at least ten minutes in effecting her entrance unperceived by any of | ago,” returned the Cannibal.” the inmates. Her absence, thanks to the precaution; “Well, ten minutes more or less,” observed she had taken, was not discovered; and on gaining | Wilkins, “isn’t no great thing. Von can't be quite | her own apartment she really felt as she had de- | so particular.” - | seribed herself to her lady’s-maid two hours back— | “ Yes—but what was the use of keeping me namely, exceedingly unwell. trudging about here at the risk of being twiggod bp the blue-bottles? Howsomever, we won't love any — enore time. So come along.” > 22 ee “> tell yer the truth, Chiffin,” said Tony, CHAPTER XXXI. clutching the Canmbel by the arm, “ I don’t over A NIGHT-ADYENTURE. and above like this here affair. You say you'vo | * never been inside the premises—that you don’t It was about twelve o'clock on the same night of | know nuffin about 'em—that you ain't got no pals which we have been writing in the previous chapter, | amung the slaveys——”’ that Chiffin the Cannibal emerged from the Edge-| “But I know that there's plenty of swag to be ware Road, and croesing Oxford Street, entered | got—and so I suppose that’s enough,” interrupted Park Lane. But instead of immediately pursuing | Chiffin fiercely. “Why, here you are as down in his way, he stopped short—looked up and down— your luck as you well can be; and here am I ready and not perceiving the person whom he expected to | to take you by the hand and put a good thing in meet him at that spot, he gave vent to a deep im- | your way.” precation, muttering likewise, “If he don’t come,| “All right, Chiffin!” exclaimed Tony. “If you're I'll make him repent it the next time I meet him | #0 deuced sure of the business I suppose it’s all —hang me if I don’t!’ eafe. So here gocs—and I'm the man to second Fearful of encountering a policeman, the Can- | you, old feller.” aibal walked a little way down Park Lane,and then| “But I tell you what it is, Tony,” growled the turned back; but when he found that the person | Cannibal, as he fixed his reptile-like gaze upon his whom he awaited did not make his appearance, a | companion, “if so be you feel afraid, say 90 at ones, deeper and more terrible imprecation denoted the | and there's an end of the matter—'cause why, [ ruffian’s ferocious rage. don't like dealing with cowards.” In order to avoid attracting any inconvement( ‘Come, Chiffin—none of this here sort of talk notice, his bludgeon was concealed beneath his loose | with me!” exclaimed Wilkins angrily. “I'm no shaggy coat; and he kept as much as possible in | coward—but I don’t want to run my neck bang the deep shades of the place where he was now | into a noose. You know deuced well I ain't ateard loitering. For it was a clear bright night; and | —I never wor afeard of nuffin in my life. Fear and moreover the street-lampe in front of the mansions | prudence is two wery different things, I takes 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 observe the utmost | along this here lane, I s’pose yer wouldn’t go and caution. grapple bim by the ’orns—would yer? Not you, “ Perhaps he thinks because it’s a fine night, I | indeed—you'd precious soon bolt a von side. Well ahouldn’t do the trick,” muttered the Cannibal to | then, that’s prudence. But if su be he comed 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 olub in a jiffey. Well, then, into a strange place without a confederate inside, | that’s walour.” and no put-up affair, I rather like a clear night.| “Do hold your jaw, Tony, and come along,” One sees better how to go to work. Some erecks- | growled the Cannibal. “There—I'll go on in front, men shways do their business 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 left, and you'll find me always to be followed. But here’s Tony after all, | a-waiting.” blow him !” Having thus spoken, Chiffin the Cannibal walked The reader will remember « certain individual | rapidly on, Tony Wilkins keeping in his track, but | named 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-quarters. This Tony Wilkins was | seldom are policemen to be found on their beata in the person whom Lady Bess had especially chosen that fashionable region, between the hours of eleven to be the bearer of the small sealed packet which ' and one—those officials being oither at sume public- ahe had 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 « young | coxily with the female domestics in the kitchen uf man of about four-and-twenty, clad in a squalid ' some mansion where dancing and card-playmg are garb, and with a countenance as sinister in its ex- | going on up-stairs in the drawing-rooms. Thus was pression as that of any one of his wonted com- it that Chiffin the Cannibal and Tony Wilkins panions. It was this eame Tony Wilkins for whom pessed an 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 made his eppearance. ' joined by his confederate. “Well, what the deuce hae made you so late?” “Now, hush—and ‘tis all. right!” whispered eid Chiffin in a growhng tone. | Chidin, as be Sung @ rope over the wall; and the ECOMICOOolKKS. conn