The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES. 45 * Escape!” ejaculated Sir Richard, his veins ting- Jing with the sensation produced by the bare idea. “ Hush! the very walls have ears!” returned the eommercial traveller, seizing his companion violently by the arm: for they were seated close to each other upon the straw. “Listen—and do not interrupt me. I have written the letter to old Hodson, my employer —but I do not for a moment imagine that he will pay the money. At all events, he will take some time to consider the matter well—for he is one of those persons who never do anything in a hurry ;— and in the interval I shall catch an incurable rheu- matism, or die of grief in this infernal hole. It is therefore my intention to make a desperate effort to escape.” » “ But how ?” demanded the baronet, encouraged by his companion’s words, although he saw not as yet the: least probability of carrying the project into execution. “ The door is as solid as the masonry— the walls are hard as rock—and we have not even a nail nor the smallest piece of iron to work with.” “ On the contrary, I have an excellent file which I secreted about my person just now,’’ returned Page. “Here—take the implement in your hands and feel it.” “ But the bolts and chain are outside the door— and, even if you attempt to file the iron hinges, the noise will be heard up-stairs,” objected the baronet. “ We will have nothing to do with the door at all,” said Page. “While I was outside the dungeon just now, I had my eyes about me, I can assure you. In the first place, I saw enough of the locality to con- vince me that this cellar is precisely the width of the house, which is a narrow one; and consequently, if there is any cellar adjoining, it must belong to an- other house. Granting, then, that there is a cellar on the other side of this wall against which we are leaning, we must manage to get into it—and perhaps the occupants of the next house will not prove hos- tile tous. At all events the risk is worth running; and this file will serve in a few hours to pick a hole through the wall large enough to allow us to pass ito the adjoining place.” “ Let us make the attempt, my good friend!” ex- claimed Sir Richard Stamford, joyfully. “We will work by turns with unrelaxing energy-—and I will commence.” “ No—let me begin,” said the bustling commercial traveller, who felt almost happy in spite of his im- prisoned condition. “ By the way, she man never comes In with a light—does he ?” « Never,” answered the baronet. “That is just what I had calculated upon,” said Page; and at the same moment he began to insert the pointed end of the solid file into the hard mortar of the cellar wall. The commercial traveller was not strong: but he posseseed that admixture of energy, expertness, and skill which sometimes serves a man better than mere physical power. His perseverance, when he was carried away by the excitement of any specific pur- suit, was indomitable ; and this spirit on his part now received a marvellous impulse from the anxiety which he felt to escape from that horrible dungeon and the small amount of reliance he placed in the willingness of Messrs. Hodson and Morley to assist him out of his dilemma. The consequence was that he worked away with a good will and a heartiness which astonished even himself; and although at the expiration of an hour, he had not even succeeded in eee + Oe ee owe eee loosening a single stone, still the mortar was removed all around one to the depth of an inch—and a be- ginning was thus effected in good earnest. Sir Richard Stamford now took his turn; and, being a man of great physical strength, he soon made an impression upon the solid masonry. But every now and then it was necessary to stop for two or three minutes, in order to obtain the assurance that no one was listening outside the door: for the baronet, during his confinement in the dungeon, had frequently heard several male and female voices in the house, and therefore knew that there were many residents therein. By about two o'clock in the afternoon the first stone was removed from its setting—and Page had the honour of this important achievement in the initiative of the task. But the labour was discontinued for a short space; inasmuch as according to such calcula- tion of the lapse of time as the baronet was enabled to make, the presence of the gaoler might be shortly expected with the dinners. This event soon took place; and the prisoners were served with some coarse boiled meat, potatoes, and wretched table-beer. Half- an-hour was allowed them for the discussion of this meal—at the expiration of which interval the ruffian returned to the door of the cellar to take away the plates, drinking-mugs, and knives and forks. As soon as the sounds of his retreating footsteps had died away, the work was recommenced with the file; and, as the first stone had been removed, the task grew comparatively easy. At length towards seven in the evening—according to Sir Richard's reckoning—an indentation had been effected to a suffi- cient depth to enable the prisoners to ascertain, by gently sounding the wall, that there was a hollow space on the other side. They therefore concluded that there was a cellar in that direction; and this be- lief gave them renewed energy and spirits to recom- mence their labours after the evening meal of coffee and bread had been served to them. For four hours longer did they continue to work by turns—though not without grazing the skin off their hands against the asperities of the orifice which they were forming, and receiving frequent bruises on the knuckles by the slipping of the file: for it was by no means an easy task thus to toil on in the unrelieved darkness of that place. At length the perforation was complete; and Page, thrusting his arm through the aperture, placed be- yond all farther doubt the fact that there was a cellar on the other side of the wall. The removal of the last few stones, the displacement of which was neces- sary to render the hole large enough for the passage of a human form, was now speedily effected ;—and ere midnight the old rusty file and the hands which wielded it by turns, had done their duty. Up to this moment the baronet had scarcely been able to bring himself to believe that escape from the dungeon was really within the range of probability. He had laboured on in that same spirit of desperation which prompts the drowning man to clutch at a straw; and now that he heard himself called upon by his companion to follow through the aperture, he was as much bewildered with mingled hope and fear as that same perishing wretch might be supposed to feel when awakening on the bank to which some succouring hand had drawn him. Unhesitatingly did Page introduce himself, legs foremost, into the large opening made in the wall: but before the baronet attempted the passage, the commercial traveller ascertained, to the ineffable joy Ona ===. COMGLOO S COMM