The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 260: what you’re looking at

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

Sa eee: THE MYSTERIES O¥ THE COURT. me ee ee “Oh, beg pardon!” said Mr. Shakerly. “ Just you go to the public-house that I frequents, ax for a private room, order up the wine, and wait till I come. I sha’n’t be a quarter of an hour.” Thereupon the old man described the whereabouts of the public-house to which he alluded; and Lady Bess lost no time in vanishing from the knacker’s- yard. Right glad was she to escape from the noxious fumes and revolting spectacles of that hor- rible place. The public-house was speedily found— & private room was placed at her disposal—she did not forget to order the bottle of wine—and in about twenty minutes Bob Shakerly made his appearance. He was now somewhat more cleanly and presentable in person and in apparel: but nevertheless, if he had expended a bottle of some fragrant essence in expelling, or rather deadening the sickly odour that still clung to him despite his ablutions, it would have been all the better. For the effluvium of a knacker’s-yard adheres to one like the taint of a crime or with the tenacity of a remorse! “ Now,” said Lady Bess, producing her purse and counting down ten sovereigns upon the table, “ this _ money is at your service provided you give me the information I desire.” The old man’s eyes zlistened like those of a snake at sight of the gold; and evicently eager to clutch it, he asked what information it was that Lady Bess sought. “ About sixteen years ago,” she replied, looking at him very hard in the face to convince him that she knew something about the matter and that no denial or evasion would do,—“ you were employed by a certain gentleman who since has borne the title vf a nubleman, to procure the dead body of some poy and introduce it into a certain house in the ccuntry. It is concerning this transaction that I avquire all the particulars you can give.” * Well and good,” returned old Shakerly. “ But now am I to know that I mayn’t get myself into trouble by telling you all about it?” “You will get yourself into trouble if you do 10%,” answered Lady Bess. “1 have discovered so vouplete a clue to the unravelling of the whole ecenspiracy of which the transaction of the dead vody forms a part, that I could at once invoke the puwers of the law against every one concerned. But my object is to have the matter settled quietly— that is to say, as quietly as possible; andthe way to do this is by convincing the guilty originator of the whole vile scheme that it is discovered in all its ramifications, and that he would do well to surrender his usurped title and estates in the way less liable to treate exposure.” “T understand,” said’ old Bob Shakerly: “frizhten his lordship into it—ohP But ten guineas for such information as you want from me, is little enow,” added the old man, anxious to drive the best bargain possible. “ Here are twenty,” said Lady Bess, producing the remainder of the sur; “and I will make it up to fifty on the day that the true Lord Everton re- covers his mghts. If you will not take my word for it, I will give it to you in writing: but doubtless those who have already spoken to you of me-——” “Your ladyship need not say any more,” inter- rupted the old knacker. ‘“ Lam perfectly satisfied :” ---unen having nelped nimself to the wine, of which Lady Bess refusea to partake, he proceeded to ob- — —_ be a height, and with dark hair. rayther cautious kind of a feller, and didn’t like 245 serve, “I suppose your time is precious, and there. fore I'll come to the pint at once.” “ Do-so,” said Lady Bess: “ for I am anxious to gone. “Well then, it was as you have said,” resumed the old man, “just about sixteen years ago that A genelman came to my lodgings—I was then living up Pancras way—and said that if I liked to dou certain job for him he’d pay me well. I axed whe recommended him, or how he cume to find me out: and he told me as how that he’d been making ’quiries In some of the low neighbourhoods of Lon- don for a resurrectionist. Of course in making them ’quiries he’d passed hisself off as a surgeon: and ao it wasn’t thought odd. Well, in this way did it ap- pear that he came to hear of me. He then told mo his business—which was that he wanted the dead body of a lad about twelve years old, such and such I was always a standing a chance of getting into trouble: so not liking this business overmuch, I said as how I must have more explanations. The genelman then goes ‘on for to say that it suited his purpose, for family reasons and whatnot, to have a certain lad of that wery same age put out of the way; but as he didn’t choose to go wery extreme lengths—which of course meant murdering him—his scheme was to have him locked up in a lunacy ’sylum and make the world believe that he was dead. So then I twigged of course that this was some affair of getting hold of an estate or summut of that sort ; and seeing that © could reckon on good payment, I agreed. But I represented to the genelman that there was a many difficulties in the way; ’cause why, it wasn’t any dead body that would suit, bus must be one of a certain age, a certain Leight, and a certain colour hair. The genelman said as how he was aweer of all them difficulties, and was prepared to pay’a good price. In short, he offered me a couple of hundred guineas for the job, and gived me twenty guineas as an earnest. He told me that I was to come to him the wery moment I succeeded, and so of course he let me know who he was—the Honourable Mr, Everton—and he had a house somewhere up at the West End of the town, I forget exactly at this moe ment whete it was.” “ No matter where,” observed Lady Bess, ceéa with your statement.” “When the genelman had gone,” continued old Shakerly, “I remained thinking of the business I had to transact, but couldn’t exactly see my way clear at first. At last a thought struck me. It happened at the time that I had a precious bad leg through having tumbled into a grave one night when I was doing a bit of body-snatching work; and it yayther suited me than otherwise to lay up for 4 week ortwo and get it cured. So I fancied I might kill two birds with the same stone: I therefore went bang at once into the workus of my own parish, which was Saint Pancras, and got put into the ’firmary. The workuses then wasn’t what they are now under the New Poor Law: it was easy enough to get into ’em, and there was always a pre- cious swarm in the ’firmary. So I calkilated to my- self that it would be odd indeed if out of such a lot there wouldn’t be at least one young feller answer- ing the purpose who’d die in the place;—and sur enough there was just such a lad as the genelman SS — TTT ‘ Go NOOKS (CO)