The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

12 * Well, Hawkins,’ began the bird-fancier, “ 1 am bere, punctual to the time you appointed, eh? You have the ready with you, I hope?” “ Yea, yes, Mr. Randall,” answered the other, speak- ing in a hoarse whisper, and casting an uneasy glance around him, “TI have it here—here all safe—twenty | an pounds in bright golden which shall be f you fulfil the terms of our com- pact;” and as he thus spoke, the old man drew from under his coat a small canvass bay. “If!” sneered Randall, grasping the bag with one hand, whilst he counted out the contents with the other; “have I not given you my word it shall be done, and is not that enough ?” “Mind, there must be no unnecessary violence,” gasped the old miser, seeing that his associate had already secured the money in his possession; “only hold him fast—keep hia safe under lock and key— until we make him restore the money he has robbed meof; and then——” “And then what I have got is to be doubled, eh?” “Yes, doubled. You shall have twenty more of the same kind. Only bring this affair off well with safety and secrecy, and I will pay you the remainder imme- diately.” “Ha! it wasa lucky thing for vou, Mr. Hawkins, since that appears to be your name,” pursued Randall, fixing his eyes inquiringly on the furrowed features of his companion—“ it was a lucky thing for you that we encountered each other that morning on the marshes, for I don’t think you would have found another that would have answered your purpose so well. Who would have thought an old, miserable-looking hunks like you would have got up at daybreak to bury money in an old hovel, and that I, who had been out all night snaring birds for the cage, should have had the first view of such an interesting occupatiun, and have caught a goldfinch laying eggs which many a cunning hand would like to have taken, had they had a head long enough to know where to look for them.” “ Hush—bush for your life, Mr. Randall !’* exclaimed the alarmed usurer, laying his long, thin, bony hand in a deprecating manner on the arm of his companion, and glancing uneasily round. “ Suppose we should be overheard by somebody, or that you should let any body know where the fruits of my long life of frugality and industry lie hidden, what would become of me then, Mr. Randall?” “ Make your mind easy on that score, my venerable money-grubber,” returned the other, carelessly; “I ‘have pledged my word never to betray your secret to mortal breathing; and who, looking at a half-starved, villanously-dressed old fellow like you, would suspect that there was a sixpence in the world that you could call your own?” “Ab, 1 am poor, wretchedly poor, Mr. Randall,” replied Hawkins,—* barely enough to eke out a mise- rable existence with, I assure you; but Ae has got it all—every shilling belongs to me—it does indeed ; and then, when we have got that secure, we shall be able to flaunt it with the best of thein:” and as the old man spoke, his eyes were gleaming with delight at the pictare his imagination had conjured up. “ By the way, you have told me but half of the story as yet,” observed the bird-fancier; “this man is to be pinionec and borne away without violence——” “Ah, you are strong—very strong, Mr. Randall,” chuckled the miser, looking with delight on the gaunt frame and powerful limbs of his companion. “You are sure to be able to overcome him by himself; for THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON. he is but a weak man—a reed in comparison with yourself; you may bend him as you will.” “TI was going to say,” resumed Randall, “ when you thus interrupted me, that, whilst you have engaged me to secure the possession of a man that I never saw, and know nothing about, you have not said a word about how I am to get him in my clutches, or where we are most likely to catch him, without the inter- | ference of passers-by, should he feel inclined te make a vigorous resistance, as doubtless he will.” : “T only waited to learn whether you were wah ‘i the same resolute mood as when we first talked to- gether on the subject,” said the old man, bending his head cautiously over the table, and continuing, in . low, hoarse whisper: “I have accidentally learned that to-night he has had occasion to leave his ship, and eome up to London, for the purpose of with some of his old comrades. He will there freely—I am sure he will, for I know his habits well ; and at eleven o’clock he will return by himself in a small boat to the ship, which lays down the river close by the Commercial Docks. What should brave and strong feilow, like somebody I know, from waylaying him in his solitary boat, and taking advan- tage of his helpless condition, by tying a handkerchief over his mouth, and throwing a rope round his hands, eh?” ; “Humph!” mused Randall; “I can’t say it’s a business I much like; there is much risk, and little * pay for it. Besides, what do you propose doing with | him when he is in our power?” “You know the old hovel in the marshes?” sug- gested Hawkins; “it is mine—my property altogether, and there is no one who would be likely to watch — our proceedings or interrupt us in going thither, — Let us keep him there for a few days, bound h and foot, Mr. Randall, until he gives me up wealth of which he has deprived me.” And speaker clenched his bony fingers as if already antici - pating his revenge. “You have a shrewd way of inventing a plan to get rid of a troublesome fellow,” observed the bird- fancier, “but as I have gone so far in the matter, I don’t like, at the last moment, shrinking back from rendering assistance, and the affair may as well be done and off our hands to-night as at any other time; so you may go comfortably home, my sly old fox, and leave me to snare this well-feathered owl that takes his flight to roost so long after sundown.” « “Nay, I must go with you in the boat,” quickly cried the miser; “I would not lose a jot of my revenge for worlds; I long to see him at my feet, prostrate and helpless, and to gloat upon the agony he will suffer when thus he finds himself shut up in darkness, and hears my voice calling upon him ‘through the gloom for restitution of the plunder. Oh! it will be a glorious, noble triumph!” * Well, I must say you seem to enter fully into the spirit of this business,” continued Randall, noticing with interest the fitful gleam of passion that the features of his companion betrayed; “one would think you had been regularly educated as a kidnapper, you take to the profession so naturally, I don’t ask you why you do all this, or what the fellow has done to you that you should take all this trouble about him, for that’s no business of mine; but what I do want to know is, what sort of a person is he, that I may meke no mistake about the matter, and know the kind of resistance I may have to encounter?” “JT will take care you have the right person,” re- joined Hawkins; “I could distinguish him from others Gomichook (E( 0)