The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

‘ - mm TT A LT TT the timber, aad made me start back to save a broken neck !” “Then you have seen nothing—nothing that I have been doing?” asked the unknown, eagerly, looking fall in the face of the other, to observe whether his elicited the truth. | “ Not I,” replied the fellow, glancing with a stupid wonderment at the mystifying apparatus scattered about; “yer arn’t been tryin’ to find the philosophers’ I suppose ?” ~ made you come here? How did you obtain an entrance to these passages?” asked the Phantom kly, heedless of the observation. since you left the old crib, the peelers have among us. Bill and Gubbins had a squeak for , but they managed to sheer off without being seen ; ¢ , all the traps have been seized; and as mat~ blown there, I vos sent off to the old to see vhether ve might commence our business again in the ancient quarters.” “Then you formerly carried on the same trade in these vaults?” pursued the note-forger, inquiringly. * Just guessed it,” rejoined Slogger, briefly; “bu I thought as how you knowed all about it.” *T had received some intelligence of the plans you adopted,” answered the other, with a slight hesitation ; “but you were about to say that you had come here Now; in what manner did you obtain an entrance, for I begin to consider, after all, that you are playing false with me, and if so ” A significant reference * ~- z 5 E to the pistol the stranger still retained in his possession the sentence, “ Vell, if yer don’t believe vhot I have said, you may go yourself to the place and be satisfied,” re- sponded the coiner. “I arn’t got the gift of the gab like you, but I mean all right, notwithstanding.” not;” and with his eye kept suspiciously upon the ‘man, he awaited the remainder of his explanation. . “The only way I know of down here,” continued ‘ig through the stables at the back of the road, where Bill once kept a cart, and which he rented always a favorite vorkshop of the governor’s, and he didn’t care to lose sight of it entirely.” “Well,” urged the Phantom, impatiently, “and last night?” “ Last night, as I tell yer, I vos sent down to see if ve go could go on for a bit in the cellars, So, vith a lucifer or two and a lantern, off I started. The place jist the same as ever, and not a straw had ; but 1 had no sooner got up vith the down vith the lantern, than whiff came and out went the light. I couldn’t find the knowing that there was some chance of right track again when daylight came, about to find a cosy sleeping: berth, to my old acquaintance vith the have found without much difficulty, en, vhot should I see shining through the arches, a 4 apadloc your lamp. Off I goes—claps my e to the crack—sees an old pal hard at work there —and yer knows the rest; so there is a full, true, and account of the entire fakement.” E 453 Eee 1 if fit : 3 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF LONDON. LIFE, _—— ew me —_—_—_— ——— ss — . e m oe ee et ee some idea that had just suggested itself to him, *‘ will hardly induce me to repose confidence in a man that has to be kept in reach of pistol-shot before his com- panion can feel safe in his presence. Yet if I fancied I could trust you ——” “ Trust me!” repeated the other; “ there arn’t a cove in the country who vould doso much as Jack Slogger, pervided he got paid for it; and as for the little scrim- mage ve lately had together, the best thing is to say nuffin aboutit, I didn’t know my man then, but.that took the mist off my eyelids, and made me like him all the better.” “On the condition, then, that I pay you well for your services, you will undertake.to faithfully abide by the directions I shall give you,” pursued the Phantom, “ even though they should be in opposition to the wishes of the gang with which you are con- nected ?” “Certainly I vill. As for the old ’un, and Jim Gubbins, 1 don’t vont to do ’em a bad turn, but I arn’t werry anxious to do ’em a good one either. One on ’em I already owes a grudge to, but I’ll find a vay to square that somehow before long.” “ The design of Saunders was, if I understood you rightly,’ continued the unknown, “ to renew the occu- pation of these vaults, and transfer to this place the business he was carrying on in Palmer’s Village?” “ Jist 30.” “ And if you were to tell him the police had been seen about the neighbourhood, and that they had dis covered the system carried on in the vault, he would | change his determination and inquire no further—- would he not?” | “No doubt of it; he vould be satisfied with vhot I told him, and think no more about the matter.” 4 “Then, for a reason that I don’t choose now to reveal, it is necessary that you should prevent his ; | taking possession of these premises, and you had bet- ter do so in the manner I have indicated. I require for some time the use of these cellars; and to bring some chemical experiments I am making to a satis- factory conclusion, I must have no interruption, no fellows near me to pry and intrude themselves into my private affairs. I must be alone here—do you understand my meaning ?” “You vould have me put the governor on a false scent, I twig,” answered the other; “ but there’s a chap besides him who knows of the crib and the vay to get to it.” “You mean your associate—the man I saw at the den with you?” “ Vhot, Gubbins! Bless yer heart, he’s as innocent of it as an unborn babby. No, the one I mean is Jacob Randall, who used to vork a still here, though I arn’t seen him lately.” “ dall,” repeated the Phantom, musingly, “a bird-fancier, or the keeper of some shop of that kind in Radcliffe Highway ?” “The same. Vhy, yer seems a valking dictionary ; yer knows every body,” responded Slogger, looking up in astonishment. “Tt forms a part of my business,” said the unknown, sternly, adopting a look and tone that repelled farther inquiry. “I can myself prevent his interference with my pursuits; but come,” he added, “you must be away from here before it gets broad daylight, and if further time is occupied you will risk observation. ensure your being true to the service in which you are now engaged, and to prevent any attempt at treachery, I shall narrowly watch your proceedings after you ieave here. If you dare to breathe a word concerning 35 - — ee ee ee CONMIELHOO <S (E@) m