Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 201: what you’re looking at

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

% “i es o» 5 » . Kis. “Oh! thieves! thieves!” cried a man, starting from the floor. — . I immediately leapt up, and seized him Move not an inch, and oe not call to a soul,” said I. “I am a gendarme, and have Y nauk ~ lhe in my hand.” Ah As I spoke I raised my weapon over my ibd and I felt the man, whom I had seized, tremble beneath my grasp. “What do you want with me?’ inquired the fellow, in a low gruff kind of voice. “To tellme whence came those screams which attracted me hither,” said I. gerzrcame il he exclaimed. “No one screamed here—unless it were I in my sleep ; for I am alone in the tower.” “ And wi do you here?” I asked. “This is the only asylum 1 possess,” was the answer; “and | harm i sleeping in a place untenanted and left o to any one who chooses to walk through its gates.” “What are you?” said I. “A chiffonnier,’* returned the man. * Have you the means of procuring a light?” e Miitipe, ‘ | He replied in the affirmative, and imme- diately produced is lar thorn, the candle of which he lit by means of a phosphorous box that he carried in his pocket. When this was done, I discovered that I was in the presence of one whose features were thin and emaciated, apparently by indispo- sition ‘or debauchery, but whose general cast of countenance was honest, and ex- pressive of good or. He was dressed in ragged attire, and about his person were niet of straw, collected from the bed upon which he had been lying. “ Do you know your way over this tow- er?” I inquired. pis AF “No,” was the : “TI have never been higher than this floor.” | | ~ “© Will you accompany me, or ‘wait for me here, I, “while I inspect the place ”” “Twill go with you,” returned the chif- fonnier ; “a examine th d we accordingly proceeded to premises together : but nothing occurred to corroborate my suspicions that the screams had issued from the building. As I was descending the stairs to the ee I had first seen my strange 1y foot pressed upon something stooped, picked up the object that had thus attracted my notice, and per- | * A rag-picker and bone-collector. if , PICKWICK ABROAD. T thought there was no “85 fogs d that it was a beautiful ear-ring. The m Uponnier observed me with the most ‘Imperturbable coolness, and ‘expressea his eRe that such a jewel should be there. gh an “It is indeed strange,” said I, watching his countenance, which did not vary, nor Weis eye cast down, beneath my glance, Some ladies visited the tower this morning, if I remember rightly,” remarked the man, after a moment's pause: “I was pursuing my avocation in the street, and saw them enter.” | For a moment I was undecided how to act, 1 was imelined to conduct my com- panion to the nearest guard-house; but I felt that I should not be justified in thus treating an individual who had answered ‘my questions with clearness and precision. I therefore attributed the circumstance of the screams and the ear-ring to a coincidence, and having wished the man a good night’s rest, returned to my own home. On the following morning, I repaired to’ the Commissary of Police who dwelt nearest to the tower, and coramunicated all that had taken place. There was no advertise- ment relative to a lost ear-ring in the newspapers ; nor had any of the inhabitants of the street, in which the tower is situate, reeived ladies enter the building on the previous day. The commissary summoned a town-serjeant, and we went all three together to inspect the premises once more. At the entrance of the street I perceived the chiffonnier. He recognised me, bowed, glanced without fear at my companions, and then applied himself to his nauseous | labor of raking amidst the heaps of dirt collected in the streets, and which the mu- nicipal carts had not yet cleared away. I, .. however, noticed that his work was done with a species of disgust that was seldom ‘manifested by those who had pursued the same employment for any length of time. The Commissary, the town-serjeant (whose name was Versac), and myself, hastened to the tower, and inspected it as minutely as possible. We, however, discovered nothing to excite our suspicions; and, having thus terminated a vain examination, returned into the street, where the chiffonnier was still standing. GALT _€T dropt my handkerchief in the old building,” observed the Commissary, “and now recollect that I used it last on the roof of the tower.” . In a moment the town-sergeant hastened . a ria a¢ EO LOO SS (CO)