Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 336: what you’re looking at

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

A SCENE ON THE THAMES 319 of its shores was marked by the feeble glimmerings which the windows of the houses on either side shed forth. “ Now, Bill,” said the Beggarman, “‘ run down the stream. The tide’s with you, and you won’t have to pull much.’’ “T understand,’ answered the youthful reprobate. ‘‘ Where do you want to land? ”’ ‘“ Just below Execution Dock,” was the answer. There was something which sounded so ominous in this reply, that Ramsey shuddered trom head to foot; and now it struck him for the first time that he was in company with three persons who, although one was a woman, were no doubt capable of any atrocity. That the Beggarman was as desperate a villain as any that London contained, he was well aware; that the daughter had not failed to imbibe the example of her sire, he naturally conjectured; and that the youth who rowed the wherry was of an equally vile stamp, the glimpse which he had obtained of his features in the public-room of the Beggar’s Staff, when he was called upon to join the party, furnished pretty conclusive evidence. All these reflections swept through the mind of Ramsey the instant that an alarm sprang up in his soul, and he re- pented of his rashness in trusting himself with such com- panions. There he was, completely at their mercy, in the midst of that silent highway where the voice that cried out for help could be stifled in a moment, and where a grave already yawned, as it were, to enshroud the corpse of a victim. — Commingling with these thoughts, too, were the horrible ideas so suddenly excited in his mind by the mention of the frightful name of Execution Dock, the place at which mutineers and all criminals whom the Courts of Admiralty doomed to death underwent the extreme sentence of the bloodthirsty laws. Tor Ramsey knew that he was implicated in crimes which, if detected, would send him to the scaffold; and it was, therefore, no wonder that he shuddered from head to foot as the ominous name of the proposed landing- place fell upon his ears. “ Are you certain of being enabled to find your friend Warren without delay? ”’ he inquired, thus breaking a long silence which had prevailed since the Beggarman gave his orders to the Kinchin-Grand, and during which the boat had shot farther down the stream. GOmicdooks (C@)