The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

THE GATHERING STORM 163 But the young man was not now alone. He had two persons with him, — none others, indeed, than Mr. Moses Ikey and his man Tom. | On arriving at the Bull and Mouth, Mr. Emmerson alighted, dismissed the hackney-coach, entered the office, and was making some inquiries at the counter relative to the stages to Liverpool, when he felt a hand suddenly laid upon his shoulder. He started as if it were the touch of death, started as if the invisible fingers of the destroyer had suddenly sent an ice-chill penetrating through his frame, and turning quickly around, he beheld himself face to face with Theodore Varian. Not a word did he utter, for he saw in a moment that he was lost. The thunderclap of doom sounded, as it were, upon his ear, and he knew that he was betrayed as indu- bitably as if the young man had already proclaimed the fact from his lips. Besides, those ominous countenances that peered over Varian’s shoulder, Emmerson knew them well; for Mr. Moses Ikey and his man Tom had been the instruments of many and many a bitter persecution waged by the bill-broker against poor wretches who were unable to meet his usurious demands. “You thought to escape? ’’ said Varian, in a low, hoarse tone, full of concentrated passion, and fixing a look of inexorable bitterness upon the fallen man, “ but you are mistaken.”’ ‘““ Stand aside, sir,’ recovering the faculty of speech as a ray of hope flashed upon his mind; for, in the first place, it was evident that the forgery had not been discovered, or else they would be eriminal and not civil officers who had come to arrest him, and, in the second place, if the writ held by Mr. Ikey was for a sum which Emmerson could pay, as he had nearly two thousand pounds about his person, he might yet get clear off in spite of Theodore Varian. ‘ Now, Mr. Ikey,’’ he said, drawing the Jew aside and speaking in a low tone, so as not to be overheard by the clerks and other persons transacting business in the coach-office, ‘‘ what claim have you against me? ”’ ‘Three thousand four hundred,’ Theodore hastened to observe, his voice sounding ominous as that of doom over _Emmerson’s shoulder. “I persuaded your largest creditor ) exclaimed Emmerson, now suddenly | EOMIGIOOKS (C(O) im