The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

144 REYNOLDS’ WORKS good as a pension as long as I lived. So I soon féll into Ralph’s plans, and agreed to act. I and some of my pals were to go down into Lincolnshire, carry off the brat, poison it, and then leave the body in some public place where it was sure to be seen. Because, don’t you understand, Mr. Ralph could scarcely claim to be the heir unless the death of little Edmund was proved? Well, me and the pals went down into Lincolnshire; but for some days we didn’t succeed, and as | began to fear that so many suspicious-looking iellows lurking about might cause an alarm and spoil the whole game, I told them to pack off to Gainsborough, which was only a few miles away, and there wait for me.” Here Chiffin paused to imbibe some more alcoholic fluid, which having done, he pursued his narrative in the following manner: : e “The moment I began to act alone, I had good luck, for I succeeded in carrying off the child from its nurse. I had a black mask on my face and frightened the poor pirl terribly, so that she fell down in a fit, while I ran away as hard as I could, with the baby in my arms. I soon slipped the mask off my face, and made straight for a grove that I saw at a distance. Having reached it, I sat down to rest, and also to do the remainder of my work, which was to kill the child and strip it of its outer clothes, so as to give Ralph Farefield a proof that I had fulfilled my mission. But whenlI felt in my pocket for the little phial of poison, I found it broke, and so I thought to myself there was nothing left to do but to tie a string around the little creature’s neck and strangle it. However, I began stripping the clothes off first, stuffing them into my pockets as I did so, and then I noticed that the child had the mark of a strawberry on its neck. A very singular mark it was, so singular that I couldn’t help looking at it, though it was but a tiny mark, not so big as a sixpence. Well, I had just torn off a string from the child’s petticoat and was going to fasten it around his neck, — for he was crying a great deal and I wanted to put an end to the business at once, — when all of a sudden I heard the voices of several men close by, but I could not immediatetv see who they were, on account of the thickness of the foliage. Well, thought I to myself, there was a chase after the child, and if I was caught stripping it and with its clothes in my pocket, too, I should swing for it. So, dropping the brat Gomichbooks aa * (E(@)