The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 374: what you’re looking at

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

THE EMPTY HOUSE 343 “ Ah!” he ejaculated, as the beams fell upon the front door, ‘‘ this is precious odd.”’ The Burker’s surprise may be accounted for, when we inform the reader that the lantern had suddenly made him aware that the chain of the front door was hanging down, and that the lock had been wrenched off. He examined the door still more carefully; the bolts were drawn back, and it was only kept closed by the tightness with which it fitted into its setting. “It’s as clear as daylight,’ said the Burker to himself, with a deep concentration of fierce and savage feeling, ‘‘that some folks has been aforehand with me, and who could it be if not them Smedleys? Well, if this isn’t a dirty shabby trick, I’m blowed! ” | The respectable Mr. Barnes did not reflect that he on his side had been all along endeavouring to outwit the Smedleys in the object for which he himself had come, or at least that he had kept his design altogether secret from them. He considered himself deeply wronged, and hence that expression of his injured feelings. ‘““ But how the deuce did they get in? ”’ he said to himself, perfectly bewildered. ‘“‘ That they went out of this here door — if it was raly them — is as plain as a pikestaff, but how did they get in first of all? They didn’t force the door. The lock was broken off by some one inside, where I’m stand- ing now. Ah, I can guess!” he ejaculated to himself, as a sudden light flashed in unto his mind. “ They must have hid theirselves inside the house arter the sale, — perhaps in the coal-cellar, or what-not. A deuced clever trick, by jingo! But I will see if I can’t be even with them yet.” His angry feelings were the least thing appeased by the resolution to which he had just arrived, and returning the dark lantern to his pocket, he issued forth from the front door, closing it behind him by the aid of the brass handle, and hurried away, unseen by a single soul. COUN a LOOKS (CO)