The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 224: what you’re looking at

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

THE CELL 201 Having thus spoken, the Burker turned around upon the hard bench again, and affected to be endeavouring to com- pose himself off to sleep. The constable closed the little trap-door, and immediately afterward the Burker caught the sound of the yard door shutting likewise. He started up from the bench, and off came the manacles again. His pro- ceedings, at least the next proceeding which he had to adopt, was already settled in his mind. He knew these cells of old, and he was well acquainted with the features, the ar- rangements, and the position of all the adjacent buildings. There was no upper story to the little structure containing the cells; the roof was immediately above his head, and in that quarter it was that he purposed or at least hoped, to be enabled to effect his egress. The cell was tolerably high, and there was no moveable furniture in it which he could use to raise himself upon or to make available as a standing-place. But in this respect his plan of proceeding was also settled; he had well weighed and pondered the point when filing at his handcuffs. In the first place, by the aid of the file he dis- lodged a brick in the wall at the height which suited his pur- pose and at about two feet distant from the corner or angle. Then he did the same with another brick in a corresponding position in the wall which united with the other one to form that angle. Working in the dark, these processes were far longer than they would have been if he had the benefit of light. His next step was to break off a portion of the wood which edged the hard plank bed, or rather seat, on which he had reposed himself when the constable looked through the trap-door. He had so well calculated the length of the piece of wood which he could thus detach in reference to the dis- tance between the two holes left in the walls by the extrac- tion of the bricks, that the stout fragment of timber exactly fitted into the apertures provided for its reception. The reader will therefore understand that this piece of wood formed the basis of a triangle of which the two walls were the sides and the angle of the wall was the apex; or, in more simple terms, the wood was a sort of hollow shelf stretching from wall to wall, at about two feet from the corner. Standing upon this piece of wood, the Burker was enabled to commence operations upon that part of the roof which was immediately over his head, and aided by the file, he EOMIGIOOKS (CO)