The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

94 THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, to me that Harold is dead, it shall be doubled ; otherwise I shall pay no more, and will take revenge upon you for cheating me,” The captain placed the purse in his ca- pacious pocket without counting the money within it. ‘You may depend upon me,” he said. “I have promised, and I shall fulfil my word, You had better return the same way as you came, for if you make your appearance downstairs they will worder how you came here, and you may stand a chance of being attacked.” “Yes, I will go as I came,” said Lord Ray- mond. ‘It is not safe for me to be seen by any one. Even here in Whitefriara I feel as if I were pursued. To-morrow night at dusk I shall t you at the place where I first met you.” ith these words he made his way once more out of the window and disappeare Captain Lackland thought a moment, and thei, hurrying downstairs, he went up to a man who was standing at the bar. Bill Radstock,” he said, “there’s a man going along ‘the narrow’ now, with lots of coin in his pocket. It won't do for me to do it, for he knows me, You follow him, and we'll * Right you are, Is he a brother?” ‘‘ Aye, he’s a brother of Alsatia—at least, so he says ; but I think he’s no true one. Are you aqueamish? There’s no occasion to kill him. in fact, I don’t want him killed. He's a lord, and his money's good, He'll keep till another me,” The man waited for no more, but, loosening his dagger in his sheath, he crept out. He could see from the doorway that Lord Raymond had just reached what the Alsatian bully had called “the narrow,’ which was the path where the shadowy figure of the spy had ollowed in the wake of the desperado and the Young Apprentice. Then the man whom Lackland had called Bill Radstock crept down into the ooze and the alime, and approached Lord Raymond noiselessly Then he 2raw a short thick stick from his pocket, and sudus=!v leaping forward, he dealt s victim a heavy blow on the back of his head, No further blow was required. Lord Raymond fell with a smothered groan, and lay there quiet upon his face. _The robber then knelt down by the side of his victim, and sedulously searched in all his pockets. into the bar, had ordered himself a stiff glass of grog. ‘ Where is Captain Lackland ?” said he. ‘He's talking to two gentlemen upstairs,” said Gobbler, surlily; “but I tell you what, the day’s nearly breaking, and I can’t keep my house open all night, and perhaps the soldiers may return with a stronger force.” Money is always a talisman; and Bill Rad- stock at once placed a gold piece on the counter. “ Take my score out of that, friend Gobbler,” he cried; “and remember that civility costa nothing.” “Oh! I don’t mean to be uncivil,” growled Gobbler. ‘‘I see you pay well; bat, ‘f you want to stay here, you must let me cloge, and sit in there with your friend Lackland. “ Anything to oblige you,” replied Radatock, with the air of a condescending grandee, and stalked into the room. Presently Lackland joined him. “ Well,” said the desperado, sitting down with his usual swagger. “ Well, have you suc- ceeded ?” ‘‘ Yea, I have every coin he had about him. It is a goodly sum, I know; though I have not reckoned it,” He drew out one bag, and cast it ringing on the table. “Stay,” cried Captain Lackland; “before we commence this distribution of treasure, tell me how did you leave him?” ‘‘ Senseless on the ground. But have no fear, the fellow wasn't dead, or anything likeit. The water will have revived him by this time.” “The water! Did you leave him by the river side, then, insensible?”’ ‘¢ Yes, close by it, on ‘ the narrow.’ ” The Alsatian bully sprang up. ‘The devil, you have !” he cricd; ‘we must go to him at once. He will be drowned, and all hig money will be lost. He’s a rich man, and there's no knowing how much I can get in the future. .Come!”’ The men hurried out, in spite of the fact that Gobbler was closing his house, and passed along the pavement towards “the narrow.” On arriving here they saw a dark object lying on the ground. ‘© Ah! there he is,” cried Radstock. “ No—no !” exclaimed Lackland, “it is not he, it is his cloak. He is washed out into the river, and is drowned.” A loud discordant laugh rolled over the dark Very few moments sufficed to remove all his | bosom of the river. gold and transfer it from his possession into Radstock shuddered, and Lackland drew back that of Radstock, pale and trembling. “A good haul this,” said the rufflan, as he ‘“ You're linked to the Lost One, I think,” ros6 up once more, ‘“ Let me see whether the | cried Radstock. ‘“ That's the eleventh time I tide is rising ?” have heard that laugh; 1 dread the twelfth.” He glanced inquiringly at the dark sighing ‘‘Bah | said the desperado, drawing a fiask water. from his pocket, and drinking a deep draught It was rising. of brandy, “you're mad! It is some maniac *‘ Good,” said he; “I'll turn him over on his back, and then the water ‘ll splash over him and revive him. There's one thing,” he added, with a laugh, as he walked away, “‘ perhaps the water ll wash him away if it rises high. So much the better. J can swear that I didn't kill him, for he’s breathing all right, and was just getting better, I fancy, as I turned him over,” He had soon reached the tavern, and, passing who has broken loose, and you're frightened ; I'm not. Pooh! pooh! let’s go home. Since this lord is dead, we've lost a fortune, perhaps ; but we’ve made a good dip into his pockets,” Radstock did not answer. His mind was too much engrossed by the re- membrance of the fiendish tones,—the wild, weird laughter that was, as he had said, like that of the doomed and despairing. jin & J, ) a _. al wy © Ev), UC EDOO