The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 281: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, A door—half dropping from its old hinges— stood open before him, Crossing the ditch or moat at one leap our hero reached the doorway and pushed it open. “Good |" said he, to himself. “I will re- connoitre here. I will then return to the inn, procure my horse, and go to the nearest magis- trate. I will obtain from him assistance, and return to this place in sufficient strength to take it by storm,” Passing through the door he found himself in a large yard, at the other side of which was another doorway, partially open. It seemed, indeed, as if that was a ruinous part of the building that was quite unused. Naturally thinking that there would be some means of passing from one part of the house to the other, the Young Apprentice entered boldly. He bad no sooner done so than the portal was flung to rapidly behind him, and unseen hands seized him, He strugged in vain. Hurried forward with great rapidity along a paved passage he presently felt the earth give way, as it seemed, beneath him, and he fell bruised and helpless into a vault or pit deep down in the earth. CHAPTER IV. THE AWAKENING—THE RATS ~-STARVATION— THE FACE AT THE GRATING--THE CONVERB- SATION—THE OFFER OF LIFE-—THE SHOT IN THE DARK--THE OATH OF REVENGE—THE GLIMMERING OF HOPE—A OHANGE OF LODGING—A LOVED FACE ONCE MORE—THE FEMALE SPY-—ON THE TRACK OF SAFETY— DISAPPOINTMENT, FALLING down head foremost and suddenly into a deep and noisome pit, Harold Fordyoe, senseless and bleeding, lay for some time with- out movement, When, at last, his eyes did open, there was nothing to be seen, On both sides there was a wall of utter dark- ness. His body lay in a mass of yielding mud. Wherever he stretched out his hands he en- countered nothing but piles of oozy water. \ “ eyes could not get accustomed to the 1g It was utter and impenetrable darkness, and, after awhile, he gave up all idea of trying to see, and having roused within himself the power of standing up, he leaned against the wall to rest rather than lie down in the wretched mud and slime of his prison. After being for some time in this position he saw a light gleaming through a barred window at the side of the vault, Then a hideous head was seen between the ars, It was the head of Quelf. ‘‘ Ha, ha ! my friend,” he cried, “how do you find yourself ?’ Harold did not answer, Quelf repeated his question. ‘‘ How are you, my friend ?” Without a word Harold drew forth his pistol and fired. The shot, however, took no effect. Quelf’s evil genius again befriended him. Before the shot reached the bara the head of the dwarf had disap from the window, and a loud, mocking laugh went ringing away through the corridor without. Then, again, all was darkness. The night passed, and morning broke over the country, But no light entered the cell. It was far, in fact, beneath the earth, and no ray of light could enter it from above. Harold became stiff and weary, and a cramp pervaded his limbs. But not a soul came near him. Starvation stared him in the face. “Lord Raymond can now take a cowardly "he said; “but even now I will not Another day passed. me pange of hunger invaded his soul, _ 6 bitter an of unappeased appe racked him to the heart. Bat no help came. It was in vain to seek for any outlet. He felt around the walls—caatiously, for fear of pitfalls; but not the slightest niga was there of any means of exit, except through the barred windows where he had seen Quelf, the Dwarf. The place where he himself had entered, or rather been flung headlong into the dark- ness, he could not descry ; and, in fact, he coald tell, by his manner of searohing, that it was far above his reach. The mind, in such circumstances as those in which Harold Fordyce now found himself, is generally very fertile in resources when the first consternation is over. But the cold, cozing slime, and the clammy atmosphere, and the utter darkness and starva- tion deprived Harold, for the time, of all his senses, and on the second day he lay in a torpid state against one corner of the vault. The third day he became maddened ; and yet, with this madness, there seemed to come a kind a clear, desperate determination to save him- An idea suddenly occurred to him. He would dig with his dagger a kind of step- ping place to the spot whence he had been s0 fiercely hurled by Raymond and his minions. The idea had no sooner occurred to him then, recovering strength of mind and body through the distant hope of escape, he at once set to work to put his plans into execution. Taking from ita sheath his small dagger, he proceeded towards the place, He felt around. All was clayey earth. Digging his dagger into it he found it yield at once. : All his reason seemed now to have returned him. to He worked flecrely. Hunger for the time a to have ceased gnawing at his vitals, and his brain, cleared by th hopes of escape, could see clearly before it the golden hope of escape, So he worked on. One step was made. Joyously he stood upon it as if to prove to his eager mind that he could succeed. 2} (. f t } COVED OOKSEEON 4 c