The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 373: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE. She hid herself in the deep shadow while Bill passed out, She could have killed him. But then—— If she failed in the first blow might not Bob come to his assistance ? So she let him go. ‘He can go,’’ thought she, “he can bring Sir Henry Hastings, and by that time the girl shal! be far from here. I care not, for my own part, whether Lord Lovaine is succeasful or notin his love makings, but I will not be beaten ; I never was and will not be now. This Bob was always in the way, he shall be no longer.” She crept again to the door. It was ajar. She peered in. Bob sat by the fire. He never suspected— how should he—that any- body was watching him. So he looked and thought on trying to read the faces in the fire, fashioning grim shadows - into Sophie's face, and hoping—hoping—hoping eo OR aa? for what could never be. He dreamed not that a dark figure was ap- proaching. He saw it not as it glided behind him. He saw it not, heard it not, as it searched amid the straw and drew forth a huge hatchet. _ Only a slight shadow startled him as the strong arm of the murderess swung the weapon round in the air and brought it down ere he could leap aside—down, down, heavily, cruelly, on the head of him whom she had brought into the world, the pledge of her own love, A heavy groan—a yell—a shriek of pain—of agony | Then all was over. But though her son was dead by her murderous hand, the woman of many crimes was stil] un- satisfied. She was ‘resolved to make assurance doubly sure, and struck again, heavily and savagely. upon the boy’s head with the back of the hatchet, The barn door was open. Upon the scene of the murder the red fire- light gleamed. Alicia, sitting at her window, saw it all ! Was it fancy, then, what followed ? Or was it the terrible visitation of a ghostly being? The old woman knelt down, and taking the body of her son by the heels, dragged it away out of sight. Presently she reappeared, closed the door of the barn, and made her way hurriedly across the garden towards the house. And as she passed along, it seemed to Alicia’s fevered vision as if the phantom of the murdered boy followed her, pale and bloodstained, with a Juminous atmosphere around him, and a hatchet in his hand, smeared with blood and tangled wialteia closed er eyes, and pressed her hand over them shudderingly, toon long ahe remained so would be difficult Bay. To her it seemed no time, for her brain was tormented with a hundred hideous visions, Suddenly, however, before she was aware that NOTICR.— WITH NUMBER 88 WAS GIVEN AWAY ANOTHER BRAUTIFUL COLOURED PIOTUBR. Others will follow in a few weeks. any one was near her, something was thrown over her head, and she became insensible. Had she been aware of what was going on round her, she would have seen that two men were near her, with the old woman, and that they raised her in their arms, and made bur. riedly towards another part of the building. Then, after passing through the grounds, they placed her in a coach, and she was driven rapidly away. CHAPTER X, } THE FIRE—-THE PERIL OF THE TWO GIRLS: WHICH WILL HE SAVE?—THE MYSTERIOUS MAN—THE OLD MAN’S GRIEF—PETER QUELF ONCE MORE, WE must return now for awhile to Ralph Law- son, whom we left on his road home to the jeweller’s house, or, rather, at the door of his master's house. Scarcely had he reached it when a puff of hot smoke burst upon him, and a red light nearly blinded him, It was evident that the place was on fire. In an instant, before he had time to realise the situation, lurid’ flames shot out from the windows, casting a red glow over the opposite side of the street, and sending a feeling of pain and remorse into his heart, He knocked loudly at the door, and shouted lustily. But for some moments no one answered, Then came a rush of people from neighbouring -houses, and the friends and neighbours crowded aut to see what was the matter. Just as they issued from their houses, the fiery glow burst forth also from the house next door —the house in which Mercy Marner lived. A deadly faintness came over the heart of the young man, To think of the danger of Lucy Rayner was bad enough. How horrible, then, to think that both Lucy and Mercy were in peril ! Loudly the neighbours shouted ; loudly they knocked at the doors, while the yellow flames still lapped forth, and the heat became deadly and oppressive, and the black smoke rolled up- wards towards the sky. Presently voices were heard amid the roar of the fiery storm—-a man’s voice, now in eager entreaty, and then a woman's voice, sbrill and in agony. Ralph knew the voice well. It was that of Mercy Marner ! | The blood rushed from his heart, and flew to his head, and then went coursing back in tu- multuous tides. Then, just as the scream had filled with terror all of the spectators, the wall which divided one house from the other fell in with a crash, and the front wall fell out into the street, and the neighbours beheld a terrible scene. Across the chasm of fire which now yawned beneath, ore broad beam still ran, and at either end of this beam stood a female form. The one was Lucy Rayner, and the other Mercy Marner, It was evident at once to all that ‘one of the girla could be saved. GOVE OOO