The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

cee _ | \ 5) Og # 30 Harold lost no time in doing as he was bidden, and in another moment he stood within the half-shattered door of the old mill. “Your companions are approaching, I per- ceive,” said Simon Lawless, as he, too, backed tothe door, ‘Tell them they had best hasten from this place, ere my vengeance overtakes them.” Quelf uttered a loud, discordant laugh of mingled rage and contempt, ‘You may frighten them, but you won't frighten me |” said he, in a loud and menacing tone. But, even as he spoke, the figure of Simon Lawlees disappeared, as if by magic, from his eyes, and he stood, alone, with his friend, the trooper. Within a few minutes after this, the rest of the soldiers—those, at least, who had been un- uninjured—joined the dwarf and his com- panion, “What made you halt, Robertson?” asked one who seemed by his manners and his dress to be in command. “Why, captain,” answered the trooper, who was in the midst of his superstitious terror, “why, captain, we had nearly succeeded in capturing this young limb of Satan, when there appeared by his side the form of one long since dead—Simon Lawless, the famous traitor.” The captain laughed. “Pooh, pooh!” he cried, “you're dreaming, Robertson, or otherwise you have been deceived by some clever cheat. Simon Lawless ie dead, sure enough—dead and buried, too, and food for worms by this time. Come, det us enter the mill, or, if we cannot enter it, we must burn it down.” “Well, captain,” said the man, ‘well, you may ray what you please; but I knew Simon Lawless well, and, 1f it was not himeelf standing there strong and well before me, it was his ghost, and I don’t care to fight ghosts,” The captain gazed at the man in some per- turbation. Scarcely any one, from peasant to noble, was free at that time from the influence of super- atition. “ You are sure it was he ?” he said, ‘T am certain, captain,” He turned to Quelf. : “And you—did you see him ?’ ‘“T saw a@ man, dressed in a grey dress, and with a face grey as from the grave,” returned the dwarf, “who saved Harold Fordyce, and disappeared as I looked.” “ And was it Lawless? Know you his face?” The dwarf hesitated. It was true that he knew the man, but he de- sired not to say where he had met him. ‘‘Come,” cried the captain of the royal treopers, “ be quick and answer me.” “I met him at the armourer's—at Frank Leslie’s, the armourer’s, in the Strand,” returned the dwarf ; then, he added, to turn the conver- sation away from himself, “If we are not quick he will escape us by the other side.” ‘‘ Not he,”’ returned the captain, who, how- ever, madc no attempt to move either forward or backward. ‘“ Quick, my men; go to the farm-houses and bring away straw and wood and pile against this accursed place.” THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, (* “ Had we not better try and force our way in?” cried Quelf. The captain shook his head. No,” he said, “ we know not how many are concealed within.” Quelf knew well that it was superstitious fear and no fear of mortal foes that was keeping the soldier back. “YT will goin and see for myself,” cried he, and while the troopers dispersed themselves in all directions to ravace the homesteads of the quiet farmers, he sprang forward with the light- ness of a monkey, and reached the door before the captain of troopers knew well what was his intention. CHAPTER X, THE SUBTERRANEAN CAVE, MEANWHILE, as soon as Simon Lawless had entered the ruined mill, he hurried along a dark passage, until they reached a landing at the summit of a flight of cteps. Here he halted, and, as soon as he was assured that Harold was by his side, he stepped aside, drew a bolt, and in an instant a door shot across, and closed in the passage behind them. “ Now, then, my young friend,” he said, “we are safe ; follow me, and let the mill go to de- struction if it will.” Harold took the hand of his mysterious con- ductor, who at once, and without hesitating or stumbling, led the way down a broad stone ataircase enveloped in utter darkness. At the bottom of this staircase he paused, and again pressing a bolt ashe had done above, he caused a heavy stone to fall with a clang over them. ‘Now, then,” he said, “let them search as they will, they will find nothing. That stone will keep off all communication hetween us and our foes for ever—at least, from that side.” As he spoke, he pushed open a door and ushered our hero into a chamber where a feeble lamp was all that illumined the blackness around. Yet even this faint light for an instant dazzled the eyes of Harold, as he came straight from out the intense darkness above, and it was some moments before he saw that he bad been ushered into the presence of three per. sons—Puritans evidently, from their dress and appearance, and of the military type, from their long swords and pistols. ‘Whom have we here, Simon?” asked one of them, in a surly voice. “A friend to our cause, you may depend,” re- turned Lawless. “He is one, who, though young, has already done good service. He isan apprentice in the service of Frank Leslie, the armourer of the Strand.” ‘* Whose daughter loves the king !” returned the other, in as gloomy a voice as before. “Yes; but who himeelf is a friend of Crom- well,” pursued Lawless, “I myself should be the last to trust him, did I not know him faith- fal. I know well bow, when he first entered Leslie’s service, he was deceived by Alicia Les- 7 \ \G book