Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 332 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

. q — —— Spring-Heel Jack. smoking the long hookah, which he had kept as | the great Armory, when he uttered a cry of ter- a reminiscence of the bright skies of the Hast,in ror, as he saw Rose at his feet on the floor, pale the midst of the murky fogs of London. His black and obsequious servant, whom he had also brought with him from India, had re- tired, after filling the bowl and setting fire to the dark, sweet-scented tobacco. Hewasnow stand- ing in the back part of the room, waiting to be dismissed to his supper, when his master said to | him: ** Chundoo, what has become of Miss Rose?” Miss Rose was the general’s daughter, who was | in the habit of pouring out his tea in the even- ing, after the lapse of an hour or two from his late dinner. Chundoo shrugged his shoulders, and looked as politely ignorant as possible. ‘General sahib wish to see Missy Rose?’ he said inquiringly. ‘* Me go find her, if the sahib wishes. ‘* No, never mind,” said the old veers with a puffandafrown. ‘I suppose she has some- thing else to do, before she comes, You can go, Chundoo, Vllring when I want you.” Chundoo made the deepest of salaams, and backed out of the room; while the old general, who was getting stout and disposed to slumber, after his dinner, gradually let the mouth-piece of the hookah drop from his lips, and was soon snoring gently, with his head inclined on his breast, as he sat in his big arm-chair, with the last rays of the declining twilight shining in on him, from the window which overlooked the river, at which he had been accustomed to sit, every evening, since he had been, by the favor of the good King George, assigned to the easy berth of Constable of the Tower. It was a pleasant life he led; but he had done a great deal of hard work before he earned the — in which he was passing the decline of his s He had seen many battles; sieges innumera- ble; hazardous embassies to native princes; in allof which he had not been unmindful of the fact that he was a Scotchman born, and had his kets to fill, against the time when he would be retired from service, on half-pay. He was said to have come back from India with that comfortable sufficiency of this world’s oods known as a ‘“‘ plum” in England,* but, in he accumulation of this competence, he had done his duty so well by the crown and the com- pany, that, when he w too old for further service in the field, he had been called home and established in the post of Constable of the Tower, which he had held for twelve years, and bid fair to hold for another twelve after it. The old Constable was a widower, with one child, a daughter, whom he idolized, spoiled and t, over, by turns. Rose had been born in India, but had come to England after the death of her mother, when her father followed her, in a few months to his native land. She was now a girl of eighteen, tall and slen- der, with a profusion of blonde hair, a delicate complexion, health not too robust; but a great capacity for all sorts of romantic and i na- tive stories, of which her memory was to overflowing. The general had become so accustomed to have her pour out his tea in the evenings, that he felt ill-tempered at her absence, for the least fraction of a second, at the appointed time; but he nee much pride to let this be seen before his Hindoo servant, and therefore he had taken his usual doze, though Rose was not there, wait- ing for his waking. ut the old gentleman had lived too r a life to omit waking at the instant he boon and, when he at last opened his eyes, he foun that his daughter had not yet come back, The only light came from the few glimmer- ing embers of the sea-coal fire, that burned in the old-fashioned fire-place; and by this light the old man saw that the room was vacant, and for the first time, he felt a vague sense of alarm. He rose from his chair slowly, and went to- ward the door, which he opened. The light from the swinging oil lamp, in the long, stone corridor, shone on the gray flags of the pavement and the vaulted roof overhead; but there was no living being in sight. Far away in the recesses of the buiiding, he heard the clash of arms, as the sentry over the magazine down in the basement of the Tower paced to and fro on his beat, and an occasional echo of voices and laughter in the guard-room told that things were going on as usual. But for all this, he felt uneasy at the absence of his daughter, and was just stepping out into the corridor to investigate, when his ears were surprised by the sound of a shriek, which he knew came from the Armory of the Tower; the voice, that of his own daughter. The shriek was repeated, and the old general caught up a sword from the table where it had been lying since he came in from evening pa- rade, and rushed toward the Armory, shouting, as he went: “Guard! Guard!” With a celerity that surprised himself—for he was getting stiff in the Joints—he ran up the stone steps at the end of the corridor, and into *A hundred thousand pounds sterling, or about half a million dollars, } ; Ss oO eg —— - and insensible. There was a light in the Armory which burn- ed all night; and this—a swinging lamp, fed with whale-oil, hung from the ceiling—cast a dim radiance over the figure of the imsensible girl, and shone on the long rows of martial fig- ures of the kings of England in their armor grimly guarding the secrets of the Tower o ondon. There was nothing else in the room, as far as he could see, but the silent lines of men in ar- mor and the girl on the stone floor before them; but he heard the sounds of men’s feet on the steps outside, and a tall sergeant of the Beef- Eaters came rushing into the Armory a moment later, followed by a dozen men. The sergeant seemed to be dumfounded: at the sight of what had happened, and stood for a little while speechless, when he was recalled to his senses by the sharp voice of his chief, say- ing: a What the deuce are you staring at, Hodge? Some of you fellows take up the lady and carry her down to my rooms,” The order recalled the yeomen to themselves and mp hastily raised the young lady an carried her down-stairs, when they were met, as they came out of the Armory, by a young officer of the garrison who was on duty that night, and who asked hastily: ‘** What is the matter, men?” Then, as he caught sight of the stern face of the old Constable, he added 2 rk mee “T beg your pardon, general; but I thought something had happened.” ** And so something has happened, Mr. How- ard,” the old officer snapped out. ‘ Why don’t you attend to your duties better, sir? Some- thing has yg 4 the Armory, while you were ri » and frightened my daughter nigh to eath. His words seemed to strike the young officer in a tender spot, for some reason or other; for he colored deeply, and then turned pale, as he, for the first time, saw the body of the senseless. girl borne past him, and murmured to himself: ‘* Heavens! who would have thought it?” The old Constable did not hear him speak, for he was too much occupied with the care of his daughter, and the men were carrying her down- stairs, into the apartments of the chief officer of the great building. Lieutenant Howard rubbed his forehead, like one bewildered, as he saw them go down-stairs. When they departed, and he was left alone, he stared round him at the grim-looking statues in armor and muttered to himself: ‘‘ What can have happened? I left her here not five minutes ago.” He noted the spot where she had been lying, for it was marked by a little spot of blood on the stone pavement, where the girl had struck her head in falling, or done something else, which made the mark. It was right in front of an armed figure, in the steel mail that had once covered the martial form of England’s greatest warrior, King Edward ITI. The great wooden war-horse towered above the spot, and the figure on its back seemed to be staring overhead, as if serenely indifferent to an that went on in these times. CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR. Tur old general, as soon as he got into his rooms, began to call out excitedly : . ia! Where-the deuce is that con- deenitied aval Suryia, come here, you lazy black hussy !” The second call summoned into the room a thin woman, with very sparkling black eyes, and the outlandish dress of an Indian ayah or nurse. Suryia was the ayah who had brought Rose to England, and had been her faithful ser- vant ever since; for the household of the old eneral, like that of most Anglo-Indians of his cay, remained the same, after he got to England, as far as he could make it, as it had been In- dia: and all his servants were Hindoos, from Chundoo, the kitmagar or butler, to Suryia, the ayah. "Survie seemed to be used to the irascible ways of her master; for she came forward, quite calmly, to take care of her young mistress, and set to work, as if she had done the duty, required of her, many a time before. The old general, who had faced the fire of many a battle-field without flinching, was com- pletely unnerved by the peril to his daughter, and stood ae by the quiet ayah, till the efforts of the dark-skinned woman were success- ful; when the girl heaved a deep sigh, and open- ed her eyes. When they fell on her father, she smiled, as if the sight reassured her, and then they wandered to Suryia, and over the room, as if she had begun to think she had never left it. The old general turned and made a silent sign to the big sergeant, who had ventured to hover near the door, in his sympathy for the young lady. service with LL cs ee me re had been a baby; so that he had ventured to come in, when he ought to have retired with the rest of themen. The general madea signal to him to get out of the room, and honest Hodge turned very red, and stole out, on tip-toe. With all his caution, however, the sergeant was too large and solid a man to retire noise- lessly; and the girl heard his creaking boots, when she started and rose on her elbow, staring at Hodge. The sight seemed to waken up some memory in her, for she cried out sud- denly : ‘What is the matter? Where have I been !” Then she covered her face with her hands, and shuddered violently, aes t ‘Oh, take him away! Take him away!” The old general, who thought that somethin had made the sight of Hodge odious to her, aid soothingly: *‘ Don’t be alarmed, my child. It’s only poor old Hodge. Nothing can harm you here.’ But the words did not seem to reassure her; for her terror seemed to increase, as she stared round the room, repeating: _ * Are you sure? Are you sure? Did you see it? Did you see it?” ** See what?” asked her father, now thorough- ] ee What has happened to you, ose The girl sat up on the couch, and looked at her father and nurse, as if she were slowly recover- ing her senses. ‘It is not possible it is a dream,” she said, in a half-doubting way. ‘Tell me, where did you find me? Was it in the Armory?” The old general, without pausing to consider whether he should tell the truth or not, said: ‘* Why of course it was; but—” He was interrupted by another shriek from his daughter, as she cried: cf knew it! I knewitwas nota dream! Oh sir, save me, save me! The creature will kill me, if it catches me a %s And then she shuddered so violently that the old general e more alarmed than before, and hastily ran out into the corridor, to tell honest Sergeant H to run for the surgeon, and tell him to ‘‘ come at once, as the Constable’s daughter was very ill.” Hodge started off down the corridor, in a hurry, and, as soon as he was gone, General Reid came back and sat down by his daughter’s couch, doing the most sensible thing he could have done. He contented himself with smoothing her hair with his hand, and letting her feel the touch she knew so well, saying nothing; while the ayah chafed her mistress’s hands, and bathed her forehead with eau-de-cologne. Under this soo treatment the oy one of the girl gradually decreased, and she e calmer, till at last she drop into a doze, from which she awakened ost immediately with a start, staring round at her father and the ayah, and thence into the corners of the room, as if she to see some there, What she would have said is uncertain; but at that moment the sound of the doctor’s foot- ov in the corridor, served to divert her mind; and the physician came in, smiling, as a lady’s doctor should, to inquire: ‘* Well, well, and what is the matter with our wild rose, to-night? Too much green tea, I'll be bound. A case of nerves. Come, come, let me see your tongue, and feel that pulse of yours. Don’t talk. J’ll ask any questions I want, after Ive tried your pulse.” And, by engaging her attention, he mana to quiet her down, and gave her an opiate, which STThen, and not till eh asl en, and no she was asleep, he said, to the old general, in a low tone: S ‘*Come out here, if you please. I want to say a few words to you, about this affair.” The general, who seemed to be quite overcome by the mysterious danger to his daughter, obeyed the injunction, and led the way to his private room, where he pointed the doctor to a chair, ond sat down, as if awaiting the questions of the other. But the doctor did not seem to be in the mood to question any one; for he’ sat, thoughtful and stern, by the fire, and it was not the Constable coughed, to rouse his attention, that he said slowly: ‘“* Reid, this is a very strange affair, I did not ask the child any questions; for I saw that her system had received a shock, and she might have gone into fits; but Hodge has told me all about it. Something has frightened her, almost to death in the Armory. Can anything get in, without the a Fle og the guard?’ The general shook his head. “Nothing bigger than a rat ora mouse. But Rose is not so silly as to be afraid of them. I can’t understand the thing.” The doctor pursed his lips thoughtfully. " very strange indeed! I don’t understand it. Is there any one who was with her, at the time?” ‘““T cannot think so. Rose had a habit of go- The mtg ene was a veteran, who had seen | ing into the Armory, after the visitors had gone eneral Reid in India, and had | for the day. She hates crowds, and likes to often taken little Rose in his arms, when she | make up all sorts of stories to herself, about the IOO (EOL CS) (E ' te Lo ee a i '"