Black Bess; or, The Knight of the Road — A Tale of the Good Old Times — page 383: what you’re looking at

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

ay toe en eee oe Se BLUESKIN: A a a a “2 © What shall we do?” «That IT know not. Perhaps it will be as well to run Khe risk of emerging from this place. We cannot make our position much worse, I should think.”’ = ‘Agreed. Iam quite ready to act according to your directions. You must be the better judge of what ought to be done.” ‘Take up your treasure, then. You will find it a good load. When we leave the passage I shall make my way; direct to the boat, and do you turn in the oyposite, direction, so that if we are pursued our foes mill be divided.” / ‘Again I say agreed, *Mr. Blake,” said Ross, as he began to pick up the ingots of silver from the floor, upon which Blueskin had placed them. ‘‘I am much obliged to you,” he continned ; “ more obliged to you than I can well express. You have, indeed, been liberal.” Ross, the landlord, was a stont, strong, hearty man, so he took up the ingots with much less difficulty than Blue- skin did, who was greatly enfeebled by the numerous wounds he had received. As soon as he was ready Blueskin prepared to start. But they had already lingered too long. Jonathan Wild had reached the entrance as we have already described, and followed closely by his men, made a sudden rush. Blueskin comprehended his danger in a moment. He had all along been haunted by the idea that the thief-taker was upon his track. Now he was upon him. His capture seemed certain. In that narrow passage which had but one outlet, what chance had he of making his escape ? His heart sank within him as the consciousness came over him that he must fall into the hands of the dreaded thief-taker. Perhaps, he thought, Jack Sheppard and Edgworth Bess had already been made prisoners, and the treasure which ee been obtained with so much risk, been taken from them. But it was not in Blueskin’s nature to submit to any circumstances, let them be ever so adverse, without ae at least a desperate effort to preserve his life and iberty. And so, on the present occasion, actuated by this feeling, he immediately turned and fled up the narrow passage, nntil the stone walls prevented him going any further. Then he was forced to stand at bay. Ross, the landlord (who, burdened with the weight he carried, was less quick in his movements), was 1mme- diately borne down by Jonathan Wild’s men, and made a prisoner. The whole of them rushed upon him, for in the dark- ness it could not be seen who it was. * A light!” said Wild. ‘Quick! That ought to have been thought of before. A light.” Those of the janizaries who were not employed in keep- ing hold of Ross, busied themselves with hghting the dark lanterns with which they were provided. They had done this too often not to be expeditious and, accordingly, before many seconds had elapsed, the united beams of the lanterns tolerably revealed the character of the place they were in. Of course the Jenses were at once turned upon the prisoner they held so securely in their grasp, and then they recognised him as the landlord who had furnished them with the drugged ale. Jonathan recognised him, too,and commanded his men to hold him tight. They obeyed, and directed their master’s attention to the ingots of silver which Ross had dropped. Of course Jonathan recognised them too, and a howl of anger burst from his lips. Tn the excitements of the last few days he had almost forgotten the robbery, but now the sight of the well- known ingots brought it back with great vividness to his mind. wo Without any positive proof that Blueskin waa Jack Sheppard were the robbers, he had judgedt to be them, but now he had positive proof. ** Forward,” he cried, again. prisoner to take, Forward.’ Flushed and heated with the success they had already met with, the men rushed up the passage. “We Lave another ROMANCE, 381 But they reached the end of it without meeting with an obstruction of any kind. When they could go no further, with dismay pictured upon their faces, they turned round and looked about them. No one was to be seen. By some extraordinary means or other, Blueskin had disappeared. Wild was furious. Convinced there was no means of exit, save ono—and that one being the passage guarded by his men—he came to the conclusion that Blueskin must have eoncealed him- self in some out of the way nook. But a hasty, though thorough examination of the place showed there was no such place affording the least capa- bilities for concealment. The idea struck him that, somehow or other, Blueskin had been cunning enough to slip out unperceived. But the men on guard, upon being appealed to, solemnly declared that he had not passed them. Jonathan was puzzled. Again and again he made an examination of the place, but without result. The only thing that looked at all probable was that Blueskin had found some means or other of making his way into the Abbey. But Jonathan could see none at all practicable. He knew, too, how carefully all the place was secured, and though there were several windows round about, yet none of them bore the appearance of having been forced open. “What do you think, George?” Wild asked, when, thoroughly baffled by the mysterious disappearance, he could come to no conclusion himself. * Don’t know, old’un. It’s either one of these two things. If Blueskin has not passed the men at the entrance, he must be inside the Abbey, for it 1s quite cer- tain he is not hiding anywhere about here.” This was an opinion entirely in accordance with Jona- than’s own ideas upon the matter. ‘Take care your other prisoner is secured, and let ns effect an entrance into the Abbey, and see if we cannot find the other. ** Good,” said Wild, senior; ‘‘ but I hope you see that it ig not the easiest matter in the world to capture these fellows.” ** You are right, guv’ner.” ‘* Those in the boat, you see, eluded us, and I am sure our approach was silent and cautious enough, but some cursed thing or another gave them the alarm.” ‘* It looks like it.” Wild would not have let slip this opportunity of remind- ing his son that all was not so easy as he had seemed to think it was for worlds; in fact, he looked upon it with professional pique. The order was given to keep tight hold of Ross, and then Wild despatched another of his men to call up the man who had charge of the keys of the Abbey—for it was more than even the great thief-taker dare do to break into a sacred edifice upon the mere supposition that a felon, of whom he was in pursuit, had concealed himself there. Some time was consequently thus lost, and Wild chafed and fretted like an imprisoned tiger. At length the old man, who had charge of the keys of the sacred building, made his appearance. At first he demurred, but a diabolical threat, such as J corte Wild alone could utter, induced him to alter his mind. He fitted the key into the lock with a trembling hand, and shot back the bolt. As soon as the door was fairly open for him to pass throngh, Jonathan rushed in. George Wild was next, and, of course, the janizaries were not very far behind, for they knew it was more than their lives were worth to linger. The lanterns which they carried had been quite sufficient to illuminate the narrow passage, but now they were brought into the area of the vast building, they were found totally inadequate to disperse the mass of darkness with whieh it was filled. ; A dim kind of halo was just cast aronnd Wild and his party, and that was all, and more served to keep any one away from them than it enabled them to perceive any one. RN re, SE AE A TT SN IO IE an TC TD OE Ea Stat —_—S of _ a I? COMmiIcoooe CC S (SO) 5}