Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

eo cy} PRING-HEEL’D JACK : THE TERROR OF LONDON. ? 104 —_——— ———_— ee — ee oe ee ee nn SSS SESS ET ee eee, ee ee ee mmm rr ee eee 0 ee a public-house, which was one blaze of light, des” pite the unseasonableness of the hour. As the man got down from his after him as silently as possible, and as the driver opened the right-hand door our hero| darted behind the carriage. “ Here we are, sir!’ said the man. ‘I don’t know a better house then this where spirits are to be had. Why, damn it—where’s the fare? Blowed if I ain’t been bilked !”’ And the astonished Jehu drew his head out of the doorway of his vehicle, giving utte nctoa deep sigh. , “Where the devil could he have got out?” he muttered,aloud. “ It’s a rum go, this—very rum. Cuss him! I hope he’s broken his neck! to go and rob a poor man in this manner, the rascally snob!” 5 And the man closed to the door with a loud ang. ‘‘*T'd like to lay hold of the humbug—I would. Td show him how to bilk a poor fellow like me: Well, there ! I must go home and tell the missus how I’ve been done by a fellow as I took to be a gentleman ; and he.promised me a sov., too! Oh, I’d like to let him have it, the mean-spirited runaway vagabond !” And muttering maledictions, if not loud, at least deep, against our hero, he mounted his box. } | Jack stole silently from the back of the vehicle, opened the door and vaulted inside. | “ Gee-up !” cried the enraged driver, lashing his horse in utter vexation, and turning them round to proceed home. | , ) Jack laid back against the cushion, and with difficulty suppresed his laughter. | ‘First I was a gentleman,” he mentally ejacu- lated ; “ then a snob and a villian. Well, V’ll let him go a little way, and surprise him a bit more.” . | - Swearing at his horse, and smacking his whi furiously, the driver proceeded along, believing his vehicle was empty for about five minutes, when Jack again pulled the check string. But this time the driver had not attached it to his person, and there was no reply to the sum- mons, so Jack put his head out of the window, and called, loudly— Stop ! stop!” And stop the man did on the instant, turning his body round, and gazing at the head out of the window of his vehicle in unfeigned surprise. ‘Are you not going the wrong way ?” said Jack, : The man could not answer, he could only stare at Jack in the utmost amazement. “I wish to go to Temple Bar, my good fellow.” ‘Well, I never!” cried the man. “Did you not understand that to be your destination when I engaged your vehicle?” asked Jack. | ‘‘T can’t understand it,” ‘“blowed if I can, there !” | “My good fellow, I'm afraid you've been drinking,” said Jack, in a serious tone, ‘Sand I begin to regret that I asked you to pull up at said the driver, PN EN eee 2 — Ox, Jack: opened the left-hand door of the vehicle and | leaped out into the road, taking care to close 1itj the nearest place where we could obtain refresh- =, ment.” : | | “T did pull up,” said the driver, “ but blowed - if I could find you.”’ ; “My good man, are you out of your mind?” said vack. eA. “D d if i don’t think I am,” said the driver, scratching his head, and speaking as if. to himself, “for if the fellow could get out at the pace we went, cuss me, if he could get in! How the devil couid I miss seeing him, when | I pulled up atthe public? isay, sir,” he added, loudly, “I didn’t see you when { pulled up at” the Three Crowns.” 7 ie-eca Naa “TI am afraid,” said Jack, “ that it wilt be unsafe for me to proceed further in your vehicle. _ Your conduct is so strange that it alarms me, | and I am a very nervous man. You must have | been drinking, or else you are out of your mind. | You have not pulled up anywhere. ;, You only turned your horse round, and I have been un- . able to,stay you with the check-string-” |. “ Well, I never,” said the driver. “I did pull up, and got off the box, and opened the door. I can’t be mistaken in that. Surely, I ain’t fell asleep, and dreamed it. JI know [I ain’t drunk, ; and I don’t think ’m mad. It’s arum go, and _ blow me,if I can make it out.” 1s ey oe “ Dare I .trust myself to your driving ?” said Jack ; “or shall I get out and walk?”.,.. __» 5 “Oh! no, sir; don’t do that. I'll drive you right enough ; but I can’t make it out—upon my . soul, I can’t. I suppose I must have, fell asleep, and dreamed I pulled up at the Crowns; _ but I—blow it, it beats,me, it does! Temple Bar, you say, sir? Allright! Tl take you~ safe enough ; no fear of that. Well, it isa rum Q!” ae at oS. ee And muttering to himself, the driver turned — his horse’s head in the direction of the city. “Jf you think you can drink a glass with — safety, you may pull up at the Three Crowns,” said Jack. — ae 3 - mid een The confused driver waved his whip in an- | if P}swer, and once more the vehicle dashed on its | way. 4 | As Jack lolled.back on the cushion he conld , with difficulty prevent laughing loudly at the © continued mutterings of the man as he drove > along. | “Th ee The Three Crowns was soon reached, and once more the vehicle stopped beforeit. Ere the horse could be fairly: brought to a standstill, the driver had leaped to the ground, — and flung open the door ; but to his horror the | vehicle was again empty. ru He looked first at one seat, and then the other, and then lifting the frill of the cushion, looked under the seats. | Certainly, there was no one there. The driver turned pale. He staggered back, still keeping his eyes fixed » on the interior. ) ) He leaned against the wall, utterly dumb- founded, and gasping for breath for. some ~ moments. ufc. fal Then he dived his hands’ into the capacious pockets of his great coat, heaved a heavy sigh, . and cried— ih *‘T’m damned if I ain’t either mad, or that ere | ; : EComicbooksicol