Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

—_—a” 4 | . ; ; <9 iain ~- ~ owe 4 nd —OE ee ee « SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON. But ere she released it from her hold she - remembered that she had the key in her pocket, though she had resolved never more to return, and permittimg, the iron ring to fall softly back, she thrust her shaking hand into her pocket and drew forth the key. It was some time ere she eould insert it in the ~ lock, so violently did she tremble, but the task - : ‘ : 44 at lenoth accomplished, she turned it and opened the door, But oh! how came he here? Can Grasper have relented—can his heart have softened ? Can his better angel have triumphed, and, prompted him to save both him andme?, God grant it has been so;; or has James broken from his prison walls, and—sreat God! that letter! He must have seen it—read it!” She elasped ‘her brow, in one hand, and softly _ closed the door with the other, and then tottered - along the passage to the stairs. _ . Still all remained silent, save the ticking of the little clock, and the heating of her own 7 ‘throbbing heart, She clutched at the banister and dragged herself up the stairs by its. support: till. she reached the landing. , ) The door of her bedroom was partially open, but no sound emanated from it. ., She longed to rush to her Hefsuspense was terrible. eg husband’s arms-—to _clasp him to her throbbing bosom. . - . - : 1 s 4 _ Yet she feared to move forward—teared to enter that room from which his voice had ~ Why did she ? She could not;tell. Something seemed tohold her back. _ Something seemed to whisper to her that in that room she would see that which would strike. terror to her soul, and lacerate her heart deeper than it had ever been lacerated before. She strove to call out her husband’s name. But her tongue refused its office. The word came only through her lips in a hissing whisper. She pressed her hand to her bosom. It rested on the pocket-book she had taken from the cab. . 9 The spell was broken which held her. She took the book from the bosom of her dress, and sprang forward into the room with it in her extended hand. ~ But searce had she crossed the threshold, than ‘she fell with a bang to the floor, the sound mingling with the short, piercing shriek that escaped her lips. 3 Her eyes had rested upon the prostrate body of her husband as he lay upon the floor of the room, A moment she stood gazing upon him with starting eyeballs and quivering lips, and then throwing her arms wildly above her head, she sank down upon her knees at his side. _ “James! James! my own loved husband, look up. Speak to me. I—oh! my God—my God !” She had grasped him by the shoulder, and raised his face from the floor, The sight that met her gaze then almost drove “ He here—he—my husband ! ” she muttered. | reason from its throne, and called forth the ex” clamation in tones of the acutest agony and despair. | She did not faint now. 115 She knelt upon. the floor by his side, holding’ his head in her hands, and gazing down upon the glassy eyes, pale face, and the pool of blood: from which she had raised it. Her heart; which before had throbbed so violently, appeared to beat no more. Fascinated, appalled, she knelt thus for some. time with bated breath, glaring upon the fearful sight before her. : Then the head grew heavier, till_she- could | support it no longer, and she'suffered it to fall back upon the blood-stained carpet. Then her own head drooped lower and. lower, | till her bloodless cheek rested upon those’ of her dead husband, and the tears gushed to her eyes, and sobs shook her bosom. “ Dead ! dead!” she cried, ‘“‘Oh,' God! am I dreaming, mad, or—but no, no; ‘tis real—too real !”’ And pressing swayed her body ‘to ‘and fro husband, his cheeks to her own, she over that of her _, “James! James ! ‘my own dear James !” cried the woman, caressing his pale cheek and, blood- less lips.. -“f Oh ! speak to—speak to me!” But she:called: upon one who would never speak more. She had: heard the tones of his voice for the last: time on earth. : _ © Oh, my God! what shall I do?” she cried, after a pause. | But the echoes of her own words alone an- swered her. | After a time she arose from her knees, and then her glances, through her, tears, fell upon the note she had left. ‘Oh, heaven ! I see it all,” she cried, stagger- ing back and sinking into the seat her husband had occupied a short time previously. “ I—I have murdered him. Curses on the hand that penned the lines which drove him to commit this crime. “Tis I—I who have done this. I am. his-murderer.” Her agony of mind, if possible, became even more intense at the thought that what she had written had caused him to perpetrate the. rash act, and she sprang to her feet. “JT had resolved to die,” she cried; “why, then, should I live? He has gone to his last account. This hand sent him to the grave—a suicide’s grave—and there—there will I join him.” ! She lifted the blood-stained weapon from the floor, where it had fallen from his powerless orasp. ‘Ves, yes,” she muttered, “this. shall send me to the grave with him this has severed, and it shall join us, James, dear. James, you have sone but a short time before me. _ But I come— I come, my own—my husband 1” She raised her hand as she spoke, but dropped it to her side as.a. crashing noise below saluted her ears. “ ‘¢ What’s that ?”’ she gasped; turning her pallid face towards the door of the room. Orash ! crash! and the street door was then / ecomichooks (E(0)