Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 217: what you’re looking at

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

a, i proceed to batter in its panels when they heard the doctor’s foot descending the stairs. A sigh of relief broke from the lips of both, and Tom gasped out in a whisper— aM .“ He’s coming, and it don’t move now.. Don’t say nothing ; but when we get the ochre we'll slope quickly. Oh, lor’! I wish I hadn’t gone out tothe jobatall.7? 5 : _ Endeavouring to assunie a calmness they did uot feel, the two men awaited, with trembling limbs and throbbing hearts, the entrance of the doctor, who, turning the key, strode into’ the room, chinking five gold coins in his hand. -“Pive pounds you want for this job, I think you said,” remarked Potters, as he stood before them. “Six, sir, It’s worth six to run such a risk,” said Tom. ‘‘ That’s only two pounds each, you know.” | “Very well. I suppose you must have it. But of course you will give your absent com- panion his share.” . -“ As true as never we will, sir,” said Joe. _“ Then there is the money.” ) | And he placed the required stm in Tom’s hand, which shook so that he could hardly hold them in his grasp. “Thank you, sir. Good nicht, sir. Come on, Joe,’ said ‘Tom, now that he had got the gold, anxious to get away as quickly as possible. “Stop! stop! You had better take your sack,” said Potters, approaching the table. | “We'll call for it to-morrow, sir,” said Tom, quickly. | | “Thad rather you took it with you now. 1 do not wish you to be seen here more than possible.” ; ““We'd rather not wait for it now,’’ said Joe, dreading that something fearful would: happen the instant the doctor touched the corpse.) | “Why?” asked Potters, suspiciously. - Neither replied. EDM “Nonsense! ‘There’s no necessity to give yourselves a journey for nothing. You can have tina moment,” said Potters, taking up a knife and severing the cord which bound the mouth of the sack. | ISO “Theré! Catch hold of the bottom of it, and draw it off, while I hold the body.” Neither of the men seemed inclined to obey _ this order. “Off with it!” ) ; “You,” said Joe, knocking his compgnion | forward. ~“ No—you,” said Tom. POE “What are you hesitating about?” said the doctor, harshly, being somewhat annoyed at the strange conduct of the two men. “Are you afraid to touch a corpse any more in a dissecting- room than in its coffin. Hallo! what’s this?” The doctor let ao the mouth of the bag, and leaped back from the table, holding his knife thireateningly before him. OR His ‘exclamation of surprise had been drawn oot by perceiving the sack roll slightly on one side, ei! Tom and Joe had also observed it, and darted ont of the room into the hall, nearly rolling over each other in their eagerness to escape. Recovering from the shock, the doctor sprang SPRING-HEEL’D JACK’: THE TERROR OF LONDON, ns ecmesinessssstn: after them, and threateninsly presenting th knife he held towards them, ede Sib ~ You confounded villains ! “what trick’ are you playing me? Go back into that room or I'll make a corpse of each of you on the instant.” ~ We-ain’t been playing you no trick,” casped Tom, in tremulous accents. : “ Upon my soul we ain’t,” chimed in Joe. “ Go back into that room,” “1 won't,” said Tom. “1 shan’t,”’ cried Joe.“ a “Then, hark you, my fine fellows,” said the doctor, who felt certain that he had been swindled out of six pounds by the two men, “if you do not obey me I will arouse my servants, send for the police, and charge you with sacrilege.” The jaws of the two men dropped in horror. They saw that the old doctor was in earnest, and shivering in every limb they slowly walked back into the room. * Now, draw off that sack,” said the doctor, “and let me see what I have paid for.” the men, feeling that disobedience would | avail them little, made a clutch both together ate bottom of the sack, and with a desperate tug led the burly form of Bill off the table on to the floor; and leaving the head and shoulders of their companion open to the gaze of themselves and the astonished doctor. | If fear had paralyzed the enercies of the body- snatchers hefore, astonishment did so now, for they stood looking down upon the upturned face | of Bill, still holding the bottom of the sack in their hands. The ‘doctor was the first to recover, and turn- ing furiously to Tom and Joe, he said— | “Ys it thus you wished to defrand me, who have ever paid you well for a subject?” ‘““Blowed if it ’ain’t Bill,” gasped out Tom, paying no heed to the doctor’s words. © “Strike me lucky!” ‘eried Joe. ** Well, Tn flabbergasted all of a heap.” pea “The warmint’s been having ‘a lark with us, or else it’s the ghost, and biowed if I know which.” UTE fi ‘ Perhaps you will explain the meaning of this strange conduct? ” said Potters. = ' ©’Splain!” eried Tom. ‘“‘S’elp me never, governor, we're as much licked as you are.” “ Quite,” said Joes “And if anybody can explain at all it’s Bill—if it is Bill, and not the corpse that’s changed itself into our old pal.” | ““There can be no mistake as to this being your eompanion, who has submitted to be ’ stripped for the purpose of imposing upon me.’ I can well understand now why you did not care to wait for the ‘sack. A well-concocted plan, certainly. And I suppose as soon as I had retired he would have let you into my house to'rob it ?” ‘Stow it; governor!” said Tom, with a look of injured innocence. “TI tell you, true as life, we thought it was the body I saw buried this morning. Upon my soul we did, and 1 would 4 tell a lie, I wouldn’t, for nothing. Ask Dill.” Bill, who had opened his eyes and was gazing in surprise and terror from one face to the other, here rolled his head backwards and forwards on the floor. : (Bey ‘Why, s’elp me never! he’s got his belcher ip his tater-trap, and can’t say a blessed word, boo Gon Sil Se ; 219