Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 237: what you’re looking at

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

SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: speaking as he trudged along. “There be 2 darned sight too many of you lazy varmints, and I bean't a-going to give a lift to the loikes of you. I don’t starve, because I work ; and if you were a mind to do the same, you needn’t neither. I seetoo many of youchaps, and I knows your game.’’ The youth, who had started on the road, now came up alongside of Stokes, and looking in his face, said, in a tone half indignant— “You know me, but do you know any harm of me ?”’ “Well, can’t say I do, but I guess you’re after no good,”’ was the reply. “Oh, you Lunnoners are very. green, ain’t you? but 1 been had once before, and I bean’t a-going to be done again. Gee-wut !” And as if memory had brought some un- pleasant recollections to his mind, Roger slashed the middle horse of his team across the neck so violently with his heavy whip that the startled animal fairly reared up. ‘““Mether way! Steady, will ye, ye rascal? ”’ And down came the whip again on the neck of the offending horse. “So, because another may have injured you,” said the youth, sorrowfully, ‘‘ you must be un- charitable and insulting to all.”’ “And so I mean to be,” said Roger. “It'll be a long while, I know, before I give anyone a lift on the road again.”’ “Tf you have resolved not to help a tired wretch on his way, you might at least speak civilly,” said the youth. | “Oh, yes, I’d be civil certainly. Id be civil to the fellow that served I the trick, if I met him. He was just such another looking chap as you, and I let him get in my waggon and lay down among the straw, because he said he were tired and hungry, and just as I got into Lunnon I found he had broken open one of the ‘boxes and stole what was in it, and got clean off, without I ever seeing the shadow of him. Do you think it’s likely, after that, I’d give anyone a lift on the road? Think I be civil to any as axes me, after that? NotI. I be a darned sight more inclined to lay my whip about his shoulders, just to give him a warning not to try it on again.” Sala “And so you take me for a thief?” said the youth, his pale face flushing as he spoke. “Ye look a sight more like one than an honest man,” said the driver, with a sneer in his rough tones, “and I don’t think I’d be far out of my reckoning if I said you were one, too.” The flush on the youth’s face became deeper as he eyed the burly form of the waggoner with a meaning look. “Don’t say Lam a thief,” he cried, in a sup- pressed tone, or, big as you are, I'll resent the insult.” Roger paused in his walk, and looked with ineffable contempt upon the stripling. “Ye be a cheeky sort of chap, I take it,” he said, “‘to threaten I. enough of ye to make a meal for a'dog.” “There is enough of me,’ said the youth, bursting with passion, ‘‘ to defend my character when assailed, or to show a coward and a brute that Iam not to be insulted with impunity.” a eMC OOO Why there bean’t. THE TERROR OF LONDON. 93 “Ye be a little cock to crow so loud,” said Roger, “ and, darn me, if I don’t change your crowing to crying with my whip, ii ye don’t take yourself off.” And as he spoke the wagegoner raised his heavy whip as if about to strike the wan- looking youth. : The young man grasped at the thick thong and secured it, and, by a sudden jerk, tore the whip from the waggoner’s grasp; but the next moment, and ere he could use itas a means of defence, the infuriated yokel dashed upon him, and seizing his weakened frame in his strong arms, hurled him to the ground, and savagely tore the whip from his hands. “There, ye darned thief, what do you think of that, eh?” he asked, as he stood over the prostrate lad. ‘“ Ye took LI for a green ’un, didn’t you, and thought to come some of your Lunnon bounce over 1? But ye’ll have to eat a few more hard dumplings afore ye can stand up against Roger Stokes. How d’ye like that fall, my bantam cock? I reckon I’ve larned ye summut this time. Don’t ’e come near I again, or I'll break thy ribs for thee, thou Lunnon thief.” Hesitating a moment whether or not. to give the prostrate youth a cut with his whip, Roger turned to look after his team. The drowsy horses had gone a few paces down the road, when finding that their driver was not at their side had come to a dead stop. Starting them on again with voice and whip, Roger fell into his accustomed long, heavy stride, and never once deigned to look behind him at the poor weak young man he had left lying upon the road. In the course of a few moments the youth rose to a sitting position, and gazed after the team and the heavy lumbering vehicle which they conveyed along. Heaving a deep sigh, he suffered his head to fall upon his hands, and, in a melancholy voice, he muttered— . ‘‘Heaven knows poverty is hard enough to bear, but imsult—oh that I were not so weakened by want and suffering! But, alas! I have not the power to protect myself. My limbs are bruised by the fall, and now my prospects of reaching London are farther of than ever, and my poor mother may die with- out ever again seeing me. Oh, Fate! Fate! why am I so hardly—cruelly dealt by? ” Slowly he staggered to his feet, and tottered to the thick-set hedge on the road side, against which he leaned for support. ‘‘ Fifteen miles from London,’ he continued aloud, ‘‘and a dying mother anxiously waiting to give me her last blessing. I shallnever see her more in life—never, never, for I cannot reach her side unaided, and heaven seems to have deserted me in this:trying hour. Weak, friendless, and alone, God help me !”’ : At this juncture a large dark object passed clean over his head, and fell on the road before him. The young man uttered an exclamation of surprise as a tall, cloaked figure rose up in the bright moonlight, and stepped towards him. “My sudden and unexpected appearance has SACO)