Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

ee ~- —_— - — Tb upetegtidine ao eee ——s 20 SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON, sequently Bill fired up furiously, and staggered to his feet, consigning his soul to a certain warm place with a sulphury savour about it, and rushed like a savage, as he was, at the door, this time succeeding in grasping the greasy cord, which the’ knot at the end prevented from slip- ping through his closed fist. With a jerk at the cord the door flew open, and Bill dashed it. back to its full extent against the wall of the passage, knocking down sundry pieces of plaster, which had long lost its cover-. ing—to wit, the paper with which it had once been graced, and rolled into the narrow’ slip which parted the little parlour from the next house. “Why don’t you bring alight, ‘you lazy varmints?” he cried out, supporting his totter- ing limbs by still clinging to the cord. “ Why don’t you keep sober, and then I might |. have money to buy, candles with,.you nasty, unfeeling wretch?” cried a woman from the back room. “ You may break your neck*for all I care, and the sooner you do it the better for me and the children. What with your pigeons | and your ’’ | - ‘Shut up!” exclaimed Bill. ‘I am’ not in any humour for any of your jaw, I can tell you, to-night. You're gota good deal too much to aay and I won't stand it, I won’t; if I do; may e” eh PE Ere the indignant Bill could finish the sen- tence the greasy cord slipped’ from his grasp, and he fell heavily, in the passage, striking his head against the door, which, rebounding against the wall, made so great a noise and brought down such a quantity of tle plaster, as not only to bring a poor, thin, sickly-looking woman, who rejoiced in the proud title’of Bill’s wife, from the little back room, but also was the cause of the dim flicker of the rushlight suddenly disappear- ing from the room above and making its appearance in the passage below, held by the trembling hand of a wan-featured, but not unbandsome young woman of some twenty-two years of age. | | ‘“ Mercy on us, what is the matter, Mrs. Jack- son ¢’’ asked this latter personage, as she held the light high up above her head, and gazed down Doral ngs upon the heap of humanity at her eet. ) “ He’s drunk again, that ‘Bill of mine,” replied the wife, ‘* drunk again.” ve _ ‘That's a lie,” roared Bill, making several ineffectual struggles to regain his equilibrium, which he did by grasping’at tlie door, “ Look at the beast, Miss Folder, only look’ at the beast!” cried the wife; “he’s not drunk— wuy, he can’t stand.” * You're a thundering oe Bill Jackson had just got fairly upon his legs, when away went the rickety door from his grasp, and over again he went on to the floor, drowning the last word in the clatter of the panels against the dilapidated wall. _ This second fall rendered Bill furious, and like the dog that turns and bites the stone which strikes him, Jackson struck frantically at the door with his clenched fist, swearing fear. fully all the while. The young woman gazed on with a shudder of nee ee Fe oa mss 3 horror ; but Mrs. Jackson paid but little heed to ze 1 his antics. / | She had got used to them long since. = = “For heaven’s sake, Mr. Jackson,” said the ° girl, “do pray get up. You will do yourself some injury,-if you allow your passions to ~ master your feelings in this way.” ieee “Oh, let him alone,” said the wife, in a whisper. “If the door didn’t get it I should. ~ Hé must hit somebody or something when he’s like this; and ‘while he’s fighting the door he’s © not ill-usmg me.‘ “Let him goon.” ~~ _ But Billevidently did not seem disposed to go ~ on. long, Drunk .as he was, he had _ still’ the sense'of feeling—if not in his heart, at least in his hands—and he therefore desisted from his stupid attack, and again managed to struggle to histfeet." «* ™* ’ Nd ee For a moment he glared with ‘his bleodshot eyes upon his wife and the young lodger, and ~ then stretching out his brawny hand, he seized - the tin candlestick. which contained the rush- light, and rudely tore it from her grasp. ~ a “‘What’s that for, Bill?” asked his wife. — “ What's it for?” | us) ‘ a eOVes37 . . BON, cri “You say you ain't got no light, because you ~ ain't got no money. Well, then, I’m ‘not a going to go without one, while people as Owes © me rent has, that’s what it’s for.” | The young woman heaved a deep sigh, and ~ : ~ ~ : a the water rose’to her eyes. ~ “I’m blowed if I mean to wait any longer © for the rent,” continued Bill, staggering, and nearly making his wife’s eye an: extinguisher for the now guttering rush.’ “I want my money, and I mean to have it, or out she oo0es.”’ o 6 There, talk about that to-morrow, Bill,” said his wife, coaxingly. “I'll talk about it to-night. I’m nota going to be badgered for what I owe, when*people owe me a lot of rent. | | | ‘But, Mr. Jackson”—— began the young woman. ‘Shut up with your misters,” growled Bill. ‘“T ain’t so drunk but I know when people © comes the mister with me they are trying the soft-soap. I tell you my name’s Bill Jackson, and I want the rent you owe me, and mean to © have it too, or out you goes.” My. _ Bill made a stooping, staggrerine movement towards the young woman, as he thus gave ex- © pression to his resolves, 4nd as with’ sich the — poor creature stepped aside, Bill yan his head and the rushlight at.the same moment against the wall and extinguished it in‘an instant, “What did you blow the light out for?” he cried, ‘savagely flinging the [candlestick at his wife’s head. | — Fortunately, however, for’ the poor woman, the missile missed its mark, and~ struck the dirty, greasy panelling of the passage “ Ididn’t blow it out,” quietly replied his wife. ‘“ I say you did,” growled the surly ruffian. _ _ “No, indeed she did not,” said Ellen Folder, in a meek, coaxing tone, ‘Then it was you,” ~ “No, you staggered against the waJl, and ex- tinguished it,” she replied. nn -omichoulcecor . - "aes