Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: ‘Curse her!” he muttered, after a pause, “put Ill wring her heart as well as ring her finger, for I must do as she bids me ; yes, must, or those cursed dice But who could have urged her to be thus bold she who has ever been so timid? Who? ‘Why, he—he who holds the evidence of crime ; for cheating, I suppose, is a crime among men of mysphere. Well, I will obey her commands. I will wed her. She has chosen the best place she could. And there are to be no witnesses to the ceremony, save the old clerk and Lizzie, the housemaid, whose silence, she tells me, she can depend upon. Good for me—very good. Lizzie’s silence may be bought by others besides herself; and old clerks are not over paid. Oh! yes; Jessie Bolton, you shall be my wife. But better for you had you been content to remain my mistress.” He laid the ring down upon the table, and, rising, paced the room with uneven strides. ‘ Yes, that ring shall be placed on her finger,” he muttered, ‘‘and I will swear to love and cherish her. Iwill honour her commands. She has forced me to make her mine, and by heaven she shall learn she has a master!’ But. this girl —this Lizzie. Why has she selected her before her own maid? Jam at a loss to divine. No matter! Perhaps itis the better for me. The girl is ignorant and ill-bred ; a few golden coins would buy her soul as well as body, and the one who can pay the most will find her of the best service.” He placed the ring in his waistcoat pocket, and walking to the window, looked out upon the pretty flower-garden below. _ Dark clouds were floating in the horizon, and every few moments obscuring the moon, which rode high up above them, nearly at its full, throwing fantastic shadows on the earth as the thick vapours careered along at great speed. As his glance wandered down to one of the flower-beds, he imagined that he saw a dark figure glide hastily past it and turn the angle of the house, but the moon’s rays just bursting through the clouds left him in doubt whether or not he had been mistaken. He kept his eyes fixed upon the spot where it had disappeared, and in a few moments the form of a woman turned the angle, and made its way along beneath the window where he stood. The moonlight streamed down full upon her, and he recognised in the girl Lizzie the house- maid. Still, there was nothing unusual in the ser- vants being in the grounds at that hour ; s0, after a few moments’ reflection, he came to the decision that it must have been her he had seen before, if indeed it was not a shadow cast by the clouds gliding over the moon. He took a cigar from his case, lit it, and lean- ng out of the window, fell into a train of thought respecting the ccremony at which he was to be present as principal on the following morning. © Yes, I will do as she desires,” he muttered, half aloud, “‘and get back those cursed dice. But once they are in my possession, I'll show her the devil she has made—a devil blacker and more eruel than” « Your humble servant, Spring-heeled Jack,” cried a voice. THE TERROR OF LONDON. 70 And through the window into the apartment, almost hurling Clavering to the floor in his course, came Spring-heeled Jack. With a cry of surprise, Clavering sprang back. His gaze fixed a long way out over the garden, he had not observed the dark figure glide back round the angle of the house and stand, listening to what he was saying, directly beneath tlic window. “ You here?” said Richard, as soon as he could recover from his surprise. ‘¢ Yes, I am here.” “ What is your business ?” ‘¢ Am I not welcome ?” “Yes, if you come to return me those dice,”’ said Richard. “ And if not?” “Then you are far from welcome, and your room would please me better than your com- pany,’ was the reply. ‘“ No doubt. No, Richard Clavering, I have not come to return you those three little pieces of ivory with which you have robbed your friends on more than one occasion.” “Then what have you come for?” asked Richard, fiercely. ‘To urge you to act Jike a man.” © What do you mean ?” IT will tell you,” “Well ?” “You have been talking aloud, and your words have fallen on my ears as I stood beneath that window.” | ‘¢ Indeed !” sneered Richard. “ Yes, indeed.” ‘ And can you stoop so low as to become an eavesdropper ?”’ ‘‘ T had no intention of being one.’ . “ Then why were you there ?” asked Claver- ing, sneeringly. “ T came hither to urge you to do justice to the poor lady who has so long been looked upon as your wife,” replied Jack, haughtily. “ You take a strange interest in her, to be sure,’’ said Richard. “T do. I take a strong interest in every woman whose misfortune it is to fall into the hands of a villain.”’ “Sir? Dare you” Jack held up his hand. ‘““ | dare speak as a man, as well as act aS one,” he said. ‘‘I repeat, Richard Clavering, that you are a villain. But enough of that. It is known to me that this lady has asked you to give her back the fair name of which you have robbed her. There are some men, and you are one of them, who imagine that they would be fools did they do an act of justice and repara- tion ; but did they consider themselves rocues if they refused, they would be nearer the truth of their natures.’ ‘ You think so ?”’ ‘¢ 7 am sure.” ¢ All men do not think alike,” sneered Richard. “ Certainly not. Rogues and villains cannot think as honest men.” Clavering scowled upon him, but made no re- mark, and Jack continued— “ Our parting on our last interview was a fiery one, and I believe you sincerely regret the ? | JOO a “a mM (ECO NMINCE Si CN LL (E(0) \