The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 168: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTREIES OF THE COURT. 157 against a much higher building, to reach the summit of which there was only one means visible~—and this was to climb a slanting leaden pipe. To do this, or to retrace his way alto- gether to the roof of his cell and seek some other avenue of escape amidst the maze of buildi —these were the alternatives between which he had to decide. With straining eyes he pene- trated through the semi-obscurity which pre- vailed ; and he thought he beheld sufficient to convince himself that the passage of the leaden pipe, however desperate the venture might be, was the course to be adopted. The courage of the Burker has been before spoken of; and as his circumstances were despe- rate, this natural courage on his part was now en- hanced to a degree which rendered him almost reckless. His resolve was therefore speedily taken. Again he gathered up the old Jewish gaberdine in such a way that it might not impede his progress; and then he entrusted himself to the slanting pipe, in the same spirit of venturesome desperation with which a ship-wrecked mariner clings to the plank which is the only barrier between himeelf and de- struction. The reader will understand that this leaden pipe sloped up from the roof where the Burker had landed, to the roof of the higher house against which the former building abutted ; and it thus ran diagonally as it were, or obliquely, along the back of that loftier structure. We may add that there was just a sufficient interval between the pipe and the brickwork to allow the adven- turous fugitive to obtain a firm grasp upon it ;— and now success depended upon two conditions— the first beimg whether he could maintain his balance, and the second whether the pipe itself would be strong enough to support him. Firmly clutching the pipe with his hands, and cautiously using his lower limbs to sustain him in that perilous position, the Burker began crawling up the pipe: but there was a moment when his heart almost failed him as he looked down into the frightful abyss to which he would be hurled if his hands failed to retain their hold, or if the pipe iteelf should give way. But sternly compressing his lips, and bracing himself up with all his courage, the Burker pursued his path of danger, —suspended in mid-air, and looking like some colossal insect that was crawling up the back of the house. Several yards were accomplished,— when one of the dreaded chances against him ap- peared about to receive a horrible realization: for the pipe began to bend. So mortal a terror seized upon the Burker, notwithstanding the daring nature of his disposition, and notwithatanding the recklessness of his character, that for an instant he felt his hands relaxing from the tightness of their grasp: but then the next moment, quiok as thought, they tightened upon the pipe with even astronger tenacity than before—while his lower limbs grasped it convulsively. But the pipe was bending! To retreat was im- possible: there was no gliding nor sliding back from the position in which he had placed himself. On he must go at all risks and ventures :—on he must go though the next instant should seo the pipe suddenly give way or break beneath him and plunge the wretch headlong into the abyss below. Fortune however seemed determined to favour him : the pipe bent, but did not break: hope grew jstronger in his breast—and it was with a wild thrill of joy that he could at length say to himself he was safe. His right hand clutched the ledge of the parapet of the high building to which he had thus venturously and desperately clambered up: a few instants more, and he stood in safety on the fiat roof of that building. Almost over- come by a sense of the danger from which he had escaped, and shuddering at the recollection of the hideous gulf which by means of a fail pipe he had thus bridged, the Burker threw himself flat upon his back on the leads to repose for a fow instants ere he pursued his way. Precious though time were, yet the man could not help thus resting there for that brief space. CHAPTER CXVL TWO FRIENDS. A. COUPLE of rooms on the second-floor of one of the houses on the same line with the Bow Street police-office, were inhabited by a middle-aged man of the name of Bealby. He was a short, thin, active, dapper-looking pereon,—with hair and whiskers that had once been of a vivid red, but which were now turning grey. He had very sharp, keen, piercing eyes; and the entire expres- sion of his countenance indicated cunning and duplicity. He was dressed im a somewhat seedy suit of black; and his linen was not altogether of the cleanest. The two rooms communicated with folding- doors, which stood open; and the place was most singularly crowded with articles which at the first glance might either be taken for an assemblage of archs@ological curiosities, or else for the contents of a property-room at a theatre. There wero helmets, and shields, and weapons of all sorte-— curious costumes—a Turkish turban surmounting the wooden framework on which a mandarin’s robe was displayed—a Hed Indian’s tomahawk lying next to an old-fashioned English musket—and a whaling harpoon Keeping company with a New Zealand bow and arrows. There were old pieces of china, statues, vases, and pictures—brickbats that were alleged to be part of a recently dis- covered Roman wall in some place or another— bowls and cups that were represented to have been dug out of Herculaneum and Pompeii—while a mummy in a giass-case appeared to be staring with eyeless sockets at a gigantic skeleton which grinned at it from the opposite wall. There were strange pieces of theatrical scencry too, and which a small label represented to have been used at the Royal Opera some little while back establishod by the King of the Sandwich Islands in his Majesty’s capital ;—and, in a word, the contents of these two rooms were of the most miscellaneous and no doubt of a very curious description. By the light of a solitary candle in the front apartment, Mr. Bealby was drinking gin-and-water with a friend, This friend was many years younger than himself: indeed he was not more than five or six and twenty: but he had a sickly dissipated look, as if he were muoh better ac- quainted with the alooholic mixture which he was now imbibing than with regular and wholesome cgay IP SS test te tS ed SS PTS __ ne, CONE OOOKS. Com