The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

| 44 THE MYSTERIES. dreadful place ? My enemies pay you well, no doubt, to keep me here—but I will pay you better if you will let me go. Iam not altogether friendless—I can give you a letter to a gentleman who will pay you a thousand pounds as the price of my free- dom-——” “Come now—none of that nonsense with me !” interrupted the man, savagely: “ Iam not to be bribed. The only way in which you can obtain your liberty, is to sign the paper.” “Then I will not sign it!” ejaculated the baronet, with feverish energy. . “Just as you please, sir,” remarked the fellow: “vou will sing a different song before many days are over. Now, Mr. Page—are you awake yet 2” “ A straw bed is not very provocative of slumber,” responded the commercial traveller, mournfully. “But what do you require of me?” “If you want to write a noteto Hodson and Mor- ley to ask them to ransom you, it may as well be done at once as to-morrow ornext day. Five hun- dred guineas, you know—that is the price,” ex- claimed the man, with a renewal of his coarse and brutal chuckle. “ Five hundred pounds! they'll never pay it,” said Page, in a voice of despair. “You can but try them,” returned theman. “Or perhaps you have some other friend——” “Not one who will advance such asum. How- ever,” continued the commercial traveller, “ I cannot linger here all my life—that is very certain; and therefore I must make an effort. Hodson has got me into this scrape—and he ought to help me out of 1 99 “Ah! then old Hodson was at the bottom of the plant?” exclaimed the fellow. “ Well—since I have admitted it, there’s no use at- tempting to deny it,” returned Page. “But give me pen, ink, and paper, and a light, and I will soon pen a note to Hodson. It candono harm, at all events.” “You can’t write here—there's no table,” said the man. “Come along with me for a few minutes— T’ll bring you safe back again to the baronet, depend upon it.” Page accordingly issued from the dungeon, the door of which was immediately closed and bolted again; and the ruffian led the way up the stone stairs, into a back room plainly furnished. The commercial traveller threw a searching glance through the dingy window-panes of a small case- ment; but his looks encountered naught save the dirty walls of the buildings in the rear of the house ; and he gleaned not the slightest fact indicative of the part of London where that house was situate. Not a familiar church-tower nor a well-known steeple, that might have served as an index of the locality, met his eyes: nothing save those dingy walls, with their miserable windows, whence hung a few rags to “You've no more notion where you are, old fellow, than if you’d been dropped out of the clouds,” ob- served the man, who understood what was passing in the mind of Page; and the remark instantly at- tracted the looks of the commercial traveller to- wards the speaker, who was a great, stout, strong- built, ill-visaged ruffian, of middle age, and with an enormous wen upon the crown of his bald head. “I must confess that I am entirely at fault,” said Page, in answer to the mian’s observation. “And I don’t mean to enlighten you,” was the Grnr,2=a gruff rejoinder. ‘“ Now, then—there’s writing mate- rials-—and you'l) please to put down on paper just what I’m going to tell you.” Page seated himself at the table, and intimated his readiness to begin ; whereupon the ruffian, after some consideration at the beginning, and a long pause between the sentences, dictated the ensuing letter :— “Dear Sir, . “TI have unfortunately fallen into a trap, and am in the custody of those whom I meant to ensnare. The tables were completely turned against me; and I amin a horrible dungeon, situated I have not the slightest idea where. The men who have thus made mé their prisoner, mean to hold me fast until five hundred pounds are paid for my ransom. I write this to the dictation of one of them. What I therefore beg of you to do, is to enclose that sumo, which must all be in gold, in a bag—label it with a paper bearing the initials J. H. P.—and leave it at the bar of the Beggar's Staff, Horslydown. Within six hours after this is done, I shall have the honour of wait- ing upon you in Wood Street, to thank you in person for your kindness. Do not flatter yourself that Grumley or any one else will be able to find out where I am, and ex- tricate me: nothing but your compliance with the above request will accomplish that object. “ Yours very obediently, “ Mr. ITodson, “J, H. PAGE. “ Wood Street.” “That will do!” exclaimed the man, reading over the shoulder of the commercial traveller the letter which he himself had dictated—a process that he considered necessary in order to acquire the certainty that nothing more nor less than he had suggested was contained in the document. “I think that wil] induce the old merchant to come down handsomely , and, as there’s honour amongst thieves,’ he added, with his disagreeable chuckle, “you shan’t be kept in durance a minute longer than the time necessary to receive from the Beggars’ Staff a message stating that the coin has been left there.” “T hope that the letter will prove effective,” said Page, heaving a profound sigh as he rose from his seat. At the same instant his eyes encountered a long, thick, and well-rusted file that lay upon a chest of drawers within reach of his hand; and it flashed to his mind that many a desperate escape from even a stronger prisonage than the cellar down stairs, had been accomplished by means of a far more ineffi- cient implement than that old tool. “You don’t seem to be a bad sort of fellow in your way,” observed the man; “and I think that a drop of something short would perhaps do you good.” Thus speaking, he turned towards a cupboard in a corner of the room; and at the same moment Page secured the file about his person. The man produced a gin-bottle, and each partook of a dram. The commercial traveller was then directed to carry a couple of tin-pots full of coffee down to the cellar, the gaoler following him with two large slices of bread; and in a few moments the two prisoners were once more together in the dun- geon, the door being again secured by bolts and chains. | For some time the baronet and Page continued to make their meal in profound silence: but when the latter had drained the last drop of his coffee and eaten the last mouthful of crust, he said. in a low whisper- ing tone, “Do you think it would be impossible te escape from this place 2” a en COMGROO S CON |