The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 215: what you’re looking at

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200 “But do not fail to send word to 'Touy Wilkins and the others,” said Lady Bess. ‘“ Aud observe, Solomon, let each of the three have a brace of pis- tols. You understand me?” Thus speaking, Lady Bess put a few gold pieces into the old landlord’s hand; and with a most ob- sequious bow and fawning grimace, he said, “ Your ladyship has a knack of making anybody under- stand—or at all events, of doing your bidding. The message shall be sent; and I’ll be with your lady- ship on the bridge in a few minutes.” The amazonian heroine thereupon descended. the stairs; and issuing from the house, bade the pot- boy put up her horse till she returned, but ordered him not to unsaddle the animal, as she had no time to waste. She then repaired to the bridge, and walked to and fro for about ten minutes, at the ex- piration of which time Solomon Patch emerged {rom the deepening gloom of the evening. He re- quested her to follow him; and crossing the bridge they skirted the canal for a distance of about a couple of hundred yards,—at which point they reached a flight of steps leading down to the towing-path. These they descended; and proceed- ing along the path for a little way, they reached a coal-barge moored against it. “ Holloa!” said old Solomon, in a peculiar tone: and then he gave a short cough. A man, whom even through the gloom Lady Bess could perceive to be all begrimed with coal-dust, emerged from the hatchway of the cabin-part of the barge ; and on recognising the old landlord, he said, “Well, what’s brought you here?’ At the same time he eyed Lady Bess askance through the ob- scurity of the evening. “ All right, Tugs,” responded Solomon, stepping on board the barge. Lady Bess followed, though she did not seem alto- gether to admire the dirty quarters to which she was thus being led; for, as the reader is well aware, she dressed in the most exquisite style and with what might be termed a little dandyism, as applied tc her male costume. The grimy individual whose name appeared to be Tugs, descended the hatchway, followed by Solomon and Lady Bess; and our leroine now found herself in the close fetid atmo- sphere of a little cabin, where by the dim light of a candle a woman was seated suckling a baby. This was none other than Mrs. Tugs; and it was an in- fant specimen of the Tugs’ family which she was nourishing at the maternal bosom. Lady Bess expected to find the Cannibal here; but she was disappointed, and therefore began to wonder wherefore she had been conducted to such a place at all. But she was not kept long in sus- pense: for the bargeman proceeded to open a cup- board in the bulk-head, or wooden partition that enclosed the cabin transversely; and then he lifted the whole of this cupboard out bodily. The entire array of shelves being thus removed, left an aperture about two feet wide and four feet high. A light glimmered within; and the odour of tobacco-smoke | aaluted the nostrils. “There he is,” observed Solomon Patch to Lady Bess. Our heroine accordingly entered the opening ; and in a little nook about six feet square, she beheld Chiffin the Cannibal, sitting on an inverted tub and pulling his pipe with a grim and sullen look. et ere THE MYSTEKIi“¥S OF THE COURT, “Well, what is it now?” he asked in a savage growling tone. “I suppose you’ve come, Lady Bess, to blow me up for running away and leaving you that night in the lurch—when we stopped the car- riage, I mean. But, by Satan! I thought you was dead—or else I would have stuck by you to th last.” '“ And how did you know that I recovered?” asked Lady Bess. “Cos why I saw Israel Patch from Gravesend up at Solomon’s t’other day, and he told me as how you had rode down to Dover and thrown the raseals overboard. It was a deuced elever thing—and if I was in the humour I wouldn’t mind saying summut more handsome still about it.” “ Never mind compliments, Chiffin,” rejo‘ned Lady Bess, with a smile: “J know that they are things not much in your way. But how long do you mean to remain cooped up in this den? where excuse me laughing you look just for all the world like a bear in his cage at the Zoological Gardens.” “Ab! it’s all deuced fine to make a jest of it,” growled Chillin, more savagely still: “but blow me if I like it. he detectives never were so sharp on a fellow before. Howsumever, if what old Madgo says is true and she really does possess any influence in the affair, I expect it will be all right in a day or two.” “And if you saw your way clear to make a few guineas to-night, wouldn’t you risk the danger and leave this crib, which is enough to suffocate you ?” “Pon my soul,” answered Chiffin, taking the pipe from his mouth and pulling out an immense cloud of smoke, “I should be glad of almost any excuse to get out of such a cursed hole as this. But if one does risk one’s safety it must be for some good reason or another; or else it’s mere fool- hardiness.” “Then I propose to furnish you with such an excuse,” rejoined Lady Bess. ‘‘Come, pluck up your courage, Chiffin—and you shall make a good thing of it to-night.” “Oh! as for the courage, that’s not wanting,” returned the Cannibal, in a somewhat more cheerful tone, and with an endeavour to put on a little more amiable look. ‘ Besides, somehow or another I’ve took a fancy to do things with you, Lady Bess—for you seem to have a deuced good run of luck. I used to be the boy for getting safe off: but this time things went wrong—and so I was obliged to come and play at hide-and-seek here with my friend Tugs the Blue-ruin Carrier.” Lady Bess now understood what the avocation of the bargeman was: for under the cloak of keeping an aquatic conveyance for coals, Mr. Tugs was in the habit of receiving on board his vessel the pro- duct of the numerous illicit stills worked in Agar Town. Hence his nick-name of the Blue-ruiu Carrier—“blue-ruin” being the patter synonym for “ gin.” “Come, Chiffin,” said Lady Bess, “and prepare for action. You have a good walk before you. But it is now quite dark; and by following the pathway of the canal a little while, you may emerge safe at some convenient spot, whence you cross over to Hornsey church, where you must meet me at @ quarter to eleven at the latest. Is it an under standing ?” Te ee eee ECOMMICOOOKS (€©)