The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

82 “ Well, and how are you all, my pals?” he ex- claimed, throwing himself upon a chair, and then coolly tossing off a glass of brandy which stood on the side of the table near him. “ All right, Mr. Coffin,” answered one of the women. “Old Jeremy’s up-stairs. You know it’s his night to be here ——” “That's just why I’ve come down to the Island now,” observed the Hangman. “I wantto see him about some particular business. Is he up-stairs 2” “ Yes—but there’s a chap with him,” said Ben- cull. “Oh! well—I can wait awhile—I’m in no hurry. —’specially in such sweet company,” he added, with a grin at the women, who laughed amazingly at the compliment. . , “I dare say the knife-grinder won’t be long,” remarked Bencull. “The knife-grinder !” exclaimed the Hangman, catching at the name: for he remembered what John the footman had told him relative to @ wor- thy of that description, at the Avzng’s Arms, Kich- mond, on the preceding night. “Yes: do you know anythink of him ?” inquired Bencull, all his former suspicions instantaneously aroused again. “Nothing bad, at all events,” returned Daniel Coffin: “on the contrary, if it’s the same thaf 1 mean, he must be a deuced good kind of a chap But from what i was told, I don’t think it is the same, because the one I’m speaking of is wanted in London by the beaks _? * “ And so is this feller,” exclaimed Bencull: ‘the said so to me when he fyst entered the erik just now. He says Larry Sampson has got a warrané out against him; but he’s blowed if he won’t give Larry an inch or two of cold steel afore he’d be lugged off to quod by any such sneaking willain.” “Sach a chap, then, would be a welcome recruit for our band,” observed Coffin thea Hangman. “JI wonder what he’s up to with old Jeremy? May be something ia which we could lend him a little help, and of course ga snacks.” “Why don’t you step up-stairs and see if there's any way of insinuating yourself into the confidence of this Tibby Blades?” inguired Bencull. “So I will,” returned Daniel the Hangman: and he ascended the ladder accordingly. Raising the trap-door a little and somewhat cau- tiously, he beheld the knife-grinder and old Jeremy sitting very close to each other and lean- ing forward so that there was not an interval of more than three inches between the soot-begrimed countenance of the former and the thin pointed nose of the latter. They were evidently in deep discourse upon some absorbing topic; so much so, that they did not immediately notice the raising of the trap-door. “ May I come up?” asked the Hangman: “or is if anything very particular 2” “Oh! dear, dear—how you've startled me, Daniel!” exclaimed Jeremy, in a nervous, trem- bling voice. “But come up, my kind and excel- lent friend,” he continued, assuming a bland and coaxing tone: “come up, my dear Daniel. You're the very person I wanted to see: and indeed I was Just mentioning your name in the most affectionate terms to my new acquaintance here.” “Mr. Tibby Blades, I understand,” said Cofiin, as he went up the remaining steps of the ladder ee ee —— THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT, and closed the trap behind him, “They told me down stairs who it was you’d got with you. But I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him before: although I’d heard of him.” “Heard of me!” exclaimed the knife-grinder. “And yet I haven’t made myself wery ’torious in the world yet awhile.” “ Wasn’t you at Richmond yesterday afternoon, or evening?” inquired the Hangman. “ Come— you needn’t hesitate about answering—old Jeremy here will tell you I’m all right.” ‘“‘ He’s already told me so,” observed the knife- grinder; “and therefore I needn’s hesitate to say I was at Richmond for an hour er so ——” “Enough, my tulip!” ejaculated Jack Ketch. “Come, tip ug your daddle, and we'll be pals. I like the lgok of you, although ——” § abuse a am vayther blackish and sooty— ehe” erjed Tibby Blades, with a loud laugh. “Hah! haht hak! hab? “He! he! he!” was the faint and tremulous chuckle, or rather cackle ef old Jeremy. You Bet MF Blades, we're a merry A “ of merry ogs, 1 can assure you. We can laugh at ing and anybody—he! ‘he! he! And 8 ee kind friend Daniel Coffin, who kyoys J love him as well as if he was my own son,” continged the an- cient fence, in a whining, canting, snivelling tone of wretched hypocrisy,—‘and he'll tell you, Mr. Blades, that lm a worthy old soul—a sort of father te a good mapy persons who ¢oulda’t do very well withous me ——” * Hold your precious humbugging tongue, you old fool,” growled the Hangman, savagely. “I dare say our new friend Blades knows i about you; or else he wouldn't have come hunting you out in Ben- eyll’s crib.” * No—but he doesn’t know all about me, though,” shrieked the old man ip a shrill voice: “and what I want is that he should know move about me than he does. Now, my dear kind Daniel, do tell Mr. Blades the truth: tell him that I never haye anything todo with burglaries, highway robberies, or pocket-pick~ ings; but that Tam anjoral man—a church-going thousand little benevolent things in a quiet way.” “* Aye—all your benevolence is snug enough, I'll be bound, Jeremy,” exclaimed the Hangman: then turning towards the knife-grinder, he said, “ You never in all your life saw such a snivelling, sneak- ing, blarneying, whining, coaxing old fool as this Jeremy Humpage. He’s constantly endeavouring to persuade himself and others that he’s not a regular fence who buys stolen goods, but a philanthropist who gives poor devils a good price for the scrapings of the gutters, the searchings of the sewers, and the rakings of the dunghills. If you even took him a chest of plate that cost a thousand guineas, he wouldn’t seem to suspect -for an instant that it was stolen: he’d ask you what nobleman or gentleman was in difficulties and had sent you to dispose of the property. Why, even I’m an honest man in old Jeremy’s calculation,” added Coffin, with a grim smile. “ To be sure, to be sure,” said Humpage—for such was Jeremy’s surname: “ I never have anything to do with rogues and rascals. I don’t want to fall out with the authorities and have the constables set in chase of me: I don’t choose to know a single thing that’s going on, unless it’s all right and straightfor- - as —_—_ — — iia a -- — - CONNIECLOOOKS (E(0)