The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

LIGHTS -AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE. even in the darkest night; aud the first blow will dis- able him, for he is but a stripling—a lad—absolutely a mere boy compared with you; and he will have been drinking deeply besides, so that he must fall an easy before a strong arm like yours. Ay, the gold I have hoarded up for years is now being squan- dered like drops of water by himself and his vile companions who assisted him in the theft;” and a deep groan at the thought of this extravagance fol- _| lowed the utterance of his speech. - Then a stout rope or two will do the business,” said Randall, in reply; “and I know a waterman down here who will lend me his boat for the purpose, by giving a fair return for the loan; but as it will not be dark till nearly ten o’clock, and we have to proceed down the river some distance beforehand, there is no time to lose.” “No! that’s right,” rejoined the old man, eagerly ; “it must be done to-night, or it will perhaps be too late. He has taken his passage in a vessel bound my hard-earned property, will be placed on board; I him say 30 himself. When we have once him, we can compel him. to write an order to them up to me—to me, the real owner of the _ treasure he has stolen.” “But how does it happen he sleeps to-night on board, when the vessel don’t sail for a day or two yet ?” inquired Randall, rising from his seat and preparing to depart. “Hush! not so loud, I prithee,” remonstrated the miser; “he has a friend in the captain, who generally returns with him from town, as, indeed, they have done for the last week; but this evening the captain will be detained in the Borough till a late hour, and consequently he will return alone in the captain’s boat. You see I have taken care to learn beforehand all the i necessary.” 3 “Then if you are going to join me in this night- journey, the sooner we start the better,” cried Randall impatiently, and calling for a dram of brandy each as they passed the bar, the two confederates left the tavern, and hardly exchanging another word as they went along, they passed through the narrow lanes _ abutting on the river, and made their way direct to the slippery declivity of Limehouse Stairs. : Here Randall, as he had anticipated, encountered the waterman of whom he was in search; and hinting to him aside that he was engaged in a little smuggling transaction, in which they had frequently of late been concerned together, he found no difficulty in obtaining, by a satisfactory pecuniary arrangement between them, the loan of the waterman’s wherry until the day. A It was now twilight. Through the hazy, copper- coloured canopy of smoke that overhung the city, a few bright stars, twinkling with a soft and mellowed radiance, came peering out; and where the rays of sunset lingered in the horizon, a faint glow was still apparent, throwing out the broken mass of buildings in strong relief against the evening sky. Steamers were returning crowded with holiday-making passen- gers from Gravesend and Greenwich, and the lively | Strains of the band of itinerant minstels on board rang out clearly on the warm summer air; white-Lait parties were hastening back to their destination, bargemen were clumsily struggling home through the | intricacy of the pool; sailors lounging lazily over the } Sides of newly-arrived vessels were thinking of getting ashore for the night; | crowdep shipping, where the masts began to mingle —_— SS ee we and through that maze of indistinctly into one confused mist of shadowy forms, the hum of commercial activity that had gone on without cessation through the day was stilled into a sombre and dreamy repose. Randall, whose contraband experience had made him a complete adept at the sculls, had urged the boat along amid these scenes for the distance of nearly three miles, when turning to Hawkins, who sat wrapt in profound meditation at the stern, he observed that, as it was then high water and the tide would begin to turn in a few minutes, he would run the boat under shelter of the growing darkness into a little creek by the Isle of Dogs, and there await the coming up of the other. He added, as he pushed his way along the | bank with the scull,.thereby working the boat on almost noiselessly in the direction indicated, that, as it was probable their expected victim would be nearly incapacitated from the management of the boat, and would allow it to drift on with the tide, the very same course would be naturally pursued, and that the attack could thus be made with greater secrecy and caution, This little indentation of the land where they had found a temporary concealment was peculiarly suited to their design, from the command it gave them of the river, as well as from the facilities it afforded them for escaping unobserved. The bank, sweeping round at this point with a sudden curve, was thickly overgrown with long grass, and a group of pollards growing by the ledge formed in addition a complete shelter, for in the shadow they cast upon the water no object could be clearly distin- guishable. Here, mooring the boat by driving his scull into the soft yielding sward, and fastening it with a spare piece of rope, Randall quietly took a short pipe from his pocket, and began to smoke, shad- ing, however, the flickering light in the bowl with his hand, to prevent it attracting the unwelcome notice of a chance passenger. The old man, whose thoughts-were apparently too much engrossed by the impending occurrence to enable him to beguile the time in like manner, remained crouched up in one corner, leaning over the stern, and keeping his eyes fixed upon the river, striving to penetrate the gloom in search of one familiar object. They had waited thus about two hours, when the measured plashing of a solitary pair of ‘sculls dipping into the water quickened the attention of the listeners, and the vague outline of a boat was discerned making its way, as Randall had predicted, close to the spot where they lay concealed. Hastily detaching the ‘Tope, and seizing the implement to which it had been secured, the bird-fancier pushed off the boat into the stream ; and determined by the impatient exclamation of Hawkins, who declared it to be the one which they sought, he guided his course so accurately by the faint rays of the starlight, that in a few minutes the two boats were drifting rapidly with the tide in contact with each other. “That is him! hold him—keep him fast!” cried the miser, exulting at the approach of his victim, and nerving himself with almost superhuman strength for the encounter. Randall, without uttering a word, calmly surveyed the chances of their mutual position; and then, watch- ing his opportunity, he leaped into the boat that was now closely grating against his own, and flinging him- self upon the form of the passenger, managed his attack so suddenly, that hardly acry fur aid had escaped him before his assailant had thrown a handkerchief over his face, and bound his arms with the rope, which he it) CORNIELOOO 13 | wee wee t—iC— cS (E) m