The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

—_ - * Tee = | ee eee a By, that might have been produced by the sight of a Se standing boldly éréct aitiid the living, and ocking vitality With its glazed and stony state. Murder, under circumstances of more than usual city, had taken place there, about ten years before, nd the perpetrator of the horrible deed had never been discoyered, The numbers on the door had been ged to conceal the identity of the house and ob- erate the recollection of the crime that had been committed, but a visible curse seemed to hang about 3 walls, and though successive occupiers had tried més for a time, no trade appeared to flotrish 3s condition when, about three montlis be- fore the date of our narrative, the house, that had been to let for nearly & year, found a new tenant, who, ithout stipulating, like the rest, for an abatement of c boldly ecame the renter of the proscribed welling. The first, quarter had passed, the landlord ad received his dues, thé rate-collector had been paid first application, and though the meagre fur- ur 2 upper rooms, seen from the road when the long blinds were partially drawn aside, gave but al promise of comfort in the interior, the demands made upon the new householder were fully satisfied, the landlord was content. > But though the house had been thus occupied for 6 time, the shutters had never been refioved, and eighbours, who had heard) with curious interest, Teport of a new tenant having entered upon its ssess on, exhausted their patience in speculating upon fire of the probable rivalry they would have toe ... The only known inhabitant was a man seen to emerge from the doorway about dusk, and who rarely returned before midnight, when he let in with the key; and soon after- light might be seen flickering about the itchen, the placé where he was presumed to Sleep, yond the periodical visit of the tax-collector, no person was ever séén to call, and at last the rumour went, that the tradesman who had taken the hoube had since abandoned his intention of résiding there, and that the inmate was only one who had been per- mitted to sleép upon the premises until a néw custo- mer was found, | _ It was about one in the morning, when a eab, con- taining a solitary passenger, rattled over the bridge from the Strand into the Waterloo Road, and deposited its fare at the corner of Stamford Street. The passenger who alighted, and who was the same personage that has been hithérto called the Phantom, dismissed the driver with an extra gratuity for the speed at which he had been conveyed, and watchin the departure of the Vehicle towards the nearest stand, he waited till a few straggling parties had gone by, and then pursued his way to the house ‘con have been just describing. arefully turning the key in the lock, 80 as to make as little noise as possible, he opened the door, and ok unobserved into the dark and narrow passage beyond, re-closed it behind him, so gently that the jound could excite no attention. Igniting, by means & lucifer-match, the candle that was placed on a ess, in readiness, he passed on to the extremity of the stptcane, and then descended into the kitchen The utter absence of every thing usually associated with the furniture of such places testified that no person was living in that tenement, and that the cus- tomary uses to which it was devoted had long since been abandoned, LicuTs AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE. ee ee te 31 For instead of the brightly-polished utensils hung upon the walls,. the ruddy blaze ofthe cheerful fire, the well-swept hearth, the lively ticking of the clock, and the neatly-arranged dresser, with. its .rows, of shining plates and dishes, there was 4 miserable void, cold, cheerless, and naked. The walls were bare, stained with neglect and damp, and the boards were thickly grimed with dirt. Not even a chair or table was to be seen about the place; and the spiders, that had woven webs across the shutters, still kept fastened, showed that daylight had only found its way into the room through the cracks and fissures of the rotten wood-work. . The old range, battered and broken, was half-corroded with rust; and the few shelves, the crumbling fixtures that remained, were hanging from drooping nails, that afforded them but a frail support. int ss With the recollection of the horrible deed of guilt that had been consummated within that dreary habitation, thé wretched aspect of tha room seemed fearfully increased. The involuntary ideas that arose of that being the possible scene of the crime,—that down those staits the bleeding victim was dragged,— that in those boards the ineffaceable trace of human blood might be found, multiplied the dismal associ- ations of the place fourfold, and made up a picture of shuddering horrur agonising to contemplate. But such thoughts as thése passed not through the mind of thé solé pénétrator into the mysteries of that deserted dwelling. Too intent upon the business that had brought him to the spot to heed the fancies that would have struck a visitor less engrossed by his own designs, thé tian called ** The Phantom” cast the light round the apartment to see that it had been left un- disturbed S8incé his last visit, and then, satisfied with his survey, prepared to undertake the mission that had impelled his présent one. Removing the eloak that had hitherto shrouded his gaunt figure, aiid taking a lantern from the cupboard that filled up oné of the récésse3 by the fireplace, his next proceeding Was to Be that his actions were cares fully concealéd from the gaze of the passengers with- out; aid, fihding the barrier across the window still impenétrablé, he commen¢ed his labours for the night. At thé front of thé kitchén, and so situated that the excavation had been made for séme distance beneath the pavement, was 4 capacious céllar, that it scarcely needed the gritty refuse stréwed about the ground to reveal had béen in former days used for the reception of coals. It wai ah Arched vault, substantially con . structed of brick; but instead of the same materials, the flooring Was laid Gown with deal platiks, as if the level of the basémeiit story had been continued origi- nally, to a Considerable Space beyond. =. To these boards the first movement of the personage So strangely designated was directed. : Casting thé rays from his lantern upon the ground, until they fell tipo a plank broader than the rest, he stooped down, and With a smal! chisel that he had brought with him for the purpose from an adjoining shelf, gently raised it from its position. As soon as the plank was thus elevated, the light disclosed a@ ladder, placed exactly against the aperture; and descending this medium of communication with the cell below, the “Phantom ” found himself at last in the midst of a spacious area, that, in marked contrast with the unfurnished region he haa just quitted, was corapletely adapted for the object_to which it had been appropriated. He was now about twenty eet beneath the level of the roadway. _¢0.—0—0™7”-—-——_—_—_— — ——- = | . > CORMICLOO (CO) im