The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

THE STEAM PACKET. Ld} around; and, to his ineffable surprise, beheld a strange object, appa- rently clad in a long and wide flannel gown, rushing along the road with amazing velocity. This individual was proceeding i in the direction towards Calais ;—and what was the captain’s surprise when the fugitive suddenly halted, as he drew near him, and gave vent to an exclamation of joy. “ What, ee that you?” cried the captain; and, im spite of his miseries, he could not help laughing at the comical appearance the tailor cut, unti] the tears came into his eyes. | ““ Aly! it is all devilish easy to sit there grinning like a bear,” said Buckram, mopping the perspiration from his countenance with the tail of his laughter-provoking garment, as he seated himself by the captain ; “but I can assure you that it is much better to have this thing on one, than nothing at all.” “ow did you manage to escape the gendarmes?” demanded the eaptain, still unable to repress his mirth, which broke out anew every time he happened to glance towards his companion. ‘“ Never mind that,”” said Buckram; “let us think how the devil we are still to eseape from them. Recollect these are none of your English New Police, who will look another way for a matter of five shillings or so, and who are so infernally stupid that there have been already half a dozen murders undetected within these last five years. We have to do with chaps whose nosesare as acute as. those of blood- hounds,” “In the first place you must buy yourself a coat,”’ said Pentonville. “Devilish easy to talk! ejaculated Buckram: ‘‘ but how shall we ever venture into a town by day-light, while I am clad in this queer fashion ?”’ ‘€ You speak like a book,”’ said the captain, after a little cusen tion. ‘* We must strike off into the fields, and perhaps we shall come to a house where you may contrive to get a coat from some peasant in exchange for that fiannel doliman—ha! ha!”’ ‘Well, go on,” exclaimed Buckram impatiently. ‘I am in no humour to be laughed at, I can tell you.” ‘‘ Or else you can remain somewhere, while I proceed to the nearest village and buy you a decent garment,” added Pentonville. “ At all events we will make the best of our way to Calais, where Fom will find an opportunity of seeing us; and we shall then learn what we have to expect from old Pifpaf. But how you could be so silly as to confess that you were not a lord, I am at.a loss to conceive.” “I confess!” ejaculated Buckram. ‘‘Who the devil told you chat? — If I confessed anything, it must have been when I was drunk—and Gomichbooks (E(0)