The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 340: what you’re looking at

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

ay. ae { i : THE STEAM PACKET. 259 ‘add that the old gentleman was very plainly, if not shabbily dressed, and that his general appearance bespoke poverty. “Ts it here that a body of men calling themselves the Illuminati, or Luminaries, are residing ?”” demanded the old gentleman. “Tt 1s,” replied the captain. ‘* And you, perhaps, are one of them ?”’ said the stranger, interroga- tively. “‘] have that honour,’ answered Pentonville, with a low bow. ‘And pray what is your name, young man 2?” said the elderly gen- tleman in an authoritative tone. “*When you make me acquainted with the nature of the right by which you question me———” began the captain. *“Pooh! pooh! young fellow!” interrupted the bilious-looking stranger; ‘‘that kind of nonsense doesn’t do for an old man like me. I ask you a plain question, which you can very easily answer.”’ *“* Then I decline to answer it, until I know why it is put,” reso- lutely exclaimed the captain. ‘* Very well—very well,’ said the elderly gentleman calmly: ‘*I am sure it 1s quite indifferent to me. Perhaps I can obtain the informa- tion I require from some one more civilly disposed than yourself.” With these words the old gentleman pushed abruptly by the cap- tain, and entered the court-yard of the hotel. Accosting a waiter who was hurrying from one department of the building to another, to answer the tintinnabulary summons of some guest, the bilious-looking stranger slipped a coin into the servant’s hand. ‘The domestic immediately stopped and replied to the inquiries put to him; and in so doing, he turned his face towards the spot where Captain Pentonville was stand- ing. The captain felt convinced that the old gentleman and the servant were talking about himself, and he began to pass in mental _review the personal appearances of his numerous English creditors. He did not, however, remember any with whose attributes the bilious gentleman at all corresponded; and he was still pondering the matter over in his mind, when the said elderly gentleman passed by him, on his way out of the hotel. The captain stared him full in the face as he whisked by; and it seemed to him that the elderly stranger leered maliznantly on him as he exclaimed, ‘‘I wish you a good morning, Captain Pentonville—a very good morning, Capitazn Pentonville’— (with prodigious emphasis upon the Captazn)—“ we shall meet again, Captain Pentonville.” **T have a devilish good mind to lay my stick across your back, old fellow!” ejaculated the captain. -*“No you won't, though—you won't indeed,” cried the stranger, s 2 Gomicbooks (E(0)