THE MYSTERIES OF THE OLD HOUSE.
Fortunately for the interesting young stranger, the individuals who had
just entered the house did not attempt the door of the room in which he
had taken refuge. They proceeded straight--and with a steadiness which
seemed to indicate that they knew the locality well--to the front
chamber upon the same floor.
In a few moments there was a sharp grating noise along the wall; and
then a light suddenly shone into the room where the young stranger was
concealed. He cast a terrified glance around, and beheld a small square
window in the wall, which separated the two apartments. It was about
five feet from the floor--a height which permitted the youth to avail
himself of it, in order to reconnoitre the proceedings in the next room.
By means of a candle which had been lighted by the aid of a
lucifer-match, and which stood upon a dirty deal table, the young
stranger beheld two men, whose outward appearance did not serve to
banish his alarm. They were dressed like operatives of the most humble
class. One wore a gabardine and coarse leather gaiters, with laced-up
boots; the other had on a fustian shooting-jacket and long corduroy
trousers. They were both dirty and unshaven. The one with the
shooting-jacket had a profusion of hair about his face, but which was
evidently not well acquainted with a comb: the other wore no whiskers,
but his beard was of three or four days' growth. Both were powerful,
thick-set, and muscular men; and the expression of their countenances
was dogged, determined, and ferocious.
The room to which they had betaken themselves was cold, gloomy, and
dilapidated. It was furnished with the deal table before mentioned, and
three old crazy chairs, upon two of which the men now seated themselves.
But they were so placed that they commanded, their door being open, a
full view of the landing-place; and thus the youthful stranger deemed it
impolitic to attempt to take his departure for the moment.
"Now, Bill, out with the bingo," said the man in the gabardine to his
companion.
"Oh! you're always for the lush, you are, Dick," answered the latter in
a surly tone, producing at the same time a bottle of liquor from the
capacious pocket of his fustian coat. "But I wonder how the devil it is
that Crankey Jem ain't come yet. Who the deuce could have left that
infernal door open?"
"Jem or some of the other blades must have been here and left it so. It
don't matter; it lulls suspicion."
"Well, let's make the reglars all square," resumed the man called Bill,
after a moment's pause; "we'll then booze a bit, and talk over this here
new job of our'n."
"Look alive, then," said Dick; and he forthwith took from beneath his
gabardine several small parcels done up in brown paper.
The other man likewise divested the pockets of his fustian coat of
divers packages; and all these were piled upon the table.
A strange and mysterious proceeding then took place.
The person in the fustian coat approached the chimney, and applied a
small turnscrew, which he took from his pocket, to a screw in the iron
frame-work of the rusty grate. In a few moments he was enabled to remove
the entire grate with his hands; a square aperture of considerable
dimensions was then revealed. Into this place the two men thrust the
parcels which they had taken from their pockets: the grate was replaced,
the screws were fastened once more, and the work of concealment was
complete.
The one in the gabardine then advanced towards that portion of the wall
which was between the two windows; and the youth in the adjoining room
now observed for the first time that the shutters of those windows were
closed, and that coarse brown paper had been pasted all over the chinks
and joints. Dick applied his hand in a peculiar manner to the part of
the wall just alluded to, and a sliding panel immediately revealed a
capacious cupboard. Thence the two men took food of by no means a coarse
description, glasses, pipes, and tobacco; and, having hermetically
closed the recess once more, seated themselves at the table to partake
of the good cheer thus mysteriously supplied.
The alarm of the poor youth in the next chamber, as he contemplated
these extraordinary proceedings, may be better conceived than depicted.
His common sense told him that he was in the den of lawless
thieves--perhaps murderers; in a house abounding with the secret means
of concealing every kind of infamy. His eyes wandered away from the
little window that had enabled him to observe the above-described
proceedings, and glanced fearfully around the room in which he was
concealed. He almost expected to see the very floor open beneath his
feet. He looked down mechanically as this idea flitted through his
imagination; and to his horror and dismay he beheld a trap-door in the
floor. There was no mistaking it: there it was--about three feet long
and two broad, and a little sunken beneath the level of its frame-work.
Near the edge of the trap-door lay an object which also attracted the
youth's attention and added to his fears. It was a knife with a long
blade pointed like a dagger. About three inches of this blade was
covered with a peculiar rust: the youth shuddered; could it be human
blood that had stained that instrument of death?
Every circumstance, however trivial, aided, in such a place as that, to
arouse or confirm the worst fears, the most horrible suspicions.
The voices of the two men in the next room fell upon the youth's ear;
and, perceiving that escape was still impracticable, he determined to
gratify that curiosity which was commingled with his fears.
"Well, now, about this t'other job, Dick?" said Bill.
"It's Jem as started it," was the reply. "But he told me all about it,
and so we may as well talk it over. It's up Islington way--up there
between Kentish Town and Lower Holloway."
"Who's crib is it?"
"A swell of the name of Markham. He is an old fellow, and has two sons.
One, the eldest, is with his regiment; t'other, the youngest, is only
about fifteen, or so--a mere kid."
"Well, there's no danger to be expected from him. But what about the
flunkies?"
"Only two man-servants and three vimen. One of the man-servants is the
old butler, too fat to do any good; and t'other is a young tiger."
"And that's all?"
"That's all. Now you, and I, and Jem is quite enough to crack that there
crib. When is it to be done?"
"Let's say to-morrow night; there is no moon now to speak on, and
business in other quarters is slack."
"So be it. Here goes, then, to the success of our new job at old
Markham's;" and as the burglar uttered these words he tossed off a
bumper of brandy.
This example was followed by his worthy companion; and their
conversation then turned upon other topics.
"I say, Bill, this old house has seen some jolly games, han't it?"
"I should think it had too. It was Jonathan Wild's favourite crib; and
he was no fool at keeping things dark."
"No, surely. I dare say the well-staircase in the next room there,
that's covered over with the trap-door, has had many a dead body flung
down it into the Fleet."
"Ah! and without telling no tales too. But the trap-door has been nailed
over for some years now."
The unfortunate youth in the adjacent chamber was riveted in silent
horror to the spot, as these fearful details fell upon his ears.
"Why was the trap-door nailed down?"
"'Cos there's no use for _that_ now, since the house is uninhabited, and
no more travellers comes to lodge here. Besides, if we wanted to make
use of such a conwenience, there's another----"
A loud clap of thunder prevented the remainder of this sentence from
reaching the youth's ears.
"I've heard it said that the City is going to make great alterations in
this quarter," observed Dick, after a pause. "If so be they comes near
us, we must shift our quarters."
"Well, and don't we know other cribs as good as this--and just under the
very nose of the authorities too? The nearer you gets to them the safer
you finds yourself. Who'd think now that here, and in Peter-street, and
on Saffron-hill too, there was such cribs as this? Lord, how such coves
as you and me does laugh when them chaps in the Common Council and the
House of Commons gets on their legs and praises the blue-bottles up to
the skies as the most acutest police in the world, while they wotes away
the people's money to maintain 'em!"
"Oh! as for alterations, I don't suppose there'll be any for the next
twenty years to come. They always talks of improvements long afore they
begins 'em."
"But when they _do_ commence, they won't spare this lovely old crib! It
'ud go to my heart to see them pull it about. I'd much sooner take and
shove a dozen stiff uns myself down the trap than see a single rafter of
the place ill-treated--that I would."
"Ah! if so be as the masons does come to pull its old carcass about,
there'll be some fine things made known to the world. Them cellars down
stairs, in which a man might hide for fifty years and never be smelt out
by the police, will turn up a bone or two, I rather suspect; and not of
a sheep, nor a pig, nor a bull neither."
"Why--half the silly folks in this neighbourhood are afeerd to come here
even in the daytime, because they say it's haunted," observed Bill,
after a brief pause. "But, for my part, I shouldn't be frightened to
come here at all hours of the night, and sit here alone too, even if
every feller as was scragged at Tyburn or Newgate, and every one wot has
been tumbled down these holes into the Fleet, was to start up, and----"
The man stopped short, turned ghastly pale, and fell back stupified and
speechless in his chair. His pipe dropped from between his fingers, and
broke to pieces upon the floor.
"What the devil's the matter now?" demanded his companion, casting an
anxious glance around.
"There! there! don't you see----," gasped the terrified ruffian,
pointing towards the little window looking into the next room.
"It's only some d----d gammon of Crankey Jem," ejaculated Dick, who was
more courageous in such matters than his companion. "I'll deuced soon
put that to rights!"
Seizing the candle, he was hurrying towards the door, when his comrade
rushed after him, crying, "No--I won't be left in the dark! I can't bear
it! Damme, if you go, I'll go with you!"
The two villains accordingly proceeded together into the next room.