THE EXHUMATION.
THE night was fine--frosty--and bright with the lustre of a lovely moon.
Even the chimneys and gables of the squalid houses of Globe Town
appeared to bathe their heads in that flood of silver light.
[Illustration]
The Resurrection Man and the Buffer pursued their way towards the
cemetery.
For some minutes they preserved a profound silence: at length the Buffer
exclaimed, "I only hope, Tony, that this business won't turn out as bad
as the job with young Markham three nights ago."
"Why should it?" demanded the Resurrection Man, in a gruff tone.
"Well, I don't know why," answered the Buffer. "P'rhaps, after all, it
was just as well that feller escaped as he did. We might have swung for
it."
"Escape!" muttered the Resurrection Man, grinding his teeth savagely.
"Yes--he did escape _then_; but I haven't done with him yet. He shall
not get off so easy another time."
"I wonder who those chaps was that come up so sudden?" observed the
Buffer, after a pause.
"Friends of his, no doubt," answered Tidkins. "Most likely he suspected
a trap, or thought he would be on the right side. But the night was so
plaguy dark, and the whole thing was so sudden, it was impossible to
form an idea of who the two strangers might be."
"One on 'em was precious strong, I know," said the Buffer. "But, for my
part, I think you'd better leave the young feller alone in future. It's
no good standing the chance of getting scragged for mere wengeance. I
can't understand that sort of thing. If you like to crack his crib for
him and hive the swag, I'm your man; but I'll have no more of a business
that's all danger and no profit."
"Well, well, as you like," said the Resurrection Man, impatiently. "Here
we are; so look alive."
They were now under the wall of the cemetery.
The Buffer clambered to the top of the wall, which was not very high;
and the Resurrection Man handed him the implements and tools, which he
dropped cautiously upon the ground inside the enclosure.
He then helped his companion upon the wall; and in another moment they
stood together within the cemetery.
"Are you sure you can find the way to the right grave?" demanded the
Buffer in a whisper.
"Don't be afraid," was the reply: "I could go straight up to it
blindfold."
They then shouldered their implements, and the Resurrection Man led the
way to the spot where Mrs. Smith's anonymous lodger had been buried.
"I'm afeard the ground's precious hard," observed the Buffer, when he
and his companion had satisfied themselves by a cautious glance around
that no one was watching their movements.
The eyes of these men had become so habituated to the obscurity of
night, in consequence of the frequency with which they pursued their
avocations during the darkness which cradled others to rest, that they
were possessed of the visual acuteness generally ascribed to the cat.
"We'll soon turn it up, let it be as hard as it will," said the
Resurrection Man, in answer to his comrade's remark.
Then, suiting the action to the word, he began his operations in the
following manner.
He measured a distance of five paces from the head of the grave. At the
point thus marked he took a long iron rod and drove it in an oblique
direction through the ground towards one end of the coffin. So accurate
were his calculations relative to the precise spot in which the coffin
was embedded in the earth, that the iron rod struck against it the very
first time he thus sounded the soil.
"All right," he whispered to the Buffer.
He then took a spade and began to break up the earth just at that spot
where the end of the iron rod peeped out of the ground.
"Not so hard as you thought," he observed. "The fact is, the whole
burial-place is so mixed up with human remains, that the clay is too
greasy to freeze very easy."
"I s'pose that's it," said the Buffer.
The Resurrection Man worked for about ten minutes with a skill and an
effect that would have astonished even Jones the grave-digger himself,
had he been there to see. He then resigned the spade to the Buffer, who
took his turn with equal ardour and ability.
When _his_ ten minutes elapsed, the resurrectionists regaled themselves
each with a dram from Tidkins' flask; and this individual then applied
himself once more to the work in hand. When he was wearied, the Buffer
relieved him; and thus did they fairly divide the toil until the
excavation of the ground was completed.
This portion of the task was finished in about forty minutes. An oblique
channel, about ten feet long, and three feet square at the mouth, and
decreasing only in length, as it verged towards the head of the coffin
at the bottom, was now formed.
The Resurrection Man provided himself with a stout chisel, the handle of
which was covered with leather, and with a mallet, the ends of which
were also protected with pieces of the same material. Thus the former
instrument when struck by the latter emitted but little noise.
He then descended into the channel which terminated at the very head of
the coffin.
Breaking away the soil that lay upon that end of the coffin, he inserted
the chisel into the joints of the wood, and in a very few moments
knocked off the board that closed the coffin at that extremity.
The wood-work of the head of the shell was also removed with ease--for
Banks had purposely nailed those parts of the two cases very slightly
together.
The Resurrection Man next handed up the tools to his companion, who
threw him down a strong cord.
The end of this rope was then fastened under the armpits of the corpse
as it lay in its coffin.
This being done, the Buffer helped the Resurrection Man out of the hole.
"So far, so good," said Tidkins: "it must be close upon one o'clock. We
have got a quarter of an hour left--and that's plenty of time to do all
that's yet to be done."
The two men then took the rope between them, and drew the corpse gently
out of its coffin--up the slope of the channel--and landed it safely on
the ground at a little distance from the mouth of the excavation.
The moon fell upon the pale features of the dead--those features which
were still as unchanged, save in colour, as if they had never come in
contact with a shroud--nor belonged to a body that had been swathed in a
winding-sheet!
The contrast formed by the white figure and the black soil on which it
was stretched, would have struck terror to the heart of any one save a
resurrectionist.
Indeed, the moment the corpse was thus dragged forth from its grave, the
Resurrection Man thrust his hand into its breast, and felt for the gold.
It was there--wrapped up as the undertaker had described.
"The blunt is all safe, Jack," said the Resurrection Man; and he secured
the coin about his person.
They then applied themselves vigorously to shovel back the earth; but,
when they had filled up the excavation, a considerable quantity of the
soil still remained to dispose of, it being impossible, in spite of
stamping down, to condense the earth into the same space from which it
was originally taken.
They therefore filled two sacks with the surplus soil, and proceeded to
empty them in different parts of the ground.
Their task was so far accomplished, when they heard the low rumble of
wheels in the lane outside the cemetery.
To bundle the corpse neck and heels into a sack, and gather up their
implements, was the work of only a few moments. They then conveyed their
burdens between them to the wall overlooking the lane, where the
well-known voice of Mr. Banks greeted their ears, as he stood upright in
his cart peering over the barrier into the cemetery.
"Got the blessed defunct?" said the undertaker, interrogatively.
"Right and tight," answered the Buffer; "and the tin too. Now, then,
look sharp--here's the tools."
"I've got 'em," returned Banks.
"Look out for the stiff 'un, then," added the Buffer; and, aided by the
Resurrection Man, he shoved the body up to the undertaker, who deposited
it in the bottom of his cart.
The Resurrection Man and the Buffer then mounted the wall, and got into
the vehicle, in which they laid themselves down, so that any person whom
they might meet in the streets through which they were to pass would
only see one individual in the cart--namely, the driver. Otherwise, the
appearance of three men at that time of night, or rather at that hour in
the morning, might have excited suspicion.
Banks lashed the sides of his horse; and the animal started off at a
round pace.
Not a word was spoken during the short drive to the surgeon's residence
in the Cambridge Road.
When they reached his house the road was quiet and deserted. A light
glimmered through the fan-light over the door; and the door itself was
opened the moment the cart stopped.
The Resurrection Man and the Buffer sprang up; and, seeing that the
coast was clear, bundled the corpse out of the vehicle in an instant;
then in less than half a minute the "blessed defunct," as the undertaker
called it, was safely lodged in the passage of the surgeon's house.
Mr. Banks, as soon as the body was removed from his vehicle, drove
rapidly away. His portion of the night's work was done; and he knew that
his accomplices would give him his "reg'lars" when they should meet
again.
The Resurrection Man and the Buffer conveyed the body into a species of
out-house, which the surgeon, who was passionately attached to
anatomical studies, devoted to purposes of dissection and physiological
experiment.
In the middle of this room, which was about ten feet long and six broad,
stood a strong deal table, forming a slightly inclined plane. The stone
pavement of the out-house was perforated with holes in the immediate
vicinity of the table, so that the fluid which poured from subjects for
dissection might escape into a drain communicating with the common
sewer. To the ceiling, immediately above the head of the table, was
attached a pulley with a strong cord, by means of which a body might be
supported in any position that was most convenient to the anatomist.
The Resurrection Man and his companion carried the corpse into this
dissecting-room, and placed it upon the table, the surgeon holding a
candle to light their movements.
"Now, Jack," said Tidkins to the Buffer, "do you take the stiff 'un out
of the sack, and lay him along decently on the table ready for business,
while I retire a moment to this gentleman's study and settle accounts
with him."
"Well and good," returned the Buffer. "I'll stay here till you come
back."
The surgeon lighted another candle, which he placed on the window-sill,
and then withdrew, accompanied by the Resurrection Man.
The Buffer shut the door of the dissecting-room, because the draught
caused the candle to flicker, and menaced the light with extinction. He
then proceeded to obey the directions which he had received from his
accomplice.
The Buffer removed the sack from the body, which he then stretched out
at length upon the inclined table, taking care to place its head on the
higher extremity and immediately beneath the pulley.
"There, old feller," he said, "you're comfortable, at any rate. What a
blessin' it would be to your friends, if they was ever to find out that
you'd been had up again, to know into what skilful hands you'd happened
to fall!"
Thus musing, the Buffer turned his back listlessly towards the corpse,
and leant against the table on which it was lying.
"Let me see," he said to himself, "there's thirty-one pounds that was
buried along with _him_, and then there's ten pounds that the sawbones
is a paying now to Tony for the _snatch_; that makes forty-one pounds,
and there's three to go shares. What does that make? Threes into four
goes once--threes into eleven goes three and two over--that's thirteen
pounds a-piece, and two pound to split--"
The Buffer started abruptly round, and became deadly pale. He thought he
heard a slight movement of the corpse, and his whole frame trembled.
Almost at the same moment some object was hurled violently against the
window; the glass was shivered to atoms; the candle was thrown down and
extinguished; and total darkness reigned in the dissecting-room.
"Holloa!" cried the Buffer, turning sick at heart; "what's that?"
Scarcely had these words escaped his lips when he felt his hand suddenly
grasped by the cold fingers of the corpse.
"O God!" cried the miscreant; and he fell insensible across the body on
the table.