Oldal 204 [204]
OCR
150 on below, and all other sounds were lost in the noise of its plashing and eddying against the green and slimy piles. ‘There had once been a water-mill beneath, and the tide foaming and chafing round the few rotten stakes, and fragments of machinery, that yet remained, seemed to dart onward with a new impulse when freed from the obstacles which had unavailingly attempted to stem its headlong course. “Tf you flung a man’s body down there, where would it be to-morrow morning ?” said Monks, swinging the lantern to and fro in the dark well. c Twelve miles down the river, and cut to pieces besides,” replied Bumble, recoiling at the very notion. Monks drew the little packet from his it, and tying it firmly to a leaden weight which had formed a part of some pulley, and was lying on the floor, dropped it into the stream. It fell straight, and true as a die, clove the water with a scarcely audible splash, and was gone. The three looked into each other’s faces, and seemed to breathe more freely. c There!" said Monks, closing the trapdoor, which fell heavily back into its former position. “If the sea ever gives up its dead—as books say it will—it will trash among it. We have nothing more to say, and may break up our pleasant party.” c By all means,” observed Mr. Bumble with great alacrity. “You'll keep a quiet tongue in your head, will you?” said Monks, with a threatening look. “Iam not afraid of your wife.” “ You may depend on me, young man,” answered Mr. Bumble, bowing himself gradually towards the ladder with excessive politeness. “On everybody’s account, young man; on my own, you know, Mr. Monks.” “Tam glad for your sake to hear it,” remarked Monks. “ Light your lantern, and get away from here as fast as you can.” It was fortunate that the conversation terminated at this point, or Mr. Bumble, who had bowed himself to within six inches of the ladder, would infallibly have eg preys into the room below. e lighted his lantern from that which Monks had detached from the rope, and now carried in his hand, and, making no effort to prolong the discourse, descended in silence, fullowed by his wife. Monks steps to satisfy himself that there were no other sounds to be heard than the beating of the rain without, and the rushing of the water. They traversed the lower room slowly, and with caution, for Monks started at every shadow, and Mr. Bumble, holding his lantern a foot above the ground, walked not only with remarkable care, but with . a marvellously light step for a gentleman of his figure: looking nervously about him for hidden trap-doors. ‘The gate at which they had entered was softly unfastened and opened by Monks, and merely exchanging a nod with their mysterious acquaintance, the married couple emerged into the wet and darkness outside. They were no sooner gone, than Monks, who appeared to entertain an invincible repugnance to being left alone, called to a boy who had been hidden somewhere below, and bidding him go first, and bear the light, returned to the chamber he had just quitted. CHAPTER THE SECOND, Introduces some respectable characters with whom the reader is already acquainted, and shows how Monks and the Jew laid their worthy heads together. Ir was about two hours earlier on the evening following that upon which the three worthies mentioned in the last chapter disposed of their little matter of business as therein narrated, when Mr. William Sikes, awakening from a nap, drowsily growled forth an inquiry what time of night it was. The room in which Mr. Sikes propounded this question was not one of those he had tenanted previous to the Chertsey expedition, although it was in the same quarter of the town, and was situated at no reat distance from his former lodgings. t was not in appearance so desirable a habitation as his old quarters, being a mean and badly-furnished apartment of very limited size, lighted only by one small window in the shelving roof, and abutting upon a close and dirty lane. Nor were there wanting other indications of the good gentleman’s having gone down in the world of late; for a great scarcity of furniture, and total absence of comfort, together with the disappearance of all such moveables as spare clothes and linen, bespoke a state of extreme poverty, while the meagre and attenuated condition of
