Authors: George W. M. Reynolds,James Malcolm Rymer
did
want such a person, and the
moment after I escaped that night when I blew the old crib up, I went to you
and told you just what I required. You agreed to come and live with me and I
agreed to treat you well. We have both kept our bargain; and I am satisfied if
you are."
"Oh! you know I am, Tony dear," exclaimed the
Rattlesnake. "But sometimes you have been so cross and quarrelsome, that I
didn't know what to make of it."
"And was there no excuse, Meg?" cried the
Resurrection Man. "Did I not see my old mother and the Cracksman perish
before my very eyes - and by my own hand too? But I do not accuse myself of
having wilfully caused their death. There was no help for it. We should have
all three been taken to Newgate, and never have come out of the jug again but
twice - once to be tried, and the second time to be hung."
"Could they have proved any thing against you?"
demanded the Rattlesnake.
"Yes, Meg," answered the Resurrection Man~
"there was a stiff 'un in the front room at the very moment when the
police broke into the house. We had burked him on the preceding evening; and he
was still hanging head downwards to the ceiling."
"It was much better, then, to blow the place up, as you
did," observed the Rattlesnake.
"Of course it was, Meg. Don't you see," continued
the Resurrection Man, after a pause, during which he imbibed a considerable
quantity of the exhilarating fluid in his glass, - "don't you see that I
was too old a bird not to be always prepared for such an event as that which
happened at last? I had got together a great quantity of gunpowder in the
back-room of the crib, and had stowed it away in brown paper parcels in a
cupboard. This cupboard stood between the fire-place and the back wall of the
house. So I had made a hole through the wail, and had introduced a long iron pipe
into the cupboard. This pipe was ten or twelve feet in length, and ran all
along the wall that divided my yard from the next. The pipe, so placed, was
protected by a wooden cover or case; and any one who saw it, must have thought
it was only a water-pipe. It was, however, filled with excellent gunpowder, and
there was nothing to do but to
put a match to the farthest end of the pipe to blow up the whole place."
"Capital contrivance!" exclaimed the Rattlesnake.
" Had you put up that pipe long before the police broke into the
house?"
"Oh! yes - some months," answered the Resurrection
Man; "and very lucky it was, too, that the pipe was water-tight, so that
the rain had never moistened the powder in the least. Well, when the
blue-bottles broke in, I rushed into the back-room, locked the door, leapt
through the window, flew to the end of the pipe, tore out the plug, applied the
match, and in a moment all was over."
"And for a long time even your old pals at the
Boozing-ken on Saffron Hill, fancied you had been blown up with the rest,"
said the Rattlesnake.
"Of course they did, because the newspapers, which you
always used to go and fetch me to read, said there was no doubt that every one
of the gang in the house at the time had perished."
"And they also spoke of the way in which the police had
followed you and the Cracksman to the house," said the Rattlesnake.
"Yes - and that was how I came to learn that the man
who had hunted me almost to death, was Richard Markham," exclaimed the
Resurrection Man, his countenance suddenly wearing an expression of such
concentrated - vile - malignant rage, as to render him perfectly hideous.
"Now don't begin to brood over that," cried the
Rattlesnake hastily ; "for I am almost afraid of you when you get into one
of those humours, dear Tony."
"No - I shan't give way now," said the villain:
"I have prepared the means for revenge; and then I shall be happy. Ah!
Meg, you cannot conceive how I gloated over the wretch the other night when I
denounced him in the theatre! That man has been the means of making me stay in
this infernal prison - for it has been nothing better - for weeks and months;
he was the cause of the loss of my best friend, the Cracksman, and of my old
mother, who was very useful in her way: and he prevented me from getting that
young fellow into my power, who went and explored the Palace. When I think of
all that I have suffered through this infernal Richard Markham, I am ready to
go mad ;- and I should have gone mad, too, if it hadn't been that I always
thought the day of vengeance would come!"
"And my little attentions helped to console you,
Tony," said the Rattlesnake, in a wheedling manner that seemed peculiar to
her.
"Oh! as for that, Meg, a man like me can be consoled by
nothing short of revenge in such a case. I have told you the history of my life
over and over again; and I think you must have learnt from it, that I am not a
person to put up with an injury. I have often thought of doing to Markham as I
did to the justice of the peace and the baronet - setting his house on fire;
but then he might not learn who was the incendiary, or he might even think that
it was an accident. My object is for him to know who strikes him, that he may
writhe the more."
"And do you think that the Buffer and Moll are to be
depended upon?" asked Margaret Flathers.
"To the back-bone," replied the Resurrection Man.
"How could the Buffer possibly betray
me
, when
he
was one of the gang, as the
newspapers called it? Besides, wasn't he laid by the heels in Clerkenwell Gaol
for making away with the bantling to cheat the Burying Society? and didn't he
escape? How could he go and place himself in contact with this police by giving
information against me? And what good would it be to him to deceive me? He
knows that I have got plenty, of tin, and can pay him well. Indeed, how has he
lived in the Happy Valley for the last eleven months and more, since he escaped
out of Clerkenwell? Haven't I been as good as a brother to him, and lent him
money over and over again?"
"Very true," said the Rattlesnake. "I only
spoke on your account.
"I shall be able to let the Buffer in for several good
things, now that I am determined to commence an active life again,"
continued the Resurrection Man. "I have been idle quite long enough; and I
am not going to remain so any more. Why, Greenwood alone ought to be as good as
an annuity to me. He can always find employment for a skilful and daring fellow
like me."
"And he pays like a prince, doesn't he?" demanded
the Rattlesnake.
"Like a prince," repeated the Resurrection Man.
"Five guineas the other night for just attending the carrying off of the
young actress. That is the way to make money, Meg."
"And you have got plenty. Tony, I know?" said the
woman, in a tone more than half interrogatively, and only partially expressing
a conviction.
"What's that to you?" cried the Resurrection Man,
brutally; at the same time eyeing his mistress in a somewhat suspicious manner.
"Oh! only because you needn't have any secrets from me,
Tony," returned the Rattlesnake, affecting a tone of indifference.
"You have been out every night lately - and only for a short
time —"
"Now I tell you what it is, Meg," exclaimed
Tidkins, striking his fist upon the table, "you have asked me about my
money a great many times lately; and I tell you very candidly, I don't like it.
It looks suspicious; but, by heavens! if you attempt to play me false —"
"Why should you say that, Tony? Have I not given you
every proof of fidelity?"
"Yes - you have; or else I should have known what to do
in a very few moments. But why do you bother yourself about the money that I
have got.? It is very little, I can tell you; but where it is, it's safe
enough; and if I ever catch you attempting to follow me or spy upon me when I
go into the rooms down stairs, I'll make you repent it."
"Now, Tony dear, don't put yourself into a
passion," said the Rattlesnake, turning pale, and assuming her usual
wheedling tone: "I didn't mean to annoy you. All that I wanted to know was
whether there was a chance of running short or not."
"Don't frighten yourself, Meg," returned the
Resurrection Man. "Whenever I run low, I know how to get more. And now,
that we mayn't have to talk upon this subject again, recollect once for all
that I won't have you prying into any thing that I choose to keep to myself.
You know that I am not a man to be trifled with; and if any one was to betray
me - I don't mean to say that you ever had such an idea - I only mean you to
understand that if anybody
did
—"
"Well - what?" said the Rattlesnake in a tone of
alarm.
"I would not be taken alive," added the
Resurrection Man; "and those who came to take me at all, would probably
travel the same road that the police, the Cracksman, and the Mummy have gone
already."
"Tony," exclaimed the woman, a deadly pallor
overspreading her countenance, "you don't mean
to say that this house is
provided with a pipe like the one —"
"I don't mean to say any thing at all about it, - one
way or another," interrupted the Resurrection Man coolly. "All I want
you to do is to remain quiet - attend to my wishes - keep a close tongue in
your head - and have no eyes for any thing that I don't tell you to look
at, - and then we shall go on as pleasant as before. Otherwise —"
At this moment a knock at the street door was heard.
The Rattlesnake hastened to answer the summons, and returned
accompanied by the Buffer and his wife.
CHAPTER XCVIII
DARK PLOTS AND SCHEMES
THE Buffer was one of the most unmitigated villains that ever
disgraced the name of man. There was no species of crime with which he was not
familiar; and he had a suitable helpmate in his wife, who was the sister of
Dick Flairer - a character that disappeared from the stage of life in the early
part of this history.
In person, the Buffer was slight, short, and rather well
made, - extremely active, and endowed with great physical power. His
countenance was by no means an index to his mind; for it was inexpressive,
stolid, and vacant.
His wife was a woman of about five-and-twenty, being
probably ten years younger than her husband. She was not precisely ugly; but
her countenance - the very reverse of that of the Buffer - was so indicative of
every evil passion that can possibly disgrace womanhood, as to be almost
repulsive.
The two new-comers seated themselves near the fire, for
their clothes were dripping with the rain, which continued to pour in torrents.
The warmth of the apartment and a couple of glasses of smoking grog soon,
however, put them into good humour and made them comfortable; and the
Resurrection Man then proposed that they should "proceed to
business."
"In the first place, Jack," said the Resurrection
Man, addressing himself to the Buffer, "what news about Markham?"
"He will attend to the appointment," was the
answer.
"He will?" exclaimed the Resurrection Man, as if
the news were almost too good to be true: "you are sure?"
"As sure as I am that I've got this here glass in my
mawley," said the Buffer.
"To-morrow night?"
"To-morrow night he'll meet his brother at Twig
Folly," answered the Buffer, with a laugh.
"Tell me all that took place," cried the
Resurrection Man; "and then I shall be able to judge for myself."
"As you told me," began the Buffer, "I made
myself particklerly clean and tidy, and went up to Holloway this morning at
about eleven o'clock. I knocked at the door of the swell's crib; and an old
butler-like looking feller, with a port-wine face, and a white napkin under his
arm, came and opened it. He asked me what my business was. I said I wanted to
speak to Mr. Markham in private. He asked me to walk in; and he showed me into
a library kind of a place, where I see a good-looking young feller sitting
reading. He was very pale, and seemed as if he'd been ill."
"Fretting about that business at the theatre, no
doubt," observed the Resurrection Man.
"What business?" cried the Buffer.
"No matter - go on."
"Well - so I went into this library and see Mr.
Markham. The old servant left us alone together. 'What do you want with me, my
good man?' says Markham in a very pleasant tone of voice. - 'I have summut
exceeding partickler to say to you, sir,' says I. - ' Well, what is it?' he
asks.-' Have you heard from your brother lately, sir?' says I, throwing out the
feeler you put me up to. If so be he had said he had, and I saw that be really
knew where he was, and every thing about him, I should have invented some
excuse, and walked myself off; but there was no need of that; for the moment I
mentioned his brother, he was quite astonished. - 'My brother!' he says
in a wary excited tone: 'many years has elapsed since I heard from him. Do you
know what has becomed on him?' - 'Perhaps I knows a trifle about him, sir,' says
I; 'and what is wery trifling indeed. In a word,' I says, 'he wants to see
you.' - 'He wants to see me!' cries my gentleman: 'then why doesn't he come to
me? But where is he? tell me, that I may fly to him.' - So then I says, 'The
fact of the matter is this, sir; your brother has got his-self into a bit of a
scrape, and don't dare show. He's living down quite in the east of London,
close by the Regent's Canal; and he has sent me to say that if so be you'll
meet him to-morrow night at ten o'clock at Twig Folly, he'll be there.' - Then
Mr. Markham cries out, 'But why can I not go to him now? if he is in distress
or difficulty, the sooner he sees me the better.' - 'Softly, sir' says I.
'All I know of the matter is this, that I m a honest man as airns his livelihood
by running on messages and doing odd jobs. A gentleman meets me on the bank of
the canal, close by Twig Folly, very early this morning and says, '
Do you
want to airn five shillings?
' Of course I says '
Yes
.' - '
Then,
'
says the gentleman, '
go up to Markham Place without delay, and ask to see
Mr. Markham. He lives at Holloway. Tell him that you come from his brother, who
is in trouble, and can't go to him; but that his brother will meet him
to-morrow night at ten o'clock on the banks of the canal, near Twig Folly. And
,'
says the gentleman,
'if he should ask you for a token
that you're tellin' the truth, say that this appointment must be kept instead
of the one on the top of the hill - where two ash trees stands planted
.' - Well, the moment I tells Mr.
Markham all this, he begins to blubber, and then to laugh, and to dance about
the room, crying, 'Oh! my dear - dear brother, shall I then embrace you so soon
again?' and suchlike nonsense. Then he gives me half a sovereign his-self, and
sends me into the kitchen, where the cook makes me eat and drink till I was
well-nigh ready to bust. The old butler was rung for; and I've no doubt that
his master told him the good news, for when he come back into the kitchen, he
treated me with the greatest civility, but asked me a lot of questions about
Master Eugene
, as he called him. I satisfied
him in all ways; and at last I rises, takes my leave of the servants, and comes
off.
"Well done!" cried the Resurrection Man, whose
cadaverous countenance wore an expression of superlative satisfaction.
"And you do not think he entertained the least suspicion?"
"Not a atom," returned the Buffer.
"Nor the old butler?" asked the Resurrection Man.
"Not a bit. But do jest satisfy me on one point
Tony; how come you to know that
anythink about this young feller's brother would produce such a powerful
excitement?"
"Have I not before told you that this Richard Markham
was a fellow-prisoner with me in Newgate some four years and more ago? Well, I
often overheard him talking about his affairs to another man that was also
there, and whose name was Armstrong. Markham and this Armstrong were very thick
together; and Markham spoke quite openly to him about his family matters, his
brother, and one thing or another. That's the way I came to hear of the strange
appointment made between the two brothers."
"Well, there's no doubt that the fish has bit and can
be hooked to-morrow night," said the Buffer.
"Yes - he is within my reach - and now I shall he
revenged," exclaimed the Resurrection Man, grinding his teeth together.
" I will tell you my plans in this respect presently," he added.
"Let us now talk about the old man that your wife nurses."
"Or
did
nurse, rather," cried Moll,
with a coarse laugh.
Both the Resurrection Man and Margaret Flathers turned a
glance of inquiry and surprise upon the Buffer's wife.
"The old fellow's dead," she added, after a
moment's pause.
"Dead already!" exclaimed Tidkins.
"Just as I tell you," answered Moll. "He
seemed very sinking and low this morning; and so I was more attentive to him
than ever."
"But the money?" said the Resurrection Man.
"All a dream on her part," cried the Buffer,
sulkily, pointing towards his wife.
"Now don't you go for to throw all the blame on me,
Jack," retorted the woman; "for you know as well as I do that you was
as sanguine as me. And who wouldn't have taken him for an old miser? Here you
and me," she continued, addressing herself to her husband, "go to
hire a lodging in a house in Smart Street, about three months ago, and we find
out that there's an old chap living overhead, on the first floor, who had been
there three months before that time, and had always lived in the same regular,
quiet way - never going out except after dusk, doing nothing to earn his bread,
paying his way, and owing nobody a penny. Then he was dressed in clothes that
wasn't worth sixpence, and yet he had gold to buy others if he chose, because
he used to change a sovereign every week, when he paid his rent. Well, all these
things put together, made me think he was a miser, and had a store somewhere or
another; and when I said to you —"
"I know what you said, fast enough," interrupted
the Buffer, sulkily: "what's the use of telling us all this over
again?"
"Just to show that if I was deceived, you was too. But
it's always the way with you: when any thing turns out wrong, you throw the
blame on me. Didn't you say to me, when the old fellow was took ill a month
ago: '
Moll
,' says you, '
go and offer pear services to nurse the old
gentleman; and may be if he dies he'll leave you something; or at all events
you may worm out of him the secret of where he keeps his money, and we can get
hold of it all the same
.' That's what you said - and so I did go and nurse
the old man; and he seemed very grateful, for at last he began to like me
almost as much as he did his snuff-box - and that's saying a great deal,
considering the quantity of snuff be used to take, and the good it seemed to do
him when he was low and melancholy."
"Well - what's the use of you and the Buffer
wrangling?" cried the Resurrection Man. " Tell us all about the old
fellow's death."
"As I was saying just now," continued Moll,
"the old gentleman was took wary bad this morning soon after Jack left to
go up to Holloway; and the landlady, Mrs. Smith, insisted on sending for a
doctor. The old gentleman shook his head, when he heard Mrs. Smith say so, and
seemed wary, much annoyed at the idea of having a medical visit. But Mrs. Smith
was positive, for she said that she had lost her husband and been left alone
widder through not having a doctor in time to him when he was ill. Well, a
doctor was sent for, and he said that the old gentleman was very bad indeed. He
asked me and Mrs. Smith what his name was, and whether he'd any relations, as
they ought to be sent for; but Mrs. Smith said that she never knowed his name
at all, and as for relations no one never come to see him and he never went to
see no one his-self. The doctors orders him to have mustard poultices put to
his feet; but it wasn't of no use, for the old fellow gives a last gasp and
dies at twenty minutes past two this blessed afternoon."
"Well," said the Resurrection Man; "and then,
I suppose, you had a rummage in his boxes?"
"Boxes, indeed!" cried Moll, with an indignant
toss of her head. "Why, when he first come to the house, Mrs. Smith says
that all he had was a bundle tied up in a blue cotton pocket handkercher - a
couple of shirts, and a few pair of stockings, or so. She didn't like to take
him in, she says; but he offered to pay a month's rent in advance; and so she
was satisfied.
"Then you found nothing at all?" exclaimed the
Rattlesnake.
"Not much," returned Moll. "The moment we saw
he was dead, we began to search all over the room, to see what he had left
behind him. For a long time we could find nothing but a dirty shirt, two pair
of stockings, and a jar of snuff; and yet Mrs. Smith said she knew there must
be money, for she had heard him counting his gold one day before he was took ill.
Besides, during his illness, whenever money was wanted to get any thing for
him, he never gave it at first, but sent me or Mrs. Smith out of the room with
some excuse; and when we went back, he always had the money in his hand. Well,
me and Mrs. Smith searched and searched away, and at last Mrs. Smith bethinks
herself of looking behind the bed. We moved the bed away from the wall as well
as we could. for the dead body lying upon it made it precious heavy; and then
we saw that a hole had been made down in the corner of the room. Mrs. Smith
puts in her finder, and draws out an old greasy silk purse. I heard the gold
chink; but I saw that the purse was not over heavy. '
Well,
' says Mrs.
Smith, '
I'm glad I've got a witness of what the poor gentleman left behind
him; or else I might get into trouble some day or another, if any inquiries
should be made
.' So she pours out the gold into her hand, and counts
thirty-nine sovereigns.
"And that was all?" cried the Resurrection Man.
"Every farthing, " replied the Buffer's wife.
"Well, I asked Mrs. Smith what she intended to do with it; and she says, '
I
shall bury the poor old gentleman decently: that will be five pounds. Then
there is a pound for the doctor, as I must get him to follow the funeral; and
here is two pounds for you for your attention to the old gentleman in his
illness
.' So she gives me the two pounds; and I asks
her what she is going to do with
the rest, because there was still thirty-one pounds left."
"And what did she say to that?" demanded the
Rattlesnake.
"She began a long ditty about her being an honest
woman, though a poor one, and that dead man's gold would only bring ill-luck
into her house."
"The old fool!" cried the Resurrection Man.
"And then she said she should ask the parson, when she
had buried the old man, what she ought to do with the thirty-one pounds."
"Why didn't you propose to split it between you and
hold your tongues?" asked the Resurrection Man.
"So I did," answered Moll; "and what do you
think the old fool said? She up and, told me that she always thought that me
and my husband was not the most respectablest of characters, and she now felt
convinced of it."
"Well, we must have those thirty yellow boys, old
fellow," said the Resurrection Man to the Buffer.
"Yes - if we can get them," answered the latter;
"and I know of no way to do it but to cut the old woman's throat."
"No - that won't do," ejaculated the Resurrection
Man. "If the old woman disappeared suddenly, suspicion would be sure to fall
on you; and the whole Happy Valley would be up in arms. Then the blue-bottles
might find a trace to this crib here; and we should all get into trouble."
"But if you mean to put the kyebosh upon young Markham
to-morrow night," said the Buffer, "won't that raise a devil of a
dust in the neighbourhood?"
"Markham disappears from Holloway, which is a long way
from the Happy Valley," replied the Resurrection Man.
"And the old butler, who is certain to know that the
appointment was made for Twig Folly," persisted the Buffer, " won't
he give information that will raise the whole Valley in arms, as you call,
it?"
"No such thing," said the Resurrection Man.
"Markham falls into the canal accidentally, and is drowned. There's no
mark of violence on his body, and his watch and money are safe about his
person. Now do you understand me?"
"I understand that if you mean me to jump into the
canal and help to hold him in it till he's drowned, you're deucedly out in your
reckoning, for I ain't going to risk drowning myself, 'cause I can't swim
better than a stone."
"You need not set foot in the water," said the
Resurrection Man, somewhat impatiently. " But I suppose you could hold him
by the heels fast enough upon the bank?"
"Oh! yes - I don't mind