FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268  
269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   >>   >|  
ver meet again?" "P'r'aps in the fields, p'r'aps on the road, p'r'aps at the Old Bailey, p'r'aps at the gallows, p'r'aps in the convict-ship. I knows what that is! I was chained night and day once to a chap jist like you. Didn't I break his spurit; didn't I spile his sleep! Ho, ho! you looks a bit less varmently howdacious now, my flash cove!" Varney hitherto had not known one pang of fear, one quicker beat of the heart before. But the image presented to his irritable fancy (always prone to brood over terrors),--the image of that companion chained to him night and day,--suddenly quelled his courage; the image stood before him palpably like the Oulos Oneiros,--the Evil Dream of the Greeks. He breathed loud. The body-stealer's stupid sense saw that he had produced the usual effect of terror, which gratified his brutal self-esteem; he retreated slowly, inch by inch, to the door, followed by Varney's appalled and staring eye, and closed it with such violence that the candle was extinguished. Varney, not daring,--yes, literally not daring,--to call aloud to Grabman for another light, crept down the dark stairs with hurried, ghostlike steps; and after groping at the door-handle with one hand, while the other grasped his pistol with a strain of horror, he succeeded at last in winning access to the street, and stood a moment to collect himself in the open air,--the damps upon his forehead, and his limbs trembling like one who has escaped by a hairbreadth the crash of a falling house. CHAPTER VII. THE RAPE OF THE MATTRESS. That Mr. Grabman slept calmly that night is probable enough, for his gin-bottle was empty the next morning; and it was with eyes more than usually heavy that he dozily followed the movements of Beck, who, according to custom, opened the shutters of the little den adjoining his sitting-room, brushed his clothes, made his fire, set on the kettle to boil, and laid his breakfast things, preparatory to his own departure to the duties of the day. Stretching himself, however, and shaking off slumber, as the remembrance of the enterprise he had undertaken glanced pleasantly across him, Grabman sat up in his bed and said, in a voice that, if not maudlin, was affectionate, and if not affectionate, was maudlin,-- "Beck, you are a good fellow. You have faults, you are human,--humanism est errare; which means that you some times scorch my muffins. But, take you all in all, you are a kind creature. Beck
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268  
269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Grabman

 
Varney
 

daring

 

chained

 

maudlin

 

affectionate

 

moment

 

bottle

 

winning

 

collect


morning

 

movements

 

street

 

dozily

 

access

 

escaped

 

hairbreadth

 

falling

 

CHAPTER

 

trembling


MATTRESS

 

calmly

 

forehead

 

probable

 

breakfast

 

fellow

 

undertaken

 

enterprise

 
glanced
 

pleasantly


faults

 

muffins

 
scorch
 

creature

 

humanism

 

errare

 

remembrance

 

brushed

 

clothes

 

sitting


adjoining

 

opened

 
custom
 

shutters

 

kettle

 
Stretching
 

shaking

 

slumber

 

duties

 
departure