proached her.

"Sit beside me," continued Mrs. Sheppard. "And, now I'll tell you what
they do. Stop! we must shut the door, or they'll catch us. See!" she
added, tearing the rag from her head,--"I had beautiful black hair once.
But they cut it all off."

"I shall go mad myself if I listen to her longer," said Jack, attempting
to rise. "I must go."

"Don't stir, or they'll chain you to the wall," said his mother
detaining him. "Now, tell me why they brought you here?"

"I came to see you, dear mother!" answered Jack.

"Mother!" she echoed,--"mother! why do you call me by that name?"

"Because you are my mother."

"What!" she exclaimed, staring eagerly in his face. "Are you my son? Are
you Jack?"

"I am," replied Jack. "Heaven be praised she knows me at last."

"Oh, Jack!" cried his mother, falling upon his neck, and covering him
with kisses.

"Mother--dear mother!" said Jack, bursting into tears.

"You will never leave me," sobbed the poor woman, straining him to her
breast.

"Never--never!"

The words were scarcely pronounced, when the door was violently thrown
open, and two men appeared at it. They were Jonathan Wild and Quilt
Arnold.

"Ah!" exclaimed Jack, starting to his feet.

"Just in time," said the thief-taker. "You are my prisoner, Jack."

"You shall take my life first," rejoined Sheppard.

And, as he was about to put himself into a posture of defence, his
mother clasped him in her arms.

"They shall not harm you, my love!" she exclaimed.

The movement was fatal to her son. Taking advantage of his embarrassed
position, Jonathan and his assistant rushed upon him, and disarmed him.

"Thank you, Mrs. Sheppard," cried the thief-taker, as he slipped a pair
of handcuffs over Jack's wrists, "for the help you have given us in
capturing your son. Without you, we might have had some trouble."

Aware apparently in some degree, of the mistake she had committed, the
poor maniac sprang towards him with frantic violence, and planted her
long nails in his cheek.

"Keep off, you accursed jade!" roared Jonathan, "--off, I say, or--" And
he struck her a violent blow with his clenched hand.

The miserable woman staggered, uttered a deep groan, and fell senseless
on the straw.

"Devil!" cried Jack; "that blow shall cost you your life."

"It'll not need to be repeated, at all events," rejoined Jonathan,
looking with a smile of malignant satisfaction at the body. "And,
now,--to Newgate."

CHAPT