United States or Paraguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The two friends glanced at one another with more serious faces than they had shown yet. 'Tell us on what grounds you make this accusation, said Mortimer Lightwood. 'On the grounds, answered Riderhood, wiping his face with his sleeve, 'that I was Gaffer's pardner, and suspected of him many a long day and many a dark night. On the grounds that I knowed his ways.
But, he now leaned forward, turning the collar of his waistcoat with an inquisitive finger, and asked, 'Why, where's your watch? 'I have left it behind. 'I want it. But it can be fetched. I've took a fancy to it. Bradley answered with a contemptuous laugh. 'I want it, repeated Riderhood, in a louder voice, 'and I mean to have it. 'That is what you want of me, is it?
Accepting Lightwood's proffered hand to help him up, he then put on his coat, and said to Riderhood, 'Hand me over those spare sculls of yours, and I'll pull this in to the nearest stairs. Go ahead you, and keep out in pretty open water, that I mayn't get fouled again. His directions were obeyed, and they pulled ashore directly; two in one boat, two in the other.
The water rose and rose as the sluice poured in, dispersing the scum which had formed behind the lumbering gates, and sending the boat up, so that the sculler gradually rose like an apparition against the light from the bargeman's point of view. Riderhood observed that the bargeman rose too, leaning on his arm, and seemed to have his eyes fastened on the rising figure.
'A skill in purwiding what he finds, perhaps, said Riderhood, shaking his evil head. Miss Abbey knitted her brow at him, as he darkly leered at her. 'If you're out upon the river pretty nigh every tide, and if you want to find a man or woman in the river, you'll greatly help your luck, Miss Abbey, by knocking a man or woman on the head aforehand and pitching 'em in.
He set himself to find out, for the man might prove to be a messenger between those two. 'You call at the Temple late, he remarked, with a lumbering show of ease. 'Wish I may die, cried Mr Riderhood, with a hoarse laugh, 'if I warn't a goin' to say the self-same words to you, T'otherest Governor! 'It chanced so with me, said Bradley, looking disconcertedly about him.
Chris'en name, Bradley sim'lar to Roger which is my own. Eh? Fam'ly name, Headstone, sim'lar to Riderhood which is my own. Eh? Shrill chorus. 'Yes! 'Might you be acquainted, learned governor, said Riderhood, 'with a person of about your own heighth and breadth, and wot 'ud pull down in a scale about your own weight, answering to a name sounding summat like Totherest?
When we went down to the Thames embankment, Edwin suddenly turned into Rogue Riderhood and I was Lizzie Hexam. Edwin did not think much of me as Becky Sharp when we went to the Opera nor did I think his Rawdon Crawley very convincing.
He finished it with great deliberation, knocked out the ashes on the hob, and put it by. 'I'll begin, he then repeated, 'Bradley Headstone, Master, if you wish it. 'Wish it? I wish to know what you want with me. 'And so you shall. Riderhood had looked hard at his hands and his pockets, apparently as a precautionary measure lest he should have any weapon about him.
'You spoke to the mistress, did you? inquired Bradley, with that former composure of voice and feature that seemed inconsistent, and with averted eyes. 'Poof! Yes, said Riderhood, withdrawing his attention from the smoke. 'I spoke to her. I didn't say much to her. I tells her, "O no, nothink wrong. The master's my wery good friend." But I see how the land laid, and that she was comfortable off.
Word Of The Day