Venus in Boston Part 14

Here, fellow, is twenty dollars for you, and I consider you are well paid for your trouble."

"But sir," remarked Mike--"you know you promised--"

"Pooh!--promises are nothing; when a man wants to get possession of a pretty girl, he'll promise anything; when she is once in his power, he is not so liberal. Here, take your twenty dollars, and be off!"

"And this is my reward and thanks for the risk I have run!" demanded Jew Mike, bitterly.

"I've no time to waste words with you," rejoined Tickels, haughtily--"I know you; you're an old offender, and I could send you to prison, if I chose, without paying you a cent.--Once more, take the money, or leave it."

"Then you would break your contract with me? Be it so--keep your money; but, by G.o.d! I'll drink your heart's blood for this! My name is Jew Mike, and I have said it. Farewell, till we meet again!"

He rushed from the house, leaving Tickels divided by joy at having saved a hundred dollars, and fear, in consequence of the ruffian's savage threat.

Five minutes after Mike's departure, Corporal Grimsby entered, announced the abduction of f.a.n.n.y Aubrey from the house of her friends, on the preceding night, and boldly accused Tickels of having been the cause of that outrage. The details of this interview are related in the sixth chapter of this narrative; it is consequently unnecessary to repeat them.

Satisfied in his own mind that old Tickels was at the bottom of the business, and that Jew Mike was the agent employed, the Corporal made the best of his way to Ann street, resolved to find the Jew, and prevail upon him, by bribes, to disclose the place where f.a.n.n.y had been carried.

During the whole of that day, he searched in vain; Mike was nowhere to be found;--towards evening, however, as the old gentleman was about to abandon the search in despair, he was informed by 'Cod-mouth Pat,' whom he had enlisted in his service, that Mike had just been seen to enter the 'Pig Pen.' With some difficulty, our friend contrived to gain an entrance to that 'crib,' where he had the satisfaction to find the object of his anxious search brooding over a half pint of gin. The ruffian instantly recognised in the Corporal, the person who had escaped from the 'Coal Hole,' some time previously, but every hostile feeling vanished, when the old man announced the object of his visit to be the discovery of f.a.n.n.y Aubrey, and the punishment of the villain Tickels.

Without entering into details which might prove tedious, suffice it to say that Jew Mike agreed to conduct the Corporal to the place where f.a.n.n.y was confined, on condition that the punishment of old Tickels should be left entirely to him, (Mike). This was a.s.sented to, and the pair instantly set out, in a cab, for the 'Chambers of Love,' in Warren street--the Corporal, eager to rescue poor f.a.n.n.y from the power of her persecutors, and the Jew thirsting to revenge himself upon his employer, for having refused to give him the stipulated reward.

That same evening, at about the hour of seven, the Hon. Timothy Tickels issued from his residence in South street, and proceeded towards Warren street, which having reached, he entered the mansion of Madame Hearthstone. That lady, with a significant smile, conducted him to her chamber, and opened the secret panel; they descended the steps, and Mr.

Tickels was ushered in the grand hall of the 'Chambers of Love.' The landlady pointed to the door of the apartment to which f.a.n.n.y Aubrey had been conveyed; the old libertine opened the door, and entered.

In a few moments a piercing scream is heard--then another; but alas!

those sounds could not be heard above, from the depths of that voluptuous tomb. But hark!--there is a noise without--nearer and nearer comes the tumult--the great door is burst open with a tremendous crash, and Jew Mike rushes in, followed by Corporal Grimsby. "This way!"

shouts the Jew--"Forward!" responds the gallant Corporal. They reach the door of the _Satin Chamber_--they open it.

"Brick-bats and paving-stones! just in time again!"

There, upon a satin couch, her dress disordered and torn, her face flushed, her hair in wild disorder, her bosom naked and bleeding, lay f.a.n.n.y Aubrey, panting, writhing, fiercely struggling in the ruffian grasp of the villain Tickels, who savagely turned and confronted the intruders. In an instant, he was stunned by a powerful blow from the gigantic fist of Jew Mike, and f.a.n.n.y was folded in the arms of her preserver, the brave old Corporal.

They left that underground h.e.l.l--the Corporal, bearing the now overjoyed f.a.n.n.y in his arms, and Jew Mike, half carrying, half dragging the insensible form of old Tickels. They reached the chamber above, and emerged from the secret panel; the affrightened inmates of the house offered no resistance; they entered the cab which was in waiting, and were driven to the residence of the Corporal, who, with his fair young _protege_, alighted, and entered the house; then Jew Mike and his victim were driven to Ann street, and the vehicle halted before the cellar which led to the 'Pig Pen.'

The night was very dark, and no one observed the Jew, as, issuing from the cab, he descended into the cellar, bearing in his powerful arms the unconscious form of Tickels. Fortunately for him, he pa.s.sed through the cellar and 'Pig Pen,' without exciting much notice, as the hour was too early for the usual revellers of the place to a.s.semble, and those who saw him, merely supposed that he was carrying some drunken friend to a place of safety from the police--a sight common enough in that region.

Mike needed no light to guide his footsteps, he traversed the dark pa.s.sage, he seized the iron ring, and drew up the trap door of the 'Coal Hole,' from which the Corporal so providentially escaped. Then, with a deep curse, he cast the old libertine into the dark abyss, closed the entrance, and departed.

When Tickels revived, and found himself in that loathsome place, he rent the air with his cries and supplications; but no aid came to the crime-polluted wretch, and in a few days he sank beneath the combined effects of despair, starvation, and the foetid atmosphere, and miserably perished.

CONCLUSION

The Conclusion of a Tale is like the end of a journey: the Author throws aside his pen and foolscap as the tired traveller does the dusty garments of the road, and stretching himself at ease, looks back upon the various companions of his erratic ramblings.

The curiosity of the reader is doubtless highly excited to know who "Corporal Grimsby" is. Circ.u.mstances, we regret to say, will not permit us to state definitely--but should a guess be made that the worthy old Corporal, and a certain Capt. S----, commander of a Revenue Cutter, were one and the same person, we will venture to say that the conjecture would not be far removed from the actual truth.

The "Chevalier Duvall" and the "d.u.c.h.ess" still continue in their brilliant career of crime, in Boston. We regret that the limits of the present work have not permitted us to record more fully their extraordinary operations in voluptuous intrigue and stupendous fraud.

f.a.n.n.y Aubrey is again a happy inmate of the family of Mr. Goldworthy.

Poor Alice, although a shade has been cast over her pure life by the dark villainy of the Chevalier, has been restored to a state of comparative felicity by the constant kindness and sympathy of her relatives and friends.

"Jew Mike" has gone on a professional tour to the South and West. "Sow Nance" has become the most abandoned prost.i.tute in Ann street.

Dear reader, thanking thee for the patience with which thou hast accompanied us in our devious wanderings, and hoping that thou hast not always found us to be a dull companion, we bid thee farewell.