Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Dynamiter

THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION. 197
There, an oatli liaviiig been exacted, the money changed
hands.
' And now,' said Somerset, ' I have bought back my
honour with every penny I possess. And I thank God,
though there is nothing before me but starvation, I am
free from all entanglement with Mr. Zero Pumpernickel
Jones.'
' To starve 1 ' cried Zero. ' Dear fellow, I cannot
endure the thought.'
' Take your ticket ! ' returned Somerset.
' I think you display temper,' said Zero.
' Take your ticket,' reiterated the young man.
' AVell,' said the plotter, as he returned, ticket in hand,
* your attitude is so strange and painful, that I scarce
know if I should ask you to shake hands.'
' As a man, no,' replied Somerset ; ' but I have no
ol)jection to shake hands with you, as I might with a
pump- well that ran poison or hell-fire.'
' This is a very cold parting,' sighed the dynamiter ;
and still followed by Somerset, he began to descend the
platform. This was now bustling with passengers ; the
train for Liverpool was just about to start, another had
but recently arrived ; and the double tide made move-
ment difficult. As the pair reached the neighbourhood
of the bookstall, however, they came into an open space ;
and here the attention of the plotter was attracted by a
' Standard ' broadside bearing the words : ' Second Edi-
tion : Explosion in Golden Square.' His eye lighted ;
groping in his pocket for the necessary coin, he sprang
forward — his bag knocked sharply on the corner of the
stall — and instantly, with a formidable report, the dyna-
mite exploded. When the smoke cleared away the stall
was seen much shattered, and the stall keeper running
forth in terror from the ruins ; but of the Irish patriot
or the Gladstone bag no adequate remains were to be
I? A
In the hrst scramble or cxio ccic«xx«5 ^_™
good his escape, and came out upon the Euston Road, his
head spinning, his body sick with hunger, and his pockets
destitute of coin. Yet as he continued to walk the