Free Medi-Evil 3 by Paul Finch Page A

from way off,” he eventually concluded. “One wouldn’t have had to be a genius to realise that King James wasn’t going to last on the English throne. Likewise, one wouldn’t have needed a calculating mind to understand what that would mean. Even so,” and his brow furrowed, “it makes me wonder if Lady Foxworth was more involved than Cedric has admitted.”
      “Oh come now, O’Calligan ,” the judge snorted, but the Irishman shook his head.
      “Cedric said it himself. She walked the thorny paths, indulged in Machiavellian games. Maybe this plan to kill her brother was hers after all, a failsafe just in case James was overthrown … and the loyal servant only opted to include her in the roll-call of death once I’d escaped the creature and it became apparent the game was up?”
      “Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure,” the judge said.
      “No,” O’Calligan agreed. “In that respect, villainous old Cedric was quite successful.”
     
     

 
     
    A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES
     
     
    Hammersmith horror causes concern
     
    The Metropolitan Police have denied that the horrible attack on a young governess in Hammersmith Gardens last Wednesday evening has anything to do with the mysterious person known as ‘Spring-Heeled Jack’.
      Mary Perkins, (18), of Lower Stretham Road, was in the company of two infants when she was set upon by a man who is said to have leapt clean over a 12ft hedge and landed directly in front of her. She was then assaulted, and one of the children knocked over with such force that it lost a tooth.
      The Metropolitan Police have always professed the official belief that Spring-Heeled Jack is a myth. The bizarre street-robber, who is said to don a black cloak and sometimes either a green mask or ghastly stage make-up, is allegedly capable of jumping clean across streets and even over houses with a single bound. When stories first emerged about him some 40 years ago, it was a sensation. However, in the intervening years between then and now, reports about him have only appeared sporadically.
      He has supposedly been sighted in cities as far afield as Coventry, Birmingham and Liverpool, but the centre of his activities always appears to be London.
      On previous occasions, Spring-Heeled Jack’s mischievous antics were regarded as pranks carried out by a theatrical group, possibly at the behest of an eccentric aristocrat. But recently, his offences have been significantly more serious. Scotland Yard’s famous detective division is believed to be looking into the matter.
    London Gazette, August 17th 1879
     
    Who ‘the devil’ is Spring-Heeled Jack?
     
    A question everyone is asking at the present time must be: Who is Spring-Heeled Jack?  
      Part of popular culture in former decades, and the subject of many a music hall joke, the jumping felon, who, if he exists at all, has been accused of being everything from a deranged athlete to a disguised kangaroo, is no longer making Londoners laugh.
      Ever since guardsmen claimed to have fired shots at him, to no discernible effect, when he attacked them at the gates to Aldershot North army camp three years ago, reports of his activities have taken a turn for the more frightening.
      Even during his alleged early appearances, as long ago as the 1830s, the curious character, who is described as having blazing eyes and a demonic expression, and is said to laugh maniacally as he bounds away from the scenes of his crimes, was given to disgraceful behaviour . He was reported as indecently touching several persons whose goods he tried to steal, while his more recent actions have seen him molest women and tear off their clothes, and beat any man who dares to intervene. He has also been accused of committing burglaries, arson and increasingly violent street-robberies. At least one death has now been attributed to him: a carter in Camden Town was run over by his own vehicle after ‘a flying phantom’ allegedly frightened the