013: Exploring Sweeney Todd's house — Spring-Heel'd Jack rescues a fair maiden — Dick Turpin escapes — Lord Lionel's initiation — and more!

FIRST — in Flash Academy, we'll learn what high pads, glims flashy, high flyer, drawing a long bow, and hopping the twig meant, in highwaymens' slang.

THEN — we plunder five different story papers!

In Sweeney Todd Ch. 39 and 40 —

• Sir Richard Blunt rents an attic room in the building next to Sweeney Todd’s house from the owner, a henpecked shoemaker. Sir Richard and Crotchet slip in through an attic window and make some rather remarkable discoveries ...

In Varney the Vampyre Ch. 3 —

• The brothers rush to the wall where fell the vampyire they shot ... but the body has vanished! They return to poor Flora, who then awakens from her swoon with a shriek; then they notice there is a portrait on the wall of the room that looks just like the vampyre...

In Black Bess Ch. 2 —

• Dick Turpin flees from the company of soldiers into a wood, where, after delving deep in search of a good place to rest, he finds to his surprise there is a hut, in which lives a strange man who appears to be some kind of fellow criminal. But something tells Dick he is not to be trusted ...

In Spring-Heel'd Jack Ch. 2 —

• Jack discovers that an elderly miser is trying to blackmail a young woman for her “sweet favors” in exchange for giving her back a check her husband forged. Jack crashes through the window, scoops up the woman, terrifies the miser, and flies with her to safety, saving her from a Fate Worse Than Death!

In The Black Band Ch. 2 —

• Lord Lionel is blindfolded and conveyed to a solemn initiation ritual in which he joins the vast international conspiracy of the Companions of Midnight, the sinister brotherhood from which there is no leaving save through death! Then, in a private meeting with Colonel Bertrand, the colonel prepares to outline what he expects his new agent to do ...

Join Professor Flash, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John. for a 90-minute spree through the story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!