The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 368: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER CLV. THE TIGRE. | Ow awaking in tho morning, the Burker seriously | reflected tpon his position; and he eame ta the | fixed resolve of eseaptng out of thep jungle, ‘or | périshing in the sttempt, Being thus determined to abandon the hospitable cav& the Burker filed the knapsack with the remnant of his provisions and slung it ever his shoulders. He likewise took with him the gourd; for it gill sotitained no incon- sidorable quantity of spirits, which being of a very potent charactor, produced much effect with sven the sinailest dram. It cost the Burker somo reset to leavo the cavern that had sheltered him’ for he felt like a man who was leaving a harbouf of comparative safety to enter upon the terrific perils of unknown seas. Perhaps, indeed, the miscrean® would have remained altogether in that place, trusting to the benevolence of wayfarers tu continue their supplies of provision; but after tho tragedf which bw had beholden in the jungle, he could sot linger ina neighbourhood which appeared to be infested with human monsters as formidable as thote which be- | longed to the breate qyeation. The Burker accord- i ingly set out, with his gourd and his knapsack, to | enter upon the stupendous taak of finding an issu | from the jungle. Let the reader ounceive how ' great tvould have been the danger aad the conster- | nition of those mariners of tho olden ti:ne who were the first to penetrate into the awful watery | | | | solitudes of the South Paciflo, if their compass had been lost. But almost equally hopeless was the | task now entered upon by this man—expused to a thousand perils—without firearms or weapons of any kiod to protect himeelf against the wild animals that awarmed in the solitudes of that juugle~ignorant of the way he vught to pursue— and going forth to trus6 entitely to hazard and to | accident to guide him out of this dread inhospi- | table region. * Not far had the Burker provecded, when at a distance of about a bundred yards ahead he per- ceivod a tall object, which ho had at firat taken fcr a trec, or skrab, suddenly put itself m motion. | What at tho outset ho had fancied te qe the | branches, gil in an instant expanded ahd seemed to | be flapping violently. The idea that it could be a | bird Mashed through tho Burker’s mind: but a | bird of at ledst abven feet in height apporred to | him an impossibility. Yet a second thought made him refiéet that a country which could prdduce snakes so monstrove ne those which hq had seen, might contain dmonget ite xgologionl wonders birds as colossal as the object winch he now doheld at 4 little distance. Hoe stood atill, less terrified per- haps thari l had been at tho sight of other living things the ¢ery names of whith miade the blood run cold and the flesh creep upon the Bones: but: | etill he was far ftom fecling comfostabic. lx Jt was indeed o bird which the man wW&s con- 1 femplating ; and it wid how walking slowly awdy from the apot where he first saw it. We may as woll ihform the rdéader that it was one of the adjt- tart species, which often attains the hoight of five feet, and sometimes grows to the proportions of this speciintn whith thé Burker was now survey- serutyeti— peepee Ye natal THA MYSTERIES OF S11 COtHT. woke. ok ing, Glowly ip pesebeded, atti] a ‘ef. dently to cites sight of a form to which the oft wad unacbirefonied, tt dd Vivised towards the Burket. Now the mht wis dived with & complete tertoy r he tarned and fed. But the giant adjutant bird wis speedily ih Hie cluge vicingge ; and, dpprehénd- ing & suddet attack, di’ dnatched up a large stohe against which his fact Iicked. Fortunste for bim ‘was it that he etepped Back af the tdmd nioment with the epedd of lightning ; fot from the very spot wheancd ke had picked up the atdnd, a cobra di capollo durtéd forth; ratsiig ite hiddolis hood head, hissing, atid prepating to spting @t bidi. In another fhorment the adjutant Bifd seiaéd thé cobra in its bill; and the Burker availed Winssel? of the circumstance to plage a still greater interval be- tween him@elf and that cvtogsdl spevididh of the feathered tribe. He ldoked back :~the reptild had disappeared froin the bill of the Bird ; and the bird iteelf was clowly walkii? away in «@ contrar direction to that whith the Burker was pursuing. Relieved from that source of apprébension, ths wanileter confinued his path—if path i¢ could be Called where beaten road there was none, atid where he advaticed dmridet thick unddérwood of rank graée—vt eles ofer, patches of swakd whale the herbage Was shoré and awedt, donstititizyys the fuw oases of wholceomd vegotation is that wilder. ness. For @ couple of bourt the Britker pto- ceeded withdut experiencing any fresh peril or dlarm—until all uf a sudden he was startled by a terrific crishiag amongst 4 noighbouring thicket ; and thence emerged a huge animal, which by the trunk and thé fotig ivory:taské Be:knew to be an elephant, The brute My¥néd to Be elther in a naturally wild or eles ffightehed state: for du emerging from the brake, it skood snorting, eldvat- ing its truisk, and piWing, or rather tramplitg the grotind with its feet. The Burker stood tranéfixed with terrce for a few moments: he wat then about tqafurn and fly, when there was a snd- den rush frog the séthe thickat—shd dtother Primal made its appedratco. The Hert moment the elephant and thiv dew-cumer closed as if were in combat; dnd still was the Burker transfixed, guzing upon the awful dcene. Tho bruge with which the elephant was thus engygw, was of considerably less dimensiuns; and ait had a long curving tusk, or horn, on the upper part of its snout. The wanderer in the junglf kriow‘hot what it was: buat the reader bas by this time Gomprohended that it wds a rhinoesros— the deadly foe of the elephant. Each sedined to be fully aware of the mode of attack that would Be adopted by the other. The elephant rughell at - the rhinoceros to pierce ib with its long tuake : but the rhinoseros, though epparéatly do un- wicldy, wheeled about, escaped the meditated blow, and then rushed in with the infentiod of fipping its opponent’se belly with its own tusk. Then the clephant itself ‘ displayed a aintilar apility; and with'a eudden tmoveérient received tho blow dpon its haunch, where ite impouctrabia skin was an offectite armour of rédstande. Thea front to front ¢ were again:—this time the vlephant’s clerp-politted tuska pierced the #6 6f the rhinvdsros, néar the dhoulder; and tid nest mowtnt the hom of the woknddd brate ‘was ‘driven Wp with aff tle force of the impulsive heal inte the belly uf the elephant. 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