The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 385: what you’re looking at

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874 sort than any the Burker had as yet seen fn the jungle. There were not only rice and fraite, but cakes of bread and pieces of oolf meat; and the Goesoons quickly sat down to the welcome meal. Tho Burker was lideraily treated in respect to the food on the present occasion; and when the Mask which the young Gossoon produced, had passed round from bis own lips to those of his friends, the Burker was not forgotten. He found * contain the same sort of potent spirit ar Ant which the gourd of the assassinated traveliem had furnished him; an@® encouraged by the apparent friendliness of the Gossoons, he imbibed a deep draught. The meal being over, the Gdssoons proceeded to stretch themselves to elcep in the cavern,—the handsome young new-comer following in this re- spect the example of his ugly elder comrades. The Burker experienced the soporific effect of the potent alchohol: and yielding te drowsiness, he likewise inid himself down in the cave. Slum- ber soon stele upon his eyes; eud when he awoke the eun was considtérably past the meridian. Bet the Gossoons~-where wert they? They were not to be seen ! Half wild with despair, the Burker ascended to the top of the rveeky ‘hill: buat no—not a slimpee of them could he obtain! They hai eri- Gently abandoned him to his fate in that porrite wilderness! He cricd aloud in his anguish « mingled lamentations with imprecations: he beat his breast—tore hie hair—and dashed tis elenghed fete violently against &te brow. At length his rage began to moderate, eton if tis Dletress of mind were not alleviated. Hoe saw that i¢ was use- less to trust to travelling Goesoons as guides from the depths of that jungles and despite all dangers, he would make one‘meare d effort to issue thence, or die in the attempt. Hoe bethought him- self that all three of the Gossgons had come from preeisely the same directions and it was altogether in an opposite direction that his own former at- tempts had been mado to issue from the jangle. Surely those men mast have journeyed from a vil- lage or hamlet at no great distance P At all events he was determined to push forward in that diree- tion: for sooner than endare the prolonged hor- rors of the jungle, he would daro sil its gleastlicst, frightfulest periis ! Having slaked his thirst at the erpstel epring— end armed with his stout bludgeen=the Barker eet ont upon bis journey. Ho strove to call to his aid all hie moet stubborn courage and dogged resolution. When floundering t h the long grass where reptiles might lark, he eaid to himeeclf | he that it was better to die by the bite of the cobm than to endure the long agony of terror, with the of famine in the cave he had just left. When ferced by the eircumatancas of his route to pats near a trec, ho strove to pessuailc bimeelf that | it were better to render up existence in the crush- ing folds of the boa constrictor, than to linger out that life in the awful solitude of ¢he eavern. again, when passing nesr a stream, he thought it were preferable to risk being devoured by the jews of an alligator, than to continug to be whirled enward by e hurricane of agonising elarms and a senscof cxeruciating perils. It wad in this manner the wandering outeast endeavoured to sustain bis , Spisits ¢ but, oh| how desperate must he bave felt eS SE Ps a ey Sy Se 7 gt Pe eh Es DH pe em emammaty tqute : iat | 874m mverenyes op rm covm his case to be when it sort than any the Burker had as yet seen in the | his case to be when it admitted of ewh berrible of eush horrible consolations ! For about two hours hed he advanced, eteadile pursuing the direction from which the Goseoons had come—when on emerging upen a sward * short eweet grass, he beheld a dark object jyia a little distance. On approaching it, he ¢ his surprise that 16 was the wallet which the joangest Gossoon had brought with him in the morning. On opening it, the Barker found that it contained a considerable quentity of the pro- vender with which #% was crammed when Gset produced ; and his wonder wae now euccestied by joy. But was coon wpporascet egeias and this became blended with terror likewise~—-for how could the wallet be there unless something had happened to the young Gossoon himeclff And if he had become a prey to a wit beast, might net that eame ferocious animal be etill lurking in the neighbourhood The Barker now discerned apon the grase the traces of footeteps; and, Oh | with what eurdling of the blood did he likewise distin guish the epote where the paws of a wild beast— most probably a tiger—~had been | Some minetes dapecd Sefore he could anffi- chently compose himeelf to appropriate the sralict and etrap it over bis shoulders. ie ¢hen eum tinued his way—locking around him with old shuddering apprehension--when his foot kicked he | against something ; and recoiling from she eontest, he perceived thet it weee humen bone. Several other bones day seattered about; and there was 4 Gerk etein upon the ground which conficmed all the dreadful tale. It was a horrible spectacio | horrible would it have been even for ond aurveying it with a consciousness of perfect us ine finitely more horrible for one who felt that ef any instant he might share the fate of his ou that spot! Olese by, teo, shore wees Shp feng ments of apparel : and now the Burker knew, be- yond the possibility of doubt, that 4 was the young Gossoon who had beep devoured by a wild beast. He rushed on, almost meddened with horrar, from the spot. He forgot the Strangler~+the bea- constrictor—the cobra—the panther—the elephant ——and the alligator: he thought of nothing but the tiger. But when another hour had elapsed, and he had continued hie way without any fresh alarm, his apirite begen to revive somewhes. That the two elder Gomoons bad fled from the spot where their. mone jacenile coparade met a hideous a fale was tolersiiy evitient. Might he not therefore overtake them and if a0, might he uot induce them to serge as his guides? or ia any ease mighd not follew them fram « distance ? While he was looking straight before 2 him, with straining eyes to see if he could discera an humen forme moving in the distance,—he fas that bis ear gaught the sounds of a vtanped or in his immediate vicinage. He s on te listened. WYes—it was assuredly so; a peared to emanate from the foot of a tree to eheak twenty yards off. This tree was completely mithored: there was not a single leaf upon it; end thus the eye of the Burker could easily ecen all its skeleton branches. No boa constrictor was coiled there; and a horrible feeling of cariosity, surmounting his alarms, led him to draw nearer and nearer by slow degrees towards the foot of that blasted trae. For the moans still continued COUMIUC NOOK (CO