The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 298: what you’re looking at

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

THE BURKER 267 in our time, Jack,’”’ responded the Burker, as if the ante- cedents just alluded to were a subject for satisfactory retro- spection. ‘‘ So, may our friendship never be less,’’ and with this sentiment the ruffian nodded to his three accomplices as he raised the glass to his lips. ‘““Good heavens! that the burning alcohol did not choke the miscreant whose tongue had thus impiously perverted the sacred name of friendship, and had made it the illustra- tion of his own horrible ideas of fellowship and intimacy. For it was a frightful friendship, if the word can be so used, which linked him with that man and with those two women, — a friendship which held them together for the sake of crimes the darkest and the deepest, a terrible intimacy, that was cemented with blood, a fellowship such as that which may be supposed to prevail in pandemonium. Yet those wretches dared look each other in the face, and if three of them shud- dered for an instant at the frightful expression which ap- peared upon the countenance of the fourth, it was not that they were stricken with remorse for past misdeeds, nor with loathing for their associate, but merely that there was an instinctive recoil from a physical ugliness which the reflex of a blood-stained soul at the instant rendered intolerable for any eyes to gaze upon. “ Ah! it’s an uncommon convenient place, isn’t it, Bar- ney?’’ observed Jack Smedley, after a pause which had followed the ruffian’s sentiment, and the gold-beater, as he thus spoke, looked down upon the drugget as his wife had previously done. ‘ Now, what things do go on in London. Who would suspect — ”’ ‘‘ Don’t be so silly, Jack,”’ interrupted Bab. ‘‘ One would think you were going to moralize on the secrets that this house could reveal if it liked. I am always afraid of your tongue —”’ ‘No, you needn’t be afeard,’’ interrupted the Burker. “I’ve knowed Jack Smedley long enough to be sure that he’s as downy as the knocker at Newgate, and as safe and tight as the stone jug itself. Why, let me see, it’s a matter of ten year you've been in this house, and you’ve kept up a good name the whole time.” “It was my dodge, the joining in with the chaps next door,’ observed Smedley, with a triumphant grin expanding over his mean-looking countenance, ‘‘ and let me tell you it’s cS (EO) EONNIELOOC