The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

THE BURKER’S ADVENTURES 105 the next moment the servant-girl appeared to answer the inquiry of Mr. Redcliffe, for he, as the reader has doubtless understood, was the tall gentleman in the cloak. We must add that not for an instant had Mr. Redcliffe suspected that the individual who had just passed him was the miscreant Burker. We must follow the footsteps of the last-mentioned person. On turning the nearest corner, he quickened his pace, he sped into Oxford Street, and entering a cab, ordered the driver to take him to Whitechapel Church. On arriving there the Burker dismissed the cab, walked along for a few minutes, and entering a public-house, sat down to reflect upon the course which he should now pursue. He somewhat repented the trick he had played old Jonathan Carnabie. Not that he regretted having obtained possession of the thirty sovereigns, — very far from it, but he feared there would be a hue and cry, and whether or not it was suspected that it was veritably the Burker who had committed the robbery, an accurate description of his present personal appearance would be sure to obtain publicity. He must therefore change his disguise altogether, and it was on this subject he was now deliberating within himself. It was a small public-house, in an obscure street leading out of Whitechapel, which Barney had thus entered. There was only one other person in the little parlour at the time, and this individual speedily rose and took his departure. A few minutes afterward the door opened, and another person entered. He wore a low-crowned hat with very broad brims, beneath which appeared masses of red _ hair, and he had large whiskers of a corresponding hue. He wore a pair of those green spectacles which have side- glasses, and are denominated shades. A loose brown paletot, or overcoat, was buttoned up to the throat, which was encircled by a thick shawl-neckerchief. The overcoat, as well as the gray pantaloons, was a little the worse for wear, and it was difficult at a first glance to judge what the social position or the avocation of the individual might be. The waiter followed him into the room with a glass of hot gin and water; the green-spectacled stranger threw down a sovereign and received the change. Before the waiter left the parlour the Burker ordered his own glass to be re- filled, and in the meanwhile he was furtively surveying the COnnicloookKks (C(O)