The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 297: what you’re looking at

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

268 REYNOLDS’ WORKS assuredly his conjecture was right! But who might the individuals be? In a country where the members of the brute creation were of so formidable, fearful, and hideous a nature, some of the human species itself might be dan- gerous to fall in with. So thought the Burker, and he therefore resolved to proceed with caution before presenting himself to these travellers, whoever they might be. The irregularities of the grove, the trees of which stretched out at one point and retreated inwards at another, favoured his stealthy design, so that the Burker was enabled to find a hiding-place, whence he himself might reconnoitre without being seen. He now beheld two natives, seated upon a spot where only the short grass grew, and the smouldering embers of a fire showed that they had recently been cooking the pro- visions which they were now eating. These consisted of rice and vegetables, but ever and anon one of the Hindus took a sort of gourd, which was slung by a leathern belt over his shoulder, and having applied it to his own lips, he passed it to his companion. The latter, instead of a gourd, had a sort of knapsack slung over his own shoulder, and both were men between thirty and forty years of age, attired in a manner that showed they belonged to a humble class. Each, however, had pistols in his belt, and each a musket, or rifle, lying by his side. They had no horses; they were evidently travelling upon foot, and they had curiously con- trived leathern leggings reaching nearly up to the middle of their thighs, no doubt to protect their lower limbs from the fangs of venomous reptiles while making their way through the jungle. They seemed happy and contented enough, as if reposing in that shade with a perfect sense of security, so that the Burker wondered how they could feel themselves thus safe against the sudden attack of a boa- constrictor from a tree, however great their reliance might be on their firearms in case of the appearance of a wild beast. The Burker, encouraged by their evident good-humour, was about to issue forth from his place of concealment and accost the two natives, to whom he intended by signs to make known that he was hungry, when a spectacle which he beheld retained him still in his hiding-place. It must be understood that this hiding-place was amongst a number of trees jutting forth, as it were, from the side of the grove CONNIE NOOLKS (E(0)