The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 301: what you’re looking at

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

272 REYNOLDS’ WORKS getting out of that jungle; but a sudden rustling amongst the trees made him flee away for his very life. He was at a considerable distance before he dared to look back, and then he beheld not the forms of the miscreants whom he so much dreaded that his eyes would encounter. He succeeded in gaining his cavern, but there was another source of surprise and mystification for him. A fire had evidently been lighted in front of the cave during the day; another mass of boiled rice and a quantity of fruits were left in the niche underneath the loophole. But no human being was to be seen on that spot except the Burker himself. The man was seized with a sort of vague and awful terror, as if with the sense that he was the object of some design on the part of preternatural powers. Perhaps the Enemy of Mankind himself was placing that food in his way, more effectually to seal his doom than his own antecedent crimes could have done? But this was an impression that could not be permanently made on such a mind as the Burker’s, and he began to have an inkling of the real truth. Doubtless that cavern served as a temporary halting-place for way- farers through the dreadful jungle, and doubtless, likewise, the food was left by some well-provided person for the use of any less fortunate individual who might be compelled to trust entirely to such thoughtful charity. These were the ideas that now arose in the Burker’s mind, and the reader in already aware how consistent they happened to be with the actual truth. | He was now well supplied with provisions for the next two or three days, and he found that the gourd contained some exceedingly potent spirit. He ate and drank heartily, but his soul was the prey to a continuous trouble, for he dreaded lest chance or previous knowledge should bring the shark- teethed murderers to his cave. On examining the knapsack, he found that it contained a quantity of despatches, written in a@ manner which he could not possibly comprehend, and he therefore concluded that the victims of the Stranglers must have been messengers bearing some documents from one Indian authority to another. When the darkness set in, the Burker barricaded the place with even greater precautions than those he had previously adopted. He slept but little that night, and when slumber did fall upon his eyes, it was more than ever feverish CORNIELNOOLKS (E(0)