The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 311: what you’re looking at

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

282 REYNOLDS’ WORKS oppressiveness. The Burker shuddered with horror as he thought of the terrific din which had startled him up in the middle of the night, and he wondered that he had not fallen a victim to the wild beasts which had raged or frolicked during the hours of the sun’s absence. To pass such another night as that, in the midst of the jungle, seemed an absolute impossibility, and the Burker asked himself, in literal anguish of mind, whether it were possible to find an issue from the wilderness during the many long hours of daytime that were now before him. He partook of his food, he drank of the contents of the gourd, and he resumed his way. The desert spot was left behind; he was once again floundering through the jungle. In about an hour he reached a forest, composed entirely of bamboos growing to a considerable height. Nothing could surpass the picturesque magnificence of that scene, but the Burker scarcely com- prehended it. Heaven knows he was in no humour to contemplate whatsoever beauties nature might present to the view in the midst of that wilderness. Taking care not to approach too near to the trees of that forest, he pursued his way amidst the long grass, until all in a moment he was startled by a savage growl, and looking around with an agonizing sense of horror, he beheld an immense tiger at a little distance. There was a tree near. Forgotten all in a moment was the possibility that a boa-constrictor might be coiled amongst its branches, and for his life did the Burker rush to that tree. If in cool, deliberate moments he had attempted to climb up the trunk, his progress would have doubtless been laboured and slow, but now it was with the veritable agility of a monkey that, with arms and legs deftly moving, the aim was accomplished. The tiger bounded to the foot of the tree just as the Burker suc- ceeded in grasping the lowest branches, and the animal gave another terrific howl as it found that its intended victim had escaped. High up toward the Burker the tiger leaped; the frightened man drew himself, as it were, into the nar- rowest possible compass. At the same moment there was a rustling amongst the leaves of the branches projecting from the opposite side of the tree, and down was flung the hideous length of an immense snake, its coils being wound about the tiger’s body with lightning rapidity. So horrified was the Burker at this spectacle that his Gomicdoc CS (E()