The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 323: what you’re looking at

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

294 REYNOLDS’ WORKS of seeking some place where he might repose. But where was he to find such a spot? Perhaps the Strangler was at no great distance; perhaps he had been creeping on amidst the bushes and the long grass, heedless of the venomous reptiles that might be lurking there; peradventure even at that moment he might be within a few yards of the Burker, waiting for an opportunity to throw his lasso with better effect than on the former occasion. The wretched English criminal was goaded almost to desperation, and again did thoughts of suicide enter his head. He now walked feebly and like a drunken man, with the sense that if he were to stop short he must sink down, and probably become a prey to the unseen enemy whom he believed to be dogging his footsteps. Such was the Burker’s state of mind and such his physical condition when, as the dusk was closing in around him, he beheld a clump of trees which by their configuration he thought he had seen before. Yes, he felt convinced of it. He looked about him, he beheld some other object which was familiar; he was in the neighbourhood of the very cave where he had previously found an asylum, and where unseen hands had afforded him the means of appeasing his hunger. He experienced a feeling of relief, while he mar- velled that by a long, circuitous route his wanderings should thus have brought him back to a place which he had fancied to have been abandoned for ever. The cave was soon reached, and the Burker’s first thought was to look and see if there were any provisions in the niche under the loophole; but there was none. He set about to fortify the cavern with even greater precautions than he had used on the former occasions, and when his task was accomplished, he partook of the food and liquor which he still possessed, and of which he had a supply sufficient for the morrow. His former experiences at the cave had led him to believe, or at least to hope, that it was safe against the intrusion of venomous reptiles, but how far secure it might prove against the designs of his human foe, he knew not. He therefore dreaded the approach of slumber when he felt a drowsiness stealing over him, and in order to shake it off he rose up and walked about the cave, which pene- trated to the distance of about six or seven yards under the hill in which it was hollowed. All of a sudden his foot kicked Gomiichbdoc cS (E()