The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 333: what you’re looking at

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

304 REYNOLDS’ WORKS whom he levelled a terrific blow with his bludgeon, but the Hindu dexterously caught the weapon with his hand, and once again did the two men close in the struggle. For several minutes it was maintained with desperate energy and on equal terms, but all in a moment, just as the Burker after a forcefully administered kick with his heavy boot upon the bare shin of his opponent, was about to follow up the advantage gained thereby and hurl him to the ground, the Strangler fastened his sharp-pointed teeth upon the Englishman’s arm. Through coat sleeve and shirt pene- trated those sharklike teeth, deep into the Burker’s flesh they plunged, and the wretch roared with the pain. Then, with lightning rapidity, away flew the Strangler; out came the lasso, and it whistled through the air. But with equal rapidity did the Burker, maddened by the pain of his wound, rush in toward his foe; the noose of the lasso fell beyond him. The Strangler was stepping backward with marvellous agility, gathering in his cord at the same time to hurl it again, when he tripped over something and fell backward. The Burker was instantaneously upon him, but we should observe that the bludgeon had been dropped upon the spot where they first closed in the struggle. Ill fared it now with the Strangler, for the Burker’s knee was upon his chest, and a series of tremendous blows dealt by his stout fist half-stunned the Hindu. The Burker seized the cord, and slipped the noose over the head of his enemy; it tightened around the Strangler’s neck, startling him up into fullest life. But the Burker pulled and pulled with ferocious vigour and determination; and diminishing the length of the lasso, he applied his foot to the Strangler’s back in order to attain a purchase to pull the cord more tightly still. Terrific were the writhings, the convulsions, and the contortions of the miserable Hindu; he seemed as if he possessed a marvellous tenacity for life, and several minutes elapsed ere death put an end to his agonies. But at length he lay a corpse at the feet of the Burker. Scarcely was the tragedy completed when a wild and mournful cry thrilled through the torrid stagnant air, and as the Burker turned quickly around, terribly startled by that cry, he caught a transient glimpse of a human form plunging into the midst of a maze of trees at a dis- tance. Evanescent though that glimpse were, yet did the Gomiuilcbdoc cS (E(©)