The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 339: what you’re looking at

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

310 REYNOLDS’ WORKS a small box and a wicker basket close by the place where the old snake-charmer had been seated. Remembering now that hideous spectacle of the cobras which had filled him with so much horror, the Burker was struck aghast with the idea that those reptiles had doubtless uncoiled themselves and escaped amidst the thicket into which the old Hindu was carried off by the tiger. In what frightful proximity, therefore, were these serpents now to him and to his abiding- place! The tiger too might still be lurking there, and at any moment he himself might become the animal’s victim. But so desperate was his position that he became nerved as it were with a sullen, moody recklessness, and gradually the idea crept into his mind that those cobras which he had seen dancing must have been deprived of their venomed fangs expressly for those performances. The Burker pro- ceeded to open the box, which he found to contain a quantity of provisions, chiefly cold boiled rice. The basket was empty, and he had no doubt it was a receptacle for the snakes which had belonged to the unfortunate old charmer. He conveyed the box of provisions to his cavern, and at the next meal that he made he consumed the last of the spirits which re- mained in the gourd. The sullen desperation of his mood having abated, or rather, we should say, given place to a returning carefulness for his life, he began to think of erecting his barricade once more, even though it were only the forenoon of the day, in order to guard against an attack on the part of the tiger. But how was it possible for him to remain shut up day and night within that cavern? No, he felt that with such im- prisonment he should go mad; he therefore resolved upon running any risk rather than dooming himself to such a tomblike immurement. Besides, every now and then he required to slake his thirst at the spring which welled forth from behind the rocky hill into the bowels of which the cavern penetrated. He could not therefore shut himself up altogether in the cave itself. Several hours passed; the sun had gone considerably beyond its meridian, when, as the Burker was standing on the top of the rocky hill, anxiously straining his eyes in the hope of discerning some human form in the distance, he was startled by a terrific rushing din on the side of a grove of tall trees about two hundred yards off. From that wood gs) (E(0) CORNIC LOO