The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 342: what you’re looking at

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

THE ITINERANTS o13 the monstrous cobra raised itself up to dart at him. He sprang back, at the same instant hurling his club at the reptile. The blow was well aimed; it struck down the cobra, which lay writhing upon the bed of granite in front of the cavern. With a stone, hastily snatched up, the Burker despatched his enemy. It was no vision, then, which had haunted him during his slumber, it was a terrific reality, and he had slept with a cobra upon his breast! The man’s form kept convulsing and shuddering with nervous horror at the bare idea. Indeed, many minutes elapsed ere he could regain sufficient self- possession for deliberate thought. Then the reflection began to creep into his mind that the cobra he had just destroyed must be one of those that he had seen with the snake- charmer, and that his notion of the morning was correct, namely, that its fangs had been withdrawn. For if this were not the case, how could he possibly have escaped with his life? But the incident made the Burker aware of one thing, which was that his mat of granite fragments in front of the cavern was not a complete protection against the intrusion of reptiles. He had now therefore scarcely any heart to take the trouble of building up the barricade at the mouth of his cave. He felt as if he could lay himself down and die, — as if it were impossible to bear up any longer against the accumulating horrors of his position. He was utterly desponding. But still death came not to his call, though he was most painfully conscious of how it might seek him unawares, stealthily and insidiously, by the hand of a Strangler, or violently and abruptly, by the jaws of a tiger. He therefore mustered up resolution sufficient for the formation of his barricade, and when the task was accomplished, he sat down in the deepest dejection, in the darkness of his abiding-place. The night passed without any incident worthy of notice, and when the Burker issued from the cave in the morning, he ascended the little eminence, as was his wont, to ascer- tain if he could descry any human form in the neighbour- hood. He had not been stationed there many minutes ere he beheld some one advancing through the jungle, and as the person drew nearer, the Burker perceived that he was a gossoon. The man’s heart leaped for joy as he thought that now at last deliverance from that dreadful wilderness GOMIIGDOG SS) (S©)