The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 350: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOSSOONS 321 which each gossoon took for himself. The meal being dis- posed of, they made signs for him to procure them water in the gourd, and then they intimated that he was to collect the firewood to be arranged at the mouth of the cavern. He comprehended that they were using him as their slave, but he was compelled to submit. It was however with shud- dering horror that he plunged into the thickets to gather the branches, but the task was achieved without any circum- stance calculated to justify his alarm. The pile was built up; the three passed into the cavern, and the wood was lighted. The two gossoons were speedily buried in pro- foundest slumber, and the Burker, worn out in mind and body, fell asleep more quickly than on the preceding night. His dreams were again horrible, but not characterized by the same evidences of distress on his part as those which we have described; or at least if they were, he himself awoke in ignorance of the fact, and at all events the gossoons did not seem to have been disturbed. These itinerants did not awake until some while after sunrise; then the provision- bag was produced, the Burker filled the gourd from the spring, and the morning meal was partaken of. Afterward the two gossoons ascended the hillock, and both looked intently in the same direction from which they themselves had respectively come, as if they were awaiting another arrival. The Burker began to fear that if the company of gossoons were increased he might be abandoned by them, as he was by those who had taken away the dead body with them, and painful misgivings agitated in the wretched man’s soul. That day passed like the preceding one, the gossoons sleeping for hours together, the Burker watching at the mouth of the cavern, and having to collect the firewood in the evening. No other gossoon made his appearance, there was no fresh arrival of any kind, and another night was passed in the cavern. Again, in the morning, when the meal had been partaken of, — and which meal completely emptied the bag, — the two gossoons ascended the hillock, the Burker following them. No newcomer was to be seen, and there the gossoons sat, watching in silence for a couple of hours until the heat of the sun became intolerable with its sultriness. Then the dervishes gave vent to ejaculations of mingled rage, astonishment, and disappointment, and the Burker had no GOMIIGIOG SS (©)