The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 360: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOSSOONS 33 1 had a frightened look, as if the influence of the horrors which had happened hours back yet remained upon his mind. The itinerant quickly descried the well-furnished wallet slung at the Burker’s back, and the expression of his countenance suddenly changed from care-worn haggard- ness to a selfish and rapacious satisfaction. He was about to make a spring at it, when the Burker, brandishing his club, menacingly made him a sign to keep off. The gossoon laughed with a leer of low cunning, as much as to imply that the Burker felt he was now in a situation to command; and then assuming a lugubrious aspect, he imitated tke bound of a tiger. The Burker comprehended what he meant, nodded his head, pointed to the wallet, and then made a motion as if picking up something from the ground, thereby showing how he had found that wallet on the spot where its recent possessor had fed the maw of the tiger. Then the squinting dervish in his turn made another sign, walked slowly on, imitating the gait of the emaciated old gossoon, and all of a sudden halted, showing by rapid movements of his hand how the immense snake had darted forth upon that unfortunate comrade of his, and imitating likewise the wretch’s writhings and convulsions when encircled by the folds of the serpent. The Burker nodded significantly, and made signs to show how he himself had seen the old gossoon fast locked in the deadly coils of the boa-constrictor. He likewise gave the gossoon to understand that when he beheld the wretch he was still alive and moaning plaintively. The dervish comprehended the Burker’s meaning, and he gave vent to low, half-subdued howls and moans of lamentation, but whether they were real or affected, it was impossible for the Burker to conjecture. At length the gossoon made an end of his whining, and the Burker thought that he would now share his provisions with the itinerant, whom indeed he meant to make his companion, for, moneyless as he was, he did not exactly see how he was to live without some such aid. As for any future prospects, the Burker really had none, for such was his position that he was forced to abandon himself entirely to chance. The gossoon seemed to treat with a sort of calm indiffer- ence the fact of the Burker producing the provisions from the wallet, and when they sat down together the itinerant began eating with a voracity that threatened to consume GOMIIGIOG <S) (S©)