The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 364: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOSSOONS > — 335 either. That period of the day was approaching when the streets would become deserted on account of the intense sultriness of the sun, and thus there appeared to be little chance, as matters now stood, for the gossoon and the Burker to obtain the wherewith for the purchase of a breakfast. Yet the gossoon had a resource left, but it was evidently one to which he only thought fit to address himself as a desperate alternative when the easier and more legitimate means of mendicity failed. He had his knife concealed in his sleeve; the Burker likewise had his weapon hidden up his own arm, and the gossoon made him a sign to draw it forth. The Burker hesitated, not understanding the object which the proceeding was to serve, but when he beheld the dervish draw forth his own knife, he followed the example. Then the gossoon went on howling, roaring, and yelling more terrifically than ever, the Burker doing his best to play his own part in the appalling chorus. All of a sudden the gos- soon made him a sign to cut himself with his knife, and tearing open his own sleeve, he drew the blade, as if in perfect frenzy, along his arm. The Burker, by no means relishing the frantic example thus set him by the gossoon, muttered something in his special vernacular to the effect that he would see himself in the hottest place he could possibly think of before he would stick a knife into his own flesh. Quick as lightning, however, the gossoon tore up the Burker’s sleeve, and stuck his knife into the fleshy part of the man’s arm. The Burker, roaring with the pain, was on the very point of inflicting summary chastisement on the gossoon by plunging the knife into his heart, when a quan- tity of coins showered down upon them from the win- dows of the opposite houses. Several of the passers-by, on seeing the blood of the two mendicants thus flowing, quickly bestowed their alms, and thus the Burker’s rage was somewhat appeased. The money thrown from the windows was speedily gathered up, and the gossoon, beckon- ing the Burker to follow, hurried away. In a few minutes they stopped in a secluded place, and the gossoon, producing a small pot of ointment, applied some of it to his own arm and then to the Burker’s. Having done this, he produced bandages likewise, and having made the Burker twist one around his arm, he proceeded to per- form the same good office for that individual. The Burker GOMIIGDOG SS) (©)