The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 375: what you’re looking at

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

346 REYNOLDS’ WORKS our, which the Burker imitated as well as he could. The ryot was astonished to see a European in the vagrant companion- ship of a dervish, and the gossoon immediately proceeded to give voluble utterance to some tale, of which the Burker was evidently the hero. That this tale was replete with woes and sufferings, as well as injuries and wrongs sustained, was likewise evident, for the elderly ryot contemplated the Burker with an increasing degree of interest, and when the gossoon had ceased speaking, the hospitable master of the homestead invited them both to enter. He set food before them; they ate and drank, and when they had finished their meal, the ryot conducted them to a little back room where he meant them to repose for the night. The sun had by this time set, and the room was involved in almost complete darkness, but scarcely had the hospitable ryot retired, when the gossoon nudged the Burker and gave him to understand that he was not to go to sleep. It now occurred to the Englishman that the gossoon was contemplat- ing some bold or stealthy step in respect to the ryot’s money, for he remembered the significant look which the dervish had bent upon him ere they had retired from the window of the landowner’s private room. In a few minutes they heard the front door of the house open, and then there were the sounds of three or four voices in conversation together in a neighbouring apartment. It was evident that some of the ryot’s family, or else his domestics, had returned from their occupations on the farm. The Burker was wondering whether this circumstance would alter the gossoon’s plan, whatever it were, when that individual gave him another significant nudge, so that the Englishman felt convinced his comrade entertained his original intention. They sat in silence in their little room for about an hour and a half, when they heard footsteps moving about the house, followed by the closing of different doors, so that they knew the family was retiring to rest. Another hour passed in total silence, the gossoon, however, occasionally nudging his companion, as if to bid him keep awake. At length the dervish seemed to think the moment was come for the exe- cution of his project, and he slowly opened the door. There was a passage with which other rooms communicated, and sufficient light streamed through a small window to show the two men where the doors of those apartments were GOmicsdooks (E()