The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 386: what you’re looking at

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

THE RUINED TEMPLE ool him; the gossoon evidently felt this, and thus the two men stood confronting each other, as if with the mutual conviction that one must now die in order for the survivor to be safe, Both were unarmed, and each seemed fearful of commencing the attack. The gossoon had not the same confidence in himself as when he suddenly pounced upon the Burker and hurled him down at the cave in the jungle. Perhaps he knew that he had then merely taken him by surprise, and that by sheer agility he had performed a feat for a repetition of which he could not hope, now that his opponent stood entirely upon his guard. On the other hand, the English- man was equally reluctant to be the first to close in the death- struggle, for fear lest the gossoon should have some fresh manceuvre or practise some artifice for which he was unpre- pared. They were like two wild beasts, determined upon an encounter, whose ferocious instincts could not be otherwise appeased, yet neither daring to commence the attack, each waiting to take the other at disadvantage, their eyes glaring, their forms quivering, with every muscle and tendon vibrat- ing under the influence of terrific excitement and suspense. At length, with characteristic desperation, the Burker sprang at his foe, whom he endeavoured to clutch by the throat, but the gossoon, to a certain extent avoiding the attack, seized the Burker around the waist and hurled him to the ground, thus repeating the feat which he had per- formed at the cave in the jungle. The Englishman, however, held fast to his opponent, and amidst the grass did they struggle in the immediate vicinage of the mouth of the sub- terranean. All in a moment there was the sharp, quick, ominous hiss of a deadly reptile, and a-cobra, uprearing its hooded head, darted at the face of the gossoon, who was uppermost at the instant, his hands clutching the Burker’s clothes, and the Burker retaining him likewise in his powerful grasp. The Burker instantaneously sprang up to his feet, horrified and dismayed, a cold perspiration breaking out all over him, while the gossoon, with an anguished yell, likewise started up, the cobra having bitten him on the cheek. Quick as lightning the half-maddened dervish snatched up a stone and hurled it at the serpent as it was gliding again amidst the grass. The reptile was stricken just behind its hooded head, and it continued to writhe beneath the stone which held it firmly down to the earth. Making a piteous sign to GOMIIGDOG SS) (S©)