Penny Dreadfuls, 1867 · page 85 of 300
Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 85: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Description of Page This is an illustration page from a Victorian penny dreadful titled "Roving Jack, the Pirate Hunter." The engraved image, captioned "Simon Smut's Dream," depicts a man reclining on a bed having a vision of a mermaid and other supernatural figures. Below the illustration runs prose dialogue in which characters examine a forged letter, debating who created it—suggesting either "Wild" or "Blueskin"—while one character insists the forger must be Sheppard, who had quarreled with his companions and secretly resolved to leave London.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ee ee ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. HITT ELTTTET Ue UTI nite = Se —— ' eek ILI LA YaAsv* SANA SSD \ AVANT RAS ‘ SAAN ALS Ns WAY ARES / ‘ x ‘ ANAS ANAAY RSE <u a NS 4 = —s J --— ee es oe ee 7 — yf il il} S=== \\ a ao ~——— Sw ASS AAS SS ~~ tefl \ / IL) 4] TTT) |} “see "ee rere 2 oererd (i ’ car_ Peat SIMON SMUT’S, DREAM. “ Strange !” he said, musingly. from leaving his present course of life, and from ‘Permit me,” said Hal, taking the papers. joining us.” He closely compared the two writings. “Tt is not unlikely.” _ ‘‘It is plain that this letter is a forgery,” he said, “ Blueskin, perhaps, has played this scoundrelly in a tone of conviction, trick.” “You are right, Hal; the thing is evident,” ‘He is, of course, quite capable of doing any- They exchanged looks of mutual surprise, thing brutal or treacherous,’ answered our hero; ‘* But who can be the forger?” asked our hero, ‘yet I do not think he was the author of this.” “ Wild, perhaps,” “Why not ?” “No, thisis not the thief-taker’s writing, of which “Because Sheppard had quarrelled with him, I have several specimens,” returned our hero, and told me himself that he would let none of his “Perhaps it is a ruse played by some of the poor | companions know of his determination to leave Be a in order to prevent him | London,” O, 14,