Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 35 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is page 23 of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful titled "The Taking of Helen." The text describes a character named Nireus riding through misty mountains on horseback, attempting to intercept some destination. After his mare refuses to proceed further—apparently frightened by a fox or other unseen threat—Nireus continues on foot into increasingly dense woodland, where he encounters an injured animal whimpering in a thicket. The passage emphasizes atmospheric suspense and Gothic wilderness imagery.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE TAKING OF HELEN 23 Havens, straight to death, to where Menelaus expects them. I must go off by these byways and try to find them and head them off.”’ He rode a track into the mountains until the track gave out and then rode by the stars until the mist came down. In the mist’s silences he wandered then To dropping alders in a dripping glen, Thence into forest, dense with mist, and mute Save for the dropping dew and pine-tree fruit. There the mare stiffened, trembled and stopped dead ; A startled vixen crossed her path and fled. “Someone has startled that fox,’’ Nireus thought; ‘IT wonder who.” He listened intently, but heard nothing, save the splashing of drops in the woods. A bird, scared by his lingering, went from a bush near him with a little cry and a creak of feathers. He seemed to be in a wilderness at the end of the world, where even light failed. His mare stumbled on a few feet further, and then stopped dead, nor could he budge her. Whether she felt, smelt, saw or heard something, he could not tell. Possibly she was scared by the smell of the fox; or had had enough of it. He turned her adrift and walked on. After he had wandered on downhill for half an hour, he came to a thicket where the ground was soft. Somewhere in the thicket a hurt beast was whimper- CORINICELOO® SS} (C(O)