Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 45 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from the middle of a narrative (page 33), titled "The Taking of Helen." The text depicts a confrontation between military officers and a man traveling with a cart, concerning a found horse marked with the "Blood Axe"—apparently cavalry property. A rider accuses the man of having been at a place called the Curlews the previous night asking about routes to the sea, shortly after "the people were missed." The man claims employment as a studman (stable worker) at the Curlews, and the commandant demands proof of his identity and whereabouts.
📄 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 33 ‘““A trooper, sir, has just come in with one of their horses. He came upon it loose in the wood just below here.”’ Nireus saw at a glance that it was the brown Argos mare which had carried him from Port-of-Maidens. “There’s the horse,’ Short said. ‘“‘The man could have ridden and the lady driven in the cart with this gentleman.”’ “Why,” Nireus said, ch ly see that the horse is a runaway, marked with the Blood Axe, one of your own cavalry horses. If I be helping this couple to escape, and if these be our three horses, they must be close to this, where the horses are. You have been through and through all these woods. Why haven’t you come upon them?” “Because you have hidden them,” Short said. “Wait one moment, lord,” a rider said, pushing up to the lantern light. “This gentleman in the cart was at the Curlews last night about midnight, four or five hours after the people were missed. I heard him say that he would join the seekers. He asked what tracks to the sea there were, and people told him he would be lost if he tried to find them at night.” “What were you doing at the Curlews?”’ the com- mandant asked the man. ‘Tam employed there,’ the man said. ‘I’m one of the studmen.”’ ‘Is there anyone here who can prove that?” CORIICLOO® JS) (C(O)