Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 50 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 50: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful titled "The Taking of Helen" (page 38). The text describes a man pursuing Helen and another person to an ancient ruined shrine in a lane. He discovers them standing together near the shrine's altar, where Helen has gathered wild strawberries as offerings and filled a clay jug at a nearby spring, preparing to pour a libation. The passage emphasizes the atmospheric setting—the overgrown temple, aspen grove, and spring—as the moment of dramatic confrontation approaches.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
38 THE TAKING OF HELEN what he thought were her footprints, and as he grov- elled he groaned: “She will never walk by my side as she walks by his; never, never, never. O curse him, curse him for his luck; and bless her !”’ There were only half-a-dozen steps in the dew, for they ceased where the grass ceased. He wiped them out with Helen’s cloak and hurried on as they led. He went over three fields or enclosures into a lane, where he heard voices and stopped with a gasp, for there they were. Beyond a curve in the lane was a roofless shrine with flowers growing on its ruins. A broken column of grey stone in front of it still bore some relic of worship there. Some bunches of flowers had been laid there “for luck’’ by children or passers-by, out of custom that outlasts belief. Beside the temple was a little srove of aspens, whose leaves silvered and unsilvered in the wind and made a noise like rain. Out of the hill on which they grew came water of the hill, in a sush, to an old stone trough, over which the birds skimmed at gnats. When Nireus looked, the truants were standing together near the stone. ‘They had laid offerings of wild strawberries upon the altar. Helen had taken an old clay jug that had been left at the spring for the purpose, and had filled it at the spring. Now she was about to offer libation there. It was at the moment when the light first fell upon CORNICLOOKS»e©