Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 52 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 52: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Content Description This is running prose from page 40 of *The Taking of Helen*, a Victorian penny dreadful. The text depicts a dramatic dialogue between characters named Paris and Nireus as they flee into a coastal woodland copse to hide and plan their escape. Nireus reveals that Paris is being pursued by the King, that Paris's ship is impounded by soldiers at Green Havens, and that their only hope lies in a second ship hidden among rocks three miles away on the coast. The passage emphasizes danger, pursuit, and urgent conversation in a melodramatic tone typical of the genre.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
40 THE TAKING OF HELEN hurry uphill with me to that copse. There we'll be hidden and can talk.”’ He hurried them uphill into the copse, which was mainly scrub and small oak, with firs in the high ground and ilex below. Some heifers were browsing in the scrub. At the top of the ridge, the hill tipped sharply down toward the sea, which could be both seen and heard, although a mighty thicket of berried evergreen shut the beach from view. Inside the thicket, a hun- dred yards from them, someone was beating mats. “What are we to do now?” Paris asked. ‘Get your breath first,’’ Nireus said. ‘You surely know that you are being pursued, that you are in danger ?”’ ‘What of it?” Paris said. “ We are within an hour of Green Havens, where your ship lies.’’ ‘Paris, my ship is impounded. Soldiers are guard- ing her and watching Green Havens. The country is thick with soldiers, hunting for you. I have another ship on the coast, among the rocks, three miles from here. She may be impounded, too, for all that I know, but she is your only hope.” ‘My only hope, Nireus? I think I have other hopes. Who is pursuing us?”’ “The King,” Nireus said. ‘If you will come aside with me to that clump of hazels, I will tell you what I know.” He took Paris aside and told him. They were in a CORNICLOOKS»aCO