Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 70 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 70: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Content Description This is a page of running prose from *The Taking of Helen*, a Victorian penny dreadful (page 58). The text depicts an officer searching a house with his men, accompanied by a servant named Myrtle and a boy named Nireus who claims to be protecting his sister. They move through the house toward a locked dovecot door on leather hinges, behind which pigeons can be heard. The scene appears to involve some kind of official search or investigation, though the specific context remains unclear from this excerpt alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
58 THE TAKING OF HELEN “No, but you know the house. Show me the way to it.” “T will show you the way to it,’ Myrtle said. ‘“‘In- deed, he is not employed in the house. Will you come this way, sir?”’ As they moved off towards the courtyard the officer turned upon his underlings. “You have been — twice and the place is not half searched even now.’ Nireus followed the party a step or two behind them. At the doorway, as he stooped to enter, the officer saw him. “You, boy,” he said, “what do you want, follow- ing us?”’ “T thought I might be of use, sir.” “What use?”’ “To protect my sister, sir.”’ “Come along, then.’’ They went indoors and upstairs, along a corridor, through three ruinous rooms to a fourth with a roof of larch-poles. “T looked in here, sir,” said the younger officer. “Where is the dovecot?”’ “Through that door in the wall at the end, sir.” About half way up in the end wall was a square wooden door on leather hinges. It was locked as well as hasped-and-stapled, and behind it was the shuffling, sidling, and roo-coo-ing of pigeons. GoOmichdooksrtco