Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 79 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 79: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose (page 67) from the serialized story *The Taking of Helen*. The text consists of dialogue and first-person narrative in which a character describes hiding in a confined space among larch-poles (wooden supports), enduring discomfort from spiders and dust, and nearly being discovered by someone named Lusty. The passage ends with one speaker confronting the other about leaving earlier than planned and hints at betrayal. The page contains no illustrations or advertisements—only justified text in standard Victorian print format.
📄 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 67 him I was all alive in two seconds, for I thought that I was caught. “There was not much that I could do, shut up there, like aratinatrap. But looking round in the dimness, after I’d gone round once or twice, I wondered if I could not squeeze through on to the larch-poles. I did not think this possible till [had to. Then I swung myself up, and found that I could just do it, so I did; I crawled in and lay down upon the larch-poles, and a horrid bed they made. ‘They groaned under me, and bent, and I thought they would give way. Then the worst was that they shifted whenever I moved, and made little gaps through which my clothes kept fall- ing, and there were little spiders in the bark; they ran all over me, and tickled; and then dust from the bark came into my nose and made me wish to sneeze. ‘Then I heard you coming along to search the cote, so I made an effort to make myself comfortable before you arrived, and in my wriggles a fold of my cloak fell through a gap between the poles and caught in a stub on one of them and I could not get it clear before you were there. Why Lusty never saw it, I cannot think.” “He very nearly did see you. He smelt you. | saw you plainly enough. What I would like to know is, why you came away the day before you had ar- Tanged.”’ “It was unworthy to stay longer.” “Did you know that you were betrayed by your CconnicaooKs (C(O)