Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 90 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 90: 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*. The text describes a character named Nireus following a group of men hurrying down a hill (who discuss soldiers and wool), then discovering a boy watching him in the bushes before proceeding to a house. He signals at a shuttered window, and someone named Paris lets him into a dimly lit, tomb-like room illuminated by a burning rush in sheep-fat. The narrative appears to involve secrecy, evasion, and possibly abduction—typical elements of sensational Victorian fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
18 THE TAKING OF HELEN then he ran again, till he saw the trees about the house. A shrill voice called something after him at this point : he stopped to listen, but did not answer; then he ran on again, till he was among the trees. Here, as he heard loud talking and hurry, he crouched down. About a dozen men and lads were coming hurriedly down the hill. One of the men was saying: ‘Boys, we'd better run, or the soldiers will be fin- ished before we get there.”’ “That’s true,” another said. ‘“‘There’s not much wool there.” “What there is, is all aisienint hie ‘ another said. “The rats and the moths are in it.’ They hurried past, knocking at the bushes with their sticks; some of them sang lines of songs. Nireus followed them, but soon saw that they were not going to the house; they passed it by and went on, as though for Green Havens. When he had made sure that they were on their road, he turned back, and as he turned, he saw the figure of a boy, standing among the bushes watching him. ‘The boy glided back into covert and then ran, as soon as he saw that he was seen. Nireus went to the house, crept round it, till he saw a glimmer at a shuttered window; here he tapped an appointed signal till Paris opened to him. He climbed down into a little room wavering with shadows from a burning rush stuck in a bowl of sheep-fat. The room was like a tomb on which the door was shut, except CONnNICLOOKS»CO