Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 103 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 103: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 87: Running Prose This is a page of running narrative prose from a Victorian penny dreadful titled "Where's Tom?" The text describes the alarm raised when young Tom Anderson goes missing from Oxheart plantation. After Tom fails to return home, search parties are organized with riders from neighboring plantations and towns gathering at the house. An approaching storm forces the searchers to shelter their horses. The passage notes that someone knows the secret of Tom's disappearance but remains silent, and mentions a character named Dare rising from prayer to find the great hall crowded with people.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHERE’sS Tom? de 7 from the second floor saying that the bedroom was va- ant he had to dodge a box on the ear. “Ef you zs lyin’, abe— She hurried upstairs. Tom had not slept at Oxheart. Negroes came to the house to report that the white mule had not been returned to the stables. A messenger was dispatched to the Grattan plantation. Young Anderson had ridden away from there, about half past ten o’clock the night before. They knew no more. Some campers on the roadside, trundling a hogshead of tobacco to town, had seen lom Anderson gallop by, “headed for home,” before eleven o'clock. No one else had seen him. Man after man was mounted and sent out to make search for the missing boy. It was the darkest day that had ever dawned on Oxheart. The alarm soon became general. From adjacent plantations, from Charlottesville and Williamsburg, peo- ple hurried to Oxheart—to organize new searching- parties. [here was one who knew, who could have told a wild story! But he was dumb. The secret was hidden in characters no moonshee might read—the wormings of a - fool’s brain! Before many hours, the approach to the house was ob- structed with saddle-horses and coaches.‘ Many a hand- ‘some equipage, as well known in the county as its owner, and many a beautiful hunter, full to bursting with pedi- greed blood, was there, a-shining in the sun. Conspicuous among the mounts was the Governor’s magnificent horse, Gray Eagle. And now “the clouds returned after the rain.”” A storm violent as that of the previous day was approaching. By noon an eclipse-like darkness delayed the departure of a searching-party already in the saddle. They dismounted. The horses were led away, and a hundred more, with the crowd of vehicles, were hurried to the stables and the shelter of the cattle-sheds. The commotion aroused Dare — crouching before Mimi’s little altar. She rose from her knees and came slowly down the stairs. The great hall was full of people, CORNICMOOO SS (Cc) im