Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 128 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 128: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from chapter 112 of "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil," a Victorian penny dreadful. The text describes Tom tending to his injured Cherokee companion Unaka after a fight, their deepening bond of friendship, and Tom's subsequent worry that authorities will pursue Unaka for jailing. The passage concludes with Tom convincing Unaka to leave the area for his own safety, though the exact circumstances remain 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.
112 Tom ANDERSON, DarE-DEVIL Knowing nothing about nervous tension, he believed some deviltry of Egger’s had done this thing. Tom laid his arm about the Cherokee’s shoulder — wet with blood that had run for him — and looked at Unaka with piercing solici- tude. Eye to eye they stood, Unaka like a red Spartan tolerant of the emotion of a brave Athenian. Both under- stood that this fight had annealed comradeship into a bond everlasting. With cobwebs from the rafters the Virginian stanched the blood streaming from Unaka’s head. “ He- who-slays-the-enemy-in-his-path” cut a strange figure with one side of his face plastered with soot and bandaged with a sleeve of Tom’s shirt. But he glowed a warrior. And Tom gloried in him. “Every inch a brave. With the heart of a Virginia gentleman under his red hide!”’ Unaka stretched himself before the closed door and slept. Tom lived over the ordeal through which he had just passed — quaking still. Hornbuckle would hunt Egger down — if he knew! “If Egger can crawl, he’ll be in Charlottesville to-morrow, stirring up the authorities to jail Unaka. The boy can’t go back there!”’ Between Egger and Hornbuckle, Unaka was in double peril. How had he escaped the Tory pickets? Came the cry of a panther out of the night. The Cherokee was on his feet. Out he strode into the darkness. Tom heard a few words of stern rebuke. Back he came. ‘Nank o-mul-gau-e-muc-thli-jita-, sont-litomise-chah.”’ “You have been teaching him all that it is proper he should now know,” Tom translated in his brains. “ Bet that panther will lie low!” And the beast was still. Before day the two boys had eaten at the hearth. Tom grappled with the task of banishing his friend. Unaka had a brain of great clarity. And between these two there was so much understanding that if they’d put their-noses together, like two dogs, they might have been lucid without speech — and so equaled the dogs. It was conveyed to the Indian that when [om’s jailer came back, the Cherokee’s life would be at stake. He tried, too, to intimate that Unaka must shun the Valley. he boy answered that he under- stood. And he was gone. ECONMMICLOOOKS,(e©) m