Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 154 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 154: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 138 of Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil This is a page of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful serial. The text depicts a dramatic scene in which characters hiding on a mountain with a sick boy (apparently suffering from smallpox) receive a visit from Dr. Pratt. After the doctor treats and recovers the patient, he agrees to keep their location secret before departing down the mountain. The passage emphasizes the danger posed by "bushwhackers" and militia from Charlottesville, and the characters' dependence on secrecy for survival.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
138 Tom ANDERSON, DarE-DEVIL » from everybody. But contagion is not to be trifled with; and our lives right now depend on secrecy. It’s all that will save us! If a rumor were to get out in Charlottesville that we are out on that mountain, those bushwhackers would finish us.” “Shoot you down soon as they could surround you!” ‘And there’s enough of ’em in that coupe-gorge to sur- round the Charlottesville militia, I believe.’’ When the stars were melting in the fervent dawn, Dr. Pratt surveyed the rawhide rope over the cliff of which he had been forewarned. “Between the risk of a rope over a precipice and a rope over a limb, it’s a squeak for life up here.’ No sooner had he clapped eyes on [om than he declared his relief. “What? Smallpox? Not a bit of it. Been through a lot: big strain: needs a little medicine: rest: kitchen physic. Been living on wind and water, eh?” For twenty-four hours he watched over the sick boy,— and broke the fever. He answered the grateful pressure of Tom’s hand with a warning: if he did n’t hear from him soon, he was coming back with a company of militia. “Tell nobody, yet,” Troupe enjoined him. “Our only hope of getting away alive is — secrecy.” The doctor promised. He chose daylight for his ride down the mountain. “The worst devil of ‘em all won’t fire on ‘Ole Doc’!” EONMMICOOOKSn(©) m