Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 332 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 332: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from the penny dreadful *Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil* (page 314). The text depicts a dramatic scene in which a Carib character delivers a Voodoo charm—a carved snake's head talisman—to a character named Ishmael, who is anxious about another character named Macaya following him. The dialogue is written in heavily stylized dialect representing enslaved or working-class speech, and the scene involves supernatural elements typical of Victorian sensation fiction, with Ishmael ultimately deciding to hide the charm and threatening violence against Macaya, whom he now fears as a cannibal.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
314 Tom ANDERSON, DareE-DEvVIL When this saying is cast in the teeth of the adroitest liar, he flies up. How, then, should one who never lied — ‘cep I bleedze ter’? — endure such a taunt? He was old, exiled, homesick, forlorn. His hurt was very real. It was a shock. “Dat ainh de way dee talks in Ole Faginia “You do know him. Mighty well! Saw you talking to him! Do you tell him I say he’ll stand in need of Voodoo and the Devil, too, to help him out — before long!” He rode off, Macaya at his heels. But that night the Carib clawed up into the cock-loft over the stables, holding out to Ishmael the Voodoo charm — reaching the other greedy hand for the cards. Ishmael was rather aghast. “Mighty pyurt, you is! Bus’n’ in hyur—1in de whr-folks’ lof’s! I’m ju’bus ’bout you,” staring with no friendly gaze at “the pe’hished- lookin’, gode-headed, mokkysin-eyed Affykin. Cyarn’ talk . Teef des lak er possum” — “sides! Gitterway fum hyur, wile ape!” He thrust the cards in the Carib’s hand, and pointed to the ladder. With one catlike dash, Macaya was gone. When persuaded that the crude, bloodthirsty eye of the Carib was not watching him through some crevice, Ish- mael inspected the Voodoo talisman with awestruck in- terest. It appeared to be a snake’s head carved in very black wood. It was a petrifaction. “Gotter *suade Marse dinates w ar it — now. Lord, ef it do tek de black off’n im! When the little talisman was hidden among the seals on {27 Tom’s fob, Ish rejoiced. But he felt a secret anxiety on the » score of Macaya. “ Marse Tom,” he whispered, “whut do cammerbul mean?”’ “Cannibal? A Carib’s a cannibal. Eat you at the drop of a hat.” ‘Ef dat whut dat Macaya follerin’ me roun’ fer! — like he a cat, en’ me er cana’y-bird!— I’m gwine tek dat ole hoe-han’le up in de lof’ en’ putt out his chunk! Lord, Lord! Ef anybody had ever tole me I’d have ter ’sociate CONNIE DOO KS (E() m