Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 346 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 346: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page Content This page contains running prose from Chapter XXXIV of a Victorian penny dreadful. The chapter title is "An Indian Secret." The text describes four men—including De la Jonquière (the Marquis) and Dr. Pomeroy—riding before dawn to Mount Hillaby, where they dismount in a glade. Tom asks about proximity to Hawk's Nest, and the Marquis indicates a château is visible on the next plateau. The passage builds tension around an impending confrontation: the first sunbeam rising over the sea will apparently signal antagonists to attack, described as a duel or "field of honor" rather than mere violence. The setting is clearly colonial (references to Codrington College, the Windwards, and a "red-headed lassie") and the tone is melodramatic, befitting the sensation fiction genre.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CHAPTER XXXIV AN INDIAN SECRET SOMEBODY rode up quietly to the gates of Codrington College before day. Black dark yet it was, but another horseman was waiting there. De la Jonquiére was in the saddle, and in a minute more they were on the road. Long before the mountain-top was reached, these two were over- taken by the barracks surgeon, Dr. Pomeroy, and “Old Mac,” as he was affectionately called. The surgeon was dumb. Macglashan conducted a monologue. He said: — ‘“Aweel, Pomeroy, ye ken one red-headed lassie can set a dozen young fellows by the ears.” The Marquis looked annoyed. He said in Tom’s coat- collar: ““Mac’s the greatest gossip in the Windwards. But he has brains enough for half a dozen practitioners.” In the gray, grudging twilight of coming dawn, the four men dismounted in an open glade on the very crest of Mount Hillaby. The horses were tethered. Then the quartette stood statue-still. “How far is this from Hawk’s Nest?” asked Tom — to break the silence that seemed stretching away, away, away, into eternity! “Chateau’s down there; on the next plateau. When the sun rises you can make out the “bed-quilt’ roof — red and blue slate — and the peacock on the terrace,” answered the Marquis. When the sunrises! The sun was to “drop the handker- chief.”’ The first sunbeam that shot across the sea was to signal the antagonists to attack. It was such a remote, beautiful, skyey spot, this dewy field of honor. It was an altar “To Morning”’ instead of “To Blood.” Sea and sky | were still a gray jumble. There was no sound except the restless stirring of the horses tethered under the cedars and ECONMMICOOOKS.(6©