Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 351 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 351: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis: "An Indian Secret" This is a **page of running prose** from a Victorian penny dreadful (page 331). The text consists of dialogue and narrative describing a dramatic incident: a character named Tulloch explains to companions what happened to a man named Dick, who nearly drowned in a pool. According to Tulloch's account, Dick went for a swim in a bath-robe, was found almost submerged and unconscious, and was rescued only because his arms rested on a marble step above the water's surface. The passage emphasizes how close Dick came to drowning—"two inches lower" would have been fatal—and ends with Tulloch suggesting that if Dick had actually drowned, even someone named Mac couldn't have claimed it wasn't a seizure, implying suspicion of foul play.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AN INDIAN SECRET 331 “Pomeroy, throw that music-box out of the window; and we'll chuck Mac after it, if he does n’t speak out.”’ Macglashan gave him a caustic glance. “You hae tauld us naething yet, Captain. What happened here, whiles we were waiting for you up yonder, on the field?”’ Tulloch winced. “Absolutely nothing. Dick was in fine form; had begun to dress an hour before daylight. ~It was then he set off that music-box there. See,’ point- ing through an open door into an adjoining dressing-room, where the suit and the linen of his master had been placed in readiness by Dick’s body-servant. “Dick ordered some coffee — no! he did not drink it! — it was to be ready for us when he had taken his dip. He passed by me in his bath-robe. It was so dark that those lamps along that jessamine alley outside there had all been lighted, as soon as he rung for Catulle — and he said, “I'll just take a plunge, Tulloch, and then dress in a twinkling.’ He went out of the glass door there, whistling “The Laven- der Girl.’ I saw him striding along in that orange-colored bath-robe, under those lamps yonder—and saw no more of him. Was in my own dressing-room — had spent the night here, yes — and thought Dick was getting into his clothes. At last I called Catulle, and asked if his mas- ter was about ready. He looked startled; remarked that his master was staying ‘mighty long in de baff,’ and went instantly in search of him. He came rushing back, and a the alarm. In fact he screamed that his master was ead. Tulloch inhaled laboriously. “We found him lying — almost submerged! — in that pool. He was nearly gone! He had succumbed in the act of leaving the water. His arms were outstretched on one marble step just above the surface of the pool. It was all that saved him. If his body had slipped down two inches lower — he’d have been drowned !”’ Fierce with distress, he turned on his troubled listeners. “And then—if he had!—even Mac could n’t have told us it ‘was not a seizure.’ ” CORNICLIOO ‘Ss (CO) mn