Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 356 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 356: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a page of running prose from the penny dreadful serial "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil" (page 336). It contains a formal letter from a Dr. Saunders Angus Macglashan, dated April 16th, 1781, describing poisonous fibers allegedly used to incapacitate Richard Knatchbull, Esq., to prevent his duel with the Marquis de la Jonquière. The page then shifts to narrative prose describing how the poisoning sparked local scandal, and shows Dick Knatchbull recovering on a veranda, spotting a yacht and conversing with Captain Tulloch about its passenger, the Princess Oczakoff. The text emphasizes sensational elements typical of the genre: poison, conspiracy, scandal, and mysterious aristocratic intrigue.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
336 Tom ANDERSON, DaRE-DEVIL in a sheet of paper. He sealed them up and endorsed on the package in his best hand: — The enclosed are fibers — as I believe— from the poisonous root employed to reduce to insensibility Richard Knatch- bull, Esq., of Colibri, on the morning of April the 16th, 1781, when that gentleman, had he not fallen a victim to poison, would have met the Marquis de la Jonquiére in a duel with broadswords. A very powerful narcotic, — known only to savages, — introduced through the pores of the skin, was the obscure agent of malignity. This attack upon Mr. Knatch- bull was — clearly — the result of a deep-laid scheme to frustrate the aforementioned meeting. A weapon surer, or more intangible, than this it would be hard to imagine. Who is his enemy? I am without well-founded suspicions. SAUNDERS Ancus Macctiasuan, M.D., Bridgetown, Apl. 16th, 1781. Now arose a storm of gabble and gossip the like of which had never been heard in those coasts. The green eyes with red specks in ’em were everywhere. And the doctor’s ears were busy as his eyes. He kept his astonishing dis- covery to himself. To be the central figure in a mysterious poisoning sensation troubled Dick Knatchbull not at all. To be the fellow who was missing when he should have been six feet from his antagonist was anguish. And the other fellow was the idol of Barbados. Of course Lord Mulgrave, the Bishop, even Mrs. Council and little Lord Harry, came to see him. But Lady Amy Dalton would not write. She could not forgive him. A few days after his narrow escape, the convalescent from poisoning spied from his chair on the veranda a yacht off the northern coast of “Scotland.”’ He handed the binoculars to his visitor. ‘Looks like Lord Mulgrave’s Flamingo?” “No doubt,” replied Captain ‘Tulloch unwillingly. ‘Heard the Flamingo was provisioned jam-up. Dawkins is sailing-master.”’ “A cruise, eh? Who’s aboard?” “Oh, the old Princess Oczakoff — would n’t cruise my- self if | had to take that brace of Ebos along — and some ECOMMICLOOOKSa(E© m