Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 374 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 374: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Victorian Penny Dreadful Page Analysis This is a **page of running prose** from the serialized story "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil" (page 354). The text depicts a dramatic conversation between Rory and Tom, in which Tom recounts a tale of shipwreck and treasure-hunting. He describes how a ship called the Southwark sank off Barbados with the "Aztec Ring" (an emerald jewel) aboard; Tom later recovered it from the corpse of Dr. Romeyn and sold it to Lord Mulgrave for profit. Tom then purchased a French merchant vessel, L'Indienne, and invited Rory to sail home with him. The passage ends by listing passengers aboard the ship in Chesapeake Bay, including Tom Anderson himself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
354 Tom ANDERSON, Dare-DEVIL “T would not have had you find out what was doing, Major! That — would have spelled trouble.” “Tt might hae spilled bluid!’? And Rory paced the floor, deeply moved. He turned a queer look on the Vir- ginian. “Ye maun hae thocht I was wi Sir Atneas?”’ uet we keepit ye tongue atween ye teeth! Lest ye betray me!’ His great eye flared. He. pictured the friendjess prisoner confronted by Lord Rawdon, Wemyss, Trelawney, Tarleton, Dugald the piper, and Higgins “the trader.” “Ye outfaced the Inquisition, Daur- Deevil; wi the slaver before ye een and the gibbet ahint ye back!” Tom went on with his story. One of the vessels pounded to pieces on the shores of Barbados in the hurricane was the Southwark, on which Dr. Romeyn had taken pas- sage, the Aztec Ring in his keeping. Every soul on board was lost. The jewel was supposed to be at the bottom of the sea. Several days after the disaster, Unaka discov- ered the corpse of Romeyn tangled in floating wreckage which heaped the terrible reef off the northeastern coast of the island. About the waist was a treasure-belt. In it — the emerald! Once more Prince of the Aztec Ring, Tom placed the jewel in Lord Mulgrave’s hands, receiv- ing an advance which was worth while. F orthwith he bought the French merchantman L’Indienne, with her cargo of rum and molasses, employed her crew — French sailors to a man — and a French skipper, Captain Baux. “We put in at St. Augustine solely to find you, Major! I’m going home! And I want you to go with me.” Rory was seized with a fit of coughing. And then he sputtered out, “Domned if I dinna!”’ L’Indienne, French privateer from the British West Indies, flying the French colors, with a French skipper, French crew, and four cabin passengers, lay under the nose of the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay. Her passen- ger-list read: Marquis de la Jonquiére, Barbados, B.W.1.; Major Roderick McIntosh, Florida; Thomas Anderson, ECOMMICOOOKSs(6© m