Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 380 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 380: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from Chapter XXXVIII of what appears to be a Civil War-era American novel. The chapter depicts a character named Dare riding urgently homeward after learning that her friend Mimi is to marry an unexpected suitor. The plantation bell sounds an alarm—recalling a previous emergency when "Tom was lost"—and Dare encounters British military pickets (soldiers in shakos and red coats) on the road. She gallops past them toward the avenue gates, displaying skilled horsemanship. The text suggests a narrative of wartime danger and domestic upheaval, likely set during the American Revolutionary War based on references to Arnold, Jefferson, and British occupation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
CHAPTER XXXVIII “WHO WAS IT?” To think that Mimi— their Mimi — was going to be married! Dare dropped the bridle on the pony’s neck to wipe away the rebellious tears. Everybody knew the little Episcopal minister had been timidly courting Mimi since she was fifteen. But tizs man was a bolt from the blue. Even grandmother had protested; at first. It was no time for weddings, with Arnold at our gates! And the b-b-razen th-th-thing had answered that Arnold might gallop through the church while the knot was tying, if only grandmother would give Mimi to him! And then Governor Jefferson reminded grandmother of the day he brought his bride home: when they lost their way on the mountain in a snowstorm; reached home at midnight; no fires; no serv- ants; nothing to eat or drink in sight but a half-bottle of wine they found on a bookshelf. Even the British could not be worse than that! But Dare felt forlorn and lonely as she rode homeward through scenes of Georgic beauty, meadows and orchard steeped in the light of a June sun- set. On a sudden a sound that made her shiver. The plantation bell! Once before she had heard the alarm-bell! — the night Tom was lost. She rode at top speed. A turn in the road, and there before her startled eyes a man in a shako and red coat. A British picket! “Halt! She laid the whip on the pony; the man brought his musket to his shoulder. She galloped by him without turning her head. At the avenue gates a second picket, his back to the closed gates. Dare had always “taken her fences like a grasshopper,’ as Tom used to say. She belonged to the fox-hunting English breed. She came at the stone wall with a rush. When the pony hopped ECONMMIECOOOKSa(© m