Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 74 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 74: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 58: Running Prose from "Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil" This page contains continuous narrative prose from a Victorian penny dreadful. The text describes a young woman named Dare observing mysterious activity in a house where servants have been dismissed and secrets are being kept. A doctor (Dr. Pratt) appears to be hiding a dangerous guest named Oxheart. Dare grows increasingly anxious about concealed secrets, and the passage culminates with her awakening to sounds of multiple men moving through the house at night—which she suspects may be soldiers. The prose emphasizes gothic atmosphere and melodramatic tension.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
58 Tom ANDERSON, Dare-DEvIL emptiness of the house was something of which Dare had had no previous experience. Visitors, of course, there were none. The force of house-servants — except two — had been got rid of for the time being. They had leave to keep themselves “down ’t the quarter; till Miss Sa’ah git about.” This coup added to Dilsey’s popularity with her fellow servants, and minimized the danger of spies about Oxheart’s dangerous guest. Only the old butler and “An’h Vi'let”? came and went about the house. Dilsey knew what she was doing. Either of those old blacks, going noiselessly about their tasks, would have shed their blood for Sarah Anderson. Dilsey, Dare hardly saw. When she caught glimpses of Dr. Pratt, she was certain he was trying to keep out of her way. “Heis!” she told herself, with burning cheeks. But one luckless evening she met him face to face in the piazza. She curtsied without glancing at him. How excited he had looked! And he’d called her “Miss Mary Josephine.” That always “looked black.” At any rate, he’d find she had no mind to talk to any man who “went by her at a gallop”! The doctor got into the gig with rather a red face. “Hot as pepper with me now — little spitfhire! If she only knew!” Both Tom and Mimi were given over to the care of their patient. Dare tried to keep up her courage. Still, anxiety was telling on her. No longer did she “beat the earth with a bounding foot.’’ She went about with a proud, still bear- ing. “They exclude me from their confidence!”” Moreover, she was sure the house held more than one secret! “A sense of mystery the spirit daunted.” The child acknowledged to herself at last, “Something terrible is being concealed from rete One night she started from her sleep, aroused by muffled noises. She listened breathlessly. There was some un- usual movement in the house — stumblings, and jarrings, and trampling feet. Men were coming down the stairs! — a number of men. It must be soldiers! ECOMMICOOOKS.(6© m