The Wasp, 1918 · page 55 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 55: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains **narrative fiction, not a political cartoon**. It's a serialized story from *The Wasp* magazine titled "The Wasp," depicting a dramatic nighttime scene aboard a ship. The text describes characters named Burnham and Henry Todd moving stealthily across a darkened deck carrying a glass bottle, avoiding sleeping sailors, apparently attempting to access a moored boat. When discovered by a sleeping man who grabs Burnham, tension escalates—Burnham's violent reaction ("blood went through Burnham's veins like spurting flame") suggests an altercation is beginning. This appears to be **adventure or crime fiction**, possibly involving theft, escape, or mutiny. Without seeing preceding pages establishing context, the exact plot remains unclear, but the clandestine nighttime activity and Burnham's aggressive response suggest illegal or dangerous action is underway. The page is primarily **literary content, not satire or political commentary**.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
46 THE W4se as pitch. Nothing was to be seen but the glim- | mering and vanishing of the phosphorescent | seas overside and the red glow of a lamp aft | at the binnacle. Clear of the forecastle hatch, | Burnham laid his left hand on the lad’s thin | shoulder. In his right hand he held a heavy | glass bottle by the neck. | They moved along slowly, step for step, _ noiseless in their naked feet, avoiding sleeping men asprawl on the deck underfoot and sleeping _ men in hammocks slung beneath the life-boats © overhead. Burnham turned his head once and — saw the red spark of the lookout’s pipe. They © reached the starboard bulwarks and moved © cautiously aft until Henry Todd’s groping hand © encountered the rope by which the boat was made fast. * tere it is he whispered: with a sab of © relief in his voice. At the same moment some one erunted ata their very feet ; some one scrambled to his legs, grumbling heal, and touched Burnham’ | breast with a fumbling hand. : | The blood went through Burnham’s veins | like spurting flame. He raised his left hand | from the shoulder of the terrified boy and thrust ~ it out gently, palm to the front. It came into | icomiicbhooks!com) |