The Wasp, 1918 · page 59 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 59: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is narrative prose rather than a cartoon. It depicts a scene from what appears to be a serialized adventure story featuring a character named Burnham, who has been robbed and set adrift near St. Kitts. Burnham, now destitute and disheveled after days at sea, asks young Henry Todd for a knife. Todd recoils in fear, suspecting Burnham intends violence. Burnham's laughter and reassurance suggest mistaken identity—Todd apparently believes Burnham is "Hellfire Hicks," likely a notorious pirate or criminal figure. The humor derives from the dramatic irony: Burnham's desperate appearance and past misfortunes make him seem threatening, though he claims reformed or benign intent. The reference to "Hellfire Hicks" appears to be a stock character representing lawlessness, suggesting *The Wasp* serialized adventure fiction alongside its satirical content. Without additional context about publication date or author, the specific historical references remain unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
50 | THE] WASP knew. nothing of his whereabouts and could only suppose that he was somewhere on the | windward coast of St. Kitts. He was without _ | money. His garb was of the scantiest, for on the night of the robbery he had sat up to the bowl of punch in nothing more than shirt, breeches, silk stockings, and shoes, for comfort’s | sake. His stockings and buckled shoes had been taken from him before he had been set adrift. Now his shirt of fine linen was grievously torn and soiled, and his breeches had suffered from the dust and aa of the brig’s fore- castle. His lip, chin, and cheeks, which he had hese smooth as glass under civilized conditions, were now stubbly with a growth of several days. He _ fingered this growth discontentedly as he crossed the beach. At the edge of the whitewood grove he turned to Henry Todd. “Have you a knife,” he asked “a sharp one?” The boy shrank away from him, with terror in his humble eyes. : Burnham laughed. = “You poor fool!” he exclaimed. ‘Do you think I want to cut your throat ? Perhaps you still think I am Hellfire Hicks. I have told you (comicbooks/com 4