Shenanigans in Morocco!

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #124

I don't remember what I was searching for on the Internet Archive, but what I found one day a few weeks ago was the May 1927 issue of Frontier Stories, which sounded like fun and which I immediately downloaded to my tablet. I thought it might be fun to look at this issue story by story as part of the "In Order" series. And since I have god-like control over what goes in this blog, that's what we are doing.

I've read a lot of pulp magazines, but never this one. Based on the magazine's title and the illustration on the cover, I at first assumed that it would have stories from the Wild West and perhaps also from earlier in American history. And stories like that are included. But, perhaps for variety and to make Frontier Stories stand out from the many pure Western pulps, they apparently defined "Frontier" as just beyond the outskirts of Western civilization.

The first story, for instance, is a novella titled "Barbary Blood," by George E. Holt. It's set in then-modern day Morocco. 

The  narrator is an adventurer named Philip Dare who ends up in Tangiers at the request of Brandon Grey, an old partner in adventure with whom Dare had "faced... the assegais of Menelik's warriors in Abyssinia and the muliple dangers of India and Thibet." 

In fact, I enjoy the way this story kicks off at high speed. With a few side remarks, we immediately understand that both Grey and Dare are experienced men who can handle themselves in dangerous situations. The story is thus able to jump right into the action within just a few paragraphs. 

Grey has moved up in the world. He's now the head of the sultan's Secret Service and he needs Dare's help to deal with a potential usurper. Before he knows it, Dare and Grey (both still in evening clothes from the dinner they had been attending) are galloping through a sandstorm, on the trail of the usurper's main henchman.

The trail soon takes them to the city of Arzila, where the would-be sultan is using the passages that run through the city walls to gather arms and recruits. Grey and Dare find their way into these passages. There are disguises, captures and escapes, an encounter with a beautiful Spanish woman (whose cousin is running guns to the bad guys), a death trap and a couple of shootouts. 

Grey and Dale make effective co-heroes, with both men acting intelligently and contributing to eventually foiling the villains. Dale, at one point, rescues Grey from a death trap, while Grey comes up with a clever plan to lure the usurper's forces into a trap. 

George Holt, aside from writing fiction, also worked as a journalist in Morocco and eventually served as Consul-General there, so he knew his subject matter and "Barbary Blood" does have a realistic atmosphere to it in its portrayal of that country and its people. (Though it should be noted that I'm far from an expert on 1927 Morocco and a good writer could easily fool me about accuracy.)  I know Holt had several reoccuring characters appearing in stories published in Adventure (most notably Mohamed Ali, a sort-of Muslim Robin Hood who battled against colonialism), but I don't know if Grey and Dale popped up anywhere else. They were certainly worthy of a few more adventures. 

You can read this issue online HERE.