A Nasty Officer and a Nasty Revenge

cover art by A.L. Ripley

Read/Watch 'em In Order #179

It's the most annoying thing in the world. I'm married to a wonderful, nigh-perfect wife--I have a job I enjoy and attend a church I love. But all the same, my life is empty and miserable because I can't find a list of stories by J.D. Newsom that feature Foreign Legionnaires Withers and Curialo. I reviewed one of them a little while back and enjoyed them as protagonists. My understanding is that Newsom used them again in several more stories and I would like to read them all. But I can't find a list of these specific stories ANYWHERE. My life is indeed empty and meaningless.

 The next story in the January 10, 1926 issue of Adventure gives me some small comfort in that it is a Withers and Curialo tale. 

Newsom's uniformly excellent Foreign Legion yarns can sometimes be intense, sometimes tragic and sometimes humorous, with a mixture of brutality and nobility combined with an often cynical commentary on politics and human nature.

"Mumps," is set in Morocco and leans heavily on humor. Withers is serving at the aide/valet to an officer named Trudaine. It's not a fun job, because Trudaine is an abusive and mean-spirited man. When he catches Withers writing some unkind things to him in a letter to a girl, Withers knows he's destined to be sent to a punishment regiment. Things are always tough in the Legion, but the punishment unit is particularly brutal. 

Trudaine comes down with the mumps, giving Withers a temporary reprieve. It's Withers' friend Curialo who comes up with a solution--a nasty prank to play on a nasty man. A fellow soldier named Krause bears a superficial resemblance to Trudaine AND he also has reason to dislike the officer. So what if Krause went into town while impersonating Trudaine and act in a way that would bring disgrace to Trudaine. Trudaine would then be relieved of command before he could reassign Withers. 

It's a great plan. Or it would be a great plan if Krause doesn't get too carried away with his role.

"Mumps" is a quick and funny tale. It's interesting to compare it to "Mud," the World War 1-era story I reviewed last October, in which there was still funny banter between the two protagonists, but the action was edge-of-your-seat stuff. Withers and Curialo are great characters in part because they fit nicely into Legion stories whether the emphasis is humor or action. 

I just wish I could find a complete list of their stories. It's hardly a state secret. It's gotta be somewhere.