Duty and the Foreign Legion

cover art by Gerard C. Delano

 

It's been a few years since we've looked at one of J.D. Newsom's always-good Foreign Legion stories. (Click HERE and HERE for those reviews.)

As I read more of Newsom's action-packed tales, I'm impressed by their variety. The settings for these stories is always colonial North Africa and the main character is always a Legionnaire. But Newsom manages to generate unique plots and characterizations each time.

In "Duty," (published in the April 1, 1931 issue of Adventure) is told in the first person, as if we are being told the story in a bar over drinks. It's an effective storytelling technique--with my favorite example of this being L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur."

This time, the storyteller is a Legionnaire sergeant-major, who is explaining that, when he first joined after fleeing the United States, he was a disciplinary problem. In fact, he ended up getting sent to a camp called Ras-al-Gazer, where all the untrainable riff-raff end up... where the officer in charge and his non-coms treat you with unending brutality in the vain hope of instilling a sense of discipline. Looking back, our narrator realized the place served no useful purpose--"Discipline without justice is a joke," he states. But at the time, he was stuck there.

So was a soldier named Vaillard, a former professor of political science who had abandoned his wife, child and career and eventually found himself stationed at Ras-al-Gazer as another useless incorrigable. But Vaillard has plans. And when those plans involve murdering the commanding officer and stealing a pistol, the other prisoners are unwillingly drawn into a mutiny.

This leads to a stand-off. Vaillard and the mutineers are trapped in their barracks, but they have hostages. Vaillard is certain they'll be allowed to go free and march for the nearest border. But then a young officer comes into the barracks to confront the mutineers. This officer has a connection to Vaillard that changes the situation drastically.

The story is very tense, with the standoff between the mutineers and the soldiers being told very effectively. But its the characters of Vaillard and the young officer who really make the story work, with their specific relationship amping up the tension to 11. Essentially, the story becomes an examination of egotism vs. duty vs. family. And Newsom brings this tale to an effective end.

You can read the story online HERE.