When it comes to
pure pulp adventure yarns, L. Ron Hubbard turned them out about as well as
anyone ever did. I’ve long been a fan of oilfield fiction (I had relatives in
the oil business when I was growing up and spent some time around the oil
patch). Hubbard’s novella “Black Towers to Danger”, which originally appeared
in the October 1936 issue of FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY, is set in Venezuala and finds
rugged, two-fisted oil wildcatter Bill Murphy locked in a war with a rival
outfit headed by the beautiful Marcia Stewart, who Bill was once in love with.
Marcia believes that Bill murdered her father (not a spoiler to say that he
didn’t), and before this tale is over, he’ll also be accused of murdering a
Standard Oil executive who’s visiting the country. Bill has to battle sabotage,
an overzealous officer in the Venezualan army, and a drug-addled hired killer.
The action hardly ever slows down, and when Bill lugs a tripod-mounted machine
gun to the top of a tower and starts yammering away with it, I wanted to let
out a whoop of excitement like a little kid watching a Saturday matinee serial.
Eventually everything gets sorted out, of course, but not before lots of
bullets and fists fly. “Black Towers to Danger” has a bit of a lighter tone
than some of Hubbard’s stories, and I had a great time reading it.
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