Black Towers to Danger

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.

Devil's Manhunt

DEVIL'S MANHUNT is another collection of L. Ron Hubbard stories from the Western pulps, and not surprisingly, it's quite entertaining for an old Western pulp fan like me. Actually, these are stories from a particular Western pulp, since all of them originally appeared in FAMOUS WESTERN, one of the Columbia pulps edited by Robert A.W. Lowndes.

The title story, from the February 1950 issue, is yet another variation of Richard Connell's iconic story "The Most Dangerous Game". A young prospector in Arizona strikes gold but is captured by two outlaws who plan to make him work the claim until all the gold is exhausted and then hunt and kill him for sport. The desperate hero comes up with some clever ways to turn the tables on them and wage a fight for survival. This is a really nice tale with plenty of suspense and a satisfying ending.

"Johnny, the Town Tamer" is from the August 1949 issue, has as its protagonist a young rancher from Texas who rides into a Kansas cowtown to settle a score and recover some money stolen from his foreman the year before. It's a clever yarn, and with its Texan hero wreaking havoc in a Kansas town, aided by a big, bearded, buckskin-wearing sidekick, shows some definite Robert E. Howard influence.

Finally, from the December 1949 issue of FAMOUS WESTERN, comes "Stranger in Town", the tale of a young puncher framed for a stagecoach robbery and several murders who is pursued by a lawman with a sinister secret of his own. The showdown comes in the town where the fugitive has settled down.

These are excellent stories, more hardboiled and mature than some of the earlier pulp fare, and typical of the increase in quality of the Western pulps during the post-war years. Because of that, DEVIL'S MANHUNT is my favorite of the Hubbard Western collections I've read so far. It's well worth reading for Western fans.

Cattle King for a Day

“Cattle King for a Day”, a novella from the March 1937 issue of ALL WESTERN, starts with a similar premise – Chinook Shannon (great name) arrives in Montana to investigate the death of his grandfather and claim his legacy, the Slash S ranch. Gunmen try to stop him from getting there, but they’re unsuccessful. Chinook finds that his ownership of the ranch is threatened. His stock is all dead, killed by cyanide poisoning from the run-off from a nearby mine, and the bank is about to foreclose on the land the very next day unless Chinook can come up with $26,000 to pay off the debt. Hubbard throws some nice plot twists into this one, and I didn’t figure out exactly what was going on until the very end of the story. This is another entertaining story with some fine action scenes.

"Cattle King for a Day" is available in the collection BRANDED OUTLAW.