S.P. Meek was the name Sterner St. Paul Meek (1894-1972) used for his published works. He was an ordinance officer and military chemist, worked up from captain to colonel, and used his rank with some of his fiction. He briefly wrote science fiction and some other pulp fiction on the side from 1929 to 1933, before moving to children’s fiction.
His SF appeared in Astounding and Amazing Stories, and his major series featured Dr. Bird and Operative Carnes. While few of his works have been reprinted, there is a recent collection of most of the Dr. Bird stories, 11 of the 14 stories.
The Drums of Tapajos was recently reprinted by Armchair Fiction as part of their “Lost World-Lost Race” series. Drums is a tale of a lost super-science city founded by Atlantians, and re-discovered by a quartet of adventurers in the deep wilds of Brazil.
We met three of the adventurers as the story begins. They are disaffected Army officers stationed in Texas who missed out on WWI. So under the leadership of one of them, they decide to quit and join up with a soldier of fortune that one of them knows to try a hand at fomenting a revolution in Central American and make a fortune.
Instead, after meeting up and talking it out, they decide on a different course of action. Their solider of fortune friend tells them of meeting a white man in the middle of the Amazon jungle, who seems to be fleeing some danger. The frightened man gives him a strange jewel-encrusted dagger, which is shown on the reprint’s cover. The man soon dies. But while the area he emerged from is considered “forbidden” by the natives, the adventurers think they can find the source of the riches they think is there.
And they do! It’s a hidden city, with Atlanteans, but they aren’t the ones in charge. Instead, the leaders of the city are either Hebrew-speaking Trojans (hence the city is named “Troyana”), or the remains of the 10 lost tribes of Israel! They aren’t sure themselves, but they have their own super-science, are well aware of the outside world through “remote viewing,” and have been using their super-science to keep away any interlopers, as well as with their native servants, and dinosaurs!
The adventurers are welcomed when they know the right responses, as they are Freemasons, and the Troyana’s society is in line with Freemasonry. (This isn’t stated, but if you have some familiarity, it’s pretty clear.)
Ah, but there are issues between different groups in the city, as this is a fairly stratified society, and the Atlanteans, the largest group, are treated as basic laborers and are dissatisfied. And our adventures are pulled into the middle of it all.
At the end, three of them are able to escape, though one decides to stay (yup, he found a girl). The narrator, being a scientist, works to reconnect communications with the hidden city. At the end, they succeed, and the other two set out on returning to the lost city to help them with needed cobalt. This is covered in a sequel, Troyana, which I hope Armchair Fiction will also reprint, as I’d love to learn how it all works out.
The Drums of Tapajos was first serialized in three issues of Amazing Stories in 1930-31. This edition reprints the covers from those issues, as well as the interior artwork from the three parts. The cover comes from hardcover reprint by Avalon in 1961. The sequel, Troyana, appeared in three issues of Amazing Stories in 1932, and was also reprinted by Avalon.
I enjoyed this story, and may check out the Dr. Bird stories as well.
