Here we have the second volume about the adventures of Jimmie Cordie and his fellow crew of soldiers of fortune. Written by W. Wirt (1876-?), who was active only in the 1920s and ’30s in the pulps for about 10 years. This series started in other magazines before moving to Argosy for almost the rest of its run. It’s another series that may be an inspiration for Doc Savage‘s adventures.
Jimmie and his friends, Red Dolan, George Grisby, and Arthur Putney, are all former soldiers, former Legionnaires, former American Expeditionary Forces, and the like. We are told in one early story that they have been fighting together for 10 years. The stories are set in exotic locations, like the Far East.
They are again joined by two other soldiers of fortune: The Boston Bean (John Cabot Winthrop) and The Fighting Yid (Abraham Cohen), who actually appear in all the stories in this volume, and in a couple they show up before the others. We are told they had previously been fighting with another of Wirt’s series characters, Captain Norcross, which confirms that the two series are set in the same “universe.” That story had appeared in the previous year in The Argosy.
In The Nine Red Gods Decide: The Complete Adventures of Cordie, Soldier of Fortune, Volume 2, we get the next five stories, including the title story, a three-part serial. Interestingly, that serial was cover featured, but Steeger Books used its artwork as the cover for the first volume. So cover artwork for the third story was used this time, which is nice as it actually illustrates a scene from that story.
In the first story, Jimmie and Red come to the defense of a Manchu princess, Chi Huan, and through that come to the aid of her father in fighting off rivals. Their city is located in the far western province of China. Jimmie and Red bring in the rest of the group, who become like “elder brothers” to the princess. The adventurers again make use of Jimmie’s connection with the Taiping secret society.
In the second, a missionary and his family, including his daughters, are under threat by the local warlord. The Bean and the Yid come along and help, and then Jimmie and the rest come to their aid and get them to safety.
In the third story, an English engineer dies, leaving his young niece alone. Thankfully the Bean and the Yid arrive to protect her, soon joined by Jimmie and and the rest. The Bean falls for the young lady and may marry her. We’ll see if that actually happens.
In the fourth, the group is now in Malay on one of Bean’s yachts (he’s actually a millionaire), when they again get pulled into matters there. A Malay chieftain who Jimmie and Red had helped before needs their assistance in lifting a curse, as well as dealing with a couple of rouge white men who have committed crimes in the former German East Africa. As usual, the group pitches in and takes care of matters.
In the final story, the three-part serial, the six men are again helping out Princess Chi Huan and her father deal with a warlord trying to overthrow them. After some fierce fighting early on in the story, the warlord is defeated and the group heads home (or at least to Hong Kong). But the warlord’s “war brother” plots against the group, and sets up a scheme to take revenge on them. There’s more fighting, aided by some of the Taiping society. And at the end, the six must pick one of the group to hold a pass while the others escape. Thus one of the six doesn’t survive the story.
Overall, these are great action/adventure stories, mainly set in the “warlord” period of Chinese history. Overall the Chinese are treated fairly well by the author. The six are decent and heroic characters, and show respect to the locals, working with them and often for them. I know that they will be meeting Chi Huan in future stories, but I’m not sure how many.
I’m also not sure when we’ll get the next volume of stories with Jimmie and his friends, but look forward to it as well as the second and final collection of Wirt’s other series, the Captain Norcross stories.
I know from titles of the later stories that some are set outside of the Orient. I’m interesting in seeing what takes them outside of this area. Based on a review of the remaining stories, I suspect about three more volumes will be needed.
