As noted in my last review, George F. Worts brought Peter the Brazen back to Argosy after a 10-year absence, in 1930. Supposedly this was part of a larger effort to revamp Argosy by bringing back several of their serial characters.
Peter Moore is an interesting character: a two-fisted adventurer wandering the exotic Orient between the world wars, going up against several menacing villains. George F. Worts wrote this series under his Loring Brent pseudonym. Some feel that Peter may be an inspiration for Doc Savage.
Volume 5 from Steeger Books reprints the three stories from 1931. Each one of them was cover featured, with the cover from the second story used as the cover for this volume. You can see the cover from the first story on the back cover.
As we saw in the last volume, we are told that Peter left the Orient five years prior due to the “man in the jade mask” telling him to leave “or else.” Peter has been working for General Electric in Pennsylania as a radio researcher. And that brings him back to the Orient. In particular, he is heading to Hong Kong to meet an inventor, Fong Toy, who he never did meet up with in the last volume. On the voyage over he met a rich heiress, Susan O’Gilvie, who kept inserting herself into things, often being the cause of the stories we’ve had.
First up we get, “Vampire” (a two-part serial, April 25-May 2, 1931). In Hong Kong, Peter helps a man who has been scalped and had his blood drained for a strange, bald woman. But before he can get help, the man disappeared. Can there be vampires?
While trying to finally meet Fong Toy, Peter is pulled into another affair. The Sultan of Sakala is in town with his yacht and has invited him to a ball. This was the man that Susan O’Gilvie had come to the Orient for! And strangely, Peter is attacked several times, a lawyer from the U.S. who looks like him is killed, and when Peter goes to a meeting with Fong Toy, he is waylaid and attacked! And Susan shows up, say she is thinking of marrying the Sultan! What is going on? Is there some connection with the vampire, as Peter has heard rumors of the Sultan’s wife? Is Susan in some danger and can Peter get her out?
Next is “Chinese for Racket” (a two-part serial, May 30-June 6, 1931), which starts the day after the events of the last story. The U.S. Consul tells both Peter and Susan that they must leave China as they are troublemakers and are unwelcome. But it looks like Peter will finally be able to see Fong Toy and get a demonstration of his static eliminator — as will several competitors at the same time. But is it all a racket? Then Peter is pulled into helping an American rescue his missing sister. But is it all real or yet another attempt at preventing him from meeting with Fong Toy?
And finally, in “Cave of the Blue Scorpion” (Nov. 21, 1931), we find that Peter is now operating in the Orient as the Asian representative for General Electric, working to sell their products there. Before this, we see a young American woman visiting a remote location of the Lake of the Flying Dragon where supposedly the Blue Scorpion has his palace beneath. Who is the Blue Scorpion? He is claimed to be 300 years old, with a vast network of agents. They use tiny pyramids made of blue chalk as a sign.
But Peter is busy selling equipment to Wong Poon, president of a mining company. Having sold it well above its value, Peter is asked to accompany it upriver to where it will be used. He will be aided by three red-headed engineers who will setup the equipment, along with a tractor. Susan, of course, decides to come along. But along the way, it seems that Wong is not who he seems. He is really Prince Took Shan, an ancestral ememy of the Blue Scorpion, who hopes to finally rescue his ancestor’s treasure from him. Will he succeed? Or will Susan and Peter face the horrors of the cave of the Blue Scorpion beneath the Lake of the Flying Dragon? More important, will Susan and Peter be able to get away, much less any of the others?
The Blue Scorpion is clearly not done with Peter, as the next story is “Sting of the Blue Scorpion,” which we’ll get in the next volume. I don’t know how many more volumes we need. We have five more stories, but three are long serials. So at least two more volumes I think. Can’t wait. I’m curious if Susan will continue to appear in the rest of the series.
If you enjoy these stories, also check out Worts’ Singapore Sammy stories, which Steeger Books has reprinted in a complete hardback, as well as putting them out in a series of paperbacks, as well at the Gillian Hazeltine series, which has two volumes so far. I do hope they will reprint the Vingo series as well.
