H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949) was a prolific pulp author with over 1,000 works, and several series. His longest series with a single character featured John Solomon, a mysterious, Cockney ship chandler who operated in Port Said, Egypt, before World War I, with a network of agents starting in 1914.
Strangely, Solomon is often almost a secondary character in his own series. He often works behind the scenes, and is not seen for a long while. There is always a more adventurous young man as the main character of the story, who usually marries the girl in the story and settles down at the end.
I’ve been posting on this character now that Steeger Books is reprinting this series as part of their H. Bedford-Jones Library. They have been putting out paperback editions with one novel each so far, but have changed as there will be about 14 volumes for the 24-story series. There is also a three-volume complete hardback collection as well. This latest paperback volume, #6, contains two novels: Solomon’s Carpet and Solomon’s Submarine.
While the series started in Argosy, it soon shifted to People’s, which is where these two novels appeared. Solomon’s Carpet was cover-featured in the October 1915 issue. Solomon’s Submarine, was cover-featured in February 1916, and that cover is used for this collection. The series remained in People’s until it ended in 1921, after which it was revived in Argosy in 1930.
After the last two stories in People’s, Solomon had lost part of his leg and moved to America, Baltimore to be exact. However, in Solomon’s Carpet, we find that he is living in Chicago and has been there for about a year being a “crime detector.” He points out that he’s not a detective. He gathers information, as he had done in his Port Said shop, and tries to put an end to certain crimes. Here, he gets involved in a strange case dealing with rich collectors of oriental rugs, whose unique alarm systems are found to be disabled.
In particular, he gets involved with a broker whose confidential secretary approaches Solomon and engages him. Solomon, for his part, actually enlists the secretary, Harvey Lind, to assist him in the case, and even offers to hire him, which he does. There is a girl in the story, the daughter of the broker, whom Harvey is interested in. There will be a murder, someone who seems to be trying to frame Lind, a sinister man with a birthmark on his face, and more.
The matter of valuable oriental rugs I thought was interesting, mainly because I happen to know that H. Bedford-Jones himself collected them. So he clearly used his own knowledge of these rugs. This isn’t the first time he’s made use of his knowledge of certain collectables, such as rugs or jewels, in his stories. I’ve even heard that, at times, he used the sale of such stories to justify his collecting.
Solomon’s Submarine follows the prior story with Solomon still in Chicago and aided by Harvey Lind. I had thought by the title that we’d find a return of Solomon adventuring elsewhere. Plus, usually the lead male character of these stories leaves at the end, after getting the girl, so figured Lind would move on. But he won’t be the main character in this story.
Here Solomon is approached by U.S. authorities. An inventor, Milton Case, has been working on a new submarine (keep in mind this is 1916, so subs are very primitive) in California. The inventor has died, his test submarine is gone, as are the final plans, and the government thinks his assistant, Jack Brune, is to blame.
However, Solomon was already involved. He had, in fact, funded the building of the test submarine and arranged for Brune to be Case’s assistant. The only clue is the name Jan Rezen. Solomon knows that the inventor was murdered, but as the officials in charged didn’t bother to do an autopsy, there is no evidence. And as he selected Brune, he knows he’s innocent. The only thing is to find this Jan Rezen, who has clearly stolen the plans and took the test submarine.
Brune will, of course, be our main hero, as Solomon is in the background. We also learn that a naval captain and his daughter are missing. The captain had come down to examine the work. As Brune looks into it, he winds up getting tricked by a fellow named Carlisle, who is apparently the ringleader of it all. He maroons Brune on the same channel island he dumped the captain and daughter. And things become clearer. The conspirators stole the submarine and plans with the aim of selling the plans to Japan!
While this is going on, Solomon is looking for a local ally, and finds it in Hip Sun, a local Chinese importer who knows who Solomon is from his time in Egypt. And as the Chinese and Japanese are not friendly, he is more than willing to help thwart things.
Can they succeed in retrieving the submarine and plans before they are sold to the Japanese, capturing the bad guys, and rescuing the captain, his daughter, and Brune? And as it usually happens, will the hero get the girl in the end as well? Read and find out.
The next story is John Solomon, Argonaut. We’ll see if John is still operating in Chicago or not. It appears with the next story in a single volume from Steeger Books.
