After getting the chapbook The Death-Head’s March and Others from Black Dog Books, I got another The Stinging ‘Nting and Other Stories, which collects four adventure stories set in the Far East by Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004).
These originally appeared in a pair of short-lived adventure pulps: Far East Adventures and Man Stories. The cover artwork is by H.J. Ward, but I don’t know the source.
Kicking off this collection is a nice intro from publisher Tom Roberts that looks at adventure pulps in general, and in particular, these two pulps. Far East Adventure Stories ran 12 issues in 1930-32 from Fiction Publishers. While it did run some stories by name authors like H. Bedford-Jones (including a John Solomon story), J. Allen Dunn, Theodore Roscoe, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Arthur J. Burks, etc, it was a down-market pulp. This means the pay rates were less than other pulps, and usually, these authors sold works that didn’t get picked up by their usual markets. Adventure House has done several pulp facsimiles, a total of six so far.
I found the intro to be a valuable addition to the work, and worth getting the collection just for it.
Man Stories existed around the same time, and lasted eight issues before being renamed Popular Fiction for nine issues and being sold off to another publisher. It had stores by L. Patrick Greene, Murray Leinster, Warren Hastings Miller, Bedford-Jones, Cave, etc. Adventure House has also done some pulp facsimiles, but not many.
The first three works are short stories, while the final is a novelette.
“The Red Swede Goes Made” (Man Stories, February 1931) tells us about Red Swede, who captained a tramp steamer. More a pirate tramp steamer, his ship wrecked on a remote island inhabited by a couple of Yank pearlers. Scheming to take the pearls, he murders one. But a monkey and the island bring justice to Red Swede.
“The Stinging ‘Nting” (Far East Adventures, September 1931) was published under the Geoffrey Vace pseudonym that had been created by Hugh’s brother, Geoffrey Cave and was used for four stories. Hugh used it on a few to keep it “alive.” This one is a humorous story set in the Sulu Sultanate (east Borneo and part of the Philippines) with a greenhorn and the use of a ‘nting-‘nting, a sort of good luck charm.
In “Rigler’s Third Round” (Far East Adventures, April 1931), Arn Rigler, second mate of a steamer, brings about justice on his captain for what he did to Tommy and himself. The curio shop of Huang Lee plays a role in this, along with a ruby.
In “The Dead Face Grinned Twice” (Man Stories, May 31), the curio shop of Huang Lee plays a central role this time. The matter here involved Huang’s daughter, her honor, an ugly ring, and two men who deserve justice for what they did.
I do wonder if there are more stories by Cave that make use of Huang Lee’s curio shop?
But this is a nice collection of his adventure stories from a pair of rarer pulps. As noted, the introduction is excellent and a good reason also to get the collection. While many of Hugh Cave’s weird and spicy and science fiction pulp fiction are being reprinted, little of his adventure pulp stories are being reprinted. Worth the find.
