Category Archives: Short Story

The Dogs of Purgatory – Hugh Pendexter

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pulpmegadogsof0125 stories for $.99; they must be good.

Dix is in a bad situation, and not just because of his name.  He has wandered off from his camp, and thanks to overcast skies and the loss of his compass, he was been wandering for 3 days.

Having not eaten in 12 hours, Dix questions his senses when he sees a pack of dogs running toward him.  With no where to take shelter, they are upon him in no time behaving fiercely, but restrained by muzzles.

They are followed by a dwarf, Cumber and a graceful young woman, Florence.  The woman orders the dwarf to take the dogs back to the house, but it is clear he would have preferred to remove the muzzles and allowed them to go down on Dix.

Dix and Florence go back to the house where he meets her sickly uncle.  The dying man tells Dix that Cumber is not their servant but is keeping them prisoner there.  It seems like the dwarf would be pretty easy to overpower, even for the petite Florence. However her uncle is deathly ill, and she is not even aware that Cumber is actually master of the house.

pulpfiction01On the 4th night, Florence’s uncle “dropped into his last sleep.  Once Cumber understood his master had gone, he withdrew with his dogs to the farther side of the knoll” leaving Dix to dig the grave.  So clearly Cumber knows the old man is dead.

Then how to explain his later comment, “The master has gone to a fair country far to the north.”  OK, maybe a poetic way to say he croaked.  But then he continues, “Tomorrow I must be off to find him.”

Florence and Dix plan an elaborate and dangerous escape over ice and lakes being chased by the evil rifle-toting dwarf and vicious dogs.  However, Dix had ample opportunity in the past four days to dropkick the li’l bastard and have a leisurely return to civilization.

However, that would have denied the reader an action packed-chase through the icy wilds with Florence in a sled and Dix on ice skates.  I was never clear what propelled the sled, was Dix pulling it?

Pendexter was not the smoothest of wordsmiths.  As far as I can tell, at the end, one of the dogs grabs Cumber’s rifle in his jaws and shoots him, clearing the way for Flo & Dix to escape.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Complete Northwest Novels Magazine, June 1936.
  • Also published that month: Gone with the Wind.
  • 2nd story in the collection to feature an evil dwarf.

Ray Bradbury Theater – The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone (S3E7)

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Yet another first-time director.  Are they picking these guys up in front of Home Depot?

Like so many RBT episodes, there is an interesting idea here, but it isn’t well executed, or maybe it just works better on the printed page.

Dudley Stone (John Saxon) is having a book-signing for his latest masterpiece.  He recognizes one of the people in line as a struggling writer John Oatis Kendall.  Stone asks how he would like the book inscribed and his handed a note that says “I have come here to kill you.”

But Kendall is paying full price for the book, so Stone says, “Easily done” and begins writing inside the cover.  Psyche!  He writes, “Come see me tomorrow and kill me then!! — D.S.”  effectively shutting him down and screwing him out of an autograph.

The next scene takes place 20 years later where Kendall, having not aged a day, is present at an annual gathering to memorialize Dudley Stone who disappeared after their first encounter.  No one seems to know if Stone is dead or alive.  Kendall, now a successful writer, speaks up to say that he murdered Stone out of jealousy for his talent.

rbtdudley05In a flashback to the day after their meeting at the book-signing, we see that Kendall somehow intuited that Stone’s “Kill me then” comment was an invitation to come out to the house, meet the wife and kids.  Kendall travels out to the seaside home and is warmly greeted by Stone.  Even better, it is Stone’s 40th birthday (even though John  Saxon was 53 at the time).

Saxon is strangely encouraging of Kendall’s plan.  Kendall explains his jealousy of     Stone’s talent and volume of output, “all of it excellent! “.  Novels, poetry, essays, stageplays, screenplays, lectures on city planning, architecture, etc.  Kendall says this flood of masterful output has “reduced everyone else to pygmies.”

“Agreed, agreed,” Stone offers magnanimously.  He seems nonplussed by the entire rant and responds, “I’ve heard your reasons for wanting to kill me, let me give my reasons for letting you do bloody murder.”  He motions at all the books he’s never read, symphonies yet to be heard, films yet to be seen, sculptures waiting to be shaped, paintings waiting to be painted — is there anything this guy can’t do?   I’m starting to hate him myself.  He goes on like this at length — those are the reasons to “die.'”

Faking his death will remove him from Kendall’s competitive world and allow him time to enjoy these pursuits, just like Elvis Presley, Andy Kaufman and Eddie (of Cruisers fame).

rbtdudley12

I’m no tree-hugger, but this is just wrong!

Stone pulls all of his unfinished works out of various boxes, desks and drawers.  Together, they go to a cliff and — in a shocking display of littering — heave reams of paper into the sea.

Back in the future, Kendall calls Stone to give him permission to begin “living” again, but Stone is perfectly happy being “dead.”  He realized 20 years ago that his well had run dry, his latest mediocre works would have have tarnished his legacy.  He was happy to have a chance to go out on a Costanzian high-note.

In a nice twist, he asks the now-successful Kendall if there is anyone out there now that might similarly see him as a threat.  He sees hungry eyes looking at him, and realizes that he now has the same burden that Jack Klugman brought on himself in TZ’s A Game of Pool.

The episode reasonably combines a couple of characters from the print version.  In the story, a man named Douglas (Bradbury’s middle name) tracks Stone down.  Stone then just tells him the story of his encounter with Kendall, who had been a friend since childhood.

Post-Post:

  • LOTR Connection:  None.
  • His fan club, which seems to be made up of writerly types, are no brainiacs.  They were unable to determine whether Stone was alive despite him still living in the same house 20 years later.  C’mon, Richard Bachman was harder to find.  At least Eddie grew a beard (not sure of the facial hair status of the Cruisers).

Death Mates for the Lust-Lost – Hugh J. Gallagher

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pulpfiction0125 stories for $.99; they must be good!  Part V of XXV.

Miriam Daly is on a launch to the island compound of Mr. Martinez.  The passengers are a diverse group including a lecturer, an aerialist, a singer, a dancer, a magician’s assistant, and a concert pianist — all female. There are clearly no rocket scientists in the group as they haven’t figured out they’re all going to the same place despite being on a small boat heading toward an island.

Martinez greets them at his mansion and pulls aside three of the women.  The other three are led to their rooms by a “half-nude” servant, although which half and which sex are not described.

Miriam is led into a bedroom and the door is locked behind her.  Soon there is a tapping at her window.  She opens the latch and lets in the aerialist, who is actually a man, man! He posed as a woman to investigate this disappearance of his sister who was last known to be heading to this island.

Hearing voices, Miriam and the aerialist Phil climb down a trellis and follow their three companions being dragged into the woods.  Turns out Martinez has brought women here to hunt for sport — the second time in five stories that this trope has been used.  To prove his seriousness, he brutally tortures and kills one of the women.

The next day, exploring the estate, Miriam and Phil (dressed as Phyllis again) discover what became of the other women, and of Phil’s sister.  Whatever torture and nastiness goes on in this collection, you can usually depend on scores being settle at the end.

A pretty straight-forward tale

Post-Post:

  • First published in Mystery Novels and Short Stories Magazine, July 1940.
  • Also that month: The first successful helicopter flight.
  • Same publication as Mystery Novels Magazine or least original rip-off ever?  I have no idea.

The Shrieking Pool – G.T. Fleming-Roberts

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pulpfiction0125 stories for $.99; they must be great.  Part IV of XXV.

Reporter Larry Corrin is driving to Black Stool, er Pool.  For the 3rd time in four stories, a car gets stuck in the mud, or “bogged” as it is described.  Also for the third time in 4 stories, a person has been beckoned by a letter from an old acquaintance  Sadly, the hat tricks do not continue with a 3rd occurrence of naked women in chains.  Or in hats.

Corrin receives a letter from Dean Wile, owner of the Black Pool Lodge.  He says Black Pool has fallen into ill repute, what with the lake having developed an appetite for human flesh.  After Corrin’s car is bogged, he stumbles through the woods until he sees the lights of the lodge.

Before he even gets to the lodge, he sees a boat on the lake.  It is close enough so he can hear a man and woman talking.  Also close enough that he can see a reptilian head rise out of the water, and an taloned arm capsize the boat.  The woman makes it to the shore, but the man is killed by a talon to the head which obliterates his face.

The other members of the generically-named Jordan Scientific Institute rush outside to see what the commotion is.  Questions are raised as to why Bernice was out in the boat with Frank, who was not her husband.  Also why they would have gone out on the lake which is consuming people like popcorn.

Theories on the deaths range from drowning to the existence of a Brontozoum in the lake.  Corrin has a different theory, that a human is picking off the staff one-by-one.  That night, in the lake, he almost finds himself to be the next victim.  He does at least find the bodies of the missing men.  They are trapped in the undercurrent of the lake, the cold water preventing their rise to  the surface.  How this small lake managed to have an undercurrent is not addressed.

Naturally, the deaths turn out to be the result of a love triangle.  Either Corrin’s investigation got a few more of them killed, or he saved all the poor saps from going out into the lake one by one to die like the slowest lemming parade in history.  I really hate to see the plot require scientists to be such dolts.

After the lurid action in the previous story, this one seems a little flat.  I would never recommend it to anyone, but it is just fine as a story between tent-poles; and I’m optimistically expecting another strong one is coming, not trapping me in a literary lean-to.

If nothing else, this collection still owes me an ape for my $.99.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Mystery Novels Magazine, February 1936.
  • Hitler introduces the Volkswagen, designed by Ferdinand Porsche.

Fiancés for the Devil’s Daughter – Russell Gray

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pulpfiances0225 stories for $.99; they must be good.  Part III of XXV.  Sweet Jeebus, this is what I paid my $.99 for!

I was almost immediately derailed by this sentence which I had to read several times in order to make sense of it and the 1st-Person narrative that followed:

Helen, my wife, and I, Roland Cuyler, the author, and his wife Clara were standing near a window . . .

I was already intimidated that Kindle X-Ray said I had 18 characters to keep track of in this story.  It all worked out, though, and was a great read.

Literary agent Lester Marlin, and his wife are at a party where they spot an exotic woman enter who no one seems to know.  She manages to corner Marlin when his wife is chatting with an author.

Tala Mag — which would have been a great name on Barsoom — makes advances on him.  He blows her off thinking she just wants to use him to get published, and because he truly loves his wife.  The next day, he receives a note from his best client Portia asking him for a favor — to meet with Tala at Tala’s penthouse apartment.

She meets him wearing a blue negligee and nothing else; but also has a manuscript in her hand, so it is a business meeting.  He begins reading and finds it to be unspeakably vile and an offense to even his hard-boiled soul.  He tells her it is not publishable and prepares to leave when Tala calls her enormous servant Emil.

In no time, Emil has Marlin stripped and in chains.  Even in this position he will not submit to Tala.  In spite of the whip and the diaphanous negligee that is hanging open, he resists and fights back.  She tells him she has other plans for him, and he wakes up in the Warehouse District.

Some time later, having not learned his lesson, Marlin accepts an invitation from Roland Cuyler to spend a few days at his country home.  Marlin and his wife join four other couples from his literary circle.  Unfortunately, the invitation was a ruse by Tala Mag who is at the house with her goons Emil, Clops, Wick and Ringo (OK, I’m not sure the 4th was named).

What follows is both horrific and spoilerific, so be warned.  It really should be read to be appreciated.

I had no idea the WWII-era pulps got this brutal.  There is no hard-core sex, but there is a decent amount of torture and newdity.  As an example to the group, one woman is tortured to death with branding irons, and the effects on her body are maybe not graphic in words, but suggest some disturbing images in one’s mind — which is worse.  And by worse, I mean better.

This is only a prelude to the final act in which the women stripped naked and their husbands are forced to hunt each other’s wives for sport.  The men are issued guns that fire acid pellets.  In addition to the pain of being shot, the woman with the most hits / scars will be killed.

It is all pretty goofy, but would have made a good Russ Meyer movie.  You’ve got whips, chains, torture, and nude babes.  Really the only things missing are ape-men and Nazis to cover every trope.  Even if the other 22 stories are crap, I’ve gotten my $.99 worth.

Post-Post:

  • First published in Marvel Tales, May 1940.
  • Also that month: The first McDonald’s opened in San Bernardino.
  • How was this not the cover story?  That “Test Tube Monsters” must be incredible.
  • Everywhere else, this story is know as “Fresh Fiancés for the Devil’s Daughter.”