“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

 

It can’t be a Summer of Pulp without some Robert E. Howard now, can it? Heck no!!! The looong shadow cast by my buddy Dave Hardy, with his two terrific essays on El Borak, still prevents me from tackling ‘The Swift.’

However, I am comfortable continuing to blaze my own trail regarding the similar, but different, Kirby O’Donnell.

I wrote about “Gold from Tartary,” and “Swords of Shahrazar,” in prior summers. Which just leaves the third, long-unpublished, “The Trail of the Bloodstained God.” Now having tackled this one, I’m sure there’s a Steve Clarney post (“The Fire of Asshurbanipal”) somewhere down the road.

In my first two essays, I explained how the second O’Donnell story, “Swords of Shahrazar,” found print first, in the October, 1934 issue of Top-Notch magazine. It was a direct sequel to “Gold from Tartary,” which appeared four months later in the January, 1935 issue of Thrilling Adventures. It’s quite likely that many people did not read “Swords,” then “Gold” shortly thereafter. But it certainly would seem odd to do so.

El Borak would make his first appearance in between in December of 1934. There would be a third Eastern gunslinger, Steve Clarney, in a story which did not see print until 1972.

And even THAT would be four years before the third and final Kirby O’Donnell tale saw the light of day. The quality of stories which were not published until after Howard’s death is truly impressive. The markets – and the economy – simply could not meet the demands of his prodigious – and excellent – output.

One note before we move off the first two O’Donnell stories: REH liked to incorporate elements of different series and stories with each other. Dave Hardy referred to that as his ‘personal mythology.’

I really enjoy Howard’s crusader stories – many of which you can find in another terrific Del Rey title: Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures. And if you only know Red Sonja from the Marvel comics (which is fine, and way better than that Birgette Nielsen dreck), you are in for quite a surprise regarding the actual character which REH created.

But in “Sowerers of Thunder” Cahal O’Donnel rides East looking for the treasure of Shahazar. There are other differently named elements present. It’s a little thing, but it’s neat. And that story ties back to his Crusader, Cormac FitzGeoffrey. That Del Rey collection of historicals is as good as Howard got.

Anywhoo…

THERE BE (SPOILERS) DRAGONS

Look – spoilers ahead. If you haven’t at least read the first two O’Donnell stories, I can’t imagine why you’re reading this essay. And you really should get that Del Rey book and read all of it – not just those three. You have been warned.

Howard was excellent at providing atmosphere to begin his stories, with immediate action following. He doesn’t get nearly enough admiration from non-devotees like me, for just how good a writer he was. Chapter One (In the Alley of Satan) opens:

‘It was dark as the Pit in that evil-smelling Afghan alley down which Kirby O’Donnell, in his disguise of a swashbuckling Kurd, was groping, on a quest as blind as the darkness which surrounded him. I was a sharp, pain-edged cry smiting his ears that changed the whole course of events for him. Cries of agony were no uncommon sound in the twisting alleys of Medina el Harami, the City of Thieves, and no cautious or timid man would think of interfering in an affair which was none of his business. But O’Donnell was neither cautious, nor timid, and something in his wayward Irish soul would not let him pass by a cry for help.’

The next three paragraphs give us a scene of torture, and the action starts in paragraph five when O’Donnell crashes through the shutters and unleashes a whirlwind of fury on the bad guys.

This isn’t just a dirty alley at night. We can tell from the first sentence, there’s menace and peril in it. A cry of pain breaks through the pitch-black darkness. And this is in a city where cries of agony are commonplace. Howard has painted a scene for us.

And he next tells us what kind of man we are following. Neither cautious nor timid, he has ‘a wayward Irish soul,’ and he cannot ignore a cry for help.

That is just the first paragraph. Howard’s writing is filled with evocative, powerful prose. I feel he was one of the most talented Pulpsters. The battle in the cramped room, with O’Donnell fighting nine brawny men, attempting to free the Waziri man being held down by four of them, is explosive. Howard’s action scenes are breathless and enthralling.

Bodies on the floor, they rush out the door, and we get ‘He turned in the doorway, his blades twin tongues of death-edged steel.’ I’m telling you, his action prose never feels forced, or cheesy. He literally paints scenes with words, and he’s a master painter.

And having engineered a successful escape, this absorbing opening chapter ends, ‘Limply and silently he toppled from the wall into the shadowy street below.’ He had been hit with a thrown stool as he went over the wall, knocked unconscious.

This is a tight story, only four chapters long. Howard wrings every possible drop out of each word. Coming to, O’Donnell joins forces with a stranger named Hassan, who knows much about him, including his true identity. Like O’Donnell, he knows of an idol encrusted with red jewels, called ‘the Blood-Stained God.’

A rogue Englishman named Hawklin and a disinherited Afghan prince named Jehungir Khan had stolen a map from O’Donnell and are after the treasure. Turns out the men torturing the Waziri were actually Hawklin and his gang. The duo set out after Hawklin, but they must also worry about the area bandits led by YHakub Khan. Nothing is ever easy for O’Donnell; but it’s conflict that makes for a great story, right?

Held up by three of Khan’s men, O’Donnell turns the tables, splitting the skull of a bandit who tried to stab Hassan. It’s an ambush and more fast-paced combat – this time atop horses.Escaping, they run into Hawklin’s band, set up behind a wall. ‘With enemies blocking the way ahead of them and other enemies coming up the gorge behind them, they were trapped.’

With the thundering hooves of Khan’s men approaching, the frightened Hawklin invites the duo forward and they join forces. Two joined with five: ‘This was an alliance of wolves, which would last only as long as the common menace lasted.’

This story NEVER slows down from the very open. O’Donnell is now allied with the men who tried to kill him; and whose ranks were the thinner for his blade taking some of their lives.The outlaws charge the wall and it’s like reading an account of a Civil War assault. It’s absorbing action, with O’Donnell clubbing attackers down with his rifle butt, no time to reload.

The charge is beaten back, but only O’Donnell, Hassan, and Hawklin, survived: ‘three grim figures, blackened with powder-smoke, splashed with blood, their garments tattered.’

Hawklin still has the map, and his gun. He is shortly relieved of both. He is clearly not a man of honor, but O’Donnell is.”All right. I don’t hold grudges. You’re a swine, but if you play square with us, we’ll treat you as an equal partner, eh, Hassan?”

The latter agrees. But bear in mind, he’s also in this for convenience, and hard to see how a gem-encrusted idol gets split three ways. I expect some, shall we say, disharmony among the trio before the ultimate resolution.

Three chapters, and we’ve had the torture and fight scene in the dark alley, the ambush on the road, and the desperate fight at the wall. Alliances and enemies are fluid. And now, we have ‘So through the blackness of the nighted Himalayas they road, three desperate men on a mad quest, with death on their trail, unknown perils ahead of them and suspicion of each other edging their nerves.’

Howard wrote action at a breakneck pace, but his prose was so evocative. Howard was a talented writer, not just a prolific Pulpster.

The trio finally arrive at the hidden temple of the blood-stained god, knowing the outlaws will be back after them in force, further straining their uneasy alliance. What can possibly go wrong? Well, we quickly learn.

Hassan, apparently overcome with greed and glee at making it to this point, runs up to the giant carved bronze door, pulling at the objects on its surface, to open it. He does. It falls forward and crushes him flat as an ant. Streams of crimson ooze out from under the slab. And then there were two.

They step inside, and Howard describes the scene. You really should go read this story (again, if that’s the case). I love Howard’s depictions of ancient civilizations and past-culture ruins. They exist aplenty in the Conan tales. Here, you can picture the gloomy interior of the long abandoned temple. The shadowy ceiling, the dimness, the ‘blaze of crimson’ from the idol: I really do want to convey that Howard painted masterpiece word pictures.

And what about this idol? ‘It was brutish, repellant, a leprous monstrosity, whose red jewels gave it a repellently blood-splashed appearance. But it represented a wealth that made their brains swim.’

Hawklin sneak-attacks while O’Donnell is spellbound by the idol, nearly slashing his head open. A terrific sword battle ensues, each man with a smaller knife in his off hand. Hawklin’s greater reach is countered by O’Donnell’s speed. Nobody writes blade combat better than Howard, for me.

Howard has told us that there was a chasm, fifteen feet wide, in the floor near the idol. We all know someone is going into that, right? NOPE! Being a mystery writer of fiction and on-fiction, I am well-versed in the concept of fair play. And of course, red herrings. But O’Donnell runs Hawklin through in typical blade combat fashion.

Raymond Chandler famously said that when in doubt, bring a man with a gun into the room. O’Donnell binds his wounds as Howard adds atmosphere into the idol-dominated, abandoned temple.

So, the bandit leader Khan, and one henchman, arrive, a rifle aimed at O’Donnell.His follower, Yar Muhammad, picks up O’Donnell’s scimitar and recognizes the hawk’s head that forms the pommel. He is the man that O’Donnell saved from torture in that dark alley! He refuses Khan’s command to kill the Irishman and switches sides, which gets him a bullet that shaves his beard.

Muhammad scampers behind the idol as O’Donnell leaps at Khan. But Khan is too quick and starts to pull the trigger. ‘…in that fleeting instant, O’Donnell knew death would spit from that muzzle before he could reach (him).’

Muhammad, a huge dude, heaves the idol at Khan, who falls into the chasm. A bullet narrowly misses O’Donnell, and the bandit chief and the idol disappear into the darkness. O’Donnell peers into the seemingly eternal darkness, and never even hears a sound of impact. That idol is lost forever, along with Khan’s corpse. Well, drat.

Yar Muhammad swears allegiance to O’Donnell, and says they must follow paths he knows, fleeing before Khan’s tribe arrives.

Sadly, this was the last O’Donnell story, but one can imagine many more adventures followed with this pair:

‘And there were other lost treasures that challenged a restless adventurer. Already his Irish mind was flying ahed to the search of hidden, golden hoards celebrated in a hundred other legends.’

You get the image of two cowboys spurring their horses, crying out ‘Yeehaw’ and galloping off across the plains, looking for adventure.

The story was known to be rejected by Dime Adventure, Short Stories, Adventure, Argosy, and Street and Smith Complete Stories, over the course of three months.

In a 1936 letter to agent, Otis Aldbert Kline, Howard said that he tried to sell the story to Thrilling Adventures, but it seemed like he could only get one story in any of publisher Leo Margulie’s magazines.

It did not find its way to print, and he did not write any more O’Donnell stories. I think this is four chapters of dynamite. It was a little longer than “Gold from Tartary,” but not much more than half as long as “Swords of Shahrazar.” Those two stories were directly linked, while this was a separate adventure.

Howard was very good at these types of adventures – El Borak is terrific (de Camp also adapted an unpublished El Borak into a Conan story). Howard had moved on from Conan by the time he died, and he was writing a lot of Breckenridge Elkins (I like many of Howard’s Westerns, but I find Elkins to be unreadable). I wish he had written more of these exotic gunslinger adventures.

CONAN

I re-read de Camp’s Conan version for this post. It’s a pretty good tale, and I like it. In general, I don’t like how de Camp denigrated Howard himself – which I felt he did to ‘elevate’ his own Conan standing – but I think he wrote pretty good Conan pastiches, which I’ve read more than once.

This story translated well into an adventure of the mighty-thewed barbarian. Names are changed, but it follows the original story. Well, until the bandit chief and his helper sneak up on Conan (O’Donnell). De camp changes up the confrontation, and he makes it a sword and sorcery tale. I’ll let you read that it’s in the second Lancer book, Conan of Cimmeria – the one with “Frost Giant’s Daughter” on the cover. Things definitely take a supernatural turn.

In 1978, Marvel did a special-issue, full color version of this story, featuring Conan, and Red Sonja. I have not seen that one.

SO…..

We have now covered all three Kirby O’Donnell stories. Hopefully you read the first two posts, and you’ve got a more complete look at him now.

2025 (4)

Shelfie – Dashiell Hammett
Windy City Pulp & Paper Fest – 2025
Will Murray on Who was N.V. Romero?
Conan – The Phoenix in the Sword in Weird Tales

2024 Series (11)

Will Murray on Dashiell Hammett’s Elusive Glass Key
Ya Gotta Ask – Reprise
Rex Stout’s “The Mother of Invention”
Dime Detective, August, 1941
John D. MacDonald’s “Ring Around the Readhead”
Harboiled Manila – Raoul Whitfield’s Jo Gar
7 Upcoming A (Black) Gat in the Hand Attractions
Paul Cain’s Fast One (my intro)
Dashiell Hammett – The Girl with the Silver Eyes (my intro)
Richard Demming’s Manville Moon
More Thrilling Adventures from REH

Prior Posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2023 Series (15)

Back Down those Mean Streets in 2023
Will Murray on Hammett Didn’t Write “The Diamond Wager”
Dashiell Hammett – ZigZags of Treachery (my intro)
Ten Pulp Things I Think I Think
Evan Lewis on Cleve Adams
T,T, Flynn’s Mike & Trixie (The ‘Lost Intro’)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part I (Breckenridge Elkins)
John Bullard on REH’s Rough and Ready Clowns of the West – Part II
William Patrick Murray on Supernatural Westerns, and Crossing Genres
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘Getting Away With Murder (And ‘A Black (Gat)’ turns 100!)
James Reasoner on Robert E. Howard’s Trail Towns of the old West
Frank Schildiner on Solomon Kane
Paul Bishop on The Fists of Robert E. Howard
John Lawrence’s Cass Blue
Dave Hardy on REH’s El Borak

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2022 Series (16)
Asimov – Sci Fi Meets the Police Procedural
The Adventures of Christopher London
Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard
Spicy Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Thrilling Adventures from Robert E. Howard
Norbert Davis’ “The Gin Monkey”
Tracer Bullet
Shovel’s Painful Predicament
Back Porch Pulp #1
Wally Conger on ‘The Hollywood Troubleshooter Saga’
Arsenic and Old Lace
David Dodge
Glen Cook’s Garrett, PI
John Leslie’s Key West Private Eye
Back Porch Pulp #2
Norbert Davis’ Max Latin

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2021 Series (7 )

The Forgotten Black Masker – Norbert Davis
Appaloosa
A (Black) Gat in the Hand is Back!
Black Mask – March, 1932
Three Gun Terry Mack & Carroll John Daly
Bounty Hunters & Bail Bondsmen
Norbert Davis in Black Mask – Volume 1

Prior posts in A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2020 Series (21)
Hardboiled May on TCM
Some Hardboiled streaming options
Johnny O’Clock (Dick Powell)
Hardboiled June on TCM
Bullets or Ballots (Humphrey Bogart)
Phililp Marlowe – Private Eye (Powers Boothe)
Cool and Lam
All Through the Night (Bogart)
Dick Powell as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Hardboiled July on TCM
YTJD – The Emily Braddock Matter (John Lund)
Richard Diamond – The Betty Moran Case (Dick Powell)
Bold Venture (Bogart & Bacall)
Hardboiled August on TCM
Norbert Davis – ‘Have one on the House’
with Steven H Silver: C.M. Kornbluth’s Pulp
Norbert Davis – ‘Don’t You Cry for Me’
Talking About Philip Marlowe
Steven H Silver Asks you to Name This Movie
Cajun Hardboiled – Dave Robicheaux
More Cool & Lam from Hard Case Crime

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2019 Series (15)
Back Deck Pulp Returns
A (Black) Gat in the Hand Returns
Will Murray on Doc Savage
Hugh B. Cave’s Peter Kane
Paul Bishop on Lance Spearman
A Man Called Spade
Hard Boiled Holmes
Duane Spurlock on T.T. Flynn
Andrew Salmon on Montreal Noir
Frank Schildiner on The Bad Guys of Pulp
Steve Scott on John D. MacDonald’s ‘Park Falkner’
William Patrick Murray on The Spider
John D. MacDonald & Mickey Spillane
Norbert Davis goes West(ern)
Bill Crider on The Brass Cupcake

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – 2018 Series (32)
George Harmon Coxe
Raoul Whitfield
Some Hard Boiled Anthologies
Frederick Nebel’s Donahue
Thomas Walsh
Black Mask – January, 1935
Norbert Davis’ Ben Shaley
D.L. Champion’s Rex Sackler
Dime Detective – August, 1939
Back Deck Pulp #1
W.T. Ballard’s Bill Lennox
Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Phantom Crook (Ed Jenkins)
Day Keene
Black Mask – October, 1933
Back Deck Pulp #2
Black Mask – Spring, 2017
Erle Stanley Gardner’s ‘The Shrieking Skeleton’
Frank Schildiner’s ‘Max Allen Collins & The Hard Boiled Hero’
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: William Campbell Gault
A (Black) Gat in the Hand: More Cool & Lam From Hard Case Crime
MORE Cool & Lam!!!!
Thomas Parker’s ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part One)
Joe Bonadonna’s ‘Hardboiled Film Noir’ (Part Two)
William Patrick Maynard’s ‘The Yellow Peril’
Andrew P Salmon’s ‘Frederick C. Davis’
Rory Gallagher’s ‘Continental Op’
Back Deck Pulp #3
Back Deck Pulp #4
Back Deck Pulp #5
Joe ‘Cap’ Shaw on Writing
Back Deck Pulp #6
The Black Mask Dinner

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.