This short story by Frederick C. Painton was originally published in Argosy in 1937. Built on the foundation of a colorful and forceful personality, its builds to exciting action and a redemptive “twist” ending that’s predictable but satisfying, if not set up as well as it could be.
The narrator is an angry man and unwilling sidekick of a gangster named Jack Gore. Jack once rescued him from muggers in Marseilles but then robbed him himself. The narrator then joins his gang in the hopes of one day either killing him himself or seeing him get his comeuppance.
After some further shenanigans, the story focuses in on a gun-running operation in Palestine. Light on geographical precision or local color, the story is heavy on action as Jack Gore’s convoy first saves a Bedouin village from raiders and then gets caught in a firefight with British soldiers. Outgunned, Jack and his dwindling supply of men try to hold out until the Arab rebels they’re supplying arrive.
This is a good workmanlike action story unremarkable except for its entertainment value. Well-written and with a fascinating character at its center, it is obvious that it belongs in this collection as a fine example of pulp writing.
