The Compleat Adventures of Jules de Grandin vol 01

449 Pages·2016·6.12 MB·English

by  Quinn Seabury

The Compleat Adventures of
Jules de Grandin
Volume One of Three

The Compleat
Adventures of
Jules de Grandin
The Ninety-Three Memoirs of
Jules de Grandin, sometime member of la Sûreté Général,
la Faculté de Medicine Légal de Paris,
etc., etc.
SEABURY QUINN
Volume One of Three
THE BATTERED SILICON DISPATCH BOX
2000
Copyright 2000 by Seabury Quinn, Jr. and Peter Ruber
Illustrations by Virgil Finlay
Jules de Grandin Stories copyright © 1925-1938 by Popular Fiction Publishing Co. Reprinted by permission of Weird
Tales Limited. Jules de Grandin Stories copyright © 1938-1951 by Weird Tales. Reprinted by permission of Weird
Tales Limited.

All Rights Reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Quinn, Seabury, 1889 -1969
The Compleat Adventures of Jules de Grandin
ISBN 1-55246-246-3 Volume 1 ISBN 1-55246-248-X Volume 2
ISBN 1-55246-250-1 Volume 3 ISBN 1-55246-252-8 The Set Volumes 1-3
I. Title
PS3533.U69C65 2000 813’.52 C99-932867-0
First Printing December 2000
All Inquiries and Orders;
George A. Vanderburgh, Publisher
THE BATTERED SILICON DISPATCH BOXTM
e-Mail: [email protected] * Fax [phone]
420 Owen Sound Street
P. O. Box 204, P. O. Box 122
Shelburne, Ontario Sauk City, Wisconsin
CANADA L0N 1S0 U.S.A. 53583-0122
Volume 1 (1925-1930)
Page
By Way of Explanation by Seabury Quinn ....................................... v
1925
1. The Horror on the Links (Weird Tales, October 1925) ..........................3
2. The Tenants of Broussac (Weird Tales, December 1925, cover by Doolin) ..........13
1926
3. The Isle of Missing Ships (Weird Tales, February 1926) ........................27
4. The Vengeance of India (Weird Tales, April 1926).............................44
5. The Dead Hand (Weird Tales, May 1926) ....................................51
6. The House of Horror (Weird Tales, July 1926) ................................57
7. Ancient Fires (Weird Tales, September 1926) .................................66
8. The Great God Pan (Weird Tales, October 1926) ..............................77
9. The Grinning Mummy (Weird Tales, December 1926) .........................83
1927
10. The Man Who Cast No Shadow (Weird Tales, February 1927, cover by Petrie) .....95
11. The Blood Flower (Weird Tales, March 1927) ..............................106
12. The Veiled Prophetess (Weird Tales, May 1927) ............................116
13. The Curse of Everard Maundy (Weird Tales, July 1927) .....................125
14. Creeping Shadows (Weird Tales, August 1927) .............................138
15. The White Lady of the Orphanage (Weird Tales, September 1927) .............147
16. The Poltergeist (Weird Tales, October 1927) ................................157
1928
17. The Gods of East and West (Weird Tales, January 1928, cover by Senf) .........168
18. Mephistopheles and Company, Ltd. (Weird Tales, February 1928) .............181
19. The Jewel of the Seven Stones (Weird Tales, April 1928, cover by Senf) .........195
20. The Serpent Woman (Weird Tales, June 1928)..............................210
21. Body and Soul (Weird Tales, September 1928) ..............................221
22. Restless Souls (Weird Tales, October 1928) .................................232
23. The Chapel of Mystic Horror (Weird Tales, December 1928) ..................245
1929
24. The Black Master (Weird Tales, January 1929, cover by Senf) .................262
25. The Devil People (Weird Tales, February 1929) .............................275
26. The Devil’s Rosary (Weird Tales, April 1929, cover by Rankin) ................292
27. The House of Golden Masks (Weird Tales, June 1929, cover by Rankin) .........307
28. The Corpse Master (Weird Tales, July 1929, cover by Senf) ...................320
29. Trespassing Souls (Weird Tales, September 1929) ...........................329
30. The Silver Countess (Weird Tales, October 1929) ...........................342
31. The House Without a Mirror (Weird Tales, November 1929) ..................353
32. Children of Ubasti (Weird Tales, December 1929) ...........................367
1930
33. The Curse of the House of Phipps (Weird Tales, January 1930, cover by Senf) ....380
34. The Drums of Damballah (Weird Tales, March 1930, cover by Senf) ............392
35. The Dust of Egypt (Weird Tales, April 1930, cover by Rankin) .................410
Volume 2 (1930-1934)
Page
By Way of Explanation by Seabury Quinn ....................................... v
1930
36. The Brain-Thief (Weird Tales, May 1930, cover by Senf) .....................427
37. The Priestess of The Ivory Feet (Weird Tales, June 1930) .....................440
38. The Bride of Dewer (Weird Tales, July 1930, cover by Senf) ...................457
39. Daughter of the Moonlight (Weird Tales, August 1930) ......................470
40. The Druid’s Shadow (Weird Tales, October 1930, cover by Rankin) .............485
41. Stealthy Death (Weird Tales, November 1930) ..............................498
42. The Wolf of St. Bonnot (Weird Tales, December 1930, cover by Rankin) .........515
1931
43. The Lost Lady (Weird Tales, January 1931, cover by Senf) ....................528
44. The Ghost Helper (Weird Tales, February-March 1931) .......................545
45. Satan’s Stepson (Weird Tales, September 1931) .............................555
1932
46. The Devil’s Bride (Weird Tales, February-July 1932, cover by Senf) .............582
47. The Dark Angel (Weird Tales, August 1932) ...............................659
48. The Heart of Siva (Weird Tales, October 1932, cover by Brundage) .............676
49. The Bleeding Mummy (Weird Tales, November 1932) .......................692
50. The Door to Yesterday (Weird Tales, December 1932) .......................705
1933
51. A Gamble in Souls (Weird Tales, January 1933) .............................721
52. The Thing in the Fog (Weird Tales, March 1933, cover by Brundage) ............739
53. The Hand of Glory (Weird Tales, July 1933, cover by Brundage) ...............759
54. The Chosen of Vishnu (Weird Tales, August 1933, cover by Brundage) ..........774
55. Malay Horror (Weird Tales, September 1933) ..............................791
56. The Mansion of Unholy Magic (Weird Tales, October 1933) ...................804
57. Red Gauntlets of Czerni (Weird Tales, December 1933, cover by Brundage) ......819
1934
58. The Red Knife of Hassan (Weird Tales, January 1934, cover by Brundage) .......834
59. The Jest of Warburg Tantavul (Weird Tales, September 1934) ................847
Volume 3 (1935-1951)
Page
By Way of Explanation by Seabury Quinn ...................................... v
1935
60. Hands of the Dead (Weird Tales, January 1935) ............................ 867
61. The Black Orchid (Weird Tales, August 1935) ............................. 880
62. The Dead-Alive Mummy (Weird Tales, October 1935) ...................... 890
1936
63. A Rival from the Grave (Weird Tales, January 1936, cover by Brundage) ....... 901
64. Witch-House (Weird Tales, November 1936, cover by Brundage) .............. 916
1937
65. Children of the Bat (Weird Tales, January 1937, cover by Brundage) ........... 932
66. Satan’s Palimpsest (Weird Tales, September 1937, cover by Brundage) ......... 947
67. Pledged to the Dead (Weird Tales, October 1937)........................... 962
68. Living Buddhess (Weird Tales, November 1937, cover by Brundage) ........... 975
69. Flames of Vengeance (Weird Tales, December 1937) ........................ 987
1938
70. Frozen Beauty (Weird Tales, February 1938, cover by Finlay) ................ 1002
71. Incense of Abomination (Weird Tales, March 1938, cover by Brundage) ....... 1016
72. Suicide Chapel (Weird Tales, June 1938, cover by Brundage) ................ 1029
73. The Venomed Breath of Vengeance (Weird Tales, August 1938) ............. 1042
74. Black Moon (Weird Tales, October 1938) ................................ 1053
1939
75. The Poltergeist of Swan Upping (Weird Tales, February 1939) ............... 1067
76. The House Where Time Stood Still (Weird Tales, March 1939) .............. 1083
77. Mansions in the Sky (Weird Tales, June-July 1939) ........................ 1099
78. The House of the Three Corpses (Weird Tales, August 1939) ................ 1111
1942–1945
79. Stoneman’s Memorial (Weird Tales, May 1942) .......................... 1125
80. Death’s Bookkeeper (Weird Tales, July 1944, cover by Tilburne) ............. 1138
81. The Green God’s Ring (Weird Tales, January 1945) ....................... 1147
82. Lords of the Ghostlands (Weird Tales, March 1945, cover by Tilburne) ........ 1159
1946-1951
83. Kurban (Weird Tales, January 1946, cover by Tilburne) ..................... 1171
84. The Man in Crescent Terrace (Weird Tales, March 1946) .................. 1182
85. Three in Chains (Weird Tales, May 1946)................................ 1192
86. Catspaws (Weird Tales, July 1946, cover by Fox) .......................... 1204
87. Lottë (Weird Tales, September 1946) .................................... 1213
88. Eyes in the Dark (Weird Tales, November 1946) .......................... 1223
89. Clair de Lune (Weird Tales, November 1947) ............................. 1233
90. Vampire Kith and Kin (Weird Tales, May 1949) .......................... 1242
91. Conscience Maketh Cowards (Weird Tales, November 1949) ................ 1251
92. The Body Snatchers (Weird Tales, November 1950) ....................... 1260
93. The Ring of Bastet (Weird Tales, September 1951)......................... 1268
HARRISONVILLE, New Jersey, ca. 1934
Seabury Quinn
BY MANLY WADE WELLMAN
Ifirst knew Seabury Quinn by his stories, back in the mid- detective in weird fiction.” After all, said Stong, Sherlock
1920’s when I was in college. Farnsworth Wright, ed- Holmes was “quite as incredible as Jules de Grandin.” If this
iting Weird Tales, was notably careful about what he was to suggest that de Grandin was a sort of Sherlock
bought and printed; but almost every issue gave us another Holmes, that isn’t quite right. He had the wrong physique,
adventure of Jules de Grandin, spruce and assured and the the wrong accent, the wrong bearing for that. He was more
right man in the right place. His duty was trailing and Seabury Quinn than anything — blond, compact, trim-
neutralizing the darkest night side of evil, in the dubious mustached, impeccable without primness, beautifully
New Jersey town of Harrisonville. Quinn’s de Grandin mannered, profoundly versed in the whole fabric of
stories were solidly in Weird Tales, side by side with the supernatural wickedness and saying nay to all of it.
works of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, August Quinn’s education had been for the law. He was author of
Derleth, Frank Belknap Long and others of the circle I an erudite Syllabus of Mortuary Jurisprudence. Learnedly
wanted to join. he lectured on the subject to schools and meetings of
By 1928, when I was working on a Kansas newspaper embalmers and morticians, not neglecting reference to
and selling a very few stories, Quinn was notable enough by beliefs about the dead which have influenced burial customs
name to have an impersonator. This was a plump, plausible all the way back to the Stone Age. For years he was editor
haunter of drug stores and dog races, who once exhibited a of a trade magazine for followers of that very necessary
fat check and said it was pay for a story. When I tried to ask profession.
about Jules de Grandin, he mumbled and flushed and But mostly he was a writer.
changed the subject. At last he left town. He wasn’t Quinn, He called himself a writer, not an author. “An author is a
of course, nor did he deserve to be. writer who wears spats and carries a walking stick,” he liked
Depressioned out of my job, I managed to write my way to say. Let it be recognized that he took his writing seriously
to New York. There I met Quinn at a party, along with Otis without taking himself seriously. It was good to hear him
Adelbert Kline, John Campbell, Sprague de Camp, Edmond talk about it, but he never told anyone else what to write,
Hamilton, Jack Williamson. He and I sat down to drink and and did not allow others to lecture him on the same subject.
talk together. He burned with what be had begun to hope He used the words he knew about things he knew, from
would be his finest single story, an offbeat but honest dedicated study of the trade and, mostly, the world of the
confession of faith. He had just left his desk where he had occult. He wore out dictionary after dictionary, edition after
been at work on Roads, one of the great Christmas legends edition of Roget’s Thesaurus, to be as sure as possible of the
of all time; about a Teutonic centurion of a Roman legion right word. His was a happily scholarly nature. The
who witnessed both the Nativity and Crucifixion, who spoke thousands of volumes in his library included sections of
with devils and angels, who at last ventured away and away works in various languages concerning history, law, foreign
into unknown possibilities until he became Santa Claus travel, folkways, esoteric religions, the classics, the poets
forever. Quinn had dived fathoms deep into source materials and the arts, a number of highly material sciences. He was
on Roman times, Bible times, barbarian times, the a compulsive taker and keeper of notes. His files included
geography of the Holy Land and the North Pole. He scolded sheafs of cards, not only with germs for stories and scraps of
himself about his story, certain it would be a good one but characterization or scenic description, but the stuff of the
determined to make it a great one. More or less, eventually stories themselves — sentences, paragraphs, whole
he succeeded. sequences, to be fitted in when the time was ready.
That was the beginning of our close friendship that lasted As to de Grandin’s Harrisonville, there happens to be an
until his death, which everyone thought came too soon. actual town of that name in New Jersey, on the bank of
Phil Stong, in an editorial note to his anthology The Other Oldman’s Creek (who was that creek named after?) near the
Worlds, complained that Seabury Quinn was “the worst Delaware somewhat south of Camden and not unthinkably
fictional opportunist in the business,” but confessed that he far across state from the pine barrens and groves where they
could not afford to leave out the “best known supernatural have been talking of the Jersey Devil for a century and a
ix
X THE COMPLEAT ADVENTURES OF JULES DE GRANDIN
half, where sometimes they gather to hunt for it with dogs natural for him.
and guns and never quite catch up with it. But these We saw each other whenever we could and between
Harrisonvilles are not the same town. The one where de times we wrote to each other. When I began writing stories
Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge live is nearer the Hudson, about Judge Pursuivant, the Judge and de Grandin seemed
partakes in its way of New York suburbia. It also partakes, to become friends quite naturally. Neither of us brought the
somewhat, of Lovecraft’s Arkham. It is somehow a rallying other’s character on stage, but Pursuivant and de Grandin
point for terror, for enchanters and enchantresses, foreign wrote or telephoned each other for special information and
practitioners of curses, vampires, werewolves, demons. In special rewarding companionship, in somewhat the way
shadows along its streets may bob up things with different Quinn and I did.
shapes, different eyes and mouths than honest citizens, He spent his last years near Washington. He kept on
perhaps with antlers, with wings. But terror can be met with writing and he was unweariedly kind to young writers who
rationalization, which makes it less than terrible. came visiting. His home was a good, welcoming one. He
Quinn wrote of other things. He was particularly good on loved his wife and was justly proud of the son who bears his
themes of the Orient, the Near East, the Middle and the Far. name. Seabury Quinn — a good name, that one. Even the
Here, too, he did wide and intelligent research, elsewhere imposter I have mentioned must have loved it in his own
than in chop suey restaurants and Turkish coffee houses. Alf sneaky way.
Laylah Wah Laylah, the Thousand Nights and a Night of It is good to think and think again of Seabury Quinn,
Sheherazade as translated by Richard Francis Burton, was what he did and how he acted, this full-blooded, good-hu-
among his favorite readings. He wrote stories that could mored, hospitable, wise friend, whose taste in food and
have been enchanted nights beyond those Thousand and drink and reading and writing always seemed so admirable,
One. who lived his long life to a rewarding full. He has gone to
With all his serious attention to the supernatural, he was where things of evil are only diverting topics of convers-
content to wonder about it. He said, “I will believe in ghosts, ation. I hope he knows that his book is being printed, that it
devils, vampires and werewolves at whatever time I have a is still happily baleful nighttime under the Harrisonville
convincing firsthand experience with any or all of them.” I moon, that Jules de Grandin knows how to drive the hideous
think he was instinctively religious, as most human beings wickedness back to its unhallowed grave.
seem to be in some way. That was enough of the super-