This post is brought to you by Strange Adventures, a collection of world-spanning Horror-Adventure tales coming out in early 2025. Like Edmond Hamilton, I enjoy a good adventure story with plenty of strangeness. For more on Horror Adventure, check out this earlier post about Robert E. Howard. Or Basil Copper.
Edmond Hamilton is best known for his world wrecking Space Opera but he wasn’t above writing something a little more down-to-earth, at least in setting. “The Lake of Life” was a three-part novella from Weird Tales, September October November 1937 that is set on our Earth in a time like the present. (None of the three parts got the cover.) One of Hamilton’s influences was A. Merritt and I think Ed was working in that vein with this story. Hamilton claimed he was more influenced by Homer Eon Flint, but there are Hamilton pieces very obviously in the Merritt mode. (James Reasoner makes a good case for Doc Savage being an influence. This reviewer sees a more Edgar Rice Burroughs influence.) Whether it was Merritt or these others (or all of them), this short novel by Hamilton is a neglected classic.
The other influencing factor may have been Ed’s new stories for adventure Pulps outside of Weird Tales, which were often set in places like Africa and Asia. Hamilton set out to make his living writing Science Fiction alone. This proved to be almost impossible with the number of SF magazines in the 1930s. Rather than write Westerns, he chose the adventure magazines and the Shudder Pulps like Thrilling Mystery. These tales were always explained horrors with no real monsters, but Hamilton’s favorite themes, like evolution, can still be found there.
Segment One
Six men are in a boat, fleeing a French pursuit ship. Desperate, they try to speed into the mouth of the Bembu River but wreck their boat, The Venture, on the shoals. They jump into a canoe and beat the pursuers into the jungle stream. The men are led by Clark Stannard, who like his companions is a man desperate enough to risk defying the French, who have declared the region off limits. The six were hired by Asa Brand, dying millionaire, to find the waters of the legendary Lake of Life. The old man wants a sample of the glowing waters so that he can restore his health, possibly even become immortal.
The others in the expedition include Captain Ephraim Quell, owner of the sunken ship, Mike Shinn, an ex-prizefighter, John Morrow, a former army officer, Link Wilson, Texas cowboy and Blacky Cain, gangster, all men dishonored or on the run. All, like Stannard, are in need of a half million dollars if they succeed in bringing the water back to Brand.
The group paddle upstream before abandoning the canoe. The jungle air is filled with drums that speak of their invasion. The local Kiridu don’t attack as the men make their way through the jungle in the direction of the Mountains of Death. These peaks encircle the Lake of Life but reportedly are haunted by spirits called The Guardians. It is only as they near the foot of the mountains the Kiridu attack. The invaders are well armed and give a running gun fight that gets them to the slopes. (Blacky Cain uses his Thompson machine gun to mow down spear-throwing tribesmen.) Several wild hogs break from the jungle and flee up the slope, only to be disintegrated by some mysterious force.
The men realize they can’t go over the mountain so they follow the base. Africans try to kill them but their superior fire power wins out. They find an opening into the mountainous ring but it must be navigated by water. When the Amafuka, the blacks charged with guarding the mountain, see the men building a raft, they try harder to kill them. Blacky Cain sends them packing with two hand grenades he brought along.
The men escape into the raging waters. They have to be careful for if they touch the walls of the canyon, the mysterious power of the mountain will kill them. A turn in the stream requires them to push off with their paddles. The magical fire burns their poles and paddles but they survive to get to the great waterfall beyond. The raft goes over the falls, disintegrating under them.
The men survive the plunge, only to find a fabulous red-colored city waiting inside the mountains. (Here Hamilton is clearly inside the genre made famous by H. Rider Haggard and later, A. Merritt and Edgar Rice Burroughs.) The men see a group of warriors in black armor spying on the distant towers. The invaders attack and the outsiders gun down all of them except their leader. (Clark Stannard abandoned the rifles when the raft sank but they still have their pistols.) Removing the man’s helmet, they find it is actually a woman. She is Lurain, daughter of Kimor. Red warriors come from the city and surround all of them. They want to take charge of Lurain but Clark claims her as his prisoner.
The Reds see the power of a gun and play along, at least for now. Clark and his men are taken by Captain Dral to K’Lamm the red city. The Reds too wants the secret of the Lake of Life. They have been fighting a war with Dordona the black city for the waters of the lake for ages. (The people of both city are white, of course!)
Segment Two
Clark and Lurain go to see Lord Thargo. He is willing to work with the strangers to get the Water of Life. Lurain, ever the wild cat, defies them to get past the people of Dordona and the Guardians. Thargo dismisses the magical guards as a legend. The king has his sister, Yala, try to get Clark drunk so she can pump him for information. (That is Yala in the Virgil Finlay illo.) Stannard pretends to pass out so he can overhear Thargo, Yala and the king’s vizier, Shama, plot to use the outsiders then kill them.
Clark Stannard gathers his men. The gangster, Blacky Cain, refrained from drinking and helps gather the others. Clark discusses with Lurain a new deal. He will get her safely out of the city, but she must lead him to the Lake of Life. She agrees. The group sneak out of their guarded room by making ropes and climbing out the window. They go to the building where the horses are kept and get rides. They are discovered and have to shoot the guards. They desperately ride for the gates, killing when necessary. The portcullis is being dropped but Captain Quell gives his life to see them escape. He has been a broken man since losing his ship and chooses death.
The fugitives ride hard for Dordona. Lurain leads them through the black city, which is not as prosperous or populated as K’Lamm. Over the centuries, people have left Dordona for the other city, losing their faith in guarding the lake from the world. Clark makes the mistake of telling Lurain’s father, Kimor, that she has promised to take them to the holy waters. The king wants them executed as blasphemers but Lurain begs forgiveness because they are strangers. Clark is mad because he has been duped.
That night Lurain sneaks into their rooms. She explains she has always meant to keep her word but Clark’s words messed things up. She takes Clark alone to a secret tunnel that the Reds built long ago but never used long ago. They descend many, many flights of stairs to find the lake below.
Segment Three
Lurain expects to die because of the Guardians. This proves to be only a giant statue of a seal-like alien with a raised flipper and face that warns to go back. Clark fills his flask, is tempted to drink but ultimately pours the water back. The pair return to the surface without the water.
The king and his guards catch them as they make the surface. The strangers and Lurain are to be executed immediately except Thargo and his invasion have come early. The strangers from outside join the Blacks of Dordona in fighting a losing battle. Clark’s men die one after the other defending the temple. John Morrow dies as the invaders appear and Mike Shinn goes down like a champ fighting with his fists. In the end, it is only Clark, Lurain and Blacky Cain who survive, sealing up the temple against Thargo and his men. The Reds break down the door as Blacky tries to kill Thargo with his gat. He fails and dies. Clark and Lurain flee to the lake for a final battle. Thargo’s numbers are too great and the pair are knocked up but not killed as the Reds drink the shining waters of the lake even as they plan to go out into the outer world and conquer all humankind.
Clark regains consciousness and puts two slugs into the now immortal Thargo. The bullets don’t do anything. (The Finlay image above.) The king will now kill the pair before going back to the surface. Except the Guardians finally show up. And in a giant floating city! The Guardians bless Clark and Lurain for not drinking the water. They are told to flee. They run up the stairs before the seal-like immortals collapse the entire cavern, burying the now-immortal Reds along with themselves forever. Clark imagines these undying beings trapped for all time in the rubble. A fitting punishment for Thargo and his gang.
We get a short epilogue where Clark and Lurain meet a Belgian colonial officer in the jungle outside of the valley. Stannard lies and says they never found anything. That Kiridu killed his men. The pair learn Asa Brand has died. Stannard and Lurain, now his wife, salute the brave men who died to save them.
The three-parter ends with a bitter sweet ending that feels like pure A. Merritt to me. The deus ex machina ending of the Guardians seems familiar and the bitterness of the ending is too dour for Edgar Rice Burroughs. (In an ERB tale, all the good guys would survive, get a girl and a pet dog.) I do agree with James Reasoner that the group of men often feels like Doc Savage and his five amazing aids, with Blacky Cain in the Monk Mayfair role. I haven’t described the deaths of these characters overmuch, but each is given a decent death scene, with the cowboy Link Wilson riding and shooting two six shooters like a good Texan, Blacky Cain going out gangster style with a cigarette dangling from his lips. The epilogue of the story really points out how this is the backbone of the tale. Hamlton has borrowed it from the lost patrol motif from adventure fiction.
Conclusion
I look at this story and wonder why it appeared in Weird Tales. The magazine used several similar Merrittesque pieces from Jack Williamson so it isn’t the subject matter. I wonder if Ed tried to sell this one to Argosy but got rejected? (Weird Tales never rejected anything Hamilton offered them.) That being said, the short novel did not receive any covers. Williamson’s Golden Blood got two. The letters of comment were not hostile but none of the segments were deemed the best of the issue. This usually happens with the first. I guess by 1937, this kind of tale wasn’t that unusual. That aside, I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who likes a strange adventure.
Next time… Jack Williamson’s “The Alien Intelligence”…
