When you say Erle Stanley Gardner you don’t immediately think of the Whispering Sands stories. That honor goes to the Perry Mason mysteries. What some may not know is that he was one of the most prolific writers of all time, selling over 300 million copies. In addition to writing the Mason books, the Cool and Lam series (as A. A. Fair) and the D. A. series for Morrow, he pumped out several novellas and short stories every month for over three decades.
A True Southwesterner
One of the best series he wrote was the quasi-Western series collectively known as “The Whispering Sands” series for Argosy Magazine between 1930-1934. Most of these stories have been collected in two volumes:Whispering Sands: Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert (1981) and Pay Dirt and Other Whispering Sands Stories of Gold Fever and The Western Desert (Morrow, 1983). Of the eighteen stories collected (of the twenty-one), all but two featuring Bob Zane, a knowledgeable desert prospector, an amalgamation of the author’s own personality and the type of man Gardner knew from his travels.
These tales might be seen as Westerns by some readers but as the books’ over-long title state they are actually “Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert”. Which isn’t to say “The Whispering Sands” stories wouldn’t appeal to Western fans, but that Gardner has mixed a wonderful blend of the Western, Mystery and Adventure genres into these stories. The fiction most similar is perhaps Jack London’s stories of the Klondike, in that Gardner captures a place and how it affects people in the same way.
Gardner states his theme in each story (which he never intended to be read in a volume but in different issue of a magazine), telling about the “sand whispers”:
Of course, those whispers, aren’t really voices. I know as well as you do that they’re the noises made by the sand scurrying along on the wings of the desert winds and rustling against the cacti and the sage. And then, when the wind gets stronger, you an hear the sound of sand rustling against sand, the strangest whisper of all.
It is this desert phenomenon that has branded these stories “The Whispering Sands” stories. Gardner writes of these things with a passion for the West that could only come from living there. He traveled largely through Southern California, Nevada and Mexico, camping out-of-doors, and writing his famous Perry Mason novels while living the life a Westerner.
1930
The twenty-one Whispering Sands tales share many themes but also vary with the fortunes of Bob Zane, the hero for most of the run. “Gold Blindness” (March 8, 1930) is the first “Whispering Sands” story and one that does not feature the experienced gold-hunter. Jimmy, a young prospector finds a mine of raw gold held by a band of Indians. The man bides his time, gets to know the Indians well until the beautiful Auno gives him a choice, her love or the gold. The short ending tells how Jimmy chose. Gardner portrays the Indians with depth in this and all his stories, showing them as he knew them and not as Hollywood villains or saints.
“Fall Guy” (March 22, 1930) concerns Sid, a mine guard, who with his friend, Phil, battle Pedro Gallivan, a Mexican bandit who plays it close to the law, always using a fall guy to take the blame. The plot becomes complicated when Dixie Carson enters the scene, asking Phil to rehabilitate a drug-addicted City man named Hedley. Pedro uses Hedley as his fall guy but Phil evens the score.
This story is the first to use the idea of the desert strengthening the weak. As Gardner says more than once: “’But that’s why the desert is so kind. It’s cruel to those that don’t understand it; to the person who can understand her moods she’s a kind and loving mother. There’s nothing that develops character like cruelty, and the development of character is all life is for.’” He would use this theme again in “Written in Sand”, “Pay Dirt”, “The Valley of Small Fears” and “Sand Blast”.
“Stone Frogs” (May 31, 1930)
“Golden Bullets” (June 7, 1930) is the first Bob Zane story. Zane goes into Yaqui territory in the Sierra Madres to find two sets of gold seekers, the first, a woman named Stella McCrae, who wants to find a fortune to save herself from marrying for money. The other pair are two bad apples, following her. Bob saves Stella but the other two fall prey to the Yaquis. The title of the story comes from the Yaqui Indians using gold for bullet slugs.
“The Valley of Little Fears” (September 13, 1930) doesn’t feature Zane but a miner named Dunn. The title refers to both a man and a dog who were tormented by their cowardice until Big Bertha, a restaurant owner, teaches Growls and Fred Smith how to overcome their habit of weakness. Tied into this is murder and robbery, that Dunn investigates. The villains are the bullies who have to face man and dog in a show-down.
“Blood-Red Gold” (September 30, 1930) finds Zane on the trail for alluvial gold which is covered in red metal. He is also hunting revenge for the death of Sid Grahame by the city man, Harry Ortley. Harry is one in a string of city-bred baddies in the series, who exemplify the greed, hypocrisy and soft weakness of the non-desert man. Zane and a woman friend of Grahame’s track the killer to the mine then have to survive Ortley’s cunning mind and high-powered rifle. Bob wins in the end because he understands the desert better.
October 25, 1930 featured A. Merrit’s The Snake Mother on the cover, not Whsipering Sands
“Written in Sand” (October 25, 1930) is a convoluted story about a woman who is trying to clear her husband of a frame-up. Zane runs across the woman several times as she pursues the men responsible for her husband’s arrest. He is in for the finale which features a shoot out in the desert.
“Priestess of the Sun” (December 6, 1930) is an old-fashioned Murder Mystery. Zane finds the skeleton of a mule that has been shot with a high-powered rifle (the weapon of choice of evil city men). From the clues, Bob figures a woman was ambushed and left for dead in the desert. Later he meets two men who travel with him, though he’s not sure which is the killer. After Zane figures out the murderer, the woman, who is not dead, and has “gone native” appears like an Indian Goddess, frightening the killer to death. The other man proves to be her boyfriend, who goes to live with her in the desert.
1931
In “Pay Dirt” (April 25, 1931) an old prospector is murdered, sending his young ward, Ed Bocker, out into the desert with Bob Zane. Word gets out that the old man left him a rich find in gold and soon the thieves are dogging them. In the end, Ed learns how to be a man from the desert. One last surprise awaits Bob Zane.
“Sign of the Sun” (June 27, 1931)
“Stamp of the Desert” (October 17, 1931) concerns “hi-graders” or miners who steal from the mines they work in. Fred Conway, a friend of Zane’s is framed as a high grader and Bob must find out who the real crooks are to save him.
In “Singing Sand” (November 7, 1931) a city-slicker named Harry Karg hires Bob Zane to take him and a small party into the dangerous Yaqui Indian territory. Zane and Karg fight for supremacy of the little band. Harry Karg’s own greed and lies deliver him up to the angry Yaquis.
1932
“The Whip Hand” (January 23, 1932) features more claim-jumpers. This time Zane must rescue a young woman and trick the crooks into buying out his own worthless mine. He would use a similar trick again in “Sand Blast”.
“The Land of Poison Springs” (April 9, 1932) features another band of crooks trying to kill off their only witness, Bob Zane. The wily desert-man leads them on a chase through land with poisoned springs. His final trick is hilarious, as he escapes while the crooks cover themselves with sand as an antidote to water they think is poisonous. As in “Blood-Red Gold”, it is Zane’s knowledge of the desert that proves superior.
“The Law of Drifting Sand” (August 30, 1932) features another pair of destined lovers. Zane must rescue them when they foolishly get stranded in the desert. The young folks have a map and crooks following them. Zane saves the day by remembering “the law of the drifting sand”—that only the small dunes move but the larger ones stay fast.
1933
“The Land of Painted Rocks” (January 28, 1933) features an Indian who leaves Bessie Crayton a lost fortune. Bob Zane and Bess must avoid the city thugs who murdered the Indian and solve the mystery to find the gold. One of the more Mystery-oriented stories, this tale features another lost mine and secret gold.
“Law of the Rope” (March 11, 1933) is another Murder Mystery. This time Zane has official powers as an employee of the Bleaching Skull Mine. He has been hired to stop a rash of payroll hold-ups and high-grading. Zane traps the culprits, employees of the mine, using his knowledge of the desert to prove their guilt. A great Western-style gun-battle follows.
“Law of the Ghost Town” (April 22, 1933) is a departure in the Whispering Sands saga. In this tale, Bob Zane is temporarily deputy sheriff of a once-violent mining town called Bodie. A slick city man murders one partner in a rich claim of some mysterious ore but meets his death when the other partner mistakes him in a drunken stupor for a long-dead rival in the good old days.
“Carved in Sand” (June 17, 1933) is more typical of a Perry Mason story since it it involves a court case. Bob Zane and his young friend, Peter Ayers, intervene between two sheriffs trying to arrest a woman in the desert, a looker named Margaret Blake. Pete and Margaret Blake get arrested the following day and it is up to Zane to clear them of accessory to murder. Margaret’s father has been arrested for the death of Bob Skinner, a rival prospector who had stolen $5000 worth of gold from him. The testimony of a “lunger”, a man convalescing in the desert from an lung ailment, by the name of Ernest Peterman, gives the fatal evidence against the miner for he had seen smoke coming from Skinner’s cabin before the murder. Zane looks over the murder site, follows some suspicious tracks leading from the corral, and then takes Peterman to look a second time at the cabin. Interrupting the preliminary hearing, Zane not only clears Blake but sets a trap for the real killer.
In “The Big Circle” (September 2, 1933) Bob Zane is once again trailed by killers. Zane tricks them by leading them off into waterless country where they throw away their guns in the long struggle to keep walking. The clever desert man makes a long circle, arriving back at their guns and rescue.
1934
“Sand Blast” (July 21, 1934) tells how Bob rescues an old partner’s city-soft son, George Ringley, from kidnappers then takes him to the desert to toughen him up. Zane, a woman named Sally Ehlers and George deal with claim jumpers. The first part of the story is worthy of Dashiell Hammett while the second is pure Western.
The “Whispering Sands” stories have the feel of the Western, shoot-outs, desert gold and a mixture of Western, Indian and Mexican characters, but by being set in the 1930’s these stories often feel like the Detective fiction of that era. Since both the cowboy and the detective try to bring lawfulness to where there is none, this isn’t surprising. Bess Drake, a character from “The Law of the Rope” asks Zane about the desert: “Do you ever feel that there’s something about it that demands justice—something that betrays men who are dishonest?’” Bob’s reply: “I didn’t say anything, because I knew it was a question that didn’t need an answer.”
“The Whispering Sands” stories ended in 1934 with “Sand Blast” as Gardner spent more time with his ever-popular lawyer, Perry Mason. To the courtroom fan this seems fair, but to those who love the West, even if it’s not the Old West, this seems a shame. Gardner was a lawyer by profession but a Westerner at heart.
