The Whacker by Austin Gill

“The Whacker” by Austin Gill was the final story from an author who worked from 1917 to 1938. His stories covered Westerns, detective stories and general adventure in magazines like Munsey’s, Colliers’, Western Story and The Red Book. “The Whacker” was published in The Open Road For Boys (October 1937-March 1938) in six parts, a story of cavemen and dinosaurs. The illustrations were provided by Gordon Nichols and Leo O’Donnell.

Part One

U. S. Army observers, Bob Happit and Noel Green, are in an observation balloon when a twister comes up and drags them away from their tether. Their balloon drifts for most of a day before landing in a box canyon in some remote part of Mexico or South America. In the valley they see a gigantic footprint, then the monster that made it.

They run into a dead end but are rescued by three woman who live in a cave above the rocks. Bob and Noel meet the Landrakes, Mrs. Henry and her two daughters, Janet and Eva. Eva tells them all about life in the valley, the only life she has known. Her father, Henry, had died ten years before when “The Whacker”, the dinosaur that chased the men, whacked him with its tail then ate him.

Mrs. Landrake and Janet prepare a meal. The men become acquainted with the incredible cave home Henry Landrake built. It has running water and gas heat and cooking. They also get acquainted with the two beautiful cave girls.

Part Two

The second part begins with Mrs. Landrake telling her adventures twenty-one years ago. After she and her husband were taken prisoner by Mexican bandits, her husband slits the throat of their driver. (This surprised me if nothing else.) They escape into an unknown valley and a mysterious cave. Something terrible lives in the cave and the couple flee into the Whacker’s valley. Ten years later, after the birth of their two daughters, her husband is killed by the dinosaur.

The two men and the to daughters go out to catch geese. Bob and Eva get trapped in a box canyon. The Whacker is right behind them!

Part Three

Bob and Eva escape the monster by diving into a watery cave at the far end of the valley. Inside they hide while the Whacker plugs the door. This causes the cave to fill with water. Just before Bob is feeling desperate enough to attack the dino, it leaves. As the couple exit Bob notices the sand on Eva’s moccasin. It is gold! Eva doesn’t seem impressed but Bob takes a sample with him.

Later they show the gold to Mrs. Landrake, who admits her husband had suspected there was gold around but could not find it. The men want to gather more but the Whacker is a problem. They decide to lasso it using a snare. The dinosaur walks into the rope snare, made from lines from the balloon, but simply bites through it..

Janet and Noel explore the cave Mrs. Landrake said was haunted by a terrible evil. Something screams at them and they flee.

The boys attempt another try to escape by balloon, using the gas Henry Landrake piped into his cave for cooking. The five people and many bags of gold rise up but can’t clear the walls of the valley. They dump all the gold and their water but can’t get high enough. Mrs. Landrake is especially disappointed at losing the gold.

Part Four

Bob and Noel try again to kill the Whacker, this time dropping a tree on him. The dinosaur shrugs it off. Mrs. Landrake tells them to give it up. They do until they discover a new cave that leads not out of the valley but to a cliff overlooking their valley. Using a handkerchief as a marker they drop a rock to see where it falls. After lining up the missiles they gather huge boulders to drop on the Whacker. Janet and Eva act as bait and the boys shove three boulders onto it, killing him at last.

The boys did not count on problems after they killed the dinosaur. They try to skin the beast but give up. The body begins to rot and the whole valley stinks. To freshen the air, they open the cave that Mr. Landrake sealed because of the weird monsters inside. A strong breeze comes from the cave but also monsters at night. Giant bats attack Bob and Noel who camp near the opening. Seeing the danger, the boys run back to the cave.

Part Five

The next day an earthquake flattens the valley, driving the bat monsters out. Bob and Noel discover a new stream of gas. Better than the last time, this new gas fills the balloon, carries five people and plenty of gold. As they escape the valley at last, one of the bats comes close but doesn’t rip the balloon.

Part Six

The adventurers are blown north. They land in the United States, are spotted by planes, and given a military guard home. Later we learn that the Bob marries Eva and Noel Janet and Mrs. Landrake is a huge hit as a touring lecturer.

The Shadow of Wells

I found this tale particularly interesting in comparison to other authors of cavemen and dinosaur tales. The first is always Edgar Rice Burroughs. ERB had a way of making a gigantic world filled with prehistoric creatures believable. Gill makes a typical mistake about which dinosaurs are carnivores, something ERB would not have done but Lester Dent did. The other writer is H. G. Wells, who trapped a man with a prehistoric bird in “Aepyronis Island”.  Wells set up a template that would be used by other writers.

The Whacker’s attempts to eat the humans and their attempts to kill the beast remind me of Jack London’s “A Relic of the Pleistocene”. Gill has more room since his tale is six times longer than London’s. The dinosaur is old and unable to exert itself for long periods. This and plenty of experience by the Landrakes give the men a huge advantage. Bob and Noel as well as Mrs. Landrake think to skin the beast to show in Philadelphia but the monster is too big. The rotting corpse is lost in the earthquake that buries it forever.

The giant bats also remind of H. G. Wells and his “In the Avu Observatory”. Gill does a great job of hinting their weirdness but fails to do anything good with it at the end. There should have been an epic balloon-bat fight. That would have been a better pay-off than the balloonists worrying about whether they land in Mexico or the US. In the end, the book belongs more to Wells than Burroughs. The balloon always reminds me of Jules Verne. Ian Cameron would tell a similar tale of South America decades later with his The Mountains at the Bottom of the World.

Conclusion

Over-all, “The Whacker” by Austin Gill was more readable than much of what the 1930s juvenile markets presented. I suspect this is because Gill had written for other kinds of Pulps. Bob and Noel were not particularly heroic. The Landrakes girls were braver. The boys had to deal with their future mother-in-law at times too. This gave the lieutenants a distinctly non-heroic underplaying. Gill adds humor to what could have been a tedious tale otherwise. The artwork by Gordon Nichols was especially good. I wish I had discovered more books like this when I was the age of a typical The Open Road For Boys reader. I had to turn to the comics.