"The Mighty Manslayer" -- Harold Lamb (ADVENTURE, October 15, 1918) PART 2

As promised, here we are with the second half of my write-up of Harold Lamb's novelette "The Mighty Manslayer," a saga of adventure in Central Asia in the 16th Century.

Diving right in from where we left off yesterday, Khlit the Cossack, Mir Turek the duplicitous merchant and the young girl Kerula have been taken captive by the Chinese army besieging the Tatar city of Altur Haiten, under the command of General Hang-Hi.

Brought before Hang-Hi and his advisers, Mir Turek falls to his knees, babbling about recognizing the significance of Khlit's sword and the esteem he could curry by bringing Khlit to Hang-Hi and the Mandarins of China.  And no, I'm not going to tell you, readers, the significance of the sword -- far be it from me to spoil the thrill of discovery you will have from reading the tale for yourselves! What Mir Turek doesn't mention is the discovery of Ghengis Khan's tomb, though Fogan Ultai, not a captive but an honored guest of the general's, is more than happy to tell that story to Hang-Hi and his assembled staff.  Mir Turek is crippled, Khlit is made a slave building earthworks for the Chinese assault on Altur Haiten, and Kerula is made part of Hang-Hi's household staff.

Secretly reclaiming his sword, Khlit is press-ganged into service leading Fogan Ultai and several of Hang-Hi's most trusted advisers to the tomb of Ghengis Khan.  Managing to avoid the wafting poisonous fumes himself, Khlit quickly regains his freedom and opts to use it in support of his Tatar brethren.  Sneaking back through Chinese lines, he infiltrates the city and lays out a plan to the khans of the Tatars...

Nope! That's all the synopsis you get! You want to know where the story goes from there, pick up the book and read it for yourself! I mean it, most of his books are pretty nicely priced on Amazon and many have Kindle editions as well.  And I'm not getting any sort of kickback from Amazon for doing this (though I probably should set something up where if you buy stuff through links I post I get Amazon credit), I'm endorsing these books because I'm so thoroughly impressed by "The Mighty Manslayer" and think Lamb's work deserves to be read more widely.

A word of warning to readers with more modern sensibilities; Lamb's descriptions of the Chinese generals is politically incorrect, to say the least.  With phrases like "behind the slant eyes lurked the cruelty of a conquering race" and advisers making suggestions regarding pouring molten silver into a captive's ears to convince him to talk, it's a reminder that at the time this was written, the notion of a "Yellow Peril," in which Asians by their very existence threatened expansion and conquest, was still very much part of the cultural zeitgeist.  However, it's worth noting that at the same time, Khlit is of Asiatic descent and is clearly the hero of the story, and many of Lamb's heroes are Chinese, Indian, Mongol or Muslim.  That the villains of "The Mighty Manslayer" are Chinese does not mean that the author was unequivocally racist towards the Chinese.

The conclusion of the story presents an aspect of Khlit that I personally really enjoyed, his self-effacing nature.  Though highly-skilled and intelligent, Khlit is a humble man at heart and despite learning some pretty earth-shattering things, seeing some incredible sights and taking part in what is, by his own admission, the most amazing battle of his life, at the end of the story he resumes simply being plain old Khlit, wandering across the steppes with his sword at his side and his pipe in his teeth, waiting to see where life takes him next.