John Charles Beecham’s The Argus Pheasant

John Charles Beecham’s novel The Argus Pheasant was serialised in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly in 1917. I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything abut this author other than the fact that he seems to have been reasonably prolific and that both the male protagonist (the young American sailor Peter Gross) and the female protagonist (the beautiful sexy mysterious Koyala) were popular enough with readers to feature in several stories.

Pulp readers in the first half of the 20th century had an insatiable appetite for stories of Americans caught up in adventures in the tropics and the Far East. To be honest it’s an appetite I share. Some of these American adventurers were good-hearted but none too honest while others fell into the square-jawed clean-limbed virtuous hero category. The hero of this novel, Peter Gross, falls into the latter category.

The setting is the Dutch East Indies. The province of Bulungan in Borneo is in a mess. The Dyak hill tribes and the Dyak coast tribes are at each other’s throats. The Chinese and the Malays are regarded with resentment by both the native tribes. Head-hunting is common. Piracy is rife. Taxes have not been paid. The administration is corrupt and inefficient. In desperation the governor appoints a young American sailor as the new resident. Peter Gross has lived in the Dutch East Indies for years, he speaks Dutch and the tribal languages and he is a land-owner in the colony. And he’s half-Dutch.

Peter Gross is not daunted by the prospects before him but there is one problem that would daunt any man. Her name is Koyala. She is young and very beautiful. She is half-French and half-Dyak. She is acknowledged as unofficial leader by the locals - not quite a queen, not quite a high priestess, not quite a warlord but a combination of all these things. To her enemies she is a witch and a scheming temptress and regarded with superstitious fear. And no man can resist her beauty.

She may or may not be in league with the fabulously ric merchant, the wily and vicious Ah-Sing. Ah-Sing may be in league with the pirates. The local Dutch officials may be in league with Ah-Sing and the pirates. For Peter Gross it’s going to be like walking through a minefield.

Peter wants to avoid bloodshed. He wants all these people to live in peace. He thinks that if he treats them fairly and offers them good honesty government they will bury their differences and learn to get along. His plan might have worked smoothly except that there are powerful greedy corrupt men among both the Dutch and the various tribes and the merchants who have been making a lot of money out of exploiting the people, stealing the taxes and engaging in outright piracy. Those men will resist all of Peter’s efforts and if that doesn’t work they’re quite prepared to have him killed and drown the province in blood. They have killed reforming residents before this. And since Dutch government officials are involved in these crooked dealings it’s not easy for Peter to find people he can trust.

He trusts Koyala. The Dutch had put a price on her head. Peter cancels that. He convinces himself that she is now grateful and therefore trustworthy. Everybody warns him not to trust her but she’s so charming and so cute. How could such a charming pretty girl not be trustworthy?

Peter is a reasonably likeable hero and he’s brave and intelligent and in many ways rather wise but he doesn’t understand women.

Koyala is the character who makes this book interesting. Peter doesn’t know for sure if he can trust her. The reader doesn’t know either. We don’t know which way she will jump because she doesn’t know that herself. She’s a complicated woman with complicated motivations and resentments and jealousies. She has a woman’s hatreds. She’s not a straightforward villainess. She genuinely wants what is best for her people, but what she thinks is best for her people doesn’t necessarily fit in with Peter’s plans. She might decide to coöperate with Peter. On the other hand she might decide to have him tortured to death. She might be attracted to him. That might make her even more inclined to have him tortured to death. She is cynical about love and she is not comfortable with her sexual feelings.

There’s plenty of action along the way, on land and at sea. There are hair’s-breadth escapes from danger. There is treachery and there are strong loyalties.

An entertaining tropical adventure. Highly recommended.

The first two Koyala novels have been paired by Steeger Press in their excellent Argosy Library series.