This month’s pup tale comes from Short Stories and appeared in the 25 March 1933 issue. The author, Leighton H. Blood, penned several Foreign Legion stories in his latter career as a writer. Blood was an U.S. Army infantry and armor soldier in WWI, achieving the rank of captain by war’s end. In between wars he had a chance to visit the Foreign Legion in Morocco circa 1927/28 which lends his stories a bit of authenticity. His fiction work appeared mostly in The Popular Magazine and some slicks.
The hero of this tale is Rene Falk, AKA John Edward Lockett, an American Legionnaire born in Chicago who joined the Legion after years of undercover espionage work in North Africa during the Great War where he foiled German plans to arm Berber rebels against the French. It seems that once dipped in the mire of espionage it is not so easy to get away from it’s ramifications, even when the war is long over with. (Note, this story contains one of the slowest forms of intelligence communications I’ve ever read about.)
You can read the entire Short Stories issue here.
Mon Legionnaire 