Weird West Review 2: The Horror from the Mound, The Dead Remember, Old Garfield's Heart
We've already reviewed Pigeons from Hell, and now here are 3 more of Robert E Howard's Weird West stories: The Horror from the Mound, The Dead Remember, and Old Garfield's Heart.
THE HORROR FROM THE MOUND
Greedy Steve Brill becomes convinced there could be gold in the mysterious mound near his home. His neighbour, Juan Lopez, begs him not to dig it, for it's not gold that's buried there, but something terrible. He even agrees to share the tale his family has handed down from generation to generation so Brill can see why digging up the mound would be a very bad idea. However, Brill starts to suspect that Lopez may be lying to him and have designs on the hidden gold himself...
I swore to silence on the Holy Crucifix, just as every man of my family has sworn. It is a thing so dark, it is to risk damnation even to speak of it! Were I to tell you, I would blast the soul from your body.
Yes, Brill has to be an idiot for the story to work, but it was still annoying seeing him dig up the mound instead of waiting for Lopez to finish writing down his family secret. The tale of the Spanish expedition would've been better if the culprit were less obvious. And who the hell keeps a cannibal slave? Also, since this is a Weird West story, we were expecting a different nonhuman creature. All that said, Howard wrote good horror, and there are some nice spooky moments.
THE DEAD REMEMBER
Jim Gordon is convinced he's going to die and he may very well be right!
Last night I saw Jezebel, just as plain I see the pistol on my hip. She smiled like the devil himself and said something I couldn't understand, but she pointed at me, and I think I know what that means.
Most of the story is told in a letter from Gordon to his brother, but in the end Howard switches POV to let other characters tell what happened to him. He definitely deserves whatever's coming and since his narration isn't particularly interesting, all we could do was wait for what would surely be a gory comeuppance. However, all we got was a malfunctioning gun. Yes, there was supernatural interference, but we were hoping the 'big snake and the black swamp and the white cock' would be a little more creative. As for Howard's usual goriness, he was surprisingly restrained. Yes, there was 'his brains were oozing out', but it's like his heart wasn't in it. So far, this is the worst of the bunch, and not just because of the lack of gore.
OLD GARFIELD'S HEART
Old Garfield has been old for a very long time, but now it seems he's finally drawing his last breath. The old man disagrees, but as a precaution, he makes a strange request to his doctor - if his body is ever damaged beyond repair, he must cut out his heart...
I felt a slight stirring in my hair. Outside was stillness, and the stars, and the black shadows of the post-oak woods. The lamp cast old Garfield's shadow grotesquely on the wall, so that it did not at all resemble that of a human, and his words were strange as words heard in a nightmare.
This one was the weirdest of all. It looked like it was going to be something more conventional until old Garfield told his story and things took a turn for the cosmic. We didn't care for the human conflict, but it was needed for the ending. And while we wanted to know more about Ghost Man and his god, it was probably better for the story that Howard didn't give many details. This was a good surprise after the crapiness of The Dead Remember.
WEIRD WEST
Robert E Howard wrote 2 more Weird West stories - The Man on the Ground and Black Canaan. Since we already reviewed 4, there's no reason not to review the last 2. Stay tuned for more Weird West reviews!