Short Story Review: "The Case of the Curio Dealer” by William Hope Hodgson

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This short story is formatted as a ship’s log. The smuggler Captain Gault is a figure author William Hope Hodgson has written of before. In this story, Gault meets a client in San Francisco, a curio shop dealer, (“half Chinaman, a quarter negro, and the other quarter badly mixed”) who asks him to take a “blox, a big, long blox. Long as you, Cap’n” back to London. Gault doesn’t trust the man. At first, the dealer tell him he wants to smuggle a mummy, but Gault sees a look on his face that tells him something more important is at stake. The dealer then confesses his sixteen-year-old son offended an important member of the traditional Chinese community. He has to disappear or risk being executed. Gault feels bad—a kid, a stupid kid, but a kid after all—but it’s not his problem. But the dealer has one more card to play. He reveals he is a member of a secret society the captain also belongs to. Gault is bound to help him. Of course that’s not all that's going on. This is quite the adventure tale informed by the author’s time at sea. Yes, it lacks the racial and ethnic sensitivity 21st century readers find acceptable. It is a product of its time. According to Wikipedia, Hodge developed a program of personal training in response to bullying he received at the hands from older, larger sailors. He was killed by artillery fire during WWI in 1918. I’m unable to find an online version of this story, but is it available in e-book formats. Unfortunately, people want money for those versions. _____ Title: “The Case of the Curio Dealer” Author: William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) First published: London Magazine 1914