Story title: "Loot of the Bengal Sea, Part II"
Cover Date: November 1937
By: Norman Daniels and Fred Guardineer
At least the first page is available this time but, man the scan is pretty bad. Look at this summary:
Anyway, the printing here is even worse than last time: It's not just two paragraphs that are out of order, but the whole thing! I'm not even gonna try to explain how to read it, so here are the notes from CMRO, thanks to whoever posted them!
1) The first 7 paragraphs of Page 3 (through "...informed the captain").
2) All of Page 2.
3) The last paragraph of Page 4 through all of Page 5.
4) Paragraph 8 on Page 3 ("Then a calm steady voice...") to the end of Paragraph 12 on Page 4 (" 'But what is it all about?' Shorty asked.")
5) All of Page 6 through to the end.
As you can see, it's an absolute mess, so let's get into it! Oh, and this is also a text story.
We get started with Dave back on the ship and trying to piece together the mystery from last time. He has a quick conversation with one of the passengers and figures he should investigate the Hindu priest who's also traveling inside the ship (because of course he suspects HIM). He then notices a diving suit and an oxygen tank (I guess this is a clue?) and, gun in hand (but hidden), heads to the priest's room.
He proceeds to question the priest, who denies it all, but Dave quickly figures out that one of his men must've been on the water since he's soaked (not a particularly well-hidden clue, mind you). The priest, Randa, then pins Dave against the wall and points a knife at his throat.
Then the passenger from before comes in and reveals he was in on it too... Why tho? Dave has no reason to suspect him. He's white! Also, what happened to the hidden gun. Maybe it's a good time to pull it out?
Anyway, I guess Dave wants to give time to Randa to confess for no reason like the generic bad guy he is. And check this out: "You ordered them (the diamonds) and now you're stealing them! It's a clever plan"... It is?!
We then get some background and it turns out that Dave has thwarted some of Randa's evil ventures in the past, so he made sure he would be here to get his revenge. This is classic dumbass villain. Instead of going against some half-witted random cop, you're going against the one guy you KNOW can beat you, all for petty revenge.
I think this image goes here? Why is there blood on the knife tho? Am I spoiling you? Anyway, the pages are all out of order, so I can't really tell, and this entry is starting to look a bit dry with all that text and no illustrations.
After some more idle chatter, Dave is thrown into the captain´s quarters, where Shorty awaits, also defeated. Randa makes Dave open the safe with the diamonds for him, but in his eagerness, he lowers his guard and a fight ensues.
Obviously, the good guy wins and ends up holding Randa hostage, not by pointing his gun at him mind you, but by grabbing his neck. The other bad guys (who are at least smart enough to use his guns) are too scared to accidentally hit Randa or, get this, that Dave might "carry out his threat even if riddled with lead first". I mean, c'mon, he's an action hero but he's no Steve Carson.
Things take a turn for the worse one another goon walks into the scene and threatens to have the entire crew shot down if Dave doesn't let Randa go... Just how many people are working for him?
Dave complies, so Randa grabs a knife and stabs him in the shoulder... Oh! That's where that image was from! Anyway... The diamonds are taken out of the safe and Randa and Muller have a bit of a lover´s spat. Muller wants to kill the dynamic duo right away, but Randa, being the big boss-man he is, also wants to do them himself. He then shows the heroes his preferred execution method: there's another ship nearby ready to sink this one.
Dave proceeds to explain Randa's plan to Shorty and the audience. He ordered the diamonds in the name of some Maharajah, and the shipment was supposedly given the green light by spies he planted. Weird that nobody asked for confirmation from the Maharajah himself but whatever. Then he stole the first shipment and made it look like an accident so the Diamond Syndicate would have to send another one so as not to lose the client. So, this is basically when you break a product yourself and still try to use the warranty but on an evil mastermind scale.
After that, Shorty opens the door (Why did no one bother to tie him up again?) and they rescue the few non-goon crew members.
Then they start feeling the acid that was apparently used on the Mandora, which is apparently part of Randa's MO: Burn them with the acid so they jump into the sea willingly and are eaten by sharks.
Yeah, that was underwhelming. I thought something cool would finally happen when I saw this image, but it's only there to illustrate Dave's explanation.
Randa, Muller, and the rest of the crooks escape with the diving suits, leaving a bunch of punctured lifeboats behind. Dave, with no escape in sight, takes out a rifle and figures he might as well take a few shots at them.
With only one shot, Dave causes a big explosion and sinks the enemy ship. Turns out he had figured out the entire plan and turned it around by planting the bomb that was meant to blow him up in one of the diving suits. The shot was all he needed to set it off. Now, what kind of a bomb strong enough to blow up an entire ship is so easily hidden inside a diving suit? And what happened to the gas that was burning them before? Hell if I know! And hell if I care!
Anyway, let's move to the ratings.
Quality/Enjoyment: 2/5
Honestly, the first part of the story was a lot better. The setup of the mystery was so much more interesting than its resolution, and while this part had some cool action, the pacing was all over the place. It also doesn't help that this isn't a comic book and that I don't really care about any of these characters in the first place.
Historical/Cultural/Narrative Significance: 1/5
That's it for today! Next time, more of the same but at least in comic book form. We're basically going through the entire (but admittedly short) run of Dave Dean before moving on to more relevant stuff. Thank you for reading and have a nice rest of your day!
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