You cannot but feel an almost physical, painful sense of surprise – you run headlong with the fantastical adventures of Conan, and all of a sudden it’s over.
And not only that, because Robert E. Howard is no more.

Beyond the Black River appears in the May 1935 issue of Weird Tales, that shares with The Flower-Women, by C.A. Smith and a reprint of Lovecraft’s Arthur Jermyn.
It is, with little doubt, one of the better stories by Howard – clearly inspired by the tales by Fenimore Cooper, it is mature, tense, desperate in its conclusion. In barely features Conan, who acts an accessory; the focus of the action is Balthus, a young man caught in the advancing tide of Pictish invaders, sweeping the newly settled lands beyond the Black River. It is the story of Balthus and his dog Slasher, fighting to the death the forces that are destined to obliterate the Hyborians ephemeral civilization.

It is powerful in portraying the hopeless heroism of its characters, and lives a lasting impression in the reader.
It certainly left a lasting impression in me.

Come November 1935, Weird Tales puts Howard next story on the cover – and thus Shadows in Zamboula again leaves a lasting impression in the reader, if for very different reasons.
A particularly prudish Google, in its 25th anniversary, hindered my search for a high quality image of the cover, fearing for my immortal soul, or my eyesight, or some other nonsense. Here it is, courtesy of the always great Margaret Brundage…

The story is routine Conan, but fun, as Conan saves a naked woman in the streets of Zamboula only to be drawn into a palace intrigue and a cult of cannibals.
It is fast paced and grimly humorous – it features a bad guy named Baal Pteor (an in-joke for Conan readers) and the revenge of Conan on the innkeeper who tried to sell him as dinner for cannibals is memorable.

Next, in a strict chronological order, is The Hour of the Dragon, the only complete novel ever written by Robert E. Howard – but I’ll save that for the final post in this series.

And then is Red Nails, which I have already discussed here. The story ran in Weird Tales from July to October 1936, once again getting one Brundage cover that Google is worried I am looking for.

But of course Howard had ended his life on June 11th of that year.
It was all over.