Short Story Sunday 22: Rogues in the House (Reading Conan 07)

It has been a long time since I wrote about Robert E. Howard’s Conan. I’ve been meaning to write stuff for the blog more often this year. If you’re reading this in 2020 you know the kind of year we’ve had. If you’re reading this from sometime in the future, then I would like to apologize from bringing up the horrors we went through.

Suffice to say that it’s been too long since my last time hanging out with the Cimmerian. Long ago my goal was to read all of the Conan stories written by Howard and write something about each one as I go along. Unfortunately, since writing about each story requires time and effort, the project stalled a few years ago. Recently, I’ve been taken by the Conan bug again (lucky for me it wasn’t another altogether dangerous bug, yes more dangerous than Conan) and decided it was a good idea to give this another go.

Another reason to pick up this project again is that I’m looking forward to reading Conan in physical medium. The edition I’ve been reading so far is an ebook compendium of all of Howard’s Conan stories. I also have the three-volume set edited by Karl Edward Wagner. It found it randomly in my local used bookstore and, liking the covers and having always wanted to read these stories, I picked it up. I didn’t find out about how well-regarded they are by fans of Howard and Wagner until after I have purchased them. They do not collect all of the stories, mostly the later ones. I’ve got a three or four more to read as ebooks before I start reading the Wagner edited volumes. That’s extra enticement.

“Rogues in the House” by Robert E. Howard

Originally published in Weird Tales (Jan. 1934)

In an unnamed city, an aristocrat named Murilo received a threatening message from the Red Priest, “the real ruler of the city”. Knowing that hard times and likely death will soon befall him, Murilo decides to go down fighting. Problem is he’s a perfumed nobleman and his idea of fighting usually takes the form of coins exchanging hands and using your influence to pressure others into doing you’re dirty work. Luckily for him, a musclebound Cimmerian was recently imprisoned for doing the sort of thing Murilo was searching for: beheading someone.

Murilo offers Conan a bargain. He will orchestrate a jailbreak for Conan in exchange for the Red Priest’s assassination. Once the job is done he will also pay him in gold,. The deal is struck. The jailbreak doesn’t go as planned, but Conan still manages to escape. After going about a bit of his own business, he heads off to the Red Priest’s domain.

In the dark pits beneath the Red Priest’s house, Conan encounters Murilo. There is only one remaining way out through the house, as the way in which Conan snuck in is now barred. They navigate their way through the tunnels and find the Red Priest himself. He was overthrown by his intelligent ape-like pet Thak. With help from the priest, Conan makes his way upstairs to battle with the creature.

Cover of Conan the Barbarian #11 by Barry Windsor-Smith.

I’ll stop there as you and I both know how the story ends. That’s a bit of my issue with this story is that there are not too many surprises as far as the big story beats are concerned. Having read a few of Howard’s stories by now, there is a clear pattern that has been set. Anybody who is misusing their powers as a ruler against Conan will suffer the consequences. Anybody who is perfumed or dabbles in wizardry and mistreats Conan will suffer the consequences. Anything resembling a monster or other supernatural creature who, by fate or direct action, is confronted with Conan will suffer the consequences.

That being said, knowing where the story will go doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. Howard has a good grasp of Conan at this point and things we are confident will occur do not happen in the obvious way. There are still surprises to be had.

For starters, this story breaks part of the plot formula that Howard has been establishing thus far which boils down evil wizard, damsel in distress, Conan defeats monster and wizard. There is no damsel in distress. Instead there is a former lover who mistreats Conan and receive her comeuppance for getting him jailed. As for the monster, well, it’s not really a monster (see the story’s ending). There are some elements of Howard’s formula that are included in “Rogues”, but they are not presented in the same as in previous stories. It’s something we’ve seen before, but Howard goes much deeper with it in this particular tale.

The rogues in this story are the civilized men, Nabonidus and Murilo. Both use their power to control and deceive those around them with the goal of gaining from it. Their actions are all intended to increase their own wealth and prestige while also reducing that of their adversaries and those they consider inferior. However, they are unable to do so with continued success as there is always another opponent vying for the same wealth and prestige as them. The conflict between themselves is what drives this particular adventure. The two characters that end this story are from the other camp. They are the barbarians.

Famous painting of Conan and Thak by Frank Frazetta.

Enter Conan who gets involved in the conflict between the Red Priest and Murilo because the latter hires his help to defeat the former. Conan agrees because he needs help to get out of his own predicament which so happens to be caused by another instance of civilized people being real jerks: the priest he beheads for fencing stolen goods and the woman who sells him out which causes him to be imprisoned.

Howard shows us the difference in their actions by highlighting the hypocrisy of the civilized world. Both the Red Priest and Murilo used their positions in the city’s political and social groups to influence the city’s affairs. They did so with their own self-interest at heart, but they are not straightforward about it. They are deceiving and secretive in their actions. The priest whom Conan kills, leading to his imprisonment, was a fence for stolen merchandise and a police informant. He wasn’t taking his role seriously, instead he used his title and position in the community to facilitate crooked dealings in order to enrich himself at the cost of others’ misfortunes. Dude was asking for it and so are Murilo and Nabonidus, though Conan seems to have a bit more trust for Murilo, possibly because he behaves with a bit more honestly. At least he does towards Conan.

Conan’s honesty with who he is and what he does, makes him the more honourable character in the story despite his being a barbarian and an outsider. Compared to the other two whose duplicitous actions lead them into a ton of trouble, leading them to request help from Conan, there is no pretense from Conan. While he didn’t ask for Murilo’s help in breaking out from prison, he did accept Murilo’s price for orchestrating his escape. Despite the escape not going as planned, enough of it was genuinely helpful to Conan for him to admit to having benefited from Murilo’s help. In return, he chooses to deliver his end of their agreement and proceed to assassinate the Red Priest. He could easily have gone on his way without fulfilling his end of the bargain, but that’s not who he is.

Interestingly, Howard gives us another view of civilization versus barbarism with the character of Thak. It’s more nuanced that what we’ve seen before and it gives the reader something to think about. Thak is not human, but he’s not quite a monster either. He is ape-like and is treated as a pet of sorts by Nabonidus. Thak takes control of Nabonidus’s home and tosses him in the underground pits. He proceeds to impersonate his former master, including donning his red cloak. He’s intelligent enough to observe Nabonidus’s behaviour and learn to copy it, but not enough to behave fully human. He poses as a man, but isn’t one

 

Illustration of Conan fighting Thak by Mark Schultz.

Trapped in the house with the original Red Priest and Murilo, Conan must defeat Thak in order to make his escape. He manages to defeat him with some help from Murilo, showing just how mighty Thak’s physical strength is. Thak is savagery posing as civility. It’s in this way that Conan contrasts Thak and consequently reminder readers what makes Conan the hero of these stories. He represents the good aspects of civilization (intelligence and application of shared knowledge) but also the strength and occasional savagery of a barbarian. Thak has one (physical strength and self-determinism), but only a corrupted version of the other (the Red Priest’s version of civilization).

Conan is a barbarian in the way he rejects the more frivolous and status seeking aspects of civilization, yet he is not barbaric in thought. His action can appear barbaric in comparison to the more genteel behaviour of so-called civilized individuals, but that’s only because he is more honest about his action which makes them easier to see for what they truly are. He is direct and doesn’t hide his true intentions behind a façade of deceit. Thak is intelligent enough to copy, but not enough to understand the meaning of his actions. Despite it all, Conan feels remorse over having killed Thak as he could recognize that his negative behaviour was a result his captor’s teachings and not something innate.

“Rogues in the House” gives us examples of civilization corrupted (the fence priest, the prostitute that sells out Conan, and Nabonidus) and counters it against a tragic barbarian “monster” that was corrupted by civilization and Conan, the ideal barbarian who believes in just action. Howard also includes Murilo who is clearly in the camp of corrupted civilized man, but also shows some good characteristics in his personal interactions with Conan. There are some juicy character dynamics in this story which make up for the straightforward plot.

I have not read any of the comic book adaptations of this story, so I won’t comment on those. I did think of the wizard from the Conan the Destroyer movie. The one who takes on the shape of an ape and fights Conan with mirror magic. It’s an ape in a red cape, how am I not supposed to think about it? Man, I love that movie so much. I might be the only Conan fan that does.

Ranking: 4 Big Red Cloaks. Good ideas executed with skill and style.

What appears at first to be a simple and straightforward story, actually contains some complex elements. Both in the characters interactions, but also in their motivations, some of which are not clearly explained. There’s a lot of room for interpretation of both the action in the story and its thematic meaning. If you take your time to savour the story and engage with it, there’s plenty to enjoy while reading “Rogues in the House”.