WORRALS IN THE WASTELANDS
First Published in January 1949 - 215 pages
The original title of this book was going to be “Worrals and the
Lipstick Clue”
You can view a letter from W. E. Johns’ agent, Peter Watt, HERE to W. E. Johns informing him that the publisher wants to change
the title of the book
Bill Johns has written on the letter “W in the Wasteland” (there
was no ‘s’ on the end as far as I can see) but could it also be read as “W in
the Northland”(?)
The original first
edition dust jacket – showing the original book price of 7/6 - by Reginald Heade (born Reginald Cyril Webb) 1901 – 1957
WORRALS IN THE WASTELANDS
Click on any chapter for a summary of the events in that chapter or
see the general story summary below
I – APPOINTMENT AT SCOTLAND
YARD
II – WORRALS ACCEPTS A
COMMISSION
VI – LOWENHARDT TELLS HIS
STORY
Worrals is
asked by Air Commodore Raymond, Assistant Commissioner of Police at Scotland
Yard, to go and arrest a woman wanted for war crimes. The woman is Anna Shultz
from Stenberg Internment Camp - a concentration camp. A clue has indicated that
Shultz is in Canada, at Lake Desolation, an inhospitable place, that can only
be reached by weeks of land travel - or by an aircraft. Flying out in a
twin-engined six-seater Ranger aircraft, Worrals and Frecks go to Lake Desolation and glide in quietly to arrive
without anyone knowing. After a confrontation with a wounded bear, Worrals and Frecks find a wounded
and starving man in their camp. He is Max Lowenhardt
and he has an interesting story to tell, which ties in with certain facts that Worrals already knew in advance. Lowenhardt
was the wireless operator for Hauptmann Otto Rumey. Rumey and a Fritz Hanstadt had
been prospecting for gold in Northern Canada before the war started. They were
also looking for suitable sites for a secret U-boat base. They had met with two
old trappers, Erik Hedin, a Swede and Angus Fraser, a Scot, who had told them
that war had broken out. With advance warning, the two Germans were able to
avoid internment and get back to Germany. In order to do so, they had to spend
some pale yellow gold they had found. After the war, a
Captain John Larwood had tried his hand at prospecting and teamed up with
Hedin, whilst Fraser was in hospital. Larwood and Hedin had heard about the
gold and set off to Lake Desolation to find it. They were flown up and had made
arrangements to be picked up on a certain date, but they failed to meet the
plane and a search could find no trace of them. The connection with Anna Shultz
was this. Otto Rumey was in love with Anna and had
told her about the gold he found in Canada. After the war, the two of them had
flown to Lake Desolation to collect it by panning it out of the sand. Rumey had taken Lowenhardt with
him. Anna wanted to bring a Doctor Wolfe with her. Rumey
refused outright, but the Doctor stowed away on board their aircraft. Unknown
to Rumey, Doctor Wolfe is in fact, Anna's husband. On
arrival at Lake Desolation, the aircraft has had its wings cut off and has been
covered in stones. It is now the Germans' base and they refer to it as
"the box". The Germans had met up with Larwood and Hedin and joined
forces with them, to pan the gold. The plan is merely to use Larwood and Hedin
and then murder them when the work is done. Doctor Wolfe drugged Larwood and
Hedin to prevent them meeting the plane that was to collect them. When they
wake, they think the plane had failed to come and carry on working. One day,
when Larwood and Hedin are out hunting, Rumey catches
Shultz and Wolfe hugging each other and a confrontation results in Anna
shooting both Rumey and Lowenhardt
and dumping their bodies. But Lowenhardt has survived
and is now able to tell Worrals the story. Rumey had a plan to get away from Lake Desolation. He was
waiting for his old partner, Hanstadt, to come. Worrals realises that the lives of Larwood and Hedin are
hanging by a thread. When Shultz and Wolfe need them no more, they will kill
them and have all the gold. On a recognisance mission to view "the
box", Frecks accidentally meets Anna Shultz, who
is quite friendly towards her. Frecks says she has
flown up and agrees to fly Shultz and Wolfe out, the plan being to arrest them
both when they are off guard. Worrals agrees with Frecks' plan and the following morning they go to collect
Shultz and Wolfe. However, Worrals has an unfriendly
reception because Shultz and Wolfe have had all their gold stolen! Worrals offers to fly around and look for Larwood and Hedin
who are the obvious suspects in the gold theft. Only the four of them knew
where it was hidden. Worrals flies back to her camp,
where the wounded Lowenhardt is recovering and finds,
not only Larwood and Hedin, but also Angus Fraser. He has come to look for his
missing partner. Fraser has found out about Anna Shultz and was able to warn
Larwood and Hedin that they were in bad company. This is why they have taken
the gold. Worrals forms a plan to catch Shultz and
Wolfe and arrest them. She will say she has found Larwood and Hedin's camp and
when they go to get the gold back, as they are sure to do, an ambush can take
place. Flying back to Shultz and Wolfe, the trap is set, only to be ruined by
the arrival of Hanstadt and ten men of the German
navy. The Germans' plan is for the Germans to march back to their secret U-boat
base and escape with the gold. However, Hanstadt is
planning to take the gold to South America for the benefit of the surviving
Nazis, whereas Anna Shultz wants the gold for herself and her husband. Hanstadt and four men go with Shultz to recover the gold. Worrals and Frecks are kept at
the camp. Allying herself with Doctor Wolfe, for the time being, Worrals enlists his help to get away. Wolfe uses a drug to
knock out the remaining German sailors. Worrals then
handcuffs Wolfe to the inside of "the box". Worrals
and Frecks then fly down to the ambush site to
forewarn everybody what the current situation is. The confrontation occurs. Lowenhardt is able to tell Hanstadt
the truth about what really happened to Rumey. Anna
Shultz runs for it and Worrals refuses to shoot her
as she wants to take her alive. Chasing after her, Worrals
sees Anna meet the wounded bear, a bear she, Anna, had shot and Anna is badly
mauled. Worrals gets Hanstadt
to promise that he won't remove Doctor Wolfe on his return to "the
box". Hanstadt keeps his promise by leaving
Wolfe's body after shooting him dead on seeing what he has done to his men.
Shultz's wounds turn septic and she dies two days later in hospital.
With the exception of the frontispiece (which is merely the cover
illustration), there are no story illustrations in the FIRST EDITION of this
book, however you can
Click here to see the story illustrations from the 1950 “New Illustrated Edition” of this book
The book was later re-issued by the
publishers at the lower price of 6 shillings, they re-priced the original dust
wrappers and cut off the 7/6 from the corner! – See example below.
This is confusing for collectors as
everyone would naturally assume the lower price would be the earlier edition
The book was re-issued again in 1950 in a
“New Illustration Edition” by the publishers and they changed W. E. Johns
credit by giving him the title “Captain” back.
They had omitted this from the original
publication and it was one of the reasons Johns was annoyed with Lutterworths and parted company with them.
Click here to see the story illustrations from the 1950 “New Illustrated Edition” of this book
You can view a letter from W. E. Johns to Martin Lewis at Lutterworths HERE
informing him why he was unhappy
with Lutterworths as publishers of the Worrals books
French edition – Le Lac Maudit – (The Cursed Lake)– There were no illustrations in this
edition
(The artwork is identical, but notice how they have darkened the
hair of the man on the ground)
Frontispiece
Click on
the picture above to see it in more detail
Worrals in the Wastelands
Subtitle - none
Publication Details - published by Lutterworth Press