Master Crook of the Orient
A Brief History of Gunga Dass

One of Sexton Blake's oldest and most able opponents was Gunga Dass, the master crook of the Orient. I say was advisably, for nothing has been heard of him since early 1940. Gunga Dass had been an opponent of Blake for over 20 years, the first stories featuring him appearing in both THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY and UNION JACK just after the first world war. The creator of this master of Oriental mystery was H. Gregory Hill, a regular Blake contributor of the early 1920's and stories about him by this author appeared up till 1925.

H. Gregory Hill's stories include The Case of the Rajah's Son (later reprinted with author given as Hylton Gregory — see below), The Rajah of Ghanapore, In Darkest Madras, The Shrine of Kali, (also reprinted later as by Hylton Gregory but with the title altered slightly to The Curse of Kali), and two stories about the hidden loot of Nana Sahib, a rebel leader of the Indian Mutiny, The Great Museum Mystery and The Loot of Nana Sahib.

A regular colleague of Blake in his fight with Dass in this period, was Detective Inspector Rollings, one of the few regular Yard friends of the detective to get killed in a story.

After a lapse of ten years, some of H. Gregory Hill's earlier stories were (as has been said) reprinted, the author's name being given as Hylton Gregory. As I have been unable to trace an original story by this author, I think that it can be safely assumed that he never existed outside the imagination of the editor of THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY. The stories reprinted were slightly modernised otherwise they differed little from the originals.

The next author to introduce Dass was also the creator of the redoubtable Dr. Ferraro, in other words Coutts Brisbane. He wrote three stories of the Indian crook for the THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 2nd series, vix: The Crime of Gunga Dass, The Trail of the White Turban and The Masked Man of the Desert.

The last author to take over Dass was in my opinion, the best of them all, namely Anthony Parsons. Mr. Parsons, with his intimate knowledge of modern India and his accurate characterisation of the Indian people, was the ideal choice to handle Gunga Dass, and it is a great pity that, in recent years, he has forsaken the character.

Gunga Dass was one of Blake's most formidable enemies, a consummate actor, skilled in the art of make-up, a master of hypnotism, he combined the recklessness of a fanatic with the wiles and trickery of a Hindu fakir.

The background of Dass varied with the authors writing about him. H. Gregory Hill described him as the son of a deposed Hindu prince intent upon regaining his lost riches and position, while Parsons described him as a deserter from the Indian Army, a fanatical believer in the Hindu religion, intent upon driving the British out of India and setting himself up to rule in their place.

There is no doubt that THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY was the poorer for the loss of Gunga Dass stories and it is a thousand pities that Anthony Parsons cannot be persuaded to write again of The Master Crook of the East.

Editor's notes: For a full list of Gunga Dass stories, see the Gunga Dass profile page.

The claim that the various Dass author's had different versions of his background isn't entirely accurate. They may have emphasised different aspects, but as a matter of fact, right from the earliest stories, Dass was the son of a deposed rajah and a deserter from the Indian Army.