Novella: The Black Stranger

Overview
Robert E. Howard's mid-1930s Conan tale casts the Cimmerian into a tangled hunt for a pirate hoard, where avarice, treachery and uncanny menace collide. Set against a seething coastal landscape of rotting ships, desperate men and lawless coves, the narrative balances knife-edge action with a brooding sense of doom. A figure clothed in black moves through the story like a living omen, turning greed into a catalyst for violence and supernatural dread.

Plot Summary
Conan becomes caught up in a scramble for the buried riches of the pirate Tranicos, a cache promised to transform any claimant into a man of power. Word of the treasure draws a motley swarm of claimants: ruthless cutthroats, scheming local magnates and mercenary bands, each willing to betray and slaughter to secure the prize. Alliances form and rupture as the hunt narrows toward a solitary island and the tunneled vault that hides wealth and old bloodstains.
The black-clad stranger appears at critical moments, a silent, uncanny presence whose motives are inscrutable and whose arrival seems to presage murder and misfortune. Sword clashes, ambushes and desperate night fights punctuate the approach to the treasure, while Conan relies on hard realism, cunning, brutal hand-to-hand skill and an iron will, to survive where schemers and sorcerers fail. The climax unspools amid a charged mixture of human treachery and eerie portent, and Conan's final choices underscore both the gains and the costs of victory in a savage world.

Characters and Conflict
Conan stands at the center as a figure shaped by raw practicality and personal honor, more instinct than reflection, who judges men by their strength and wits. Opponents are drawn with quick, hard strokes: greedy captains with silver tongues, opportunistic soldiers and the occasional user of dark arts. The titular stranger provides a focal point for fear, an almost mythic counterweight to human avarice; whether agent of fate, revenant of Tranicos or something stranger, his presence amplifies paranoia and accelerates the story's bloodletting.
Conflict is rarely ideological; it pivots on immediate survival and the calculus of betrayal. Howard stages combat and deception with relentless economy, making the reader feel the sweat, the metal and the suddenness of death. That immediacy turns every scene into a test of will, with Conan's tacit code, loyalty to comrades who earn it, ruthless punishment for treachery, measuring him against the thieves and nobles who want the gold without paying its price.

Themes and Legacy
Greed as corrosive force, the thin line between civilization and barbarism, and the uneasy intersection of fate and free will thread the tale. Supernatural suggestion sharpens the moral, implying that some treasures carry curses that outlast men. Howard's prose keeps action taut while suffusing the horizon with menace; landscape and weather reflect inner reckoning and the inexorable consequences of human cupidity.
The story endures as an exemplar of Howard's strengths: muscular action, spare but vivid description and a brooding atmosphere. It shows Conan not merely as a brute but as a survivor whose victories are earned in blood and caution, and it leaves the reader with the lingering impression that certain prizes are worth more than gold, often at a price few are willing to pay.