“Alleys of Peril” is a short story featuring sailer Steve Costigan, who’s appeared in many of Howard’s works.

The tale opens with Steve fighting in the ring – and winning as usual – until he’s wrongly accused of hitting his opponent below the belt. Steve is disqualified on a foul. This naturally wounds his honour and he intends to settle the score outside of the ring, but an encounter with the Tigress – a dangerous white woman with ruthless Chinese men working for her – changes Steve’s course.

“Alleys of Darkness” features a character called Dorgan, though apart from the name, he’s the same as Steve Costigan.

The story opens at the end of a fight, which Dorgan clearly won, yet the ref awards victory to the other man. Dorgan faces the ref later on and hears he only gave the fight to the other man because he (the ref) was being blackmailed.

Dorgan goes looking for the blackmailer but not everything is as black and white as it first seems. ( )