THE MYSTERY OF THE XV (1)
By:
January 6, 2026
Léo Saint-Clair, known as the “Nyctalope,” is an indomitable crimefighter with night vision — and an early example of a pulp superhero. Excerpted here is a section from the first of his many outings, in Jean de La Hire’s Le Mystère des XV (The Mystery of the XV, serialized in 1911 in the French newspaper Le Matin). There’s a proto-Batman vibe to the Nyctalope; here, he even mentors an irrepressible teenage sidekick. In Josh Glenn’s translation, which first appeared in the anthology Before Superman: Superhumans of the Radium Age (MIT Press, Summer 2025), he’s attempted to retain the proto-cartoonish tone of the prose.
ALL INSTALLMENTS: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5.
Léo Saint-Clair is hot on the trail of Oxus, a would-be world ruler. Oxus and his confederates (the “XV”), from whose Congo base radiotelegraph-guided spacecraft travel to and from a base on Mars, have abducted Saint-Clair’s sister, Christiane, and also Félicie Jolivet. So Félicie’s teenage brother, Max, has traveled via airship to the Congo with the Nyctalope on a mission impossible.
“If my pedometer doesn’t deceive me,” said Saint-Clair, “we are now within two kilometers from the XV’s base — I’d noted its precise location relative to where the Condor dropped us off. So let’s rest up here until midnight. After we eat, I’ll sleep for two hours, Max, while you keep watch. Then you’ll sleep while I keep watch.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Everything we’ve accomplished thus far means nothing!” warned the Nyctalope. “From midnight on, we’ll need to draw on every ounce of our intellectual and physical powers. We must penetrate the XV’s station, overcome its defenses by trickery or by force, and solve its mystery. Tomorrow is October 14; the fatal deadline is the 18th. So we have just three full days to succeed — or die trying. Do you follow, Max?”
“Perfectly!”
“Are you determined, strong, fearless? Pitiless with both yourself and others?”
Max’s blue eyes shone, and his young face fleetingly became as stern as the older man’s. In a voice which neither trembled nor betrayed unwonted bravado, he replied, “Yes, chief.”
Still, his heart was bursting with emotion. He was possessed by the same lucid, noble, exalted madness which, in 1793, had compelled thousands of lads his age or younger to swell the ranks of the glorious Army of the Republic.
“Good, Max!” said the Nyctalope. “Let’s fortify ourselves and rest in this thicket.”
Saint-Clair’s chronometer marked precisely midnight when, after a short rest undisturbed by anything alarming, the intrepid duo once more resumed their journey.
The Nyctalope was cool, resolute, all his senses alert, every ounce of his strength at the ready. Max, younger, less in control of his impulsive nature, his heart and nerves, quivered with barely controlled exultation! But the mission leader could count on him; in terms of courage, vigor, and intelligence, the seventeen-year-old was the equal of any seasoned adventurer. Still, before leaving their temporary shelter, Saint-Clair sternly reminded Max of the perils that awaited them — perils all the more daunting because the situations, circumstances, odds, and directing wills and forces were unknown.
FRENCH PROTO-SF TRANSLATIONS BY JOSH GLENN: Raymond Roussel’s LOCUS SOLUS [excerpt] | Noëlle Roger’s THE NEW ADAM [excerpt] | Alfred Jarry’s THE SUPERMALE [excerpt] | Jean de La Hire’s THE MYSTERY OF THE XV [excerpt].
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF: “Radium Age” is Josh Glenn’s name for the nascent sf genre’s c. 1900–1935 era, a period which saw the discovery of radioactivity, i.e., the revelation that matter itself is constantly in movement — a fitting metaphor for the first decades of the 20th century, during which old scientific, religious, political, and social certainties were shattered. More info here.
SERIALIZED BY HILOBOOKS: James Parker’s Cocky the Fox | Annalee Newitz’s “The Great Oxygen Race” | Matthew Battles’s “Imago” | & many more original and reissued novels and stories.