THE MYSTERY OF THE XV (5)
By:
February 19, 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.
What sort of infernal machine is this? the Nyctalope wondered.
Following a sudden impulse, he stretched himself out upon the cold concrete and put his ear to it. Startled, he uttered a mild oath: “Gosh!”
A dull hum, accompanied by regular rumblings, was just discernible beneath the concrete—which was itself vibrating, he now realized, though almost imperceptibly.
They live and work underground! Saint-Clair thought. They power and monitor this mysterious, intimidating installation from underneath! But where’s the entrance and exit? Surely these people must emerge for a breath of fresh air once in a while?
Another inspiration struck, and he stood up. The luminous message via which they communicated with me about Christiane—it appeared somewhere in this clearing. It didn’t appear out of nowhere, so there must be an aperture somewhere. Let’s find it!
However, though he paced in every direction, quartering the circular clearing according to the cardinal directions of the compass, and tracing twenty increasingly larger concentric circles… he discovered no opening in the featureless surface.
Perhaps he could tunnel along the edge of the installation? Choosing a spot where the concrete gave way to the jungle’s soil, he chopped away at the humus with his hatchet, revealing more concrete—which plunged vertically into the earth. After digging to a depth of nearly a meter without discovering any trace of a way in, he desisted. The stars were growing pale as the glow of the morning sun lit up the sky.
“See you tomorrow night,” the Nyctalope muttered, clenching a fist in anger.
Quickly, he strode around the edge of the clearing until he found the tendrils he’d tied together as a marker. Slipping into the jungle, he hastened to the spot—scarcely twenty meters away—where he’d left Max to stand watch. He whistled softly to him.
Stopping short, the Nyctalope shuddered at what he discovered. There was the fig tree where he’d inspected Max’s hand for signs of trembling before leaving him behind. And there were the prints of his own boots, leading towards the clearing. Where Max had stood watch, the boy’s feet had sunk into the soft soil; the Nyctalope could even discern the divot where he’d rested the butt of his rifle—like a sentry at ease.
As for Max himself, though… he’d disappeared without a trace!
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.