The Saint Detective Magazine

The Spanish Cow

This issue of The Saint Detective Magazine (October-November 1953) leads with a new Saint adventure by Leslie Charteris, "The Spanish Cow." At the French Riviera resort Juan les Pins, protagonist Simon Templar spots Mrs. Porphyria Mussber, a wealthy widow from Detroit (her late husband manufactured metal buttons) whose "fabulous fortune" in jewels attracts his interest. Mussber, a large woman in an old-fashioned yellow bathing suit, becomes the constant target of ridicule from beachgoers, particularly the aristocratic Maurice Walmar. The tale opens as Templar, accompanied by the elegant Myra Campion, watches the daily torment unfold before deciding "the time was ripe for Mrs. Mussber and her jewels to meet Romance." The story combines leisure-setting intrigue with the Saint's characteristic roguish observations of human behavior.