THE prolific Donald E. Keyhoe had a story in a majority of the issue of Flying Aces from his first in January 1930 until he returned to the Navy in 1942. Starting in August 1931, they were stories featuring the weird World War I stories of Philip Strange. But in November 1936, he began alternating these with sometime equally weird present day tales of espionage Ace Richard Knight—code name Agent Q. After an accident in the Great War, Knight developed the uncanny ability to see in the dark. Aided by his skirt-chasing partner Larry Doyle, Knights adventures ranged from your basic between the wars espionage to lost valley civilizations and dinosaurs.

“Aces of Death” from the pages of the January 1938 issue of Flying Aces is Keyhoe’s eight story with the intrepid Q-Agent and his pal Larry Doyle.

What infernal power had loosed those gun-bristling Grummans upon stricken China? And who were the merciless white devils who flew them like madmen and who fought like fiends? This sinister riddle called for the unfailing skill of Richard Knight. But even that ace agent was balked. For the winged killer from whom he sought to wrest its answer leaped into the flaming inferno of his own fallen plane—gave vent in his death throes to a defiant scream of triumph.

• Download “Aces of Death” (January 1938, Flying Aces)