Literary characters
Name:	Merlin Kaggs.
Gender:	Male.
Height:	6'5.
Relatives:	Father, deceased.
Age:	unknown.
Occupation:	pearl trader Pearl A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...  and serial killer Serial killer A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification... ; often masquerades as a missionary Missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin... .
Debut:	South Sea Adventure South Sea Adventure South Sea Adventure is a 1952 children's book by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt.... .
Creator:	Willard Price Willard Price Willard DeMille Price was a Canadian-born American natural historian and author of children's fiction.Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and his family subsequently moved to the United States when he was four. He acquired his MA and Litt.D from Columbia University, before going on to edit... .

Merlin Kaggs is a fictional character in Willard Price

Willard Price

Willard DeMille Price was a Canadian-born American natural historian and author of children's fiction.Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and his family subsequently moved to the United States when he was four. He acquired his MA and Litt.D from Columbia University, before going on to edit...

's Adventure Series

The Adventure Series (Willard Price)

The "Adventure" series is a collection of children's adventure novels by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The fourteen-book series chronicles the exploits of budding teenage zoologists Hal and Roger Hunt, as they travel around the world capturing exotic and dangerous animals for their...

.

Character overview

Merlin Kaggs worked along the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n coast as a pearl

Pearl

A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

 smuggler and thief while maintaining his image as a legitimate businessman. His motivation shifted in later novels from profit to an obsessive desire for revenge against Hal and Roger Hunt

Hal and Roger Hunt

Hal and Roger Hunt are fictional characters appearing in the children's Adventure novel series, by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The sons of world-renowned animal collector John Hunt, Hal and Roger have grown up alongside exotic and dangerous wildlife...

 over perceived slights, some real, some imagined. He posed a serious threat; he was clever and surprisingly courageous, always attempting to pull off audacious Coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

.

Early life

Although the details change subtlety with each novel, the basic outline of Kaggs' early life is as follows. He was born in San Francisco, the only son of a clergyman. His father tried to get him to follow his footsteps into the church but Kaggs refused and eventually ran off to join the local street gangs.

Kaggs worked his way up the ranks. One night, however, he killed a drunken sailor who had got in his way, and was forced to flee San Francisco for the Muir Woods while the heat died down.

Kaggs later committed two more murders, but was caught and imprisoned in San Quentin. He was able to convince people he killed the two men in self-defense

Self-defense

Self-defense, self-defence or private defense is a countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property or the well-being of another from physical harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many...

, however, and soon got out on good behavior. This ability to disguise himself as an innocent gentleman, usually as a reverend using the skills his father taught him, quickly became his modus operandi

Modus operandi

Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...

.

He later left San Francisco and began setting up his own crime syndicate centered on pearl smuggling. He quickly became an accomplished criminal, acting under the noses of the Navy

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 and becoming adept at the use of espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

. When Kagg’s criminal empire was at its top, he was a force to be reckoned with.

South Sea Adventure

He tracked down a famous scientist and zoologist who had set up a secret pearl colony on an island in the South Seas. Despite spying on him and having is apartment bugged, Kaggs was unable to discover the location of the secret island. He did, however, discover that two young naturalists, Hal and Roger Hunt, were employed to check up on the progress of the experiment.

Kaggs hired a thug known as Crab to gain access to the Hunts' boat and steal the location of the island. Crab failed in his mission, forcing Kaggs to take action himself after removing Crab from the picture.

Masquerading as a missionary, he quickly warmed up to the Hunts, who invited him along on their ship. However, Hal quickly developed doubts about his credentials and secretly altered the bearings in their log book. This was to have disastrous results for both Kaggs and the Hunts themselves.

Once on the island, Kaggs revealed his true nature. After holding the Hunts at gun point he tried to bribe Omo into diving into the island's lagoon and recovering the pearls for him. Negotiations failed and, during the resulting melee, Omo was shot by Kaggs.

Kaggs took advantage of the chaos he had created and slipped away on the boat, leaving the Hunts and the wounded Omo to die while he rounded up some of his thugs and pillaged the island himself. He got lost on the way back, however, due to the bearings being altered, and was forced to drink sea water when his supplies ran out. Kaggs went insane, and was consigned to an asylum.

Diving Adventure

After his escape from the asylum, Kaggs decided to keep a low profile until he could rebuild his life of crime. During this time he killed a diver on Thursday Island. The perfect location for him to lie low was the Undersea City built on the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

. Once again posing as a reverend, Kaggs soon found employment in the relatively unknown community.

However, Hal and Roger Hunt once again entered into his life. Not only did they also come to the Undersea City but, through sheer bad luck on Kagg’s part, were asked to share a room with him.

Thinking quickly, Kaggs convinced Hal, to Roger's amazement, that he had been let out and had reformed. However, far from reformed, he plotted his revenge. He almost got his chance when Hal was wounded by a Portuguese Man o' War

Portuguese Man o' War

The Portuguese Man o' War , also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, man-of-war, or bluebottle, is a jelly-like marine invertebrate of the family Physaliidae...

, but was denied by Roger who stood guard over his brother. He later tried again by starting an avalanche down the side of the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

, hoping to crush the Hunts

Hal and Roger Hunt

Hal and Roger Hunt are fictional characters appearing in the children's Adventure novel series, by Canadian-born American author Willard Price. The sons of world-renowned animal collector John Hunt, Hal and Roger have grown up alongside exotic and dangerous wildlife...

, but again his plan failed.

Kaggs discovered a ship full of gold and convinced the Hunts to let him help them recover it after they saved his life. It appears that he was genuinely grateful and was going to let the Hunts off the hook for their past actions. Soon after, however, one of Omo's relatives arrived in town and recognized him. Forced to flee, and believing the Hunts had sold him out to the authorities, he once again swore vengeance.

He kidnapped their captain and stole their ship, which was full of gold and valuable animals. He tried to escape, but he quickly run aground on the reef. The Hunts saved his life as the ship began to sink. Kaggs was imprisoned for murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

, kidnapping

Kidnapping

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

 and smuggling

Smuggling

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...

 when the authorities arrived to take him into custody.

Cannibal Adventure

While in prison, Kaggs plotted revenge. His cellmate, Butcher, quickly became friends with the big man and soon let him into their escape plot. What happened next demonstrates the depths of Kagg’s evil

Evil

Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

. He sold out his friend to the prison warden and sat back while Butcher and the other would be escapees were gunned down during the attempt.

Kaggs was made a trustee

Trustee

Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

 due to his apparent assistance; in reality, however, Kaggs had deduced that the escape plan would have failed anyway and had decided to help the warden in order to gain his trust and make his own escape when the security became lax. His plan worked, and the unsuspecting warden let him literally walk out the prison door.

Kaggs pursued the Hunts to Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

. He quickly became allies with a witch doctor

Witch doctor

A witch doctor originally referred to a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. It is currently used to refer to healers in some third world regions, who use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine...

 who also had a grudge against the Hunts. He anonymously stabbed Hal in the back with a spear, but the young man survived. He planned and constructed a log trap for Roger but was again defeated, only managing to bruise Roger's foot. He tried to poison the cannibal chief, Pavo, who had taken it upon himself to guard the boys, but his attempt was also unsuccessful.

He returned to the witch doctor for backup, and he was given a bag full of King Cobras, which he would release aboard the boys' ship at night. However, his greed got the better of him, and he threw the cobras through the cabin window rather than release them aboard the ship, as they would kill all the rare and exotic animals he hoped to sell. The boys and Captain Ike woke up and captured all the snakes - Kaggs had unwittingly helped them.

Death

Kaggs' luck went sour when he was attacked by a Great White shark

Great white shark

The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...

 and badly wounded. He was found by the natives and brought to Hal for treatment. This time his reform act didn’t work and once again he was locked in the brig awaiting the authorities. He used a fork to pick the lock and escaped again, setting fire to the ship and disabling the engines, leaving the Hunts and their captain to die.

His motorboat was attacked by a crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

, however, and Kaggs was thrown into the water. Although his body was never recovered, his failure to return in subsequent novels suggests that the author did intend this to be Kaggs' death scene.