 | #026 "Murder Trail"
Vol. 5, No. 2 Published: 03/15/33 Submitted: 10/07/32 under the same title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Apr 12, 2002 |
MURDER TRAIL was originally published in the March 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This story comes to you directly from the original old pulp magazine, not from the edited, paperback reprint. That means you are getting the full, uncut, unedited original pulp version just as it was originally published back in 1933. Not a word is missing! It's the only way that a Shadow novel should be read. And now you can have that chance.
It all starts aboard the inaugral flight of the great dirigible Munchen where Captain Heinrich von Werndorff secrets a secret German agent aboard the dirigible. There, in a secret room especially built between the bulkheads, Baron Hugo von Tollsburg waits as he begins his mission, to travel undetected from Germany to America.
But also aboard the derigible is The Shadow. He has traveled in his guise as Henry Arnaud from Moscow to Friedrichshafen, where he was able to catch the derigible Munchen at the last minute. He recognizes that something sinister is going on, and as the flight finally flies above American soil, he discovers the secret room. Inside he finds the body of the baron; the secret agent has been murdered in his own secret room. The murderer has stolen the baron's papers and jumped from the derigible in a parachute. He has escaped to somewhere in the Connecticut countryside.
What was Baron von Tollsburg up to? Why was he secretly placed aboard the dirigible? What was the purpose of the hidden room? Why was he killed? Who was the killer? What did he want? Where did he go? And what will he do next? The Shadow has no clues. But that doesn't stop him. Somewhere in the State of Connecticut, a fiend of evil is at large, his identity still unrevealed, his purposes as yet unknown. The Shadow gets to work, and with his amazing abilities begins to solve this most puzzling riddle.
Before the story is over, we uncover a secret organization. We witness the secret collection of twenty-million dollars. The Shadow battles gangland hoards overcoming unsurmountable odds. Bodies drop like flies. A hidden mastermind by the name of Crix lays a sinister plot for The Shadow. And The Shadow finally wins the day in a gun fray that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This story's a wowser!
The Shadow, as portrayed in this story, is at his peak of power. He speaks fluent Italian, French, German, and Russian. He demonstrates amazing powers of deduction. He shoots with lightning speed and never misses. He climbs the outsides of buildings with ease, using his rubber suction cups. He's recognized by his aides by his girasol ring, the fire opal that's a relic of the Romanoff jewels. And he single-handedly flies his autogyro silently through the dark of night.
An interesting mention is made of The Shadow's previous career as a World War I spy. When Henry Arnaud meets derigible Captain von Werndorff, the captain has the strange feeling that he has met Arnaud before. Arnaud admits, "During the War, a dirigible flight across the North Sea, when a storm drove you back to Germany. My mission was to see that the Zeppelin did not reach England." The Shadow had been aboard von Werndorff's previous ship as a stowaway.
A bit of Cliff Marsland's history is mentioned in the story. According to this story, it was at the Hotel Spartan, on the lower East Side, where Cliff had first met The Shadow. Caught in a tight spot, Cliff had been pulled from trouble by The Shadow. After that, he had aided The Shadow in the war that had eliminated New York's most notorious racketeers. This must refer to events related in the April 1932 story "Mobsmen on the Spot." It's a story that I haven't read yet, but is reported to contain Marsland's first appearance.
Cliff Marsland plays a major role in this story. Harry Vincent shows up in a minor role, as does Burbank. Rutledge Mann is mentioned by name only. And there are no other recurring characters in the story. No mention of the law, in the persons of Commissioner Weston, Inspector Cardona, or even G-man Vic Marquette. The Shadow's basically on his own, here.