 | #027 "The Silent Death"
Vol. 5, No. 3 Published: 04/01/33 Submitted: 11/04/32 under the same title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Feb 15, 2002 |
THE SILENT DEATH was originally published in the April 1, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. It's another one of those great early Shadow stories that was selected for reprint in paperback form back in the early 1970's. But this version doesn't come from the paperback. Oh no. You deserve better than that! No edited reprint version for you! This is the original uncut and unedited version, taken directly from the old pulp magazine.
Professor Folcroft Urlich is a mad scientist who controls silent death.
Silent death comes in many forms, and the professor is master of them all. With his two accomplices, the elderly Thomas Jocelyn and gang leader Larry Ricordo, Professor Urlich is about to unleash death, death, and more death!
First to die will be the wealthy Alfred Sartain. It will mean five million dollars to the evil professor. But money means nothing to him. He's in it for the thrill of killing. For the scientific enjoyment of silent death! From his vantage point several blocks away, Urlich watches as Sartain springs the trap that will mean his sinister demise.
But Sartain is miraculously saved from death by The Shadow. And Professor Urlich witnesses it all through his binoculars from a safe distance. Enraged, he vows to end the reign of The Shadow. His one purpose is now to use his silent death to strike down the nemisis of the underworld, The Shadow!
This, then, is the story of The Shadow's battle against an unknown enemy who sets up death traps to ensnare him in silent death. And boy, these death traps are really sneaky! The professor is a smart old bird, and he has some clever ways of dealing death. There's the photo-electric beam. The noiseless explosive. The bubbling death. And let's not forget the electric-ray device. This old guy is one nasty villain!
Professor Urlich lives in a gloomy old mansion, behind which is found his strange circular laboratory. It's a three story, pyramid affair that's surrounded by death traps. So when Urlich captures Cliff Marsland and Clyde Burke and takes them inside his lab, The Shadow must brave the many forms of silent death to rescue them before the professor can put them inside giant test tubes and pour a flesh-eating solvent upon them. Eeeoooooow. Gross!
This story features Joe Cardona, ace of Manhattan sleuths, Cliff Marsland, secret agent of The Shadow and Clyde Burke, reporter on the New York Classic. There are also brief appearances by Rutledge Mann and Burbank. No mention is made of Lamont Cranston, Henry Arnaud, or any of The Shadow's other disguises. In this story, he is simply The Shadow!