 | #069 "The Four Signets"
Vol. 12, No. 3 Published: 01/01/35 Submitted: 01/19/34 under the same title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Sep 21, 2001 |
THE FOUR SIGNETS was originally published in the January 1, 1935 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Four signet rings. Rings that hold a mysterious secret. Rings that bring death!
It all revolves around old Tobias Dolger's hidden treasure. Old Tobias has died, and his two grandsons Perry and Zane Dolger have taken up residence in the old brownstone house in which old Tobias had lived. Perry and Zane aren't brothers, however; they are cousins.
They are the only heirs to the estate - an estate which should amount to a few millions. But all they receive is the house and a few thousand. The remaining wealth is a mystery until upstairs, on the third floor of the old house, they discover a secret room; in the room is an old desk.
In a drawer of that desk they find a rough draft of a letter that explains the mystery of the missing money. Written by old Tobias Dolger, it refers to the secret of his wealth resting with those whom he has chosen to give the four rings. The signet rings!
The jeweler, old Philip Lyken, made the four rings and knows their secret. Who has paid him to keep quiet? And why? That's what Perry and Zane want to find out. Their link to Philip Lyken is an old receipt for the rings. With that lead, they confront Lyken. The manage to learn that each ring was engraved with the initials of the new owners. They also learn that the rings are hollow. What's inside, however, remains a mystery.
The jeweler Lyken is able to only identify one of the rings' owners. Elwood Phraytag, an elderly philanthropist, paid the jeweler's bill when old Toboas Dolger was ill. With that single lead, the two young men start out to find Phraytag and the other three owners of the rings, and the treasure that is rightfully theirs.
We soon meet the other three men. Each is wealthy, old, and not what he seems! There's Lucius Zurick, with face like parchment, yet keen of eye and possessed of vigor. Guy Laverock - a long-faced chap with a bald head and solemn dignity. And Harbrook Kent - weary-faced and stoop-shouldered; but his eyes are stern and searching.
The three hire Ed Mallan, an expensive detective, to do their dirty work. And there's lots of dirty work to be done. First, the jeweler Philip Lyken is killed. Shot in bed, apparently a victim of a robbery. Then philanthropist Elwood Phraytag dies, seemily from natural causes. Is it Mallan that's doing it? Or is it a gang of crooks that someone has hired? Or is it one of the three sly old men who wear the heavy gold signet rings?
Finding the treasure doesn't end the story. There's the issue of keeping it! And there's also the issue of unveiling the secret mastermind behind the murders. It all makes for a convoluted and wonderfully twisty puzzle.
The Shadow is a bit more bloodthirsty in this story. In one scene, he forces an evil doctor to turn a poisoned hypodermic syringe on himself. And in another scene, The Shadow turns grave robber, breaking into a mausoleum and opening a casket to steal one of the mysterious signet rings. No, it's not a story written by Theodore Tinsley. Walter Gibson wrote it. The solution to The Shadow's rougher attitude seems to lie in the fact that this is one of the earlier stories in the series. Coming from early 1935, The Shadow hadn't tamed down yet.
Appearing in this story are Detective Joe Cardona and Commissioner Wainwright Barth. Commissioner Ralph Weston was still out of the country during this period, having left for South America in the September 15, 1934 story. The Shadow mostly appears as himself, but briefly appears in his Lamont Cranston disguise. Also making brief appearances are Burbank, Cliff Marsland and Clyde Burke. Notably missing are Hawkeye, Rutledge Mann, Harry Vincent and Moe Shrevnitz (who had only been introduced a month previously). Margo Lane wouldn't appear in the pulp stories for six more years.
So there you have it. For an early story, it's a real corker!