 | #090 "The Python"
Vol. 15, No. 6 Published: 11/15/35 Submitted: 02/01/35 under the same title Author: Walter Gibson Review date: Sep 23, 2000 |
THE PYTHON was originally published in the November 15, 1935 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The Python is one nasty villain. And he's got The Shadow! As this story opens, Lamont Cranston lies bound, drugged, unconscious, and revealed as The Shadow. He's a victim of The Python, a cruel master mind who has led his minions in unparalleled crime. He has left no trail, so that even The Shadow could not follow him. But now, he's on the trail of a Cuban treasure and has The Shadow out of the picture. And all that's just in Chapter One!
Not much is known about this sinister hidden master criminal. He speaks with a fierce, venomous hiss. He is a master at the art of make-up; that much The Shadow has determined. The bent-over, white-haired cackling maniac that gloats over The Shadow is not what he seems. But his true identity is unknown. His lieutenants, known as Coilmasters, communicate back forth with him via blue lights shining from a loft building that stands near the East River. They don't know his true identity either.
He's currently preparing mass murder to achieve the posession of the Cuban treasure being transported on the steamship Tropical from Savannah to New York. Will The Shadow escape the coils of The Python? Can he defeat the power of this madman? And just who is this disguised master villain, anyway? The answers to all these questions lies within the story THE PYTHON.
A couple of interesting notes about this story. There seems to be an abandoned story element with a secretary. She keeps barging into her boss's office without knocking, and Gibson makes a big deal out of it. He complains about "persistently dumb" secretaries. But then, it goes nowhere. Was this character supposed to the unseen daughter of one of the main characters; mentioned but never seen? Was she supposed to walk in on something sinister? Whatever the original intent, it didn't survive to the final pulp story. Perhaps a mystery forever...
Another point of interest is The Python's assistant, who acts much as Burbank acts for The Shadow. Burbank is in charge of communications for The Shadow. The Python has a stoop-shouldered, heavily-bearded mute known as Laxley. He can't speak; he can only emit a strange croak. Laxley is The Python's signalmaster who is in charge of the blinking blue lights that send coded messages to the Coilmasters. This is the first story that I can remember reading where the villain had an assistant analogous to The Shadow's Burbank. Most unique and quite interesting!
One final point that I picked up from this story. The Shadow must have a huge collection of keys. I don't think I've seen this mentioned in any other story (someone correct me if I'm wrong). In this story, he requests Burbank bring him keys H, I, and J of series seventeen. If we assume his keys are lettered A-Z and there are at least seventeen series, that makes a minimum of 442 keys. Whoa! That's a lot of keys. Makes you wonder why he needs them, when he's described so often as a master at picking locks...
It's a great story from the earlier era of Shadow advantures.