 | #309 "No Safety in Numbers"
Vol. 52, No. 3 Published: 11/01/46 Submitted: 05/24/46 as "The Number of Death" Author: Bruce Elliott Review date: Jun 20, 2003 |
NO SAFETY IN NUMBERS was published in the November 1946 issue of The Shadow Magazine. And when the title refers to "numbers," it means the numbers rackets. The illegal racket that has become legal today and is now run by the states and is called a lottery.
Back in the 1940's, the numbers racket, also known as a "policy game," was a big one. People from all walks of life would select their favorite three-digit number and place their bet with their bookie, known as a "numbers runner." The winning number would be selected in some random manner; in this story they are the last digits in the daily horse-race results. The following day, those who selected the winning number would receive their winnings from the numbers runner. Illegal, at the time, but very common.
In this story, the numbers racket has come big-time to Skillton, a thriving metropolis in an unnamed northern state. Two rival gangs have set up in town. On the north side of town, Larry Bonds runs the racket. On the south side, it is Joey Raoll who controlls the game. The two factions are involved in a feud to take control of the entire lucrative racket.
Gang war has broken out in Skillton, and crusading newspaper owner Gerald Winthrop calls his friend Lamont Cranston for assistance. The gang warfare must stop, and Winthrop figures that Cranston is the man to help him clean up the town. And clean it up, he does! Because, he's The Shadow!
Yes, this man we're talking about is The Shadow, not the "real" Lamont Cranston. This story makes no reference to the fact that there is another Lamont Cranston. There is only one Cranston, and he's The Shadow. The explanation for the discrepency lies, perhaps, in the fact that this story wasn't written by Walter Gibson. It was penned by Bruce Elliott during the two-year period when Gibson left the magazine.
It was his fourth Shadow mystery, out of a total of fifteen. And while none of Elliott's Shadow stories even came close to those of Gibson, this one certainly isn't his worst one. At least The Shadow appears regularly in this story; in a few of his Shadow stories, there was no appearance by The Shadow at all! And the word count, while low at only 37,000 words, is much higher than some of his later Shadow stories, which sunk to a low of 19,000 words.
I don't think Elliott really understood The Shadow. There are just too many inconsistencies between the relationships as described by Elliott. The relationship between The Shadow and his agents is way too casual. In this story, they seem to be friends. There's no sense of master/servant.
In Gibson's Shadow stories, reports from his agents always were made to communications man Burbank. In this story Burbank owns a telephone answering service, but doesn't play the part of information clearing house. Instead, agents telephone The Shadow directly. And informally, as when Harry Vincent reports in: "Hi Boss! This is Harry." Sheesh!
Bruce Elliott never got certain facts right. The most annoying example, to me, is that The Shadow should always wear a cloak. Elliott usually describes it as a cape. If its purpose is to enclose his figure in blackness, only a cloak would suffice. A cape would leave the lower half of his body conspicuous. Walter Gibson rightly always described it as a black cloak.
In one spot in the story, The Shadow hangs outside a window, clinging to some brownstone decorations, listening to the plottings of the criminals inside. This would have been a natural place for The Shadow to be using his famous rubber suction cups to cling to the wall. But Elliott ignores them. He just didn't get it...
In this story, Lamont Cranston is no longer a wealthy clubman and world traveler. Instead he is a well-known detective. Many have heard about Cranston's deductive powers, but all have apparently forgotten that he's a big-game hunter.
Harry Vincent is the only agent to take an active role in the story. And it's very minor. Burbank appears once or twice, but basically does nothing. Hawkeye is mentioned as trailing someone or other, but never actually appears. Shrevvy (yes, he's called "Shrevvy" not Moe Shrevnitz) is mentioned as being unable to make the trip to Skillton. No other agents are even mentioned.
As far as Shadow novels go, this one is near the bottom of the ladder. Not quite the bottom rung, but getting close. I can't really recommend this story to anyone but completists or masochists. Or to someone who has a lot of time on his/her hands and is reeeaalllly bored!