[The Shadow 336] • Blackmail Bay

BLACKMAIL BAY was a short story originally published in the paperback book "The Duende History of The Shadow Magazine" in 1980. Along the Maine coast lies Spruce Island and Cobosco Bay. Blackmail is being committed in this most unlikely spot, and only The Shadow can unmask the heartless extortionist. Old Judge Parker Kroft is being blackmailed. Margo Lane is dispatched to his house located at the edge of Hiram's Cove on Spruce Island. There, she is to look through his old court records in search of clues to the identity of the blackmailer. Harry Vincent has been assigned to rent a cabin on the neighboring Round Island, from which The Shadow can base his operations. Soon we are up to our necks in suspects. Round Island is owned by a city fellow named Wilby Weldon. Moffat House, where Margo Lane spends her first night, is owned by Madge Moffat. Also staying there is Lester Blake, an artist who lives there during the off-season and paints seascapes. We meet Lew Barton, the insurance man. There's Earl Torgesen, the store-keeper; and Ezra Hobbs, the local taxicab driver. Which one is the blackmailer? Clues abound, but only The Shadow can piece them together to solve the mystery. The climax of the piece takes place at high tide at the old lighthouse out on the point of Beacon Neck. It's a wonderful scene reminiscent of so many of the earlier novels. If you're astute, you'll have pieced together the clues and can unveil the blackmailer before the climax. Or you can just enjoy the ride, one last time. Yes, this was the last Shadow story, direct from the hand of his creator, Walter Gibson. It was written in 1979 and was published as part of the wonderful book "The Duende History of The Shadow." It's not a full length magazine story, but rather a short story, under ten-thousand words. Still, it is an excellent farewell bow from The Shadow. Even with its shorter length, it still delivers the goods! You still get to see The Shadow, his alter-ego Lamont Cranston, Margo Lane, Burbank, Harry Vincent, Clyde Burke, and Commissioner Weston. The old gang is back for one final romp, and it's a pleasure to read. Gibson brings back many of the things that readers fondly remembered about The Shadow. The fabulous girasol ring is back. As usual, it is described as being on the third finger of his left hand. I've always wondered, since he wears it on his wedding ring finger, is that significant? Perhaps indicating he is married to his crime fighting career and has no time for further romance? The one difference, this time around, is the way that Gibson describes the ring. "This was The Shadow's girasol, one of the unmatched fire-opals that symbolized his ability to conquer crime." The difference is the "one of" qualifier. By the time this story was written, Gibson had revised the origin story of the ring. In the pulps it was originally described as a one-of-a-kind ring coming from the Romanoff collection of royal jewels. Later in the pulps it was described as a gift from the Xinca Indians in Central America. When this discrepancy was brought to Gibson's attention in the mid 1970's, he modified the story of the ring, and it was said that actually there were two rings, not one. In the original pulps, it was said that there was only one such ring. But now in this 1980 story, it's nice to see that Gibson has corrected his description of the ring to acknowledge both origin stories. Walter Gibson always loved codes and word puzzles. That interest shows up in this story as the blackmailer and the victim trade messages written in a unique code, consisting entirely of anagrams. Many of the old pulp tales also features such codes, so it was nice to see them included here as well. The old trick of using flashlights with colored lenses to flash signals between The Shadow and his agents returns here. While The Shadow is on Round Island, he sends coded messages to Margo Lane on Spruce Island via green flashes of light. It's another thing frequently used in the original series that shows up here. One of the best part of the pulp series was when The Shadow would show up in disguise. He was a master of disguise and showed up in a large variety of them over the years. This would not have been a satisfactory reprise of the stories if once again The Shadow had not been in disguise. He appears as his usual black-cloaked self, and as Lamont Cranston. He also makes a surprise appearance as another character, but I won't spoil the ending of the story by revealing the nature of that disguise. One of my favorite part of this story is the appearance of the "Devil's Whisper." This is the explosive paste that The Shadow could rub on his thumb and middle finger. When he snapped his fingers, there would be an explosion of light and sound. This unique preparation appeared in fourteen of the original pulp stories, the final being 1946's "Crime Out Of Mind." It was heartening to see it make a triumphant return in this story. I only found two reminders that this story was set in 1980. It could have easily been set in the 1930's except for those two exceptions. One is the mention of audio tapes. Margo Lane is listening to tapes of Judge Kroft's confidential discussions. That dates the story after World War II, when the technology of audio recording on magnetic tape was brought back to America from Germany. The other modern mention is that Burbank speaks to The Shadow, not through headphones, but from an unseen amplifier. Speaker phones were not part of the old pulp series. But other than these two items, nothing places the story in more modern times. So I tended to ignore those exceptions and visualize The Shadow as I remember him in the 1930s. This is the historic final "official" Shadow story as written by the hand of his creator, Walter Gibson. I say "official" because there was one more Shadow story, but it was an unofficial one. In the March 1981 issue of Detective Comics, the 500th issue, there was a Batman text story written by Walter Gibson. It was entitled "Batman Encounters Gray Face." When Gibson conceived this story, however, it was as a Shadow story, not a Batman story. He even went so far as to make notes on how the story could easily be changed back from a Batman story into a Shadow mystery. When one reads the story, it is easy to imagine The Shadow taking the place of Batman. That Batman story, then, would be the actual final Shadow story written by Walter Gibson. But that "lost" Shadow tale should take nothing away from Blackmail Bay. It's a great sendoff for the black-cloaked scourge of crime. For its small size, it packs a lot of entertainment value and is a terrific Shadow story in its own right. A suitable finale for The Shadow.