The Shadow 236 Crime's Stronghold

CRIME'S STRONGHOLD was originally published in the December 15, 1941 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Deep in the strange wilds of Florida, a strange laboratory holds even stranger residents. This is crime's stronghold. Here, mysterious powers are at work... powers that will tax even the might of The Shadow. This was a fun story to read. It's not the best story of 1941. I think "The Chinese Primrose" and "The White Column" were better. It's not the weirdest story, either. "The Devil Master" probably had it over "Crime's Stronghold." But it has some nice features, a few silly ones and when it comes right down to it, the story was a very enjoyable romp with The Shadow and two of his aides. It was the last story of 1941, and made a very nice way to end the year. This story has monkeys. Monkeys, apes, chimpanzees and gorillas all make up the bizarre residents of the anthropological laboratory run by Professor Morton Englemere. But, I ask myself, why monkeys? They don't really serve much purpose to the story. In the tale's climax, they do assist slightly in the mopping up of the gangsters... but it's nothing that The Shadow couldn't have handled alone. There is one scene where the crooks use some of the monkeys as an excuse to get past a police blockade. "We're moving these apes to circus winter quarters." But again, it would have been a simple matter to avoid the blockade if monkeys hadn't been part of the story. There's no real compelling reason to have them in the story, but here they are. This all takes place in Florida. In one of the wild, rarely visited sections of Florida there is an isolated building inhabited by Professor Morton Englemere. This is his anthropological laboratory where he stays with an assortment of anthropoids and a motley crew of humans. All of the employees, the trainers and the keepers, are hard-faced, tough-looking characters. They are thugs, down from New York, planning a crime wave that will spread out from this secret headquarters. With Professor Englemere as their leader, they are about to start crime on a scale unheard-of in the annals of crime. The professor seems to show no interest in his apes, which is why it seems they could have easily been written out of the story. All his attentions are directed toward one of his inventions. He has developed a secret weapon unheard of in modern warfare, a Vapor Gun which can cut through any substance in mere seconds. Its calcide spray will eat through concrete or steel in seconds. But, instead of turning it over to the government to assist in the war effort as an antitank weapon, Professor Englemere decides to use it to enter bank vaults, cut through walls, and create chaos. The professor wants to improve his Vapor Gun, to give it more range and power. To do so, he needs a powerful new explosive that has been recently developed in the region. It's called Citrite, and is manufactured from the pulp of citrus fruits. Sounds like the perfect thing to be invented in Florida. Somehow, and the specifics are never explained, adding Citrite to his Vapor Gun will make it a whole lot better. Faster, more powerful, greater range. These are the things Englemere wants for his Vapor Gun, and Citrite is the key to those improvements. So it's off to the heavily-guarded industrial plant where Citrite is created, to steal a large supply with which to perpetuate the wave of crime. Who can stop this murderous gang? Who can overcome the power of the Vapor Gun? Who can determine the next target of crime? Who can discover the hidden stronghold of crime? That's right... The Shadow! This story takes place completely in Florida. There is no brief sojourn to Manhattan. Everything takes place in the sunshine state. That's where the anthropological laboratory is located. That's where all the crimes take place. The Shadow works pretty much alone, here. About midway through the story, Cliff Marsland is brought in. He infiltrates the gang of crooks, to find out what they're up to. But he is soon discovered and is thrown into one of the ape cages. Harry Vincent also has a small part, but he, too, ends up a prisoner in another of those cages. It's going to be up to The Shadow to rescue them! Luckily, no other agents appear, or they would have probably been captured by the gang, as well. The only other regular character we recognized is Vic Marquette of the FBI. He shows up at the end to take into custody any crooks who have survived a bloody gunbattle with The Shadow. He misses out on the battle itself, so his appearance is only to assure readers that the gangsters who still lived would be sent to the penitentiary. Supposedly there are other agents working in the background. None are mentioned by name, but we are told that "The Shadow's own secret agents, competent men long in his service, were on the job as orange pickers." Their job was to fan out across the state, seeking any sign of the hideout. The pulp adventure does have some nice scenes. One that I found enjoyable in particular was the battle aboard a stolen freight train. The gang has commandeered the train, and The Shadow jumps aboard. He makes his way across the top of the freight cars, toward the engine where the bad guys are running things. Great action sequence! The Shadow carries with him a private rogues' gallery, showing the faces of crooks he has encountered or is looking for. It's all on a set of cards that contain large printed dots. When enlarged under a microscope, the dots become pictures of men's faces. This makes it easy for The Shadow to carry the equivalent of huge mug books of criminal photographs, all condensed onto a small packet of cards. This clever rogues' gallery had been mentioned a few months earlier in "Garden of Death" and returned several months later in "Death Diamonds." Another interesting feature of this story is the mention of Orange Lake and its famous floating islands. This is an actual lake in central Florida that contains small islands that float. Author Walter Gibson ingeniously used them in this story to assist The Shadow to escape from certain death, after being injured and rendered unconscious. It is a pretty clever escape for our hero, and was based upon an actual geographical phenomenon. But I still don't get the monkeys. They are constantly in the background. We hear a lot about them. Apparently, they are pretty skilled. They've been trained to answer the door, serve meals, wash dishes, sweep up the lab, whitewash the walls, weed flowerbeds, dig a drainage ditch, and do all sorts of other useful tasks. The thugs teach Loco, the orangutan, to shoot craps, and apparently he's so good at it that they wish they hadn't taught him. Yes, those monkeys are everywhere, in this story. But they don't seem to serve any purpose, plotwise. It's almost like they were added later, as background eye candy. They aren't actually integrated into the plot; they're just... there. We've seen The Shadow's mastery over beasts in previous stories. In "Crime Circus" he controlled a wild tiger. In "Noose of Death" it was a bucking bronco. The previous year, he demonstrated his power over large, ferocious hounds in "Crime at Seven Oaks." But, the question is, can he gain mastery over a seven foot gorilla, named Tongo? You're just going to have to read this one to find out! I don't want to spoil it for you. Occasionally, in these Shadow stories, someone learns that Lamont Cranston is really The Shadow. Usually that person is the villain, and he almost always is killed at the climax of the story. In this particular story, there is another person who learns the secret of The Shadow, and lives! Yes, another living person is now out there who knows the strange and mysterious connection between The Shadow and Lamont Cranston. Just how many such people are there, anyway? I'm starting to lose count... In summary, here we have another fine example of a typical 1941 Shadow mystery. It's enjoyable to read; doesn't take too long to complete and it keeps you interested the whole time. There are no major holes in the plot; all the loose ends are tied up by the last page. I still can't figure out the monkey business, but it's kind of fun, and doesn't seem to hurt anything. If you run across this story, read it. You could do worse.