The Shadow 024 Six Men of Evil

SIX MEN OF EVIL was originally published in the February 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Six men with a bizarre secret, exploit that secret in order to begin a crime wave that covers the entire United States. The Shadow will travel from New York to Mexico to San Francisco's Chinatown before he will be able to conquer the evil of those six men. 

 

The early years of The Shadow Magazine are universally recognized to contain the best of The Shadow's pulp adventures. And this story is definitely one of the best. Plenty of action. Plenty of mystery. Visits to far-flung places. And the exciting power of The Shadow at its most concentrated. It all goes to make this story a must-read. 

 

As our story opens, six men are on horseback, crossing the border from Mexico into Texas. They discuss their unique situation before they plan to split up and go their own separate ways. They have only recently been released by ancestors of the ancient Aztecs, where they had been held captive as punishment for crimes against the lost tribe. 

 

It seems that these six men originally had been enlisted in the US Army, trying to hide from their previous criminal lives. When they heard of a treasure in northern Mexico, they deserted and headed south. In deep in one of the hidden gorges of a high mountain range, they discovered the lost city of Zeltapec with its descendants of the ancient Aztecs. And in an inner shrine of the secret temple at Zeltapec, a huge emerald lay upon a pedestal. A jewel of unmatched beauty known to the natives at "Chicquatil." It was this sacred stone that they attempted to steal. 

 

The six men were caught by the Aztecs, during their attempted robbery. And they were sentenced to a most strange and unusual punishment. Since the exact nature of that punishment isn't spelled out until later in the pulp novel, explaining it here will be a bit of a spoiler. But since the secret is pasted clearly on the cover of the pulp magazine, it's not much of a spoiler. So read the next four paragraphs at your own risk... 

 

The punishment was that each man was forced to wear a metal mask strapped tightly to his face. This was the mask of Colpoc, the god of evil. For eight long months, these six men wore the metal masks, kept there under pressure. And at the end of that time period, when the masks were removed, each man's features had taken on those of Colpoc himself. Each man was an exact duplicate of the other. All had immobile features; broad nose; thick, heavy lips; cheeks, chin and forehead that slope away uniformly. Only their mouths and eyes could move. 

 

The Aztecs released their prisoners and banned them from the valley. They would be doomed to go through the rest of their lives bearing the visage of evil. The identical faces that would mark them, wherever they went, as criminals. The Aztecs let them keep the gold they stole; they were only interested in maintaining custody of their sacred emerald. 

 

But the six men, now that they sit on horseback anticipating going their own ways, decide to take advantage of the fact that they all look alike. They will spread over the country and make preparations for a crime spree unheard of in the annals of crime. 

 

Each man will adopt a new name and enter a new community as a respectable citizen. They will plan crime. After six months to a year, when they are a trusted member of their own communities, they will execute their long-planned crimes. Regardless of whether they murder or steal, they will do it openly and allow witnesses to see them. Because, they will have an iron-clad alibi. One of their duplicates will actually commit the crime, while each man, himself, spends the entire time of the crime with a sheriff, mayor or some other local notable whose word can't be questioned. The perfect crime! 

 

Their plans made, the six men split up and ride off in different directions. After a planning period of at least six months, the crimes will begin. And so they do. The first is in Tilson, Illinois. A quarter million stolen from a bank. But the man accused of the crime had an iron-clad alibi - he had been with the chief of police the whole time. The next crime is in Barmouth, Maryland. Followed by Daltona, Georgia - murder and two million dollars. This is a job for The Shadow! 

But before The Shadow can begin to combat this crime, he must take a trip to Mexico and find the lost city of Zeltapec. And this is where the story, which is already a corker, gets even better. The Shadow lands in the lost city in his autogyro. He's taken to be a messenger of the sun god. He receives the giant emerald - the green Chicquatil - as a gift. He tries to refuse, but the natives press it upon him. 

And then, as if a trip to a lost civilization isn't enough, we get a rousing climax when The Shadow visits San Francisco and it's famed Chinatown. There, he makes his way through death traps to reach the inner recesses of Tam Sook's domain. There we learn another secret about The Shadow's girasol ring. 

In various Shadow stories, the origin of his famous girasol ring is occasionally mentioned. One story has it belonging to a czar of Russia and the other story has it as coming from South American Xinca Indians. You may be familiar with the history of the stone, but what of the metal ring itself? The silver setting that the stone is set into? This story sheds some light on that issue, indicating it came from China. Here's a segment of the story: 

As The Shadow spoke, he made a motion with his hand. The iridescent girasol popped upward, on a hinge. A cavity was revealed beneath the precious stone. Within that cavity was visible a tiny, weird-scrawled figure. 

 

Tam Sook's eyes bulged as he saw the figure. A gasp came from the Chinaman's lips. 

 

"The sign of Chow Lee!" he exclaimed. "The sign of The Great One!" 

 

"Yes," came the weirdly-whispered reply, "the gift of those of Chow Lee - those who are even more powerful than you! Only one man, other than your own, has this sacred symbol. I am that man!"

 

Who is Chow Lee? What is the strange figure engraved beneath the girasol? We can only guess, since author Walter Gibson doesn't explain further. Perhaps he intended to expand upon this in future Shadow stories. But, unfortunately, he never did. Much like The Shadow's "horror face," this aspect of The Shadow remains a mystery to faithful readers. 

 

Yes, this is a slam bang story. We get to see The Shadow use the explosive paste known as the "Devil's Whisper" for the second time. (It was previously introduced in 1931's "The Red Menace.") He uses his special disappearing ink to write coded messages to his agents. We get to visit the blackened sanctum and see that row of massive volumes that make up the archives of The Shadow. We travel around the country with The Shadow: New York City; Tilson, Illinois; Barmouth, Maryland; Daltona, Georgia; Fargo, North Dakota; Riviere, Louisiana; San Francisco's Chinatown; the mountains of northern Mexico. What a ride! 

 

We are reminded, in this tale, that wherever there is a city that harbors an underworld, The Shadow is feared: 

 In London, in Berlin, in Madrid, crooks of all nationalities lowered their voices when they discussed The Shadow. In Paris, skulking crooks still mumbled tales of The Shadow's prowess - of that eerie night when an unknown being in black had battled single-handed against a horde of apaches. In Moscow, there were men who remembered the time when The Shadow had fought himself free from a regiment of Red troops.

This is definitely an early version of The Shadow. He is nearly all-powerful. He wields a hypnotic presence; his eyes contain a mesmeric glint that brooks no refusal. He shoots to kill, not to wound; and he shoots straight the first time. His mastery of even the esoteric languages of the ancient Zeltapec chief is demonstrated here. 

 

The Shadow appears in his guise as millionaire, world-traveler Lamont Cranston in this story. He is accompanied by his agents Burbank, Harry Vincent, investment-broker Rutledge Mann and reporter Clyde Burke. There is no mention of Kent Allard; author Gibson hadn't invented him yet. And no mention of "Ying Ko" when The Shadow was in Chinatown. That part of The Shadow's back-story wouldn't be invented for another two years. 

 

Another sure sign that this is an early tale in which Gibson's writing hadn't fully taken form, yet, would be the murder of a girl. In later stories, Walter Gibson studiously avoided allowing harm to females. They were never killed. Alternate author Theodore Tinsley had no such compunctions, as you are probably aware. He killed off women and men with equal aplomb. But to see one of our six men of evil shoot a girl straight through the heart was quite disconcerting. Very unlike the Walter Gibson stories we later came to know. 

And what of the Chicquatil, itself? What did The Shadow do with the huge green stone that the Zeltapec chief presented to him? After The Shadow climbs into his autogyro and flies away from the lost Aztec city, nothing further is said of the fabulous emerald. We can only assume that it sat among other treasures in The Shadow's sanctum. 

 

This is one of the all-time great classic Shadow pulp adventures. It's a rousing tale, one that I really enjoyed reading. I know you'll enjoy reading it, too. It is scheduled to be reprinted in the near future, and I can heartily recommend that you buy it and treat yourself to one of the best of the best.