The Shadow 156 The Green Hoods

THE GREEN HOODS was originally published in the August 15, 1938 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The Green Hoods is a secret society of twelve robed and hooded men. No one member knows the identity of the others. No one, that is, but Member Number 1, the founder of the organization. If he were to die, their identities would remain forever hidden. And a sinister plan begins to form... Kent Allard, the famous aviator who we know to be the true identity of The Shadow, has received a mysterious invitation to join The Green Hoods. He has received an envelope containing a disk of green jade. The thin half-dollar-sized object is blank except for the number 13 carved in the center of one side. That, plus a written invitation in green, is the only contents of the envelope. The Shadow is intrigued. He knows not from whom it came. This is his first knowledge of an organization known as The Green Hoods. Is this an organization devoted to good or evil? The invitation gives no clue. So he decides to secretly attend the meeting in order to determine their motives. What a great start to a great Shadow mystery! But wait! There's more! In a windowless, hidden, basement room of a deserted old theater, The Green Hoods meet. The Shadow stealthily enters unannounced, and spies on the meeting. There he sees a group of night riders, clad in green gathered about a circular table in the center of a square-walled room. Each is wearing a green robe with a cowl-like hood. The drawn hoods come below their chins, with almond-shaped eye slits and narrow mouth spaces that give no glimpes of the faces they lay behind them. Although their identities are unknown, Member 1 is revealed to be an inventor who has perfected the Truth Inducer, a strange combination of mechanism and chemical formulas. This invention, as the name implies, will force anyone to tell the truth, regardless of their intent. Think what this could mean for law enforcement! No more third-degree. Criminals could be made to tell the truth about their crimes. But also think what this invention could mean for crimedom! Gangsters could use it to easily gain access to the combinations of safes and vaults. They could use it on each other to determine the identity of a suspected snitch. They could even use it to reveal the secret hiding places of fellow-gangsters' stolen millions. Yes, this invention could be used for good... or evil! Member 1 spreads out the plans for the Truth Inducer on the table. There is a sudden bright flash which blinds everyone, including The Shadow. In their blinded darkness, there is a gunshot. Member 1 is killed, and the invention is stolen by a mysterious hooded member. Someone - some member of the Green Hoods - has stolen both the Truth Inducer and the secret plans! The Shadow must find the murderer! The Shadow must determine the legitimacy of the secret organization. The Shadow must reclaim the lost invention that could revolutionize the fight against crime. The Shadow must find the identity of Member 1. And The Shadow must unmask the other anonymous members of The Green Hoods. Whew, it's quite a task for The Shadow. But he's up to it, with the assistance of his faithful agents. Appearing in this story, to assist him, are his contact man Burbank, ace cab driver Moe Shrevnitz, crime reporter Clyde Burke, and the best tracker in the business, Hawkeye. Also aiding The Shadow is his personal physician Doctor Rupert Sayre, in a brief appearance. The forces of the law here are Inspector Joe Cardona and Police Commissioner Ralph Weston. The Shadow appears in his true identity as Kent Allard, although he also appears briefly in disguise as millionaire-clubman Lamont Cranston, and police-station janitor Fritz. This story quickly recaps the true identity of The Shadow. We're told he's Kent Allard, famous aviator. Following a plane wreck in the Guatemalan jungles, Allard lived there among the members of a lost Xinca tribe, presumably for ten years. These men regarded Allard as the equivalent of an Aztec god, and when he returned to Manhattan ten years later, two Xincas came with him as his faithful servitors. We're told that, in truth, Allard left Guatamala much earlier and returned to New York to fight crime as The Shadow while he, as Allard, was still believed to be missing in the jungles of Central America. It was three years yet before Walter Gibson would introduce Margo Lane to the pulp stories of The Shadow. But when occasion required it, he would introduce a plucky female protagonist as needed. In this story, it's Evelyn Rayle, who at first traps The Shadow and then assists him after recognizing him to be a friend. She plays a large and important part in the story, which may have helped pave the way for the eventual introduction of Margo Lane. In this story we see many of the little bits that made The Shadow stories famous. There's the sanctum - the black-walled room where blue light provides the only illumination. There's The Shadow's writing in vivid blue that fades as it is exposed to the air. And there's the ever-changing colors of The Shadow's girasol ring - a ring he uses with Eveyln Rayle as a means of identification. This is a great story filld with sinister death traps, strange and mysterious inventions, and the unknown secret soceity known as The Green Hoods.