[The Shadow 213] • Forgotten Gold

FORGOTTEN GOLD was originally published in the January 1, 1941 issue of The Shadow Magazine. It's a tale about... uh... gold. Just like the title indicates. And over the years, it's been... er... forgotten. So the title isn't all that mysterious, or even original. But, hey, it fits! Our story opens in Hillville, Georgia in midsummer. The time of year is significant because that means the days are longer and the nights are shorter. The Shadow has less darkness to run around in. But still, even at that, much of the story takes place at night when The Shadow can don his cloak of black and skulk through the Georgia countryside. Georgia, it seems, was real gold country back in the mid 1800's. The government had a mint at Dahlonega and it kept on working even after the gold was discovered in California in 1849. The forgotten gold of the story title is in a gold mine - the old Aureole Mine - which was still a paying proposition when Georgia joined the Confederacy. At that time, the mint was closed, never to open again. The Aureole Mine was purposely buried for the duration of the war. Then, after the war, no one wanted to reopen it, not with a lot of carpetbaggers ready to grab it. Year later, the heirs of the original owners sold the mine, but by then no one was able to find it. Eventually Morton Selwood bought the stock, which had dropped drastically in value. It was a speculation on his part. He planned to hold on to the property. But now he's broke, and needs the Aureole Mine to help him out of financial ruin. There is a brief mention of the current war situation in Europe. Keep in mind that at the time of this story, World War II was in progress even though the USA had yet to enter the global dispute. We are told that much of Morton Selwood's financial troubles are because of "foreign investments destroyed by the war." So Selwood needs money, and the Aureole Mine seems the solution to his problem. But, wouldn't you know it, trouble's broken out in Georgia. Trouble that spells murder. And that calls for our hero, The Shadow! Bob Beverly is our proxy hero. He's the young man in charge of the expedition to find the lost mine. He heads up a crew of men who are scouring the mountainous land owned by Morton Selwood in search of the Aureole Mine. Assisting him is a quirky inventor by the name of Claude Althorn. Althorn has a newly-devised gold-finder which will help in the search. Others are out to stop Bob Beverly, Claude Althorn and the rest of the crew. Some who want the gold. Some who own adjacent property and want to claim the mine is located on their land. And some that have other sinister motives. Chief among the antagonists are Frederick Zern, a millionaire who owns some of that adjoining property, Bert Peld, a sneaky underling of Zern's, and Old Dokey, a half-wit squatter who lives near the Georgia land in question. Beautiful Brenda Selwood, Morton Selwood's daughter, is in love with young Bob Beverly, and she adds the requisite romantic angle to the novel. She wants to see Bob succeed so her father will decide that Bob's good enough to marry her. But Bob won't be able to make it on his own. Not with the attempts on the life of the search crew. The Shadow is drawn into the intrigue and is soon up to his cloaked and muffled neck in deadly mystery. Harry Vincent is helping The Shadow, here. He's the main agent seen in this story, and appears throughout the entire mystery. He's working at the camp with Bob Beverly. Several other of The Shadow's agents also appear, including contact man Burbank, taxi-driver Moe Shrevnitz and reporter Clyde Burke. But they all appear very briefly. Stanley, Lamont Cranston's chauffeur, also appears several times. Stanley aids The Shadow without realizing it; he thinks he's taking orders from his employer, the real Lamont Cranston. So technically, he's not an agent. But he's a recurring character who deserves mention. Police Commissioner Ralph Weston appears in mid-story, when the location moves to Manhattan. But he doesn't really get to do much. The law in Georgia is represented by one Sheriff Cady, but he doesn't get much to do, either. The Shadow is pretty much the sole crime-fighter, here. Other than the usual disguise of Lamont Cranston, The Shadow doesn't get to use any of his skills at impersonation. He takes the part of Cranston on and off throughout the entire story, and he sees plenty of action when garbed in his outfit of black. It would have been nice to see him appear in some other disguise, but this was just a routine Shadow mystery. And no such opportunity presented itself. Several of the old familiar touches that resonate with faithful readers are present. We see the short-wave radio in the back of Cranston's limousine that The Shadow uses to communicate with Burbank. And The Shadow pulls out "The Devil's Whisper" which hasn't been seen for a while. This is the powdery chemical substance that he rubs on his thumb and second finger. When he snaps his fingers, there is a bright flash and thunderous explosion. But this time, instead of snapping his fingers, he transfers the chemicals to a piece of paper in his hands. And when the paper is later tossed into the fireplace... kaboom! Throughout the pulp series, we've seen several different methods used by The Shadow to wring information out of hardened criminals. In "Prince of Evil," he used a system of light and sound to gain information. A similar system of "humane torture" is used today, if reports are to be believed. Remember the non-stop 24-hours-a-day rock music that blared outside the Panama compound of Manuel Noriega back in 1989. That's one of the types of persuasion previously used by The Shadow. But in this story, The Shadow uses a more direct approach. He takes a "hands on" approach, literally. He uses strangulation to force information from a captured hoodlum. First he withholds air, then he relaxes momentarily, allowing the captive a breath. Then he tightens his grip once more: "...two gloved hands caught Dibby's throat in an iron grip... Dibby weakened under the terrific torture, until, momentarily, the iron fingers relaxed. "Then came the whispered voice of The Shadow... When Dibby failed to answer, the fingers tightened, then eased again, making the contrast more evident. This time a gargly utterance came from Dibby's throat... Deftly The Shadow had squeezed the information from Dibby."By mid-1940, when this story was actually written, The Shadow pulp novels had started to lose steam. They were becoming a bit routine. Author Walter Gibson tried to keep things exciting, but as most readers agree, the stories were starting to decline. Gibson kept trying to throw in surprise, twist endings, but sometimes his desperation began to show. And this is one of those stories. The surprise ending doesn't really come as much of a surprise. At least to me. I'm going to talk a bit about the rather pedestrian "surprise" ending of the story, so be forewarned. If you don't want the ending spoiled, you should skip the next five paragraphs. SPOILER! It turns out that inventor Claude Althorn's young son, Jackie, is really an adult. A midget (dwarf, little person, whatever...) impersonating a child of twelve. That's the surprise. But it was no surprise to me, and I doubt if it was to most faithful Shadow readers, either. It was painfully obvious that something was amiss when Walter Gibson introduced young Jackie Althorn. That's because Gibson didn't write children into his Shadow novels. Never. And faithful readers could easily recognize that fact. So when one makes a continued appearance, not just a quick cameo, it's a red flag. A very big red flag. Plus, Walter Gibson didn't write a very convincing portrayal of a youngster. He claims the boy is purportedly about twelve, but then has him behaving like a six-year-old. The youngster pouts and cries and plays in a manner that no twelve-year-old would ever do. Not today, and not back 1940, either. Didn't Gibson know how a twelve-year-old acts? You'd think he would, especially since a goodly number of them were pulp readers (Gem Blade advertisements notwithstanding). After reading this sad attempt to write characterization for a child, it's easy to see why children never were written into The Shadow's adventures. For one thing, they really didn't belong. Not in this type of pulp story. But for another, Gibson, who had no children of his own, really didn't know how to write them. So it was obvious from the beginning that there was something wrong in having young Jackie Althorn in the story. It wasn't much of a stretch to realize that this was an adult impersonating a child, even though all the other adult characters in the story were clearly fooled. And if Jackie was a fake, then obviously his father, the inventor, was aware of it and was up to something. And then the story began to unravel as their actions began to make their motivations clear. END OF SPOILER So, by story's end, there really wasn't much of a surprise. I could see what was coming. But that didn't make the ending dull, by any means. Actually, it's a rousing conclusion as the good guys get trapped in the mine by the bad guys. The good guys - and there's quite a crew of them - are all trapped underground by a terrific explosion and The Shadow must undertake their rescue. Even with the rousing ending, the pulp novel, taken as a whole, feels a bit anemic. There were still some exciting Shadow stories ahead, but there were also some routine, rather tired stories. Unfortunately, this seems to be one of those. It's a perfectly respectable story (if you can overlook the obvious flaw pointed out in the spoiler above), but it just seems to lack that unique spark. There would be worse stories in The Shadow's future. Far worse! And there would be better ones, as well. This particular one just doesn't stand out. It's not one of the "must read" stories. But it's fun to read, if you're bored and have time on your hands.