[The Shadow 41] • The Killer

THE KILLER was originally published in the November 1, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The Killer? That's the best title the editors at Street Smith could come up with? How dull! When Walter Gibson submitted the story to his publishers on February 24, 1933, he had it entitled "Appointment With Death." But the honchos at Street Smith figured "The Killer" was better. That's right. And these guys were paid money to make decisions which would promote the magazine and sell more copies. But they certainly weren't earning their paychecks that week. So, let's get down to the story, itself. Coming in from Mexico, Harland Mullrick arrives in Manhattan aboard the large steamship, the Yucatan. He's here to find four men. Any one of these four men should be able to give him secret information which will enable him to find the long lost mines of Durango. These mines, covered up by Indians during the Spanish conquest, contain fabulous mineral content. Assisting him in his quest is his Mexican servant Pascual, and private detective Jerry Herston. Also assisting is Luis Santo, an investigator from Mexico City, who has been in New York for the past few weeks, seeking the identity of the men who know the secret of the lost mine. Now that his task is finished, he hands Harland Mullrick a piece of paper listing the four names and addresses of the men he seeks. None of the four men, he assures Mullrick, know of the others. But unknown to even Santo, someone else knows. Someone willing to murder! Luis Santo sets sail back to Mexico at midnight on the El Salvador. But before the ship even leaves dock, he is brutally murdered. A mystery personage knows of the secret, and is out to silence all others who possess this knowledge! Santo is only the first to die. Each of the other four men will also be targeted for death. The only person who can stop the carnage is... The Shadow! The Shadow will track down the murderer and attempt to thwart his sinister plans before the other four can also die. But one by one, they are struck down, and even the might of The Shadow seems too puny for this hidden master criminal. It will take all his cunning to unmask this secret mastermind who seeks the wealth of the lost Durango mines. In these early stories of The Shadow, only a small cadre of agents were employed by the master of the night. That group grew as the years progressed, but at this point, only Harry Vincent, Clyde Burke and Burbank are involved. Harry keeps an eye on the Belisarius Arms apartments, trailing Harland Mullrick whenever he leaves his rooms. Burke, reporter with the New York Classic, shows up at the crime scenes, gathering information for his secret master. And Rutledge Mann shows up for one scene, acting as contact man meeting with Harry Vincent. Cranston's chauffeur Stanley isn't exactly an agent, but since in unknowingly aids The Shadow, I should mention his appearance here as well. Burbank gets a much larger role in this story than usual. Instead of his usual duties keeping his master and agents in contact with each other, he gets to use his electronics expertise. And he leaves his dark little room with the switchboard, and gets out into the field. First, he enters Harland Mullrick's apartment and installs a radio, surreptitiously adding a hidden microphone with a wire that runs to the apartment above. Then he goes on duty in that upper apartment, listening to the dictaphone and keeping records of all conversations that take place in Mullrick's rooms. As Burbank listens in on the conversations taking place in the apartment below, he occasionally hears Mullrick speak to his servant Pascual in Spanish. Now, Burbank doesn't speak Spanish, which would seemingly make it difficult to make reports to The Shadow on what has occurred. Burbank's solution is to simply repeat verbally everything he hears to The Shadow, repeating every syllable he heard but didn't understand. In essence, he becomes a human wire-recorder. In this way, The Shadow, who is a master of languages, knows what was said, even though it was overheard by Burbank in Spanish. Pretty clever! I always enjoy learning little tidbits about the agents, things which are often just tossed into a story and never mentioned again. In this story, we discover that "Burbank, during his long hours of duty, resorted to one methodical habit as he bided away the time. He always had a supply of chewing gum." Yup, he's a gum chewer. Let's just hope he doesn't start sounding like the gum-snapping telephone-operator Mable on the Jack Benny Show. In keeping with author Walter Gibson's policy of keeping Burbank somewhat mysterious, we never actually get to see his face, nor does Harland Mullrick when Burbank installs the radio. His face is always conveniently in shadow or turned away. It's good to see quiet little Burbank get out and shine for a change. Even if we don't get to see him clearly. In the area of the police, we see the full roster of the New York Police Department. Commissioner Ralph Weston appears, although off-screen, as it were. Detective Joe Cardona, Sergeant Markham and Inspector Klein all get nice roles, here. As was typical of all the early Shadow pulp mysteries, only Joe Cardona knows of the existence of The Shadow. Commissioner Weston has forbade mention of this unknown crime fighter. So, we're told that Cardona's reports never mention the name of The Shadow. But he's seen him from a distance before. And in this story, he finally gets to see The Shadow up close. A first! There's a new guy, detective Jim Clausey. He's described as comparatively new to the force, usually assigned to the underworld because he was unknown to mobsters. When someone new is introduced to the series, it makes one suspicious. Is he going to become a series regular, making this his first appearance? Or is he a red herring, really working for some master villain, who will help confound The Shadow? Or is he a disposable figure, somewhat like the "red shirts" of Star Trek fame, who is destined to be killed off? I won't spoil it by giving away Gibson's secret, but I'll just say that Jim Clausey has a definite purpose. He's not there by accident. The Shadow, himself, is the typical Shadow of the 1930's. Silent, stealthy, invincible, and viewed with superstitious fear by all mobsters in New York. One line in particular that I found interesting, was "The Shadow was the most dreaded force that battled with the hordes of New York's underworld." There seems to be some vague recognition that there were other "less-dreaded" forces battling those hordes. Could this have been a sly dig at The Spider, whose competing pulp magazine premiered a month previously? We can only wonder... The Shadow, as described in this story, is truly a master of disguise. Appearing as Lamont Cranston is only one of his many disguises used here. He also appears as a tall, dignified stranger in an elevator. He's also Professor Scudder, a noted, gray-haired zoologist. He fool everyone when he appears as Harland Mullrick. And he has one other amazing disguise which I can't reveal here, without giving away the twist ending of the story. Many of the famous trappings of The Shadow make their appearance, here. He still wears the fabulous fire opal ring. He writes coded messages in ink of vivid blue. We get to visit the darkened sanctum, where he mulls over the various clues. And he uses those rubber suction cups attached to his hands and feet to climb the outside of buildings. The Shadow still has the distressing habit of throwing away his .45 caliber automatics when they are empty. And he never goes back and collects them later. It happens again in this story. He throws away the empties and pulls out a second pair of automatics and continues blazing away during a gun battle. Seems pretty wasteful, to me. I know this guy is supposed to be rich and can afford it, but it's also a bit dangerous, leaving guns around for just anyone to find. And over the years, probably hundreds of them, too! Bottom line. How does this story rate? Well, any story from 1933 is bound to be superior to the 1940's pulp tales. But to be compared with other stories from the same year, it comes in at just about average. Nothing really outstanding, other than a cool twist ending that I didn't see coming. But even an average 1933 Shadow mystery will outshine nearly anything from the later years. So I can certainly recommend it.