[The Shadow 44] • Treasures of Death

TREASURES OF DEATH was published in the December 15, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The treasures of the title are all of a literary nature. Rare old books and ancient manuscripts worth over a million dollars are being stolen from their owners. And these treasures definitely do lead to death. Death for their owners! As our story opens, young Terry Barliss has come to New York from California, summoned by an urgent telegram. His uncle, Shattuck Barliss, lies dying with not long to live. Old Shattuck tells his nephew of a secret panel in his study, behind which is a stury safe. Terry opens it and removes a rare old manuscript. The manuscript is called 'Les Rondeaux de Paris'. It contains five ballads written in 1455 by Francois Villon, the first and greatest of the French lyric poets. It is extremely rare because it contains the only copy of the elusive fifth ballad. Terry places the manuscript into the feeble hands of his dying uncle. As Uncle Shattuck flips through the pages, explaining their meaning, he stops suddenly. Where the fifth ballad should be, is only blank pages. Some crafty, unknown hand has stolen the true Villion manuscript and replaced it with a worthless copy! The shock of the discovery is too much for old Shattuck Barliss. He dies with the manuscript in his hands. Young Terry Barliss stands there stunned, left with a worthless inheritance. This is a job for The Shadow! The Shadow learns of old Barliss' death, and the reputed switch of the document, through his newspaper contact Clyde Burke. Burke is sent to cover the story of the lost manuscript and the ensuing death. He reports it to Burbank and before you can say "The Shadow Knows" the black-garbed avenger is on the case. Before long, The Shadow has discovered other unknown thefts. Other wealthy men discover their highly-cherished valuables have been switched for worthless imitations, as well. Some master crook has arranged robberies by means of clever substitutions, hoping that his crimes would not be discovered until long after the work has been done. The pilfered books and manuscripts are worth at least a million dollars. The Shadow discovers the single clue that connects all these crimes. That clue is an interior decorator named Compton Salwood. It seems that Salwood had recently done renovations on all the victim's houses. It seems he was the only person in the position to discover the hiding places of the valuables, and make the switch. Yes, Compton Salwood must be the man! Compton Salwood is only a small cog in a big wheel. Just one link in a much larger chain. And now that the link has been identified, it puts the entire chain at risk. Thus, it must be removed. And soon, Compton Salwood is found dead, a knife thrust through his heart. With Compton Salwood out of the picture, how can The Shadow track down the mastermind behind the astounding series of thefts? How can he uncover the stolen treasure trove? And how can he bring the sinister hidden chief to justice? It won't be easy, as any possible clues are eliminated before they can be of any use. But The Shadow can do it! And you'll enjoy reading just how he does it, in this great early Shadow pulp novel. The Shadow appears in several disguises in this story, including that of millionaire Lamont Cranston, and curio dealer Hawthorne Crayle. He is assisted by long-time aide Harry Vincent. Detective Joe Cardona plays a crutial part as well. Moe Shrevnitz hadn't been introduced to the series yet, and would make his first appearance in the 11/1/34 story "The Chinese Disks." So The Shadow must make do with any taxicab that happens to come along. He typically would just mysteriously appear in the back of a cab, and whisper a destination. Then before the cab had arrived, he would disappear from the back seat in equally mysterious fashion. A bank note, usually a ten-dollar bill, would flutter down to the front seat as payment. And thus it is in this story. As we know, he eventually bought his own taxi and installed Moe Shrevnitz as permanent driver. I guess he got tired of being at the mercy of random cabs. And those fluttering ten-dollar bills... In this story we get to make several visits to The Shadow's mysterious sanctum. We even get to see inside his laboratory, that seldom-seen second room of the sanctum. There, The Shadow performs some chemical experiments to prove the death of Shattuck Barliss was not an accident. One of my favorite things about Walter Gibson's Shadow stories are the strange names he comes up with for his characters. This story is full of them: Lycurgus Mercher, Shattuck Barliss, Thibble, Eli Galban and Compton Salwood to name a few. Another favorite thing about Gibson's stories are the codes. His interest in various codes carried over into many Shadow stories. In this one, there is a code in stamps. Postage stamps. He finds a collector's sheet of postage stamps, and finds a hidden message within their arrangement. Pretty clever! Several other favorite things appear in this story: those rubber suction cups, the purplish liquid and the "devil's whisper." The Shadow climbs the sheer outside of a building, his hands and feet equipped with his famous rubber suction cups. He hovers outside the upstairs window, listening to the evil plans of the room's occupants. The Shadow is injured in this story. But where is that vial of purplish liquid which can revive him and give him added strength? He's left it in the sanctum! So he has to drag his gunshot form over to Dr. Rupert Sayres' apartment for emergency care. When he partially recovers several days later, he makes a beeline for the sanctum, and wafts from that small bottle. Ah... now that's better! It gives him the strength for the climax of our story. The reviving purplish liquid, by the way, is described as having a pungent odor. Maybe that explains how it could also be used as smelling salts in other stories. Smells bad, but is good for you. And The Shadow uses the "devil's whisper" in this story to save one of our protagonists from peril. Just as he's about to be shot, The Shadow steps in and saves the day with a snap of his fingers. He's smeared the two pastes upon his thumb and second finger of his right hand. When he snaps his fingers, there is an astoundingly loud report accompanied by a flash of blinding flame. Nasty stuff. And remember, it actually does exist!