The Crime Crypt

(NOTE: Here is a description of the main characters in the story. They were placed throughout the story in the original pulp. They have now been placed at the end of the story, so as not to interrupt the flow of the narrative.)

Under the guise of adventurer, world-traveler, collector of various treasures, Cecil Armsbury has been successful in accomplishing a masterful plot of crookedness. The victims of his evil are not aware of his treachery — not yet. But there is a time for reckoning, and Cecil Armsbury plans for such a time.

From within his own home, he acts as the master mind of this vast plot. He foresees all contingencies; he realizes the difficulty of the task which he undertakes. But his evil mind is equal to all the situations, and his cunning sufficient to bring to him aides who carry out orders to the letter.

A master crook in his own right, Duke Larrin attempts to take advantage of another master crook — and there results the most deadly combination of wickedness possible. One is a schemer beyond reproach; the other is a crook of international reputation who is looking for new territory, new means of crime.

Duke Larrin and Cecil Armsbury, two of a kind! They pool their experience, and out of it comes a plot that is bigger than anything any single crook could imagine. The idea is perfect; the system they plan is foolproof. They account for everything — everything except The Shadow!

Of all The Shadow’s agents, Harry Vincent is probably the most important. It was Harry Vincent who aided The Living Shadow, long ago, in his battle against the gang of diamond thieves. But that was only after The Shadow had saved Vincent when he was on the brink of death, and thus won his everlasting loyalty and subservience.

Vincent, as the dean of The Shadow’s agents, is worthy of his post. Quick-thinking, fast-acting, impressive-looking — that is Harry Vincent. He follows orders, and when necessary, is able to do his own thinking, a requirement essential to all agents of The Shadow.

Another lieutenant of the master crooks. Fingers and Brodie Brodan are both serving the same purpose — doing the work “up front” while the masters do their plotting behind the scenes.

One of gangland’s big shots, is only an incidental lieutenant in this campaign of great crime. Nevertheless, upon him rests much of the success of this crookery.

Although The Shadow is not an officer of the law, he fights for the law at all times, and, indirectly, is the law’s most effective agent. There was a time when the police did not believe in The Shadow, when the name was accounted as nothing more than a myth. Even today, officially, there is no such name on the police rolls. In all reports, it is a “person unknown” who does something which brings the police on the trail.

But to Joe Cardona, ace detective of the New York force, The Shadow is real. More than once Cardona’s life has been saved by this master fighter; more than one baffling case has been “solved” by the police because The Shadow set the scene, gave Cardona the tip, and let this ace detective win new laurels by making a marvelous “catch.” Joe Cardona knows he owes everything, including his life, to The Shadow.

To the underworld, Cliff Marsland is a free-lance fighter, a gunman of high repute. He owes allegiance to no gang; his nerve, his gun-fighting ability, make him a man in demand when big jobs are planned; and his price is high.

Cliff Marsland has a reputation. He was in the Big House on a murder charge; he has dozens of crimes accredited to him.

But what the underworld does not know is that the murder charge Cliff took was lifted from the shoulders of another, and that the crimes credited to him are all trumped up. And also, that this free-lance fighter who owes allegiance to no gang is an agent of The Shadow, enemy of gangdom, and uses his built-up reputation in order to maintain contact between the chiefs of the underworld and the king of crime avengers — The Shadow!

As a newspaperman, Clyde Burke is a wizard. All sources of news are open to him; his “scoops” have made him in demand by every paper in the country. Clyde serves faithfully on the Classic, leaving his occupation only when duty calls him elsewhere.

That duty, by the way, is not imposed by his newspaper superiors, but by someone else — by The Shadow. For Clyde Burke, who was once down-and-out, ready to give up entirely, was rescued by The Shadow. The master who saved his life now calls it his own, to be offered up if need be. But The Shadow’s agents, though they risk their lives continuously, also have the protection of their master, the man who wastes no lives, but saves many.