The Silent Seven

THE SILENT SEVEN was originally published in the February, 1932 issue of The Shadow Magazine. This is only the seventh of the 325 Shadow magazine stories to be published, and as such the character of The Shadow isn't fully realized yet. But it's still an amazing story, so good it was selected for reprint in paperback form, in the early 1970's. The story you are being offered, however, is not the paperback reprint version. This is the complete, unedited magazine version scanned directly from the original pulp magazine.

As our story opens, New York was been victimized by crimes of a startling nature that have gone unsolved for several years, now. Although there was no proof that they were the work of a single organization, the number seven kept appearing in each case. A strange clue indeed! A bank safe was cleaned out, except for seven pennies. A murdered man, seven buttons clipped from his coat. A dying gangster gasped out the word "seven" when captured by the police during a thwarted burglary. It all points to a group known as the Silent Seven.

Originally, the Silent Seven was a secret organization of seven businessmen, created to promote their interests legally. But gradually it changed to a desperate group of master criminals who would stop at nothing. The Silent Seven, identities unknown and hidden beneath a dark-blue robe, topped by a cowl, command a crew known as the Faithful Fifty. To them, all crimes are justifiable. They demand power and wealth. Society is their prey. With inexhaustible funds and fifty determined workers at their call, they create an unknown band of terror!

Our story begins when old Henry Marchand is murdered. Unbeknownst to anyone, Marchand was one of the Silent Seven. He's killed, his secrets stolen along with his scarab ring, the means of identification among the Silent Seven. Someone is planning to take his place in the sinister group. There's Oscar Schultz, faithful and honest servant of Henry Marchand for more than twenty years. Harvey Willis, twenty-eight-year-old secretary to Henry Marchand for two years. A weak type, but very conscientious. Rodney Paget, a friend of Henry Marchand — clubman — polo player — about forty. And Doctor George Lukens of the Telman Hospital, Marchand's physician. Could it be one of those men? Or perhaps someone else?

The Shadow is determined to find the murderer of Henry Marchand. But he has no idea he will be catapulted into a whirlwind of intrigue and danger, as he is forced to inflitrate the secret society known as the Silent Seven. Forced to unmask and defeat the seven mastercriminals and their hoard of fifty cutthroats. It's a task that only The Shadow has even a slim chance of completing.

In this story, The Shadow appears usually in his typical black cloak and slouch hat. He also appears twice as an unnamed man with a strange countenance, smooth as parchment, masklike in expression, eyes obscured by large heavy-rimmed, dark-tinted spectacles. No mention is made of Lamont Cranston or any of this other normal disguises.

The story is notable in that it features Detective Joe Cardona's first encounter with The Shadow. Previously, Cardona had known that The Shadow existed, so he recognized the being in black when he discovered him leaning over a dead body. But this story tells us that Cardona had never actually seen or talked to The Shadow before.

And another strange thing: when in The Shadow's presence, Cardona becomes dizzy. We aren't told why, but he can't retain the captured Shadow because he becomes dizzy. Could it be some odorless vapor released by The Shadow? Or perhaps some hypnotic trick? Speculation is all we have, because Walter Gibson doesn't say.

Clyde Burke appears in the story. Here, he's an ex-reporter who writes occasional feature stories, and has known Cardona for several years. He's not reporting for a paper now, running a clipping bureau. But at the story's end, he's offered a job with the Evening Classic, later to become the New York Classic.

No mention is made of The Shadow's radio show, something that usually got frequent mention in the early Shadow novels. But the system of emphasized words is used, this time over the phone rather than over the radio. The Shadow speaks an outwardly normal sentence, but gives slight emphasis to certain words that his agents pick up to reveal a hidden message. A cute trick that The Shadow used often in the early years.

Burbank appears in the story, but he's not hidden away in some room answering phones. Instead, he's the attendant at a lunch counter in Grand Central Station. He temporarily leaves his customers to make phone calls to The Shadow. Hmmm… That certainly doesn't seem very efficient.

Harry Vincent is the other agent of The Shadow who appears here. He has a fairly large role in the story, including getting caught and thrown into a death trap of classic proportions. It's the famous cell with the descending ceiling. He must speak and tell all he knows or be crushed to oblivion beneath the pressure of the slow-moving ceiling. Ah, we love the classics!