EYES OF THE SHADOW was originally published in the July/August 1931 issue of The Shadow Magazine. One by one, six men who are about to share in a glittering fortune are being brutally murdered. Only the twisted mind of a monster could have conceived such a fiendish plan. And only The Shadow will be able to defeat him.
This is the second Shadow story ever published. That means you should read it if for no other reason that it's a key issue that introduces some series regulars. But there's an even better reason for reading it: it's a very good story! It's appreciably longer than the typical Shadow magazine story. This one weighs in at 63,000 words while most Shadow novels were in the 40,000 - 45,000 range. Stories in the latter run of the magazine could be as small as 23,000 words. The added word count allows the story to be a fuller, richer one. It doesn't seem padded; it keeps you on the edge of your seat for the whole ride.
The style of writing is not typical Walter B. Gibson, as long-time readers will soon recognize. He hadn't acquired the polish at this point that he would demonstrate in later Shadow stories. It reads much like a 1920's story; reminiscent of the mysteries of Mary Roberts Reinhart. Since I always enjoyed the Reinhart stories, I found this one equally entertaining.
As to the story, it all starts as Bruce Duncan returns from Japan to live in his recently deceased uncle's old mansion. Uncle Harvey had died just days before Bruce's return. He died with a secret; a secret of great wealth that was to be split among six men. His task was to divide the Russian fortune when it was secretly delivered to him. But he died before he could complete his preparations. He left a sealed message for young Bruce, and now it's Bruce's job to finish the job that his Uncle had left undone.
He lies in bed in the front room of the lonely old house, when a strange apelike creature climbs through the window. Young Bruce lies strangely frozen in a drugged state while the stoop-shouldered apeman creeps to the fireplace and reveals a secret hiding place beneath a stone. He pulls out a package from the hole, and retreats through the window, while Bruce lies there helplessly drugged.
All this leaves Bruce without a clue as how to continue. But continue he must. He must find the six men, whose names were kept secret. Somehow he must find them and meet at the secret rendezvous with the Russian messenger. But the date and place of the rendezvous are also secret. And the identity of the messenger secret, too. All of this was stolen by the mysterious apeman. And that leaves young Bruce at a dead end.
But there's always that mysterious personage known as The Shadow. He becomes involved in the affair and with his assistance, young Bruce Duncan eventually solves the mystery. But not before murder, terror and madness strike.
The Shadow appears only occasionally in the story. When he does, it's usually in his cloak of black. But he does get to demonstrate his amazing ability at disguise a couple times. He appears as an unnamed thug at the Black Ship, wearing worn khaki pants, an old sweater and a ragged cap. Later, he overpowers a Mexican thug, Pedro. Then, within a minute, The Shadow has turned his face into an exact duplicate of the hulking brute, complete with livid scar on his cheek.
The big disguise, of course, is millionaire Lamont Cranston. This is the first story in which he adopts the guise of Cranston. The "real" Cranston doesn't show up, although we're told there is such a person. We finally meet him in the next issue, "The Shadow Laughs."
The main character is Bruce Duncan, our proxy-hero, aided by The Shadow's secret agent Harry Vincent. The Shadow appears for the first time in his disguise as Lamont Cranston. Other agents of The Shadow appearing, include Claude Fellows, insurance broker and aide for The Shadow, and Burbank, The Shadow's ace communications man. Burbank makes his debut in this Shadow mystery novel. Fellows appeared in the first story, but would be killed off three stories later, and be replaced by Rutledge Mann.
One of the things that annoyed me about this story was the characterization of Bruce Duncan. Duncan is portrayed as something of a weakling. I lost count of the number of times that he passed out. He faints dead away from extreme fear more than once. What a wimp! It should be pointed out that Duncan appeared in two more Shadow stories. The next story was "The Red Menace" in late 1931 and the final one was "Atoms of Death" in mid-1935. And I'm happy to say he grew a backbone in those stories.
Burbank, The Shadow's communications man, made his debut appearance in this story. He's called in to run The Shadow's radio while our hero recuperates from a serious wound. So while Lamont Cranston recuperates, upstairs in the attic radio room, Burbank takes up the sending of radio messages to Harry Vincent. Burbank was a regular fixture in the pulp magazine series from this issue on. He appeared in a total of 248 of the stories, right up until the end of the series in 1949, eighteen years later.
Claude Fellows didn't survive very long at all, by comparison. Fellows was another of The Shadow's agents. His job was to collect information and pass along messages between The Shadow and his subordinates. He appeared in all five of the first five magazine stories, and was killed off in "Gangdom's Doom." He was replaced six issues later by Rutledge Mann who continued appearing regularly through 1949. It's interesting to note that not only did Mann replace Fellows in The Shadow's organization, he also used a similar cover occupation and had similar physical features. Fellows posed as an insurance broker while Mann posed as an investment broker. Both were described as "chubby-faced."
The two men even had nearly the same back story. Each met The Shadow in a time of severe financial need. He came to their rescue, got their business back on its feet, and kept them well-provided with funds. In gratitude for his assistance, both willingly accepted him as their master, and were faithful agents.
You may wonder, if the two were virtually interchangeable, why bother replacing Fellows, the original. The answer lies in character motivation. In "Gangdom's Doom" The Shadow needed some strong motivation for his wiping out all of Chicago crime in such a grisly manner. His motivation was that one of his agents had been killed by the Chicago mob.
Claude Fellows sends his reports to The Shadow via the "B. Jonas" office in the empty office in the old building on Twenty-Third Street. The name "Jonas" isn't mentioned in the story, but it's definitely the same location as introduced in the previous issue. The first few times he sends messages there, he sends his stenographer to deliver them. That was a bit off-putting, since the stenographer wasn't an agent of The Shadow. But finally, Fellows delivers the final message himself. And in future stories, he always delivered the envelopes personally.
There was one other recurring character in this story. That was the crook named Steve Cronin. He originally appeared in the first story "The Living Shadow." After "Eyes of The Shadow" he went on to also show up in the next magazine issue, "The Shadow Laughs." And, after skipping an issue, he appeared in "Gangdom's Doom." And that was the end of Steve Cronin.
We get to visit The Black Ship, an underworld dive of ill-repute. Red Mike is the owner and proprietor. This underworld hangout appeared in a total of twenty-four Shadow stories between 1931 and 1937. This was it's first. After a period, Red Mike opened his own dive called, appropriately "Red Mike's." He appeared in the series until 1945, after which he was unaccountably ignored. Maybe he finally got sent up the river?
Two minor recurring characters who appear here are employees of Lamont Cranston. Stanley, the chauffeur, and Richards, the valet, both make their debut appearance in this story. Neither were agents of The Shadow, but were recurring characters who innocently assisted The Shadow while believing him to be their master, the true Cranston.
Police Commissioner Ralph Weston is not in this story. He wouldn't make his first appearance until 1932's "Hidden Death." But interestingly enough, there is a character in this story who is named Weston. One of the six men who are entitled to share in the treasure is a Hubert Weston, a major in the British army during the war. Apparently, even at this early stage in the magazine series, creator Walter Gibson liked the name Weston. And the following year, he decided to make give a regularly appearing character that name.
Let's talk about gadgets. The Shadow stories aren't renowned for the scientific gadgets, as were those pulp stories of Doc Savage. But this one features a short-wave radio set and an early television broadcasting apparatu