GREEN EYES was originally published in the October 1, 1932 issue of The Shadow Magazine. A mysterious secret society, the Wu-Fan, is intent upon the domination of America. And behind it all is a strange leader whose eyes flash and glow an unearthly green color... Green Eyes! The Shadow travels to San Francisco to fight the sinister power of the Wu-Fan and confront the power of Green Eyes.
This is one of the "yellow peril" stories that were so popular in the early 1930's pulps. The Wu-Fan spans the continent with members hidden throughout the country. Its goal is a gigantic scheme to make the Chinese race the dominating power in America! It will admittedly take years, but they are patient... insidious. This was something which 1930's pulp readers found quite convincing. And this pulp Shadow mystery helped feed the fears.
Although this was only the fifteenth Shadow pulp story published, it wasn't the first Chinatown story. The Shadow visited Chinatown in the very first magazine issue, "The Living Shadow." And more Chinatown visits preceded "Green Eyes." The Shadow also had reason to visit Chinatown in "The Shadow Laughs," "Hands in the Dark" and "Double Z." But all were relatively short visits.
"Green Eyes" was the first Chinatown story that took place entirely in Chinatown, not counting the chapter one introduction which took place on a speeding train. It was also the first Chinatown story that was set in San Francisco's Chinatown, not New York's. Of course, it would not be the last. The Shadow would visit Chinatown in San Francisco nine more times, during the eighteen-year run of the magazine stories. The final San Francisco visit being 1948's "Jade Dragon."
Our story opens on a train. The Mountain Limited is traveling the Rockies on it's way from San Francisco to Chicago. Stephen Laird is stabbed in the observation car. His dying words: "Green Eyes!" And on his forehead, a crimson mark that shone like blood. The death mark of the Wu-Fan!
As was typical of the early Shadow novels, The Shadow himself keeps to the background and is rarely seen. The action is mostly carried by a proxy hero. In this case, our proxy hero is young Cleve Branch. He's a government agent who works for the Department of Justice in the Bureau of Investigation. He's sent to San Francisco to investigate the murder of Stephen Laird, and the connection to the Wu-Fan.
Although Cleve Branch doesn't realize it, he's not working alone. The Shadow has traveled to San Francisco as well. Disguised as businessman Henry Arnaud, he checks into the Aldebaran Hotel. The same hotel that Stephen Laird had checked out of, before his ill-fated train trip east. The Shadow makes sure to get the same room that Laird had occupied. From the hotel-room window, he has a perfect view of the electric lights of Chinatown. And one light in particular, that of the Mukden Theater, glows with two glaring green spots... spots that seem to be green eyes... spots that are calling secret members of the Wu-Fan to meeting.
While The Shadow is settling in, Cleve Branch isn't sitting still. He meets with Joseph Darley, head of San Francisco's Civilian Committee and expert on Chinese affairs. He meets with Moy Chen, the secret undercover man who also works for the Bureau of Investigations. He dons a disguise, and infiltrates the Wu-Fan as the shuffling American Hugo Barnes. Yes, our proxy hero is one busy fellow. But little does he realize what he is getting himself in for. The situation is much bigger than he realizes, and he will soon get in over his head. Soon his very existence will lie in the hands of The Shadow!
The Shadow will have to save the life of Cleve Branch, and more than once. The Shadow will have to brave the perils of the twisty underground passages of Chinatown. The Shadow will have to survive attacks from noiseless Oriental assassins. The Shadow will have to enter the Sun Kew and battle the Tiger Tong, a rival organization of the Wu-Fan. And The Shadow will have to discover the hidden identity of the man behind the entire Wu-Fan organization... Green Eyes! And he will have to do it all without the assistance of the law or his agents.
The Shadow works alone in this story. Keep in mind this was only author Walter Gibson's fifteenth Shadow story. The complete network of Shadow agents had yet to be formed. At this point there were only five agents that pulp readers knew about. Burbank, his contact man, had been in the stories since the second one, "The Eyes of The Shadow." Reporter Clyde Burke had already appeared in eight stories, the first being "The Death Tower." And then there was Claude Fellows, who only appeared in the first five novels, being killed in "Gangdom's Doom." He was replaced by Rutledge Mann six issues later. Underground contact Cliff Marsland had only appeared in three stories to this point. And then of course there was Harry Vincent, the agent introduced in the very first Shadow mystery. He had appeared in nearly every story up to this one. But none of these agents traveled to San Francisco for this story. Here, The Shadow works alone.
The Shadow does work in several guises, though. Not as Lamont Cranston, this time. Cranston doesn't appear in this story. When The Shadow appears in daylight, it's in the disguise of Henry Arnaud. And speaking of disguises, just how many disguises did The Shadow have? There was Arnaud, Cranston, Fritz, the janitor, and old Isaac Twombly, among others. So how many disguises were there? As Walter Gibson put it:
"As a master of disguise, The Shadow had no equal. His personality of Henry Arnaud was assumed. So were a hundred others - each as effective as this one. The Shadow was a man of changing countenance, and he alone in all the world knew his true identity."
When this story was written, The Shadow's true identity had not yet been revealed to pulp readers. That would come much later in 1937's "The Shadow Unmasks." But over a hundred disguises! Whew! Pretty amazing!
I'd like to point out that this is only the second time that The Shadow used the disguise of Henry Arnaud. He first used that disguise in "The Black Master" five months earlier. It was one of most famous disguises, however, perhaps only being second to that of Lamont Cranston. He appeared in twenty-eight stories as Henry Arnaud. As a side note, it should also be pointed out that The Shadow appeared as Kent Allard in twenty-eight stories as well. But those don't count as disguise appearances; Allard wasn't a disguise, it was The Shadow's true identity. And for those curious, the Lamont Cranston disguise was used in two-hundred-eighty-three stories.
The Shadow also takes on another important disguise in this tale. But I won't identify it here, since it's all part of the surprise twist ending that Walter Gibson wrote. I don't want to spoil the surprise for those of you who are lucky enough to read this pulp novel. Let's just say it's another of The Shadow's most effective disguises.
Underneath those disguises, what did The Shadow really look like? Here's what this story has to say about that:
"The flash of piercing eyes - that was all that ever showed, between the turned-down brim and the upraised collar of the long black cloak.
One man had seen The Shadow's face - seen it against The Shadow's will. That man had sought to thwart The Shadow, and for a time his schemes had availed.
But that man no longer lived! Like other foemen of The Shadow, he had gone to deserved oblivion."
This seems to be in reference to the earlier story "The Black Master." In that story, the sinister Black Master captures The Shadow and removes his slouch hat to view the unobscured countenance of The Shadow. But he doesn't live to tell the tale, being blown to smithereenies at the story's climax.
And as long as we're off on a tangent, here, a similar scene appeared four months later in "The Shadow's Shadow." In that one, Felix Zubian also saw The Shadow's face fully revealed, and was also killed before the end of the story. And another such scene appeared a year later in "The Black Falcon." The price for seeing The Shadow's true face was always death. Not really worth it, I would say.
The Shadow could not only disguise his face, he was also an expert at disguising his voice -- a skill he shared with Doc Savage, the admitted master of voice mimicry. In this story The Shadow uses his vocal ability several times to completely deceive his foes. It seems in these early stories, there was little that The Shadow could not do.
It should be pointed out that the Chinese are not dealt with kindly in this story. True, Cleve Branch's San Francisco contact Moy Chen was on the side of the law. But just about every other Chinese in this story is an antagonist. So there are lot of descriptions of slanty eyes, grotesque crouching figures, evil creatures who enjoy torture, and who scramble up the mast of a Chinese junk like monkeys. As with all "yellow peril" stories, they were painted with a broad and unsympathetic brush.
The Shadow is at the height of his power in this tale. As mentioned above, he can deceive with his disguises and uncanny voice imitations. His strength is prodigious. He shoots to kill... and often. His skill with a pistol is uncanny. He can shoot a knife blade from the hand that holds it, without even a scratch to the skin. Yes, this Shadow is all-powerful.
Death traps! What would any self-respecting Chinatown tale be without some strange and deadly traps from which The Shadow must escape? Well, this one has a doozy! It's the famous Chinese torture rack. Only one man has ever escaped the specially designed rack, and that was escape artist Harry Houdini. But that was several years before, and was done under ideal circumstances. In this story The Shadow is fastened to the rack while unconscious. He has had no chance to expand his muscles while being trussed, which Houdini did to give him slack in the ropes. Plus, The Shadow is in a weakened condition, due to his battle injuries. But escape he does, and in a most amazing way. That one scene alone makes the story worth reading!
There is one weakness in the story, which I'm going to discuss. And it involves giving away part of the ending of the story. So for those of you who don't want the ending spoiled, here's your warning to skip the next four paragraphs.
SPOILER WARNING
I want to talk about the secret of Green Eyes. The secret leader of the Wu-Fan organization is known as Green Eyes because of the mystic ability of his eyes. They sparkle and flash with a strange brilliant green glow. And at the end of the story we discover how it's all done. The master villain had two flat, green stones attached to his eyelids. They reflected any available light to create the uncanny effect.
In order to create that sinister sparkle, the criminal mastermind had to keep his eyes shut. And, unfortunately, that's where the logic of the story starts to unravel a bit. When I went back and re-read the parts of the story in which Green Eyes appeared, he was doing things that man couldn't do with his eyes shut. He stands up from a meeting and moves across a room. Difficult to do with your eyes shut, but possible, I suppose, if he memorized the room layout.
Green Eyes looks directly at the captured Cleve Branch with his glowing optics. If his eyes were closed, how did he know where Cleve was seated? Then Green Eyes approaches, leans over and pulls off Cleve's "Hugo Barnes" disguise. Again, if his eyes were closed, how did he know about the disguise? And how could he grab off the fake eyebrows, etc.
All these things seemed natural earlier in the story when I read them. But then at the very end, when the method of the glowing eyes was explained, I realized that some of Green Eyes' earlier actions wouldn't be possible. So I felt a bit cheated. And I had to rant a bit, here. But I feel better, now.
SPOILER ENDING
A final point of interest is that even though this is a "Chinatown" story, The Shadow's well-known Chinese name of "Ying Ko" is never mentioned. That wouldn't come until the pulp story "The Fate Joss." In that 1935 tale, The Shadow was first referred to as Ying Ko. But you'll still enjoy this Shadow mystery, even if Ying Ko isn't mentioned.
It's got a lot going for it. Secret societies, dragon-head tokens, underground headquarters, and some of the best Chinatown action ever written. It was selected by Pyramid for reprint back in the 1960's, so that should tell you something. They picked the best for reprinting. And I agree. It is among the best. I can recommend this story heartily. Get a copy and read it. You won't regret it.