The Devil's Paymaster

THE DEVIL'S PAYMASTER was originally published in the November 15, 1940 issue of The Shadow Magazine. A hardened criminal claims he has reformed, and wishes to make restitution for his many crimes. This man of evil will pay back his illicit gains with the assistance of a go-between: Lamont Cranston. Yes, The Shadow will become the Devil's Paymaster! Our story opens at midnight at the home of New York Police Commissioner Ralph Weston. He awakes to the sound of a ringing telephone. But it's not his phone; it comes from a phone he's never seen before - a phone he finds secreted behind the closed door of his wardrobe closet. Although he can't understand how the phone came to be here, he answers it. A voice over the wire introduces itself as "Mr. Remorse." He claims to be a reformed criminal who wishes to undo some of the harm he caused before his retirement. He asks Commissioner Weston to suggest a person who can act as a liaison and help restore stolen money to his former victims. He wants some public-spirited person, someone whose life is above reproach. Commissioner Weston is puzzled. He's still half asleep. He doesn't know how this telephone got in his closet. He doesn't know who he's talking to. The first person he can think of who fits the requirements is his good friend Lamont Cranston. Weston suggests Mr. Remorse contact Cranston. The phone call is terminated, leaving Weston standing there dumfounded. His trusted valet professes no knowledge of the telephone. Headquarters men rush to the scene, but trace the phone wires only to find they dangle cut through. There is no way to trace the strange call. Meanwhile, at Sing Sing Prison, the warden receives a telephone call at precisely 1 AM. Again, the call comes through on a special wire to a telephone that's not the warden's. The voice of Mr. Remorse asks the same question of the warden. What prominent New York citizen would he recommend to help the reformed criminal restore stolen money to his victims? The first name that comes to the warden's mind is... Lamont Cranston. And so the calls continue. At 2 AM, the publisher of the Daily Classic is roused from his bed by a phantom telephone call. The same voice has the same question. At 3 AM, one of New York's best known preachers, Rev. Andrew Dingle, is awakened with the same request. At 4 AM, Benedict Stark, prominent industrialist and banker, is also drawn into the tangled web of Mr. Remorse's grim questionnaire. Each man recommends Lamont Cranston. The following day, Lamont Cranston enters police headquarters to meet with Commissioner Weston and the four other men who were telephoned by Mr. Remorse. He agrees to accept the strange position offered to him, in order to further the ends of justice. What those men don't know, is that this man who appears to them as Lamont Cranston is in reality The Shadow. And The Shadow is going to delve into the mystery and see what's behind this seemingly benign offer. The last man telephoned by Mr. Remorse on that fateful night was Benedict Stark. That name alone is enough to convince The Shadow to get involved. Benedict Stark and The Shadow have crossed paths before. To The Shadow, Benedict Stark is known as the Prince of Evil. Three times before, they have battled. Each time, the result was a draw. The Shadow had thwarted the evil plans of Stark, but the sinister genius himself always was able to avoid incrimination. This time will be different! Could Benedict Stark be behind these strange circumstances? Could he actually be Mr. Remorse, himself? There is something strangely sinister behind this seemingly beneficent being who calls himself Mr. Remorse. What is his true reasons for his generosity? What secret plans are taking form behind the scenes? Much of the action takes place on an island. Daniel Judson owns a large estate outside Munford, New Jersey. A very, very large estate. On the estate is a huge lake; in the center of the lake is an island; on the island is the fabulous mansion belonging to Daniel Judson. Judson is an eccentric inventor who surrounds his mansion with ferocious dogs, venomous cobras and various other death traps. Inside his fortress, he designs amazing new inventions. In his fortress laboratory, Judson designs things such as synthetic glass, synthetic rubber, and many other discoveries that would mean millions to a warlike nation. Judson knows that if he could be kidnapped and tortured into revealing some of his scientific secrets, spies could reap a handsome profit from warring powers across the Atlantic. Hence the tall stone walls, the steel shutters and the fortified mansion in the center of the lake. Daniel Judson is the man whose name is given to Lamont Cranston. Cranston is to deliver Mr. Remorse's payments of restitution. But The Shadow, in his Cranston guise, watches carefully as he visits the strange island mansion. He knows there is something else going on, other than simple repayment of lost funds. But what The Shadow doesn't know is that this is all leading up to the ultimate revenge by the Prince of Evil, Benedict Stark! Benedict Stark is out for revenge. He plans not only to capture and kill The Shadow, but to decimate his corps of agents as well. He wants to wipe out the entire team, leaving absolutely no resistance to his dreams of conquest. And at the story's climax, we find Harry Vincent, Clyde Burke, Cliff Marsland, Moe Shrevnitz and Rutledge Mann all hanging on a wall, ready to be pinned like butterflies by five deadly harpoons. And The Shadow is securely bound to a chair, forced to watch as the sharp spears slowly inch forward toward his agents! Appearing in this story are most of the characters that pulp readers had come to know over the nine previous years. Harry Vincent, one of The Shadow's most senior agents. Cliff Marsland, The Shadow's underworld contact, helps locate and investigate the small-time hoodlums working for the hidden mastermind. Reporter Clyde Burke pretends to be on vacation, while in reality he watches one of the main suspects at The Green Tree Inn in Munford. Moe Shrevnitz trails a variety of suspects in his taxi. Rutledge Mann is still recuperating from injuries sustained at the hands of Benedict Stark's men in "Murder Genius." Burbank appears, but is one of the lucky few not to be captured. And Dr. Rupert Sayre is mentioned, but doesn't actually appear. Commissioner Ralph Weston and Inspector Joe Cardona appear, as they often did, in their roles as law-enforcement officers. The Shadow appears as himself, complete with black cloak, slouch hat and black gloves. He also appears in several disguises, including his most famous disguise as Lamont Cranston, wealthy world-traveler. He also appears as a truck driver in greasy overalls and cap pulled down low. And he appears disguised as a book salesman, a rakish-looking individual, hair slickly parted and dressed in a sporty suit. And speaking of books, did you know that The Shadow has a collection of "adult" material? Yes, indeed! We're told that in another part of his sanctum is a locked, glass-fronted bookcase containing expensively bound volumes of contraband. These are "private edition" books for millionaires with perverted tastes that are smuggled into New York from abroad. Just what he's doing with this type of material is left rather vague. But in this story, he uses one of the books along with his book-salesman disguise, to gain entry to a suspect's apartment. I'm sure he uses these books "only in the line of duty." I don't even want to think about any alternative explanation. Does this sound a little unlike what Walter Gibson would write? Well it is! This story, as well as the other three pulp novels in the "Prince of Evil" series, were written by alternate author Theodore Tinsley. He was groomed as a stand-in for Gibson, in case of accident. Luckily, no such accident ever happened, but Tinsley still wrote a total of 27 Shadow novels in the years between 1936 and 1943. This was one of them. The Shadow, as envisioned by Theodore Tinsley, was a bit edgier - a bit more "pulpy." There was a dash more sex, as illustrated by the above mentioned example of the "private edition" books. The violence was a little more graphic. As The Shadow's agents hang on the wall, the lances slowly piercing their skins is described in more detail than Gibson would have done. And of course there are the underground tunnels and chambers which Tinsley loved, and would insert into any story which he could. When Theodore Tinsley wrote The Shadow, his hero received injuries more often than when Walter Gibson wrote the character. In this story, The Shadow is wounded in the shoulder from flying shrapnel. But he grits his teeth and forges onward. He's hit in the face with a strange brownish liquid that forms a poisonous gas. He coughs, staggers, but grits his teeth and forges on again. At story's end, he intentionally breaks a capsule of acid on his wrists to free him from his bonds. But it also takes his skin with it, eating down to the bone. Yep, that's Tinsley.