Maxwell Grant
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!
CHAPTER I. DEATH AT MIDNIGHT
A CHILLING night drizzle swilled through Eighty-first Street. It enshrouded the wizened figure of an aged man, pausing before a brownstone house. He leaned on a silver-headed cane and pulled the collar of his heavy coat closer about his ears. His thin, parched lips moved soundlessly in a continuous muttering.
The house, a relic of other times, even as the figure that stood in the darkness before it, loomed gloomily, like a mammoth mausoleum. The old man seemed to dread entering it. Fear shown on his mummified face.
Then, with sudden effort, he climbed the steps with a crablike, sidewise gait. His trembling finger pressed on the polished doorbell.
Presently the door opened onto a darkened vestibule. The old man entered a dimly-lit hallway without a word. The person who had answered the door was, judging from his manner of deference, evidently a servant.
Silently he took the old man’s coat and hat. Then he pushed aside a sliding door at the side of the hallway and stood in a respectful attitude as his master entered.
There were two men waiting in the room.
One, a quietly-dressed young man, had a worried expression on his pale face. The other was perhaps forty years of age, a tall, debonair type of man, dressed immaculately in evening clothes. He was smoking a cigarette in the end of a long holder. His ease of manner contrasted with the nervousness of his younger companion.
Both men arose to greet the new arrival. The young man spoke quickly.
“I am glad you are here, Mister Marchand,” he said. His tone indicated anxiety.
“I thought it best to return, Willis,” said the old man, in a peculiar, peevish voice.
He looked sharply at the young man. Then he turned to the one in evening clothes and stared at him, questioningly.
“What brings you here, Paget?” he demanded.
The man removed his cigarette holder from his lips.
“I learned that you were returning, Mister Marchand,” he said, with quiet deliberation. “I thought that you might wish to see me tonight.”
“Willis,” said the old man abruptly, “I told you to say nothing to any one.”
“But Mister Paget knew of the attempted burglary,” explained the young man. “He came here that night; happened to be passing at the time. I thought that he—”
“Very well,” interrupted Marchand. “Who else knows about it?”
“Only Oscar.”
The old man turned toward the door. The silent servant had entered. Marchand looked toward him, but did not speak.
Something in Marchand’s eyes indicated that he was questioning the truth of Willis’s statement. Oscar detected the look and nodded in corroboration.
Satisfied, the old man sat down in an easy-chair. Willis and Paget also took seats. Oscar remained standing by the door.
“Tell me about it,” said Marchand, in a querulous tone.