Detective Comics #3

Issue Details

Synopsis

A STOWAWAY IN NEED Speed Saunders rents a boat to go sailing on vacation, only to find that a young woman was stowing away inside. A gang, led by "Spider" Liverman, were chasing her because of the plans she held, for a new model of typewriter. THE AIR-MAIL MYSTERY Something has been causing all the mail-delivery planes to disappear, and government agent Hope Hazard has been sent out to investigate! She becomes a passenger on the next plane, piloted by Bill Littlejohn, and discovers that a strange force causes the engines to fail when they pass over an isolated territory, deep in the mountains. Thanks to expert piloting, Bill and Hope land safely, only to be captured by a couple of goons with guns. They learn a special "Z-Ray" was being used to cause mail-planes to crash, so that the thugs could steal whatever was inside. Hope and Bill break away from the goons' clutches, running around the mountain's rocky trail until they lose sight of their pursuers. The Z-Ray would need to be found and destroyed before others fell victim to its rays, and so Hope and Bill begin the search in a nearby cave. Deeper down, inside a large chamber, a massive crowd of underworld types are gathered as their leader, Xavier, "Ruler of the Underworld", questions his out-of-breath goons, who had captured the plane. He grows angry at the news of the government woman's escape, and orders her capture, as a stunned Bill and Hope look on from the shadows. THE KIDNAPPING OF ANGUS MACDONALD Angus MacDonald, owner of a well-known steamship company, is due at a conference hall to make a speech to his Board of Directors, concerning a seaman's strike. As soon as he steps out of his house however, he's kidnapped by some masked men who pull him into their car. His wife Ethel enlists the aid of their old family friend, the famous detective Cosmo. Cosmo's theory is that, because of the ongoing strike, one of the men at the conference must not want her husband to make that speech. With his make-up kit, which he carries with him everywhere, Cosmo turns himself into a perfect likeness of Angus MacDonald. Later, when he arrives at the conference hall, only one of the men seems surprised by Angus' appearance. Cosmo rips off the false face and begins aggressively interrogating the man about MacDonald's whereabouts. The man confesses and informs him that Angus is being held in an old warehouse. The police are called and the warehouse is quickly found and broken into, Angus MacDonald is rescued and the kidnappers are arrested. THE CLAWS OF THE RED DRAGON PART 3 In Chinatown, a tong war is currently being waged between the On Leong and the Hip Sing families. Inside an unassuming building on Pell Street, the aged leader of the Hip Sings gives an assignment to two of his best assassins, Hong Ah Kay and Sing Dock, to kill a man, who is currently at the "house of the lion guarded gates". The two hit men head outside where a plainclothes cop, Mulrooney, recognizes them and secretly makes a call to Lieutenant Casey. They trade suspicions that there was more than a simple "tong war" going on, and that the recent Von Holtzendorff kidnappings had something to do with this. Inquiries with the locals turn up only rumors, of a gang of Chinese killers coming to America, led by a fearsome man named Lu Gong. Meanwhile on Long Island, at that stone-lion-guarded house, Bruce Nelson is being held at gunpoint by a nervous Joe Stucchi. He beckons Nelson to follow as he slowly retreats, walking backwards. Bruce leaps on him and grabs away Stucchi's firearm, causing him to dash away in fear. Bruce watches in amusement, which quickly turns to annoyance when he discovers why Joe was so nervous. The gun is empty. A sound of footsteps sends him ducking into the shrubbery just in time, for a group of five Chinese killers, carrying long knives, enters through the gate. Sensing that it was him they were searching for, Bruce sneaks behind the shrubs and finds a small summerhouse in the yard, and ducks inside. When three of the Chinese knife men approach, Bruce readies the empty gun, and gets ready to bluff his way out. Just then there is a loud scream from the front of the house! Two of the Chinamen run back to investigate, but one persists in searching for Nelson, who surprises him and punches him out. Then Nelson shadows the other two thugs, very cautiously. Out front, another Chinese man lays on the pavement, bloodied and broken by a new gang of men. This unfortunate wretch is Tow Lee, an infamous hatchet man, and his is flogged to death by a burly Chinamen wielding a knout. His entourage are dressed in elegant styles, two of them opening the front gate to allow a car to enter. When the vehicle comes to a halt, a large Chinese gentleman steps forward. Bruce does not recognize him. But soon a figure he does know comes stepping out of the car as well. It is the same man that he had seen at the restaurant with the young woman, one Erick Von Holtzendorff! THE WALES CASE A murder is committed, and witnesses say they saw Elmer Bell do it. But at the time, Elmer was at a party, as fifty guests all spoke to him then. When the court is stumped, it calls for the help of "Lazy" Smith, who figures out the truth; Bell had a twin brother. THE BALINOFF CASE PART 3 - THE NEARLY-WEDS At Sally's wedding to socialite Phil Marsden, she is just about to say "I Do" when the minister pulls out a gun and points it directly at her! Using threats, the false minister kidnaps Sally and takes her to Olga Balinoff's apartment, where Olga's boss threatens Sally with torture unless she tells who her dance partner was, the previous evening. Marsden faints but Bart flags a taxi and races away to the rescue. Marsden meanwhile spitefully calls the cops who call the G-Men, to accuse Bart Regan (disgraced former G-Man) of being behind Sally's abduction! There's really only one suspect, Olga Balinoff, so Regan goes directly to her apartment building. From the lobby, He calls Balinoff's apartment and demands that the spies surrender, telling them that the building is surrounded. Actually only a lone gunman is there, and he marches Regan upstairs to Olga Balinoff's apartment. There the spy boss points a gun at his face, and demands the return of the little bronze statue. BULLETS IN THE DARK After a long day's ride over the rough mountain trails, Buck Marshall draws near the Box-H range that lies in the wooded valley beyond. He comes up to a log cabin, ducking down beneath the brush with his steed when two men step out the door. They don't see him, and Buck hears them arguing over the amount of livestock they need. One of the men he recognizes as Bull Leary, a wanted rustler, that Buck has been chasing across three states. As the other man mounts his horse and rides away, to speak with their supplier, Buck leaps out of the foliage with his gun pointed at Bull Leary's back. Bull attempts to swing around and fire at him, but Buck shoots the gun from Leary's hand! The outlaw is then tied up helplessly, atop his own horse, which Buck leads down from the hills to the sheriff's office. Buck tells the sheriff what he heard the two men arguing about, and the sheriff explains the Box-H range owner, Jim Slade, had recently complained that his livestock was disappearing. Bull Leary is known to be working for Box H, but the Sheriff suspects that he was planted there, by a bigger gang of rustlers. Buck has an idea, taking Bull Leary's hat and horse, he rides back to the cabin up in the valley. Arriving at nightfall, Buck is relieved that the other man haven't come back yet. He tethers the horse to its hitch-rail and steps into the cabin, then waits for a few hours, dozes off, and is awakened by the sound of a spur scraping on stone. Standing just to the left of the window, Buck is startled by red darts of hot buckshot, fired into the cabin directly at the bunk. Bull Leary's hat was on that bunk, which the unseen shooter has just riddled with rifle bullets. The shooter rides away, while Buck waits around until morning, and examines the line cabin by daylight. He reconstructs the shooter's approach and getaway, but soon is held at gunpoint, by Jim Slade and another rider from the Box-H. They check out the crime scene and conclude that Buck did all the shooting, tie him up, and bring Marshall into town, to turn him over to the sheriff. At the jail, the sheriff recognizes Buck but pretends not to, and encourages the two cowpokes to tell him their story. Careless remarks and detectable lies are said, and are overheard by Bull Leary, unseen in the jail's cell. Now Bull feels like talking, and the Sheriff encourages this also. Leary rats out Slade and his partner, in detail, and soon all three are locked up. SLAM DELIVERS THE MESSAGE Slam clears up a group of hoodlums, when a bystander offers him a business proposition. He must deliver an envelope to a man, wearing a white flower and carrying a black cane, at an exposition that night. When Slam and Shorty enter the Expo they are being watched by three sinister figures. A pickpocket bumps Slam and filches the envelope; Shorty picks the pickpocket's pocket and recovers it. But the pickpocket's partner D'arcy uses feminine wiles, and a rigged-up amusement ride, to re-steal the envelope from Shorty. When the man with the white flower and the black cane shows up, he's enraged, and threatens to cut Shorty's throat if he doesn't get him that envelope. Shorty scouts around until he spots D'arcy, and her date, a gangster in a bowler hat, and follows them. Slam Bradley follows Shorty, and Shorty tips him off to where the envelope thieves are going. The pursuit leads them thru some amusement park rides, a knife-throwing practice session, and a magic show, and into the shadowy catacombs of the "Surprise House", where Slam catches the envelope-stealing gang in a meeting with Slam's own client. Bradley is covered by one gangster's gun, while his still-unnamed client explains his elaborate plan to the seemingly doomed detective. As he's describing the ingenious double-cross that he's playing on his old gang boss, Purnelli, Purnelli shows up shooting, and mows down all five of the conspirators. But when he tries to recover the envelope, Shorty shows up with his new friend, a professional knife-thrower, who immobilizes Purnelli long enough for Bradley to grab the envelope and open it. Inside it is the combination to a bank vault, and a few days later, the bank rewards Slam and Shorty handsomely for capturing it.