“The Living Shadow” (part eight)

More Shadow. The quality of this story started to improve in the last two chapters, which is hopefully a sign of good things going forward. That said, I'm not expecting there to be no more bumps in the road before things improve holistically, so there will probably still be plenty to snark at in at least the next few chapters.

The next of which in line being chapter sixteen. We're almost halfway through!

16. What Vincent Heard

Unfortunately, the dialogue we open on isn't the story's strongest. And it...also implies some contrivances that make me raise my eyebrow just a bit.

““ALL right, Mr. Bingham. I’ll do anything you ask,” had come Joyce’s words to Harry Vincent’s ears.

”I knew I could count on you,” was the lawyer’s reply. The words were distinct, for Harry was closer to the car and the window was open.

”I’ve been waiting several days to hear from you,” said Joyce.

”That couldn’t be helped,” Bingham replied tersely.

”Why not?”

”That’s my business, Spider.”

”Don’t use that name. Call me Joyce. I’m used to it. I want to forget the past.”

The old lawyer responded with a tittering laugh.

”That’s just what I wanted to know,” he said. “You would like to forget the past. Well, we will both forget it, if you will keep quiet about this matter.””

My problem isn't just how hamfisted this is, and how Spider/Joyce and Bingham are phrasing everything to make it as clear as possible for Harry Vincent as quickly as possible. It's also the logistics of where exactly in the conversation Harry first started eavesdropping. It must have taken him at least a few minutes to catch up to them after Bingham parked the car. What the hell were they saying to each other during that time, if they're only getting to "I've been waiting to hear from you" now?

It feels like an old point-and-click game cutscene, where the "eavesdrop" action that plays the cutscene isn't time sensitive even though it should be.

Anyway. Hamfisted dialogue continues, with Bingham politely going over their backstory for Harry's benefit. Bingham defended Spider in court sometime in the past, and did something to prevent incriminating evidence from being uncovered in exchange for a massive bribe. He also, in the process, got even worse dirt on his client, which he's been using to blackmail him since then. Again, very polite of him to "as you know" that for Harry, and without even knowing he was there listening at all!

Then there's this hilariously bad attempt at a villain speech, apropos of fucking nothing:

““You had better do so. When I strike, they feel it. I have sufficient evidence in my office to bring about the conviction of two dozen men who are now unsuspected. What is more, I can put any man in jail − whether he is a criminal or not.”

”How?”

”By a frame−up. Phony evidence is my specialty, Joyce. You ought to know that. It helped you out.” Joyce was again silent.”

It's almost like Bingham is a bad guy or something.

It turns out the only thing he wants from Spider is for him to crack a code. Apparently he's a pro when it comes to cryptography, not just someone with a bit of experience. And to ignore any information he gets from the coded message once he cracks it. That's all. He had the guy waiting at the hotel for days for this. And, now that he finally is meeting him, he pays him 600 dollars up front - the equivalent of about $11K in modern times.

...all these hoops just for that? When the guy is a criminal code-breaker and would probably just do it for that much money without question even WITHOUT being threatened?

Yeah, I don't buy anything about this situation.

Joyce assures Bingham that he'll give this job his full attention and effort, and agrees to relocate to somewhere further away from Bingham while he does so to avoid suspicion. Um...so, why did Bingham bring him this close in the first place and keep him there for that long, then? Whatever. Bingham starts the car, and Harry recoils back into cover before he pulls out of the driveway and brings Joyce back to the hotel so he can get his stuff and check out.

Also, as he walks back toward the hotel after them, Harry informs us that he is - despite appearances to the contrary in some recent chapters - a moron:

“During his walk, Harry tried to find some significance that concerned the message which Ezekiel Bingham wanted decoded. He decided that it was probably something that pertained to a case in court − perhaps involving some criminal whom the lawyer was going to defend.

The episode that had just transpired explained Elbert Joyce’s lack of interest in the Laidlow murder. Obviously the man himself had no connection with the crime. But Ezekiel Bingham was involved as a witness, and the gambler had realized that the lawyer had summoned him to Holmwood. Hence he had been anxious to avoid any conversation that might bring up a discussion of Ezekiel Bingham.

Satisfaction and disappointment mingled in Harry’s mind. He had outwitted Joyce, to be sure. He had information of a very definite nature, concerning a man who was admittedly a crook. But he could make no connection between it and the crime which had been committed in the Laidlow home.”

Yeah, it definitely couldn't have anything to do with the robbery/murder of an extremely wealthy man that Bingham was just a witness to and whose culprit he would have been perfectly positioned to receive that coded message from. :/

Normally, I lean toward forgiving characters for not thinking of things like this in the moment, since they're usually under a lot more stress and have a lot less time to process the information like I do. In this case though, I'm going to say that no, Harry really is being stupid. I and most other people would infer a probable connection if put in his place.

He gets back to the hotel, and Joyce arrives after him. Somehow. He watches Joyce head up to his room, and then waits forty five minutes before tiptoeing after him, hoping to eavesdrop on him or (even better) try and steal or at least copy the coded message after he falls asleep. When he gets to Joyce's hall, the latter's room is dark and silent. Hoping Joyce has fallen asleep, Harry silently opens the door, apparently expecting it to be unlocked for some fucking reason. And then not thinking it odd when it really IS unlocked. And then being surprised to see that Joyce has already packed up all his stuff and booked it, because that isn't the literal first fucking thing he should have expected when he found the door unlocked.

So, the next morning, Harry drives back into the city and reports his findings to Fellows. Fellows just has him go into more detail, sends a message, and then a few hours later receives one back with Harry's new orders. Return to Holmwood Arms, leave the car where he found it, check out of the hotel, and then come back to the city by train and get a hotel room there again. No mission for the time being; just be on standby in the city ready to accept one at any time.

Fellows also tells Harry that he's not getting any feedback on his performance up until now. That's not how things are done at Shadow Ltd. In addition to what evil lurks in the minds of men, the Shadow knows whether his henchmen have succeeded or failed in their assignments, and he rarely sees fit to clue anyone else in on it. His middle managers have learned to do likewise.

Still, as Harry moves back into the same hotel he stayed at while investigating Scanlon, he has a good feeling about how he's handled things up until now, that near-death experience with the Fu Manchu wannabe notwithstanding. End chapter.


Definitely a backslide in quality. Both in Harry being dumber and having less personality again, and in the impressively awful dialogue between Bingham and Spider/Joyce.

ShadowCo's taciturn internal culture is interesting, though. Sounds like a simultaneously forgiving and nerve-wracking professional environment. But that was pretty much the only detail that impressed me in this chapter.

Anyway, next chapter; Horton Hears a Who.

17. Bingham Sees a Shadow​

Eh, close enough.

Open on Bingham at home in his study. It's late night at this point, but he's never needed more than 5-6 hours of sleep to get by, even now that he's aging. The story also volunteers that Bingham a widower, and that he shares the house with a young, fit, and intelligent - though illiterate - manservant named Jenks. That's a little uncomfortable, but this was written in the 1930's, so. Anyway, Jenks is asleep right now, but he'll wake up and come to Bingham's aid if he rings the servant bell.

Also, the house is overly compact and fortified for Bingham's neighborhood and wealth, with barred windows and redundant alarms. The dude is clearly aware of how popular he's made himself over the decades.

At the moment, Bingham is poring fruitlessly over the coded message he shared a copy of with Spider. Even though he's already handed the problem off to an expert, Bingham can't bring himself to stop poking at it himself, even though he knows that he's not up to the task. As he gives up for the night and seals the letter in an envelope and puts it in his safe, the Shadow silently works the second story window open while his back is turned and comically pulls the key out of the safe door while Bingham has his face buried in the safe itself.

And he "silently" pulls the metal key out of the big, clunky metal lock. I'm trying to decide whether this is down to the Shadow actually using magic, or just bad writing. There's no way to make a key leave a bulky mechanical lock silently, no matter how good you are at not making noise yourself.

Anyway, he takes the key and then - even more hilariously - replaces it a few seconds later. Presumably after taking some sort of quick-casting mold of it. He does accidentally make a *little* bit of noise and shake the safe door a little when he does this, which alerts Bingham enough to at least look up from the safe and scan the room before getting back to locking it. He notices some suspicious shadows being cast from something outside the window, but a quick investigation finds nothing but tree branches and telephone poles.

After locking the safe, he murmurs the following to himself.

““Shadows,” he murmured. “When people worry about shadows, their minds begin to wander. Croaker talked of shadows. What was it he screamed the night he died? ‘The Shadow!’ That was it! Perhaps The Shadow is a living being. But if he is − what of it?””

So Croaker, the gangbanger who we briefly met earlier before being murdered after his conversation with Cronin, met the Shadow before being killed. Either by the Shadow, or by one of the other parties involved in this situation. Probably the latter; I don't imagine the Shadow would let him live long enough to talk after meeting him, if he wanted him dead. Also, Croaker (and possibly Cronin) was in touch directly or indirectly with Bingham. Noted.

After deciding that it was just his imagination after all, Bingham sits back at his desk and works on some normal lawyer stuff for a while. Eventually, his much younger and very fit and virile manservant who he always keeps close by comes over to the office to inform Bingham that he's awake now, and can guard the house while Bingham sleeps. Someone always needs to be awake; them's the rules.

As he trots off to bed, Bingham mumbles to himself about the shadowy disconcerting moment he had earlier, and the authors momentarily let HP Lovecraft join the team:

““The Shadow!” were his words. “Some people have wild imaginations!”

A faint laugh seemed to mock the lawyer’s words − a laugh that issued feebly from the walls of his room. It was a chill of mirth that might have crept in from outer spaces, where crimson tints had flushed the new day’s sky. A laugh that was a left−over from darkness, bespeaking the departure of some creature that dwelt in night.”

Well, interesting to run into you here Howie. Wonder if they let you write any more random paragraphs throughout the serial after this one.

That's the chapter.


"Meh." That's pretty much all I can say. Not much else to discuss. These "the Shadow follows up on Harry's work by masterfully spying on someone without showing any personality and you're expected to be impressed by him" chapters are the most boring ones.

That chapter and this next one are both on the shorter side, so I can fit in three today.

18. Fellows Assembles Facts
​

And it turns out that this one will be even shorter than I thought, because this chapter is the epitome of "filler." It's technically an interquel to chapter 16, describing what Fellows does while waiting for the Shadow's answer to relay to Harry. Or, more accurately, what Fellows is thinking and reminiscing about during part of that time.

The "thinking about" is just restating the facts of the case that we know so far. No new contextualizing information. Literally just repeating what we already know. The text describes Fellows as having a great skill at summarizing and organizing data, but...really, it's just repetition. No impressive summarization or inference or organization. Totally just an informed attribute.

The reminiscing is informative, but not all that relevant, and it could have come at any point since Fellows' introduction. And also kind of boring, tbh. He was in financial trouble some years ago. An anonymous friend of a friend of a friend relayed his situation to the Shadow. The Shadow sent him a recruitment letter in disappearing ink, and told him to walk down a certain street at a certain hour wearing a hat and cane if he wanted to accept. He did, the Shadow bailed him out, and since then he's been giving him regular cash payments via courier in exchange for Fellows doing secretarial/mission control work for him. His contact with Harry is the first time he's ever worked with another Shadow agent face to face, couriers and patsies notwithstanding. His insurance brokerage has picked up again in the last year or two, but the Shadow's payments continue, and he enjoys having that security in case his business does poorly again in the future.

It closes this section by noting that Fellows' motivations are entirely selfish. Which kind of seems like a pointlessly self-evident statement to me. The Shadow is too cryptic with his own agents for them to know what he's working toward or what his motives are, so it's not like you could have an ideological commitment to his cause. The Shadow also sees to have a recruitment policy of appearing to desperate, down-on-their-luck people and offering them financial salvation in exchange for service, so...yeah, of course they're self-interested and mercenary. That's the kind of agent his incentive structure encourages.

And that's the chapter. Yawn.


Hopefully it'll get better again soon. These three chapters weren't as bad as some of the early stuff, but they sure weren't good either.