Title: The Creeper
Air date: May 29, 1938
Plot summary: Edith Day, a young socialite, is kidnapped in her own family's home by a deranged maniac. This very much upsets Margo Lane, who knows Edith and is friends with the Day family. It turns out that the disappearance of Edith Day is the last in a series of kidnappings and burglaries that have plagued the upscale Mayfair district of whatever city this series is set in. Margo, worried for her friend, goes to Lamont Cranston for help.
It's a tough case. No ransom notes have been delivered. The homes broken into had elaborate security systems but no alarm has ever been triggered. And while people are disappearing, no valuable property has been stolen, only routine items like food. Lamont, casting about for an explanation, finds a record of an unfinished sewer line that passes underneath the neighborhood in question. So The Shadow, now convinced that the kidnapper must be coming in to the houses from underground, goes to the Day mansion to find out where the missing people are, and if they're still alive.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Creeper lives in an unfinised sewer line with 12-foot-high ceilings and enough room to keep several people, chained up.
- Dramatic Thunder: Thunder plays on the soundtrack as Edith enters a room and asks if the storm disturbed her mother. She comes face-to-face with the Creeper.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: It's not clear how long (or why) the Creeper has been in the sewers, but apparently it's been a long time, as he's resorted to kidnapping people and keeping them down below, in chains, as his company.
- Laughing Mad: The Creeper is given to this, like when he starts cackling after deciding to blow up the sewer and kill all his captives.
- No Name Given: "The Creeper" is never named.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Margo uses this exact phrase, word-for-word, to describe the bullet she just took in the shoulder. She urges Lamont to leave her and go catch the Creeper before he kills the captives.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Margo is hysterical with relief to see Lamont alive, as newspapers reported that The Shadow was killed in the same explosion that killed the Creeper.Lamont: As Twain said, the report of my death has been grossly exaggerated.
- Riddle for the Ages: Why is the Creeper in the sewers to begin with? How long did he stay there before he began to kidnap people for company?
- Ventriloquism: The Shadow urges the Creeper, who has a bomb and is about to blow up the sewer and kill everyone there, to follow his voice down a side tunnel. He was throwing his voice to trick the Creeper into going the wrong way, and it worked, as the Creeper killed only himself.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first scene is the Creeper kidnapping Edith Day.
