A man named Stephen Laird is on a train and nervous. There is some strange red mark on his forehead. He writes a letter, but is soon murdered and the letter is taken.
A man named Henry Arnaud checks into a motel. A Chinese man sneaks into the room to kill him, but he's not there. Arnaud, of course, is the Shadow.
Other important characters include Joseph Darley, head of a Citizen's Committee, and Cleve from the FBI. They sent him to investigate the Wu-dan and Ling Soo, their leader. Ling Soo supposedly has plans to take over the U.S., but not for a long time.
Cleve uses a disguise to get into the Wu-fan. Later he goes to a meeting, gets into a lot of trouble, and is saved by the Shadow.
Later the scene ends up on a boat and the Shadow, in the disguise of a Chinese man, is caught and tied to a torture device. He manages to escape, and bring the Shadow's justice to the evil men who were involved in a major opium smuggling ring.
Maxwell Grant's interest in magic is shown in his references to Houdini. The story, being written when it was, also shows some of the prejudice of the times against Chinese, referring to them as Celestials, and using fairly stereotyped descriptions.
It's a really good Shadow story.
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