The Firebug; May 14, 1938

Again, the overly-long musical opening.

As usual, the episode opens with an ad for the Goodyear tires.

A fire is reported and the fire trucks report to the blaze. Some people say they have to get through the lines to rescue someone. Three die in the fire and six get badly burned, and it's the seventh fire of the same nature.

They all started in an oil-soaked baby carriage in a hallway.

A reporter talks to the police commissioner and he suggests calling the Shadow for help. As he talks, the walls to the building cave in.

Margo and Lamont are in a car (again.) Lamont says a pyromaniac is one of the hardest types of prisoners to stop. If he stops him, he wants the credit to go to the police commissioner. Lamont gets out of the car and goes in to check out a tenement.

There's some kind of store on the third floor of each of the last few buildings that have been destroyed. (It's a fir dealer.)

Lamont talks to the shop owner who doesn't seem very friendly at all, and he's not anxious to do business at all. The longer they talk, the nastier the man gets.

Some other guy shows up to talk to the owner. When they try to find Lamont to beat him up all they hear is the voice of the Shadow. (He also says he carries no gun.)

The Shadow finds out the motive for the crimes; one of the guy's is an insurance broker who writes insurance policies on stock that doesn't exist.

One guy tells the other to get a can of kerosene. Margo suddenly pounds on the locked door. The guys plan to burn the Shadow to death by setting fire to the room. The sound of a car crashing is then heard.

Then the episode pauses to go to another commercial.

Then it's back to the story. Lamont is talking to Margo; she had crashed their car into the store to allow Lamont to escape. A policeman interviews Lamont about the car crash; Lamont had claimed the car was stolen.

Then it's back to the two crooks. The Italian crook has followed Margo to someplace, and the other guy wants to use her to lead them to the Shadow. They plan to take Margo, hold her hostage, and wait till the Shadow, who they expect is Lamont, to rescue her.

That night they sneak to the house where Margo is and they succeed in kidnapping her. They leave a note for Lamont. He shows up at the house later and finds out she's been kidnapped.

He realizes they took Margot to try and find him.

The Shadow calls the commissioner. He lets the commissioner know about the firebugs. He needs to throw a group of police around a certain area.

The crooks are busy trying to get the Shadow's identity out of Margot, and are burning her with matches. The Shadow arrives. One crook threatens to kill Margot. He plans to set fire to the building and kill both the Shadow and Margot.

The Shadow tells the Italian guy that his boss will shoot him after the Shadow and Margot are trapped in the fire and dead. The Italian guy realizes that what the Shadow is saying may be correctly. The boss shoots the Italian guy and the guy stabs the other crook.

The Shadow frees Margot and he sends her away, then tells her he has to call the police commissioner so he will get the credit for catching the firebugs.

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