Böcker av John Newton Howitt

With terrible swiftness, the Master of the Green Death had struck. His victims lay in the streets, verdant-hued and ghastly-and the Underworld, which he had protected against all reprisal, ran riot in a Manhattan horror-holiday of loot and murder!

The Master of Flame and Burning Death held New York fast in unholy worship of his strange god. For thousands had fled their doomed churches, lest they perish by fire-and the Spider alone remained to face this monstrous cult-leader from hell!

Gold-the mineral which fosters war!-threatened to plunge America into a chaos of revolt, misery and death. In Washington, the fortified vaults of the nation's Treasury lay empty-stripped of wealth. A madman, obscured in mystery, his face concealed by a mask of the precious metal, had allied himself with powerful foreign magnates to deliver the United States into misery and bondage. Robbed of her riches, her plans for military security disrupted, her strategic stores destroyed and her armament factories wrecked, the most powerful nation in the world seemed inevitably doomed. One man, Jimmy Christopher, ace of the Intelligence, had a feasible plan for wresting victory from the cunning clutches of the greedy syndicate... And that man, known to a few as Operator 5, under grave suspicion of treachery, spied upon and hampered by a stubborn superior, must sacrifice his father, his beloved, and his honor to save his native land from a cruel invader's debauchery and butchery...!

A happy crowd, inspired by the spirit of Christmas, was milling joyously in Times Square, New York. Suddenly, cutting through the sounds of gayety, came a shrill whine. It became louder, and at the very second of midnight, a gigantic shell exploded, killing, maiming, destroying! At twelve hour intervals thereafter-no man knew in advance where-another shell burst devastatingly. Two great powers were openly accused in the newspapers. War-savage and bloody-was imminent, and Operator 5 realized that he had encountered his most cunning foe, the clever woman spy-Radi Havara!

Never had Richard Wentworth-he who is the scourge of the Underworld in his guise of the Spider-faced such tremendous odds or been so alone in the strife! Nita, his beloved, had tried to kill him, was hopelessly insane. His faithful servant had been tortured beyond human endurance. And the Master of Madness, chief of a powerful, fiendish syndicate, was spreading his germs of mania unchecked. Who could rescue America from screaming, murderous frenzy when the Spider, harried by Law and lawless, himself half-doubted his own skill and bravery?

The Spider-who was really Richard Wentworth, a true American aristocrat-had fought a hundred battles and faced a thousand foes... But never before had a more brilliant criminal genius challenged him. For the Boss, employing a horrible, new weapon, ruled the Underworld with an iron hand, slaughtering, maddening, and loosing maniacs to ravage the nation...!

Looting, murdering bands of desperadoes roamed the streets of New York like wanton jackals who destroyed what they could not devour. An underworld Juggernaut had been unleashed upon Manhattan, turning it into a place of desolation and terror. The Thuggees of the East, those masters of murder, the cruel minions of Tang-akhmut, held the city in a state of siege. One man could save New York-Richard Wentworth, the avenging Spider, and Richard Wentworth, hunted by the police, hated by the underworld he fought, had been ordered shot on sight!

Richard Wentworth-whose grim, anti-crime crusades as the Spider have made him world-famous-was the first objective in the Poison Master's murder campaign. His best friend, Kirkpatrick, lay in a death-like stupor. His beloved, Nita van Sloan, was stricken with the horrible living death! And at the same time, countless thousands were felled by the same fatal venom... Caught in the crossfire between the Law and the Underworld, the Spider must battle the blind apathy of a nation ensnared in a subtle death-trap-must overcome the despair in his own brave heart...!