This is part of a larger plot where the gang, led by the beautiful villainess who calls herself Captain Kidd, is using a pulpy invention to electrify rails so that that glow with almost magical "green fire" and electrocute all the passengers of trains so their corpses can be robbed without any witnesses. The trains are sent rolling on to their destinations with no one living on board.
It's a hell of a lurid set-up, and Page is up to the challenge of delivering on it. The pirates set some pretty good death traps for the Spider to have to escape from. There's also a bit of a mystery regarding a kidnapped inventors missing granddaughter that isn't a big point but has a nice little payoff.
The only thing missing, maybe, is any hint of femme fatale regarding Captain Kidd. The righteous and driven Spider finds her utterly loathsome (and with her disregard for human life, who can blame him!), and though Page says she is attractive, he doesn't give her the sort of loving description a Robert Howard would have.
Get The Spider: The Corpse Cargo here. Tim Truman did a loose adaptation of this story in comics format in the 1990s.
3 comments:
Surprisingly plausible-sounding scheme there, although the real value's going to come from hitting trains carrying valuable-but-potable cargo. Payrolls, bank transfers, maybe gemstones or fine art, and given the time period and electro-gadget weird science supplies like radium or other radioactive substances.
No reason not to loot the bodies as well you've electrocuted in the process as well, of course. Waste not, want not, and you can always use it to hand out some bonuses to your henchmen.
Think I've only read the first four or five Spider books, which were relative tame as far as I recall.
Sigh. "valuable-but-portable" cargo of course. Although somehow making off with a trainload of alcoholic beverages could be quite a haul during Prohibition, I suppose. :)
Ha! Now there's a story.
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