The Adventures of Jimmie Dale

The Adventures of Jimmy Dale by Frank L. Packard (468 Pages), in two Parts: Part One – The Man In The Case (eleven novelettes); Part Two – The Woman In The Case (sixteen short stories).

Part One: #1) The Gray Seal, in which we learn all about Jimmie Dale and The Gray Seal, plus, it appears that a young man has stolen money from his boss that should have been put in the safe. It’s up to Jimmie to make the theft look like the work of The Gray Seal, for the boy’s wife lies ill, in need of medications. 2) The Proxy, in which a police official claims to have found a murder victim of The Gray Seal, and will turn over the murderer shortly for the huge reward the newspapers have offered. #3) The Mother Lode, an old miner down on his luck, a crooked financier, and a diamond necklace worth a quarter million dollars, if real. It’s up to the Gray Seal to put things right. 4) The Counterfeit Five, has Secret Service Kline after the gang of counterfeiters. They’ve stolen a cracked printing plate from the government, which was supposed to be destroyed, and blaming a young man from the Mint, the gang started printing out counterfeit fives. The Gray Seal had to catch the real culprit with the goods in order to clear the young man, and escape the clutches of the greatest secret service agent in the government. 5) The Affair of The Pushcart Man is an odd affair. Jimmie is still hiding in his sanctum, with Secret Service agents watching the area. They think The Gray Seal may still be in the house, for that’s where he disappeared in the last story. Unable to go home as Jimmy Dale, he goes as Larry the Bat to burgle his Riverside mansion and obtain money to live off of while disguised as the Bat. Plus, there is another letter from the mysterious woman, ordering him on another job. Known as the Pushcart Man, the fellow has a string of diamonds worth fifteen thousand dollars hidden under his pillow, and the Skeeter gang learned of this and plan to rob and kill the old man. The Gray Seal must steal the diamonds in front of eyewitnesses, to insure the gang believes the diamonds are now gone, and will leave the old man alone. 6) Devil’s Work has The Gray Seal first chasing two pickpockets. His mysterious woman friend has left him another envelope as he’s leaving the theater, but the pickpocket gets the letter and his wallet, and now knows the identity of the Gray Seal. Trailing them to Chinatown, a fight between the two smalltime hoods ends in one’s death, but allows Jimmy to get the envelope and wallet back. Now, he learns what his new assignment is. A bank has been robbed of $100,000.00, and the blame placed on an ex-con. 7) The Thief is a young man who is forced to steal rubies from his employer to give to a jewel fence because he was set up in a frame, thinking he had murdered someone. But The Gray Seal knows everything. In fact, his mysterious contact has given him a name, perhaps by accident, and he calls her Tocsin, French for alarm. Sonnes le Tocsin, sound the alarm! 8) The Man Higher Up is running a criminal organization, but has signed a statement naming all his men and locked it safely in his safe against any attempt to eliminate him. This is what The Gray Seal wants, to send to the DA to prosecute them, but he’s almost caught and killed in a shoot-out, but saved by Tocsin while in a dizzy condition. 9) Two Crooks And A Knave has The Gray Seal intervening in crooks trying to steal the map to a rich mine owned by a deceased man whose wife is destitute. But there is a double-cross going on that almost catches Jimmie unawares. 10) The Alibi is a curious story. Larry the Bat accidently loses his burglary tools, and a crook finds the kit. He tells a detective he knows who The Gray Seal is, and will identify him with the detective’s help. In the meantime, Tocsin has left Jimmie another assignment, and it brings them all together in the end. 11) The Stool Pigeon – an old man is killed for his savings, and one of the Bowery regulars is framed for the murder, but The Gray Seal, as Larry the Bat becomes a Stool Pigeon to help set the record straight.

Part Two: #1 Below The Dead Line is chaos. Someone is following Larry the Bat. He enters Chang Foo’s opium den, then a police raid. Escaping, he finds a bar, only to encounter gunshots and riot, then blackness as lights are extinguished. Suddenly, an envelope is thrusts into his hands and Tocsin’s voice from the darkness. She needs his help. #2) The Call To Arms. Jimmy takes a taxi driven by an agent of Tocsin, but they are intercepted, and a car crashes. 3) The Crime Club. When Jimmie awakes he is in a strange house a prisoner of the Crime Club. 4) The Innocent Bystander: Questioned and threatened with death, Jimmy claims his innocence even with possible death staring him in the face. 5) On Guard: He’s released, but not sure why. 6) The Trap: Discovering his home is being watched he can do nothing at present. 7) The “Hour”: Jimmy works out a plan, hides in the sedan as Benson drives into town. 8) The Tocsin: She is finally identified as dead millionaire, Peter LaSalle’s daughter, Marie La Salle. 9) The Tocsin’s Story: Her father and uncle were murdered, and she was to be next. Jimmy learns of the five years Marie LaSalle has been forced to hide, living in the badlands where she has discovered small crimes she passed on to The Gray Seal. 10) Silver Mag: Marie is known in the badlands as Silver Mag. 11) The Magpie: Slimmy Joe, the Magpie, has a plan to steal half a million from the man who murdered Marie’s father. 12) John Johansson – four-two-eight: Jimmie enters Spider Jack’s, but too late to get the evidence against the Crime Club. 13) The Only Way: Jimmie must enter the mansion and kill the murderer. 14) Out of The Darkness: The safe reveals little, but now he has found the Crime Club. 15) Retribution: The Magpie and Crime Club members shoot it out. 16) “Death To The Gray Seal!”: Magpie alerts the underworld to Larry the Bat’s duel role as the Gray Seal. He and Marie are caught in Larry the Bat’s room with the building set fire, and the cry, “Death to the Gray Seal!”

Thus, supposedly ends the Crime Club and the Gray Seal. But the series would continue in the pulps and four more books.

The Gray Seal was the son of a safe manufacturer, and could open any safe. Wearing a black domino mask and black slouch hat, he would leave a gray seal at all the scenes of his crimes to mock the police. He always returned the loot. It was just excitement and adventure he was after. He had a secret Sanctuary in the badlands, where he stayed at times as Larry the Bat. Until a mysterious woman discovers his identity and uses the information to force him to stop crimes by others. That woman would eventually be identified as Marie LaSalle, but he only knew her as Tocsin for most of the early stories. She also lived in the badlands, as Silver Mag. They are in love. Jimmy Dale, the Gray Seal, was one of the earliest masked crime fighters. Even Johnston McCulley would draw a lot from the Gray Seal for many of his masked heroes and gentleman crooks. The stories are dated, but a lot of fun, and you can see the influence in The Shadow’s Sanctum, and Doc Savage’s Fortress of Solitude. I will read the other four novels this year.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE MAN IN THE BLACK FEDORA