Holiday. What I would've written here, I wrote there. Free link.

And, of course, a Diner below.

We have to keep up on our serials, lest we fall behind.

I know - it's been a while, hasn't it? What the hell is going on?

Something about this scary guy:

Right, right - part of a criminal syndicate that is forcing industrialists to hand over plans. TOOL PLANS. In the wrong hands, they could make . . . well, tools, I guess.

Leave us catch up with the cliffhanger and resolution:

Well, Dick learns that the Ghost stole the precision machinery dies from the safe, and probably will sell them to a foreign party. At which point the sidekick says “hey, I remember now, there was a telegram in the dead guy’s safe!” And it named a particular “known foreign agent.” This is all a bit murky and rushed, but who cares: we have to get out to sea so there can be MURDER.

They call up the foreign agent’s record on their telescreen: some dude named Ivan Drago. Sounds Bondy.

All of Dick’s Men are given Drago’s picture, and told to look out for him. Drago’s really keeping a low profile.

I guess the airport is located in a residential neighborhood.

Tracy’s presumably expendable man follows, tells Tracy where they’re going. Tracy shows up just in time for a desultory gun battle with some real fine aiming:

Everyone takes to the water for a boat race, which gives us a chance to do the thing where two ships come together and crush a boat - something that’s not exactly depicted. Just stock footage of two ships getting close. Somehow Tracy knows where they’re going (this one really, really does a lot of hand-waving) and they head to the secret location. It is on a boat.

Tracy’s approach does not go unnoticed:

Well, so much for the money they were going to get from that guy.

Lot of lead in this one, but it’s not a thrilling as a good hats-on fistfight. In fact, the whole enterprise so far has a desultory tone. The Ghost and Lucifer have potential, but they lack the mean, ornery criminality of Pa Stark and his batch of sons, if you recall the last Tracy serial. We don’t quite know their end game. It was just plain money with the Stark clan; here it’s some amorphous League O’ Crime stuff that seems undercooked. Also revenge, I guess/

Anyway, Tracy shimmies up the mast in the middle of the gun battle. The Ghost gets invisible. Eventually there’s an enthusiastic fist-fight, and Tracy is knocked out. The Ghost stabs him to death with an axe. Kidding! That would mean the serial ends here with the Ghost and Lucifer victorious. And so:

I'm sure he's fine.

That'll do. Matchbooks await.

And, of course, the Diner. Topic: well, it's timely. And the name I couldn't pull out was Joseph Mitchell.