Zudora

Summary

A saffron dusk settles over the frontier town where a teenage rope-walker—Zudora—returns to the dust-choked street that christened her, only to learn that her gold-veined surname is now a twenty-million-dollar tomb. Her father’s pickaxe strikes one last gleam before dynamite swallows him; his will bequeaths the lode to the girl, contingent on her surviving the guardianship of Hassam Ali, her maternal uncle, a turbaned prestidigitator who sells miracles from a moth-eaten circus wagon. Ali, long ago promised the fortune should Zudora perish, keeps the inheritance a secret and instead chains her to a diabolical wager: untangle twenty criminal conundrums or forever surrender the boy whose glance contains her only daylight—idealistic attorney John Storm. The first case arrives in a thunderclap: Storm is framed for the pistol-slaying of his courtroom rival, Bienreith, after a moonlit duel is thwarted by a narcotic glass Zudora herself administers in a frantic effort to save her lover’s life. On the velvet collar of the corpse she spies cryptic indentations—tiny cuneiforms left by a silenced revolver pressed against cloth. With a graphite pencil snatched from the true assassin’s pocket she matches groove to graphite, hypnotizes the killer into confession, and frees Storm, winning the inaugural round of a lethal chess match whose remaining nineteen moves will decide whether she inherits gold or the grave.

Synopsis

Episode 1: "The Mystic Message of the Spotted Collar" Zudora, 18, has a guardian, Hassam Ali, a disciple of Hindu mysticism. Hassam Ali was a fakir with a small caravan circus. Zudora's mother was his sister and the rope walker. Zudora's father remained in a small mining town where he prospected for gold. As the story opens Zudora, her mother and Hassam Ali, her uncle, are visiting the town of Zudora's birth and where Zudora's father is still prospecting. Zudora's father finds that the Zudora mine yields a wonderful run of gold. He becomes over-zealous and is killed in an explosion. He wills the entire mine, which is valued at $20,000,000, to Zudora, when she reaches her eighteenth birthday, and in the event of Zudora's death, going to the nearest heir-at-law. Zudora's mother receives information of her husband's death when she is about to ascend the rope and give her performance. She falls to the ground, and with a dying gasp turns over to Hassam Ali the guardianship of Zudora. Zudora reaches her eighteenth year. Hassam Ali has set himself up as a mystic, but his one purpose in life is to rid himself of Zudora, so that the mine will be his. He is also anxious to rid himself of John Storm, Zudora's sweetheart. He has kept from Zudora the information about her inheritance. He at last arrives at one plan that seems safe. Zudora has evidenced quite wonderful powers of deduction. He tells her that since she has always been so anxious to incorporate herself in his work, he will give her the next twenty cases he is called upon to solve. He says: "If you win, you may marry John Storm. If you lose on any one of them, you renounce him forever." Zudora's sweetheart is involved in a great case for the city. Opposed to him is one Bienreith, a prominent lawyer. The case is going well for John Storm. Hassam Ali decides that after eighteen years of waiting it is time to use heroic measures. He denounces Storm in front of Zudora, and then tells her about the twenty cases. The very first thing in the courtroom, Storm slaps the face of Bienreith, after a particularly insulting speech, and is invited to a duel that night. An hour later the newspapers are full of her sweetheart's trouble. Zudora rushes to his side and finds him practicing with a revolver. She plans to keep him from meeting Bienreith. She purchases a drug, and drops it in a glass of drinking water. Next morning the papers tell of Storm's disappearance. The great mystery of it is that Bienreith has been found dead in his room and the blame placed upon John Storm. Storm is arrested. Zudora rushes to her uncle and begs that this be her first case. When she goes to Bienreith's home that morning she finds the collar that he had worn when killed. It has queer markings on it. She studies the lines carefully, but can make no headway. Storm is formally charged with the murder. She reaches the courtroom just in time to say, "Stop, he is not guilty...," and falls into a faint. Hassam Ali and Burns, a confederate, watch as the girl recovers and explains that she has solved the mystery. Burns is placing a revolver, equipped with a silencer against her neck, when she turns suddenly and takes a pencil from his pocket to prove her contention to the court. She realizes, in looking at the mark, that there is a similarity between the markings of Burns' pencil and the markings on the collar. Court is adjourned. Zudora induces Burns to accompany her home. Under hypnosis he confesses to killing Bienreith. Zudora had placed two lawyers behind the curtains and they hear the confession. Zudora has solved her first case and Hassam Ali congratulates her. In the courtroom Zudora clasps Storm in her arms as the judge proclaims him free.