John Fleming Gould

Thundering across a ravished America comes a loot laden train bearing twenty million dollars in gold, hurtling toward the despoiled metropolis of New York, where the dread foreign conqueror, Emperor Rudolph I, has established headquarters. Suddenly the train trembles to a stop. A desperate little band of American patriots, who refuse to bow to the conqueror's yoke, make a bold attack. Their leader, Jimmy Christopher, known as Operator 5, realizes that with that trainload of gold he can flood the skies with a thousand fighting planes, the only chance for America to repel the brutal invaders Already they have ravished the Eastern seaboard. Even now they are hammering at the surviving citadel of American freedom-the Rocky Mountain stronghold of the brave men who will not yield.

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

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...