Champ Comics #19
The Case of the Jap Trap of Death
Duke O’Dawd and Toby take on a fare who asks to be taken to an address on Jenkins Street immediately. When they drop off their passenger, Toby notices that it is not the same man. The boy notices this since their fare was caucasian and a Japanese man had gotten out of the back. Checking the back the pair are shocked to find bloodstains on the seat. Recalling how they were held up in traffic a couple of blocks earlier, Duke backtracks where they find their original fare sprawled out on the ground. The dying man tells them that he was trying to get some records that he was keeping in his desk at home. The pair then witness as a nearby skyscraper suddenly collapses. Suspecting that something is going on, Duke changes into the Human Meteor and tells Toby to check out the dead man’s house while he tries to find the Japanese spy who murdered him.
At that moment, the Japanese spies are gloating over how their vibro-oscillator device works perfectly. When the Human Meteor arrives he tries to stop the other spies. Despite his efforts their leader, a man named Kokai, manages to escape. While at the murdered man’s house Toby finds papers that reveal that the vibro-oscillator is being hidden aboard a boat called the Santa Maria. That’s when Kokai and his men enter the room and kidnap the boy and then burn the papers he discovered in order to cover things up. However, when the Human Meteor arrives he is still able to decipher the words on the burned paperwork and tracks down the Santa Maria. While at the Japanese hideout, Toby manages to use equipment in the attic to rig up a telephone to send out an SOS warning the authorities about the Japanese plot to destroy a nearby bridge. The boy manages to get free and rushes to the scene.
He arrives at the Santa Maria just as the Human Meteor incapacitates the machine and leave just as the military arrives to blow up the ship.
Recurring Characters
Human Meteor, Toby, Imperial Japan
