The
story begins: "The midget radio squawked away noisily beside a card-board
sign which read: "Our Special To-day-Roast Beef Plate Lunch, Twenty-five
Cents."
Deeply panic-stricken, Aunt Nora, Jim and Alice Cash race north to New York to seek Doc Savage's help. Their small hometown of Prosper City is in the grip of a violent conspiracy. A sinister clan called The Green Bells is destroying all who block their goal of total domination of the small industrial town. The dark-hooded Green Bells throw Jim Cash on the third rail of an electric railway where he is electrocuted. Aunt Nora and Alice race to Doc's Skyscraper Headquarters. After hearing their story, Doc takes on the case. The Green Bells have followed, and Doc is quickly framed for murder! Battling the hooded villains and dodging police, Doc makes his way to Prosper City. Although not happy about missing out on the adventure, Ham stays in New York to handle Doc's legal troubles. The situation is as desperate as Aunt Nora and Alice Cash had said. Factory owners who have resisted The Green Bells and kept their factories open are being killed off. Thousands are without jobs, poverty is rampant and human spirits are broken. Doc and his men battle the conspiracy that is all around them. They set to work to re-vitalize the town. Doc makes a deal with the surviving factory owners to buy their companies outright...with the agreement that they can buy them back at the same price once they are operating profitably again. Monk organizes the war veterans of the town into a security army so the town's factory workers can return to their jobs. Renny, Johnny and Long Tom oversee getting the factories started again. Doc hands out cash money. He lets the Prosper City citizens know that it is not charity- only an advance for work they will do. The town rallies behind Doc and his men. The plans of The Green Bell master are slowly unraveling. The mystery of who the Green Bell leader is and why this town is being systematically destroyed remains. Doc's life has been set for the task ahead...the punishment of the evil, dark-hooded clan and its leader.