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Track, Martin. Martin Track appeared in a number of stories in Dreadnought from 1912 to 1914, beginning with Dreadnought #1 (Mar. 9, 1912).
Martin Track is an English consulting detective, but unlike most other consulting detectives he is neither easily accessible or willing to visit potential clients. Track lives in a fortified and trapped castle built on a pinnacle overlooking the North Sea. The castle is patrolled by lions and tigers, and unwelcome visitors are caught by the padded claws of Track’s radio-controlled “box-kite aeroplane” and are dropped into tunnels and are set to work in “enforced repentance” in an underground chamber. Those who come to Track looking to hire him are confronted outside the walls by Grip, a "Chinese dwarf" and Marcus's servant, and are blindfolded by Grip and led to an underground passage. (Some visitors are simply netted and thrown over the parapet). In Track's underground reception room these visitors finally meet Track, who sits on a stone throne, a black eagle perched above his head and surrounded by Grip, two nameless Japanese servants, a parrot, a raven, and a white dove.
The reason for Track’s isolation is clear: he is wanted by various criminal syndicates which will stop at nothing to assassinate him. A cruiser bombards Track’s castle with six-inch shells. An attempt is made to dynamite the pinnacle his castle rests on. And many spies and assassins try to break into the castle to kill him. Track is a bitter, charming misanthrope with “gipsy features.”
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