- When Lois has trouble getting her nurse on the telephone, she and Clark drive to the small town of Cliffton to see what the problem is. After arriving, they find that the town is mostly deserted, and the few remaining townspeople don't seem to want them to know what is going on.—page8701
- Trouble is afoot in the village of Clifton by the Sea. A man dressed in a hazmat suit walks systematically from building to building breaking out a windowpane in each. Lois has been trying to call Clifton resident Mrs. Tazey. Each year she sends a gingerbread man to Lois as a birthday gift in remembrance of when she would hang out with Mrs. Tazey as a child. No one in the village answers their phones. The operator gets a ring on every call, so the lines are not down. Clark suggests to Lois that they drive to Clifton and check it out. They find the town deserted. After driving the streets, they find a dog who has recently succumbed to unknown cause. When they check it out, they hear a groan inside the house which belongs to Doctor Jessup. They find him on the floor inside. Clark revives him with smelling salts that the doctor directs him to. In the drawer Clark also notices a gun and a gas mask. Jessop suggests they leave town right away. Instead, the pair of reporters go to see if Mrs. Tazey is home. She is. She invites Lois in for tea. Clark says he's going to look around. He discovers large footprints where the dog corpse was. He meets Peter Godfrey and his son Alvin who run the drug store. They talk about leaving before the bad fogs roll in at sunset. Clark goes back to pick up Lois and finds she left in search of him. He eventually finds her in a cave, digging in the sand. She has unearthed some drill cores. Clark insists on taking them for analysis and instructs her to remove herself to the next village. She disobeys. As she unearths a dog collar in the cave, the suit-clad figure doses her with gas. He is in the process of placing her in a canvas body bag when Dr. Jessup shows up and gets hit on the head with a shovel. Mrs. Tazey appears and is about to be assaulted when Superman arrives. He takes care of the two assailants - Peter and Alvin. They were trying to scare everyone off so that they could develop the hydrozite ore they had found. It would be worth millions in hydrogen bomb production.—Garon Smith
- Synopsis - The Deserted Village Some guy in a protective suit is throwing rocks through windows and he appears to be the only one in the town, Cliffton by the Sea. The suit is reminiscent of the postwar hazard suit people wore for protection from contamination of most any kind. Lois is trying to contact her aunt in Cliffton to thank her for the gift she received, but no one seems to be around anywhere. She is concerned and drives up to Cliffton with Clark to investigate. Someone has changed the town's sign, it shows five-hundred twenty-five, lining out the numbers five and two, for the population showing five as the count of people in town. The guy in the suit appears again, tossing a rock through another window and encountering a dog in the yard that topples over dead. Clark and Lois stop to see the dog in the yard, hear moaning from inside the house of Lois' doctor Jessup. Revived, he claims nobody asked for reporters, and appears indifferent, insisting he has a patient to see, after advising the two to leave Cliffton. Something is not right with Tazey and Jessup, their behavior is off-putting and no one else is around. Lois is invited for a cup of tea with Miss Tazey while Clark decides to have a look around. Clark warns Lois not to drink the tea, while he confronts Dr. Jessup about his dog, who has disappeared, and Clark claims it was gassed, poison gas. The doctor had a gas mask in his desk drawer and Miss Tazey had a gas mask in the basket with her cut flowers. The doc advises Kent again to get out of Cliffton and take Miss Lane with him. Clark encounters Pete Godfrey, the town druggist, small talk ensues, Clark meets Alvin Godfrey, Pete's son, stating he didn't know anything about the missing dead dog that Clark and Pete were discussing. Clark is checking the ground when he hears shots ring out and the guy in the suit appears again. More shots are fired and it is Miss Tazey doing the shooting in her front yard, confronting Clark, she states there is no need for reporters in Cliffton and Clark inquiries about the poison gas and footprints left by someone where the prints are unusually large. Miss Tazey wonders where Lois is, saying she thought she was with Clark, hoping Lois didn't venture toward the sea where the haz-mat individual has been spotted. Superman is looking into the nearby cave by the sea, noticing regular shoe prints leading into the cave, where he encounters Lois digging into the ground of the cave. Superman doesn't confront Lois, rather he backs off, while the guy in the haz-mat suit is walking to the cave entrance with a cylindrical silver object in his hand. Clark surprises Lois inspecting the drill core she found while digging and an argument begins whether she stays or goes elsewhere for her own safety. Clark wants to have the core samples analyzed, and does so as Superman while Lois returns to the cave and the spot where she found the core samples. The haz-mat man appears in the cave carrying the silvery cylinder, encountering Lois and releasing the gas from the cylinder while Lois digs up a dog collar. Lois has passed out from the gas and the suited man wrapped her in canvas, sewing the wrapping around her when a masked Dr. Jessup comes in the cave, he sees Lois bending over to help her when the stranger hits him over the head with the shovel. A masked Miss Tazey enters the cave, gun pointed at the stranger, hands up, when a masked Pete wrestles the gun from her, and Superman slugs the suited stranger. Pete tries to knock out Superman with the shovel, breaking the tool, Superman grabs a fleeing Pete, subdues him, then picking up Lois and guiding Miss Tazey out of the cave for some fresh air. He goes in for the Godfrey's, it was Alvin in the suit all this time. The cave contains a deposit of hydrozite, a substance used in making the hydrogen bomb, the analysis verified the substance. The deposit, according to Superman, is likely the largest in the world and worth millions. Miss Tazey and Doc Jessup thought they could handle the culprits all by themselves, not needing anything to get in the press, but she admitted she was wrong. Clark and Lois are heading out of Cliffton as Clark corrects the population sign less two because the Godfrey's are going to jail. The sign now reads population 523, with the five crossed out, thanks to Clark.
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