Episode 38 of The Trigan Empire
The Secret of Castle Doum
aka The Secret of the Locked Room
Het geheim van de Abandon Burcht (Dutch title)
The Secret of Castle Abandon (Dutch title, translated)
Written by Mike Butterworth
Illustrated by Don Lawrence
The Secret of Castle Doum was originally published in 9 instalments in issues 588 (21 April 1973) to 596 (16 June 1973) of Look and Learn magazine.
It is reprinted in Volume 10 of The Trigan Empire—The Collection (the Don Lawrence Collection).
It is reprinted in Volume 4 of The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire (Rebellion).
Plot summary
Dubal is a member of Janno’s squadron and has to go home because he is coming of age. Brag tells Janno that he knows Dubal’s father. It is Lord Darra, who was always cheerful until he turned twenty-one. After that, he became taciturn and quarrelsome. Dubal returns home to Castle Doum, where his father tells him the family secret. They go to the tower room, and the father asks his son to bear the shame.
When Dubal returns to the squadron, he is now hot-tempered and takes to drinking and gambling. During a flight, Dubal makes a mistake and crashes into the sea. He is rescued but lies unconscious in the hospital. He raves about the secret in the tower room, and Janno hears this. He decides to go to the castle and is asked by Lord Darra to spend the night there. At night, he goes to the tower room but is overpowered by the servant Urgal. To keep the secret safe, Lord Darra decides to imprison Janno permanently and push his car into a ravine so that everyone thinks Janno is dead. The police come looking for Janno, and indeed they believe he has had an accident.
After a while, a man shows Keren a photo of Urgal pushing the car into the ravine. The man wants money for the photo, and Keren pays him. He decides to go to the castle alone but first writes a letter to Roffa, which he leaves in his house. Keren is also captured and put with Janno. While searching for Keren, the police find the letter to Roffa. He too decides to go to the castle alone but is also captured.
At that moment, Trigo appears: they have followed Roffa. Because Lord Darra has done nothing to the three, Trigo lets him go free if he tells them the secret of the tower room. In the room stands a monster, which Lord Darra claims is family. Peric examines the monster and is certain it has no relation to humanity: it is a species that once lived on the plains of Attat. The Darras have fallen victim to a hoax.
Much later, a servant finds a letter in a vase. The letter is from Zumatt, the guardian of the young Lord Darra. He believed he was the true Lord Darra and that all the possessions belonged to him. To take revenge on the young Lord Darra, he invented this story and told the fake secret.
Links
Plot summary (Dutch)
589
https://www.catawiki.com/nl/l/28745281
591
https://www.catawiki.com/nl/l/60890759
593
https://www.catawiki.com/nl/l/28141703
594
https://www.catawiki.com/nl/l/26192849
Downloads
MediaFire via British Comics Compilations
The Non Lawrence Collection [PDF]