The Night of the Bubbling Death - Recap

Jim and Silas Grigsby, a curator with the U.S. Archives, ride to the edge of the U.S. boundaries on the Panhandle Strip. Grigsby is hesitant to continue but Jim insists. They ride into the next town and find a number of men all waiting for them on the street. Artie, disguised as a squint-eyed gunfighter, confronts Jim and Grigsby. He orders them to dismount and gets close enough to secretly warn Jim to be careful of a man called Cartwheel. Jim rides on with Grigsby and they dismount. A man throwing knives takes offense at Grigsby for disrupting his concentration, and another man, Clint Cartwheel, steps forward and tells them to bow in apology. Jim refuses and attacks them, but Cartwheel quickly beats him. However, a woman, Carlotta Waters, rides up and tells Cartwheel to stop and then welcomes Jim to the Panhandle.



Pima continues fighting but Jim finally subdues him. Carlotta reminds him that he’s there on official business and a day late, and Jim says his train was running slow. He goes into the main compound with Grigsby, and Carlotta and Cartwheel first have them searched and then blindfold them. Finally the two men are escort into the main house. Jim carefully counts his footsteps and turns as he’s taken through several corridors and into a basement elevator. They emerge into an underground chamber and spun around, and taken down another hallway to a vault door. Beyond is a wooden gangplank crossing over a channel of acid some 30’ long.



Finally Carlotta and Cartwheel take the two men into a darkened room with a single spotlight. Their host, Victor Freemantle, tells them to remove their blindfolds and greets Grigsby by name. He then directs Grigsby to a case holding the U.S. Constitution. Grigsby examines it and confirms that it’s authentic. Freemantle tells Jim that he wants the U.S. to grant him sovereignty of Panhandle Strip and $1 million in gold bullion. He orders Grigsby to stay while Jim delivers Freemantle’s terms to Grant. Jim tries to put up a brief fight but Cartwheel knocks him out and hauls him to the gate. As Cartwheel prepares to whip him to show that they mean business, the disguised Artie rides up and offers Cartwheel $20. He claims Jim put him jail for five years and Cartwheel agrees for $50 and the promise that Artie won’t kill Jim. Artie ties Jim up and prepares to drag him behind his horse. Jim breaks free as planned and the agents using an exploding bottle to cover their escape.



Back at the Wanderer, Artie explains that Freemantle has attempted to start revolutions in Argentina and Venezuela, and plans to annex Texas and Baja California. The agents go over a model of the compound and Jim retraces his footsteps. Artie figures that Freemantle has the Constitution hidden in an old mine shaft, and Jim admits that once he was in the lower levels, they spun him around and he lost track of their position. They have no choice but to check every possible corridor.

Artie rides into Panhandle Strip posing as a traveling groggery salesman advertising all-you-can drink for fifty cents, with Jim hiding beneath the wagon. The local saloon owner, Brad Logan, tells local thug Pima to set the wagon on fire to eliminate the competition. Pima lights a torch and starts to thrust it beneath the wagon near Jim. Artie sprays him with seltzer water, putting out the torch and driving him off, and Brad tells him to get out of town. However, Artie explains that he wants to set him up with liquor guaranteed to bring in the customers. Brad agrees to try a sample and Artie gives him a bottle. When it opened it fires off a burst of gas, distracting the crowd so that Jim can slip off the wagon and get away. Artie apologizes, claiming the bottle went bad, and offers him a new one. Brad forces him at gunpoint to try the new bottle first.


Jim ascends to the roof using a mechanized grappling hook. Meanwhile, Artie tries to get out of drinking, claiming he’s a member of the temperance league. When Brad doesn’t give him a choice, Artie fires a spring snake out of the bottle, goes to the back of the wagon, and climbs into a wicker basket. The men fire into the basket but discover that Artie has vanished. Meanwhile, Artie runs to the gate of the main house and Jim lets him in. Artie plants putty on the gate hinges and then the agents split up.

Jim makes his way through an upstairs window and finds himself in Carlotta’s quarters. He hides in the closet as she comes in, removes a nightgown from the closet, and goes into the next room to dress. Jim then slips out but is forced to retreat when the guards come past. Carlotta captures him at gunpoint and prepares to shot, but there’s a knock at the door. Jim gets the drop on her as Freemantle calls out to her. The agent tells her to say that she’s dressing, and Freemantle tells her to stay in her room because of the disturbance. He starts to go in but discovers that the door is locked and leaves.



Once Freemantle leaves, Jim congratulates her on her performance, and Carlotta says that it may not have been a performance, She offers to sell out Freemantle, figuring that the U.S. government would eventually put the revolutionary down. Jim asks her to find out where they’re holding Grigsby, and Carlotta offers to deliver him personally if Jim pays her enough. She readily tells him which sub-basement passage to take and Jim tells her to stay in her room. As he goes, Carlotta gives him a kiss and assure him that she’s not romantically involved with Freemantle. Once Jim leaves, Carlotta goes out into the hallway and starts to pull on an alarm bell, but Jim and Artie are waiting and drug her unconscious. They take her back to her room and Artie sprinkles alcohol on her to make it look convincing.

As the agents make their way across the compound, Freemantle finds Cartwheel and assures him that everything will go as planned. Once they leave, Jim and Artie make their way through the hallways only to come to a blank wall. Realizing that it’s a fake wall, Artie quickly opens it and they go to the basement and the elevator. They realized that it’s rigged to an alarm and start cutting through the floor.

Freemantle goes to see Carlotta and assumes that she’s passed out drunk.

Jim uses thermite to burn through the elevator floor and they descend on a mechanized winch. The agents figure they have nothing better to do than follow Carlotta’s directions.

Carlotta starts to wake up.

The agents blast through the vault door and come to the acid room. The gangplank has been removed so the agents fire a grappling line across. Jim then traverses across, inches above the bubbling acid. He makes it to the far end and then enters the chamber with the Constitution. Jim removes the document and then goes back to the acid chamber.



Cartwheel reports to Freemantle that they’ve found Artie’s disguise in the wagon of the whiskey salesman, and Freemantle realizes where they’re heading.

Artie pulls Jim back across the acid. Meanwhile, Freemantle and his men enter the main building and proceed to the basement. They find the hole in the elevator floor and take it down.

Jim gets back to the starting side just in time as the grappling dart pulls loose. Artie checks the Constitution and discovers that it’s a fake. Freemantle and his men arrive and the revolutionist explains that the objective was to use the fake Constitution to lure out any would-be thieves. Artie figures that Freemantle has the real Constitution and that it’s hidden somewhere obvious, and Freemantle says that it’s hidden where lady fair can stare at it for hours. The agents attack the men and knock them out, and Jim slips aside and Freemantle falls into the acid.



The agents go to Carlotta’s room and search for the Constitution. They finally realize that it’s hidden behind her mirror, shatter it, and remove the real Constitution. Freemantle’s men start searching the house and Artie activates a smoke emitter so that he and Jim can get outside. Jim shoots the putty that Artie planted earlier, blasting the gate off its hinges so they can get to their horses and make their escape.

Back at the Wanderer, Jim prepares to go back for Grigsby. However, Grigsby and Carlotta arrive, and Carlotta says that she delivered the curator just as she promised. Grigsby is eager to see the Constitution and they give him the forgery. When Grigsby realizes that it’s the fake, Jim points out that he confirmed it was the real one earlier. Grigsby and Carlotta both draw guns and demand the real Constitution. Jim offers to remove it from a secret compartment, but Carlotta suspects a trap and tells Grigsby to get it. The agents warn that if he turns the knob the wrong way, he’ll be dead before he hits the floor. When Grigsby turns the trick knob, a pair of mounted pistols turn and fire, killing him, and Jim grabs the gun from Carlotta.



Later, Artie packs the model away and sends it back to the Mexican Museum. A messenger pigeon arrives as Jim comes out, and the agents confirm that the U.S. conceded Panhandle Strip to Mexico to let them clean it out. Jim starts to write Carlotta a letter, much to Artie’s dismay.

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