- [first lines]
- Lamont Cranston: [narration] This is where it started - suddenly and forever, what began - the Case of the Cotton Kimona.
- Commissioner Weston: Good evening, Margot, Lamont. Sorry to walk in on you like this.
- Lamont Cranston: We were on our way to the theater.
- Margot Lane: We *are* on our way to the theater.
- Commissioner Weston: Well, um...
- Margot Lane: Aren't we?
- Lamont Cranston: Hmm, I guess I owe the department something for that retainer they send me every month.
- [a woman sings off-key in the background]
- Rollo Grimmbauer: Not a great voice, Mrs. Bettinger's, but she has the will to sing. That's all I require of my pupils - the will to sing.
- Lamont Cranston: Very democratic of you. Of course, it doesn't hurt anything if they also have blonde hair, blue eyes and hail from the Midwest, whose figure remains glamorous even in a cotton kimona.
- Lamont Cranston: Have it your way, Professor, but it won't take long to get a warrant... or a subpoena.
- Rollo Grimmbauer: I'm afraid I'll have to put you to that trouble.
- Lamont Cranston: Don't apologize - it will be a pleasure.
- Lamont Cranston: We're going to need help on this, m'lady - help from an old friend.
- Margot Lane: The Shadow?
- The Shadow: Only the guilty need fear me and I see the terror in your eyes, my friend. I am all around you, here by your side though your eyes see nothing. You cannot escape me, Grimmbauer.
- Lamont Cranston: Very peculiar when you think about it.
- Margot Lane: What is?
- Lamont Cranston: That Cissy Chadwick should be wearing a cotton kimona to have dinner with her Number One Guy. Would she, taking for granted she's an average young woman?
- Margot Lane: Of course, she wouldn't! Why didn't I think of that? Unless everything she owned was at the cleaners or she didn't have anything else to wear...
- Detective Harry Harris: Who are you?
- The Shadow: I am the Shadow... the fear of retribution in men's minds. I am justice.