Dick is being dragged down by a submarine. This doesn’t preclude him from surfacing at will and waving to a friend who has just popped up to shout "Hey Dick!" by the quayside.

His friend tosses him a rope and Dick is brought safely ashore. So the clever twist in last week’s cliffhanger was that Dick got his foot free after all. Write that down in your rough books, children. If your foot gets caught, free it and you’ll escape unharmed.

Dick is in mid-follow-the-baddies mode when he stops to pick up a piece of paper. Surely it won’t turn out to be a vital clue.

It’s a vital clue!

Meanwhile, glam rock’s number one evil SOB (I’m ignoring Gary Glitter) is holding a meeting of his inner circle.

Gordon Tracy declares that the bad guys will be the only ones to find out the secret location of the secret mine owned by the secretive "Death Valley Johnny".

Dick goes to a hotel. "Where is Death Valley Johnny?" he asks. The desk clerk tells him.

Splendid – another bumpkin.

The bumpkin pronounces "cigar" as "see-garrr" and "cigarette" as "see-garrr-eeet" so we know we’re not dealing with the sharpest apple in the orchard. Dick says he "doesn’t use them" when offered a cigar. Who "uses" cigars? Apart from Monica of course.

The bumpkin is planning to sell his secret mine to a firm of jewellers that very night. He’s kept it for twenty years and only tells the world he has a secret mine the night before the deal. There is literally no way that can possibly be a bad idea.

This scene has several strange cut-away shots of Dick. We’ll be in the middle of some dialogue and they just insert a random close up of him. I guess they feel that if people want Dick they should be given Dick.

The bumpkin – now the target of at least one major criminal organisation – is given round the clock protection by the FBI. Or not.

The jewellers meet to finalise the sale. They are a forward thinking firm – they even allow a woman to sit in on meetings (though she has to have a special woman’s table so she won’t get ideas above her station).

They are waiting for a lawyer to arrive. Finally he does but – keeping his back always to camera – he makes us suspicious. He sounds like the sinister Gordon Tracy.

It is the sinister Gordon Tracy. What a clever twist.

The bumpkin draws a map of the gold mine’s location. The sinister Gordon is delighted. He just looks appalled.

He snatches the map, pulls out a gun and beams the mark of the spider onto the bumpkin’s inbred face.

The man is surely killed instantly and Gordon makes his escape across a plank of wood.

Well blow me – the bumpkin lives. He demands to see Dick Tracy.

At the bumpkin’s bedside, Dick asks for the man’s clothes. There "might be a clue" in them. I’m going to bet there will be. Some dust no doubt which can only have come from a particular place. Something like that.

Yup – they’ve found some "copper quartz" and Dick has sent his sidekick off the find where this particular type of quartz can be found. I’m guessing less than ten places in the world.

Or less than two places in the world to be exact – he’s found it in what I can only assume is "The Boys Book of Clues".

In the hospital, the bumpkin has astonished medical science by being absolutely fine. "You’d think I’d never been shot before" he says. Because obviously being shot is like chicken pox – the first time is a bugger but you’re immune after that.

Dick – who shuns cars in favour of planes for even the shortest journeys – is ready to go in search of this mysterious mine.

They land the plane and the first place they see is the local cliché.

A fight breaks out. In the DARK~!

The woman goes to see the bumpkin and takes him his sought after trousers. She explains that Dick has already left for the secret mine. He asks how they knew where to go. She says something scientific. He is astonished at her ability to use long words.

He says to warn Dick that there is something dangerous in the mine. Just as he’s about to explain, he has a sudden bout of illness and collapses.

Back at the saloon, the bad guys find a secret passage into the mine.

The Lame Plane is on its way to the mine. As are the idiot, the woman and the small boy. It’s all go.

Dick manages to untie his bonds.

A fight breaks out. In DAYLIGHT~!

"Some guy creased me with a bullet last night and I’ve not seen Dick since" says the sidekick. Luckily, he’s found the idiot, the woman and the small boy so they can stage a rescue attempt.

Dick is shooting at the bad guys who are following him. This is Dick before he falls through a fake floor made out of cloth.

This is Dick as he’s falling through a fake floor made out of cloth.

And this is Dick after he’s fallen through a fake floor made out of cloth.

Dick is floundering in a pool of water. "This is a shot I sure won’t miss" says the baddie. Dick is a sitting duck, an easy target, an unmissable foe.

So he gets out of the mine then.