The Terrible
Trail to Taggart's Treasure was the second adventure serial and
competition in SHIVER AND SHAKE after Who’d Kill Cockney Robin, and a much better one too. The suspense tale
is about the terrifying adventures of Clive and Angela Mason and their Uncle
Brett on sinister Skar Island. Here is how the story began in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 14 (June 9, 1973):
The
stranded trio decide that the map must have been carved by Black Taggart, the
pirate whose ghost is supposed to haunt the island. The map doesn’t have a mark
indicating the spot where the treasure might be buried but Angela is still eager
to try and find it. Uncle Brett suggests they’d better look for a way
to get back to their liner before it puts out to sea again. Walking about the
island they soon begin to realise why Skar Island has such an evil reputation –
there is no sign of life and the scenery is dotted with huge stone statues that look like glaring guardians daring anyone to come too near. All
hell soon breaks loose when a glowing ghostly figure of Black Taggart begins to intimidate the intruders. 
They are attacked by a giant rock that
comes to life as a nightmarish beast and chases them into the roaring
wilderness of hissing geysers – the Springs of Doom. They escape into an old
mine but the tunnel caves-in behind them and water gushes from solid rock threatening
to drown the fugitives. They make it out alive through a crack in the roof-rock. Wandering
without a sense of direction, the Masons find themselves in a valley and get attacked
by giant stone figures that suddenly uproot themselves and come for them,
firing boulders from their mouths.
Running away, they reach the edge of a deep ravine and jump into the roaring current that washes them to a swamp
where Angela is attacked by giant cannibal plants. During all these adventures
the Masons continue to be harassed by the menacing Black Taggart but although the dangers
around them are very real, they get increasingly suspicious of the phantom's nature. The
Masons finally find themselves in Ghost Canyon where amidst the chaos of
howling and shrieking Uncle Brett demonstrates that the ominous figure is
actually a visual manipulation created with the aid of a slide-projector.
The
Masons realise they are not battling against something super-natural and the young Clive
Mason finally reveals the secret in issue No. 22 (August 4, 1973):
The
Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure was
illustrated by Eric Bradbury and started in Shiver
and Shake issue No. 14 (June 9, 1973) where it occupied three full pages (two pages for the story and one full page for the map of Skar Island). It then
continued as a two-pager in issue Nos. 15 – 22 (June 16 - August 4, 1973). Competition was announced in
issue 23 (August 11, 1973), offering the readers a
chance to strike it rich by plotting the route of the Masons' travels on the
map:
...and names of the winners were published in Shiver and Shake issue 32 (13th October, 1973), alongside with
details of the correct solution:
Five years
later in the end of 1978 The Terrible Trail to Taggart’s Treasure
was reprinted in CHEEKY WEEKLY comic. The reprint included neither the detailed
map of Skar Island nor the challenge for the readers to retrace the route of
the Mason’s travels.
