James Kirkham is a fearless explorer, who came back to New York from a very profitable trip in China. He gets kidnapped off the streets of downtown Manhattan by the minions of a crime lord and evil genius who calls himself Satan. Kirkham finds himself in Satan's lair with many other famous people trapped or blackmailed by Satan, and forced to play a game of seven footprints. Kirkham winds up a bond servant to Satan, and is compelled to commit various fantastic crimes while in his service.

Abraham Grace Merritt (1884-1943) was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999, its fourth class. Merritt's novels and stories typically revolve around conventional pulp magazine themes: lost civilizations, hideous monsters, etc. His heroes are usually gallant Scandinavians, his villains treacherous Germans or Russians and his heroines often virginal, mysterious and scantily clad.