The Shadow's Personal Physician

This weekend I was reading The Shadow story, "The Thunder King" (first published on June 15, 1941) and came across an interesting Shadow fact!

In the story, The Shadow, disguised as Lamont Cranston, is injured and taken to a hospital.  The Shadow knows he must get out of the hospital to continue his hunt for the vicious criminal of the story.  That's when we learn the following:

"Dr. Rupert Sayre was Cranston's physician, which meant, in a sense, that he was in The Shadow's service.  In fact, if it hadn't been for The Shadow, Dr. Sayre would never have had Cranston as a patient.  Nor would Sayre have had the very fine practice that came from Cranston's friends.

In fact, Sayre wouldn't even be alive.  He owed his life to The Shadow, who had pulled him out of a very bad jam several years before.

As a result, Sayre was always ready to do favors for The Shadow, or for Lamont Cranston, for he knew that they were either one and the same man, or very closely associated."*

I've not done any further research, but I don't believe Dr. Sayre was considered one of The Shadow's agents.  But he did owe his life to The Shadow, just like almost every one of his agents!  Like many of those close to The Shadow, he believed Cranston was The Shadow (Henry Vincent thought this as well!).  I thought this was a very interesting Shadow fact tucked away in this story! 

* The Thunder King and The Star of Delhi: Two Classic Adventures of The Shadow, by Maxwell Grant et al., vol. 68, Sanctum Books, 2012