Death's Premium by Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson

Author:Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson [Grant, Maxwell & Gibson, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Thrillers
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1940-01-18T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII. CRIME'S NEW CLIENT

"CALL for Mr. Henry Arnaud -"

A man arose from a chair in the corner of the hotel lobby and stopped the bellboy who was passing him. Identifying himself as Mr. Arnaud, he let the bellhop conduct him to a phone booth, where a call awaited.

There, Arnaud spoke a dry: "Hello."

"Mr. Arnaud?" The voice was quick. "My name is Regar. Clarence Regar. I'd like to see you. My office is in the Ferwin Building. Could you come over, right away?"

"An urgent matter?"

"Yes." Regar's tone was emphatic. "It means money to you, Mr. Arnaud."

Agreeing to come at once, Arnaud stepped from the phone booth. As he walked from the lobby into daylight, Arnaud's full, shrewd-looking features underwent a momentary change. Strong sunlight gave his face a masklike appearance, seemed to mark full places that had once been hollows.

The effect was ended as soon as Arnaud stepped into a cab. Milder light, less revealing than the sun's full glare, made the face resume its fuller mold.

There was a secret to the face of Henry Arnaud.

It was a face built upon another, a disguise that no eye could discern except under conditions highly unfavorable to Mr. Arnaud. It bore but the slightest traces of a hawkish profile that ordinarily identified Lamont Cranston.

After the battle at Juble's two nights ago, The Shadow had registered at the pretentious hotel under the name of Henry Arnaud. He had foreseen a call like the one that came from Clarence Regar for very good reasons.

An organization named the American Death Insurance Co. was selling policies through agents. One of those agents, Ronald Parron, had died very suddenly. Like any insurance company, legal or otherwise, Adico would naturally turn Parron's business over to some other agent.

Parron had sold a policy to Claude Juble, covering the death of Tyrus Vayne. But Vayne was still alive, though Juble was dead. The term of the policy was over, and Adico owed money to the dead man, Juble. The death insurance company had to keep up its prestige. Therefore, one thing was certain.

The agent who was handling Parron's business would have to find some way to disburse the sum of one hundred thousand dollars among the heirs and creditors of the deceased Claude Juble.

Obviously, Clarence Regar was the man in charge of Parron's business. He had traced Henry Arnaud and called him, because among Juble's bills was one that bore Arnaud's name.

The Shadow found Regar in his office. The fellow appeared to be Parron's type, something of a society man. There the similarity ended.

Where Parron had been nervous, uncertain in manner and a trifle weak-faced, Regar was quite the opposite. He was cool and competent. His eyes were sharp, his lips suavely smiling, while his blocky chin gave him the challenging air of a fighter.

Regar eyed Arnaud steadily, yet failed to penetrate the face-filling disguise that the visitor wore. The Shadow had picked a chair near the window where the light struck him at an excellent angle. Regar was able to see changes that might flicker over Arnaud's countenance, without seeing through the face itself.

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