Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 197 by Maxwel l Grant

Author:Maxwel,l Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

CHAPTER XII. LURKERS BY NIGHT.

THAT afternoon, Lamont Cranston and Harry Vincent took a trip around the lake in a trim speedboat that Harry had obtained at the Community Center. As they rode along, Harry repeated some details that he had heard at the community house.

The sheriff had heard from Los Angeles. The police there had gained no clue to the poisoned cigarettes given Drury. They were sure that it must have been planted in the aviator's pocket before he left Lake Calada.

There were details, too, regarding previous robberies, and all indicated that crimes had occurred at Lake Calada, not elsewhere.

Gillespie's secretary, a man named Tudor, was to be released, exonerated of any blame in the bond theft.

The Jamison paintings had been shipped to the lake intact; therefore, could not have been stolen beforehand. A thorough check-up proved that the Albion statuettes could not have been removed in transit after they left Lake Calada.

Such reports had not caused surprise. The robbery of the Lodi jewels, done in the presence of half the Calada colony, had convinced everyone that previous crimes were local.

Reviewing the meager facts, The Shadow decided that Harry was to go to Los Angeles, to contact Tudor and bring him back to Lake Calada, in case the exonerated secretary might prove valuable tomorrow. He told Harry to take the evening taxi plane for Los Angeles.

It was nearly dusk when The Shadow swung the boat through a channel by an island, leading into Indian Cove. Rounding a bend, they saw Indian Rock, an imposing shaft of granite, a miniature edition of the monumental rocks that could be viewed in Yosemite Park.

Rising a sheer two hundred feet, Indian Rock was precipitous on both sides; but it was marked with noticeable flaws. Among those regular fissures, Harry saw one crack that spread like a crude arch at the water's edge, but it was too low for the boat to pass.

Besides, the base of the rock looked unreachable, due to jagged chunks of stone that studded the water.

Those barring points of rock had evidently broken from the crag in some past age.

As they headed out from the cove, The Shadow slowed the boat, to study Denwood's chart. Harry noticed that it was less of a maze than before. The Shadow had marked it with his own observation lines, erasing some of the more doubtful ones.

By a system of triangulation, he had picked the area near Indian Cove as the probable destination of the curious lake monster. Having seen that craft's course twice, The Shadow had narrowed down his quest.

There was another cove, however, that adjoined this one, past a jut of land called Piny Head. It was also in the area picked by The Shadow, and the cove furnished a landing to the old Pioneer Mine.

The Shadow swung into the cove, let the boat chug up to the remains of an old burned wharf. Gloom here was heavy; Harry, scrambling on the wharf to tie the boat, did not sense the stir about him.

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