Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 241 by Maxwel l Grant

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

CHAPTER XIII. WHERE TREASURE LAY

JACK MELFORD thumbed toward the face of rock that showed the symbol of the inverted snake, and interpreted it for the benefit of Cyrus Gleer.

"That's the last marker," stated Jack, "and it means a hundred and fifty feet straight east, which will take us to the edge of the knoll behind Pirate Head."

Gleer stroked his pointed chin with thumb and fingers, as though he hoped to sharpen it. He looked at Jack with quick, birdlike eyes and queried:

"And from there?"

"It's up to you, Gleer," replied Jack. "I've handed you the five hundred bucks that made up my whole bank roll. It's up to this thing to do the rest."

By "this thing" Jack meant the treasure finder, which rested beside them in its box, along with some duffel bags much heavier and sharper-edged than the sort that hikers usually carried.

Gleer picked up the treasure finder, and Jack hoisted the packs. Watching Gleer totter ahead of him, Jack was less than pleased. In some ways, Gleer was a faker. He insisted upon carrying his precious treasure finder; then acting as though it over-weighted him, though Jack knew it wasn't particularly heavy.

The net result was that Jack had to carry both storage batteries and all the rest of the equipment.

Playing stooge to Gleer would be worth while, though, if the treasure finder really worked. Jack consoled himself with that thought, as they reached the edge of the knoll and lowered their burdens. Jack unwrapped the batteries and watched Gleer hook up the treasure finder.

It was very still along the slope, and at times Jack cast worried glances toward the nearest trees. Finally

noting that they were hardwoods, he was relieved. A person couldn't move beneath such trees without cracking a few twigs, for the ground lacked the carpet of soft needles found around evergreens.

Jack wasn't taking into consequence a person that he had met the night before. He didn't regard The Shadow as a master of stealth, but considered him, rather, as a figure of darkness. The Shadow didn't belong with daylight, and there was too much of it under those trees.

Too much in Jack's estimate, but not The Shadow's. Every woods had its patches of gloom, and The Shadow was finding more than enough of them among the trees that fringed the knoll.

Unseen by Jack, the cloaked investigator was moving forward in this new terrain, studying the treasure finder as he had the night before.

So close that, with a few steps more, The Shadow could have manipulated the treasure finder himself, the cloaked observer saw Gleer thumb the dials and listen for a buzz, that refused to come. Gleer finally gave up with a headshake.

"No metal hereabouts," he said.

"You'll have to find a farther trail, Melford."

Leaning back against a rock, Gleer filled a pipe and let Jack do the worrying. Fuming, Jack poked about the knoll, wishing he'd brought Judy along. She could have helped in the hunt, and, even better, might have shown Gleer to be the slacker that he was.

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