Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 281 by Maxwel l Grant

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

XI.

THE road forked a quarter mile before reaching Fairfield Farm. It was at that point that Cranston began operations. The car ahead had swung to the left and its taillights were suddenly blending into one. That puzzled Margo until she realized that the car must be turning into the ample yard of Fairfield Farm.

By then, Cranston had taken the fork to the right. Again, understanding dawned on Margo.

Most conspicuous of the farm buildings was a huge barn. It was about midway between the two arms of the divided road. Since the other car would probably pull up to the barn and stop there, Cranston had decided to approach from another direction.

It was a neat trick. By spurting along the road to the right, Cranston was practically under cover. Within a minute, he would be in back of the barn, provided that he could drive in from that quarter.

Unfortunately there wasn't any opening in the stone wall that fringed this road, but apparently Cranston had made allowance for the fact.

Stopping abruptly at the nearest point to the looming barn, Cranston pushed open the door on his side.

He turned to Margo:

"Get turned around and drive back to the fork. Stay on this road with the lights turned off. I'll join you there."

Cranston was getting out as he spoke. He was taking black garments from the back of the seat behind him. By the time Margo was at the wheel, ready to obey instructions, Cranston had become a blot in the moonlight. He was transformed to a thing that seemed a cloud of smoky blackness; a fog that trickled up across the stone wall and evaporated.

It was The Shadow, not Cranston, who started a long, swift glide toward the great hulking barn. The looming building chopped off the moonlight and provided a long stretch of gloom. Through it, The Shadow traveled as invisibly as a waft of night wind. Everything was strangely silent at that moment, so silent that something spectacular seemed in the air.

Margo had coasted over the ridge so there was no sound of a motor from that direction. Nevertheless, The Shadow was listening for such a sound. But his attention was focussed ahead of him; not in back.

All lack of noise indicated that the car ahead had halted in the farmyard, near the house, on the other side of the big barn. By the time The Shadow had taken a dozen long strides, he heard the token that he expected. A faint thump, muffled by the intervening barn, indicated that someone had stepped from a car and slammed its door.

An instant later, bedlam broke.

It began with the basso barking of huge dogs. They sounded from beyond the barn, telling that they had scented a stranger they didn't like. The barks turned to a baying sound, meaning that huge hounds were on the loose. Men's voices shouted in great excitement. At that moment, The Shadow, detouring slightly to keep to sheltering darkness, gained a glimpse of the car beyond the barn.

A man was running to the car, a man who could have been anybody in that speckled moonlight.

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