Maxwell Grant - The Shadow 144 by The Murder Master

Author:The Murder Master
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-11-15T00:46:10+00:00

The Shadow was forced to clutch the girl's arms to prevent his fall. The whole room was whirling; his eyes closed, The Shadow sensed nothing but darkness.

The

hold on his throat was relentless. The girl wasn't handling The Shadow as easily

as he had treated her.

Then, while his head roared with rolling throbs like kettledrums, The Shadow felt the floor become steady. The girl, ignorant of what had caused The Shadow's dizziness, was actually aiding him by her pressure on his neck. The Shadow could no longer get the air that he wanted, even though it overpowered him.

Gloved hands tightened. The Shadow's eyes came open, to see the girl against the dim light from the hallway. She was panting, with long gasps of weariness. Her fingers yielded. Again, she was almost helpless. Victory had returned to The Shadow - until he took another breath, which he so badly needed.

That one deep puff of air was charged with all the power that The Shadow had escaped while he choked. It filled his lungs like a tidal wave of ozone.

His head split with the crackle of a million insects. The Shadow's hands fell away; his arms spread wide as he rolled to the door. With that fall came blankness.

Steadying, the girl stared at her cloaked adversary, wondering if his sprawl was another ruse. Slowly, she realized that The Shadow was unconscious.

Stooping, she listened for his breathing; she could scarcely hear it. The Shadow was no more than a huddled shape, in which life seemed dwindled to low ebb.

THE girl found her revolver. She groped toward the high-placed window at the back of the storeroom. She halted there, to listen for sounds that she heard from the hallway. Tensely, the girl waited, as footsteps came along.

When

they were almost at the door, she suddenly aimed her revolver.

It was Thoyer, not Quedden, who went past the door. The girl let the gun lower. She could hear the professor's querulous voice from the front of the hall.

"Never mind the door, Thoyer!" Quedden's cackle took on an expectant glee.

"The sounds that we heard no longer matter. If anyone has gone in the office, let him remain there! We shall find him" - the chuckle was prophetic - "after he comes out!"

Thoyer returned; he stopped at the storeroom and glanced into its gloom.

He did not see The Shadow flattened on the floor. The girl was also obscure; she had pressed close to the wall beneath the rear window. She heard Thoyer go front, to report to Quedden.

"I guess we imagined things, sir," said the assistant. "I don't think that

anyone has been up here."

After the two had gone, the girl peered out into the hallway. She saw the curtains at the front. She knew that Quedden and Thoyer were in rooms beyond them, but she fancied that both might be on guard. Any unusual sound might warn

them.

Another look toward the office door; the girl shuddered. Quedden's words had explained The Shadow's plight. Though the office had been her original objective, the girl no longer cared to investigate it.

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