Shadow 220 - The House on the Ledge 04-15-41, The by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street and Smith
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IN a suite on the third floor, Tim Felbright, big-time horse manipulator, was counting the afternoon’s take. Tim was a big bluff man who usually did things in a big way, and he was living up to form.

On his table were huge piles of money, mostly in fives, tens, and twenties. These were the payoffs on the two-dollar bets that the touts had placed that afternoon. Aided by a wise-faced ex-jockey named Dilk, Tim was already putting the count past the twenty-thousand-dollar mark.

“With a couple dozen guys pushing a few grand each,” declared Tim, “this racket is good for pretty near fifty grand a day, allowing for what the machines clip off.”

Dilk gave a wise nod.

“The main trouble is at the windows,” continued Tim. “Even with me having the exclusive at this track, it crowds a lot. But the boys are working faster than they did before. Tomorrow is the last day, but they ought to unload the rest of the shipment.”

Tim nudged a heavy thumb to the corner where a stack of paper-wrapped bundles lay. Dilk wasn’t the only person who looked in that direction. Other eyes saw the bundles - eyes that peered in from the window: The Shadow’s.

His count of the big bills finished, Tim turned to a heap of twos that the boys had brought back from the track. He thumbed through them rapidly, keeping the green sides upward. He wasn’t counting them; he was studying some feature of the bills themselves and leaving the count to Dilk. There were some bills, mostly crisp specimens, that Tim laid to another side.

“Got to weed these out,” he grumbled. “Can’t help it if some bounce back. It wouldn’t do to let the boys have the inside now. They think I’m just trying to figure out some way to beat the machines. So we’ll let it go at that.”

“You can push those extras through with the new shipment,” suggested Dilk.

“Good enough.” The counting finished, Tim took the profits in big bills and stowed the money in a large suitcase. “Open the bundles, Dilk.”

Dilk opened them. Within, The Shadow saw stacks of two-dollar bills, crisp and new, and all counterfeit! He didn’t have to examine the currency to know the answer. The Shadow had figured it beforehand.

Curt Hulber and his crowd were at work again, featuring a new issue. With one-dollar bills disliked throughout the country, the public had shown its preference for twos. So had Curt Hulber. He was shoving the new counterfeits right down the alley that changed conditions had opened wide!

“A great idea, this!” spoke Tim Felbright, with a boom of approval. “We’ve got to give credit to the guy who rigged it, whoever he is.”

“He runs an outfit called the Westford Development Co.,” said Dilk. “That’s what the label on this package says.”

“Burn that label!” ordered Tim. “We don’t want some wise guy to get hep.”

Dilk tore the label from the package and applied a match to it. While the evidence was burning, Tim arranged the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.