Shadow 300 - Crime Out of Mind 02-01-46, 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

CHAPTER XI

BY the time The Shadow’s cab had reached the Merrimac Club, the face of Lamont Cranston had undergone a complete transformation. In the dark, The Shadow, master of disguise, had switched his features to those of a person called Kent Allard.

It had taken little of The Shadow’s genius to accomplish this remarkable result. In actuality, he had simply wiped Cranston’s visage away, taking care to remove a waxlike base that was responsible for the perfection of the Cranston mold.

Still The Shadow in attire, the cloaked passenger made a quick survey of the street as the cab swung in front of the Merrimac Club. Ready for almost anything along this trail, The Shadow was prepared to handle lurkers in his own inimitable style, before Zerber arrived. Only there were no lurkers, which was why The Shadow let his cloak and hat slide to the cab seat.

Out of that cab stepped Kent Allard.

This was one of those exceptional cases when The Shadow disclosed his real identity, but under circumstances when nobody would begin to guess it. Greatest of The Shadow’s secrets was the fact that the very character which had become a part of him, that of Lamont Cranston, was in itself a disguise.

The Shadow had learned to live the role of Cranston, to the point where becoming Allard seemed strange indeed. His agents and a few trusted others, believed that he was Cranston; though they knew that on occasion he might turn out to be almost anyone.

Even in his archives, The Shadow referred to himself as Lamont Cranston, if only for convenience. (Ed: Having full access to The Shadow’s archives for a period of fifteen years, I can vouch for the fact that there was not even the slightest reference to Kent Allard prior to the time when a chance emergency caused The Shadow to resume his real identity. See “The Shadow Unmasks,” Vol. XXII, No. 5, Aug. 1, 1937. Maxwell Grant.) Of course this gave him the advantage of holding the Allard identity in complete reserve should future policy demand it. Perhaps that was The Shadow’s real reason for reverting to his own self so seldom.

There was a reason where Gregg Zerber was concerned. Zerber had known Allard from some years back, but had never met Cranston. It was Allard who had flown the mail for Zerber when the latter had been threatened with the loss of his contract with a Central American government that expected planes to ride the highest mountains in the worst weather.

Always thereafter, Zerber had been going to do great things for Allard, but had been too busy accomplishing great things for Zerber. The door of Zerber’s apartment was always wide open, but never that of his office. Right now, Zerber wasn’t going to be happy when Allard crashed the gate of the Heliocar conference.

Smiling slightly at that thought, Allard didn’t forget his limp when he entered the foyer of the Merrimac Club. The limp belonged to Allard permanently, because it was part of his

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