The Shadow - 165 - Silver Skull by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1938-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII

THE SHADOW’S PLAN

UNTIL nightfall, The Shadow and the rescued stewardess trekked their way among the mountain slopes, seeking a route back to civilization. They stopped at times, to rest at shady spots where they found mountain pools; and with thirst quenched, they made light of hunger.

During that intermittent hike, Geraldine gained a more accurate impression

of Lamont Cranston. At one of their resting places, she told him of an earlier opinion she had formed.

“I thought you were a crook,” she said. “The way you looked at me last night, when you were placed on the plane! Your eyes had a horrible stare; your face was distorted!

“This morning, when I encountered you, I saw traces of that same expression. Knowing that murder was in the air, I thought you were a party to it.”

A slight smile came to Cranston’s thin lips. This was the time to question

Geraldine regarding certain matters.

“You say that I was placed aboard the plane,” he remarked. “I suppose that

the man who brought me there also looked rather a doubtful character.”

“He did,” recalled Geraldine. “He said he was a doctor, but I mightn’t have believed him, except for the nurse he had with him. She appeared to be quite competent.”

“He told you his name?”

“Yes - Dr. Sleed. And the nurse was a Miss Royce. But I noticed something odd about Sleed.”

“I can tell you what it was. A diagonal scar that ran across his chin.”

Geraldine nodded. She remarked that the scar had made her suspicious, because of Sleed’s efforts to keep his chin from view. Anyone might have a scar, but only a crook would seek to hide one.

It was then that The Shadow, with Cranston’s inimitable calmness, explained how he had fallen into the hands of crooks. An adventuresome individual, so he said, he had delved too deeply into the affairs of a master criminal called Silver Skull.

Last night, he had been doped, which accounted for his condition when he was started on the trip. But his experience represented but a part of the whole

story. It was simply an index to the cunning of Silver Skull.

“Certain men of wealth were supposed to die,” explained The Shadow,

“because, in every case except Lenville’s, Silver Skull had seen to it that their money would go to persons for whom it was not intended.

“For that very reason, the victims - Gurry, Breck and Wilbin - did not die. The reason” - he was staring at Geraldine’s astonished look - “is quite obvious. Silver Skull intends to bleed the heirs who received those fortunes.

“He can do it, quite easily, if he has not already done so. Very easily, because he can prove to them that the real owners of the fortunes are still alive. Remember, he is dealing with renegades, who are not much better than crooks themselves. They will play the game he wants, rather than lose their share.”

The dry chuckle with which Cranston ended that comment, gave Geraldine another thought. Cranston evidently foresaw that by the time Silver Skull had finished bleeding the weaklings, they would have none of their wrongly inherited wealth.

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