The Shadow - 183 - Castle of Crime by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1939-10-30T22:00:00+00:00

To the north lay a great bight, set with indentations that represented the Maine coast. That space was marked with occasional islands, some of them scarcely more than large rocks, miles out to sea. Moving from isle to isle, The Shadow’s finger went north and reached a thin, curved bay on the Maine coast.

Unnamed on the map, that gap was actually known as Windward Bay, and on the rocks above it stood an old stone structure called Windward Castle. Built during a period when Maine had enjoyed a brief gold rush, the building had been furnished as a luxurious headquarters by a millionaire who bought up all the surrounding land.

The purchaser had expected to increase his millions tenfold. Instead, he had died with the castle and its fixtures as his only possession. Today Windward Castle, lone and long-forgotten, was the base used by Christopher Barden in his schemes for coast defense.

Janet had told The Shadow those details. From the map, The Shadow noted that Barden’s castle and the outlying islands controlled a vast sweep toward the south, covering the Atlantic steamship lane, along which the Marmaduke headed.

But the curious factor was that the freighter did not expect an attack from the north. Trouble, judging from the experience of the Lentura, would come from the south, out of the vast Atlantic!

While The Shadow still pondered upon that riddle, a key clicked in the cabin door. Extinguishing the lamp on the captain’s table, The Shadow glided to a corner beyond the door just as it opened inward, to admit the skipper in person.

Closing the door, the captain did not lock it. He was feeling the urge for a glass of schnapps, and stepped to the cabinet where, under the head of medicine, he kept the bottle.

While the captain was helping himself to a liberal dose, The Shadow quietly opened the door and edged out into the passage. Silently shutting the portal behind him, he started in the direction of the fo’c’s’le.

There, he decided, might lie at least a partial answer to the riddle.

This was not The Shadow’s first visit to the crew’s quarters, but previously he had been handicapped by too much confusion. Though he had noticed something of the stir among the crew, The Shadow was not yet aware of the captain’s solution. He observed, however, that the space below decks was almost deserted.

During his present course The Shadow paused once, when footsteps came from a passage. He drew back, in case the man came in his direction, but the fellow turned the other way. The Shadow merely glimpsed the man’s face, noticed that he was a Javanese, but had no chance to discern more.

That fact was to prove unfortunate. Upon reaching the fo’c’s’le, The Shadow heard the buzz of voices.

Two men were seated just inside the door, talking in low tones, so that others, resting in bunks farther forward, could not hear their conversation.

The two, moreover, were white members of the crew and their discourse was in English. Their slang had an American tone, and their faces a thuggish look.

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