The Shadow 219 The Time Master by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1941-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI

CRIME TO COME

THE loose link in the chain was Tony, the barber. Of that, The Shadow was convinced, as he kept to the trail. From things that happened later, he learned that there were other links, but they were in their proper places.

Tony had been oversold on the idea that Thull was a human clock, and had therefore talked too much about it, because talking was his weakness.

The dusk was deep enough to satisfy The Shadow, as he followed the Time Master from Tony’s to the subway. Armand Thull was carrying his umbrella as a cane, because, though the sky was threatening, no rain had yet begun. Behind him, Lamont Cranston was strolling in his usual nonchalant style, handicapped only by a briefcase.

Quite a few people were in the local station on the Seventh Avenue line, hence Thull did not notice Cranston when the latter followed him through the turnstile. It wasn’t Thull’s way to peer at people about him, except when definitely wanting to have them remember him.

The local came along and both Thull and Cranston boarded it. At the first express stop, both changed to another train. When the express reached Times Square, Thull joined the throng that was going to the shuttle, so Cranston did the same.

The Shadow observed how some people ran for a shuttle train, but did not make it and had to wait for the next. He was getting an insight into the ease of the Time Master’s schedules.

At Grand Central, Thull did not stop at the parcel room. He kept on to the

soda fountain, where The Shadow saw him receive a glass of buttermilk from a smiling clerk who was glancing at the clock. The Shadow noted the time and checked it at two minutes before six.

One minute after the hour, Thull was buying a newspaper, and two minutes later, he was impressing himself upon the gateman. By that time, The Shadow had reconstructed Thull’s first alibi quite to his satisfaction. Its simplicity was its strong point.

Thull had faked the time in Tony’s case on the night of the jewel robbery,

in order to get over to the East Side by half-past five. Fifteen minutes was the

time required; hence, he must have visited Tony’s at quarter-past five.

Abetted

by Mort and Spike, he had convinced Tony that it was five-thirty.

Naturally, as customers in the barber shop, the lieutenants had been forced

to stay around awhile, which was why, later on, the chase had come their way.

Crime had begun at half-past five at the Coastal Jewelry Exchange - crime managed by the Time Master in person. He had used up at least ten minutes before making his getaway. Minutes that would have been disastrous to his schedule, had he gone uptown on the West Side subway, as was his wont. But the Time Master had

regained the lost minutes without trouble.

The Coastal office was near an express stop on the Lexington Avenue line, the East Side subway that ran directly to Grand Central, making the shuttle trip unnecessary.

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