The Shadow 224 by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI

MARGO TAKES A TRIP

WHEN Lamont Cranston entered his limousine, he underwent a rapid change. The drawer beneath the sliding seat was already slightly open, and the tall passenger, snapping from his leisurely manner, flipped a cloak from it in a swoop that carried the garment over his shoulders.

The twist took him toward the speaking-tube, where, in Cranston’s tone, he ordered Stanley to start for the Cobalt Club. While giving that order, The Shadow was clamping his slouch hat on his head and kneeing the drawer shut. Still on the spin, he went out through the far door, slapping it shut as he struck the street.

The Shadow was beyond the mansion gate, where Thorden could hardly have seen him, even if still on watch. But that drop to the street, the fading glide that followed it, were meant to deceive observers closer by - and did. The Shadow had timed his drop to the moment when the limousine veered out from the curb; hence, men in another car did not notice the flips of the far door. That action, alone, could have told them that the passenger was gone. For The Shadow, thanks to the gloom that came so early to the street, was no more than a flitting creature that vanished into the hovering bulk of an old building across the way.

The limousine rounded the corner, with another car trailing it. The Shadow glimpsed faces that looked thuggish, though he couldn’t view them closely. Two men were taking up the duty that had previously been Matt Mardan’s - that of following Cranston’s big car to the Cobalt Club

From another car, a watcher saw the double departure. The watcher was Margo Lane, and she was quite perturbed. Not long ago, Cranston had phoned her, asking her to wait for him outside of Thorden’s in her coupe.

Hence Margo, seeing Cranston come from Thorden’s gate, had expected him to join her. She would have been irked at his neglect, had not the sight of the trailing car worried her.

Margo didn’t know whether to follow, or wait. She took the latter choice, purely because she couldn’t make up her mind. By the time she changed it and decided to get started, she found a new reason to wait. The door opened on the curb side of her car and Lamont Cranston entered and calmly sat down beside her!

“Sorry, Margo,” he said, affably. “I forgot our appointment until I was around the corner. I had Stanley drop me, so that I could come back.”

Margo did not doubt the statement. She had been debating with herself long enough for Cranston to return in the style that he claimed. Nor did she see the cloak and hat that he carried on his arm. The Shadow was keeping those garments to the door side.

In addition, Margo was inspired by something more important. She gripped Cranston’s arm, the one that wasn’t draped with cloak and hat.

“You were followed, Lamont!” she exclaimed. “Didn’t you see the other car? It went right after the limousine!”

The Shadow gave a casual laugh.

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