House of Silence by Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson

Author:Maxwell Grant & Walter Gibson [Grant, Maxwell & Gibson, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Thrillers
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1937-07-18T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI. THE LINK BETWEEN

IT was late the next afternoon. Harry Vincent was alone on duty at Hengle's filling station, when a coupe pulled up beside the Pure Blue standard. It was Cliff Marsland's car. The driver, unaccompanied, was The Shadow.

The car had come in from the north. The Shadow was in his calm-faced guise of Henry Arnaud.

"Report!"

The word was quietly uttered while Harry began to wipe the windshield. Harry responded.

"No signs of life," he stated, referring to the old house. "I spotted the flare last night; but only like a reflection from the tower roof. Noticed it from my room upstairs in the service station.

"All quiet today. Hengle went down town an hour ago to get some parts for a repair job. I've read the local newspapers -"

"Report received!"

The Shadow tendered Harry two one-dollar bills to cover eight gallons of gasoline purchased. Harry thrust the money in his pocket and brought out change. The Shadow drove away, heading toward Aurora. Harry went back into the service station.

Between those dollar bills he had felt a small envelope. He knew that it must be a message bearing instructions. The Shadow had planned to hand Harry the envelope with the money so that Hengle, if present, would not see it.

Although Hengle was absent, The Shadow had used his planned procedure as a reminder that this was the way in which messages might come.

Harry had read the newspapers thoroughly. As an aftermath of the bank robbery, there had been two survivors who had crawled from the wreckage of a smashed sedan. They had dodged in and about the town of Northbridge and finally commandeered a roadster that they had found in a parking lot.

Starting flight, they had encountered a carload of Feds, summoned in from Brookdale. Desperately, the thugs had opened fire. The Feds had annihilated them through necessity.

Through that, Harry knew, a valuable link had been lost. For Harry realized that The Shadow must have followed the crooks who had previously fled. Not only because he was not sure that the sedan contained survivors; but because he would have been handicapped had he remained in Northbridge.

Clyde Burke must have remained on the scene. Clyde had probably learned something. If The Shadow had contacted him today, the message would contain Clyde's information.

HARRY opened the envelope. He read brief lines, inked in a code that he understood. The statement was that The Shadow and Cliff were seeking the hideout of the criminals. Then came the final statement:

"A crook called Shill serves as contact. Watch everyone, including Hengle."

To the Feds, it would seem that crooks had learned of their presence in Brookdale and had carried that news to their leader, early in the day. That was correct. Blink Torgue had undoubtedly been informed. But The Shadow knew more: namely, that Blink had slipped the word to the mastermind who lived in the old house at Aurora. That was why the red flare had been given, announcing the final order as an attack on the bank at Northbridge.

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