Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 099 by Maxwel l Grant

Author:Maxwel,l Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

CHAPTER XII. THE ORDEAL

THE puffs of flame that guided The Shadow were proof that something was afoot at the blast furnace.

Master crooks were at their isolated headquarters. Drune and Colgarth had completed their plans for crime; while they awaited a definite hour, they had found time for preliminary diversion.

The two rogues were seated in a small, stone-walled room that looked like a crude office. They occupied battered chairs; near them was a desk, with a telephone. A single incandescent light illuminated the chamber. Beneath the glare, a prisoner lay propped against the wall.

He was bound hand and foot, that captive. Stolidly, he met the glaring gaze of the men who held him helpless. His face showed grimness; his lips remained unopened. He was ready to defeat all efforts that might be used to make him talk.

The prisoner on the floor was Harry Vincent. The Shadow's agent had survived the hotel fire at Riverport. His present plight, however, was as great as when Gordon Colgarth had consigned him to the smoke-filled cellar.

Colgarth, himself, was emphasizing that particular fact. In harsh tones, the hard-faced man was speaking to the prisoner.

"We know your name, Vincent," came Colgarth's rasp. "We know why you were at Riverport, watching Woldorf. You were working for The Shadow."

Colgarth paused to see if he had scored a hit. Harry's expression did not change.

"Why be a fool?" sneered Colgarth.

"The Shadow is dead. Look at these headlines." He picked up a newspaper from the desk and pointed to large-typed words. "They say that Lincoln Breel died in a New York fire. They lie. We rubbed out Breel days ago.

"It was The Shadow who died instead of Breel. He was finished by the same men who carried you from the Riverport hotel. We figured we might make you talk. That's why I shoved you down into the cellar.

But The Shadow was different. We took no chances with him."

Harry did not betray the worry that he felt. He had no recollection of how he had been brought from Riverport. His hurtling trip into the hotel cellar had left him senseless. He could recall traveling in a bumpy truck; a final arrival in this stone-walled room. Since then, he had been a prisoner, confined to this one place.

Did Colgarth speak the truth concerning The Shadow?

HARRY feared that the crook's words were correct. Harry knew The Shadow's ability at disguise. He could picture his chief arriving at Breel's, not knowing that the man whom he impersonated had been murdered days before.

"You gain nothing by silence," insisted Colgarth. "We're giving you a chance, Vincent, because we don't want any interference in the future. You worked for The Shadow, so it's a bet that there are others like you. We want to know who they are.

"Maybe you're thinking that we didn't get The Shadow, that we want you to squawk so we can find him.

That's not the game. The Shadow is dead, I tell you. He'll stay dead. You can't help him."

Harry remained unimpressed. Colgarth fumed. He was about to rasp new statements when Drone stopped him with a waving hand.

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