Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 291 by Maxwel l Grant

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

CHAPTER XII

HARRY VINCENT gathered up his chips and stepped from the roulette table to

the door of Count Zurich's office, only to be intercepted by a bowing man who stood there.

"Count Zurich is busy," the man informed him. "You can see him a little later."

"But I have to leave," explained Harry. "I wanted to cash in these chips."

"Over there." The bowing man gestured to a counter near the strong door that barred the route downstairs. "The cashier will pay you for them."

Still playing the roulette wheel, Mata Safi didn't even glance Harry's way

as he left. But that had nothing to do with the thing that bothered Harry. Why hadn't he been allowed to see Count Zurich?

Once out of the Casino Monaco, Harry walked around the corner to find Shrevvy's cab. Getting in, Harry played a hunch.

"Anybody come out of a house on this street, Shrevvy?"

The cabby gestured to a house that flanked the rear of the Casino Monaco.

"Over there," said Shrevvy. "About ten minutes ago. Don't know who he was,

but it's funny though. I thought that was the house the chief said was empty."

That was enough for Harry. He told Shrevvy to take him to a telephone and fast. There was still a chance that The Shadow would phone Burbank, the contact

man who relayed messages from various agents. He might call the Hotel Ramorez, where Burbank was at present tending switchboard.

Perhaps Harry's last minute tactics had something to do with the fact that

Schorner's jewelry store was so quiet when Ted and Janice arrived there. The place was open, but in sole charge of a weary-looking clerk, who certainly couldn't be Schorner. In fact, the store itself looked very pitiful. The only gems on sale were old-fashioned ones, priced cheaply, to keep up the pretence that Schorner sold whatever he bought for only a trifle more than what he paid.

Ted wanted to see Schorner and said so. In his turn, the clerk gave the wrong reply. Instead of saying that Schorner was out, he stated that he was in the office but didn't want to be disturbed. Ted simply gestured Janice ahead of

him and gave the clerk a shove when he tried to block the way. Opening the office door, Ted bowed Janice through and followed. Then he wished he hadn't.

Carl Schorner was definitely busy. The trouble was he had visitors who weren't. One was a man who wore a tilted gray hat, along with a tuxedo. As he turned his face, he didn't quite obscure it from the light and Ted was startled

to see the suave, mustached face of Count Bela Zurich.

There were two other men here with Zurich. One was heavy, powerful, stooped of shoulder, which made his shocky red hair the most conspicuous thing about him. The other was a limber man who wore baggy trousers and a black jersey, with a cap pulled down over one eye.

Their names flashed home to Ted:

Rouge and Noir!

Just where he'd heard those names, he didn't remember, but there was also something about

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