Shadow 190 - The Hooded Circle 01-15-40, The by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street and Smith
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

FLAMES were licking the truck furiously, for they were fed by oil and gasoline. Furniture and boxes were blazing like tinder lighting the whole roadway. But the Hoods were well away to cover, with a start that made it useless to pursue them.

The Shadow waited while deputies and watchmen arrived.

The rescuers found the truck driver, dragged him farther from the heat of the flames. He was talking hoarsely, raising his voice above the fire’s crackle.

“It was a guy with a hood that nearly got me,” declared the driver. “He was on the truck, and I know who he was, too. He was the artist guy that was talking to Mr. Benholme when I got there with the truck.”

“You mean Dustin Hayde?” inquired a deputy. “You saw his face?”

“I guess that was him,” returned the truck driver. “I saw his face, all right. Ugly, and kind of yellow, with a big, fat forehead.”

“That describes Hayde well enough. You say he was wearing a hood?”

“Yeah, and a funny kind of robe. He told me to drive through the gates but before I could get started another guy bobbed up, all dressed in black. He took care of Hayde, and got me out of the jam.

“But do you know what Hayde must have done?” The driver was pointing back toward the burning truck. “He set off a bomb under the driver’s seat. He was going to drop off I guess, and let me get blown sky-high after I got outside the gates!”

There were excited buzzes among the deputies and the watchmen. Suddenly, a deputy exclaimed:

“There was plenty to that game! We’d have heard the truck blow up and run out after it. Then’s when the Hoods could have sneaked out through the gates.”

“Yeah?” came another voice. “And what’s stopping the Hoods right now? The truck went blooie inside the gates, instead of outside. So what? It works the same way, don’t it? We come chasing in here, leaving the gates wide open. By this time, that mob has gone out through!”

Realizing their folly, the squad of deputies and watchmen started toward the gates on the run, taking the truck driver with them. They must have known that their quest was hopeless, for the Hoods had plenty of time to get away from Pinewood. Still, it was their duty to guard the gates, so they were going back there.

Flames were dying down from the truck. Reduced to a charred chassis, the vehicle was surrounded by the ashes of obliterated furniture. It would be classified as a total loss, along with its entire load.

That, at least, would be the general opinion, but the Hooded Circle would not share it. Nor would The Shadow. He knew the prize that the Hoods had come after, and recognized that they had obtained it.

Though driven off, the Hoods had completed their major purpose despite The Shadow’s opposition. Again, The Shadow had but one course: to wait until the Hoods showed their hand again, then battle them and trap them with the evidence of crime in their own possession.

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