The Fifth Napoleon 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: 1938-02-18T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XII. THE CROWN BUILDING.

A MAN with the strangely pallid face of Lifer Stone moved quietly along the sidewalk in the rear of the towering Crown Building. He carried a briefcase. His face and his shambling walk marked him as Lifer Stone. But the steady eyes were the eyes of The Shadow.

His eyes took note of his surroundings as he passed. He saw the cavernous traffic entrance where a dimly lighted stone ramp led downward to the Blue Star garage in the basement of the skyscraper. Outside the entrance, in a sentry-like box shack, The Shadow could see a man in the uniform of a taxi starter.

The Shadow eased toward the doorway of the sentry shack. When the uniformed starter turned his back, The Shadow dodged inside, grasped the man by the nape of the neck. Pressure he applied to hidden nerve centers paralyzed the man instantly; put him out cold for some time to come.

The Shadow lowered his victim to the floor of the shack. In another instant, the fake Lifer Stone had opened his briefcase. An amazing transformation took place. He was dressed in a long black cloak. Black gloves covered his fingers. A slouch hat shaded the whole upper part of his face, except for the strong beak-like jut of his nose.

From the hunched figure of Lifer Stone, The Shadow had emerged.

He slid quietly out of the door of the shack and glided down the gloomy ramp that led to the Blue Star garage. His blackness seemed part of the wall. Only his eyes reflected light, and they were shielded by the brim of his hat. At the lower end of the ramp he turned a corner, keeping close to the dark wall.

Empty taxicabs were visible, parked in rows. In a clearing under one of the dim overhead lights, a group of taxi drivers were in a circle on hands and knees shooting dice. The Shadow recognized every one of them as a criminal.

He took grim care not to attract their attention. His goal was a sheltered spot where he could observe the loading platform on the opposite side of the garage. Behind the platform was an office.

The door was open and the office seemed empty. But The Shadow suspected that Mike Hammer had vanished inside with a heavy trunk not many minutes earlier.

He waited. He knew that either Con Platt or Andy Martin would be the next to arrive. Their actions would be The Shadow's guide.

It proved to be Andy Martin. The arrival of his cab was the signal for the dice players to abandon their game and scatter to posts overlooking the street exit. Martin got out of the cab, and his driver sprang to assist him. They carried a heavy trunk between them. The two vanished into the little office behind the loading platform, and Martin shut the door.

Five minutes later, the taxi driver came out alone. He got in his cab and drove away. The Shadow began to belly quietly under the bodies of other parked cabs, making his way grimly toward the closed door of the office.

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