The Shadow - 168 - The Lone Tiger by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1939-01-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI

EXIT THE SHADOW

LATE the next afternoon, Joseph Mileson had visitors. One was his friend Lamont Cranston, who sported a walking stick. His jaunty handling of the cane completely covered the fact that he occasionally used it to prevent a chance sag of his left knee.

The other visitors were Commissioner Ralph Weston and Inspector Joe Cardona.

Mileson, it seemed, had aged overnight. The kindly-faced millionaire had nurtured a secret exuberance, in expectancy of Erwig’s visit. It had been a great shock to him, late the night before, to learn that an obscure, forgotten jeweler had been murdered in the back hall of a Chinese laundry.

The fact that the separate stones of a topaz necklace were found beside the body was sufficient to link him with the letter that Mileson had received.

Until then, the name of Simon Erwig had meant little; but the gems told his real importance.

All day, Mileson had been awaiting new reports, in hope that they would produce some clue to the identity of Erwig’s murderer; for that man, so Mileson

claimed, must be the Lone Tiger.

Fred Treefe, aided by a corps of newly hired private detectives, had tried

to trace the dead jeweler’s recent past, to reach some of his friends; but the result was blank. The private dicks did not go after information with the efficiency used by The Shadow’s agents.

At least, Treefe had been able to buoy Mileson’s fading spirits to some slight degree. The police, Treefe declared, would have to accept the fact that a criminal called the Lone Tiger actually existed. Otherwise, Treefe argued, Mileson would not be receiving a visit from the police commissioner.

Seated in a deep chair, Mileson awaited the commissioner’s views. Treefe stood by, with bundles of letters handy on his desk, in case Weston cared to see them. But the commissioner asked for one letter only - the missive that had

come from Erwig.

Treefe produced the letter; Weston read it, handed it to The Shadow, with the question:

“Was this the letter that you saw here?”

The Shadow nodded; then, in Cranston’s tone:

“It is the letter,” he said. “The one that Mr. Mileson showed me from those that he brought out of the desk drawer. When he read it, he remembered that his daughter had owned a topaz necklace.”

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