The Shadow 194 The Veiled Prophet by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1940-02-29T23:00:00+00:00

From it dropped old newspaper clippings, with a folded sheet that proved to be a copy of an old police record. Cardona was looking at photos of James Marden taken twenty-five years before, and bearing a different name, that of Kirk Lurbin.

The name struck home. Once Cardona had read up on the Lurbin case. The man in question was an embezzler, who had staged a clever jail break while serving a ten-year term. He had enlisted in the army during the World War and had been traced to France, where he had been reported killed in action.

So Marden was Lurbin!

Cardona didn’t wonder that he had turned to crime again, under the protection of his new name. One thing pleased Joe, however. He felt that this would soften the burden for Gale when she learned that the man who had masked as Mokanna was not her actual uncle.

For the present, Cardona decided not to disturb the girl. People began to arrive. Commissioner Weston came with Senor Baroba, bringing along Lamont Cranston, having stopped for him at the Cobalt Club. A man with a crabby look and manner introduced himself as Jabez Densholm, Marden’s attorney.

When Densholm mentioned that Marden had conducted negotiations with Howard Garnstead, Cardona called the financier. Garnstead arrived, solemn-faced and saddened, to view the body of a man that he had supposed to be a friend.

His inspection complete, Cardona sent Marden’s body to the morgue. It was going out to the dead wagon, when a young man drove up in a sporty roadster and begun to ask about Gale. He turned out to be Fred Kellick. Cardona sent him upstairs to the study.

Soon afterward, Cardona knocked at Gale’s door. The girl appeared, attired in a dark dress that had the appearance of mourning apparel. She shuddered as Cardona conducted her to the study, but Joe reassured her by telling her that the body was gone.

Encouraged by the sight of friends, Gale told her story in a low, sobless tone. She produced linking evidence, when she told of seeing the stock certificates and the Mokanna note on her uncle’s desk earlier that evening. But she explained that she hadn’t been able to regard those things as proof that Marden was Mokanna, even though she suspected it.

No one blamed Gale for her course, after she had continued with her testimony. On the contrary, they showed real admiration for her bravery. She mentioned the gun, and declared that Marden must have gone downstairs for it without her hearing him. She identified the revolver when Cardona showed it to her. It was the gun that checked with the police permit.

Then Gale remembered the telephone call.

“Someone tried to warn my uncle,” she expressed. “Only, whoever it was, warned him too late. Wait - I think I can remember nearly all that my uncle said.”

SLOWLY, the girl repeated Marden’s end of the telephone conversation, almost verbatim. It was Commissioner Weston who decided:

“One of Mokanna’s dupes must have learned that we were on the trail. That would account for the call.

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