The Shadow 267 The Robot Master by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant [Grant, Maxwell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1943-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

All that Fred needed was an opportunity, and it came.

Durand was about to wind another music box, when Zarratt suggested that they end the concert. Zarratt wanted to talk over some financial matters that couldn’t wait, if Durand really hoped to beat Moyne in the robot race.

While Durand was locking the music parlor, Fred asked Sheila if she would mind forgoing his company for the evening. He wanted to return to the workshop and try out some of the ideas that Durand had mentioned at dinner. As Fred expected, Sheila rallied nobly to the suggestion, since it might prove helpful to her father.

Before Durand could argue that his new assistant had worked long enough for one day, Sheila decided that she was tired and ought to go to bed early. She waved good night from the stairs, and Fred was left with Durand and Zarratt. Since Zarratt had business to discuss, Durand handed Fred the key to the workshop as a matter of course.

The moment he reached the workshop, Fred became very busy with matters of his own. He selected the tools he wanted, tucked them into different pockets, and sneaked back to the music parlor. There, silence greeted him; silence so complete that Fred regarded it a golden opportunity.

Fred could be wrong in the step he was undertaking. On that score, he had no illusions. But this was one time when he’d rather be wrong than right, if this deed of seeming treachery could enable him to outwit the persecutor who threatened to brand him as a murderer!

CHAPTER XI. DEEDS IN THE DARK

COOLLY, Fred Corbin drew out the tools he wanted and began work on the door of the music parlor.

For anyone with his mechanical knowledge, the door lock was easy. Yet Fred regarded it as the most ticklish part of his procedure.

While his hands worked, his eyes were peering over his shoulder, toward the stairs and off through the hall. The more Fred argued that he would hear footsteps if anyone came, the more he feared he wouldn’t.

At least he wasn’t making any noise with the tools, but that indicated that he wasn’t getting anywhere with his task. To help things, Fred turned the knob, intending to wedge a strip of metal between the latch and the socket, so that the door would yield the moment he unlocked it.

To Fred’s surprise, the door gave. Either Durand had failed to lock it, or Fred’s brief work with the tools had done the trick. Fortunately, the hallway was dark outside the music parlor, and the door didn’t creak.

So Fred felt safer as he moved into the room.

As he pushed the door shut, Fred looked toward the old safe. He could see it plainly by the moonlight that came through a narrow window set with bars. At first, Fred thought that the blackness which wavered across the safe came from shifting tree boughs, outside the window. Then, a dull click told him otherwise.

In the brief time that Fred had been in the workshop, someone else had entered the music room.

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