wondering why she didn't see Colin Nayre. He wasn't among those who moved
about, so she surmised that he was in another room.
Durez and his friends were drinking Cuba Libres as a preliminary to
business. From their slow sips at the long glasses, they weren't in any hurry.
Margo was just about deciding on a swim, when the glare of headlights cut
through the hedge, illuminating the green brush and the officer beyond it.
Margo saw other police come dashing up, as the lone cop called to them. She
hurried over to the hedge.
The lights were from a taxicab, and police were arguing with the driver.
They wanted to know why he'd come here, and what his hurry was. He was
stuttering something about a passenger for the Equator, when one of the
officers yanked open the door and said:
"Oh, yeah?"
The others looked in the back. The cab was empty. They didn't appear
surprised, but the driver was. He couldn't remember where his passenger had
dropped off, and he argued that he hadn't been paid.
That point struck home to Margo. She knew The Shadow's way of dropping out
of cabs; but usually he fluttered a bill into the front seat, to cover his fare,
with a healthy tip besides.
This new wrinkle would only mean that The Shadow hoped to hold the cab for
later use!
The plan, at least, was working, for police had ordered the cabby to park
over near the back of the garage. The cop who guarded the hedge was returning,
so Margo had to scamper back to her bench. As she reached it, she took a quick
look over her shoulder and caught a chance glimpse of something that stirred
her even more.
A figure was scaling the wall of the garage. It had just rolled to the
roof, away from view of the police. The shape appeared again, below the
third-floor balcony, and prepared for a farther climb.
A faint breeze stirred past the white coquina wall, and Margo saw a slight
flutter of blackness that represented the folds of a cloak.
The climber was The Shadow!
Boldly, almost openly, he was trying to reach the darkness of the balcony
above, but to manage it, he would have to swing outward, into plain sight,
should anyone else stare upward. The police by the cab might miss sight of him;
they were close to the wall and still talking to the driver. But Margo's friend
by the hedge had a perfect angle from which he could spot The Shadow. Margo's
own stare up to the balcony certainly wasn't helping matters. If she kept it up
a few moments longer, the cop would probably wonder what she was looking at.
The one thing to do was get her mind off The Shadow, and carry the
officer's attention, too. So Margo tossed away the cigarette, kicked off her
slippers, and tightened the bathing cap.
She walked to the springboard, stepped to the far end of it and poised,
preparing for a swan dive. Her eyes raised and automatically she saw the
lighted windows, where Durez and his friends were entertaining their guests.
She even caught the sound of their rising voices.
Then!
Margo never took the swan dive. She was frozen where she was by the sudden
thing that occurred in the rooms above. Light and gaiety ended together. With a
single blink, the windows were blotted with an absolute darkness that seemed,
