"You're sure?" inquired Joan, finally, her brown eyes very quizzical.
"Uncle Smead is leaving by plane in an hour, for a long trip. He wouldn't tell
me where he was going."
"He is taking a business trip," explained Aldriff. "Nothing more. A
business trip to the coast, at my suggestion. Ah!" Looking from the sun porch,
Aldriff saw the lights of cars coming in by the dusk-laden driveway. "My dinner
guests are arriving. I shall introduce you to them and you will join us, Miss
Kelburn."
Outside, the swing of lights produced long, black streaks on the lawn.
Streaks cast by trees and shrubs into shapes that seemed alive. One stretch of
blackness still moved when the lights had passed it, but by then its motion was
invisible, for it had merged with the thickened dusk.
It arrived close to the sun porch and paused there, below the level of the
lights. A slight, reflected glow showed the shape in vague outline. It had human
form - that of a being cloaked in black, with a slouch hat on its head. A
hawkish silhouette was cast upon the shrubbery beneath the windows, as this
creature of the night raised his head and shoulders.
He was The Shadow!
Strange master who hunted down schemes of crime, The Shadow did not confine
his activities to the lower strata of crookdom. His motto was "Justice for all,"
and when he detected the beginnings of vast swindles, he ferreted out their
perpetrators.
Arthur Aldriff and his chain-store scheme constituted a case in point. The
Shadow had noted huge sales of Pharco stock, with no signs of any chain stores
in operation. Having linked Smead Kelburn, the stock promoter, with Arthur
Aldriff, the drug manufacturer, The Shadow was out to learn just how far Aldriff
intended to back the stock that Kelburn peddled.
ALDRIFF and Joan were turning back into the house, to meet the arriving
guests. Moving from the deserted sun porch, The Shadow heard a stir from the
shrubbery at the rear. He caught a short glimpse of a stocky figure moving
around the corner of the porch. Immediately, The Shadow took up the trail of the
other prowler.
The man was easy to follow because of his stumbles, though the darkness was
thick enough to hide him. He went around the rear wing of the mansion, with The
Shadow on the trail. There, the fellow must have found familiar ground, for his
clumsy methods ended.
Moving along the far side of the house, The Shadow soon recognized that the
trail was gone, along with the man who had made it.
The prowler had either ducked into the house itself or had made a quick
dash across a short stretch of lawn to the shelter of a high hedge. Choosing the
more important of the two possibilities, The Shadow probed along the side wall
of the house and came upon a door, which opened when he tried it.
Inside were a few dark steps, a portion of a vestibule. To his left, The
Shadow saw the door of Aldriff's den, a stairway just beyond it. To the right
was the main reception hall, well lighted, where Aldriff was introducing Joan to
several guests. They turned about as the door of the den opened. Nevlin was on
the threshold, announcing that the new screen was on display.
The group came toward The Shadow, but he remained right where he was,
