"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 005 - Gangdom's Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

CHAPTER III. A VISITOR TO CHICAGO
Two days after the episode which had resulted in the death of Claude Fellows, a young man arrived in
Chicago, and appeared at a restaurant known as Marmosa's Cafe, in the Loop district.

It was afternoon, and the large restaurant was virtually deserted. A hawk-eyed waiter, standing at the top
of a stairway with gilded railings, spotted the new arrival, and approached to talk to him.

"What do you want, sir?" he asked.

"I came to see Mr. Marmosa," replied the young man.

"I will see if he is here," responded the waiter. "What is your name, sir?"

"Harry Vincent."

The waiter ascended the curving stairway, and disappeared when he reached the balcony. The man who
had introduced himself as Harry Vincent sat down at one of the tables, and studied the sumptuous
surroundings of the cafe, with both ground floor and balcony filled with tables and booths.

Vincent's thoughts were interrupted by the return of the waiter, who beckoned to him to come upstairs.
When they reached the top, the waiter turned abruptly to the left, and conducted Vincent to a partitioned
office, hidden behind a corner pillar of the balcony.

Entering the office, Vincent discovered a man seated at a desk. The office was very smallтАФscarcely
more than a nook, and the man who occupied it seemed out of proportion to his surroundings.

He was heavy-set, and slightly bald. He weighed at least two hundred and fifty pounds, and the chair in
which he was sitting was almost invisible beneath his bulk.

"Ah!" The man's voice was suave, and melodious. "You are Mr. Vincent, eh? I am Mr.
MarmosaтАФFrank Marmosa. You have come here as I asked you, eh?"

"Yes. I received your wire yesterday afternoon."

"Sit down, Mr. Vincent. Let me talk to you. I am glad that you have come, and I think that you will like it
here."
There was a chair opposite the deskтАФa chair crowded into the extreme corner of the tiny office. Harry
Vincent took his place there, and looked quizzically at Frank Marmosa.

There was a real friendliness about the big man beyond his suavity. Vincent sized him up as a man who
could be trusted, with reservations. Marmosa was presumably of Italian ancestry, but one could not have
judged his nationality without knowing his name.

"My telegram surprised you, eh?" chuckled Marmosa, as he studied Harry Vincent. "Well, my boy, it
was just by a chance that I learned of you.

"I have been waiting for two weeks to hear from my friend Barutti, in New York. I had asked him for a
man to work with me here. I received no reply, until night before last, when Barutti called me up by long
distance. He told me to wire you in Michigan; that you would be the man I needed."