"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 006 - The Death Tower" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

"No."

"Very well, then. He will try to dupe me as he duped you; but I shall be on guard. I promise to notify you
as soon as Palermo tries something. We will be able to catch him with the goodsтАФ"

"Capital!" exclaimed Wilkinson.

He rose and waved his hand to his visitor.

"Come into my study," he said. "You can make out your note there; and I'll give you Palermo's. But hold
onto it, at all costs."

The two men entered a little room that adjoined the living room. Seth Wilkinson unlocked a desk drawer,
and brought out a metal box.

Before he opened the box, he handed a blank form for a promissory note to his companion. Palermo
filled it out; then, noticing that Wilkinson was busy unlocking the box, the disguised physician drew a card
from his pocket. The card bore Horace Chatham's signature.

Concealing the card within his left hand, Palermo copied the signature with remarkable skill as he signed
the note. Then he pocketed the card, just as Wilkinson turned toward him.

"You have dated it to-morrow," said Wilkinson, examining the note that bore the signature of Horace
Chatham.

"No," came the reply. "It is after midnight. The date is correct."

Wilkinson smiled as he glanced at the clock on the desk. The hands registered a few minutes past twelve.


"Here is Palermo's note," he said.

"Thanks."

WILKINSON was seated at the desk, before the metal box. That one word suddenly aroused him. He
was thoughtful as he dropped the note with Chatham's signature into the box.

He seemed to recall the voice that had spoken that word. He remembered a night, nearly six months
before, when he had given thirty thousand dollars to Doctor Albert Palermo.

"Thanks."

The word reechoed in Wilkinson's brain. It was not Horace Chatham who had spoken it. The word had
come from Doctor Palermo!

Wilkinson turned his head, and gazed shrewdly at the man beside him.

Doctor Palermo had forgotten the part that he was playingтАФhad forgotten it in his triumph. Now
Wilkinson's eyes confirmed the suspicion that had come to his ears.