"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 009 - Mobsmen on the Spot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

"You been hearing that stuff, too?" he questioned. "A guy in black called The Shadow? Baloney!"

"He's real, all right, Tim!"

"Yeah! Real enough to frighten kids on the radio and to jump in on snow sniffers that see things half the
time.

"But if he's out to muss up any rackets, he's due for a fade-out! And if he's beginning with mine, he's all
wet! Get me?"

SHIRES nodded, only half convinced. Tim Waldron detected the man's lukewarm expression. He was
about to reply when a telephone buzzed beside the desk. Waldron answered it.

"All right," said the racketeer, over the phone. "Tell him to wait exactly ten minutes. Then come up and
walk in. Understand?"

He hung up the receiver and looked at Shires.

"Ever hear of Cliff Marsland?" he asked.
"You mean the guy that was sent up for that Brooklyn bank robbery, a few years ago?"

"That's the one!"

"Yeah. I've heard of him."

"Well, he's out of the Big House now. He's downstairs and he's coming up to see me."

"Yeah?" Shires spoke in a menacing tone as he leaned forward in his chair and folded his arms in front of
him. "What about?"

"If he's the guy I wantтАФand I think he is"тАФWaldron's tones were cold and calculatingтАФ"he's going to
draw one grand a week as the big gun of my gorillas."

"Which means -"

"That you're through, Yellow!

"To-night ain't the first trouble I've had. Somebody's been trying to chisel in on my racket. Telling the
suckers to lay off me.

"I've got the goods on this guy Marsland. He'll be working for more than that one grand a week. He'll be
doing what I tell him, so he can keep out of the Big House! Get me? He's the guy that I want!

"There's only one man that can keep this racket of mine going, and that's myself! With the right guy
working with me, it's going to be bigger than ever!

"Tim Waldron knows his own racket, and when he finds a guy that's yellow, like Ernie Shires, he -"

The sentence was never completed. As Waldron leaned toward the desk, Shires suspected something in
his action.