"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 026 - Murder Trail" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

the escaping man had dropped by parachute!

Well could that unknown man suppose that his flight would never be detected. No one could suspect the
time and place that he had chosen by random. Yet the fleeing man of crime had not reckoned with The
Shadow.

The Shadow knew!

CHAPTER III. MYSTERY SUPPRESSED
ANOTHER night had come. Moored to a gigantic mast at the Chicago airport, the dirigible Munchen
proudly flaunted itself as the newest conqueror of air and ocean.

The big Zeppelin had been here for hours. Passengers were gone; all formalities were ended. Captain
Heinrich von Werndorff, after a tremendous welcome, had returned to his quarters aboard the mighty
airship.

A tap at the door. Lieutenant von Salzburg entered. Captain Werndorff greeted him with a care-worn
smile. The lieutenant bore a message that was chiefly a reminder.

"Half an hour yet, Herr Captain," he said. "The banquet in your honorтАФ they will be here to take you -"

Von Werndorff nodded. He arose from his desk and gripped the lieutenant's arm.
"Fritz"тАФVon Werndorff's tone was seriousтАФ"the corridor is empty?"

"Yes, Herr Captain."

"Remain here. I shall need you."

The dirigible commander left the cabin and went along the corridor to the secret door in the bulkhead. He
tapped softly, using the pick which he had brought from his pocket. There was no response. Von
Werndorff smiled. The baron would wait, of course, accepting this tapping merely as a warning of a visit.

Von Werndorff opened the secret panel. He found the room in darkness. Strange, he thought. Could
Baron von Tollsburg be sleeping? With impatient alarm, the captain found the switch and illuminated the
room.

He stared about him in amazement. The cabin was empty!

The closet door was closed; so was the berth at the side of the room. There was but one inferenceтАФthat
Hugo von Tollsburg had decided to leave the dirigible of his own accord. Yet Von Werndorff could
scarcely accept that fact without the formality of an investigation.

He opened the berth, and it dropped down. Like the room, the berth was empty. It would have been
quite possible for a man to have been within that berthтАФto have closed it behind himтАФto have remained
there in hiding. For the berth connected with the ventilator shaft, and thus received air.

Von Werndorff closed the berth. He clicked the catch in the closet door, and opened the barrier.

It was then that Captain von Werndorff stepped back with a gasp of agony. As the little door swung
outward, a huddled form toppled with it.