"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 029 - The Golden Grotto" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

the past twelve months.

The printed paragraph was filled with meaning for Clyde Burke. As a newspaperman, he knew that a
gold shipment of approximately two millions would not ordinarily be mentioned on the front page of a
New York newspaper. Under present conditions, however, such a transaction became news.

Moreover, it was not usual to announce a shipment of precious metal so far in advance of the sailing date.
This clipping had come to Clyde, in London, several days before the Patagonia had been due to sail.

Private funds - so the dispatch stated. There, again, lay an unusual factor. Such gold would not go
through the regular precautionary measures adopted with specie that represented transactions between
governments of large financial interests.

In brief, this dispatch was more than a simple news item. It was an open announcement to the world at
large that a valuable sum in gold would be on the high seas at a certain date, accessible to any and all
who might possess the nerve and ingenuity to seize it!

IN his dual occupation as newspaperman and agent for The Shadow, Clyde Burke had learned much
regarding the boldness of international crooks. He knew that the criminal rings of New York, London,
and Paris overlapped whenever occasion demanded. This dispatch should never have been made public.
It was virtually a challenge to the skill of crookdom!

The steamship company, like the newspapers, had overlooked the possible results that might occur from
the unwise dispatch.

Gold shipments had been transported before. An ocean liner, it would seem, must be the safest possible
place for gold to be - so far as theft was concerned. But in this instance, the transfer was a set-up -
should any one devise a means to take advantage of it.

Gold on the high seas - the shippers unworrying, the authorities out of the picture. After all, there was
safety in the fact that it would require a supercrook to plan a way to seize the millions. The chances were
a hundred to one that no attempt would be made to gain the gold; but where others were content to play
with the ninety-nine chances, there was one man who chose the hundredth.

The Shadow!

He was the mysterious being of darkness who fought crime with an iron hand - the master mind who
called the turn before the schemes of fiends could reach their culmination.

A lone avenger whose very identity was a mystery, The Shadow saw the signs of approaching evil with
unerring foresight.

Through his agents - trusted men who, themselves, were ignorant of The Shadow's actual personality -
this master of detection felt the pulse throbs of lawlessness, and maintained a constant vigil against
impending crime.

As The Shadow's secret agent, Clyde Burke was now watching doings on this ship, ready to send an
urgent message, should he see the slightest chance of trouble on the Patagonia.

So far, Clyde had carefully obeyed instructions. He had looked for suspicious characters, paying