"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 044 - Treasures of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

finger counted the capsules. There were eighteen in the box. The finger and thumb removed a single
capsule.

Some one was coming up the stairs. The Shadow whirled as he heard the thudding footsteps. He
reached the hallway and melted from view against a deep-set door. Joe Cardona was coming with Terry
Barliss.

Neither arrival saw The Shadow. The two entered the room. They went toward the little library, then
returned. The Shadow, from his post, could hear their discussion, which was evidently a continuation of a
conversation held downstairs.

"There is no evidence of any robbery," Cardona was declaring. "You say your uncle cried out that his
manuscript had been stolen. Yet neither you nor Glasgow had seen the book before to-night."

"We are working on a dead man's word," replied Terry Barliss solemnly. "I can see your viewpoint, Mr.
Cardona. It's a very flimsy case. Especially since my uncle admitted that an expert pronounced his
manuscript a forgery."

"It's hard to convince collectors regarding fakes."

"I know it. Yet I feel certain that my uncle was right in his belief that he possessed the genuine Villon
manuscript."
Cardona had reached the hallway. He was in sight of The Shadow. Watching eyes saw a shrug of the
detective's shoulders.

"As the evidence stands," decided Cardona, "there is no indication whatever of crime. Shattuck Barliss
died a natural death. He may have been completely mistaken about his manuscript. This is not a case for
the police."

"Then you advise-"

"I suggest that you make further inquiries of your own. Unless you can produce some proof that
something could have been stolen from this house, there is nothing that any one can do."

Terry Barliss had joined Joe Cardona in the hallway. The young man clearly saw the logic of the
detective's statement. Together, the two passed the doorway where The Shadow lurked. They
descended the stairs.

WHEN footsteps had dwindled, The Shadow moved. He did not return to the room where Shattuck
Barliss lay dead. Instead, he, too, descended the stairs. He reached the ground floor silently. No more
than a moving phantom shape, he passed the arch to the living room.

People were talking there. Rodney Glasgow was agreeing with Joe Cardona. The Shadow did not linger.
He passed to the front door. His gloved hand turned the knob.

Like a vanishing specter, The Shadow moved into the outer darkness. Only the closing of the door
betokened his departure.

A few minutes later, Joe Cardona and Clyde Burke came from the house. They descended the
brownstone steps and entered the area of light beneath the street lamp. They did not see the lingering