"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 050 - The Green Box" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)"What's the matter?" growled the guard. Sammy pointed to the bunk below. "Mighty sick," he replied in a low tone. "Maybe he won't last the night out -" The guard threw a flash toward Legrand's bunk. He saw the pale face; he observed closed eyelids. He clicked off the flashlight and lowered his growl as he spoke to the man in the upper bunk. "He's asleep now," asserted the guard. "He'll do till morning. They're coming for him at six o'clock." The guard paced away. Sammy, still leaning on his elbow, stared hard at the moonlight on the floor. The guard's form had not obscured it. All the while, the blackened silhouette had remained. It was still there now! Sammy peered below. He could barely distinguish the whiteness of Legrand's face. The sick man was asleep. The guard had told the truth. The man above dropped his elbow. He continued to stare over the edge of the upper bunk, watching that patch of moonlight and the strange shadow that had somehow come across its path. Long minutes passed. Legrand's breathing was wheezy for a while; then it faded. The sick man was slumbering quietly. A hard, satisfied smile appeared upon the face above. The convict who called himself Sam Fulwell closed his own eyes. Five minutes later, unfaked snores proved that he, too, was asleep. more tonight. The riddle of the blackness in the moonlight needed no further speculation. All was quiet in the prison cell. On the morrow, Convict 9638 would be removed. He, himself, had voiced the seriousness of his plight. His cellmate had meant it when he had doubted that the man in the lower bunk would last through the night. Convict 9638 was dying. His dried lips had made their last utterances. His end was near; and with his passing would go the secret that he had told only to his cellmate. The man called Sam Fulwell was nearing the end of his term. He could sleep contentedly, for soon he would be free. When the doors of the penitentiary clanged behind him he would depart, carrying with him the secret of Ferris Legrand! CHAPTER II. THE SHADOW PLANS BLACKNESS moved in the patch of moonlight. The silhouette, hitherto motionless, withdrew toward the darkness of the wall. The convict in the upper bunk did not observe it. Even if he had still been awake, his eyes could not have distinguished the shape that stood in the darkened corner of the cell. Nor would his ears have heard the soft swish that came from that darkness. A figure was moving there; so quietly that neither sight nor hearing would have detected it. Blackness edged the moonlight and moved beyond. A firm hand gripped the central bar of the cell door. The light from the central room was blocked by a spectral shape. Gloved fingers silently opened the barred door without a clang. A figure slipped softly into the gloomy light beyond. A door closed and |
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