"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 074 - Bells of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

fashion. The explanation came a moment later when blackness moved from between the wardrobe and
the wall.

Blackness became a living shape. Materializing from the darkened area, the figure of The Shadow grew
into being. Tall and sinister, the cloaked form moved silently across the cabin and paused by the outer
door. Then came a soft whisper.

A sibilant laugh, confined to the limits of the creaking cabin. That was The Shadow's aftermath to the
conversation that he had overheard. The Shadow had reached this cabin ahead of Milton Claverly. From
a place of concealment, he had heard all.

The door of the cabin opened. The tall shape glided into the corridor. The door closed.

A few minutes later, Claverly returned. The door of the wardrobe was swinging free. The young man
pushed it open so that he could hang up his coat and vest. Then he closed the door. This time it remained
shut.

Two had talked terms within this cabin. Those terms had concerned Augustus Messler's jewels. The
gems, though safe aboard the Laurentic, would be in jeopardy on Thursday night. Crime lay in the offing.
When it came, The Shadow would be ready.

CHAPTER III. THURSDAY NIGHT
THE Laurentic had docked. Thursday night had arrived. Augustus Messler was at home in his Riverside
Drive apartment. This was the evening scheduled for the display of the rajah's gems.
Messler lived on the fourth floor of an imposing apartment house. Situated on an eminence above the
river, this building appeared lofty from the Drive. Observed from the streets above, it nestled against the
side of the hill and lost its high proportions.

From that direction, where thorough-fares were seldom frequented, approach to the apartment house
was an easy matter. A side entrance - a fire tower - both offered opportunity for easy access to the
building.

It was on one of the rear streets that a coupe had stopped. Two men, in the darkness of the car, were
talking in low voices. Their conversation ended as a sibilant whisper came from the street side of the
coupe.

Instructions followed, delivered in a strange, uncanny voice. Then blackness detached itself from the side
of the car. Streetlights revealed a glimpse of a fleeting form that moved away in ghostlike fashion. After
that, blackness alone was dominant.

The two men stepped from the car and followed in the direction that the phantom shape had taken.

These two were Harry Vincent and Cliff Marsland. Aides of The Shadow, they had driven to this spot,
there to await instructions. The Shadow had investigated the methods of approach to Messler's
apartment. He had given his agents orders, to post them in strategic places.

THE SHADOW reached the fire tower. He ascended. The only traces of his passage came when he
passed lighted balconies that indicated the floors of the building. There his form materialized momentarily,
only to fade when he continued his ascent.