"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 095 - Death Rides the Skyway" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Seton Hylap was dead, however. The Shadow had gained no clue as to how the deed had been done;
but he did have an idea of its purpose. The murderer of Seton Hylap had wanted to keep the financier
from meeting Gifford Barbridge in Altamont.

HYLAP'S death, however, was not the only mystery. Tracing back, The Shadow found contradictions in
the happenings at San Francisco. First Hylap's house had been surrounded by potential killers; yet none
had attempted to stay Hylap's departure from his home. The combination was paradoxical.

Next was the case of Danning, Hylap's secretary. Danning had tried to keep Miles Crofton from entering
Hylap's study. On the face of it, that would have indicated Danning to be a protector of his master. But
Crofton's discovery of an empty room had proven that Danning had played a bluff.

Last, the actions of the crooks had shown that they were with Danning, not against him. The secretary's
death had been an accident so far as the hoodlum raiders were concerned. The Shadow could see the
answer now. A weakling, the secretary had succumbed to bribery. Danning had let Seton Hylap travel
East to doom which the secretary knew his master would surely encounter.

With Hylap dead, The Shadow's present course was a single one. Hylap was expected in Altamont. It
would be morning before the porter would discover Hylap's body. The law would institute an
investigation in San Francisco; days would elapse before investigators would decide that the trail might
lead to Altamont.

Therein lay The Shadow's advantage. By arriving at Altamont as soon as possible, he could study
conditions there and gain an answer before the law was on its way. Seton Hylap had intended to go to
Altamont; in the dead man's place would be a substitute, but an unexpected one. That substitute would
be The Shadow.

Minutes alone remained before the diesel-powered limited would make its stop at the K and R Junction,
the station where the conductors expected a single passenger to alight.

The Shadow's course was plain. Rising, he picked up his own satchel; in its place he put the flat suitcase
that had belonged to Seton Hylap. Strolling past the unwatchful porter, The Shadow placed his own bag
by the outer door.

THE speed of the Typhoon began to slacken smoothly. The Shadow strolled back and again aroused the
porter. He remarked that he was getting off at the junction. The porter nodded; the conductor had told
him that a stop would be made there.

Lights blinked beyond the blackened window as the Typhoon glided to a stop. The glimmers of a station
platform; the dull illumination of the depot itself; beyond that the glare from the headlight of a locomotive
that was waiting on another track. The porter joined The Shadow. Sleepily, he slid open the car door just
as the Typhoon halted.

Picking up his bag, The Shadow brushed by the porter as the man stepped to the station platform. The
porter turned to look for luggage; then saw that the passenger was carrying a grip close to his body. The
conductor then came back through Car 3, to learn from the porter of that car that the passenger from
Lower 8 was in the club cafe.

Reaching the door that the club car attendant had opened, the conductor saw a hunched-up figure
striding away from the train. He asked the sleepy attendant if that was the passenger for the junction. The