"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 100 - The Man From Shanghai" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

black had entered this room of doom.

Above shrouded shoulders, the uncanny visitor wore a slouch hat, with downturned brim that hid his
features. Eyes alone were visible; they showed like points of fire as they directed themselves upon the
dead form of Durlew, half across the desk.

The Shadow, superfoe to crime, had arrived upon the newest scene of murder. He had gained the trail
that Durlew had feared; the one that Spark Ganza had thought too slim for any sleuth to follow. While the
law had decided to quiz the employees of the Northern Drug Company, The Shadow had visited the
printer who supplied the labels.

The Shadow had come to make Durlew speak. Arriving, he had found the druggist dead. Nevertheless, a
whispered, mirthless laugh came significantly from hidden lips.

The Shadow had hope that he might learn a dead man's tale.

CHAPTER III. THE SUBSTITUTE VICTIM
IN his survey of the tiny office, The Shadow recognized at once that Durlew's death had been recent.
Though blood had clotted on the apothecary's forehead, it still dripped from the dead man's spectacles.
Moreover, the room held a distinct trace of the pungent odor that only revolver smoke could produce.

Spark had flung the late newspaper into a wastebasket beside the desk. The Shadow could see the
screaming headlines, with their guesswork announcement: "Police Link Deaths." It was obvious that this
was Durlew's newspaper; a murderer, had he brought it, would have carried it away.
That edition had been on the street for only half an hour. It was likely that Durlew had read the
newspaper account. Likely, also, that his reading could have had some bearing on his death.

A large ash tray lay in a corner of Durlew's desk. It contained cigar stumps. Unsmoked cigars were
bulging from the dead man's breast pocket. In contrast to this proof that Durlew preferred cigars was a
small ash tray on the top of the rolltop desk. It contained a cigarette butt.

The Shadow pictured events almost as they had happened.

He visualized a visitor, accosting Durlew in the store. He pictured the apothecary closing his shop,
coming voluntarily into the rear office. The Shadow could retrace a brief conversation; after that, a
departure from the office.

Durlew's position told that he had been freely engaged when some one had entered to take his life.

Though the druggist was slumped upon the desk, his feet were shifted to the left. His own weight had
carried him back to his former position; but his feet had dragged. Moreover, the telephone interested The
Shadow. It was not quite to the center of the desk. Its cord was too short to reach that far.

Obviously, the telephone belonged either on top of the desk or on the revolving bookcase. The Shadow
knew why Durlew had been slain. The man was making a hurried telephone call when the murderer
entered.

The telephone book immediately concerned The Shadow. The fat directory was lying on the desk,
closed. The Shadow thumbed its pages, on the possibility that the book would open readily at the page
last used. That chance failed; nevertheless, The Shadow could divine the purpose of Durlew's call. The