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

apothecary had certainly intended to spill some news of crime.

THE SHADOW had already placed Durlew's part in the death of William Hessup. The druggist had
supplied the poison and the little bottle. Whether he had done so with knowledge of their purpose, did
not matter. A man of Durlew's status would probably have preferred to say nothing.

This East Side apothecary's shop was of a doubtful sort. It was the type of place that thugs would
frequent; a place where required medicine could be had for wounded hoodlums. It also had the
qualifications of a "blind" establishment that would be useful to dope peddlers.

Durlew, despite the pitiful aspect of his dead face, was a man for whom The Shadow held little regret.
The odds were that he had dipped his hand into criminal activities whenever the risk was not too great.

Durlew had become a man who knew too much. Murder had frightened him; particularly after he had
read the rumor of a link between the deaths of Blessingdale and Hessup.

The Shadow had seen the possibilities of such a link; until now, he had gained no evidence of it. Thugs
had been employed to kill both men; but that was not sufficient to prove that the same hand of crime was
behind both murders. The Shadow had chosen to investigate Hessup's death, in preference to
Blessingdale's. He had known that if the two were linked, he would find clues along the trail. He had
gained good evidence here at Durlew's.

The ways of gangland called for quick death to any traitor. Durlew had been killed because he had
decided to squeal. Many sleuths would have formed that conclusion and let the case rest with it. Not so
The Shadow. He saw reasons why Durlew would have preferred not to talk. Definitely mixed in
Hessup's death, the apothecary needed something to square him with the law.

The mere naming of the murderer would not be sufficient. Durlew would have done that previously, if he
had thought the course a good one. Linking Hessup's death with Blessingdale's was not enough. The
police had already taken that for granted. Durlew must have known more; possibly he had facts
concerning future plans for crime.

The fact that Durlew's telephone book lay closed was oddly to The Shadow's advantage. It made the
cloaked investigator speculate upon the telephone call itself, since he had no proof that Durlew was
intending to tip off the police. The possibility that Durlew might have been calling some one
elseтАФperhaps a man whose life was threatenedтАФwas sufficient for The Shadow to search for further
clues.

A CORNER of white paper was visible under Durlew's left elbow. The Shadow raised the dead man's
arm. He found the prescription pad from which Spark Ganza had torn the written sheet.

The long-pointed pencil rolled into view as soon as The Shadow removed the pad. There were other
pencils like it in the pigeonhole. Durlew kept his pencils sharpened to a point. The one on the desk,
however, showed a slight variation. Its tip was broken to the tiniest portion of an inch.

Durlew had written something before he died. The pressure of his hand had broken a minute fragment
from the highly sharpened point.

With gloved fingers, The Shadow broke the tips completely from three pencils. He let the chunks of
graphite fall upon the pad. There was a sharpener attached to the top of Durlew's desk. The Shadow