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

Malfort laid the back-date newspaper aside. He picked up a later newspaper. His face took on its
devilish glare. Spark, hard though he was, became uneasy.

"To-day's job was not so good. Spark."

Spark had no reply to Malfort's criticism.

"I was not pleased with the way you eliminated William Hessup," admonished Malfort. "His death at the
Merrimac Club was to have been considered a suicide. Hessup had no enemies; but, as president of a
bank in Buffalo, he had some worries. Unfortunately, the police believe that he was murdered."

"They don't know who did it, though," protested Spark. "We grabbed the swag all right, Mr. Malfort -"

"Nevertheless, you bungled!"

Spark shifted in his chair. Malfort's glare was straight upon him. The firelight gave a demoniac reflection
to the master mind's fierce eyes. Spark avoided Malfort's gaze.

"I'm making no excuse," growled Spark. "I should have watched those lugs more close, that's all. The
idea was all right; but there was a slip -"

"Start with the beginning of the matter."

"All right."

SPARK leaned back in his chair and faced Malfort. The latter's features had relaxed. Spark felt more at
ease. "First I went to see Durlew," he stated. "He's the druggist I told you about. He gave me two bottles:
the little one, empty, with the Northern Drug Company label on it; and the big one, with the poison in it."

Spark paused. Malfort had no comment.

"It was a cinch to get into the Merrimac Club," resumed Spark. "We knowed Hessup was coming there.
We had the number of the room he was going to take. So one guy goes in and plants the empty bottle.

"As soon as Hessup shows up, I send the other lug, so as nobody would be suspicious if they saw one
guy twice. He takes a pitcher of ice water with a glass and carries it up to Hessup's room, without
Hessup ringing for it. That's where the lug pulls his boner, thinking he was smart.

"He was to put a dose of poison in the glass, like you said; then, polite-like, he was to let Hessup see him
drop some ice into the glass. For a come-on, like you told me."

Malfort nodded.

"Quite right," he agreed. "Hessup would have been inclined to pour himself a drink of water. He would
have considered the poison liquid as water, melted from the ice."

"That's what I told the lug," expressed Spark, sourly. "But I didn't tell him how important it was, to work
it just that way. So he gets a smart idea and stages his boner."

"Which was -"