"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 116 - Intimidation,Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

INTIMIDATION, INC.
by Maxwell Grant

As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," December 15, 1936.

Intimidation, Inc. had a new racket; one that made their ill-gotten
millions a sure bet - until The Shadow outsmarted them at their own game!


CHAPTER I

THE MAN WHO TOLD

THE face at the taxi window was chalkish. Eyes squinted nervously as they
met the glare of street lamps. Lips were pitiful in their twitch. A hand
trembled, as it tried to tighten a muffler higher above a chattering chin.
The man in the cab was marked for death; he knew that the threat of doom
was upon him.
The cab swung a corner; it stopped at the side door of a six-story office
building. The driver tilted his head sidewise and spoke to his passenger:
"Here we are, sir. At the Dorchester Trust Building. Guess you were right
when you said it stayed open until eight o'clock -"
The speaker stopped abruptly. The passenger had alighted; he was standing
beside the cab, shakily thrusting a five-dollar bill in the driver's
direction.
For the first time, the taxi man was gaining a complete look at his fare's
face.
The pallor of that countenance was plain. To the driver's astonished
eyes,
his passenger looked like a living corpse. Dumbly, the taxi driver took the
money, sat gawking as he heard a quavering voice tell him to keep the change.
He watched the passenger turn and make faltering strides through the side door
of the office building.
Slowly, the taxi driver reached beside him and drew a newspaper into
view.
It was a copy of the Dorchester Evening Clarion, the evening journal that
served
this city of two hundred thousand population. Tilting the newspaper into the
light, the taxi man saw the printed picture of the passenger who had just left
the cab.
Nodding to himself, the taxi man drove to the next corner; there he
stopped and beckoned to another cabby, who was standing gloomily beside a
vacant taxi. The fellow came over; the first driver pointed to the picture.
"Lookit," he said. "Ludwig Meldon. The guy that went screwy and unloaded
all his stock in Dorchester Power & Light. Knocked the price down and sold out
all he had left, today. They say he lost a quarter million!"
"I know it. I can read. But what's Meldon got to do with you?"
"I just dropped him back at the Dorchester Trust Building. The guy looked
bad. Like he was ready to croak himself."
"He must be cuckoo, stopping off at the Trust Company. It ain't open