"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 117 - Vengeance Is Mine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

whom Joe Cardona would have, at present, identified as Lamont Cranston. Both
were turning toward the desk; they saw Cardona and recognized him.
Weston was too astonished to blurt a call to the ace inspector. The
commissioner was amazed to discover that Cardona had arrived here ahead of
him.
Nor did The Shadow give a shout to Cardona. He did more than that.
Instantly, The Shadow recognized that Dudley Mook must have returned;
that
the man from Detroit was either in his room or on the way there. The fact that
Cardona had learned of Dudley Mook told that something out of the ordinary had
happened. It smacked of the machinations that marked the methods of a
supercrook. It meant grim danger, with which The Shadow preferred to cope
before Joe Cardona could step into trouble.


THRUSTING Weston aside, The Shadow took a long, swift leap across the
hallway. Cardona did not hear the rapid strides because of the thick-tufted
carpeting that covered the entire floor. Joe's first knowledge of The Shadow's
arrival came just as he was making the turn into the short corridor.
There, The Shadow's long arms swept forward and clamped Cardona's
shoulders with a powerful, restraining grip. Cardona had one momentary glimpse
of Dudley Mook, stooping at the door of 2549 to insert his big key in the
lock;
then Joe felt himself whipped backward. Sprawling to the floor of main hall,
in
the direction of the desk, he saw the immobile face of Lamont Cranston just
above him.
Those glimpses were mere snatches that Cardona was to recall later. The
thing that happened next was vastly more important.
Cardona's sprawl was transformed to a quivering jolt by a huge roar that
came from the short corridor. It was a sudden blast that sent the air from the
passage outward with galelike force, carrying the deafening repercussion of a
new explosion. Cardona felt the carpeted floor wabble beneath him. He saw
Cranston's figure waver; heard the frightened shriek of the girl at the desk.
Flattened, Cardona recovered and came to his feet. He saw The Shadow
helping Commissioner Weston to rise.
It was The Shadow again, swift despite his pose of Cranston, who was the
first to reach the corridor that led to 2549. As The Shadow stopped there,
Weston and Cardona joined him, to gawk past his shoulders.
The end of the corridor was gone. The door marked "2549" had totally
vanished, with the side walls that adjoined it. Through the gap, the viewers
could see the room; its furniture was wrecked, its windows shattered.
Even the floor at the doorway had been wiped to nothingness, leaving a
gap
to a corridor below it. Amid the settling debris, there was no remnant of a
human being.
Dudley Mook had been blasted to eternity; wiped from the earth as
completely as George Zanwood had been banished the night before.
Only The Shadow's quick intervention had saved Joe Cardona from the same
destruction.