"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 163 - Shadow Over Alcatraz" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

SHADOW OVER ALCATRAZ
by Maxwell Grant
As originally published in
The Shadow Magazine #163
December 1, 1938

A crime emperor of the future is buried with his vicious exploits of the
past--by The Shadow

CHAPTER I
CRIME'S CHANCE

The banquet was over. Affable men in evening clothes were strolling out
into the hotel lobby, shaking hands as they said good night. Not a large
crowd, but they represented wealth. That was one reason why they had banqueted
at this hotel, the swankiest in Denver.
A little group remained at the door of the banquet room. Center of the
cluster was a wheezy, stoopish man whose frail body seemed ill-proportioned,
especially to the old-fashioned dress suit that he was wearing.
He had the eye, the air of a fanatic. His voice rose to a hoarse pitch,
as quiet-mannered men tried to humor him.
"You are all crazy, here in Denver!" wheezed the frail man. "I tell you
that my invention was not at fault! Atmospheric conditions ruined the
demonstration!"
"We understand, Lanyon." Someone clapped a friendly hand upon the frail
man's shoulders. "But you'd better try it elsewhere. Afterward, we may be
interested."
"That's right," urged another of the group. "You're tired, Lanyon.
Over-strained. You'd better go up to your room. Don't forget that you're
leaving on the midnight limited."
They conducted the frail man to an elevator. Once he was aboard, with the
door shut behind him, the members of the group showed relief. Their handshakes
were a form of congratulation, as they parted in the lobby.
A hotel guest, standing near the desk, had observed the scene. He turned
to question the clerk:
"Who was the old nut?"
"Harvey Lanyon," replied the clerk, with a grin. "Calls himself the
Rainmaker. Thinks that a machine he's invented will end droughts. But he
hasn't been able to sell the idea."
Four men were lugging a bulky burden from the banquet room, out through a
side door of the lobby. The object looked like a large aquarium, for it was
oblong-shaped and its sides were large panes of glass.
The clerk pointed out that the glass walls were misty on the inside.
"That's all old Lanyon ever gets," he chuckled. "A lot of fog. No wonder he's
foggy in the bean! Unless he's a fake, which some people claim he is."
"If he gets fog, though," remarked the guest, "maybe he can bring rain.
What's his system, anyway?"
"He explodes some little puffballs inside the glass box," explained the
clerk. "He says that if an aviator dropped a lot of big ones a couple of miles
up, they would produce clouds, and that would mean rain."