"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 166 - Crime Rides The Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

CRIME RIDES THE SEA
by Maxwell Grant

As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," January 1, 1939.

The Shadow rides roughshod over criminals in another encounter with The
Hand.


CHAPTER I

SHADOW ABOARD

BULKY, blackish in the thick night fog, the steamship Ozark loomed beside
her North River pier, where busy stevedores were loading the last items of the
freighter's cargo.
Feeble pier lights were kindly to the Ozark. Dimmed by the fog, their
glow
did not reveal the scratched, unpainted portions of the steamer's sides.
Moreover, they gave the illusion that the Ozark was a mammoth vessel, whereas
she actually rated at only eight thousand tons.
Though a freighter, the Ozark carried passengers, a dozen or so, who were
bound on a vagabond cruise from New York. One of those passengers was standing
on a side deck, at a level with the roof of the pier shed. Elbows propped upon
the rail, he was watching the scene below.
That passenger's name was Harry Vincent. Quiet-mannered, clean-cut in
appearance, he seemed the very sort who would enjoy a voyage to foreign lands,
making many friends along the way. But Harry was not thinking of the coming
cruise. His thoughts had taken a drift, like the outward trend of the river's
tide. A drift that carried him to a definite past.
The rail upon which he leaned; the fog that hovered about him; the dark
water beneath - those were the elements that stirred his recollections.
Harry could remember a bridge rail, a fog that shrouded the deed that he
had intended: a suicide leap into dank water that awaited him. But he had
never
taken that fatal plunge. Instead, a hand had clutched him and drawn him from
the
brink.
The hand of The Shadow!
Years ago, but unforgettable. More vivid in Harry's brain than the shouts
and scuffles of the stevedores that came from the pier beside the Ozark. For,
on that night, Harry Vincent had entered the service of The Shadow, never to
leave it. (Note: See "The Living Shadow" Vol. I, No. 1.)
A strange being, cloaked in black, whose hawklike face had eyes that
burned through you, as they peered from beneath the brim of a slouch hat. Such
was The Shadow, master of darkness, who battled men of crime to their
destruction. Harry had met him often since that first night; yet, always, The
Shadow's ways were unfathomable.
That very thought brought Harry to a rigid position beside the rail of
the