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

Harry no longer held sympathy for the girl. He saw her as a spy in the
service of her crooked father; perhaps a go-between who carried orders from
Hugh Barvale to the headman of the criminals aboard the Ozark. Edna's terror
at
finding her double part discovered, was sufficient evidence for Harry's
belief.
While Edna cowered, Harry calmly planned his next move. He hadn't drawn
his gun; he was sure that when he did, mere sight of the weapon would make the
girl obey orders. It wouldn't be difficult, once the passage was clear, to
march Edna from her cabin and deliver her to The Shadow.
With that course in mind, Harry tilted his head to the door, listening
for
sounds outside.
He was off guard only for a second, but that was all that Edna Barvale
needed. In a flash, her paralyzed pretense ended. Sweeping her hand across the
table, the blonde snatched a small automatic from beneath the black wig that
she had discarded. Swinging around in her chair, she aimed the pistol before
Harry could yank his own gun.
The door handle jarred beneath Harry's elbow, as he shifted. The door
swung inward, thanks to the quiver from the freighter's thrumming engines.
Harry made a sideward dive into the passage, yanking his own automatic as he
hit the floor. Rolling over, he aimed toward the cabin door, to meet Edna when
she arrived.
Edna had reached the door. Instead of coming out, she slammed it. Harry
pounced to his feet, intending to break in before Edna could turn the key; but
he didn't get that far. There was a surge of flinging bodies from the passage
behind him. Harry went flat beneath the smothering power of three crew
members,
who belonged to the crooked tribe aboard the Ozark.
Flinging one arm above his head, Harry valiantly beat off the slugging
strokes that the thugs delivered with their guns. A blow against an elbow
numbed his arm; he couldn't have warded away another stroke. Harry expected
the
next instant to be his last, for the thugs were murderous in their fury.
Then came the only token that could possibly have saved Harry from his
doom. It was a laugh, a mocking tone that reverberated through the narrow
passage; a strident challenge that made the crooks forget Harry in a trice.
As one, they wheeled to meet the author of that challenge. They knew that
laugh; it called them to a battle more urgent than any other. Harry's fate was
something that could be deferred.
There was no postponing battle with The Shadow!


CHAPTER IV

CRIME'S TRIUMPH

WHEN would-be killers swiveled to meet The Shadow's thrust, they saw a
whirl of blackness that flung itself from the steep steps of a companionway.
They fired to meet that mass, and shouted their elation when they saw it