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

from Chicago. You have seen her?"
"Yes," came Harry's reply. "She arrived just before the trouble started."
"Describe her."
Harry gave an effective sketch of the ravishing brunette who had looked
upward from the gangplank. Ruth Eldrey did not answer the description of
anyone
listed in The Shadow's report sheets; nevertheless, The Shadow evidently
shared
Harry's opinion that so attractive a girl was an unlikely passenger aboard a
freighter. His final instruction to Harry was specific:
"Watch the girl!"
Right after Harry's report, Cliff's came in. It provided The Shadow with
important information. Cliff had sized up the crew quite thoroughly,
estimating
the probable number of thugs on board. Moreover, he had overheard conversation
between members of the gang.
From those snatches, Cliff had learned that no important moves were
scheduled for tonight. That, perhaps, was due to the late departure of the
Ozark; also to the fact that the freighter's progress was being slowed by fog.
It fitted with The Shadow's theory, that crooks needed to be far at sea before
they started trouble.
For The Shadow had made observations of his own, quite as important as
any
that Harry or Cliff had supplied. Proof of that was given when he drew a
folder
into the light. The casebook was stamped with a life-size human hand, with
extended thumb and fingers.
Opening the casebook, The Shadow studied two names, all that remained of
an original five:

Thumb Gaudrey
Pointer Trame

Those were the names of crooks, lone wolves who had once been the
"fingers" of a combine known as The Hand. Masters of many rackets, they had
separated to build up their individual organizations. One by one, starting
from
the little "finger," The Shadow had finished the careers of three.
Next in order was Pointer Trame, last heard from in Havana, just before
the first of Barvale's carriers had vanished in mid-ocean. All during his
investigation of that sea disaster, and those that followed it, The Shadow had
gotten no trace of Pointer Trame.
He had proof, however, that certain small-fry crooks mentioned by Cliff
Marsland were thugs who had once served Trame. From that link, The Shadow
supplied the answer to a most perplexing question; namely, why no one had been
able to connect Hugh Barvale with the crimes at sea.
No matter how crooked Hugh Barvale might be, nor how devious the ways by
which the millionaire exporter might be making profit from supposed loss, it
was certain that Barvale would not have to manage the actual crimes. True, he
would be keeping close check upon all doings, if he had a financial interest