"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 231 - Garden of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

postage money. Harvey always looked there when he took out any mail that dad gave him. Occasionally,
Jennings took the mail."

They went out to the screened porch, where the macaw piped its "Hello." Looking toward the cage, Fay
saw two flowerpots beneath it.

"I wonder why Harvey brought the geraniums here," she expressed. "One belongs at the bottom of the
stairs, and the other in my room." She pondered momentarily, then: "I suppose he decided to water them
and thought the porch table was the best place. But he never did it before."

Weston wasn't in a mood to discuss geraniums. He'd learned about all that he considered valuable, what
little it was. When Professor Malbray suggested that Fay return to his house, Weston agreed upon it.
Fay, herself, brightened at the invitation.

"It's so pleasant there!" she exclaimed. "So far away - like another world! I can be calm there even
though I will be thinking of poor dad."

Fay left with Malbray. They took along the macaw and the geraniums. Commissioner Weston remained
to make a routine inspection; after ordering two policemen to stay outside the house, Weston suggested
that he and Cranston return to the club.

During the journey, Weston talked in terms of Eldwald, and electric men, but did not mention geraniums.

"JUST one point, Cranston," mused the commissioner. "The matter of the prowler. I'd say he was an
ordinary burglar, who was watching the house, hoping for a time when it would be empty. When no lights
appeared at dusk, he thought his opportunity had come, so he entered.

"The fellow couldn't have been a murderer, for by that time, Bendleton and the others were dead. In fact,
the prowler had no connection with the case, for he touched nothing important, such as Bendleton's
papers.

"Finding dead men was enough to scare him away. He might return, though, as soon as the bodies are
removed. If he does, my men will snare him."

Cranston had no comment on the matter. It was after he had dined with the commissioner that he gave it
his own consideration.

Leaving the Cobalt Club, Cranston entered his limousine and drew out black garments from beneath the
rear seat. Still Cranston, he ordered Stanley to take him to Long Island. During that ride, Cranston
merged into the shape of The Shadow.

He ordered Stanley to stop some distance from the Bendleton mansion. A gliding figure, The Shadow
became a part of darkness itself. With one pause only - and a brief one - he continued on to
Bendleton's.

The brief pause was at a mailbox, where The Shadow posted a package that he brought along. It was
the one that Fay had addressed to her aunt, but instead of a black-skirted weather doll, it contained one
of the new duplicates that The Shadow had purchased after his first trip to Bendleton's.

A soft, whispery laugh stirred the thick darkness. The Shadow was returning to a scene of crime to learn