"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 243 - Room of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell) ROOM OF DOOM
by Maxwell Grant As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," April 1, 1942. Murder or suicide? - that was the question The Shadow had to answer as he began his investigation of the Room of Doom! CHAPTER I DEATH ENTERS THE room that Arthur Aldriff termed his "den" was well suited to the description. It was a large room, furnished with a variety of curios and trophies that marked its owner as a man of many pursuits. Looking in from the door, the square room showed a fireplace on the right; above it, a mantel which bore a very ornamental clock, flanked by a pair of porcelain vases. On one end of the mantel was a model of a trim sloop; on the other, an ancient English drinking horn. Above the mantel a mounted moose head gazed with glittering glass eyes; just beneath the stuffed head was the rifle that had killed the moose, set in a horizontal rack. Flanking the stuffed head were two other plaques, mounted fish that Aldriff had caught. At the left of the room was Aldriff's desk. Whenever he looked up, he could see the moose head; but the creature with the glass eyes did not stare back at him. Instead, it admired its own reflection in a large and ornamental mirror that hung behind the desk. Aldriff valued the mirror highly; he considered its gold filigreed frame to be a fine example of Florentine craftsmanship. On each side of the mirror were bookcases filled with beautifully bound volumes that Aldriff never opened. When he indulged in intellectual pursuits, he preferred chess. The evidence stood in a little nook set in the far wall of the room. The nook was a solid-walled cubbyhole, not more than six feet in width and depth and only a trifle higher. It contained two light chairs that faced each other; between them, a chess table with inlaid squares of ebony and ivory. Chessmen of the same materials were standing on the board, set for a game. All that Aldriff needed was a rival player, and he seldom found one. He was too skillful for most players of his acquaintance. There were other objects in the room: framed paintings, larger vases than those on the mantel, some ornamental lamps, and a silver narghile or Oriental |
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