"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 243 - Room of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Hands grabbed The Shadow from the hallway. Wheeling in their clutch, he
found himself confronted by servants who had been coming in by the vestibule.
They heard the shots; they saw The Shadow. Their conclusion was wrong, but it
did not help.
There was only one course for The Shadow: to shake off these misguided
opponents and leave the masked man to those in Aldriff's den.


AS for The Shadow's laugh, it was drowned by the sudden smashes within
the
room itself. The masked man, finding his gun empty, was grabbing up the
furniture, and others were returning the favor. The darkness helped the
marauder, and be was making the most of it. The excited guests were mistaking
one another for the man they wanted to grab.
Chairs were smashed, ash stands flung, bookshelves overturned from the
wall. Hands seized the big mirror from in back of Aldriff's desk. As someone
cried: "There he goes!" the Florentine piece was hurled toward the chess nook,
across the prone body of Aldriff. The crash it made was terrific, glass
breaking
in a series of smashes.
Joan, for one, dropped into a corner when she saw the mirror go. It
missed
the masked man, for he suddenly dashed from beside the desk, carrying the box
of
papers with him.
Nevlin grabbed at him, like a terrier worrying a fox. In his desperate
flight, the masked man forgot the importance of the box he carried, for he
turned and flung it at Nevlin's head. Another man sprang from the depths of
the
room and grabbed the marauder near the doorway.
They looked as though they were playing leapfrog when they went out
through
the hallway, with Nevlin close behind them, yelling for the rest to come.
Meanwhile, The Shadow had whipped into the vestibule, carrying the
attacking servants with him. He wanted darkness, so they wouldn't remember him
too well, and he preferred space where he could deal with them lightly. There
were only three of them, and they showed no skill at cooperation.
The Shadow tripped one going down the steps to the side door. Clutching
another, he slammed him hard against the third, who fell away. The second man
managed to preserve his grip and tighten it, but The Shadow settled that
matter,
a short way from the house.
With a sudden drop, a back flip, and a well-planted foot, he sent the
tough
servant off on a triple somersault across the lawn.
On his feet again, The Shadow made for the hedge, gave a defiant laugh
and
crashed into the branches, only to wheel away again. The rallying servants
took
the bait and went plunging through the hedge themselves, shouting to each