"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 243 - Room of Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)be
outside his window, day and night, for years to come. It wasn't a happy picture - the thought of leaving this fine mansion, with its lavishly furnished den, for a tiny cell in a Federal penitentiary. Reaching into a desk drawer, Aldriff brought out a metal dispatch box, unlocked it and brought out a batch of papers. He turned on a desk lamp to eradicate the streaks that worried him, and began to look through the papers. At moments, his worry changed to an expression of sudden shrewdness, only to lapse back again. However, his eyes were taking on a scheming sparkle, when he heard sudden footsteps at the door. He looked up, somewhat startled, to see a girl standing in the doorway. She was an attractive girl - tall, slender, and with a vigor that spoke of outdoor life. Her face was flushed by the wind; her brown hair had been blown into stray waifs that she was brushing back from her equally brown eyes. But she wasn't worried about making herself look prettier. Her expression revealed a single emotion: determination. "I'm Joan Kelburn," the girl announced, in a firm contralto. "I'm sorry to barge in this way, Mr. Aldriff, but I want to talk to you about my uncle. I must see you alone." Rising, Aldriff waved an invitation for Joan to take a chair. Approaching front door. The gesture meant for the butler to go away, which he did. Aldriff closed the door. "And now, Miss Kelburn?" "I'll come right to the point, Mr. Aldriff," stated Joan. "It's about that stock my uncle is selling. You're in back of it." "If you mean Pharco Stores," acknowledged Aldriff, "I have guaranteed the necessary assets. The Pharco chain will be a group of ultramodern drugstores extending from coast to coast -" "I've heard Uncle Smead give his sales talk," interrupted Joan. "You don't need to repeat it, Mr. Aldriff. I want to know where the money is coming from to start those stores that people are buying stock in. Will it be Magnax money?" Aldriff gave a quick negative headshake and waved his hands along with it. "No, no, Miss Kelburn!" he exclaimed. "The Magnax Corp. manufactures drugs, but does not retail them. True, I am one of the three men controlling Magnax - but the other two, Lloyd Dulther and Hubert Sigby, know nothing about my interest in Pharco. I planned Pharco as my own enterprise." "And you can make good on your million dollar promises?" "I always make good on my promises, Miss Kelburn." Aldriff's worried expression vanished when he smiled. "Rest assured that everything will turn |
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