"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
the door, he motioned at a stodgy butler who had followed the girl from the
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