"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 250 - Death About Town" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

more imperative. Even negative evidence might count, with Laverock so clearly labeled as Orvill's killer.

But Cranston still declined to go along. He had a dinner engagement, so he said.

The statement was true enough. Cranston did have an engagement, though he hadn't yet informed the
persons with whom he intended to dine. He waited until the cab left with Weston and Delmot; then, in
leisurely style, Cranston strolled around the corner. His trip proved a short one; when he reached the
front door of the Hotel Bayberry, he entered it.

In a telephone booth, Cranston dialed a number. A methodical voice responded with the words:

"Burbank speaking."

No longer did Cranston use his calm tone. In the confines of the telephone booth, his was the whispered
voice of The Shadow, as he gave instructions to his contact man, Burbank, telling him to send two
competent agents who would be useful in cracking the Orvill case.

For The Shadow was by no means satisfied with the law's decision. Just as complex cases usually had a
simple solution, so were simple cases apt to prove complex. The Shadow held to the definite idea that
the quest for a murderer might travel farther than James Laverock.

How far farther it would carry, The Shadow had not yet surmised. Facts were too few to point to further
crime. The death of Dana Orvill, man about town, had the aspects of an isolated murder, nothing more.
Strange, however, were the circumstances that The Shadow would encounter while on this case.

It wasn't just a matter of a man about town who had met with a violent end. It was to be death about
town, with The Shadow on the trail!

CHAPTER III. THE MAN WHO CAME BACK
CRANSTON'S dinner guests at the Hotel Bayberry were Harry Vincent and Clyde Burke. Choice of
those two agents indicated that The Shadow might have gained an inkling of a long campaign ahead. He
had picked men specially qualified for the coming investigation.

Harry Vincent was a clean-cut chap who would be welcomed anywhere. Cranston's first act was to
supply him with a guest card and a membership application to the Avenue Club, thus making it possible
for Harry to introduce himself to the very environment wherein Orvill and Laverock had voiced their
disagreement.

As for Clyde Burke, he already had a card that would admit him to the Avenue Club. Clyde's was a
reporter's card, for he was a newspaper man on the staff of the New York Classic.

Clyde nodded when Cranston told him what he had to do. It wouldn't take much argument for Clyde to
convince his editor that there might be a good story at the Avenue Club for anyone who sought the inside
angle. While getting his story for the Classic, Clyde would have plenty of opportunity to pick up data for
The Shadow.

All that lay in the future. For the present, The Shadow, in Cranston's quiet style, outlined the case for the
benefit of Harry and Clyde. Finished, he awaited their reactions. They gave them without hesitation.

"It's Laverock, all right," asserted Harry. "So much has piled up against him, that there is not much