"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 252 - Judge Lawless" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

its tricky side passage. As he reached the open angle that appeared, the door
took another quarter spin before The Shadow could enter it. Having no men to
scoop up, the door disgorged four, instead; four who came flinging through
from
the right.
They were men in blue uniforms, police of the genuine variety. They'd
come
from a passage on the right, having found this inlet when they heard the
thunder
of guns. Just short of the door, The Shadow was squarely in their path, and
the
police, glimpsing him, flung themselves on the intrepid fighter who had just
cleared the ground of actual enemies!


WITH a sweeping wheel, The Shadow cleared himself of these misguided
attackers, flinging them back into their niche. He was weaving across the
courtroom as they fired; first toward the door on the left, next to the one on
the right. He planned that zigzag anyway, but it seemed encouraged by the
things that happened at those doors.
First one door, then the other, burst inward to admit batches of
detectives, who aimed their guns blindly to join in the fire. The cops were
shouting as much as shooting, because they didn't want to hit the detectives,
and in the midst of the ineffective action, The Shadow was gone.
Gone with a laugh that reverberated throughout the room where the law had
prevailed in empty-handed style. Having won his own battle, The Shadow hoped
to
follow it up in his same inimitable fashion, without waiting to hold parley
with
the police.
To the men who stared in search of the vanished fighter, The Shadow had
performed an amazing vanish into the same thin air that was at present
absorbing the echoes of his departing mirth. Actually, he had blended into
blackness, choosing the alcove behind the platform, the route which Judge
Lawless normally used and which The Shadow had found for himself.
By that route The Shadow hoped to cut off the master fiend and his
escaping tribe, wherever they had gone.
Among the men who caught the parting tones of The Shadow's laugh was a
stocky police inspector, Joe Cardona by name, and he understood its full
significance. It was plain to Joe that Fleech and a few others who hadn't
managed to escape, represented only a portion of the band that The Shadow had
scattered. Looking about the room, Cardona saw the angle at the far end and
realized that some of the officers had come from that direction.
Heading for the niche, Cardona shoved through. Naturally, the revolving
door continued its turn to the left and as Joe beckoned, the police followed
him, surprised to learn that their lurch into the underground room had merely
left them at a stopping-off point.
As he led the chase along the passage to the left, Inspector Cardona
could
fancy that he still heard The Shadow's laugh, carrying a note of approval.