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

a garage man thumbed toward the bench, where Judge Lawless had finished his
conferences. Again the shambly stooge was stepping forward.
"That's Fleech," stated Menz. "He's the court crier. He's going to call
the roll. We'll add your name to the list when he gets through."
Obviously, though, some persons who should have been here, were not, for
when Fleech paused at unanswered names, Judge Lawless threw vicious glares
about the place. Fleech didn't have to mark off the absentees. Judge Lawless
would remember them!
From the start of the list, Dave harkened for the name of Delker, but it
didn't come. Either Delker had skipped town, or wasn't showing himself at
these
meetings. That Delker belonged to the tribe that served Judge Lawless, Dave
couldn't doubt. For the scene in this "court" was a greater revelation than
any
that Dave Channey had anticipated in his wildest dreams.
He'd expected to meet with crooks, Dave had, and to pose as one of them
with Menz as his willing sponsor. But he'd pictured a crowd of toughs in some
back room, not an organization such as this. The loose manner of this crowd
was
purely superficial - part of its travesty on a court of justice. One smash of
the gavel and Judge Lawless could make the whole scene serious. For these
followers of the evil judge were not hoodlums, with the possible exception of
a
few.
Delker, for instance, had posed as a gentleman; Menz could pass as an
honest garage man. All the rest unquestionably had manners and vocations which
made them suitable cogs for the smooth criminal machine controlled by Judge
Lawless.
Tonight, Dave was to become one of those cogs, though he would have liked
far better to be a monkey wrench thrown into the works. It was better, though,
to be a cog for the present.
What a feather it would be for the police, could they learn the
headquarters of this criminal gang and raid while the illegal court was in
full
session, with Judge Lawless, master of iniquity, presiding on the bench!
As Dave played with that thought, it happened.


JUDGE LAWLESS had just beckoned in the guards. He was speaking to them in
an undertone on the matter of any late comers and the excuses they might
offer.
Those side doors, where the lookouts should have been keeping tabs
through
peepholes, were totally unwatched. Of a sudden, the doors flung inward and
with
each came a flood of blue-uniformed police.
Eight in all, that squad, and one of them a beefy-faced lieutenant. Every
officer had a drawn revolver, and they showed themselves a picked squad by the
way they brandished those stubby guns. Instantly, assembled crooks became a
snarling ratpack, and Dave found himself one of the rodents, as Menz dragged