"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 268 - Murder Lake" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

The Shadow's gun spoke three times, delivering its shots in the air. Each stab was from a different place,
directed at a new angle. The echoes, coming like a cannonade, were something that The Shadow hoped
would confuse the men about him. The echoes did confuse them, a dozen times over.

Into the glare of the outspread flashlights swept a dozen Shadows! At least, they were creatures of
blackness that resembled his cloaked form. They were those blobs that had hung high in the domes of the
cave, flocks of bats disturbed from their roosts by The Shadow's upward gun stabs!

Zooming into the paths of light, the bats loomed to human proportions, it being impossible to distinguish
their exact size as they swooped. Nor were they easy to shoot, considering their speed and the
excitement of the marksmen. Guns were popping in the air and amid the wild barrage, the real target -
The Shadow - was speeding toward the main door of Echo Cave.

One incident marred The Shadow's departure, a happening that he did not witness. As men poured from
the inner passage to join the crowd in the great cavern, Endorf spied Kroot among them and gave
another cry. Three guns trained on Shep and fired point-blank, before he could dodge away from the
flashlights that revealed him.

Thus, under the guise of justice, did Endorf dispose of the bungler whose testimony had proven so
costly.

MEN were pouring into the cave as The Shadow neared its entrance. Knowing nothing of the ghostly
happenings within, these arrivals saw winged creatures swooping toward to them.
Falling back, the men at the entrance made sweeps with their flashlights, picking out the bats as they
skimmed by. Diving low to pass through the arched entrance, the bats swelled to great proportions as
they came close to the flashlights. Again, the effect was much of an illusion. It almost seemed that some of
the bats were of human size.

Outside the cave, two men were standing by a car. Its motor was running, for they had wheeled it about
to throw its bright headlights into the cavern. The men themselves were in the glow, holding drawn
revolvers which they were about to put away, considering that they now knew the cause of all the
commotion within the cave.

Bats were zooming out from the cave. They formed fantastic shapes, broadening, enlarging, as they shot
from beneath the arch, to take off like rising planes when they reached the outside night. Men watched
them skim above the level of the headlights until, suddenly, one bat didn't rise.

Coming low, it stayed along the ground, looming to mammoth proportions as it neared the startled
watchers. It was of human size and shape, its wings a pair of arms that projected from the folds of a
wide-drawn cloak!

Only its eyes could be distinguished beneath the brim of the slouch hat that topped its head. From the
hidden lips of this unknown creature came a laugh as weird as any tongue had ever uttered!

Too rooted to dart away from the living menace, the men by the car suddenly lunged at the thing,
swinging their guns. Emboldened by the belief that their companions would soon join them, the pair
resolved to capture the unknown, whether it be fiend or human.

It was as though the vampire legends had come to life, personalized in this cloaked form who might be