"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 269 - The Golden Doom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Grimly, The Shadow waited.

MEANWHILE, in the rear courtyard at Mercy Hospital, things were not so quiet.

The rear courtyard was the ambulance entrance. It was paved with smooth cobbles. A wide gateway
permitted the ambulance access to the street.

A small office faced the courtyard. This was the office of the intern who was on duty. His name was Dr.
Hugh Riker.

Murphy wondered what in hell was the matter with the doc tonight. Murphy was the ambulance driver. A
call had just come in.

Ordinarily, Dr. Riker swung aboard the rear of the ambulance almost before Murphy could start the
motor. But tonight he was oddly late. In fact there was no sign of him!

Murphy glanced at his watch and swore. A full minute had passed. The hospital code of conduct was
strict. In the ambulance department, time was especially precious. Delay might mean the difference
between life and death for some poor devil lying on a cold sidewalk.

Murphy hurried toward the outer door of Dr. Riker's small courtyard office.

Unseen by the worried ambulance driver, Riker was also hurrying! He was trying to reach his office from
the interior of the hospital.
Dr. Riker had left his duty post without permission. He had slipped silently up to the top floor of one of
the hospital wings. He had taken extraordinary care that no other doctor or nurse saw him.

The floor to which Riker had sneaked so stealthily was the one on which was located the locked
research laboratory of Dr. Sutton!

Now he was back again, in a short hallway just beyond the inner door of his office, trying to regain his
breath.

His hand jerked from his pocket. It held a queer object. A woman's lipstick! Quickly, he dabbed the
lipstick against the corner of his mouth. It made a small, scarlet smear.

He could hear Murphy's voice calling in a worried tone from the outer door of his office.

"Hey, doc! Doc Riker!"

He took a deep breath. The taut expression of his mouth changed to an embarrassed smile. He was still
wearing that foolish smile when he opened his inner office door and confronted the puzzled Murphy.

"Sorry," he said. "I... I just stepped into the corridor for a moment."

Murphy's annoyance faded as he saw the telltale "kiss" mark on the intern's face. He began to grin.

He figured what Riker intended him to - that the good-looking young intern had been flirting with a pretty
nurse in a dark hallway. He was sure of it when Riker hastily wiped away the lipstick smear.