"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 279 - The Freak Show Murders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

A
moment later the muzzles were poking in through the car window and a gruff
voice
was demanding Steve's business in these parts.
Very gingerly, to show he wasn't reaching for a revolver, Steve dipped
his
thumb and forefinger into his vest pocket and brought out a coin about the
size
of a silver dollar. He held it in the dash-light so that the man with the
shotgun could see the symbols stamped on it. One side bore a feather, the
other
the initials M. T.
The shotgun muzzles gave a nudge, indicating that Steve was to get out of
his car and enter the mansion, instructions which the watchman amplified with
his gruff tone. So Steve got out and went up the wooden steps between the
pillars, where his footfalls must have announced his approach for the big
front
door opened as soon as he arrived. Confronted by a brawny servant who was
wearing what appeared to be a butler's uniform, Steve showed his lucky coin
and
was immediately conducted toward the corner where he had seen the lighted
windows.
Everything in this huge house seemed geared to clockwork precision, for
as
the butler opened a large door to usher Steve into a reception room, another
door opened on the far side and a tall, gray-haired man stepped into sight.
Obviously this was Milton Treft, coming from a smaller room in the corner of
the
house. As Treft saw the coin that Steve displayed, he gave a wave that
dismissed
the butler; then, with a gesture to the coin, Treft said in a blunt tone:
"Spin it."
Steve gave the coin a spin.
The result was very curious.
Impelled by the flip of Steve's thumb, the disk whirled upward as any
coin
would have, but it began to lose its impetus very rapidly. For a moment the
coin
seemed to hang in air; then it came turning lazily downward until it actually
fluttered like a bit of paper. When Steve held out his hand he had to wait for
the metal token to drift into it.
Treft smiled at the result. His eyes, keen and narrow, studied Steve's
square-jawed, youthful face. Treft had expected Steve to be an older man, but
the spinning of the coin had satisfied him. It would be easy enough to stamp a
duplicate coin with the emblem of a feather and the initials M. T., but only
one
coin in all the world would behave in that tantalizing fashion. That coin
happened to be the one that Steve was carrying to introduce himself to Treft.
"Well, Kilroy," said Treft, affably, "I take it that your company is
satisfied."