"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 285 - Fountain of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

"I should have remembered. What does this one look like?"

"It has everything but whiskers. Just a blank face and a vocabulary limited to 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.' Of
course it knows how to buy Sapphire Water by the case and keep pouring it whenever Johnny looks
dry."

"At Johnny's expense of course."

"No." Glancing at his watch, Cranston gestured that it was time to be leaving the restaurant where they
were lunching. "Johnny is really broke. His good friend Elder is financing him back on his feet."

"Including buying bottles of his own spring water at retail?"

"Elder can't do otherwise and still expect New York dealers to handle Sapphire Water. But don't worry
about Elder; his patients always pay their debts."

"You mean his cures are that good?"
"Exactly. Elder's tonics, physical and mental, are good for wealth as well as health. As I said before, he's
merely afraid that Johnny's cure will be too rapid, that's all."

Things were getting too rapid for Margo, right then. Leaving the restaurant during their conversation, she
and Lamont were now in Shrevvy's cab and it was riding post-haste somewhere. Shrevvy rated as the
original demon driver of Manhattan, which was why Cranston had bought his cab outright and kept
Shrevvy as a salaried driver.

There were times when Cranston wanted to reach certain places a little faster than anybody but Shrevvy
could take him. Those were often times when Cranston happened to be his other self, The Shadow, so it
was Shrevvy's job to pilot a black-cloaked crime-smasher in a cab that usually looked empty when it
contained such a passenger.

Of course Cranston never admitted his dual identity, so out of respect to his visible employer, Shrevvy
felt it proper occasionally to show full speed by daylight. But this occasion seemed to have some
justification, as Margo gathered when the cab went winging down a ramp. From the corner where she
had telescoped, Margo managed to gasp:

"Why all the rush, Lamont?"

"We're meeting Johnny," replied Cranston. "He is seeing Kirkwood off, and he said he'd wait for me at
the train gate. I gave Shrevvy the speed sign on the chance you might want to see Kirkwood before he
left."

The cab was shrieking to a halt at the bottom of the ramp, and Margo found herself precipitated amid a
mass of redcaps. Since neither Margo nor Cranston had baggage, the porters parted, and Margo found
Cranston whisking her among a lot of train gates where an amplified voice was delivering an "All
Aboard!"

"Too late," decided Cranston. "There goes Kirkwood's train. Well, we'll look for Johnny."

Margo took a long breath and blinked. Then: