"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 291 - Teardrops of Buddha" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

TEAR-DROPS OF BUDDHA
by Maxwell Grant

As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," May 1945.

A fantastic smuggling scheme involves The Shadow in his most dangerous
assignment - to solve the secret of twelve, glowing tears!


CHAPTER I

THE clerk at the Hotel Argonne shook his head.
"Sorry, no more rooms."
Ted Trent turned and looked at the triple line of bags that flooded the
center of the lobby. Then he took another look for Cecil Grenshaw. No matter
how much the clerk might mean it, Grenshaw was the sort who could make him
change his mind.
Fixing such matters had been Grenshaw's specialty in the Orient; he
certainly shouldn't have lost his touch in New York.
Just then Ted saw Grenshaw, turning from the hat-check room just outside
the entrance to the cafe lounge - Grenshaw, with his florid face, his
pince-nez
glasses with their gold chain, and the gray hat and coat that Ted had last
seen
him wearing in Sydney, Australia.
Grenshaw - except that his manner was hasty and nervous, which didn't fit
with Grenshaw at all. He was sliding something into an envelope, which he
sealed as he came toward Ted, and with every step, the florid man darted
quick,
furtive glances back and forth across the lobby.
In fact, Grenshaw didn't see Ted at all until he bumped right into him;
then, in response to the shoulder-clap that Ted gave him, Grenshaw almost
caved. His face took on an apoplectic expression that caused Ted to grab him
with a pair of brawny, steadying hands.
"You're all right, Mr. Grenshaw?"
Then, as the man steadied, Ted added:
"You remember me, don't you? Ted Trent, the second mate on the Bohemia?
I'm the fellow who helped get the crew together and unload that shipment, down
in Sydney."
Grenshaw's wits were coming back. He recognized Ted's broad, tanned face
with the friendly grin that made those features rugged rather than rough;
handsome in a weatherbeaten way. Ted's eyes, too, had an honest look that
Grenshaw recalled.
"Yes, I remember you," said Grenshaw. "Only you were in the merchant
marine when I saw you last. Now that you aren't in uniform -"
He hesitated, only to see Ted's smile remain.
"I'm only waiting my chance for a skipper's berth," explained Ted.
"Things
broke my way faster than I expected, including my getting back to old New
York.