"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 324 - The Black Circle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

THE BLACK CIRCLE
Maxwell Grant
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http://www.blackmask.com

? CHAPTER I. THE COFFEE POT
? CHAPTER II. AMONG THE SHADOWS
? CHAPTER III. ONE MAN MISSING
? CHAPTER IV. THE SHADOW'S THEORY
? CHAPTER V. PAWNS IN THE GAME
? CHAPTER VI. TRAILS ABOUT TOWN
? CHAPTER VII. THE DIAMOND TIARA
? CHAPTER VIII. THE CIRCLE MOVES
? CHAPTER IX. BETWEEN TWO FIRES
? CHAPTER X. CRIME IN THE DARK
? CHAPTER XI. THE BROKEN TRAIL
? CHAPTER XII. A JOB FOR THE SHADOW
? CHAPTER XIII. TRAILS CROSS AGAIN
? CHAPTER XIV. THE TRAP CLOSES
? CHAPTER XV. THE SHADOW'S PRISONER
? CHAPTER XVI. THE HIDDEN CLUE
? CHAPTER XVII. THE WRONG VENUS
? CHAPTER XVIII. CRIME ON THE BOARD
? CHAPTER XIX. FORTUNA SPEAKS AGAIN
? CHAPTER XX. THE CIRCLE'S END

CHAPTER I. THE COFFEE POT
IF FRED BLANDING hadn't lost himself in Greenwich Village that rainy night, it would be hard to guess
how far The Shadow would have gotten in his efforts to crack the riddle of the Black Circle. Until the
evening when it all began, Fred had never even heard of The Shadow or the Black Circle and Greenwich
Village was a name he only associated vaguely with New York City.

Nor had Fred ever dreamed that such peculiar byways and cul-de-sacs as Gay Street, Milligan Place
and MacDougall Alley existed in the maze of that so-called Village. Certainly, he would never have
believed that he would find himself at the corner of Fourth Street and Tenth Street, at least not in an area
so well regulated as Manhattan. But Fred unknowingly visited all those spots and others, during the
meanderings that eventually brought him to Jim's Coffee Pot.

Most of all, Fred Blanding would have liked to forget that he was ever in Jim's Coffee pot. This should
have been easy because it didn't exist, but somehow it only made it harder to forget.

It all began when Fred left the Parkview Hotel in the vicinity of Washington Square and started out to
find the Seventh Avenue Subway. As Fred wanted to go to Radio City, he would have done better to
take the Sixth Avenue Line, but since it ran beneath the Avenue of the Americas, Fred didn't know
where he was when he saw the street sign, the last sign he remembered noticing. Confused by this
misnomer, Fred crossed the avenue and found himself going along streets that angled into one another.
He discovered a diagonal avenue which he thought was Seventh but was actually Greenwich, decided he
was wrong and eventually twisted himself back into the maze of alleys.