from the .45 had winged home. Wavering on the car top, the crook shrieked
happily when he saw The Shadow go. Then, collapsing suddenly, the thug went
flopping as the clatter of the wheels renewed their former heavy cadence.
Sprawling from the car, the staggered crook hit the rock ballast headlong,
the smash completing the job that The Shadow's bullet had begun. For the change
in the song of the car wheels, the renewal of their battering clang, meant that
the train had passed across the bridge that The Shadow recognized from the
altered tune.
The Shadow hadn't traveled that far along the right of way. He was showing
what could happen to those who chose the way of right. From far behind the
speeding freight and many feet below, came a resounding splash, as a plunging
form hit the river that passed beneath the branch line bridge.
Briefly, grim silence hovered over the water's darkened surface. The train,
with Chet Conroy still a passenger, was whistling mournfully for a distant road
crossing, when a new sound stirred the stream beneath the bridge.
Weird, like a ghostly answer to the fading whistle, yet with a tone as firm
and strident, came the token of the mighty fighter who had survived battle
unscathed, to renew his warfare against crime.
That tone was the laugh of The Shadow, the challenging mirth that evil
could not drown!
CHAPTER V
CROOKED JUNCTION
THEY called it Crooked Junction, where the branch line met the main pike.
Chet Conroy had heard the name mentioned, but he'd never seen the place before.
Crooked Junction was well named. Here the branch line followed the river
bend through the rugged New Jersey hills. The single track was picked up by two
others that had once been the main line, before the Jersey Western built its
famous cut-off.
From the doorway of the box car, Chet saw the rusted tracks of the old main
line and mistook them for sidings. In fact, they were used as such and looked
the part. Once those tracks had emerged from a tunnel, right into Crooked
Junction. But the tunnel mouth had caved because of disuse and was now a mass of
fallen earth and rock that formed a natural bumper at the end of the double
siding.
The new main line came in a mile ahead, crossing the river on a high level
bridge. But the freight halted before it reached the new junction. Again, the
crew horsed her over, and during the reversal Chet heard wheels grind as the
cars veered. A brakeman had dropped off to switch the rear cars onto one of the
rusted sidetracks.
Since those rear cars represented the consignment from the Pyrolac factory,
Chet decided to stay with them. As soon as the train stopped, Chet dropped off,
found some sheltering bushes where the old tracks curved toward the solid
hillside, and stowed himself from sight while the cars were being uncoupled.
The darkness was thick without the bushes, but Chet feared that passing
lanterns might betray him if he didn't take to cover. However, the only lantern
that did pass was a red one, swung by the brakeman who had gone back to pull the
