"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 015 - Green Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

"Wait a moment!" The clerk pretended to make a sudden discovery. "Here you are, sir - Room 806. A
very nice room, Mr. Arnaud."

The guest seemed highly pleased, and turned his bag over to the waiting bell boy. The clerk called out the
number of the room, and Henry Arnaud started to the elevator. The clerk shrugged his shoulders.

There was a very definite reason why Room 806 was vacant. Until a few nights ago, it had been
occupied by Stephen Laird. That guest had left the Aldebaran one evening to take the Mountain Limited
for Chicago.

The police at Truckee had discovered an envelope in Laird's pocket, marked with the number of the
room and the name of the hotel at which he had stopped in San Francisco.

So, on the following morning, the police of the coast city had called at the Aldebaran to search the room
for clews that might lead to a solution of the murder of Stephen Laird. The room had been bare of
evidence, and the clerk had been instructed to keep it vacant for a few days.

There was no ban now; but 806 was not to be offered to a guest without good excuse for so doing. The
excuse had worked excellently tonight. Henry Arnaud had insisted upon an eighth-story room; he had
received the only one available.

The clerk's eyes scanned the lobby. He wanted to be sure that the issuing of Room 806 had caused no
comments. Many of the guests at the Aldebaran were permanents who might talk about the fact that
Laird had lived there almost until the time of his murder.

One man who had been reading a newspaper was strolling from the lobby; no others showed any sign of
activity.

MEANWHILE, Henry Arnaud had reached Room 806. The room occupied a corner of the hotel. One
window opened on the front street; the other covered a vacant lot.

The room was small. It had no bath. A large wardrobe stood in the corner, in lieu of a closet. The only
modern touch to this room was a reading lamp on a small table beside the single bed.

Yet Arnaud did not appear dissatisfied with his quarters. He tipped the bell boy and carefully locked the
door after the attendant had left the room. He seated himself in a chair beside the bed. He took an old
newspaper from the pocket of his light overcoat.

As Arnaud spread the paper, his eyes rested upon a paragraph relating to the death of Stephen Laird. It
was an exact account of the man's demise, and gave the conductor's version of everything he had heard
the dying man say.

What was the meaning of the statement, "Tag A," the last message that Laird had tried to give? That was
a mystery. The newspaper paragraph also stated that the envelope scrawled with 806, Aldebaran Hotel,
had been found in the dead man's pocket.

Henry Arnaud smiled as he scanned that notice. It explained his presence here tonight. He had chosen
this room by design, not by accident.