"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 023 - The Shadow's Shadow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

He raised his head quickly, and looked across the bed. The porter had dropped, gasping, into a chair, his
head buried in his hands. He was not watching Harry Vincent.

Footsteps and muffled voices were sounding in the corridor. The response from the desk had been
rapid.
Without a moment's hesitation, Harry stooped again and deftly withdrew the envelope from beneath the
unrestraining elbow. As he rose, Harry thrust the manila wrapper up beneath his vest.

When two men hurried into the room a few moments later, they discovered Harry Vincent standing
against the wall, surveying the body with a puzzled look. The porter was standing, having risen when he
heard the men rush in.

The newcomers paused. They, too, stared at the body. They saw the details.

The dead form had not been moved. The articles from the pocket were still beside the elbow. The
picture seemed complete. Only one thing was lacking—the envelope that Harry Vincent had secretly
purloined.

Only Harry knew of that envelope's existence. He had seized it instinctively, governed by an
instantaneous thought that had resolved itself into prompt duty. For, to Harry's way of thinking, that
envelope did not belong upon the floor. He had exercised a right when he had taken it.

In one brief moment he had read the words upon the envelope. He was thinking of them now, despite his
apparent calm. He was wondering about their significance. He was resolved that the very existence of
that envelope should not be known to any investigators who might appear upon that scene.

To keep that envelope was Harry's trust, for he felt that it belonged to the man whom he served. This
belief was based upon the inscription which Harry had read—words which now seemed unbelievable
with the envelope out of sight.

With half-closed eyes, Harry Vincent received a visual impression of the scrawl which he had seen, and
its blue-inked words remained in vivid import. With lips unmoving, Harry whispered the words which he
had read upon the envelope:

"To The Shadow."

A message from an unknown source; a message dropped by a dying man; a message picked up by a
secret agent, who alone could deliver it to its proper destination!

Beneath his vest, Harry Vincent held a message to The Shadow!

CHAPTER II. THE MESSAGE MOVES
A SWARTHY, heavy-set man was in charge of Room 1408 in the Metrolite Hotel. Detective Joe
Cardona, able investigator of the New York headquarters, was on the job a half hour after the report
came in. He had finished his study of the dead form on the floor. Now he prepared to question living
persons about him.

"You say you left this room at nine o'clock?"