"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 114 - The Strange Disappearance Of Joe Cardona" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

he was entitled to full leeway. Weston had offered him complete charge of the
case; then had proceeded to crimp Cardona's favorite method of following
hunches.
Joe had made one mistake; that of revealing his first hunch. He did not
intend to repeat it. His present hunch was that too much talk of the chess
clipping clue would mean disaster. The best way to avoid such complication was
to keep his find to himself.
The clipping safely in his pocket, Joe Cardona closed the outer door of
Tabor's studio and indulged in a satisfied smile as he started down the
stairway to rejoin the awaiting police commissioner.
So intent had Cardona been with his discovery that he had failed to
notice
any sound while he was still within the anteroom. Since Joe had closed the
connecting door to the inner studio, it was no wonder that his ears had failed
to hear the noise.
The sound was a soft scrape from the skylight of the deserted studio. It
was accompanied by an odd sight; the encroachment of solid blackness from
above. The skylight had opened wider; the darkened mass that entered slowly
molded itself into a human form.
A swish followed as a tall shape dropped quietly to the floor. A tall
stranger from the night stood in the studio where death had struck. Joe
Cardona
would have recognized that arrival, had he remained to witness this entrance.
The tall being was cloaked in black. His hands were encased in thin black
gloves; his face was obscured by the upturned collar of his cloak, the
downturned brim of his black slouch hat. Yet from the space between the collar
and the brim, eyes peered so keenly that their flash was visible.
 This being of blackness was The Shadow. Master crook who hunted men of
crime, The Shadow, like the law, was on the trail of the purple death. With
contacts everywhere, The Shadow invariably learned when crime was uncovered by
the law. He had done so to-night.


ARRIVING at Tabor's studio, The Shadow had passed policemen stationed
outside while the commissioner was present. He had chosen his own route to
reach the scene of crime; namely, by the roof. Finding the skylight that
Cardona had opened, The Shadow had looked in and listened while Cardona had
summarized the circumstances of Frederick Tabor's death.
Men of the law had gone. It was The Shadow's turn to study the premises;
to learn what other clues might be present. Conversant with Cardona's full
report, The Shadow had gained a distinct advantage before beginning his
search.
Nevertheless, The Shadow had entered too late to peer into the anteroom
in
order to learn of Cardona's secret clue.
A simple item, that clipped fragment of a newspaper; yet it could produce
complications in the quest to learn the source of crime. Held by Cardona, that
clipped chess problem promised trouble to its finder.
Far better that The Shadow should have gained it; for he alone could have
used the clue to full advantage.