"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 237 - Alibi Trail" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Impetuously, Brenz snatched the telephone from Fitzcroft's hands and roared into the mouthpiece.

"So you think you can get away with it!" shouted Brenz. "Well, we'll know by tomorrow if you do. This is
Brenz talking, and whatever I do, I keep my hands clean. I'd like to see you do the same."

Brenz paused abruptly and suddenly flung the telephone on the table. It was Fitzcroft who asked, wisely:

"What did Lambron say?"
"He hung up," snapped Brenz. "So that's the end of it! The end of this meeting, too, because if you're
waiting for Hubert Purnell, he won't be here. I phoned him around three o'clock, and when he heard
about the Lambron mess, he said you could hold it but he wouldn't attend, because we couldn't settle
anything with this cloud hanging over us. Purnell decided to drive down to Washington and attend to
some of the pressing matters there."

Turning on his heel, Brenz spoke to his chauffeur: "Come along, Richtle." Together, the two left the
meeting room, and in a little while the others decided to do the same. As Fitzcroft put it, they might do
without either Brenz or Lambron, but certainly not without Purnell.

Down in the cafe lounge, Cranston found Margo still looking from the window, expecting to see Purnell,
though it was nearly quarter of seven. Remarking that Purnell wasn't coming, Cranston next suggested
that they dine in the cafe lounge. Margo agreeing, they didn't even bother to change tables.

It wasn't long before Margo noticed that Cranston was still watching from the window. She asked him
why, since Purnell wouldn't be along.

"I'm watching for Donald Kerring," stated Cranston. "He rates high in the association, and it's odd he
didn't come over to the meeting. You know the chap I mean - Kerring, the one they tried to reach in
Philadelphia before they called Lambron."

"But didn't they decide that Kerring would think the trip useless, with Lambron in such a mess?"

"Yes. But I'm not sure that Kerring would have seen it that way. He's one of the capable members of the
association. Kerring, Fitzcroft, and a third man, Dryne, are the ones who have been keeping check on
Lambron and Brenz. I think that Kerring should have felt it his duty to attend this meeting."

Half past eight. Cranston and Margo had finished dinner, with no sign of Kerring. As they started from
the hotel, Cranston stopped in the lobby and put in a call to Kerring's Philadelphia residence, with no
answer forthcoming. Outside the door, he paused, noticed that the weather had cleared. Then:

"A good evening for a drive," said Cranston. "Suppose we take one, Margo. To Philadelphia, to drop in
on Donald Kerring and get some facts regarding Lambron that none of the New Yorkers seem to know,
or care, about."

Margo nodded. She liked the idea. It reminded her of other times when she had set out on trails with The
Shadow. But this trail was to prove different than most of those that Cranston took. It was a trail back
into the past.

The real goal upon which all depended was six o'clock, the hour of doom that The Shadow had missed
while he and Margo had been staring so idly from the window of the cafe lounge!