"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 272 - King of the Black Market" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

KING OF THE BLACK MARKET
by Maxwell Grant

As originally published in "The Shadow Magazine," October 1943.

Not just the life or death of one individual or one group, but the life
or
death of the entire country was at stake as The Shadow battled this evil
genius
who sought everything for himself, regardless of the danger to a country at
war!


CHAPTER I

CRIME POINTS THE FINGER

AGAINST the gathering dusk, the lights of the Pyrolac Co. formed a solid
array that spoke of overtime. Every window in the outspread buildings was
aglow,
proving that this plant was doing its utmost to crack whatever bottlenecks it
could.
There was further proof of Pyrolac's importance.
Around the plant, a wall surmounted with barbed wire was patrolled by
armed
guards, whose presence marked Pyrolac as a vital industry. The wall was broken
only by a huge steel gate, at present open but well guarded. Through the gate
ran a siding from the railroad that passed the humming factory.
A switching engine was backing through the gate to pick up a short string
of box cars, to take them for a mile haul down to the yards, where a freight
would pick them up for a run across New Jersey to a junction with a trunk
line.
By tomorrow, Pyrolac would be racing on its way to serve as airplane dope
and play its part in paint jobs at the shipyards. Another batch of freight
cars
would be loading for another night trip to supply the hungry needs of those
essential industries.
As a quick-drying, weatherproof lacquer, nothing could equal Pyrolac. It
was costly, but worth the price. Those who thought so were the men who knew,
and
Chet Conroy was one of them.
From his office near an inner corner of the yard, Chet watched the
switcher
coast in through the gate and felt a surge of satisfaction. They'd said that
Pyrolac wouldn't deliver its full quota for another three months, but Chet had
done his part in showing it could be done. For weeks, the stuff had been going
out in carloads, to a total value that would soon be represented by figures as
high as the numbers on the cars themselves.
Though Chet Conroy was young, he held an important job. More important
than