"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 298 - The Stars Promise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

Then, in an even tone that interrupted Margo before she managed to speak, Cranston announced:

"I shall tell you why we are coming to Seaview City. A dead man sent us."

Margo's undelivered exclamation transformed itself into a gasp.

"A dead man!" Margo heard herself saying it. "Then - you mean there's been murder in Seaview City?"

"I said a dead man sent us," Cranston reminded, "not that one brought us."

To Margo, that detail was more astounding than the statement that produced it, at least until Cranston
specified the person.

"Odd that you should have forgotten so soon," remarked Cranston, casually. "Hugo Trenkler died only
this morning."

It wasn't that Margo had forgotten Hugo Trenkler; she just hadn't imagined the connection. She started to
say so, then decided to let Lamont do the talking, since the train was now half way across the Meadows
and minutes were becoming few.

"Nothing ominous about Trenkler's death," declared Cranston. "The doctors expected it, but they hadn't
broken the news. He was just a little ahead of schedule, like this train."

As he spoke, Cranston produced his watch to show that there were a few more minutes than Margo
expected. As if timed to the action, the streamliner slackened speed. Relaxing with a smile, Margo shook
her head. She'd never known Cranston to miss with a display of casual dramatics.

"Go on about Trenkler," suggested Margo. "I know you went over to his house to make sure his curio
collection was safe, but that was after he had died. So Trenkler couldn't have told you anything."

"Neither did his collection," added Cranston. "It is gone - like Trenkler."

"You mean - stolen?"

"Sold, to the last item, with the money deposited in the bank. Trenkler did fairly well disposing of it. He
took in better than one hundred thousand dollars."

Margo's new frown was of the recollective type. She was trying to think of Hugo Trenkler minus a curio
collection. It just didn't fit, for Trenkler had been a miser when it came to curios. Margo could picture his
place as she had last seen it, a veritable potpourri of oddities that old Trenkler had gathered from all over
the world.

"As a curio," defined Cranston, "Trenkler was probably the best in his collection. He was the hook that
gathered things by crook, or vice versa."

"You mean his house was full of stolen goods?"

"Practically," nodded Cranston, "considering the way he swapped bad items for good. I'd been watching
Trenkler for quite some time, expecting him to step too far out of line."