"Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 303 - The Curse of Thoth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Maxwell)

And why not?

Often, Harry Vincent had received strange messages from his chief, The Shadow; orders that had come
at unexpected times, in unexpected places, and from unexpected sources. Perhaps Burbank, The
Shadow's contact man, had found some way to rig the wording of that sign and flash through a last
minute command.

It was Burbank who had started Harry on this mission to the Alvara Apartments, the big building just
around the next corner. Maybe Burbank had found it necessary to speed up Harry's arrival there.

Suddenly, the whole notion dispelled itself. The sign was explaining itself. Riding across it were other
words, suggesting the customers order their post-war automobiles before the supply was exhausted. That
was why the sign had first given triple emphasis to the word "Hurry!"

Harry slackened pace.

He wanted the next block to think over why he had come here and what he was going to do about it.
Basically, his situation was very simple, as simple as A B C, except that those letters weren't as simple as
they sounded.

A, B and C stood for Albersham, Barstow and Curvin, three gentlemen who had taken advantage of
their initials to form a corporation called the ABC Industries, which had suddenly loomed into
importance. Only this afternoon, the ABC Industries had become front page news in the New York
journals for a most remarkable reason.

According to report, ABC was ready to produce a new form of alloy that was so ancient that it was
really new. Their product was the sort to rouse the jealousy of modern metallurgists. Through an
eccentric professor named Rufus Parrish, the ABC syndicate had acquired the greatest secret of
legendary Egypt, that of annealing bronze so it would have a hardness superior to the finest steel.

Nor could this story be considered fanciful.

Authorities agreed that the ancient Egyptians had possessed such a process. Of all the men in America
who might have uncovered that secret, Professor Parrish rated tops. Time after time, Parrish had probed
into the secrets of the Pharaohs, violating the tombs of the high priests of the Nile, defying the curses of
the whole Egyptian pantheon.

If Professor Parrish owned such a secret, he would be a fool to part with it for anything under half a
million dollars. It happened that half a million dollars was the price that Albersham, Barstow and Curvin
had paid for the professor's secret.

There was more to the story, however; more money behind it, to be specific.

So anxious were the members of ABC to acquire all data covering their precious purchase, that they had
offered to pay cash in plenty to anyone furnishing them with data that they could add to Parrish's
information. Whoever else held the real riddle of the Sphinx would also be in the money.

There were certain men who qualified. One such man was Hugo Zerland who lived at the Alvara
Apartments. Unquestionably Zerland would take up the offer, which was why Harry Vincent had been