He made the move.
Rising from the pit beside the wall, The Shadow glimmered a flashlight upon the nearest crooks. From his lips came a strident challenge - a taunting laugh that none could mistake. As answering lights burned toward the wall, The Shadow started fire with an automatic.
A dozen gunmen saw their black clad foe. They opened a rapid barrage with their revolvers. The Shadow dropped through the opening as the first wild bullets zipped. The cement barrier slithered shut above him. A minute later mobsters were at the wall, setting a charge to blast the sidewalk.
Back in his sanctum, The Shadow heard the muffled boom. It had worked as he wanted. Vengeful crooks were coming through. They had found a route to the sanctum. They wanted to trap The Shadow there.
That meant that the big explosion would be delayed. Men of evil could not dynamite the entire building, while half of their horde was inside.
IN the sanctum, The Shadow glimmered a flashlight upon another corner. There stood a large metal filing cabinet - high, deep, with four strong drawers. The Shadow pulled out the drawers like steps.
Using the broad front edges, he ascended. He moved a portion of the ceiling above his head. A moment later, he was in a thickish passage, with a wall beyond. The Shadow slithered a steel barrier to one side.
He sprang through into a dimly lighted inside passage.
The Shadow had come out near the side door of the office building. His secret panel was located beneath the stairway. It was only a dozen feet to the door; but the way was blocked. Thugs shouted from the main corridor; others sprang in from the side alley. Another armed dozen stood on hand to block The Shadow.
Swinging his hand from right to left, The Shadow jabbed challenging shots; then bounded back through the opening beneath the stairs.
Gunmen fired. Their bullets clanged the barrier as it rode into place. A few moments later, they were hammering the steel panel with their guns, shouting for experts to come and "soup" it.
Down in the sanctum, The Shadow heard the blast that came from above. His attackers had blown the inside entrance like they had handled the one outside. The Shadow paid little attention. He was busy.
From the filing cabinet, he was pulling out sheaves of papers that he needed, stuffing them temporarily beneath his cloak.
Foemen were hammering at the barrier beyond the curtains. Others were pounding the ceiling above the filing cabinet. The Shadow moved swiftly to the end wall of the sanctum. He parted curtains to reveal a small door. He slid it open; turned on lights.
Black walls glistened. So did benches, tables, other items of equipment; all were of black metal or smooth enamel.
This was The Shadow's laboratory. He had a use for it. He brought big beakers from shelves; poured out mixtures that fizzed in hydrometer jars. The Shadow lighted Bunsen burners. Though his actions were performed with amazing speed, his work seemed effortless.
Soon, the steel door of the laboratory slid shut. Its closing was drowned by the fierce hisses that came from the hydrometer jars. A thickening odor filled the lab. It was sweetish; but too much so to be pleasant.
That smell did not reach the sanctum. All remained silent in that black-shrouded room. Ominous minutes ticked past. They foretold that something was due. At the end of four such minutes, double disaster struck.
A SHARP blast shook the door behind the corner curtains. There was a pause; then a similar explosion sounded from the ceiling above the file cabinet. Half a minute later, invaders were pouring in from two directions.
They made their way through the remnants of the lower door. Others came down like monkeys, from the shattered ceiling. Lights shone on all the interior walls of the sanctum.
There was The Shadow's table, the lamp above it. The earphones, hanging on the wall beside the signal light. The filing cabinet, over which crooks had clambered.
There were other items; one, a small black coffer that contained The Shadow's archives.
Thugs glared suspiciously at the black drapes lining the walls, as if they expected The Shadow to blaze shots through those shrouding sable curtains. The invaders were ready to riddle the hangings, just as a precaution, when a harsh voice gave them orders.
It was Strampf. He came down through the opening above the file cabinet. At his command, henchmen covered every corner with their guns, while others ripped away the black curtains. Bare walls showed instead, except at one end of the sanctum. There, Strampf saw the closed door of the laboratory.
The cadaverous fellow chuckled. Strampf knew that the door could open only to an inner room. Crooks had found the only two ways that could possibly be exits from the sanctum.
Strampf ordered the thugs to roll up the curtains; also the black, tufted carpet that covered the floor.
Those bundles went up through the ceiling, where newcomers were working with an electric drill to widen the opening. Strampf sent the table up afterward; then the coffer.
While the drill's rattle continued, Strampf pulled open the drawers of the filing cabinet.
He found each drawer stuffed with records, arranged in classifications and subdivided into alphabetical groups. After that inspection, Strampf closed the drawers and ordered men to hoist the cabinet up through the hole.
It took four men to do it, for the cabinet was of heavy steel; but the hole had been enlarged sufficiently to take the cabinet through.
A ladder came down after the cabinet was gone. Strampf beckoned to the men with the drill. They descended, bringing a long insulated cord with them. They shoved the drill over to the laboratory door, where they saw Strampf point. The stooped man gave the order:
"Cut through it!"
The drill began its bite, slicing deep into the steel. Behind the men who handled it were six others, all with leveled revolvers. In a semicircle, they were aiming toward the yielding door.
Two more arrived with a big cylinder that had a hose and nozzle. They were ready to squirt poison gas into the lab, as soon as a hole had opened.
Behind the evil group stood Strampf, his eyes livid with eager pleasure. Turned to crime, that genius no longer limited himself to clockwork investigation methods. He was finding joy in the fruits of his own ugly labors.
Within a few minutes, Strampf would finish the deed that many had tried, but none had completed.
Though his name was unknown to these crooks who took orders from him, they would spread his name throughout the underworld.
Strampf was to be known as the man who gave death to The Shadow!
CHAPTER XIII. BELOW AND ABOVE
AS soon as a chunk dropped from the center of the steel door, Strampf and the others saw the glow of the laboratory lights. Cautious eyes took quick peeks into the inner room. Strampf stepped forward to view the sight for himself.
Those lights were clouded by a smoky vapor that filled the laboratory. Even the fizzing hydrometer jars were covered by the whitish gas. The roaring Bunsen burners made arrowlike tufts of flame amid the smoke. Strampf sniffed the heavy, sweetish odor. He stepped back.
That gas would put one to sleep, and more. Somewhere in the settling cloud, Strampf could picture The Shadow, prone on the floor. Rather than be met with bullets in a hopeless battle, The Shadow had chosen suicide. So Strampf reasoned, assuming that an oversupply of the sweet gas would be deadly.
There was another possibility. The gas might not prove fatal. Perhaps The Shadow hoped that his enemies would give him up for dead; and leave him to revive later.
Taking another look Strampf saw an obscure black object at the far end of the smoke-filled laboratory.
It was visible only when the gas took a chance swirl. Strampf was convinced that he saw the huddled shape of The Shadow.