The paragraph then read:
A us(3)ual characteristic of this si(10)gn is medium height, few persons being over five feet ni(6)ne. It is not me(1)et f(9)or them to worry a(2)t trifles: they should wa(8)tch their action, a(7)nd pl(4)ace confidence in friends, be(5)fore making decisions.
In rotation, from one to ten, the words spelled a message:
Meet at usual place before nine and watch for sign.
Lois turned from the fireplace. Nearing the bookshelf, she glanced at the horoscope again. The brownish numerals had faded from the important paragraph. She recognized that they were in a sympathetic ink that appeared under heat but faded when the paper cooled.
Hurriedly thrusting the paper where she had found it, Lois went out to the veranda just as Rufus returned.
Lois linked the obvious. The chart was one of Professor Scorpio's. Rufus had held it by the fire to read it.
There must be some connection between Scorpio and Paula's servant. As for the meeting place in the note, Lois could guess it: Scorpio's Castle.
Starting down the path, Lois used a flashlight to pick a side route. It was a little-used path along the water, that led to the Castle, nearly a mile away, on this same shore of the lake. Lois knew the path, was sure she could cover the ground in ten minutes. She wouldn't have to worry about the flashlight, she thought, as she neared the Castle.
From the dock, Harry watched the light dwindle among the trees. He did not follow; instead, he sneaked toward the boathouse and produced his own flashlight, intending to signal The Shadow as soon as the speedboat came close enough.
Suspecting that the person on the path was Lois, Harry darted occasional glances to make sure that no light followed the girl's. He saw none; hence reasoned that she was safe for the time being. But Harry could not observe what happened in the Lodi hacienda.
Rufus had stopped by the bookshelf. He noted the horoscope turned askew; drew it out far enough to notice dim marks in brown, that should have faded completely several minutes before.
Unobserved by Paula, the servant entered a darkened room, looked off in the direction of Scorpio's Castle. He caught the last twinkles of Lois' flashlight.
Easing the door shut, Rufus sidled to a telephone and made a prompt call, speaking in a whisper that he confined to the mouthpiece. He reported that Lois had intercepted the message and had started for the Castle. Rufus finished that call with a low chuckle.
It was only eight o'clock, an hour before the scheduled meeting time. But there would be a meeting, and not a usual one, in advance of nine.
Others would be promptly on their way, to handle this emergency. If he could get away conveniently, Rufus intended to join them. Their new purpose would be to put an end to Lois' expedition before she interfered with previous plans.
On this occasion, Rufus was quite sure that neither he nor his comrades in crime would meet with interference from The Shadow.
CHAPTER IX. DOUBLE FLIGHT.
THERE were lights on Scorpio's dock when Lois neared it. The fact puzzled her, for the moonlight showed the professor's own speedboat moored off shore, and Lois could hear the lap of water against its sides. The Professor's craft was small and rakish, about the fastest thing on the lake. It was one that Paula had given him.
Stealing closer through the trees, Lois saw why Scorpio had no need for his own boat. A compact cabin cruiser was at the dock; it supplied the lights that Lois observed. Some of the professor's loyal disciples had come to take him to the lecture. He was standing there, wearing an oversized turban, his two Hindus with him.
Lois watched the cruiser chug away. She remembered that Scorpio's lecture began at nine, and would take at least an hour. He wouldn't be back until ten-thirty, and his servants would be gone that long, too.
It was rather puzzling, considering the secret message that had come to Paula's.
Suddenly, Lois had a likely answer.
Professor Scorpio was under suspicion; his servants likewise. He might fear that his Castle was being watched. If so, he would be making a grave mistake to meet with his accomplices. But that would not prevent them from meeting on their own, at his order. Perhaps special instructions awaited them in the Castle.
It might mean opportunity for Lois. With nearly a half hour to spare, she could enter the Castle; if she didn't find anything, she could hide and witness the coming meeting. With that plan in mind, the girl crept up the slope.
Lois hadn't bargained with her own imagination. At the shore, the purr of motors, the lap of the lake ripples, had been contact with life. All that was gone. Wooded silence was deadly. She felt dwarfed by the giant California pines towering above her.
The Castle reared up like an awaiting monster. Its stony hulk resembled a crouching sphinx come suddenly to life, ready to devour her. Shuddering, Lois took a while to regain her nerve; then she advanced, careful not to use her flashlight.
She found the front door too formidable. Skirting the Castle, she was nearing a rear door, feeling along the stone walls, which had a clammy touch. Her head brushed a strip of wood. Lifting her hand, she found the strip to be the ledge of a small window. Probing, it swung inward and upward; even better, it was loose!
Lois paused long enough to reassure herself that no one could see her enter. She was wearing a dark-blue dress; her rubber-soled camp shoes were dark too, like her stockings. Her black hair helped; no one could see her face if she turned toward the window.
Drawing herself up to the high ledge, the girl pushed her hands through and swung the sash inward. Its hinges creaked; then Lois was gripping the sill within. She was halfway through the window, when a horror froze her.
In the thick gloom of that room, Lois was staring into a face that looked back with a gaze as petrified as her own!
The face was chalkish, but it couldn't have been whiter than the girl's. Teetered on the window ledge, Lois felt balanced between life and death. With a valiant shove of her numbed fingers, she gave herself an outward thrust, landing on the turf beneath the window.
She had a fleeting glimpse, as she went, of the other face, recoiling deeper into the room. That recollection saved her nerve. The horror, whatever it was, had been afraid of her; therefore, it couldn't have been as terrible as it looked.
Was it an artificial spook, placed there by Scorpio to scare off prowlers? A thing actuated by the lift and fall of the sash, so that it came forward and then returned?
Perhaps it was simpler than that. It could have been her own reflection, from a mirror that Scorpio had set inside the window. Yet Lois could hardly believe that her imagination had rendered her own face as hideous as the visage she had seen.
Satisfied, however, that trickery was the answer, she resolved to try another entry, this time using the flashlight. Pushing her hand through the window, she pressed the switch. The light showed a small, square room, empty except for a cot in the corner.
No mechanical ghost; no mirror. But Lois dropped outside again. There had been something in that room; something that lived. Perhaps the human horror was more afraid than she was.
Lois listened. She heard it creep inside the house, along a passage. It was moving toward the rear door, past a corner of the irregularly shaped Castle. Lois could hear the grating noise of a bolt being drawn; the click of a big doorknob. A wave of triumph seized the girl.
The horror was trying to escape her!
Quickly, Lois rounded the corner, just as the door creaked open. She saw an upright oblong of blackness, then a white face that shifted outward. The door was creaking shut when Lois pressed her flashlight switch again. The beam spread squarely on the closing door.