THERE were yells from near the dock, coupled with gunshots. The dock itself was in darkness; so was the peculiar craft beside it. In that boat were two men, reserves of the crew that had come ashore. They saw The Shadow moving in upon their pals.
With a quick whirl, The Shadow returned the fire. His shots clanged steel-the low deck of the imitation lake monster. There wasn't time for more fire in that direction. The men at the trees had wheeled, too.
They had to be settled rapidly.
They heard Rundon's cry to Lois, a frantic one, inserted at the crucial instant:
"Back to the cabin! Don't let them get hold of you!"
But Lois wouldn't listen. She tried to drag Rundon with her. With one accord, the crooks converged upon the girl, not merely for her capture. They guessed that if they congregated around Lois and Rundon, The Shadow couldn't risk shots in their direction.
They made one mistake. In their haste, they did not fire at The Shadow. He took advantage of the momentary break. A streak of living blackness, he flung himself for the same goal. As the crooks reached Lois and Rundon, The Shadow was among them.
There was a clash of swinging guns. The Shadow started it, and his opponents, somewhat short on bullets, answered in kind. In toward the swirl came Harry Vincent; out of it came Lois Melvin. Spying Harry's dart, The Shadow had twisted the girl free and flung her to his agent.
Lois settled limply in Harry's arms. She had taken a glancing blow from a gun. Harry swung her from her feet, dropped her past the corner of the cabin, then wheeled about to aid The Shadow. Harry thought that his part was to be a minor one; instead, it was a lifesaver. If ever The Shadow had needed aid, it was then.
Some crook had gotten in a lucky gun stroke. The Shadow was reeling, blindly. He had struck a tree, but couldn't even grasp it to find shelter behind it. A pair of thugs were rallying, to aim at the cloaked foe who had almost demolished them.
Harry filled the breach with the most ardent rapid fire that he had ever supplied. He didn't care about anyone, Rundon included, when The Shadow's life was at stake. Harry would have delivered that heartfelt barrage even if Lois had still been a prisoner.
He was pumping with a fresh gun, stopping each recoil with a trigger tug. His aim was a trifle high, but it counted just the same. With bullets whining inches above their heads, the crooks did not stop to argue.
The wounded pressed those who were aiming at The Shadow; they all went reeling away from the glare of the searchlight.
It was a strange flight. Of six men, two were crippled, another pair groggy, from the hammering of The Shadow's guns. They were actually propelled by the final pair, who had tried to finish The Shadow. In the mass was Rundon, stumbling helplessly, tripping over the rifle that his hands lost as he moved.
If only the men from the boat coming from the Community Center had turned their searchlight on those fugitives, complete victory would have been obtained. Instead, they had beached the boat near the speedster, and the lot of them were piling out, knee-deep in the water. They made a blundering crowd as they came ashore, blocking Harry's chances to fire beyond.
Sweeping Lois with him, Harry reached The Shadow, to find the cloaked fighter halfway to his feet.
Despite his daze, The Shadow somehow sized the case. Gripping Harry, he pointed to the speedboat.
They made for it, taking Lois on board with them. Seeing The Shadow lift a gun with renewed strength, Harry sprang to the wheel.
It took him too many seconds to get the hang of the boat; when he started the motor, he had to work it in reverse, to get clear of the gravel where Lois had beached it. By the time the craft was out from the shore, men were shouting along the dock: but they were the wrong crowd.
Aided by the two men who awaited them, Rundon's captors had clambered into the mystery boat. The yelling men were the ones from the Community Center, and they hadn't an idea of what had happened to the others. Smooth as ever, the so-called lake monster had slithered away.
People had seen it on other nights, but only when searchlights had happened to pick up the craft. Tonight, the only searchlight was turned toward shore. But from The Shadow's speedboat, as it swung out into the lake, a streak of foam was visible.
The Shadow's head had cleared; his eyes were as keen as ever. He saw that the trail was hopeless; the other craft had gotten too long a start upon his boat. But he could mark the direction that the departing boat had taken-toward an island farther down the lake.
Lois Melvin did not hear the whispered laugh that The Shadow uttered. She was limp and senseless.
Only Harry Vincent heard it and understood.
Despite the getaway that the crooks had managed, The Shadow could count this night a gain. The abduction of Niles Rundon, like that of Howard Carradon, could be nullified in proper time.
The Shadow knew.
CHAPTER XI. THE PROFESSOR AGREES.
Lois awoke, the next morning, with a very bad headache. She was in her room at the Community Center lodge, the little hotel connected with the Calada Colony, and the fact puzzled her considerably. She had many hazy recollections of the night before, but couldn't remember arriving in the room.
She was trying to dismiss the whole thing as a dream, when she happened to look at the clothes on the chair beside her bed. Instead of her dark-blue dress, she saw her camping outfit.
The whole nightmarish sequence came back clearly. She remembered Paula Lodi's; the dock at Scorpio's, where she had left her other clothes. She recalled events at Rundon's; finally, she remembered returning here to the lodge. She had said good night to some friends, who had brought her back in Scorpio's speedboat.
Lois had been very tired. She had been asking about Niles Rundon, wondering what had become of him.
That was the only thing she couldn't remember; and her questions hadn't been answered. Her headache was lessening, as her recollections cleared.
Anxious to learn what had happened to Niles, Lois hurriedly brought clothes from the closet, dressed, and went downstairs.
People were waiting to see her when she reached the dining room. Lois knew two of them as members of the committee which Niles Rundon had joined. One was Hugo Grendale, the other Henry Denwood.
With Denwood was a man whom Lois remembered even better: Lamont Cranston. She smiled when she saw him, to show that she was still grateful for his rescue on the diving plane.
They wanted to hear her story and Lois gave it, in perfect detail, up to the point where she and Rundon had been struggling in the hands of captors. Grendale and Denwood left to make telephone calls; turning to Cranston, Lois queried anxiously:
"What about Niles? Is he-"
"He is quite safe," interposed Cranston, calmly. "As safe as Howard Carradon."
"Do you mean that they abducted Niles, too?"
"Yes. Instead of you."
Lois shuddered. Cranston's calm gaze steadied her. Oddly, worries seemed to end with Cranston; perhaps because Lois still recalled the amazing finish of the airplane trip. She wanted to question him further; but, by then, Denwood and Grendale had returned.
"We've checked on Rufus," declared Grendale. "The fellow skipped. But Paula is giving the horoscope to the sheriff. We'll meet him at Scorpio's."
The bearded professor received them very cordially in his reception room at the Castle. Adversity seemed to add to Scorpio's suavity. He seemed quite intrigued with the horoscope that the sheriff brought. He tested its secret ink over the heat of an electric toaster.
"Quite cute of Rufus and his friend," said Scorpio; "to intercept my notes to Paula Lodi and fix them up as secret messages. Didn't you say that Rufus had a pal with him"-the professor turned to Lois-"when he fired at you from my dock?"