“Say!” Jerwyn’s voice was enthusiastic. “You’ve hit something big, Valdo. This story of yours” — he paused to eye the gypsy narrowly — “well, it’s too good to be phoney. Twenty-five grand!”
Jerwyn paced across the room. He stopped and stared at the ceiling. He began to speak aloud, letting Valdo hear the trend of his soliloquy.
“We’ll put Lorenna on the job,” remarked Jerwyn. “She’ll pump away until she finds out something. Meanwhile, we’re safe. This crook can do the work—”
Jerwyn stopped to face Valdo. His lips formed a shrewd smile.
“I’ve got to know more about these gems,” the manager asserted. “What do they look like? Can this guy describe them?”
“I think so.”
“And I’ve got to know that he’s got dough. I can use cash now, Valdo. How about five grand. Would he cough it up as an advance?”
“I think so. I can go see.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
Jerwyn stepped over and unlocked the door to the hall. He motioned to Valdo. The gypsy followed Jerwyn. The moment that they left the room, the door to the store room closed. It’s lock turned noiselessly.
The Shadow reached the hall; peering from the center door of the store room, he saw Jerwyn and Valdo turn toward the stairs. The Shadow followed. His swift, silent stride brought him close behind the two men.
“Five grand,” The Shadow could hear Jerwyn saying, “and the deal is on. If those Spanish gems are in New York, Lorenna will find out where. This crook can play his own game, Valdo. Let him lay low. But I get the cash when Lorenna gets the dope. You savvy?”
“Yes.”
“If you can make him raise the ante, do it.” Jerwyn and Valdo had turned the bottom of the stairway.
“See how much he will go over the twenty-five grand. Get me?”
“I understand.”
The Shadow had reached the bottom of the stairs. He heard these final words as Jerwyn and Valdo entered a passage that led to the side door. The Shadow moved straight ahead. He reached the front door, unlocked it and stepped out into the night. He closed the door behind him. The lock clicked as The Shadow probed it.
HARRY VINCENT, watching from across the street, saw Valdo slink from the side entrance. But he did not observe The Shadow, standing on the steps. As Valdo headed toward the avenue. The Shadow glided softly to the sidewalk. His fleeting form took the opposite direction.
A soft laugh in the darkness. The Shadow had witnessed the culmination of Valdo’s scheme. From the facts that he had learned at the Hotel Gardley, The Shadow was sure that Rodney Casper would not balk at the advance payment of five thousand dollars.
The Shadow was on his way to the sanctum. There he would gain reports from his agents; he would make his plans to watch the coming deeds. Rodney Casper, with his mission in New York; Claude Jerwyn, manager of Lorenna, the gypsy fortune teller — these were odd allies.
Valdo was the link between them. Wisely had The Shadow chosen the gypsy as the key to hidden crime!
CHAPTER VIII. THE COUNTER PLOT
THE SHADOW, in his personal investigations of crime, employed a system that had proven its worth.
To him, criminals formed human chains. His method was to concentrate upon the most important link.
Rodney Casper — Claude Jerwyn — Madame Lorenna — all were to play important parts in coming events.
Valdo, however, was the one connection. So long as The Shadow watched the gypsy, he could gain an inkling of the work which the others were performing.
Whether Valdo talked in Romany to Lorenna; in Spanish to Casper; or in English to Jerwyn — all was the same to The Shadow. A linguist of amazing ability, he knew the gypsy dialect as well as other tongues.
At the sanctum. The Shadow was to learn through Burbank that Harry Vincent had seen three persons enter and leave Jerwyn’s house. Two were the society women who had come for palm readings. The third was Valdo.
More than that: The Shadow had entered Jerwyn’s house to observe two persons there. He had seen Claude Jerwyn and Madame Lorenna. Apparently, The Shadow had accounted for all concerned.
Yet on this occasion, The Shadow had missed an important point. He would have done well had he remained at Jerwyn’s. For there lay another link in the chain of crime which was to come.
CLAUDE JERWYN, after locking the side door, went directly to the front of the house. He made sure that the front door was locked. He smiled sourly as he ascended the stairs. He went to the same room where The Shadow had seen him with Valdo. He entered and locked the door behind him.
Just within the entrance to Jerwyn’s room was the door of a closet. This was one spot that The Shadow, peering from the store room, had been unable to discern. That, perhaps, accounted for The Shadow’s departure from Jerwyn’s house. Had The Shadow spotted the closet door, it might have attracted his full observation during the talk which had passed between Jerwyn and Valdo.
Alone in his room, Jerwyn tapped twice upon the door. He stepped back. The barrier opened. A leering man shambled into view. It was Marty Lunk. The defeated mobleader faced Claude Jerwyn.
“You heard it all?” questioned the cadaverous manager.
Lunk nodded.
“Did it sound like a stall?”
“No.” Lunk spat his decision. “Do you think I’d have let that gypsy get out of here if I hadn’t figured him on the level?”
“I guess not.” agreed Jerwyn.
“You guessed right,” sneered Lunk. “Say — when you told me about this Valdo hanging around here. I never did like it. That’s why I came here — to put him on the spot. We both figured he had blabbed.”
“But when he pulled this story—”
“That was different. A guy don’t talk twenty-five grand for a stall. That was a good line you handed him — five grand in advance.”
“I knew it was all right to let him go. You could have popped out and plugged him if you hadn’t liked the idea. Well — if he’s on the level, he’ll be back. If he’s phony, he won’t do any talking.”
“On account of Lorenna.”
“Right.”
Marty Lunk pulled a cigarette from his pocket. He inserted it between his wolfish lips. He sprawled in a chair and lighted a match. Puffing his cigarette, he began to talk.
“We can use this gyp Valdo,” asserted Lunk. “Him and this smart crook that’s in back of him. I ain’t sure yet that Valdo didn’t squawk to the bulls — but it don’t matter if he did.”
Jerwyn looked puzzled. Lunk proceeded to explain.
“Maybe Valdo wanted to queer my racket,” declared the mobleader.
“Maybe he figured that if you and I were split, he wouldn’t have any trouble springing this new idea on you. But it don’t make any difference.
“Any way you look at it, we’re sitting pretty. Valdo thinks I’m crimped. Let him think it. The old game is busted; but we’re ready for a new one.”
“We are,” nodded Jerwyn. “Just the same, Marty, I’m surprised that you let Valdo go, if you still have a suspicion that he might have squealed.”
“Yeah?” Marty grunted. “What if he did squawk? This new game is worth it. Anyway — the old racket was queered — bulls or no bulls.”
“How?” questioned Jerwyn, in surprise.
“I’ll tell you,” confided Lunk. His hand was nervous as it held the half-smoked cigarette. “There was somebody got there last night ahead of the bulls — somebody that made plenty of trouble.”
“Who?”
“The Shadow!”
A PALLOR showed on Jerwyn’s long face. The manager chewed his lips as he stared incredulously.
Marty Lunk was nodding.
“The Shadow,” repeated the mobleader. “He was the guy that queered the job. What do I care for Joe Cardona?” Lunk grunted in contempt. “Say — I’d start again tomorrow night, if I only had Cardona to watch out for. But The Shadow — well, I ain’t taking no chances with him.”