Mox paused; then he began an explanation as he surveyed Cardona narrowly.
“This room,” he cackled, “is an elevator. It goes up, but it leaves a space, for the lever in the chimney stops it at a certain point.”
“Tonight, after I depart, I shall break that lever free. I have already loosened it. The floor of this room will go up. It will not stop. Furniture — everything — will be crushed — and Joe Cardona with it!”
Mox flourished a revolver as he spoke. There was no chance for Joe Cardona to escape the monster. With one hand, Mox piled stacks of money on the desk, chuckling as he did.
“I came for this,” he laughed. “Wealth, with which I lured inventors to their doom. The inventors are at the bottom of my pit — there in the anteroom. I have their inventions; through proxies, I can release them.
“You thought my henchmen were all slain. They were; but I had others available. Gangsters, in New York. I called them tonight, after you had told me of your plans. They were here to greet you. They are waiting below — until after midnight.”
THE hands of the clock were almost at the fatal hour. Mox arose from his desk and approached Cardona. Holding the gun in his hand, he sneered at the detective and emitted his cackled laugh. His eyes were on Cardona’s face. They noticed nothing else.
“You shall die!” chuckled Mox. “Die because you tried to thwart me. Irving Salbrook will be freed — the only man who could tell anything — and he, like Hoyt Wyngarth, never learned enough to injure me.”
“I learned plenty!” growled Joe Cardona. “I saw your game. I got the final hunch when I watched the dog. It betrayed you. If you had made a real slip, I would have denounced you then. I know you, in spite of your false beard and hair, and your crazy voice.”
“Then I shall not remove my disguise,” laughed Mox. “Since you know me, you do not have to see my real face again.”
“A clever game.” Joe was defiant. “To play the part of a man opposed to crime, and secretly commit murders of your own. Kill me, if you want — but remember — one man, at least, found out your true identity. You murderer!”
The clock was at the point of twelve. Mox chuckled. He bowed. He nudged his free hand toward the fireplace. He was about to announce his departure.
“I must inconvenience you,” he cackled, “by showing you how hard my fist can strike. That will be easy, since your hands are cuffed. You will not follow me to safety.”
Scornfully, Joe Cardona thrust out his jaw. Mox clenched his fist. Its sinews showed the strength of this pretended old man. But before the blow came, Cardona hurled his last defiance.
“I know you!” he cried. “I know you! My last act shall be to shout out your name even though no one may hear me. I know you! Junius Tharbel!”
As the name spat from Cardona’s lips, Mox replied with a hoarse, crackling laugh. His left fist swung up and clipped the detective’s chin. Joe Cardona staggered and fell down to the floor.
Junius Tharbel!
The accusing name seemed to echo as Mox turned chuckling to seize the money from the desk. Joe Cardona had played his hunch. He had used Tharbel’s own system. When the dog had made its happy leap for the county detective, Joe had gained the answer that he wanted. He had picked Tharbel as the dog’s real master.
A click resounded from the other side of the room. The noise audible despite the fatal striking of the clock, caused Mox to turn. There, in the anteroom, Mox saw The Shadow! Like a being from another world, the master had arrived to arrest the monster’s flight!
Mox did not falter. Even the sight of the threatening automatic in The Shadow’s hand did not deter him. The fiend’s hand was upon the desk. Instead of the pile of wealth, it chose the button that was close by.
With a cackling cry, this fiend whom Cardona had denounced as Junius Tharbel pressed the button. His action was answered by the sound of the opening trap. With eyes upon the button, Mox cackled. He was sending The Shadow down the shaft of doom!
CHAPTER XXII
DOOM DEFERRED
A LAUGH from the anteroom was the answer to Mox’s pressure of the button. Looking up, the disguised villain gasped. The Shadow had not dropped with the falling of the trap. He was standing, apparently in air, within the anteroom!
As Mox stooped, rigid, The Shadow spoke. His words began just as the chimes had ceased their striking. The fatal hour of twelve had passed. Mox had not delivered death at midnight.
“I remain,” declared The Shadow, in an ominous whisper. “Your trap fell, but without its burden. I have been here before you, Mox.”
Staring, Mox saw now why The Shadow had not dropped through the opened trap. The being in black was standing on two steel rods that had been fitted across the floor of the anteroom. That was the work which The Shadow had done on his visit before midnight.
“I surprised your henchmen,” sneered The Shadow, “as easily as they surprised Cardona. Shots from this floor might be heard. Those downstairs were not.”
Slowly, The Shadow advanced across the room. He avoided Cardona, who was lying groggy, on the floor, and stood face to face with Mox.
“Your game was plain,” came The Shadow’s mocking tone. “I found your records — on my first visit here. You did not have your own name marked. Wyngarth and Salbrook were ones that I discovered.
“They were not victims; nor henchmen. They were dupes, who feared you because you knew too much about them. There were times when you were forced to be away. You needed some one to play the part of Mox — to stay in your living room — guised as an old man.
“Such dupes would be useful, later on, to mark as Mox. You had two in order to be safe. Hoyt Wyngarth and Irving Salbrook. They lived here in turns. They went outside — always guarded. Thus Jarvis Moxton was seen around his home even when you were away.”
Mox snarled. His chuckle was forgotten. The Shadow had told him the truth.
“You sent Sulu to kill Harlew,” resumed The Shadow, in a taunting tone. “Your note, written in Sulu’s scrawl, was duplicated by my hand. Two men brought in their suspects. Joe Cardona matched Junius Tharbel’s measure.
“Sulu was ready to kill Hoyt Wyngarth. He succeeded. Although I was watching affairs, guised as a stranger in Darport, I did not prevent that death. Wyngarth’s foolish desire to tell his story was something unexpected.
“I suspected you from the time I saw you. But your betrayal came at the time you least expected it. Then I was sure that you were Mox. Your dog betrayed you!
“The dog liked Wyngarth. He had made friends with it. Disguise means nothing to a dog. It recognized Hoyt Wyngarth as a master. Irving Salbrook, too, when he played the part of Mox, was friendly to the dog. It recognized him as a master that it also loved.
“But when the dog came to Junius Tharbel!” The Shadow’s laugh came now as a weird, taunting whisper. “That was different. That was chance. Tharbel had been with dogs all day. Of course, it was natural that another dog should come to him!”
JOE CARDONA was sitting up. Although half groggy, he was drinking in The Shadow’s words. He saw the tall form that dominated the cowering figure of Mox. He heard the name of Junius Tharbel as The Shadow uttered it.
“You” — The Shadow’s eyes were blazing upon the fiend before him — “were the dog’s real master. It should act toward you as toward no one else. It did act so!
“You, a fiend with no human kindness in your evil heart, could never win the love of even a dog! That is why I learned your identity — when the dog cowered and crawled away as it recognized the man whose evil wrath it feared. That is how I came to know you for Mox, Cuthbert Challick!”