Pinkey found his voice. He spat the name: "The Shadow!" But the racketeer's words were weak.
They were drowned by the strident challenge that came from The Shadow's own lips!
CHAPTER XXI
FORGOTTEN CRIME
THOUGHTS were drumming through Pinkey's brain - thoughts that he didn't like. He realized that The Shadow had been here all along; that he had talked to Jondran while Pinkey and Slick were waiting in the reception room.
That was all part of the build-up for the pay-off that The Shadow wanted.
Jondran had cooperated, by telling The Shadow about the unfinished vault.
A neat game. One that ought to have forced Pinkey to quit. Perhaps it would have, if Pinkey hadn't caught a sudden brain wave. He realized that he still held a threat.
That threat was the envelope in Pinkey's own pocket: the one with the evidence incriminating four men who were important in Jondran's big business enterprises.
And Jondran had overplayed the bluff. He had chucked the other envelope in
the fire!
With that deed, Jondran had destroyed the only evidence that could save his huge corporation. He had evidently made the gesture to strengthen his bluff. No wonder; he had The Shadow with him. But he'd given Pinkey an opportunity.
If Pinkey could only get out of this tight spot, he would still be able to
bring Jondran to terms.
Slowly, Pinkey backed away from The Shadow's guns. He tried to make his retreat seem a fear inspired action; but all the while, Pinkey was remembering that he had two men with him. He could depend on Slick and Bugs; and he knew that Bugs had a gun crew in readiness.
But that wasn't the only way in which Bugs counted. Bugs was dumb enough to be what Pinkey termed a "fall guy;" which meant that Bugs would bear the brunt when The Shadow attacked.
Almost at the door, Pinkey made a sudden sidestep. He grabbed Bugs, who was on his left. Making a gesture with his own gun, Pinkey shouted:
"Get The Shadow!"
Bugs lunged forward. He was aiming as he came; but his shot never reached The Shadow. A big automatic spoke; Bugs went sprawling, his own gun toppling at
an angle toward the floor. He served one purpose, though, in that mad endeavor.
Pinkey was out through the doorway before Bugs fell. Wisely, the big-shot had ducked behind Bugs.
As he scrambled across the anteroom, Pinkey found a man beside him. He gave hurried approvaclass="underline"
"Good work, Slick! You made it, too! Come on - give a yell for the crew and we'll go back after The Shadow!"
The mob was coming without call. They had heard the sound of gunfire.
They
were piling in through the front door, all five of them. Pinkey pointed them toward Jondran's study, giving the only shout that was needed:
"The Shadow!"
Thugs saw the Shadow at the doorway. His guns began to boom. They were joined by other shots that came from the front of the house.
Crooks sprawled, their guns unfired. The few who turned, writhing from the
floor, saw Inspector Joe Cardona heading a squad of detectives!
The Shadow had turned this house into a trap, letting the law decide the final issue!
THAT wasn't going to save The Shadow. Not if Pinkey knew it! He had reached a corner, hauling Slick with him. In the mix-up, Pinkey saw his chance.
He aimed straight for The Shadow, pulled the trigger of his gun.
The bullet missed.
Pinkey was toppling when he fired, twisted by the impact of a bullet. Who had fired that shot, Pinkey could guess. It hadn't been The Shadow; he was busy
with the last of the thugs.
Somehow, though, The Shadow had known that Pinkey would he handled; for he
had not bothered with the racketeer.
While his wild shot echoed, Pinkey rolled on the floor. He dropped his gun; clamped his hands against his side. He heard The Shadow's triumphant laugh; then stared up to see eyes that were glowering down at him.
It wasn't The Shadow who stood above Pinkey; it was Joe Cardona.
Pinkey's eyes were glazing; but they took in more. He saw Slick Thurley with detectives grouped about him. Pinkey snarled his contempt for Slick's surrender:
"So you're yellow, Slick -"
Another face came into view. It was that of Giles Jondran. The gray-haired
man took no delight in the fact that Pinkey was mortally wounded; but the big-shot didn't want Jondran's sympathy.
Pinkey hadn't managed to finish The Shadow; but he could fix Giles Jondran.
"You thought you pulled a fast one, Jondran," coughed Pinkey. "But you didn't. These bulls have got me; but I'll live long enough to make you squirm!"
Propped on one elbow, Pinkey pulled the big envelope from his pocket, thrust it into the hands of Joe Cardona.
"That's evidence!" gulped the racketeer. "I'm telling you that in front of
witnesses. When you get evidence, you've got to use it! Screwy, ain't it? But that's the way the law works."
Cardona gruffed a stolid query: "Want me to open this, Pinkey?"
"Yeah" - Pinkey's voice came with a spasm - "open it - look it over. I want to see Jondran, when you do -"
Cardona pulled the papers from the envelope. He spreads them in front of Pinkey's eyes. Those eyes went wide, not from the approach of death, but from sheer amazement that made Pinkey forget the finish that soon awaited him.
This was not the evidence that Pinkey wanted Cardona to have! These were the other papers: the negative evidence: the batch that Pinkey thought Jondran had tossed into the fire!
It wasn't imagination. Jondran had actually destroyed an envelope. But the
one that he had burned was the one that Pinkey intended to keep. Only one man could be responsible; Pinkey's gaze rolled in his direction. Blood flecked Pinkey's lips, as he coughed:
"You - you have double - crossed-me, Slick!"
There was a negative headshake from the man that Pinkey had mistaken for Slick Thurley. For the first time, Pinkey noticed that his sidekick was not a prisoner. Enlightenment dawned, when Pinkey heard the statement:
"You weren't double-crossed. I'm not Slick Thurley; I'm Bill Quaine!"
FLAT on the floor, Pinkey stared upward with bulging-eyed gaze.
Recollections were throbbing through his numbed brain. He remembered how Slick had spotted someone in the alley outside the hideout. For the first time, Pinkey knew what had really happened.
Slick had encountered The Shadow there, in the dark. After the one swift blow, it was Slick who had sprawled on the cobbles. But there had been another man there also, waiting with The Shadow. That man had been Bill Quaine.
The Shadow had turned crime's own game full about.
Bill Quaine had rejoined Pinkey, to play the part of Slick Thurley!
Together, they had looked at a stunned snooper, and Quaine had been smart enough to keep Pinkey from seeing that the flattened man was Slick!
Pinkey remembered how Quaine had loitered in the elevator at the Bubble Club; how he had strolled into the hallway outside Jondran's reception room.
Those had been chances for Quaine to contact The Shadow; to learn what was needed.
In Jondran's study, Quaine had coolly replaced the batches of papers in the wrong envelopes. Pinkey hadn't been watching him when he did it, for the big-shot had never guessed that Quaine was not Slick Thurley.
Clutched by the final agony of his death wound, Pinkey knew who had delivered it. The Shadow had left that task to Quaine, in case of emergency.
The pinch had come; Quaine had delivered.
Standing men eyed a silent figure on the floor. The motionless form was all that remained of Pinkey Findlen. The racketeer had died in the throes of those final thoughts.