The bait had been set for Lester Dorrington. Kelwood Markin, veteran lawyer, was to meet with the attorney upon whom suspicion rested. The law would listen in while the two men talked.
Half past eight. The Shadow must return before that appointed time should he, like Weston and Cardona, intend to hear the details of the coming conference. Kelwood Markin had become the bait; Lester Dorrington the fish; but in the offing was a hidden danger: Edwin Berlett.
Where Weston and Cardona counted upon a duel of wits between two keen-brained lawyers, The Shadow could foresee the entrance of a third. Brutality — gang murder — was an epoch of the past.
Strategy and hidden cunning were the factors that must bring the climax. Markin had accepted a definite course of action. Dorrington, playing his intelligent part, had agreed to the appointment. Berlett, to figure in the game, would have to make a move.
Three keen attorneys: one, retired; the second, active in his practice; the third, a man supposedly dead. These were the men whose cards would be played tonight!
CHAPTER XVIII
DORRINGTON RESPONDS
“HELLO… Yes… This is Mr. Talbot.”
The speaker was Edwin Berlett. He was standing in his room at the Goliath Hotel. Evening lights of Manhattan were visible through the window.
“Yes…” The lawyer’s face showed an intense gleam. “Yes… I have the information you sent… I understand… Yes. That’s all I need…”
Berlett hung up. He went to a closet and obtained hat and overcoat. For the first time since his arrival in New York, Edwin Berlett intended to leave the Hotel Goliath. Until tonight, his longest trips from the room had been no further than the hotel lobby.
Berlett walked from his room. He reached the elevators. While he was waiting for a car, a young man strolled into the hall. It was Harry Vincent. To Edwin Berlett, The Shadow’s agent appeared to be an ordinary guest.
Reaching the lobby, Berlett strolled out to the street. He hailed a taxicab. Harry, following, called a second vehicle. As Harry entered his cab, a third taxi shot past. A few seconds later, the three vehicles were speeding forward in procession, Harry’s at the rear.
“Where to?” the driver was asking.
“Turn right,” ordered Harry, as he observed Berlett’s cab swing up the nearest avenue. “Keep going until I give you another order.”
Three blocks up the avenue, the trio of cabs threaded their way through traffic. Harry’s cab was almost up to the one that seemed to be following Berlett’s. Suddenly, the lawyer’s cab swung right into a narrow street. Harry snapped an order to his driver.
Berlett’s taxi had gained by the maneuver. It was half way down the block before the second cab made the turn, with Harry’s close behind. Suddenly, Berlett’s taxi came to a stop. Stepping from his vehicle, the lawyer entered a building. The cab pulled away.
The second jehu ground his brakes. As Harry’s cab swept up, The Shadow’s agent saw a man leap from the stopped cab and dash in pursuit of Berlett. Harry ordered a quick stop. He tossed a bill to the driver and hurried into the building.
It was the arcade of an office building. Though open at night, the place was deserted. Far ahead, Harry glimpsed Berlett leaving by the door on the next street. He saw a wiry pursuer hustling on the lawyer’s trail. Harry walked swiftly. Reaching the further door, he stopped.
Out on the sidewalk, the wiry man was staring toward the avenue. Harry could not see the fellow’s face, but he knew what must have happened. A single cab had been waiting at the rear entrance of the arcade. Berlett had gained the vehicle; he was again on his way. The wiry trailer had no chance to follow. Harry saw the man clench his fists, then walk toward the avenue.
Harry, too, had lost the trail. His one satisfaction was that Berlett had also slipped the unknown man. Harry walked back through the arcade. His job was to return to the Hotel Goliath and report to Burbank.
SOME minutes later, a taxi stopped at an avenue near Kelwood Markin’s. Edwin Berlett alighted. He chose the street in back of Markin’s home. Between two buildings, he could see dim lights in the lawyer’s house. Berlett sidled along, studying other buildings.
He found one to his liking. He had made the same choice as The Shadow. Moving through a passageway, Berlett stopped beneath the boarded windows of an empty house. He looked upward, breathed tensely in the dark, then looked and found a rear door.
Cautiously, Berlett tried the knob. The door gave, almost at his touch. The lawyer hesitated; then entered. He produced a pocket flashlight and picked his way through a dusty hallway toward a flight of steps.
Berlett, apparently, was thinking that this house might have the same layout as Markin’s, for he inspected the doorways that he passed. He reached the top floor and threw the beams of his torch along the ceiling. He saw the trapdoor.
Peering into a room, Berlett spied an object in the corner. It was a curtain rod, made of wood. He obtained the rod and carried it to the hall. He poked against the trapdoor. It yielded as easily as the back entrance. With the rod, Berlett had no trouble in shifting the trap door off from the opening.
Replacing the curtain rod where he had found it, the lawyer returned to make the ascent. Berlett had proven his agility in his flight from the Southern Star. He gave new evidence of his physical ability. He opened a door, gripped the top with his hands and drew his feet up to the knobs. Raising his right, he caught the edge of the opened trap. His left hand followed. Berlett swung free and kicked the door shut. With a strenuous effort, the lawyer reached the roof.
Crouching, Berlett moved toward Markin’s. His feet crunched on cinders. Reaching the house he wanted, Berlett worked upon the trapdoor that he found. This barrier should certainly have been tightly in place. Yet it gave when the lawyer hoisted.
Smiling at the ease with which he had conquered obstacles, Berlett dropped boldly into Markin’s house. He had left the trapdoor overlapping. Moving softly along a thick carpet, he discovered a stout table in the corner. Using this piece of furniture, he mounted to close the trap. Putting the table back in the corner, he stole to the stairs.
When he reached the gloomy first-floor hall, Berlett spied the yawning entrance to the living room. Darkness lured the intruder. Berlett moved into the living room. He spied the thick dark mass of draperies.
Again choosing in The Shadow’s fashion, Berlett moved to the curtains and found a hiding place upon the window ledge.
Minutes ticked by. Something swished in the outer hall. Berlett did not hear the sound, nor did he see the form that glided in from the hall. The lawyer did not know that another intruder had arrived. The Shadow, following the very route that Berlett had picked, was in Kelwood Markin’s living room.
THE SHADOW was stealthy, even in the darkness. He seemed in no haste to gain his usual hiding place. Hence he was not far inside the door when a sudden dingle announced a visitor to the house. Swerving silently, The Shadow headed for the door of Markin’s bedroom. His action was well chosen.
Hardly had The Shadow gained this temporary hiding place before Howland arrived and turned on the living-room lights. The secretary looked about in methodical fashion, then continued to the front door. The Shadow, quartered in the gloom of Markin’s temporary bedroom, decided to remain.
He picked a hiding place behind a huge chair that was close to a fire place. The chair was halfway on the hearth; evidently the gas-log in the fire place was seldom used by Kelwood Markin.
George Tharxell entered the living room with Howland. The junior partner took a chair; Howland left and went back into the study. Tharxell, awaiting the arrival of Lester Dorrington, sat alone, totally unconscious of the fact that two observers were close at hand.