A spectacular raid was on tonight — one that had been planned by a clever sleuth. Joe Cardona had stolen an idea from the Living Joss. He was using Kwa’s own method of bringing Americans to Chinatown in a fashion that would avoid suspicion.
Where Kwa had smuggled in one passenger aboard a bus, Cardona had unloaded a raiding squad of thirty men!
CHAPTER XXIV. THE SHADOW ADVANCES
WHILE Joe Cardona and his men were approaching the lighted streets of Chinatown, a quiet-faced American was standing in the shop of Soy Foon. His keen eyes, peering through the door of the back room, were noticing the curio rack against the wall.
The American strolled away. He reached the darkness of a side alley. He disappeared in a tiny space between two walls. He did not emerge. In his place came a swish as the folds of a cloak swept through the air.
The Shadow was here in Chinatown.
Like Joe Cardona, The Shadow had divined that there must be a hidden room behind the Buddhist shrine of Chon Look. Also, The Shadow knew that the secret apartment would have another outlet.
As a visitor to the shrine, The Shadow had noticed the odd-shaped rack against the wall. He had identified it as the probable entrance to a secret passage. In the shop of Soy Foon, a block away, The Shadow had spotted another rack which was the exact replica of the one in the shrine.
The secret portals to Kwa’s hidden temple! The Shadow knew them both. Yet he had made no attempt to enter either one. Instead, he had searched for another and more subtle way of entrance.
Well did The Shadow know that the mysterious man who posed as a Living Joss would never go in and out by either of these routes. Some other passage must exist — one that would be known to Kwa alone!
A soft laugh came from hidden lips. The Shadow had searched long to find that spot — not in the block where both the shrine and the curio shop were located, but in places that were more remote.
Tonight, The Shadow had gained success. He was ready to invade the hidden lair of Kwa. But before he set out upon that mission, The Shadow had come to see that all was well at Soy Foon’s and Chon Look’s.
By summoning two agents, The Shadow could have men watch those outlets while he, himself, investigated the path which belonged to Kwa alone.
Reaching the alleyway upon which the Buddhist shrine fronted, The Shadow drew back into the darkness of a wall. A party of sightseers were approaching, headed by a guide. As The Shadow watched, the uniformed man turned into the doorway that led to the Buddhist shrine. Three persons continued with him. The rest kept on!
There was a little restaurant between the shrine and the corner. One man dropped off there. The rest continued. With soft-shoe tread, they moved past the spot where the tall form was shrouded in blackness. Two men stopped at the corner. The rest turned.
WITH incredible stealth, the form of The Shadow flitted toward the other side of the alley. It moved along in darkness past the Buddhist shrine, and paused at the next corner on the edge of the lighted street.
Keen eyes saw men in blue uniform strolling along the thoroughfare. A whispered laugh came from The Shadow’s lips. Silently, the mysterious personage in black returned along the alley, turned one corner, then another, and gained a last view of Soy Foon’s curio shop.
There, as everywhere else, men were stationed. They were waiting for a signal. The Shadow glided into the darkness of a dingy alley that was no more than six feet in width. He was leaving the beleaguered block.
An eerie laugh. The Shadow knew. Cardona and his detectives were acting on some clew. They were attacking from three sides, with police patrolling the fourth. Without realizing it, they were working in conjunction with The Shadow!
What need for watching agents now? The only need was haste. A massed attack would effectively block the passages from Chon Look’s and Soy Foon’s; but the confusion would be a warning to Kwa. When Cardona and the detectives eventually reached the domain of the Living Joss, they would be too late to capture the superfiend.
There lay The Shadow’s task. He, the phantom of darkness, would time his invasion with that of the detectives. It was the very situation that The Shadow had desired — to come face to face with Kwa, the Living Joss!
The black shape was invisible in the gloom of a silent alley far from the surrounded block. A tiny flashlight gleamed and cast a disk of light the size of a silver dollar. This glow revealed a grating against the bottom of a deserted building.
The light went out. Firm hands raised the grate. A lithe form glided downward. The iron barrier slipped slowly and softly into place. In the front compartment of a small cellar — a chamber blocked from the rest of this building’s basement — the hands of The Shadow were at work.
The glow of the tiny light showed a hole in the stone side of this entry. A black-gloved hand produced a slender, needle-pointed pick, and inserted it into the tiny opening. The probing steel brought a click from a hidden catch. The stone swung backward under pressure.
Down a flight of steps, the barrier closing behind him. With his flashlight casting a gleam ahead, The Shadow surveyed a narrow, musty passage that ended in a steel barrier.
That was the next obstacle in The Shadow’s path. Like the first blocking wall, it would be opened by his skill.
The light glimmered as The Shadow advanced. Heading through this burrow under the streets of Chinatown, the master of darkness was penetrating toward the abode of Kwa! Should the Living Joss flee by this outlet, he would meet the powerful being who sought to thwart his evil machinations!
CHAPTER XXV. IN THE TEMPLE
A PANEL arose in the corner of Kwa’s temple. A Chinaman staggered in, and the barrier dropped behind him. It was Chon Look. The usual placid face of the Buddhist was tinged with alarm.
Hurriedly, Chon Look raised the silent gong and made a soundless stroke. He waited for several seconds. The incense burners puffed, and the hideous form of Kwa appeared upon the huge taboret.
“Great Kwa!” Chon Look was gasping in his native tongue. “They are upon us! They are coming here!”
“Who is coming here?” questioned the Living Joss, in a crackled tone that seemed to indicate a knowledge of the answer.
“The police!” exclaimed Chon Look. “They came into the shrine. They began to question me. I managed to elude them; to come through the passage. They saw the entrance close behind me. They are coming—”
The Chinaman’s voice faltered in its singsong lingo as a panel opened in the other corner. In dashed Soy Foon. The barrier dropped, and the merchant stopped short as he bowed solemnly to Kwa.
“They are coming here, great Kwa!” announced Soy Foon. “The police have entered my shop! I barely managed to escape them!”
A distorted chuckle came from the bulging mouth of the Living Joss. With sweeps of his arms, the figure on the big taboret indicated both the barriers.
“Open them!” he ordered. “Stand there — each of you — to greet our guests! Request that their leaders enter to speak with Kwa!”
With startled glances, Chon Look and Soy Foon looked at one another. The commands of Kwa must be obeyed. Bowing to the Living Joss, whose insidious shape was wreathed by the curling smoke of incense, each of the men moved to his respective barrier. The panels raised.
THE glare of a powerful torch came from the passage that Chon Look had followed here. Joe Cardona, at the head of his men, saw the bowing form of Chon Look. The keeper of the shrine was holding out his arms and bowing in welcome.
“You may come here,” he announced in English. “My master will speak with you. But let there be a few — not many. Kwa will speak with the leaders alone.”