“Another point,” laughed Wesdren. “Jollister has reference to his insistence that others place locks upon the strong room door. Those locks keep even him from coming here.”
JOLLISTER finished with the combination of the vault. The glistening door swung wide. Through inner bars, the visitors spied coffers of varied sizes beyond the metal boxes were small doors in the depth of the wall.
“Models in the coffers,” asserted Wesdren. “Plans in the deposit boxes. Well, gentlemen, you have seen all. Close the door, Jollister.”
The expert obeyed. He turned the dials to lock the vault. Wesdren crossed the strong room; the others noted that the large outer door was shut. Wesdren laughed as Releston uttered an exclamation of surprise.
“Do not worry, senator,” said the executive. “We are not locked in. The door closes automatically but it is easily opened from this side.
“You see” — he drew down three handles, one by one — “no strong room needs a combination on the inside. The protection is necessary on the outside only.”
Wesdren pushed the door open and ushered his visitors out into entry. He followed and spoke as the others were going up the stairs. At Wesdren’s suggestion, all turned about. They watched the door of the strong room swing slowly shut of its own momentum.
The door stopped silently. Wesdren joggled the handle that opened it. The handle did not budge.
Wesdren pointed to the three dials.
“The automatic closing loses the combination,” he explained. “No matter if someone forgets to shut the door, the strong room will be closed. Of its own action.”
The visitors started up the stairs, Jollister with them. Wesdren followed. He had turned out the light in the strong room; but there was still a glowing incandescent in the little entry.
Silence reigned beneath that single light. Then the glare showed an amazing manifestation. Slowly, the door of the strong room opened outward. A figure appeared from the gloom.
Garbed in cloak and slouch hat, this weird shape stepped clear of the strong room door. The big barrier, again released, moved slowly shut and finished with its silent swing. Hardly had it closed before the entry light went out. Wesdren had clicked it from upstairs.
A soft laugh sounded in the pitch darkness. It was an audible token of that strange being who had come so mysteriously from the strong room; a reminder of a shrouded figure clad in black.
A tiny flashlight glimmered. Its beam glittered on the stone steps. The unseen visitant was moving softly upward. No more did the whispered laugh of The Shadow sound within walls of stone.
Caleb Wesdren had shown pride in the formidable structure of his strong room. Craig Jollister had taken credit for the building of that impregnable chamber.
Yet hard on the departure of executive and expert had come proof that the steel-lined strong room was not impenetrable. Out of its depths had stepped a strange intruder, whose very presence showed that he had found a mode of secret entrance.
Like a living ghost, The Shadow had issued forth; his whispered mirth had sounded as a mockery of the stronghold which he had left.
CHAPTER XIII. CADY REPORTS
HALF an hour had passed since The Shadow’s emergence from the strong room. Vic Marquette and Jarvis Knight had made their departure. Senator Releston and Caleb Wesdren were alone in the latter’s study.
The two had been conferring on matters concerning manufacture. All the while, eyes had been watching them — eyes that peered through the crack of the side door. The Shadow had remained, on the chance that important matters might be mentioned.
A telephone bell rang: Wesdren answered it and held a brief conversation. Concluding his talk, he turned to Releston.
“The representatives of the subsidiary companies are at the Hotel Sorbonne,” Wesdren told Releston.
“The meeting will follow the luncheon. We should be leaving shortly. I suppose you are coming with me, senator?”
Releston considered then nodded. Wesdren started to rise from his desk; Releston stopped him.
“One point, Wesdren,” mentioned the senator. “How does this man Knight impress you?”
“That is hard to say,” replied Wesdren. “Frankly, though, I found it difficult to picture him as Inspector Eric Delka, of Scotland Yard.”
“That much is unquestioned.” declared Releston, with a smile. “He has his credentials. There is no doubt as to his identity. His pose as Jarvis Knight is good judgment. But outside of that, he seems to know very little.”
“Concerning Jed Barthue?”
“Yes. Delka came here to put us on the trail of an international spy. I questioned him yesterday concerning Barthue and he said that he had never seen the man in England.”
“I thought that Scotland Yard had trailed Barthue.”
“They found traces of him; that was all. Delka confesses that he came over here on a blind quest.”
“That is odd, senator. Well, after all, he may prove useful, in case Barthue is uncovered. But we have taken so many precautions that trouble seems impossible. Delka certainly was impressed by my strong room.”
“He was impressed yesterday, Wesdren, when I informed him that your four servants were actually secret service men, placed here to keep watch.”
Wesdren chuckled.
“They have not been overburdened by duty,” he remarked. “Outside of myself and Jollister, no one has been about the house. That reminds me; I must summon Jollister and learn about this vacation of his.”
Wesdren pressed the desk buzzer. In the hallway, The Shadow moved from the door and glided to a gloomy alcove. A few moments later, a door opened across the hall and Jollister stalked forth from a room which appeared to be his own temporary office. At the same time, a passing servant passed in the front hall and watched casually while Jollister entered Wesdren’s office.
The door closed. The servant went on his way. The Shadow moved forward and opened the door imperceptibly. He was in time to hear the brief conversation that followed.
“This vacation, Jollister,” questioned Wesdren. “Do you actually intend to take it?”
“I told you I did, sir,” returned Jollister. “I intend to leave tonight, on the ten o’clock train.”
“You are going west?”
“Yes, Mr. Wesdren. Possibly to Cleveland; maybe to Chicago. I have business prospects in both cities.”
“When will you return to Washington?”
“I do not know. I may come back to New York. However, I shall see you later today, Mr. Wesdren. I am going to my apartment shortly; but I shall return after dinner, to pack up some drawings.”
Wesdren was eyeing Jollister sharply. The vault expert met his gaze with an almost surly challenge; then rumbled words that sounded like “goodbye” and stalked toward the door.
The Shadow had edged away, anticipating Jollister’s approach. He waited until the vault expert had passed; he saw Jollister go to the little room and close the door behind him. Again The Shadow approached the larger office.
Wesdren and Releston were leaving by the front way, through the reception room. The Shadow noted a frown on Releston’s face. He caught the final words that the senator spoke to Wesdren.
“I was watching Jollister,” confided the senator. “Did you notice the way he glared? His eyes showed suspicion but he changed his expression quickly when he realized that I had observed it.”
“Jollister is eccentric,” replied Wesdren. “Almost childish at times. Somehow, every mention of his vacation has become a sore point with him. He resents any statement that concerns his private affairs.”
“He was here when you came back from New York?”
“No. He did not appear until yesterday morning. But I did not annoy him with questions.”