At his order, Muller"s left hand replaced the sapphires in the chamois bag. His right was lifted helplessly above his head. The hands of Ortega and Baron were also elevated. But there was no longer fear in their eyes. It was Frick who was now jittery. He suspected treachery. A queer, ominous doom seemed to hang in the air of the silent chamber.
Frick backed away with his loot, turning slightly, so that he had a partial view of the curtained doorway behind him. He began to sidle toward the curtain.
BUT he had taken only three shuffling step when there was a sudden, unexpected sound. A metallic clang! It shook the room. Frick guessed what it meant. It was the slam of a steel barrier. The door behind the velvet curtain was now closed and locked. His retreat through the dimly lighted corridor that led back to the cellar of the monkey house was now cut off!
There was no expression on the faces of the three men who sat stiffly under the menace of Frick"s gun.
The hijacker circled past them toward the opposite side of the blue chamber. He pa.s.sed between Baron and the helplessly bound figure of Rodney Mason, who lay p.r.o.ne on the floor. His eyes darted toward the gray wall on the opposite side of the room.
There was a door cut in that blank wall. Frick edged toward it, ready to pour flaming slugs from his muzzle at the slightest move of his enemies.
He turned the k.n.o.b. The door was not locked!
Frick whispered through dry, twisted lips: "So long, suckers!"
He vanished behind the closing door.
As he did so, there was a faint click near where Rodney Mason lay. Three figures glided into the room. They had pinched, watchful eyes and cunning faces. All three were gunmen, part of Sam Baron"s mob. But they made no effort to rush after the thief.
Their eyes stared at the gray wall behind which Frick had just vanished.
Suddenly, an amazing transformation took place in that blank surface. It glowed with light. The whole wall became transparent! Behind it, the figure of David Frick was disclosed, standing motionless on tiptoe. From head to foot, he was bathed in a bright, unearthly brilliance.
He uttered a cry of terror.
But the cry that burst from his lips was not because of the men he saw staring at him through a transparent wall. Frick had heard a sinister sound behind him. The growling bark of a dog!
Whirling, he saw a dreadful sight.
A figure was gliding slowly toward him - a woman whose bare feet moved across the floor without noise. Her nude body was gold from head to foot. She moved with the curiously stiff steps of a lifeless thing - an inanimate statue.
Atop the sleek, golden glitter of her body was a horrible sight - the head of a snarling beast.
The Dog G.o.ddess of Rajk.u.mana!
FRICK fired. Again and again flame spat from the stuttering muzzle of his gun. His aim was true. The flame darted straight toward the body of that moving Thing. But the stiffly advancing steps never halted. The golden statue came closer and closer to the rooted figure of the thief.
She sprang!
As she did, the lighted wall went suddenly gray. It was no longer aglow with eerie light; darkness hid everything.
Muller and Sam Baron remained staring at the wall. Ortega, however, had slumped from his chair. Pale with superst.i.tious awe, the Maharajah ofRajk.u.mana, was down on his knees, with his face bent to the floor in worship.
He had seen the power and majesty of the Dog G.o.ddess from the sacred temple of his ancestors. He was praying in a shrill, unnatural whisper.
He did not see that the wall was again ablaze with light. He was unaware that it had become transparent.
But Muller and Baron saw. With tight, expressionless faces, they gazed at the figure of David Frick. Frick was in the same spot where the golden apparition had sprung at him. But he was no longer erect. He lay flat on his back in a ghastly pool of blood.
The blood was pouring from a gaping red void where his throat had been.
The Dog G.o.ddess had vanished!
In the dreadful silence, a faint vibration seemed to hang in the air. It was the echo of the shriek Frick had uttered as the fangs of doom ripped through his throat!
CHAPTER XIX.
THE AMAZING TRUTH.
THE SHADOW heard that terrible shriek as it resounded far down the blackness of a tunnel in the earth. He knew it came from the lips of a dying man.
He began to race at top speed through the pa.s.sage. The beam of his electric torch danced like a will-o"-the-wisp ahead of him. It threw a weird, distorted likeness of The Shadow on the flickering walls of the tunnel.
Vincent and Cardona followed.
Their steps were faltering. They were still partly under the influence of the vapor they had breathed in the sealed chamber from which the skill of The Shadow had rescued them.
Far in front, they saw the electric torch of The Shadow halt suddenly.
Then it began to rise. It vanished upward out of sight.
The Shadow had come to the end of the earth tunnel. In front of him was a steep flight of stone steps. Without a second"s pause, The Shadow flung himself up those steps. He could see above him the outline of a closed door.
The door did not fit flush and tight into its framework. There was a crack between the bottom of the door and the stone sill of the staircase. Light streamed outward - a vivid white brilliance that suggested the presence of powerful incandescent globes.
The Shadow"s torch snapped out. It vanished under his black robe. It was replaced by the ominous glitter of a .45.
The k.n.o.b of the door began to revolve slowly under the pressure of The Shadow"s palm. Its metal catch slipped from its grooved slot. The door opened a hairbreadth. The gap widened to an inch.
Then The Shadow gasped.
A lifetime in the pursuit of crime had not prepared him for the stark horror that met his peering eyes. Vivid white light beat down pitilessly on the upturned face of David Frick. His face was almost unrecognizable under the deluge of blood from his torn throat.
Directly in front of Frick"s body was the strangest wall The Shadow had ever seen. It offered no obstacle to the human eye. The entire wall was transparent!
Through it, The Shadow could see into a room beyond. The room was veiled in deep-blue light. Murderous faces glared at The Shadow. He could see the ugly brown-bearded Otto Muller. Sam Baron was crouched close to the fakedelicatessen dealer. Three other thugs were visible in the blue-lit headquarters of the gang.
Two of them were guarding a pair of victims in a far corner. The Shadow could see the pale, frightened face of Ramon Ortega, his hands upraised under the menace of guns. At Ortega"s feet, lay the helpless figure of Rodney Mason.
All this The Shadow observed in an instant.
OTHER things merged in that swift mental picture. Over his hunched shoulder, The Shadow had seen the white brilliance of powerful spotlights. The lights were trained on the gray wall.
The wall seemed to ripple faintly. It wasn"t a wall of mortar and plaster, but a cunningly camouflaged curtain - a transparent, gray fabric!
Bullets dotted it with holes as The Shadow sprang forward. A slug whistled past his cheek. Another one slashed open the sleeve of his upraised arm. He felt his slouch hat give a quick jerk as lead pierced its black crown. But The Shadow did not stop.
Somewhere behind him, Harry Vincent and Joe Cardona were racing up the stone steps from the tunnel in the earth.
The upraised hand of The Shadow glittered as he leaped toward the transparent wall. He had whipped a knife from beneath his robe. The sharp point slashed a ragged hole in the gray material. Through that hole the flying body of The Shadow plunged like a black meteor.
He landed crouched on hands and knees. Muller"s gun belched. Pain crossed The Shadow"s throat like the touch of a red-hot wire. But he was up and whirling away before Sam Baron could pump a more accurate shot from the other side of the room.
The knife clattered to the floor as The Shadow leaped. Twin guns replaced it in his black-gloved hands. Those guns could shoot fast and straight. They dropped Sam Baron into a dead huddle as he tried to end The Shadow"s life.
Muller"s gun roared again. The Shadow had no time to dodge. Only the quick action of Harry Vincent saved him. Harry fired at Muller through the transparent wall. His slug missed. But the explosive roar of the shot and Cardona"s yell behind Harry disconcerted the snarling Muller and ruined his aim.
The next instant, Vincent leaped headlong through the ripped gray fabric.
Cardona followed him.
Joe"s slug cut down one of the thugs to the left of Muller. Vincent fired and missed. Muller hurdled the dead thug"s body. He jammed the muzzle of his pistol against Vincent"s temple.
The Shadow hadn"t wanted to kill Muller. He had hoped to take him alive, to force certain facts from his cunning lips. But now he had no choice. As Muller"s gun muzzle jammed against Vincent"s skull, The Shadow fired. The heavy slug from the .45 flung Muller. backward like the kick from a mule. He rolled in a quivering heap. The motion of his limbs, however, was purely spasmodic. He was stone dead.
VINCENT recovered from his daze just as the remaining thug rushed at JoeCardona. The face of the killer was a mask of twisted fury. There was madness in his eyes. The knowledge that he was trapped broke the last cord of reason in his warped brain. He was running amuck!
Vincent ducked bravely into the killer"s path. His hunched shoulder sent the man sprawling. But Vincent tripped and fell over the thug"s extended foot.
He tried to grapple, but missed his desperate hold. The thug"s gun pointed downward.
The Shadow"s aim was blocked by Vincent"s own body. Unable to fire, he sprang forward. But he had no chance to stop the bullet that had Vincent"s name written on it.
Joe Cardona did that!
The thug screamed. He collapsed in a dying huddle. With somber eyes, Joe carefully blew a thin waver of smoke away from his hot muzzle.
"Thanks, Joe!" Vincent gasped.
Cardona grinned. "Lord, that"s the fastest shooting I"ve ever done in my life - and I"ve been a cop a long time."
The air reeked with the stench of burned cordite. Smoke drifted lazily in thin sheets. There was sweat on Cardona"s forehead, a sick horror in the eyes of Vincent.
The Shadow stood very quietly, staring at Ramon Ortega and at Rodney Mason.
They were the only ones left alive after that swift burst of gunfire.
Ortega"s trembling legs had dropped him in a frightened huddle against the wall. Mason lay gagged and bound.
Cardona paid no attention to either of them. With a face like flint, Joe walked grimly to where Otto Muller lay and ripped the brown beard away. The dead face of Julius Hankey stared up at him from sightless eyes.
"The dirty rat!" Cardona breathed. "A social leader - Fifth Avenue"s most sw.a.n.ky jeweler - and all along this d.a.m.n Julius Hankey was the secret head of a murder syndicate!"
"No!"
The calm voice of The Shadow uttered that single word.
Cardona looked startled. So did Vincent. They turned with a single motion toward the cowering figure of Ramon Ortega.
Again The Shadow uttered that cool monosyllable.
"No!"
The Shadow"s finger pointed toward Rodney Mason. He ordered that the gag be removed from the lips of the good-looking young chemist.
As the gag came away, Mason gulped and strangled in his terrified eagerness to talk.
"I"m innocent!" he gasped. "Otto Muller ran the gang. He was the leader.
He kidnapped me twice - He captured Isabel -"
Terror glazed his eyes, as he remembered the captive girl in the closet.
He wabbled forward on unsteady legs.
Cardona beat him to it. Joe jerked open the closet door. The body of Isabel Pyne pitched stiffly forward into Joe"s arms. Her blue eyes were closed.
Her face was deathly white.
The cords that bound her were slashed away. Mason gave a cry of delight as her eyes fluttered open. He took her in his arms, kissing her pale eyelids, murmuring hoa.r.s.e words of endearment.
The Shadow was smiling queerly.
He laid a steady hand on Mason"s shoulder and drew him backward. At the touch of that hand, Mason shivered. He recoiled, glaring at The Shadow.
Then The Shadow did a strange, brutal thing. His fingers closed on the neck of Isabel"s gown. With one powerful jerk, The Shadow ripped the gown fromthe girl"s body.
Isabel Pyne screamed. Then she stood very still.
THE gown that lay in tatters at her feet was the only garment she had been wearing! From the white line of her throat to the edge of her low-rolled stockings, her body was a dull glitter of metallic gold. Her arms, too, were gold - except her hands. From wrists to finger tips, those hands were white.
Seen at close range, it was obvious that she was wearing silken fleshings.
The gold paint had been daubed over that. Isabel Pyne began to laugh harshly.
The loveliness in her face seemed to grow pinched and haggard. Rodney Mason recoiled from the evil glitter in her blue eyes.
But Isabel ignored the man she had fooled so long in her role of an innocent Park Avenue deb. She sneered at the watchful face of The Shadow.
"You are very clever. How long have you known that I was the brains of the gang? How long have you suspected that I was playing the amusing role of the Dog G.o.ddess of Rajku -"
Her hand moved with the swiftness of light. The glitter of a ring on her finger streaked to her mouth. Cardona tried to stop her. He was too late.