The ascent reached the vertical. The Shadow’s ship hovered over the moon-bathed scene. The opening of the cavern was almost invisible now. The little shack, however, showed plainly among the trees. The cabin and the gaping hole of the vertical mine shaft were evident in the clearing.
Out of the air had The Shadow come. Into the air he had gone. He had learned the secret guarded by Houston Boswick he had also witnessed another make the same discovery.
The plane headed rapidly southward. The Shadow had another brief mission on this night.
The loud eerie laugh that mingled with the whirring of the autogiro was the only sound that betokened The Shadow’s purpose. That mockery, somehow, seemed to indicate that The Shadow’s departure was only temporary. Soon he would return to this spot in the wilderness.
What then? What would be the outcome?
Would Carter Boswick and Harry Vincent find the long-sought wealth awaiting them? How did the man who had entered the cavern figure in the plot? What action would come from Hub Rowley and the unknown man who was working with him?
All depended upon circumstance; yet the guiding forces were the purposes of those who figured in this strange drama. The unraveling of twisted threads was necessary to view the future in an understanding way.
The Shadow, alone, had made such progress. Whether the future would result in complications, one positive result must be forthcoming; and could be, after The Shadow made his return.
The Shadow knew!
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SHADOW’S CHART.
HARRY VINCENT awoke with a start. The dim light of dawn was hazy through the window of his hotel room. Everything seemed dim and obscure. Sitting up in bed, Harry stared about the room. Had he been dreaming? Or had he heard his name whispered weirdly in his ear?
There was no sign of any one in the room. It would have been quite possible for a person to have entered, whispered that name, and then left while Harry was coming to consciousness. The door was closed, however, and Harry had not heard the slightest sound from that direction.
Two factors made Harry positive that he had been awakened by some one from outside. The first was that Harry seldom dreamed; the second, that he was constantly expecting some token from The Shadow. Under the circumstances, he decided to investigate.
He turned on a lamp that rested on the table beside his bed. The light revealed an envelope lying beneath it. Harry knew then that he had not been the victim of imagination. The Shadow had come into this room at the Summit Lake Hotel, and had left a message for him.
The envelope contained a note, brief and explicit in its directions. The coded writing faded.
But the envelope also held another sheet of paper—one inscribed in black ink, which did not disappear. Harry found himself staring at the detail of a well-formed chart—an exact map of the vicinity where he and Carter Boswick had found the abandoned mining cabin.
Without further ado, Harry carried the chart into Carter’s room, and awakened his friend. They turned on another light, and examined the map together. A cry of elation came from Carter as he noted two cross lines, labeled, each in turn:
Lat. 46( 18 ‘N.
Long. 88( 12’ W.
The mining cabin was located a short distance from where the lines crossed. From the cabin, a lightly dotted course extended up the hillside. It showed the exact location of the cavern which The Shadow had discovered.
Harry found another portion of the map, and traced his own course, leading from the distant road where they had parked the coupe, directly to the indicated spot upon the hill.
“My directions,” said Harry, in a low voice, “are to the spot on the hillside, avoiding the cabin if possible. We can do that without difficulty. If our enemies decide to return and watch the cabin, they will be guarding an empty bag.”
Great!” agreed Carter. “But what about this place on the hill?”
“The message stated that we will find a trail blazed for us. Tiny marks hewed in the trees and on the rocks, beginning from the barrier of woods marked near the entrance.”
“Good,” commented Carter. “Say, Harry, it looks as though we are getting somewhere.”
“Sh-h!” Harry raised his hand in sudden warning. He arose and started toward his own room, Carter following. Harry crept to the door that led to the hall, and listened.
“What’s up?” questioned Carter.
“Thought I heard some one in the hall,” answered Harry.
THE two listened tensely. Whatever sound Harry had heard was ended now. But Harry’s suspicion was not groundless. Some one had actually tried the door of the room, and had inadvertently made a noise. The same man was trying the door of Carter Boswick’s room at present—this time with success.
While Harry and Carter were at the door of the one room, the door of the other opened softly, and Stacks Lodi entered. Stationed across the hall from Harry’s room, he had seen, through his own transom, the sudden gleam of light from Harry’s.
In Carter Boswick’s room, Stacks Lodi spied an object lying on the table. It was The Shadow’s chart. The man stepped softly forward and reached to take it; then paused and studied the map. His eyes saw the dotted line running from the cabin to the spot on the hillside.
Stacks Lodi grinned. Hearing a sound from the adjoining room, he hastened softly to the hall. The door closed behind him just as Harry and Carter entered.
“Guess there’s no one there.” observed Carter. “You say the marks will lead us from the trees—”
“Sh-h!” warned Harry.
He closed the transom over Carter’s door. He picked up the chart and folded it.
“We will start this afternoon,” explained Harry. “We can reach the place at dusk. There will be enough light to guide us; but the darkness will enable us to work unseen.”
After a final study of the chart, in which Carter, as well as Harry, memorized the detail, Harry tore up the paper and burned it with a match flame. He crumpled the ashes in a little tray, and threw them from the window.
“We’ve got all day to wait,” mused Carter. “Just the same, it’s best. We might as well drive out at noon, Harry, and circle around until we get where we’re going. You can’t tell—some one may be spying on us here.”
Harry nodded thoughtfully. The noise that he had fancied at his door might mean the presence of a hidden foe. He resolved that it would be wise to head south in the coupe, and then turn back; but he decided that it would not be necessary to leave as early as noon.
THE morning developed drearily, and Harry and Carter lounged about in the hotel. They could sense no menace, and they were mentally at ease.
They had no suspicion that this very hotel was harboring a dangerous villain from the enemy’s camp. They did not know that Stacks Lodi had already called Hub Rowley at the Michigan road house, to give the big shot an inkling of their plans.
Hence, at two o’clock in the afternoon, when the two companions took to Harry’s coupe they had no knowledge that they were being watched by shrewd eyes that stared from an upstairs window of a hotel room. Stacks Lodi, an evil chuckle on his lips, saw the coupe start along the road that led southward into Wisconsin.
“Trying to fool any one that’s watching. eh?” thought Stacks. “Well, they’ve missed their guess this time!”
Fifteen minutes later, the ex-gambler who served as Hub Rowley’s underling was driving away in his own car, heading toward the border of Michigan.
Meanwhile, Harry and Carter continued their routine ruse, which they had adopted merely as a precaution. They changed their course, drove back into Michigan, and found a roundabout way that led them to the hilly dirt road.
It was late afternoon when they parked the coupe at its former spot. They went to the rocky eminence, and viewed the land below. Harry pointed out a course that missed the cabin by several hundred yards.
“That’s our layout,” he declared. “It’s getting gloomy now, Carter. What do you say we start?”
�
�Approved,” responded Carter.
Five minutes later, the two men were pushing their way through the darkening forest. Away from all clearings, they had nothing to fear. Both felt elated, sure that their progress would be uninterrupted.
A half hour of tramping brought them to the hillside. Harry’s first object was to locate the shack that had been marked on The Shadow’s chart. It was nearly dark when they found the place.
“Pretty well hidden, isn’t it?” questioned Harry, peering into the door of the empty building.
“Yes.” agreed Carter. “Too bad we didn’t have a day to look around up here. This would have been a better place to stay than the cabin.
“Yes,” admitted Harry, “it would have been—if we had been on our own. But with The Shadow watching—well, we have considerably less enemies to deal with now if we encounter them!”
From the shack, they found the cluster of trees. On the base of one, Harry, with the aid of a flashlight, found a round mark, evidently of recent cut. The trail led to the right. Blackened spots upon the rock conducted them farther.
“We’re getting there now.” remarked Harry.
Carter Boswick smiled. He felt that he was nearing the end of his quest. He knew that Harry Vincent shared his enthusiasm. Neither man thought of any danger that might lie ahead. Even less, did they consider a menace from behind.
They did not know that Stacks Lodi, too, had found The Shadow’s chart. Little did they realize that a crew of desperate foemen was approaching near at hand, and that soon their trails would meet!
CHAPTER XIX.
MEN OF CRIME.
DOWN in the woods beyond the mining-cabin clearing, a crew of evil ruffians was lurking in readiness. Grim faces were hidden in the gloom as Stacks Lodi, at Hub Rowley’s request, explained the situation that lay ahead.
“We don’t have to go across the clearing” declared Stacks, in a cautious tone. “We can slide around it, and I’ll pick up the trail on the other side. “There’s a shack up the hill, and when we get to it, I can find the trees we want.”
“I got that map straight, Hub. It was nice and plain—all fixed easy to remember. There’s a place that was marked ‘cave’ just beyond the trees. Maybe it would be tough to find; but I heard this boob Boswick say something about marks that would lead them to the entrance. If they can find them—so can we.”
As Stacks Lodi paused, Hub Rowley held a muffled conference with a man who stood beside him. Stacks had not seen Hub’s companion. It had been Lodi’s duty to bring a squad of new gangsters in one touring car. Hub had come with two other men in his coupe.
Stacks had inferred that reinforcements had been brought from Chicago. All told, there were nearly fifteen men here tonight. It was as large a crew as on the previous incursion; but then, the fight had been in the open. Tonight, it would be a question of trapping unsuspecting victims at close quarters.
“All right,” growled Hub. “You lead the way, Stacks. Keep together, gang. There was a snooper in with us the other night. Nothing like that’s going to happen again. I’ll give the orders as we go along.”
The men moved quietly among the trees. With the moonlit clearing as a guide, Stacks led the way around the fringe of woods. After the process of circumnavigation, he stopped as he neared the sloping hillside. Turning away from the clearing, Stacks led the way upward.
It was quite dark under the trees, and Stacks was forced to conduct the crowd by a zigzag course in order to make sure of finding the cabin. The contour of the hill was helpful. Stacks knew that he was keeping close to the dotted line that had showed upon The Shadow’s chart.
TONIGHT’S plans bad been made immediately after Stacks had reached Hub Rowley at the road house. The big shot had decided to wait long enough for Carter Boswick and Harry Vincent to reach their destination. Furthermore, he had found it necessary to attend to important details before setting forth.
At present, Stacks Lodi had only one apprehension—namely, that he might fail to discover the end of the trail as quickly as Hub Rowley had expected.
Stacks worried as he trudged along until the glare of his flashlight suddenly revealed the side of the old cabin. At Hub’s growled bidding, a pair of gangsters leaped forward and entered the building. They reported that it was deserted.
Changing his direction, Stacks Lodi soon located the clump of trees. Here, running his flashlight low, he discovered the same mark that Harry Vincent had found. It was the beginning of The Shadow’s guiding trail.
Stacks pointed out the mark to Hub Rowley. He found other marks farther on. Soon the entire band was following the circuitous course over the rocks.
Clambering down the corkscrew twists, they neared that strange spot which The Shadow had seen from the air—where The Shadow had come and left, only to have his presence noted by a man in the darkness, whom, in turn, The Shadow had tracked.
First The Shadow had found this place. Then a second man. After that, Harry Vincent and Carter Boswick. Now, as a final touch, Hub Rowley, accompanied by strangers whom Stacks Lodi had not seen in the light, was here with his evil crew!
There was no indication that any one had passed this way within the last half hour. Hub Rowley growled for silence.
“We’ve given those bozos time to get here,” declared the big shot, as he viewed the crack between the rocks, which Stacks Lodi’s flashlight showed. “Maybe they’re here—maybe they aren’t. So we’ll find out—and be ready for them either way.
“When we get inside, I want two men to stay at the first good spot to lay. If our birds come in, close on them and give them the works. Meanwhile, the rest of us will go ahead—and if those bozos are already in, we’ll have them trapped like rats.”
Having finished these instructions, Hub turned to the man beside him and asked a question. After the response, Hub ordered Stacks to extinguish the flashlight. The mobsters, spread out among the rocks, waited in silence and darkness while Hub Rowley conferred with his companion.
It was evident that the big shot respected this man’s advice. Stacks Lodi remembered the talk of another person involved in Hub’s scheme of crime.
Stacks grinned to himself as he realized that much must be at stake tonight. He realized that only he and Twister Edmonds had possessed a considerable insight of the work that was brewing.
As favored underlings, Stacks had figured that he and Twister would come in for a good share of the proceeds from this enterprise. Twister was dead, slain in the battle at the cabin. Stacks Lodi had no regrets. Twister’s death made him the only favored henchman.
Stacks could figure a very definite reason for the present delay. Now that they had reached the entrance to the cavern, there was no need for haste.
If the men whom they sought had already entered, they were trapped for now. If they had not arrived, they would reveal themselves when they came, because of the difficult corkscrew path that they would have to follow.
At last the break arrived. Hub Rowley had finished his conference with his companion. Stacks noted that the second of Hub’s unknown friends was silent, merely serving as a henchman to the mystery man whose advice had been sought by the big shot.
Two had come with Hub; five with Stacks. That made a total of nine men altogether—a powerful squad to deal with two victims. Yet Stacks Lodi could not repress a momentary shudder. Here, in the dark, his mind was reverting to The Shadow.
In Havana—aboard the Southern Star—at the Junction House—by the cabin in the clearing. Each time, a mysterious being had come from nothingness to break down the plans of those who had sought Carter Boswick’s life.
Would such intervention occur again tonight? Stacks hoped not. He felt that he could rely on Hub Rowley to deal with The Shadow, should the menace appear.
Then came the command for action. Hub Rowley’s growl ordered Stacks to enter the break between the rocks; and to save his flashlight until he had moved well in from the opening. Stacks responded without delay.
Probing his way,
he moved into the crevice. After twenty feet, he turned on his torch. The light revealed a twisting, natural course through broken rock.
Stacks Lodi was leading the murderous squad along the path that Harry Vincent and Carter Boswick had so recently taken. The trap was closing. Men of crime were here to deliver death!
CHAPTER XX.
THE HIDDEN MINE.
WHILE Stacks Lodi was conducting Hub Rowley and the mobsters along the wooded hillside, Harry Vincent and Carter Boswick had been making progress through the strange cavern which they had entered. A narrow, winding course through broken, rocky walls had led them on a tortuous descent of more than a hundred yards.
Progress had been slow. The roughness of the passage had delayed them; moreover, The Shadow’s instructions had named nothing beyond the entrance. Therefore, both were alert, watching for any sign that might indicate the purpose of this odd corridor beneath the hill.
Harry’s flashlight suddenly revealed an opening ahead. The beams glittered against the rocky wall of a man-hewn passage into which this natural channel entered. They stopped to find themselves coming into the side of a sloping mine shaft that ran at right angles to the course which they had followed to this point.
Side by side, the two men paused. Harry let his flashlight swing back and forth. The shaft which they had encountered was nearly eight feet in height, and almost the same in width. It sloped slightly downward to the left.
Harry’s light glittered upon rusty rails that had been installed for the running of ore cars.
“Look what we’ve struck!” exclaimed Harry. “This shaft must be a couple of hundred yards in length!”’
“No wonder they gave up the vertical shaft down by the cabin.” asserted Carter. “It must have been more or less of an experiment.”’
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