Maxwell Grant.........................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I .............................................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................................5

CHAPTER III..........................................................................................................................................8

CHAPTER IV........................................................................................................................................10

CHAPTER V.........................................................................................................................................14

CHAPTER VI........................................................................................................................................18

CHAPTER VII .......................................................................................................................................21

CHAPTER VIII.....................................................................................................................................23

CHAPTER IX........................................................................................................................................27

CHAPTER X.........................................................................................................................................30

CHAPTER XI........................................................................................................................................34

CHAPTER XII .......................................................................................................................................36

CHAPTER XIII.....................................................................................................................................40

CHAPTER XIV.....................................................................................................................................44

CHAPTER XV......................................................................................................................................46

CHAPTER XVI.....................................................................................................................................49

CHAPTER XVII ....................................................................................................................................52

CHAPTER XVIII ...................................................................................................................................55

CHAPTER XIX.....................................................................................................................................59

CHAPTER XX......................................................................................................................................63

HARRY VINCENT swung from the subway exit and turned southward toward Columbus Circle. Blocks

ahead he saw a distant electric sign that was spelling a word in running letters. The sign said:

Walking briskly, Harry kept watching the sign. Another word unraveled itself across the broad strip. It was a

Instinctively, Harry quickened his pace. Somehow, the message seemed intended for him. He had taken the

subway because be hadn't been able to find an empty cab and besides, there had been a traffic jam around

There, in running letters that fairly screamed its brightness, appeared a third word:

Often, Harry Vincent had received strange messages from his chief, The Shadow; orders that had come at

unexpected times, in unexpected places, and from unexpected sources. Perhaps Burbank, The Shadow's

contact man, had found some way to rig the wording of that sign and flash through a last minute command.

It was Burbank who had started Harry on this mission to the Alvara Apartments, the big building just around

the next corner. Maybe Burbank had found it necessary to speed up Harry's arrival there.

Suddenly, the whole notion dispelled itself. The sign was explaining itself. Riding across it were other words,

suggesting the customers order their postwar automobiles before the supply was exhausted. That was why

He wanted the next block to think over why he had come here and what he was going to do about it.

Basically, his situation was very simple, as simple as A B C, except that those letters weren't as simple as

A, B and C stood for Albersham, Barstow and Curvin, three gentlemen who had taken advantage of their

initials to form a corporation called the ABC Industries, which had suddenly loomed into importance. Only

this afternoon, the ABC Industries had become front page news in the New York journals for a most

According to report, ABC was ready to produce a new form of alloy that was so ancient that it was really

new. Their product was the sort to rouse the jealousy of modern metallurgists. Through an eccentric professor

named Rufus Parrish, the ABC syndicate had acquired the greatest secret of legendary Egypt, that of

Authorities agreed that the ancient Egyptians had possessed such a process. Of all the men in America who

might have uncovered that secret, Professor Parrish rated tops. Time after time, Parrish had probed into the

secrets of the Pharaohs, violating the tombs of the high priests of the Nile, defying the curses of the whole

If Professor Parrish owned such a secret, he would be a fool to part with it for anything under half a million

dollars. It happened that half a million dollars was the price that Albersham, Barstow and Curvin had paid for

So anxious were the members of ABC to acquire all data covering their precious purchase, that they had

offered to pay cash in plenty to anyone furnishing them with data that they could add to Parrish's information.

There were certain men who qualified. One such man was Hugo Zerland who lived at the Alvara Apartments.

Unquestionably Zerland would take up the offer, which was why Harry Vincent had been deputed to

interview him. For behind this business of reviving an old Egyptian secret for modern use, lay influences

The sign flashed its triple shout again, as Harry turned the corner, a reminder, even though a mere

coincidence, that weird influences from the Land of the Nile might still be at large, even in this mechanized

age. Hand in coat pocket, Harry fingered an envelope containing clippings that related to the subject and

Harry was walking with long, rapid strides, a compromise between his brief jog, and a natural gait. Then,

almost at the door of the Alvara, a sudden thought struck him. If there was no need to hurry, this sort of pace

was foolish. Should haste be necessary, it would be equally unwise to give away the fact.

If danger lurked, it would be human; of that, Harry felt certain. So when he strolled nonchalantly into the

lobby of the Alvara Apartments, he took a satisfactory glance across the street. No furtive figures lurked in

the darkness there, so far as Harry could see; still, he wouldn't have sworn that there were none. It was very

To get anywhere in the Alvara Apartments, it was necessary to stop at a combination office and switchboard

that was under the control of a dapper young man who at the moment was very busy operating switchboard

This was emphasized by a blocky elevator man standing at the open door of his car. Harry's first steps were

toward the elevator and the operator responded by gesturing toward the office, with an upward thumb motion

There was a girl already waiting at the office wicket. Her back was turned toward Harry and was mostly fur,

in the form of a mink coat. Apparently she was negotiating with the dapper chap behind the window, so

Harry took his turn in line with no show of impatience, knowing too well how such symptoms could start an

They moved fast in Manhattan if you didn't block them; if you did, they'd take their own time and yours with

The switchboard character manipulated a few plugs, tangled himself with some insulated wires, then

It couldn't be meant for Harry, because he hadn't yet mentioned Zerland. So Harry took it that it was meant

for the girl. She pivoted away from the wicket on a pair of high heels, taking a turn in the opposite direction

so that Harry didn't see her face. All Harry did was crowd half through the wicket window and put the

The fellow at the switchboard tried to swell into importance, but it didn't work with a keeneyed questioner

The clerk hesitated, then gave a sly look at a sheet of paper beyond his opposite elbow.

"A couple of men seeing him on business," the clerk admitted. "Their names are Barstow and Curvin. Guess I

"That's being civil," approved Harry. "Now take a sideslant at that list and see if you don't see my name

"That settles it from A to Z," acknowledged Harry. "Mr. Albersham sees Mr. Zerland. Give me the apartment

number and a pass or whatever else that elevator man needs to make him act human."

"It's 6B," the switchboard tender supplied. Then, rising to gesture through the window: "It's all right, Kirky,"

Keeping a pokerface to hide his triumph, Harry Vincent turned about as he entered the elevator. The

switchboard man had gone back to duty, but Harry's expression wasn't entirely lost, where a witness was

Said witness was the furwearing lady who had preceded Harry at the window. She had started from the

lobby, but she hadn't gone beyond the door. She had turned too, to learn what a visitor to Zerland's looked

It wasn't easy to guess a fur coat's contents from the back, but Harry had rather suspected that the girl in the

mink was of lithe construction. She was indeed, as he saw her now with the coat spread loose; she was

slender, tall, but stately rather than willowy. But it was the expression of her face that riveted Harry.

The features were truly exotic, as though sculptured from softened marble. Their complexion was creamy,

but reminiscent of cream lying thick upon the surface of coffee. The girl's eyes, peering from beside a

highbridged nose, caught the light and showed a sparkle of a color that represented the exact shade of Nile

A lovely face, yet as haunting as something from a dream, and fixed in mold. It was a face that could have

come from afar, either in terms of space or time. Not a semblance of a smile, not even a flicker of an eyelash

But it wasn't until the door of the elevator shaft had clanged and the car was starting upward, that Harry

Vincent realized he'd been looking at somebody as straight from Egypt as if she had been the Sphinx itself!

BY the time Harry Vincent reached the door of 6B, he was shaking off thoughts of Little Egypt, down there

in the lobby. Harry had other things to think about, as was always the case when he handled a special mission

The first factor was Kirky, the elevator man. Though the fellow had taken orders directly from the

information booth, he still considered that he had a few duties other than simply hoisting the elevator to the

sixth floor. For one thing, Kirky gave Harry a continuous scrutiny, all the way up; for another, he kept the

elevator at the sixth floor when he reached there, to see to it that the pretended Mr. Albersham went to 6B and

Seeing the door marked 6B down at one end of the corridor, Harry purposely started in the opposite direction,

So Harry turned the other way and past the elevator noted a side corridor which obviously led to some rear

apartments. Hoping Kirky had given up, Harry took to the side passage only to hear the same booming voice

Further stalling wouldn't have helped, so Harry turned back to 6B, at the same time regretting that he hadn't

been able to complete the survey. Getting the general layout of a strange building was always a good

One thing, Harry did find out. The fire tower was in the center of the building, around in back of the elevator,

which was something rather unusual. The Alvara Apartments consisted of a structure which could be termed

all wings, Apartments A and B in one direction; C and D the other; with an unknown quantity of other

Right now, the only apartment that mattered was 6B. It had a bell button, so Harry gave it an imperious ring

and waited. The door was opened by a bowing man who looked like a secretary. The fellow said: "Step right

in, Mr. Albersham" and as Harry did, he heard Kirky close the door of the elevator. A moment later the

apartment door too was closed and Zerland's secretary was bowing Harry into a sumptuous living room of a

Two men were seated there and Harry could have been blindfolded and still made the correct guess that

neither was Hugo Zerland. The secretary didn't introduce Harry to them, but just took it for granted that he

knew them. What was more, the secretary continued on through the living room, apparently to speak to

someone else who could only be Zerland. Besides, from the surprised mutters the two men gave when they

looked at Harry, it was obvious that they must be Albersham's partners, Barstow and Curvin.

"Good evening, gentlemen," declared Harry. "I take it that you must be Mr. Barstow and Mr. Curvin."

"I'm Geoffrey Barstow." The man who spoke came to his feet. "You are right; my friend here" he gave a

Barstow was a blunt man, tall when he reared himself as he did now, though his shoulders had a natural

droop that hunched him into a rather portly appearance when seated. Barstow's face was broad and he

probably preferred to keep it bland, but this business of dealing with an impostor was pulling Barstow out of

The broad face was flushed with a show of indignation that carried its ruddy touch clear up to the exaggerated

forehead that was partly a bald head, the baldness beginning where the wrinkles ended.

Curvin too was coming to his feet, but more deliberately, a trifle painfully. His hunch wasn't natural, his

shoulders looked as though he wanted to straighten them, but couldn't. Curvin was a man with peaked face

and small eyes, that seemed sharp despite the droop of their lids. He kept his head tilted as though to favor

However, Curvin didn't speak. He left that to Barstow, whose tone was sharp. But Harry sensed that Barstow

"Coming here and calling yourself Edwin Albersham!" stormed Barstow. "May I ask the meaning of this, as

"My name is Harry Vincent," acknowledged Harry, coolly. "And speaking of asking, I merely asked for Mr.

While Barstow's flush faded, Curvin let his smile spread and be come more pleasant. In a dry drawl, Curvin

"That about sizes it," returned Harry, "though he may have gotten it wrong. He looked dumb enough and

besides, he was all goggleeyed over the latest thing in mink linings. I believe she was inquiring for Zerland's

Harry's remark brought an exchange of glances between Barstow and Curvin and they both looked worried.

That scored one for Harry; he made the mental note that these men were bothered by the Egyptian angle of

their business. It also paved the way for Harry's next shot, but he waited, knowing the opportunity would

"I might say that was Albersham's business," put Harry, bluntly, "but it isn't, entirely. It's your business just as

much. Here" Harry brought the envelope from his pocket "these clippings will explain it."

Harry spread the clippings on the living room table. They made a story in themselves. One was the front page

item declaring that Albersham, Barstow and Curvin, as the ABC Industries, intended to produce a

supermetal in the form of hardened bronze. That, of course, was common knowledge.

Other items, however, were somewhat obscure, except when studied closely and together. Here were small

ads bearing the initials A B C asking for information regarding Egyptian tombs and hieroglyphics. Also little

announcements of tests being made in order to develop a wonder metal, by certain interested but unnamed

Finally, Harry spread a sizable sheet of paper in the form of a tabloid newspaper page. It was adorned with

photographs of the sphinx and pyramids, along with those of rifled Egyptian tombs. It showed a couple of

bearded men, famous Egyptian explorers, who had died suddenly after completing excavations.

Dominating the page was a fanciful drawing of those same bearded men, backing away in horror from a

weird creature in Egyptian robe wearing a mask like a bird's head, the creature in question holding a huge

dagger, poised as though to strike at the bearded pair. In the background was a mummy case, showing the

figure of an Egyptian princess, halfunwrapped, while the story bore the provocative title:

Looking up, Harry saw disdainful smiles creep across the faces of Barstow and Curvin, but he wondered how

genuine those expressions were. To find out, Harry plucked a little clipping from the rest and showed it to his

companions. The story related to Professor Rufus Parrish, mentioning that he had long been absent from New

York and raising a query as to his whereabouts. It added pointedly that Professor Parrish had become a fitting

Contrary to Harry's expectations, that story brought a bland laugh from Barstow and a dry chuckle from

"Old stuff," cackled Curvin. "Of course Parrish had disappeared at that time. He wanted to tuck himself away

"Secret experiments," explained Barstow. "He had to decipher a lot of Egyptian hieroglyphics along with

"Look at today's story," argued Curvin, his forefinger quivering above. "It states plainly that ABC Industries

"And that accounts for Professor Parrish," summed Barstow. "We hear from the professor regularly, so that

should satisfy you, Mr. Vincent" Barstow's tone became terse "whatever your interest is."

Gathering the clippings, Harry put them back in the envelope. Then, pointedly, he asked:

"I'd ask Parrish himself," added Harry, "if I could find him. Since I can't, would you mind if I talked to Hugo

"Talk to Zerland if you want," Barstow decided. "We don't mind if you discuss this Thothandnonsense

"We'd be bringing it up anyway," avowed Curvin. "We wouldn't want to do business with Zerland if he

believes such rot. We can't talk business until Albersham arrives, so we can clear the Thoth question first.

You're welcome to be in on the discussion, Mr. Vincent, if you'll bow out when we begin to talk bronze."

Harry gave a nod that was quite timely, for at that moment, the secretary returned to the room. Not yet

acquainted with the fact that Harry wasn't Albersham, the secretary spoke to the group as though all three

As the secretary turned, Barstow gestured for Harry to come along. Curvin emphasized this by placing a

trembling hand on Harry's arm, though whether Curvin intended to urge Harry or simply steady himself, was

a question, since Curvin's palsy was an ailment that made it difficult for him to get in locomotion.

Intent upon meeting Zerland, Harry didn't think of looking out the front window that they passed. If he had,

he would have spotted his old friend, the electric sign, blazing above Columbus Circle.

That sign was no longer declaiming a running message. It had stopped on the last of three repeated words and

The room was large all of this apartment was on an ample scale and the walls were covered with enlarged

photographs depicting all parts of the world, with Hugo Zerland prominent in every scene.

Zerland predominated the photographs because he was a tall, rangy man whose height accentuated his

thinness. He belonged to the beanpole classification and in one picture, where Zerland was riding a mountain

burro, it looked as though he were walking, with the creature trying to crowd its way beneath him.

For a steed, Hugo Zerland needed an elephant or a camel to reduce his six feet seven inches to something

resembling normal size. There were photos of him on both and Harry Vincent was particularly interested in

Mixed among the photographs were actual weapons, such as African spears, Australian boomerangs, and

Oriental swords. The room was furnished with taborets, elephant tables, teak wood chairs, and pedestal

couches. There were books in odd shelves and racks, but all of them were curious old volumes bound in

Zerland himself lived up to the photographs except that he looked older and more haggard. His face was as

bony as his form and seemed as much parchment as some of the book bindings. His eyes, however, were very

much alive; they were a watery gray, that seemed to flow wherever he turned his gaze.

At present, Zerland was seated on one of the couches; he wasn't reclining, he'd simply chosen the couch

instead of a chair because it was more ample. As a result, his proportions were easily gauged and if anything,

Apparently Zerland still thought that Harry was Albersham, for he included him in the quick, flowing survey

that he gave all three visitors. Odd, Zerland's way of looking at people. That flowing glance of his seemed to

"We are here, Mr. Zerland," declared Barstow, "to discuss certain findings that you made in Egypt, during

"But first," interrupted Zerland, sharply, "suppose you introduce yourselves. Which of you is which?"

"I'm Barstow," the speaker acknowledged. "This" he indicated the man beside him "is Mr. Curvin. We

Before Barstow could go further, Zerland was up from the couch, suddenly and nervously, waving his hand at

"I came here at the request of a mutual friend," Harry stated, deciding that this was the time to play a trump

card. "A gentleman who has traveled as extensively as you have, Mr. Zerland. In fact, I am quite sure that

you must have met him during the course of your travels, as well as here in New York. I refer to Mr. Lamont

It was something of a shot in the dark, for Harry's instructions had been simply to see Zerland, warn him

about some unknown peril, and keep him under something resembling surveillance until The Shadow could

Of course in naming Lamont Cranston, Harry actually signified The Shadow, because Cranston was the name

and personality that The Shadow usually operated under when he appeared publicly. The link between The

Shadow and Lamont Cranston was well covered, therefore was no giveaway. But that was not the reason

Noted as a globetrotter, Cranston was almost certainly an acquaintance of Zerland's, if only an acquaintance

of a passing sort. The name certainly registered with Zerland but not in a way that Harry expected. Folding

back on the couch, Zerland turned quite pale and his odd eyes became shifty. When Zerland recovered

Instead of producing alarm, Harry's words caused Zerland's lips to bare his teeth in a grin that would have

done credit to a skeleton. The ungainly man gave a hard laugh that carried a genuine note. For some reason,

"A foolish legend," sneered Zerland land, rising again from the couch. "The myth that anyone who violates

the tomb of a high priest of Thoth will suffer death from the hand of the ibisgod himself. Tell me" he

wheeled to Barstow and Curvin, letting his icy gaze fix on each "has anyone else given credence to this

"We have only talked to Professor Parrish," he declared. "Of course the professor is eccentric and might

"I know," interrupted Zerland. "We all have information that you regard as valuable, which it is. My prize is a

papyrus, direct from the tomb of the high priest ElTaab. It was translated for me by a man now dead"

again, Zerland's lips spread in a smile as happy as it was ugly "and you can have the translation verified,

Both Barstow and Curvin nodded eagerly. Then Barstow curbed himself with the comment:

"Perhaps we had better wait for Albersham. I can't understand why he is so late."

"It's because we are so early," inserted Curvin, crisply. "Albersham is always punctual, but we arrived ahead

of time. My suggestion is that Zerland show us the papyrus so that we can be discussing terms when

Curvin looked at Harry as he spoke, indicating that this was the right time to get rid of the unwanted visitor

who had concluded his discussion of the Thoth Curse with Zerland. Catching the idea, Barstow nodded and

Harry decided to accept the hint. He strolled toward the living room and Zerland's everready secretary

At the door, however, Harry paused in wellfaked style. He was taking a cigarette from his case, but he

couldn't find a match and was glancing, about for one. The secretary saw Harry's dilemma and produced a

fancy lighter in the shape of a little bronze statuette that was on a corner taboret. A cute lighter, but it didn't

Waiting for the lighter to click, Harry was watching Zerland open a pair of brass gates that Harry had so far

mistaken for the back wall of the study. Stepping into a small rear room which was furnished in Chinese style

with garish tapestries, Zerland stepped to one side wall and opened a large Oriental cabinet, where he stooped

At the opposite side of the room stood a large Chinese screen, the sort guaranteed to block the route of

wandering demons. The guarantee either didn't hold, or it wasn't applicable to devilcreatures of a nationality

For at that moment, the screen toppled forward to disgorge a most hideous creature wearing an ancient

Egyptian robe, topped by a birdmask covering its entire head. The thing was a perfect replica of the famed

In one upraised hand, covered with a glove that resembled a bird's claw, the horrendous figure clutched a

long bronze dirk that glistened in the light. Clearing the screen before it even struck the floor, this incarnation

of Thoth reached Zerland before anyone Harry included could make a move to help the victim.

For Hugo Zerland was a victim almost upon the instant. With stretching arm and driving hand that seemed a

continuation of its leap, the robed thing called Thoth buried the thin bronze blade deep in the back of the man

Unable to halt murder, Harry Vincent stood rooted, watching events unravel in slowmotion style, wondering

why he wasn't hurling himself to Zerland's aid, no matter how belated. The least that Harry could do would

It was the sort of riddle that would clear itself later. Actually, Harry was tightening for an instinctive spring,

but his eyes were taking in events faster than his muscles could respond. Those events seemed slow, because

they were packed into instants that made a pair of seconds seem like that many minutes almost hours.

Zerland's body doubled backward the moment the blade pierced it, as though the knife had struck a hidden

spring. Thoth's other hand made a clawing sweep to clutch the papyrus that Zerland's hand automatically

flung back across his shoulder. The robed figure was twisting away, prize in hand, as Zerland's body

telescoped toward the cabinet into which his hands plunged, as though seeking something to fill their death

Those details were close to simultaneous and before they completed themselves, Harry Vincent had begun his

forward lunge. How swiftly he really came to action was proven by the fact that Zerland's body had not

Yet all during those moments, Zerland was sprawling, though in a slow, corkscrew style. From the drawer in

the old Oriental cabinet, he had clutched and brought along an antique pistol made of heavy brass with a

mouth like a blunderbuss. Whether the thing was loaded didn't really matter at this moment, for Zerland's

As Zerland finished his spiral sag, the brass weapon slipped from his loosening fist and jounced across the

floor, where Harry scooped it, at about the center of this little room that formed an extension of the study.

Other men were surging forward: Barstow and Curvin. Harry almost passed them in his rush, but they forged

ahead when he stooped to gain the brass gun. Thus Barstow and Curvin were the first to reach that living

terror known as Thoth. Simultaneously they began a grapple with the masked monstrosity.

Thoth wasted little time on these attackers. He flung his clawgloved hands at Barstow's throat, halfchoked

him with a single clutch, then flung him back to the middle of the room. Barstow made a wild grab for

Thoth's neck, but all he caught was a loop of beads, one of several adorning the Thoth costume. Then

Such flingabout tactics on the part of Thoth proved too great a handicap for Curvin. Clutching for the

murderer's neck, Curvin's shaky hands couldn't do better than grip the collar of the Thoth robe. Now Curvin's

hands were slipping as Thoth wheeled hard about, but they held frantically to a robe sleeve, near the elbow.

Then, as Thoth completed his whirl, Curvin was flung like the last man in a game of crackthewhip, rolling

Harry had to sidestep Barstow and hurdle Curvin as they cluttered up the scene. By then, the living Thoth had

flung open the casement window and was perched on the sill like a bird preparing for a takeoff. But Harry

wasn't gullible enough to credit this impostor with the ability to take to wing.

For one thing, the Thoth costume hadn't any wings; nor was there such a thing as a fourfooted bird, which

Thoth to a degree resembled, since Harry could see that the costume included soft shoes that were fashioned

like birdclaws in the manner of Thoth's gloves. The hands were more important, for they were grabbing at

something on the window sill and a moment later Thoth gave a flip that took him backward and outward.

The killer was hooking his hands to a cable with a little trolley, to take a swift, short ride across to the rear

extension of the apartment building. It would have to be at about the same level, that other window, or Thoth

wouldn't have been able to coast here by the same route. But there wasn't any use in dealing in ceremonies or

theories where a murderer was concerned. Having three witnesses who would testify in his own behalf, Harry

Vincent decided to end the killer's flight and discuss the technicalities later.

So as Thoth's head and shoulders swung over and beyond the sill, as they had to do so that the man could

start his dangling ride, Harry reached the window with a final lunge, shoved the bigmuzzled pistol through

in an exact copy of Thoth's dip, and pulled the trigger hoping the gun was loaded.

It went off with a report like a thunderclap and the charge ricocheted from the wall below the opposite

window, bringing a clatter of brick and plaster with it. Then Harry was staring at the void beyond.

Harry stared downward and listened for a crash. He didn't expect a trailing scream, because if Thoth had

But there was no crash from below; and if Thoth had been riddled by the gunshot, why had the same charge

With those questions popping through his brain, Harry looked for the cable, saw it, and realized how he had

guessed wrong. That wire line didn't go straight across to the rear extension; it was set at a sharp angle,

leading inward, to the center of the building which was like the body of a letter "I," with Zerland's apartment

Even now, Harry could see a window slapping shut in the middle of the building and he couldn't do a thing

about it, the blunderbuss pistol being strictly a oneshot weapon. Turning quickly back into the room, Harry

rallied Barstow and Curvin who were coming dumbly to their feet and told them to come along.

"Thoth is making for the fire tower!" Harry didn't go into further detail. "Come along and maybe we can

Barstow was numbly fingering the beads that he had snatched from Thoth's robe, while Curvin's hand was

gripping a chunk of cloth torn from the killer's sleeve. Harry told them to place those exhibits with Zerland's

secretary who was still standing rooted, his goggling eyes fixed on the bronze knife handle that projected

Out through the apartment and around to the interior fire tower, Harry was the first to hear a rumbling sound

of an elevator which couldn't be the smoothworking lift that Kirky handled. Turning to Barstow and Curvin,

"It must be a service elevator!" exclaimed Harry. "Thoth has gone down in it! He'll be going out the back

By "come on" Harry meant to use the firetower, so they did. Again Harry was in the lead when they reached

the bottom, but Barstow wasn't far behind. Curvin, though, had been unable to maintain the pace, even on the

downgrade. Rather than wait for him, Harry and Barstow rushed outdoors to look for Thoth.

Harry was armed with the big pistol, brandishing it as if it were reloaded, and Barstow was carrying a big

cane that he had picked up in Zerland's vestibule. Boldly they both began to look for Thoth, but to no avail.

In the time that he had gained, Thoth could have reached either corner of the block before his pursuers

arrived. Furthermore, there were passages between buildings through which he might have ducked. Whether

or not Thoth had chucked his regalia somewhere became the next question, or would have taken precedence,

Summing the situation with a quick though wide glance that took in the whole block, Curvin steadied his

wobbly knees by gripping the arms of the other two men; then turned to Barstow and wheezed:

"Curvin means Roger Yelvin," stated Barstow. "The famous engineer who made so many surveys of the

pyramids, hoping to solve the secret of their construction. He was the next man that we intended to see."

"Living in an old house off West Side Avenue," replied Barstow. "There's no telephone, but I have the

"And you have your car," added Curvin, pointing to an automobile parked a short way down the street. "You

had better get to Yelvin's and warn him right away, while Vincent and I handle matters here."

Hesitating, Barstow finally nodded. Pulling his keys from his pocket, he hurried to his car, clambered into it

and got started. But neither Harry nor Curvin waited to wave Barstow on his way. By that time, they were

back in the Alvara Apartments, working their way through to the lobby, to spread the news of Zerland's death

An argument was already in progress there, but it had nothing to do with the Thoth question. It centered about

an imperious man who was drawn up with selfimportance as though he fancied himself a commanding

officer. His thin face, long and drawn, was flushed to his graystreaked hair as he stormed with righteous

"I tell you, I am Edwin Albersham! I demand that you call Hugo Zerland at once and tell him that I am here!"

The switchboard operator was gesturing through his window and Kirky, the elevator man, had begun to shove

"Leave it to me, Homer," boomed Kirky. "And listen you" this was for Albersham "we know you ain't

"And if it wasn't Mr. Albersham who went upstairs, why ain't they chased him down again? Thought you'd be

smart, didn't you, to come walking in here, saying you were Mr. Albersham, not knowing he was here

"Phone Zerland's apartment!" insisted Albersham. "Let me talk to my associates, Barstow and Curvin. They

"And there's Albersham!" put in Homer, pointing through the window at Harry. Then, in answer to a buzz

"Alvara Apartments... Mr. Zerland? Who is calling please?... Sorry, I'll have to know your name, or I can't

Harry was at the window, wigwagging through to Homer, offering to help the fellow from his dilemma.

"Switch it to the house phone," suggested Harry. "I'll take it and find out what it's about."

Hurrying to the booth before Homer could find out who was really Albersham, Harry picked up the telephone

IT wasn't the weird, sinister voice of The Shadow that came across the wire, but the calm, precise tone of a

gentleman who called himself Lamont Cranston. What Harry had to say in reply would have ruffled the calm

Briefly, but rapidly, with the skill acquired through years in The Shadow's service, Harry detailed how Hugo

Zerland had been murdered by a killer disguised as Thoth. Following those facts, Harry stated that Albersham

had arrived to join Curvin while Barstow had left to warn another potential victim named Roger Yelvin.

The name Yelvin registered distinctly with The Shadow. Then came Cranston's even tone:

"Interesting news, Vincent, to hear that Yelvin is living here in town. Ask Curvin for Yelvin's address and let

Harry didn't have to go far to talk to Curvin, for at that moment, the shaky man was rapping at the door of the

"We've settled matters, Vincent," explained Curvin. "About your posing as Albersham, I mean. I explained

"For the present, yes." It was Albersham who spoke testily, thrusting his long face over Curvin's hunched

shoulder. "Right now it is more important to find out who posed as Thoth and murdered Zerland; since

Curvin has told us of that matter too. Later" Albersham was glaring "we can take up the question of your

"Yes, of course," began Curvin, trying to be tactful. "But Vincent was a great help, a great help. He hasn't

"Not at all?" repeated Albersham. "Would he mind telling us whom that phone call is from?"

So sharp was Albersham's query that Curvin's suspicions were roused. From his genial pose, the shaky man

"The police," rejoined Harry, promptly. "They want to know about the Zerland case."

"The police?" echoed Curvin. "But how did they find out about Zerland's death so soon?"

"Because I told them," returned Harry. "You see, they were calling to find out if I had arrived yet. They knew

"Op for operative," explained Harry. "Detective to you. You see" Harry was fabricating neatly, but was

careful not to let it sound too glib "Zerland wasn't the sort to trust anybody too far, not even your ABC

Industries. When anybody comes around offering a half a million dollars for some ancient secret, it's not a

"We didn't intend to offer Zerland a half million," snapped Albersham, across Curvin's shoulder. "We've

already bought what we wanted from Professor Parrish. We felt that Zerland's supplementary data might be

"Or a hundred thousand," corrected Curvin, turning his head toward Albersham. "We don't have to bargain

"Yelvin isn't dead," reminded Albersham. "We will have to bargain with him or any others who can sell us

"Zerland was my client," remarked Harry, "and right now I'm only interested in finding out who murdered

him. I won't be bothering Yelvin or anybody else you may have business with. Right now it's the police who

want to find Yelvin, so they can put him safely in camphor until you have a chance to talk to him. They don't

think Barstow is good enough protection for Yelvin. What's that address over by West Side Avenue?"

Curvin's shaky hand fumbled in his inside pocket for an address book. Meanwhile, Albersham put another

"Before you give Vincent the address, Curvin," argued Albersham, "make him prove that he's a private

Harry's hand went to his own inside pocket and brought out a wallet before Curvin could produce the address

book. The wallet had interior flaps containing cards that showed through cellophane and Harry flicked a few

There wasn't a private detective's license in the lot, but Curvin didn't find that out. Harry kept the wallet tilted

so the cards weren't readable in the dim light. Also, be moved his hand so Albersham, the really keen man of

the pair, couldn't see the cards at all. However, the array was imposing enough to convince Curvin and as

Then Curvin read the address from his little book and Harry repeated the location of Yelvin's residence across

the phone. It brought a slight, restrained chuckle that distantly resembled The Shadow's laugh; then came

"Excellent work, Vincent. Tell them that Inspector Cardona is already on his way."

The other receiver clicked, leaving Harry wondering how a police inspector could be coming here without

knowing that there'd been a crime committed. Indeed, Harry was quite as puzzled over that as Curvin had

However, Harry announced the fact to his companions and while they were riding up in the elevator to

During Harry's palaver with Albersham and Curvin, The Shadow kind simply buzzed Burbank, his contact

agent, and ordered him to phone police headquarters regarding Zerland's death. With murder done at the

Alvara Apartments, there was no doubt that the ace police inspector, Joe Cardona, would be coming there in

Within ten minutes after Harry had reoccupied Zerland's apartment along with Albersham and Curvin, a

summary ring was answered by Zerland's secretary, who had now recovered enough of his wits to answer to

his name as well as answering a door bell. The secretary's name happened to be Roscoe and he stammered it

to the swarthy, stocky man who entered, who in turn happened to be Inspector Joe Cardona.

Before studying Zerland's body, Joe Cardona gave a nod to Harry Vincent, who in turn threw a triumphant

glance at two gentlemen named Albersham and Curvin, respectively. It looked as though Cardona was

certifying Harry to he the private detective that he wasn't. Actually, Cardona was recognizing Harry as a

friend of Lamont Cranston, who in turn was a friend and confidant of the police commissioner, Ralph

It was from Harry that Cardona took the details of Zerland's death and jotted them in a notebook. Then, after

"You say Barstow went to warn another man named Roger Yelvin who might be in danger like Zerland was.

"Curvin has the address," replied Harry. "I phoned it to headquarters after you'd left."

"Because I objected," inserted Albersham, crisply, not giving Harry time to answer for himself. "Mr. Vincent

came here representing himself to be me, although he now claims there was some mistake about it. While he

was using the telephone, I had no proof that he was calling the police. In fact, I regarded him as a

"I see," snapped Cardona. "Maybe you even thought that Vincent had come climbing through a window

"That would have been impossible," returned Albersham, spreading his hands. "I have Curvin's word for that

"But you weren't," interjected Cardona. "Only you showed up mighty quickly, so I hear. Perhaps you were

"How preposterous!" he exclaimed. "Why, my partners were waiting here for me to join them and conclude

our transaction with Zerland. Would you accuse me of doublecrossing my own partners?"

"A few people have done it," retorted Cardona. "In fact, in some circles, it seems to be the common thing. So

don't be too critical of others, Albersham, while your name still tops my list of possible suspects."

"This is an outrage!" Albersham's face was furious. "Why, anyone who wasn't here might have been the

"You're there alphabetically," Cardona interrupted. "A for Albersham. A stands for alibi, too. If you have one

"I was keeping an appointment," he declared, his rage completely subsided. "I was practically on time, but

just unfortunate enough to arrive right after a murderer left. Should that incriminate me?"

"It shouldn't," admitted Cardona, "but unless Thoth shows up somewhere else, you're still a candidate,

Albersham. Of course if somebody stowed that Egyptian costume somewhere around this building, you'll

have more explaining to do. If it was stowed, we'll find it, because it would be tough to hide that bird head

very deep. I brought a squad along and they're scouring the neighborhood right now."

Harry observed that Albersham looked quite uneasy, in fact actually pale, but the latter factor could simply be

the contrast with the angry flush that had so recently governed the man's long face. Nevertheless, Albersham

"Meanwhile Thoth may have gone to Yelvin's," argued Albersham. "What if he plans to do murder there?"

"He won't get very far with it," stated Cardona. "Since Vincent called headquarters, you can be sure they've

sent patrol cars there. And now, Albersham, if you'd really like to help the law, tell us this:

"I wouldn't really know." Albersham gave his head a serious shake. "He is likely to be out of town isn't he,

A nod from Curvin, whose eyes, narrowed and tiny, were regarding Albersham with something like

"We have all of Yelvin's correspondence at our office," continued Albersham, "and I'm sure he stated he

"Do any of them mention Zerland?" demanded Cardona, quick with his interruption. "Or anyone else who

"Not specifically," recalled Albersham, "but I am sure there are some indirect references that might help."

"We'll go there then," asserted Cardona. He picked up the broken beads and the piece of cloth that had been

ripped from the murderer's robe. "If we meet up with Thoth, we'll ask him to match these for us."

Nobody appreciated Cardona's quip, Harry Vincent least of all. As they left the apartment, Harry felt really

worried, even though he saw the big electric sign streaming a new message that didn't include the word

A visit to the office of the ABC Industries seemed a tame thing indeed, compared for instance to a house near

West Side Avenue. If Thoth had started there to find Roger Yelvin, he would certainly arrive ahead of his

But in Harry's estimate, founded on personal observation, Barstow just didn't count.

WHILE Inspector Cardona was convoying a suspect and a pair of witnesses to the downtown office of ABC

Industries, an old house near West Side Avenue was taking on the aspects of a vast dark mausoleum, just

The windows of the old brownstone were lighted and that made it all the worse. So deepset were the lights,

so inadequate for the large interior, that they looked like the flicker of those peculiar lights called corpse

In fact, the house itself seemed symbolic of a quagmire, for it looked like a place that would swallow all

One person could appreciate the insidious aspect of that house. She had been watching it for some time from

a doorway across the street. Occasionally a cab would swing the corner from West Side Avenue and flick its

headlights into that doorway. On those occasions, the girl withdrew deeper, but not so deep that the reflection

It was the same face that Harry Vincent had noted when he entered the Alvara Apartments but had

temporarily forgotten during the excitement that came later. A face of beautiful mold, exquisite in its

deepcream complexion, but as cryptic and unsmiling as the features of the sphinx itself.

A singular setting this, like a strange, uninhabited island in the sea of Manhattan, for the girl was too much a

statue to be regarded as an inhabitant. The setting was most singular, because the bright lights of West Side

A perfect place for a perfect crime, this deceptive side street where a person might step unwittingly from the

brilliance of the avenue and be swallowed, never to return. The house, curiously, looked like a thing with

eyes and mouth, as represented by those dim windows, but a house couldn't be expected to gulp wayfarers

All that house might need was a presiding demon and from a dark passage beside it was coming a figure that

answered to the specification, as it turned toward the gloomy steps of the house itself.

He looked intact, robe and all, this bird monster, for there wasn't sufficient light to reveal a missing bead

string from the group about his neck, nor to show the gap in one of those robed sleeves which in color

A quick trip by car or cab could have brought Thoth to this rather remote address in the time that had elapsed

since his flight from Zerland's apartment. Good riding time, but it might have been clipped by some three

The question was: how many such minutes could Geoffrey Barstow have clipped, granting Thoth about the

same amount of leeway? Certainly Barstow could not have overtaken Thoth and it was dubious what good he

could accomplish if he appeared on the scene any later than the monstrous murderer.

These factors did not seem to concern the silent girl who stood across the street; perhaps she was totally

ignorant of them. Her sphinx poise remained unruffled, even at the sight of Thoth, even though she did draw

deeper into the doorway. But that could have been because of a cab's lights that were veering from the

The house had swallowed Thoth when the cab completed the swing. It had swallowed the birdgod so

suddenly that any observer except perhaps the Egyptian girl would have thought that Thoth had walked

straight through the closed door. Perhaps Miss Sphinx took it for granted that he had, since Thoth was

Remarkable enough, Thoth's entry to the brownstone house, but it was trifling when compared to what was

happening on the side street. That veering cab had opened and closed a door, with no more than the slight

slackening of speed that was customary with a cab that had made a sudden swerve and needed to straighten

With the maneuver of the door, the cab had disgorged a living figure more evanescent than Thoth if not so

fantastic. What had come from the cab was a lithe form cloaked in black, with a slouch hat to match, a shape

so swift and sure of time and action that it didn't need an oversized house to swallow it from sight.

This new arrival, The Shadow, required only patchy darkness with which to merge from view and there was

plenty of such stuff along this side street. Once he became part of surrounding blackness, The Shadow

remained so, giving himself the equivalent of invisibility. Not even the sphinx itself let alone the girl who

played the part could have traced the course that The Shadow therewith followed unseen.

Keeping to the darkness that spread across the street, The Shadow made his silent way to the very brownstone

steps that Thoth had taken. Blended with the gloom of the great front door, he turned the knob of that barrier,

at the same time stretching a cloaked arm upward to cut off any light that might filter through above his head.

The door was unlocked, which explained how Thoth had entered so easily and rapidly. The Shadow's arm lift

was unnecessary because there was no light in the vestibule just inside. The door itself was dark enough to

give no trace of its closing after The Shadow's cloaked form had twisted through a space so narrow that

Past the inner door of the vestibule, however, the house was slightly brighter and even alive, in a dreary sort

of way. It was still illuminated by gaslight, this ancient mansion, which accounted for the deepset lights

away from windows where a breeze might extinguish the jets. As for life, there was an old lady dozing as she

rocked in a parlor chair, the locomotion kept continuous by a cat that kept clawing at the lady's skirt in an

There was an old manservant who was walking around with a long rod with which he could turn off some of

the higher gasjets sprouting from the chandeliers, while a younger man in uniform was coming from the

These two might have observed The Shadow, but they didn't. They were just a trifle too late, something

The Shadow was well in from the lighted fringe of the hallway when both men began to turn and so rapidly

that the action seemed instinctive, the cloaked form whisked to the deeper recess of the hallway.

Anyone other than The Shadow would have retreated back to the door, rather than be boxed in the cramped

area of darkness that The Shadow chose beside the stairs. But it was always The Shadow's way to adopt the

unexpected, on the theory that it was also the unsuspected. What he gained in this instance, was considerable.

The brief conversation that The Shadow overheard between the servant and the chauffeur could also have

been heard from near the vestibule. The servant simply said that Mr. Yelvin hadn't yet phoned, at which the

chauffeur grumbled and retorted that he wasn't paid to wait all night. The servant suggested that the chauffeur

go in the library and read awhile, and when the chauffeur questioned if Miss Yelvin wouldn't object, the

This small talk indicated plainly that Roger Yelvin was not at home and therefore might have given The

Shadow the idea that his visit was useless, if he'd heard the conversation from back beside the vestibule. But

at his present vantage spot The Shadow was hearing something else that didn't jibe with the statements of the

Distinctly, creaking sounds were coming from above the stairs, sounds that indicated someone moving about

with stealthy footsteps that the carpet muffled, but which old joists and floorboards failed to conceal.

Next, The Shadow was following those footsteps but on a different level. The servants had turned away, so

they didn't see the cloaked figure that moved boldly across the hall and toward the kitchen. Above the kitchen

ceiling, The Shadow heard the creaks take another turn, move along and pause. Keen eyes, gazing up from

beneath the brim of the slouch hat, traced the exact line that the footsteps had taken on the floor above.

With a whispered laugh, The Shadow turned, picked a stairway door by the fact that it opened one step above

the floor level, and made a backstairs trip to the floor above, where he found a dim hall taking the exact line

At the end of that door was a closed door. The Shadow approached it, eased the knob imperceptibly and

A bad habit of Thoth's, not locking doors behind him. It was bringing the masquerader who represented

JUST inside that door, The Shadow arrived amid brilliant light and for a most curious reason. He was in a

room that could hardly be called a room at all, but rather a cramped closet, barely large enough for a person

The closet had a single gasjet on one wall; that jet was lighted and turned on to the full, thus producing the

strong illumination. The reason for such an arrangement was plain enough; the other wall of the closet was

banked with shelves that had been turned into drawers, all marked as containing plans of Yelvin's engineering

There was a far door to the tiny closet, obviously leading into a larger room. Thus the closet had been

converted into a sort of anteroom, which in turn served as a filing department for Yelvin's old and less

Not just the timeyellowed labels of the drawers convinced The Shadow that the files were old stuff. Yelvin

certainly wouldn't have kept them here if they were valuable, because he had a strong room for anything of

value. Where was that strong room? Beyond the next door, and the proof lay in the doors themselves.

Two doors, each with a combination lock if needed. The Shadow had noted one on the outer door; the inner

door was similarly equipped. They were old doors, but very stout, the kind they used to build back in the

nineties, when this house was probably in its prime. The doors had old fashioned keyholes, larger ones, as

Why had Yelvin gone away and left the double door of his strong room unlocked? It must be, as the man who

There were a variety of answers, one being that Yelvin trusted his servants. But there was another question

Why had the man who entered Yelvin's strong room left the gasjet burning full blast?

If anyone opened the door into the strong room, the final door at the inner wall of the closet, the stronger

It brought a whispered laugh from The Shadow, that evidence of the scheming mind of the person who

represented his opposition. Though the laugh was almost inaudible, its quivering echoes brought a waver

To foil the little game, The Shadow had only to turn down the gasjet or extinguish it entirely. Then the light

from the anteroom would not play tattletale if The Shadow opened the inner door.

So The Shadow did not even touch the gasjet. In dealing with a stupid opponent it was good judgment not to

let him know that he was encountering someone smarter than himself. The Shadow preferred to play his

former trick of chinking the door with his cloaked form while opening it. So in his usual imperceptible

The Shadow was right; the door led into a strong room. It was a sizable room, its ceiling high, unlike the little

closet that served as anteroom. In the strong room were metal filing cabinets, locked ones, but not as strong

as they had been advertised. Those cabinets were ripped open and all over the carpeted floor lay a strew of

papers, showing in the milder light of a gas chandelier. All the work of only a few minutes, and fruitless.

In the midst of the chaos stood the masked monster, Thoth, surveying his unlovely handiwork and realizing

that he hadn't found the papers that he'd come to get. Beyond Thoth were barred windows with great metal

shutters closed outside them, more proof that this was a real strong room and thereby adding to the anger that

Under the glow of the chandelier, Thoth's costume looked weird, but tawdry, obviously a masquerade. His

bird mask was almost ludicrous in too much light and the whole costume fitted him badly, in fact a little

tightly. The Shadow observed a broken string of beads, a jagged gap in one sleeve, as further defects in the

It was chance alone that caused Thoth to look up toward the door that The Shadow was just entering; chance,

The Shadow hadn't entirely obscured the light from the closet that connected with the hallway. It wasn't

necessary, because the very slight glow that filtered past The Shadow's form was no greater than the glow

within the strong room. But there was one difference, a difference upon which The Shadow for once had not

calculated, since even he could not be expected to discount all the remnants from the gaslight era.

From the breeze created by The Shadow's cloak, swaying as he negotiated the doorway, the light behind him

Thoth saw that waver. Either he was gifted with foresight as uncanny as his looks, or his nerves were as taut

as a hairedge. Sensing a menace, he swung upward from his crouch, whipping his fist into an underhand

sweep, all in the same motion. From Thoth's hand sped a bronze blade, the mate of the weapon that the same

He'd taken it right from his jeweled belt, Thoth had, and the dirk was whizzing straight for The Shadow!

All The Shadow did was turn. He had no time to fade from the weapon's path and a mere shift wouldn't do.

The Shadow had seen the thing called bad luck work too often, to put himself in line for a dose of it. Thoth's

tricky fling was hasty, likely to go wide. If The Shadow veered the wrong direction, he'd be putting himself in

So The Shadow turned, merely to be edgewise rather than expose his full breadth to the arriving knife. The

bronze missive skimmed so close that it took a tuck in the back of The Shadow's cloak, pinning it to the

By then Thoth recognized his formidable adversary. Grabbing the first missile handy, he flung it as he

charged. The object was a candle in a china candlestick, common in houses of the gaslight period, since

The Shadow dodged the candlestick while wrenching his cloak free. The chinaware crashed the doorway and

the candle bounced across the floor. But Thoth still had a weapon; his path was blocked by a small,

singlelegged table that he gathered up as he came. Arm swinging hard and high, Thoth drove the table like a

Like Thoth, The Shadow was adept at drawing weapons with a single sweep. His was an automatic, gathered

from his cloak, and it spurted an upward shot. The tug from The Shadow's cloak shortened his aim, but the

bullet at least curtailed Thoth's weapon, for it literally blasted the top from the swinging table.

Thoth's stroke went short, but he kept on coming, backswinging with the table leg. The Shadow faded and

made a sudden swerve from a new direction, to grapple with the phony Egyptian myth. Thoth was grabbing

to reclaim his bronze knife from the woodwork, trying at the same time to beat away The Shadow with the

That was the thing paramount in Thoth's mind and it caused him to do the unexpected. With the knife blade

only partly free, he realized it was yielding and abandoned his other weapon by flinging it. A wild gesture

Spinning from the side fling that he gave it, coming at an odd angle due to its unbalanced weight, the table

leg flipped around in air and its flying legs hooked The Shadow's neck. All that The Shadow could manage

was a partial ward with his gun hand, then he was sprawling along the wall, rolling groggily to elude Thoth's

Just to stave Thoth off, The Shadow fired a few shots that came surprisingly close to the doorway, but Thoth

was no longer there. His knife regained, he had dived through to the anteroom where with one clawgloved

hand he snuffed the flame from the gasjet, then wheeled about and grabbed the door to pull it shut.

On his feet, The Shadow reached the closed door just as Thoth shot the combination lock from the other side.

While trying the knob, The Shadow heard the far door slam and knew that Thoth would turn its combination

too. Thoth had turned the trap on The Shadow, and neatly, for the only man who knew those combinations

What Yelvin would think when he returned and brought the police to help investigate his premises was one

thing; what the police would say was another, but they would coincide in all their important details.

Those details wouldn't be helpful to The Shadow. To be found in this ransacked room would incriminate him

and even worse would delay his pursuit of Thoth. This was one time when The Shadow did not care to be

Grim came The Shadow's laugh, with a sibilant trace resembling a hiss. An actual hiss responded, more than

an echo, it was prolonged. The Shadow tilted his head and listened, then laughed again.

No longer grim, The Shadow's laugh carried a note of prophecy, signifying that this strong room would soon

MAD though his flight, Thoth had begun to include The Shadow in his plans. Coming down the great front

stairs, the birdmasked fugitive was stowing his knife away. Instead of lunging at the servant who appeared

below, Thoth paused near the bottom of the stairway, beckoned, and pointed upward.

The gesture was graphic. It conveyed the idea that something worse than Thoth was still upstairs; which was

enough to frighten anyone. Seeing a telephone, Thoth grabbed it, extending it toward the stupefied servant in

At that moment, the chauffeur came from the library and seeing Thoth in such a frightened mood, decided to

capture the nightmarish creature. One clawglove went to Thoth's knifehilt; then, on smarter thought, Thoth

All that the chauffeur saw from then on was a succession of slamming doors, the last one, the back door,

meeting him squarely in the face. When the chauffeur came to his feet halfdazed, he found that the old

"We'd better phone the police," the servant insisted. "There's someone else upstairs, more dangerous than the

"I heard the doors slam too," the servant persisted. "The doors of the strong room, I mean. That odd creature

It wasn't necessary to use the telephone. Already a patrol siren could be heard outside. The servant hurried for

the front door to see if he could flag that car. All of which certainly wasn't helping The Shadow, though it

Outside the house, the thing that appeared a combination bird and man was creating consternation near a

lighted corner of the rear street. People spotted him and shouted as Thoth doubled back for shelter. In the

great outdoors, the Thoth costume handicapped its owner, for it branded him a curiosity rather than a menace,

Hearing the police siren, the corner loungers of West Side Avenue decided they'd better square themselves

beforehand with the law. Maybe the police were after that bird thing; anyway, it was a safe bet to play. So the

hue and cry was about to start, when a car hauled up to the corner, coming from the side street, and an

The man was Geoffrey Barstow, as excited as when he had left the Alvara Apartments. Perhaps he had

calmed during his ride, but the proximity of his goal had certainly stirred him to his former mood. Barstow

was taking about anything for granted, even that the bystanders knew what the term Thoth meant, which they

"I mean the bird man," explained Barstow. He brushed his hat from his head as he pushed his face further

through the window. "He wears a mask as big as this" Barstow displayed a pudgy pair of hands and spread

them as if describing someone afflicted with mumps "and it has a beak as long as that."

Here Barstow pushed a hand forward and made a curving gesture; then reached for his hat, smoothed what

"That describes Thoth," Barstow added, "except that he wears a robe too, a brown robe, with a lot of

beadwork, but part of it is gone. I mean part of the beadwork and part of the robe too."

The loungers gestured along the rear street in the general direction of Yelvin's house.

"The old house, maybe," put in another. "The big one, a little way down the block."

Barstow recognized whose house they meant. From a wallet, he produced business cards that he began

"That's where Roger Yelvin lives!" exclaimed Barstow. "Don't let Thoth go in there! Find him seize him

I'll pay a thousand dollars reward to anyone who captures him! There's my name, down in the corner of those

The corner bigshots studied the cards eagerly. Those cards bore the name of ABC Industries, with Barstow's

full name, Geoffrey Albertus Barstow, engraved in the lower left corner. Barstow looked like a man who

might have an odd thousand dollar bill in one of his vest pockets. That was enough for the corner crew.

More anxious than ever, Barstow was staring down the avenue toward which the nose of his car projected. He

saw a cab starting half a block away and caught a passing glimpse of the figure that was closing the door.

"There goes Thoth now!" bawled Barstow. "I'll follow him, but if he comes back, the reward still stands.

The term "dead or alive" applied to a few pedestrians who were starting to cross the street as Barstow bucked

the traffic light. Barstow missed them by a wide swerve and then took to the avenue. Again, he was speeding

along the elusive trail that represented Thoth, but as Barstow had said, his offer still stood.

That fact still impressed the neighborhood boys. Among them they agreed that Barstow's business cards were

sufficient passport to the old brownstone house where a man named Yelvin lived, though they'd never heard

his name before. Besides, more sirens were whining their way and the locals decided they needed a good

So they started for Yelvin's house, keeping a continued lookout for anyone resembling Thoth. Spotting a

cruising cab, a couple of them flagged it, but the cab proved to be empty. By way of explanation they showed

"This gent is looking for a guy named Thoth," stated one of the Avenue boys. "He's wearing a funny outfit

with a dummy head that has a big beak. I mean Thoth, not this guy Barstow. If you find this Thoth character,

The driver, a wisefaced hackie, nodded; then shifted his cab into gear. Just as he started, he called back:

"So long, reefers. You'd better go easy on the marijuana. Old birdiepuss will get you yet!"

That left the corner boys in doubt. The implication didn't apply to them, but they began to wonder about

Barstow, the chap who had talked about something called Thoth. Still, they couldn't deny that they'd seen

something answering to the exact description. So they started for Yelvin's to find out more.

Thoth was gone; Barstow was gone; only The Shadow remained. Up in Yelvin's strong room, he could hear

the shrill sirens too, despite the thickness of the barred and shuttered windows. But there was something else

The Shadow still heard; that continuous hissing that came from the tiny closet that served as an anteroom

The Shadow was busy. He was shaving the candle that had bounced when the china candlestick broke apart.

He's shaved it down until it had a wick about four inches in length. Lighting the end of the wick, The Shadow

approached the inner door and very carefully pushed the wick through the old keyhole, flame and all.

Noting that the light still burned, The Shadow pushed the remainder of the candle against his side of the

keyhole so that it stuck there. Then, moving to a corner nicely away from the door, he awaited results. They

wouldn't take long, those results, but time was growing precious to The Shadow time in terms of Thoth.

Muffled by the candle, the hissing sound from the tiny anteroom could no longer be heard. Its cause was

obvious enough; the sound came from the gas that was escaping from the jet that Thoth had snuffed out. By

now the anteroom should be very nearly filled with gas. So The Shadow waited, ticking the seconds until

A great chug sounded and with it the house shook on its old foundations. The anteroom opened up and the

doors blew with it. Chunks of the inner door littered the debris already strewn over the strong room floor. The

outer door went the opposite direction and The Shadow could hear its relics rattling down the front stairs.

The candle flame had ignited the gas that choked the anteroom and this was the result. The Shadow arose

from his corner and walked through the open passage that now lacked anything resembling doors and their

combination locks. From the head of the stairs, he saw four patrolmen in conference with the servant and the

So The Shadow went down the back way to find a quota of neighborhood characters sitting around the

kitchen which was as far as they had gotten before the house bounced their legs from under them. Going out

through the back door; The Shadow reached the rear street and blinked signals with a tiny flashlight.

A cab pulled to a stop, the same cab whose driver had made the wisecrack about marijuana. The driver's

name was Shrevvy; he'd brought The Shadow here and had been cruising around, knowing he was going to

"I figured you'd be showing up, boss," informed Shrevvy, speaking to the invisible passenger who was in the

darkness of the rear seat. "The way everything went 'pow' all of a sudden, like in the comic books, I said to

"No sign of this Thoth guy, boss, but there was a gent named Barstow trailing him. This Barstow was

handing out cards and offering a grand to anybody who could find Mr. Thoth. I got Barstow's address and if

When Shrevvy said "tough" he meant it! Nor was he lingering to prove the point. Spurting the car down the

avenue, Shrevvy had already attracted the interest of new patrol cars whose urge for a chase had been

"Regarding Barstow's card," spoke The Shadow as Shrevvy sped along. "It must have given his business

"It did," returned Shrevvy, taking his chief's pause for a query. "It had the name of a company called ABC."

That was an order, so Shrevvy followed it, hoping it would prove as simple as A B C, which it would, if he

If he'd been alone, Shrevvy wouldn't have believed that he could do it, but somehow he always did when The

IN the office of the ABC Industries, Inspector Cardona was going over the correspondence from Roger

Yelvin and finding it very vague. Yelvin seemed to have a habit of writing letters that said little and promised

nothing. Somewhat annoyed, Cardona bundled the letters on the corner desk where he had studied them and

"So what?" demanded Cardona. "Yelvin buys nothing, sells nothing, says nothing. How do you expect to do

Edwin Albersham stroked his long chin and said nothing in return. Arnold Curvin gave a droopy stare and

shook his head. As for Harry Vincent, this was none of his business, so he simply stayed in the background.

"All right, Albersham," snapped Joe. "At least you can tell me what it's all about."

"Of course," acknowledged Albersham. "I suppose I am free to speak, even without Barstow here. Curvin and

"We've already told you much of it," insisted Albersham, "and it's all been in the newspapers. ABC has

bought the secret of manufacturing ancient bronze from a professor named Rufus Parrish."

"We'd like to find out," admitted Albersham. "Parrish has a way of disappearing every now and then, to

"Implicitly. Having given us the secret formula for the manufacture of such bronze, Parrish feels that the

"It shouldn't," asserted Albersham, decisively. "The curse has nothing to do with knowledge of the ancient

formula. It applies only to those who have violated the tombs of high priests who were under the protection

"And those were the tombs that contained the hieroglyphs," put in Curvin. "In giving us his translation of the

formula, Parrish had to admit that he had removed the sacred slab from the sarcophagus of Amrok, high

"They have similar formulas," explained Albersham. "Possibly better than Parrish's, or suited for purposes

"We'll get to him in due time," inserted Cardona. Then, grimly, he added: "If Thoth doesn't get to him first.

But regarding Zerland and Yelvin. Why were they willing to admit they'd been breaking into those tombs,

"Because Parrish admitted what he'd done," stated Albersham. "It made the Curse of Thoth seem silly, until

tonight. After all, any deaths of archeologists in the past might just have been by accident. Or "

"Being under suspicion," returned Albersham, frankly, "I do not think it right that I should state as fact

"What Albersham means," piped Curvin, "is that the Thoth Curse may be the work of modern Egyptians who

are trading on ancient superstition. A secret society, for example, originating in Egypt, but having agents

"For the first time," he decided, "you two gentlemen are hinting at something which makes sense in my

language. I suppose I should start a general roundup of all Egyptians living in New York."

Reaching for the telephone, Cardona conveyed the impression that he intended to order the roundup then

and there. But when he talked to headquarters, Cardona merely inquired if there had been any report from

Yelvin's neighborhood. What Cardona heard about that neighborhood really startled him.

"Thoth showed up at Yelvin's!" exclaimed Cardona as he clattered the phone on its stand. "He didn't just tear

up the place, he blew it apart and maybe Yelvin with it, though the servants claim that Yelvin wasn't there!"

A hush followed Cardona's announcement. All became tense, with the exception of one man, Albersham. For

the first time, Albersham's long face relaxed, for this news was his vindication. Then:

"This Thoth guy gets around," Cardona said gruffly. "For all we know, he might be coming here next "

Joe broke off as though the words had choked him. He'd heard an interrupting sound, the click of a latch, the

groan of an old door that was the entrance to this office, the best office that the ABC company had been able

"Don't worry," declared Albersham, calmly. "It's probably Barstow. When he didn't find us back at Zerland's,

The man who stepped into the office was of blocky build which made him look squatly, though he was fairly

tall. Even in the artificial light, his face showed a tan that could only be attributed to the work of the desert

sun. He had a strong jaw and tight lips that smiled when he saw looks of halfrecognition flicker on the faces

"I think you are guessing right," the man announced in a deep tone. "I am Roger Yelvin."

Albersham and Curvin promptly introduced themselves, stating that they'd recognized Yelvin from old

photographs. Then, after being introduced to Harry and Cardona, Yelvin looked around and inquired:

Neither Albersham nor Curvin replied. Instead they looked at each other and their faces were troubled.

Cardona, whose business it was to be blunt, began to speak for them, only to receive hasty objections before a

"Can't we wait, inspector?" pleaded Albersham. "Don't you think Barstow can give the details better?"

"Mr. Yelvin is here on business," insisted Curvin. "I think it should take precedence over other matters."

"You said you were a police inspector," stated Yelvin. "That fact would indicate that some crime has

"Hugo Zerland has been murdered," returned Cardona, steadily, "by a killer described as the ancient

ibisgod, Thoth. The instrument of death was a bronze knife, apparently from an old Egyptian tomb."

As Yelvin stared, Albersham and Curvin began their protests, revealing for the first time why they hadn't

"It was an imposture," began Albersham. "I wasn't there to see it, but from all descriptions "

"I saw it," broke in Curvin, "and so did Barstow. He went to warn you that a crazy masquerader was loose."

"Probably some personal enemy of Zerland's," added Albersham, "using the costume to disguise himself."

"It couldn't have been the Curse of Thoth," insisted Curvin. "Such a thing is all superstition!"

By then, Yelvin was smiling broadly, but in the hardset style of a man who has been around without being

"I appreciate your solicitude, gentlemen," asserted Yelvin in a deep but easy tone. "It is true solicitude

toward yourselves. You think that I believe in the Curse of Thoth and would therefore be unwilling to go

Sheepish stares from Albersham and Curvin, followed by their slow nods, proved that Yelvin was right. The

"I do believe in the Curse of Thoth," announced Yelvin, his tone serious despite his smile. Then, in a cold,

ALBERSHAM and Curvin lost no time in bowing Yelvin into the seat of honor, which happened to be the

swivel chair behind the corner desk on which were lying Yelvin's own letters along with other

All the while, Yelvin smiled as though he liked the little surprise that his decision had produced. He drew a

large pipe from his pocket and began to stuff it with a brand of very flaky tobacco that he poured from a well

From either side of the desk, Albersham and Curvin were sorting the letters, telling Yelvin that they would

like to know more about his background, as surety that he could provide them with the data that they wished.

Either Yelvin was very wise and selfsufficient, or he was staging some very clever bluff. Of which, Harry

To sound out Yelvin, Cardona picked up the telephone, paused with a hand above the dial, then inquired:

"I have one," replied Yelvin, "but it isn't listed in my name. We only moved back into the house a month

Yelvin finished scrawling the phone number on a pad and tossed it to Cardona. Then, keenly, Yelvin asked:

"Because Thoth was there," rejoined Cardona, bluntly. "He must have headed there straight from Zerland's.

He ransacked your strong room, blew its doors apart with a gas explosion, and fled the place about twenty

If Cardona expected Yelvin to wilt with consternation, he had a long wait coming. Instead of being harrowed,

"The twenty minutes," chuckled Yelvin. "I couldn't possibly have gotten here that quickly, could I? No, it

Cardona pondered over that nice little problem. He was trying to find flaws in it. First, whether it would be

possible to clip a half hour trip to twenty minutes, from around West Side Avenue to this downtown office.

Second, Cardona was wondering if the time element had been correctly stated. Maybe Thoth had fled from

"I've started you thinking, haven't I, inspector?" queried Yelvin, in a halfmocking tone. "Or were you

Despite himself, Cardona nodded. Having mentally crossed Albersham off his list of suspects, Cardona was

looking for another and had logically considered the next man to crowd into the scene, namely Yelvin.

"I'd have been very cute," conceded Yelvin, "if I'd murdered Zerland, then gone to my own place and made a

"I left it as a trap," acknowledged Yelvin, "hoping that my servants would be smart enough to clamp those

"No. They'd have been jittery if I had. I preferred to let them act their best in an unexpected emergency, as

"Because I brought along all the documents that counted." From his pocket, Yelvin produced a large

envelope and from it spread some typewritten pages on the desk. "Here is everything that has to do with the

Albersham and Curvin were anxious to see those papers, but Yelvin spread his hands upon them.

"Wait until your partner Barstow arrives," he told the two. Then, looking straight at Cardona, Yelvin held his

"First, forget the Curse of Thoth," said Yelvin. "Like all that stuff, it's nonsense. But don't forget that there

are modern Egyptians who do resent the stealing of ancient relics from their homeland.

"Such people would consider any measures legal to reclaim what they regard as their property, but why they

should deal in vengeance also is another question. They might deal in death, mysterious and sudden, to deter

people from invading tombs in the future, but that is more likely to happen in Egypt than here."

There was logic in what Yelvin said, but Cardona wasn't too impressed. This might all be a coverup for

"It is a crime to rob an ancient tomb," declared Yelvin, his smile belying his solemn tone. "A man guilty of

such a crime in Egypt might be guilty of another crime here in America even murder.

"Take any of us: Professor Parrish, Hugo Zerland, myself or another man I've heard of, Louis Rendorff.

We, each of us, uncovered a million dollar secret while in Egypt. Naturally, someone would like to kill us to

Pausing as though that explained everything, Yelvin received a stolid stare from Cardona.

"Nobody would do any killing for something he couldn't use," objected Joe. "Your theory would make the

"Quite true," agreed Yelvin. "That's why Parrish disappears so often; it's why I'm hard to find; it explains why

That was too much for Cardona, to hear Yelvin fling an accusation against the one man who had already

become a murder victim. For the moment, Joe acted as though he intended to take Yelvin into custody. Then:

"Of course we were wrong," conceded Yelvin. "What we were really doing was dodging each other without

realizing it. We all thought Zerland dangerous because he was once a Nazi agent. He'd gone to Egypt before

the War to help plant secret bases for a German invasion. That's when he uncovered the tomb containing the

To Harry, analyzing while he listened, this made sense. Because of his past, Zerland had been the logical man

for the others to avoid. Harry was wondering though, about the continued rivalry between the various men

"I said a million dollar secret," repeated Yelvin. "We were all holding out until Parrish broke the market by

selling for half price. Of course the rest of us could only bargain from then on, offering what we knew to

ABC, just to let them have the thing exclusively. That should be worth something, shouldn't it?"

Yelvin was turning his head from Albersham to Curvin, then back again. Darting a sharp look toward Harry,

"Come now," laughed Yelvin, lifting his hands and gesturing to the papers. "You'd better make a real deal

before Thoth comes popping out of nowhere to run off with these." He turned to Curvin this time: "What

"I'd say one hundred thousand," replied Curvin, "only I don't think Barstow would agree. We really ought to

"A quarter million is the price!" broke in Yelvin. "I ought to get half as much as Parrish. Breaking the market

was nothing to his credit and it certainly shouldn't reduce the value of my data, gauged on a million dollar

Yelvin was beginning the old bargainer's routine of picking up his goods to put them away, when a sudden

knocking began at the office door, accompanied by a muffled voice that Harry recognized as Barstow's.

Curvin was already on his way to the door, in that shaky style of his that could be rather rapid when it got

under way. Barstow's summons was rather excited, but it didn't yet broach the notion of any menace in the

offing. Maybe though, that was because the scene between Albersham and Yelvin was demanding full

Angrily, Albersham was telling Yelvin to be reasonable, insisting that fifty thousand dollars was more than a

fair price. Albersham wanted to see the papers before Yelvin put them away and Yelvin was sneering at any

Then the rattling at the door had ended and Curvin was loping back, making shaky gestures as he came.

"Something is wrong with the lock!" Curvin exclaimed. "I can't get it open from our side and Barstow can't

from his. He's gone to look for the janitor, but he says for us to watch out for Thoth! Barstow trailed him

from Yelvin's house down here and he thinks he managed to pull ahead of Thoth, but not by much."

Albersham came to his feet with an oath and started toward the door, looking for some object that would

serve as a handy weapon and finally choosing a small, weighted ashstand. Cardona drew a stubby revolver

and pushed Albersham aside. About to follow, Harry paused in the middle of the room, deciding that this was

Back at the desk, Yelvin was fumbling with his precious formula sheets, trying to stuff them in their

envelope. He was nervous, rather than fearful, this man who had first given credit to the existence of a being

At least Yelvin could feel safe here, since the law was in charge and a door with a jammed lock was better

than one with no lock at all. Except that the troublesome door wasn't the only one in the room.

There was another, just back of Yelvin's elbow, a door he hadn't noticed because the light was turned away

from it. The door connected to somebody else's office and it should have been locked, but wasn't.

The door proved that when it creaked. Yelvin heard the sound and turned too late. Above him loomed the

IT was like a strange game, the way the figures in that room responded in rapid progression. Thoth, of course,

was the one who started it and his deed was short, but swift and deadly. He'd started the knife for Yelvin's

back and needed only an added hook to land it there before the victim could wheel around.

Yelvin did come around, but it was the force of the knife that lurched him the rest of the way, heaving him

sideways over the edge of the desk where he flattened face downward, the knife handle bulging from between

As Yelvin rolled away, Thoth plucked the envelope and the papers with it, thrusting them under his brownish

robe, but by that time the other figures were in action, bobbing all along the line.

Harry Vincent had launched himself at Thoth once before tonight. He did it again, with greater speed and

fury. Harry literally dove across the desk from which Yelvin's body had been swept and caught Thoth's robe

Further toward the main door than Harry, Albersham at least had the benefit of a shorter angle and he took

advantage of it. Perhaps the fact that he'd been under suspicion earlier urged Albersham; at any rate, he

proved faster, more efficient than either Barstow or Curvin had been at Zerland's.

Picking the space beside the desk, Albersham cleared Yelvin's body and started a hard grapple with Thoth,

beating aside the murderer's swinging arm. Further toward the door, Cardona swung about with his gun, but

couldn't fire at Thoth because other figures intervened. At the office door itself, Curvin was again at the key,

Cardona reached the desk and gave it a hard shove away from Yelvin's body, to clear a path to Thoth. The

man with the ibis mask lashed furiously about, trying to shake off Harry and Albersham at once. His swing

pinned Harry between the wall and the desk, while Albersham came around to block Cardona. The situation

A wrench brought him free of Harry's clutch, the tough robe slipping through Harry's fingers. Thoth was

luckier this time than at Zerland's, where he had lost a chunk of sleeve to Curvin, a jagged gap still testifying

Body swinging with his fist, Thoth cuffed Albersham before the latter could grab the strings of hanging beads

and keep a sample, the way Barstow had managed earlier this evening. What Albersham did grab was Thoth's

arm, as it whipped away. On each arm, Thoth wore a broad, gemstudded bracelet, a division between the

clawglove and the sleeve above it. As Thoth's arm slipped away, Albersham caught the jeweled band on that

Thoth didn't worry about the loss. He was free and Albersham was welcome to the bracelet. Having his hand

free, Thoth was able to grab the desk lamp and fling it at Cardona, who for the first time was taking clear aim

Cardona dodged the lamp as he tugged the trigger. His police positive spoke with the short bark peculiar to

that type of revolver. The lamp blanked off as Cardona fired. Joe thought he'd smashed it with a bullet. He

The lamp had reached the end of the cord, otherwise it would have hit Cardona. The tug of the cord had

extinguished the light. Thoth's throw had missed, but Cardona's aim had been wide, which left the score even.

There was only one place where Thoth could have gone, through the connecting door to the next office,

which opened out into another hallway. As quickly as his gun had stabbed, Cardona sprang in pursuit of the

man who wore the bird mask, confident he could find the connecting door, despite the darkness.

Thoth had slammed it and was thrusting home a bolt from the other side when Cardona met the barrier.

Retiring groggily, the inspector blundered into Harry and Albersham and they paused to steady him on his

feet. Then, seeing the light from the hallway, to which Curvin had finally opened the door, Cardona took a

new grip on his gun and started that way, shouting for the others to follow him.

There was shouting from the hallway too, along with sounds of a scuffle. Two voices were howling: "We've

A man came sprawling toward the doorway as Cardona swung out into the hall, Harry and Albersham close

behind. The man was Barstow; he crawled to hands and knees, to wave excitedly toward a corner from

"He grabbed Curvin!" panted Barstow. "Thoth did I tried to help I was too late "

Evidently Thoth had handed Barstow some of the usual Thoth treatment, but that didn't deter Cardona. All

Joe wanted was a crack at Thoth and he'd welcome a grapple as a starter. Cardona had grappled with the

toughest of them and always his stubby gun had decided the issue. You could do a lot of close work with a

Around the corner were the elevators and the door of one was in motion when Cardona saw it. The car itself

was dark; maybe Thoth was trying to kid Cardona into thinking that this was an empty shaft. Joe knew

differently, however, for you couldn't keep opening an elevator door if the car wasn't there.

Without ado, Cardona plunged into the elevator, swinging his gun hard, but high. He wanted to clout that bird

head that belonged to Thoth, knowing that Curvin was in the murderer's clutch, Joe wasn't taking any chances

The high swing was too high. A hand stopped it in midair. Cardona tackled his adversary hard and received

a twisty grapple in return. Then, powerless in the clutch of a foe who swayed him helplessly, Cardona came

Here was a transformation indeed. Cardona had gone into the elevator after Thoth. He had come out with The

The thing was quickly explained. There were two elevators. Thoth must have carried Curvin down in one,

while The Shadow was coming up in the other. But Cardona wasn't analyzing matters that way. Battling

Cardona alternately vanished and reappeared as The Shadow carried him away in a whirl, for with every

revolution, The Shadow's cloaked form obscured the man beyond. Sooner or later, The Shadow would jounce

Cardona back to his senses, making Joe realize that he'd grabbed someone other than Thoth.

Meanwhile, Harry was springing to the chase of the murderous ibisgod. Harry hopped into the elevator and

as he was closing the door, both Albersham and Barstow crowded in after him, anxious to rescue their

This was an old office building, with its door on a side street. When the pursuers emerged, they found the

street empty. Again, Thoth had gained too good a start and carrying Curvin as a hostage could not have

proven any handicap. Of all three members of the firm of ABC, the one incapable of putting up a struggle

Though Curvin had twice attacked Thoth, his efforts had been spasmodic and the palsied man was

unquestionably incapable of sustained resistance. However, Harry was hoping that Thoth had flung his

human burden somewhere by the wayside, but this didn't prove to be the case. As Harry, Albersham and

The wild hunt was under way when The Shadow arrived from the front door of the building, having planted

Cardona in the middle of the ABC office and left him there. Listening intently, The Shadow caught sounds of

muffled traffic which included the rumble of a nottoodistant truck. Starting swiftly around a corner, The

Shadow contacted Shrevvy's cab with another flashlight signal and started off on a chance search.

That quest was to prove too late. Even the Shadow would be needing other measures to cross the trail of

This wasn't surprising, considering that Cranston rated as one of the leading members of that very exclusive

In fact, the Cobalt Club seemed to have lost something on evenings when Cranston failed to appear there.

Cranston's calm face, immobile and reserved; his tall form, always immaculately attired; his quiet,

selfsufficient manner, were all representative of what the perfect club member should be.

Tonight, however, Cranston wouldn't have been at the Cobalt Club if his friend the police commissioner had

not called him and asked him to come there. A phone call to Cranston's New Jersey home had finally been

relayed to him somewhere in Manhattan and he had complied with the commissioner's request.

There were two reasons why Commissioner Weston needed Cranston. First, Weston was violating the club

rules, and badly; therefore Cranston's presence was the thing that would square him. Again, Weston was

tangled in the midst of a singular crime case involving murder, robbery, arson, explorers, engineers,

It all had to do with Egypt and since Cranston had been to that country, his advice might prove most timely.

Frequently, Commissioner Weston used the grill room of the Cobalt Club for conferences concerning crime.

Naturally, he never brought uncouth characters there for a quiz. But when dealing with persons of

Tonight, Weston was dealing with such parties. Two of them were named Albersham and Barstow, members

of the ABC corporation, while in place of Curvin, the missing member of that group, was a chap named

Of course Inspector Cardona was present too. He had brought along a collection of very unusual exhibits, the

sort that would interest Cranston. So Commissioner Weston felt that he was justified in bending the club's

Arms folded, Cranston listened intently to the details of two murders wherein Thoth had eliminated Hugo

Zerland and Roger Yelvin in turn. The ibisgod's side trip to Yelvin's home was an added factor that had a

As for the witnesses of murder, only Harry Vincent had witnessed both deaths. Barstow, however, had seen

Zerland slain and could therefore tally his testimony with Harry's. Similarly, Albersham was a key witness in

Zerland's secretary, Roscoe, had been brought to this conference as a witness of his master's death. Cardona,

That void was Arnold Curvin. The shaky man's prolonged absence was more than a source of worry; it was a

cause for alarm. At the present moment, police were scouring the city in search of anyone answering to

Curvin's description. Train gates, ferry slips were being watched; cars were being stopped on every bridge or

tunnel leading from Manhattan; bus stations and air terminals were under strict surveillance.

This was a reason why The Shadow had abandoned his own hunt and had come to the Cobalt Club as Lamont

Cranston. In Shrevvy's cab, The Shadow hadn't been able to trace the truck that he had heard depart from

somewhere near the building where the ABC office was located. The police could do all that on a much

larger scale, particularly as they were questioning all truckers. Meanwhile, though, The Shadow had put

Shrevvy and several capable agents on the job of tracing the truck's course, if possible.

Time would certainly bring results. So far, it was not yet midnight on this night when Thoth and his Curse

were rampant. In fact there was more than an hour to go before midnight arrived. With two murders already

These were the points that impressed The Shadow behind his calm frontage of Cranston!

It explained why Cranston was going through sheaves of correspondence and records that had been brought

from the ABC office, instead of paying attention to what Inspector Cardona was saying. For Cranston, though

he had unfolded his arms to reach for the papers idly, was actually becoming very busy. He was leaving it to

"Who Thoth is, we don't know," Cardona conceded. "But we do know that he started at Zerland's, went to

Yelvin's, and arrived at ABC. I've checked the time element and it fits, but that isn't all. These things fit, too."

Cardona lifted a string of broken beads with one hand, a chunk of a coarse cloth sleeve with the other.

"Barstow and Curvin ripped these from Thoth's robe," announced Cardona. "The servants up at Yelvin's

house saw enough of Thoth to notice that his beads were broken and his sleeve torn. His robe was in the same

Placing the beads and the cloth back on the table, Cardona picked up the curious, ancient bangle that had

"Albersham added this to the collection," declared Cardona, "when he grabbed Thoth after Yelvin was

murdered. If we find Thoth and fit these pieces to his costume, we'll incriminate him one hundred percent."

Replacing the bracelet with the other Items, Cardona introduced some new exhibits.

First was a parlor car stub, bearing today's date, on a train from New Haven, Connecticut.

"This stub was found near the window at the back of Zerland's study," asserted Cardona. "Thoth must have

Next came another stub, the seat check to a matinee that afternoon, at a play called "White Blossoms" which

"This was in the strew of papers in Yelvin's strong room," continued Cardona. "Some of them caught fire, but

the servants were in time to save the rest. Yelvin was at home this afternoon; hence we're quite sure that this

Finally, Cardona produced a reservation card bearing the name of the Lotus Restaurant. The card, however,

"I picked this up myself," declared Cardona. "It was in the office next to ABC, the one past the connecting

door. Thoth must have lost it in his rush. It's the kind of thing that would have fallen from his pocket, the way

Maybe Cardona had forgotten that Harry and Albersham had done the real yanking; that Joe's business had

been dodging a flying lamp and getting a door slammed in his face. However, the three clues offered

"We're checking with the Pullman Company," declared Cardona, "and the same with the theater and the

restaurant, but we haven't received any reports yet. Meanwhile, there's one man I want to find. His name is "

For the first time, Cranston seemed to catch what Cardona was saying. Looking up from his papers, Cranston

"From these papers," replied Cranston. "They don't state much, but they do tell enough to prove that Rendorff

is another man who knows as much about Egyptian secrets as either Zerland or Yelvin."

"That's right," nodded Cardona, "and that tags Rendorff as Thoth, the murderer."

It hadn't struck Cardona that way, but now it did. Cranston's words were bringing another stare from Cardona,

"That's two reasons instead of one!" expressed Cardona. "Two reasons why we have to find Rendorff!"

"Then find him!" stormed Weston. "Why are you mulling over this, inspector, instead of locating the key man

"We've been trying to locate him," declared Cardona. "If we hadn't, I wouldn't be mentioning him."

That made sense, considering Cardona's methodical ways. Cranston had recognized it all along, for he knew

that Cardona, too, had gone through this batch of letters in which Rendorff had warily hinted at his

"We've checked every hotel in New York," added Cardona, "but there's nobody checked in anywhere who

answers to the name of Louis Rendorff. We don't even know what he looks like, because we can't find a

picture of him, nor anybody who has seen him. If we could only get a lead to somebody who knew him!"

The same thought could have been in the mind of Lamont Cranston, at least so Harry Vincent judged, when

he glanced at the man he called chief. Foolish though it seemed, Harry was trying to conjure up a picture of

some face that would logically answer to the description of a man named Rendorff, when a person's image

Harry wasn't as good at hiding his sudden impulses as was Cranston. His chief must have caught Harry's

change of expression for Cranston rose and gave a slight beckoning gesture, before Harry had time to wonder

Leaving his chair, Harry reached the foyer a few moments after Cranston. There, Harry exclaimed in

"I forgot I hadn't mentioned her," said Harry. "She was outside of Zerland's apartment house. For all I know"

this was a guess, but a good one "she may have gone up to Yelvin's house, to watch there, too. Anyway,

As Harry gave a very vague description, from which only Cranston could have formed a reasonably accurate

picture, the club radio kept coming in with a newscaster's voice, detailing two mysterious murders involving

a killer disguised as an Egyptian god called Thoth. Combined with what Harry had to say, the broadcast gave

"If Rendorff is hearing that" Cranston gestured toward the radio "he won't stay long in town. It's nearly

midnight, so he's more likely to leave by train than any other way. If the girl is watching for him "

"She might be at the station!" broke in Harry. "Or she might follow him there! But which station?"

"I shall take Grand Central," decided Cranston, "while you cover the Pennsylvania Station. Here's the number

Cranston was jotting the phone number on a slip of paper as he drew Harry toward the street door, where a

A slight trail, so slight as to be scarcely a trail at all, but the best that present opportunity could offer, even to

THE newscaster was still spieling about crime when Cranston's limousine was pulling away from the Cobalt

Club. The news of murder done by Thoth was being broadcast throughout New York and plenty of people

One listener was a man who was packing a suitcase in a hotel room. He was a man with a massive face with

an undershot jaw. He looked like a bulldog and he liked bulldogs, for one was squatting beside the door

When the man gave a deep, gruff laugh, the bulldog responded with a growl. The man seemed pleased; it

"You're right, Rex," the man said to the dog. "It's meant for us, that broadcast."

"Zerland first, then Yelvin," the man said gruffly. "They'll be looking for Rendorff next, but they won't find

From his growl, Rex seemed to think they wouldn't, but the growl could be interpreted as threat to anyone

who did find Rendorff. The man reached out and gave the dog a pat, then drew a wallet from his pocket.

There were cards in the wallet, that the man carefully transferred to an inner fold. All the cards that he

"Just to be on the safe side, Rex," Rendorff told the dog. "If they questioned me and found out who I was,

"Well, we are getting out of town" the man gave a basso chuckle "but it's all according to schedule. I said

I'd wait no longer than midnight tonight. What I know will keep, because I'm the man to keep it."

Hooking a leash to the bulldog's collar, Rendorff left the hotel room, taking Rex along. When he reached the

elevator, he told the operator to send the porter to his room for the bags. Arriving in the lobby, Rendorff

The name that Rendorff gave was Robert Elgin; he had a calling card to go with it, bearing an address in

Chicago, which he left in case any mail would need to be forwarded. Rex's growl told that the porter had

arrived with the bags and Rendorff grabbed the leash from beside the cashier's window just in time to keep

It happened that the porter had stepped a trifle too close to Rendorff to suit Rex. That suited Rendorff,

however, and won Rex another pat when they reached the cab, where the porter dumped the bags in the front

"Penn Station," ordered Rendorff. Then as the cab started, he said to Rex: "Nobody's going to sneak up on me

while you're around, are they? Well, that's what I carry you along for. They'll keep their distance, or else."

With that, Rendorff looked back from the cab to see if any enemies were about, but by then the cab had

swung the corner. Rendorff didn't see another cab that was pulling up in front of the hotel, nor the person who

That person was the same Egyptian girl who had been outside of the Alvara Apartments and later across the

Reaching Penn Station, Rendorff began having complications with Rex. There were too many people that the

bulldog didn't like, and he would have sunk his teeth into a few if Rendorff hadn't kept him under full control.

When Rendorff told a station porter he was going on the Southern Special, the redcap furnished a

"If you're taking that bullpup," the redcap said, "you'll need a muzzle for him, mister. He'll be wanting a

chain, too, or they won't have him in the baggage car. That leash don't look strong enough to hold him very

Rendorff gruffed that he had both muzzle and chain. He produced them when he neared the train gate and

rigged Rex with both. Then the porter took Rendorff down a special flight of stairs, to reach the baggage car.

Meanwhile, passengers were pushing through the regular train gate, where the sign stated that the Southern

The big clock in Pennsylvania Station registered twentyfive minutes after twelve. Rendorff had made his

train with a comfortable twenty minutes to spare, but he hadn't passed unnoticed. Two men who were

obviously station detectives were giving the eye to everybody who went through the gate and they spotted

But they were on watch for a stooped man who had the shakes and who would be taking the train against his

will, probably urged by somebody with a pocketed gun; such was the plight in which they expected to see

Arnold Curvin. Hence a burly man with a bulldog was something they didn't connect with the Thoth murders,

The person who checked on Rendorff was the same girl who had followed him by cab. Her sphinx features

and her exotic complexion passed unnoticed among the crowd, as did her sharp eyes with their jewelgleam.

Yet anyone looking for just such a face would have picked it from the throng on sight.

That was proven when the girl turned away from the gate and started toward the main waiting room. A young

man caught sight of her and followed. The Egyptian girl would have recognized him if she had looked back,

Harry Vincent had found the chance trail. How brief it was to be, he didn't guess.

The girl stopped at the telephone desk, gave a number that Harry didn't catch and went into a booth. Harry

followed, faked a call in the next booth, long enough to overhear the girl's first words before she fully closed

"This is Thelba..." The girl spoke with an odd but precise accent. "I have watched Rendorff take the train...

Yes, he had the dog with him... They have gone on a train called the Southern Special... No, I saw nobody

The girl switched suddenly to a language that Harry decided was Egyptian and a moment later tightened the

booth door. What Harry didn't realize was the reason for her use of another tongue. It lay in the fact that the

little windows in a phone booth door reflected angles like a mirror, when the door was not fully closed.

That was why Thelba hadn't closed the door at first. She'd gained a neat backward glance at Harry's face,

Now Harry was gone, to make a quick call of his own. He used the number that Cranston had given him,

which happened to be the number of a pay booth in Grand Central Terminal. Cranston must have finished a

A neat plan, considering that Cranston couldn't reach Penn Station in time to take the Southern Special too.

Getting Rendorff off the train in Newark would frustrate any murderous designs that might be scheduled

further along the line. It wouldn't take Cranston long to reach Newark, either by car or another train, and

That thought was striking Harry as he left the phone booth, but he dropped it. Thelba's booth was empty and

Harry was no longer willing to give the Egyptian girl the benefit of the doubt. He felt sure now that the man

she had called was Thoth, but that at least meant that Thoth couldn't be on the train.

Perhaps the call had been to Newark, where Thoth in his turn could pick up Rendorff's trail!

It would be Harry's job to find Rendorff and convince him of such prospects. Since Rendorff had a dog with

him according to what Thelba said Harry was sure he could trace the man by inquiry in the baggage car.

There would still be time before the train started; or so Harry thought as he was hurrying through the train

"I'll be right back," replied Harry, glibly. "I have to give a message to a friend, who's leaving on this train.

It would have worked ordinarily but not on this occasion. Two men closed on Harry and looking at their

faces, he realized they must be station dicks. Before Harry could really protest, they'd hauled him around so

"Must be," nodded the redcap. "Brown hat, brown suit, no bags, kind of good looking; that's what the lady

Thelba's work! She'd spotted Harry after all and had told the redcap to give a message to the station

"So you're Thoth," declared one of the detectives. "What did you do with Curvin?"

"Don't start reaching for another knife," the second dick warned. "We're ready for you."

Harry merely tried to wrench away but the detectives thought he was planning more. The man who had said

he was ready, really was. A short, weighted billy tapped Harry alongside the head and he faded out. Sagged

in the arms that gripped him, Harry heard a confusion of sound that included a faint voice calling "All

Some distance away, a girl with a sphinx face let it relax into a smile as she turned to lose herself in the

Louis Rendorff was started on his journey without the protection of either The Shadow or his proxy, Harry

THE Southern Special was an allPullman train that began with a combination baggageclub car and ended

with an observation lounge, with about a dozen sleepers in between. Some of the passengers had gone back to

Rendorff had left Rex in the baggage section; then had gone back to see that his bags were put in the proper

berth of the proper car. Now, with the train hardly under way, he wanted to see how Rex was making out.

For one thing, Rex was a skittish dog, who disliked trains intensely and was particularly annoyed by tunnels.

Right now, the train was dipping through the tube beneath the Hudson River, which was the worst possible

What was more, the baggage man didn't like Rex, which pleased Rendorff immensely. In fact, he'd trained

Rex to be particularly nasty to baggage men. The tunnel would make Rex even nastier and therefore Rendorff

What Rendorff planned was a deal with the baggage man. For five dollars, Rendorff might be able to

smuggle Rex back to his own car. Of course he'd say later that he'd taken the dog there in the first place, if the

conductor came across Rex. But Rex would be very quiet in Rendorff's berth; at least he'd stay quiet unless

It would be very tough for any such person, because Rendorff never kept Rex muzzled.

Even with a muzzle, Rex could be quite tough. He was helping Rendorff's prospective deal with the baggage

Above the hollow roar that accompanied the train's swift passage through the tunnel, the baggage car echoed

Rex's fierce growls and the clanging of his chain. Already the baggage man was worried.

"Easy now, old boy!" he called. "Your boss is coming along any minute. That's right, he said he'd be here. He

Rex acted as though he intended to feed himself with the baggage man as fodder. Clawing his muzzle with

The baggage man was backing away, up against two wardrobe trunks that were in a corner of the car. He'd be

climbing over those trunks if Rendorff didn't show up soon. Rex was chewing the muzzle as he pawed it, and

Reaching for the top of the trunk, the baggage man clutched it. The effect was very odd, as if the two trunks

had some connection. For as the baggage man pressed down on one trunk, the lid of the other came upward.

Finding that the chain wouldn't snap, Rex squatted on the floor of the car and concentrated on the muzzle.

The rushing roar ended as the train whizzed out of the tunnel and the baggage man felt relieved. He leaned

back in a new direction and his head jarred the rising trunk lid. Surprised, the man started to turn around.

Out from the trunk came a gloved hand fashioned like a claw. It brushed past the baggage man's eyes and

glued them with terror. The curious gauntlet clamped the fellow's neck and as he struggled, something

thwacked out of the trunk and felled him. It was the same treatment that Harry had received from the station

The train was speeding smoothly now, with Newark only a few miles across the Meadows; but Rex, his

muzzle chewed away, was barking furiously. Despite his disregard for baggage men, Rex didn't like what had

happened to this particular specimen. Maybe the bulldog thought he had a priority in putting a quietus on

Up on all four feet, Rex gave the chain another jolt as the door from the club car opened; then squatted back

with a whine. It was Rendorff and as usual, he was sympathetic. He came over and petted Rex, then turned to

"See?" said Rendorff. "When the dog is with me, he's quiet. Now if I took him back to my car "

Rendorff broke off. There wasn't any baggage man, at least Rendorff didn't think so until he looked again.

Then, sight of the man sprawled in front of the trunks gave Rendorff quite a start. He looked at Rex and the

"You overplayed it, Rex," gruffed Rendorff, with a short laugh. "Scaring that fellow so he tried to climb those

trunks. But why didn't he make it?" Puzzled, Rendorff frowned. "Maybe the pressure of the tunnel "

The thought worried Rendorff. Tunnel pressure, plus a weak heart, wouldn't be too good. Forgetting Rex, he

came back and stooped above the baggage man, his frown increasing when he found the fellow senseless.

An unseen listener couldn't have wanted a better signal. The top of the trunk lifted again, but the figure that

rose from it was obscured by Rendorff's form, for he was rising, too, to deliver a savage order at Rex, who

Then, as the dog's bark became mingled with a whine: "What do you want to do bring somebody here?

Blackness became Rendorff's background, ominous blackness that might have been The Shadow's, but

wasn't. For the figure that was rising from the open trunk represented a personage who dealt in crime; not one

who fought it. The proof was the silhouetted hand that traced a pattern high on the car wall.

With that hand was the outline of a knife; a hand whose silhouette was so bulky when clenched that the

tracing of the knife looked needlethin in comparison. But there was nothing clumsy in that hand as it came

The hand looked large because it was encased in a long gauntlet, resembling a claw; the knife seemed thin

because its blade was of unusual length. It glittered dully, that blade, because it was fashioned of old bronze.

Rex ripped at the chain so hard and furious that even his master was startled. Rendorff drew back despite

himself and simply shortened the stroke that was coming his way, rendering it swifter and more certain if

Rendorff went back clear to the dagger hilt, then plunged forward, across the prone form of the senseless

baggage man. With him, Rendorff carried a bronze trophy, another of those Thoth knives, extending up from

The only witness to the things that followed was Rex, the bulldog, who was the sort of witness who could

never give verbal evidence. Rex saw the figure that came from the opened trunk to stoop above Rendorff's

body and make sure that the victim was dead. The dog made a supercanine effort to break the chain, but

failed, although his ferocious lunge carried him almost to the stooping murderer.

What Rex received in return was hard cuff from the same gloved hand that had driven the bronze knife into

Rendorff. The dog snapped at that glove and got his teeth into it, but the hand whipped safely away. Then the

dog was worrying a gauntlet with jagged edges of the sleeves from which it had been ripped.

Whatever other sounds occurred in the baggage car were drowned by the train's loud clatter as it slackened

while crossing the huge steel draw bridge over the Passaic River, just short of Newark Station. The great

superstructure of the bridge clanged the hideously echoed message that Thoth, Master of Doom, had won

TEN minutes after its arrival at Newark, the Southern Special was still stalled there. A group of men were

gathered at the platform beside the baggage car, a group that included members of the train crew, station

Some were trying to revive the still stupefied baggage man, others were studying Rendorff's body, while all

were staying a respectful distance from a growling bulldog, who was crouched at the full length of his chain,

A few of the train crew were further back, chasing away curious passengers who had come out on the station

platform. During that business, a man strolled past. He was a tall man, calm of manner, who would probably

But they didn't challenge him, because they didn't notice him. Even with The Shadow's cloak folded in

disguised fashion across his arm, Lamont Cranston had a way of rendering himself inconspicuous when he

chose. One brakeman who was arguing with some passengers thought he heard footsteps pass on the concrete

The brakeman should have turned to look further, though it might have made no difference if he had. It could

be that Cranston's secret and The Shadow's was based upon Tibetan training, for Cranston had often

visited that land. Maybe people could turn themselves invisible in L'Hassa, the greatest city in Tibet and if

someone knew the trick, there was no reason why he couldn't work it in Newark, the largest city in New

However, Cranston wasn't invisible when he arrived at the baggage car. There, he appeared in the front rank

of the human cluster and his quiet but important air marked him as someone who belonged. The baggage man

"He clouted me," declared the baggage man, rubbing the back of his head. "Clouted me hard right here."

"Who did?" A railway dick put the query, then gestured at Rendorff's body. "That guy?"

The baggage man stared. He didn't see the bronze knife because Rendorff's body had rolled slightly the other

way. What he saw was the bulldog face, turned into the light, with its massive jaw that looked like a large

"Not him!" exclaimed the baggage man. "He's the guy that owns the bull. He went back to his car before we

pulled out of Penn Station. Said he was coming front to see about the dog, though. Only he wasn't around

"Somebody with a big mitt, and when I say mitt, I mean it was like a mitten. It was a glove, only it was

The baggage man broke off as he heard Rex growl. Stepping forward, pointing to the floor, he added; "That's

At the baggage man's approach, Rex retired, but only to gain slack in the chain. His subsequent lunge was

intended as a prelude to mayhem, but fortunately the chain held, before he could reach the baggage man.

Rex's barks, however, were truly vociferous and brought an exchange of glances among persons present.

Maybe the dog was going berserk because he had recognized the murderer of his master!

Such suspicion of the baggage man lasted very briefly. Rex was quite as violent when a couple of the station

employees approached him. One found an umbrella in the car, shoved the point at Rex, and opened the

umbrella very suddenly. That backed Rex away, long enough for the other man to snatch up the gauntlet.

"Say!" exclaimed a detective. "That looks like it belonged to that killer they call Thoth, the one they were

mentioning on the air tonight." He turned to the baggage man. "Where did he come from before he grabbed

The baggage man gestured to one of the big trunks. The dick found that it was open, gave it a quick pull

There was a reply to the detective's exclamation. It came in the form of a groan, rather weird until it was

located. What located the source of the groan was the fact that it was repeated twice in gasping fashion.

The trunk wouldn't yank open; it was locked. Now, muffled taps were coming from its interior; hasty,

nervous thumps. Some men were moving forward to break the trunk open, when the baggage man produced a

The fifth key did it. While Rex snarled and chafed at his chain, the trunk was unlocked and tipped forward

with guns trained, ready for its occupant's surge. Only the occupant didn't surge. He flopped like a fish out of

water, gasping through a handkerchief that gagged him, wrenching at ropes that he had managed to work off,

They helped this prisoner to his feet, but even when his hands were released, they proved too shaky to hold

the arms that supported him. The gag removed, his face looked very peaked; his eyes, drooped almost shut,

Although Cranston had never seen this man, he recognized him from his description. Calmly, Cranston spoke

Those words electrified the group. They recognized the name as belonging to the kidnap victim for whom all

Manhattan had been searching. Curvin corroborated it with a weak nod; then gasped:

Before anyone could answer, Curvin's tilting head had brought his eyes on a line with Rendorff's body. From

his side, Curvin could see the dull gleam of the knife handle. His voice rose almost to a shriek:

Rex was beginning to bark anew, as though recognizing that the reference related to his master. Looking first

Then Curvin was explaining, as best he could, how Rendorff had been checked as the most likely victim to

follow Zerland and Yelvin. He wanted to get back to New York to join Albersham and Barstow, so they

could urge the police to resume the trail of Thoth. Other matters were important, though; for one thing,

But most important was the disappearance of Thoth, the killer whose glove had now been added to the list of

items torn from his Egyptian robe. A search of the baggage car revealed no sign of the killer, the only clue

being a cardboard slip, representing a garage receipt for a parked car. The garage was located in Harrison, the

Rendorff certainly hadn't dropped that slip and Curvin, with his shaky, feeble hands, didn't even drive a car.

The ticket didn't belong to the baggage man, so there was only one conclusion; it had been dropped by the

infamous Thoth himself. Thus was another link added to the chain of clues that might prove the undoing of

Now it was obvious that Thoth must have dropped from the train before it crossed the Passaic, an easy

dropoff, since all trains slowed when coming across the draw. The ground was dark and neglected on the

Harrison bank of the river, with an open field through which the killer could easily have scurried unseen.

Word was given to start the pursuit of Thoth from there. Meanwhile, Cranston introduced himself as a friend

of the New York police commissioner and arranged to take Curvin back to Manhattan. With Newark

Already, lights were bobbing all over the field that lay beside the tracks on the Harrison side of the river.

Other lights were gleaming when the train passed through the Jersey Meadow, big searchlights, probing for

The hunt was on for Thoth, that master of ancient murder, but the ibisgod had slipped away as utterly as if

This was being proven in the grill room of the Cobalt Club where Commissioner Weston had invited a group

The picture showed a squad of men with tommyguns approaching an old house out in the country. One

suddenly arose and called a warning; when it apparently was unheeded, the rest drove for the house, riddling

its windows with a hail of lead that their repeating weapons spurted ahead of them.

It was a silent film and the effect was like a pantomime. Any audience would have mistaken the film for a

cuttingroom reject of a rehearsal for a GradeB thriller. But this whole scene was very real.

The sequence showed the men entering the bulletriddled house. Then there were pictures of various rooms,

"And that," announced Commissioner Weston, "is all the F.B.I. found out about the old house in Connecticut.

"One man now has full control of the most famous of Egyptian secrets," declared Weston. "That secret is the

formula for hardening bronze to the extent of steel. The man who holds that secret is Professor Rufus Parrish.

The house shown in the picture was rented by a man who answers to the description of Professor Parrish."

The lights were turned on while the commissioner spoke and he was facing three men: Edwin Albersham,

Geoffrey Barstow and Arnold Curvin. Upon these three depended the corroboration of Weston's statement.

"You are right, commissioner," stated Albersham, in his crisp fashion. "Right insofar as Parrish is the one

man who plucked the secret from an Egyptian tomb and still lives to prove the fact."

"But he sold the formula to us," reminded Barstow, his booming tone emphatic. "We have full rights to it,

where Parrish is concerned. We paid half a million dollars to Parrish for that formula."

"We offered a full million for exclusive rights," added Curvin. "But there were others who knew the same

secret. We were negotiating with them when they unfortunately passed beyond our reach."

Hugo Zerland, Roger Yelvin, Louis Rendorff, had all vanished from the scene, wiped out by the murderous

"As I understand it," stated Weston, "Professor Parrish could now claim another half million on the basis of

There were nods from the members of ABC Industries. Then Albersham spoke for the group.

"Parrish would have to prove the fact, of course," said Albersham. "We know that Zerland had a papyrus

which told the full secret. Yelvin showed us papers that amounted to the same. Rendorff apparently was

trusting to his memory of something that he had deciphered in an ancient Egyptian tomb. But all are gone

"Let Parrish try to claim their shares," decided Weston, grimly. "First he will have to state his whereabouts.

Exchanging glances, the members of ABC finally shook their heads. Again, it was Albersham who acted as

"We are not sure that Parrish was the murderer," declared Albersham. After all, he did not invent the story

regarding the Curse of Thoth. There may be someone in New York who came from Egypt "

"And I'm looking for someone who came from Connecticut," interrupted Weston. "I mean Professor Parrish.

He was seen at that house of his until the day before the Thoth murders and he hasn't been seen since."

Summarily Weston waved for the room lights to be turned off. That done, the projector was focused on the

screen and a still picture was projected there. It was a closeup of a face that would have been cadaverous,

"Professor Parrish," identified Weston. "We'll know him even if he shaved his beard. Here is another portrait

The projector clicked and Parrish's picture was revealed without the beard. Unbushed, the professor was a

slylooking customer, the thinness of his features giving a sharp, shrewd look to his eyes.

After everyone had seen enough of Parrish to remember him with or without the whiskers, Weston called for

the room lights again. Lights on, he summarized the evidence at hand, beginning with the clues to Parrish's

"A bearded man occupied this seat on the train from New Haven," announced Weston, showing the Pullman

stub. "The ticket to the theater matinee" Weston picked up the seat check "was called for by a bearded

"Nobody used the restaurant reservation," Weston continued, "which wasn't surprising considering that Thoth

had then begun his rampage. Reservation cards of this type are mailed to outoftown customers and we find

"And finally" Weston was displaying the garage ticket from Harrison "the car that was left was driven by

a bearded man, who never called for it. Parrish must have realized that he dropped the garage receipt in the

Having thus identified Parrish with the chain of Thoth murders, Weston reviewed the exhibits in each case.

First the beads and the chunk of sleeve that had been ripped from Thoth when he murdered Zerland; next, the

bracelet grabbed when Yelvin was killed; finally, the clawglove that Rex, the bulldog, had acquired over the

There was one more exhibit that Weston regarded as highly consequential. It was the trunk in which Curvin

"This trunk was purchased by Professor Parrish," asserted Weston. "It was delivered to an address only a few

blocks from the ABC office, about a week ago. It was left in a room where there already was an older trunk,

"Obviously this trunk was intended to carry some victim. Our theory is that Parrish originally planned to stow

Rendorff's body in it, after murdering him in the baggage car. Then, Parrish I suppose that technically we

should still refer to him as Thoth could have continued his journey in the other trunk.

"Plans were changed because of Curvin. Obviously Parrish could not have left him in that place so near the

ABC office. A truck was supposed to pick up the trunks and did. The truckmen might have seen Curvin or we

might have found him while searching the neighborhood. So Parrish took Curvin along."

From a table, Weston took a candle, lighted it, and used it to show the interior of the trunk. Why the

commissioner preferred a candle to a flashlight was to be demonstrated later. For the present he was using the

candle to prove that the trunk was of standard pattern and entirely solid. Its interior hinges were strong; its

Lowering the candle, Weston used its wax to stick it upright in the bottom of the trunk. Leaving the candle

"We have checked the time at which that trunk was delivered at the Pennsylvania Station for shipment on the

Southern Special. From that time it was not opened until it reached Newark. Within that period the candle

"My demonstration will therefore prove that Parrish intended to dispose of Curvin as ruthlessly as his other

victims; that only through good fortune did Curvin survive. It will go far, this test, to support our claim that

Stepping to another table, Weston pointed to the three bronze knives of Thoth, lying in a row, each labeled

with the name of the victim it had slain. Beside the knife marked Zerland lay the beads and portion of sleeve

cloth torn from Thoth's costume. With the knife that showed Yelvin's label was the bracelet that Thoth had

lost. Finally, the knife that had killed Rendorff was accompanied by the clawdecorated glove that Rex had

"These daggers," declared Weston, "are all fashioned from ancient Egyptian bronze, of a quality as hard as

steel. That is, they are composed of the very alloy with which Professor Parrish experimented and they were

manufactured by the process which he discovered. We need only to compare them with samples of ancient

There were cups, bowls, curious coins and medallions, even a bronze hand mirror that gave an excellent

"The mirror was not given to us by Professor Parrish," stated Albersham. "It was loaned by Doctor Tabrok of

the Egyptian Museum. We went to the museum with Parrish and asked for some sample of ancient bronze,

for purposes of comparison. You have heard of Nilgon Tabrok, of course. He is curator of the museum and an

While Weston was nodding, his friend Cranston took the mirror and turned it over. On the reverse, Cranston

saw a hieroglyphic inscription. Cranston's interest in the symbols intrigued the others.

"Something about the wisdom of Isis," translated Cranston. "It states that the wisdom of Isis will be spoken to

Thoth on the night when the moon is banished from the Nile; that, as in this mirror, all truth will be seen and

"If it has to do with Thoth," decided Weston, "we should talk to Doctor Tabrok about it. How late is the

"Until nine o'clock," recalled Barstow, "but Doctor Tabrok will probably be there later."

"We can go to the museum after we complete the candle test," decided Weston, looking at the trunk and

Cranston was out of the conversation now and his eyes had taken on a reflective stare, though not toward the

Only one person present observed that distant stare. That person was Harry Vincent. A moment later, Harry's

While Commissioner Weston continued his harangue on crime and the way it could be solved, the members

of the ABC corporation listened patiently and respectfully, as did Inspector Joe Cardona.

But now the commissioner had two less listeners. Lamont Cranston and Harry Vincent were gone.

OUTSIDE the Cobalt Club, Lamont Cranston gave an idle gesture toward the corner and Harry Vincent

sauntered that direction with him. This was unusual. Generally upon leaving the Cobalt Club, they either took

Both vehicles were handy tonight, but Cranston wanted neither. He undertoned why, as they walked along.

"Your intuition is reasonably keen, Vincent," commended Cranston. "Have you noticed yourself being

"Because you were more or less on the trail of the Thoth murders," explained Cranston, taking the questions

in turn, "and the person who once put you into temporary trouble might want to know what you intend to do

Harry's thoughts shot back to his altercation with the station detectives at the Pennsy train gate, a matter

which had been straightened eventually, but too late for Harry to board the Southern Special and save Louis

"Don't look now," undertoned Cranston. "In fact, don't look at all, but Thelba is trailing us from across the

"At the corner light," continued Cranston, "stop and pretend to give me something from your pocket. Act

"Thelba should then switch the trail to me," Cranston added. "I want you to check to see if she does. You can

"In that case, go back to the club and report to Burbank, telling him that Thelba is still outside, watching for

They were at the corner now and Harry was making the pretence of slipping some object to Cranston. Of

"And if you do go back to the club," commented Cranston, "you might look through the morning newspapers

"It won't be seen in New York," explained Cranston. "That's why it was only slightly mentioned. The full

eclipse will be visible in the Mediterranean area, about the longitude of Cairo, Egypt."

With that, Cranston strolled away, and Harry turning back along the street, could still hear Cranston's earlier

words ringing in his ears. The words that Cranston had spoken when he deciphered the hieroglyphs on the

"The wisdom of Isis will be spoken to Thoth on the night when the moon is banished from the Nile "

What it all meant, Harry didn't know, but it almost made him forget about Thelba. Maybe Cranston had

intended it that way, for when Harry turned around and took another look at the corner, he found he'd timed it

just right. A girl was turning the corner around which Cranston had gone and she wasn't bothering to take

another glance in Harry's direction, so sure was she that he was really returning to the Cobalt Club.

One glance on Harry's part was sufficient to identify Thelba, even though he couldn't distinguish her ivory

There was something beautifully graceful in the girl's carriage and gait, something that didn't fit with the

modern clothes she wore, even though her trim, wellmolded dress, shoes with dashaway heels, and

Such attire handicapped Thelba, ruffling her natural flow, like rocks turning a smooth, swift stream into

rapids. At any rate, it made her easy to pick out. Harry had spotted her at Penn Station and was sure he could

So Harry trailed along, and away up ahead he saw Cranston, whose stroll too was conspicuous, but rapid in

its own right, for Thelba was needing all her slinky speed to keep up with his pace.

Cranston could have turned just short of the corner, but Thelba didn't realize it until she, herself, had taken

the turn and come out upon a lighted avenue. Then the girl was scurrying back to the side street again and

Harry was glad that he had nearly a half block's distance in this comparatively dim setting. Harry slid behind

Thelba was looking into a little basement entry where Cranston must have gone, but she saw no signs of him

there. Where she didn't look was across the street where she might have caught a fleeting trace of the

Blackness was fading like vapor. Its only visible evidence was the way it streaked the sidewalk where a street

lamp glared. A silhouette, roughly resembling a cloaked figure with a hawkish profile, literally trickled off

Baffled, Thelba decided to cross the avenue and make a phone call from a drug store. From darkness, The

Shadow watched and saw Harry Vincent follow her, still handling the trail cautiously.

A whispered laugh sounded in the gloom, when its echoes faded, The Shadow was gone. No need for him to

contact Burbank; The Shadow knew that his agent, Harry Vincent, would be keeping on Thelba's trail.

Returning a block, The Shadow contacted Shrevvy's cab which had come along. A few moments later the cab

was bearing its cloaked passenger to a new and intriguing destination. The cab finally stopped in front of a

granite building that was bulky, massive, though not overlarge. The place looked like a museum and was.

It was the Egyptian Museum, A few minutes later, The Shadow was moving silent and unseen through a

corridor of the museum, passing a few lazy attendants who were getting ready to close the place for the night.

Like human smoke, The Shadow's figure blurred the glass front of a lighted door that bore the word:

Buzzing voices could be heard from within. They would have drowned the sound of the opening door, if

necessary, but The Shadow opened the door in strictly silent fashion. From beneath his slouch hat, The

Two men were seated opposite each other at the curator's big desk. One was the curator himself, Doctor

Nilgon Tabrok. From his darkish face and full black eyes, Tabrok looked to be an Egyptian, but his

nationality would have been difficult to distinguish, had his face not been so close to the light.

At that, not all of his face was visible, for Tabrok was bearded, and heavily, his beard matching his black

hair. When he spoke, Tabrok used a tone that was low, precise, with only a slight trace of foreign accent.

The man across from Tabrok was bearded too, but his bushy adornment approached the ruddy. What was

more, his beard did not hide the outline of his face, which showed thin, cadaverous, particularly when he

There was no doubt as to the identity of Tabrok's visitor. The Shadow, as Cranston, had seen this caller's

picture, enlarged to reveal every detail, projected on a screen, only a short while ago.

The man with the ruddy beard was Professor Rufus Parrish, the man who had discovered the formula for

ancient Egyptian bronze and until this moment, Candidate Number One for the unenviable title of the

Perhaps Parrish was here to bestow that title upon Tabrok. Whether the latter would accept it was still an

WHATEVER the objectives of this museum conference, the participants were at present mingling their

discourse with accusations. Tabrok made one, accompanying his words with a side gesture of his hand.

"I received the Thoth costume," he declared. "It was nice of you to send it back. You will find it hanging in

"From which you took it," rasped Parrish, "wore it, used it, and put it back. I could not have sent you

"Someone stole it from the costume room," argued Tabrok. "You said you wanted to wear it, so I gave you

"I did not want to wear it until tonight," retorted Parrish. "I told you that originally, Tabrok. You promised

"No wonder, considering that you have personally given that costume a stigma even worse than the Curse of

"After all," he decided, "it is the only authentic Thoth costume in America. Someone must wear it during the

"I shall," declared Tabrok, in precise fashion, "if you do not hold me to your promise. Then I shall be the

Thoth who questions Isis regarding ancient science, that I may apply the knowledge that she gives me to the

"Suppose I play the part of Thoth," demanded Parrish. "How do I know that Isis will tell all she knows?"

"It is part of the ritual," returned Tabrok, solemnly, "but let me assure you, Parrish, this is ritual only.

Humans who play the parts of deities do not necessarily share the secrets of the gods they represent."

"But does she know it?" demanded Parrish. "You should be able to tell me that, Tabrok."

"If I could, I would not. No one who ever played the part of Thoth in the ritual of the banished moon can

"I know your real game, Tabrok," Parrish stormed. "You came to America and took this job here purely at the

instigation of a group in Egypt that wanted you to reclaim lost treasures from that land."

"Believing in the curse of Thoth," continued Parrish, "you put it into practice, murdering three men who had

At that accusation, Tabrok's eyes opened until they glistened; but his speech remained calm.

"If such were the case," declared Tabrok, "I would have been wearing the robe of Thoth tonight, waiting with

a bronze dagger to strike you down, Parrish. You, too, probed into places where you should not have gone. If

"Why not?" sneered Parrish. "Considering how thoroughly you framed me, the very day after I left

Connecticut. You can't afford to kill me, Tabrok. I am what in every ancient ritual was called the scapegoat,

the man who takes the blame for another's evil. I am to be your scapegoat where the law is concerned."

"At least your argument is valid, Parrish," conceded Tabrok. "I must admit that I did not fear your visit here,

because I felt that despite your previous murders, you could not afford to kill me. In order to clear yourself of

your crimes, you would have to place the blame on someone. I was to be your scapegoat; in fact, I still am."

"If you think you can prove my guilt," asked Parrish, "why haven't you told the law you expected me here?"

"Because you wouldn't have come if the museum had been watched," returned Tabrok. "Besides, I already

promised you the privilege of playing Thoth in tonight's ritual. I can not denounce you until I have fulfilled

Rising from the desk, Parrish went to the closet that Tabrok had indicated. Opening the door, he found the

regalia of Thoth, the damaged costume with its missing beads, torn sleeve, lost bracelet and glove. Hauling it

"It is worth the chance," decided Parrish. "As Thoth and mark you, this is the only time that I have ever

played the part I shall speak to Isis. I know you will keep your word, Tabrok, because your loyalty to

"My first law," corrected Tabrok, stiffly. "I recognize my modern obligations, but only after my pledge to

There were others who believed as Doctor Tabrok did and one such person was the Egyptian girl, Thelba.

Still on the trail, Harry Vincent had observed that Thelba's interest in trying to trace Cranston had been

postponed, that the girl, keeping to a rapid pace, was obviously on her way to some more important

And now she had reached that destination. Without glancing back, Thelba glided up a pair of granite steps

into a great bulking building that swallowed her within its gray walls. Without hesitation, Harry followed,

and in a corridor that passed an exhibit room, he realized that he was inside the Egyptian Museum.

Eliminating the exhibit rooms, Harry took a side corridor, chose another turn that looked logical, paused at a

corner while he watched an attendant go the other way. Proceeding further, Harry found himself in front of a

pair of brass gates which represented the entrance of a miniature Egyptian temple.

The gates failed to budge when Harry tried them and looking elsewhere, he saw a narrow flight of stone stairs

that led downward. Deciding that Thelba might have gone that way, Harry followed, realizing however that

The time Thelba had gained was increased after Harry found himself in a stretch of cellar at the bottom of the

steps. The place was a dead end and it was apparently a storage room, but the only object large enough to

Producing an automatic that he had been carrying since the night of the Thoth murders, Harry tried the

mummy case. It was locked and trickily, but Harry had learned some of The Shadow's methods of probing for

hidden catches. He found one at last and as the door of the mummy case groaned open, Harry sprang back,

Harry halfexpected to find Thelba lurking there, but if a mummy had toppled out, he wouldn't have been

surprised. What he did discover left him rather baffled. Harry had guessed right about Thelba entering the

The proof was that Thelba had disappeared right out of her modern attire, for hanging in the mummy case

Harry saw the sleek blue dress, the pert hat, the dashaway shoes and other accouterments that represented a

complete modern garb, no matter what the nationality of the feminine wearer, nor her antiquity.

If Thelba had whisked away on a time trip back through the ages, Harry was as wishing her a happy landing

in the wardrobe closet of some ancient Egyptian princess. Then the very incongruity of that mental opinion

That was what this mummy case was, a wardrobe closet. Now that Thelba was identified with the Egyptian

Museum, it was logical that she would have some place where she could hang spare clothes. But why she was

sparing these, Harry couldn't understand, since so far she'd been connected with matters entirely outside the

Maybe Thelma had decided to wrap herself in a mummy shroud and go around the museum scaring out the

patrons, but that seemed ridiculous to Harry on second thought and, besides, Thelba wouldn't have had time

to do herself up in mummy trappings. In fact, Harry was beginning to wonder if she'd had time to get out of

Then Harry was sure he had it. This was Thelba's wardrobe closet, all right, but the clothes were just an extra

outfit, similar enough to deceive anyone who discovered them. Thelba must have known that Harry was

following her and had purposely decoyed him down to this deadend, after sliding away somewhere along

the route. The idea was to leave him really mystified and in the silence of the museum, Harry realized that the

sense of the uncanny was prevalent enough to impress the average person into believing the impossible.

In fact, Harry's own first thoughts had been fantastic, along the lines that Thelba might be a living mummy

who had crumbled away to dust in this appropriate mummy case. Harry took hold of the door to close the

The mummy case hadn't tilted an inch. It didn't even sway when the door was moved. The mummy case

couldn't because it was fixed firmly to the wall; in fact, considering its depth, the back of the mummy case

Removing the dress, Harry tossed it over the case and began to probe the interior. Along the back wall, he

found another catch that gave and the wall began to turn like a panel. It was quite wide, the mummy case,

though rather low for Harry, but he went through the space quite easily, stooping to make faster progress.

The panel finished a full revolution as Harry reached the other side. Immediately he was engulfed in

complete darkness. Striking a match, Harry found himself in a stonewalled room, with a pair of narrow

This was actually the anteroom to what was technically known as an adytum. Every ancient Egyptian

temple had an adytum, or concealed chamber beneath it, but Harry didn't know he was under the upstairs

temple. He tried the brass doors and they yielded, pushing inward but under considerable pressure.

As Harry practically plunged into a much larger stonewalled room, the brass doors clanged suddenly behind

him. Ending his stumble, Harry stared through dim light to an alcove at the far wall of the adytum.

There, seated in a vaguely outlined throne, Harry saw an ivory statue in the perfect pose of an Egyptian

goddess. Its form was lithe, of human size and the statue's hands lay palms flat on the low arms of the throne

The face looked more stone than ivory; in fact as Harry approached, he decided that the statue must be carved

from a single block of marble because the face, staring straight ahead, had all the stony expression of an

As though tuned to Harry's fantastic thought, the strange, dim artificial light began to waver and with it, the

whole room seemed to sway. Half way across the adytum, Harry turned and his knees kept sagging under him

as he scrambled to gain the brass doors. They had handles, those doors, but though he pulled with all his

The room seemed to be revolving now or was it Harry's brain? He could hear a fierce hissing, seemingly

Then something came out of nowhere and thwacked Harry's shoulder with a force that would have flattened

him, if he hadn't been flat already. The thing that hit him was the stone floor.

With that, the pressure ended. Reaching up numbly, Harry managed to grip the handles and pull them. The

doors yielded inward, drawing him to his feet. As he reeled from this chamber of fantasy and terror, Harry

Apparently, all had been delusion. The singular statue, whether human or stone, had vanished!

A MUCH tattered and bedraggled Thoth stood in the center of the museum temple, gazing at the alcove at the

opposite wall, where clouds of incense were coiling from large burners and joining in fantastic fashion to

Here the lights were stronger than in the room below and Professor Parrish, staring through the eye holes of

the bird mask, could view the scene quite clearly, except for the smoke. As Thoth, he looked like someone

Out of the swirl of smoke appeared a vague figure around which the clouds of incense trailed, clinging thinly,

like a veil. The sharp eyes behind the Thoth mask were watching for the mechanical cause of this, and the

A smaller inner throne had come up by elevator through the larger seat standing on the raised alcove. Despite

the veiling incense, Parrish saw the figure's hands raise and move slightly to each side, to plant themselves on

Air currents in the alcove kept drawing the incense clouds, so that the statue gained a wavery effect from the

smoke that constantly clothed and obscured it. An average observer would have supposed that the statue was

Parrish, playing the part of Thoth, was meeting Thelba, playing the part of Isis. Boldly, Thoth drew a bronze

knife from the belt of his tattered costume and raised it point upward, as a sign of welcome. Both hands of

Isis raised, extended forward from the weave of smoke and turned palms upward, as though proffering gifts.

The voice of Thoth spoke. It was Parrish's voice, but it came hollow and deep, due to the mask. In return,

Thelba's tone had a peculiar ring, gained from the echoing quality of the halfdomed alcove. What they said

was in Egyptian, and first these representatives of forgotten deities exchanged the formal greetings customary

He was asking Isis for advice in the ways of ancient science and the veiled goddess answered according to

accepted rote. Quickly, Parrish came to the important question, the million dollar question.

"Tell me, O Isis," he spoke in the language of Thoth, "how may I teach my artisans to form a metal that will

The mere fact that Parrish already held a dagger made of just such metal had no bearing on the answer that

"It is thou, O Thoth," came the words of Isis, "who must fashion such a metal for thyself. I, Isis, can tell thee

That was all Parrish needed to know. It meant that the secret formula of the wonder bronze had never been

written into the ritual of the Egyptians. The formalities of Thoth and Isis meant nothing more to Parrish.

Thrusting away the bronze dagger, Parrish wheeled and strode straight to the temple doors, tugging them

open as he arrived there. The sudden rush of air caused the incense smoke to sweep outward like a waving

sheet and through that thinning film, Thelba, half rising in her astonishment, saw Parrish stop short,

Instantly, the girl dropped her hands to the arms of the inner throne and pressed them. Only for an instant did

the invaders glimpse the shapely vision in the alcove; then the smoke swirled back with a great gush,

completely obscuring the throne as Thelba descended through the floor. The smoke cleared as the seat of the

The throne was empty, but about the only person who cared was Harry Vincent. He had just arrived by the

stairs from below and was learning that the happenings in the adytum were connected with the manifestations

Commissioner Weston and Inspector Cardona were the first to confront Thoth. With them was Doctor

Tabrok, his bearded face distressed. Behind these were the firm of Albersham, Barstow and Curvin, all

Already Thoth had begun to throw back his bird mask, which was attached only to the back of the robe, like a

cowl. He was too late to stop that action and his own face, or rather the face within the mask of Thoth, came

suddenly in sight. Everyone recognized it, the glaring visage of Professor Rufus Parrish, his cadaverous

Out from his belt, Parrish had whipped the bronze knife. Even unmasked, he fulfilled the character of the

murderous Thoth. His robe bore all the evidence; the missing beads, the torn sleeve, one bracelet gone, his

It was in that hand that Parrish gripped the knife and the lack of the Thoth gauntlet made the threat the more

vicious. Tabrok spread his arms wide as though inviting a stab in the chest, should Parrish disbelieve his

Instead, he gave the dagger a wide sweep to ward off Weston and Cardona. Turning, he met Harry, who was

still too wobbly to stop the swinging arm that flung him aside. As his old acquaintances from ABC tried to

Albersham grabbed for the other bracelet, but his hands slipped from it. Barstow snatched at the remaining

strings of beads and missed. Curvin grabbed the good sleeve and couldn't even get his nails in it. Maybe Rex

Loping down the corridor, Parrish slapped the ibis head back over his own, rather than have it cup the air and

slow his progress. In his dash, however, he had too far to go. He was making himself a perfect target for

Then, before the commissioner and inspector could do more than aim, the flight of Thoth was halted by a

lunging figure that literally appeared from nowhere. A moment later, the ibisgod was performing a mad

Here was a perfect ending to the murderous reign of Thoth! The Shadow, master of vengeance, taking the

killer alive, proving that the Curse of Thoth would no longer hold for Rufus Parrish!

They whirled around the corner, that fighting pair, into one exhibit room and through it to another. Doors

were slamming, mummy cases flattening, exhibit stands crashing. More than trifles, such obstacles were

When Weston and Cardona finally reached an inner exhibit room, they found its far door blocked with

overturned debris. The Shadow and Thoth must have whirled on out through another passage, or upstairs to

So Weston and Cardona thought, but others were gaining a better impression of how the fighters had fared.

Around the corner of another corridor, Albersham suddenly raised a shout as he saw the figure of Thoth

Barstow and Curvin responded promptly. As they rounded the corner behind Albersham, they saw Harry

Vincent cutting in from another passage. Harry was the first to see Thoth take a dive down a flight of narrow

Harry had forgotten that it wasn't quite a deadend. He remembered the difference when he heard Thelba

scream. Having finished the ritual, the girl had returned to the outer cellar to resume her modern garb. She'd

put on the clothes that were in the mummy case and she was just sliding into the dress that she had found

lying across it, when Thoth, who belonged to antiquity, came barging into Thelba's modern life.

Sight of Thoth, bronze knife waving, nearly petrified the girl who was no longer Isis, but she tried to slide

back through the mummy case. Too late, Thelba was overtaken just as she clicked the panel open and Thoth's

hand caught the dangling dress and whipped it from the mummy case, Thelba coming with it, before the dress

Flinging himself into the struggle, Harry wrested Thelba away from Thoth and sent the girl spinning to a

corner, where she landed safely, just in time to see Harry receive a flattening jolt from the door of the

Then Thoth was through the panel leading to the little room outside the adytum, while Harry, sagged by the

wallop of the door, was groggily watching Albersham, Barstow and Curvin continue the chase that he had

Echoes of the chase floated out through the mummy case, then were silenced by the clang of the bronze doors

There, in the dim light, the strangest of all struggles was under way. Three men were pouncing upon the

fugitive Thoth. Albersham had a gun, borrowed from Cardona. Barstow was carrying one on a permit that

Weston had given him. Curvin had gained a lucky weapon, Thoth's bronze knife, for three hands had

The big mask dipping forward, Thoth's costume had been overweighed under the haul of his foemen. They'd

peeled the costume right off him, mask and all. As the regalia collapsed, three men looked madly about, but

A peculiar hissing began to pervade the chamber. Anxiously, Curvin let his partners look about while he went

Curvin met with Harry's experience; the doors wouldn't open. He tugged harder, viciously, until Albersham

and Barstow turned to look. There was nothing feeble now about Curvin, the man whose hands were usually

Amid the hissing came a sinister laugh that rose and quivered from the echoing walls of that ancient adytum.

Three men turned to face the alcove where the throne stood. Instead of the white figure of Isis, they saw a

black shape, which by its lack of motion gradually developed into the figure of a man who wore a black cloak

It wasn't Parrish who had been wearing the Thoth costume on the final leg of the flight. The professor had

The person who had finally slipped the costume was The Shadow. From the lesser throne of Isis, he was

THREE men faced the secret throne, two with guns, one with a knife. Albersham, Barstow and Curvin were

hearing the judgment of The Shadow, whose voice was carrying, by an ancient system of acoustics, to the

"The trail of Thoth is ended," spoke The Shadow. "You came here, hoping to overwhelm Parrish and give

him a murderer's death. You were confident that the world would justify you, because the world would

"On the contrary, I am the one who has found Thoth. The costume that lies before you is the symbol of triple

perfidy, which each of you has worn in turn. You sought to divide the blame between two men: Doctor

Tabrok, who believed in the Curse of Thoth, and Professor Parrish, who has discovered the secret of ancient

"Yet neither Tabrok nor Parrish would deal in murder. Each merely thought the other would. That fact,

known to all of you, made it simple for you to build a false trail that would lead to one or the other and

There was a pause. Not one of the three listeners had budged. They were spread, with Albersham and

Barstow at the flanks, each with a drawn gun; Curvin was standing in the center, fronting the brass doors,

"Parrish has proven his own guilt," sneered Curvin. "After all, he was the only person who could gain by

eliminating others who knew his secret. Once he could prove it was exclusive, we were ready to double his

"Yours was the chief interest," corrected The Shadow. "The other men who held the secret could demand any

price, or else sell out to your competitors. The question of who eliminated those men is as simple as A B C.

"As for Parrish, he could never collect his double price if he became a fugitive or was brought to justice.

Better still, you saw your opportunity to treat him as a fugitive killer and dispose of him yourselves."

All this was striking home to the three murderers, but they still felt strong through numbers. It was

"Someone already has," reminded The Shadow. "Inspector Cardona suspected you of killing Zerland, which

you did. Can you supply an alibi, Albersham, for the exact time when Hugo Zerland was murdered "

It wasn't a query, that last phrase of The Shadow's. It came with the tone of an accusation. Barstow quickly

"I was there when Zerland died," began Barstow. "I helped hunt for the murderer "

"You became the murderer," interposed The Shadow. "Your car was in back of the apartment house so

Albersham could plant the Thoth costume in it; you took the car and became Thoth yourself. You went to

Yelvin's and ransacked his papers, to make sure he had left no vital information there.

"Then you sped to your own office, after showing yourself as Thoth. You knew that Yelvin had an

appointment, something which all of you concealed. You hammered at your office door and while Curvin

So simply did The Shadow state the case that other factors dropped in line, such as the fact that Albersham

and Curvin had seated Yelvin right where he would be ready for Barstow's knife. But The Shadow had

"It was odd, Barstow," declared The Shadow, "that Thoth should outrace you to Yelvin's home, yet you

outdistanced him from there to your office. Your own running time was just nicely better than average, which

only emphasizes the discrepancy in Thoth's. When both are checked again, yours will reveal its flaws, once

"You mean the trunk is air tight," spoke The Shadow. "That alone condemns you, Curvin. Even a candle

failed to burn out the time you were supposed to be in that trunk and you would have consumed more air.

"Barstow passed the Thoth costume along to you, there outside your office. You had two trunks in a waiting

truck and one of them was for yourself as Troth. That was the trunk you opened when you murdered Louis

Rendorff. That trunk was never locked; while in it, you could get air whenever you needed it."

"But the other trunk was locked," scoffed Curvin. "That was where they found me at the finish. How could I

"Quite easily," returned The Shadow. "The lock was fitted to the trunk with a bolt, as with most trunks. You

had taken the nut from the end of the bolt inside the trunk. That enabled you to open the lock, bolt and all.

"Once inside, you closed the trunk lid, drew the bolt through with a shoelace already attached, and screwed

the nut in place. You pretended to revive at a most timely moment, when people were around to unlock the

trunk. But persons stuffed in trunks don't begin to revive until they are taken out. You forgot that, Curvin.

Curvin's fists were clenching, one around the knife handle. Mention of weakness reminded him of another

part that he had played, that business with the palsied hands. He'd done it to make himself look incapable of

"Strong hands, Curvin," approved The Shadow, "but not strong enough to rip the sleeve of Thoth's costume.

Vincent failed, when he tried. You faked that costume nicely" The Shadow's sweeping gaze was taking in

"Beads were loosened, sleeve was cut, bracelet was broken, all beforehand. But the smartest trick was when

Curvin hid the costume without even wearing it. First, though, he ripped off one gauntlet, to take along for

Rex, knowing that the dog would be in the baggage car, where Rendorff always visited him."

The Shadow didn't have to add that murderers three had simply shipped the costume back to the museum

later, knowing that Tabrok would think that Parrish had boldly sent it there. In fact, The Shadow seemed tired

That roused the three to action. They, too, were feeling the oppressive atmosphere of this ancient vault. Now,

to a man, they were thinking in terms of murdering The Shadow and packing him back in the Thoth costume,

With one accord they launched themselves at The Shadow, Albersham and Barstow veering wide to gain the

vantage of the alcove edge, before blasting shots at close range; while Curvin, stooped low, started a straight

The Shadow did not reach for a gun. It wasn't necessary. He watched while invisible hands seemed to stop

the drive of his attackers, rearing them back, so they staggered, clawing the air wildly as they panted, going

For that was what this adytum was, a compression chamber. Harry Vincent had met with the same experience

when he had moved too rapidly under pressure of the packing air. Now three murderers had exerted

themselves more vehemently at a time when The Shadow had purposely let the pressure grow even greater.

Like Thelba, The Shadow had remained immobile, gauging his breath carefully, while the air compressed

through holes leading in from the walls and ceiling. Common to all ancient temples, those holes were

sometimes used as speaking tubes to carry voices through the temple, but this place had a separate acoustical

Here, the compression in the adytum was used to operate the mechanism, showing that the Egyptians really

were inventors. The Shadow released the mechanism now, by pressing the two arms of the throne.

The Shadow did not arrive slowly amid the temple smoke as Isis had. Under the punch of that greater

pressure, he literally scaled from the large fixed throne when the smaller one encountered it and stopped

Commissioner Weston and Inspector Cardona had heard all. With them was Doctor Tabrok, who was

showing them the way to the stairs, so that they could gather in the murderers. Only there was no need for

rush. The three murderers would be a long time recuperating from the treatment The Shadow had so artfully

At the stairs, The Shadow met Harry and Thelba coming up. He gestured them along a passage to an exhibit

room, where he opened the door. They stood outside of the debris which had blocked Weston and Cardona

during their rush. There, beneath an arch formed by two mummy cases, was Professor Parrish, stroking his

While Thelba was telling Parrish that his innocence had been established, The Shadow concluded a few

"Suggest a complete search of the ABC office," The Shadow ordered. "I think the commissioner will find

some extra correspondence, proving that the murderers had gone further than they told us, in negotiations

"With Zerland, they only had to rig the cable to his apartment, but they unquestionably had an appointment

with Yelvin and they must have known Rendorff's whereabouts as well as the time he intended to leave New

"And in the safe, you may even find the false beards that they used when they framed that tooperfect trail

leading all the way from Connecticut to New Jersey. Even if Parrish could have proved the trail was planted,

With that, The Shadow was gone and Harry was reminded of the beards when Doctor Tabrok arrived a

moment later to extend a congratulatory hand to Professor Parrish, as the latter crawled up from beneath the

debris where The Shadow, by a timely punch, had settled him until he could safely return to circulation.

Parrish was grateful toward The Shadow now and so was Doctor Tabrok. Both paused and tilted their

Weston and Cardona heard the weird mirth too, as they were dragging three feeble, helpless murderers up

from the museum cellar. If Albersham, Barstow or Curvin heard it, they probably mistook it for some

In a sense it was from the past, that parting laugh of The Shadow. For it dispelled belief in a thing which had

never existed and which The Shadow had discredited from the start, but had needed time to disprove.

That was the Curse of Thoth, a myth that The Shadow's might had banished forever!