The Black Hush

CHAPTER XVIII. FACTS FOR THE SHADOW

AT noon the following day, a young man appeared in the outer office of Rutledge Mann’s suite. The stenographer recognized the visitor. She entered the inner office, and announced that Mr. Vincent was calling.

Mann ordered the girl to tell Vincent to enter.

This had not been the first conference between these two agents of The Shadow. While The Shadow had been battling against the crooks who worked with the black hush, Rutledge Mann and Harry Vincent had been cooperating in an effort to gain information that concerned Richard Reardon and Roland Furness, the electrical engineers slain at the Olympia Hotel.

To date, they had made progress. Rutledge Mann, by methodical research, had learned a pointed fact concerning the past of Roland Furness. In his senior year at college, Furness had been expelled with his roommate, Don Chalvers. The young men had completed their education elsewhere.

The cause of the expulsion, Mann had discovered, was due to repeated experiments in which the roommates had indulged. On several occasions, they had thrown the electrical equipment of the dormitories into disrepair. This had led the college authorities to request them to continue their studies at another institution.

Roland Furness was dead. He had met his end amid a strange blackness which was significant, for it linked his demise with his expulsion from college.

Rutledge Mann had forwarded these facts to The Shadow. He had been ordered to locate Don Chalvers.

This had proven difficult. Mann had learned that Chalvers owned a small, isolated estate in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Independent because of a legacy, the young engineer preferred travel to seclusion in his home among the wooded hills.

Aided by Harry Vincent’s efforts, Mann had traced Chalvers to New York City. The whereabouts of Dan Chalvers had been left for Harry to learn. It was concerning this matter that Harry had come to Mann’s office today. The investment broker was sure that the active agent had gained new information.

This proved to be the case.

“I’ve located him,” announced Harry, when Mann had put his clippings aside.

“You mean Chalvers,” returned Mann, voicing his words as an agreement.

“Yes,” asserted Harry. “He has an apartment on Fifty-fourth Street. He’s there occasionally; and I caught up with him at a Broadway night club” — Harry smiled — “at two o’clock this morning.”

“What then?”

“I introduced myself. Made friends. Pretended to have met him before. Helped him get home to his apartment. I’m due to drop in there this evening.”

Methodical, Rutledge Mann required precise descriptive data pertaining to Don Chalvers. Gazing thoughtfully at Harry Vincent, the investment broker put forward careful questions.

“What reaction did Chalvers show when you introduced yourself?” asked Mann.

“He seemed a bit surprised,” declared Harry. “Then he became very friendly.”

“Did he take your word for it that you were an old acquaintance?”

“Yes. After a short befuddlement, he felt sure that he remembered me. He remarked that he had been many places, and had met many people. He said that he could remember faces, but not names.”

“Where did you say that you had met him?”

“In Bermuda. Our data showed that he had made several trips there.”

“Your visit tonight,” observed Mann thoughtfully. “Do you think that it will bring up any complications?”

“Not a chance,” laughed Harry. “It will be a get-acquainted affair. My only hope is that Chalvers will mention Furness. They were roommates at college, and close friends after that.”

“All right,” decided Mann. “I’ll call you later at the Metrolite.”

WHEN Harry Vincent had left, Rutledge Mann made inked notations, and sealed them in an envelope.

He turned to his clippings.

Today’s news stories told of the police rescue at the New City Bank. Led by the intrepid Joe Cardona, a squad of policemen and detectives had arrived in time to prevent the cracking of the vault.

They had driven back several of the mobsters who were confused in the darkness. The restoration of light had caught these lawless men just within the side door of the bank. Cardona, leading the advance, had opened fire.

By force of superior numbers, the officers had quickly won the engagement. Among dead and wounded mobsters who had staggered in all directions, the police had discovered one slain man whom they were sure had headed the expedition.

This was Ping Slatterly.

The fact that the electrical equipment of the New City Bank had been put out of order was an important item in the story. The newspapers also stressed the fact that some marauders had managed to extinguish the street lights at an important intersection, thus enabling the mobsters to escape.

In the rapidity of events at that point, the drivers of pursuing cars had scarcely realized the importance of the other unusual phenomena which had occurred. They spoke of stalled cars; of extinguished headlights; of blanketing gloom. But there was much that they made no effort to explain.

It was known now, however, that some peculiar form of electrical disturbing power had been utilized, but the newspapers, ringing with the reports of how the major criminals had been caught, gave little attention to the details of the unsuccessful pursuit.

Joe Cardona was the hero. Inasmuch as he had been at the bank itself, the ace detective was naturally concerned with the success of the police raid. He stated emphatically that the death of Ping Slatterly must mark the end of these odd crimes which had involved the extinguishing of lights in buildings.

Another item went into Mann’s envelope. This pertained to a tie-up on the elevated, which had occurred on the preceding evening. Newspapers had not connected this with the foiled bank robbery. But, along with his clippings, Mann enclosed a statement from Clyde Burke.

The quick-witted reporter had gained a theory which he had not mentioned at the Classic office.

Traveling with Detective Sergeant Markham, almost at the spot where the bank had been attacked, Clyde was sure that the ended service on the elevated line possessed a definite significance.

Rutledge Mann sealed the envelope and left his office. He told the stenographer that he would return after lunch. On the street, the investment broker took a taxicab to Twenty-third Street.

Entering the old, dilapidated building, Mann ascended to the blind office which bore the name of the mythical Jonas. He returned to the street and continued on to his club for luncheon.

It was later in the afternoon when Rutledge Mann, back in his office, received a letter which had been thrust through the mail chute. He opened the missive after the stenographer had brought it to him. Inked coded words disappeared following the insurance broker’s perusal.

Rutledge Mann smiled wanly as he picked up the telephone and called the Metrolite Hotel.

Instructions had arrived from The Shadow. Harry Vincent was to visit Don Chalvers tonight.