The Grove of Doom

CHAPTER XXI. KOON WOON

WITH abrupt, startling suddenness, The Shadow had brought an end to Craig Ware’s plotting. But in the deed that marked the death of Lei Chang, the avenger in black had been forced to turn away from Craig Ware. A man less bold might not have gained the courage to act with precision; but Ware, seeing one last opportunity, leaped forward, drawing his revolver.

The Shadow had anticipated the attack. He turned with incredible swiftness. Before Ware could press the trigger of his gun, The Shadow’s automatic was full upon him. Instinctively, Ware threw himself to the side, but the automatic spoke. Gasping, Ware rolled upon the brown ground, his revolver falling from his grasp. Mortally wounded, the man of evil had been felled.

Dying, Craig Ware knew that his reign of terror had been ended. Yet in his weakened body lay a last ounce of evil strength. As The Shadow’s form turned away, Ware, with a desperate effort, raised his hand to his lips and emitted a low, weird whistle.

Mildred recognized that call — the signal between Ware and Lei Chang. The Shadow heard it also, and he knew its hidden meaning. In his last moment of life; Craig Ware had summoned Koon Woon!

Ware’s hand had dropped. His eyes were glassy, and his lips were blood-flecked. He would not live to see the result of his last vile deed, but he had summoned forth an instrument of vengeance upon the one who had thwarted him.

The Shadow had turned toward the tree from which Lei Chang had fallen. Mildred Chittenden, recoiling from the writhing body of Craig Ware, had unconsciously moved toward that spot. Now, seeing the dead form of Lei Chang close by, the girl had moved no farther.

Harvey Chittenden, back by the tree from which he watched, did not sense what was about to happen.

He had thought Lei Chang to be the menace of the grove, for he had not clearly understood the sinister utterances of Craig Ware.

Only The Shadow knew the dread event that was coming — the arrival of Koon Woon, in answer to Ware’s dying call. The Shadow’s eyes were flashing as they gazed up toward the copper-leafed branches.

The Shadow knew the identity of Koon Woon!

Then, silently, swiftly, the terror of the grove came into being. From the boughs near where Lei Chang had hidden, a huge head stretched forth, followed by a long, twisting body. Glazed, reptilian eyes stared wickedly as the long, serpentine form of a monstrous snake swept downward.

Koon Woon was a huge python, nearly thirty feet in length! This giant snake, largest of the constrictor species, possessed the grip that could crush a man-eating tiger within its sinuous coils!

Koon Woon!

THE SHADOW knew the monster’s story. He had gained it from Choy Lown, in the old Celestial’s study. Koon Woon, greatest of all the reptiles in the famed snake temple at Penang! A snake captured by men to be kept as a god!

This was the terrible creature which Lei Chang had called The Master. To Lei Chang, Koon Woon had for years been an object of worship. The python, easily tamed, had learned to obey the summons of its slave. Here, to this strange clime, Craig Ware had brought Lei Chang, and with him one of the most formidable type of death-dealing creatures that existed on the face of the earth!

Koon Woon, the mighty python that for years had strangled victims in the jungle, was trained to conquer human foes! Lei Chang, with crafty wisdom, had tempted the great monster with a rabbit diet, lest Koon Woon sleep too long after devouring a human body.

Now, Koon Woon, to whom this grove was as much a home as the grotesque snake temple where others of his kind were imprisoned, was stretching forth his great head to eye a new victim. When Koon Woon was loosed, nothing could restrain him!

The great snake possessed a skin of mottled yellow-brown, a hue that blended with the leaves of the copper beeches. Up in the trees, a natural habitat for a python, the twisting form had been coiled invisibly. Now, with his great tail anchored to a tree trunk, Koon Woon was shooting his mighty body downward.

This was the monster that had caught five men in its sinuous grasp, and had made short work of a large, fierce dog. Koon Woon always sought the nearest victim, and here, within range of that swiftly moving head, stood Mildred Chittenden, helpless and unaware of the approaching menace.

The Shadow leaped forward, intent on reaching the girl before the python grasped her. Shots from the automatic would have been in vain. The Shadow hurled his gun aside as he sprang to the rescue. The race was an unequal one. The long, uncoiling snake possessed the advantage. It was Koon Woon’s change of purpose that saved The Shadow’s effort from futility.

The python, when it spied the girl, withdrew its head to start a downward drive. Such snakes are living pile drivers. With its prey so helplessly close, Koon Woon was returning to deliver a mighty blow with his great head. The momentary interval enabled The Shadow to clear the ground. As Koon Woon struck downward with a long, terrific drive, the black-garbed rescuer seized the girl and threw her clear of the python’s crushing stroke.

The great snake head, with its forked tongue, turned in its forceful smash. The girl was out of danger; The Shadow’s form, moving clear, received a glancing blow. That stroke, delivered squarely, could have felled a huge beast. The Shadow staggered to one side, caught himself upon the smooth, matted turf, and sprang forward to escape the python’s looping coils.

The Shadow was Koon Woon’s quarry now. The head, with its beady eyes, twisted back toward the man who had eluded it. The long, twisting body, forming a widespread curve, rounded the indomitable fighter in black, and began its fierce embrace.

STRIVING to clear himself of the snake’s mammoth body, The Shadow was lifted upward toward the trees. Mildred Chittenden screamed in horror as she saw her rescuer going to what seemed certain doom. Harvey, now witnessing the horror of the grove, knew that he could do naught to help.

The Shadow, who had conquered all human foes, was falling into the grip of a hideous reptile that possessed the strength of a score of men. But as he neared the boughs of the tree, he performed a superhuman feat. Locking one arm about the limb, The Shadow whirled his body free of the rising coils, and clung there.

Koon Woon was not to be so easily deprived of his prey. The huge body was twisting about the bough.

One threatening coil, closing with steady squirm, blocked off The Shadow’s possible fall. The head of Koon Woon, twisting from beneath, darted straight toward The Shadow, and the huge mouth of the monster opened.

The python’s stroke — the python’s grasp — both of these had been partially avoided by The Shadow.

Now he was facing the third and most formidable weapon that the great reptile possessed — its teeth.

When a python captures its prey between its jaws, there can be no escape. That is the hold which enables such a snake to hold its victim while the coils entangle themselves about the helpless body. Koon Woon had brought his enemy up to the tree. The quarry was escaping. Koon Woon was yawning to gain that sure grip with his mouth.

The Shadow was stretched along the bough. The instant that he had gained that hold, he had prepared for this attack. As Koon Woon’s head was swinging from the opposite side of the limb, The Shadow’s hand was coming from beneath the black cloak. Firm fingers gripped the round black object that Harvey Chittenden had seen The Shadow hold some time before.

As though to gorge his victim in one mighty gulp, Koon Woon unlimbered his great jaws. The peculiar hinged formation of the python’s mouth now displayed itself. The great cavity widened and spread in different directions — a sight that opened before The Shadow’s eyes.

A black-garbed arm swung straight toward the yawning terror. Into that mighty mouth, between those cavernous jaws, The Shadow hurled the object that he held — a hand grenade with gridded surface!

That weapon was no more than a tiny pill to Koon Woon; but no pill could have produced more dire results to the recipient. The fierce jaws came on; they were closing upon The Shadow’s form. Then, within the serpent’s neck came a terrific explosion!

The head of Koon Woon flopped downward as the neck broke apart, ripped with jagged tears. The helpless jaws were short of their mark. The great coils writhed on. The Shadow, rolling from his perch; was shaken toward the ground by the force of the exploding grenade. The whole tree trembled, and for once the beech leaves rustled.

Head-foremost, The Shadow crashed into the twisted, writhing body of Koon Woon, but that huge coil that acted from reflex action, sagged as the weight came upon it. Swinging free, The Shadow toppled to the ground, and sank into a huddled heap of black.

MILDRED CHITTENDEN, running from beneath the tree, had rushed straight into the arms of Harvey.

Her scream turned to a happy sob as she realized she had reached her husband. Together, they turned to see the finale of The Shadow’s battle.

The huddled form was moving. It rose and stepped away as the long, headless body of Koon Woon swept across the ground, and dangled with harmless twists.

The Shadow had triumphed over the monster from Penang. He had met the menace in the grove of doom. Craig Ware — son of Sidney Chittenden — was dead, his fiendish schemes brought to an end. No longer would Koon Woon, the temple python, lie waiting with his sinister slave, Lei Chang!

Weird death had been rampant in this grove since that foggy night when Craig Ware had masked himself amid the mist to receive the boxes that the Malays brought ashore. A man who had traveled everywhere, Ware had managed to arrange with Lei Chang to bring the terrible Koon Woon to America.

The showman’s cunning had been great. From the start, he had managed his insidious schemes with skill that carried suspicion from him. Even when The Shadow had learned that murder lay within this grove, Ware’s evil fortune had persisted long enough to bring doom to the three Chittendens from the hill.

Stealing through the grove at night, The Shadow had been forced to move so stealthily that not even the listening Lei Chang could hear him. He had evaded the instinctive watchfulness of Koon Woon, also. But in those visits to this weird spot, The Shadow had failed to find the menace that he sought.

His keen, unsurpassed skill in crime detection had told The Shadow who the master schemer was. But to have eliminated Craig Ware without destroying the menace of the grove would have been insufficient.

Carefully assembled data sent by Mann, The Shadow’s agent, had revealed the connection of Craig Ware to the family of Chittenden.

But only through his visit to Choy Lown had The Shadow gained the vital fact that he required — the identity of Koon Woon. Lei Chang had crooned that name. Brought to The Shadow’s ears, it produced the clue that had saved the lives of Harvey and Mildred Chittenden, and had brought death to Craig Ware, Lei Chang, and the mammoth python.

As the rescued man and wife gazed upon the weird ending of this strange drama, they knew that The Shadow had preserved them. Uninjured is his dynamic conflict with Koon Woon, the black-clad avenger now stood in the center of the grove. His long arm, sweeping onward, upraised and pointed beyond those who watched.

Harvey Chittenden understood the sign. He was to leave the grove of doom with Mildred. Together they turned their backs upon the bodies of the dead men and the snake. At the command of the living shadow, they walked slowly back toward Lower Beechview.

THROUGH the gloom echoed the reverberations of a long, weird laugh. That cry had brought terror to men of evil. To Harvey and Mildred, the laugh, chilling though it was, came as a mocking melody of retribution.

The laugh of The Shadow told of triumph. It seemed to dispel the terrible atmosphere of this strange grove as it rippled through the corridors of tree trunks. With the laugh still ringing in their ears, Harvey and Mildred came suddenly from the grove and sank, side by side, upon the green grass of the lawn.

They had come back into the world — the real world of cheer and happiness — into the midst of a clear summer day. All seemed new and wonderful. The sparkling waters of the Sound matched the azure of the sky above.

No longer would Lower Beechview be an abode of strife and misery. The evil fiend who had dwelt there as a friend was dead. The grove, gloomy and somber though it might still remain, would hold no terror now other than those fantastic thoughts that memory might create.

Harvey and Mildred looked toward the motionless, burnished trees. They breathed in relief, as they thought of the hideous, unseen menace that had lived among those thick-leafed branches.

Then to their ears came the faint ripples of a dying, distant laugh. The last echoes of The Shadow’s final triumph cry seemed to linger within the leaves of the unmoving boughs.

Koon Woon, the murderous python from the snake temple in Penang, had been destroyed through the mighty efforts of a valiant superman. No terror now remained.

The Shadow, alone, was master of the grove of doom!