The Living Joss

CHAPTER XIV. THE SHADOW LEARNS

THE bright lights of Broadway were aglow. It was early evening in Manhattan, and the dancing glare of Times Square was luring pleasure-seekers. At Forty-seventh and Broadway, a barker was crying forth the advantages of a trip to Chinatown.

Hugo Urvin, nattily dressed and sporting a new cane, lingered beside the filling bus. He drew a half dollar from his vest pocket, and tendered it to the barker. He received a ticket and stepped aboard the bus.

A few minutes later, another customer approached the barker, and also paid a half dollar. This man was a tall, calm-faced individual, who appeared quite inconspicuous despite the keenness of his hawklike features. He entered the sightseeing bus, and took a seat in back of Hugo Urvin.

The Shadow was on the trail of his quarry. He had picked up Urvin’s course outside of the apartment house where the young man lived. Already, he had discovered the simple but ingenious way in which Urvin paid his secret visits to the Chinese district.

Had Urvin been one of those New Yorkers who make their Chinatown trips as individual excursions, The Shadow would long since have learned his identity. The master of detection had spent long periods of observation in the streets of Chinatown.

But as a sightseer on a bus — one of those many visitors to Manhattan who nightly go in herds to see the Chinese district — that policy had enabled Hugo Urvin to conceal his visits to the shrine controlled by Chon Look.

The big bus rolled down Broadway. Half an hour later, it stopped on a dingy thoroughfare, and the guide ordered the passengers to alight. The group moved along, most persons herding close to their fellows, anticipating adventure.

The sight of uniformed policemen patrolling this district as a regular beat did not dispel the enthusiasm of the crowd. The guide’s build-up of the lurking dangers to be found in Chinatown was sufficient to preserve the awe which these visitors had gained.

Ablaze with light, the corner of Mott and Pell glimmered ahead. Most of the sightseers were taking in the curious sights about them, when the guide turned his charges down the side alley toward the Buddhist shrine.

Two persons in the crowd followed with leisurely indifference. One was Hugo Urvin; the other was the hawk-faced man who watched him.

Unconscious of the eyes which took this interest in his affairs, Urvin swirled his cane and strolled through the doorway with the group of visitors.

CHON LOOK and the Chinese girls bowed solemnly when the crowd came in. With his singsong English, the keeper of the Buddhist shrine began to explain the purposes of prayer papers and wishing sticks. Hugo Urvin glanced curiously at the wishing sticks after Chon Look had laid them aside; but tonight the young man had no envelope.

This would have been a clew to the quiet individual, who was watching. Unfortunately, the clew was lacking. Nevertheless, The Shadow did not relax his vigil. The lecture terminated. The visitors departed, and, on the way, each received a wrapped package. Chon Look blandly handed one to Hugo Urvin; another to the calm-faced man who followed him.

The trip through Chinatown continued. At last, the visitors again reached the bus. But in that trip, the eyes of The Shadow had noted a significant fact. From the time that he had left the shrine governed by Chon Look, Hugo Urvin had displayed a marked impatience that he had been unable to conceal!

Forty-seventh and Broadway. The passengers alighted. Hugo Urvin entered the subway. The calm-faced man still followed him, but when the pair entered an uptown local, Hugo Urvin, glancing about, saw no one watching him.

His hand in the pocket of his overcoat, Urvin fumbled with the package that he held there. He knew that it contained funds; and he was anticipative of the reward that he was to find there.

Hugo Urvin smiled cunningly. He had served Kwa well!

Urvin’s apartment house was but a short distance from the subway station where the young man alighted.

Swinging his cane with his right hand, clutching the pocketed package with his left, Urvin walked quickly toward his destination.

There was one, however, who moved with greater swiftness. It was obvious, as soon as Urvin had left the subway train, that he intended to go back to his apartment. A tall man had gone up the stairs ahead of Urvin; on the side street, this individual had stepped into a parked coupe.

Scarcely had Urvin passed that car before a figure glided from the door. A shape of blackness, an outlined form garbed in flowing cloak and slouch hat, The Shadow had replaced the hawk-faced man who had trailed Urvin.

A blotch of darkness moved along the sidewalk on the other side of the street. It crossed a hundred feet ahead of Urvin. The man with the cane did not observe that phantom shape as it glided into the vestibule of the apartment house.

The lock of the inner door clicked. The mysterious personage entered the hallway. The door closed and locked three full seconds before Hugo Urvin made his appearance. There was no trace of the invisible phantom when Urvin crossed the hallway.

Up in the elevator; to his own apartment. Urvin opened the door and chuckled. He strode to a corner and lighted a table lamp. With eager hands, he removed the wrapping from the package. A crisp stack of rolled bills came into his grasp.

URVIN set a little green jade elephant upon the table beside the rice-paper wrappings. With a hearty chuckle, he counted the hundred-dollar bills. Twelve of them tonight — a suitable reward from Kwa, the Living Joss. Urvin crinkled the currency and shoved it deep into his pocket. He smiled in new satisfaction.

Then, with new anticipation, he picked up the wrapping paper. The layered sheet came between him and the light. Urvin looked at it with satisfaction. These messages from Kwa were clever. No one could possibly detect the faded writing that lay within.

Something moved from the darkness between Hugo Urvin’s back and the wall. The young man did not detect either sound or noise, for both were absent. In fact, no living form could possibly have been seen.

The motion seemed like a shift of massed gloom.

The one manifestation of a living personage was the presence of a pair of glowing eyes. Their gaze, like that of Hugo Urvin, was directed toward the sheet of wrapping paper. As Urvin carefully peeled the layers apart, the eyes of The Shadow saw the important action.

Urvin laid the blank portion upon the table. He studied the other sheet, and carefully read the instructions that appeared there. So engrossed was he that he did not sense the approach of a looming form that closed behind him like an enveloping blanket of darkness.

A strange scene! Hugo Urvin perusing the paper by the light of the lamp, with the living shroud above him — a shape which blotted out the penetrating rays of the lamp, and held the remainder of the room in sepulchral darkness.

Every word that Urvin read was seen by The Shadow also; yet the unmoving form of blackness never betrayed its presence.

As Urvin smiled in understanding of the new instructions, the shape behind him faded toward the wall.

The rice paper fluttered to the table.

Urvin, now sensing danger for the first time, swung on his heel and stared toward the darkness of a farther corner.

Had something moved there?

For a moment, Urvin fancied that he had detected a shift in the gloom. The table lamp did not provide sufficient light. Urvin turned toward the switch at the door of the room.

At that instant, the sheet of rice paper flared. Used though he was to this phenomenon, Urvin was momentarily startled. He had forgotten about Kwa’s message. Since the first one had taken care of itself, Urvin merely laid each succeeding one aside when he had finished reading it.

With a forced laugh, the young man went to the door of the room. But in that interval, in which his eyes had instinctively turned toward the burning message, a change had occurred in the darkened corner.

Gliding from the spot, The Shadow had gained the open door of another room. As Urvin pressed the light switch, the tall figure faded like a vanishing ghost. Urvin, looking to the corner, saw only the blank wall, plainly visible in the glare of the ceiling lights which the switch had illuminated.

Crumpling the useless section of the rice paper, Urvin threw it into a wastebasket. He placed the green jade elephant upon the bookcase, along with the three wise monkeys and other souvenirs of his visits to the Buddhist shrine in Chinatown.

THIS newest curio annoyed Urvin. He had a superstition that elephants were bad luck. His nerves seemed somewhat on edge.

There was a reason. Urvin knew well that he had definitely brought death to two men: Westley Hartnett and Blaine Goodall. It was not likely that he would ever be implicated in the murders; the work that he had done had required no drastic action.

Nevertheless, Urvin was squeamish. As a crook, he was of a petty class. Lack of real nerve — not the burden of a conscience — was the cause of Urvin’s worriment. Here, alone, the man began to feel ill at ease. He pulled the twelve hundred dollars from his pocket, then thrust it away again.

Kwa’s service paid well. It was too good to leave. There was no turning now. With another forced laugh, Urvin strode from his apartment. He wanted bright lights, fun at a night club, any form of artificial delight that would ease his mind.

For another task lay ahead — a new appointment in the service of Kwa. Like the others, it would be easy.

Urvin nerved himself with the thought that he would not have to act until tomorrow night.

After all, no one could know of his connection with Kwa! No one could know what the Living Joss now required.

In this thought, Hugo Urvin was mistaken. When the door of the apartment had closed behind him, the form of The Shadow emerged from the inner room. Urvin had left the table lamp gleaming. Near the illumination, The Shadow formed a weird shape that cast a long, sinister silhouette across the floor.

A whispered laugh shuddered from hidden lips. Uncanny mockery came in a triumphant tone. What Hugo Urvin knew, The Shadow knew. The next stroke planned by Kwa had been revealed to this sinister specter whose mighty arm was ready to strike down the evil foe.

Tomorrow night!

Another deed of crime was impending. Hugo Urvin was to play but a minor part. Others would be there to do the real evil. One of last night’s murderers — both, perhaps — would be called upon for another fiendish stroke.

This time, The Shadow was prepared. He was ready to thwart the schemes of Kwa. The Shadow had learned the cunning ways of Kwa.

The Shadow knew!