The Ribbon Clues

CHAPTER IV. THE SHADOW’S FIND

EVIL was the gloating chuckle that came from the curtains of Luther Ralgood’s living room. The extinguishing of the solitary lamp seemed to the murderer’s liking. A flashlight blinked from the curtains; its intermittent flashes were proof that the slayer preferred to work in darkness.

A few quick blinks sufficed to show that Ralgood and Basslett were both dead. Small wonder, for the killer had used three bullets on each, at a range so close that one slug would have been sufficient in either case.

Satisfied on that point, the killer turned the flashlight on the ribbon that lay against the rug. His chuckle sounded as he saw the letters ES. His free hand plucked the ribbon from the light.

Darkness followed; then the flashlight shone on an old-fashioned desk in the corner. Here the murderer began to look through pigeonholes; his search was rapid until he reached a drawer beneath the desk.

There the flashlight showed an old-fashioned revolver; one that belonged to Luther Ralgood.

With one hand, the murderer cracked open the weapon. The gun was fully loaded; of obsolete pattern, it had five chambers and even the cartridges were of an antiquated sort.

Apparently, Luther Ralgood had kept this revolver for years, merely as an item of protection in case of burglary. Beside the revolver was a time-stained cardboard box that bore the imprint of a small-arms manufacturer, the maker of the cartridges that the revolver contained.

The killer shook the box, then opened it to see two dozen extra cartridges within. He closed the box and replaced it in the drawer; but he kept Ralgood’s loaded revolver.

Eliminating the flashlight, the slayer picked his course across the room. He was making for the rear of the house. He came finally to a back door. Opening it, the murderer departed, closing the door behind him.

The street in back of Ralgood’s was a place of total darkness. It was scarcely more than an alleyway that came to a dead end against the high brick wall of a playground that fronted on the river.

There were no lights in this cul-de-sac, for the building on the opposite side was an abandoned brewery.

With Talleyrand Court practically untenanted, street lamps had not yet been installed in the blind alley.

HALF a dozen minutes passed. At last came an almost inaudible noise within the very depths of the little alleyway. Something had swished in darkness.

The Shadow had arrived at number twenty-eight. His first inspection had been made at the front of Talleyrand Court. Because of the light over Luther Ralgood’s front door, The Shadow had circled to the rear.

Not even a glistening rear window served as indicator. The Shadow had picked his location by a process of measurement.

Feeling through the darkness, he arrived at steps and gained the door above them. He tried the knob; the door opened. The Shadow stepped into the darkness of Luther Ralgood’s residence.

The Shadow crept forward to the front of the house. Hearing no sign of activity, he blinked his tiny flashlight as he began a rearward course. This time he detoured from the hall and entered the first room that he encountered. His light glimmered upon the prone form of Luther Ralgood.

A solemn laugh came from hidden lips. It bore no tone of mirth. It was The Shadow’s voiced recognition of the fact that he had arrived too late to stop crime. His flashlight showed Basslett’s body by the overturned table. Stooping by the corpses of the murdered men, The Shadow began his reconstruction of the scene.

IT was evident to The Shadow that the slaughter had commenced with a surprise attack. Luther Ralgood, shot in the back, sprawled face foremost away from the telltale curtain to the other room. That was sufficient to tell The Shadow that the elderly man had been struck down from ambush.

Basslett, it followed, had taken up Ralgood’s cause. To first appearance, it seemed that the secretary had played a simple part of loyalty. But The Shadow’s analysis carried to greater depths. His study of Basslett’s body caused him to go back to Ralgood’s. Carefully raising the gray-haired man’s body, The Shadow used one hand to play the flashlight on Ralgood’s vest.

There had been a struggle in which both had engaged. Luther Ralgood’s vest had been torn half open; Basslett’s rumpled coat, torn shirt and collar made it plain that the secretary had battled hand-to-hand with some adversary.

Moreover, the revolver, still held loosely by Basslett’s dead fingers, was evidence that the secretary had been armed at the outset.

Simple elimination told The Shadow that the two could not have struggled in common cause. It was difficult to picture a fight with an ambushed enemy which had resulted in one man being shot in the back while the other found no opportunity to even fire his revolver.

The Shadow laughed grimly; he had discerned the truth. The first combat had been between Ralgood and Basslett. The unlocked back door was proof that the secretary had treacherously allowed the slayer to enter.

Seeking further evidence to support his theory, The Shadow gleamed his flashlight about the room. He noted the desk; the drawer was slightly opened. The Shadow went to it, opened the drawer and discovered the box of cartridges.

Close examination showed a space of whiteness upon the side of the box, below the grimy lid. The box had not been clamped shut. Someone had opened it, studied the contents and closed the box again.

The cartridges interested The Shadow. After closing the box and shutting the drawer, he returned to examine Basslett’s revolver. The cartridges in that weapon did not match those in the desk. They were of modern manufacture and of different caliber than those that The Shadow had seen in the box.

A revolver had been taken from the desk. Ralgood’s revolver; and it had gone with the murderer. Had Ralgood used the weapon at all tonight?

The Shadow’s laugh had an oddly negative tone. If both Ralgood and Basslett had been armed; they would have fought it out with guns. It was the murderer who had found Ralgood’s revolver in the desk and taken it.

The Shadow’s flashlight glimmered on the floor. The cloaked investigator was searching for some bit of forgotten evidence; any shred that might add a further clue. For The Shadow knew that murder had not been the primary objective.

Luther Ralgood could have been disposed of in a more quiet fashion by a killer who had a traitor set to aid him. The slayer had come here to gain some object of value; something more important than Ralgood’s revolver.

IN his present quest, The Shadow encountered barren results. The murderer had not only removed the piece of blue silk ribbon; he had also been wise enough to take along the letter which Milton Callard had sent to Ralgood, some months ago.

That letter had been dropped by Basslett; it had lain on the floor, as conspicuous to the murderer as the ribbon. Both articles were gone.

Failing in this search, The Shadow went to the desk. With gloved hands, he removed papers from pigeonholes. He saw at once that the killer had made a similar search, for the various documents were in disarray. Unfortunately, however, there were no signs of fingerprints.

In a group of letters, The Shadow uncovered an envelope that bore a Chinese stamp and postmark. He withdrew the letter from the envelope and read it by the light of his little torch.

The letter was from Dave Callard; it told Luther Ralgood that the young man would arrive aboard the Steamship Tamalpais and would visit him soon after disembarking in New York. This was the letter that Ralgood had mentioned to Basslett.

Here was the link with facts that The Shadow already knew. Dave Callard had started for Talleyrand Place but had changed destination when he had spied Moe Shrevnitz’s cab upon his trail. Dave had held a brief interview with Leng Doy; The Shadow’s intrusion had terminated that conference.

But Dave had gained an advantage over The Shadow. The fight in the passage at the Wuhu Cafe; the delay that The Shadow had experienced in making his escape through the secret panel — these had allowed Callard a quarter hour leeway. Time enough to have come here, murdered two men, gathered trophies and departed.

Haste alone could account for Callard passing by this letter in his rapid search of Ralgood’s desk. In his gloved hand, The Shadow held the all-important clues that would govern the law’s search for a missing murderer.

The question that concerned The Shadow at this moment was one of choice. Should he continue the search alone? Or should he, in a sense, invite the law to participate in the same quest?

The Shadow’s decision was an action. Carefully, he replaced the letter from China with the others in the desk. Extinguishing his flashlight, he moved through darkened rooms and departed by the back door, leaving it unlocked behind him.

A FINAL laugh crept softly through the darkness of the alleyway as The Shadow glided away from the neighborhood of Talleyrand Court. Though a murderer had eluded his grasp, The Shadow was confident that he could trace the criminal’s course. The Shadow’s ways and means were many.

Even though he had been unable to learn the nature of the spoils that had been taken from Ralgood’s; though he had no actual proof that any object had been removed, The Shadow had learned enough to know that he was dealing with a man who would stop at no crime. The Shadow’s task was to trail a supercrook whose schemes held depth.