The Shadow's Shadow

CHAPTER XXI THE BIG GAME

IT was midnight when Felix Zubian and Douglas Carleton met again. This time they did not join each other in the Cobalt Club. Zubian had deemed it wise to decamp from there that afternoon. The conference of these plotting crooks took place in a room on the eighteenth floor of the Gargantuan Hotel.

Never before had the pair formed such a contrast. In the face of the disaster which had overtaken their last attempt to trap The Shadow, Douglas Carleton had become a nervous wreck. His hands were fidgeting; his eyes were blinking. Felix Zubian, on the contrary, was grimly determined.

It was natural, therefore, that Carleton should pour forth his worries to his companion. Zubian was silent while the clubman talked. He was thinking always, this crook of international repute, who had dared to term himself The Shadow’s shadow.

“We’re up against it, Zubian,” declared Carleton. “Up against it terribly. The Shadow has got our number. What can we do? We can’t get him — he’ll get us before we know it! The game is ended!”

“Why?” asked Zubian.

“How are we going to land the diamonds?” demanded Carleton. “They’re what we’re after. We can’t move while The Shadow is around; and we’ve just about reached the limit. I found that out to-night.”

“Ah!” exclaimed Zubian. “Something has occurred at Devaux’s?”

“Plenty,” declared Carleton. “Milbrook is growing tired of waiting. He wants Devaux to decide about his purchase by to-morrow night. If Devaux doesn’t buy, the diamonds will leave New York.”

“What does Devaux say?”

“He is still stalling. He won’t even look at the diamonds. Milbrook offered to bring them up to the house; Devaux told him to wait until he was ready to buy.”

“What else has happened?”

“Well” — Carleton spoke resentfully — “if Milbrook isn’t out of the picture mighty quick, it will be all off so far as my engagement to Virginia is concerned. She and Milbrook have evidently had a chance to see each other. They are madly in love. If he could be put out of the way—”

A smile crept over Felix Zubian’s face. Douglas Carleton stared without understanding.

“Carleton,” said Zubian, “we are not yet beaten. We have the stage all set — if we know how to use it. The sooner we act, the better. To-morrow night is the time. Do you think” — his smile broadened wickedly — “that you could persuade Stanford Devaux to look at those uncut diamonds to-morrow night, in his own home?”

“Sure, I could,” responded Carleton promptly.

“Can you reach him now?” questioned Zubian.

“Yes,” said Carleton.

“Call him, then,” declared Zubian. “Make the suggestion, very artfully.”

CARLETON went to the telephone. In few minutes he was speaking to Stanford Devaux. Felix Zubian listened intently to the conversation.

“Hello,” said Carleton, “this is Douglas… Yes. Glad I didn’t disturb you… I’m calling you about those — those articles that belong to Milbrook… Yes… Why wouldn’t it be a good idea to have him bring them up to the house to-morrow night? We can look at them then… Yes, I’ll be there… I’d like to see them, too… Good.”

Carleton hung up the receiver and turned to Zubian. The other man was watching him with a knowing smile, which Carleton did not detect.

“Devaux is calling Milbrook,” said Carleton. “He will make the arrangements. Now tell me what you propose to do?”

“Carleton,” said Zubian, still continuing to smile, “you are very, very clever. I have suspected it for a long while; I was not sure of it until now.”

“What do you mean?” demanded Carleton narrowly.

“Your engagement to Virginia Devaux,” smiled Zubian. “That is one factor. Another is your willingness to invest in the enterprises that we have planned. Furthermore, your remarkable ability to persuade Stanford Devaux to delay his diamond purchase until the proper time—”

Carleton’s face was changing. Zubian’s smile became extremely friendly.

“Don’t worry,” continued the suave Zubian. “I’ll keep what I know to myself. It is to our mutual advantage. It serves to increase my confidence in you.”

“I know what you’re thinking, Zubian,” admitted Carleton. “You’ve guessed it right. But keep it to yourself. It is not to be known — particularly by Gats or such others.”

“Why should I tell what I know?” questioned Zubian. “It is my own knowledge. Do not worry about your secret. Consider it still unknown. At the same time, it makes matters much simpler. To-morrow night, we will succeed despite The Shadow.”

“How?” questioned Carleton.

“The Shadow,” remarked Zubian, “is extremely clever — and amazingly capable. He has one failing, however. He cannot be in two places at once.”

“I grant that,” retorted Carleton, thinking that Zubian was joking, “but what does that have to do with us?”

“Much,” said Zubian decisively. “Whether or not The Shadow knows our game, he is at least aware that a valuable collection of uncut diamonds reposes in the massive safe of the United Diamond Syndicate. Therefore, he knows that certain men of crime might be interested in making an attack upon the syndicate office.”

“That is the trouble,” said Carleton.

“On the contrary,” corrected Zubian, “it is the very factor that will enable us to acquire the diamonds.”

“I do not understand,” protested Carleton.

“It is simple enough,” said Zubian, with a laugh. “To-morrow night, at half past nine, we will open a raid upon the syndicate office. We will send Gats Hackett and his men to blow the safe and to cut down all opposition, in a mad endeavor to obtain the diamonds.”

“But the diamonds will not be there,” objected Carleton. “They will be up at Devaux’s—”

“Of course,” interposed Zubian, “but who will know it? Do you suppose that Milbrook will advertise the fact that two million dollars’ worth of stones are at large?”

“Of course not,” said Carleton.

“That is to our advantage,” said Zubian, with his sordid smile. “You — I - Devaux — Milbrook — we are the only ones who will know. Therefore one other — The Shadow — will suppose, like Gats and his gang, that the diamonds are still in the safe!”

“I begin to see it now!” cried Carleton. “You mean that while the diamonds are at Devaux’s—”

“Exactly,” interrupted Zubian. “At the very time of the syndicate office attack — half past nine — masked men will enter and take the diamonds from Devaux’s home.”

“And The Shadow—”

“Will be at the syndicate office, battling with Gats. Another point to our advantage. Perhaps, this time, he will fail at last!”

Douglas Carleton could not restrain his enthusiasm. His worry and his nervousness ended, he leaped up and seized Felix Zubian’s hand. With glowing terms, he congratulated his shrewd companion.

“Give me credit after to-morrow night,” said Zubian, still smiling. “In the meantime, instruct Gats and Squint to make their attack. We have long had plans for it, but have kept them in abeyance. Incidentally, I shall need two or three men to help me. Let Squint pick them and arrange a meeting place.”

The two men walked to the door. Zubian watched Carleton leave the room on his new mission. Returning to his chair, Felix Zubian lighted a cigarette and smiled as he stared through the window to the twinkling lights that sparkled amid the glow of Manhattan.

Somewhere out there was The Shadow — a formidable foe, that spectral shape in black. But Felix Zubian was not worried. His plans were made.

To-morrow night, The Shadow would be outwitted by the strategy of the man who called himself The Shadow’s shadow.

To-morrow night would tell!