The Wealth Seeker

CHAPTER XIV. OUT OF THE NIGHT

HARRY VINCENT was still in the passage when he witnessed Bartlett Okum’s plight. The man who had covered the old secretary was Rabbit Gorton. Harry did not know the gang leader, but he recognized at once that he was an invader from the underworld.

Seeing the mobsters at Rabbit’s heels, Harry boldly yanked his revolver from his pocket. He caught the wicked leer on Rabbit Gorton’s face. In an effort to save the secretary’s life, as well as to repel this embryo invasion, Harry sprang into the strong-room, aiming at Rabbit Gorton as he came.

Simultaneously with a cry from the gangsters at the door, Rabbit wheeled toward Harry. The gang leader’s gun swung from Okum’s body to meet the new enemy. At the same time, Rabbit ducked behind Okum to gain cover.

Harry fired. His shot whizzed past Rabbit’s shoulder.

The gang leader replied with a wild bullet. Harry, backing toward the passage, fired two quick shots at the first of the mobsmen who were entering. One gangster dropped wounded. The other snarled as he fired at The Shadow’s agent. Harry’s dive for safety was just in time.

Okum must be saved. The secretary had cowered across the room. Harry, dropping low, loosed shots at random, hoping to repel the attack. His target was the doorway; the gangsters, scrambling into the strong-room, scattered for corners.

Harry heard a triumphant snarl; turning his eyes, he saw Rabbit Gorton taking new aim. Hurriedly, Harry swung his revolver and fired a quick but lucky shot. The bullet struck Rabbit in the left arm; the gang leader wavered.

In his desperate situation, Harry knew that his one hope lay in dropping this crook who led the invading crew. That could be the only stroke which might succeed. Grimly, The Shadow’s agent pressed the trigger as he aimed the revolver straight toward Rabbit Gorton. A click responded. Harry’s gun was empty.

A fiendish snarl came from Rabbit Gorton. Savagely, the gang leader cried a command to his pals. As the mobsters surged forward, Rabbit, steadying, aimed for Harry Vincent. With nothing but the passage behind him, Harry could not escape the shot.

Trapped, The Shadow’s agent made his last valiant effort. He flung his revolver squarely at his enemy. As the gun sailed past his ear, Rabbit, laughing gloatingly, pressed his finger to the trigger of his own revolver.

THE fatal shot was almost on its way; yet it was destined never to leave the muzzle of Rabbit Gorton’s gun. A huge, roaring report sounded from the outer door of the strong-room. Rabbit Gorton, a wild scream sounding from his lips, let his revolver fall to the floor. Blood spurted from his right hand as the gang leader doubled in agony.

The sight of their stricken leader caused the mobsters to turn to the outer door. As they did, they heard the strident tone of a weird laugh that burst through the shot-echoing room. There, before them, stood a figure which they knew.

The Shadow, garbed in black cloak and slouch hat, had shot the revolver from Rabbit’s hand. The master avenger had arrived in time. Lurking outside until the mob had entered, it was his turn to bring aid to those within.

The smoking automatic in The Shadow’s left hand was proof of his skill at single aim. As Rabbit’s mobsmen started to bring up their revolvers, both The Shadow’s automatics barked. Two gangsters fell; the others sprawled for spots of safety, seeking to avoid this grim battler whom all the underworld feared.

Harry Vincent, now safe in the passage, had heard The Shadow’s laugh and its attendant shots. Rabbit Gorton’s small mob, even though it was hand-picked, could not stand the fury of The Shadow. The gangsters had turned yellow when they had seen their leader fall.

There were five in all. Two were down. Of the other three, only one made an attempt to defy The Shadow’s wrath. The lone mobsman sprang to the passage where Harry Vincent was located. He whirled to fire at the black-garbed being who dominated the scene.

With a laugh rippling from his hidden lips, The Shadow pressed the trigger of an automatic. The defiant mobster’s whirl ended in a crazy twist. Gasping, the gunman crumpled to the floor. His revolver clattered to the feet of Bartlett Okum.

Nervously, the secretary stooped to pick up the weapon, while Harry Vincent cried to him to aid. Then some one came pounding into the passage in back of Harry. It was Folsom Satruff. The millionaire had arrived, with gun in hand. The sound of shots had brought him hither.

Seeing Okum, hearing encouragement from Harry, Satruff sprang into the strong-room. He and Okum covered the two remaining mobsters. Harry Vincent crowded in to join the pair. Harry’s first action was to gaze toward the outer door. No one was there.

His work done, The Shadow had departed. From the night he had come; into the night he had returned.

No sign of his presence remained; not even the dying echo of a sinister laugh remained as token of the work that he had done.

HARRY VINCENT picked up a revolver from the floor. He joined Satruff and Okum by the door, to aide them in covering the two cowed mobsters, who had dropped their own weapons and were standing sullenly in the corner.

Suddenly, Harry’s gaze turned toward Rabbit Gorton. The gang leader, with effort, had risen to his knees. His face was challenging as he glared toward the three men who had spread out by the entrance to the passage.

“You think I’m through!” Rabbit spat the challenge. “Through— because I’ve been double-crossed. I know who got me. The Shadow. I came here to be the goat — although I didn’t know it. The Shadow — he got in the game. I know who played me for a sucker. I’m going to talk—”

A hiss came from close behind Harry. Turning, The Shadow’s agent saw Doctor Wesley Harlow. The physician had come in through the front door. He had stopped at the door of the passage. As Rabbit Gorton tried to raise his weakened left arm, clutching the revolver which he had dropped, but had now recovered, Harlow sprang forward toward the gang leader with a shout of anger.

For a moment Harry had been perplexed by Rabbit’s words; he had wondered if the gang leader had been addressing any one in particular. That was before Harry had seen Harlow; now Harry figured at once that Rabbit had snarled at the physician.

Doctor Harlow had no gun. He precipitated himself upon the wounded gang leader. Rabbit’s gun jabbed into the physician’s ribs; but as the two sprawled on the floor, the gang leader seemed to lose the strength that he required.

Rabbit recoiled as Harlow dealt him a glancing blow to the jaw. Then, lying prone, he managed to turn his revolver toward his attacker, as his snarling lips fumed a repetition of the challenge.

“I’ll fix you” — Rabbit’s eyes were glaring as his finger tried to press the revolver’s trigger — “I’ll fix you—”

Harlow’s life was momentarily at stake. The physician shot a hand forward to grab Rabbit’s gun. As Harry leaped to one side to cover the prostrate gang leader, Okum uttered a nervous cry and fired his revolver.

The old secretary was in a perfect position to aim at Rabbit. His shaking hand steadied as he loosed the shot. With wild elation, the secretary repeated. Okum fired a third time; a fourth. Rabbit Gorton’s head dropped. The revolver fell from listless fingers. Doctor Harlow, rising, was shakily stepping aside. Okum had riddled Rabbit, the gang leader was dead.

“Hold steady.” The order came from Folsom Satruff, who was watching the two mobsters in the corner.

“Make sure he’s dead, Harlow. You should have taken the gun from him. Then Okum could have kept him covered.”

Then, with a gesture of his free hand, the cool millionaire beckoned to Harry Vincent.

“Take my place, Vincent,” was his order. “You stay here, Harlow— you, too, Okum. I’m going to call the police at once.”

Harry Vincent came on guard. With Rabbit Gorton’s dead form at his feet; with three moaning gangsters lying in the room; with two men at his mercy, The Shadow’s agent was alert and steady. Yet through Harry’s brain passed quick, changing thoughts, as the young man tried to place all the events that had taken place in this hectic fray.

Okum covered; then the battle; Satruff’s arrival; the challenge of the dead gang leader which had driven Harlow to a fury as the physician had appeared — these were details which Harry intended to remember.

But dominating all, was that sound of a strident, uncanny laugh, which still echoed in Harry’s brain. That laugh had marked the complete frustration of crime. Backed with the barks of The Shadow’s automatics, it had given gangsters warning that their evil could not prevail.

The Shadow had come and gone; in his wake lay five helpless mobsters with their chieftain dead!