It was conceded that he must have shipped stolen goods away beforehand, and carried along the pelf from Grendale's when he made his own departure.
ALL this was the subject of a late afternoon discussion in Denwood's lodge. Esteemed by everyone in the colony, Denwood had been asked to act as chairman at a very important meeting.
Present were the victims of the recent robberies: Gillespie, Jamison, Albion, and Grendale. Paula Lodi was absent, but she was represented by her husband, Howard Carradon. He also belonged with another group: the three who had been rescued by The Shadow.
Harry Vincent and Niles Rundon were giving the same old testimony regarding their stay in the underground cell room. Carradon repeated it, too. They had seen the inside of crime, they all agreed, but so little of it that they could furnish no facts leading to the discovery of the stolen goods.
Talk turned to The Shadow. People wanted to know who he was, how he had accomplished so much.
No one seemed able to answer, not even Lamont Cranston, who had been invited to the meeting at Denwood's request.
All during the meeting, Cranston had been in the background, his face impassive, except when the buzz of the arriving taxi plane above the lake had reminded him of his own landing at Calada. Then, Cranston's lips had faintly smiled.
The meeting had thinned away to a total disappointment, when Grendale smacked the desk angrily.
"Here we are," he boomed, "the wealthiest men on the lake, all victims of Professor Scorpio. I'd pay anything to bring that rogue to justice! No one in this colony can put up more cash than I can, if we offer a reward."
The others looked annoyed by Grendale's boast. They looked to Denwood, who softened matters with a smile. Then, turning to Grendale, Denwood asked:
"Have you forgotten Percy Claremont?"
Mere mention of the name evoked Grendale's wrath.
"That doddering fool!" he stormed. "Old Claremont may be worth millions, but he didn't make his money with his brains. Why, he was right at the top on Scorpio's sucker list!"
The Shadow remembered Claremont's name. Scorpio's files had contained plenty of Claremont data, as Grendale stated. Though extremely wealthy, Claremont lived frugally when he came to Lake Calada; he owned a small bungalow that looked dwarfish on the huge lake property that it occupied.
Claremont had been in New York all during the Scorpio trouble. No one knew when he was coming back to Lake Calada. His visits were comparatively rare, and usually brief. If Denwood had not mentioned his name, to tactfully handle a troublesome situation, there would have been no thought of Claremont at all.
Others apparently agreed with Grendale's summary of Claremont, for they smiled. Grendale was about to expand his views of the doddering multimillionaire, when a servant knocked at the door. In answer to Denwood's summons, the servant announced a visitor:
"Mr. Claremont."
Surprised looks turned to smiles, as everyone realized that Claremont must have come in on the afternoon plane. Looking toward The Shadow, Harry saw a gleam of interest on the usually immobile features of Cranston.
Harry knew that his chief had intended to take up new angles of the Scorpio matter, after all others had finished their say. But with Claremont's arrival, The Shadow decided to wait.
WHEN he entered, Percy Claremont fulfilled Grendale's description to a nicety. He did, in fact, look doddering. He was withery, to his sharp-jawed, tiny-eyed face. His dryish lips were twitchy; his bald head glistened like polished marble, above thin streaks of grayish hair. His tiny eyes were sharp, as they peered through large-rimmed glasses.
Claremont was stoop-shouldered; he hobbled in upon a stout cane that, in comparison, made his bowed figure look frail. But he was alert and active, as he proved from the moment of his entry.
Planking a small, wrapped package on Denwood's desk, Claremont grimaced at the group, then demanded in cackling tone:
"What's this I hear about Professor Scorpio? Why have you driven him away? Show me the men who hounded him. By gad!"-he supported himself against the desk, in order to wave his heavy cane-"I'll crack their heads for them!"
"No one has hounded Scorpio," assured Denwood, quietly. "If you had been here, Claremont, you would agree with us that Scorpio is a rascal who deserves all the punishment that the law can possibly give him."
Claremont gave Denwood a scoffing look, as though he pitied him. Again leaning upon his cane, the withery man pointed his other hand upward, extending a bony forefinger. His tiny eyes glittered.
"My star is in the ascendant," he declared. "This is the day that I have long awaited-when Professor Scorpio has promised to reveal the future that still awaits me! Only upon this evening can I learn the answer that lies in the heavens."
Side glancing toward Cranston, Denwood caught a nod. Mildly, Denwood questioned:
"Do you expect Scorpio to visit you tonight?"
"I do," snapped Claremont, "and this talk of thievery is tommyrot! Scorpio did not have to steal. He knows that I keep my promises. I told him that in return for his all-important message, I would give him-this!"
His bony hands ripping the package, Claremont displayed a sheaf of bank notes. The top bill was of a thousand-dollar denomination. So were the rest, as Claremont counted them, chuckling each time he moistened his thumb.
There were exactly two hundred and fifty bills in that stack of thousand-dollar notes. Percy Claremont, the eccentric millionaire, had brought a quarter of a million dollars to Lake Calada as a personal gift to Professor Scorpio!
BEFORE the glued eyes of silent witnesses, Claremont bundled up the cash again and tucked the packet under his arm. He hobbled to the door; as he gripped the knob, he turned to wag his cane.
"Like the stars," he clucked, "Scorpio will not fail me. But I have a warning for every one of you to heed.
My property is my own. I shall brook no trespass. I say again that Scorpio had too much at stake"-he gestured the money bundle beneath his arm-"to turn to criminal pursuits."
"I have given you proof of Scorpio's honesty. I expect to have you prove your own, by staying away-all of you-from my preserves. Good day, gentlemen"-Claremont's tone was dryly sarcastic, as he pronounced the term-"and if you can not solve your present problems, I advise you to consult the stars!"
The door closed on Claremont's trailing crackle. Seated in silence, the group heard the front door slam.
They were still quiet, when the sput-sput of a motor sounded from Denwood's dock. The brief visit of Percy Claremont, the man who still believed in Professor Scorpio, had left them doubting their own senses.
Only the steady eyes of Cranston seemed to understand, as The Shadow studied the baffled faces all about him.
CHAPTER XVII. OUTSIDE THE LAW.
SEEING was believing.
Perhaps the rule did not apply in the case of Scorpio's séances, for they were held in darkness; but it certainly held true with Percy Claremont and his money.
Here, in Denwood's study, were more than a half a dozen men who could testify on oath that the eccentric millionaire had brought two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Lake Calada. Claremont's statement that the money was for Scorpio, might be outlandish, but no more so than the fact that he had brought the cash itself.
Granting the situation to be precisely as Claremont had put it, the committee proceeded to debate an important point; namely, Claremont's argument that Scorpio would not have turned crook when he knew that he could gain a quarter of a million dollars without recourse to crime.
It was Grendale who talked first. He tried to laugh off the matter of the money, insisting that Scorpio had made a bigger haul through crime than he could otherwise. But Jamison, Albion, and the other victims of the robberies shook their heads.