Harry Vincent and Malbray Woodruff were on their way to the home of Professor Kirby Sheldon. They traced their path to the road, and set out on the short journey, conversing quietly as they strode along. The moment that they had passed, the phantom shape in black detached itself from Woodruff’s cottage and followed, less than ten feet behind.
Despite his natural watchfulness, Harry Vincent had not the slightest inkling that he and his companion were being followed. The Shadow was a master of silence and obscurity — even when his own agents were involved.
Harry and Woodruff were talking in low tones as they passed the cottage where Elbert Cordes lived. Their discourse pertained to Professor Sheldon, and in that short journey, the silent listener behind them learned their purpose.
Thus The Shadow knew that Harry Vincent had taken up his abode with Malbray Woodruff; and that the latter was on friendly terms with Kirby Sheldon. Furthermore, a chance reference by Woodruff gave the clew that the artist had no acquaintance with the man who lived in the center cottage — Elbert Cordes.
AS Harry and Woodruff reached the door of Sheldon’s cottage, The Shadow was no longer following them. His course had turned; he was moving parallel with the young men. His objective was a window alongside the door. There, unseen, he crouched and watched the visitors enter after some one responded to their knock.
The windowpane showed a thin streak of light at the bottom of the drawn shade. Blackened fingers raised and slowly forced the sash upward. The hands of The Shadow lifted the lower edge of the sash. When this imperceptible movement was completed, sharp eyes peered into the room. Those eyes saw Harry Vincent and Malbray Woodruff shaking hands with a kindly old gentleman — Professor Kirby Sheldon.
Minutes passed, and still the peering eyes kept up the vigil. Then, the shape outside the window was gone. The Shadow was moving elsewhere in the darkness.
His next destination was the abode of Elbert Cordes. There, as at Sheldon’s, the silent visitant peered into the main room on the ground floor.
Here, the sight was different. Standing at the door of the dimly lighted room, a sharp-faced, stoop-shouldered man was watching through a tiny crack, gazing out toward the home of Professor Sheldon. This was Elbert Cordes, evidently aware that his neighbor, Malbray Woodruff, was paying a visit to his other neighbor, Professor Sheldon.
Behind Cordes stood a stocky man whose face showed no trace of interest or curiosity. He was obviously a servant, there to heed his master’s bidding.
The Shadow, in overhearing Woodruff’s remarks to Harry, had learned the names of both parties — Sheldon and Cordes. In this short tour of inspection, The Shadow had discovered that while Sheldon was friendly to his artist neighbor, Cordes was suspicious.
Watching closely, The Shadow’s keen eyes saw a motion upon the lips of Elbert Cordes. The old man was speaking to his servant. The door shut, and Elbert Cordes paced the room, silent and morose.
The Shadow’s watch ceased. A short while later, the black-clad figure came to light — when it appeared within Malbray Woodruff’s cottage. This house was unoccupied, as both Woodruff and Harry Vincent were now at Professor Sheldon’s.
Like a spectral being, The Shadow passed from room to room, inspecting Woodruff’s home. Ten minutes later, the tall form made its exit through the doorway and merged with the night.
IT was an hour afterward when the motor of the parked coupe purred softly in response to pressure on the starter. The car backed into the road, and turned toward the depot settlement. It waited there while The Shadow moved across the sandy spot where the car had been standing.
When the invisible driver was again at the wheel, every trace of the coupe’s wheel marks had been obliterated.
The lights of the trim car came on as the machine rolled through the little settlement. The motor thrummed as the coupe increased its speed. Through the mild night air of the widening Point came a soft, weird laugh, uttered by hidden lips above the wheel.
The Shadow had come to East Point. Unseen, unheralded, he had observed his agent, and had also studied the persons with whom Harry Vincent would be concerned during the days to come.
Had The Shadow learned vital facts tonight? Had he linked any one at Fast Point with the events of hidden crime?
The questions remained unanswered. Only the laugh of The Shadow had significance.
That weird mirth carried a presaging tone. It indicated that The Shadow had verified his assumptions. His choice of East Point as a zone of crime was more than mere conjecture.
With Harry Vincent established, The Shadow, through his agent, could feel the pulse throbs of forthcoming events. For once, The Shadow was engaged in a waiting game. When the time for action should arrive, The Shadow would be ready.
In the meantime, those who lived at East Point — whether engaged in plotting or in innocent tasks — would remain in total ignorance of The Shadow’s visit.
Silently, like a phantom from an unseen sphere, The Shadow had come and gone; and his weird tones of mirth, uttered at a spot miles distant, were the only evidence of his secret journey.
CHAPTER VI
HARRY BECOMES SUSPICIOUS
DURING the days that followed, Harry Vincent accomplished two thirds of the triple task that he had placed upon himself. In that period, he gained definite information concerning two persons who lived on East Point; namely, Malbray Woodruff and Professor Kirby Sheldon.
But of the third — Elbert Cordes — Harry could learn virtually nothing, even though he heard the man discussed by both Woodruff and the professor.
Malbray Woodruff had taken Harry to Professor Kirby Sheldon’s on that first night at East Point. There, Harry had discovered the professor to be a very estimable gentleman, who had made the new visitor quite welcome in his home.
The result had been a second invitation to Sheldon’s abode on the following night — and another on the third night. Through these friendly visits, Harry had improved his friendship with both Woodruff and Sheldon.
So far as Harry could determine, Malbray Woodruff was exactly what he purported to be — a dreamy artist who loved solitude, and who enjoyed to portray, by sketches and painting, the scenes that were typical of the East Point region. Woodruff’s work was quite good. He spent most of his time sketching about the house or painting by the beach.
There were only two factors that caused Harry to reserve final opinions on the man — and both of these were matters which Harry mentioned in his first report to The Shadow.
First, Woodruff was eccentric, spending certain periods in dreamy thought; second, the artist had a small rowboat on the beach, with which he made occasional trips about the bay, seeking new scenes. Since Harry’s arrival, Woodruff had not, however, left the Point.
As for Professor Sheldon, there Harry found a man of high intellectuality. The professor’s cottage was equipped with many curiosities that he had assembled during his several visits to distant spots of the world.
His one great theme was his work — the study of social conditions. Time and again, he would come back to that subject; always to dismiss it with a bland smile.
“I must not lecture while at home,” Harry recalled hearing the professor say, “nevertheless—”
Thereupon, Professor Kirby Sheldon had drifted into an enthusiastic oration upon the possibilities of a perfect social state, one profiting by the advantages of modern civilization, yet rejecting all factors that might retard development.
“Utopia” — so Sheldon had declared — “is quite possible. Sir Thomas More’s imaginary isle, where people dwelt in perfect harmony, could be attained today.”
The tall, dignified old man had seemed pleased with Harry’s agreement to this theme; but he had frowned when Malbray Woodruff had suggested that East Point suited him as a Utopia.