Spark grinned. He could see the courtyard as a trap that would hold The Shadow. Suddenly, his grin soured.
“Who’s going to drop the gratings?” he queried. “That’s something to think about, chief.”
“The barriers will fall automatically,” replied Malfort. “Each passage is equipped with a photo-electric beam, closer to the courtyard than the grating which the beam controls. Once the beam is broken, the barrier will fall.”
“Those beams would show,” objected Spark. “They’d be a give-away.”
“Not the ones that Wardlock installed,” returned Malfort. “Did you ever hear of black light, Spark?”
The lieutenant shook his head. “Black light is a scientific development,” explained Malfort, in his confident pur, “that is admirably suited to the purpose under discussion. It produces a beam that is invisible in darkness.”
“Like The Shadow is?”
“Yes. Therefore, he will not discover the trap. Once he has passed the first barrier, it will drop behind him. Each passage that he approaches will be instantly blocked by another grating. The Shadow will be trapped. Confined to the courtyard, he will be exposed to gunfire from four directions.”
“I get it. I split my crew four ways. We barge in with Tommy guns. We give him the works.”
“If necessary, yes.” Malfort delivered an insidious smile. “Perhaps, Spark, you will find him already incapacitated. In that case, you can open one of the barriers from the outside and venture in to find The Shadow.”
“Who’s going to get him ahead of us?”
Malfort’s smile showed a devilish anticipation.
“Ku-Nuan will be at the lookout window,” he stated. “There will be no wooden post to block his knife when he decides to hurl it.”
Ku-Nuan expressed his appreciation with a snarly hiss. His lips were widened in a vicious grin. Spark, however, was stroking his underslung chin. The lieutenant was trying to find a flaw in the plans. Malfort’s malicious face showed approval of the fact that Spark was calculating all chances.
“Good enough,” decided Spark, “if The Shadow falls for it. But suppose he don’t? Why should he, anyway? What’s going to bring him into the square box?”
“Tomorrow afternoon,” stated Malfort, in a tone of prophecy, “Ku-Nuan will pay a visit to Chinatown.”
Spark gaped; then asserted: “Say, chief, that will queer everything! The chinks are out to spot Ku-Nuan. They’ll trail him and pass the word to The Shadow. You said yourself that he’s got some hook-up down in Chinatown.”
“That is the very reason why Ku-Nuan will go there.”
Spark’s eyes showed that understanding had dawned.
“I think I get you, chief,” declared the lieutenant. “Ku-Nuan will head for the trap. The chinks will see him slide into the courtyard. They’ll take a squint at the other passages. But they’ll be watching for Ku-Nuan to come out.”
“Ku-Nuan will not come out,” stated Malfort. “He will hurry through one passage. Near the street, he will enter a side door that leads into the old pawnshop. He will bar that door behind him; he will go up to his lookout post. The Chinese will stay on watch outside the courtyard.”
“Until The Shadow comes?”
“Certainly. That will be after dark. Meanwhile, Ku-Nuan will swing the switch that controls the four beams.”
Spark pondered, seeking a final flaw.
“Suppose The Shadow goes after the door to the hock shop,” he remarked. “That might queer the whole game, chief.”
“The door is sheathed with steel,” stated Malfort. “The Shadow will investigate the courtyard before he attempts to crack that door. Remember the Chinese will pass through the courtyard unmolested, because Ku-Nuan will not swing the switch until after they are gone.”
“And since the chinks get away with it,” approved Spark, “The Shadow won’t mind taking a Brodie. Say, chief, you’ve got it doped out perfect! There’d be a lot of big-shots still alive if somebody had thought up this gag a few years ago.
“I’ll have to use the whole crew, though. No use taking chances with The Shadow, even if he’s bagged. He’ll drop some of my gorillas before we get him. You said fifteen to one; I’ll make it twenty to one.”
Malfort considered. Wardlock spoke, to voice an objection.
“There’ll be no one at the Maribar Hotel,” reminded the secretary, “except Barthow and those inside. Suppose Furbish comes there while Spark and his crew are not available? How can he be handled? Barthow and the inside men can not risk making a commotion at the Maribar.”
“Spark can post one man at a telephone near the trap,” explained Malfort. “Barthow can call there, if Furbish appears. Spark and his outfit can get back to the Maribar in less than fifteen minutes. If Furbish calls on Rowden, he will doubtless remain longer than a quarter hour. Our plans remain the same, so far as Furbish is concerned.”
WITH a wave of his hand, Malfort dismissed the conference. As his companions departed from the room, the master crook warmed his hands before the open fire and chuckled his evil elation. Despite the thoroughness of his schemes for murder, Malfort had encountered opposition from The Shadow; that fact, however, did not disturb this genius of evil.
Long since, Malfort had designed his trap in case The Shadow should prove a threat against his game. The trap was ready – with Ku-Nuan as the bait. The Mongol, moreover, would see that the trap was set.
After tomorrow evening, Malfort was convinced, there would be no more trouble from The Shadow.
CHAPTER X – INTO THE SNARE
“EACH side of the square is a wall. The openings are passages.”
Almost word for word, the statement was Malfort’s; the diagram that a pointing finger indicated was identical with the one that the supercrook had drawn.
The speaker, however, was not Malfort; nor was the pointing hand his. The slow, careful words were delivered by Yat Soon; the finger that touched the lines of the square belonged to the distinguished Chinese arbiter.
Yat Soon was in his reception room. Opposite him, cloaked in black, sat The Shadow. Hours had passed since Malfort had discussed his plans. It was late the next afternoon.
“At four o’clock today,” declared Yat Soon, solemnly, “Ku-Nuan was seen in Chinatown. That is why I dispatched my request that you come here. Meanwhile, my men followed Ku-Nuan and brought back word of his whereabouts.”
Yat Soon made a penciled mark – an arrow that indicated the chief entrance of the trap.
“This was where Ku-Nuan went. He did not reappear. My men found the other passages. They entered the courtyard. There was no sign of Ku-Nuan.
“It is possible that he slipped swiftly away. But it is more probable, Ying Ko, that he came through the far passage and stopped by a door near its outlet. Had he entered that door and barred it after him, he could be within the house that has a window on its second floor.”
Yat Soon indicated the far wall of the trap. He unfolded a sheet of rice paper that bore characters in Chinese and passed it to The Shadow, who read the legend as easily as if it had been in English.
The text was a description given by one of Yat Soon’s competent men. It told of three blank walls within the courtyard; also of a fourth, with solid shuttered windows on its ground floor, an unbarred window on the second.