Unable to wedge his stocky form through the narrow opening, Cardona decided to go out by the front way - a wise choice, considering that the fugitive car was no longer in the rear street.
Downstairs, Cardona found police cars and sprang into one, ordering a rapid chase.
Meanwhile, The Shadow had reached the rear corner, where he paused only to pick a darkened course across the side street to the wrecked car, which was tilted high upon the curb. Resuming his dash, he arrived at the sedan and found it empty.
A passageway between two buildings explained where Sherbrock and the crooks had gone. It was very short, and led to a wide street that cut through this neighborhood at an angle. Looking for a car, The Shadow saw one swing hesitatingly toward him. It was Margo's.
With a long leap, The Shadow hooked the door of the coupe, opened it, and dropped in beside the girl, so suddenly that she could only give a breathless gasp. Margo had been looking for Cranston, but by the time the door had slammed, she wasn't surprised to see The Shadow, instead.
In sharp, whispered tone, he was questioning if she had seen the fugitives. She hadn't, but she had spotted something else.
"The armored truck!" Margo exclaimed. "It started away before I did. It was gone when the police arrived. But I saw it again, just now, going around the next corner!"
THE SHADOW ordered a chase. As Margo put speed into the coupe, she realized that the armored truck must have picked up the fugitives that The Shadow was after. A few turns and she saw the truck once more, as did The Shadow. It was taking a corner and guns spouted from its loopholes. Wide shots, that didn't damage Margo's coupe.
Leaning from his window, The Shadow responded, aiming for the tires. His aim was accurate, but the truck's tires were bulletproof, as The Shadow expected, though he considered it worth-while to test them. Then The Shadow's free hand, lunging to the left, shoved the wheel from Margo's control and sent the coupe skewing around a nearer corner.
Margo caught the idea as The Shadow let her resume control. He wanted to pursue the truck along a parallel street.
Across their path flashed a police car. Rapidly, The Shadow yanked the wheel again, thus informing Margo to follow the prowl car.
The police car was speeding for a corner where the armored truck was due, but The Shadow didn't wait for the fugitive vehicle to arrive. He blasted shots at the rear tires of the police car, and, fortunately, they didn't stand the gaff. The police car hit the curb at the corner just as the armored truck zoomed across.
If The Shadow hadn't halted them, Cardona and his companions would have been juggernauted by the heavier, more powerful vehicle.
It was The Shadow who resumed the chase alone, telling Margo to keep a respectful distance behind the armored truck, since it was impregnable, whereas her coupe was not. Gaining a big lead, the truck went through a swirl of traffic on an avenue.
Had Moe been at the wheel, and this car his specially geared cab, he might have followed through; but Margo and her coupe were not equal to the job. Halted by the traffic, Margo turned to The Shadow and began words of apology, that she did not complete.
The Shadow was gone.
At Sherbrock's, half an hour later, The Shadow arrived as Cranston, to find Weston in charge. He had called the Cobalt Club and learned that his friend, the commissioner, had left a message for him.
Order was restored in Sherbrock's office, and Cranston showed some surprise to find Weston sorting batches of jewels which lay on Sherbrock's desk. They happened to be the same lot that Sherbrock had been pawing over with Dwig.
"It was a tip-off, Cranston," informed the commissioner. "Someone called the club and told me that Sherbrock was fencing stolen gems. I have an idea that the person who called me might have been one of the jewelers who were at the club earlier. They left soon after you did!"
The Shadow didn't comment on that point; in fact, he rather doubted it. But the gems couldn't be overlooked. Weston had already checked them as loot that unknown crooks had acquired in the recent robbery of a Midwestern jewelry store.
"Very clever, Sherbrock was," continued Weston. "He had deliveries made in regular jeweler's trucks.
The one that came tonight, bringing mobsters as its crew, bore the name of Baldwin Associates. We've called them, and learned that both of their trucks are stored for the night. The one that came here was a fake."
"A fake, all right," put in Cardona, who was standing by. "It ducked away before we got here. We ran into it later, after it picked up Sherbrock and the other crooks."
Weston eyed Cardona, somewhat sharply.
"What about The Shadow, inspector?"
"He was here," replied Cardona, laconically. "We ran into him at the office door. He slid out, and later he popped the tires on our car, just when he saw the truck."
"Rather odd," observed Weston, "for The Shadow to act in such fashion."
"Not at all," returned Cardona. "He was probably after Sherbrock, too. We met up with him by mistake.
I figure he shot our tires so we wouldn't get into trouble with the truck."
THE explanation suited the commissioner. He reverted to the subject of Sherbrock.
"Here is full proof of crime," asserted Weston. "Stolen jewels in Sherbrock's possession; his flight through a secret rear exit; use of a fake truck that offered battle when it fled. Roger Sherbrock is unquestionably the head man behind the mob of jewel robbers. As an expert gem cutter, he was equipped to unload stolen goods by changing the appearance of the gems."
It was a strong indictment, one that The Shadow considered in detail when he was riding back to the Cobalt Club with Weston. But through that chain ran one important thread: every whit of evidence against Sherbrock was purely circumstantial.
Dwig Brencott could have brought the truck on his own. On such short inspection, Sherbrock couldn't have known that the jewels were stolen ones. The elevator in the big vault might well be a device that Sherbrock had installed as a way out if crooks invaded his premises, more logically than something that he had planned as an aid to crime.
As for his flight, Sherbrock hadn't any choice. He'd been rushed by Dwig and the uniformed mobbies, men that he might have supposed were actually from Baldwin Associates. They hadn't given Sherbrock time to identify Cardona and his squad of detectives as men from police headquarters.
The Shadow could readily take that view, inasmuch as he had built up a circumstantial case against himself by first blocking Cardona's squad, and later wrecking a police car. Weston had dismissed those facts, because he regarded The Shadow as a foe to crime. Had it been anyone else, the commissioner would not have been so lenient.
Maybe Sherbrock's case deserved the same consideration that The Shadow's had received. The Shadow, deeply involved in the matter and a witness to occurrences at Sherbrock's, was definitely of that opinion. He wasn't willing to concede that Roger Sherbrock was the real head of the jewel-robbing outfit.
The Shadow's trail remained the same as before: to find Dwig Brencott and seek facts concerning six matched sapphires that had formerly been one great gem, the Star of Delhi!
CHAPTER VIII. REIGN OF MURDER
ALL during the next day, The Shadow kept in touch with Commissioner Weston. It didn't surprise the commissioner that his friend, Lamont Cranston, should drop into the office in the morning, suggest that they lunch together and, later, ride back to the office again in Weston's car. Contrarily, it rather pleased the commissioner.
Weston was a social climber and regarded Cranston as a good friend to have. Since Cranston was indifferent toward furthering acquaintances, it was usually Weston who insisted that the two go places together. Thus, on those rare occasions when Cranston cultivated Weston's company, the commissioner took it that his much-prized friend was coming around to Weston's own views.