informed by other watchers. Communication between Dowdy and Ballou is evident.
8.58—Dowdy returns.
This sheet of paper was pushed aside. The hand of The Shadow wrote:
8.50—approximate time of murders.
Then, farther down, appeared notes concerning Alvarez Legira:
8.15—last logical time at Hendrix home.
9.30—at Baltham Trust.
Back went the hand to the first sheet. Consulting the tabulations, The Shadow found another statement
received from Burbank and added it to the notations on Ballou's list:
9.34—Ballou arrived Hotel Oriental.
Now, the hands held a map. It was an odd map of Manhattan, the streets lined with short dashes of red.
These indicated the average distance covered in each five minutes of running time by automobile. In
heavy trafficked areas, the lines were short; in others, they were long.
Using colored pushpins, the hands indicated various spots on the map. These were the locations of the
apartment where John Hendrix had lived, the home of Alvarez Legira, the Baltham Trust Company and
the Hotel Oriental.
Now, on a single sheet, The Shadow's hand wrote the statement:
Hendrix—9.14.
This denoted the time of The Shadow's arrival in the room of death. It also indicated the last possible
minute that the murderer could have been there; for the killer had been gone when The Shadow had
arrived.
Legira: 8.15—9.30.
Ballou: 9.14—9.34.
The Shadow, buried in darkness, considered these elements as he wrote them. The slender fingers made
measurements upon the map. They added these comments:
Hendrix to Baltham—45 min.
Hendrix to Oriental—20 min.
Now came a revised statement:
Legira: 8.50—9.30.
Ballou: 8.50—9.34.
As these varied tabulations lay upon the table, they spelled meanings that were evident. Regarding
Alvarez Legira, they indicated that had the South American left the home of Hendrix before the arrival of
Martin Powell, he could have reached the Baltham Trust Company, with thirty minutes to spare, before
half past nine. Had Legira, however, returned to the apartment, he would have lacked five minutes in
making the trip after the murders at ten minutes of nine.
In the first supposition, there was the question of Legira's delay. In the second, there was the problem of
possibility. On a forty-minute run, five minutes might have been cut off.
The Shadow checked the first comment on Legira: “8.15—9.30.” After the tabulation, the hand wrote
the words:
Delay in meeting Desmond and Francisco.
Thus, with keen intuition, did The Shadow account for the extra thirty minutes—a half hour which
Alvarez Legira would scarcely have spent in idleness, with ten million dollars awaiting him.
Now came the consideration of Ballou's schedule. This man could have gone from Hendrix's apartment
to the Hotel Oriental in twenty minutes. The trip would have been average if he had left the place two or
