reporter.
That was exactly what Clyde wanted. It happened, too that Clyde did not have to count on Cardona to know what would occur tonight. Harry Vincent was going to be at Chanbury's. He would get the needed details. Clyde was pleased with the way he had handled matters for The Shadow. The reporter was smiling when he boarded a rush hour subway express.
IT never occurred to Clyde that he had missed the biggest bet that had ever come his way. In thinking of Madden Henshew, Clyde decided that the jewel broker was a 'great guy' - an expression that Cardona had used after he and Clyde left Henshew's office.
Events at this present hour were proving Henshew a gentleman of different ilk. Henshew had ridden from his office in a taxi, and was alighting at a pretentious uptown apartment house. There was an eagerness about his actions that explained itself when Henshew reached his elaborately furnished apartment.
There, Henshew went to a large oak bookcase that was built into a corner alcove. He drew out some large volumes that were bound in fine morocco. Behind the books was a panel, much neater than the one that The Shadow had uncovered at the old house that he had raided, but of similar workmanship.
Henshew opened the panel; light awoke the shimmer of resplendent gems.
These jewels were the loot from Silsam's; but this hole in the wall was a one-way affair that could be reached by Henshew alone.
From his cache, Henshew extracted a heavy finger ring, set with emeralds and diamonds. He took it to a writing desk close by. He turned on a strong light; adjusted a lens to his eye. With pincer-like tools, he began to remove the emeralds from their setting.
While Henshew was at work, a buzzer sounded a signal, in short quick jabs. Henshew listened; the signal was repeated. Chewing the thick lips beneath his mustache, Henshew put away his work and went to the door. He quickly admitted a man who was crouched there; then glowered at his visitor when they reached the light.
The man was Shark Meglo.
'You shouldn't have come here,' gritted Henshew. 'I told you to stay in the new hide-out and await a message!'
'I had to come,' returned Shark. 'We can't use the chink again. There's a guy looking for him.'
'Looking for Moy Ming?'
Henshew's expression was incredulous. Shark voiced a hoarse reply:
'You'll believe me, chief, when you hear how I've figured it. There's only one way The Shadow could have got wise to that Silsam job. Hood spent the half dollar for me at the drug store. The Shadow must have picked it up.'
'But how could he trace it back to Moy Ming?'
'By the laundry I left in the hide-out. Only Moy Ming was smart enough to close out his old laundry shop. That's where I saw the guy snooping, last night.'
'You shouldn't have gone near the place.'
'It's lucky, though, that I did.'
Henshew was forced to agree with Shark. He asked for a description of the snooper. Shark gave one that fitted Harry Vincent. The resemblance had not escaped him.
'I only took a quick gander at him,' informed Shark, 'but he sure looked like the mug that tried to hand me a haymaker, up at Silsam's. My guess is that he's working for The Shadow!'
'Forget Moy Ming,' decided Henshew. 'I shall find another way to send messages to you.'
THE jewel broker went back to the writing desk. Shark followed and stood by while Henshew continued his work with the emeralds.
In expert fashion, Henshew began to cut the corner of a green stone, talking all the while in a low tone.
He told Shark of Cardona's visit. Shark gave a grunt.
'I guess that washes us up,' he said. 'The racket's getting too hot. Hood should have snatched that bill of sale that you faked when you worked on Silsam. Too bad it described the sparklers.'
'The description was not very exact,' remarked Henshew. 'Anyway, the insurance company will have a similar description. One that I intend to read tonight.'
'Which queers things sure!'
'Not necessarily.'
Picking a narrow platinum brooch from a pigeonhole in the writing desk, Henshew placed the recut emerald between two odd-shaped rubies that were already set. He held the piece of jewelry into the light. He questioned Shark:
'Would you recognize it?'
'Say!' Shark's tone was tinged with admiration. 'You're fixing those sparklers so nobody would know them!'
'Like I have on every occasion,' stated Henshew. 'Silsam was not the first of our customers who showed his purchases to friends. He happened to be the only one who had time to insure his gems.'
'That's made it jake, every time! That's a smart one, chief. You won't be taking a chance if you peddle the rocks again.'
Henshew supplied a correction.
'You mean when I sell the gems again,' he told Shark. 'That time will come very shortly. Meanwhile, Shark, stay away from here unless I summon you.'
Henshew saw his visitor to the hallway. The route was open to a fire tower where Shark could leave unnoticed. In a whisper, the master-crook added a final statement.
'Today,' said Henshew, 'I gave Inspector Cardona some advice. In return, he told me about the insurance matter. It was a fair exchange; and there is an old saying that a fair exchange is no robbery.'
Henshew closed the door as he stepped back into his luxurious apartment; and Shark caught the supercrook's croaked chortle. Departing Shark understood the chuckle.
The fair exchange that Henshew mentioned was one that would result in robbery. Like Silsam and the dupes before him, another victim would soon be slated for pillage and death.
CHAPTER IX. THE FINGER POINTS
AT eight o'clock Madden Henshew ended his tedious process of cutting and resetting gems. He put away the jewelry that he had altered and studied the large number of items that remained. Henshew estimated that he had two more weeks of work ahead.
Henshew had been running crime on a three-weeks schedule. First the sale of the gems, to some unusually wealthy person who could afford a price of close to two hundred thousand dollars. Never any trouble about that; for any one who knew jewels could see that these stones were worth more than a quarter million at lowest.
Next, a quick-timed robbery, engineered by Shark Meglo, soon after the gems were placed. Henshew always paved the way for that grab, even when it meant the corruption of some trusted servant in the victim's employ. Wintham, Silsam's butler, was one such traitor.
After the robbery, the gems came back to Henshew. They always found repose in the cache behind the bookcase. An expert at cutting and resetting gems, Henshew always revamped them himself. Thus he avoided the very danger that he had mentioned to Joe Cardona: the exposure that would surely come to any jewel dealer who kept a hoard of stolen gems in a vault to which employees had access.
There lay the smartness of Henshew's game. His legitimate business was in the best of order. It showed him more than a hundred thousand dollars, in clear profit, annually. But Henshew considered that small change compared to the crooked system that he had devised.
These gems that he kept at his apartment, were prizes that he had stored away year by year, until their value totaled more than a quarter million dollars. They were the bait that brought him a monthly return of two hundred thousand. Six months of it - Henshew would be past the million mark, and have his jewels to boot.
Henshew had long anticipated a visit from the law. It had come today; and he had handled it to perfection. He had hoodwinked Joe Cardona, New York's ace sleuth, and Cardona had thanked him for it.
Clever stuff, steering Cardona after a mythical criminal whom Henshew had described as his own opposite. Cardona would hunt for some faker who had been a failure as a broker; not for a successful man like Henshew. There would be enough prospects to keep Joe busy for months.
Cardona had swallowed Henshew's glib suggestion. So had that wise-faced reporter Burke. Clyde was just
