'I do not expect to miss. Nevertheless, I am prepared. You understand the subtlety of my methods,
Ricordo. You are gradually learning their diversity. My ways are legion. We are getting closer to The
Shadow with each move. His death will be the ultimate result. Come.'
THE scientist led the way down the spiral stairway. The two men entered the laboratory. The round
room was illuminated by daylight that came through the ample skylights around the outer circle. Two men
were at work by high benches.
'My experiments always continue,' remarked the professor. 'These men obey every instruction that I
give them.'
'You can trust them?' inquired Ricordo.
'Why not?' asked the scientist. 'They are foreigners. They do not speak English. Each of them — Sanoja
and Rasch are their names — is a criminal. I brought them to America after a trip abroad. They are
wanted by police in Europe. They are forced to rely entirely upon me.'
Urlich approached the man whom he had called Sanoja. The professor spoke in a foreign tongue, and
the workman answered him. Urlich turned to Ricordo.
'Sanoja is not quite ready with the device that I invented,' said the scientist. 'We shall have to wait a
short while. In the meantime, let us go below. I have not shown you what I have downstairs.'
Larry Ricordo repressed the curiosity that immediately seized his mind. He knew that there must be a
large chamber beneath this one — a round room within the circular passage that they had followed upon
their arrival at Professor Urlich's domain. He wondered if it could be another laboratory.
This upstairs room, with its collection of huge crucibles, cauldrons, and giant test tubes, was amazing
enough to Larry Ricordo. The gang lord had not been able to imagine what lay below. Now he was to
observe.
They went down the spiral staircase at the end of the room. They did not stop when they reached the
level of the ground floor. Still moving downward through the metal cylinder, they reached an inner
doorway a dozen feet below. Professor Urlich pressed the barrier, and brought Ricordo into a dimly
lighted room.
LARRY RICORDO blinked and looked about him. The illumination came from indirect lights. It showed
that they stood within a large round pit, like the center of a coliseum. The analogy was more pronounced,
due to the presence of a balcony that circled entirely around the room.
A low rail, with metal posts supporting it, made the balcony a gallery. Here people could stand and view
the pit. Professor Urlich pointed across the room toward the front of the building.
'One enters the balcony from there,' he explained. 'Coming through the outer doors, one sees a door
ahead. It leads to the balcony. A very natural course to follow.'
Urlich cackled as he spoke. Larry Ricordo felt uneasy. His feet were upon metal plates — a peculiarity he
had noticed on the first floor. But it was not this factor, nor the presence of the balcony, that troubled him
the most. The gang leader's eyes were attracted to the center of the room.
There he observed the strangest device that he had ever seen. It was a huge machine, different from
anything that Larry believed could exist. The odd device, which measured a dozen feet in each direction,
was mounted upon a heavy base, and was supported by posts fitted with rubber insulators. From it
extended insulated wires that disappeared into the metal floor.
Glistening wheels, flat disks of shiny metal, together with large glass tubes and other pieces of mechanism,
gained the gang leader's full attention. Ricordo noted a control box at the side of the machine.
'What is it?' he questioned, in an awed tone.
'An electric-ray device,' responded Urlich, with a smile. 'Designed to deliver death.'
'You mean it's like the hot seat — up at the Big House — '
'If you are referring to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison, I can assure you that your analogy is partly
correct. The electric chair is designed, however, to kill only its occupant. This invention of mine will slay
at a distance.'
'How far?'
'Within the radius of its electrified circles. At present, it will kill only those who are within the circular
corridors or who are close to this building. The metal plates receive the current. Watch.'
The professor went to the control box. Ricordo stood beside him. Urlich swung a switch. The big
machine began to crackle. Long, snapping flashes of miniature lightning jumped back and forth across the
top of the complicated machine.
Ricordo, nervy though he was, shrank away and stared at myriad sparks that flashed along the balcony
rail.
Professor Urlich swung back the switch. His cackling laugh replaced the buzz of the machine. Larry
Ricordo sniffed the ozone with which the atmosphere was now charged.
'When I first designed the machine,' explained the professor, 'I had a small platform mounted beside it.
The only sphere of influence was the floor on which we are now standing. I placed cats — dogs— other
animals upon this floor. They were killed instantly.
'Then I extended the zones. The balcony — the outer corridor— finally the portico. These colored
lights' — the speaker pointed to a row of unilluminated incandescents—'are for each zone. They tell
which portions of the ground floor happen to be occupied.'
'But we are standing on metal,' objected Ricordo. 'You say you used this floor. Why are we safe?'
'Each zone is separate,' explained the professor. 'There are strips of insulation between. When I
extended my experiments to the outer circles, I merely disconnected this one.'
'You have three circles now — '
'Yes, and I shall tell you why. I learned that each circle threw a killing power outside its boundaries. The
greater the circle, the greater the effect. It was only a few feet at first; now the sphere of influence extends
a dozen yards beyond this building!
'With a machine much larger than this one; with a circle a thousand feet in diameter, I estimate that I
could slay all persons within a radius of one mile!'
'It would be a big job to rig up an arrangement like that.'
'Of course. But in the meantime' — the scientist's eyes gleamed wickedly— 'this building is completely
protected by silent death. Should an enemy venture here — '
'You mean if The Shadow should try to attack you!'
'Yes. He would come to his certain doom. I have other lights upstairs. We watch them constantly. That is
why I have said that I would welcome a visit from The Shadow. But do not look for it, Ricordo.
'Sanoja is ready for us now. I shall view the device that he has made for my approval. If it is exactly as
he designed it, we shall be ready to lure The Shadow to another trap of doom.'
THE professor wheeled and walked back toward the cylinder which housed the spiral stairway. Larry
Ricordo shuddered. Hardened criminal that he was, the amazing schemes of death designed by Professor
Folcroft Urlich frightened him.
One last look at the glittering electric-ray machine; then Ricordo ascended at the professor's heels. Until
