'Don't be frightened, Maude,' soothed Cranston. He tendered a card to the patrolman. 'My name is Lamont Cranston. I am a friend of Police Commissioner Weston.'
'And this lady?'
'She is Miss Maude Revelle. Please do not delay us, officer. You see these
tickets?' Cranston held them in the light. 'I am taking Miss Revelle to the opera, and we are anxious to reach there before curtain time.'
A MINUTE later, the limousine was rolling clear of the police cordon.
Maude's big eyes were full of admiration, as they turned toward Cranston.
'Gee, you're swell!' exclaimed the girl. 'Helping me out of a jam, the way
you did! Maybe I'd be a lot better off if I'd met up with real guys like you, instead of some of the mugs I've known.'
Cranston's gaze showed a sympathetic interest that caused Maude to say more.
'I tried to help a fellow out tonight' - Maude's tone was bitter; she was thinking of Pinkey - 'and he left me to scramble for myself. Maybe he's a right
guy, but he's in the wrong racket, whatever it is. Only, I'm not the sort that blabs.'
The car stopped at a traffic light. Maude reached for the door, intending to alight. Cranston's hand restrained her; his voice was persuasive.
'I told the officers that I was taking you to the opera. I might have to prove that story.'
Maude settled back in the cushions her eyes were eager.
'You mean that?' she exclaimed. 'You'll take me to the opera with all the other swells?'
The Shadow nodded. The limousine rolled ahead; Maude felt herself riding in air. She didn't realize that keen eyes were watching her, grasping the thoughts that she betrayed by her facial expressions.
Maude was getting something that she really wanted: a chance to appear among fashionable people, as one of them. She wasn't a selfish sort; but the joy of that triumph made her so, for the present. She wanted to feel that Cranston had invited her to the opera because he liked her.
Maude made that plain, as they stepped from the limousine in front of the opera.
'If I go with you,' she remarked, 'I won't be cutting out someone else, will I?'
From her tone, The Shadow knew that Maude hoped she was doing just that.
He gave the slight smile that was typical of Cranston.
'I was to meet a lady here,' he said, 'but she can go with other friends, who asked her to join their party. I would prefer your company, Miss Revelle.'
'Do you see this lady you're telling me about?'
'Yes. Over there.'
The girl that The Shadow pointed out was the most attractive young woman in sight; and that was quite a distinction, for the lobby thronged with beautiful femininity. She was waiting for someone, and it could very well have been Cranston. Maude certainly thought that it was Cranston.
Penning a note, The Shadow showed it to Maude. She was pleased when she read: 'Sorry, Eleanor. I am escorting another lady this evening: Lamont.'
Folding the note, The Shadow gave it to an attendant. Adding a dollar bill
as tip, he pointed out the lady to whom the note was to be delivered. Maude saw
all that; what she didn't observe was the note itself.
The Shadow held it loosely, so that air reached the drying ink. The message faded before he gave it a final fold. The Shadow had used the special ink that he employed when sending orders to his agents.
The girl across the lobby looked puzzled when she opened the message. For a moment, her gaze became as blank as the paper itself. Then, supposing that someone had played a practical joke, she crumpled the paper and threw it away, staring about angrily as she did so.
By that time The Shadow was escorting Maude into the opera house. Maude had seen the other girl's piqued expression, and it had pleased her. Maude was smiling triumphantly when she and her escort reached the Golden Horseshoe.
When the opera house lights went down, The Shadow indulged in a smile of his own. Unlike Pinkey Findlen, The Shadow knew the ways of women. He would use
his acquaintance with Maude Revelle in the future.
Tonight, though Maude did not guess it, she had become an ally of The Shadow in his campaign against crime.
CHAPTER IX
MOVES THROUGH THE DARK
THE next evening, Maude Revelle dined with Lamont Cranston in a little restaurant off Fifth Avenue. The place was both quiet and exclusive; the type of cafe where Maude had often wanted Pinkey to take her, only to have him claim
that 'ritzy joints' were the bunk.
Being with Cranston improved Maude's style. She liked his perfect manner, his excellent usage of the English language. She did her best to copy it, with very good results.
There were times, though, when she lapsed. Those came when she referred to
the boy 'friend' who had deserted her the night before.
Maude knew plenty about Pinkey; but there was much that she wouldn't tell.
She would have been amazed, though, had she realized how much Cranston learned from the remarks that she dropped. Among that well-gleaned information, The Shadow obtained two important points.
One was that Maude did not know what Pinkey's present racket was. The other was that she had no idea as to the location of Pinkey's present hide-out.
'He's supposed to be on the lam, if you know what I mean,' confided Maude.
'In other words, he's had to put himself where the police won't find him. But it
wasn't on account of what he did. I guess he covered that pretty good.
'It's what he's up to, that makes him stay out of sight. He doesn't want to be seen around town, for fear they'll ask him down to headquarters. If he spends his time answering a lot of questions, they might wise up to what he's doing now.'
Cranston smiled, as though amused by the adventures of Maude's boy friend.
His gaze, however, made Maude feel that he did not approve of Pinkey.
'I'm dropping the guy,' declared Maude. 'But I can't do it in a hurry.
His
kind wouldn't understand it. Give him time. He'll get an interest in some other
dame. Then I can step out of the picture without an argument.'
WHEN the conversation again turned to Pinkey, Maude remembered that she was supposed to telephone him. There was a booth in the hallway outside, the little room where she and Cranston were dining privately. Maude decided to make
the call.
Hardly had she stepped from the room, before The Shadow reached beneath the table and drew out a single earphone. Placing it to his ear, he heard the plunk of Maude's nickel when she placed it in the pay box. This wire was connected with the telephone booth. From Maude's first words, The Shadow learned that she had called the Bubble Club and was talking to Claude Ondrey.
Pinkey wasn't there; but he was expected by ten o'clock.
'Ten o'clock is when I'll call him,' announced Maude. 'Yes. Tell him I'll be at the apartment, if you hear from him before then... Yes, and listen, Ondrey. You can tell him that he's going to find out where he gets off...'
'Sure, I'm sore... Yes, Pinkey knows why... You want to know where I am right now? Out with a swell guy, who took me to the opera last night...'
There was a pause, while Ondrey spoke a piece; then came Maude's sharp laugh.
'I'm not telling you who the guy is,' she said. 'I don't spill Pinkey's name to anybody, do I?... All right, it works two ways. I'm keeping this fellow's name to myself... Sure, tell Pinkey if you like...'
The earphone was parked from sight when Maude returned to the little dining room. They had dined late;
