'So The Shadow took over,' nodded Cardona. 'That business of coming in as Blitz Bell was perfect. What a surprise he rigged on Melbrun! Even then, Melbrun didn't guess it. He thought that his bunch were coming on their own.
When he saw The Shadow, Five-face actually counted on a rescue!'
Cardona was opening a bundle as he spoke. From it, he took a big batch of sorted securities, that bore figures up in the thousands. They added up to more
than half a million dollars, those stocks and bonds that Cardona handed over, with the comment:
'These are yours, Mr. Cranston.'
'Thanks, inspector,' returned The Shadow, calmly. 'I'll put them back in my collection.'
'Your collection?' queried Weston. 'What collection, Cranston?'
The Shadow's lips showed a Cranston smile.
'My collection of counterfeits,' he explained. 'Worthless stocks and bonds, from many sources. I was doubtful about Fondelac, commissioner. I thought it best to let him have these, until I found out if his French bonds were genuine.'
'Remarkable!' exclaimed Weston. 'Remarkable foresight, Cranston!'
REMARKABLE foresight. Cardona agreed with the opinion, as he watched the commissioner and his friend stroll to the official car, with Cranston carelessly carrying the worthless bonds that had been reclaimed from Five- face.
Cardona was wondering if The Shadow had mysteriously warned Cranston to beware of Fondelac. If so, The Shadow must have known much about Five-face, even before he had identified the master crook as Arnold Melbrun.
As Cardona pondered, he heard a parting tone that seemed to quiver in from
outer darkness, beyond the floodlights of the airport. Cardona stared.
He didn't realize that the whispery laugh was from the direction of the commissioner's car, where Cranston had gone on alone, while Weston stopped to talk to the airport authorities.
Cardona recognized it only as the laugh of The Shadow - a singular, mirthless note of triumph from the lips of the master fighter who had turned Five-face over to the double-crossed lieutenants, as their victim, instead of their leader.
Five faces. Four had belonged to Arnold Melbrun; but the fifth - that of Blitz Bell - had been The Shadow's. As the false Fifth Face, The Shadow had actually revealed the true one!
A knell, that mirthless laugh, for Arnold Melbrun and three others who had
been finally trapped together by the design of The Shadow!
THE END
