armored truck, since it was impregnable, whereas her coupe was not. Gaining a big lead, the truck went through a swirl of traffic on an avenue.
Had Moe been at the wheel, and this car his specially geared cab, he might have followed through; but Margo and her coupe were not equal to the job. Halted by the traffic, Margo turned to The Shadow and began words of apology, that she did not complete.
The Shadow was gone.
At Sherbrock's, half an hour later, The Shadow arrived as Cranston, to find Weston in charge. He had called the Cobalt Club and learned that his friend, the commissioner, had left a message for him.
Order was restored in Sherbrock's office, and Cranston showed some surprise to find Weston sorting batches of jewels which lay on Sherbrock's desk. They happened to be the same lot that Sherbrock had been pawing over with Dwig.
'It was a tip-off, Cranston,' informed the commissioner. 'Someone called the club and told me that Sherbrock was fencing stolen gems. I have an idea that the person who called me might have been one of the jewelers who were at the club earlier. They left soon after you did!'
The Shadow didn't comment on that point; in fact, he rather doubted it. But the gems couldn't be overlooked. Weston had already checked them as loot that unknown crooks had acquired in the recent robbery of a Midwestern jewelry store.
'Very clever, Sherbrock was,' continued Weston. 'He had deliveries made in regular jeweler's trucks.
The one that came tonight, bringing mobsters as its crew, bore the name of Baldwin Associates. We've called them, and learned that both of their trucks are stored for the night. The one that came here was a fake.'
'A fake, all right,' put in Cardona, who was standing by. 'It ducked away before we got here. We ran into it later, after it picked up Sherbrock and the other crooks.'
Weston eyed Cardona, somewhat sharply.
'What about The Shadow, inspector?'
'He was here,' replied Cardona, laconically. 'We ran into him at the office door. He slid out, and later he popped the tires on our car, just when he saw the truck.'
'Rather odd,' observed Weston, 'for The Shadow to act in such fashion.'
'Not at all,' returned Cardona. 'He was probably after Sherbrock, too. We met up with him by mistake.
I figure he shot our tires so we wouldn't get into trouble with the truck.'
THE explanation suited the commissioner. He reverted to the subject of Sherbrock.
'Here is full proof of crime,' asserted Weston. 'Stolen jewels in Sherbrock's possession; his flight through a secret rear exit; use of a fake truck that offered battle when it fled. Roger Sherbrock is unquestionably the head man behind the mob of jewel robbers. As an expert gem cutter, he was equipped to unload stolen goods by changing the appearance of the gems.'
It was a strong indictment, one that The Shadow considered in detail when he was riding back to the Cobalt Club with Weston. But through that chain ran one important thread: every whit of evidence against Sherbrock was purely circumstantial.
Dwig Brencott could have brought the truck on his own. On such short inspection, Sherbrock couldn't have known that the jewels were stolen ones. The elevator in the big vault might well be a device that Sherbrock had installed as a way out if crooks invaded his premises, more logically than something that he had planned as an aid to crime.
As for his flight, Sherbrock hadn't any choice. He'd been rushed by Dwig and the uniformed mobbies, men that he might have supposed were actually from Baldwin Associates. They hadn't given Sherbrock time to identify Cardona and his squad of detectives as men from police headquarters.
The Shadow could readily take that view, inasmuch as he had built up a circumstantial case against himself by first blocking Cardona's squad, and later wrecking a police car. Weston had dismissed those facts, because he regarded The Shadow as a foe to crime. Had it been anyone else, the commissioner would not have been so lenient.
Maybe Sherbrock's case deserved the same consideration that The Shadow's had received. The Shadow, deeply involved in the matter and a witness to occurrences at Sherbrock's, was definitely of that opinion. He wasn't willing to concede that Roger Sherbrock was the real head of the jewel-robbing outfit.
The Shadow's trail remained the same as before: to find Dwig Brencott and seek facts concerning six matched sapphires that had formerly been one great gem, the Star of Delhi!
CHAPTER VIII. REIGN OF MURDER
ALL during the next day, The Shadow kept in touch with Commissioner Weston. It didn't surprise the commissioner that his friend, Lamont Cranston, should drop into the office in the morning, suggest that they lunch together and, later, ride back to the office again in Weston's car. Contrarily, it rather pleased the commissioner.
Weston was a social climber and regarded Cranston as a good friend to have. Since Cranston was indifferent toward furthering acquaintances, it was usually Weston who insisted that the two go places together. Thus, on those rare occasions when Cranston cultivated Weston's company, the commissioner took it that his much-prized friend was coming around to Weston's own views.
Never did Weston guess that these periods really indicated Cranston's deep interest in some criminal investigation that the police were conducting; yet such was invariably the case. As Cranston, The Shadow had the habit of appearing quite bored at too much mention of current crime.
It was to Margo Lane that the quiet Mr. Cranston expressed the purpose of his frequent meetings with Weston during this important day. Cranston met Margo in a cafe lounge during the cocktail hour, and smiled approvingly when she ordered a Mirage, a pinkish drink that looked quite powerful, but did not have a drop of liquor in it.
'Good judgment, Margo,' said Cranston, quietly. 'I may be needing you later.'
'After you've seen the commissioner again?' bantered Margo.
'Exactly!' Cranston glanced at his watch. 'He will be at the Cobalt Club at half-past five. I want to be there when he arrives.'
Margo took a sip of the Mirage, then queried:
'Why all this sudden interest?'
'Because of Sherbrock,' replied Cranston. 'I think that he may be innocent. If such is the case, crooks are holding him. Therefore it is important to check anything that the police learn about Sherbrock.'
'So that you may get a trail to the guilty men - for instance, Dwig Brencott? Is that it, Lamont?'
For reply, Margo received a headshake.
'I can leave the guilty to The Shadow,' was Cranston's laconic reply. 'I merely felt that I, in my feeble way, might aid an innocent man.'
Margo was still thinking that one over, when she saw Cranston stroll out to keep his appointment with the police commissioner. She approved Lamont's policy of discussing The Shadow as a distinct personality, but it did not deceive her. Margo had learned enough to understand the full extent of the present case.
With agents still on the hunt for Dwig Brencott, who had ducked away again without being recognized by Cardona and the detectives, The Shadow was personally keeping tabs with developments from the Sherbrock angle.
It was true that Cranston wanted to aid Sherbrock; equally certain that The Shadow could uncover mobsters if Sherbrock happened to be found. Hence, Margo could find no flaw in Lamont's statement.
Cranston would search for the innocent, and The Shadow would find the guilty. One and one made two -
which happened to be one and the same.
Another point occurred to Margo. If Sherbrock happened to be the real head of the jewel mob, as the police believed, The Shadow - through his Cranston guise - would get to the guilty, anyway. But Margo accepted Lamont's opinion of Sherbrock at its face value. She only wished that she had asked him something else: his present views regarding the six sapphires, formerly the Star of Delhi.
Margo had come to the adamant conclusion that those gems, when located, would provide the complete answer to crime's riddle.
MATTERS promised well, as soon as The Shadow reached the Cobalt Club. He found Joe Cardona there, and
