understand why murder was so necessary.'
The remark was meant to draw an opinion from Talney. It succeeded.
'I understand,' expressed Talney. 'There wasn't any need for Lenfell to murder us. We trusted him too much. But whoever else wanted to steal the Star of Delhi, had to kill Lenfell in order to get the gem. That meant murdering the rest of us, because we all knew Lenfell.'
'Who do you think the murderer is?'
'Probably Roger Sherbrock. Maybe Lenfell made a deal with him, to fake six sapphires instead of cutting the large one. When the police found out that Sherbrock was the brain behind the jewel robberies, it put Sherbrock outside the law. So he decided to go after the Star of Delhi.'
The Shadow nodded, even though he knew that Talney's theories were very wide of the mark. In The Shadow's opinion, Sherbrock was quite innocent, though the police, like Talney, thought the opposite.
Sherbrock was the scapegoat for the crimes of others, which The Shadow could appreciate, since he was getting into the same class of the falsely accused.
'I'll drop into town,' The Shadow decided, 'and have a chat with my friend, the commissioner.'
'The sooner you come back,' returned Talney, 'the better I'll like it, Cranston. I'm eager to know what else develops.'
DEVELOPMENTS were under way while Cranston's limousine was starting to Manhattan.
In his office, Commissioner Weston was receiving a delegation of prominent jewelers, all eager to see the Star of Delhi. Among them was a dryish-faced man named Jan Garmath, known as an expert on artificial gems. It was Garmath who supplied some facts that Weston wanted.
'Synthetic sapphires are quite common,' declared Garmath. 'They are produced by fusing aluminum sesquioxide and the necessary chemical coloring. Only under the microscope can they he told from natural gems.'
'Ah!' Weston exclaimed. 'Then we could detect the six false sapphires, should we regain them!'
'You could,' agreed Garmath. 'You must look for the structural lines. You will find them curved, instead of straight. Furthermore, synthetic sapphires contain bubbles. Look at the Star of Delhi, commissioner' -
Garmath provided a powerful lens - 'and you will see straight lines, but no bubbles.'
Weston studied the great gem through the glass.
'You said curved lines,' he remarked, 'and bubbles. Was I right, Mr. Garmath?'
'Yes, commissioner. Synthetic sapphires fit that description.'
The commissioner was idly laying down the glass and replacing the Star of Delhi in its plush-lined box.
He stopped abruptly, popping up in his chair, looking from one witness to another.
'Synthetic!' he exclaimed. 'Did you say synthetic?'
'I said -'
Garmath couldn't complete it. Others were pouncing for the Star of Delhi, all bringing out their magnifiers.
In half a minute, Weston's office was teeming with confusion. The great sapphire, seen under the glass, had curved structural lines and bubbles.
The Star of Delhi was a fake!
Never before had these jewelers seen such a large imitation gem.
Theories were popping thick and fast, all to one conclusion. Facts had been reversed, with but one possible explanation, according to the experts.
Roger Sherbrock must have cut the real Star of Delhi into six matched gems. That was the really clever part of it. Small sapphires were more apt to be suspected than one so well described as the Star of Delhi.
Probably Sherbrock had sold the imitation Star, a wonderful replica of the original, to Lenfell. He had then disposed of the six matched gems to Walder, who had probably learned that they were the portions of the real Star and had advertised the fact.
Threatened with exposure by Lenfell, the man he had swindled, Sherbrock had been forced to murder his dupe and other men who knew about the crooked sale. It was a sound theory, and one that pleased Weston as well as Cardona who was present, for it cleared The Shadow.
Undoubtedly, Sherbrock had come to Lenfell's last night to steal back the fake Star of Delhi, thereby disposing of evidence against himself. The Shadow had been on hand, crossing Sherbrock's trail again, as on a preceding night. Weston was mentioning this in an aside to Cardona, when The Shadow himself appeared in the office.
Of course, he came as Cranston. Out of the hubbub, he learned of the recent discovery, and looked at the Star of Delhi for himself. Turning to Weston, The Shadow inquired quietly:
'Who detected the fraud?'
'I did!' bragged Weston. Then, noting glances from some jewelers: 'Thanks to Jan Garmath.'
'Which man is he?'
Looking about, Weston couldn't find Garmath. It turned out that Garmath, like some of the other jewelers, had supposed that the conference was ended, and was therefore gone. When Weston asked where Garmath could be reached, no one knew. Garmath, it appeared, had a large fortune which he had brought from Europe, and was retired, rather than active, as a jeweler.
'It sums up to this, Cranston,' declared the commissioner, no longer interested in Garmath. 'Six real sapphires have gone back to their original owner, whoever he may be. We believe that those stones were cut by Sherbrock from the actual Star of Delhi. We shall try to find the owner and question him -
confidentially, of course - in hopes of evidence against Sherbrock.'
'Naturally, the owner of the six sapphires may be loath to declare himself, for fear of death.
Nevertheless, we know what we are after - and that it is the first important step.'
LATER that afternoon, Lamont Cranston met Margo Lane and calmly told her how Louis Talney was a guest at his residence, sent there by The Shadow. After piecing Talney into the picture, Cranston remarked:
'I shall have to call him later. He will be interested to hear about the Star of Delhi.'
'How it was really cut into six smaller gems,' nodded Margo. 'I read all about it in the early afternoon editions. Clever of your friend, the commissioner, to find out that the large sapphire was an imitation.
Well, it's up to the police to look for the six small stones.'
'Which they can never find.'
'Can never find?' Margo echoed. 'Why not?'
Seldom did The Shadow put so much emphasis into the tone of Cranston as he did on this occasion, in response to Margo's query.
'It was Garmath, not Weston,' he said, 'who exposed the great sapphire as a synthetic stone. After that, Garmath conveniently disappeared. It is Garmath who must be found. I believe that he manufactured the synthetic gem.'
'And sold it to Lenfell?'
'No. Lenfell already had it. He wanted to keep it and dupe Talney and the rest into thinking that it had been cut. So he needed six small, synthetic stones, and asked Garmath to make them.'
'Which Garmath did -'
'Which Garmath did not!' Cranston interposed. 'He made six poisoned rings, instead. Knowing that Lenfell had a sale for the real Star of Delhi, Garmath naturally kept it. He made the large synthetic sapphire to dupe Lenfell. The poison worked too soon for Lenfell to ever take it to his customer.'
It all struck home to Margo. Trails had diverged; the one that the police sought was quite different from The Shadow's quest. The law was after six real sapphires, whereas The Shadow wanted to uncover a single stone, the great Star of Delhi itself. The law's trail did not exist, but The Shadow's did!
Arriving late at the commissioner's conference, The Shadow had lost his opportunity to trail immediately the daring supercrook, Jan Garmath, who had personally given Weston the wrong start. But The Shadow would soon find a way to pick up Garmath's trail.
It wouldn't be through the two thugs captured the night before. At dusk, when The Shadow, fully cloaked, appeared within his sanctum, the hidden room where he formulated campaigns against crime, he found blank reports awaiting him. Harry Vincent and other agents had been unable to locate Dwig Brencott through the
