The Ghost Makers

Here Rajah Brahman waited. He was safe! But he had not reckoned with his amazing foe. While Terry covered the doorway against reinforcements, The Shadow strode across the room, with both automatics covering the metal idol.

Rajah Brahman took the only course. He swung his revolver past the side of the Buddha, and fired as he raised his hand. His first bullet was a wild hope. The second seared The Shadow's sleeve. The third did not follow.

Crack!

The Shadow's automatic had answered with a bullet that took off the rajah's trigger finger. The revolver dropped to the floor.

The crooked medium was helpless behind the protecting Buddha!

At that instant, gunfire broke out in another part of the apartment. Cardona and his men had entered. They were encountering the gangsters in the reception room.

The Shadow, turning momentarily, spied a sight that no one else saw — for all eyes had turned in the new direction.

Coming through the floor of the spirit cabinet, revolver in hand, was Imam Singh. The servant had been bound by Dick Terry. He had escaped and had climbed the ladder to the trapdoor that led to the spirit cabinet.

The bottom of the cabinet was a foot above the floor, but it, too, opened, and its broad base obscured a view of the center spot beneath.

Incongruous in the character of Geoffrey Garwood, Imam Singh was nevertheless a figure of hatred as he raised his gun to fire at Dick Terry.

The Shadow ended this menace. He sprawled Imam Singh with a bullet in his shoulder, and as the false Hindu wavered, The Shadow leaped forward and flung him to the floor of the room. Joe Cardona came dashing in the door. He saw the tall form of Thomas Telford — whom he did not recognize as The Shadow — with the curtains of the cabinet closing about it. Before he could understand this, Cardona spied Rajah Brahman, grabbing up his revolver and leaping back for the safety of the Buddha. The detective opened a volley. His bullets were sure. Rajah Brahman fell dead.

Dick Terry was struggling with Imam Singh, trying to capture the man alive. But the man broke away, and snatched his gun from the floor. He aimed at Joe Cardona but the detective dropped him with a shot from close range.

The action of Imam Singh showed Cardona that Dick Terry was on the side of justice. The young man dropped his gun when he saw that the detective was safe.

Joe Cardona, seeing no other foes, snatched away the curtains of the spirit cabinet. The Shadow was gone! He had used Rajah Brahman's own trapdoor to effect his exit.

Chapter XXII — The Clean-Up

The clean-up of the Spook Ring was a natural consequence of the battle at Rajah Brahman's apartment. With Joe Cardona and his men in complete control, the dead bodies and the contents of the apartment were striking proofs of the strength that the evil organization had possessed. Dick Terry told a valuable story. He recounted his rescue from Barney Gleason's mob. He told how he had been advised to lay low; how Thomas Telford— whom Dick Terry did not name as The Shadow — had arranged the surprise at Rajah Brahman's.

Dick had received a key from Telford. It enabled him to get into the storeroom, where he had lain in wait for Imam Singh.

Telford, whose part had been so great, had simply chosen to disappear. Joe Cardona would have liked him for a witness, but well did he know that the man would never be located. For Joe Cardona realized that this mysterious man, whose identity proved to be nonexistent, was actually The Shadow. Working alone, he had completely deceived the crafty fakers.

Rajah Brahman was identified as Bert Clutten; Imam Singh as a young Italian named Tony Petruchi. The two had been working a spins graft for years.

Lining up with Benjamin Castelle, the organizer who had raised the racket to the million-dollar class, they had plied their crooked trade to the utmost.

Martin Slade's complete confession had told everything. A crafty murderer, Slade had arranged the deaths of various innocent persons. Rajah Brahman's bluebook and his filing cases gave hints of contemplated deaths that were now frustrated forever.

When Cardona had found the trapdoor to the floor below, and had realized the method of The Shadow's vanishing, he descended. He discovered the storeroom with its equipment. Articles of disguise— false and fraudulent devices — all sorts of paraphernalia that went with the crooked trade. What interested Cardona particularly was a chair which he recognized as the one that Professor Jacques had been tied in, that night at the Dalban. Now, when the detective examined the chair, he found that one arm rattled. Close inspection showed that the arms lifted off completely; but went back automatically. That trick chair marked Jacques as the slayer of Herbert Harvey. The medium, caught, confessed what had happened.