He was a being of silence as he merged into the darkness. Tonight, The Shadow had been a man of stealth. Not even a whispered laugh indicated his departure.
Two men had plotted while their henchmen were on guard. They were supermen of crime, and their underlings were shrewd and watchful.
Yet not one of the four had detected the presence of The Shadow. Silently and invisibly, he had come from the dark to learn the ways of these men of crime. Tonight, The Shadow had withheld his hand. Two men, possessors of tremendous resources, were using their guise of high respectability to further a gigantic scheme of evil. The Shadow, alone, had gained a knowledge of their malefactions. Secretly, working from the dark, he must sap their power until it was no more than an empty shell. Then would The Shadow strike!
Chapter VII — The Shadow's Choice
It was late in the afternoon when Biff Towley, the swarthy racketeer, strolled into the office of Glade Tremont. The visitor's name was announced, and he was ushered into the lawyer's private office. Every gangster of Towley's ilk had an attorney; and even so prominent a man as Glade Tremont was willing to act as legal representative for persons who kept on the shady side of the law. Hence there was nothing out of the ordinary about Biff Towley's visit to this place.
But within the walls of the inner office, where the two men were sequestered undisturbed, the relationship between gangster and attorney took on a new light. Biff Towley had not come here for advice. He had come to make a report, and to receive instructions.
"I've got a good man for you," declared Biff, in a low tone. "Fact is, I've picked two of 'em. It's up to you to make your choice."
"Tell me about them," said Tremont quietly.
"Well," said Biff, "when you told me night before last, that you needed a guy that could handle a rod and act like a stiff shirt, too, I knew it wasn't going to be too easy to get one. You know the kind of bozos I keep in my mob."
Glade Tremont nodded.