Long after midnight a small coupe slipped away from a side entrance of Matthew Wade’s home. It traveled to a Long Island airport. There Matthew Wade boarded his plane. The motor whirred; the ship rose and pointed down along the Jersey coast.
Only a few persons present knew who was in the plane. The news spread. There was an item for the newspapers. Matthew Wade had suddenly left New York.
Joe Cardona was among the persons who saw the plane leave. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it safely off. He thought that he alone saw significance in the departure. But he was wrong. Another observer had seen the plane leave — a man in a long, dark coat with upturned collar and broad-brimmed slouch hat.
This man was standing in the background as the plane left the ground. He laughed as the speedy airplane ascended, and his laugh was a strange one. It was weird but mirthless, that laugh. It was a laugh that would have startled Joe Cardona had he heard it, for the eerie sound was the laugh of The Shadow!
How had the mysterious man of the dark arrived at that spot? Only he knew. His presence there proved that he was ever alert; that through his own observation, or through that of his agents, The Shadow had learned of Joe Cardona’s visit to the home of Matthew Wade.
But the detective did not know of The Shadow’s presence. The dark-clad man was scarcely visible upon the gloomy field, over which the faint gray of dawn was just appearing. His laugh, too, was unnoticed. It was lost in the roar of the departing plane.
CHAPTER XX. CARDONA’S TRIUMPH
A WIZENED old man sat in a little room, staring over the curving banks of the Harlem River. He was in a veritable watchtower — the third story of an old building on the border of the Bronx. On the desk before him lay a pile of newspapers.
The old man laughed and showed his toothless gums. He was gloating happily. He picked up a newspaper and read its screaming headlines. He laid his head upon the desk and chuckled convulsively.
The headlines which so pleased the old man dealt with the death of Matthew Wade. The famous millionaire sportsman had been lost at sea in his airplane. But it was the wording of that heading that caused the wizened man’s greatest glee. It flashed its message for all the world to see: