But upstairs in the old house, Joe Cardona knew nothing of that. He ordered his men to carry out the bodies, while he continued his search among Zachary Shellmann’s papers. For this was Joe Cardona’s hour of triumph. He had slain Double Z!
CHAPTER XXI. THE SHADOW’S WORK
BEFORE the great house of Matthew Wade, detectives were still on watch. Within were other plain-clothes men. Joe Cardona, working in the Bronx, had not yet sent word for them to leave.
Only two men had been allowed to enter the building that night. They were Barnaby Hotchkiss and Blaine Glover — men of great wealth, and old friends of Matthew Wade, who was supposedly dead.
They had come there in answer to letters mailed by Wade before he had departed on his illfated flight.
They were in the smoking room, going over papers that he had instructed them to examine.
“You think there’s danger here tonight?” questioned Hotchkiss.
“Perhaps so,” said Glover warily. “That detective — Cardona — told us that he was worried for our safety. But with all these men on duty—”
“A good precaution,” was the other’s comment. “Perhaps he has some inkling that this criminal is after us, too. But this is probably the best place for us to be. We are amply protected, I feel positive!”
OUTSIDE the mansion a plain-clothes man was guarding the side door — the very door where Matthew Wade had left in his coupe when he had started for the flying field.