With one hand the murderous millionaire pressed The Shadow’s head against the boards; with the other he gripped the muzzle of the automatic and wrested it from The Shadow’s grasp.
Only The Shadow’s forefinger still clutched the pistol, hooked firmly in the trigger guard. Wade, with a wild cry of success, wrenched the gun directly toward himself. The Shadow’s slipping finger was drawn violently against the trigger. A loud report echoed through the soundproof room. Matthew Wade collapsed slowly to the soft carpet.
The muzzle had been against his chest, the bullet passing through his heart. Matthew Wade lay dead.
JOE CARDONA’S sentinels did not see the figure in black step through a panel in the passageway that led to the side door of Matthew Wade’s home. The panel closed. The door opened to the driveway. The Shadow stepped forth unsteadily. He paused a moment to drink in deep breaths of fresh air. Then he merged with the night and moved through darkness, phantomlike, a being unseen.
Behind him, hidden in the secret room, lay the body of Matthew Wade, the man who had posed as Double Z, the multimillionaire who had not been satisfied with wealth alone.
That man had sought the power which only crime could bring. He had dealt death; but his career was finished now. Matthew Wade lay buried in an unknown tomb. The reign of the arch-criminal had been ended — by The Shadow!
Outside, all unwitting of the epic struggle that had just ended within, Cardona’s watchers were startled by the sound of a low, throbbing laugh that seemed to taunt their vigilant inactivity. The weird sound persisted softly for a few minutes, then died away.
The Shadow had gone his way victorious, to resume his perpetual fight against the underworld in some other quarter. What horrible plot against the public safety would next attract his attention?
Only The Shadow knew!