“Then I met him, and I knew he was real.
“I was ready to pull a job in Harrisburg. I came into my hotel room, and I saw — The Shadow. He spoke to me. He whispered. He could have plugged me then, but he don’t work that way. He let me go.
“I’ve heard of him since. I was ready for him in New York, but I got the wrong guy. He’s liable to be anywhere — he’s liable to be anybody.”
“What do you mean by anybody?” asked Borrango.
“I mean that he can fix himself to look like anybody. When I was in New York, The Shadow was fixed up to look like a bird named Reds Larkin. We went out to get him. But we got the real Reds Larkin by mistake.
“I got away from New York, after that. Too many things happen when you try to cross The Shadow.”
“He bumps them off, does he?” asked Borrango. “Funny he didn’t put you on the spot last night.”
“He never bumps off anybody,” said Cronin, in a slow, awed voice. “The guys he wants to get just die — sometimes they kill each other! They lay traps for him, and they fall into the traps themselves. Did you ever hear of Diamond Bert Farwell?”
Borrango nodded.
“Well,” resumed Cronin, “it was The Shadow that got him. Bert was rigged up like a Chinaman. Called himself Wang Foo. The Shadow tipped off the dicks, and they nabbed Diamond Bert.”