The big shot seemed sure that his henchmen would be capable of swinging a powerful counterstroke against that mysterious being who called himself The Shadow.
CHAPTER XX
SAVOLI STRIKES
ON the following evening, Harry Vincent was unusually alert as he entered Marmosa’s place. He realized that affairs were coming to a head.
His work was cut out for him. Harry had his instructions to watch the two Sicilians, the Homicide Twins. This infamous pair, drawing pay from Nick Savoli, were equal to a hundred hoodlums in the big shot’s opinion.
Genara and Anelmo came in early. As usual, they took their post in a quiet corner, appearing quite indifferent to those about them.
There were few players that night; the usual gathering of regulars. Yet there was one man who commanded Harry’s attention.
Somber, gray-haired, neatly dressed, he somehow seemed to be out of his element. Yet there was nothing conspicuous about him — unless it was the intentness with which he followed the path of the small white ball waltzing around the roulette wheel. Harry noticed that the stranger lost steadily.
Every now and then, the gray-haired man quit the table. He walked about the room, as though to change his luck. Always, however, he came to a halt near the corner where Anelmo and Genara were standing.
The Homicide Twins spoke to each other in low-pitched Italian. Evidently they saw nothing marked in the stranger’s occasional nearness, for they continued their conversation. The gray-haired man was obviously an American; the chances were he couldn’t understand Italian, anyhow.