The hands were motionless. An invisible mind was at work in the gloom. A master brain was determining the significance of these diagrams that looked so much alike.
Then the light went out. A low, sinister laugh came from the darkness. It seemed a part of the room itself; the very walls seemed to join in that weird mockery.
The laugh died away. The room was silent. The Shadow was gone!
CHAPTER IX
THE VAULT OF DOOM
A VAGUE feeling of terror swept over Betty Mandell back in the Galvin home, as she groped for the cord of the bed lamp. She found it and gasped with relief as the light clicked.
The illumination was comforting. Betty glanced about the bedroom, wondering now what had caused her sudden fright.
She felt that horror had awakened her — the horror of some impending danger. Tonight was terribly like that other night, when she had discovered the strange man in black on her visit to the study.
Betty reflected. Perhaps an instinctive dread of loneliness had oppressed her. She should not have come home tonight. In so doing, she had failed to obey Bob’s orders.
He had called her at Alice Wheeler’s that morning. She could remember his words distinctly.