The chasing gangster pitched headlong. A second shot brought down another mobster.
Two leaped forward together. One fell as a bullet struck him at close range. The other dived for the shelter of the wall, along the street.
The pursuers stopped. Dropping to places of safety, they edged along to cover the entrance of the alley.
Others, organizing, hurried around the block, to cut off The Shadow’s retreat.
As tense seconds passed, and no more shots were fired, three gangsters arose and dashed forward in a mass.
One turned on a flashlight. It revealed a momentary glimpse of a tall figure clambering to the roof of a low porch that adjoined a house on the alley.
Shots rang out. The figure was gone. It reappeared again, springing upward to the roof of the two-story building.
A bullet struck close beside the clambering form. From the sound, it seemed to graze the man as he swung himself to the top of the house.
One pursuer hoisted himself to the roof of the porch. A shot rang out from the edge of the housetop. The mobster fell.
Then The Shadow was gone; he had taken to the housetops of another block, and gangsters were scattering wildly in hope of preventing his escape.