“I think that the statement to the newspapers is an excellent idea,” declared Biscayne. “I still persist in my theory that the third killing — if there was one — took place last night.
“I believe that the dead man in Harshaw’s apartment is apart from the regular series of crimes.
“That makes me all the more in favor of the newspaper statement. The murderer — whom Cardona has called the big brain — will have no knowledge of my theory if he reads the newspaper accounts.”
THE noon editions carried accounts of Silas Harshaw and his inventions; of Louis Glenn and his brief trip to New York; of the mysterious notes that had announced three deaths.
What did the initials T.S. mean? That was the great perplexity. But Cardona did not mention the name of The Shadow.
Secretly, the star detective believed that Roger Biscayne had struck upon a real idea. Cardona believed that the murderer had picked The Shadow for his third victim.
It might be that the unidentified man killed at Harshaw’s was The Shadow.
It might also be that The Shadow, himself, had slain the man who had tried to murder him!
If so, it was The Shadow who had escaped. It was also possible that The Shadow, himself, had mailed the third letter, the next night, as a bit of irony.
For The Shadow invariably mocked those who sought to frustrate him.