“I brought Miss Selmore,” explained Thara, in a cool contralto. “I thought she ought to be the first to discover the banshee.”
“If you mean the Gwrach y Rhibyn,” protested Sylvia, “I am convinced that she is a genuine sprite. However, if science demands an investigation, I am willing to comply.”
It would have taken science to hoist Miss Sylvia across the transverse, even if a rope had been handy. However, Margo was sure the banshee wouldn’t take that route tonight. Close by hulked an old building that Margo recognized as the disused goat stable; beyond was the partly renovated merry-go-round.
There would be the place to wait and watch, so Margo waved the way. With Thara bringing Miss Sylvia along they reached the carrousel and saw its partial stock of painted wooden animals huddled in the moonlight.
Only some were neither painted nor wooden.
They came to life, four of them, all crouching leopards. With one quick swoop they pounced upon the search party and took them prisoners, all except Thara, who happened to be in on the deal.
The Shadow had done well, capturing a crew of leopard men tonight, but that was only half of it. These reserves were making up for the shortcomings of the others. Knowing it would be useless to struggle, Margo let her leopard captor drag her along. Looking back at the blackness of the slope, Margo could only hope that The Shadow was in it.
Things, though, no longer seemed to be shaping as The Shadow planned. At that very moment, a party of his agents, numbering Phil Harley as an extra man, had just reached the old Watch Tower on the middle hill, only to find it deserted!
CHAPTER XX
OUT of darkness that ended when they heard a clang behind them, Margo Lane and the other prisoners found themselves in a most curious place. It looked like the interior of a Dutch oven, but on a much larger scale.