They were in a peculiar subterranean grotto here in Central Park, but the place showed that it had been artificially constructed and long ago.
Phil Harley might have recognized that spot. The peculiar taper of its walls was the clue. This was the defile where Doorn Van Woort had once been unwise enough to plant a crude cabin beneath two overhanging cliffs.
Doorn’s grandson Thales had done better by the place. Above was crude masonry wedged between the rocky brows, transforming the defile into a cave. The bridge thus made had been packed with earth above, so it served both as a hiding place and a fortress.
Down through the grotto ran a burbling stream, that issued from among the higher rocks. Below it flowed out through the antique grating that The Shadow had once noticed. That grating had been lifted by the half-squad of leopard men in order to bring the prisoners up through.
There was another route out from this man-made cavern that antedated the landscaping of Central Park. The other route wound upward, by means of crude stone steps. It went out of sight with no sign of its destination.
Other prisoners were already on exhibit. They consisted of two men who answered to the descriptions of Winslow Ames and Claude Older. But they were not the persons who attracted most attention. That honor belonged to one man only, whose face brought a responsive gasp from Margo, the moment that she saw it.
Craig Farnsworth!
The rugged man who had backed Ronjan’s treasure hunt seemed very pleased to find someone who appreciated his craft. When he spoke, Farnsworth seemed to be addressing Margo Lane, as proxy for her friend Lamont Cranston.
“You are a stranger here,” Farnsworth told Margo. “The others are the same, so they think, but they are wrong. They have simply come to claim and dispose of what belongs to them.”
Farnsworth gestured to a pair of men who stood beside him, hard-faced fellows who had served as cab drivers when Ames was abducted. One was baldish and therefore could have passed for Older, the night when the other man had driven a hansom to the Willow Arch.