Turning to look for the newcomer, Farnsworth frowned and his expression graduated into a glare. For the man who suddenly appeared from among the lower rocks was Niles Ronjan, a large revolver pointed ahead of him.
The term eccentric no longer applied to Ronjan. His was the fervor of a fanatic.
“So you found this grotto!” cackled Ronjan. “You found it, never thinking I was first! Tell me, Farnsworth, why did you think that I delayed the treasure hunt after I found the Good Wind empty?
“Only because I planned to remove the treasure from here and plant it in the sunken hulk of the old brig. Like a fool, I was willing to let you share, should I be given time. Then I saw Yuble acting strangely and I knew that he had sold out to you. But I never suspected that you had found the Good Wind treasure too.
“Never until tonight, when I discovered Yuble murdered in my own apartment. Then I realized the depths of your game, how you were trying to pin all crime on me. I found the creature that murdered Yuble, the vampire bat from the tropics -”
Farnsworth’s interruption was a snarl, a signal for the leopard men to pounce upon Ronjan. They were whipping out their knives so fast that the old inventor’s gun could not have coped with them except for Thara Lamoyne.
With a fierce cry for the leopard men to follow her example, Thara flung herself upon Farnsworth. She had all the fury of a sleek, wild, jungle beast, this maddened girl, as she thrust her arms and shoulders from within her spreading cloak so that her hands could use their fingers as death-dealing claws.
The word of Yuble’s murder had turned Thara into a creature of mad vengeance. As Farnsworth’s other followers tried to haul this living fury from their chief, the leopard men hesitated and momentarily, Ronjan seemed the winner.
Then, at a mad howl from Farnsworth, the leopard crew decided that they owned allegiance to a living master rather than a dead one. They swung to deal with Ronjan, willing to take Farnsworth’s orders now that Yuble was dead. Ronjan was already springing at them, gun first, but the weight of numbers would have flattened him, except for the sudden intervention of a factor hitherto undeclared.
The whole grotto filled with the shivering, challenging, titanic laugh that could only be The Shadow’s!