“Who is he?” Clyde Burke’s question came in a tone of surprise. Very few such items failed to reach the news office of the New York Classic, the tabloid newspaper with which Burke was connected.
“A man named Robert Buchanan,” declared Mann. “His relatives have been disturbed about his absence. He was engaged to marry Margaret Glendenning, who lives with her uncle, a retired manufacturer. No one seems to know where Buchanan has gone.”
“How did you find out about it?” Burke asked.
“I hear many things at the Cobalt Club,” declared Mann, with a note of pride. “It’s my business — as you know — to keep posted on matters unusual. I learned of Buchanan’s disappearance about ten days ago.”
“And then—”
“I sent the information to— to the proper person” — there was a hidden significance in Mann’s words — “and of course I made notes on the Wharton case also.
“I must admit, however, that I would have seen nothing in the suicide of George Andrews. But to-day, I received instructions.”
Burke nodded. He knew what Rutledge Mann meant by “instructions.” For both Clyde Burke and the investment broker were the secret agents of that man of mystery — The Shadow.
Rutledge Mann, working from the security of a comfortable office, and spending his evenings at the exclusive Cobalt Club, served as a contact man for The Shadow.
Clyde Burke, ostensibly a newspaper reporter with the Classic, in an ideal position to conduct outside investigations, was an active agent of The Shadow.