Disguised as an interne, he had been ready with the poisoned glass, hoping that The Shadow might be brought in wounded. Overhearing Macklin’s attempt to confess his crimes, Palermo had nipped the revelations by giving his own hireling the dose prepared for The Shadow.
With the arrival of the real Jerry Haggerty, The Shadow had disappeared. Palermo, his mission of death fulfilled, had left the hospital.
Gunner Macklin was dead, and two bewildered detectives and a mystified interne were the only ones remaining on the scene!
CHAPTER XII. THE NET TIGHTENS
Two men sat in a dark room, looking from the window. Opposite them was the brilliantly lighted front of the Marimba Apartments. The gorgeously uniformed doorman was making his nightly parade.
From the lookout room, on the second floor across the street, the two hidden men could see everything that took place before the apartment.
The window was open; the sounds from the street were quite audible. The two men talked in low-pitched voices, scarcely able to hear each other above the din of the street. They were discussing exciting events that had occurred a few nights before.
“It still amazes me, Harry,” said one. “We knew The Shadow was coming down that alleyway. We did our part, all right, whispering to those two gunmen, while we pretended to be watching the window. But even though we were on the alert, The Shadow passed through without our noticing him!”
The other man laughed.
“The more experience one has with The Shadow,” he replied, “the more remarkable he seems. I had a hunch that we would not hear him enter. Our job was to keep the way clear, Clyde, and we did it.”