"Very strange," replied Harry, "yet it can be nothing more than coincidence."
"Do you think so?" said Fellows. "Well, Vincent, I spend a great deal of time looking through out-of-town papers for coincidences such as this. In the majority of cases they have meant the beginning of important events."
"Involving The Shadow?"
"Of course. Those clippings indicate something unusual. I have sent copies of them to the empty office on Twenty-third Street, where The Shadow receives his messages. I have received instructions to watch for any further news of similar disappearances."
"Do you expect such news?"
"Perhaps. Note that these men disappeared a week apart. Hooper left Trenton on a Tuesday afternoon; Longstreth was last seen in Richmond on a Monday. The papers did not give the news until the end of the week, in either case."
A sudden thought occurred to Harry Vincent.
"I have a report to make," he said, "and it may fit in with this. It concerns a man named Elbridge Meyers who left Cleveland, Tuesday morning — two days ago."
Fellows seemed interested. Vincent began his story from the time that he had first observed the man on the train, who had proved to be Steve Cronin. When he completed his narrative, he was surprised to see Fellows become unusually alert.
"Write that down immediately," said the insurance broker, handing him pen and ink. "I have something to do in the meantime."