The Shadow had gone, and Isaac Coffran stood in the hall, fuming with rage and anger. His lips spat oaths of disappointment.
Then came a sound from the floor below; it was a long, tantalizing sound. A quivering laugh came up the stairs — a taunting, sardonic laugh. It was jeering, maddening to the ears of the old man above. The laugh came again — farther away; then a third time, fading in the distance.
Trembling with rage, the old man still stood in the upstairs hallway, shaking his fist in wrath. The air seemed to quiver with the echoes of The Shadow's laugh.
Back in his room the old man seized the black garments and flung them against the wall. He stamped upon them in sudden rage. Then he became suddenly calm. He had held The Shadow and had lost him.
Well, they would meet again.
Grimness was expressed upon Isaac Coffran's evil countenance as he drew another revolver from the table drawer and started downstairs to find the missing Pedro.
CHAPTER XVII. MEN MARKED TO DIE
While Isaac Coffran had been watching the clock upstairs, the two men in the chamber of death had been witnessing the final approach of the wall that was designed to crush them.
Bruce Duncan's eyes had become glassy. He was standing nearer to the archway than Abdul, the Hindu.
His back was against the wall behind him; his arms were outstretched. He had felt certain that it must be too late for rescue.