Leaving the phone booth, Slade started for Long Island, completely satisfied. He chuckled as he drove along.There would be trouble for Detective Joe Cardona to-night!
While Slade was riding leisurely eastward, a giant monoplane was zooming west at a speed of more than two hundred and fifty miles an hour. Its mighty wings cast a strange, moving shadow across the moonlit countryside.
At the wheel of the roaring plane was a man who laughed!
Chapter XVII–In Chicago
A quiet, well-dressed young man entered the lobby of an old hotel in Chicago. He noticed a bell boy standing by the wall. The young man approached him and gave him two objects — a small pasteboard box and a fifty-cent piece.
"Will you deliver this package to Room 414?" he questioned. "Do it right away."
"Sure thing!" exclaimed the bell boy. "On my way now, sir!" He entered the elevator and rode upstairs, juggling the half dollar — an unusually large tip in that decadent hotel. The bell boy was bound on an important mission, although he did not know it. The man who had given him the package was Harry Vincent, an agent of The Shadow. He had prepared a warning message in response to a special telephone call from New York.
The speaker at the other end had been Burbank, a quiet-voiced man who worked at The Shadow's right hand.
The message which Harry had arranged was in the package that was going to Room 414. The occupant of that room was Detective Joe Cardona.
On the fourth floor, the bell boy hesitated. He had forgotten the number of the room. He seemed to remember it as 418.