Reluctantly, he crumpled the capitalized sheet and threw it on the floor for Fritz to remove. Beneath the final, poorly formed draft, he wrote a few brief remarks along the lines suggested by the headings. He folded the weak effort in his pocket, and walked from the room, still shaking his head. Fritz continued his slow and laborious job. The last sheet of paper that the janitor picked up for his rubbish can was the one which Cardona had thrown to the floor before he left. Fritz did not drop this with the others. He placed it in the pocket of his overalls. Moving slowly from the office, Fritz made his way to a deserted locker room. There, he discarded his working clothes. His attire underneath was a well-fitting suit of black. He had simply covered it with his overalls.
Before he put the overalls into the locker, Fritz withdrew the crumpled paper and dropped it in his coat pocket.
A metamorphosis had come over the man. No longer stooped, he stood erect before the locker. From the depths of the iron box, he drew forth two objects— a black cloak and a slouch hat. A broad flash of crimson showed from the lining as the changed man flung the cloak about his shoulders. Then he was a form totally clad in black, from cloak with upturned collar, to hat with turned-down brim that completely masked his features.
Fritz, the janitor, had become The Shadow!
Silently, swiftly, the man in black swept from the locker room. He became a fleeting form as he moved down me corridor to the street door.
Then this mysterious being went out into the night, and not even a splotch of darkness indicated the course that he had taken!
Half an hour afterward, a click sounded in a little room. A circle of light appeared beneath a green-shaded lamp. The rays of illumination were centered on a table.
Two hands appeared. They were long, white hands, and upon one finger glowed a gem with changing, translucent hues.
It was the same gem that Professor Jacques had seen on the hand of the hawk-faced man who had disappeared from the seance room! It was a rare girasol — or fire opal — a stone unmatched in all the world. That gem, alone, was a single jewel that The Shadow wore!
Something plopped upon the table. It was Cardona's sheet of paper. A moment later, it was unfolded, and there the hidden eyes of The Shadow read the message meant for them.