"You must go soon to see Rajah Brahman," declared Anita Marie. "He is the leader of our circles. If he knows that you come from me, he will do all he can to help you.
"Take your nephew" — she stared triumphantly at Dick — "and let him see what the spirits can do, when the master is acallin' them!"
Anita Marie stood up to indicate that the interview was ended. Dick waited until his aunt was standing before he performed the courtesy of rising. Maude Garwood was opening her pocketbook, but Anita Marie stopped her with a sweeping gesture.
"I'm achargin' you nothin', missis," she announced, looking sidewise at Dick as she spoke. "I'm atryin' to help you. I'm adoin' good to others. There's no charge for what I'm atellin' you." The maid came in with Dick's hat. The sudden appearance of the servant made Dick presume that the maid had been listening while he had been talking alone with his aunt, and that Anita Marie had received relayed word of the situation before she had entered the room.
"Thank you, Anita Marie," declared Maude Garwood. "I shall visit Rajah Brahman as soon as he is ready to receive me. You have helped me wonderfully, Anita Marie."
Accompanied by her nephew, Maude Garwood left the house. Dick Terry stared back as he went down the steps. He could see the bulky form of the medium, behind the curtained window of the door. Inside the house, Anita Marie was glowering. She was giving way to the suppressed rage which she felt toward the unwelcome visitor who had accompanied her client. She called to the maid.
"Pack up my bag!" she ordered roughly. "I'm agoin' to New York tonight. I'm not agoin' to wait no longer."
The maid hurried away, and the medium marched up the stairs. Hardly had her heavy footfalls died before there was a motion in the dim hall. From an obscure spot, a tall, black-clad figure emerged. A soft laugh sounded from unseen lips. It was an echo — almost noiseless— of those sardonic tones that had thrown consternation into Anita Marie's seance room, last Saturday night. The sinister figure glided across the hall and noiselessly opened the door. As the tall form vanished through the opening, it seemed to melt away. A believer — had one been present — would have sworn that a spirit form had de-materialized itself.
The weird stranger was gone; the only trace of his farther progress was the appearance of a fleeting splotch of blackness as it drifted past the glare of a lamp-post on the street. The Shadow had seen. The Shadow had heard. The Shadow had departed.