"Thanks to Slade," observed the chief.
"Yes," responded the rajah. "Slade did well there. That's why I figured this Philadelphia proposition would be safe. I didn't waste any time after Anita Marie gave me the news about Mrs. Garwood." There was silence in the darkened room. The shrouding curtain at the doorway masked all light. Rajah Brahman's cigarette had gone. But the interview was not yet over. The rajah had an important matter to discuss.
"Say, chief," he said, "you wrote me that you didn't like the mess up at the Hotel Dalban. You figured that it might mean a lot of trouble of a kind we didn't expect. What did you mean by that?"
"I was thinking about the person who started the trouble," came the quiet reply. "He put Jacques out of commission. He may try something like it again."
"Just a wise guy. Jacques lost his head, that's all."
"No, that isn't all. There was something unreal about the whole affair. The man who commenced it came from nowhere. He went back to where he came. Puffed out of the room like a cloud of smoke!"
"He can't bother us anymore. He probably knows that the police think he did it. He'll lay low from now on."
"Not if he is the man I think he is." There was an ominous tone to the remark. It was impressive even to Rajah Brahman, the man who was law unto himself.
"Do you know who he is, chief?"
"Did you ever hear of The Shadow?"