Cranston was watching through the window, as the man who called himself Richard Albion drove away in a cab. The vehicle had not gone a hundred yards before a sedan pulled away from the opposite curb and followed.
Lamont Cranston took a chair in the corner of the lounge. He drew a pen from his pocket, laid a sheet of paper upon a magazine, and wrote:
Richard Albion is Prince Zuvor. He is being watched. Those who enter his home are watched. X can be traced through those who watch. This is another way of reaching X.
As Lamont Cranston reread the words which he had inscribed, the writing slowly faded away. The young man in evening dress smiled as he crumpled the paper and tossed it in a wastebasket.
CHAPTER XIII
THE RED MEETING
PROKOP was seated at the desk in his apartment. He was busily engaged in writing. A clock on the desk showed half past ten. Prokop went to the bookcase and removed the encyclopedia which he used to conceal his important papers.
He removed a few documents. Then he looked puzzled. An envelope lay among them — an envelope which was addressed to him in bright-red ink. The color of the writing carried significance.
Prokop opened the envelope. He had not placed it there himself. He could not imagine how it had come among his papers.
The letter was also in red ink; its characters had been carefully printed, and its words were short in their explanation: