From the fact that he had not been found anywhere around, I was assured that he had escaped, although the manner of it was then a mystery to me.
And I fully expected to hear something from or see him within a very few days.
But I did not.
He seemed to have disappeared from the face of earth.
I went around among the dens of the east side, but could neither see nor learn anything of him.
Again and again I made the tour of the dives, but always with the same result.
Then, put to work on a case, I plunged into it, became interested, and Shadow slowly faded from my mind.
It was a murder case.
The murder had been committed under peculiar circumstances, and I had not been long at work before I became convinced that it had been done by the hands of a regularly organized gang of evil-doers.
At last I struck a clew.