Part 5 (1/2)
His purpose was to hurl himself as a living bombsh.e.l.l into the cl.u.s.ter that was forming around Laboutard and Jaro.
They were across a street that ran beside a railroad track, and a stretch of light intervened. They spied The Shadow as he reached that last lap and began to scatter, some aiming revolvers, others hurling knives.
Had they remained grouped, The Shadow would have launched into their midst; but since they were scattering of their own volition, he simply went into the next stage of his clean-up.
Wheeling back into darkness, The Shadow jabbed telling shots at flas.h.i.+ng guns, s.h.i.+fting his own position with such alacrity that his foemen were belated when they tried to pick his gun bursts as targets.
Nor did The Shadow's mocking laugh give them a key. It could have come from anywhere - or from nowhere.
Laboutard's baffled band was in a tight spot, when a big spotlight suddenly blazed in from a corner. It showed The Shadow, a sleek shape in black, dripping from his trip into the river. Guns began a haphazard tattoo in his direction.
The light was from a police car that covered the waterfront. Its occupants mistook The Shadow for the prime trouble-maker, and to add to the complication, other cars were coming up to follow the example of the first. The Shadow's only course was landward flight. As he sped in one direction to elude the revealing lights, Laboutard's fighters fled in another.
Still misguided, the cops in police cars tried to hunt down The Shadow. Those that stopped at the wharf learned of the mistake, but by then the pursuers were too far away. They spotted The Shadow at infrequent intervals as he took to alleyways.
Finally reaching his car, The Shadow managed to get a start to safety, but to avoid a clash with the police, he was forced to drive away from the city's center instead of toward it.
Meanwhile, order had been restored near the Amazonia. Laboutard's cripples had fought to the death; not one remained to name the leader who had ordered them into combat.
Andy Ames explained how he had happened to come to the wharf, and sailors from the Amazonia supported him with the testimony that the s.h.i.+p had boxes for the Mayan Museum in its cargo.
Accompanied by a police captain who had taken charge, Andy went on board to examine the boxes.
Not only did the s.h.i.+pment appear rifled, but sailors testified that they had seen marauders fleeing with loaded sacks. Nevertheless, the remaining contents of the boxes coincided with a list that Andy had brought from the museum. It didn't puzzle Andy. He remembered how Panchez and the mestizos had gathered loot on the way from Yucatan. It was plain that they had s.h.i.+pped it with the relics that the expedition had acc.u.mulated. Goods for the Mayan Museum had been pa.s.sed, almost unexamined, by Mexican officials and United States customs officers.
When the police decided that the sacks might have come from elsewhere in the s.h.i.+p's cargo, the men on the Amazonia admitted that such might be the case. But Andy was thinking in terms of Professor Hedwin and Fitzhugh Salter, wondering if one or the other could have been responsible for what had happened.
Accompanied by the police captain, Andy returned to the museum. Most of the guests had gone, but the rest were listening to a hectic argument between Hedwin and Salter on the subject of the fire G.o.d, Xitli.
Graham Talborn and Eugene Brendle were still present; so was Yvonne Carland.
Though Hedwin and Salter seldom agreed on anything, both the professor and the curator were satisfied when Andy announced that the list showed nothing stolen. Hedwin couldn't remember precisely what had gone in various s.h.i.+pments, and Salter declared that all typewritten lists were precise copies of those that Hedwin had sent him.
Hence, Andy's quandary still continued until a new and rather startling element developed. It came when a police car arrived, bringing a darkish, ugly-faced prisoner whose arm was bandaged.
Andy recognized that the fellow must be the Cajun who had grappled The Shadow by the rail of the Amazonia. The man's wound was from the bullet that Andy had triggered.
FISHED from the river by the police, the prisoner was in a mood to talk. He was telling a certain amount of truth because he thought it would be for his benefit and Laboutard's.
The Cajun insisted that he hadn't been on the Amazonia at all, but had simply been strolling along the wharf when trouble began. That much was false, but the fellow followed it with facts.
He said that men from the Amazonia had started all the trouble; strange men, whose faces looked like copper and whose garments were the rough hides of animals. When he came to the description of their sloping foreheads there was an interruption from Hedwin.
”Aztecs!” exclaimed the professor, as if quite pleased. ”Stowaways from Mexico. Do you know why they are here?” He shot the question at Salter. ”They have heard that the temple of Xitli has been restored. My theories are proven!”
”Nonsense!” returned the curator. ”Your talk of Xitli is all fol-de-rol. I've let you go too far with it, Hedwin, merely because I didn't want to argue.”
”What about the mask and robe?” queried Hedwin narrowly. ”The costume that you were unable to identify when you put labels on the rest?”
”It is merely an uncla.s.sified exhibit,” defined Salter. ”There is nothing to prove that it represented Xitli. It could belong to any unknown Mayan deity.”
Hedwin retorted that there were no unknown Mayan G.o.ds, with the possible exception of Xitli. The discussion brought smiles from Talborn and Brendle, who were anxious to see how far it would go. But the police captain wasn't interested in Mayan lore.
”Let's drop this X G.o.d,” he stormed, ”and talk about the Aztecs. They sound phony to me” - he was turning to glare at the Cajun - ”and unless somebody else got a look at them, and I mean somebody reliable, we'll count them out.” Looking for someone reliable, the captain noticed Andy Ames and decided that his opinion would do.
”You were there at the start, Ames,” he said. ”You have already stated that you saw a bunch that looked like Cajuns, along with a crowd of roustabouts. This man” - he nudged toward the prisoner - ”and the dead ones at the dock support that statement. But did you see any Aztecs?”
Stolidly, Andy shook his head. He did not feel that he was telling a silent lie. In his opinion, the squatly man who had thrown the stone hatchet was a member of some unknown tribe and could not be cla.s.sed as an Aztec.
Coupled to that was Andy's recollection of the Xincas who had served The Shadow. They fell under Andy's cla.s.sification of an ”unknown tribe.” Andy was sure that the hatchet man had come after him by mistake. There had been other mistakes later in the battle at the wharf, and by rectifying one, Andy felt that he was returning a favor to The Shadow.
It never occurred to him that he might be making a greater mistake than all the rest combined, that there had been many stone-faced men on board the Amazonia, and that those stowaways, all actual Aztecs, were now loose in New Orleans, forming a murderous flock.
”No Aztecs,” decided the police captain. He turned to the Cajun: ”Come along, you, and keep your trap shut until you're ready to give us a straight story.”
Trucks had arrived with the boxes from the Amazonia; all were unloaded and safely stored in the cellar of the museum. Fitzhugh Salter was preparing to close the big pyramid for the night. Ready to leave with the rest, Andy Ames was wondering what had become of The Shadow.
It did not occur to him that The Shadow's trail should rightfully have led back to the Mayan Museum, but that it had been delayed by the interference of the police. Nor did Andy realize that The Shadow was the one person who could have properly judged the statement of the captured Cajun.
This was a time when something that The Shadow had not learned was to prove a hideous factor in schemes of monstrous crime!
CHAPTER X. THE CULT OF XITLI.
ALL was quiet outside the Mayan Museum, but the calm itself was so intense that it gave Yvonne Carland the s.h.i.+vers. She pointed to the shrubbery surrounding the pyramid and remarked to Andy that she could almost see the bushes move, as though lurkers were creeping from them.
The comment brought a cackly laugh from Professor Hedwin. He squinted at the bushes, then nodded wisely in support of Yvonne's opinion; but he made no mention of Aztecs.
”Perhaps she is right, Andy,” declared Hedwin. ”I would advise you to look out for Miss Carland and see her safely home. From all reports, you handled yourself well down at the wharf. If other dangers are abroad, you can protect Miss Carland from them.”
With a bow that signified good night, the professor entered a cab and rode away, leaving Andy with Yvonne. Smilingly, Andy asked if he could see Yvonne home. The girl started to nod, then shook her head.
”It wouldn't be best, Andy,” she a.s.serted. ”My uncle might be up, and he wouldn't like to know that I was really friendly with anyone connected with the recent expedition.”
Graham Talborn was standing by. He had heard all the comments. The affable exporter gave adisappointed smile.
”I was going to offer to take you home,” he said to Yvonne, ”in case Andy did not qualify. But it seems that I am on the blacklist, too. Good night.”
Eugene Brendle stepped up when Graham Talborn had strolled away. Brendle offered a prompt solution to the dilemma.
”Come in my car,” he told Yvonne. ”I'll drop you off at the apartment. If your uncle is watching, he will recognize the car. He doesn't regard me as connected with the museum. I'm only a contractor who couldn't help myself.”
Yvonne left with Brendle, and Andy strolled glumly to his car. He took a look at the shrubbery as he drove away and noticed that huddling clumps did seem to move, as Yvonne had suggested. But Andy attributed it to the swing of the car lights.
One man alone remained at the museum: Fitzhugh Salter. The curator was locking the huge front door, and all the while he was wearing a half-smug smile. He glanced sharply about the premises, then walked away on foot. Salter lived in the vicinity of the museum and never used a car.