Part 6 (1/2)

The reason for the drift was that The Shadow's eyes had gone. Instead, his hand momentarily appeared beside the newel post at the stair top. Being gloved in black, the hand revealed itself only as a pa.s.sing blur that momentarily clouded the rail from which The Shadow's cloaked form had already faded. But the object that the hand released was very visible.

Again, it was a contrast of black and white. The thing that caughtDunninger's gaze was the folded sheet of paper as The Shadow let it flutter from the stair top.

There was something deft in The Shadow's toss. A neat twist of his wrist caused the paper to flip away from the stairs under the ceiling below. There it hovered as though supported by an invisible hand until it drifted toward the center of the room, where it slipped free from the air currents and came downward.

Two persons suddenly saw it: Margo and Jennifer.

Perhaps Dunninger's roving gaze had carried theirs along, but neither realized it. To Margo it seemed that the fluttering paper must have come right through the solid ceiling, while Jennifer thought it had materialized in midair.

Both were quite astonished and showed it by their gasps, which attracted the attention of the other persons present.

Men came to their feet to reach excitedly for the mysterious whirligig.

Roger was moving from one direction, Wiggam from another, while Clyde and Torrance also had the same idea. Gustave remained seated, shrinking as though from something fearful, while Hector took some backward steps toward the dining room door.

Dunninger, alone, appeared to be indifferent to the paper's arrival. He simply turned and strolled to the rear of the great hall, near the shelf where he had once placed the mercury bowl. There, he turned again, straight toward the fireplace, where the men who sought the fluttering paper had followed it and were stretching like basketball players around a goal, while Gustave s.h.i.+ed from their midst.

Flippantly the paper winged upward, away from the seeking hands. It took a long, sideward skim that ended with a final flutter right into Dunninger's waiting hand.

THE effect was uncanny; it seemed that Dunninger had magnetized the winged message. Then the real explanation dawned on Margo as she was leaving her place by the fireplace.

The paper had simply dipped into the warm air rising from the hearth and had s.h.i.+ed upward and away. Gauging its probable course, Dunninger had stepped to the proper place to receive it. Now he was unfolding the paper and scanning its blue-inked lines which no one else was in a position to glimpse.

That writing began to vanish word by word, which was the way with messages that The Shadow inscribed in his special ink. Dunninger was stepping toward the group and they all felt sure that he was reading something until he neared them.

By then Dunninger was showing the paper openly, since it had gone quite blank, but he was also easing one action into another.

Instead of reading the paper, Dunninger was scrutinizing it against the firelight. He beckoned to others so they could look across-his shoulder and observe the watermark that showed through the paper against the glare of the fire.

”One of the planchette papers,” remarked Dunninger. ”I examined the looseones on the pad. The watermark tallies.”

”Now will you believe in spirits?” croaked Jennifer. ”Only Donald's unseen hand could have folded that paper and sent it down here!”

”Hardly Donald's hand,” corrected Dunninger. ”He would certainly have favored us with some planchette writing. Here, Burke, take this paper and place it on the rail at the top of the stairs, with the open fold toward the Green Room.”

Clyde did as requested. Hardly had he come downstairs again before the paper caught a pa.s.sing breeze and performed another pirouette down into the great hall. It didn't gyrate as it had before, for its flutter ended short of the fireplace; but the point was proven that the thing could have happened without the a.s.sistance of a spirit agency.

Some thought that Dunninger had arranged the trick himself, to show how easily such things could be done. Then, remembering how amazingly he had projected a bolt into the great hall, they decided that Jennifer or Hector had placed the paper. Dunninger could have noticed it when he took the cape upstairs and thus been ready for the paper's fluttering arrival.

Only Margo had a sudden inkling that The Shadow had arranged the ruse.

She recalled the mysterious motion of the door on the second floor.

But how could The Shadow have reached the Colonial Room in the first place?

Margo was still debating mentally when people began to leave. The reporters were pleased because they could add the matter of the fluttering paper to their stories. Margo, too, was about to leave, when she caught a glance from Clyde, which meant he was coming back. So Margo announced that she was going to spend another night in Standridge Manor in order to complete her notes.

There would certainly be some further data, for Margo observed that Dunninger was writing something in pencil on the slip of paper that had winged down from the second floor. As he bowed out through the front door, Dunninger laid his hand on Margo's palm, closed her fingers in what seemed to be a modified handshake and undertoned in parting: ”Give this to your friend the ghost.”

Cars were pulling away out front when Margo turned to go up to her room.

Halfway upstairs, she wondered why she was keeping her hand clenched. Opening it, she found to her surprise that it contained a tightly folded wad of paper.

Dunninger had placed it there during his farewell gesture. It was his reply to the secret message from The Shadow!

CHAPTER XI.

CRIME COMES HOME.

DURING the hour while she awaited Clyde's return, Margo went over the batch of notes. From them she gained an idea that had not struck her earlier. Though Dunninger had proved his second theory plausible; namely that persons living in the mansion could have produced the manifestations, the real answer might lie elsewhere.

It added to that other theory of persons unknown entering the house and springing the ghost stuff.

Margo was personally sure that The Shadow had dropped the fluttering notefrom upstairs. He couldn't have arrived there except by some secret way.

Whatever the route, it was obvious that other persons could have used it, too.

Where the route was located, proved as puzzling to Margo as why outsiders would want to mingle in the Stanbridge affairs at all. As she studied a copy of the floor plan, Margo could not pick a possible flaw, hence secret entry seemed impossible. As for the outsiders, it seemed utter folly for them to come into the house unless they had something definite to gain.

That thought gave Margo a sudden inspiration.

Perhaps there was treasure in Stanbridge Manor and interlopers were seeking it. In that case, the ghost business would simply be a cover-up for crime!

The treasure idea dwindled as Margo thought it over. If the mansion lacked hiding places, there couldn't be any secret treasure. But the crime angle still seemed plausible, even though Margo racked her mind to find a motive.

Dunninger's departure was an indication. His business was hunting ghosts, not crooks. It struck Margo that the psychic investigator could have scented what was really wrong in Stanbridge Manor and therewith left the rest to The Shadow.

Knowing about The Shadow's remarkable ink, because she herself had received messages written in it, Margo decided that there had originally been a note on the paper. Dunninger must have read it before it faded; hence his reply to The Shadow.

Margo was almost tempted to open the folded paper and learn what it said.

Then, deciding against it, she poked the note in a pocket of her dress and went downstairs.

DR. TORRANCE had left for Coledale and Wiggam had gone back to his cottage.

Only Gustave and Roger were in the great hall. They were talking over the ghost business, since Jennifer wasn't around to cloud it with absurdities, though in the course of things, the brothers mentioned their sister and her theories.

”It's all very plausible,” argued Gustave. ”I mean Dunninger's explanation.

What happened while he was here could have been done the way he says it was.

But Dunninger wasn't with us the other night.”

”Neither were Jennifer and Hector,” reminded Roger. ”Either of them could have been faking then, just as they did last night.”