The Shadow - Seven Drops Of Blood Part 14

This time, it was Cardona's turn to gape. The facts, as The Shadow put them, sounded obvious; yet they had never occurred to Joe.

"Luck served you at Berkland's," added The Shadow, to Mogridge. "Marotte and Doxol tried to expose you. You were itching, every instant, to fire at either or both. You held out while I disposed of Marotte and Woolford finished Doxol.

"If Ungler had been the master crook, he would have finished both when he had the chance; and all along, he would have carried a larger gun than his .22 pistol. If Woolford had been the man behind the game, he would have shot me along with Doxol. He had full opportunity to do so."

POINT by point, The Shadow had clinched the proof. Mogridge's face betrayed that he was beaten. What he regretted most was the fact that The Shadow had rescued Joe Cardona, in whose presence Mogridge had already admitted himself to be the master crook.

"As for Professor Hanlock," declared The Shadow, "I received his call for help, engraved upon a sapphire which you forwarded as a present, both to humor him and to make it look as though matters had gone well with him. As your prisoner, you forced him to match the Seven Drops of Blood. Knowing your game, he did not tell you that they would melt under simultaneous tests of heat and moisture.

"Last night, I came here and found Professor Hanlock imprisoned in the laboratory where you kept him. He thought me an enemy, at first. I was forced to overpower him. After that, he became my friend. I forced the front door of the laboratory, which he had never been able to open. Professor Hanlock will testify for the law."

As The Shadow finished, Hanlock stepped from the opened portal. His face was no longer wild and desperate. It showed steadiness, when he gazed wrathfully at Mogridge.

To Joe Cardona, all was plain except one point. Cardona found himself wondering why Rahman Singh had not negotiated with Tobias Berkland for the purchase of the rubies. Then Joe saw the answer without asking. He realized that Berkland's name had not been learned by Rahman Singh until after Mogridge had completed negotiations.

Mogridge had preferred to steal the gems and gain a cool million, rather than buy them from his brother-in-law at less than half the price. It was also plain why Mogridge had waited until the gems reached Pettigrew's before he sprang the robbery. Suspicion would have come too close to him, had he pulled the job at Berkland's.

To keep the police guessing, Mogridge had tried to divert investigation away from Berkland's. He was ready, though, in case it came there, to shoulder the blame on Ungler. That was why he had clipped the telephone wires. As for Woolford, he had merely chanced to come into the field of suspicion.

CARDONA snapped from his reverie. His job was to arrest a murderer, obligingly placed in his custody by The Shadow. As for Rahman Singh, Cardona felt no grudge against the Hindu, especially when he saw the man produce the bag of gems and calmly hand them forward. Rahman Singh's negotiations had notbeen of a criminal sort. Cardona reached to receive the bag of rubies.

It was then that Mogridge went berserk, as The Shadow had expected he might at Berkland's. Though a super-plotter, Mogridge was not of the underworld. In the tightness of emergency, he not only threw aside all caution; he also performed the unexpected. Instead of springing for The Shadow, who had him covered, Mogridge made a wild, twisting dive to grab the bag of rubies.

Cardona swung to meet him; he grabbed for Mogridge's gun arm, knowing that The Shadow would keep the crook covered. Mogridge fired a frantic bullet into the floor. Though it was wide, it served as a signal. The door from the entry was dashed open.

In came the elevator operator who had impressed Cardona as a dullard.

With him were two others; all thugs, in Mogridge's private employ. This trio had aided him in abducting Professor Hanlock.

The Shadow expected them, for he knew that Mogridge would not have entrusted the seizure of Hanlock to the men who had aided him in the robbery at Pettigrew's. Those dead henchmen had been kept uninformed of the professor who manufactured imitation jewels.

Ready for invaders, The Shadow was the first to fire. His .45 was pumping as the door slued open. The first man dropped, his gun unfired. The other two sprawled across him, wounded, jabbing futile shots as they fell. Their gun muzzles tilting to the floor, could do no harm.

As The Shadow swung to aid Cardona, there was a shot from Mogridge's gun.

The Shadow had expected Cardona to handle the murderer, and Joe had. He had gripped Mogridge's revolver, to twist it backward.

Mogridge, grabbing for the jewels with his left hand, had not realized that his gun was turned about. He had stabbed a shot, thinking to clip Cardona.

Instead, the bullet found Mogridge's own chest. His left hand clutched; it had the rubies. His right hand loosened; its gun fell as Mogridge hit the floor.

His left hand could hold no longer. It opened; the bag, clinging to his fingers, tilted and poured its contents to the floor.

Upon the thick, dark carpeting fell the reclaimed rubies - the Seven Drops of Blood that shone with full-hued crimson. Upon the light-colored chamois bag came drips of the same color. Those drops of blood were from the murderer's evil heart.

Glen Mogridge was dead, the proof of his crime upon him.

A solemn, mirthless laugh came whispered from the outer entry, beyond the bodies of the wounded thugs. The eerie echoes ended with the clang of the elevator door.

The Shadow's task was finished. The master avenger was gone. To Joe Cardona, worker for the law, remained the fruits of The Shadow's triumph.

But from one completed task The Shadow would go to another - uncompleted, until The Shadow investigated the mysterious workings of "Intimidation, Incorporated." Milked of millions, business men were in the clutches of an intimidator who would murder to gain his final end. But to The Shadow would come the completion of the case and the drawing aside of the curtain that unmasked "Intimidation, Incorporated."

THE END.