The Shadow - House Of Ghosts Part 6

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."

"You think both of them are in it?"

"I don't think it matters. One or the other, it's all the same. If they both want to keep up the silly game, it's all right with me."

Gustave didn't take it as lightly as Roger.

"There were other things," spoke Gustave, hoa.r.s.ely. "Things I never mentioned. Strange whispers upstairs; footsteps that I followed but couldn't trace. Odd raps, too."

Roger merely shrugged.

"I know that Jennifer and Hector were in their rooms when these things happened," persisted Gustave. "You were in your room, too, Roger, because I looked and found you asleep."

"Your nerves are slipping," argued Roger. "Mine would, too, if I lived too long in this place. Why don't you take a trip, Gustave?" "And leave Jennifer here?"

"She could go, too. I'd pension Hector off and get some new servants. If I.

found the place worrying me, I'd close it outright. The ghosts could have it permanently."

Gustave began rubbing his hands as though they were chilly, which was odd because he was very close to the fire and it was crackling brightly.

Apparently Gustave was considering Roger's suggestions, but after a while, the elder brother shook his head. He didn't seem to relish leaving Stanbridge Manor.

A sudden thump at the front door caused a quick change in Gustave's expression. He sprang half from his chair as though reverting to his fear of ghosts. Smilingly, Roger opened the door and admitted Clyde. Giving the reporter a welcoming nod, Roger told him he could have the Blue Room.

"Smart of you to come back, Burke," commended Roger. "If anything new happens, you'll have the edge on the other reporters. But I don't think anything is going to happen, so what say we all turn in for the night?"

GOING to the Green Room, Margo changed to her dressing gown and waited intently for a knock at the door, since she was sure that Clyde would be anxious to compare notes. At last the tap came, very m.u.f.fled, and Margo opened the door.

She could scarcely see Clyde because the pa.s.sage was very black, and Margo wondered why the night lamp wasn't burning in the little hallway beside the stairs where Jennifer always left her cape. Then, as Clyde stepped into the Green Room, the blackness followed him and the light suddenly appeared. A moment later the door was closing as if of its own accord.

Clyde hadn't come alone; The Shadow was with him. Removing his hat and dropping his cloak, he revealed himself as Lamont Cranston.

Margo didn't ask what mode of entry The Shadow had used for this visit.

She simply gave him the note from Dunninger. Opening the note, The Shadow read it.

An approving laugh whispered from the lips that wore Cranston's slight smile.

The Shadow reached for Margo's notes and went through them very carefully.

Margo could see a keen glow in his eyes as he scanned certain paragraphs that the girl had underlined at Dunninger's request "Our conclusions tally," remarked The Shadow. "My outside observations conform to those that Dunninger recorded indoors. We both checked three ghosts, even though so many were unnecessary."

Clyde stared in wonderment.

"Three ghosts?"

"Call them three men," replied The Shadow, in Cranston's calm tone.

"Crispin, Freer and Dorthan. I suppose they all wanted to have their share of the fun, though Crispin and Freer managed it themselves, the night when Dorthan came here."

It still had Clyde wondering.

"Last night they managed their sneak about the time I reached the cemetery," The Shadow continued. "I didn't see them enter, but I gained an inkling. Anyway, the manifestations began immediately afterward. I watched for their exit and observed it."

"But you were outside," remarked Clyde. "How did Dunninger learn anythingin here?"

The Shadow pointed to a list of figures among Margo's notes. Some had to do with photographs; others with micrometer recordings, but the figures themselves were unintelligible to Margo.

"Dunninger placed cameras at three salient spots," explained The Shadow, "each had a special timer, as did the micrometers planted with them. One spot was the kitchen; the second, the little hall above the front stairs; the third spot was the tower. The cameras contained films sensitive to infrared rays.

Even in darkness, they registered the outlines of human forms."

"Maybe there was only one man," argued Clyde. "He could have moved around."

"The recordings were simultaneous," replied The Shadow. "The timing devices on the cameras recorded it. So did the charts that registered the vibrations picked up by the micrometers."

Clyde sat back convinced.

"Ordinarily one man could have placed the candle and then gone upstairs to toss the stones," The Shadow stated. "Last night things had to happen fast.

One.

man threw the stones and was immediately away, because the exit is on the second floor.

"The chap downstairs had to dump the dishes if the candle failed. The delay was serious. Actually the man should have been trapped when he reached the second floor. A lucky circ.u.mstance aided him."

"Jennifer, of course!" exclaimed Margo. "She pointed to me and called me a ghost!"

"Hector may have had a hand in it," put in Clyde. "He started quite an argument."

"It was Gustave who fired the shotgun," reminded The Shadow. "Whether or not he merely let his excitement overwhelm him, he was the one who really diverted full attention. Of one thing, however, we can be quite sure. Someone in this house is backing the ghost play, otherwise the crooks would never have come here."

Clyde and Margo began to weigh the possible demerits of Gustave and Jennifer, having by this time decided that Hector could be eliminated.

Suddenly Clyde questioned: "Why was there someone in the tower?"

"To attract attention," replied The Shadow. "He was to wait until someone came in line with the birch tree as Wiggam did. The crooks wanted to explode the ghost myth because they had gone too far with it. The birch tree worked, but it didn't fully qualify. The night I first saw the figure in the tower, I was behind the house, and there are no tall trees out front."

PERHAPS The Shadow would have proceeded further with his discussion, but for the fact that his keen ears caught a sound from the hallway beyond Margo's door, which was somewhat thinned now that it had lost its mirror facing.

Liftinghis hand for silence, The Shadow waited; when the noise ended, he took a glance at Dunninger's note and placed it beneath his cloak.