Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Out of blackness I come, into the dark I go, no one knows where or how. Wherever crime is, there come I to act as police and judge and jury. Wherever strange things happen, there come I to make strangeness clear. No one knows who I am, or what I am, but every one knows what I do. Every one who does wrong fears me, for… I am The Shadow!”
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! Men of crime, hear me. Beware! I am your doom!”
Doc Savage had no immediate response to that, for it was a difficult question. Long Tom Roberts may have saved the day when he quipped, “Only The Shadow knows.”
“Any ordinary fellow seems to be helpless against the Funeral Director. Our only hope is—The Shadow!”
“Between Savage and The Shadow,” complained another, “it’s gettin’ so a dishonest guy can’t make a buck in this man’s world.”
“If you do not,” proclaimed the sardonic voice, “your fate will make the suffering ones in Hell be happy that eternal punishment was all they had to endure.”
“We have no time for such tender feelings,” snapped Isaac Coffran. “These four coffins that you see before you were prepared for your bodies. Since we are missing Miss Cranston and two others, you and your chauffeur will have to fill them. Now I offer you a stark choice: climb into your own coffins, after which I will mercifully snuff out your lives, or, if you prefer, my men will simply shoot you where you stand and hurl your bleeding bodies into the flames.” A short silence followed that cold threat. Then, from out of nowhere, yet seemingly everywhere, sardonic laughter rippled out.
“Bah!” said Weston. “Is The Shadow everywhere?” Just then the door opened and a tall, stoop-shouldered man barged in, carrying a mop and pail. Cardona eyed him and said, “Can you wait until we’re through here, Fritz?” The tall janitor nodded vigorously and mumbled, “Yah, yah,” then proceeded to apply his sudsy mop to the floor in one corner. His drawn features possessed a dull cast.
