No more than a moving phantom shape, he passed the arch to the living room.

The phantom shape merged with the darkness of the study.

Long minutes passed; a phantom shape had glided out of sight.

A phantom shape, obscured in blackness, his time for action had come.

Nor did he see the phantom shape that reached the ground beside the truck.

A phantom shape traveled swiftly through the alley to the street at the other end.

Yet neither was ready to fire at a phantom shape coming from the last direction they had anticipated.

The two men stepped from the car and followed in the direction that the phantom shape had taken.

The five men on the porch turned as one, to pick out the phantom shape in black.

Thus he did not see the phantom shape that followed in his wake, always maintaining an even distance behind him.