Pulp Fiction, 1946 · page 74 of 84
10-Story Detective Magazine, April 1946 — page 74: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Hitchhike to a Hangnoose" by Richard Brister This page contains story prose and an accompanying illustration. The narrative follows Joe Pender, who picks up a hitchhiker but discovers the ride may lead to danger rather than his intended destination. The visible text describes Joe driving through Louisiana swampland at night, exhausted after hours on the road, when he encounters the hitchhiker. The illustration shows two men in what appears to be a vehicle interior. The story's tone suggests a hardboiled crime narrative with ominous undertones, as the opening framing text warns that Joe's road "led only to a hangnoose rendezvous with Satan."
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Hitchhike to a Hangnoose By Richard Brister | When Joe Pender stopped it to pick up that benighted hitchhiker, Joe’d been on | his way to meet his fian-— i cee. But after he'd | stepped on the gas again, i| Joe learned his read now (| led only to a hangnoose y rendezvous with Satan. : Kk HAD no more than a fleeting lH glimpse of the hitchhiker, before he had passed him. His right headlight had blanked out about fifty miles back; it was dark as pitch in thia desolate Louisiana swamp country, Be- sides, he'd been on the verge of dozing. The monotonous whine of his tires across the macadam had half-hypnotized him. He went whipping right past, His tired eyes flicked only briefly toward the beckoning figure. That waa all, He might have ignored that mendicané thumb. But he had been driving since noon. His ‘radio was on the fritz. He needed an ear to bend, he thought, smiling, and reflected that the Army had made an extrovert of him. He was out now, on points, but he’d learned how to ride his own thumb, as a soldier. He felt a quick sympathy for that poor devil back there, marooned at night im this bleak swamp country. He stamped the brake pedal and pulled over onto the shoulder. Maybe he was a fool aud taking his chances, but, hell, that was life as he'd learned in the Army. You never knew. The guy might ‘just turn out to he a good Joe. They could maybe have themselves 3 time swapping lies with each other. lt was dark in the coupd’s front seat. QGne panel light cast a pale glow against the threadbare cushions, It bathed the guy's face as he entered. You could make out the white of his hands, but his dark clothes were a question mark against the night's black drop curtain. 4 toward midnigh€. Been drivin’ “Didns figure you was gonna stop, pal.” The voice was breathless from. running. “Goin’ far, are ya?” “New Orleans. Hope to be there along since Comicooolks (C@