10 Story Detective, July 1942 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

16 I68STORY DETECTIVE———— up until he was standing erect. His wrists were next and much more dif- fieult to reach than the ankles had been, but finally the rope fell away. Stuart massaged swollen wrists and walked toward the entrance to the main cave and the small ledge just be- yond it. The first thing he looked for was the rope. It was gone, and his position very difficult. Thirty feet straight up to the top. Maybe a hundred and fifty feet straight down onte jagged rock. Stu- art groaned and sat down to think again. Perhaps there was another entrance to the cave, from somewhere behind Kerrigan’s house. But to find this in the darkness was nex’ to im- possible. Then Stuart cocked an ear. There was a different sound to the surf be- low. It actually swept up and hit the sides of the eliff. He knew what that meant. The tide was in. Deep enough? Perhaps—and anyway worth the chance. Simply waiting here would get him nothing but death—slow or fast. He knew that the tide was very high at this point, but so were many of the sharp rocks. To plunge blindly over the ledge was taking a big chance. Stuart arose and moved to the edge. He shed his coat and shoes, wrapped the gun in them and shoved the bundle into a crevice. Then he took a deep breath and jumped as far out as possible. He plummeted through the air un- til it seemed he’d fallen ten miles. Then he caught the first glimpse of the white-capped surf. His arms stretched out and cut the water clean- ly. He went down, down until his lungs felt ready to burst. Kicking out, he changed his eourse, broke water and breathed in fresh air. He swam toward land, but a moment later he ducked beneath the surface of the water. A boat was coming toward him. He stayed down as Jong as he dared, rose again and saw the boat—a rowboat with an out- board motor, sputtering straight out — Nr eee oro to sea. And there was nobody in it. Stuart started to swim with great strokes. He wanted to overtake that boat. It couldn’t have simply drifted from shore because its motor hummed. Gradually he started to overtake the craft which bucked the surf and made little headway now. Stuart battled the same surf and oft- en it rose up to engulf him and blot all vision for a moment. He caught a glimpse of the small craft not more than thirty feet di- rectly ahead and redoubled his ef- forts. Then the surf smacked him and he went under. When he came to the surface again, the boat was gone. He swam in a wide circle, but there wasn’t a sign of it. That craft had been wiped off the sea as neatly as though some huge bird had swept down out of the darkness and seized it. Stuart was tiring and there was no use conducting a further search. There were things to do ashore. He let the surf carry him shoreward and reached the rocky land. After wring- ing out his clothes, he walked toward the lower part of the cliff where a stairway had been cut. CHAPTER IV ALASKAN KILLER HEN he stepped into the house, nobody greeted him. He called Kerrigan’s name. There was no an- swer. Perhaps the two of them were looking for him. Stuart went upstairs and helped himself to a suit out of Gordon’s bag. It fitted him well. He appropriated a pair of moceasin slippers too. Dur- ing the time it took to dress, he kept glancing out of the windows for signs of Kerrigan and Gordon. Finally Stuart went downstairs and sat near the phone. There were only two of the original six members of the mining company left. Kerri- gan and Gordon. Meredith and Ter- ry had died in this house. Leonard OO) S) = [ (C(O) S (C(O) nn