Pulp Fiction, 1942 · page 75 of 116
10 Story Detective, July 1942 — page 75: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is a story prose page from a hardboiled crime pulp magazine titled "Homicide Landmark" (page 73). The text describes a criminal scheme involving characters named Dick, Joe, Dobbs, and Heaton, centering on stolen money hidden near a pepper-berry tree. Captain Record and Bedford discuss Joe's involvement in the crime and the likelihood he'll retrieve the hidden cash. The page includes a black-and-white illustration of a man's face in profile wearing what appears to be a hat or head covering. The narrative focuses on detective work and criminal planning typical of early pulp crime fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
—HOMICIDE Dick was afraid of his father, yet the only way he could get the money was to steal it from the old man. To do that he arranged with Dobbs to call on Sam Hooper on some pretext that would cause him to open his safe and leave it unlocked for a few minutes—long enough for Dick to get In the window and steal the money. “For this service, no doubt, Dobbs would get a cut of the loot, without incriminating himself. Then Dick was to meet someone under the pep- per-berry tree at one o'clock with the money. Who? Certainly Heaton wouldn’t go there himself, because he’s too cagey to let himself get involved in a crime. So he’d send someone. Who would he send? Joe, of course! He wouldn’t have to tell Joe anything except to meet Dick at the tree so that Dick could hand him a package. “So Joe went to meet Dick, but - before he got there Freddie had knocked Dick out. It’s quite possible Joe saw him do it. With Freddie gone, Joe went over to Dick, took the package of money, made sure of what it was, then used the clippers Freddie had dropped to finish Dick for good!’ Bedford. said grudgingly: “Maybe you re right.”’ Buck went on: “Now that Joe had the money he had to go back to Heaton and report. He wouldn’t dare take the money with him. But where would he hide it? What better place than right here in the grove? It’s big, and with the ground already plowed it’s unlikely it would be found accidentally. Of course, he wouldn’t bury it close to Dick’s body. He'd pick a spot some distance away. ' “The only danger in that would be that he might not be able to find the spot himself, later. It’s difficult to recall an exact spot in an orange grove, where there are thousands of trees, all much the same and all spaced out evenly. That’s why I knew LANDMARK————— 73 that when he came for the money he would first go to the pepper-berry tree—so that from there he could count the trees to the spot where the money was buried.” “Pretty good, my boy,” commend- ed Captain Reccord, “But how did you know Joe would come for the money tonight?” Buck grinned, “I worked a trick —with the help of a lady.” “A trick?” “Yes, sir, Joe is very sweet on 2 certain lady. I asked her to tell Joe that she’d meet him at the train in the morning and go away with him. I knew Joe couldn’t resist that bait —and 1 also knew that he wouldn’t go away and leave all that cash!” APTAIN RECCORD turned to Bedford. “You’d better reinstate this lad at once, chief. You need in- telligence in your office.” He turned IGDoOo fa) : S (C(O) im