10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

STAR’S FAMOUS COLUMNIST MISSING! KIDNAPED BY GREASY NORDILE! CAFE PROPRIETOR ALSO TAKEN! Police Dragnet Thrown Wide! Capture of Nordile Expected Quickly! “How did they get this?” screamed Greasy, and his face was chalk- white. His fingers around the auto- matic were trembling and the gun was shaking and weaving. There was the sudden hell of an inferno from below. A riot gun stut- tered, punctuated by the blasts from Police Specials. A door crashed and there were the sounds of yells, tram- pling feet; a body smacked against the floor. Lee grinned and there was excite- ment on his face now. “Called the turn, didn’t I, grease- ball?” Greasy Nordile screamed and jerked his gun higher to Lee’s middle. His fingers contracted tremblingly, but Lee’s fist caught him under the chin and the shot pinged against the wire mesh of the window. Lee dove and his shoulder caught the grease- ball’s solar. Greasy slammed against the plas- ‘ter with his head and squirmed over on the floor, his face smashed. Sounds came closer. There was the wham of a single shot and the man in the door doubled up and hit the floor head first, coughing. “Hello, Griggs,” said Lee, panting. A broad patrolman barged in, gun ready. He grinned at Lee. “Lo, Lee. You’re a hell of a lot of trouble.” “Yeah, but looky, you get your name in the column for this, flatfoot.” “Gee, in your column, Mr. Ains- ley!’ There was awe on the cop’s face and he grinned again. Detectives filled the small room. Lee shook hands with Detective & ~ MURDER ON THE CUFE————————-45 Hobbs, in charge. Charlie, the bar- keep, crowded in and shook, too. “Pretty good work, Lee,” compli- mented Hobbs, and looked at Greasy. “Aw, give the credit to Griggs; he’s earned it. I always did like a guy who reads my column!” Lee grinned. “Yeah,” said Griggs, “I copied it down on this piece of paper. Here it is.’ He read slowly from the paper taken from his pocket. Greasy N. got us—On spot—Search LEE AINSLEY “You’re a good cop, Griggs,” said Lee. “I’m going to run your name in big caps tomorrow.” Griggs grinned. ‘Say, Griggs,” asked Lee, “‘when did you get that message?” “About three, I guess it was. I was trying doors and saw that Charlie’s place was wide open. Went in and couldn’t see a soul. Walked over to the bar and saw something glittering like a beacon light. Looked close and then saw the writing on the bar. Wed heard Greasy had it in for you and of course he had to snatch Charlie, too, because he knew too much about your kidnaping. I got busy then.” “Good boy,” said Lee again and reached for a cigarette. The patrolman, Griggs, reached be- hind the flap of his coat and handed something to Lee. 3 “By the way, Mr. Ainsley,” he said, ‘here’s that diamond _ stickpin of yours you used to scratch the message on the red paint of Charlie’s bar! Sure don’t see how you had a chance to write it.” Lee said, “I sure had to work fast. Thought Greasy saw me writing it for a minute, but I got away with it. Don’t see how you read it. Anyway,” he grinned, “I always said that pin was worth more than ten bucks!” N’s places—Hurry. cComicbooks (<(e)