10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

SATAN’S SHOWDOWN————_—53 T WAS after one when Belden re- turned. As he swung his roadster into the driveway he cast a jaundiced eye upward to the window of his wife’s bedroom and chuckled. There was no light burning there. Alice had never failed to leave one burning in case she arrived home before her husband. She was very thoughtful at times. Belden switched off the ignition of his motor and eased his frame out of the car. As his hand rested momentarily on the cushioned seat it closed over some- thing soft and fiuffy. Quickly he snatched it up and held it in front of his face. The haunting odor of an ex- otic perfume delighted his nostrils. With a startled oath he crumpled it into a tiny ball and walked out of the garage. A few minutes later he stood in front of the fireplace in his living room and watched a dainty bit of linen slow- ly become part of the heap of dying embers in the grate. Its fragrant scent, however, still lingered. Belden went upstairs, changed into his pajamas and dressing gown and retraced his steps to the first fioor for a drink. He felt that he needed it at this moment, A satisfied grin played on his face as he became aware that the betraying odor had disappeared. He had washed his hands thoroughly with soap potent with carbolic. In business Belden had always prided himself on being thorough. He had always derived a fiendish joy in pick- ing up loose ends. They would never catch him napping on that score. He poured himself a stiff drink and downed it in one gulp—then another, after which, settling back in his chair, Belden confronted a problem with which he had been struggling for weeks. He had made up his mind on the way home that he would settle it this night, once and for all. Belden did not mince matters with himself. He had ceased to love his wife and further existence under this humdrum roof would drive him mad. He dismissed the idea of running away with the woman with whom he had become infatuated. If there was anything obnoxious in the world to Everett Belden it was scandal, and it would be sure to sweep over Haynes- ville like a hurricane if he ran away from Alice with another woman. No, he could not do that. There had to be another way, one that would not vio- late the laws of convention. Damn con- vention! But there was his business and his own irreproachable reputa- tion in the community. He poured an- other drink. As the glass touched his lips, his head thrown back te let the burning hquor flow down his throat, his eyes focussed on a picture hanging on the wall. It was an enlarged snap- shot of Alice and himself taken severa} years ago. He remembered it well. They had just stepped out of a canoe and Biil Adler had snapped them. Lake Mahoga, that was it—Belden leaped half out of his chair, then sank back again. The picture had implanted the germ of an idea in his brain. Slowly it took root and grew to mammoth pro- portions. As the clock inthe living room rang out the second hour of early morn, Everett Belden had firmly made up his mind. He was going to murder his wife. HEN Alice Belden came home a few minutes later she did not find her husband sitting there, rigid and constricted, his hands gripping the arms of his chair with fingers like talons. Neither did she look into a face as grey as a rock, its lips trembling. Everett Belden was thorough. He stood calmly in the center of the living room as she came in, a smile on his face as he glanced significantly at his watch. “Now don’t scold me, Everett,” she exclaimed with a weary laugh. “I thought the thing would never break up. Had abominable luck at bridge— but see what I brought you. You’re not to open it until your other bottle is bone dry. I insist. This is really special stuff. Mrs. Garner told me.” They both sat down on the divan in front of the fireplace. comicbook (e(e)