10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

RETURN FROM HELL———————_—73 but that hand went to his coat pocket. Gardner seized his wrist and twisted. Slemmins struggled and yelled, but he was helpless in that iron grip. In a moment Gardner had clicked on the manacles and had taken an automatic from Slemmins’ pocket. “f always carry a gun, but I was after my handkerchief,” Slemmins snarled with an oath. The detective slapped his mouth. “‘There’s a lady here,” he said gently. “You'll take a long count for theft and attempted murder, Mr. Slem- mins.” Unmindful of Slemmins’ ragings, Gardner turned and stared hard at Tim Egan. The foreman was white about the mouth. Came slowly to his feet as Gardner drew near. “‘No rough stuff, Ed. You did yours last night!” Gardner warned. But Egan made a savage pass at Gardner’s jaw. The detective ducked it and let him have it on the chin, It smacked solidly and the foreman went down like a poled ox. Drew grinned reminiscently and helped prop the limp man against the wall while Gardner slipped on the handcuffs. “That,” Gardner chuckled, “sort of squares this lump on my head from that blackjack. Or was it you, Slem- mins?” “Why drag me in, Hawkshaw?” Slemmins snarled. “One reason, because my teeth marks are on that finger. I thought it was you who called me a ‘Hawkshaw’ last night, but I wasn’t dead sure at first. That cold, you know. I spent the morning in our downtown office and at the Amico Cement Co. In Novem- ber you bought six thousand barrels of cement on a blanket order, but McGann was billed for nine!” Emer- ~ gon let out a whoop. “That don’t touch me!” “Purchasing agents,” Gardner went on sunnily, “are welcome visitors to concerns selling to them. Easy to snitch a few blank invoices; easy to open accounts in several banks in order to cash the checks covering those fake invoices. Ray, you were pretty careless there: signing two checks to the same firms in the same months, But your mind has been too full of the job itself. You need a helper.” “He'll get one,” McGann rumbled. “Boy, you’ve found it.” “Wait,” Gardner grinned. ‘Aleck, I owe you an apology for that first day. I had a hunch that the stealing was in your department; thought, naturally, it was you. Your fault at that. Perkins slipped it over you be- cause you were busy showing people what a big man you are.” “You’re dead right,” Drew said mournfully. “I’m willing to take my medicine.” “You ain’t got a thing on me, you damn tinhorn detective,” Tim Egan raged, coming to life. “You can’t prove nothin’. Take—” “You’re forgetting your Irish brogue again, Timmy,” Gardner laughed. ‘‘Like you did last night when you and your cheap crooks were about to cover me with fresh concrete!” “Jimmy!” wailed Jane Thorpe. Gardner shot her a grin, but went on implacably. “You’re hung by your own knot, Egan. You killed Johnny Thorpe!” “T didn’t!” ‘You hired fictitious men and Per- kins made out their time. Johnny got wise to it. I saw the entries in the payroll book last night before your thugs jumped me. I already suspected your part and set you to worrying by kidding you about the number of men. You or Slemmins looked up my name and found out that I was a de- tective. I can prove that you and Perkins glommed the fake pay en- velopes.” “That’s a damn dirty lie,” Egan screamed. “Anyway—” “Yes, it does. You killed Johnny when he got suspicious. You threw him into that hole, then tied a dif- ferent knot in the ropes because you