10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

6 a Si nt gee OSS fe = _, a ae on Sm “a0 A ge Os Pe ae - eg ine On eS ES, ON BE oe = Ce i PRIS & ES es en eS ao 90——_________—10-STORY DETECTIVE Of course, there wouldn’t have been any use im it. I was squeezed into the back seat between Hammy and another plug, and they would have filled my guts full of lead in a second if I’d even made a peep. But then, there was no harm in hoping. Suddenly our driver slowed down to a stop. I eraned my neck to leok ahead and saw the other limousine and the sound truck rounding a corner onto Fifth. I remembered that there was a big bank around there in the middle of the block. My stomach almost did a flop-over. I knew we were there. I began to wonder about Shorty, “poor old Shorty, sticking out like a sore thumb in the seat of that eamera erane, If anybody started shooting at us, as we drove away after the stick- up, Shorty would be sure to get it. Poor little devil. He did have a wife and two little kids. Damn it! He shouldn’t have gotten into this mess. But just then I had to stop thinking about him because our driver had started up again, and in about two shakes we'd all be in the thick of it. parked about a car-length away from the bank. The sound truck was parked right in front of the bank and out far enough from the curb to allow our car to ease in on the inside. I saw Shorty up im the crane, aiming his camera at the bank doors, and I saw Jake Kroll on the sidewalk giving orders to the rest of the boys. Quite a few people had paused to watch the proceedings, but the boys had herded them back about thirty to thirty-five feet away from the bank and had set up ropes to keep them there, When our car came into sight, Jake and all the boys jumped over to their car, I heard Jake shout: “Cam- era!” For some reason, when we finally stopped at the curb and got out, my nervousness vanished. There was something so familiar about the whole damn thing—the lights, the crowds, and all. Maybe it was the murmur that went up from the crowd when they got a look at my pan. I really am a ringer for Jimmy Cronin. I did realize then, however, how deeply into this thing T was, Now that I’d shown myself as a member of the gang, P’d have to stick with them un- til I could tip off the eops to them. Otherwise how could I prove myself innecent of a part in this crime? My word would be no good. I'd have to back it up.. We started out like clockwork, but then things began to happen. As we expected, the bank’s burglar alarm went off first. This meant only a few seconds before a cop, or cops, would be on the scene. They would know the difference between a phony alarm and a real one: Next, some crazy goop of a clerk in the bank went loco, got by the boys mside somehow, and came dashing out onto the sidewalk. Ham- my split his middle open with a gush of bullets from his Tommy-gun. Then two cops appeared on the edge of the crowd to my left. One of them was trying to pull a gun, and the other was trying to stop him. They struggled for a moment; then the brave one broke through the ropes and began shooting. This just about broke up the party. VERYBODY in our gang except me began returning the fire. Ap- displayed at the rancho was just flash-in-the-pan, beeause their bullets were flying in all direetions. Three or four people in the erowd were hit. Women sereamed and fainted, men cursed and stampeded for shelter. The cop who had started it all was re- duced to a bloody pulp in a few sec- onds. This, mind you, was all taking place among the crowd on the sidewalk to my left. The crowd opposite them, to Eomichoo (E(0)