10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

2 EID began to quiver. He sobbed out, “No!” and whirled in a crouch, his gun swinging toward Mill- ard, jerking and yammering. Instinc- tively, Millard ducked back around the door frame and splinters were gouged from the casing before his face. He stuck his gun and one eye out around the edge, but held his fire. Eddie Fitz had stepped fast up be- hind Reid, swinging a fist that caught the weasel-faced man right under the ear. Reid dropped to the floor and Fitz brought his heel down on the wrist of the hand that held the gun. Reid yowled in pain, threshing on the floor. Millard was through the doorway by then, and he laid the flat barrel of his automatic against Reid’s skull. Breath went out of the threshing man and he relaxed and became still. Millard tapped him again to make sure he wasn’t shamming. Eddie Fitz seooped up the revolver, clipped, “Come on,’ and strode out of the room. Millard followed, and they went out the back door, across the aliey and through a dark passageway to the next street. Fitz swung open the doors of a shed next to another dark warehouse and there was a small black sedan inside. Millard got in beside Fitz without asking any questions, and Fitz gunned the motor to life, whipped the car out in reverse, sent it up the street in a zooming drive, heading for the road that ran along the coast. Hunched over the wheel, Fitz said: “T guess I had you wrong, Millard. I’m sorry about clipping you back there at the hotel. I guess I should have stuck around.” “Skip it,” Millard grunted. “Skip it, hell. I won’t forget this, .mister. You could have let that hop- head take me back there, or you could turn me in. But instead you’re giving me a chance.” “Maybe I’m only thinking of May —not you.” — Sy SY arn al ee ee a ae ee ae ad ee ee en ee ” * a § - = - : _ » i - - > oe. a aie... ail, a — A — ~ P — s Se a a er Bre ——.- a a ee el a er ag ne a EE oN eR I ae ee 10-STORY DETECTIVE- “Yeah.” Fitz nodded, went on bit- terly: “You ought to hate my guts, mister. I’m the one who turned May against you. She went for you plenty, but she turned you down on my say- so. You were a private eye, and I couldn’t trust any of that breed on principle——not in my business. “She gave you the go-bye for me, out of a screwy sense of loyalty or something. May’s that way. I’ve taken care of her since we were kids, and even if she didn’t like the business I was in, she stuck by me.” Millard felt slow heat flush through him. “You lousy heel! So that’s why—” “Yeah, that’s why. Okay, I’m a heel. But I don’t go back on my word. I was wrong and I know it now. That’s why I’m telling you this, and it still isn’t too late for—you and May.” Millard’s heart was hammering queerly. He pushed a hand across his eyes hard, trying to get rid of the cobwebs in his brain. “I hope that’s. right. Because she’s still the only one in my books, Eddie. Maybe you’re not such a bad guy at that. I always said you were on the square—but you were sure in a lousy business for May to be associated with.” “T know it.” Fitz had the car roar- ing north along the coast highway, and there wasn’t much traffic at this hour. “Don’t you think I can see that now? Look at the lousy publicity she got—her name smeared all over the papers at the time of my trial. She stuck by me, but look at the spot it’s got her in now. I’m a heel, but I’m going to get her out of it if it’s the last thing I ever do.” “You and me together, pal. Whai’d you make that break for anyway?” “It was a mistake,” Fitz said. “I know that now. But they practically asked for it, gave me the chance on a platter. The temptation was too strong and I took it. I thought I'd come back and straighten out a few things before they put me away for keeps.” lebooksrcom