Pulp Fiction, 1939 · page 52 of 116
10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 52: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis: 10-Story Detective This page contains story prose from a hardboiled crime/detective pulp magazine. The text depicts the climactic confrontation and resolution of a murder case: detective Hammond accuses a man named Agnew of killing someone (apparently Sharon's uncle) by holding him upside down, exploiting his weak heart condition. A struggle ensues with gunfire; Hammond subdues Agnew and calls police. The scene then shifts to Hammond receiving a posthumous letter from a victim named Oliver Mowat, requesting Hammond ensure the insurance payout goes to Sharon rather than Agnew. The page concludes with Hammond's emotional satisfaction at having caught the killer. A Star razor blade advertisement appears at the bottom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
50———___—_—_—_———_-10-STORY DETECTIVE Agnew killed your uncle by holding the old man upside down. A man in your uncle’s condition couldn’t stand much of that. Weak heart, anemia, a few minutes of it would kill him, and there’s no doctor could tell that death from a stroke or fit of apoplexy. Sharon, get out that door. Agnew can’t get more than one of us.” “Tt’ll be you I do get, you, Ham- mond. I'll shoot you through the heart, and enjoy it. No cne can prove what you’re saying. I warn you, Sharon, this man is crazy.” “Mowat seratched your legs while you held him upside down. Your skin and blood are under his nails. Be- sides, his watch undoubtedly fell out _ of his pocket and hung by the chain. You replaced the watch. Your finger- prints will be on it. Sharon, run!” His face burning a dull red, Agnew squeezed the trigger. Hammond jerked aside as the bullet sang past his ear, and threw himself against Agnew’s foot. The chair and Agnew went over backwards, and Agnew fired again as Hammond threw him- self after him, smashed a blow to his face and pinned the gun under a knee. “Get the police, Sharon.” Agnew’s last defiant bit of rage came as the cops took him away. He sneered at Sharon: “Just try to get any of that money.” Sharon covered his face. “As if I want it. Cripes, how bad do you think . I am?” Hammond patted his shoulder and left the house. Back at the office he saw a postman in the corridor about to hang a tag on his doorknob. “What's it?” he asked. He got a special delivery letter and signed for it. The letter was heavy, as the cab driver had said. Seated at his desk, he ripped the envelope open. A paper several times folded fell out, and a note. Dear Hammond, I should have told you more, as you ad- vised. If anything happens to me, I want you to see that Dave Sharon gets my in- surance, and that Agnew does not take it away from him. I know you are Dave's cc OLIVER Mowat The insurance was for ten thou- sand, with double indemnity. He blew his nose noisily, roughly wiped his eyes. That Mowat had been a grand old guy! Worried about the kid Sharon to the end. “But I got that guy Agnew for it,” he consoled himself, tb ite ~ eet Se le. a a ee eS ee ee” — comicvooks-com ae” “ke”