10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

——_————- SLAUGHTER EPIDEMIC 3 Gerry’s mind was whirling. He gave Dr. Lasher his just due. Lasher was clever. The plot Gerry had uncovered proved that. Lasher would murder him with no more com- punction than a fiy on the wall. He would have to act fast. Lasher motioned him into a chair. Gun leveled, he reached a hand into a small drawer in his desk and drew forth a metal container. He opened it and expertly held up a hypodermic. “Hydrocyanic acid,” he told Gerry with a cruel smile. “It kills in_less than one second. I’ve kept it here for myself—just in case. After you are dead, then I shall shoot you so that none can hear me. I shall leave you here as another mystery for your clever colleagues to solve. They’ll never think of looking for poison.” He stretched his hand toward Gerry, syringe loaded with instan- taneous death, ready for the plunge into Gerry’s arm. There was only one chance. “You wouldn’t want to die, doc- tor?” he said suddenly. Lasher paused. “I die?” he laughed. “You are the one, my man. Some day —perhaps—lI, but now—” “You know only one man went away in that car, doctor,” Gerry re- minded him. He raised his voice and looked over Lasher’s shoulder. “Shoot him in the stomach,” he called loudly, “don’t kill him, just make him suffer.” “You think you can fool me like that?” Lasher laughed loudly. He did not move his head, but Gerry noticed that the hand holding the syringe was shaking slightly. He began again. | “T’]] just nod my head, Jimmy,” he said. “‘When I do that, pull the trig- ger. Ready?” Lasher gulped. He dared not move his eyes from Gerry. Yet, something told him death stared directly at his back. The thoughts of hot lead cours- ing its way through his stomach made him reel slightly. The pain of that flesh wound in his shoulder had been enough, Suddenly he thought he heard a shight noise behind his back. He made ready to whirl about and then thought better of it. He scowled darkly and half rose from his chair. The needle was ready for its ghastly work now. “Why doesn’t the man behind me answer you, copper?” Lasher gloated. “Why? Because there isn’t any one there, that’s why. Now you are go- ing to die!” Gerry raised his head high. He looked directly over Lasher’s shoulder and suddenly brought his head down. It started to be a short, emphatic nod, but it ended in a doubling up of Ger- ry’s body. At the same instant he shot like a bullet from the chair. His head caught Lasher full in the stomach and sent him staggering against the wall. Gerry grabbed the chair in which he had been seated. Lasher raised his. gun, but Gerry hurled the heavy piece of furniture across the room. His aim was true. It sent Lasher’s gun flying from his grasp. Then Gerry charged. His eyes did not see the hypodermic. They saw only an evil, red-eyed, mad- man waiting for him. His right hand gripped Lasher’s wrist and kept the needle away. The two men went into a squirming heap on the floor. Gerry gasped for breath. Lasher was a fighter. There was hidden strength behind those slender arms, and now he fought with the fury of the damned. The injured shoulder impeded him not at all. He tried to shove his knuckles into Ger- ry’s eyes, but a lusty kick in the mid- riff stopped that. He was almost out of breath now. There was only one way. Slowly he began to move the syringe into position for a death stab. Gerry felt him and tightened his grip on Lash- er’s throat. It was only when he felt the needle as it struck his skin that he let go. His two arms shoved hard at Lasher’s body. The doctor, on one knee, lost his balance and fell to one side. A blood-curdling scream greeted COMMCEOOOKS. COM) —