10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

45 ¢-:.c TT of the city, but when you travel about the country following errant lovers as much as I do, you miss a lot, I asked him about it. It seemed that one night about a month previous, someone had broken in the back door of the drug store, had opened the safe and had walked away with about six thousand dollars in cash and negotiable bonds. The safe had been opened without the use of tools, and the police had pro- nounced it a professional job. They had found plenty of fingerprints both upon the broken lock and upon the safe, but there was no record of them in their files. “And now, Mr. Krueger,’ con- tinued Jackson when he had com- pleted his description of the robbery, “T’ll offer you this job on one condi- tion,” “And that—” “That you don’t take this robbery at Neihart’s. If you’re going to work for me, I don’t want you divid- ing your time elsewhere.” I muddled on this a minute. You’ve got to admit that it was a peculiar proposition; I get one job if I don’t take another. “Well, how about it?” he asked. I looked at his face. He seemed eager to have me accept. I said: “I don’t know, Mr. Jackson. i’ll have to see Mr. Neihart first and find out what he wants me to do.” “But 1 want your answer at once I am leaving in a few minutes.” “T’m sorry, Mr. Jackson,” I said. And I was. I always hate to turn down a client. I don’t have enough of them so that I can afford to. “I can drop in on you tomorrow and let you know if I change my mind about handling Mr. Neihart’s work.” - E SCOWLED on this, started to say something, but was inter- rupted by the entrance of a short thin man considerably over sixty. Jack- son introduced him briefly as Mr. Neihart and left. From the way they elared at each other, and the sullen 5 ———_——10-STORY DETECTIVE- manner in which Neihart frowned after Jackson, I judged that there was no love lost between them. “What did he want of you?” de- manded Neihart. I saw no harm in telling him. I said that Jackson had proposed that I take the case of the robbery of his drug- store the month before. “Don’t you do it!” snarled Neihart in a deep voice that belied his frail body. “Don’t you have anything to do with him. If you’re going to work for me, you can’t work for him at the same time, I won’t have it?” I saw the same strange look, which might have been hate, in his eyes. De- cidedly, these two were not a con- genial pair. He raved on. I didn’t say much. I wanted his job, but I wanted dackson’s too if I could get it. Two fees are bigger than one. Neihart wanted me to promise that I wouldn’t take Jackson’s case, but I just sat tight. I knew that if it ended by him not giving me the case, I could get Jackson’s case by promising him not to take Neihart’s case. : Finally he got around to the work that he wanted me to do. “I'd like you to watch my clerk,” he said. “Um-m. Think he’s mixed up in some crooked work?” I reached for my cigarette case; I like to smoke when I think. Neihart asked for a cigarette, so I tossed the case to him. He took one out and returned the case to me. “Yes, I’m afraid that he’s respon- sible for the robbery of my store.” Then he went on to tell me all about the robbery. It had occurred on the previous Saturday night, when the store re- mained open until nine o’clock. Nei- hart himself had left, according to his custom, to go to a lodge meeting at eight thirty, leaving William Madi- gan, his only clerk, to take care of the last customers and to close and lock the store. Just a few minutes before nine o'clock, when the store was clear of customers, a masked man had en- CORMICOOOKS (E@