10-Story Detective, March 1941 — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

DAGGERS OF DOOM———————-65 TSD came up, he vaulted into the can and ducked his head, From his retreat he heard Charlie Mee say in Cantonese: “Do not shoot. It is not desirable to attract attention to ourselves at this time. Go down into the yard and search. He has not had time to escape from there.” A moment later a voice from down in the yard near the door called out, also in Cantonese: “He has come through here, master. The lock is shot away!” Charlie Mee ordered: “Search the yard carefully, then. Look in all the trash cans. Do not let him escape!’ Feet scurried in the yard. Gil held his gun steady, barrel pointing up toward the sky. He could see a single star above him, and a slowly moving cloud that was moving up to obscure the star. Suddenly a gaunt yellow face hid the star and the cloud from his view. The face started _to shout, and Gil fired. The face disintegrated, and Gil jumped straight up, put a foot on the edge of the can, and vaulted over. A chorus of shrill yells came from various parts of the yard. Flashlight beams flitted about. Gil stepped over the body of the Chinaman who lay alongside the garbage can, and darted across the yard. From the window above, Charlie Mee shouted in shrill singsong dia- lect: “Shoot! Shoot now! He must not escape!” Gil swung his gun up and took a potshot at the sound of Charlie’s voice. Gil knew that he had not hit him, for wood splintered the frame- work of the window up there. Lead winged past him, a slug tore at his sleeve. But the Chinese are notoriously poor shots, and Gil reached the fence unwounded. A dark shape hurtled at him, and Gil straight-armed that shape with the hand that held the gun. The shape uttered a pained yelp, and collapsed. Gil hoisted himself up on a gar- bage can alongside the fence and jumped. Shouts rose to a tumultuous crescendo behind him; a gun barked from the window above. Just at that moment Gil’s foot caught on a pro- jecting nail as he was clearing the fence. His arms went out wildly into the air, and he hurtled over into the next yard. He landed heavily on con- crete, the breath knocked out of him for the second. He heard one of the Chinese in the next yard call out: “He is killed, master. Your aim was true!” Charlie Mee replied from above in his unhurried voice: “Come up, then, quickly. Leave his body. We must abandon this house before the police come.” Gil got up and felt about for his gun which he had dropped when he fell. He picked it up, and sped away through the yard, down an alley. Gil saw the back of a policeman who was just turning the corner on the run from Race into Marley. He walked © ay rapidly in the opposite direction from the cop. At the corner of Claremont Ave- nue Gil hailed a cab and gave the address of Wayne’s home. Just as the cab got under way, a police radio ear tore down Claremont and round- ed into Race, with siren shrieking. The driver called back through the open sliding window: “Must be an- other shooting. The way these cops ride, you’d think there wasn’t nobody on the streets but them!” Gil didn’t answer; he was busy loading his gun. LITTLE surprise was waiting for him in front of Wayne’s house. There was a police radio car at the curb, a headquarters car, and an ambulance. A small crowd was being held back from in front of the entrance by a couple of bluecoats. One of the cops stopped Gil as he shoved his way to the front row of the crowd. “What’s happened?” Gil demanded of the cop. The uniformed man didn’t vouch- safe him any response, but pushed COPMIGL OOO KS (E@)