10-Story Detective, September 1941 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

20-_—___—_—_——_———10-STORY DETECTIVE Why didn’t you call me directly?” Falkner managed a smile. “I thought Burton would bring you, but I hated to call you. You stood by me once and got yourself in bad.” Cobb made a sweeping gesture. ‘““To hell with that.” He swung around to face the chief. “What’s the idea of beating Falkner up?” The chief winked at McCosky. ‘‘He tried to escape.” Cobb’s lips were tight. “We'll see what the governor has to say about this, Greham. I warn you that he’s been watching conditions in Sheldon for a long time. If you can’t carry out your office in a more orderly fashion, we'll see what the national guard can do.” Greham’s voice was suddenly cold, deadly. “Listen, Mr. Cobb. We don’t need you to tell us our business. This man is a criminal. You defended him once in our courts, seven years ago. He came back, after promising to leave the state and never return. We gave him every advantage, remem- bering that his father once was a re- spected citizen. But he repaid us by killing one of our men last night.” Cobb hesitated and looked toward Falkner. “What about it, Guy?” Falkner’s voice lacked emotion. “He’s telling it. The trouble is, Law- rence, someone in this town is scared of me. They’ve had the knife out for me ever since I got back. Seven years ago, I expected to live here the rest of my life. I only wanted what was mine, but they accused me of theft. They kicked me out of this part of the country. When I came back, it was like a ghost rising. They had to get me out of town.” Cobb was inflexible. “Did you kill this Grover?’ “No, his wife heard the shot which killed him. It was before I got there, not afterward.” McCosky swore. “You can’t believe her. She’s been hoping to collect Alf’s insurance for years.” Hughes spoke for the first time. “But who killed Durey?” Falkner shrugged. “The whole thing hinges on the dam,” he said, as if he were speaking aloud. “You want it built, a lot of people don’t. Any- thing which can delay the work is their idea. Durey’s death was sup- posed to delay it, but that wasn’t why he was killed. He was killed because he’d learned suddenly who was behind the sabotage and was going to tell me. Grover was killed because he’d been bribed to switch the murder bul- let for one which he had fired from my gun. “Now the funny part of the whole business is that the man who’s been trying to block the dam has over- looked an easy way to do it. They’re driving those diversion tunnels through Sun Mountain and they’re having trouble. The mountain is capped by volcanic rock, but under- neath is a kind of clay. The clay is loaded with moisture and is harder to dig through than the rock because they can’t hold their bore. “The minute they dig a hole, it swells, pushes through the timbers and fills their drifts. They can’t hold it, no matter how much timbering they do because the whole thing shifts. There’s nothing solid to an- chor the timbers to. “So Pete Durey took a leaf out of the book. He’d heard that up at Bonneville Dam they had a bank that wouldn’t stand. Up there they tried everything and finally they ran re- frigeration pipes into the dirt and froze the bank solid. “That's what Durey did in the tunnels: He ran in pipes and froze the clay, holding it there until he could pour the conerete linings. Once they get the concrete in, it will be anchored on hard rock at both ends and will serve as a bridge through the mountain’s clay center. All any- one has to do to really jam the works is to wreck the refrigeration plant.” HERE was silence in the room for a full minute, then Hughes swung around angrily. “Durey told COMICLOOO® S (©