10-Story Detective, September 1941 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

24—_—_—_______————__10-STORY DETECTIVE door, but her heel caught and she fell heavily against the jamb. The next moment the man was jerking her to her feet. And she stared up into the face of Lawrence Cobb, the water company attorney. He was-as surprised as she. “Ellen Burton. What the devil are you doing here?” She stared at him, not understand- ing. Her brain refused to grasp the fact that he was here, that he had been bending over the machinery, about to plant a bomb. He was laughing now. “This is swell. I hate to do it, but it will make the setup perfect. I’ll have to knock you out, sweetheart, then plant the bomb. When it goes off, they’ll find your body and think your dad was be- hind the blowing up of the plant.” — She said: ““But you—I don’t under- stand.” “No one does,” he told her. “Close your eyes while I sock you. It will be over in a minute.” The hand which held his weapon went up, and a gun exploded in the confines of the building. For an in- stant the girl thought that Cobb had squeezed the trigger accidentally, then she realized that Cobb had dropped his gun and grabbed his wrist. ALKNER and Scotty had jumped forward across the room, and there was a smoking gun in Falkner’s hand. He seized Cobb as the man started to run and threw him to the floor. Scotty knelt on the man, pin- ning him to the concrete. Falkner turned to the girl. “All right, honey?” She nodded uncertainly. Things were happening a little too fast for her. He said: “You darn fool. Why didn’t you stay out in the brush like I told you? You might have been killed.” She was vague. “I saw him come in. I didn’t know what to do. I thought that you were wrecking the plant and I had to warn you.” He stared at her. “You thought I was wrecking—you actually thought that and yet you came to warn me?” Her face was suddenly flushed. “I told you, Guy Falkner, that anything you did was all right with me. I’m sorry if I butted in at the wrong time, sorry if I spoiled your plan.” He wass ober. “In reality you helped. We didn’t know how to get him away from that bomb without shooting to kill, and I didn’t want to kill him.” He turned his head. “All right, boys, bring them out.” From the far end of the plant half a dozen husky tunnel workers shoved two bound men forward. There was tape across their lips, but their eyes were unbandaged. The girl recognized McCosky and the police chief. Falkner gave an order and the men’s arms were freed, the tape re- moved. “Both of you are too pig-headed to see beyond your noses so we had to drag you over here to see us catch your killer.” He turned to the girl. ““We knew before I ever came up here that whoever was sabotaging the work didn’t want water to reach the San Pasquel Valley. On the face of it, it looked like the work of your father and his Chamber of Commerce com- mission. “But no matter what was done, the dam would be finished sooner or later. So we had to look for someone who didn’t want water to reach the San Pasquel this next summer. That per- son would be the San Pasquel bank, since they had loaned a lot of money to the valley farmers. The loans were coming due at the end of the next harvest. So we suspected Starr and investigated his bank. But in doing so, we learned that Starr was just a front, that Cobb owned the bank. That he had bought it, seven years ago.” “Seven years?” She looked at him questioningly. Conn CloOolkk (©