10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 103: what you’re looking at

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

SATAN’S SEARCH WARRANT—-———— soaking wet, and when he got there, there weren’t any cabs at the stand. Big Ben ducked his head into the wind and started grimly to walk—al- most to swim—the six blocks that would take him to the Wescott Apart- ments. He couldn’t get much wetter, anyway. There was a label in his top- coat that said Waterproof, but that label was a snare and a delusion on a night like this. The rain drove into his face and neck like water squirted from a hose; it ran down inside and outside his collar, and even seemed to creep up his trouser-legs from below. He walked with a squashing sound be- cause the overshoes he had optimis- tically put on kept the water which ran down inside his shoes from run- ning out again. But, eventually, he got there. He - stood in the lobby a moment to catch his breath, and then rang the janitor’s bell. The lock on the inner door clicked and he went in. A sleepy-looking little man in a bathrobe peered out a door at the end of the hallway. Ben identified himself, and then asked, “Who found the body, and when ?”’ “Mrs. Craddock heard it hit,” said the janitor. “About half-past nine. She lives in 2-A, and she was in the bathroom then and heard a heck of a thud out in the airshaft. So she opens the window and looks down, and there he is right under the window, only a floor down. The airshaft goes down almost to ground level.” “She’s the one who phoned the po- lice ?”’ “T guess so; I didn’t even know till they got here. Nobody tells me these things. But if a radiator starts to leak or a washer on a faucet gets loose, . “Yeah,” said Big Ben. “How many apartments open on the airshaft? Have windows on the airshaft, I mean.” “All of ’em. There are four apart- ments on each floor, see? And they’re all laid out alike, so ali three rooms of every apartment has windows on ———E the outside. All the bathrooms have windows on the airshaft in the middle, and only the bathrooms. The airshaft’s in the middle, and all the bathrooms have windows on—” “Yeah,” said Ben. “You mean the bathrooms have windows on the air- shaft. Let’s see—there are seven floors and four apartments to a floor, so there’d be twenty-eight apart- ments, and twenty-eight bathroom windows on the airshaft, huh?” “That’s right. And it was 6-A, over Mrs. Craddock’s that he climbed out the window of.” “That'd be a bathroom window,” said Ben. “The chief told me the sheets were fastened to a bed. How could he?” HE janitor shook his head. “You got that wronp. I saw it. He took three sheets offa the bed and knotted "em together and tied ’em to the dou- ble faucet on the bathtub, just inside the window.” “Three sheets,” said Ben. That'd take him down two floors at most. He was trying to get in 5-A or 4-A, wouldn’t you say?” “Likely, yeah. But that airshaft’s only four feet square. It could have been any of the apartments on the fourth or fifth. He could get down till he had a foot on the windowsill of. say, 5-A, and then step across to one of the other windows. But, yeah, 4-A or 5-A would be the easiest. Paul Dur- ban lives in 5-A.” “Thanks,” said Ben. “Guess I'll go there first.” He squashed his way to the auto- matic elevator and pushed the button to bring down the car. While he wait- ed, he saw the janitor come out with a mop and start work on the big pud- die where Ben had stood outside his door. Ben grinned, and called back, “It’s raining out, in case you ain’t noticed.” The elevator car was down now, but Ben thought of something and paused with the door halfway open. “Hey,” he called back. “You remem- comichbook com