10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

By Richard L. Hobart Johnny Dowst, ex-con, was fed up on that hick existence in a burg where nothing ever happened. For his magic fingers q were doing the wrong kind of work. But when he tried some 5 of his old-time hand wizardry, he tound that once again he had put his fingerprints on the Big House door. " i I & bes a is Wh - fighting a losing battle. He re- alized that fact three weeks or more before he _ discovered the dying man alongside the railroad track, and found the combination of the Riker jewelry store safe all writ- ten down on a piece of. paper. It was then that Johnny Dowst knew he was licked. That past of his was too vivid, too hellishly strong to break away from. It had him in a cage of steel, clutched him with fingers of iron. The old days. beckoned with ghostly hands, and there was a grimace of fiendish deviltry on the leering face of the specter of his past. Johnny Dowst knew he could not fight against ap- J sens DOWST knew he was oe s - > ; . "- ig ~ ° ~~ + 2 oa. “er a pe AS ace aioe <>: % a Re A ree $ Aaa, age ¥ < om thas . J Fe ee FS Spa yet A agi ta a Ga I mat oO y= oP ae At nae pe eo ea ee — S| bat, = eee Dect, ~ paritions, That was expecting too much of a man of flesh and blood. In those days he was known as “Slip” Dowst, and possessed a set of magic fingers that could open almost any “box” he came across. Of course, with so many of the newer safes in use, he couldn’t do that now. But Johnny Dowst’s long, slim fin- gers fairly ached to twirl the little bright knob again, see the arrow hesitate at number after number while his ear awaited the all but in- audible click which told of a tumbler falling into its slot. It was terribly hot as Johnny trudged the dusty roadbed toward his still hotter job in the Westview laun- dry, three hundred yards farther EOmicboo WAS TA Boyne if) Devel A - a u ax pits i : f “Ws Dy atte AL) Oy fis oie dle) ing