10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

night comp! —s terest in the Board of Trade and all that. Won’t be long before you'll be an old settler. “Take Betty—” the face of Chief Maddox softened still more as he mentioned the name — “well, she thinks you’re pretty swell. I ain’t nev- er told a 30ul about—about the old days, Johnny. I never will, either. You’ve earned your future—son.” After the business of the statement was typewritten and signed, Slip Dowst managed to get away without again shaking hands. “The old buzzard!” Slip snarled to himself as he walked outside, wrig- gling the fingers of his right hand. “Here I am getting my fingers in shape for a big job and the old fool damn near crushes ’em!” Ship Dowst was in an expansive mood as he hurried to the laundry. He took care to walk past the Riker jew- elry store in order to get ahead on his task of casing the place. With the money he’d get from that safe he could go far. Even the sudden thought of Betty failed to affect him. ‘He sneered. A small-town hick like the rest. She should see some of the dames in the night clubs and race tracks up East. Boy! : Slip’s grin was slyly pleased as he stopped to light a cigarette across from the Riker store, his narrowed gray eyes busily engaged in looking things over. There was a soft drink stand nearby and Slip spent a nickel —one he had taken from Soup Mc- Graw’s pocket—for a bottle of pop. As he drank it his now keenly profes- sional eyes took in a number of points of interest. First of all, the entire two-story building was occupied by the jewelry store. On either side were story-and a-half structures. Slip knew there was a narrow alley behind the stores, which would make it easy for him to work from the rear. The Riker store was not very mod- ern, It was equipped with rusty old- fashioned steel shutters which at ed the front wd ________MEMO FROM THE BIC HOUSE ‘grand, _ but not within the past. three weeks f ae a ane oO 6g “ ys a. % ~ 3 —_ ao : oe eg, wa” * . oe et ee ~ ie : 4 pata a srt . oo leat aor, 5 = m Pi: el =<. + mR Fey Lat BR eee ot ee = = 3 ri Tor- - -- ¢ : Kn gg regia aE a pe ais ee pigs ha Z : display windows. But Ship knew the store carried a valuable stock of mer- chandise, fer often he had seen ex- pensive diamonds displayed in the windows. The haul] should net him ten Slip estimated, and _ the thought of so mueh money made him flush hot all over. ISITING the downtown district during lunch and after working hours, Slip thoroughly cased the store by Saturday. That worked into his plans perfectly. The annual meeting of the Westview Board of Trade was scheduled for that Saturday night and Slip Dowst had it figured as his perfect alibi. He was pretty certain he could rob the Riker store inside of thirty minutes. Slip knew the members of the Board of Trade would appear early and that it would be at least an hour before they sat ‘down to dinner. He could show up early with the rest, be seen in various groups, and then ‘disappear long enough to pull the job. He knew, because of the crowd, he wouldn’t be missed. Then, when he _ showed up again, the members would be able to swear—if it became neces- sary—that he had been there all the time! Only two things worried Slip Dowst. One was how to hide the dia- monds he planned. taking; the other was his alibi over the weekend. Slip had it planned to be with somebody every minute from after the close of the Board of Trade meeting until go- ing to work Monday morning. Then, with the discovery of the robbery on Monday, he would have a perfect ali- bi for every second of his time. Just one thing remained to be ac- complished now. That was te case the interior of the store again. Old Ab Riker, owner of the jewelry store, was one of “he directors of the Board of Trade. It would be perfectly logi- cal for Slip to drop in, ostensibly to talk, and ease the place. Of course he had been in the store many times, ed ek tet eee ae fa a ee ~~ Ae hs) See “" “Ala io ne ~ So a 5 tT aw. ry = rf a i.)