10-Story Detective, June 1945 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

12 was out of sight under the eushion on the other side of her. Eben lunged across her lap and got both hands around her wrist and pulled. Her hand reappeared, and in it there was a toggle-switch from which two wires dangled. Then he was fighting her for his life, For both their lives. Frantically her fingers strove to snap the switch, She was as strong as he was, Insane fury pos- sessed her, She squirmed, clawed, and bit, while Eben concentrated on preventing the small pressure which would eomplete the circuit, Savagely he butted her under the chin, Her head snapped against the back of the couch; momentarily her fingers loos- ened. But he did not dare snatch at the switch. One of his hands swooped under the switch, found the wire, and tugged. ‘They tore loose, He rolled away from the girl and stood up, panting. | She giggled. She gathered up the now disconnected switch and snapped it, then looked triumphantly up at him. “Now are you satisfied?” he said, She rose to her feet and casually finffed her hair. “You couldn’t stop me,” she chortled. “I did it.” ; “Not quite.” Eben tried to pull the eouch away from the wall. An obstruc- tion held it back, She watched him with idle curiosity as he lifted one end of the eouch and pulled it away from the thing jammed beneath it. “Dr. Finch!” The name was a moan in the nurse’s suddenly choked throat, Dr. Finch’s plump body lay on its back. The dead eyes stared up at the ceiling, Eben bent over him. Dried blood stained the shirt over the heart where the knife had entered .He had been dead for hours, “IT didn’t do it!” the nurse shrilled. “I swear I didn’t know he was here.” She was out of it beyond doubt. Sight of the eorpse had brought her back. “’m sure you didn’t,” Eben told her gently. He went to the other end of the eouch and lifted it away. Between the spread legs of the body was a low, nar- row box, From two small holes in the top two loose wires dangled. “Filled with TNT,” Eben said. “If I hadn’t torn away the wires, we would have been blown to bits when you snapped the switch. We two and the dead man,” “Switch?” she whimpered. “What switch?” She was swaying from side to side and running her hands over her face like a person. who had just awakened from a nightmare. “You've forgotten,” he said. “You were supposed to forget if anything went ng.” ‘She stared at him, “What are you talk- — —< ~ 10-STORY DETECTIVE — ing about? I didn’t want to blow us up. I didn’t want to die,” “You didn’t know,” he said grimly. “All you knew was that you were sup- posed to snap a switch,” He started toward the door. She ran after him. “Don’t leave me here alone with—with Dr. Finch,” she pleaded. “Call the police.” “But what can I tell them?” “Anything,” he said and went out. Ht WAS still early enough at night for an occasional store to be doing busi- ness, But would the place he was bound for be open? If it wasn’t, he would be de- layed, In the end, it wouldn’t change any- thing—wunless he allowed himself to be- come careless. The store front was dark, Eben pressed his face against the dusty window and peered past the displayed books into the interior, A trickle of light came through one end of the curtain across the back doorway. Somebody was in that back room, ' He moved on to the store vestibule, The door was locked. : “So you are still alive, Eben?” a voice said in his ear. “I was afraid of that.” Eben’s hand started moving up to his shoulder, He checked himself when he felt a gun pressed into his back, He was too close against the door, The store ves- tibule was too cramped for a quick turn. He had been careless after all, and care- lessness meant death, Standing rigidly, Eben looked over his shoulder, A street lamp made severely an- gular lights and shadows of Frank Mar- kin’s gaunt face. The black eyes were lost in the deep sockets. The gun boring into his back was, of course, the one he had shot out of the bookseller’s hand that morning, “I knew what to expect,” Eben said, “T tore out the wire before she could snap the switeh,” “So? It was obvious even this morning that you knew too much, I should have killed you then,” “But you couldn’t.” Every word Bben uttered gave him that much longer to live. “Not only because I shot the gun out of your hand. You don’t want your corpses near you or near anything belonging to you. Did you think P’'d meekly let the nurse blow us both up in her apartment?” Markin’s stooped shoulders rose and ; fell. “I was prepared for an alternative. It appeared that if you escaped death, you would come to my store.” He chuck- led dryly, mirthlessly, “And you, a pro- fessional gunman, fell into my seconi ap. “Except that you don’t shoot now be- “S = comicboo (<0)