Pulp Fiction, 1950 · page 77 of 132
15 Story Detective, April 1950 — page 77: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 77: Story Prose from "Nightmare Highway" This page contains the continuation of a crime story titled "Nightmare Highway." The prose follows a character named Emery as he investigates what appears to be a criminal case involving someone named Sam, who faces charges related to a shooting incident with a trooper. After a sleepless night, Emery has a sudden insight and rushes to the District Attorney's office to share his theory. The page concludes with Emery anxiously awaiting a phone call with results. The bottom half features an advertisement for upcoming pulp fiction stories, including "Keeper of the Cat-Bride" by William Campbell Gault and "Slaves of Murder's Queen" by Robert C. Dennis, advertised as part of an April issue on sale March 3rd.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Nightmare Highway bordered with hope. He left the smell of medicines behind as he walked to his car. Emery found Jim Lamb waiting for him at the terminal. They shook hands silently amid the uproar of trucks arriving, load- ing, and departing. ‘Looks bad for Sam,” Emery sighed. “With that eye witness reporting that he saw the trooper shoot Sam and the slug from the trooper’s gun in his shoulder, I guess Sam will have a hard time beating the State.” Lamb was a big blonde man. A bit on the soft side from riding a Morris chair instead of a rig. “Yeah. That positive reaction of the paraffin test on Sam makes it worse,”’ he spoke in a clear tenor voice. “But I don’t believe Sam’d kill a cop be- cause he sent his boy up on a car stealing charge.”’ Emery nodded in agreement. He headed straight for bed after taking his leave of the truck line’s president and owner. But sleep wouldn't come. He pitched and tossed like a ship in a gale. Over and over his mind travelled the course Jaid by the irrefutable evidence, seeking some side road that would lead to Sam’s salvation. It came to him in a blinding flash as he fervently cursed the fate that had slapped 77 Sam behind the eight ball. With trembling fingers Emery threw on his clothes. Then he raced madly to the D.A.’s office. Larski listened attentively, his fingers forgetting to pat his wavy hair in place. “Ali right,” he said, excitment tinging his words, “I'll give it a try, Bob.” He reached for the phone on the highly polished mahogany desk. He dialed a number rapidly and hurled staccato in- structions into the cone of the mouthpiece. Then with a sigh of satisfaction, he mur- mured: It’s just barely possible.” “T simply have to be right,” Emery replied. A shudder ran up his spine. If a blank turned up now, there'd soon be a widow and a bunch of orphans in Sam’s family. He tried to sit still, but a high tension of nervous expectancy gave: his body and mind no peace. He started to pace around the D. A.’s spacious office. Nor did he relax even when Larski’s lovely young secretary came in with a bunch of letters in her hand. An hour crawled by. | alge time the phone rang, Emery held his breath as Larski answered it. Then he swore nervously as the calls Plus: Terror-packed short stories and fea- tures by Philip Weck, Charles Larson, Walt Sheldon, Frederick Blakeslee and many others. All in the Big April Issue! On Sale March 3rd! Each night she disappeared, ... Each day she returned to torment him. .. . “KEEPER OF THE CAT-BRIDE™ Blood-Chilling Novel of Suspense By William Campbell Gault **Slaves of Murder’s Queen”’ Gripping Mystery Novelette by Robert C. Dennis Read . . . and thrill to: And: (F@)