5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

20 hand moved toward the gun in his pocket. But Kern, anticipating that, made a wild lunge and seized his wrist between his teeth. He hung on like a bulldog until the police got hold of Sid- dington and dragged him away. They did not, however, drag him far. During the struggle Siddington man- aged to free one hand and fish from his pocket another paper of the white crys- tals. Before they could stop him, the deadly cyanide was in his mouth. | aes FERRY lay in her hospital bed, weak but smiling. “IT hope you'll forgive me for doubting you even for that instant, Hil,” she said, “but I was a nervous wreck, and it had been dinned into me that you were a maniac until I didn’t know what to think.” “IT must have looked like one,” Kern said, “after what I’d been through, wading the river, dodging the police and mobs of searchers. But I had to come to you. I knew who the killer was then— had known ever since Azul was killed in that room in Monteverde—”’ “You saw him there?” “No, not there nor last night, either. When he killed Azul, he fired from the door. I had heard it open, but he shot the light out, and I didn’t see him. But I had heard Azul’s scream. It was the same thing Liria had screamed, and it brought the memory back to me. I knew what the cry meant then, too.” “You mean Xipe’s name?” Kern shook his head. ‘‘Not the de- mon’s name, the killer’s. Or rather his initials, which he used as a given name.” Edna gasped. “It was ‘C. P.’ his vic- tims screamed ?”’ “Of course. As simple as that. Only the letters weren’t pronounced ‘see-pee,’ as we pronounce them, but ‘see-pay,’ as a Mexican would pronounce them. The Spanish p, as you know, sounds like ‘pay.’ And since there’s practically no difference in the way ‘see-pay’ and ‘she- pay’ sound when yelled, it was naturally thought that Liria had yelled the demon Xipe’s name.’ “Did you thirk that was what she yelled when you heard it last night?” Hil frowned. “Honestly, I can’t be sure. But I think I suspected it was FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE really Siddington’s name she was yell- ing then. Only I didn’t see him, and it was such a horrible shock that my mind probably wanted to evade it, and that helped the liquor and the drug make me forget what it was she had screamed. But it was there all the time, of course, beneath the surface. When I ‘heard that music played again and right on top of it, Azul screaming the same thing at his killer, I no longer had any uncertainty about it. The problem then was to find someone who would listen to me.” “Well, I failed you,” Edna said. “I suppose I shou'd have supected Sidding- ton myself. But he was very careful to keep his operations hidden from me and make such a show of being your friend that I was fooled. The fact that he was so ready to bleed you and even cooked up that story about the nonex- istent I. Tezcat in such a hurry, proves that he never did have any scruples. Only I don’t think murder was a part of the original plan.” “Nor I,” Kern said. “But if he’d been able to keep on bleeding me a few more years, he wouldn’t have had to murder anybody—not for money. Of course, if I had died some other way, he’d have been able to steal what he wanted while managing the project set up in my will. No, the murder was more or less forced on him and all because Liria found out what was going on and started black- mailing him. So he killed her and then he had to kill the others to cover up his first murder.” “Inspector Ollin had better get some of that thanks, too,” Edna said, “for the good old virtue of not being hasty. The newspapers, of course, are handing him plenty of praise, but I think we owe him a personal debt, too.” She smiled. “May- be a big slice of wedding cake.” Kern opened his eyes wide. “Well, well. To make a wedding cake, I’ve heard, you first get your— Say! Is this a proposal, young lady?” Edna’s eyes flashed at him teasingly. “No, sir, it’s just a plain statement, so you needn’t start mauling me. You’ve got to have either a wife or a guardian and since I’ve got a sort of priority, or used to. have—” The rest was smothered by a kiss she couldn’t duck. Nor did shetry. @ © © CoOnniclooo SJ (C(O) mM