5 Detective Novels Magazine Cover — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

76 here in a minute.” As if in answer to his words, feet came pounding down the hall. A moment later, the men_ burst through the door. There were five of them, their guns held ready. Doe, Ray, and Jeffries were struggling to untangle themselves and get to their feet. The pilot hadn’t moved. Judging by the way Prentiss’s knuckles felt, he wouldn’t move for a long time. Prentiss crossed over to the F.B.I leader. “Wait a minute. The girl’s okay. She helped me. If it hadn’t been for ner. The man grinned. “What the hell’s so funny?” Prentiss said. “You are,” the man said. “Telling me that my sister’s okay.” “Your sister?” Prentiss gaped at him. “Yeah, my sister. We’ve been watch- ing the Borneo for some time. We knew they were running a gambling club there, losing more than they could pay off. These guys were clever. They gave the boys a lot of credit—a lot more than they should have had. Then when the boys lost too much, why, they cracked down on them. “If they couldn’t pay off, they had to dig up some plans or use a little emery. It was a nice racket, but we couldn’t get inside. We got a couple of leads, and learned that Jeffries was working with the Commies. Only the guys who talked were found dead. My sister’s a singer, so we planted her in a place where she and Jeffrias could get acquainted. She strung him along and got a job at the club.” AX PRENTISS was looking from one to the other. “And the little man who got murdered on Temple this afternoon ?” “Yorgensen was one of the office men at the airplane factory,” the F.B.I. man said. “He found out that one of his boys had sold tracings of this new motor. Yorgensen went down to the club for lunch, got into the back room, and let himself lose a lot of money gambling. The croupier suggested that he go in to see the manager. “He went into the office when Ray was just putting these plans into this head. Yorgensen pulled a gun, made him wrap the head up, and ducked out the back FIVE DETECTIVE NOVELS MAGAZINE way. My sister heard Ray and Jeffries talking after Yorgensen left and trailed him back uptown. She didn’t have time to get word to me, so she stopped Yorg- ensen on Temple Street and tried to get him to give her the package. “She was talking to him when Jeff- ries drove by in that car and shot him. Then she ran away with the package. Jeffries came back around the block. He was the guy who knocked you down the elevator shaft. Then the cops came, and Jeffries took her away in his car. He thought she was trying to help him. You see, he was in love with her.” Prentiss nodded. “I can see that. It would be plenty easy.” The girl blushed a little. Her brother grinned wider. “With your evidence, we’ve really got these guys. You'll probably have to go down to the office and make a report on that submarine. Evidently the sub’s been picking up what information these guys could collect.” “It seems that I didn’t help at all,” Prentiss said to the girl. “I just gummed things up.” “Oh, no,” she protested. “If you hadn’t grabbed that package away from me, Jeffries would have got it back. You helped catch them by having my brother and his men wait outside your apart- ment. I almost spoiled it by walking in at the wrong time.” “Then you think I’ll make a detec- tive?” he asked. She hesitated. “That’s not for me to “It definitely is,” he told her. “You may not know it, but you haven’t seen the last of me. In fact, you’re never going to see the last of me—if I can help a She was silent for quite a while, watch- ing the prisoners being led out. Just be- fore she left, she said, “In that case you’d better turn your license in. There’s one good detective in the family already.” She shut the door quickly and held it. She was a strong girl but she wasn’t strong enough. Prentiss managed to pull it open. When he did, he found her laughing at him. Prentiss had always liked girls who laughed. GoMmilGeboo @) S (C(O)