Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 7, 1922 — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

COMMON KID GLOVES. McGuire turned to his associate. ‘“ You heard that, Peters?” he asked. “‘ Sure did, Saul!” ‘Will you kindly tell me what all this is about?” Oakes Radell asked. “ Certainly!’? McGuire replied. “It is my opinion that the man who killed Mr. Hadler made his plans very well, indeed. I assume that he wore gloves so he would leave no finger-prints in the suite or on the gun. As a matter of truth, there were no finger-prints on the gun.” “You said a short time ago that you found prints.” “We did,” said McGuire. ‘ Notice these gloves, please. They are new gloves, pos- sibly purchased for the occasion. Difficult to tell where, for it is a common pattern and make of glove, though out of date. Thousands of stores undoubtedly have some of those gloves on their shelves. Possibly this pair was bought years ago and never used until now. “* New gloves, as we all know, are a nui- sance the first time you put them on. The confounded things are tight, and we have to force down the fingers of one glove with the opposite hand. We get on the right glove, and then with the gloved hand we force down the fingers of the left. I hate new gloves.” “ But—” Radell objected. “Oh, yes, to get to the point! Well, Mr. Radell, the man who killed Harrison Hadler wore these new gloves. He had trouble, I suppose, getting them on. He U U 317 forced down the fingers of the right glove. He left the finger-prints of his left finger tips on the soft, new kid of the right-hand glove.” Oakes Radell felt another spasm of fear, but McGuire was not even looking at him. ‘‘ So we have the finger-prints of the mur- derer, despite the fact that he took such great precautions,’ McGuire continued. ‘““There’s always some little thing that points the way to the guilty man. You have said, Mr. Radell, that you never saw these gloves before, never owned them, never touched them. Yet your finger-prints are on those gloves, Radell! The prints of your left finger tips are on the fingers of the right-hand glove. There are other prints on the back of the right-hand glove. This officer took your prints a moment ago— and they correspond! “You certainly made a sad mistake, Ra- dell, when you used nice, new gloves, the surface of which would take a print easily. And you made another sad mistake when you discarded the gloves so near the scene of the crime.” “I?” Oakes Radell gasped. say?” “You!” Saul McGuire thundered, get- ting upon his feet. ‘ You shot down Harri- son Hadler! You wore gloves to keep from leaving prints, yet left prints on the gloves. A bit of irony! A pair of common kid gloves has nailed you. Put out your wrists, Radell! Here’s where you start for the elec- tric chair!” “T, you U U (,*! a good laugh by turning every week to our unique sporting feature on the last three pages—Izzy Kaplan’s Kolumn. And watch for the start of a new series of detec- tive tales having their ongin in Washington. Further particulars later. comiclbooolx C©