ALFRED DECEMBER 50c wm { •m^aif MYSTERY MAGAZINE

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NEW stories presented by the master of SUSPENSE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED December 1966

Dear Reader:

Did you ever have the feehng that something was following you, say from year to year? The plight which per­ plexes me on the cover has been dog­ ging me for months, and is getting closer. It could be construed as the image of a relentless assassin, or perhaps a brash specter. However, I am inclined to believe, judging by the cal­ endar, that it is the more appalling presence of my recurring holiday spirit. Naturally, one in my position cannot allow himself to be caught up by charitable feelings when malicious­ ness in any form provides the mainstay of his life. Who needs a kindly purveyor of mystery and suspense.? Therefore, in my annual struggle with my virtuous self, I will remain—firm—and—continue—my devotion —to mur—aaaak!—to joyful times around the fireside with family and friends, with good food and drink— and murderous plots! There. That was entirely too close. For a moment it had me in its sentimental grip, but I have bested it. However, I do feel a trifle lighthearted, like wanting to chill a holiday celebrant . . . You may oblige me by perusing the following pages.

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Al rorn UlTOUpnri/'C MVCTCDV MAPATIMT Vol.l!.No.l2.Deceinberl966.Singlecopies50(;eiils. HLrnCU ni IlinljUUn 0 miOlCni mHUHLiriL SubsKrlpHonsSCOOIor one year in tlie united SUles and Possessions: eisewhere $7.00 (in U.S. funds) for one year. I'utjiislie(i niontldy l)y H. S. O. Publications. Inc.. 2441 Beacli Court, Riviera Beacli. Fla. 33404. Publications olllce. 10 Ferry Street. Concord. N. H. 03302. Second class postage paid at Concord. N. H. @ 1900 by II. S. O. Publications. Inc. All rights reserved. Protec­ tion secured under the International and Pan-Atneriility will be assumed for unsoliciled material. Manuscripts and changes of addresses sliould be sent to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. 2441 Beach Court, lliviera Beach, Fla, 33404. :>Io similarity between any ol tlie names, chariicters. persons and/or Institutions appearing in tliis magazine and thost; of any living or dead person or institution is intended and any sitnilarily wlilch may exist is purely coincidental. Primed in the U,S,A.

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED VOLUME 11, No. 12 DECEMBER 1966 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S mystery magazine

CONTENTS

NOVELETTE THE MAGIC TREE by James McKimmey .. ...j,^jrxx>jxiafjm>xi>:j>:j^^^j>j.: 138

SHORT STORIES THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT by Max Van Derveer »...... ,..,.:•.•! 2 THE DEADLY HANDYMAN by J. A. Mas 19 SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO by Lawrence BIQC\ 25 LULL IN HOMICIDE by James N. Semple 37 THE ANNUITY by Dan J.^Marlowe 42 THE MESSAGE by Bob Bristow 55 CROOKS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA by Mike Brett i..,.,; 62 THE SERVANT PROBLEM by Parley J. Cooper 74 JUMP JOB by Carl Henry Rathjen ; 77 THIEVES' HONOR by John Lutz 88 DAY OF THE TIGER by Jac1{ Webb 96 No PLACE LIKE HOME by Robert Edmond Alter 108 THE BLUE MAN by Wenzell Brown 115 SHAKEDOWN by Richard O. Lewis 129

RICHARD E. DECKER, Publisher O. F. FOSTER, Editor Associate Editors Pat Hitchcock Ernest hlutter Vlcbria S. Benham Marguerite Blair Deacon, Art Director

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Perseverance In efforts to execute a man's last request is related to one's loyalty to the deceased.

58.ALPH HEART was dead. In a his vow, of course. For one thing, sense, it was a relief. You never the man was locked in a cage for actually believed that a man who the remainder of his days; for an­ had threatened to kill you as he other, it ^ was not the first time was being taken off to prison to die you had been threatened. You were in the execution chamber would be accustomed to the threats. You physically capable of carrying out were calloused. You knew the

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED threats, in their utterance, were to die, just as he had to send some not idle, yet there was the reaUstic to those deaths. At forty-seven and side of things, too. How was a man with more than twenty of those to kill from prison? On the other spent in the Detective Division, hand, with the execution completed, there had been many men who had there always was this vague stirring died, directly and indirectly, by of relief inside. his hand. It was not a good feeling. Gilbert Crocker stood at a smoke- On the other hand, you could not . filmed window, staring out on the be reflective and remorseful and be gray November morning. His huge a good cop. Unfortunately, there hands were clamped at the base of- always would be killers—men like his spine and his blunt face was Ralph Heart, who had been "classi­ creased with a scowl. It was bleak fied a mine and booby trap expert outside, and' cold, and there was a in the Army twenty years ago and hint of snow in the air. He did not then had come out of that Army to like any of it: November, the bleak­ continue the practice of blowing up ness, the cold, the hint. There was things, and people, with skill. little comfort in the fact that he But cops were not robots. Cops stood inside a steam-warmed de­ had feelings. A badge, a hcense to tective squad room in Central carry a gun, the carrying and using Police Headquarters. The day al­ of that weapon, the privilege to be ready was in his bones and he was a defender of Right and Justice forced to steel himself against the did not automatically anesthetize a shudder that threatened to chase man. The defender retained emo­ through him—just as he labored tion with his badge, license and to close his ears and his mind to privilege. It became merely a matter the friendly jostling of the two of to what degree he learned to young detectives behind him. control that emotion. And he, "Will you guys cut it.?" Crocker Crocker, down through the years, finally growled without turning had become hardened, but he still from the window. did not like to see men-die. He heard the young detectives Nor-did he think death was a laugh, and the laughter grated laughing matter, and he turned against his ears. He never liked to from,the window to chastise the see a man die, even Ralph Heart's young detectives. But the words kind of man, a man who had killed remained unspoken when he found at least a dozen persons in his forty- a woman of perhaps seventy years two years of life. But some men had standing at the swinging gate in the

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED low wooden railing that divided She looked at Crocker head-on the entry from the working a;rea of as Pierce placed the box on the the squad room.-The woman looked scarred desk. "I represent The mildly perplexed. She was behind Benevolent Society of Sisters for Aiiderson, the chain smoker, and the Preservation of Pohce Depart­ Pierce, youngest in the division, ments," she said crisply, "and the and neither detective had noticed sisters have selected you as their her entry. She held a large card­ beneficiary this Thanksgiving sea­ board box with both hands. She was son. You will find a turkey in the short, frail, rinsed and pkasant- box, Sergeant. It is for you. We looking in a fur collared coat and a , give thee thanks." hat of 1920 vintage that made • She returned to the railing before Crocker think of his maternal Crocker recovered. "Er . . .. grandmother. ma'am.?" He snapped his jaws-together and But the woman walked out of said, "Yes? Can we help you.?" the squad room without looking The words came out as gently as back. was possible for him. Anderson was the first to break. Anderson and Pierce turned in He lit a fresh cigarette from the their chairs as the woman came butt in his fingertips and chuckled. through the railing gate. From behind a new screen of smoke,' "I am looking for Sergeant Gilbert he said, "Well, this just has to be' Crocker," said the woman in a your day. Sergeant." voice that was firm and clipped. "I Crocker -growled and Pierce was informed I could find him here." laughed. Crocker yanked open the Bright, deep brown eyes darted loose lid of the box. The plucked over the detectives. i turkey, its legs protruding like two "I am Sergeant Crocker, ma'am." clubs, gleamed. He banged the lid The bright eyes settled on him. together and turned on the young They were without expression. "Do detectives. Their grins were wide. you have a desk, Sergeant."*" Pierce slid an oblique look at An­ "Right there, ma'am." derson. "I think, Andy, that—" Pierce quickly left his constant "Shut up," Crocker commanded. companion, the paper coffee cup, The Benevolent Society of Sisters and took the box from the woman. for the Preservation of Police Depart­ "Well, thank you, young man," ' ments, he thought. It was his day said the woman. "My, that was okay. For nuts. getting heavy." "Gil?"

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He shot a look at an open door to staring down at the lieutenant who his left where their immediate was wide-eyed on his buttocks and superior, Lieutenant Gifford, the rammed against the wall. blintz addict, stood tall and lean. Gifford motioned to him, then his Chaos, turmoil, incredulity and eyes found the box. "What's that?" investigation reigned in the shat­ Pierce headed out of the squad tered squad room until after three room. He was grinning. "At least o'clock in the afternoon of that gray one of us is going to eat good on November day. Then the detectives Thanksgiving Day, Lieutenant," he were temporarily regrouped and said with mock sadness. He dis­ reorganized in a long-vacated muni­ appeared and a moment later Crock­ cipal courtroom on the top floor of er heard a coin clinking into the the headquarters building. Lieu­ coffee vending machine in the cor­ tenant Gifford had returned from ridor. the hospital where Detective Ander­ Crocker stomped into Gifford's son wouldn't be smoking cigarettes tiny office. for many weeks but was alive and "The box.?" Gifford asked. had an excellent chance of remain­ Reluctantly, Crocker explained. ing that way. The speculation Gifford grunted. "You get all began. kinds, huh? Push the door shut, Pierce still was unable to believe Sergeant. I want to talk to you what had happened. He cracked big about this mugging over in Crowly knuckles and mumbled, "A nice Park the other night. I think Pierce little old lady ..." He wagged bungled his investigation." his head. "What kind of a nut is Crocker reached for the door and she?" saw Anderson at the box. Anderson, "Point," said Lieutenant Gifford. shaking his head, had the lid open "Is she?" and was clucking as he stared down . Crocker stared at his superior. on the turkey. "We've scoured the city," the / hope the damn thing blows up lieutenant went on curtly. "No in his face, Crocker thought sav­ society for the preservation of agely. He closed the door. • police departments exists." The explosion was cleafening and "She has to be a kook, Giff," the concussion pitched him forward. Crocker said' flatly. "Nobody ex­ He had the sensation of crashing cept a kook is gonna walk in here into Gifford's desk, and then he and—" was sprawled on that desk and "What about Ralph Heart?"

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Pierce sat immobile and Crocker "She could be thirty, Gil. She asked cautiously, "What about him? could have been disguised." He died this mornin'." Crocker brooded. Joe "Wicker" "He also threatened to kill you. Basket was the city's biggest live Perhaps he tried." hood. Heart had been one of his Crocker shook his head. "A week boys, all right, but Heart also..had ago, a month ago, yeah. Not today. talked, and Wicker had lost five Not on the day he died. He would've other hands in addition to his wanted to read about it, hear it on bomber. Five of his men were in the radio." prison because one had a big mouth. "But if he didn't have control Wicker had not looked kindly on over the day it was to happen?" that, and he would not kill for a Gifford pressed. "If all Ralph could man who had bleated. do was get someone else to promise Crocker shook his head again. to do it? And if that someone else "Heart was lucky to live long thought it whimsically appropriate enough, even in prison, to make the that you die on the same day that chair, GiiF," he said sourly. "Frank­ Ralph died?" ly, I expected him to get hit months "There isn't anyone in town who ago. We all did. Even you." would kill for Ralph Heart," Crock­ "But he made it." er said confidently. "Well . . . yeah.'" "Not even Joe Basket? ^Heart "Lieutenant?" used to be one of his boys," the The three detectives turned to­ lieutenant went on doggedly, "and ward the slender, young man who this thing has Joe's touch. Heart, had entered the courtroom. They a bomber, threatens to kill a cop. knew him by reputation only. He Why not kill the cop with a bomb? had been a cop less than two years Joe thinks that way. And the little but he was the bomb squad's best old-lady, cute. Joe's touch again. man. Who will be humored by a bunch "We found enough. Lieutenant, of police headquarters cops? Who to know your bomb was more of a can ask for Sergeant Gil Crocker mine than a bomb," he said. "It and get pointed while other cops was small and inside the bird, snicker? Who can walk unmolested, naturally, but-its construction was with a bomb in hand, up to the de­ copied after the shu mine, the Ger­ tective squad room?" mans used in World War II. In this . "But she was an old woman, case, a trip wire was fastened to the Giffl"" pin and to a timing device. As the

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED clock' hand moved, it slowly tight­ before finally settling into a smooth ened the wire and drew the pin rhythm. Only then did he lick "his gradually from the fuse. At an'-ap- lips in anticipation of a beer and pointed time, the pin was pulled the warmth of the lights that would totally free and you had your be waiting for him inside the mort­ bomb." gaged bungalow; The bomb expert paused for sig­ He turned the sedan from the- nificance, then said, "One other boulevard into his street and slowed. thing. We found traces of rust on His headlights had picked up a dark some of the pieces. We think some­ compact braked at the curb Opposite one had this thing for a while. his house. The compact looked new Months probably." and empty. He frowned. He won­ Crocker became acutely aware of dered if his neighbors had pur­ Gifford's penetrating stare. "Okay," chased a new car. Man, with Christ­ he conceded after a few moments. mas coming on, how did people He stood and drew a long breath. find enough money to put down on "I'll hit the files." a car? "Heart," GifiFord said flatly. He turned into the short drive "And others," said Crocker. and let the sedan ease into the open "There are others, you know. Lieu­ garage. There were the lights in his tenant, who aren't exactly in love house and he knew his wife would with us. Pierce.?" be stoically waiting supper. He left They scoured the files in the the garage and pushed the doors Record Room and it was six-fifteen closed. in the evening before Crocker The sound of the car motor com­ finally admitted defeat. He closed ing to life alerted him. He started a folder and looked at Pierce. to turn and was far enough around "Beat it." to see the headlights leap alive on "I can afford to buy you a beer," the compact before the premonition said the young detective. ^ of danger lifted the hackles on his "Not tonight." " - neck. He flinched reflexively. The Twenty minutes later, Crocker sound of the rifle shot was a sharp left the headquarters building alone. crack in the quiet night and the He went down the steps and around whine of the slug splattering through a corner of the building to his six- the wooden door near his ear sent year-old sedan.- Sliding inside was him sprawling and rolling across the like sliding into a refrigerator, and drive. ' the motor coughed for ten blocks He was on his feet with his service

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED gun in his hand and lumbered to the . "Well . . . I mean, I ain't sure. curb fast enough to see a station Yeah . . . maybe there was." wagon swing into, his street. The "Man or woman?" headlights of the wagon flashed . "I dunno!" across the compact as someone ex­ The neighborhood was alive when pertly turned the small vehicle onto Crocker turned from the station the boulevard. Crocker leaped into wagon. Lights gleamed from the the street. The tires of the station houses and doors were open. It wagon squealed a protest and then seemed everyone on the block had the wagon rocked to a stop about heard the rifle shot. Crocker strode ten feet from him. angrily into his drive and met his He bolted to the wagon. wife coming from their bungalow. "What's the matter .with you?" "Everything's fine, Mildred," he a raucous voice bellowed. "You rumbled. "I gotta go back down­ wanna get killed or someth . . ." town." The man tilting his head out of a Determination drew the corners half-opened window of the wagon of his mouth down as he drove cut off the words as Crocker leaped straight to The Green Thumb on at him. "The compact at the cor­ 59th Street. The stone and glass ner," the detective snapped. "Did front of the flower shop gleamed you get a look at the driver?" with window lights, but the in­ "Man, what's your trouble? You terior was dark and the street door drunk or—" The man again chopped was locked. Crocker kept up a steady off the words and started to roll up beating\ on the door until he saw a his. window. Crocker put the gun large shaft of light come alive in­ against the top edge of the glass and side. Ceiling lights came on and a the window stopped moving. natty man of thirty-five years with "It was a dame!" the man gasped. a sunlamp tan unlocked the street Crocker grunted. "Was she door to frown out at him. The frown alone?" disappeared when the man recog­ • "Y-yeah.". nized him. "Sure?" Crocker pushed inside. "Eagle,"' "Yeah . . . sure I'm sure. Well, he snapped, "I want Wicker." maybe there was . . . someone else. The man lifted an eyebrow, but Maybe there was ... I mean, in remained silent. the back s^at . . ." . "Twenty minutes," Crocker said "Someone was in the back seat," thickly. "Tell him I'll give him Crocker graveled. twenty minutes to be out front."

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The man sighed. "I'm not sure "Hey, now . . ." Wicker grinned I can locate Mr., Basket at this and Crocker knew misgivings. The hour, Sergeant," he said politely. hood did not seem bothered by the "You'll find him. Eagle, or that bluntness, yet Crocker knew that in three-year assault hitch will seem his keen mind he was alert to all like a vacation in Bermuda com­ things, including the summons by a pared to what I'll hand you in the police detective. mornin'!" Wicker still attempted joviality. "Violence," the man said without He popped a manicured hand on changing expression. "What's the Crocker's thigh and laughed again. world coming to these days. Ser­ "Look," he said, "I hear you guys geant? Everyone is so violent." had a little blast of your own down­ Joe Basket arrived at the Green town today." The laughter took Thumb exactly eighteen and one- on stature. "Perhaps it wasn't ex­ half minutes later. Crocker was on actly the kind of blast I have in the curb, timing the arrival, when mind tonight, but—" the chauffeured, sedan rolled to a "It's why you're here, Wicker,". stop and the rear door opened. Crocker broke in thickly. "Ralph Crocker piled into the ,luxurious Heart." ^ back seat of the sedan and plopped "Ralph?" Wicker was silent for heavily beside the stocky man of a moment before he said, "Surely, sixty years who was expensively Sergeant, you don't think Ralph groomed, pleasantly lotioned, and had—" liked to appear jocose and facile. "Somebody tried again about an "Sergeant," Wicker said expan­ hour ago. Tried to make a hit on sively and with a deep chuckle. me with" a rifle. Earlier today I "Good to see you. Long time. It's figured we had a nut. Not now. The lucky Eagle caught me at my place. rifle puts a new light on things." I was just going out for the evening; "Yeah?" Wicker looked serious got a little gathering scheduled. It's and pulled on his lower lip with a the holiday season, you know, time thumb and forefinger. "Two at­ of the year for gatherings. I like tempts, huh?" I can see how you're this time of yearv—the cold, the thinkin'. Sergeant, but how can holidays. The holidays put people in you tag a guy who.is already dead?" gay spirits. Their moods are light. "The guy had friends." I like that. Like to see people get "Yeah." ^Wicker nodded. "I'm out of the rut of everyday living." glad you used the past tense, Ser­ "Knock it," said.Crocker. geant. Ralph had friends, okay, but

10 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S KfySTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED in the parlance o£ some of my . . . kept grinning. Then the black er, associates, Ralph Heart became sedan rolled away from Crocker a rat fink. You know?" without a sound, and he was left. "I don't \now," Crocker said alone on the curb. Cold seeped / bluntly. into his bones quickly. He jammed The hood seemed to give it his hands deep into his coat pockets some thought, then he asked care­ and growled. He believed Wicker. fully, "What do you want from If Wicker wanted him, Wicker me? You want me to nose around would have him by now. There were a little, put out some feelers?" a couple of other things he had to "Lay off, Wicker. That's what accept, too. The potential killer I want you to do." knew he had escaped the bomb "I plead innocent, friend!" The blast, and the potential killer knew hood regarded Crocker steadily for him well enough to know where he a few seconds before he said, "Truth. lived. The potential killer could not I ain't leanin'. You know that. If I have found the address in a phone was leanin', you'd be dead. If not book. His was an unlisted number. now, then in the next few seconds." So . . . Crocker left the luxury of the Who was the grandma? sedan. Why did she want him dead? "Hey!" Crocker cursed. Cops were not Crocker snapped around and supposed to be confronted with looked at the underworld kingpin mysteries. Mysteries were for story­ who was leaning into an open win­ books. Everything was supposed to dow. be laid out for a cop. All he had to do The kingpin was deadpan. Then was put the pieces together. Crocker suddenly he grinned. "They tried cursed again and started across the to get you with a turkey, huh? avenue to his aged sedan. The head­ Fancy. I like that bird idea. It'd be lights hit him fast and he looked up. a nice gesture, take a flock of turkeys The car was bearing, down on him, to the boys downtown. Distribute taking dead aim. He leaped back. them. I bet you guys would ap­ Something caught a trouser leg and preciate that. You cops don't make spun him off his feet. He went down much dough and—'•' hard, and then he sat there in the "You've had your warning, street and swore viciously as he Wicker." watched the taillights of the com­ "Sure, Sergeant." pact disappear. The hood nodded, winked and Now he knew something else THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT 11

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED about his potential slayer. She— or he—had guts and perseverance^ Instead of fleeing earlier, she—or he—had returned to the scene of a shooting, found a cop still alive, then trailed the cop. The night trick boys were a fountain of questions about the explosion when he arrived at head­ quarters. He turned a deaf ear to them and pounded into the Record Room. His mood was sour and he slammed doors until he had what he wanted: Ralph Heart's file. He had ^ij&vSwa/SSi:A;-siffijgr^£s^-£g9j.i repeatedly gone over the file that He left the sedan and walked afternoon, but now'he knew he had through the cold and the snow to missed something. There had to be a the house, a lumpy, rambling struc­ connection between Heart—al­ ture of two stories. The only light though dead—and the attempts on came from the windows across the his life. front on the ground floor. He went He forced himself to read the up on a porch and put his thumb • file methodically. When he found against a door buzzer. what he needed it was so obvious. Mavis Heart wore a red blouse, Ralph Heart had been married. tight-fitting slacks, and flats, and There was a residence address for seemed much heavier than during Mrs. Mavis Heart. He almost ran the days of her husband's trial. to Traffic Department. Mavis Heart Her face^was puckered and she held also owned a compact car. the door against her plumpness as A short time later, Crocker drove she stared out at Crocker.' Sud­ past the address, braked against the denly the door was closing. He put curb in front of a small corner a hand against it. grocery store and sat for a few "Do I have to call a cop?" Mavis seconds scrutinizing the neighbor­ screeched. . hood. It was lower middle class and "I am a cop, Mavis. Remember.?" quiet in the fine snow the night "You're a murderer! You killed now was spitting. The street was my husband!" shadowed and the store on the 'You own a compact car. I want corner was closed. to see it."

12 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S KIYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I'm gonna scream, and loud." narrowed eyes trained on him now? Abruptly, he allowed Mavis Heart Was there a rifle muzzle arching to close the door. He heard a lock down until it was pointed straight snap home, and then he stood in at a spot in the middle of his back frustration and contemplation. He and just slightly to the left of his -knew he was walking a very thin spine? strip of ice. He could accuse this . He exhaled sharply as he drove \voman, he could question her, he away fi'om the curb. might even find a rifle, yet he could not force his way into her home. Nor Three things harassed Crocker could he take her downtown. A good the following morning. The day was lawyer would have her in his cus­ bitter cold, he could not question tody in five minutes, and could a new widow, and he did not have crucify a cop, the entire department a woman of seventy years who —especially if the cop were proven wanted him dead. wrong, and right now th_e. latter He braked for a stoplight and was a huge possibility. Mavis Heart sat thumping the steering wheel in might be capable of disguise, of deep thought. He was at the head of aging herself, but she could not the hne of traflic and his eyes auto- shorten or thin her body, and the maticaUy surveyed the scene before grandma who had brought the him, cataloguing little things. When turkey-bomb to headquarters had they found the enormous neon sign been small and frail. advertising the grocery supermarket Crocker pulled in a deep breath in the next block, he jerked; suddenly and left the porch.. He Thirty minutes later he again crossed crisp grass, then stopped on a was braked in front of the corner cracked concrete driveway. There grocery in the residential neighbor­ was a garage to his left. Would he hood. Mavis Heart's home was find a dark compact inside? He three houses to his right. He left the started back there and stopped sedan and entered the market, a again. If Mavis Heart wanted to small market with four employees. kill him, what better excuse would Crocker picked the bearish man she need than shooting down a behind the meat counter. prowler who was attempting to Was the man acquainted with a enter her garage? Mavis Heart? Crocker turned out of the drive- Sure. She hved right up the : way and walked quickly through the street. Three doors. fine snow toward his sedan. Were Did Mavis Heart trade regularly THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT 13

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED in this store? Employees know her? Mavis Heart lived ' with, her Yeah. mother, right? Had Mavis Heart purchased a So? turkey sometime within the week? Crocker frowned. "I've been to Naw—but her mother did. Old the house, but no one answered." Mrs. Done. . "The old lady left too," the Her mother! womari interrupted. "I seen her. Sure. Mavis and her mother lived She left the house maybe thirty together in that Big house .... minutes after Mavis. I seen her Crocker put his thumb on the get on the bus." door buzzer outside Mavis Heart's Crocker drove to the headquarters front door. The door remained -building and foiind Pierce and Gif- closed. He shuffled and continued ford alone in. the temporary squad to push the buzzer for another full room. Gifford ordered an immediate minute before beginning a method­ pickup of Mavis Heart and her ical check of the neighborhood. He mother, but before either detective was keyed and agitated now, but he could set the operation in motion a felt more like a cop. He was on uniformed desk cop appeared in familiar ground. Legwork, quick, the doorway. He almost filled the simple questions, were a part of his entry. He also seemed on the edge of life. He expected the cool receptions, disintegration. His eyes were round the outright rebuffs, the flashes of and unblinking, his face muscles irritation he received at the doors, twitched, his color was high, and he and he rolled with them until he didn't seem to know what to do found a woman who told him Mavis with his hands. Heart had left her house, presum­ "B-behind me ... Lieutenant," ably to go to her job, at seven-thirty he said in a voice that, broke. that morning. Then he was inside the courtroom How did the woman know Mavis and the short, elderly woman had had left the house? stepped out from behind his bulk The woman had watched her to stand frail and prim just out of drive away. his reach. Her brown eyes were In what kind of car? bright as she surveyed, the three Well, one of those httle cars, detectives. The eyes settled on one of those beetle-looking foreign Crocker and her mouth thinned in cars. satisfaction. She wore the same aged, And where did Mavis work? fur-collared coat, open down the The woman shrugged. front, the same ancient hat, and a

14 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED large, scuffed purse dangled from "But I don't understand," her left wrist. The purse was open. Crocker said. Could he keep her In her right hand, held delicately talking? Could he lull her into a between a thumb and forefinger, moment of dropping her guard? He was a small tube filled with a liquid. needed at least one second to cover The cop stammered, "Sh-she got the distance that separated theni me at the desk, Lieutenant. Sh-she and another to get his hand under . . . says that's soup in the tube. the tube. Two seconds. They still Nitro. Sh-she made me bring her might die even if he were successful, up here ... or she was gonna blow but he had to take that chance. everybody downstairs to hell!" "You don't understand?" Mrs. "Easy, Murph," Gifford said in a Done lifted eyebrows and for an voice that was flat and just above a instant Crocker felt as if he were whisper. being silently reprimanded by a Crocker heard Gifford take a step schoolteacher. Then she said crisply, and saw the woman tighten. "I'll "Well, it's really quite simple. Ser­ take it, Giff," he said, forcing a geant. I've decided to take this en­ calmness that belied the poundiiig tire matter • into my own hands, of his heart. He kept his eyes on the that's all. Frankly, this running all woman. "Be very careful with that over the city in attempts to kill you stuff, Mrs. Done," he said. is tiring for a woman of my age. She almost smiled. "I understand I am now taking the direct route." nitroglycerin is quite dangerous, Crocker drew a breath, not quite Sergeant. I understand if I drop it, sure he should believe what he had or even shake the bottle violently, it heard. "Ah ... Mrs. Done, I—" might—" "Please do not interrupt," she "Don't you want to give it to said coolly, ^i'he bright, dark eyes me?" Crocker asked, cautiously ex­ bored into him. "You know you tending a hand. must die because you killed Ralph. "I do not," snapped Mrs. Done. Ralph was very good to me and my "I came here to kill you. It's a pity daughter. He provided well and—" these other three gentlemen must "But I didn't kiU Ralph, Mrs. die too, but I can't allow them to Done. The state did." leave now." "You provided him for the state." "And you.?" Crocker said, fran­ "That's my job." tically searching his mind for any She nodded. "And my task now out. is to see that Ralph's final wish is "I am quite prepared to die." carried out. It's the least I can do THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT 15 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED for him." She drew a l&reath. "Ser­ and he felt'' the perspiration pop geant, please understand that I am from his pores. an old woman. I have lived my life. "Sergeant.? Lieutenant? Hey, When you had Ralph taken away, where are they, hidin' you guys I vowed to help him-. He asked that these days?" you die, so you are to die. I listened The boisterous voice, followed to Mavis in the beginning. I went by the echoing chuckle in the cor­ along with that rather silly idea of ridor outside the courtroom^ made putting one of Ralph's old bombs in Crocker jerk. He became frozen in a a turkey and delivering it to you. half crouch and all he could wonder I went along with attempting to was why Mrs. Done had not dropped' shoot you. I went along with follow­ the tube. Then he gaped in amaze­ ing you to that flower shop and ment as Wicker Basket swept into attempting to run you down with the room with a flourish and ex­ the car. It was all such a waste of tended his arms in a grand gesture. time, so indirect, and with no result. Wicker grinned broadly and turned I could have got you last night back to the door without even when you came to the house, but I seeming to comprehend what he had didn't know it was you until it was interrupted. too late. So now I am doing this "Right in here, boys," he boomed. my way. Mavis is not to be in­ "Here they are." volved. She is a good girl. She-^" Crocker could not believe his "Mrs. Done.?" eyes. Five men, all well-groomed, Crocker had hoped to throw her all well-known to every man in the off balance with the interruption. Detective Division, paraded inside. He had hoped to produce seconds Each carried a large, topless, card­ of confusion in her mind—the two board carton, and each carton was seconds he needed to reach her—but capped with a cellophane-wrapped she remained alert and on guard. turkey.. She extended her arm in front of "Along the wall, boys," Wicker her, allowing the tube to dangle said magnanimously. "There's sev­ from, the thumb and forefinger. enty-two turkeys in those ^boxes, Crocker saw the uniformed cop Sergeant." flinch, heard Gifford grunt, and The five men placed the large knew that somewhere behind hirh cartons side by side in a neat row Pierce was standing like stone. Mrs. along the wall. Done's mouth became set in a fixed Wicker beamed at Crocker. "I smile. She looked straight at Crocker liked the idea last night. The more

16 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I thought about it, the better I the building had to know by now liked it: turkeys for the boys down­ what had happened. So how had town. Cops don't make much green Wicker and his henchmen got past and it's the hohday season and the turmoil? Why had they been ; . . Hey, what's goin' on here?'' allowed to pass? His eyes widened slightly and The room sweltered In a death his head shot forward as he seemed silence. Crocker took in the five to see Mrs. Done for the first time. hoods who had deposited their cargo He stared for a few seconds and along the wall and now stood pro­ then he came forward. "Hey, I tectively over each carton. Their know you," he said to the woman. faces were impassive. Crocker '"You're Ralph Heart's mother-m- brought his stare back to Wicker, law. I remember you. Ralph used but the expensively dressed gangster to work for me. Don't you remeni- was staring at the woman. ber me, Mrs. Done? Wicker Bas­ "What are you doing this for, ket?" Mrs. Done?" he asked, sounding Crocker was afraid to look at her like a patient man mildly rebuking as she said, "I certainly do remem­ an erring mother-in-law. He drew ber you, Mr. Basket. You are a a breath. "These guys aren't bad fine gentleman. You always were guys, even if they are cops. How very good to Ralph." come you're—" Wicker had reached Mrs. Done "Sergeant Crocker killed Ralph," but his eyes danced in puzzlement she said thinly. as he took in Crocker. "What's the "Hmmm." Wicker seemed to . matter with you, Sergeant, hunched consider it. "I see. Crocker had over that way? You catch a cold in Ralph sent up, okay, and now you're your back or—" going to kill him, huh?" "That's soup in the tube, Wick­ "I don't want you to die, Mr. er," Crocker said carefully. He was Basket, or any of your friends^ You confused. He couldn't believe Wick­ always were good to Ralph. So I'll er had walked blindly into the wait until you leave the room. But temporary squad room. That wasn't I'll have to ask you to leave now, Wicker. Wicker never walked blind­ please." ly into anything. And there had to "Well, sure, Mrs. Done. Any­ be mass confusion downstairs. Mrs. thing to oblige a lady. I'll just be Done had taken Murphy from his trottin' along." desk with a tube of nitro. Word Crocker watched Wicker start to would spread fast. Every cop in turn from the woman, and then THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT 17 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED suddenly Wicker's left hand clamped much,. Wicker," Crocker said. down hard on her wrist and his right "We'll have a man up here in sec­ hand was under the tube. onds who knows how to handle it." Crocker sagged and almost went The bomb squad's best man ar­ down. "Damn . . ." he breathed. rived and removed the tube. Only "Hey, take this stuff, will you.?" then did Crocker draw his first Wicker pleaded. easy breath of the last several He'stood with his left hand still minutes. clamped on Mrs. Done's wrist, but "Wicker," he said, looking at the she was not struggling. He held gangster, "why did you do that.?" the tube gingerly in the other hand, Wicker looked puzzled but Crock­ extending it to Crocker. er knew that, inside, the big man Gifford sighed and said, "Pierce, was pleased with himself. get Carr up here from the bomb "You knew," Crocker said-. "They squad! Then find'Mavis Heart!" had to tell you downstairs, so why Crocker shook his. head. "You did you come up here when—" fool. Wicker. We all could have "Aw, hell, Sergeant," - Wicker been killed." Basket broke in with a huge grin, "Don't be too rough on the old "you know how it is. Tliese are the girl, Sergeant, huh.? After all, the holidays. Fm in the right frame of only thing she's done is scare you a mind. Anyway," his grin became little." _ one-sided and his eyes. became "We've got a man in the hospital crafty, "I think I'm gonna like the who was more than scared." idea of you cops owing me for a Wicker considered it briefly. change." "Yeah, I forgot about him, I guess. Crocker flinched. "We don't owe Well, he's gonna live, isn't he.? You you a thing. Wicker! Get that out send his bill to me. Hey, are you of your craw right—" gonna take this stuff or do I have "Sergeant!" the hood said, swell­ to hold it all day.?" ing with feigned surprise. "Where's "Just don't move around tod your holiday spirit?"

iH^'^ ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S' MYSTERY MAG.^ZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 'As with a seesaw, the.insertion of a foreign element into an existent equilibritim invariably disturbs that balance.

the moment, however, they were far from amorous. Moloney's middle-age wrinkles were grooved deeper into his face by anger and frustrated desire. He had the overhead lamp turned on and the interior of the car was feebly illuminated by a pale yellow THE thick fog rolled up to the light. black sedan parked on a seldom "What are you trying to prove, used back road on state hospital Bea.? First you say you love me and grounds. It wrapped itself around then you act as if—as if I were dirt." the vehicle, forming a snug, cozy He smacked the steering wheel in cocoon for the lovers in the car. At disgust. "Look at me!" he snapped. THE DEADLY HANDYMAN 19

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The girl turned from the fog- dark underbrush; a sliver of moon opaqued window and faced her~ escaped briefly from the voluminous superior. Her blue.eyes were cold clouds, then the fog settled- upon with contempt. She was still in them once more and they were uniform and her hair was startlingly again isolated from the outside red against the white of her at­ world. tendant's outfit. Moloney trembled with mingled "I'm looking," she said, "and I desire and fear. At last, he nodded. don't like what I see." "Okay," he said hoarsely. Now it was Moloney who turned "When?" his face to the window, his thin "Very soon. I have an idea." lips tight with impatience. He Her eyes narrowed. "You're not sighed. "All right. I'll play along putting me on?" with you. What is it you see that "No, Bea. I swear it." you don't like?" She smiled, and her beautiful face "I see a jackass who thinks just was lit with a soft inner radiance. because he is my supervisor he can She lifted her smooth, warm arms take what he wants, when he wants to him. "Come to mama, pet," it!" she said, snapping off the light. His head snapped back around. The fog was very kind, indeed. "Now look, Bea—" "No. You look, Henry. I've told Moloney's office was bright and you before. If you want me, marry warm with the morning siin, and me. Otherwise, forget it." heady with the perfume of the lilac "Take it easy, Bea," Moloney bushes that ringed ward seven. From pleaded. "You know I want, to his desk he could see the thin ribbon marry you. And it won't be long. of road that curved through the My wife will probably—" maple and oak trees, and divided "Outlive you," Bea interrupted the wards of his group. His thick again. fingers drummed on the desk while "She's very sick," Moloney said. he watched Bea's luxurious new "Get rid of her, Henry," the white car approach. Briefly he lovely girl demanded unexpectedly. wondered how she could afford the . There was a short, stunned silence payments for the convertible on while the thought, the .dreadful her attendant's salary. Then his meaning sank in. The fog lifted for feeling of unease returned, obscur^ a second, revealing silhouettes of ing the question. trees huddled- by the roadside and Last night he had lied. There

20 ' ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was no plan. She had accepted his Staff attendant, are in the linen word temporarily, but he couldn't room guzzling free coffee, and'you fool her for long, and he was worried know it." about the repercussions. Bea's tem­ ISlow what? he thought. What am . per was as ugly, when she didn't get- I going to tell her? her way, as she was beautiful. If only There was a slight commotion he could think of something; how and an attendant, a new man named long could he stall her? Brown, appeared suddenly at the Her car loomed closer, disap­ door. Moloney breathed easier, peared around the bend. Tires thankful for the slightest reprieve. crunched in the parking lot on the With Brown was a small, slim west side of the building. Her heels patient who was unsteady on his were a loud staccato on the wooden feet and kept reaching for 'a half- floor of the ward; the patients empty bottle of wine the attendant would be looking at her swaying hips held in his hand. The attendant with unconcealed hunger in their pushed the patient's hands away eyes. How long could he hold her and gave the bottle to Moloney. off.? He just had to think of some­ "Where'd -you get the wine. thing. Rivers?" Moloney asked, not really "Good morning, Mr, Moloney," expecting an answer. Few patients Bea said, swinging into the office. would divulge their source of sup­ On the ward they addressed each ply, and Rivers was a natural-born other formally. She bent to Uft clam. As expected, he just shrugged the sign-in-and-out sheet from its and smiled sheepishly at Moloney, peg on the wall, her ,back to Mo­ "Okay, Brown," Moloney said, loney, "take him to four, A couple of "Good morning, Mips Keseler," days in a locked ward should dry he answered shakily. him out." Bea turned, smiling, obviously Moloney watched their departure, enjoying the effect she had on him. his eyes narrowed in thought, un­ -"Tell me when you are going to aware that Bea had resumed her do it," she said abruptly. interrogation, Moloney's heart gave a couple of "You're not listening to me. heavy thumps. He frowned, "We What is it?" she demanded. can't talk about that here. You've "I'm not going to do it, Bea," gone daft.?" said Moloney, his voice thick with "Nuts!" she said. "All your at- suppressed excitement. feadants, including the big shot Bea' stared at him, her face ex-

THE DEADLY HANDYMAN 21 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED pressionless, fire smouldering in her "I still don't see how that is going eyes. "You're not?" The words were to help us," Bea said. "Are you deceptively soft. stalling me?" "No," he said, enjoying his mo­ Moloney shook his head. "Rivers ment. "Rivers will." can never remember what occurs A puzzled frown drove the blank- while he is drunk. Usually. I give ness from her face. "Rivers.?" She him a few drinks when I have him sounded skeptical. home..He works better. Tomorrow "Yes. I've read his medical his­ I'll give him much more. I'll get tory. His father was an alcoholic him riled up at my wife in some who killed his wife in a drunken way. I can do it, I can get him rage and almost killed Rivers, too. killing mad. Afterwards, I'll scuffle Rivers \yas terrified of him from with him enough to make it look alhthe savage beatings, and he was good. No one will suspect." in the room when his father stran­ -- Bea looked at Moloney with hew gled his mother. respect. "His father died in prison. "Now," Moloney said, "Iwant Haunted by nightmares, Rivers be­ you to tell the rest of those loafers came an alcoholic, too. The dreams to get out of the linen room and were always the same: he kept get this ward cleaned up." witnessing his father throttling his "Yessir," Bea answered meekly; mother. Rivers also has a history of Moloney took Rivers home with assault and robbery, committed him the next day, supposedly to while intoxicated. He always picked help clean out the garage. They on older men; probably afraid a had barely begun when Moloney younger person would put up a pulled out a partially filled bottle' fight." of brandy from a box containing "What's that got to do^with—" old magazines. Moloney raised his hand. "Keep "A few drops of this stuff will your voice down, Bea. When he's make the work a lot easier for us," drunk, he is quite unstable, can be Moloney said, extending the bottle. cheerful, or in a rage, or just Rivers grinned in appreciation. dejected. But he's a good worker, He took a deep swallow from the even with a few drinks ia him. bottle and reluctantly returned it Everybody knows that I take him to Moloney. to my house frequently to do odd Moloney drank some, then jobs for me—uh, as part of his frowned at • the bottle. "Queer. therapy, of course." What a*^ queer taste there is to it.

22 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Did you notice it too, Rivers?" brandy into Rivers' eager hands. He sniffed at the bottle opening, Little work was done while Mo­ "No, sir. It tasted fine to me," the loney told the patient about the alcoholic repUed. . many times his wife had tried to Moloney shook his head. "No, kill him. The only reason he didn't it's not fine. There's something have her committed was because he wrong with it. It's been tampered felt sorry for her, but he realized with, and I know who has been she would be better off dead. It doing the tampering." ' would end her own physical suffering Moloney went out and emptied and her overwhelming hate for him. the bottle at the edge of the lawn. Rivers kept nodding in sympathetic, "Hey!" Rivers started to protest, if befuddled, agreement. but it was too late. He fell silent, "She hates me. And she hates watching regretfully the last of the every one of you fellows I bring liquor disappearing into the ground. home to help me keep the house in Moloney came back to the garage, shape for her. Now she has taken dropped the empty bottle back to trying to poison us," Moloney into the box of magazines. "It said, including Rivers as a possible was poisoned," he told Rivers. "My victim of his bloodthirsty wife. wife is back to her old tricks." "If she were dead we would have Rivers shook his head reproach­ nothing to worry about. You could fully, his eyes sorrowful over the come here all the time and have a criminal spoilage of liquor. Then drink with me. And we could eat Moloney winked at him conspira- what we want, never afraid of being torially. harmed." "But I have another," he said, "That would be swell," Rivers digging into another box. "This one agreed thickly. hasn't been opened yet, so it's got "Then you'll help me?" to be good." "Help you what, Mr. Moloney?" Rivers' sad eyes lit up. "Say, Moloney swallowed his exaspera­ you're really foxy, Mr. Moloney. tion. "Get rid of her. I can bring So your wife is really trying to do you here every day, and we can you in, huh? Too bad. She seemed drink all we want, and have all the such a sweet lady." fun we want. What do you say?" "Isn't that the truth, though? "I shay—say we kill the witch. You never can tell who has murder Oops! Sorry, Mr. Moloney. I mean, in his heart, can you?" Moloney sure. Let's do it." said, putting the new bottle of Rivers was getting unsteady on THE DEADLY HANDYMAN 23

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his feet. Moloney took the almost Moloney nodded to Rivers, his empty bottle from him, telling heart pounding in anticipation. The him they would celebrate after alcoholic stumbled toward the finishing this extra job they had woman, paused momentarily, struck to do. her suddenly with his open hand, "Le's kill her fas', then," Rivers before she could cry out. Then he growled. He picked up a heavy picked her up and threw her onto hammer and slung it on his belt. the decrepit sofa. She moaned "Then le's cel'bra'." weakly, a trickle of blood oozing Moloney led him to the house. from her cut lip. Rivers slid the He stopped by the door; Rivers hammer from his belt and raised it remained slightly to the rear, sway-, tb deliver the death blow—but his ing uncertainly, his hand on the arm froze. His face screwed up in hammer in his belt. Ignoring his a look of utter anguish and his body wife, Moloney let his eyes travel began to tremble violently. around the shabbily furnished liv- Moloney, seeing his plan flounder­ ingroom. His wife was right. The ing, became panicky. "Hit her!" house needed new furniture, new he shrieked. rugs, new everything, including a Rivers lowered the hammer, a new mistress. The curtains, brittle sob rattled deep in his throat. with age,' were parted and. the sun • Moloney cursed, shoved Rivers streamed into the neat, scrupulously aside, then grabbed his wife by the clean room.; throat and squeezed. Her eyes were Moloney's attention finally fo­ open wide, bright with terror. She' cused on his wife. She was, as usual, struggled helplessly. sitting in her rocking chair. There "Die! Die!" Moloney ranted. was a steaming pot of coffee on "Mom!" .The call was drawn out the table before her, surrounded in a terrible scream immediately by three fragile cups. How did she behind Moloney. "Mom! Don't know when they were going to hurt her, Pa. Please!" come in? Moloney wondered briefly. . Too late, Moloney remembered There was a warm smile of greeting that screwball. Rivers, and his night­ on her face, but to Moloney it mares—and the hammer. Before he appeared insipid and weak; His lips could turn, there was a swifMhove- twisted in a cruel grin which stole ment behind him, and the world the warmth from her smile. erupted-in' a fierce, blinding light, "You boys are.on time. The followed by total and eternal dark­ coffee is hot," she said timidly. ness.

24 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Protectors of our rights must surely have patience with the in­ credible personages whom they must suffer in the course of their duties.

tfusra few minutes before twelve at her, and headed out the front on one of the best Sunday nights door. He. was fifty-two, looked of the summer, a clear and fresh- forty-five, felt thirty-nine. He aired and mbonUt night, Thomas M. flipped his expensive cigar into "Lucky Tom" Carroll collected his the gutter aiid strolled to the Cleo's black snapbrim hat from the hat- Club parking lot next door, where check girl at Cleo's Club on Brod- his very expensive, very large car erick Avenue. He tipped the girl waited in the parking space reserved a crisp dollar bill, winked briskly for it. "

SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 25

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED When he had settled himself on the West Coast before the body's behind the wheel with the key fitted cold." snugly in the ignition, he suddenly "Uh-huh." felt that he might not be alone. "So Lucky Tom finally bought it. Hearing a clicking sound directly Nice of him to pick a decent night behind him, Carroll stiffened, and for it. You hate to leave the station- then the little man in the back house when it's raining. But a night seat shot him six times in the back • like this, I don't mind it at all." of the head. While the shots echoed "It's a pleasure to get out." deafeningly, the little man opened "It is at that," said Finney. He the car door, jammed his gun into stirred his coffee thoughtfully, won­ the pocket of his suit jacket, and dering as he did so if there were a scurried off down the street as fast way of stirring your coffee without as he could, which was not terribly seeming thoughtful about it. "I fast at all. He peeled his white gloves wonder," he said, "why anyone from his tiny hands, and managed would want to kill him." to slow down a bit. Holding the "Good question. After all, what white gloves in one hand, he looked did he ever do? Strong-arm rob- • rather like the White Rabbit rush­ bery, assault, aggravated assault, ing frenetically to keep his appoint­ assault with a deadly weapon, ex­ ment with the Duchess. tortion, three murders we knew of and none we could prove—" Finney and Mattera caught the "Just trivial things," said Finney. squeal. The scene was packed with "Undercover owner of Cleo's onlookers, but Finney and Mattera Club, operator of three illegal didn't share their overwhelming gambling, establishments—"' interest in the spectacle. They "Four."' came, they looked, they confirmed "Four? I only knew three." there were no eyewitnesses to ques­ Mattera finished his coffee. "Loan tion, and they went over to the shark setup, number two man in White Tower for coffee. Let the Barry Beyer's organization, not too lab boys sweat it out all night, much. else. We did. have a rape com­ searching through a coal mine for plaint.maybe eight years ago—" a black cat that wasn't there. "A soUd citizen." 1 Fingerprints? Evidence.? Clues? A "The best." waste of time. "A civic leader." i^ "Figure the touch man is on "None other." a plane by now," Finney said, "Be "It was sure one peach of a pro-

26 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED fessional touch," Finney said. "Six temerity to hang a parking ticket shots fired point-blank. Revenge, on the windshield. The three men huh?" were trusted employees of Mr. "Something like that." Archer Moscow. They had come to "No bad blood comin'g up be­ collect the week's receipts, and, tween Beyer and Archie Moscow?" incidentally, to act as a sort of "Haven't heard a word. They've quality control inspection team. been all peace and quiet for years. As they reached the street, a Two mobs carve up the city in­ battered ten-year-old convertible stead of each other. No bad blood drew up slowly alongside them. The spilled in the streets of our fair driver, alone in the car, leaned city. Instead of killing each other across, the front seat and shot the they cool it, and rob the public." center man in the chest with a "True public spirit," said Finney, sawed-off shotgun. Then he quickly "The reign of law and order. It scooped an automatic pistol from makes one proud to serve the cause the seat and used it. to shoot the of law and order in this monument other two men, three times each. to American civic pride." He did all of this very quickly, and "Shut up," Mattera said. all three men were very dead before they hit the sidewalk. Approximately two days and The man stomped on the accel­ three hours later, three men walked erator pedal and the car leaped out the front door at 815 Cameron forward as if startled. The con­ Street. The establishment they left vertible took the corner on two didn't have an official name, but wheels and as suddenly slowed its every cabdriver in town knew it. speed to twenty-five miles an hour. Good taste precludes a precise, The little man drove four blocks, description of the principal business parked the car and raised the con­ activity conducted therein; suffice it vertible top. He disassembled the to say that seven attractive young sawed-off shotgun and packed it ladies lived there, and that it was away in his thin black attache-case neither a nurses' residence nor a with the automatic, removed the college dormitory. jumper wire from the ignition The three men headed for their switch, and left the car. Once out­ car. They had parked it next to side the car he removed his white a fire hydrant, supremely confident gloves and put them, too, inside that no police officer who noted its the attache case. His own car was license number would have the parked right around the corner. SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 27 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He put the attache case into his questions, and Mattera had to write trunk, got into his car and went down the stupid answers, and it home. was an hour before they got over Finney and Mattera got the to the. White Tower. squeal again, only this time it was "Eyewitnesses," said Finney, a pain in the neck, good weather "are notoriously unreliable." notwithstanding. This time there "Eyewitnesses are a pain in the were eyewitnesses, and sometimes neck." eyewitnesses can be a pain in the "True. Three more solid citi­ neck, and this was one of those times'. zens—" One of the eyewitnesses reported "Three of Archie Moscow's solid that the killer had been on foot, citizens this time—Joe Dant and but this was a minority opinion. Third-Time Charlie Weiss and Big All of the other witnesses agreed Nose Murchison. How would you there had been a murder car. One like to have a name like Big Nose said that it was a convertible, Murchison?" another that it was a sedan, and a "He doesn't even have a nose third that it was a panel truck. There now," said Finney. "And couldn't were two other minority opinions smell much if he did." as well. One witness said there had "How do you figure it?" been three killers. Another said "Well, as they said on Pearl one. The rest Screed on two, and Harbor Day—" Finney and Mattera figured three "Uh-huh." sounded reasonable, since two guns "This do look like war, sir." had been used, and someone had "Mmmmm," said Mattera. to drive the car, whatever kind of "Doesn't make sense, does it? car it was. Theri they asked the You would think we would have witnesses if they would be able to heard something. That's usually identify the killer or killers, and the nice thing about being a cop. all of the witnesses suddenly re­ You get to hear things, things the membered that this was a gangster average citizen may not know about. murder, and what was apt to happen You don't always get to do any­ to eyewitnesses who remembered thing about what you hear, but what killers looked like, and they you hear about it. We're only in all agreed, strange as it may seem, this business because it gives us that they had not gotten a good the feeling of being on the inside.'' look at the killers at all. "I thought it was, for the freie Finney had to ask the stupid coffee," said the counterman. They SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 29.

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED drank, pretending not to hear him. "Who was it hit Lucky Tom.?" "We're going to look real bad, "How should I know.?" you know," Finney said. "If Mos­ "Well," said Beyer, reasonably, cow and Beyer have a big, hate "then how should I know who hit going, they're going to spill a lot Dant and Third-Time and Big of blood, and the chance of solving Nose.?" any of those jobs isn't worth pon­ There was a long silent moment. dering." He broke off suddenly, "We've been friends a long time," pleased with himself. He was fairly • Moscow said. "We have kept things certain he had never used pondering cool, "and we have all done very in conversation before. nicely that way^with no guns, "And," he went on, "with various and no blasting a bunch of guys killers flying in and out of town and out of revenge for something which leaving us with a file of unsolved , we never did to Lucky Tom in the homicides, the newspapers may first place." start hinting that we are not the "If I thought you hit Lucky best police force in the world." Tom—" "Everybody knows we're the "The bum," said Moscow, "was best money can buy," said Mattera, not worth killing." "Isn't, it the truth," said Finney: - "If I thought you did it," "And what bothers me most," Beyer went on, "I wouldn't go said Mattera, "is the innocent men and shoot up a batch of punks ""who will die in a war like this. Men like Dant and Third-Time and like Big Nose, for example." Big Nose. You know what I'd "Pillars of the community." do.?" "We'll miss them," said Mattera. "What?" The following afternoon, Mr. "I'd go straight to the top," Archer Moscow used his untapped said Beyer. "I'd kill you, you private line to call the untapped bum!" private line of Mr. Barry Beyer. "That's no way to talk, Barry." "You had no call to do that," he "You had no call to kill Lucky said. Tom. So maybe he was holding out "To do what?" a little^ in^ Ward Three, it don't "Dant and Third-Time and Big make no difference." Nose," said Moscow. "You know I "You had no call to kill those didn't have a thing to do with . three boys." Lucky Tom. You got no call for "You don't know what killing revenge." is, bum."

30 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Yeah?" Moscow challenged. card games, knocking off two small­ ' "Yeah!". time dope peddlers, and gunning That night, a gentleman named down a Beyer lieutenant as he Mr. Roswell "Greasy" Spune emerged from his bank at two- turned his key in his ignition and thirty in the afternoon. The gun­ was immediately blown from this man who accomplished this last world into the next. The little feat then raced down an alleyway man with the small hands and the into the waiting arms of a rookie white gloves watched from a tavern patrolman, who promptly shot him across the street. Mr. Spune was dead. The kid had been on the a bagman for Barry Beyer's organ­ force only, three months and was ization. Less than two hours after sure he would be up on departmental Mr. Spune's abrupt demise, six charges for forgetting to fire two of Barry Beyer's boys hijacked an warning shots into the air. Instead ambulance from the hospital garage. he got an on-the-spot promotion Five sat in back, and the sixth, to detective junior grade. garbed in white, drove the sporty By the second week of the war, vehicle through town with the the pace began to slow down. pedal on the floor and the siren Pillars of both mobs were beginning wide open. "This takes me back," to realize that a state of war de- one of them was heard to say. "This "manded wartime security measures.. is the way it used to be before the One could not wander about with­ world went soft in the belly. This out a second thought as in time of is what you would call doing things peace. One could not visit a meet­ with a Httle class." ing or a night club or a gaming The ambulance pulled up in front house or a girlfriend without post­ of a West Side tavern where the ing a guard, or even several guards. Moscow gang hung out. The am­ In short, one had to be very careful. bulance tailgate burst open, and Even so, not everyone was care­ the five brave men and true emerged ful enough. Muggsy Lopez turned with submachine guns and com­ up in the trunk of his car wearing menced blasting away. Eight of a necktie of piano wire. Look-See Archie Moscow's staunchest asso­ Logan was found in his own kidney- ciates died in the fray, and only shaped swimming pool with his one of the boys from the ambulance hands and feet tied together and a crew was killed in return. few quarts of chlorinated water Moscow retaliated the next day, in his lungs. Benny Benedetto shooting up two Beyer-operated looked under the hood of his brand

SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 31 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED new car, found a bomb wired to casualties were almost perfectly the ignition, removed it gingerly balanced between the two mobs. and dismantled it eificiently, and Forty of Beyer's men were dead, climbed behind the steering wheel forty-three Moscow men were in clucking his tongue at the perfidy their, graves, and each gang had one of his fellowman. But he completely man missing. missed the bomb wired to the gas That night, as .usual, Finney arid pedal. It didn't miss him; they Mattera prowled the uneasy streets picked him up with a mop. in an unmarked squad car. Only The newspapers screamed. The this particular night was different. city fathers screamed. The police This night they caught the little commissioner screamed. Finney and man. Mattera worked double-duty and Mattera was the one who spotted tried to explain to their wives him. He noticed someone sitting in that this was war. Their wives a car on Pickering Road, with the screamed. lights out and the motor running. It was war for three solid months. His first thought was that it was It blew'.hot and cold, and there high school kids necking, but there would be rumors of high-level con­ was only one person there, and the ferences, of face-to-face meets be­ person seemed to be doing some­ tween Archer Moscow and Barry thing, so Mattera slowed to a stop Beyer, cautious summit meetings and killed the lights. held on neutral ground. Then, for " The little man straightened up a week, the killings would cease, finally. He opened the car door, and the word would go out that a stepped out, and saw Finney and truce had been called. Then some­ Mattera standing in front of him one would be gunned down or with drawn revolvers. stabbed or blown to bits, and the "Oh, my," said^the little man. war would start all over again. Finney moved past him, checked At the end of the third month the car. "Cute job," he said. "He's there was supposed to be another got this little gun lashed to the truce in progress, but by now no steering column, and there's a wire one was taking truce talk too seri­ hooked^ around the trigger and ously. There had not been a known connected to the gas pedal. You homicide in five days. The count step on the gas and the gun goes now stood at eighty-three dead, off and gets you right in the chest. several more wounded, five in jail I read about a bit like that down in and two missing in action. The Texas. Very professional."

32 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Mattera looked at the little man "Well," said Mr. Fitch, "is his and shook his head. "Professional," name familiar?" he said. "A little^ old guy with It wasn't.' glasses. Who belongs to the car, "He killed himself in August," friend?" Mr. Fitch said. "Hanged himself, "Ears Carradine," said the little you may recall, with the cord from man. his electric razor. I gave him that "One of Moscow's boys," Finney razor, actually. A birthday present, said. "You work for Barry Beyer, oh, several years ago." friend?" "Now I remember," Finney said. The little man's jaw dropped; "I didn't know at the time just "Oh, goodness, no," he said. His why he had killed himself," Mr. voice was high-pitched, reedy. "Oh, Fitch went on. "It seemed an odd certainly not.'.' - . thing to do. And then I learned "Who do you work for?"' - that he had lost an inordinate "Aberdeen - Pharmaceutical Sup­ amount of money gambhng—" ply," the little man said. "I'm a "Inordinate," Finney said, choked research chemist." with admiration. "You're a what?" "Indeed," said Mr. Fitch. "As The little man took off his gloves much as five thousand dollars, if and wrung them sadly in his hands. I'm not mistaken. He didn't have "Oh, this won't do at all," he said the money. He was trying to raise unhappily. "I suppose I'll have to it, but evidently the sum increased tell you everything now, won't I?" day by day. Interest, so to speak." Finney allowed that this sounded "So to speak," echoed Finney. like a good idea. The little man "He felt the situation was hope­ suggested they sit in the squad car. less, which was inaccurate, but They did, one on either side of him. understandable in one so young, "My name is "Edward Fitch," so he took his own life." Mr. Fitch the. little man said. "Of course paused significantly. "The man there's no reason on earth why you to whom he owed the money," he should have heard of me, but you said, "and who was charging him may recall my son. His name was appalling interest, and who had Richard Fitch. I called him Dick, won the money in an unfair gam­ of.course, because Rich Fitch would bling match, was Thomas M. not have done at all. I'm sure you Carroll." can appreciate that readily enough." Finney's jaw dropped, Mattera "Get to the point," Mattera said. said, "You mean Lucky Tom—" SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 33

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Yes," said Mr. Fitch. For a "Like a one-man army," Finney moment he did not say anything said. more. Then, .sheepishly, he raised "Not exactly," said Mr. Fitch. his head and managed a tiny smile. "Of course I killed those three men "The more I learned about the on Cameron Street, and bombed man, the more I saw there were no that Mr. Spune's car, but then I legal means of bringing him to just permitted nature to take its justice, and it became quite clear course. Now and then things would to me that I had to kill him. So quiet down and I had to take an I—" active hand, yet I didn't really do "You killed Lucky Tom Carroll." all that much of the killing." , "Yes, I—" "How much?" "Six times. Jn the back of the Mr. Fitch sighed. head." "How many did you kill, Mr. "I wanted to make it look like a Fitch?" professional killing," Mr. Fitch "Fifteen. I don't really like said. "I felt it wouldn't do to get killing, you know.'" caught." "If you liked it, you'd be pretty "And then Beyer hit back the dangerous, Mr. Fitch. Fifteen?" next night," Finney said, "and "Tonight would have been the from there on it was war." sixteenth," Mr. Fitch said. "Well, not exactly. There are For a while no one said any­ "some things a man must do," Mr. thing. Finney lit a cigarette, gave Fitch said. "They don't seem to one'^to Mattera, and offered one to fit into the law, I know. But— Mr. Fitch. Mr. Fitch explained but they do seem right, you see. that he didn't smoke. Finney After I'd killed Mr. Carroll I re­ started to say something and alized everyone would assume it changed his mind. had been a revenge killing. A Mattera said, "Not to be nasty, gangland slaying, the papers called Mr. Fitch, but just what were you it. I thought how very nice it would looking to accomplish?" -be if the two gangs really grew "I should think that's patently mad at one another. I couldn't obvious," Mr. Fitch said gently, kill them all myself, of course, but "I wanted to wipe out these criminal once things were set properly in gangs, these mobs." motion—" "Wipe them out," Finney said. "You just went on killing," "You know, let them kill each Mattera said. other oflf."

34 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Kill each other off," he nodded. "They ought to give you a medal," "That's correct." said Mattera. "And you thought that would "Or put up a statue of you in work, Mr. Fitch?" front of City Hall," said Finney. Mr. Fitch looked surprised. "But "I'm serious—" it is working, isn't it.?" "So are we, Mr. Fitch." "Uh—" They fell silent again. Mattera "I'm reminded of the anarchists thought about'all the criminals who around the turn of the century," had been immune three months said Mr. Fitch. "Of course they ago and who were now dead, and were an unpleasant sort of men, but how much nicer a place it was they had an interesting theory. without them. Finney tried to - They felt that if enough kings were figure out how many kings there assassinated, sooner or later no one were. Not many, he decided, and would care to be king." the ones that were left didn't really "That's an interesting theory," do anything. Finney said. "I suppose you'll want to take "So they went about killing me to jail now," said Mr. Fitch. kings. There aren't many kings Mattera cleared his throat. "I'd these days," Mr. Fitch said quietly. better explain something to you, "When you think about it, there Mr. Fitch," he said. "A police are rather few of them about. Oh, officer is a very busy man. He can't I'm certain there are other explana­ waste his time with a lot of kookie tions, but still—" stories that he might hear. Finney "I guess it's something to think and I, uh, have crooks to catch. about," Mattera said. Things like that." "It is," said Finney. "Mr. Fitch, "What Mattera means, Mr. Fitch, what happens when you run through is a nice old guy like you ought to all the gangsters in town.?" run home to bed. We enjoy talking "I suppose I would go on to to you, and I really admire the another town." way you speak, but Mattera and "Another town.?". I, we're busy, see. We've got an "I seem to have a calling for this inordinate lot of crooks to catch..." sort of work," Mr. Fitch said. There! "... and you ought to "But that's all over now, isn't it.? go on home, so to speak." You've arrested me, and there will "Oh," said Mr. Fitch. "Oh. Oh, have to be a trial, of course. What bless you!" do you suppose they'll do to me.?" They watched him scurry away,

SOME THINGS A MAN MUST DO 35

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and they smoked more cigarettes, good—and not a breath of doubt.',' ajid remained silent for a very long "Witnesses." time. After a while Mattera said, "Two of them changed their "A job like this, you got to do some­ minds and one disappeared. Never thing crazy'once in a while." turned up." • "Sure." "You better tell him," Mattera "I never did anything this crazy said. before. You.?" "Funny the way that little guy "No." had that car gimmicked. Read "That nutty little guy. How about it in the paper, you know, long do you figure he'll get away but I never saw anything like it with it?" before. Cute, though." "Who knows.?" "He's getting in the car," Mattera "Fifteen so far. Fifteen—" said. "Uh-huh. And close to seventy "You would wonder if a thing others that they did themselves." like that would work, wouldn't A light went on across the street. you?" A door opened, and a man walked "You would at that. You should toward his car. The man had ears have told him, but it's that kind Hke an elephant. "Ears Carradine," of a crazy night, isn't it.?" Mattera said. "Better get him be­ "He might see it himself." fore he gets into the car." "He might." "You tell him." He didn't. They heard the igni­ "Hell, you're closer." tion, and then the single shot, and Carradine stopped to light a ciga­ Ears Carradine slumped over the rette. He shook out the match wheel. - and flung it aside. Mattera started up the squad "I had him nailed to the wall on car and pulled away, from the curb. an aggravated assault thing a few "How about that," he said. "It years back," Finney said. "I had • worked like a charm." three witnesses that pinned him "Sixteen," said Finney.

36 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED One of the great cynics of yesteryear reasoned that a man who indulges himself in murder is apt to progress to incivility and procrastination.

M WAS beginning to wonder if lunchtime was ever going to come. I must have looked at the big clock on the wall about ten times a minute. Even now, after working for what seemed Uke three days, it was only a little after eleven. When the phone on my desk rang, I snatched it up. "Homicide, Brentwood speak­ ing," I said in a pleasant voice. You never could tell when the lieutenant. might call. When I found out it was only the lab calling to give a report, I sighed. I grunted every so often to let him know I was still there. After writing down the information, I hung up and resumed my vigil.

ipMKBMj

LULL IN HOMICIDE 37

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Things were amazingly slow here "Actually, there's more than one," J in homicide lately. Maybe it's just he said happily. the Christmas spirit, I don't know. "More than one, eh?" This was In the last two weeks we've only getting promising, even if it was had one homicide, and Jackson was spoiling my lunch hour. covering it. That left me to answer "Yes," he went on. "All told, the phone and talk to anyone who there were thirty-nine." . might come in. Now don't get me "Heh-heh," was all I could man­ wrong, I'm not bloodthirsty, espe­ age. I grinned at him and started cially two days before Christmas, to say something, but stopped. but I was hoping for a little action. "Are you kidding, sir?" I finally It was getting very close to noon got out. and my stomach had started growl­ "Of course not," he said with a ing, when he walked in. I silently glare. "What do you think I am, a cursed while I asked him to take a nut? I've got nothing better to do seat. He was a rather pleasant look­ than run around confessing to ing fellow, about forty-five, small, thirty-nine murders?" and with a constant smile on his face. Good point, I thought. Of course "Can I help you, sir?" I said I wasn't convinced. Four years on smoothly. homicide, and I never ever had "Uh, is this where you come to anyone confess to me. Now I get one confess murder?" confessing thirty-nine. Feast or fam­ I grabbed my note pad and ine, I guess; I tried to look profes­ assumed a more businesslike style. sional and continued questioning "Yes, sir, it is. Would you mind him. giving jne your name." "Now about these, uh, thirty- "Not at all. James Thomas of 265 nine murders. They all took place at West Wentworth," he said, still the same time?" smiling. He looked at me as if I were out "Now, you would like to confess of my niind...Finally he snapped at to a murder?" me, with a disgusted look on his "Well, not exactly," he said with face, "Really Detective Brentwood, an odd chuckle. who do you think I am, Ivan the "Not exactly? But you said you Terrible? Of course not all at once." did. Do you or don't you have a "Oh, no. Of course I didn't really murder to admit to?" think. ..." • He could tell I was irritated, and "It took me nine years," he in' appeared to try and atone for it. terrupted.

38 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S RTV'STERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Nine years, huh? Excellent. game?" I finally said. "For your That is, pretty fast. I mean. . . ." information, there have only been "I know," he said calmly. thirty-eight murders that are open "They all took place inside the since '57. What gives?" city limits, Mr. Thomas?" "Oh, so that's where you were. "Certainly. They wouldn't count Waste of time; it doesn't mean a otherwise." thing." "Oh," was my response, "When "It doesn't?" did it start?" "Of course not. It's quite simple "New Year's Day, 1957, was the really. Not hard to figure out at all," first. The other thirty-eight have he said with a pointed look at me. come right along." "While I killed thirty-nine people, "I'm sure they have," I said, only thirty-six murders went un­ feeling a little dizzy. I excused solved. You caught the "killer" myself, went into the record room, three times. A shame that three and took a moment to clear my head men had to be executed for some­ before going over to the policeman thing they didn't do." at the desk. I asked him how many My eyes got big and my face got unsolved murders we had in the red. "You mean you killed thirty- city since 1957. He looked annoyed nine people, but three of the cases but went over to a filing cabinet and were supposedly solved and three pawed around for a while. innocent men were put to death for "Since January I, 1957 there them?" have been thirty-eight unsolved "That's what I just told you, murders in the city. That includes isn't it?" he said crossly. Then he one that happened on the first, too," brightened and said, "Actually that he informed me. makes forty-two." I thanked him arid returned to "Forty-two what?" my desk. "Why, forty-two rnurders. In a I half expected Thomas* to be way I'm responsible for the three gone when I got back, but he was innocent men dying, wouldn't you - calmly sitting there. When he saw say?" me, he asked if it was customary to I ignored that question and asked leave a murderer sitting alone like one of my own. "But if you killed that. I didn't answer. Instead, I thirty-nine and three were solved, looked at him hard for a minute, and thirty-eight are unsolved, that and he started to squirm a little. means two murders are unaccounted "Okay, Thomas, what's your for.'' LULL IN HOMICIDE ; , 39

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Well really, detective, do I have killings." He passed them across the to confess to everything? I'm sure desk,- and I took a quick glance at I'm not the only murderer in the them. city." "Quite revealing, Mr. Thomas. "Oh," was my intelligent answer. Now, one more question. You said "Then we still have two killers on something before, about it not the loose." counting if they weren't done in the "Hmmph. If you weren't overly city limits? What did you mean?" concerned with thirty-eight of them, "Oh, that. It just meant that I why should two be so bothersome?" had to kill them in my own territory I ran my hand through my hair or I wouldn't get points for it." and hcked my lips. I was starting to "Your own territory?" I said get my control back. "Okay, Mr. weakly. Thomas, a few more questions before "Yes. We each had a territory. I book you. How can you prove We couldn't very well work in the you did it?" same place, could we? Too much "I have to prove it yet? Don't confusion." you do anything?" he grumbled. "Oh, yes," I agreed. "No doubt." Then he began fishing in his coat "You see, the point of our game pocket, and finally came up with a was to.see who could get the most sheaf of soiled papers. "Here I have points. The most points in a year a complete list of all my victims, gave the person the title." including minute details about the "You mean you had a champion-

^^^.

40 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ship each year? A murder contest?" could equal the thrill, the challenge, "Oh, yes, much like the World and the anticipation of killing for Series. Without as much publicity, competition?" ofcourse." "You could do it yourself, could­ "Uh, could you briefly explain n't you?" the game, sir?" "No, of course not. There would "I thought it was pretty obvious," be no point to it. The spirit of com­ he said with annoyance. "The two of petition wouldn't be there." us would try to kill as many people "Well, I don't see why you gave as we could during a year. Some yourself up. Couldn't you have people were worth more than others, found someone else to play your of course. You, for instance, would game with you?" be worth more than a factory "Hah!" he snorted bitterly. "How worker, yet less than a teacher. could I ask anyone?What do I say? At the end of the year, the one with Sir, would you care to try and kill the most points was declared the more people than I can? No. He'd champion. I won it seven out of think I was crazy." nine years." True, he would. I thought so, at I knew it was idiotic. I knew it first. I shifted my weight in the couldn't be happening, yet I also creaky old chair, and looked him knew he was telling the truth. straight in the eye. He didn't "What about your partner, is he flinch. giving up too?" "You say it's exciting and chal­ "Heavens, no. That's why I'm lenging, eh?" here. He's dead. Made the mistake "Like nothing else in the world," of trying to get an armed jewel he said fervently. salesman. You see, there is no more ~ I shifted again, and looked at him game." some more. I thought of how dull "But why did you come here to things had been until he walked in. confess?" I asked. I made up my mind, and leaned There were tears in his eyes as he forward. answered. "There's nothing left for "Like a new partner, Thomas?" me anymore. What could I do that I asked softly.

LULL IN HOMICIDE 41 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED There are some who unconsciously "keep up apppearances," while others find it obligatory to tvor\ at it.

THEY were due to arrive at seven in the evening. Ten minutes before that, I went behind the faded hang­ ing curtain that divided my effi­ ciency apartment into sitting room and bedroom. Everything was in readiness on the boudoir table, in­ cluding the cold stub of a smoked- down cigar and a folded hand towel near the row of opened bottles and jars. I looked into the closet to verify that the loud-checked sport jacket was readily at hand. I had rented this shabby efficiency be­ cause of its oversized closet, in which was an overhead shelf deep enough to contain my wig rack— and because it was all I could afford. I ran a hand lingeringly down the row of evening gowns blending exot- ically in rainbow-hued soft materials, then returned to the other side of the curtain and sat down in the scuffed leather armchair to wait, ^j^DaiL Z

42 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THE ANNUITY ^ 43 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the uncurtained sink and two- sixty-seventy pounds of Tony's burner stove to my left. weight." When the knock came I opened "Wait," Joey said. He sounded the door, and in filed Big Hermie, confident. Joey, and Cicero, in that order. I put on the wig of thick, oily Big Hermie's glance around my hair in front of the mirror, eased place was perfunctory; he and Joey in the cheek pouches that broadened had grown up in the same block my slender features, darkened my with me—the two of them along white skin with a grainy powder with Manny Cosimano making my base, and swiftly worked in an olive- life a hell—and no one knew better hued cream with my fingertips. than Big Hermie that I posed no Wiping my hands on the folded threat to his boss, Cicero. towel, I struck a match and lit the "Hiya, germ," Joey greeted me. cigar stub, then walked to the He was lean and capable-looking, closet to snatch the padded sport hard-faced, and whippet-like in his jacket from its hanger and slip into movements. He sounded more "ami­ it. A hundred twenty seconds after able than usual. "Ready?" passing through the curtain I went I nodded. There' was only one back and thrust my head and shoul­ lamp on in the room, and Cicero ders through its opening. "Snap was looking at me curiously in the it up, Cicero!" I growled from comparatively poor light; he'd seen around the cigar in the corner of me around for years, but he didn't my mouth, imitating the heavy know me the way the others did. voice I had listened to over and He sat down in the armchair, and over again on the tape recorder. Big Hermie appropriated the only Cicero came halfway up out of other chair, a straightbacked one. the armchair before he caught him­ Cicero's bulk and that of Big Hermie self. Big Hermie was on his feet, in the already-crowded room made his small mouth a round O in his the atmosphere seem oppressive. round face. I could feel Cicero's disapproving Joey slapped his thigh delightedly gaze on my slight figure as T again at their reaction. "Didn't I tell passed through the hanging curtain. you?" he crowed. "The germ's the "I don't like it, Joey," I could best quick change artist on the hear him complaining in a voice stem." He grinned at me. "Even that was part rasp and part wheeze if it don't keep him in coffee an' as I approached the boudoir table. cakes." "The httle creep don't come within Cicero recovered quickly. "How

44 [ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED is he in the daylight?" he asked, I glanced up appealingly at Joey.' his voice harsher than usual in his "Come on, Hermie," Joey or­ effort to disguise the shock I'd dered. "I don't want him upset given him. When Tony Matteo said now." '"Snap it up!" people snapped it The big man reluctantly heaved ^up, and I had a feeling Cicero hadn't himself to his feet, and the three appreciated the reminder. of them left. I extinguished the "Just as good," Joey said as filthy cigar, flushed it down the proudly as if he were my trainer. toilet, and opened the window to "You ought to see him in the uni­ try to air out the room. I slipped form. He's six inches shorter'n the bolt on the door as a precaution Tony, but I swear it'd take Tony's against Big Hermie's evading Joey's old lady to tell the difference." surveillance, then went back into "He knows what he has to do?" the bedroom where I sat down again • "He knows," Joey confirmed. at the boudoir table, removed the Cicero silently removed a banded makeup with cold cream and the sheaf of bills from an inside breast towel, then slowly and carefully pocket, riffled them to let me see made myself up again. I did the the identical denominations, then eye shadow three times before I handed the sheaf to Joey. was satisfied with it. I went to the "For you, germ, when you bring closet and selected a blue silk evening it off," Joey explained to me, slap­ gown from the array, and a blonde ping the sheaf carelessly against his bouffant wig from the rack. I teased palm before putting it away out of the wig's back hair even higher sight in his topcoat. His glance took before putting it on. Dressed, I in the scurfy, soiled paper on the slipped on three-inch high-heeled walls. "I guess you won't be sorry pumps, checked the ensemble in to be able to move out of this the closet-door pier glass, and re­ dumjp, huh?" turned to the sitting room. It was a rhetorical question re­ T put Mozart's Symphony No. quiring no answer. Cicero rose to 29 in A on the hi-fi, the only decent leave, and Joey turned to open the piece of furniture I owned at the door. moment, although that condition Big Hermie, who had re-seated wasn't going to last much longer. himself, remained solidly in his Mozart has so much more muscle chair. "Put a steak on for me," he than Debussy, and there are times demanded, looking from me toward when it's appropriate. I busied my­ the stove. ^ self at the stove preparing a cheese THE ANNUITY 45

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ^/7i\\%. souffle. It rose perfectly, a good moved the wig and returned it to omen. I had a glass of wine with the rack, undressed, and went to my dinner, then watched television bed. - for an iioiir. One of the very first Tomorrow would be a busy day. things I was going to do with Cicero's money—Tony Matteo's money, ac­ Joey drove me to the prison the tually—was to get myself a color following afternoon. I wore the television set, after I found a decent prison uniform he'd brought me apartment and furnished it myself, the week before; which I'd carefully of course. . padded to . approximate Tony I turned off the set, had another Matteo's substantial dimensions. glass of wine and a cigarette, re- Over my own dark trousers I had

46 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S ^rySTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED on the prison trousers, with the legs an' he'll be waitin' to take him rolled up above the knees so they back to the cell. Manny won't let wouldn't show beneath the loose- you go wrong inside." fitting black overcoat—^Tony's coat. I had heard it all before, but I In its pockets were the necessities didn't say anything. I knew that, to quick-change Tony to the facial barring the worst possible luck, it appearance of the man I now re­ was going to be far easier than they sembled, Bill Newcomb, Tony's ac­ had any idea. People see what they countant. Bill was an easy type to expect to see, and prison guards are do because with his toothbrush people. mustache and heavy, hornrimmed "You know that Manny's only glasses he was almost a caricature. three days, away himself from hittin* The last thing I'd done before the street on the completion of his Joey's arrival was to apply a strip assault rap," Joey went on, "but of white adhesive tape to the lobe he'll have time to show, you the of my left ear. A strip of tape like ropes inside before then, an' you'll that both attracts and distracts the be able to manage until we spring eye, leaving the remainder of the you.'' face less memorable. I had also I smiled to myself. "There'll be made some preliminary disposition no problem," I told him. of material in the pockets of the dark "There better not be," he said trousers under the prison uniform in a slip from his recent pals- which Joey knew nothing about. together mien.. Realizing it, he On the way to the prison, I had glanced over at me with an attempt Joey stop at a drugstore and pick at a jovial smile. "I mean, there's a up a five-pack of panatelas. He was lot ridin' on this." nervous, although he tried hot to Joey parked a block and a half show it; chattered incessantly, which from the prison entrance and I wasn't like him. "—^never have th' walked the rest of the way. I had chance of a flea in a foundry of made a dry run a week before in the gettin' away with this if it was a same guise I wore now, both to federal can," he said as he drove, learn the visitors' admittance rou­ "but the dough that'Tony's spread tine and to observe firsthand the around inside this one gives it a possible difficulties to be overcome. chance. When you make it inside, There weren't too many. It was a just look for Manny an' let him long step forward that half the take over. As a trusty, he'll have guards were on Tony's payroll. The brought Tony to the visitors' room, far-flung enterprise he ran from THE ANNUITY 47 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED behind the prison walls, and the glancing in. I drew the room's money he spread around lavishly, , two chairs into position so that made it easy for him to point out Tony's back would be to the corridor that he needed more privacy than when he sat down. the main visiting room afforded to I heard him before I saw him, talk business with his lawyer and his booming voice that always accountant. A smaller room diagon­ seemed to contain a trace of a snarl ally across' the corridor from the reverberating from the stone, floors big cage had been made-available to and walls. Manny Cosimano, so him, doubtless for a fee to someone. like Tony in appearance if not in This almost insured the success of cast-iron confidence,^ escorted him the program. The private visiting to the inside locked door. Manny, room wasn't the, only prison con­ the swarthy, chunky, hardhanded cession to Tony Matteo's quasi-legal monster who had broken my nose status in the outside world; the and my teeth and sent me into hock prison might not be a country club, for a thousand dollars to repair my but Tony's inconveniences were few. face while we were still in our The only" real reason for his present teens, waited while the guard took attempted flight from his two-to- over, passed Tony through, un­ five-year indeterminate sentence for locked the door of the priyate bribery was to avoid a federal de­ visiting room, and let Tony in to tainer, awaiting its completion; he join me. had no intention of staying around For the guard's benefit, Tony to have that detainer served on him. started in on me immediately with I went in through the visitors' a stream of characteristic vitupera­ gate, showed Bill Newcomb's cre­ tion, denouncing me for a supposed dentials in the wallet pickpocketed business transgression. The instant by one of Joey's friends a month the guard clanged the door shut before, signed the visitors' book and walked away, I began trans­ in an illegible scrawl, and followed forming my features from those of the guard to the private visiting Bill Newcomb to those of Tony room set between two series of Matteo. Tony sat and watcHed me, -locked doors. The room was en­ unlalinking. His bulk partially closed on three sides but open on shielded me from the corridor as I,, the fourth or corridor side; open, worked, and he kept up a, steady that is, except for the bars. People monologue in his heavy voice while passed along the corridor occa­ I removed Newcomb's black fedora sionally, but purposefully seldom and slipped on the Matteo wig. I

48 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY. MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED pointed at Tony's trouser legs; he beat. I picked it up in his voice, nodded and rolled them up, dis­ bouncing my facsimile of his harsh closing dark trousers beneath, while growl off the walls. For the first I rolled mine down, covering my time since he'd entered the visitors' own dark trousers with the legs room his expression changed; he of the prison trousers. looked startled. I raised my voice, I removed the rest of the makeup shouting at him, then walked to the material from the pockets of Tony's bars and rattled them loudly. "Get overcoat, and motioned him to stand this creep out of here!" I roared at up. This was the only reallyticklish the guard when he arrived, flustered moment, the transferral of the coat. at the short visit. "He can't do For an instant, two men in prison nothin' right!" uniform would be standing in the The guard hurriedly unlocked visiting room. I waited for a moment the door. Swathed in the coat and when there was no sound of passing with his head at an angle, Tony feet in the corridor outside, then stepped out into the corridor. I shucked out of the coat. Tony dived listened to their retreating footsteps into it, then sat down with his back as the guard led the way to the to the corridor again, and we had it outer locked door. Tony knew what made. Now, even before I had him he had to do; sign the book in an made up as Newcomb, I was Matteo illegible scrawl, and walk a block to an official eye that would see and a half to Joey in the waiting what it expected to see, and Tony car. was the visiting accountant. When the guard came back for I went to work powdering Tony's .me, I was muttering to myself. dark skin and transferring to him "Stupid jerk!" I exploded aloud Newcomb's toothbrush mustache, as he unlocked the door again. "No, hornrimmed glasses, and black not you—him! Although you're ho fedora. When I was satisfied with prize yourself Here!" I thrust the his looks, I handed him the makeup five-pack of cigars at him. The guard materials and he stowed them away laughed as he accepted them, ran in the pockets of the coat again, to the cellophaned packet under his be carried out with him. I ripped the nose, then stuffed it inside his uni­ strip of adhesive from my ear lobe form as he led the way to the inner and transferred it to his, then held locked door. I wanted him doing a finger to my lips to indicate to something besides looking at me. him that he could stop the mono­ When the steel door clanged shut logue on which he'd never missed a behind me, Manny Cosimano THE ANNUITY 49 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stepped forward from a lounging Tony's chest of drawers alongside position against the wall. I couldn't one of his trimly folded tailor- fathom his expression until he took made prison uniforms. I balled up my arm and squeezed it, feeling for the dark trousers and tucked them the padding underneath. The make­ into a corner. Manny would dispose up was so good he hadn't been sure of them the next day. the switch had worked. "What th' Mentally at ease for the first hell's the matter wit' ya.?" I blared time in hours, I stretched out on the at him in Tony's voice, and he cot and folded my hands behind my skipped sideways in renewed shock. head. Only one act remained to be "Go get me some aspirin or some- played in the drama; no,-two, count­ thin', y'hear.? That creep gave me a ing the release. I had only one worry, headache. I'm gonna lay down a actually; that Manny might dele­ while." gate his part of the performance still Recovering, Manny steered me to come, but I didn't really think so. deftly along brightly lighted cor­ Manny didn't like me, as he had ridors past long rows of cell blocks. proved long ago, and I was sure he "Don't do nothin' wit'out I'm wit'- wouldn't miss his present oppor-. you," he said from the corner of his tunity. mouth as he stopped in front of a No, I really had nothing to worry larger-than-average cell.' "Get down about. on the cot an' play sick." His coarse, heavy features gave him an even I played sick for two days, not more jackal-like appearance than sick enough to go to the infirmary, I remembered. but sick enough to stay out of the I entered the cell, sat down on the carpenter.shop where Tony worked; cot, and looked around me. Tony's His strength and his aptitude with cell had better appointments than tools was something I couldn't simu­ my efficiency apartment. I sat for late, soothe apparent malaise was a a moment listening to the prison necessity. Manny hovered near the noises. When I was sure Manny was cell, fending off would-be sympathiz­ gone, I unbuckled my belt, stripped ers, while I" subjected him in Tony off prison trousers and underneath Matteo's voice to high-decibel up- dark trousers together, separated braidings for fancied shortcomings. them quickly," and donned the The performance was all the easier prison trousers again. I removed the to sustain in that Tony had few special material from the pockets of contacts with the run-of-the-mill the dark trousers and stowed it in prisoners anyway, and Manny wasn't

50 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED popular with them. I left the cell of Tony Matteo into thin air, plus only to go to meals in the cafeteria, the sudden acquisition of a dead and Manny was at my side every prisoner of whom there was no moment of such trips. I had him record. They'd play hell making draw me a map of the prison layout, two and two out of that set of and I asked him where his own cell conditions. was. He was surprised at the ques­ Once I'd figured it, only a shght tion, but on a trip back from-the amendment was, necessary. The cafeteria he detoured to show me, critical point was obviously to be I memorized the route. the morning of the third day— When Joey first had approached Manny couldn't risk knocking me me with the proposition, I knew off too soon—since his release was at once they never intended to get to occur at eleven in the morning. me out. They couldn't expect me The time for him to make his move to keep up the masquerade indefi­ was when we were together after nitely, either, so it had to be they breakfast, so before our walk to the intended to kill me. For days after cafeteria I loaded my pockets with I'd said yes to Joey—a man like the tubes of makeup material I'd me doesn't say no to a man like smuggled inside in the trousers under him—I picked it apart in my mind. the prison uniform. Under my shirt If they were going to kill me, the I stuffed one of Tony's folded pivotal point became Manny's re­ prison uniforms, and under my lease date 'on the third day after shirt went a six-inch, double-edged the switch. It would make sense to stiletto I removed from the chest the boys to have him eliminate me of drawers and unwrapped from its before he was released, but how swaddling handkerchief. When could a dead me be expected to pass Manny arrived, I was as ready, as as Tony once the prison undertaker I could be. removed the padded uniform? As I expected, he spoke up when It came to me gradually that we left the cafeteria. I hadn't been their plan was more subtle than ,able to eat any breakfast. "I'll show that: Manny would kill me, strip the you the carpenter shop this body, destroy my identity, includ­ mornin'," Manny said. "You know ing my face—I'd never been in I'm .makin' it out of here today, so trouble with the law, so fingerpints you got to know your way around weren't a problem—and leave the till the boys spring you. There'll prison authorities with a king-sized be nobody there now, so it's a good twin headache, the disappearance time. You better report once an' THE ANNUITY 51 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED whack a finger wit' a hammer or If i had been five percent less somethin', an' by the time you're ready, he would have had me. ready to go back the boys'll have Terrified as I was, I managed to you out of here accordin' to plan." jerk the stiletto from beneath my "Sure, Manny," I said. shirt and jam four and a half inches The carpenter shop was in the of it into his chest as he closed with maintenance building, two buildings me. His coughing grunt echoed in away from the main cell block, my ears as he was sinking to the beyond the boiler room with its paint-roughened floor. In a panic heating plant. Manny led the way lest he get up, I bent quickly and through the long corridors, a half used the stiletto twice more where stride in advance of me. I watched I judged his heart was. carefully where he kept his keys, and I listened then, but there wasn't how he used them on the doors we a sound from anywhere in the build­ passed through. Our footsteps ech­ ing. When I was sure he-was dead, oed eerily in the early morning I stripped him of his uniform and silence. The clanking and banging got him into the one of Tony's I'd. in the boiler room made me nervous; brought under my shirt. He was I was watching Manny as closely as unbelievably heavy, but 'I managed I could without seeming to. The it. Breathing heavily, I steeled my­ boiler room seemed as good a. set­ self for what came next. I wrenched ting as any for Manny's little act. a board from a frame on which a I unbuttoned my shirt and gripped paint-sprayed table was drying, and the handle of the stiletto, but he with the board I obliterated led the way through another door Manny's features. Just enough ooze and into the carpenter shop, beyond. trickled down onto Tony's uniform "Here's where you hang out," he to make the job artistic. When I said, opening a door covered with a had finished, to all intents and sheet of tin. The odor of paint as­ purposes a pulverized-faced Tony sailed my nostrils as I followed him Matteo was stretched out on the inside. It was a paint-spray room, paint room floor. with tin on all four walls, and tables Listening for footsteps, although and chairs drying on racks. It was we were still thirty minutes away also a tiny cul-de-sac, and my stom­ from the morning work buzzer, ach' lurched as Manny whirled on I took off Tony's padded uniform me, knife in hand. that I'd been wearing and put on "Now, you little wart!" he said Manny's. It was too large, but I viciously. tucked it in as best I could. Then,

152 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED working feverishly, I made up my expected to remain in his cell until face to resemble Manny's. It didn't summoned for his release. require too much, basically a coars­ The summons came at ten- ening of Tony's features, since Tony thirty, and the necessity for action and Manny were the same type. spurted the flow of my adrenalin. I took Manny's keys, then dragged The whole procedure went like the body into a corner and stood a clockwork. There were two other paint frame in front of it, bundled prisoners going out too, and they up the makeup materials in Tony's divided the attention of the guard discarded padded uniform, and and the clothing clerk. I asked for shoved it under my arm. suit and coat sizes a size smaller I retraced the route Manny and than Manny would have needed; J had taken there, looking, neither I didn't dare ask for less in case, to right nor left. Passing through they had a record to check against, the boiler room agaiii, I tossed the although it didn't seem likely. In wrapped bundle up onto the top the dressing room, I had to-do some of one of the twelve-foot-high skillful folding and tucking to make furnaces. Letting myself back in the misfit less obvious. I stepped up through the final door to the main to the guard's desk behind the other cell block with Manny's keys, I prisoners, signed the ledger, and went directly to his cell. My nerves received Manny's wristwatch and were tighter than E-strings, but no wallet and bus ticket to town. The one looked at me twice. bored guard contented himself with The next two hours were the making wisecracks about where we'd longest of my life. On the 'bed in be spending the evening. Manny's cell was a box, the personal The three of us were marched belongings he'd been going to take through the iron gate in the forty with him. To give myself something foot wall and put in the prison to do and also to give the appearance stationwagon for the short ride to of being busy, I opened it and re­ the bus terminal. Once on the bus, packed it several times, fussing one of the other prisoners attempted with it as though I couldn't get it to start a conversation with me, to my satisfaction. It was even but I stared right through him. worse after the work buzzer sounded He shrugged and let it drop. I and the shuffle of moving feet died stayed on the bus all the way down­ out. I was left alone with my town, watching while the other two thoughts in the cell block quiet, as got off at intermediate stops en- Manny on this morning would be route. THE ANNUITY 53 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I went directly to my place, he can't do that. When he has time packed my wigs and makeup ma­ to think it over, I'm sure he'll pay. terial, left all the clothing and shoes; For one thing, after what happened I'd have better shortly; then to Manny, I believe Tony will checked'my suitcases at a locker in think twice about having a man- the railroad station. I hadn't much of-a-thousand-faces angry with him money and I'd have a thin time for and likely to pop up anywhere. a bit until I opened up the lines of No, Tony will pay. communication, but it would be The mechanics of getting the worth it. I'd wait until Tony de­ money, while seeing to it that cided whether he wanted to be Tony's boys can't get at me, will be declared dead or not. It didn't simplicity itself.. I'll dress as a matter to me that I'd given him an woman and rent a post office box option he never expected to have, in a woman's name, then instruct although naturally it mattered to Tony to send- the thousand to the him. . post office box. A different girl each • The reason I don't care is because month will make the pickup. So I I'm all set now. I've decided to ask have no worries now. Tony for a thousand a month. I I always knew I'd somehow turn can live handsomely on a thousand, the tables on the crowd that deviled the way I've always dreamed of me since grammar school, and I living, and as far. as Tony is con­ find it especially pleasant that my cerned it will be only one more coming affluence is at least partly business expense, one more cost of due to Manny Cosimano, who hated doing business at the same old , me and hurt me because I wasn't stand. Tony can pay a thousand a the clod that he was. month out of his change pocket and All the hectoring indignities and never miss it. beatings are a thing of the past now. His first reaction will be to get None of the gang will ever set rid- of me to make sure my mouth eyes on the man they knew. stays shut, of course, but he'll find They'll never find me again.

54 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED When one "almost" succeeds, he jails, but the penalty is coth tingent upon the attempted objective. f HERBERT T. HARKNESS sat in his manner as not to be apologizing luxuriously, paneled office observing at all. the splendid curves of his secretary She uncrossed her legs and smiled, as he reluctantly finished with the slightly strained perhaps, but still dictating for the afternoon. "I'm disguising her basic contempt. afraid I've kept you late," he said, "That's all right, Mr. Harkness," half apologizing for this in such a she said as she straightened her skirt.

if % ^ ^ "s- <.

THE MESSAGE 55 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "But if you're finished now, I must In fact, it had been Charlie's idea be getting home to my husband." for the computer design that had Herbert let his forefinger play given him his initial boost toward with the neatly trimmed mustache success, but he had gotten rid of that accented the line of his lip. Charlie, who didn't have the first "Very well," he said, "but before bit of sense about developing the you leave, you might fix me .a idea. Conceiving the idea, yes, but drink, if you don't mind." developing ... "Yes, sir," she said. Charlie would have been an He liked that. He liked the idea albatross around his neck, so he got of keeping her from her husband a Charlie a little swacked one night little while longer. She hadn't missed and, well, the papers he signed paid him with that remark when she'd him off—a few thousand dollars seen him studying her. Well, the for his idea. young buck could wait. He'd have Admittedly a bad play, but his drink first. Charlie had no sense about money. Yvonne brought him the drink, • As a matter of fact, he hadn't then went into the outer office. In a seemed too displeased. He'd gone moment she reappeared with a off with some woman to Mexico and package. "A messenger left this for had quite a time with the money. you," she said. . Herbert had no idea what had He glanced at the small box; happened to Charlie, but he had "What is it.?" he asked, sipping the nothing to worry about. He'd made drink. it big with the computer and he'd "I don't know, Mr. Harkness." bought the new talent he'd needed. "Well, open it for me before you Organization was the key, and he leave, please." had that. Brilliant technical riiinds "Of course." were a dime a dozen. He drank from the glass and pre­ "May I go now, Mr. Harkness?" tended to examine some, papers on He smiled innocently. "Certainly. his desk. Thank you." "It's a small tape recorder. There After she had gone he ignored seems to be a tape threaded and a the small tape recorder on his desk note addressed to you. It says. With for twenty minutes. Well, he hadn't my best wishes, Charlie Ewell." really ignored it, but tried to. As He turned his head curiously at often as he looked away from the the name. Charlie Ewell . . . He'd spool of tape, he returned to it, started out with Charlie years ago. wondering what in the devil Charlie

56 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Ewell would be sending him the about what? A -pitch for charity? machine for anyway v . . and what Herbert stirred his drink and re­ was on the tape. turned to his. desk. He studied the In between glances he imagined small battery-operated machine, ex­ Ewell making some kind of grand­ pensive, and the spool with perhaps stand play for more money, but ten or fifteen minutes of tape, if it that was ridiculous because even was all used. He drew the machine Charlie Ewell would have to know toward him, lifted it, a smooth that the papers he had signed cut plastic model manufactured by a him out cleanly, neatly, and very, well-known company. very legally. "All right, Charlie, it's a clever Or—he considered this possi­ idea. Let's hear what it is you have bility—Charlie might finally have to say to me." figured out that he'd been some­ He flicked the switch and turned thing of a dope, and this message up the volume, leaned back lazily might contain some sort of threat. in his swivel.chair and propped his But the more Herbert pondered feet up on thcsdesk beside the ma­ that, the less sensible it appeared, chine. because the tape would be evidence, The tape turned a few revolutions Charlie's voice and all, and even until, about the time Herbert as­ Charlie had more sense than to . . . sumed something was wrong, he But then perhaps it wasn't Charlie heard Charlie's voice flow clearly at all. It was from Charlie, yet he and smoothly, as a matter of fact, didn't know that it actually was quite pleasantly, from the speaker. Charlie. "How are you, Herb, you old Herbert got up to refill his drink. scoundrel you? I'll bet you've What was it Yvonne had said? The gotten fat now that you've made it machine had been delivered by so great. Listen, Herb, I've got a a messenger. Charlie probably terrific new idea, absolutely fan­ thought he'd have refused to see tastic, which I think will just ex­ him if he'd come in person. He plode the industry; and when I give asked himself, tentatively, if he it to you, I want to work out some would see Charlie Ewell, and knew kind of a deal like we had last time, he would refuse. He would have which was fine, in case you've ever • Yvonne tell him he was out. Yes, wondered. I had one hell of a time he didn't want to see Charlie, and while it lasted. I'm that kind of Charlie apparently knew it, but guy, I guess, and I'd fike to work wanted to send him this message^ out something like that again. One THE MESSAGE 57 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED big shot for me, and then you can Mexico if you're careful. You've develop it into whatever comes with missed that. It's too bad you won't it, boom it big, the way you can do cut loose and have a fling, Herb. things. That's one thing about you,- It'd be good for you." Herb. Y.ou have the skill at pro­ •If I cut loose and had a fling, I'd be moting, seeing the potential and broh^ just about lil^ you are now. then blowing it up into something Instead of sticl^ng to it and using really great, like the first idea for people and money to advantage, I the computer." could be brol^e and hungry someplace: Well, it was nice to discover that Thanl^, Charlie, for the.advice. Charlie wasn't going into something "After a time, though, the money boorish about the computer. In fact, started to run low. You can cover it was pleasant to J^notc/ that he was a lot of ground but you can't go satisfied. In a way it wasn't too sur- on forever. That's about the time prising. That was Charlie . . , Letta began to show signs of fatigue. "Before I go into this new idea We thought she'd just been party­ for you, I want to tell you what's ing too much, so we settled down been going on with me the last and took it easy for a while, but several years. First of all, you re­ that didn't help. Finally I took her member when you paid me the to a doctor and he examined her $25,000? I took off. I had been carefully and ran a number of tests. going with this girl, you remember, , It was pretty terrible, Herb. She who worked in the factory with me, was suffering from leukemia, and a nice kid, little Irish girl, plump, the doctor said maybe five years, a real little beauty. When I got the if it didn't move too fast and if we money I went to her place and we got her the transfusions from time threw one' tremendous celebration. to time. That meant there had to By the time we got sober, I realized be quite a bit of care,' which meant I was pretty crazy about this kid, money, especially when it' came to so I told her' to quit her job, and the transfusions and the medical what we ought to do is leave New care. So I wrote you a letter, because York and go to Mexico, which is by then we were just about broke, what we did. We flew down there, to tell you the truth. I don't know and I guess we used our heads a little what happened, . but about two because we avoided the expensive months went by and we didn't get places and made out very well with an answer, and I figured maybe the money. You can cover an awful the crazy,Mexican mail had some- lot of ground vvith $25,000 in ' thing to do with it, so I wrote

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED another letter. After another couple runs out ... well, you're through. of months I guessed you'd grown "Honestly, we got so broke I so big that you'd told some clerk to couldn't even get us out of Mexico, screen out all the mail asking for so I made my way to Mexico City, money, and that's just what this located a chemical industry and letter was. I didn't have any right looked it over, and right away I to do it, I realize that, but with saw how they were wasting a lot Letta sick and growing weaker, I of time and energy. I made a deal thought I'd swallow my pride and with the production manager that hit you for a few thousand dollars. for all the money I saved them, he'd Anyway, the best I've been able .give me a cut. This worked out all to figure is that some clerk was right for about two years, but the killing off my letters before you longer I stayed the more modern ever got to see them." the operation became, and I suppose Right, Charlie, at least the first you'd say I phased myself out be­ few letters. Finally, they did show me cause toward the last I wasn't draw­ a later one you'd sent that sounded ing very much. I had managed to pretty desperate. They showed it be­ keep Letta hospitalized though, and cause it was particularly distressing. every once in a while we had money I read it, Charlie, and if I've ever enough to take a short trip to the heard a freeloader bawling for a coast. For a time, until she suffered handout, that was it. All that con' a spell, it was hke it used to be. cocted story about Letta.suffering . . . "I had to leave the factory, but You were out there with a hangover, by that time I'd mastered the lan­ not wanting the party to end, and guage pretty well. You'll never be- figured old Herb would stak^ you for Heve what I did then. I got a job another year or two. Well, not so, with the Mexican government trans­ baby. You 'made your deal with me lating technical articles about indus­ and that^s the end of it. That's why try, these being sent on to Mexican you didrCt get anyanswer, Charlie. scientists and industrialists. I could "Finally I decided you must not do that because I understood the - be seeing the letters, so I gave up science part of it, which helped in on that. By then we were terribly the translation. It didn't pay very broke, and being broke in Mexico much, but it was a living. The is about the most miserable thing trouble was, Letta began to fail in the world. No kidding, Herb, badly those last two years. Then I those people put up with us when remembered an article I'd read and we've got the cash, but when that translated about . . . well, your THE MESSAGE[ 59

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED computer, and about how you'd just held her and remembered how made a fantastic amount of money good it once was, how we used to get since the beginning, about the time high-on wine and make love arid be you bought me out." happy, and how I used to drink Here it comes . . . He's going to when I was with you, how I got high get bitter. He's going to as\ for the that night and signed the papers. handout yet. The fool. The perfect. What a night that was! Then, merci­ fool. But, no, he said he'd come up fully, it ended for her. I held, her in with a new idea, a big one. He's my arms and she drifted off like probably got to blow off a little she was falling asleep; I held her bitterness. That must be it. for a long time before I realized "That's the only time I ever she was gone, and then I rocked really felt sorry for myself. I wished I'd held out and stayed with you because part of all that money would be mine. But that kind of thinking is hindsight and, back then, twenty-five thousand was a lot of money and I,didn't honestly know how good I was anyway. I have to admit I hated you a little bit, or at least hated your success when things were so rough for Letta. "I don't know how to finish this part because it's very sad to me, but I suppose it means nothing to any­ her and wept alone until morning. body else. The last six months— "Well, I suppose you didn't need Letta didn't make five years; she to hear that, but I needed to make just got four—the last six months you understand what it was like,. were very hard on me. I couldn't those four years. I buried her there afford the medical care she needed, ' and drifted back to the States, and sometimes she'd lie there so and my mind was restless. I thought weak I'd wrack my brain trying to about you a lot, and I thought if I figure out how I could manage to had some kind of an idea, and if get more money, but by then I was i could .get it to you, maybe, we about broken by the strain. So it could do some more' business. So narrowed, and toward the last I that's what this is all about."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Well, finally, Charlie . . • I was I knew I had something special. afraid you were going to drown in "Now here's the proposition. your own tears. Now, what has this Herb: you get an ordinary con­ capable mind of yours come up with? tainer, one that wouldn't be sus­ "One night I was sitting there pected, and you load and set it with thinking, and it came to me. It a timing device so that when it's looked to me like we were going to turned on about five or ten minutes have small.wars around the world or so elapse before it explodes." for a long time, and one sniart direc­ Who wants a device that can , '. ', tion to go might involve munitions, Charlie, I'm afi-aid you missed it this so I got a job in a small munitions time. A little too much Mexican factory on the West Coast to find booze on the brain. out all about the new plastic ex­ "Say, something unobtrusive, plosives. Now that's quite a field, Herb, that will also be destroyed Herb. It's something that could by the explosion and thereby elim­ really be big, but a guy has to come inate all evidence, like—well. Herb, up with a new idea. That's what I like a tape recorder that activates did. the timer when it's turned on." "The world is full of guerrilla Herbert finished his drink. warfare, and now that they are using "So long. Herb . . . This is for plastics, small amounts capable of Letta." blowing up large installations, all Suddenly Herbert T. Harkness a guy needs to do is come up with jerked his feet off the desk and a new device. I started ^studying leaped toward the machine. As he detonation, and learned all about reached it, the last of the tape dis­ delayed-action fuses, which in a appeared and began to flap. Grab­ guerrilla operation is particularly bing the tape recorder savagely, he desirable. From there it was very turned to hurl it through the simple. With a small amount of window. explosive and an idea for a delayed- Herbert T. Harkness almost made action timing device for detonation, it.

THE MESSAGE 61 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The man who seeds for a bountiful harvest often overlooks the happenstance of frost. RooK;^,

I'M sitting in my room minding fore they find a position. So why my own business which ain't very should I worry? Sooner or later hard, because right now I'm kind something's got to turn up. Any­ of like unemployed. But like my way, that's what Hot Rod says and • educated friend, Hot Rod Wash- I listen when he says something, burne says, "This ain't the worst, because he's a pretty'smart guy. thing in the world because there's He's thirty-eight years old and. I people out of work all the time." ain't never seen him work a day in Hot Rod says that sometimes big his life. executives drawing down twenty . And that ain't easy, no matter and twenty-five gees are sometimes what anybody tells you. You caii out of work for five-six months be­ beat working if you're born with a

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED silver spoon, but from what I hear, look at this big blonde chick and more people are born without spoons I knew that we were made for each than with them. I think Lincoln other. said something about that, too. She feels the same way, because So why worry, I keep telling my­ when I kiss her she trembles and self. All it gets you is a lot of grey that's a sure sign that she's crazy hairs and I don't need that. I'm a for me. We're two splendid speci­ good-looking guy, young, very smart mens. I'm handsome and smart and and also a clean-cut type. So in a she's gorgeous, fills her uniform way it doesn't make sense that I'm nicely, and we have this large not working. Maybe the real reason animal magnetism going for us. is because I don't have an honorable I got it bad, and I find that after discharge from the Navy. It's not two dates she's shaking and trem­ exactly a dishonorable discharge. bling even worse than before. I find It's one of those new secret classi­ it very rough to stay in my barracks fications, which says that the United at night when she's over in the States Navy and me haven't parted Waves' barracks, so I sneak out one company on the best of terms. night and I get by the Marine sen­ Like they say, there's a girl at try stationed outside of her place. the root of my troubles, and in my I meet her in the washroom at three case it's Seima Litts, who's a Wave. o'clock in the morning and we start I remember it like it happened hugging and kissing. An hour later yesterday. I sneak back to my barracks like I first met Selma when we were a common criminal, but it was worth stationed in Florida. I took one iL She was trembling so good she

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED had me trembling right with her. you were broken down to seaman But when I get back to my bar­ first. The whole base knows about racks I've got trouble. It's my luck your record. Before I marry a man that the chief petty officer decides he's got to be as solid as a rock. I to pull a bed check. Naturally he want a^house and kids, and money to doesn't find me sacked out, because start marriage with." I'm not there. I get ten hours extra "How much do you want.?" I duty for that, but what widi Selma's ask. "Ten thousand be enough for trembling and all that, I figure it's you? I can start up a little operation worth it. right here on the base and I'll have I'm back over to the Waves' that for you in no time." barracks the next night and things "There you go again, trying for are getting real rough for Selma shortcuts. In the first place, I want and me. She's shaking and I'm more than ten thousand. It used to shaking and things can't go on like be ten thousand, but prices are up, that. I already know that I love real estate is sky high. It'll have to her, so I ask her to marry me. be fifteen thousand dollars. My You've got to see Selma to under­ hitch will be up soon, and if we have stand. All a guy has to do is take fifteen thousand we can get mar­ one look and he falls in love with ried." Selma Litts right away. Well, I So that was how things stood figure with all the trembling and then in the Waves' washroom, with quivering, that she's going to grab me holding her, and. her shaking and my offer. telling me, "Stop, Harold. You She puts her hands on my shoul­ don't have^any right." ders and says, "Harold, how long That's what she thought. I was have you been in the Navy.?" going to marry her, and I figured "Alniost six years," I answer that gave me certain rights. quickly, because I've got a good Anyway, I hear somebody coming sense of time. into the barracks and when I stick "Harold, you're still a seaman. my head out of the washroom I How can I marry a man I outrank?" see two Wave officers. And just • "But those things happen," I about then I learn how sneaky the explain. "I was a first class aviation Navy really is. Sending Wave machinist , . ." officers around to pull a bed check "Never mind what you were. I on the enlisted Waves! That's about heard about how you were running as underhanded as anybody can get. a still oh Johnston Island, and how I can understand the. Navy check- CROOKS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA 65 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ing on the guys. But the Waves? But I paid no attention. The way That's going too far. It's an invasion it figured was that I'd run right of privacy, is what it is. over the parade grounds to my I'm no fool though. I already barracks, but I'd be traveling so told you that I was smart. The fast nobody would be able to see minute I see them, I make a mad me. All they'd see would be a shad­ dash to one of the empty bunks, owy form whizzing through the jump in and pull the blanket over dark. my head. I flew,throug h the door and there's Selma stays right where she is, the Marine sentry. He ain't big, in the washroom. Why not? She's but he's carrying a World War Two got a perfect right to be there. Garand pointing right at my belt. But talk about those Navy Wave When he said, "Halt!" he was officers. Not only did they pull a thirty-two feet, five inches tall. bed check, but they count Selma And I halted. Make no mistake too. That's like hitting below the about that. belt. There are supposed to be I hit the brakes and skidded twenty-four sleeping Waves in the right up to him. I laughed and put barracks. They get twenty-five as my hands over my head and said, a final figure, and in a Wave bar­ "Kamarad! Give me a break, will ya, racks having one more is worse than buddy?" having one less. I never did get to find out if he - Right away one of those officers would, because just then the Wave starts blowing her whistle. It officers come running out and also sounded like Battle Stations, Hit some of the girls in their nighties. the Deck, the Enemy is in Sight, The Marine sees all these kids and all that kind of stuff. running around in their underwear Waves start rolling out of their and it musta upset him, because he sacks and snapping to attention, pulls the trigger and a slug zips but I stayed under the blanket like by my right ear and buries itself I was frozen, until one of the officers in the barracks. pulls the blanket off me. I didn't Right away there's real excite­ even bother to salute, but was off ment. Three Waves faint. Search­ and running likej was in the second lights start going on all over the at Hialeah and I had a fast start. base. It always happens when there's I heard lots of screaming in back any kind of trouble at the Waves* of me and somebody was yelling, barracks. In fact, I think the Ad­ "Halt! Haiti" miral has got a direct wire to any

(^(> ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED trouble over there.Usually if there's I do a couple of months in the any trouble at the enlisted man's brig, and when I get out Selma barracks, the O.D. handles it. He , tells me she thinks that I was very drives out in his Jeep with a couple gallant for not revealing her name, other guys, like civilized human but just the same what she said beings, but that doesn't apply when before still goes. She wants money there's trouble at the Waves' bar­ ' in the bank even more now, since racks. All of a sudden six Jeeps I'm an ex Navy con. The Navy come careening up and there's brass gives me my walking papers right all over the place. after that and I go out to face the I don't need anyone to tell me world. that I've got big trouble. With my brain power, it figures There's a court martial and it there'll be many companies looking takes five pages just to read off all to hire me immediately. I read in the charges. They say I was the newspapers how research en­ A.W.O.L., discovered in the Waves' gineers who can offer creativity barracks, out of bounds, and I fled are in great demand, so it comes as the scene of the crime, whatever it a surprise when the companies turn is, I get myself a Marine lawyer, my applications down, just because and he tells me that the brass is I ain't a research analyst or an en­ willing to make a deal. gineer. What these companies ig­ All I have to do is give them the nore is the fact that I've got imag­ name of the Wave I was visiting ination and creativity. and they'll lessen the charges. It Anyway, now I'm thinking about seems that in all the excitement, all. that's happened to me, and I'm while all the screaming and yelling just sitting looking out of my win­ and fainting was going on, Selma dow, taking in the view that comes Litts slipped back into her bed, with my cheap room. It's hardly and what with all the confusion and what you call magnificent. I'm on everything, nobody was able to the second floor facing a gritty remember which bed I was in. ^ brick wall, and the rear door of the Well, you know I wouldn't spill National Chemical Farmers Bank, the beans about any woman, let which is always locked. The bank alone the one I was goirig to marry. doesn't use it because that door I'm a gentleman, always was, and -faces out into the dirty alley. besides, I'm kind of suspicious as There's a bunch of rubble down to why everybody wants to know there, rusted tin cans, some old who she is. shoes, newspapers and lots of litter,

.CROOKS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA 67 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and two alley cats hissing at each gets clear. There's, been a bank other. It's a grey day for me. I holdup. Four men had come run­ don't have a job, I don't have fifteen ning out. of the bank. The bank thousand dollars so I can marry guard had killed one of them, had Selma Litts, and looking at all the himself been shot through the garbage in the alley makes me feel chest, and there's a satchel holding even lower. bank money just laying out there All of a sudden the back door of in the alley with nobody watching it. the bank opens and two guys carry­ It's enough for me. Irun down ing guns come running out. One of the stairs and yank the back door them is wearing a lumber jacket and open. The satchel ain't more than he's got a head like a chunk of twenty feet away. The bank guard poured cement. Then all hell breaks is stretched out with his face buried loose.. The bank alarm goes off and in a pile of rubble. I watch hirn all two other guys carrying satchels the time I'm running- to the satchel, come running out of the bank. It and he doesn't lift his head once. don't take more than a second and a The guy he's shot is dead. bank guard is out in the alley firing I grab the satchel and run back after them. Bullets are flying and toward the doorway of my building, whining through the alley. One of and unexpectedly two bullets rico­ the guy's carrying a satchel drops, chet off the wall next to my head. with the top of his head blasted I catch a quick look. It's the guy in clear away. the lumber jacket, and I dive into Another robber drops to his the doorway as he fires more bullets knees and starts firing. He hits the my way. guard in the chest, and the guard • Through the glass in the door I see drops on top of some cans. The gun­ one of the bank's employees jump man sta~rts running for the satchel out of the bank and he's firing at his pal has dropped, but the guard the man in the lumber jacket. I ain't finished. He's laying out flat don't stick around to find out how on his stomach, but he pulls the things are going to work out. As I trigger two times, missing. It's hit the stairs I hear an engine roar­ enough to make the robber give ing and tires burning rubber. Irun up any plans for the satchel and up the stairs to my room, drop the take off. satchel on the bed and look out the I watch it all, as though it's window. taking place in slow motion, like There's people out there now, some kind of dream. Then it all kneeling next to the bank guard.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Somebody's shouting, "Get an am­ The cops rap on my door seconds bulance!" There's the still body later and one of them is shouting, of the dead robber, and the man in "Open up! Police!" the lumber jacket ain't in sight. I take my time answering, then I duck into the hall, scoot down open the door like a lush who's the hallway to an old storage room been wrenched out of bed in the that holds some sooty mattresses middle of the night. There's the and unassembled beds. I jam the sergeant with a red, angry puss, two satchel in behind^ a mattress and cops and old man Snelska in the go back to my room. hall. Now there's an army of cops out "What's going on? What's the idea banging on my door like that?" I say like Fm-half shot, but inside I'm jumping. "The bank's been robbed," Old man Snelska hollers. "No fooling?" I say. "You're kidding."' "Who kids about something like that? There's a stiff out in the alley and the bank's out fifty grand," Snelska says, all excited. "Your window overlooks the alley," the sergeant says. "Did you in the alley, and a sergeant's talking see anything?" He sniffs and catches to old man Snelska, the landlord. a whiff of the rye. Snelska's pointing at my window "Nothing. I been sleeping. Didn't and it's enough to scare hell out of hear a thing." me, because all of a sudden I see One of the cops grins. The ser­ him, the sergeant and two cops geant mutters something under his walking toward the doorway down­ breathy then says, "Go back to bed stairs. and sleep it off, bud." It comes to me quick then. I lock "Thanks a lot for nothing," I my door, strip, get into my pa­ tell him as he walks off. "Who jamas. I drink a water glass of rye, asked you guys to come around and spill some into my hands and muss wake me up anyway? Huh?" I slam my hair with it. Then I get into the door shut and lock it. bed. I got dressed again, went to the

CROOKS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA 69 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED storeroom and counted the money. in the darkness, trembling all over. There was thirty thousand dollars. All I wanted now was to get my I put it back, stuffed the satchel hands on the money and take off. behind the mattress and went back There was enough for a fast car or to my room. Everything^ was clear a plane ticket, but I had to move in my brain. ~ I had more than quickly. enough money to. marry Selma. I reached for the lock, but a She wanted fifteen and I came up knock at the door raised the hackles with thirty. Talk about initiative. on my neck. I had a mental picture One of the robbers had spotted of the man in the lumber jacket me, but I had a strong feeling that standing out in the hall with a gun he'd be mighty busy for a while in his hand, waiting to kill me. It . trying to protect his own skin. I was like a bad dream. I stood frozen. got into bed, put my hands behind "Harold," a voice said on the my head and laughed for five other side of the door. It was minutes. I had it made. Selma would Snelska, the landlord, but I jumped be discharged in two months. Life anyway. "I heard you running up was going to be great. the stairs, Harold," he said. I tried to call, couldn't reach I switched on the light and opened her, and walked around on a cloud the door. for the rest of the day. Later, I He blinked. "What's the matter took a hundred dollars from the with you.? Why are you standing- satchel and went out for a fine in the dark? There was a man around seafood dinner. to see you. He didn't know your When I got back to my place the name, but he described you and dream came to an end. There was said he had a job for you." a car parked across the street, with I felt sick. "Did you give him my three men facing the front entrance name?" I asked. of the building. I recognized the "Yeah, sure. I know you need a man who'd been wearing the lumber job." jacket; no lumber jacket now, but "Thanks," I said. "Thanks a lot," I recognized his face. and I shut the door. I almost panicked and ran, but Now I know I've got real big forced myself to walk slowly around trouble. It ain't only the money the corner. Then I went into the they're after. I'm a witness to the alley, got into the, building using crirne; the bank guard is in critical the rear entrance, and went to my shape over at the hospital; and it room, I locked the door and stood figures that those guys put in the

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED car want to knock me off pronto. man," says Hot Rod. "It's either Like I was saying before, I'm fifteen thousand or else die." a good-looking guy with lots of Well, when he puts it that way, brains, but I'm beginning to think what choice do I have? "All right," I need some adviee. For advice I say. I have to go to a smart guy, and "I've already formulated a plan. right away I think of Hot Rod It's foolproof if you follow it to Washburne. the letter. First you wait at a win­ I sneak downstairs to the hall dow overlooking the street, until phone and give him a buzz and you see me double park in front of tell him that I got trouble. I've the hotel, then you get the satchel," known him a long time and he's a come downstairs and jump into my friend, so I tell him everything. car. I'll take care of the rest." He's so quiet while I'm talking "I don't think you understand. that I think he's hung up, but he Hot Rod. Those boys with the big ain't.^ He's just listening and con­ guns are sitting across the street centrating. ready to shoot me down." I say, "Washburne, you there.?" "I am tired, tired, do you hear?" "Talk," he said. "Get on with it, Hot Rod says. "Why must I listen you clod." to this eternal barrage of doubt? So I do, and I wind up by telling I'm tired of the disbelievers. Do him that the robbers are parked you or do you not want to make right across the street in a big car. your escape with fifteen thousand "There's three of them and they're dollars and your life? I am contemp­ ready to kill me." tuous of all those who will not "How much is in the satchel?" believe." "Thirty thousand." Well, when he starts talking like "Hmm," he says. "I'll extricate that, right away I feel much better. you from your predicament, but I'm telling you Hot Rod is a very the, fee will be fifteen thousand smart guy. "Okay," I say. "I'll be dollars." looking for you." Hot Rod speaks real fancy, but "Fifteen minutes, dolt," he says, I understand fifteen thousand dol­ and hangs up. lars. That's half of thirty thousand Let me tell you it's a long fifteen dollars. There ain't nothing wrong minutes before I see his little red with my figuring. "That's half," sports car pull up before the hotel. I holler. I can also see those crooks across the "Well, suit yourself, my good street, and I'm almost ready to call CROOKS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA 71 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the whole thing off but I know it's he's already counting his fifteen too late. Besides, Hot Rod Wash- thousand dollars. burne is my ideal, thirty-eight and We're climbing a mountain now ain't worked a day in his life. You and the crooks stay right where they got to have faith in. people. I get are, not gaining. the satchel and go downstairs with • "Harold, my boy," Hot Rod it. says, "did I ever tell you that I When Hot Rod sees me coming, attended the university.? It was he opens the car door for me, and the closest I ever came to work. I make a fast dash and jump in. I Frightening experience, that." can see the crooks in the car across "Yeah, I knew you went away the street pointing their fingers at for a while." me, and their eyes are bugging "That's where I was, my boy, right out of their heads. studying at one of our seats of Then Hot Rod says, "Now smile higher learning." at them and wave good-by like "Is that so?" they're your friends." "Indeed, At the university there I think Hot Rod is cracking up, was a study made as to why so many but I don't have any choice, so I of the good citizens of this coun­ give them a big grin and a wave. try are mangled in automobile It shakes them up real bad. It looks accidents." like they're arguing. Then Hot Rod We're near the top of the moun­ slides his World War One pilot tain now and I'm getting a little glasses down over his eyes, guns the nervous. I say, "Hot Rod, those engine, and we take off. guys are closing in." I kind of figure that this is the "Exactly," hesays, as we got to end of the trail, when I see those the top of the mountain. crooks take out after us. They're There's a sign that says: All trucks close enough now so that I can see use low gear on the descent. Hot them and they look like they're Rod gunned the engine and we be­ snarling. It looks bad. gan to descend the mountain. They're not too far behind while ' I say, "Hey, Hot Rod, there's a we drive out of town and then Hot guy hanging out the front window Rod turns onto the state highway. aiming his gun at us." The crooks start to close in, but Hot Rod sighs, like he is tired. Hot Rod's looking in his side mirror "Confounded idiots! We will have and he don't seem worried. In to lose them, that's all there is to fact, he's humming happily, like it," and he hits the accelerator.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I notice the speed then, because right. They're going straight ahead' we're really flying down the side of and they're still arguing. They go the mountain. Below there's noth­ through the steel cable fence like ing except -blackness and rocks. it was never there. I count to five We're whipping around curves now. and there's a big booming noise at "Hey, Hot Rod, maybe we ought the bottom of the mountain. The to lose those guys some other place." sky gets a little lighter when the I look back and sec that they're car starts burning. almost on our tail. A bullet goes Hot Rod pushes the clutch in and whizzing by. we drive slowly down the mountain. "Brazen nerve," Hot Rod says, "It's all a matter of centrifugal and pours on the coal. force, my boy," Hot Rod explains. I figure, So long, kjd, so long "A matter of applying low gear fifteen grand, and so long, Hot Rod. power at the proper moment going I say, "Hot Rod, take it easy. into the turn, as opposed to apply­ There's a bad curve up ahead." ing brakes, which will do absolutely "You see that, do you, clod?" nothing to overcome centrifugal And then as we go in to, the turn force." he gears down to low and floors I don't know what he's talking the accelerator. The engine sounds, about, but it don't make any dif­ as though it's going to explode and ference. I,give him his fifteen thou­ the car sways Uke it's going to flip, sand dollars, then I put in a call to but it holds the road. The rear tires Selma at the base. grab with all that extra power Hot The Wave at the switchboard Rod is putting on the wheels. He teUs me that Selma went and got brakes hard and we look back. married to a Navy cook. Behind us-the big car comes into You never know how those things the turn at high speed, with the arc going to work out. Here I am brakes locked and the front wheels with the fifteen thousand dollars all turned hard to the right. Only ready. I guess she got tired of those crooks ain't going to the waiting.

%H^^ CSOOTHS, SATCHELS, AND SELMA 73 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Perhaps one should consider first whether an act he underta\es in a humane manner would, after all, earn the undying gratitude of the recipient.

THE old couple stood before the fresh mound of earth, their heads bowed in an expression of respect. The man, bent and wrinkled, leaned wearily on the handle of his spade. His forehead glistened with perspiration and his trousers were creaseless, stained by the damp red earth from the mound. He looked at the hole that matched the one he had just filled. It was dark and empty, and he wondered if enough strength remained in his aching body to complete the task that lay ahead. The woman gave the appearance of being fragile. Her shoulders were covered by a black knit shawl, but it was not enough to protect her from the sudden chill in the evening almost upon them, could sense it. air. She raised her head and watched "It will rain soon," the man said, the treetops sway in the wind; she as though reading her thoughts. knew through years of observation "We must hurry." He took her that the first storm of the season was arm fondly and led her away from

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the mound. "I will see you back A lamp had been lighted in one to the house." of the rooms. The glare through She gave a heavy sigh, and leaned the undraped window stretched into the curve of his body for sup­ across the ground and fell just short port. "Must we bury her tonight?" of the man's feet. The couple could she asked and her answer was a see the woman moving about inside. nod of the man's head. "Perhaps She was packing, wrapping the it is best," she said. "Then it will precious belongings of thirty years be over." And she sighed again. in wooden crates. They left the pine grove with its "You know what you must do,". well hidden grave and its waiting the man said. companion, and moved into the field "Must—must it be tonight?" in view of the house. She stepped "Tonight," he answered. "Before away from him then as if contact she can realize he has gone without were something she could no longer her." tolerate, and he moved ahead, not If tears could have changed their realizing she had fallen so far behind situation, the woman would have until he had reached the gate and shed them freely, but they were of turned to see her plodding slowly no avail. In the old days—^in the through the mist of the field. When days of her father—all this would she reached him, he was leaning have been unnecessary. A servant's against the frame of the open gate, fate had been more certain in those staring at the house with a sadness days. They had been an important in his eyes. part of the. family. If a house were "We have lived here for so long," to be sold as this one, the servants he said. were assured of moving to the new And she echoed, "So very long." house with their masters. But those The house was not appealing to days were past, as outdated as the the eye; it was a giant structure house itselt In these modern times, reaching four stories high with a there was no security for the serving peaked roof higher than the sur­ class. The selling of a house could rounding pines. When it had been leave them homeless, turned into built, designers did not bother with the cold at an age when another new creations but reached backward position was unobtainable. in time to reproduce the most strik­ "Give me time to reach the pine ing features of the past. Water­ grove," the man told her. "Then spouts with the heads of gargoyles you must send her." stared from above at the couple. '*She will not know pain as he THE SERVANT PROBLEM • 75 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED did?" she asked with concern. gently against the sides of the He looked away, unable to face house. her. "It was unfortunate with him," "There, it is done," the woman in he said. "No. She will not know the house sighed. pain." The man would be waiting in the "Then I will send her." It was grove. He would see that she met a the only solution to their problem. near painless end, and then he would She. watched the man go back bury her beside her husband. The across the field to\yard the waiting" pine needles and fhe brush would grave. He walked slowly, the deadly soon cover their graves and they spade swung over his shoulder. The would be forgotten. Only a weak wind, not being content to remain explanation need be given for their in the treetops, now reached down absence. and lifted the mist about him. She went to the telephone, dialed He is a good man, she thought. the number of the local store, and He is right in rebelling against the waited' for several minutes before servant's modern fate. When he had she heard the familiar toneless voice disappeared among the trees, she of the grocer. pulled her shawl about her shoulders "This is Mrs. Clarke," she said'. and entered the house. "I wanted to inform you that we The woman inside was packing the shall no longer require our weekly last of the porcelain, her white head deliveries. My husband and I have bent over a crate as she lay a delicate sold the house and taken a small figure to rest in a bed of tissue. apartment in the city . . . Thank When she realized she was not alone you . . . We shall miss the resort in the room, she looked up. . . . Maria and John? . . . Yes, "This is the last of—" The old they've found other positions. We're hands dropped the figure and it not one of those modern couples smashed against the side of the crate. who turn their servants into the "You are so pale. What is it.'' What cold after years of service. We've has happened?" seen that .they have been properly "An accident," the woman told taken care of." her. She was panting as if she had , She returned the receiver to its run a long way. "In the woods—the cradle and sighed with the comple­ pine grove." tion of the task. Her lips felt dry. The old woman rushed past her, She poured herself a glass of sherry, leaving the door open to the wind. then poured a second for her The rain had started and now beat husband.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The "spare the rod" theory has the endorsement of many, bttt it seems others, well-seasoned men, administer more enlightened chastisement. a WAS hoping I wouldn't have that worried feeling about the kid again when he reported for the eight to four shift. " 'Morning, Cap," Terry McLane said, as though it were just the start of another ordinary day for Police Enaergency Squad Three. The average Joe wouldn't think anything wc did was ordinary, but we take it in stride. "It's going to be a hot one,** I commented. "It's that time of the year," he said, and hid his fece in his locker. I still had that feeling. Td seen his

eyes, like one-way glass. He could look out, but I couldn't see in. I stared at the back of his dark head, curly as mine but unburnished by gray. I heard noises from the fer end

JUMP JOB 77 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED of the room where Sergeant Hen- outside of work; I'm sure of that." nessy, looking like a short sack of "You'd better find out," said potatoes, was hoisting his dungaree Henny. ' • zipper from groin to breastbone. I "Are you giving me orders?" strolled down. He grinned. "Just suggesting." "Something on your mind, So it wouldn't look too obvious, Henny?" I stopped by my locker on the "What's on his?" he muttered. way back. I looked at the photo of "Has he been taking cases home?" Mame, gone five years. If I did I reviewed some of the things bring something home and wanted Terry had taken in stride with us to talk or growl it out of my system after I'd picked him for the squad. at her, she listened. Maybe that The deputy chief inspector always was Terry's trouble. He was eager lets me have my pick and I've never to talk about his new job, but the chosen a weak link yet. Maybe gal he was going with wouldn't Terry would be the first one, but I listen or wanted him to make an­ wasn't thinking of my record. I other transfer. It was worth a try. liked the kid, and I also liked the I closed my locker. rest of my squad. We had to work "Speaking of weather," I said, together. I didn't hke it that Henny approaching Terry, "we'll start had confirmed my feeling. getting calls for kids, and grown­ T had to do some hard mulling to ups too, who have gone in water make a quick review, because in our over their depth. Mouth to mouth job it's best to dismiss and forget resuscitation is good, but use the the human crises we encounter. gadget so you don't,go picking up Calloused, you'd call us, but it's spinal meningitis or something." self-protection. We wouldn't last "Good idea," agreed Terry. if we took home in memory the "It applies to the bikini set too." tot with a. hand mangled in a gar­ I smiled. "Unless she happens to bage disposal, the blonde it took be your gal." Terry grinned. us two hours to free from car' "Blonde, brunette, redhead?" I wreckage, the three guys in the asked. "Or are you playing the sewer excavation cave-in. But Terry field?" had already seen similar situations on "Redhead," he answered, and a beat and in a patrol car before opened his wallet and showed me he'd applied to transfer to the her picture. She was stacked, inside Eiriergency Division. too, I mean, giving the impression I shook my head. "It's something she'd look right at you like that

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED even if you weren't holding a quired. "Maybe threatening you?" camera. If the son Mame and I had "No." He was very positive lost in Korea had lived to bring about that. "It's just that . . ." home something like that . . . He lifted his strong hands help­ "She makes me feel good about lessly. "Her name's Ellie, not a you," I said, handing back the bad looker, and I guess that's all wallet. "She's not going to cause I looked at, at first." you any trouble, except what you "I did too when I was your age," make yourself." I said. "Thanks, Cap. That's the way I He smiled wryly. -"You didn't feel too." get hooked." It was a glowy sort of reassurance, "Don't be so sure of that." but I still had that, worried feeling. He nodded understandingly. "When's the date you really start "None of my business, but you living.?" I- asked, and realized I'd must have got off the hook. I can't touched the right button when he get off with Ellie. She won't let took a split-second to answer. me go. That's why Jeanne won't "We haven't got around to that set the date." yet," he said,-looking for something "Shell get over it," I said. "You. in his locker. just make it very clear you're set "Why?" Nothing casual or curi­ with Jeanne. Send back EUie's ous. I hit him as bluntly as I could. letters unopened, refuse to take He whipped his face around as deUvery on them, hang up if she though he was going to come back phones, even slap her selfish £ice if m kind. "Spill it, kid," I said.. she arranges accidental meetings." He looked me in the eye, then at "I've done all that. Cap. It's not my gray hair, then in the eye again, that simple. She's threatening sui­ then along the line of lockers. Henny cide." had had sense enough to disappear, I said a four-letter word, and and 1 hoped he would hold off the then, "We're all set then. If she others. 1 didn't want to invite Terry tries to scare you by taking an over­ to the office. It might be just enough, dose of something, we'll have it all interruption to break the connec­ arranged that no one will listen to tion. her denials when the stomach pump "It's not Jeanne, the redhead," and Epsom salts are overworked he said. "It's the one before her, the on her." one I broke off with." He laughed at that, but it didn't "She got something on you?" I io- last, "I hope you're right, Cap. I

JUMP JOB 79

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED used to think she was just a nervous Morgan and Rubinatti. They type. She's probably closer to being wanted our jacks,- body bag, and psycho. That's why I broke off. mops for a man under the subway But I'm just worried enough she express in the Plaza Station. Terry might go ail the way, not bluff it. crawled under with me. Before I I wouldn't want to think it was could caution him about the third because of me. I wouldn't want that rail, though the power was off, he on my conscience." cautioned me. So, despite the cir­ "yo«r .conscience doesn't come cumstances, I began to feel good. into this," I said. "You didn't I'd talked him into keeping his leave her in any kind of trouble, mind on the job. Hennessy came so—" worming along, collecting for the "I know, but still the thought is bag. Terry gently extended the there and I can't shake it. That's head dangling from a fistful of hair. . why Jeanne won't set a date. When "I wonder if he was pushed off or I carry her across the threshold, she jumped." wants to know the door is locked I knew Ellie was still with us. behind us, not left ajar." , "Pushed,"- I said sharply. "No "That Jeanne is a gal. Don't lose jumper picks a crowd unless he's her, Terry. Any girl who could be hoping to be restrained." told what you told her, and still—" Henny paused on the ties be­ "She works in the same office with neath the car and gave me a look Ellie," he said. "I had to tell her." which told me he'd eavesdropped on "You would have told her any­ the conversation in the locker room. way," I said. He nodded. "Now I motioned him on toward what forget Ellie. You broke off fair with could have been a roll of newspapers her. If she doesn't want to play it or a leg. When I climbed to the that way, that's not your-^" platform, Martinez met me with Just then the booth sergeant the clipboard. broke his thumb on the alarm but­ "Suicide, Cap. I found his wallet ton. I slapped Terry's arm. - and glasses in a phone booth. There "Cut off, kid. We got a job. When was a note too. Any more dope you we come back, just hook up with want on this.?" Jeanne." "Give it a number and bury it We rolled out Squad Three's in the files," I said for the benefit of truck with siren wailing at morning Terry who was staring up from the commuter traffic. We were needed tracks. by Emergency Patrol Car 226—' He slapped his hands on the edge

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and bobbed up onto the platform. crowded by a, taxi and exchanged "Okay if I make a quick phone wordless epithets with the driver call?" before he went on to me. "And they "We haven't got time to dally, won't put up with weaklings, around. We got to be ready for the either." next job." I waited until Henny nudged "Sure," he said sarcastically. "I around a corner through a stream hope you guess better on that one." of pedestrians. I still felt I'd given him good "The nearest I come to being a advice, and I kept him too busy bird is a cuckoo, for being in this to grab a phone to call ElUe. Before business. How many others in the we got back to quarters the radio squad are griping about Terry diverted us. It was a simple job, besides you?" one that could have been handled "I haven't inquired. Pardon me by Statts and Enright from car for opening my mouth." 227, but they were giving oxygen "No apologies needed. He's a to a cardiac. So I held a howling good kid, Henny." pudgy kid on my lap in the tene­ "Sure. I'll go along, Cap." ment kitchen and steadied his hand I got the message, and Terry got on the table. Terry slipped with the one too when we backed into ring-cutter and snipped swollen quarters and the booth sergeant flesh. The kid's shriek felt hke an handed him a slip. He started for ice-pick to my eardrum. Henny the unofficial pay phone. I placed took the ring-cutter from Terry. my hand over the dial. Back in the rig, sitting beside "I'm not going to stop you," I Henny, I checked Emergency Three said, "but you've got another de­ back into service. Henny wheeled cision to face. You haven't made slowly uptown. any big mistakes yet with us, but . "Did I ever tell you about my you will if you keep on this way. oldest boy, Cap?" This division doesn't make any "Too many times," I retorted. allowance for them, because a mis­ Henny ignored the hint. "He's take means somebody gets hurt or joined a club at school and right killed. So make up your mind, kid. now he's all for the birds. Birds Are you going to take orders from have got sorriething, though. They me or from her?" kick the young out of the nest when I pulled my hand from the dial they're old enough to take care of and walked into the office and closed themselves." Henny refused to be the door. In about twenty minutes

JUMP JOB !l LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED my phone rang. It was the Deputy where—" shuddering, he stopped. Chief Inspector. I shoved him toward the rig and "What goes on, Captain? I've felt as scared as he looked. just told off a young woman who "Want to bet on it?" Henny phoned to insist that I use my offi­ muttered as I piled in beside him. cial capacity to make one of your He took us through the noonhour men, Terence McLane—" clutter by the skin of Truck Three's "Her name was Ellie, sir," I cut paint. My thoughts weaved too. in, feeling very good. "It's a closed Jumper jobs are the worst in our personal matter as far as McLane book. Worse than a bomb scare, is concerned, and I hope you weren't shooting it out with a holed-up diplomatic in telling her off." fugitive, or looking for a gas leak "I wasn't," he replied, "and I in a building ready to blow up. won't be tactful with you and Mc­ You never know, with a jumper. Lane if I receive any more calls of Might be a drunk, somebody sick this nature." or all drugged up, or a lousy show- I didn't know'whether to be glad ofif risking the lives of good men; or worried by this turn. I sent for and it could be an all-out psycho Terry. "Congratulations on your willing to take you down too. decision." Terry's Ellie? Even if it was, no "How did you know.?" he asked. matter who it was, it was our job "A bird told me. Ask Henny to prevent it. Some people demand about them. And be sure to let me why? Let 'em leap! We can't. One know the date you and Jeanne set." of those questioners might be the He frowned. "I hope I'm doing next one up there because just the the right thing." right combination of. things makes "You are. Now lock the door him or her. temporarily think there's behind—" no other way out, nothing left to The booth sergeant broke his live for. If it was Terry's Ellie, and thumb again. "220 West 44th," he we saved her or lost her, either called, chalking it on the board. way what was it going to accomplish "Woman on the twentieth floor for him? - ledge." Nothing! He'd be hooked to her Terry's face went chalky. "That's or have a guilty conscience the rest where Ellie works! I knew I should of his life. ' have phoned—" Swearing, I stood up and waved "Who said it's her.?" I barked. my arm and jawed at the crowd "But the twentieth floor is that made Henny slow to a crawl

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED on Forty-fourth. People leaned morning. It's none of your doing. from windows, jammed on fife es­ Nothing on your—" The doors capes. A lot of them ate lunch and snicked open, and he lead the way drank "pop like it was a picnic. down the hall, around a corner, Eyes and arms pointed up. through a doorway that had some­ Twenty floors up, the slim girl thing about insurance on the frosted stood on a ledge between two win­ pane. dows. Beyond reach of extended Terry spun a castored chair aside. hands to either side, she slouched He pulled at people hanging out a one shoulder against the wall like window. "Get out of the way!" she was pouting and waiting for a A little redhead turned. I recog­ date. nized Jeanne from her photo in I knew the answer when I looked Terry's wallet. At sight of him she at Terry—the clenched jaw, the looked relieved, but sad. She knew, white canvas of his face with torn the same as I did. Nothing good was holes for eyes. I clamped his arm. going to come out of this for Terry. "Don't go off on your own! Do She hooked her fingers in the waist­ you understand.?" band of a fat guy's pants. He nodded jerkily, looking up. "J.B., get out of the way!" Truck Five was trying to reopen The fat guy turned, looking as the trail we'd made into .Forty- though he were going to add a cor­ fourth. Truck Seven inched'from onary to our problems. the opposite direction. Terry leaned out. "Ellie.? "Henny!" I ordered. "Up!" I couldn't see her and didn't His head made a quick chop. try. Sometimes too many people Squad Three began hauling off gear. can spoil it. I put my hand on Seven or Five would take care of Terry's shoulder. the ground net. A lot of good "Don't go out there, kid. Talk that would do if she came down. her in, if you can. Or hold her Wouldn't do much.more than keep until we get set. Say anything. her from splattering. .Even . . . offer niarriage. But don't Terry and I raced in to an ele­ go out there! Terry? Do you under­ vator. Air whispered around the car. stand?" Terry watched the crawl of green Jeanne grabbed onto his dun­ light across the floor numbers above garees. "I won't let him go out." the doors. 'Thanks," • I said, then back^ "Terry.?" He didn't look at mc._ tracked fast to the elevator. The "Remember what I told jrou this stairs were too chancy. I might get

JUMP JOB 83, LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED locked on them until the squad net. Terry still pleaded with EUie. came up. The elevator doors slid From the window on the other side, back, revealing Martinez, half my a man in clerical black extended a squad and some of Five's, with pink palm, but she just stared out, block and tackle, field telephones. ignoring him, like a pouting "kid. . I jammed in with them. Pulling myself in, I glanced "Henny's on nineteen," Martinez around the office. The men were said. "Wliere do we go. Cap?" paying out lines and the bundled "She's outside of 2060," I an­ wall net, while Henny's crew waited swered. "So if the layout's the two floors below. Martinez finished same up here—" making contact all around on a The doors opened and we spread field phone. You don't shout from- out to windows above and to either floor to floor when you've got a side of Ellie on the ledge below. poised jumper, and for the same Martinez and I took the one nearest reason we couldn't use the lifebelt. above her. We hauled and pushed That's okay for someone wanting until people got wilhngly out of our to be rescued. The brake line, sud­ way. I leaned put. The white parting denly dangling past, gives hope, not in her dark hair gleamed about ten an incentive to jump because some­ feet below and five more to my one is about to make a grab.. right. She still leaned against the I helped a couple men shift a steel building, with the toe of one slipper desk to jam it by the window. Mar­ hooked over the edge. Far below tinez moved in with coiled line. the street was a canyon clogged with "She's ten down, five to the side," -a logjam of rigs, cars, and people, I told hirn. with a cleared area below Ellie. He nodded, measuring o£f line. Terry's torso jutted from the win­ "I'll give you about thirteen.** dow below me. Little white fists One of the' men corrected him. clutched his dungarees. "Don't use that dirty word. Give "Ellie! Listen to me, honey I him something above twelve, under Look at me!" fourteen." From the nineteenth floor win­ I whipped a bowline-on-a-bight; dow beneath him, Henny's face the bowline for my chest, the loops, squinted up. I glimpsed Seven for each thigh, just in case things Sqiiad way down in the cleared^area, started to get out of control before just blobs moving on legs that the wall net was rigged. The-gawk­ couldn't'be seen from above, two ing noonday crowd didn't help. A blobs to each pole of the rope ground chant began, swelling in macabre

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED volume, voodoo-like in rhytlim. guide and brace lines hung slack. "Jump . . . jump , . , jump . . . I raced around to Martinez who was JUMP . . ." back at the field phone. Swearing, I tested my knots. "What the hell's taking them so Martinez lashed and padded line long?" around the steep desk. He answered calmly. "It looks ". . . jump . . . jump . . ." like a record setup, Cap, even with I peered out. Ellie no longer the thirty seconds more they need." leaned against the building. The Terry dashed in, eyeing my bow­ cleric had both pink palms extended line. toward her. I didn't see Terry below "This is my job. Cap."' me. Just the redhead was leaning "I thought I told you—" out, her pleading hand extended, "Don't argue," he snapped, tug­ her manner suggesting anger but ging at my line. trying not to show it. Below, Hen- That damn chant came in the ny's crew thrust out extension poles window. ". . . jump . . . jump to hook loops of the wall net- The . . . jump ..." JUMP JOB - 85 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 1 couldn't do a thing to stop Ellie gingerly. The mob was roaring- with the Hne half off me, so I helped The pink-palmed cleric had guts- Terry into it—and felt like a hang­ He went way out. Terry's boots man. Nothing good was going to scraped and kicked masonry. The come of this. Terry's future was cleric missed catching hold. down the drain. A thought streaked past in my He crouched on the windowsill. head as I tried to steady the line. Some of the ghouls in windows Terry had deliberately kicked away across the way even tried to point from that window. , EUie's attention up to him. I peered Swinging, booting the masonry to out past him! Her slim body avoid being banged against it, he teetered on the edge of the ledge reached down, locked fingers in her diagonally below. streaming hair and pulled her up­ ". . . jump . . . jump . . right, face to face. I couldn't hear jump ..." what he said, but I could see his lips Below, the wall net wasn't quite moving. I saw the look in her eyes ready. Just a few. more minutes and get wilder. Then he let go. Her we could swing it up to pin her scream pierced the howl of the against the building. She glanced up. crowd as she dropped away. Maybe it was surprise or anger at She fell:—six feet—into Henny's seeing Terry poised above her; net,_just barely tightened in time. rnaybe it caused her to lose her I didn't wait for an elevator this precarious balance; maybe- it was time. The firestair doors were just a nudge of breeze;.maybe she wedged open. I raced into 1960, two did it deliberately. floors below, just as Henny and his There was no mistaking the mes­ crew-hauled in Ellie and Terry, who sage in,the dark wild eyes. must have dropped to the net, too, "She's going!" I shouted. after releasing from his line. He Terry was already on his way, swung her around to face him. plunging as she sort of floated out "You were lucky this time. But from the ledge below. Too late. Her I warn you, if there's any more of torso was beyond his reaching arms. this—" He clamped around her thighs be­ I bellowed. "Don't let go of her. fore the line jerked him short. Watch that open window." A sound came from the mob, an She cringed away from him, and engulfing, gasping sob. I got between them before he could Terry and Ellie gyrated wildly; say things to her I didn't want The cleric and others reached out others to overhear.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Jeanne, the redhead, moved in. grasp?" I suggested. The D.C.I, Her hand went whack-whack-whack just looked at me. I went on care­ across Ellie's face. fully. "Unless there's good valid "Thanks," I said to her again. reason, sir, I prefer not to ask. It I pushed her toward Terry. "Don't- inight spoil a good man by letting let him talk to anyone," I muttered. him think I don't trust him." She gave me a knowing look. I The D.C.I, glanced toward EUie backed EUie against the wall. There and the ambulance guys. "I've al­ were a lot of things I wanted to say ways relied on your judgment about and could have said, but I had to be men." His glance shifted to the door careful. where a couple of uniforms were "I'm not going to back him holding back the press. "You and against a wall," I said. your squad get cleaned up here, "You should," she quavered. "He Captain. I'll take care of talking to tried to—" the press." "You just remember that," I cut "Thank you for relieving us of in. "And don't ever try to prove it." that, sir." She shuddered. I let the ambu­ He smiled. "Don't mention it." lance guys take over. I found Terry and Jeanne in J.B.'s Then I saw my boss, the deputy inner sanctum. The door had one chief inspector. He gravely nodded of those noiseless catches, so I had to me to one side. "Was that the young cough twice before they saw me. lady who phoned me?" "I hope you do a better job of • "I don't believe she'll do that hangir,; onto her," I said. "Because again, sir." if you ever let her sUp away, there I was looking at eyes like one-way won't be a net ready to catch her. glass again. Just me." "Have you asked McLane if he Terry winked. Jeanne kissed me. knew whether or not the wall net For a moment I missed my Mame was ready when he—" real bad. But otherwise I felt very "When she slipped from his good.

JUMP JOB 87 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Love, it seems, generates a magnanimity seldom paralleled by { other motivating forces. , - , L

MED SPANGLER, that anonjmious wisp of thievery " known to the police only as "The Monkey Bur­ glar," gripped the rope with strong gloved hands as he lowered himself down the brick wall of the apart­ ment building to the Vonderhursts' bedroom window. Eight stories

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED below him the Ninth Avenue traf­ gray eyes on him, she closed the fic continued to stream by, a myriad half-opened door with her foot. of moving Hghts, faint sounds muted Dressed in a white evening gown by the night air. The office building that flattered' a perfect figure, her across the street was dark, no danger blonde hair was pulled back tight of being seen. Cautiously, he moved from a well-sculpted face that was his head to look into the Vonder- unmarred by makeup. And now hurst apartment. there was a strange gleam in her The light was on in the bedroom, eyes, a gleam which Spangler didn't showing it to be unoccupied, but understand. what Spangler was after lay care­ He stood frozen, awaiting the fully arranged on the oversized bed. He carefully tried the win­ dow and it raised with very little noise. From beyond the closed bed­ room door came laughter, a woman's squeal and the clink of glasses, the sounds of a party. Spangler smiled. The. society page was a burglar's best friend. He swung lightly into the room and looked at the guests' expensive furs spread out on the bed. Swiftly he took from inside his shirt a large burlap sack and stepped toward them. He was hurriedly stuffing the first coat, an expensive sable, into the sack when the door opened. Still bent over the luxurious array of fur, he stared at the girl, then quickly turned to leap for the window. He didn't though, be­ cause the girl was now holding a small, deadly-looking automatic which she had produced from the evening bag she was carrying. Keeping beautiful, unblinking

THIEVES HONOR LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED girl's next move. She had him cold. The girl continued, "Even if I "I believe 'red-handed' is the were to let you leave this room I'd term," she said coolly. The gun still have you in an uncompromising didn't waver. position, a position in which you Spangler relaxed slightly. She could hardly afford not to deal." wasn't going to shoot or scream, She leaned back against the closed at least not right away. "It's the doors and looked at him apprais- term," he said, measuring the dis­ ingly. tance to the window, knowing he Spangler searched her face, found couldn't make it even if she were nothing. "Out with it," he said. a lousy shot. "Yorktown 5-0305, my phone "What's your name?" the girl number," the girl said calmly. asked, and the question was so She repeated it. "You'll call it unlikely it took Spangler by sur­ within three days, or ..." prise for a moment. "You cry wolf," Spangler in­ "The police will fill you, in later," terrupted. he answered after a pause. She nodded, and he had to admire "Maybe that doesn't have to her poise. Keeping the gleaming happen. Maybe we can make a automatic aimed at him, she crossed deal." to the bed and picked up a mink Did he see the corners of her stole. "I always leave a party early," mouth lift slightly in a hidden she said. Gracefully backing to the smile? "I'm hardly in a position door still watching him, she slipped to make a deal." the gun back into her purse. "I "That's exactly why I suggested estimate that no other guest will it," the girl said. There was amuse­ enter this room for at least ten ment in her gray eyes. "A man minutes." Again, her lips hinted a like you, with your novel way of smile. "What you do with that making a living, with that scar time is your business." Then she on your face, could easily be identi­ was gone. fied and traced by the police." Spangler stood motionless for a Spangler fingered the long scar moment, still in a kind of relieved running down his. left cheek, a scar shock. Then he went to work. He he'd gotten from his partner of selected only the finest furs, pack­ ten years ago in a circus brawl. ing them hastily but expertly into The lady was right. It wouldn't his sack so they'd take up the be hard for the police to trace an least possible space. He even checked ex-tumbler who was so marked. the closet, where he found the best

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED of the lot, Mrs. Vonderhurst's long, Spangler would get ten . percent dark mink with her monogram in of the insurance money plus ten the lining. percent of the price he could get Tying the drawstrings of the now for the jewels. Her husband, she bulging sack, Spangler stepped to said, was a miser who clung selfishly the window and took a last look to every dollar, and she was on an around. Then he tied the sack to allowance that was hardly suitable his belt, reached for the waiting to her tastes. The robbery and in­ rope and cUmbed out of the win­ surance setdement, she assured dow. Despite his encounter with Spangler, could be handled without the girl, he felt the familiar thrill her husband's knowledge, since he and satisfaction. He had only to would be in Europe for the next climb two stories to the roof, then month tracking down a rare first use the rope to lower himself down edition. the back of the building to the There was something about the fire escape that led into the alley deal that didn't smell right. where his car was parked. In forty- Spangler, by nature a methodical five minutes he'd be home sipping and sohtary operator, would rather his customary after-the-job drink, have skipped it. A partner was a good five thousand dollars richer. something, he didn't need or want, least of all an imponderable woman On the third day he called her. Uke Veronica Adding. But, danunit, He had to tell her his name and, she had him trapped. surprisingly, she told him hers— He felt much better about the Veronica Adding. When Spangler deal when Veronica told him the heard the name he realized why she jewelry was insured for ninety would be at a cocktail.party given thousand dollars. That meant nine by a wealthy art patron like Mis. thousand guaranteed, and his other Vonderhurst. Veronica's husband, ten percent would add up to a Herbert Adding, was a well-known worthwhile sum, even after the collector of rare books, and -the cut he'd have to take on the value Ackling name appeared quite often of the jewels when he sold them. on the society page. Spangler had stolen jewelry before, Veronica wasn't coy.- She told while traveling with the circus, so- Spangler what his part of the deal he knew ninety thousand dollars would be. She simply wanted him worth of jewelry sometimes to rob her of her jewelry, without amounted to less than thirty thou­ her husband's knowledge, and sand when it reached the greedy

THIEVES' HONOR • 91 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED but hesitant hands of a wary fence. to the sturdy base of a lightning Veronica told him the incredibly rod, then let the other end, weighted simple plan for the robbery, and so it would not be aflfected by the he left the phone booth from which wind, down the side of the building. he was calling and walked pre­ The window to Herbert Ackling's occupied out the door, already den was locked, as Spangler and turning over the details of the Veronica had agreed it would be theft in his mind. and 'Spangler quickly solved that At two a.m. Spangler chmbed with the aid of an efficient glass noiselessly on rubber-soled shoes cutter. Wearing gloves, he turned up the five flights of stairs to the the lock, slowly raised the window, top floor of the Freemont Apart­ and entered Herbert Ackling's den. ment Building. The Freemont was not quite so exclusive as the Barton Arms next door, where the Acklings lived, so there was no doorman. He walked quickly down the long^ corridor and found the service passage to the roof, just where Veronica said it would be. He picked the crude mechanism of the cheap padlock that barred his way and in a few seconds opened the rooftop door to the sudden, cold blast of winter. The gangway between the Barton There was no one home, of course. Arms and the Freemont Apartments Ackling was in Europe, and Veronica was ten feet wide, but Spangler was out establishing a firm alibi for leaped easily onto the roof of the herself to dispel any suspicions the Barton Arms. Wasting no time, he insurance company might have. By paced off the proper distance along the thin yellow beam of his flash­ the edge of the roof to be sure he light Spangler rummaged through was over the window of the Acklings' the den to make the robbery look third floor apartment, then moved genuine, even pocketing an expen­ about four feet to the side to be sive lighter from the desk top for certain the rope wouldn't be visible effect. Then "he made his way into from the windows on the upper the bedroom and pulled open all floors. He tied one end of his rope the dresser drawers. In the top

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED drawer, behind an unruly tangle of position in no way awed Spangler. scarves and nylon hose, he found Though Spangler loved with a the jewelry box. certain reserve, he was completely Spangler set the box on the floor fascinated by this woman whose and easily sprung the flimsy lock. aristocratic coolness could turn like In the beam of the flashlight the the flip of a card to deep passion. jewelry sparkled dazzlingly. He Spangler, already dressed, turned could well believe there was ninety off the bedside lamp and the half- thousand dollars worth here. Ad­ light of dawn filtered through the miring each sparkling piece, he slanted blinds.- He propped a pillow hurriedly filled the special pocket behind his head and smiled at the he had sewn into the lining of his fragrance of her expensive perfume. jacket. "I have an idea," Veronica said, As he stood by the den window, and rested her head against his feeling the comfortable weight of shoulder. "I want you to rob me the jewelry against his side, Spangler again." flashed the beam of his light around "•Did I hear you right?" with satisfaction. As far as the police "It's not really a bad idea, and the insurance company were darling." Her eyes caught the sun­ concerned, this would be just one light in the room. "You've robbed more bit of work by "The Monkey the same place twice on occasion. Burglar." Then, silently, he left. It's part of your 'modus operandi'." "I'm not worried about getting "Do turn out the light, darling." away with it," Spangler said, "and Veronica lay on Spangler's bed I suppose the insurance company with the covers pulled up around would come through again; there'd' her chin. Her eyes were closed to be no doubt it was the work of the the light and, though there was a sarrie man. But why be greedy?" delicate frown line between her Veronica said calmly, "Herbert's eyebrows, she was smiling faintly. going to France again next week, It was early morning, and Spang­ and if there's one more robbery, if ler sat on the edge of the bed I can have just that much more contemplating his good fortune. He money, I'll leave him. They're my loved Veronica, he knew. When jewels. Let him just try to get the she had delivered the money, they'd insurance money back—if he can had a few drinks, talked, and dis­ find me." covered they were very attracted "And you'U be?" to each other. Veronica's social "With you." I. THIEVES' HONOR 93

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Spangler was - silent for a few A week later Spangler was at work minutes. That part of him that again. He'd cHmbed the stairway looked at things oBjectively knew of.the Freemont and onto the roof. he didn't really have any rnore He'd leaped the gangway again and choice this time than he'd had repeated his pacing off of distance before. There was no way he could and securing and lowering bf the involve Veronica if she chose to rope. Now he hung against the cold, turn him in, no way he could prove unyielding wall, buffeted by a brisk their alliance. He wondered if there winter wind that made his ears were some detached and aloof part ache. He'd be glad to get inside. of Veronica's mind that thought He' inched his way toward the the same thing. window with his free- hand and "How much are your new jewels foot, surprised to see that this time insured for.?" Spangler asked. a light burned in Herbert Ackling's "Eighty thousand. I used my den. Had Veronica forgotten to share of the insurance money to turn it off.? Spangler cautiously replace the stolen ones. Herbert's looked into the room. unaware of the whole thing, of There was Herbert Ackling, his course. He never noticed what kind head resting on his desk top like of jewelry I wore, or if I wore any, that of a schoolboy taking an after­ for that matter." noon nap—only a brilliant scarlet Spangler^ reached over to the pool of blood covered the top of nightstand and rooted throiigh the desk and the open book he'd Veronica's purse for a pack of been reading. On the thick carpet, cigarettes. "I don't know," he said. just inside the window that Spangler "This time you can have half of now saw was flung wide open, lay whatever you get for the jewels." the glinting automatic that Veronica Another payday like the last always carried in her purse, the appealed to Spangler. He wouldn't gun that Spangler had handled a have to take a risk for a long time dozen times. Then he knew. • with that kind of money, and the Suddenly Veronica stood in the thought of going away with Veronica doorway, screaming loud and long. appealed to him almost as much. There was no expression of shock "Agreed," he said, and gently on her face as she looked at Spangler pulled her to him. and the body; she would save that Veronica smiled. "We'll spend it for an appreciative audience. She together," she said before she kissed turned and ran. him. - With lightning speed Spangler

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED pulled himself hand-over-hand up stories above, a few seconds ago. the rope. Why hadn't he thought of He stood still for a split second, it? Now Veronica, the Veronica he gasping, then ran again. From a loved, would have Ackling's in­ window high in one of the buildings surance money. She also had some­ a woman's voice screamed, "Mur­ thing more important: a made-to- derer!" and a flashing red light order murderer for the police. suddenly appeared at the end of the Spangler reached the roof and gangway toward which Spangler ran over the tar and gravel surfece was running. He spun on his heel, toward the opposite edge. As he but this time as he heard the shots he leaped the gangway with a yard to experienced a searing pain. spare, he heard the wavering wail Still conscious, Spangler lay on of a siren. Then he was in the Free- his back looking up at the narrow mont building, descending the stairs band of bright winter stars between in long, desperate leaps. The wail the two buildings. The cement was of sirens grew steadily louder. It hard and cold against his back, but would be close, close. He didn't his hands rested in something warm care if he made noise now. and sticky. He knew he was losing As his feet hit the bottom floor, blood hst. Spangler raced down the long cor­ He heard a deep, authoritative ridor toward the rear door. There voice say, "Out, out. Keep everyone was a sudden whooshing of air and a out of the gangway until the am­ burst of sound as the front door bulance arrives." opened. Spangler faintly heard a Spangler didn't care about the voice call "Halt!" He didn't hear ambulance. He was thinking of a shot, but something ricocheted Veronica, and strangely he felt no off the tile wall next to him, sending anger toward her. It was the game. ceramic chips flying. He didn't She'd outwitted him, and for that hesitate, but hit the back door hard. he could only admire her. Damned It opened, and he was in the gang­ if he didn't hope she'd enjoy the way that he'd just leaped, five insurance money.

THIEVES' HONC« 95 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED If one recalls having been regarded, In return, at the zoo, he may ( conclude that the most fascinating creatures of all are the tran- )/ stents.

DAY OF

THE THIRD shot fired by Officer devil in his heart and wings on his Shelby struck Dandy Fornos in the heels. He did not drop the briefcase' calf of his left leg. It was a slight which, was all that was left of the wound, cutting through the edge shambles behind him: the car with of the flesh, slashing twice through its engine block smashed by a .357 the cheap wool of his charcoal Magnum slug; Ronnie and Joe, slacks, but it put the fear of the dead; the cop crumpled behind

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the wheel of the black and white gardens, she had to wait while the sedan, and the other on his stomach man ahead of her received his in the road, shooting, shooting. change. Away to the right was a line of He was a slim individual, neither thick shrubs along a high steel mesh much older nor much taller than fence. Dandy turned and fled toward she. His thin, blond hair was sparse them. at the temples, and his gray flannel, Shirley Duff braked her car hard although it had been a good suit and fast and pressed the horn. once, was shabby now, not so much What was the crazy fool doing, rush­ with wear but as though he no longer ing blindly across this side street, cared about his personal appearance sport coat flying, clutching that silly —like his shoes, good leather, well briefcase with both hands? shaped, but desperately needing a North from the way she was driv­ polish. ing, more sirens than before were Tom would never become like that, .wailing. She was glad she had come she thought. Vaguely, Shirley felt into the park over the bridge from a little sorry for the unhappy young the south. She was in no mood to man. But this was no day for that! be stopped by a fire or an accident, This was a day for casting away all however grim it might be. regrets, all fears . . . She parked the small sport coupe Not so for Allen Trask. He hurried competently a little way from the away from the pretty girl behind entrance of the zoo. What a foolish him at the turnstile, for there had place to meet, but it was safe. Tom been something in the tilt of her was clever about such things, almost chin, the directness of her brown too clever. eyes, that had reminded him of Her long legs were elegant as they Anne—not much, but enough. Now reached from the edge of the seat to Anne was dead, and he had killed the pavement. Her blue silk suit her as surely as though he had held was freshly pressed, and her soft a knife, taken a gun . . . brown hair shone in the sunlight. He did not pause at the reptile She was quite young, pretty, and house which came first along the in love. It showed in the way she road to the exhibits. Snakes were walked and in the proud way she dreadful things, death in a coil, carried her shoulders as she hastened death in a shady corner, and he had toward a destiny where all birds had enough of death. sang. Then, coming to the zoo, there • At the turnstile to the zoological had been the siren, and now there DAY OF THE TIGER 97 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED were more, running closer, and it zoo and hurry out of sight down the was all beginning again—the dread road toward the reptile house. It cry that had been there in the was a warm day, but not so warm night, the first sound he had heard that beads of perspiration should after smashing through the guard­ stand out on the boy's forehead, rail; seeing the lights askew where and why did he hurry so much with the car had crashed, hearing the such a difficult limp? Krueger's scream, the terrible cry of the sirens eyes crinkled thoughtfully. He coming, focusing on the distorted would not admit to his premonitions, ring of faces about him, finding yet the very business he was in awful words to ask and no one to depended upon them. Take those tell him of Anne, of Anne who had two cocky sailors last week—some­ been on the seat beside him . . . thing about the way they had At a cage of macaws, he paused.. laughed. They had bothered him With their wise," sober eyes, they so much he had followed them later, regarded him from clown faces. and found them heating pennies Each bird was clothed in bright with a.cigarette lighter to toss into feathers, blue and yellow, red and a cageful of inquisitive'^monkeys. green; glorious birds. One, with The phone rang on his desk. He a bright yellow breast and long lifted it and listened, "Shcba's be­ banners of. blue for wings, hooked gun," Pete told him. His tone was its way down the tall side of steel excited. "Doc Chapman thought mesh until it hung opposite him. you would want to come." "Pretty Polly," it rasped at Allen "You bet," Krueger said to the Trask. cat keeper. "Take care of things "Pretty Polly," Allen said till I get there." bleakly. At the door to his office, Krueger The girl went by, her tall heels paused to speak to the girl at the clicking. The gaudy parrots switchboard. "I'm going to be busy, watched the girl. Marge. The tiger's cubs are coming." "Pretty Polly," Allen repeated. "Yes, Mr. Krueger." The blue and yellow macaw He went out the door and climbed grumbled. into his car. Last year, they had lost Sheba's litter. This time . . . Through the glass door marked He started the car' and swung it "Director," John Krueger saw the around onto the road. There was a boy with the briefcase fumble for spot of color, and another; and the price of admission, enter the another, shining dark in the sun-

98 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED light against the pavement top.. conscious of a spot or two of blood, Krueger slowed and stared at the of the trouble it could mean inside road.* Blood! Not much; but cer­ a cage, that you never see it without tainly blood. The young man with translating those blots into a dan­ the hmp? He recalled hearing gerous possibility. sirens. The limping young man was not He thought of phoning the poHce, in sight as he drove down the road but rejected the idea. He. wanted no into the canyon. troop of policemen tramping about the park, not until Sheba's cubbing The small, open amphitheater was over. The slightest unnatural where the trained seals performed movement, sudden sound, unknown each afternoon was empty. Slowly, voice could wreck everything. painfully. Dandy Fornos made his If the boy were a fugitive, he way among the tiers of seats until would remain quiet, unobtrusive. he was out of sight from the rim of Krueger frowned and drove on. the bowl. There he sat upon a step, Perhaps he was letting his mind run stretching his left leg stiffly before away, but in a zoo you become so him. The pain blossomed up from

DAY OF THE TIGER 99 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the calf and shook his whole body. eleven." Tom had said ten. So often Every nerve was still taut with the she had had to wait for Tom in these near thing, the real. Not yet hidden places, but not after today." twenty, slight of build and dark, he This was to be the end of that sort of would have been handsome except thing. Tom had promised. for his eyes which were like those Down the line, the shabby young of the lean gray wolf in the canyon man who had preceded her into the below. zoo was leaning against the rail and He set the briefcase down beside smiling. Something in that particu­ him. What a lousy price for Ronny lar monkey cage was amusing him. and Joe, for the wrecked car and the She was glad he was happy even for dead cop; for the hurt pulsing a moment. He had looked so beaten, through him only a slow pace behind so nondescript. Now that he was the beat of his heart. smiling, he was almost attractive. Dandy found his handkerchief Of course, he could not be hand­ and carefully pulled up his left some, not with his scalp shining trouser leg. He thought about the through his thinning hair. Tom. car which had nearly run him down, had a wonderful head of hair, dark, of it being parked before the zoo. just beginning to fleck with gray, If she were here! perfectly groomed. Tom was distin­ A sudden, hard thump hit the guished. Women looked at Tom rail at the top of the amphitheater Connors and envied her. Men liked behind his back. Dandy . swung him. Tom should have been in the around, his hand sliding under his diplomatic corps, but he had been coat. waiting for her—in spite of the The. big blue peacock settled on mistake of his marriage. Shirley the rail, arched its neck, tilted its sighed and it was almost like the head from one side to the other and pleasure of his touch. examined him with beady eyes be­ The man in the shabby flannels fore it stretched a striped wing to laughed aloud. It was so unexpected peck unconcernedly at a loose that Shirley strolled down the line feather. of cages to see what had caused his Dandy Fornos. swore. He would good humor. The sign on the cage have to get out of this damned front read: fishbowl. DIANA MONKEY {Cercopithecus diana roloway) Shirley Duffy glanced at het West Africa watch. It was almost a quarter till Behind the steel mesh, a dark. 100 - . ALFRED-HITCHCOCK S MYSTERV MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED triangular-faced monkey with a watched and listened. Krueger had black Vandyke and a snowy chest parked his car and walked down to was meticulously examining a join the two men. scrawny baby. The little old man Gently, almost secure in her time looked so much like a proud grand­ of pain, the tigress began to work father inspecting his first grandson at the tenuous sheath surrounding that Shirley smiled, too. A female the first of her newborn. monkey beside the pair chattered "Sheba," Pete called softly, nervously while three others "Sheba, Sheba-girl." It was as watched in attitudes of bright ex­ though there were a communion pectancy. between the keeper and the cat. "Mama's Worrying about Gramp," Dr. Chapman' raised a warning Shirley said. finger. Then he saw that the cat When she spoke, the man turned. had heard and was not afraid. There "Yes," he said, "isn't she?" Most of was nothing about this in all the the good humor fled his face. books he had ever read on veter­ "I'm sorry,'-' Shirley said tartly, inary medicine—except where house "I didn't mean to intrude." pets were concerned, of course—but "Please, you didn't. Believe this was a tiger, savage, neurotic me ..." and unpredictable. "Ah, there you are." "Sheba," the stocky keeper They both turned and Shirley, chanted, "Sheba, Sheba," and the exclaimed, "Tom!" She ran-to the miracle in the cave went on. handsome, middle-aged man, her hands extended. It went on without Sultan, for Allen Trask returned to the cage the big male Amurian tiger was in full of Diana monkeys. There were a strange place. Yesterday morning, no complicatons in monkeys, only after a full day of fasting, he had a fuU-of-lifeness, only an enter­ been trapped in a carrying cage tainment. pushed against the rear door of the grotto where he had spent five years Down, in the canyon, Sheba was with Sheba, and moved to a circus moaning; it was low and full-bodied wagon which stood in the OFF and almost human. Crouched in a LIMITS area on the side of the "hill corner behind the tall rear wall of above. the cat grotto, almost out of sight, For more than a day and a night Krueger, Pete the keeper, an'd now, he had carried his ears flat Doctor Chapman the veterinarian, against the golden orange velvet of

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED his mammoth skull, histail twitching mering. arch of green and blue. at the slightest sound, and the snarl His bulky body quivered, and the in his throat was a constant anger. stiff quills of his feathers rattled. All the lameness of his captivity The drab peahen paid him no was gone, all the security, as he attention. paced the narrow cage, feeHng Sultan did. Flat on his belly, his strength in the steel;spring quiet eyes shaded to black and light slits, of his footsteps and the coil of the tiger felt his muscles grow with muscles beneath the black and gold tension. The tip of his tail beat like of his shoulders. a metronome. It was an old cage on wheels, a . The peacock continued to strut cage that had rattled and rumbled and shake and bow with quick, across the country a hundred times vibrant,-excited movements. and more. With plumed horses Suddenly, the alchemy of his before it, it had paraded the streets rage and his instincts becoming from Portland, Oregon, to Port­ one overwhelming wave. Sultan land, Maine, from 'Frisco to St. charged. He was three feet off the Augustine. A great hulk of teak floor when he hit the heavy bars • and iron and oak, of peeling gilt and of the cage door. The tremendous shining memories, Krueger had impact knocked him flat. bought it for the zoo when a shoe­ The birds fled. string circus had folded in , town. Through the somber furnace of No one had thought it would not his eyes, Sultan saw the door at the hold a tiger. end of the cage swing open, smashed "Strongest cage I ever seen," Pete from the rusted hinge bolts of had said. Nor had anyone doubted almost a century, to dangle by the or even taken the time to look new lock and hasp. As softly as a closely at all the bolts and nuts and domestic cat going down an alley hinges. in the night, the great Amurian A peahen came out of the bush tiger slipped from the cage and before the cage and paused to peek vanished beneath a bloom of white at a tuft of weed. Behind her, swift oleanders. and driving, came-a male. When he Nor was Sultan the only one who - discovered they were in the open* had gone into hiding. the peacock halted his plunging run, fanned his tail rigid and forced Under the luxuriant leaf-fall of upward the spectacular three- a weeping willow, Dandy Fornos quarter circle of his train, a shim- lay with his head on his briefcase 102 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY HAGAZINB

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED to wait out the interminable hours a scene, without ^unnecessary noise of daylight. In the seclusion of his and confusion. You know how I green bower, Dandy had opened the hate scenes!" briefcase and counted its contents. She pulled herself together, her Twenty grand and some odd green. hair still shining in 'the sunlight What a hell of a poor haul that would that filtered through the tall gray have been to split three ways. trees, her eyes suspiciously puffy as Tonight he would cross the wires on though she had been crying. some car, some little, unnoticeable "After all," Tom said evenly, car, before one of the big apartments "there is my wife, Helen, to be off Twelfth Avenue and" head south considered." —not directly to Tijauna, but on a "Helen," Shirley repeated after road that angled east from Chula him. "Helen!" Vista, farther east than the tall, For three years it had been Helen. barbed border fence extended. There From that very first not-quite-inno­ was a girl in the Midnight Cabaret cent luncheon there always had been who would put him up, take care of Helen, Shirley thought. Once, she him. His left leg throbbed steadily. had beUeved, If not me, then some On the bench beyond the last other, some other who might hurt long droop of willow boughs were him. From her safe, sacrosanct a man and a girl—the girl "who had cubbyhole beside the vice presi­ been behind the wheel of the coupe dent's office, she, had looked down that had almost driven him down. the line of desks'to Accounting, He did not worry anymore about and Tom, so sweet, so vulnerable her. This chick had troubles of her i . . He did have such hell at home own. Foolish troubles, silly troubles, •—so many times he had told her. but they helped pass the time. "Helen," Shirley repeated aloud, Dandy cocked his head and listened. breaking the spell of her lost en­ "But I feel like such a fool!" chantment. Shirley said. Her voice was cold, "After all," he said uneasily, and hurt, and trembling a little. "she is my wife." "No more than a cheap affair. I'm "I know. I know. I know. I no more than a trampi A tramp!" know." She began to cry. "Shirley, Shirley." The dapper This was the nuts, Dandy Fornos man with flecks of gray in his hair thought, better than TV,abetter than held to her hand and stroked it the movies. What a racket this joe gently. "Surely you understand it had had. He almost forgot the throb is better to do these things without in his leg, the ache that was reaching

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED up through his thigh like a knife. He had taken the card Dr. Bruce had scribbled and gone up a flight Allen Trask had not meant to of stairs in the Professional Building, see her again. The zoo was a big turned right, gone down the long place. He had let the girl go to her corridor and stood before the door. tryst. Now, coming down the can­ Like the signs here in the zoo: yon road from the opposite direc­ Dr. Anthony B. Qjnnors tion, he was running into her again, PhD., MD. her with tears on her face, her and Psychiatrist that sleek bum. Resolutely, he He had not gone through the door. turned his back and stared into the He wasn't insane. It was only that lion pit: he must pay for the accident. One LION way or another you paid for every Panthera leo thing you did in 'this life. And he Africa was paying. God knew he was pay­ The big lion lolled in the mid- ing—God, and Anne! morning'sun. His shaggy mane was thick and dark and ragged at the Shirley whispered, "You're cheat-^ edges as though it needed a good ing us, Tom. You're cheating all of brushing. He did not look fierce. us. You, Helen, me . . ." In fact, Allen Trask smiled, he "Shirley!" The man was rubbing looked more like the Cowardly Lion his hands together. of Oz. In spite of the girl, the zoo. For cripe's sahe. Dandy Fornos had been good to Allen. It had thought. The pain in his leg made taken him back before Anne, before his muscles jerk. Uncomfortably, that awful night; it had taken him he rearranged himself, turned his back to himself. head from the couple on the bench Only now the girl was here once and gazed into the terrifying black, more, and though he had smiled at orange and white mask of a living the lion, he could feel the tears tiger. shining on her cheeks. What good were tears? You should not brood Allen Trask walked on to the sign so much, Allen, Dr. Bruce had said. that read: AMURIAN TIGERS. It isn^t natural. Then, a month or No cats were in sight, and he did two ago; Do you mind if I suggest not notice the group across the another doctor? way. Thejion yawned. Allen watched, On the other side of the empty unseeing. grotto, Krueger whispered excit- DAY OF THE TIGER 105

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED edly, "That's her fourth, that should •. "For the love of heaven, be be the lot of them!" still," he whispered hoarsely. The veterinarian nodded, grin­ She could feel the fear consuming ning. Impulsively, the keeper his slender body, and beyond the squeezed the elbow of his boss. fear, the courage that held him Krueger smiled. Inside the cave, there, the two of them one and Sheba began to work on the thin together on the other side of a flimsy envelope surrounding the furry, wooden bench from the creeping squirming weight of her fourth- tiger. born. Sultan sprang, following the run­ Sultan knew that he had come ners, pursuing the moving enemy home. With that driving, constant who had come between him and his instinct which is the birthright of own. every cat,. Sukan had found his Dandy Fornos, rocking unevenly way back to the grotto. And now, on his bad leg, turned his head and under the leafy bower that led saw the tiger coming, one seven- toward his mate, lay this human league leap and then another. He being exuding the scent of fear. knew where the next would be. Sultan bared his fangs and snarled. Instantly, Dandy swung and stood Dandy Fornps scrambled back­ steady, the big automatic bucking wards, his hand sliding under his as he squeezed the trigger. The coat, the briefcase left behind. last shot was almost in the tiger's ' "Tiger!" he screamed. "Tiger!" throat. They died together, each He came around the bench run­ with the same wild, desperate valor. ning, paying no attention to the Then Allen Travers came to his ramming pain of every pounding feet and went down the road to see .stride. Tom Connors saw the tiger, if there were anything he could do. and ran ahead of the boy, leaving Tom Connors stood beyond all of Shirley. She stood before the bench, them, wiping his brow, while Shirley seeing the soft velvet of black and pulled herself unsteadily onto the gold through a tracery of shadows, bench and watched. seeing the great yellow eyes with At the first shot, Sheba had risen their bright shining centers as the from her litter. At the second, she big cat crept forward. She was un­ had gone snarling into the open air able to move, unable to take a step. of the grotto beyond her' cave. , Then a man's body crashed into Before the third explosion, the last, hers, knocking her down, covering Dr. Chapman had pulled the her. She tried to struggle. lever that let the steel grate slide

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED down to separate Sheba from her wouldn't have made much dif­ cubs. ference." It was all over finally. What was Still, she thought, it was for me left of the boy and the tiger were he did it. "Will you take me home?" removed from the canyon, the she asked. briefcase was found, the questions "I don't have a car." asked, Shirley's elegant Tom dis­ "I do." appearing before the interrogation. • "I haven't driven for a long Dr. Chapman and Pete'removed the time," Allen said. cubs, carrying them all in a wicker "I can drive." basket, incubator babies now. . "No," he said, "you shouldn't." Left alone, Shirley Duffy and They turned and retraced their Allen Trask walked up a path shady steps toward the entrance to the with trees, each a stranger not so zoo. As they strolled, Allen began much to each other as to themselves. to talk, starting slowly at first, and "Why did you do it?" she asked. then letting the words spill like He shrugged. "It was the only waters loosed from a dam. way." Shirley took his hand finally and "But you ran toward the tiger." held it in her own. There was fear Her brown eyes regarded him there, all his nerves screaming from soberly. the fingertips, but beyond that was "You were there. If I could the courage—and the pent-up long­ knock you down, if.the cat jumped ing of a man who had been in the the bench ..." He let it go. prison of his own soul. Shirley still "The others were running," she held his hand as they went out the said. gate. "I thought of that," he admitted, Krueger saw them go from the "but so was I, and if the cat had to glass pane in his office door. Well, take somebody . . ." , now, he thought. Well, now, and She reached then and touched his what do you ma\e of that? But he hand. "You were willing.?" had no time to make anything of "It would not have made much it. Zoos are too busy for that sort of difference. For a long time, it thing.

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IflosT Accidents Happen in the Home. The advertisement Jeffrey was reading in the magazine was a pitch for a new safe-grip-rubbei hathmat. His mind wandered •. . . It was really startHng the number of accidents—fatal ones too—that

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED happened every year in America's nothing wrong with his grand­ homes. And, as the ad implied, the mother's heart. Hmm. So that would number of fatalities that occurred necessitate holding the skinny old in bathtubs was staggering. Jeffrey stick under water. was well read on such matters be­ A shudder of revulsion ran cause he enjoyed vital statistics. through him. He. had absolutely no Pity that his grandmother never inclination for physical contact of took a stand-up shower. The best any sort with another human. Being she would do was a once-a-week as he was totally asexual, he had warm tub. never even had an atavistic yearning His porcine eyes narrowed and he for a female. pursed his pouty- mouth as he Jeffrey liked money. But Jeffrey covertly contemplated his eighty- didn't have any. Jeffrey's grand­ one year old grandmother sitting mother had it all. stiff and straight in her Louis XIV He steepled his pudgy fingers and chair across the room. There she sat, placed them under his double chin, as prini-as an old stick in lace-edged raptly staring at the old lady. Yes, russet brawn, a gown that had gone there she sat with her silly little out of style at the end of World French poetry book which he knew War I. she didn't know how to read, stub­ Twenty years he had lived with bornly waiting for him to turn on her, had answered her beck and the TV set so she could continue call, waited on her hand and foot, to sit there for another five minutes satisfied her every crotchety whim. and convey to him by her devastat­ Silly old witch. But rich—so very ing stony silence her complete rich. disapproval of such bourgeoisie pleas­ Of course statistics revealed that ures. many people drowned in bathtubs; She had only relented and bought many old people. Their dicky hearts him the set after he had pleaded gave out and they simply slumped with her—actually cried on a few in the. water in a comatose state. occasions—for two full years. She But as far as Jeffrey knew there was had never let him forget it since. Jeffrey looked at the mantel clock. It was time for his 8:30 news. He got up from his chair like a thief, feeling his grandmother's censorious agate eyes on him. She cleared her throat—a sound like the movement

NO PLACE LIKE HOME 109 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED of heavy wooden boxes, on a cement night," she announced, and gave floor—and Jeffrey winced. They her fet grandchild a long, defiant followed this grim pattern every glare. night. It never failed. She invariably He clicked on the TV and slunk interrupted what he was trying to back to his chair, avoiding his hear with her clacky voice, but grandmother's iron-eyed stare. She at least she would leave him in sighed heavily, martyrishly. peace now. He worked up his Jeffrey wanted to scream. She fixed, practiced smile. often made him want to scream "Going to bed now. Grandma?" his outrage and frustration, but he She sniffed. "Well, I hope, Jeffrey, never did. He had learned to live you don't expect me to listen to any with it. He had to; he didn't know more of that nonsense." how to earn a living on his own, Always the same words, the same nor did he want to. pronounced sentiment. He retained Jeffrey liked to listen to the news, his sick smile. "All right, Grandma. especially the detailed reports on Sleep tight." current violence. Murder, rape, any "At least I shan't go to sleep with form of mayhem gave him vicarious that sort of trash on my mind!" pleasure. The outside world, what Always had to have the last word. little secondhand knowledge he had "No, Grandma. Good night." of it, was evidently a very savage She hobbled out of the library, place. A pity his grandmother hadn't moving with her peculiar stop-and- stepped oiit of the house in over go bird walk. Jeffrey let out his ten years. . breath, slumping in his armchair.- "An unknown elderly woman," Such a relief I the briskly speaking newscaster said His interest strayed from the on the ghostly screen, "was today broadcasting screen and he looked found murdered in the basement of absently around at the dim, quiet her Westend rooming house. An room. The paneling was decorous axe was . . ." Jacobean and the wooden chairs and There, that was the sort of news table looked as though they had Jeffrey enjoyed. An elderly woman, come from the baronial hall of a a dingy basement, a bloody axe . . . medieval robber baron. The book­ His grandmother snorted through shelves were ribbed with morocco- her pinched nose, snapped her book bound editions of Dickens, Scott, shut and stood up. "Well, I've Reade and Eliot. certainly had enough of that for one Jeffrey left his chair and went to no ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

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the fluted pine mantel over the understand—and she was always Georgian fireplace to get his pipe. sound asleep by ten. So if he waited His grandmother would not allow until, say, eleven-thirty, she would him to smoke it while she was up be as deeply in the Land of Nod as and around. "A disgusting, filthy Morpheus. She would never know habit," was one of her favorite what had happened. No one would, reiterations. not actually. Only Jeffrey. I He loved this quiet, bookish room, He smiled as he paced, and looked loved this old house that had the at his pipe again. Obviously that slightly rundown atmosphere of wouldn't do. But there was no baroque tradition which appealed problem. He had an old pack of to his peculiar nature. He would cigarettes in his room, one that have loved it a great deal more if it he had bought before he decided were entirely his to enjoy in to smoke a pipe. moneyed solitude. If his grand­ Jeffrey grinned and looked at the mother were gone ... if she were clock. Time had somehow expended dead. itself as if it were in a hurry to "A conflagration today claimed reach a decisive moment. It was the life of an elderly man at one-oh- nearly time for his 1-1:30 news, but five West Poppy. George Towne, he decided to forego that pleasure age seventy, retired carpenter, evi­ for the night. Tonight he was going dently fell asleep while smoking^ in to create his own news—that is to bed . . ." say, his grandmother was. Jeffrey stared at his unlit pipe. Jeffrey passed through the vast An elderly person smoking in bed; empty foyer and went to the upper a typical home accident that oc­ floor, going tiptoe along the corri­ curred every day. His grandmother, dor. Mustn't disturb his grand- of course, would sooner slash her niother. wrists than put nicotine to her lips. In his room he put one of the But who knew that besides himself? cigarettes in his mouth and lighted Nobody. it, getting a hot glow going on the He snapped off the TV and began end. The dry old thing tasted like to pace the carpet, to think, to gnaw a newspaper that had been left out at the inspiration the way a dog in the sun for a month. He started , worries a tasty bone. Instead of to hac\ hac\ and slapped a hasty smoking, his grandmother read in hand to his mouth to stifle his bed each night—some dry archaic cough. thing in English which she could He waddled blimpishly down the NO PLACE LIKE HOME 111 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED corridor to his,grandmother's door,' into his pajamas and prepared him­ and hstened. Not a sound; quiet self to wait. It wouldn't be too bad, as a grave. His smile was tremulous. really, because he had been waiting He took another drag on the for years. cigarette to keep the tip good and hot, and turned the door handle. It was a beautiful fire; It made a His grandmother's bedstand lamp ruin of his grandmother's room was on.' It was only a 40 watt bulb before the fire department could and it shed a wan, sulfurous light. get it under control. Jeffrey had The penurious old lady was asleep given it a good headstart. He hadn't in her bed with her book open in phoned for help until the smoke up-- her lap. Good. He would leave stairs was so stifling he couldn't everything just as it was. Elderly stand it. , , ' woman; smoking and reading in bed; "I was asleep," he told the police­ fell asleep. Tragic, very tragic. man, wagging his plump hands with He edged up to the bed, took a nervous excitement. "I don't know last drag on the cigarette, then what woke me, ' but I smelled stooped over to select a fold in the smoke. When I tried to go to my coverlet near her right hand. His grandmother's room it was already hands were trembling badly. A inflames!" sticky sweat broke out over his fat "I had better give him some­ body and he thought he was going • thing," the intern from the ambu^ to be sick to his stomach. lance said in a rapid mutter to, the ; All at" once he had the feeling oiBcer. "He's coming apart at the that his grandmother was watching seams. You boys can question him him. No. He wouldn't let himself tomorrow, huh.? Come along, sir. think it. It was only his distraught It's all right now. I'll take care of imagination. If the irascible old- you.;' termagant had seen him, she would JeflFrey allowed the intern to turn have sat right up in bed and started him avi^ay. Then he stopped to call to yell at him. He knew her too over his shoulder to the officer., well. "She smoked in bed, .you know. He placed the smoking cigarette I' guess she fell asleep, poor old just so in the fold of the coverlet;. soul." •: Then, every fat ounce on his body aquiver, he made a hasty departure A Sergeant Bix and another plain-, from the silent room, returned to. clothesman called on Jeffrey late in his own room and undressed, got the afternoon. A squad of men had

112 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE 7- LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED been combing the charred rubble Jeffrey said. "How would that help.?" upstairs all day, but now they were "What I mean to say, Mr. Daven­ gone and Jeffrey was ready to enjoy port, is that as yet we haven't his 5:30 news in peace when the turned up any proof that she was detectives arrived. smoking in bed last night. There's Jeffrey was still in' a mild state of no evidence of matches or cigarettes nerves. He poured himself a glass of in your grandmother's room." his grandmother's Madeira; the two Jeffrey pursed his mouth. "Well, detectives said no, thank you, they but.such a conflagration as that were on duty. Sergeant Bix stood, would probably burn up any by the fluted pine mantel, alter­ matches or cigarettes, wouldn't it.?" nately thrusting out and drawing "Probably. But as I say, if we in his lower lip. The other man sat at least had the remains - of her down with a notebook and pen on cigarette, then our report could his lap. Jeffrey sat too, in his grand­ positively state^" . mother's Louis XIV chair. "Well, but I saw her," Jeffrey "I understand from what you said. told the officer last night, Mr. The sergeant looked at him Davenport, that your grandmother brightly. "You satv your grand­ smoked in bed," Sergeant Bix said. mother smoking in bed last night.?" "Yes," Jeffrey said eagerly. "I'm "Certainly. I looked in on her afraid she did, poor dear." just before I turned in niyself. She Sergeant Bix smiled wryly. "Hard was reading and smoking in ,bed. to picture, isn't it—a little old Poor thing, she must have dozed lady of eighty-one smoking ciga­ off right after that." Jeffrey's fat rettes.?" face looked crestfallen. "Well, of course she did it in "That's fine, sir," Sergeant Bix secrecy, Sergeant. I don't imagine said. "I mean to say, it clarifies the anyone except myself knew she matter as long as we have a witness. smoked. A very proper old lady, Gan you give us an idea of what my grandmother." time that might have been—when "Yes, I dare say." The sergeant you last saw her.?" frowned at the carpet. "However, "Certainly," Jeffrey said prompt­ it would help to substantiate the ly. "I went upstairs right after the exact nature of the accident if some­ 11:30 news.. I always watch the late one besides yourself knew that she: news on TV. So that would make had a habit of smoking in bed." it at exactly 11:45, or a minute or "I'm afraid I don't understand," two after." NO PLACE LIKE HOME 113 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Good. You looked in on your mother, Mr. Jeffrey Davenport." grandmother at, let's say 11:46, Jeffrey blinked at him. "I don't and she was reading and smoking in understand." bed?" "It was that smoking in bed . "Right." that smelled wrong to us, Mr. "You said goodnight to her, and Davenport. For one thing,'there's' then went to bed yourself?" no evidence of an ashtray in your "Right." grandmother's room. Seems odd, "And you woke up at two a.m., doesn't it? You can see why our smelled smoke, discovered the fire suspicions were naturally aroused." and turned in the alarm. Right?" Jeffrey rubbed at his moist face "Exactly." with a shaky hand. "Well, but I "Fine." Sergeant Bix rubbed his fail to see that it proves anything— hands together. "That should wind anything against me. So what if you it up nicely. Now if you'll just can't find an ashtray? Maybe it put your signature to the statement melted in the fire, or—" Detective Warren has taken down, "You're quite right, Mr.^Daven- Mr. Davenport." port. It doesn't prove a thing. The Jeffrey signed his name and Ser­ evidence we have against you is in geant Bix took the statement from your signed statement." •him. He scanned it rapidly,.rubbing Jeffrey said, "Huh?" . his lower lip back and forth on his "You just now stated that you upper, then he looked at Jeffrey and saw your grandmother reading and said, "I must warn you now, Mr, smoking in bed at 11:46 p.m." Davenport, that anything you say "Yes. So.?" may be used as evidence against "So the coroner's report disagrees you." with that statement by two hours Jeffrey stared at him. "Beg par­ and forty-six minutes, Mr. Daven­ don?" port. Your grandmother died at "I am charging you with the at­ nine p.m. Seems she had a dicky tempted murder of your grand­ heart."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED It's somehow quite fittin' that from "a pretty /(ettle of fish' emerge the ingredients for justice.

THERE'S a heap o' folk around Cripple's Bend as swears that.Syd Tyson was the meanest man as ever lived in Pisquaticook County. Mebbe so and mebbe not. All I got to say is that in the whole thirty-three years I been sheriif in these parts I never run across no one quite so stingy and spiteful as Syd. Warn't no good reason for it I could see. Syd's folks owned a right tidy farm about fifteen miles out along the Mill Road. It was good THE BLUE MAN 113 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED land for truck farmin' and the Ty­ let the place fall to rack and ruin sons done all right by themselves. than to put a penny into sprucin' I ain't a-claimin' that Syd's paw it up. Even the chickens run around warn't on the near side. He was loose, all peaked and scrawny like tightfisted and tight-lipped but he they hadn't had a square meal since never gave nobody no trouble. the day they was born. Syd was a different^ kettle o' fish Seems like Syd was even mean to altogether. Ever since he was knee himself. There warn't an ounce o' high' to a chipmunk, he was in hot fat on his carcass, his cheeks was all water. Let the other kids rag him scooped out, and like as not he'd a bit and he'd come after 'em with be wearin' clothes that warn't fit a baseball bat. In school he'd just to stuff a ragbag. Nobody had much sit dumb and glowerin', not speakin', truck with. Syd. His house was set a word most o' the time. The funny well back-froin the road and his part about it was that Syd could be land posted with no trespassin' signs. right pleasin' when he put his mind Like as not if anyone came up to to it. That was the time to watch pay a sociable'call, Syd would come out for him 'cause he never wasted' out on the porch with his shotgun a smile or a passin' word unless he in his hand and warn 'em off. had some trick up his sleeve he was It must be twelve years now, waitin' to pull. goin' on thirteen, since Syd got Syd was a well set-up lad, with all dolled up in his Sunday best and black hair, big brown eyes, and a made a trip out o' Cripple's Bend. dark, broodin' sort o' good looks, He was gone nigh onto a week. but there warn't a girl within fifty Nobody paid much attention when miles o' Cripple's Bend that would he left but as'soon as he was back, date with him. Not when they re­ the whole town was buzzin' with membered how he'd slapped Sally the news that he'd gone and got Masters' face at the church picnic, himself hitched while he was away. or the way he'd broken the back of Millie Tyson warn't no. prize as Willy Hooper's hound because the fer as looks gO, her best feature, pooch had taken a nip at the cuflF bein' her nice rosy complexion. of his pants,. , ' Other than that, she was on the When the old folks died, Syd plump side, with^ a dumpy figure, inherited the farm and, like I said, mouse-colored hair, a loose, full it was a nice piece o' property for mouth and big, round eyes that a man who^ could run it right. Syd always made her look like she was had the know-how but he'd rather ready to bust into tears. Mebbe she

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was too. Life with Syd warn't likely Millie hears her out. Then she to be no Bed of roses. says, "I'd like to give something. Nobody had much chance to I really would. But I wouldn't dare. talk to Millie, Syd kept her cooped Syd would be so mad, I don't know up on the farm and wouldn't let what he'd do." her come into Cripple's Bend even Maw says, "I'm sorry. I reckon for Saturday night shoppin'. Two I shouldn't have come here. I sure or three times some of the women­ don't want to make trouble for folk tried to call on her but they you with Syd." didn't get far. Syd made it clear She really means it and I guess the no welcome sign was still out, that gets through to Millie because and Millie was so scared that, even when Maw turns to leave, Millie if Syd was away, she'd beg them to calls out, "Wait." leave. Millie unlatches the door and Of course Maw had to, get into beckons for Maw to follow. They the act. Maw says she ain't nosy. go into a kitchen that's spic and But, bein' as how she's the sheriff's span. Without a word, Millie climbs wife, she don't want to be taken by up on a stepladder and lifts the lid surprise by not knowin' what's goin' off a flour tin on a high shelf. She on around her. Besides she was rummages around inside and when coUectin' for the Community Chest she comes down, she's holdin' a and she don't see why Syd Tyson half dollar and two quarters in her shouldn't give a donation. palm. She hands them over to Maw So one day she takes the car and and says, "Will that do?" drives out to the Mill Road and Maw nods, and Millie says real smack up into the Tyson back yard quick, , "Syd mustn't find out. I without as much as a by your leave. think he'd kill me if he knew. But Millie comes to the screen door..She it's my own money. I saved it don't unlatch it and she sort, o' before we were married." cringes behind it. She's lost a lot o' Maw says, "He won't learn from weight since she's come to Cripple's me. You can bet on that." Bend. Her skin has turned an ashen MiUie's breath is comin' hard color and her eyes are bigger'n ever. and she's all trembly but she tries Maw waltzes up on the porch and to smile. "Syd's in town and won't peers in. She makes believe she be back for a spell. I could make us don't see nothin' queer in the way a cup o' tea." Millie's actin' and goes straight into Maw manages to keep quiet till her spiel about coUectin' money. the steamin' cups are on the table, THE BLUE MAN 117

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED which is doin' pretty well for her. there, his eyes bulgin' and the blood Then she goes to work to pry darkenin' his face, makin' it look Millie's secrets out of her. meaner than ever. As stories- go, Millie's don't Millie whispers, "Please go— amount to much. She's lived all her quick." life in the country north of St. Maw gets up but Syd blocks her Onge, near the Canadian line. Her path. "You ain't welcome here. mother died when she was still in her teens, and from then on Millie's done nothin' biit take care of her ailin' father. When he passed on, • she was left alone with a nest egg of a few thousand dollars and not a friend in the world. She'd always wanted to get married but she - reckons it's too late. Then one day her eye lights on an ad for a lonely hearts club in the back of a maga­ zine. She's shy about answerin' but, . after all, what's she stand to lose? That's how she come to fneet Syd. And now that she's burned her bridges by marryin' him she rues the day she ever seen that ad.. "What about the nest" egg.?" Maw asks. "I signed it over to Syd. What else could I do?" Maw don't get. no chance to answer that. Suddenly the screen door slams at her back and Syd' Tyson looms up in the doorway. He must have seen Maw's car in the drive and stopped beneath the willers by the gate and walked the rest of the way along the grass to take her by surprise. He don't say a word, just stands

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Not now. Not never. Is that plain?" times. He ain't no local but a city "Plain enough, Syd Tyson. Now slicker type. He's tall, close to six clear out o' my way." foot, and everything about him is Syd stands aside and Maw sweeps blue. He's got blue eyes and is past him. She can hear Millie wearin' a blue serge suit. His shirt's a-sobbin' in back of her but there light blue with a dark blue tie. ain't a thing she can do without Even the band of his summer-weight makin' matters worse. hat is blue and he's got blue veins It ain't till the followin' spring in his nose. that I have any words with Syd I jot down the description on a Tyson. pad. Syd stands spraddle-legged on To my surprise he comes a-stridin' the opposite side of my desk, glarin' into my office one day in the early at me. He says, "You better grab afternoon. He raises his clenched this guy quick." hand almost like he was shakin' his "You say as he's been molestin' fist at me. "Sheriff I want you to Millie?" arrest a man for trespass." "That ain't what I said. He's Syd ain't the kind o' feller to . been threatenin' her." come runnin' to the law for help. "Somebody she used to know?" I sit there gogglin' at him and Syd shrugs. "She claims as how wonderin' what tricks he's up to. she's never laid eyes on him till Finally I says, "Who?" he shows up in the back yard. But "I don't know his name, but I I ain't so sure. Millie could be can describe him. He ought to be lyin'." easy enough to find." "Just what did he do?" I try to keep my voice mild. "He^must have waited around till "Trespass ain't much of an offense, he seen me headin' into town. Then Syd. I ain't goin' to round up no he moseys up to the kitchen door posse to look for him." and bangs on the screen till Millie Syd snarls, "Mebbe you better. shows up. He says he's goin' to kill He threatened my wife's Ufe." her, break her neck or some such That's the first I ever hear of the thing. Then Millie starts screamin' Blue Man. Syd's right about one and he goes away, mumblin' he'll be thing. Such a man ought to be easy back and next time he'll fix her to find. good." Accordin' to Syd, he's seen the » "So you leave her alone to come Blue Man hangin' around the Mill into town and tell me about it?" Road near his farm a couple o' Syd's eyes shift. "What else could

THE BLUE MAN 119

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I do? You know I ain't got no don't expect too much of Millie. phone. I don't go in for new-fangled She ain't too bright, you know." contraptions like that." I take the county car and trail "You could have gone down the Syd out along the Mill Road. A road to the Brodericks and phoned couple o' times I think I'll pass him from there." but Syd don't take kindly to the "You're talkin' Uke a fool, Sheriff. idea. His battered second-hand car Me and old man Broderick ain't wouldn't win no beauty prize but been on speakin' terms for years. it's got a lot o' power under its hood. He wouldn't as much as let me in I got it in my mind Syd ain't too the house." anxious for me to have a chance to "What about Millie? Seein' as question Millie alone. how you're so worried about her, Millie's been cryin' all right. Her how come you didn't bring her eyes is all swollen and her cheeks along?" • streaked with red. She gives me the Syd looks genuinely shocked. same story as Syd, but every now "With a stranger about! I couldn't and then she flicks a look at her do that. He's like to steal everything husband as if to ask if she's doin' all he can lay his hands on." right. That sounds like Syd, thinkin' When she's through, I says, "This more about his property, than his man was all in blue. What about his wife. I warn't puttin' much stock hair? Was that blue too?" in his story but at that moment I Millie sort o' gasps and her eyes come close to believin' him. slide toward Syd, as if implorin' I hoist myself to my feet. "I him for help. "Everything's blue," reckon I better go out and have she mutters. a few words with MiUie." "You dang fool!" Syd chokes out. "You won't get nothin' out o' "He was wearin' a hat. You didn't her. She's so scared she's bawlin' see his hair." her fool head off. Anyway I told "He was wearin' a hat," Millie you all there is to know." repeats. Then she starts blubberin' "Just the same, I'm comin' out and swings around and lumbers to the farm. I ain't goin' to catch toward the house. no Blue Man, warmin' up the seat Syd squares off at me. "What are o' this here chair." you tryin' to do. Sheriff, gettin' To my surprise, Syd acts real her all upset, again? Ain't she had docile. He says in tones that's gentle a bad enough scare without your for him, "That's fine, Sheriff. But buUraggin' her?"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "You're mighty considerate all me. He's Syd's next, door neighbor of a sudden," I says. though, like Syd said, they don't "I ain't aimin' to have her kilt, have no truck with each other. I've that's all. You start lookin' for the talked with Rex earlier and he's man. I'll tend to Millie." scoffed at the idea of the Blue Man. I do plenty o' searchin' for the "A feller like that would stick out Blue Man but there ain't another like a camel on Main Street. Mebbe soul in Cripple's Bend as has much Syd has really gone off the rails and as caught a glimpse of him. I keep is seein' spooks, or mebbe he's up on askin' but pretty soon they're to more of his tricks. But there makin' wisecracks in Gimpy's Diner ain't no Blue Man. I'll lay you whenever I show up there. You dollars to doughnuts on that." know the kind: "You caught up ' But today he's singin' a different with the Blue Man yet, Sheriff.? tune. He's got the wind up almost Sounds to me like mebbe he come as bad as Syd. Seems the last couple from Mars." o' nights he and his wife, Effie, I go to the Tyson place again to' have got the idea they're bein' spied question Millie when Syd's out in on. Rex slides out on the back porch the field. She's scareder'n ever but quick and sees a figure disappear she's got her story down pat. And into the shadows of the woods. He once she's run through it, she won't hollers, but there ain't no answer. change a word. I keep at her, though He just catches a glimpse o' the I hate it, with her tremblin' and on man, enough to know he's tall and the_edge o' tears all the time. thin. Of course he could have been Finally I says, "Millie, I want the Syd, but Rex don't think so. Syd truth. You're holdin' back on me ain't one to go skulkin' around. and I want to know why." He's always got a swagger to him. She looks at me and opens her Anyway there's another part to mouth and for a second I think the story. An hour or so before he she's goin' to come through. Then seen me. Rex decides to go scoutin' her eyes grow bigger and rounder around down in the woods. He goes than ever, and I turn to see Syd as far as the crick that divides his Tyson prowlin' around the corner land from Syd's, and the first thing of the house and I know I ain't goin' he stumbles across is the ashes of a to get no more out o' Millie. Not fire. Layin' around is a litter o' cans, that day anyhow. beans and coffee and such. I'm on my way back to Cripple's Rex leads me through the cuttin' Bend when Rex Broderick hails toward the crick. There ain't no.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED denyin' that it looks like somebody's so I can't hardly make them out. been campin' out there. I root around "You stupid nincompoop!" he a bit in the bushes and find a crude yells. "I been tellin' you and tellin' lean-to made o' pine boughs, with you, but you sit there shovin' food the huckleberry bushes crushed into your fat face and doin' nothin'. down beside it, like a man's been Now he's got Millie." sleepin' there. So mebbe I'm wrong, "Who has?" after all. Mebbe the Blue Man's "The Blue Man, you idiot. He's real, though it's hard to see him clubbed her and thrown her down roughin' it in a blue serge suit. the well." Then everybody in Cripple's I reckon the less I say the better, Bend, even the summer folks, so I walk out and get into the county car and let Syd lead the way along the Mill Road toward his farm. Pretty soon there's another car~ falls in behind us, and then another, till there's a whole procession. We rig up ropes and haul Millie out o' the well. Ain't no doubt she's dead, or that she was.kilt before she hit the water. The whole back of her head is stove in. The murderer didn't even bother about concealin' ^K^ the weapon. It's a rusted metal starts cuttin' in on the act. Every , fence post and it's lyin' square up time anyone spies a shadow at night, against the pump. they root me out o' bed and swear By the time we lay Millie out as how they seen the Blue Man. on the ground, there's at least That's the way things go for a twenty men and boys in the rough month or more. Then one day circle that's formed around the well. around noon I'm in Gimpy's Diner They're all mutterin' about the polishin' off a stack o' flapjacks Blue Man, and then Syd Tyson's when Syd Tyson comes poundin' in. voice is raised above the rest. He's He grabs me by the shoulder and swearin' a steady streak and tellin' spins me around so I'm lookih' the men to fan out and start scourin' straight up into his face. His eyes the woods. The Blue Man can't be isblazin' and his lips are workin* far away. but he's slurrin' the words togethes The next day I call in the State THE BLUE MAN 123

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Police and they come with blood­ as how she can hear 'em going great hounds but it ain't no use. If there'd guns way down to her place. I been a trail, it's been trampled all suspect Effie is doin' a spot of over. There ain't a trace of the Blue eavesdroppin', but that ain't neither Man neither. The fence post ain't here nor there. got no fingerprints on it, and most Seems like Syd met Carol through anyone could have dug it up. Mur­ a lonely hearts club, same as he had der's been done but it looks like the with Millie. I reckon both of 'em killer's got away with it. was gildin' the lily in their courtin' Syd Tyson raves and rants about letters. Syd was ma^in' out like me bein' a hick cop and how Crip­ he was a gentleman farmer with a ple's Bend needs a new sheriff. I big estate,'and Carol was pretendin' know what he's up to. If I try to she had a sizable inheritance tucked pin the crime on him he'll yell away for a rainy day, while the crooked politics. I'm convinced that truth of the matter is she was he's the killer but I ain't got a shred brought up in an orphanage and, of evidence to go on. Syd knows it didn't have a nickle. ' and I can see him sneerin' at me. Everyone knows the marriage He's created a legend that's going can't last. I'm hopin' Carol will to live for a long time in Cripple's clear out bag. and baggage. Standin'. Bend. up to Syd and shoutin' him down is Two years slip by, and then Syd dangerous because, if I've got him Tyson takes another trip. This time tagged .right, he's killed once and is people know he's goin' and they like to try it again. ain't -so surprised when he comes All the same I. ain't prepared for back with a second bride. Carol what happens next, a repeat per­ Tyson ain't no mousy creature like formance. One day Syd comes Millie was. There's something proud stridin' into my office with the about her that takes your breath news that the Blue Man is back and away. She's a tall slim girl with has been threatenin' Carol. Syd straw-colored hair, a ridge of freckles yells about me bein' incompetent, 'cross her nose, and gray-blue eyes and how he wants the state cops in that are clear and steady. There's a right from the start. love o' life in her that, even livin' It ain't easy but I hold my with Syd Tyson can't stifle. temper. Once more we make, the Soon the word is passed around trip out to the Tyson farm, with that Syd and Carol is fightin' like Syd in the lead and me eatin' his cat and dog. Effie Broderick claims dust. Carol runs through her story.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED She don't mumble and stammer like goih' 'Without sleep and gettin' Millie. She speaks straight out. The nowhere. I never did believe the Blue Man come to her door while Blue Man killed Millie Tyson, but Syd was in the fields. He screamed now I ain't so sure. Carol is stickin' and shouted at her hke crazy, makin' to her story, and that don't make all sorts o' threats. But she don't no sense if it's a lie. ' panic. She keeps the door latched I have a talk with her when Syd and tries to question him. He don't ain't around. One thing's sure, she seem to like that and pretty soon ain't scared o' Syd and she ain't he stamped away. wastin' no love on him neither. 'Taint no time at all before the Finally I lay it straight on the grapevine carries the news all over line. "You're fittin' yourself for the country, of the Blue Man's a coffin, Carol. You can end up just return. Most every day somebody like Millie." claims to have, seen him but, before She opens her eyes wide. "Do I can show up on the scene, he's you think Syd would kill me? Why? just plain disappeared. I'm turhin' I've got no money, nothing for him pretty sour on the deal, when I get a to inherit." Then her eyes open phone call from Big Tim Hackett still wider. "Of course, there's the who runs the Temple Fillin' Station insurance." a piece down the road. He's excited "Insurance!" I yells. "Why the as all get-out. Seems the Blue Man plum-ding-dang didn't you tell me stopped there for gas, and Tim and that before?" his two sons jump him. They got Carol relaxes and smiles. "When him hog-tied in the gents' room we were married, me and Syd each waitin' for me to come and fetch took out a policy in the other's him. The way things turn out, this name. That's fair enough, isn't it?" feller's a salesman from down Port­ "Sure, and it's a perfect setup for land way. He's wearin' blue all murder too. Take my advice, Carol, right, even a blue tie and a blue and scoot out o' Cripple's Bend band on his hat. But he's shorter'n while you got the chance." average and on the paunchy side. Carol looks thoughtful. "As a' A long distance call to Portland law enforcement officer, you're ad- puts him in the clear, and I have to visin' me to desert my husband. Is set about unrufflin' his' feathers so that right. Sheriff?" . there won't be no suit for false She's got me stumped and she's arrest, laughin' at me. There ain't a word I'm runnin' around in circles, I can say, so I stamp away. THE BLUE MAN 125 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The end comes quicker'n I expect. sittin' right beside her and holdin' Just two days later I get the word her hand. there's been another killin' out to I put Carol through her story the Tyson farm. This time the news. half a dozen times. There warn't is phoned in from Rex Broderick's much to it. She hadn't heard place. Lew Satchell, who's actin' nothin' or seen nothin' out of the as my deputy that summer, takes way, till she went to the well and the message. By the time he tracks found Syd's body. After that, she me down at Gimpy's, it seems like come straight to the Brodericks he's managed to tell half the town. and Rex phoned my office. I hop into the county car and lead It. was all simple and straightfor­ the way along the Mill Road. All ward, but I don't believe a word of the time, I'm cussin' to myself and it. Mebbe I could have broke Carol swearin' Syd Tyson ain't gettin' down if Maw hadn't set there, away with murder a second time. glarin' at me like a mother hen I head straight for the well, with protectin' her lone chick. There Lew Satchell at my heels. There's a warn't a single thing I could find body in there, sure enough, all wrong with the story, and neither jackknifed up, and there's a blood­ could the State Police. As Maw stained metal fence post propped kept remindin' me, Syd Tyson had against the pump just like before. complained about the Blue Man But the body in the well ain't long before Carol had ever met him, Carol's. It's a man—and I don't so nobody could accuse her of have to wait till he's hauled up to making him up. Besides there was recognize him. He's Syd Tyson. plenty o' people around Cripple's The same crowd is gatherin' as Bend who'd claimed to have seen did two years ago, and there's the the Blue Man at one time or other same mutterin' about the Blue Man. and, even if none of 'em was too I face the lot of 'em over Syd's reliable, their testimony was mighty corpse, and when they want to form hard to refute. a posse to search the woods I don't So I goes through the motions raise' no objections. I shrug and of lookin' for the Blue Man all leave 'em to it, over again and, like before, I get I didn't expect they'd find no nowhere. I'm pretty sure I know Blue Man, and they didn't. But I what happened. Carol Tyson learned got a surprise comin' to me. When that Syd was plannin' to kill her I make it down to Broderick's place and had turned the tables on him, to question Carol, there's Maw beatin' him to the gong. But there's 126- ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED one snag to my theory. Doc Smed- her a home and security, and the ley, the coroner, tells me a man must best job he can get is part-time have done the killin'. It was a work in the cannery over to Glover's hard blow that had split Syd's skull. Bay. So Carol tires of waitin' for Even at her best, Doc didn't think him and up and marries Syd. That's Carol would have the strength for the last he's seen of her till he de­ it and, at the time, he was treatin' cides to look her up a few weeks her for a sprained wrist. Doc was ago. prepared to go on the stand and I ask Larry if he was workin' the swear she was unable to strike the day Syd Tyson was killed. He heavy blow and then trundle Syd's shrugs. That's a long time ago and body into the well. he can't remember, but the cannery '' Months go by and Carol's livin' has a time-clock. Why don't I check all alone in the Tyson place. She's the records.? I do just that,' drivin' got her money from the insurance down to Glover's Bay the next day. company that amounts to four I learn that Larry's taken sick leave thousand with the double indemnity the day Syd died, but he's been seen clause. Syd died without no will, late that same night in Jerry's Pool but there ain't no relatives to dis­ Hall. He's wearin' a muffler around pute that the place is hers. his neck and complainin' about a Around Easter, Carol has a visitor, sore throat, but he ain't too sick a feller named Larry Cutts. Ac­ to shoot a couple o' games. tually Larry's stayin'. with the I time the drive back and forth Brodericks so there won't be no to Glover's Bay. Larry could have loose talk, but he's helpin' Carol made the trip, dumped Syd in the \ fix up the farm. In no time flat the well, and shown up at the poolroom. place begins, to look alive again, The timin' was tight but it warn't with a fresh coat of paint on the impossible. house and whitewash on the barn. I reckon I have a case against I do some checkin' on Larry, Larry Cutts but I decide to try it which ain't hard because he volun­ out on Maw first. teers most of the answers before I Maw sits knittin' all the while ask the questions. He'd known she's listenin' to me. I can't tell Carol from way back when they a thing from her face, but when were kids together in the orphanage. ' I'm through she says, "Larry ain't They'd always been sweet on each the Blue Man." other but Larry wouldn't ask her That's true enough. Larry Cutts to marry him, not till he could give is medium of height and no one THE BLUE MAN 127 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED would call him thin. He's broad- Tyson invented his own killer and shouldered and stocky. 'Course any­ he didn't create him in the imagei one can wear a blue suit, but Larry's of Larry Cutts." ^ dark-complected, with eyes like I see her point all right. AfteCg ripe olives. There just ain't nothin' all the fuss about the Blue Man,i • blue about him. there ain't no jury in these parts T sigh. "I thought I made it clear will convict Larry ari^ Carol of there, warn't no Blue Man. Syd killin' Syd Tyson. I think it over Tyson made him up as a .cover to for a while and decide I'd best leave kiU Millie." matters alone and not start meddlin'. Maw gets a stupid look on her As things stand there's a justice of face. "Then how come that the sorts. Blue Man turns around and kills Since then, Larry and Carol has Syd?" got married and they've a couple I start gettin' hot under the o' young uns. The old Tyson place collar. But the more I yell and try is prosperin', and there ain't ia to explain, the more mixed up I get. young couple nowhere around who's Finally I realize Maw's mockin' better liked than the Cutts. me. She don't beHeve in the Blue As for the Blue Man, he ain't Man no more than I do, but she exactly been forgotten, but nobody ain't goin' to admit it. She says, in Cripple's Bend has seen hair nor "Mebbe you're right, Paw. But hide of him since the day Syd who's goin' to believe you? Syd Tyson died. isdE^ Dear Fans: It is always a pleasure to welcome new members into the ALFRED HITCHCOCK FAN CLUB, and it is very rewarding to hear jrom our enthusiastic and loyal present members. ~ ^ Membership dues are one dollar. (Please do not send stamps.) Fan Club members will receive an autographed photo of Mr. Hitchcoc\, his biography, and a bulletin of current news, issued fotir times a year. All mail should be addressed to: ALFRED HITCHCOCK FAN CLUB, P.O. Box 5425, Sherman OaJ^s, California 91401 - / want to than^ all of you for your interest. Most sincerely. Pat Hilchcoc\

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Learning being a daily process, one's proficiency does not nec­ essarily preclude the lil^elihood of further education.

W

AY I help you?" asked the shapely young girl. She was blonde and full-lipped, the lips now parted in a friendly smile that showed an even row of teeth, and she was leaning slightly forward over the display case in Gloves and Purses in such a manner, as to present a hint of further charms. Bradley Jones, which wasn't his real name, smiled back. "No," he

SHAKEDOWN 129 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED said, "unless you can help me find pocket of her coat. He knew the the friends I am supposed to meet type. It was his business to know here." • the type. Her next move would be "I'm sorry," she said, with the toward the nearest door, same friendly smile, "but'I'm afraid Bradley went through the door I can't be of much help there." a scant few seconds ahead of her . Bradley summoned up a bit of and fell into step beside her as she charm. "Thanks, anyway. It's nice turned down the street^ After ten to find friends, especially new ones," or fifteen paces, she glanced nerv­ he added meaningfully, and saw ously toward him. that the point was not entirely lost "Lady," he said, "I believe you on her. He turned away then and have sorne thing in your pocket that sauntered down the aisle toward doesn't rightfully belong to you." Cosmetics and Perfumes, a low She faltered in her stride, and her whistle of appreciation scarcely audi­ face went chalk-white beneath- its ble on his thin lips. makeup. Bradley was a small man of , "If you'll just step to the side of medium height, and the clothing the building here, we'll have a he wore was of nondescript gray. Httle talk," he told her. Among the women shoppers in the She stopped in front of a window department store, he looked pre­ filled with mannequins clad in cisely like a bored husband who had bathing suits, and turned to face momentarily lost track of his wife him, her eyes downcast and her —which was exactly how Bradley jaws clamped tightly in trembling, Jones wanted it to look. fear—which was exactly the way He turned right at Cosmetics Bradley Jones wanted it. , and Perfumes, paused a moment, "You seem to be a decent and and let his glance drift about as if respectable lady," he said, "and I in search of someone. He saw her definitely hate to think of having then, standing by the jewelry dis­ to take you back into the store play. She was tall and thin-faced, with me. Although the crime of and was wearing a short coat of shoplifting is not a great one, there yellow. He saw her eyes dart warily can be a certain amount of distaste­ about for an instant, and he knew ful pubhcity ..." exactly what she was going to do "Please," she said, scarcely able even before he saw her hand close . to force words from between quiv­ over the brooch of costume jewelry ering lips. "I have a husband, two and transfer it unobtrusively to the children ..."/,

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I'm sorry. But you should have stand; there was a tangible objective thought of that." to it, a valid reason. But this petty "Here!" she said, reaching quickly pilfering was quite beyond him. into her pocket. "Take the brooch Perhaps the fear of getting caught back! It really isn't worth anything. gave them some kind of secret Please!" thrill, and when he apprehended Bradley raised a protesting hand. them, the thrill reached its culmina­ "It is not quite that simple," he tion—the thing they had been seek­ said, keeping his voice at a conver­ ing all along. He didn't know. sational level so as not to attract Really, he didn't care. He shrugged. attention from passersby. "If your Strange how at least fifty percent of crime goes unpunished, it might them always thanked him when he only induce you to repeat the took their money. offense." He strolled leisurely down the She raised her eyes slowly, and street. Yes, it was a good life. A looked pleadingly into his for an different town every week, a dif­ instant. Then she fumbled quickly ferent girl in every town . . . in her purse and brought forth a bill, Thoughts of the blonde in Gloves "Take this!" she said. "Please!" and Purses came suddenly to the "Well . . ." There was hesita­ fore. Better try to make contact tion in his voice, but the hand that there, do a little promoting. Once took the ten dollar bill from her the recreation for the week was showed not the slightest trace of assured, he could go about his pause. ". . . all right. But remem­ • business untroubled. She seemed ber this," he said, tucking the bill to be a bit on the young side, but into the pocket of his coat. "Crime —so what? does not pay!" It was his own pri­ He rounded the corner, quickened vate little joke. He liked the humor his pace, and went back into the of it. store by a different entrance. As he "Thanks!" she said,.and turned approached Gloves and Purses, he hurriedly away. saw that the blonde was busy with Bradley could never quite under­ a customer, a young woman with stand why some women who seemed red hair, red shoes, and a red purse. socially and financially well ofif He paused abruptly by Ties, his should stoop to petty thievery. instincts aroused. His practiced eye Probably most of them didn't even knew the type. use the junk they took. Profes­ He didn't have long to wait. The sional shoplifting he could, under- blonde turned away from the^ dis-

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play case to search for something in the boxes on the shelf behind her, and several pairs of expensive- looking gloves disappeared swiftly into the maw of the red purse. Bradley grinned. This one was not an amateut. This one was piling up expensive loot with a definite objective in view. A pro! • He considered stepping forward immediately and exposing the theft ^^that would put him in good with

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the blonde, give him a grand ap­ said easily, "I wouldn't advise you proach—but. he dismissed the to call a cop or to create any kind thought almost as soon as it had of scene. After all, you have com­ entered his head. The blonde hadn't mitted the crime—not /!" It was caught sight of him yet, and there nice to put them into a snug little was no sense in placing pleasure corner like that. ^ before business. The blonde could "Why, you—" She broke off, her wait; she'd be there when he wanted eyes little more than narrow slits. her. She looked as if she were about to Bradley turned away and, with­ take his face apart any moment out seeming to hurry, hurried to with her sharp nails. "All right!" the nearest exit. In most cases, the she snapped, getting herself under pros were easier than the amateurs. control with an eifort. "All right! Most of them had police records, How much?" and to be caught plying their trade "Considering the value of the could easily land them in big trouble. merchandise involved,' I think Of course, there was a matter of twenty dollars should be about ethics involved; in some circles, the right." He was pouring it on, mak­ shaking down of one pro by another ing her like it. was definitely frowned upon. But She fumbled into her purse, ex­ Bradley gave no thought to ethics; tracted two tens and thrust them you could neither eat nor drink at him, unladylike words hissing them. from between her tight lips. Then Less than two minutes later, he she spun on her heel and went and the redhead were facing each clicking away down the street. other on the street in front of a In spite of occasional moments window display of camping equip­ with tough customers like the red­ ment. head, there were several gratifying "You look like a decent and re­ facets to Bradley's profession. There spectable lady," he had just finished was very little danger of being saying, "and I definitely hate to arrested for his activities; the vic­ think of having to take you back tims could not afford to scream into the store ..." copper. Whatever money he made "Look, you!" she warned. "Lay —and he made plenty—was his off or I'll call a cop!" Her face had own,-no tax bite. He did his bank­ paled, but .her green eyes were ing in his own hip pocket. That flashing angry defiance. - way there was no record of deposits, "Under the circumstances," he no record of interest being paid SHAKEDOWN 133 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED him, nothing for the federal boys rhe. Now it seems I'll be stuck with to sink their teeth into. There was another lonely evening." no danger of running out of cus­ "Yes," she said sympathetically, tomers; they were in every large "I know just what you mean." town he cared to visit. According He looked at her, and her hand to some late statistics he had read, went suddenly to her mouth in some metropolitan areas were being embarrassment. "OhI" she gasped. shophftcd to the tune of $50,000 "I didn't mean that the way it per week. Best of all, he was his sounded." own boss. He could work when he - They both laughed. wanted to, quit when he liked. At "Well, maybe we could solve a the present moment, he was con­ problem for both of us by sharing sidering a little vacation in Mexico. the evening," he suggested. • Thoughts of Mexico brought to "Oh, I don't know about that—" mind again the little blonde in A tiny frown crept across her fore­ Gloves and Purses. Maybe she head. would be a good companion. . He "At least we could have dinner would have to look into the situa­ together," he urged. tion, but not at present. He had "Well—" She hesitated. "Well, already been in the store three I suppose there—there wouldn't times that morning and had made- be any harm ..." three marks for a cool $40. Best to "Fine!" he said, hurriedly. "I'll ply his trade elsewhere for a while pick you up at seven, if" you'll tell and come back -sometime in the me where you live." "" afternoon. Her frown deepened. "Better By four-thirty he had made four not pick me up at home," she said. niore marks for a ten-spot each "I'll explain later. How about the and was sauntering leisurely down corner of Tenth and Main?" the aisle toward Gloves and Purses. "Wonderful!" he said. "Until The blonde caught sight of him as seven, then." he approached, and recognition Bradley walked out of the store flashed into her eyes. with a feeling of conquest. The "Hello," she said. "Find your day had progressed quite to his friends yet?" satisfaction, and there were reasons He shook his head, leaned an to believe the night might hold elbow on the display case, and tried even greater satisfactions. He felt to let his disappointment show. so good about the whole thing that "No, they must have forgotten he walked across town arid made

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED another shakedown before the stores know whether the lights that danced closed.' in her eyes were made of star dust That night, at her direction they or whether the liquor she had drunk drove northward for nearly an was catching up with her. Maybe hoiir, then turned into the parking a little of both. lot of a cottage-hke structure bear­ "It is!" he agreed. "It has every­ ing the neon name Cozy Inn. thing! But—" He paused and Except for the glowing bar along shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it one wall, the place was mellow with would be a lot more fun for two shaded lights. A cluster of tables than just 07ie." filled most of the floor space, and Yet even as he gave her the left- there were secluded boQths along handed invitation, he knew sud­ two of the walls. She went directly denly that he had no intention of to one of the booths, and he ordered taking her along. Mexico had its two martinis. own full share of beautiful women, During the drive from town he and there was certainly no point in had learned a few basic things about, taking along a type of commodity her. She had graduated from high that already existed there in abun­ school a couple of years ago and had dance. Biit it was a good gimmick; worked in stores ever since. She it might serve to keep her stringing was living alone with her mother along with him for the week he in­ who was very strict with her—which tended to be in town. was why she hadn't wanted him to "I've always wanted to go to call for her at her home—and her Mexico," she sighed, "but of course name was Terra Wilson. I've never had the chance." Before the arrival of the second He almost felt sorry for her—but round of martinis, Bradley had not quite. given her a brief, and highly mythi­ Her hand was warm and vibrant cal, account of his recent life as a in his upon the table, and he gave traveling salesman and his desire it a sudden, reassuring squeeze. to settle down, after, of course, a "Let's go somewhere," he sug­ short vacation in Mexico. During gested, "so we can—talk about it." dinner, he .extolled the virtues of "Oh, I couldn't do that!" she Mexico as a vacationland, a land of said, quickly freeing her hand. "I— sunshine and gaiety, a land of I hardly know you." romance. He captured her' hand again. "It must truly "be a marvelous "But this is no place to discuss the place," she said wistfully. He didn't wonders of Old Mexico!" he urged.

SHAKEDOWN 135 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Romantic places should be dis­ legs flashed toward him as she cussed in romantic settings, and turned to get out. She paused, and there is a beautiful moon ^tonight." he saw her gaze shift to a point just He felt her hand begin to relax beyond him. again, and he hurried to press home He wheeled quickly,- and his his point. "I'm a stranger here," he mouth fell open. It was incredible! said, "but you probably know of Striding directly toward him was the some little place where we could redhead! She was not wearing red go and—and just sit and talk." shoes now or carrying a red purse "Well," she said reluctantly, in her hand; she was wearing dark "there is a little place a few miles shoes, and in her hand, glinting from here, a sort of little park. malevolently in the moonlight, was But-" a nickel-plated revolver, its stubby "Fine!" he said, rapidly shutting snout pointed directly at his breast off any further protests. bone. Fear washed through him, The road meandered through a leaving him momentarily limp as he wooded area and became scarcely remembered the intense anger that more than an indefinite lane. They had burned in her green eyes that passed one car parked near a shelter­ very morning. ing clump of bushes, and then he "Raise your hands real slow- guided his own convertible into a like," she commanded. "No quick little glade that was bathed in moves. I know how to use this." moonlight. The way she said it left no doubt He cut the ignition and lights, in his mind. As if on their own turned quickly toward her, and accord, his arms began reach­ gathered her into his arms. Her full ing slowly upward. "You—you lips were cold and distant at first, wouldn't dare," he gulped. "There . but suddenly he felt them grow is a car parked near here . . ," warm and responsive to his own— "Don't concern yourself with it," eager was the word for it. she snapped. "It's mine. How else ', After a moment, she pushed him do you think I got here?" back and away from her. "There— He moistened his lips. "I'll—I'll there's a little lake over there," she gladly give you your money back." whispered, almost breathlessly, "and "There's more involved than a sandy beach ..." just the twenty dollars," she said, He scrambled quickly out of the stepping directly in front of him, car and arolind to her side, and the gun never wavering. "Turn swung open the door. Her shapely around."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He hesitated. Out of the corner for at least another month before of his eye, he caught sight of the a merchandise inventory began to httle blonde. She hadn't moved catch up with us. Now we don't from the car, and he guessed he feel safe anymore." , could not expect any immediate She folded the bills into a neat help from that quarter. Maybe the little bundle with her left hand and redhead wouldn't go so far as to began to tuck them down into the kill him but, on the other hand, a front of her blouse, her eyes straying couple of slugs placed in almost from his for a brief instant. any area of his anatomy could cer­ He went into action. His right tainly slow him down for a long hand suddenly swept down to clasp time to come. He turned around. the hand that held the gun. His Yes, he had been right. She was fingers clamped hers into immobifity a pro.. He could tell by the way she and began twisting the weapon flipped the billfold from his hip from her grasp. pocket in one easy motion. He Then a dull \lunl{ at the back of groaned. At last count, there had his head exploded his brain into a been twenty tax-free five-hundred- shower of writhing lights. It dropped dollar bills there. The result of a him to a sitting position on the full year's effort! He turned slowly grass where he was only dimly con­ to face her again. scious of the blonde returning a "Maybe—maybe we could work spike-heeled shoe to a shapely foot. together," he suggested, trying to "Well, where now, little sister.?" calculate the exact distance be­ he heard the redhead ask. tween himself and the hand that Little sister! In spite of his dazed held the gun. condition, several things became . "You're not the trustworthy startlingly clear. . type," she said. "You're unethical. "How about Mexico?" he heard We had a good thing going until the httle blonde say as they strolled you stuck your nose into things. away. "I hear it's simply an adorable We could have juggled the records • place to spend a vacation!" .^J

SHAKEDOWN 137 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED It is comfortable to believe thai tvhen a living thing dies, that is the end of it; contrarily, it may be only the beginning of its melioration.

EARING bleached overalls and a faded red T-shirt, George sat beside the old round oak table in the kitchen, wishing that his father had never brought her home to the farm. She was standing beside the ancient fuel stove which one pumped with a palm held against the air vent at the end of the red round handle in order to build up pressure to give blue flame to the burners. George had done the. pumping that morning, and been proud of it, but she hadn't even thanked him. He watched her scratching at a large iron skillet with a spatula, her pliimp young body flexing be-, neath a thin house dress. The way her body looked had interested him, and he'd examined it pretty well when he was certain nobody.noticed, although he didn't really under­ stand why watching her made him feel so strange—he didn't Uke her at all.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A searing wind was coming off plate, then a mound onto George's. the plains through the screen door, George eagerly picked up a fork even though the sun had just risen. and tasted his portion, then made George looked at his father mopping a face. "They taste funny." his lined, weathered face with a "Well, they're burnt," his father large bandanna. His father's right said. arm was in a cast, supported by a The girl straightened indignantly, white sling. He had fallen down in her pretty face void of animation, slippery mud in the hog pen and her bare arms and legs pink and broken the arm, but in town a lot smooth. "He's always complaining." of the fellows had laiighed, and "It's true," his father said. kept asking his father what kind "They're burnt." of night he'd spent with Joey, "Can't learn everything all at whom he'd married the day before once," the girl said. "Isn't any in the Methodist Church, where reason for him complaining all the George had stood during the cere­ time." mony wearing his father's seersucker "He's just a boy." suit, a yellow bow tie and a white "He's twenty-three years old," shirt. George had kept telling them the girl said. "He needs a good that his father hadn't broken his whipping, like I got at home." arm during the night, but in the "You don't ever lay a hand on hog pen that morning. They didn't him." seem to listen, and kept laughing, The girl's face tightened with and George could' not figure that anger, then softened as a tall young out. man opened the screen door and His father, an aging man turned stepped inside..He had come in from gaunt by hard labor, picked up a the small quarters built onto the silver knife-and pointed it at him, barn, and now he removed a straw saying in a raspy monotone, "Put hat to expose his thick blond hair, your napkin ih your collar, boy, or the whiteness of his upper forehead you'll spill all over yourself." where the hat had protected him "Yes, sir," George said. He picked against sunshine a startling con­ up a large napkin and stuffed one trast to his smoothly browned face. corner under the T-shirt. He smiled, muscles bulging against Joey, his father's new wife, turned tight Levi's and a checked shirt, around and carried the skillet to nodding first to George's father, the table with a sullen expression. then to the girl, who smiled self­ She scraped eggs onto his father's consciously. "Mornin', every-

THE MAGIC TREE 139 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED body." He eased into a hard chaif. "Whatever you say, Mr. Swanson. "Mornin', Tad," George's father But maybe you better let me take said tonelessly. care of that husking by myself." "Hi, Tad," Joey said, and hurried "I got but one hand to use," back to the stove. "Get your eggs his father said, getting up. "But in a minute." one-handed is some better than a "What do you say, Tad?" George lot I know with two." said loudly, and now he felt good. "Yes, sir," Tad said. "I believe Tad had come to help with the that. And I'll have Georgie help farm after his father had broken me with the pipe." his arm, and George had liked* him , "That's a good idea. Joey, you from the beginning. There wasn't gather them eggs. Don't forget." anything in the world that Tad "Isn't likely I would," she said didn't know; he was sure of that. defensively. "Do it every day." Tad always treated him good, smil­ The farmer took a sweated straw ing and laughing and joking with hat from a peg and walked out into him, but never mean, like the girl the ovien heat, ducking as he went was sometimes. through the door because of his "How are you this morning, spare-framed tallness. Georgie.?" Tad asked. When Tad had finished eating, "Okay." he said, "You go into the living- "Sure, you are! Georgie's a good room closet and get your hat, boy, Mr. Swanson." Georgie. The sun'll be too hot for Swanson nodded abruptly, and your head, you know." George was certain that he saw,a "Okay," George said, and stood flicker of pleasure in his father's up, round-cheeked, and tall, his eyes. Still, his voice came out just overalls fitting tightly at the waist. as toneless and raspy as ever. "I'm He walked out of the kitchen into running the tractor down to the the livingroom where it was cooler. south acres,- Tad. Got some ferfce His mother, whom he could not fixing to do along the irrigation remember well because she had died ditch. You feed them hogs. Get quite a long time ago, had always ~ ' some hay down from the loft to the kept the room closed off, except on horse's stall. The pipe running off fall and winter evenings when tBfey the windmill's rusting out. There's had all come here and sat on' the another in the barn. Find it and put black leather furniture in front of a it in for the old one. Tomorrow large red brick fireplace that used we're going to start husking." up almost half of one wall. She'd 140 ALFRED HrrCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THE HAGIC TREE Hi LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED loved the room. There was a leather- catalogue five years ago, and his bound Bible on a marble-topped father had "sent for it. It had a good, table, and beside the Bible was a wide brim, with a round crown, vase lamp .with a shade -made of where he had cut a number of crimson glass panels. Green felt triangular, holes so he could wear it had been tacked around the bottom, in the summers and it wouldn't be of the frame, and from this hung too hot. What was best was the beads of every color. George loved band, where there were attached that lamp, and he wished fall would a half-dozen pretty things: a gold come soon so they could come in metallic cigar wrapper; a silver star, her,e and sit before a fire, with the a metal soldier and a small spear, lamp showiiig red and the beads all from Cracker Jack boxes; a furry reflecting and the flames jumping yellow casting fly which Mr. Tett- in yellow brightness and. the Ibgs" man, the town's banker and lawyer, crackling. George loved the entire had given him; and a genuine roomi as his niother had. Something, Indian arrowhead scrupulously deep in his brain made him feel chipped to perfection from smoky that he had often been with his brown, flint. His father had helped mother in here; here he was always him fix the items to the band with happy. glue and thread. He stopped beside a wall with its Wearing the hat proudly, George purple flowered Wallpaper and opened the door to the kitchen, looked at a framed copy of the where he saw Joey turn from Tad 23rd Psalm hanging there. George suddenly, cheeks flushed, and begin couldn't read,, but his father, when to rattle pans busily. they came in here together, always "All set, pardner?" Tad asked read it to him. Sometimes he could cheerfully. even remember parts of it, like "Qkay," George answered. now, "... and I will dwell in the They walked outside into the house of the Lord forever." He bright hot sunshine. The old barn didn't know exactly what that stood gray and dilapidated against meant, but the house of the Lord the white sky, with the silo beyond, certainly, he knew, must be like this and^^the land running flatly away room. with the fallow fields and the fields He opened the closet door, took with the dry cornstalks, the husks his hat from a shelf, and smoothed whispering, as far as the eye could a palm fondly over its soft gray, see. The blades of the windmill felt. He had picked it out in a were turning with a steady rusty 142 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S M^'STERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED sound. Chickens in the pen beside "That's the way life is, Georgie. the coop, which was attached to the You've got to help out with other barn, scurried and fluttered crazily. people, even if you don't feel like The old horse, Solomon, stood it." haplessly in his small corral, his "I guess." back swayed and his eyes tired. "Now this windmill—she's an George's father had used him for old-timer, that's for sure. You know plowing until he'd bought the • what makes her work, Georgie?" tractor, his single concession to "I guess not." progress. Hogs slept in the mud of "There's a well down there. And their, pen. A faded blue pickup there're blades up there on top. truck took the sun at the start of The wind blows and that makes the the dirt road which wound out to blades go 'round. The blades are the highway. hooked onto an axis, so you have a "You wait by the windmill, wheel that goes around too. That's Georgie," Tad said. "I'll get that your power. Power makes the pump pipe and some tools." go. Then you've got water coming George stood in the sunshine up from the well and going into beside the structure of the wind­ this here pipe. I wager you got mill, where the ailing rusty pipe maybe two horsepower with a twenty ran to a metal trough that carried mile-an-hour wind. But the pipe, water along to a larger trough in the now, it's rusting out and leaking. hog pen. Those pigs over there're likely to In a few minutes Tad returned, dry up and fly away. We can't have carrying a pipe and a metal tool that happening, can we, Georgie?" box. "Well, Georgie, do you think "Guess not." we can get this fixedP" Energetically, Tad opened the "I guess," George said. "Tad? You tool box and got out two wrenches, like Joey?" then went to work unscrewing the Tad looked at him quickly. "I pipe from the pump. guess I do. Why, Georgie.?" "Where'd you come from?" "I don't know. Sometimes I wish George asked. Papa hadn't went and married her." "Guess I've been about every­ "Well, but you . got to think where, Georgie—Oklahoma, Texas, about your papa, Georgie. If he the Dakotas." likes her, then I guess you got to "How come you came here?" like her too. Like I do." "Just moving along. I stopped in "I guess." town, and somebody at the co-op THE MAGIC TREE 143 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED said your papa busted his arm and "Put things in there—pretty needed a hired man. So here I am." things. It's got all kinds of places, "It's okay with me," George said 'specially way down deep." shyly. Tad grinned whitely. "Like a "That's nice to hear, Georgie. squirrel, huh, Georgie?" Now you tell me a little more "I don't know. Like my papa." about you, while we're fixing up Tad's blue eyes brightened with this windmill. AVhat do you like greater interest. "Does he go around best.?" • hiding things too, Georgie?" "My papa, I guess." "I see him. Hides coffee cans. "That's right, your papa. What All over. He never knew I saw next.?" '" him, though, so don't you tell him, , "My magic tree," George said, Tad." smiling. Tad shook his head gravely. "I "You never told me about your wouldn't do that, Georgie. What magic tree." was in those cans?" "Wouldn't tell nobody before, George smiled dreamily. "Noth­ except my papa. Now I told you." ing pretty like I got hid in my "Tell me some more, Georgie." magic tree." "Well, I seen it a long time ago, "Well, what have you got in that out west and south. It was broken tree?" at the top and had all kinds of "Some jelly beans, and pretty holes and hollows, and my papa, flowers, and beads, and new pennies, he says it was broken by lightning. and . . . Oh, everything pretty. He said it was a "^special kind of God made it magic, see, with the tree, on account down cornes the lightning, so everything I ever put lightning, like God was aiming, see? in that tre.e stays just like it was." And crack-goes the tree, ail splin­ ^Tad smiled tightly. "You evei? tered and broken off. Now it's dead. check that, Georgie?" Papa says that's maybe God's tree. George shook his head. "Wouldn't And I said, is it magic? And he be fair. Ruin it, that way." says maybe it is, on account God "Well, now—those cans your is magic too. That's my magic tree." papa hid. He have any money in ' Tad paused in his work, his those cans?" strong hands gripping the wrenches. "Money's not pretty," George "I saw that tree, all right. She's a said disinterestedly. "Not paper sdead Cottonwood. So what do you money. Pennies are pretty, if they're do with it, Georgie?" new."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "And jelly beans," Tad said. with dry pale sprigs of prairie grass "You sure you saw your papa hide showing from the sun-hardened them cans?" earth around it. George ran his "Don't tell him." hand along the rough, juiceless bark, "I wouldn't, Georgle; Now we looking at the jagged top above his just about got this new pipe in head, then at all of the swirls and and ready, haven't we? As soon as curls in the wood which created the we're done here, maybe you ought pockets where he had tucked the to go out and see how that magic pretty things. There was one yawn­ tree of yours is doing. Is that a ing hole, just eye high, leading to good idea, Georgie?" the hollow stump. When you George nodded. "Okay." dropped the pretty things into that, The tree stood alone in the field. you could hear them strike bottom. Once he'd dropped a pretty thing in there, and a squirrel had come flying out of the hole and nearly scared him to death. Then the squirrel had bounded away, and he'd shouted after it to stay away. It had, because ,this was his tree and even God knew that. George sat down- on the earth with his back resting against the wood so that he was in the shadow it created. He didn't think of very much for quite a time, but just felt content to be here, alone, with his tree. He" thought mostly about how precious this tree was, with its lightning-delivered magic, preserv­ ing all of the pretty things he had seen and saved and given to it. Finally he got up and ambled back toward the house. His father had not yet returned on the yellow tractor, so he looked in the kitchen, but' Joey wasn't i/i \ there. He didn't care about that. THE MAGIC TREE 145 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He walked back and looked at the would buy another one. A dusty hogs lying in the mud, seeing that old leather harness, was hung on a ,the new pipe was losing no water large nail on the wall, and there and the trough in the pen was over­ was a permanent ladder leading up flowing. They lay in the mud on one to the square entrance of the hay­ side, and the sun dried the other, loft. He stopped when he heard so that the mud there had caked Joey's voice up there. and turned the color of putty. "Now you quit. Tad!" "What do you say, pigs?" he said, He stood motionless and listened but none of them woke up to look carefully to Tad's rumbling laugh­ at him. ter. He moved on to the small corral "We can't, Tad!" Joey said, where the horse stood. He climbed giggling now. "Don't . . . just stop up on the first rail of the fence how . . . he'll be back any minute and held out his hand, but the horse . . . stop ..." didn't respond. It stood in statu­ And then George couldn't hear esque immobility, withers bony, them anymore. There was only the back sagging, tail forlorn, fetlock soft sighing of the wind moving joints worn and nubbed, hooves through the barn and the creaking cracked. "What do you say, horse.?" of it as it shifted its old joists and he said. But Solomon did no more beams. Finally he heard them mov­ than shiver a shoulder muscle. ing, and he left the barn quickly. Finally he went over to the First Tad came out, then Joey. chicken pen and bent to peer into Tad smiled at him, and Joey's face the coop. Where sunlight flashed colored in the sunlight as she hurried in through a sprung roof board, to the chicken pen. he saw an egg in a nest. "Darn her," Tad asked, "Did you go out and he said, knowing that Joey had not see that magic tree of yours, pard- yet gathered the eggs like she was ner.?'.' supposed to. Then he stepped into George nodded silently, seeing the barn, leaving the door open so Joey bending over to pick up eggs that sunlight flowed in from the from the coop. He felt funny watch­ entrance in a long rectangular ing the way her hips looked against pattern across the straw. The smell 'the thin dress. "Tad.?" he said of chickens was strong here, and the finally. stall where the cow had been milked "What's on your mind, old was empty because she'd died seven ~buddy?" months ago. He wished his father "What were you and Joey doing i46 . ~ ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED up there in the hayloft anyway?" laid her eggs. Would you believe Tad drew a work-toughened fore­ that?" finger down from -a nostril to a "Never heard of that," George corner of his mouth. He smiled said honestly. again. "How'd you know about "Neither did T! But Joey got that.?" worried, on account she might lose "Heard her talking and you some eggs. So I went up there with laughing and her giggling. Such her to look. We found the hen and like." the eggs too, and stuck the hen Tad placed a hand gently on his , back through, into the- coop. Isn't shoulder. Now George's father was that the craziest, Georgie?" in sight, driving the tractor in from "Sure is," George nodded. the south with one hand. "Tell you "Now, don't you tell your papa. what happened, Georgie. One of You know how he gets if a chicken those crazy hens got itself through gets out. Remember how mad he the back of the coop and into the -was when that coyote got into the barn, and up she went, straight into pen and killed five?" the hayloft, and it was there she . "Boy, he was, wasn't he?" "Let's not get him mad again,' pardner." "Okay." Then the tractor was rolling into the barnyard, and Tad was calling out cheerfully,' "Hang on there, Mr. Swanson. You got the use of just one hand, don't forget. How'd it go, with that fencing?" His father and Tad worked hard through the husking, but near the end his father cut himself bad in the leg with the steel hook on his leather husking glove. He lost quite a bit of blood, coming in from the field. But George and Joey got Tad from where he was working, and Tad droye his father , », •'Si

THE HAGIC TREE 147 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was getting accident-prone in his that his father had shot it. He old age. His father had said he was wouldn't "speak to his father the just trying to do a man's work and rest of the day. got going at it too hard. But it Then it was suddenly fall, and slowed him up enough that Tad the nights were cooling. It was one had to stay on to help out. More morning after a chilly night that he times than George could count,_ that found Tad out near the barn with crazy hen got loose from the coop a rifle, reloading cartridges with and went up in the loft to lay her gunpowder. eggs, so that Tad and Joey had to "What do you say, Tad.?" go up there looking for her. George "Well, Georgie, I'm fixing to examined that coop pretty carefully, get that coyote that's been bother­ and he couldn't find the places ing the chickens."' He was sitting where the hen got through. But on an old workbench in the sunshine. Tad told him that was sure enough A lever-action carbine lay beside what happened, and they never him. told his father about it. "Old coyote don't mean no As summer wore on, the Doc took harm," George said. the cast off his father's arm, al-. "Maybe he doesn't, but he's a though he was still limping from mean one, Georgie." the cut in the leg. The nights stayed "No coyote ever bothered me." warm, and sometimes George would "You never got close .enough, get up and go outside to watch the Georgie." fields and prairie stretching- out "They'd always run." lighted by the moon, and feel the "Sure, but if they get you in a warm wind on his cheeks. Often he corner they can take your face oiF. could hear an old coyote howling Coyote's a predator." out there somewhere, but he wasn't "How.?" scared. His father had shot a coyote "Hunts other animals, and he once, for killing chickens. He'd doesn't care what kind, so long's come in with it in the back of the he can get away with it. He's a pickup truck and thrown it down rabies carrier too. You get bit by a on the ground beside George's coyote which has got himself rabies, shoes so that blood from the hole in you go crazy under the sun and die." its neck soaked into the dirt. George George shivered a little, rubbing hadn't Uked that at all. The coyote his nose, but he didn't like to see had looked like a dog they'd once those cartridges collecting in the had, and he didn't hke .to think greasy cloth sack Tad used to carry

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED them, despite Tad's reasoning. father in a pleading tone of voice. "Soft-noses," Tad said, grinning. "Well, Henry, it's time you "I take up tiiis carbine." He lifted made out a will. It's sensible." the short-barreled rifle. "I get George sat down beneath the close enough, I just pump away." window and continued listening. He jacked the lever'viciously. "Less papers the better," his Again George shivered, remem­ father rasped, " but I want to see the bering that other coyote his father boy's taken care of." had thrown at his feet. He hoped "We don't like to thmk of it, Tad would never get close enough Henry. But you broke your arm, to shoot the one that howled nights and then you cut yourself badly. now somewhere on the prairie, and Things can happen. Are you sure he left Tad to go out to his magic you want everything left to Joey.?" tree. Carefully," he removed from "She's my wife." a pocket the pretty thing he had "That's true, Henry, but she's found that morning out beside the young, you know. We could set up white wooden post supporting the some sort of trust fund. That is, metal mailbox. It was a chrome if-" car-door.handle which shone beau­ "She's my wife. I've told her to tifully in the sun, and he guessed take care of that boy if something maybe it had fallen off the mailman's happens to me. She'll do it." truck when he stopped to leave "All I'rri trying to say, Henry, is the mail the day before. George that there are some nice homes for polished it carefully against his him around the state. He'd be overalls, then dropped it into the happy in one of them. And I could large hole and listened for it to hit make a provision to—" bottom. When it did, he patted "Don't want that boy in no the tree fondly, knowing that it home. This is what he knows, this was safe there now, and wandered farm. It's all he knows. He'd wither back to the house. up and die in some home like you're An old, poUshed black car was talking about. I know him. Jocy'U standing in the barnyard beside his take care of him. She's my wife, father's pickup truck, and George and I've told her." heard voices inside the house. Stop­ Mr. Tettman sighed. "All right, ping beside a partially open window, Henry. I won't argue with you. he listened, finally recognizing the But what are you going to leave voice of old Mr. Tettman, the for Joey to use, in case such a thing lawyer and banker, speaking to his ever happened? You don't use the

THE MAGIC TREE 149 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED bank, and without protection—" things, and he was glad Tad had ' "Just put it down, all my earthly come to work on the farm. Then, possessions. That'll include the farm just two days later, his father's and land and equipment and animals left shoulder was broken. and the metal lock box in the bottom After Tad had driven Mr. Swan- bureau drawer in my bedroom. son into town, where the Doc put That's all you have to put down." him in a cast and said he would "Just as you say, Henry." have to stay in the small hospital George stood up and moved for at least three days, Tad sat at away, suddenly upset and fright­ the kitchen table with Joey and ened. He didn't understand much George and told them just what about what they had been talking had happened. about, but he certainly didn't want "It was the pulley rope, with the to go away somewhere. Not live big iron hook on it, attached to the here.? Leave his magic tree.? wall of the barn. Henry wanted me For solace he again found Tad, to hoist up some hay bales to the who was now working on the trac­ loft for the winter. He told me to tor. "What do you say. Tad.?" climb up and release the hook. "Well, Georgie, I figure your Well, T did that. He was standing papa's been using the wrong mix­ down there on the straw, turned ture in this thing. I think that's away from me, and that hook just what's the matter." plain give way. It swung down on "I heard my papa talking in th^ the end. of the, rope and whanged house to Mr. Tettman—he's the into his left shoulder, and that's town lawyer and banker." how he got it busted. Doc says "That's who he is, all right." he'll be fine in no time. But it "Yes," George said, and then surely proves one thing, and it's told Tad everything he'd heard. what I told everybody in town. A Tad stopped work on the tractor man gets accident-prone, and it and straightened and listened with- doesn't seem like it ever stops." his eyes very intent. When George "Poor Henry," Joey said, looking had finished, he said, "Well, now, at Tad. . there isn't anything going to hap­ "Nothing can hurt my papa too pen to your papa, Georgie. Don't bad," George said bravely. you get yourself all upset. He's going "That's right, Georgie," Tad said to live a hundred years. You won't with enthusiasm. "Your old papa have to go off somewhere." is just too tough." George felt good again, sure of The next morning,, when he

150 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED \ walked across the barnyard, Tad old dead cottonwood out ther? west appeared from.the barn and said, and south. That'd make us some "Georgie, you didn't see my sack good heat in this room.'' -of ammo, did you?" George's eyes widened, and his "Uh-uh," George said. •face flushed with quick panic. But "I had it there in the barn with then his father laughed gently and the carbine, and its gone." said, "I think we'd better let that - "I didn't see it." cottonwood be. Tad." "Well, your papa maybe picked Tad grinned. "Guess you're right, it up. When he gets back I'll ask him. Mr. Swanson." I wanted a try for that coyote this George was relieved, and was morning. Wind's down a little, and again glad to be in this room his he might be moving. I'll have to mother had once used and loved, hold up, I guess." with the purple flowered wallpaper "Okay," George said, and went and the framed 23rd Psalm and the out to his magic tree where he sat fire snapping the logs and the lamp down with his back against the glowing red with beads reflecting. dead trunk and dozed a while, be­ He was getting pretty used to Joey cause he hadn't slept much the now, who didn't pick on him much night before. anymore, but mostly ignored him, Joey had been restless that night which was all right with him. Every­ before, and she was again that night thing was going to be all right too, and the next, but then his forever. father came home and she seemed to Then, a week later, when his relax. George slept better himself, father decided he was able to drive with his father at home. His father the tractor again, the machine rolled couldn't work for quite a time, so over down the bank of the irriga­ he would sit in the livingroom on tion ditch along the south acres a black leather chair. Evenings, iand crushed his father to death. they would all sit in there, because It happened sometime in the it was cold enough now to use the morning, with the air cool and frost fireplace. Tad split wood for it and not far off. George had wandered brought it in. aimlessly about from house to barn One night Tad winked at George's to pen to silo. He knew his father father and said, "Got a good supply had driven off.on the tractor, and of wood now, Mr. Swanson, but Tad had argued about his father when we start running out a bit, I not being able to handle it. But was thinking of chopping up that you couldn't tell his father anything THE MAGIC TREE 151 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED like that, and he'd gone. Later, When they lifted him into the George had looked for Tad and hearse, Tad said, shaking his head couldn't find him anywhere, so he sadly, "He just got himself so went out to his magic tree and accident-prone there wasn't any deposited a new penny his father chance for him." had given him during breakfast. George waited patiently for his Then he came back and found Tad father to come home. Then he busy feeding hay to Solomon. rode into town with Tad and Joey Tad looked at George, smiling, in the pickup truck for the funeral, and said, '"Bout time your papa is which he didn't understand at all. getting back, isn't it?" It was held in Si Havenger's small, "I don't know," George said. dark chapel, which smelled so "Don't like to see him riding sweetly from flowers placed around around on that tractor with his the cofSn that George felt a bit shoulder still weak. Maybe I'd better sick for a time. Some woman hike over to the south, see how he's George had never seen before sang doing." hymns in an unsteady, reedy voice, When Tad finally came back he and the minister, Reverend Dapple, said -he'd found Swanson dead in said a lot of Bible things in a sad the ditch, with the tractor below voice. Then everybody started walk­ him upside down. He was crushed ing past the coffin, which was so bad in the head, Tad said, you closed. Joey started crying again. could hardly recognize him. George George said to Tad* who was did not really understand that his sitting next to him, "Is Papa in that father was dead, but only hurt, box.?" like the other times. He wanted to "That's where he is, Georgie. go see him over there, but Tad But his soul's in heaven." told Joey not to let him. She started George stood. up and ran past crying loudly and snapped at him everyone and tried to yank the lid not to leave the house. So he didn't. open, but Tad followed him and Then Tad drove into town and pulled him off. There was a shocked got the Doc and Si Havenger, the silence, then George called, "What undertaker, and they came out with do you say. Papa!" the hearse and went over and got his Tad got him outside into the father and brought him back to .the pickup, and Joey came out and house on a stretcher all covered got in, still crying, saying, "He with blankets so George couldn't likely scared trie half to death, try­ see him. ing to get that thing open!"

152 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE,

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Finally the pallbearers carried the From the sound of it, Joey was casket outside and put it in the back restless all that night. George had of the hearse, which rolled slowly trouble sleeping too, wondering away. T^d • started the pickup and when his father would return. Early got behind it. They drove in a the next morning he got up and procession of maybe fifteen cars to went outside into the chilled air the cemetery outside of town where to look for him again. But he a dry wind blew hard and cold, tak­ couldn't find him. Then Sheriff ing the leaves off the few trees Gaines drove into the yard. scattered between graves. The min­ "What do you say. Sheriff.?" ister said some more Bible things, George called. He walked over, and and then they lowered the coffin the large man put an arm over his into the hole that had been dug. shoulders as they walked toward When they started shoveling dirt the house. over it, George said definitely, "Sorry about what happened, "He's not in that box." George." When they got home, George "My papa'il be back," George went out to the barn to look for said positively. his father. When he couldn't find The sheriff patted his shoulder, him, he returned to the kitchen then they went into the kitchen where Joey and Tad were talking where Tad and Joey were eating at the table. breakfast. Tad started to get up, "Break the lock and look," Joey but the sheriflf motioned him down said. and took a chair himself. Seeing George, Tad said harshly "You wouldn't have a cup of to Joey, "You don't touch it." coffee for me, would you, Joey.?" "But how do we know—" "Sure would. Sheriff," Joey said, "How about supper?" Tad but she looked very nervous. snapped. "Was talking to Mr.. Tettman," Angrily, Joey got up and began the sheriff said. "Seems Henry, left banging pots against the stoVe. a will. All that remains for me is to "I was looking for my papa," put it down legal what happened to George'said. "I guess he stayed in Henry. You found him, Tad." town. He'll be back tomorrow, that's "Sure did," Tad nodded gravely. for sure." "Never saw a man busted up like Tad put a hand gently on his that." shoulder. "If you believe it, pard- "I took a look," the sheriff said. ner, you believe it." '' "Took it bad in the ,back of his

THE MAGIC TREE 153 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED head. Couldn't 'a been any worse." can get along with things. Just "Can't hardly be avoided when hope Mr. Swanson might have done you get under a rolling tractor." all right by them—girl and a boy "That's true. Where were you like Georgie can't run a farm all by when it happened, Joey.?" themselves.," "Here in the kitchen," she said, "Well, Mr. Tettman'll be coming beginning to sniffle. along with that news. I'm glad "You, Tad.?" you're out here to look after things "I was here all early morning, until they're straightened out, Tad. around the house and barn, then Take care now, Georgie. Every­ I got worried and went out and thing's going to be all right." looked for him. That's right, isn't When Mr. Tettman's shiny, black it, Georgie.?" car rolled slowly up from the high­ George tried to think. He was way, George was waiting outside. fairly certain that he'd looked for He watched the car carefully to Tad early that morning and could­ see if his papa would get out. But n't find him anywhere. But he oiily Mr. Tettman, a thin "man wasn't sure, and it didn't seem to wearing a black suit, his white hair make any difference anyway. He rustling in the cool breeze, stepped would be seeing his father again out. He saw George and smiled. pretty quickly. "Well, there, George. How are- "George?" the sheriff asked. your3' > "Guess so." "What do you say,- Mr. Tett­ "Well, then, I'll put it down as man.?" George shouted. accidental. I.'ll drive back into town "Well, I'm feeling pretty good, and tell Mr. Tettman. Then I George." He lifted a slim dark imagine he'll be driving out about leather briefcase from the - back noon to read you the will, Joey." seat and started for the kitchen Joey began crying again. Tad door. stood up to shake hands with the "You see my papa in town.?" sheriff. George asked. "What're your plans now, Tad.?" "My boy," Mr. Tettman said" the sheriff asked. sadly. "Well, I feel awful sorry for George followed him to the door, Joey there. And I sure like old which was opened by Tad from Georgie here. Don't want to leave the inside. Joey was sitting at, the . them bang up against it. Might table again, sniffling. She looked at • stay on long enough to see how they Mr. Tettman with blurred, animal-

154 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tvary eyes, but offered no greeting. trailed away. "Do you know the Tad shook hands and said, box, Joey.? I have here—" He "Mighty nice of you to drive all fumbled into another pocket for the way out, Mr. Tettman. Have quite a time, and at last brought out a chair." a small key which he put on the Mr. Tettman sat down, immacu­ table. "I imagine this might fit the late with his black tie knotted per­ lock. Si Havenger was kind enough fectly against his high starched to give it to me, from Henry's white collar. "Sheriff Gaines told pocket." me you were staying on to help out. "Sure," Joey said, and got up to Tad. I'm glad to hear that." His hurry to the bedroom. She came white hands trembled, but he man­ back quickly and placed on the aged to get the briefcase opened. table a metal box locked with a "Least I can do, Mr. Tettman," small silver padlock. She had stopped Tad said, sitting down; watching crying now, and she looked with the old man tensely. brightening eyes at the box. Mr. Tettman drew a paper from "Let's see now," Mr. Tettman the case and put it down on the said. He tried several times to get table. He cleared his throat vio­ the key into the padlock, but it lently, sniffed deeply, then ran his kept falling from his shaking hands. tongue slowly across his upper false "You wouldn't want me to do teeth. George noticed the way Tad that, would you.?" Tad asked. He kept opening and closing his hands took the key hastily to open the on top of the table. lock, then pushed the box toward "Now," Mr. Tettman said, "this Mr. Tettman. document, in essence, leaves every­ Mr. Tettman tugged the lid open thing to you, Joey." with great effort. He removed a Joey blinked against her fresh yellowing photograph of George's tears and said, "Golly." mother, looked at it for a time, Mr. Tettman looked at her, then then handed it to George. concentrated again on the paper. "Boy," George said, looking at it "That includes the land, the build­ happily. ings, the animals, the furniture, Next Mr. Tettman removed a everything. Also the contents of a guarantee for the tractor. He turned metal lock box which Henry in­ it over carefully, then dropped it formed me he kept in the bottom to the table. Finally he brought out bureau drawer of the bedroom that a folded piece of ruled tablet paper, you and he, ah ..." His voice which had been discolored by time.

THE MAGIC TREE 155 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED He managed to get it unfolded and do, of course—" He looked apolo examined it with a bewildered ex­ getically at George, who smilec pression. On it were drawn five back at him brightly, then walked circles and one X. In a lower corner to the door and disappeared. was written: 0 1. He looked in The kitchen seemed very silent the box again. Tad stood up and to George for a time. Then Joey looked in the box, now empty, his said, "That fool! All along, he let face coloring. Joey was blinking me think—" again, this time angrily. "Wait a minute!" Tad said, look­ "Is that all there is.?" she asked ing at George with wild eyes. "Wait in a shrill voice. ' a minute!"/ .Mr. Tettman's head, had begun "A picture and a guarantee and to tremble spasmodically again. some doodling!" Joey yelled. "Uhmmmmm," he said, and cleared "Georgie!" Tad said, getting up his throat and ran his tongue along and grasping George's arm. his upper teeth. "I'd hoped so very "Georgie, you told me he buried much that Henry might have . . . cans, remember?" I mean, the boy here. I—" He George shrugged, startled by the managed to stop the trembling of hard grip on his arm.. "Guess so." his head, but not that of his hands. "Those cans—do you remember "I was. never familiar with Henry's where he buried them.?" financial situation, of course, h do George thought about it, then know he sold land down to the shook his head. "Guess not." south for the irrigation ditch at "What cans.?" Joey shouted. what must have been a pretty good Tad whirled and picked up the price. He always managed to get ruled paper. "Just wait a minute!" some pretty good crops. He knew "You're getting as crazy as he is!" how to live rather cheaply, I be­ "It's a map! He buried his money lieve." in cans! This is the map. The X is "Did he!" Joey shouted. the house, see ? The circles are where Mr. Tettman picked up the he buried the money, and the scale's paper again, looking bewildered in the corner!" Tad ran out of the once more. "Some sort of doodling, room, and the door crashed behind I imagine. I just . . . well, I'm him. disappointed, to say the least. I—" Confused, George looked at the He moved his tongue across his teeth picture of his, mother in his hands. again, clutched the table and drew ^He smiiled, kno\ying what he was himself upright. "Anything I can going to do with it. He held it out

156 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED toward Joey. "This is my mama." Tad stood spraddle-legged above "Oh, shut up!" him, eyes furious, then he turned George walked outside and saw and ran back toward the barn. Tad running from the barn carrying George wiped his hurting mouth a' spade in one hand, the paper with his hand, saw blood on'it and fluttering in the other. His legs cried again, tears stinging. "Papa?" churned, carrying him off toward the he said. north field. George shrugged, then Then he saw that Tad was driving he walked out to his magic tree. the tractor back toward him. He There he carefully dropped his began to move away, until Tad mother's picture into the eye-level jumped off the machine with a hole. He sat down then, with his large-bladed axe in his hands and back against the tree, and went to swung the blade at the center of sleep, because he hadn't slept well the tree. George screamed as though at all the night before. the steel had bit into him. He He awoke suddenly when Tad, threw himself at Tad, but Tad dirty and sweating, his blond hair knocked him away, striking him askew; lifted him to his feet by his in the nose so that he was bleeding overall bib. "Nothing!" Tad shout­ there too. The blade of the axe ed. "Where did he bury those cans.''" glinted in the cold sunlight as it George looked at him with eyes whipped'at the dead trunk again. wide open, feeling his heart pound­ Rotted jelly beans and rusty, molded ing in sudden fear. "My papa?" silver bits flew out on the ground. "Where did he bury those cans.^" Tad stopped and glared at him George shook his head slowly. wildly. "Remember yel, dummy?" "When he comes back—" George whimpered and got up "Where?" . again to try to stop him, but Tad "Don't remember." drove the butt of the axe handle Tad slapped him hard across the into his stomach. He gasped and mouth, and George tasted blood. sat down again, clumsily. Through He suddenly began to cry, be­ red-rimmed eyes, he saw the top cause he'd never been struck before of his precious tree pitch over and in his- life. Tad hit him again, crash against the barren ground.' harder, and he fell to his knees, Then Tad got a chain from the wagging his head, tears and blood tractor and looped it around the streaming down his chin. He looked lower trunk. He jumped onto the at Tad imploringly. "I put my tractor and drove it forward. The mama's picture in the magic tree." chain stretched and tightened, the THE MAGIC TREE , 157 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tractor held motionless for a mo-' the 23rd Psalm was hung. He^sa ment, straining, then the trunk was down heavily, looking at the gapiii ripped from the ground, its dead cavity of the hollow stump facin roots showing whitely. out toward the room.IThe flame "No!" George whispered, forcing were beginning to leap higher anc himself to get up. He staggered higher. after the moving tractor, following "Whiskey!" Tad roared.. Anc his tree stump as it bounced along Joey, frightened, ran to the kitchen on the end of the chain. He fell then reappeared with a bottle. Tac down and got up, crying, and Tad opened it and tipped it up, tht kept driving until he reached the liquor gurgling as he swallowed house. Then he turned to George. "There'; "Get a fire going in that living- your magic tree, dummy. And al room, Joey!" he shouted. "We're the junk you ever put in it!" Hi; going to have a burning of a damn neck was ridged with fury. He dranl magic tree!" . again, then looked down at the George's mouth was all bloody, stump, burning now with greatei dirt mixing with the blood and heat and flames. Suddenly, he tears on the outside of his face. dropped the bottle and fell to hi; He watched in horror as Tad, fury knees, shouting, "The cans! He giving him an unbelievable strength, must have dug them all up behind kicked the chain free and lifted that.old man, and then—" He dove the trunk of the dead Cottonwood at the blazing trunk, howling when to carry it into the kitchen. flames bit his hands. "Water!" he "Mine!" George said, and stum­ shouted. "Get some water!" bled into the house and through the Joey ran toward the kitchen in kitchen. He heard the stump crash­ panic. Then the first cartridge ex­ ing into the large fireplace, and ploded. Its soft-nose bullet screamed already there was the snap of burn­ out of the fireplace from the burn­ ing kindling. ing sack in ^ the hollowed stump Joey was in there, and Tad where George had put it when he straightened from the hearth, eyes hadn't wanted that old coyote shot. blazing in the same fashion as the It struck Joey in the back. She licking flames. screamed. Then the others began "Can't!' George said plaintively, exploding. Three slugs slammed into and staggered toward Tad, who Tad, who half rose, then fell down shoved him so that he fell across again. the' room, striking the wall where George watched in awe, not even

158 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ling the pain of his wounds, showing redly from within, but it the cans curled with the heat, also caught the reflections of the d their contents flared with flame. fire in its panels and against the ; remembered in some remote sec- beads. ri of his brain that his father had Suddenly George felt very, good. ried those cans, all right, and He could even remember, again, sy'd been such pretty cans— that part of the Psalm,". . . and inted red with pretty lettering I will dwell in the house of the d the tops and bottoms silver and Lord forever." ining. He hadn't cared about This must be the house, because lat was inside them, old, dirty it was such a pretty place here, with een paper. But he'd liked the the fiercely raging fire, and the ns, so he'd waited until his father pretty lamp lighted red. and reflect­ d gone, then he'd dug them up and ing the fire, and the explosions. It every single one of them in his He had a feeling, in that moment, agio tree. that he was going to see his mother Now the magic tree was burning. very soon—and his father too. Right It suddenly he didn't mind. He'd here. Because this ivas the house. ;ver heard such cracking and And then, as flying lead whistled )pping and whistling in the fire- across the room at his forehead, he ace, with the flames leaping and smiled widely, shouting, "What imping better than he'd ever seen do you say. Lord!" And he had lem. The old lamp was lit and never been happier in his life.

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