Newspapers / The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, … / Dec. 24, 1936, edition 1 / Page 3
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Thursday December 24 1336 wjzzmm FOURTH INSTALMENT SNYOPSIS: Detective Dan Col well of the Qraber-Vael private detective agency Is assigned the job of shadowing lawyer Arthur McDonald whose wife fears gang ster enemies are plotting to mur der him. McDonald is murdered in spite of Colwell's watchfulness. Dan Is hot on their trail and sus pects a sinister plot . . . Dan hung up and stepped out of the booth. He fished a cigarette from his pack and lighted it. The thing grew more complicated. But thinking back he could detect no error on hts part. He had that package, and that was okay! Col well thought it was working all right. This case ought to be prof itable. His taxicab drew up to the somewhat tattered canvas canopy whose begrimed white letters spelled Kennebec Hotel. Dan paid off the driver and paused on the sidewalk to gaze about him. The Kennebec was a ten-story affair of tan brick in a neighborhood that once had been fashionable as attested by the few sprawling mansions which still evaded the wreckers. Mostly there were other lower middle class apartments about, and delicatessens with smoked windows. A balloon man waited glumly on the far corner, a few automobiles rolled past, and there were several young women pushing baby carriages that con tained the small sons and daugh ters of two-hundred-a-month clerks watching clocks downtown. Colwell did not relish the visit he was going to pay. He drew a deep breath of reluctance and forced his steps toward the revolv ing door. But it seemed abso lutely necessary to put his head into the lion's mouth this once. He had to learn the exact appli cation of those numbers on the slip of paper found on the run ning board of McDonald's taxi. They were of great value, he sus pected with a thrill warming his breast. Enough to put a man on Easy Street for life! Because a quarter of a million dollars more in snow soon was due. Arthur McDonald, brains of the ring, had received that thirty thousand dollar package merely as a tryout of the smuggling scheme. Quillen wanted that, but more, he wanted the big ship ment. That was why he had kill ed the lawyer to get it all for himself. Probably McDonald had tried to hold out on that small package, arousing Qulllen's hate and greed and the decision to get McDonald out of the way. That two hundred and fifty thousand In narcotics would ..put this small capture Dan had lucked Into, in the shade! , When, exactly was the big stuff due and how was it coming? if he was clever enough he might learn that in the apartment of Miss Helen Fane. But he would have to run the gantlet up there and it wasn't going to be fun! The small hotel lobby panelled in dark wood was indirectly light ed to give a sort of garishly mod ern version of an old English inn. Dan kept thinking the next few minutes would be risky. He stop ped at the desk. "Miss Fane's apartment 707? By the way, has a Mr. Quillen, a Try CARDUI For Functional Monthly Palm Women from the teen age to the change of life have found Cardul genuinely helpful for the relief ol functional monthly pains due to lack of Just the right strength from the food they eat. Mrs. Crit Haynes, ol « Essex, Mo., writes: "I used Cardu' ' Then a girl for oramps and found It very beneficial. I have recently taken Cardul during the change of Ufe. I was very ner vous, had head and back paint and waa in a generally run-down condlUon. Cardul faas helped me greaUy." Thousands of women testify Cardul bene fited them. If It does not benefit YOD, consult a physician. Wishing You All °3' jr jjttW] • 1 May it be a Merry Christmas for you and yours, and may the New Year to come bring you Haopiness and Prosperity! UNITED VARETY STORES ELKIN, N. C. bii Lawrence man in a dark suit, rather wide mouth, big shoulders, come in to see her?" "No , sir, not today, sir, that I noticed." Lefty was known here, then. Been giving the girl a play, Dan happened to know.. The clerk looked In surprise at the five-spot Colwell passed him. "Say, did you ever visit people and wish you had some excuse to leave? Do a favor for me.. You ring me up in 707 just thirty minutes from now. I'll do the talking; the point is, you are a friend who knew, I'd be there and you insist on seeing me. It's urgent." He strove for a Don Juan grin. "You know how it is when a man can't break away from a woman?" Chuckling, he poked a square fist into the clerk's chest. His chuckle was infectious. The young fellow's black pompadour twitched forward as he grinned. He folded the five-spot and tuck ed it safely away. "11l do that, mister. Who should I ask for?" Colwell." He spelled it out. "Thirty minutes from now—and not twenty-five minutes or thirty five minutes. Thirty!" With a wink he turned to the elevator. But his humor vanished as it carried him upward. The trouble was, he scarcely knew what to expect. When the door on seven rolled back he went down the carpeted hall, noting the padding exposed in places. It was a cheap, bashy hotel where no one cared much what went on provided it did not bring the police. Mrs. McDonald admitted him. She wore a slinky black satin gown which showed off her slen der, supple figure to best advan tage. Her eyes had the look of re cent weeping. although not enough to impress him. Colwell stepped in and heard the door close with an ominous click. "Sit down, Mr. Colwell. As I told you, I've been living under my maiden name of Fane." The girl swept past him to a chair and sank into it. "Take off your coat, won't you?" He did take off his topcoat and draped it over the chair that held his soft hat. Dan heard heard hinges squeak behind him. He turned to find a shiny bluish forty-four automatic pointing his way with the hard killer eyes of Lefty Quillen behind the straight barrel. It gave the detective a series of chills down his spinal column. He got to his feet, watching the man come out of a bedroom. "What is this anyhow?" "So you know who killed Mc- Donald, eh? Two of them! Well, Colwell, you're done for. Done for, get It? You and that snake of a detective agency boss of yours. I mean Graber!" The words rumbled from deep in his barrel-like chest. Quillen's face was contorted in hate and his eyes were like the eyes of a little suckling pig Dan remember ed from his kid days on an Indi ana farm, when the pig was wedg ed in a fence and the old boar came at it. They were the eyes of a man who could hate and who was afraid. "Stick up your hands!" Lefty snarled., Dan raised his palms level with his ears. "What's this for? I don't get you. How do you know I—" He fastened accusing eyes on the Pane girl. "You cat!" Colwell cried. "You're not Mrs. McDonald! If you were you wouldn't have this guy here with you! Why," he stammered as if it struck a ter rific surprise to im, ' you're not Mrs. McDonald! You're a fake!" Quillens' reaction to this was a puzzled look. The puzzlement lift ed as he geemed to make a guess, and he sneered. "Catches on fast for a dumb operative!" He step ped behind Dan and after brief fumbling had the gun from his pocket. "Helen, I guess you put it over on Otto, eh? If it took him THE ELKIN TRIBUNE. ELKIN. WORTH CAROLINA In like It took this chump. Hold still!" "What do you mean about Qra ber?" Colwell adopted the stupid ity pose. "Graber's all right. He aways handed me my check every Friday. Why should she pretend. —?" He left off, Shaking his head as If thoroughly mystified. Quillen flung a curse that ex plained nothing but his hate. 11l hold this guy. You search him, and don't miss anything!" She had dropped all pretense that she was the shyster lawyer's widow and her contempt for Dan was plain in the little lift of her shoulder. /The girl wore a hard look now and her nails as she poked her hands into his pockets managed to scratch and tear. She was a cat. She glared at Dan as if she would like to rend him limb from limb. Fane was in this mess, plenty. All she found on him was a few keys, a notebook containing noth ing much of Interest, forty dol lars in bills and some small change, and a slip of paper in his vest with his fountain pen. "That's it! Gimme It!" Quillen snatched it. He backed away and smoothed the paper. His hard I eyes lighted. "This is It the numbers. This is what we want!") he breathed exultantly. "This dumb dick hadn't even an idea he was carryin* dynamite around! Why," he cackeld "he might've: give it to Graber!" "You're crazy. Otto's out of town. He's in Ewing, Pennsylvania or anyhow, on the way. He's off■ hunting!" Lefty shot him a pitying look. I He sucked air noisily as he thought. "I guess we got to kill him, all right, eh? That's the only way, Helen. Then he can't squawk that you faked Mrs. Mac. Who: killed McDonald?" he thrust sud denly at Dan. Colwell, watching alertly the blue automatic, set his jaw. "Why not ask me who used Soup Cat terbSr's own knife on him in that alley? I can put two and two to gether as to who did the second Job, knowing who did the first!" Quillen's jagged, tobacco-yel lowed teeth gleamed wet. "Yeah," he muttered, nodding. "We got to kill you, Colwell. Yeah, we'll do it too." He glanced at the paper in his hands. "Eight five, three, dash, six, six, one." The expression on the man's face slowly changed. Perplexity, he tried to shake off but failed, gave way to suspicion. It grew keener and more bitter. His pig gish eyes raised to Colwell. Lefty wet his lips with a quick sweep of his tongue, trying to convince himself that It was all right; that these were the numbers. "Listen," he said at last, thick ly. "When we jerked all the stuff outa Mac's pockets, identification and all that we got the numbers too. Hell, that's what we were af ter! I takes a squint at them, sre? You don't think-—" He left off. "What, Lefts-?" Helen Fane asked. "Think what?" For answer Quillen stepped nearer Colwell and struck him a glancing blow on the head with the muzzle of his gun. You rat!" he shrilled. "You got them num bers hid away somewhere! This ain't the paper I dropped on that taxi running board! I kind of re member . . . Yup, the first was seven. The next was—let's see— I guess it was ought. That's it!" "Listen!" he yelled at Dan, and waved his gun as if about to strike again," you ain't so damned dumb as you act! You switched them numbers, you goat! These ain't the ones that were on that slip you must've picked off the run ning board. Come on, come on, out with 'em! Give me the numbers!" he howled, and made a pass at Colwell's vest as if to jam his hands into' the pockets for anoth er search. Rubbing the side of his head which still stung from the blow, Colwell managed only with the greatest effort to keep control, to maintain his mystified hurt look. "What do you mean? I threw that slip away. It didn't mean anything to me. Who you hit tin'? he whined. "Helen! Go through him again The dirty—. He's tryin' to slip us these phoney numbers! Listen," he barked before she could speak, "I got a memory, ain't I? # I swear the first was 7. The next was 0." Quil len put a hand to his forehead, half bent at the waist, and con centrated with all his might. Still there was no opporunity for Col well to grab for his gun even had he been so minded. Quillen straightened. "I know I'm right!" "What you waiting for?" he roared at the girl. "Search him! Yank every stitch off! "We got to find 'em, don't we?" "Walt, Lefty. Don't foam at the mouth as if you've gone nuts! Think a minute," she snapped, not in the least cowed by his thundering. "Think a second, will you, and get the rest of those numbers?" Meanwhile she was engaged in turning Colwell's pock ets inside out. She found nothing. He relapsed into a spasm of cursing and slumped into a chair. "Geez! But I know these ain't the ones. You think he turned them over to Otto Graber?" Helen Fane, alias McDonald, stared at Colwell. He said nothing for a moment. "Listen, what I can't figure out is, what of it? I mean the num bers? What are they for?" (Continued next week) fgjppj TODAY—(Wednesday)— FAMILY SHOW "THE EX-MIS. BRADFORD" with William Powell Jean Arthur Also Cartoon Adm. 10c to all THURSDAY AND CHRISTMAS DAY— THE GREATEST ROMANTIC SMASH BY THE PRODUCERS OF SAN FRANCISCO"! Six great stars in a dramatic hit even mightier than "San Francisco"l The screen's finest love team . bring ing new soul thrills to this flaming White House.. • but couldn't rule her W|p BROWN'S M|^Hb I li^. | FRANCHOT TONE News MELVYN DOUGLAS and JAMES STEWART Cartoon I Dir . cl , d CLARENCE BROWN Admission J Pr®due«d b» Joseph Mankltwicz FRIDAY NIGHT, 12 O'CLOCK — MID-NIGHT SHOW "LEGION OF TERROR" Adm. 10c-25c SATURDAY—Zane Grey's "THE ARIZONA RAIDERS" With Larry Crabbe, Raymond Hatton, Marsha Hunt and Grant Withers Cartoon—Serial—Comedy Adm. 10c - 30c The Lyric Theatre Wishes Everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY NEW YEAR L PROGRAM Lyric Theatre CHANGE OF PROGRAM DAILY For New Year's Week MONDAY ONLY— w Wfe what w« do I^ARTHOUIBwV* OHifJuU, Mcoo- Cooper- rooiky * kmJAN HUNTEIUtM. Peggy coNK LI N Katharine ALEXANDER r V" HMHBMI Produced by Frank Davit News Adm. 10c - 30c TUESDAY ONLY TWO LOVERS DEFT THE FURT OF A NATION " . . . WHILE MEN RISK THEIR u I'j: LIVES IN A CRUMBLING WORLD! mutt*** 6 * mmm JIMES DUNN ■ISMIIS MAE CLARKE DAVID MANNERS m m CHARLOTTE HENRTi mn a. VIITBIU ; rant MILL' QIOBOE WVIM] imn ncn\f ~ Selected Short Adm. 10c-30c WEDNESDAY—FAMILY SHOW— "STAR FOR A NIGHT" g, ADMISSION ONLY 10c THURSDAY ONLY— "THE BRIDE WALKS OUT NEW YEAR'S DAY—(Friday)— "GIRL'S DORMITORY" FRIDAY NIGHT, 12 O'CLOCK MIDNIGHT SHOW "HERE COMES CARTER" SATURDAY— "RANGER COURAGE" j; v
The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.)
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Dec. 24, 1936, edition 1
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