Detective Story Magazine May, 1938 by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Detective Story
Published: 1938-05-04T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4 - Preview

THE old easy smile was on his face when he walked into the news room with Joan and Hush. The whole staff halted work and stared. An electric tension seemed to run through the room.

Compton got up from the city desk and came across the room. He had a telegraph blank in his hand. He shoved it in front of Bill. His hand shook a little and his eyes were full of puzzled fear.

“What does this mean, Eagles?” he asked.

Bill read the telegram:

WILLIAM EAGLES TAKING OVER MANAGING EDITORSHIP EXPRESS TO TAKE EFFECT IMMEDIATELY

CRONIN.

Bill smiled. Cronin was the boss at the top of the Craig chain of papers, answerable only to the trustees of the Craig estate.

The smile got lopsided and crooked as he said, “I guess it explains itself.” He handed the telegram to Hush and said: “Do you suppose you could get out the paper you’d like to print tonight if you went back to the desk?”

Hush read the telegram over and over. The import of the message seemed a long time in penetrating. Joan Digby stared over Hush’s shoulder and red spots began to glow in her cheeks. The blue of her eyes was very deep.

She was the first to speak. “Bill, you fooled us. But now ” She broke off to stare.

Hush drew a long heavy breath and got around to answering Bill’s question. “Could?” he said in a choked voice. Then his voice mounted and grew stronger. “Could I? Holy cow, could I?”

Bill stared at Compton who had not moved since he had handed over the telegram. Bill’s voice crackled as he asked, “Williams knows, of course?”

Compton nodded. Bill turned away with the nod, saying to Hush:

“We’d better go see Williams.”

With his hand on the knob of the door, the door pushed open a scant inch, Bill froze.

Williams was talking to someone over the phone. His voice was harsh with desperation. “I tell you, this is the smash if you fellows don’t stop fumbling. You had Eagles and the other two and you let them go. If you’d hung onto them, we could still pull this mess out of the fire.”

Bill pushed the door wide and said, his eyes as steady as the gun in his hand:

“But they didn’t, Williams. They didn’t hold us.”

Clint Williams dropped the telephone into its cradle as though it burned his fingers. His eyes were wide and scared. Then they narrowed as one hand dropped behind the desk.

“I wouldn’t try that, Williams,” Bill said harshly. “Put your hands on the top of the desk—both of them. And sit tight.”

Hush’s voice sounded as if he could not himself believe what he was saying. “It was Williams’s voice I heard talking to Vale. I should have known. I should have known.”

“I should have known too,” Joan said in a stiff, unnatural voice. “I should have known that father was sold out from inside. I should have known that and guessed.”

Williams’s hands were steady as they rested on the desk. After the first shock of surprise he seemed to have gained control of himself.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.