G-Man Detective, April, 1936
by Col. William T. Cowin
Caught in a Trap Where Death Seemed the Only Way Out, A Daring Young G-Man Strives Desperately to Make Good on His First Assignment.
HERE were eight of them in that
until the word came, until Mayhew
room. Eight pairs of eyes that held
returned from the country with the
T the flickering covertness of the information that would send them hunted man. Eight bitter faces, etched with springing to desperate and bloody action.
the acid of hate.
The room was blue with smoke.
It was a shabby, furnished Four of them played cards. Three scanned apartment, on a side street in Manhattan.
the morning papers. But Malloy remained
There they waited, with tensed nerves and to himself, pacing up and down, scowling, inflamed tempers. Malloy had issued strict uttering muffled curses under his breath.
orders that none was to leave the apartment For the heat was on Malloy’s mob.
G-Man Detective
2
The G-men were on the trail. The word had
“Let’s
have
it.”
gone out. Worse yet, the Malloy mob was
broke. Too broke to seek a safe hideout and MAYHEW lighted a cigar. The eight men
lie low until the deadly marksmen from
listened in attentive silence.
Washington had time to interest themselves
“He’s at his country place near
in another case.
Belleville,” said Mayhew. “He’s got two
Malloy was even now embarking
servants in the house—and he’s got a
on a single desperate foray to raise bodyguard.”
money—money enough to take a run out
“That’s because of that damned
before the heat got too hot altogether. It amateur extortionist who sent him those
was not mere chance that had made Malloy letters last year. The kid the cops got here.”
top man of these killers. Hard as they were,
“Right,” said Mayhew. “That’s just
he was harder. Bitter as they were, he was why he’s got a G-man with him.”
more bitter. And deep down in his
“A G-man!” Malloy’s voice was a
murderous heart he harbored a hellish hate dry detonation.
for the G-men.
“Yeah,” said Mayhew. “He’s the
It was an obsession with Malloy.
bodyguard. They wanted to send another
He cursed them and damned them. For they guy but the old man wouldn’t stand for it.
had slain the one thing that he had ever He says it’s all hooey. He ain’t afraid of achieved an affection for. Malloy’s kid snatchers. He’s even sore that they got this brother had fallen a victim to the Federal one guy there. But they insisted on that.”
guns; and Malloy, completely disregarding
“Okay,” said Malloy. “You’re sure
the fact that the kid had shot down two
you got everything? Sure we ain’t going to agents in cold blood, had nurtured this run into something unexpected?”
hatred in the depths of his soul.
“That’s the whole layout,” replied
An odd tattoo beat on the door.
Mayhew. “Got it from the gardener.
Every head in the room jerked around. Talkative old guy—been in the family for Eyes contracted with heroin blinked years. Bought him three drinks in town one swiftly. Hands reached for gun butts. night and he talked.”
Malloy sprang across the room. The
“Okay,” said Malloy. “Let’s get
muzzle of his thirty-eight was against the going.”
door.
A man moved across the room. His
“Who is it?” he snarled.
dark face was grave.
A whisper came back: “Mayhew.”
“Wait a minute, Malloy,” he said.
Breath was drawn once more into
“You ain’t going to pull this snatch under a lungs that had held taut. Weapons G-man’s nose, are you?”
disappeared from view. Malloy shot the
“Why not?” snarled Malloy. “He’s
bolt, opened the door.
a man, ain’t he? He’s just one man like any A burly man was in the room, the
of the rest of us!” His eyes suddenly lit up.
cynosure of all eyes. Mayhew threw a bag
“By hell, Richards, I got an idea, and what on the table and sank into a chair. He
an idea! Boys, we’ll take the Fed, too!”
sighed heavily.
They stared at him. Even Mayhew
“Well,” snapped Malloy. “What’ve
was moved to protest.
you got?”
“Take the Fed! Are you crazy,
“Everything. The whole layout.”
Malloy?”
Gunman’s Hate
3
“Sure,” said Malloy. “Crazy like a
had envied him when he had drawn this
fox. We’ll take the Fed. I got a swell idea.”
bodyguard assignment!
His hand dropped to the butt of his thirty-He ground out his cigarette in the
eight. His voice dropped ominously. moss at his side and yawned. The
“Anybody think it ain’t a swell idea?” he uneventful hours of the past three days had demanded.
made him careless.
There was a deathly silence in the
Neither he nor Norcross was aware
room. “All right,” went on Malloy. “Get
of the shadowy figures that moved quietly ready to move. We’re pulling this thing
through the dusk, using the cover of the tonight. Get packed up.”
foliage to mask their advance. Then of a His seven henchmen sprang to sudden a rosebush parted. A figure loomed action. Malloy sat at Mayhew’s side.
up on the garden path. Four other wraiths
“Nice job,” he said. “Did you get
materialized at different points.
anything else?”
The tableau had evolved in less
“Nothing much,” said Mayhew. “I
than three seconds. Shadowy and unreal it understand the Fed you’re going to snatch registered on Hastings’ vision. He sprang is a youngster. He’s been working in the to his feet, his hand on his gun butt.
code department for the Government. This Gun out, he charged down the lawn.
is his first actual assignment. Anyway, Norcross’ voice now smashed on his ears.
that’s the gardener’s story.”
But the old man’s cry ended in a groan as a Malloy nodded his head slowly. A
gun barrel crashed down on his head.
mad, lustful gleam was in his eye. He
Hastings raised his gun. Another
spoke slowly and softly, more to himself voice came from farther down the path.
than Mayhew.
“Malloy! Watch it! There’s the
“They knocked off Mike, damn Fed!”
them! Well, here’s where I even things up At that moment Hastings’ finger
forever.”
constricted on the trigger. Steel and flame Mayhew glanced at him. He leaped from the muzzle. One of the dark recognized that expression on his chief’s figures uttered a yelp of pain, reeling back, face; that murderous expression which cursing, into the bushes.
usually presaged bloody violence.
Two more shots cracked out.
Hasti
ngs heard the slugs whine over his
HASTINGS lounged beneath a huge oak
head. He was desperately cool now.
tree and idly watched one of America’s
Carefully he sighted in the dim light. Again richest men putter contentedly in his his finger jerked the trigger. Thrice he garden. Dusk was falling over the replied to the barrage which now carne countryside, bringing with it the quiet from the path.
serenity of the summer evening.
Then of a sudden he heard the
For three days now Hastings had
sound of rapid footfalls behind him. He
lounged about the estate, keeping an eye on spun around. Again his finger tugged at the old Ronald Norcross; and now he was trigger, but a smashing fist knocked the beginning to wonder if the wire pulling and weapon from his grasp. Two men were
effort he had exerted in leaving the code before him. Two snub-nosed automatics
department had been worthwhile. Still it were aimed at his heart.
was a change; and how his partner, Garnett, Still he did not hesitate. His fists
G-Man Detective
4
shot through the air like pistons. One of cross country on that dirt road. Landers, them landed cleanly on the point of a jaw.
you’re going there tonight.”
A man slumped suddenly at his feet. The
Landers raised his beady little eyes.
second adversary raised the barrel of his
“Me? What for?”
gun, brought it down in a sharp arc.
“Because you’re the best pineapple
Hastings
threw
his
head to one side.
man in the business. You’re going to mine The gun hammered down hard on his that joint, plant enough dynamite in it to shoulder. His knees buckled under the blow a city to hell. You’re going to attach a blow. He reeled. Then an arm encircled his battery to it so you can set it off.”
throat from the rear. Like a steel vise it
“So
what?”
tightened. Again the barrel of the automatic
“So,”
said
Malloy, and his eyes
before him was lifted.
burned with an evil fire, “when a whole
This time it crashed down upon his
party of G-men raid the place you can set skull. Unconsciousness fell like a hood that dynamite off, Landers. That’s what.”
about his senses. Inert and lifeless, he fell They stared at him. Mayhew
back into the arms o£ the man behind him.
cleared his throat and broke the silence.
“Who the hell’s going to raid the place?
MALLOY leaned back before the roaring
How do you know the Feds’ll knock that
open fire in the old farmhouse. He lighted a joint off?”
cigar and inhaled deeply.
“Because,” said Malloy
“Well,” he announced, “the hard triumphantly, “Little Rollo in there’s going part’s over. The contact’s arranged with the to write them a note telling ’em that he and old man’s lawyer. We’ll have the dough
Norcross are being held there.
tonight.”
We’ll send a messenger boy in with
Mayhew nodded. “That part’s okay,
it. Hell, it’ll be in his writing. They’ll rally.
chief. We been here two days now, and you In the meantime, Landers is lying low in ain’t peeped about that Fed. What are you the woods with his battery. When he sees going to do with him?”
’em go in he pulls the switch. Bango. A
Malloy chuckled, but there was dozen rats die.”
little mirth in his face when he spoke.
Mayhew shook his head. “How do
“That’s the part I been saving,” he said.
you know that mug’ll write the letter?”
“Saving until we got the old man arranged Landers grinned evilly. “We got
for. Now comes the idea I told you about.
ways to fix that, ain’t we?”
I’m going to square things with those
“Okay,” said Malloy. “We’ll get
Federal rats for what they did to Mike.”
our dough early tomorrow morning. In the Richards glanced at him eagerly. meantime we’ll swing this little party
“You mean we’re going to give that guy
tonight. I’ll go in and talk to the boy friend the works, chief? Burn his feet and all
in a minute.”
that?”
But there was little need of talking
“Maybe,” said Malloy, “if he don’t
to Hastings. The farmhouse was a one
do as he’s told. But that ain’t the idea. Now storied structure, and the walls were thin.
get this: take a look at that road map on the Norcross had been incarcerated in the attic.
wall. See? Now that’s where we are. Hastings was in a tiny room off the kitchen.
Twelve miles northeast of Belleville. That Every word spoken in the other room was
other camp of ours is about twenty miles audible.
Gunman’s Hate
5
He raised his eyes as the door “You’ve got me all right,” he said opened. Malloy entered the room. In his
dispiritedly. “I know when I’m licked.
hand he held an ordinary lined-paper What do you want me to write?”
notebook. He tossed this and a pencil to Malloy grinned triumphantly. “I’ll
Hastings.
dictate.”
“I got a job for you, rat,” he snarled.
Hastings picked up the book and
“I want you to write a note. I’ll explain—”
the pencil.
“Don’t bother,” said Hastings. “I
“Okay. Take this: ‘They’ve got
heard what you said in there.”
Norcross and me at the summer camp nine
“Okay. Then write it.”
miles along route 18. Turn left on the dirt Hastings met his eyes squarely. road.... Now sign it.”
“No,” he said.
Hastings wrote slowly, laboriously.
He made no effort to disguise his
MALLOY grinned unpleasantly. “Listen,”
handwriting, yet he scrawled in a painful he said. “You’re a kid. From what I hear, backhand. It was not his usual mode of
you’re new in this racket. You ain’t been scribbling.
Garnett would know that
around much. Well, let me tell you there’s much, anyway.
ways of making men do things they don’t
He handed the book to Malloy. The
want to do. Think it over, son. I’ll give you gangster scanned the writing. His eyes
half an hour.”
gleamed. He ripped the page from the
The door slammed and once again,
book.
Hastings was left alone to do his thinking.
“Okay, boy scout,” he said. “Here,
He sat on the hard wooden chair
Richards, get this to town. Give it to
which comprised the sole furniture of the Western Union. Have ’em send it up right room. His brow was wrinkled and his heart away with a boy. Landers, you get going.
was sore. It was not fear of his own fate You’ll have about two hours. Do a good
that depressed him, but rather the fact of job.”
failure in a service where failure is
Again the door shut on Hastings.
unknown.
The lock clicked home. He heard the
Idly he riffled through the receding footfalls, the fading voices. Then, notebook. Idly he glanced at the stubby
after a short time, all was quiet.
pencil, and the black-lined pages. Then of a sudden his heart
leaped. An idea THERE was no light in Hastings’ room.
illuminated his brain.
The hours seemed interminably long.
True, it was a chance—a long, long
Occasionally he heard movement and
chance. But Garnett should know. Garnett voices in the living room of the house. In would understand. He snatched up the desperate suspense he waited, waited to see pencil eagerly....
if his plan had worked. He dared not
A little later Malloy reentered the
consider the consequences of its failure.
room. Behind him was Richards, his face
That meant not only his own death but the contorted evilly.
doom of his comrades who would respond
“Well?” Malloy demanded. “Have
to his message. His hands were cold and he you been thinking those things over?”
could hear the pounding of his heart against Hastings nodded mutely. His face
his breast.
registered a fear that he did not feel.
Then, once, he thought he heard the
G-Man Detective
6
purring of an automobile. For a while it relinquish his grip on his weapon.
seemed to grow clearer, then it ceased
Now he closed in again, swinging
altogether. A prayer was on his lips.
wildly. Desperately they fought there, chest Then to his ears there came a sound—a
to chest. Hastings did not dare release
sound of footsteps in the brush outside. His Malloy’s right hand. They stood there
heart bounded as he heard a familiar voice slugging, each with one fist. Once Malloy’s cry out:
knuckles hammered home flush against the
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