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36 Black Mask
velvet curtain that screened the door- way of the dark bedroom was swished viciously aside. Light flooded the room.
Tracy blinked but Dunlap didn ' t. He stood there with fists knotted tightly, his voiceominously quiet.
"Cheerio, Mr. Tracy. You seem to be awf'ly clever at overhearing things. But not clever enough to hide a click on a busy wire."
"You didn't, by any chance, murder Bruce Hilliard tonight, did you, Mr. _ Dunlap?"
That stopped him. "You think I did?"
"You were there tonight after Betty Hilliard obligingly emptied the house for your arrival. I have two witnesses to prove you left here and went there."
"Right-o." Dunlap remained polite. "But unfortunately for your logic, I didn't go in. Hi11iard was already dead on his study floor when I peered through the window."
"When was that?"
"A quarter of eight."
"It won't wash. Hilliard was still
alive at eight-thirty. He phoned me right after my broadcast ended. Do you know Bert Lord?"
"We're fairly friendly," Dunlap said. "Friendly enough to steal his gun?" Dunlap ex.haled faintly. "I begin to
see your drift. Fingerprints, eh? Look- ing for samples in my apartment. That was bloody foolish of you." .
Tracy's fist lashed out as Dunlap sprang. The blow didn't stop the head- long rush of the heavy-set Englishman. A heave jack-knifed Tracy backward. He tried to kick out with both feet but Dunlap was around him like an eel. Fin- gers closed on Tracy's windpipe. The pressure eased before Tracy lapsed into unconsciousness, but he lay utterly help- less with a red haze whirling before his
bulging eyes.
Through the haze he could see Dun-
lap grimly examining the cigarette case
he had found in Tracy's pocket. He also
found the master key.
"So you sneaked in here with the con-
stairs! Well, it won't do you a particle of good."
He hauled Tracy upright with one hand, anchoring him on swaying legs. "If I weren't in such a hurry to get
somewhere else, I'd give you what-for, my friend. As it is- "
Tracy saw the fist shoot upward in a powerful uppercut, but he was too grog- gy to roll his head. The blow caught him squarely under the chin. He could feel the hammering impact of every tooth in his head. Then he didn't feel anything.
' E CAME riding out of nothingness on long waves of nausea. It seemed as if someone. had launched Tracy on a surfboard that raced
up and down the smooth chasms of end- less waves. Flat on his face he held on desperately until he became con- fusedly aware that his fingers and his wide-open mouth were pressed against the soft texture of a rug.
He got up dizzily, clutched for a bed- post and fell over a chair. He felt weak and sick. He knelt with head hanging until the sickness reached its climax, then he felt better .
There was no sign of Dunlap in the apartment. Tracy glanced at his wrist watch. He had been unconscious over two hours.
He jumped to the telephone on the night table. He could get no answer from the operator. The line was dead. So was .the phone in the living-room. Dunlap had done a neat job.
Tracy raced out the front door to the corridor and kept his finger jammed on the elevator button until the indicator began to move. To his relief the elevator was operated by his friend , the door-
nivance of the blasted doorman clown- lap-I"
man.
The doorman gasp ed as he
the battered little columni st. "Jerry I For Gawd 's sake!
rec ogni zed Did Dun-