Books › Blue Book v057 n06 [1933-10], 1933 › scan 134
Scan 134
Blue Book v057 n06 [1933-10], 1933
41 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1smiled. He spoke slowly, almost in a drawl: "A long time ago, Moridon, I told you what would happen if you squealed to the police. You did squeal. So I'm going to keep my word."
3He paused and smiled again, showing his even white teeth. Gordon drew himself up, stood waiting. But Gaudio slowly shook his head. "No, no," he said. "I'm not making it so easy for you. I'm saving you, Moridon, for the last."
5He laughed, suddenly, harshly, and moved the gun in a swift arc until it covered Carlotta. She gave a gasp, then, of terror. "You can't, you can't, you can't!" she moaned. Then she flung herself forward, desperately, clutching for the gun in his hand. With his left he struck her in the mouth, and she fell sprawling, her lips running red.
7Gordon gave a hoarse cry, raised his manacled arms high and sprang at the man with the gun. Gaudio lashed out; the automatic raked across Gordon's face; a livid welt stood out. Gabriel swung the gun on David as he hurled himself forward.
9With the gun in the pit of his stomach, David stopped, fell back, raging impotently. Gaudio followed him with the gun, his eyes cold. David stared into them; then he stiffened himself, prepared to die fighting.
11There was a loud crash at the door. Gaudio's eyes flickered toward it. There was another crash, and another, the sound of heavy sledges hammering on steel. Gaudio cursed; his eyes went back to David; the gun jumped forward in his hand. There was one shot then; but not from Gaudio.
13It came from a gun in the hand of the wild-eyed woman on the floor. Gaudio seemed to buckle up; he clutched at his middle, lurched forward, fired wildly, but missed. A second shot struck him high in the chest. He gave a dreadful cry and then fell heavily on his back.
15From the floor Carlotta, her lips flecked with blood, fired again and again, emptying the small automatic in her hand into Gaudio's motionless body.
17CHAPTER XVIII
18AGAIN—THE UNKNOWN
20RUTH TYLER lay with every quivering nerve tense in the darkness of her room in the cottage. That shutter was completely open now; her mind was flooded with light; it was sharp and clear. She had no need of her violin. She was completely possessed by her strange power.
22With the realization of her utter helplessness to avert what must happen, she had achieved a philosophic fatalism. What must be, must be. And it would now be played out entire in the theater of her mind. It was as if she were inside a malignant brain.
24As she lay there alone, the blind girl could actually feel the bitter triumph in that brain, its mocking laughter, its frightful hate. She knew its awful purpose; and powerless to stay it, observed its workings with a kind of fascinated detachment.
26OUTSIDE her door, held there by the blind girl's peremptory command, stood Olga and Harrigan, waiting. Below, in the garden beneath her window, staring up into the darkness, were Doris and Johnson. And watching them like a hawk was Nelson.
28A few minutes before, Doris had wrested herself from his grasp, flung herself into the garage, slammed and locked the door. He had hammered impotently at the door, briefly. Then he had heard her frantic voice at the telephone, without being able to distinguish what she had said.
30Out of the darkness Johnson had appeared. Together the two men had flung themselves against the door until it had yielded. Doris had replaced the receiver, turned to stare at them with eyes wide in terror.
32"Too late! Too late!" she had cried.
34They had heard the violin again then, and had run to the garden under the window. The music had stopped. And there they had been standing, ever since, waiting, without speaking.
36Above them the blind girl stiffened. Death had been dealt, suddenly, coldly. And she knew from inside that brain the name of the victim. Flaherty…. Flaherty. An unfamiliar name. Then, slowly, other names, those marked for death…. Moridon…. Moridon…. That would be Paul Gordon!
38Then Hélène—David—Carlotta. She strained, hardly able to bear the agony of suspense. No further names. Nat and her father were still safe! But the others—Gordon and his family. Were they doomed?
40Presently, like a flash, she felt an interruption—a sudden moment of inde-
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