Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

10 "Norman," Kennedy replied in a guarded voice. "Let me in." She admitted him. "What's the matter?" she asked ner- vously. " Nothing," he replied with a smile. " I just came to say good-night." Her blue eyes searched his face. "Are you sure that's all?" "Of course." He took her into his arms. "Why?" "Nothing. Only you—you've acted so .strangely all afternoon." He asked her if she was going to suspect him, too. "Norman," she said reproachfully, "you know I'm with you. no matter what you've done, but please don't lie to me." Bob had entered the corridor, and he was surprised and annoyed to see that the door of the ward was not quite shut. As he advanced towards it he heard Ken- nedy's voice, saying in a strained fashion: "Look, darling, I didn't do it. Tell me you believe me." Bob burst into the room, and the two started guiltily apart. " I thought I told you to keep that door locked, and not to let anyone into this room?" he said harshly to the nurse. "I'm sorry. Dr. Clayton," she mur- mured. "Norman just wanted to " VI don't care what Norman wanted, or anybody else! " he interrupted. " You had your instructions." Dr. Kennedy went out and closed the door, but he lingered to listen at it. Bob stepped over to the bed and looked down at the bandaged face of the janitor. "How is he?" he questioned. "Sleeping soundly now," Ann replied, " under a sedative. He should be in fine shape for the operation." "Who's in that adjoining room?" Bob jerked a thumb at a door. "It isn't occupied," she answered. "Why?" "No reason especially. Have you seen Carole? " "I think she went to her room. She's been on duty all day." Kennedy slipped away from the door of the ward a few moments before Bob opened it, and Bob waited to hear the bolt shot before he turned away. He de- scended to the main hall and went to the reception desk. Hank was behind it, read- ing a detective magazine. "Where's Dora?" asked Bob. "Fixing up a room for the sei'geant," Hank told him. "I'll probably have this case all settled before he wakes up." "I'm sure you will," laughed Bob. "Look, get me Carole on the phone, will you? " Hank put down the magazine and stooped over a switchboard. " If I can operate it," he said. " Last time I tried I wound up talking to myself." After several unsuccessful efforts to plug into the right hole he heard Carole's voice, and Bob spoke into the telephone on the desk. Carole was in her room and half-undressed, but she agreed readily to what her lover proposed. "Sure, I'll be able to stay awake," she assured him. "I'll get right on the job." She put on her clothes again, and over her nurse's uniform she slipped a woollen jacket. Dora, in the meanwhile, was making up a bed for Mac in a ward on the same floor as the ward occupied by Tony, but on the other side of the cor- ridor. " Is that janitor still in the same room? " Mac questioned, ducking out of the way of a sheet she threw upon the bed. "Yes," she responded brightly. "So if there's any shooting you'll be right on the spot, won't you? " The bed was made, and Dora was on her way out from the room when Bob entered it. "Oh, hallo, doc," she said. "I've given the sergeant a nightgown, so he'll be able to fancy he's a patient. I hope he doesn't dream about any murders! " She went oil laughing, and Bob closed the door. UcceiiiljcT 2iid, 1030. BOY'S CINEMA "Everything's okay, sergeant," he stated. "I made arrangements to switch nurses in Tony's room—I didn't think it a good idea to have Norman's girl friend in there watching our Number One clue." "That's fine," said the detective. "I hope that third scalpel turns up before it's too late." " I've got a hunch it'll show up to-night. That's the reason I'm taking all these precautions." Mac yawned, stretching his arms. "Well, I'm going to turn in and get a good night's rest," he said. "I don't blame you," yawned Bob. "I'm tired, too. Well, good-night, sergeant." Mac went with him to the door, but as soon as he had gone switched off the lights and opened it again. Bob was tap- ping on the door of Tony's ward, and as Mac watched Carole opened it. "Now you've got your instructions," Bob said to her, "so keep your eyes open— and please be careful." "Don't worry, I v^ill," she nodded; and then he kissed her, and she closed the door and bolted it. Bob strolled off along the corridor, all unaware that Mac was watching him. He readied the main staircase, heard foot- steps on the treads, and crouched back against the wall. It was Norman Kennedy who came down the stairs, and he gave a violent start as Bob stood in his way and asked mockingly: "Looking for Ann again?" " I might be keeping track of you! " snapped Kennedy. But he went back to the stairs. Mac shut his door, switched on the lights, and took a heavy six-shooter from his pocket, which he deposited on the dressing-table in the room. Carole, in Tony's ward, picked up the magazine Ann had left behind and sat down in a chair with it. A 'Venetian blind had not been pulled right down over the tall window beyond the bed, and the metal rungs of a fire-escape were visible through the lower pane. A pair of feminine legs descended the rungs and the hem of a white linen skirt appeared. Whoever was on the fire-escape tried to raise the bottom sash of the window; but the noise, though sUght, brought Carole to her feet with a little cry, and the legs had disappeared before she looked in the direction of the window. In a state of nervous tension she went all round the room, tried the door that opened on to the corridor and the door that opened into the adjoining ward, looked into a cupboard, and even under the bed—and then, smiling at her own fears, she went back to the chair and picked up the magazine again. She had been on duty all day and she was very tired. Half an hour passed, and the magazine fell from her hands into her lap because sleep had overtaken her. The figure that had been on the fire- escape before was on it again, and this time the bottom sash was raised without disturbing Carole. In at the open window came a hand encased in a rubber glove, and the hand was holding a scalpel. Carole s<;irred as the instrument was thrown, and a noise at the window wakened her. She leapt to her feet, and she screamed again and again as her horrified eyes rested on the deadly scalpel, its blade buried in a ban- dage over the right temple of the figure in the bed. Mac rushed out from his room in his shirt-sleeves, the six-shooter in his hand. He found the door of the ward bolted, and smashed the glass panel in it with the gun and reached in a hand to draw the bolt. " Quick! " shrilled Carole, as he entered. " I'he fire-escape! " He raced across to the open window, and she was close beside him as he leaned out over the sill. A figure in white was on the rungs just below a window of the floor above. " There he is! " cried Mac. " Hi, you— Every Tuesday you! Come down here, or I'll shoot! Come on, while you've got a chance! " The figure in white descended, and Carole gasped with dismay; for it was Bob who climbed down the rungs and clambered in over the sill. " You!" bellowed Mac, covering him with the six-shooter. "That's why you switched nurses, huh? Because you figured your girl wouldn't spill it if she did recognise you on the fire-escape! " Carole was clutching at Mac's elbow and wrist in an agony of fear, but Bob said scornfully: "Oh, don't be silly! I was in my room when I saw somebody out there and tried to catch 'em." Mac eyed him dubiously, but he lowered the gun. "Maybe so," he growled, "but it's too late, anyway. Tony's been killed! " " Has he? " Bob reached the bed in two strides. "Sergeant, I want you to meet the nursing school dummy ! " The bedclothes were flung back and a life-sized anatomical figure was exposed to view. But for the bandages, its face alone would have betrayed it. Carole made its hand salute the dumbfounded detective. "Couldn't you use him on the police force?" she asked mockingly. "■Very clever," grunted Mac, and put away his gun. "But, say, where is Tony?" " In that room in there." Bob pointfed to the door that communicated with the ad- joining ward. " And two of your best men are with him. They're going to see that he stays alive." THE TRUTH AT LAST AT eleven o'clock next morning, the theatre and its ante-room were guarded by police officers when Dr. Towne, an eye specialist, arrived to perform the operation of grafting the corneas of dead Dr. Morton's eyes on to the eyes of the janitor. Mac was already enveloped in white overalls, because he had insisted upon be- ing present at the operation. Bob helped the specialist to dress, and as he did so he said: "Dr. Towne, you understand what I ex- pect to happen, don't you?" "Yes," was the reply, "Fm fully pre- pared for the emergency." Mac scowled at them. "I hope you know what you're doing," he growled, "because I don't." Two police officers accompanied a doctor, a nurse, and an orderly who brought Tony down from his ward to the theatre, but the police officers remained outside. Carole approached the outer door of the ante-room in a panic, but her way was barred. " You can't go in there," a burly sergeant informed her. "I'm Nurse Dale," she protested. "They're expecting me." "Oh, all right!" The door was opened, and she ran across the room to Bob, who was scrubbing his hands. "Bob!" . she cried. "The corneas! They've gone!" Dr. Towne looked aghast. Mac exploded: "That's what I get for listening to you!" But Bob smiled and produced a smalf packet from a glass shelf. "Here they are," he said blandly. "I took them out of the Pathology Lab my- self—just in case." Carole opened the door into the theatre when all was ready and Tony had been transferred from a wheeled stretcher to the operating-table. Nurses and doctors took their places round the table. An anaesthetic had been administered, and Dr. Towne was bending over the patient when the lights went out. " Steady, doctor," said Bob into the pitch darkness. "You were right," said the specialist; and then, as abruptly as they had gone out, the lights came on again. "Do you think it's safe to go ahead now?" " We'll know in a minute," Bob replied. Again the lights were extinguished, and