Boy's Cinema (1930-31)

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20 resort to all the craft of wliich she wa3 capable. And what better way than to wheedle to this brute of ti man? "Hallo, Piccaidi !" She came over to the gangster, smiled bewltchingly up at him and hold out her hands. "Sorry I've butted in at such an in- opportune moment; but you promised iiic a ride, you know !" Piccardi laughed boisterously as he thought of the ride that his victim was destined to take, then he caught at Doris' arms, pulled her close to him and kissed her affectionately. "It's all right, my dear," he told her lightly. "That ride stands, for I'm througli with business for to-night." '•'But Danny Holtz?" She waved her hand carelessly towards Roy, who was watching her closely, knowing fidl well that she would make some effort to .save him from his terrible plight. "What's he done—why the guns?" "What's he done, huh?" Piccardi's face again took on a vicious expression. "Well, my dear Doris, I"ve discovered that he"s a spy. And. by heck, he's going to suffer dearly I' "But he's only a kid." Doris gently pushed Piccardi into on armchair, sat down on an arm and ruffled his Jiair with soft fingers. "Isn't it rather de- gr.ading to harm a mere boy?" "In a vvay, perhaps you're right," conceded the gangster, but there was no relenting of his hard soul. "But this is different, Doris. The brother of an old enemy—a dangerous stripling. If I was to allow him to go free he'd have all the cops in New York blazing around our heads in next to no time." She bit her lip, knowing that no words of hers would Iwive any effect on him. His mind, cruel and relent- less, was made up and nothing would shake it from its purpose. With tears in her eyes, writhing at hor helplessness to do anything to save the boy she loved she saw Piccardi grimly nod his liead—saw his ruthless tiirelings ciowd in on Roy, and at the pistol's point march him frorri the room. Another helpless victim going for his last ridel The door closed with hardly a sound on the grim cortege, and Doris shud- dered with repulsion at the sinister laugh that broke from Piccardi's twisted lips. "Well, my dear, that's wliat happens to all who are darned saps enough to cross my path. But why be morbid. He's gone—finished!" The brutal ex- pression on his face relaxed, and ho smiled almost pleasantly as he looked into the girl's white, strained face. "Doris, our little ride. We'll go right away. A blow in the country; then, after- wards, a cabaret show. What say?" She wanted to shriek, sich was the agony that tore at her soul—to fly from that grim apartment in a last desperate endeavour to save Roy froin the aveng- ing guns of those brutal fiends of Pic- cardi's. But Piccardi held her tight, an arm around her waist, though even if she had been free she doubted if she would have had sufficient strength to move a muscle just then. "Well, you don't seem particularly keen for a night out, baby," said Pic- .rardi. with an impatient note in his voice. "Don't tell me that that little affair's given you the willies?" She felt she could not answer him, though she realised she must say some- thing, for otherwise he might smell a rat. That boy—he had meant a great deal to her, but she was powerless to do anything to save him. All she could do now was to carry on with the part SPi>teml)cr 26th, 1981. BOY'S CINEMA she had been playing. Her time would come. There would be an additional death to avenge. Piccardi should pay— pay in full when her hour struck! "Of course I'm keen." She laughed, though it was somewhat shakily. " Let's go at once, dear. It's so very stuft'y in this room that I feel I shall faint if I don't soon get some fresh air." She rose to her feet and he quickly followed her example, reaching for his soft felt hat that lay upon the table. " Anything you say goes for me, Doris." He thrust the hat on his head, caugJit her in his arms and kissed her. "There, that shows you just how I feel about you " But the rest of the sentence remained unsaid, for at that moment there came the sudden slamming of a door, and witti a startled gasp Piccardi released his hold on Doris and spun I'ound on his heel, reaching for his gun as he did so. "A very pretty little speech." Lita Alvaro looked at the pair with mocking eyes as she advanced into the room. Straight to Piccardi she came, ignoring Doris completely. " So this is all the thanks I get for tipping you off about that spy. You still spiim my love for this other woman. Well " "That's enough, curse you!" Pic caixli's face reddened with the fury that suddenly flamed within him, and, thrust- ing out his hand, he caught Lita savagely by the arm. squeezing it with brutal strength till she whimpered with pain. "You know what I told you last time, don't you? That I'm a dangerous man to cross. Now, you get out, you poor fool, while it's healthy, and bear that well in mind." A sudden twist of his arm and he sent Lita hurtling across the room, to crash into a small table which rocked pre- cariously on its legs. But the girl caught at it instinctively, thereby steadying the table and herself. Eyes in which blazed a sudden deep hatred fixed themselves on Piccardi, while Doiis White crouched against the chesterfield, fearful what the gangster might do, sorry for the girl who be- lieved that she had stolen her man. " You think I'm scared, Piccardi, don't yon?" Lita gave a wild, reckless laugh. "Well, you're darned well mis- taken. I warned you before that I wouldn't let any other girl come between us, and I meant it. You thouglit I'd given in without a murmur, but I aimed to win you back without stirring up trouble. But I'm through with you now—through! Hear me?" Piccardi laughed uproariously. Such wild threats, coming as they did from the hot-headed Lita, amused him vastly. Men he could take seriously, but a woman—never. "I-augh, would you?" Lita Alvaro almost danced with the inane fury that blazed in her outraged heart. Then she swiftly ran to the telephone that reposed on a window-sill and snatched the re- ceiver from its 'hooks. "Well, this'li make you laugh on the other side of your ugly face!" Then it was that Piccardi realised that the girl was in dead earnest. Obvious that .she intended to ring the police, as she had threatened to do on that other occasion, and to turn informer against him. A vicious oath ripping from between his bared teeth, the gangster reached for his jacket pocket, dragge<l out his gun and levelled it straight at the girl whose blazing eyes never left his face for a single moment. A shriek of fear from Doris White as Every Tuesday she clutched frantically at the chester- field, her legs growing suddenly weak beneath her as she realised the man's deadly purpose, then came Piccardi's harsh voice. "Drop that-receiver, you little cat, or, by heavens, I'll drill you! You hear me?" But Lita only laughed wildly, and as the operator's voice sounded in her ear she imperatively demanded to be put through to police headquarters. "You would, would you, you dirty little rat!" Piccardi's face was work- ing with the terrible fury that had hiru in its grip, and his evil eyes glinted likn those of a madman. "Well, Lita, it's coming to you now, by heck it is!" Doris White let out a t-errified scream as she saw the brute's finger curling round the trigger of the gun, while Lita, with sudden and amazing coolness, now that she realised that her end was near, returned the telephone receiver to its hooks, a wan smile playing around the corners of her white lips as she did so. A shot came, crashing out with the sound of some vast explosion in the con- fines of that room. Followed instantly a shriek of terror—but in a masculine voice, as Piccardi went tumbling head firet to the floor. Then in at the door from the restaurant came a wizen-faced little man with steely grey eyes, dressed in a shabby brown suit and grease- stained velour hat. Detective Brady, and in his hand-was a still smoking revolver which ho promptly stowed away after one swift glance at the fallen gangster. "Just in time, I think," he said to no one in particular. A groan came from the stricken crook, and it had the instant effect of rousing Lita Alvaro from the stupor that had her in its grip. It came to her swiftly, then, that there on the floor lay the one man that she had ever loved, and though he had turned against her, her loyalty to him came back with a rush now that he was sorely injured. "Oh, Piccardi, Piccardi, my dear!" She ran to him, went down on her knees and gathered his head in her arms. Then as she saw his hand go weakly to hi.s side, where a trickle of blood showed, saw the ghastly pallor of hie cheeks, the glassiness in his eyes, she burst into heart-rending sobs. "Piccardi, don't die —for heaven's sake don't die! Oh. don't leave me, for I love you, dear!_ I—T didn't mean to ring the cops—it—it's just that I was " She could say no more, for her die- treesed state of mind completely over- whelmed her then. A pitiful object she looked as she knelt there, clutching frantically at the stricken man, the tears streaming down her haggard face. Doris White looked at her with deeply sympathetic eyes, knowing just how it felt to lose a loved one, and even the stony-hearted Brady was touched by the pathetic sight. "It—it's all right—Lita, for-forget it." Just for a moment a wan smile showed on Piccardi's pain-twisted face, then his body gave a convulsive shudder and ho went limp in Lita's clutching arms, causing her to scream hysterically in her terrible grief. And then the door from the restaurant opened and someone came into the room. Roy Smith, his face white and drawn, his dark curly hair tousled. "Roy! Roy! Is—is it really you?" Doris -White gazed at him incredulously as she stood there and was joined at that moment by a tall, thick-set mao— (CoDtinaed on page 27.) i I