Boy's Cinema (1935-39)

tediuiD on his good-looking face, an ex- pression which (he lieutenant had seen there on many occasions since Dennis had entered the police college, and wliich never failed to nettle the officer. "The class is dismissed," Niles suddenly snapped out with an abrupt- ness th;it took the students by surprise. "But you, Madden, will stay here and copy five pages of rules and regula- tions." Dennis Madden stared at him. "Why, .sir?" "Because j-ou haven't been listening to a word I've said," was the curt reply. Young Madden's temper, so notice- able in him when he had been a boy, revealed itself in a flicker that .ippeared momentarily in his eyes. When he spoke his voice carried a hint of that temper, and a touch of impu- dence as well. "Why should I listen?" he retorted. "I've heard it all before." "Fifteen pages " Niles announced tersely. "Lieutenant Niles," Dennis Madden said, suppressing his ire, "my father and adopted brother arc waiting for me downstairs. We've got to meet some- one coming in on a boat. Can I copy the fifteen pages to-morrow?" "You can not!" The other students v^ere filing out. Gritting his teeth Dennis turned to one of them. "Pete," he requested savagely, ''will you tell my father and Al to go ahead to the boat? Tell them I've been'de- tained—for being bored by Lieutenant Niles." Niles clenched his hands at that. "Insolence, is it?" he ground out. "I'll report that to the inspector, Madden !" Dennis glowered defiance. He was in an ugly mood now. He had wanted particularly to meet that incoming boat with his father and Al, for it was a liner which/j\'as bringir.g from Ireland that same Eileen Daly v.liom Shaun Madden had found on his beat that lainy night years before—Eileen Daly, now a winsomcly beautiful young woman, as had been evident from a snapshot she had recently sent to Shaun. Her mother had never forgotten the kindness of Shaun and Mary Madden. Following her return to Ireland, Mrs. Daly, and Eileen as well when she had learned to write, had kept up a regular correspondence with the Maddens. And Shaun had treasured the aflectionate letters that had been received from them —especially two of those letters—one a letter penned some years before by Mrs. Daly and congratulating him on his promotion to the rank of sergeant— the other a letter of condolence, ■written by Eileen vvlien she had learned of Mai'v Madden's death, which had occurred shortly after her own mother })ad passed away. Eileen's uncle had survived her mother by a year or two. Then, just recently, Sha\in Madden had learned from liileen that her uncle had died <is well, and he had promptly sent the giil her faro to New York, insisting that .»^hc should come out there fo keep hou.se for himself and "the boys." It was a proposition that the boys liad thoroughly approved—Dennis with particular enthusiasm, for he had an eye for a pretty face, and if hor pic- ture did not lie Eileen Daly was what he was pleased to call a "winner." And possessing a streak of vanity in his • haracter he had boon anxious to figure prcmitiently in her eyes and to monopo- lise her attention when she dis- eniV>arked. Now, thanks to Lieutenant Niles, or ' AiiKiist 5tli, 1939. BOY'S CINEMA rather to his own intractable nature, he was denied the chance of being present at the quayside when her boat docked. Instead, he was fated to receive a severe reprimand from the inspector to whom Niles had referred, and to copy out those accursed fifteen pages of rules and regulations. Dennis Madden's meetinj' with Eileen Daly was therefore delayed, and happy to the point of dissolving into tears as a girl will when overwhelmed with feel- ings of joy and gratitude, she had been installed under Shaun's roof for more than an hour by the time Dennis came hom.c from the academy. Her picture had not lied, unless the failure of a snapshot to do a person justice might be termed a lie. Eileen Daly was beautiful. From tlie crown of her blonde head to the toes of her trim little feet she was bewitching femininity, and in the days that succeeded her arrival in New "V'ork the two Maddens and Albert Boylan speedily learned that she was as lovable in manner as she was lovely to look at. It wa.: small wonder that Sergeant Shaun Madden bragged to the boys down at the station-house of the "colleen" who had come to grace his menage. It was small wonder that Al Boylan, who had developed into a fine, clean-looking young fellow and who was eagerly looking forward to enter- ing the Police Academy, acquired a habit of gazing at Eileen with mute adoration whenever he thought her eyes weren't on him. Ana it was small wonder that Dennis, devoid ot the shyness that distinguished Al, paid co)irt to Eileen with a fervour and a persistence that he had never deigned to display for any other girl who had ever interested him. Meanwhile, despite his unpopularity with lecturers and instructors, despite his inattentiveness in class and his frank air of being bored by the curricu- liun, Dennis Madden was making reasonable enough progress as a student at the Police Academy. In point of fact, they couid teach him little there that he had not already learned long since from his fallier, parrot-fashion. ifarksmanship was the one feature that was n(-\v to him in the course, and he proved to have a natural aptitude for shooting. Indeed, on the night he and a batch of other students gradu- ated at Madison Square Garden in the presence of applauding friends and relatives he received a trophy pistol in a case bearing the following inscrip- tion : Awarded by the Police Department New York City to Dennis Madden for Marksmanship. It was a memorable night. But less memorable were the days that ensued when Dennis Madden was assigned to a precinct wherein his father had once tramped a beat. Those days were spent by ])ennis in ignoring the first lesson he should have learned—the lesson of keeping his temper and maintaining a fiiendly attitude towards the people with whom he came in contact while on patiol. One part of his beat took him into one of the poorer localities of the city. Here he postered the residents, losing no opporfunity of "booking" them for tiivial breaches of Novi- York's by- laws. His object was to gain quick promotion, as he thought, by securing as many charges to his credit as he could; and one afternoon there occurred an incident which led him to contem- plate the prospect of eflccting a really worth-while coup. IJe had just ascertained that a child Every Tuesday playing on the side-walk with a mongrel pup possessed no licence for the animal, and as a result of this dis- covery had called up his station to re- quest that a dog-catcher's truck should be sent down to pick up that animal and several others which he believed to be unlicenced. And he was turning from the police telephone post from which he had made the call when he heard someone close at hand volunteer a derisive comment. "Lovely work if you can get it. A dog detective, huh?" Dennis Madden swung round angrily, and saw that the speaker was an in- solent-looking youth of seventeen whom he knew as Punchy—an unwashed pro- duct of the slums who seemed to have a "down" on cops and who was sus- pected cf being a petty sneak-thief. Punchy was with another youth of his own ilk, a kid who answered to the name of Milt. It was to the latter that Punchy had addressed his jeering re- mark concerning Dennis, and the pair of them were now grinning offensively. It was not the first time the new cop had been annoyed by Punchy, and lie saw red. In an instant he had clutched him. "I've had enough from you!" he barked. "You and your wisecracks! How'd you like to have one shoved rig;.t back down your throat—like this!" Lifting one hand, he planted it on Punchy's mouth and sent him reeling with a thrust of his arm. Back went Punchy to a distance of several yards, but recovering himself and revealing :i temper as hot as the stalwart patrol- man's, he rushed at Dennis like a terrier. Full-grown man as he was, and towering head and shoulders above the slum-bred youth, Dennis easily cliecked the onset. "Oh, cop fighter, are you?" he bit out, gripping Punchy by the front of his tattered shirt. "All right, you asked for it." With that ho swung him round and gave him ano'her push—one consider- ably more violent than the first, and one that laid Punchy flat on his back in a pool of mire in the roadway. Snarling like the vicious little gutter- snipe that lie was. Punchy attempted to scramble up with the idea of launch- ing a fresh attack, but a man suddenly appeared beside him and set his foot on the youth's chest—a lean, flashily- dressed man with a sallow face, a slit of a mouth ard a pair of eyes that re- sembled those of a ferret. " Beat it, stupid," that individual said in a thin voice that was as incisive as a rapier. "Beat it." Punchy took one look at him, then rose to his feet in a slinking fashion and made himself scarce, being accom- panied by his crony Milt. As for the flashily-dressod man who had so sum- marily ordered Punchy to depart, he ■itrolled over to where Dennis Madden was standing. "The dumb kid," he observed, nodding 'in the direction Punchy had taken. "He don't know he's alive. But say. Madden, he's my girl-friend's brother, so go a little easy on him, will you?" " I went easj' on him," Dennis answered grimly. "I was just petting him Wait until he cracks loose next time." The other man's ferret eyes narrowed a trifl'^. " D'you know who I am?" he queried significantly. Dennis Madden knew who ho was all ight—knew him as a racketeer who rented a luxury apartment in a district