Detective Fiction Weekly. Vol. 104, No. 4, August 22, 1936

Devrite knew it was time for him to leave and rapidly crossed toward the end of the block. At the river margin he looked out on the murky waters into which Agent Waite had been thrown. Von Hult had killed Waite, Devrite was sure from the length and narrowness of the marks on Waite’s throat. Though von Hult’s hands were clean they had been stained green when he choked Waite; probably von Hult had been working on the money when the other agent was trapped. He could use chemical solvent to wash off that indelible ink.

Hallihan would break a lesser member of the mob and pin von Hult; the evidence was all there.

Later he called Hallihan: “Did you get Evans?”

Hallihan replied, “Just a short while ago. We grabbed the mob, von Hult killed Waite. Evans took the counterfeit money von Hult gave him to pass at his bank and started home. But he went to the precinct police station and gave himself up instead; he had nothing to do with Waite’s death.”

Relief surged through Devrite; he was glad he had disposed of von Hult’s guard in the graystone alley else Evans might have died. “Evans stepped close to the edge,” he said, “but I don’t think his mother will need come to you again.”

The Spanish Prisoner by Eugene Thomas

A TRIO OF “LADY FROM HELL” STORIES

“The Spanish Prisoner” is the first of a group of three LADY FROM HELL short novelettes — each complete in itself — but forming a trio of continued and related episodes. These are presented in this and the two following issues of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY.

Readers will be interested to know that, although the LADY FROM HELL stories are fiction, they are based on fact. The glamorous adventuress of the series was the notorious blackmailer, “Babe” Carrington, who called herself “Vivian Legrand” in one or two instances, but never habitually. The famous Spanish bandit, Cruz Delgado, whom she meets early in this first episode, operated for a while in South America. His extradition from that continent to Spain is true, and it is at that time in his career that “The Spanish Prisoner” begins the amazing tale of his encounters with the red headed LADY FROM HELL

That impregnable Spanish prison could not stop the lady from hell from attempting the jail delivery of Cruz Delgado, Europe’s most notorious bandit Chieftain.

I

Sudden consternation flooded the Lady from Hell as she surveyed the interior of her cabin on the steamer San Stefano.

The cabin had been searched, searched thoroughly and carefully. The few dresses that had been given her had been ripped from their hangers in the little clothes closet and tossed on the floor. Swiftly, she stepped inside the cabin, locked the door, ran to the bathroom... and halted.

The long oblong mirror lay on the floor, and the space behind it was empty of the article she had hidden there... a money belt containing eight thousand dollars.

The Lady from Hell and her companion in crime, Adrian Wylie, had been passengers on the steamer Esteban, fleeing from the Republic of Monteverde. The steamer had gone up in flames, and the enormous treasure of jewels and bonds that the two had gathered in their criminal association had burned with the ship. The only thing that had been saved from the catastrophe was a money belt containing eight thousand dollars... a belt that had belonged to Miguel, the renegade captain of the Esteban. The Lady from Hell had taken it from the captain herself before he died.

And now that was gone. The two were penniless. The only clothes they had were articles that had been contributed by kind hearted passengers of the San Stefano, after the two had been picked up from the open boat in which they had drifted for days after the holocaust on the Esteban.

The screening lashes of The Lady from Hell lifted like a momentarily raised curtain, disclosing in the green orbs a leaping flame of fire, hot and wild as the flames in the heart of a driftwood fire, as she took in the significance of the situation.

Then her eyes lit on the door leading from the bathroom to the other cabin. The bath was so constructed that it could be utilized as a communicating bath between the two cabins... the one occupied by Vivian, and the other on the other side. Ordinarily the door to the other cabin was fastened with a bolt. She saw now that the bolt had been sawn through by a slim instrument inserted through the crack between the door and the jamb.