Show ake A WOMANS PLACE by JOHN T CAVANAUGH ea comac CO is back man u aging editor pepper drislane exclaimed as he clicked down the receiver excitedly police chief lawton had just shouted into the telephone this guy Is looking for blood don t take any unnecessary risks in the editorial room of the hart field herald drislane sat with his head in his hands and mournfully looked over his city staff two old men and seven girls thirty years in newspapers and this has to hap pen to me a chance to make head ine history and here I 1 am saddled with a bunch of sob sisters the case had been spec from the start the self styled big shot of the numbers racket had challenged repeatedly there am ain t nobody going to pia pm a rap on me this s got protection all the way to the state state house and back and don t forget it but jerry cowan erstwhile reportorial port orial star of the herald and managing editor drislane chose to forget it to the tune of pinning a 20 year federal sentence on the num bers king then the slipup while waiting for the train that would carry him to prison out witted the guards slugged the mar and was on his way with the news of his lus escape jerry and drislane knew would be back the herald s constant and merciless headlines had galled the gangster bored right into his pride sure he 31 be back the re porter told his editor and when he does he H head for our office first that was two years ago now jer ry was on assignment in the pacific meanwhile the managing editor waited of course he was jumpy who wouldn t be when each corner might turn into a hail of hot lead and now the chief of police had passed the word that had been spotted in bayside wayside just 11 ll miles this side of hartfield the managing editor was dismal ly fingering the last cigarette in his squashed pack when publisher jim feldhorn Geld horn came into the room drislane blinked his eyes and drop ped the cigarette doggone if it wasn gasn t another girl attractive and well built but still another girl feldhorn Geld horn hustled the young worn wom sn an over to an empty desk and hur friedly left on a newspaper a girl reporter re poter isn t worth the powder it takes to to camouflage her nose drislane had exploded when the publisher unobtrusively attempted to install the last girl on the city staff all ali I 1 hear these days is I 1 ve got an appointment with the hair dresser the dres dressmaker the butch hutch er the baker these girls have an with everyone but me and their work he ranted Is this a newspaper office or a sorority housea chief said thin fifty ish mike bales the paper s only bache lor coming up to the managing edi tor s desk I 1 in going to hop down to nick nicks s for a shave generally mike shaved every second day and today was a first darn muttered drislane were we re off again and itil it 11 take an other three weeks to see who is really queen bee of this hive the managing editor s head was poked under his desk in search of his lost cigarette when a pair of shapely legs approached mr drislane he heard a fern mine voice say I 1 d like to be as signed to the case abruptly a hush fell over the herald editorial room and light ex reportorial report onal heads poised over their typewriters as the man aging editor took several seconds to come up from under his desk in the face of the gathering edi edl tonal clouds the new girl bracely brai ely continued with her request and be gan to fumble with a gold locket which was looped around her neck the picture I 1 have from jerry she offered but got no further the thunder broke loose and dris lane hissed his face purple on a newspaper a woman he didn dian t finish but resignedly collapsed to in his chair with effort he continued feebly miss whatever your name Is go get a manicure get a cup of coffee k qa I 1 c A g the managing editor s head was poked under his desk in search of his lost cigarette when a pair ot of shapely legs approached get anything but for right now just get As the girl hastily traced mike bales rapidly retreating footsteps drislane sighed even jerry cowan away out in the pacific is getting balmy on top of all this imagine his wanting to saddle me with his fiancee some up country aane ane who probably doesn doean t know a dateline from a clothesline gleefully he pictured himself setting up ambush for the next time the publisher came in with another girl after an hour of planting imago ary booby traps all over the news paper plant the managing editor had mentally destroyed the pub asher and all the girls on the staff a dozen times over just when he was halfway through his master piece of stuffing feldhorn Geld horn and the girls through the news press to be delivered as supplements to the 5 0 clock edition mike bales with a face full of lather tore into the room chief chief the reporter panted they just got him just got who when where drislane roared at the barber shop said mike furiously shoving a piece of copy paper into his typewriter I 1 U have the story written for the last edition in a jiffy the presses were D downstairs 1 silent and wa waiting itin g as the man aging editor s pencil poised over the reporter s scoop nat former numbers czar who escaped local police two years ago today was captured in nick nicks s barber and beauty shop on main street through the efforts of miss loretta hewes a member of the herald s editorial staff the story read the gangster who has hidden from the police since his spectacular escape from the united states mar s office in 1943 was lecog nihed by the reporter as she walked through the barber shop to the beau ty salon at the rear ot of the building miss hewes upon seeing continued through the shop and left by a rear exit and soon returned with a squad ol 01 police officers the reporter said that she had identified the gangster through his picture which she had carried in a gold locket given to her by her fiance flance jerry cowan formerly po lice reporter on the herald and now on assignment in the south pacific having threatened the life of my fiance was a potential threat to my coining marriage so I 1 carried bis his picture knowing that I 1 would run into him some day miss hewes said now that he is captured I 1 know that I 1 can plan to marry jerry as soon as he re turns speechless the managing editor scanned the copy then poising bis his pencil he added to the message in the meantime I 1 will continue working at the herald as police pole reporter |