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Show frjff FICTION CORNER 1 ' Wk I A CASE OF JITTERS I By W1LLIAM CUTHBERT JOHNNY LISIK sat In the barber chair smiling as he fingered through the pages of the magazine, looking at the cartoons. In the mirror in front of him he law the two men peer through the store window. lie expected that they would move on once they saw that Tony, the owner of the shop, wasn't there. Jolinny's reputation as a barber wasn't too good, and he had had only one dissatisfied customer custo-mer all night' Suddenly it dawned on Johnny that these two men had appeared at the window a few minutes before. He couldn't be mistaken. They both had several weeks' stubble on their faces, and hair was growing over their ears and down their necks. The door opened and the men teppea inside. Jonnny wincca. It was almost eight o'clock. He'd have to work overtime. Johnny pushed himself out of the chair and noticed that both men were as 'tall as he, but lean. He saw eyes that were" alert, but could stand some sleep. Beneath the growth of whiskers were thin faces that needed a few square meals to help fill out the sunken jaws. And a good whiskbroom could be used to advantage to remove some of the dust from their clothing. "You the dhly barber here?" one of the men snapped as he set a small valise on a chair. Johnny didn't like the man's surly tone. lie hunched his broad shoulders, stretched to his full six feet, and was. tempted to toss the two haggard looking gents out of the shop, but decided that that might hurt Tony's business. "Yeah," answered Johnny casually, cas-ually, realizing that he had never seen the men in town before, "the owner of the shop took his wife out tonight, and I'm filling In for him." "I'll go first, Ed," the spokesman for the two said as he began to remove re-move his coat The man called Ed grunted, "I don't like talon' this chance, Dick," then he flopped on a chair near the wall and pulled the valise to him. "Forget it," Dick grinned, "I feel lousy with all this hair on me. A good clean shave and haircut will pep us up," Johnny walked to the door and started to pull down the shade. Ed jumped to his feet knocking the valise on the floor, his hand flashing to his ccat pocket with the same movement. "What are you doin that for?" he snapped menacingly. men-acingly. Johnny was stunned by the sudden sud-den outburst He found his voice and explained, "It's getting near closing time. I'm pulling the shades down so that no one else will come In." Dick giggled and said, "You've got the jitters, Ed. We don't want anyone else to come in here, do we?" Suspicion arose In Johnny's mind. The men's names had a familiar ring. Ed and Dickl Where had he seen or heard these names linked link-ed together before? He went to the store window and pulled down the big shade, and the three men were hidden from the eyes of any passerby. He wished he hadn't thought about the shades. He had an uneasy feeling now that he was alone with the two men. Ed saw the bolt lock on the inside in-side of the door and said, "That's right, Dick, we don't want anybody else comin' in here." With two long strides he reached , the door and pushed the bolt barrel into place. "Nobody can come in now," he sneered. Then he went back, retrieved re-trieved the valise, and sat down., Johnny walked to the barber chair and adjusted the headrest. He had an Inkling now of whom these two men might be, although it seemed fantastic that he coutd be right. ' . Dickloosened his necktie and collar col-lar then eased into the barber chair. He looked at his fingernails, brushed them on his knees and said, "You ought to Rave a girl here to manicure mani-cure my nails. They could stand a polishin. At first Johnny winced at the thought of a man having manicured nails. Then, although he showed no outward emotion, he was jolted inside. in-side. Dapper Dick Crane! Surely that was the name of the man sit- ! ; 5 &mfjr rUm fi&M'fm 1 "If this guy's a barber, then I'm Santa Claus," Ed snarled, "I think this guy's been planted here and we've walked Into a trap!" ting in the chair! And the jittery man near the wall who was staring at him with cold piercing eyes was his twin brother, Ed. Johnny took a long linen cloth, spread it in front of Dick, then pinned it around his neck. So these were the kidnappers who had made the headlines two weeks before! They were 700 miles from the coast where they had collected $50,000 in ransom money, and the F.B.I, was supposed to be hot on their trail. "Don't cut it too short," Dick said, "just give me a good quick trim, and make a neat job." After picking up the clippers, Johnny turned his back on Ed. He had a good view of him in the mirror. "Been in these parts long?" Ed asked behind him. "Lived on a farm outside of town all my life, except when I was in the army," Johnny said as he ran the clippers up the back of Dick's neck. "You don't look like a farmer to me," Ed growled, his voice full of suspicion. "What's eatin you Ed?" Dick grunted. Johnny became shaky when he saw Ed's hand grip something In his coat pocket again. He began to work faster and tlie back of Dick's head didn't lock so good. "After all," Johnny thought, "a fellow who had cut hair only aboard a transport on the way back from Japan couldn't do too good of a job, especially on a mop of hair like this Dapper Dick had." For a minute or two Ed watched In silence, then he stood up and put the valise on the chair. Put- ting his hands on his hips ho turned turn-ed toward the barber chair. He snapped, "I told you, Dick, that this idea of stoppin' at a barber shop was no good. You know those F.B.I, boys are smart, and I bet they figured that Dapper Dick Crane wouldn't be able to resist stoppin' somewhere for a trim." The clippers poised above Dick's head, Johnny looked In the mirror and said nothing, although a wild thought was running through his head. Dick straightened In the chair, "You've got the jitters," he said, "what harm was there In comin here?" "If this guys' a barber, then I'm Santa Claus," Ed snarled, "I think this guy's been planted here and we've walked into a trap! Pullin them shades down was a signal!" Dick ran his hand over the back of his neck, and Johnny forced a smile. Johnny said, "It doesn't look so good now, but wait until I put the other clippers on it" He moved around the chair with Ed's eyes watching Intently. After pulling open a drawer he reached far Inside. Suddenly he whirled about, a .32 In his hand. The brothers were taken by surprise. sur-prise. Ed mumbled, "I told you he was one of Hoover's men." Holding the gun In his left hand, Johnny used his right to throw the clippers at the big bulk store window. Amid the crash of glass, Johnny backed around to the door, and as he unbolted it, he could hear running run-ning feet on the pavement Sheriff Ike Williard was among the crowd that hurried to Investigate Investi-gate the noise caused by the breaking break-ing window. After Johnny explained who the brothers were, Ike smiled and said, "Local boy captures big city slickers." slick-ers." Still rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, Dick mused, "then you ain't a Fed, heh?" He looked at his brother and added, "Why didn't you shoot the punk?" Johnny waited until Sheriff Ike took guns away from the brothers, then he smiled and said, "I thought Tony was crazy for keeping an unloaded un-loaded gun In the drawer but I guess it was a good idea after alL" |