"Anybody That Kin Figure Out a Mess Like This Is Okay!"

"The Masked Alibi."

By John Gregory (house pseudonym).

First appearance: 10-Story Detective, January 1938.

Short short short story (5 pages).

Online at The Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

   "When he took a shot at me last night, he was playing right into your hands.”

CRIMINALS in fiction tend to be slippery cusses, often taking deceptive practices 

to ever higher levels. Which is why we should be grateful for law enforcement types 

like the one in our story who's blessed with the ability to engage in what you might 

call perceptive practices . . .

Main characters:

~ Corporal Hal Robberts, Fred Dorgan, and Amos Norton.

Typo: "of his" [unnecessary phrase].

References:

- "the Adirondack forest" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the big .45 Colt" (HERE; Wikipedia); "a .32-40" (HERE; Wikipedia); "a .30-30" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "pine marten" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a big tri-motored Douglas": Douglas Aircraft never produced a tri-motor airplane. Our author might be thinking of the Ford Tin Goose (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- Another New York state trooper somehow earned the nickname of "Tiny" David; he had quite a lot of adventures, two of which were "Murder on the Island" and "Murder at Dark Lake" (both HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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