"Heart Stopped—I Can't Feel a Pulse!"

"Right After the Doctor."

By Roy de S. Horn (1894-1973).

First appearance: Detective Novel Magazine, August 1944.

Illustrator unknown.

Reprinted in Top Detective Annual, 1951.

Short story (11 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

(Note: Text faded but legible.)

The love of money has been called the root of all evil, a fact an asthmatic sea captain is about to learn the hard way . . . .

Principal characters:

~ Captain Munroe:

  "Well, when a seventy-five-year-old man has chronic asthma and dies from choking to death, that's generally the diagnosis."

~ Royal:

  "The canary in the corner—did he die of asthma, too, Doctor?"

~ Kerry:

  "Thirty millions—and he ain't got no more use for it now than that canary!"

~ The parrot:

  "Quarr-r-rrk! Quarrk! All hands and the cook! The cook—the cook—to blazes with the cook. Quarr-r-rrk!"

~ Brewster:

  "I thought I told you to take those infernal birds out of here!"

~ Miss Fenner:

  "I did, Doctor. Truly, I did. But he ordered me to bring them back! Said he preferred honest pets to selfish humans!"

~ Cassidy:

  "Who the devil's been burning old rags in here?"

~ Welton and Harriet Munroe:

  "Captain Munroe's nephew" and "the Captain's niece."

~ Mrs. Murphy:

  ". . . a red-faced, middle-aged woman, unmistakably Irish . . ."

~ Meeghan:

  ". . . captain in charge of the precinct station."

~ The bearded man:

  ". . . looked dazed, nodded, and drew out a legal-looking paper."

Typos: "Well tear up the ticket" [We'll]; "desave" [?].

References and resources:

- "enough cyanide in him to kill a cow!": A favorite with many killers, fictional and real life:

  "If hydrogen cyanide is inhaled it can cause a coma with seizures, apnea, and cardiac arrest, with death following in a matter of seconds. At lower doses, loss of consciousness may be preceded by general weakness, dizziness, headaches, vertigo, confusion, and perceived difficulty in breathing. At the first stages of unconscious-ness, breathing is often sufficient or even rapid, although the state of the person progresses towards a deep coma, sometimes accompanied by pulmonary edema, and finally cardiac arrest" (Wikipedia HERE).

- "while I put on the darbies": "British slang: handcuffs; manacles" (Dictionary.com HERE).

- Roy de Saussure Horn wrote in different genres, including sea adventures, Westerns, war stories, and the occasional detective yarn; FictionMags's list of his short fiction begins in 1920 and runs to 1944, ending with today's story. Their thumbnail: "Naval officer, editor, publisher. Born in Boston, Georgia; died in Annapolis, Maryland."

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