"The Hand on His Automatic Trembled a Little"

"Number Three Dog."

By William Byron Mowery (1899-1957; Pulpflakes HERE; Wikisource HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

Illustrated by Austin Briggs (1908-73; Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists HERE).

First appearance: Blue Book, July 1938.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 42).

   "With a snarl the man whipped out a blue automatic."

BILLIONS have been spent on research into criminal profiling, but today's sleuth shows how to do it on the cheap . . .

Principal characters:

~ McNain ("Four nights in a row, he mused, and not the slightest progress") and Smoky Belger ("How the hell did you know I was in that line?").

The Moment:

  An idea sprang into McNain's mind. "I've got it!" he exulted. "I've got it!"

References:

- "the red-jacketed dog"; "the electric hare":

  The background of today's story is dog racing (Wikipedia HERE), particularly as it's done in the United States (Wikipedia HERE). When McNain says "to go back North with me," there's an implication that they're in Florida, which had big time greyhound racing until a referendum banned it in 2020.

- "Pride goeth before destruction":

  The full quote: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18; Bible Gateway HERE).

Resources:

- The FictionMags thumbnail for William Byron Mowery: "Teacher, naturalist and novelist. Born in Adelphia, Ohio; on faculty at University of Illinois, then became full time writer, with more than 450 published stories, screenwriter."

- It has been almost nine years since we examined Mowery's "The Seventh Man" (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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