The Project Gutenberg EBook of Death Points a Finger, by Will Levinrew

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Title: Death Points a Finger

Author: Will Levinrew

Release Date: October 6, 2009 [EBook #30187]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEATH POINTS A FINGER ***

Produced by Robert Cody

Death Points A Finger

by Will Levinrew

Published by the Mystery League, New York and London.

1933

Other books by Will Levinrew (William Levine) are Poison Plague
(1929), Murder on the Palisades (1930), Murder from the Grave
(1930), and For Sale--Murder (1932)

Chapter I

The tempo was increasing to its highest pitch for the day. That
highly complicated organism, a daily newspaper, which is
apparently conceived in the wildest disorder, was about to "go to
bed." Twenty typewriters were hammering out their finishing
touches and concluding paragraphs to new stories. New leads were
being written to old stories.

News machines, telegraph machines, two tickers were adding their
quota to the infernal din. Male and female voices were punctuating
the grimy air with yells of "copy boy". The men at the horseshoe
shaped copy desk were echoing the cry. Boys rushed up to some of
the typewriters, and, almost before the type bars ceased their
clicking on the last words of a sentence, snatched out the sheet
of copy paper from the machine.

The floor, tables, desks, chairs presented an appearance that
would have made the owner of a respectable junk shop blush.
Discarded copy paper and newspapers, cigarette stubs, burnt
matches, strewed the floors. Coats and hats dumped anywhere,
littered the desks and battered chairs.

As an obligato to the din, there came from deep in the bowels of
the building the rumbling of the huge presses that were throwing
out the papers of an earlier edition; a rumble that was felt as
well as heard.

Suddenly, as if by magic, the din ceased; "dead line" had been
reached. One lone typewriter came to a chattering halt. Men and
women rose from their machines, where they had been sitting tense.
Cigarettes were lit; the workers relaxed. There began a subdued
chatter. Chaff and banter were exchanged