The Suicide Squad and the Murder Bund

A keen October wind was cutting across the Drive from the Hudson whenStephen Klaw came out of the side street. He stopped in the lee of thecorner apartment building, and lit a cigarette. He did not at once putout the match, but held it cupped in front of his face so that hisclean-cut though rugged features were illuminated.Almost at once, a woman came darting from the shadows of the parkacross the street. She was dressed in a black rain coat, and wore nohat. Her dark hair streamed out behind her as she ran, in zig-zagfashion, as if wounded. And the great spreading stain of crimson uponthe black background of the raincoat, just underneath the heart,testified to the wound.Under her right arm she was clutching a small black leather briefcase, which seemed to be more precious to her than the life bloodwhich was pouring from her body.Before she had taken half a dozen steps across the wide expanse ofRiverside Drive toward Stephen Klaw, a man's voice rose in atriumphant shout, hoarse and vindictive: There she is!The man came tearing out from the park, a little farther down theblock. At the same time, two other men broke from cover, at otherpoints along the Drive. They had evidently been combing the park forher. All three of them converged upon her. They had peculiarweapons--the stocks resembled those of Thompson sub-machine guns, butthe barrels were sawed-off so that they were only about six incheslong.Stephen Klaw's lips pursed tightly when he saw those guns in the handsof the three men. He spat the cigarette from his lips, and thrust hishands down into his jacket pockets. They emerged almost at once, eachgripping an automatic.The first of those three pursuing men dropped to one knee, and aimedhis sawed-off machine gun, while the other two raised their weapons totheir shoulders to fire as they ran. All three muzzles wereconcentrated upon the back of the staggering woman. Either they hadnot seen the slim, almost boyish figure of Stephen Klaw, or else theydid not connect him with their quarry.Klaw's eyes were cold and hard as he fired both automatics from thehip. The men on the extreme right and left of the running woman fellas those two automatics began their spiteful, deadly barking. Theynever even fired their weapons.But the third, directly behind the woman, was shielded from Klaw byher staggering body.The fellow saw his advantage at once, and dropped flat on the ground,raising his sawed-off machine gun and pulling the trip at the sametime. A burst of scattering lead belched from the mouth of the viciousweapon, spreading over a radius of twenty feet, something like thebuckshot from a small gauge shotgun.