TODAY'S STORY was a commemorative republication in Blue Book in honor of the author, who had just passed away a few months earlier. The story introduces a character who starred in Blue Book in more than 40 adventures over 13 years. That explains why the magazine's editors altered the title to . . .
"Enter: Tiny David."
(Original title: "The Gilman Case").
Corporal Edward "Tiny" David No. 1.
By Robert R. Mill (1895-1942; Pulpflakes HERE).
First appearance: The Blue Book, July 1929.
Reprinted in Blue Book, October 1942 (today's text).
Short short story (6 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
"A super-cop has certain privileges."
THREE DEATHS, two bullets, one conflagration, and zero suspects. That's the situation confronting Corporal Edward David of the Black Horse Troop of the New York State Police when he arrives in Tranquil Lake. He makes notes about the victims, all siblings:
"Gilman brothers lived alone. Had office on first floor of house. Insurance and investments. Also played stock market. Regarded as close and universally disliked. No friends. No known association with women. All regarded as wealthy. Recreations, golf and target shooting. Brothers were apparently on best of terms."
While all three were "universally disliked," however, only one of them loses his mojo as a stock market "oracle," disappointing others who've invested a load of money in the market, and pays the ultimate price. It's up to Corporal David to find out who those "others" are while at the same time saving the reputation of the Black Horse Troop . . .
Main characters:
~ Warren Gilman, Nathan Gilman, and Elmer Gilman ("Maybe suicide and murder; or maybe just murder"), Corporal Edward David ("it's a wholesale killing!"), Trooper Henry Linton ("Linny, there are times when your name should be Ninny"), Chief Edward McCormick ("Then you wiped out the best, and maybe the only clue"), District Attorney Jerome Sellers ("I made a hasty preliminary investigation"), John Small ("Reckon I be a thousand years old"), Dr. A. D. Prince ("Death was instantaneous in both cases"), Albert James ("These bullets were fired from this gun"), George Knight ("of the Star"), Jess Putnam ("he owns me body and soul"), William North ("He hands out cards"), Peter Wilson ("His lips moved, but no sound came from them"), and Captain Field ("We merely wish to end the bungling that has existed in certain quarters").
References and resources:
- "You may have been to France":
An oblique reference to Corporal David's military service in the First World War.
- "Ain't we got fun?":
The little song that Linton sings is a parody of a popular tune of the era with the same title:
"'Ain't We Got Fun?' and its jaunty response to poverty and its promise of fun ('Every morning / Every evening,' and 'In the meantime, / In between time') have become symbolic of the Roaring Twenties, and it appears in some of the major literature of the decade, including The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and in Dorothy Parker's award-winning short story of 1929, 'Big Blonde'." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- Other stories with a stock market connection: Edwin Lefèvre's The Plunderers (HERE), the nonfictional "Guarding Wall Street Against Thieves" (HERE), and Arthur B. Reeve's "The Mystery of the Vault" (HERE).
- Note: The last original Tiny David story was "Cracked Ice" in Blue Book, September 1942.
- Other Tiny David stories that we've looked at: "Murder on the Island" and "Murder at Dark Lake" (both HERE) and "Bank Night" (HERE).
- Other Robert R. Mill stories not featuring Tiny David: "Jail-Bait" (HERE) and "Mrs. Murder" (HERE).
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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