"Fly Paper" (BLACK MASK, August 1929) is the third last Op
story. It's the one with the classic opening line: "It was a
wandering daughter job." A rich, wild young woman has been
missing for over a year, and then her father gets a telegram
from her asking for money. The Op is sent to deliver it, but
it's a scam. He soon finds the girl's corpse.
Much of the middle of the story is a chase through downtown
San Francisco. It's charted out on the back of one of the
Dell Mapback editions of Hammett's short stories. It's a part
of Don Herron's Hammett walking tour of the city, isn't
it?
Here's a paragraph from the start. Sue is the rich daughter,
and she's working in a speakeasy run by a Greek names Vassos.
Babe McCloor is a big tough safecracker.
| Babe liked Sue. Vassos liked Sue. Sue liked Babe. Vassos
didn't
| like that. Jealousy spoiled the Greek's judgement. He kept
the
| speakeasy door locked one night when Babe wanted to come
in. Babe
| came in, bringing pieces of the door with him. Vassos got
his gun
| out, but couldn't shake Sue off his arm. He stopped trying
when
| Babe hit him with the part of the door that had the brass
knob on
| it. Babe and Sue went away from Vassos' together.
That's beautiful.
The method of murder in the story is outlandish, but in
context it doesn't seem so crazy. And this was a 1920s pulp
story, after all. They were full of wild stuff.
The story mentions Dumas's classic THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO,
and uses something from it. This rang a bell, and a search of
the archives turned up a message Kathy Harper (who's not on
the list any more) sent in July 1998:
"Is Brigid
based on 'Milady'?"
http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/199807/0329.html
I'll have to check to see if Dumas is mentioned in any of
Hammett's published letters, or his biographies.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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