Marvel Mystery Comics #88 (1948)

A father and his daughter Betty get into a cab, there the young girl finds a box of lollipops left behind by a previous passenger and her father allows her to eat one. While in another part of town, former surgeon Dr. Gerrald is angry to hear his daughter Felice had misplaced the lollipops that he had shipped into the United States from Britain. Gerrald calls his men and orders them to track down the taxi cab and recover the lost lollipops. The thugs track down the cab driver and a fight breaks out attracting the attention of the Human Torch who beats the thugs into submission. As he is told by the cab driver what the fight was about and where his last fare went, he is joined by Sun Girl who stays to guard the thugs while the Torch pays a visit to Betty's home. There her father is disappointed to find that they are not the doctor he called for and shows them Betty, who has grown sick after eating one of the lollipops. When the doctor finally arrives he rushes Betty to the hospital right away, telling her father that she will suffer a hemorrhage if she does not have surgery done soon. Wondering what could have caused her to get sick, the Torch learns that the lollipops were tossed in the incinerator downstairs. The Torch rushes down to the basement of the apartment building, and before the eyes of the astounded superintendent, the Torch absorbs the flames, saving part of the package which he takes for analysis. The Torch rushes back to check on Sun Girl and finds that the thugs she was guarding got the drop on her and fled. The pair then rush to the hospital to see what the situation is. There they learn from the doctor that the only person able to carry out the delicate operation on Betty is Dr. Gerrald who had retired from practice. The Torch rushes out to Gerrald's home and is jumped by the thugs he fought earlier and subdued. The Torch is brought inside where he put before Gerrald and his daughter. The Torch begins to realize there is a connection between the lollipops and Gerrald, and shows him the x-ray of Betty and asks him to save her life. Gerrald hesitates and when he men true to once more subdue the Torch, he easily bests them in a fight while Felice flees the scene. Capturing the doctor in a flame wall, the Torch forces him to go to the hospital to meet Betty. Hearing the girls crying pleas for help, Dr. Gerrald relents and agrees to help. As the surgery goes on the lights suddenly go out and Sun Girl uses her sunbeam to light the operating theater to help them finish the surgery. The Torch decides to go back to the incinerator to look for more clues to determine what was in the lollipops that made Betty so sick. There he finds Felice holding the superintendent at gun point. She recovers the remains of the lollipops but when the Torch arrives and threatens to use his flame on her, she faints. The Torch then rushes her to the hospital where Dr. Gerrald has completed the operation. They then explain that after Gerrald gave up on his practice he began considering criminal activity and reveal that the lollipops had diamonds hidden in them that they had smuggled into the country from England. With this explanation, Gerrald realizes that he still has the skill to be a surgeon. The Torch and Sun Girl promise to clear things out as long as Gerrald promises to resume helping those in need.