Frank L Packard

Doors of the Night Frank L Packard

Book Excerpt: ...ed the hall door, looked out, closed the door softly again, and from there walked to one of the two doors at the lower end of the room, opened this, looked into the room beyond, and closed it again. Billy Kane watched the other in frank amazement. The door that David Ellsworth had just opened was the door of the "office"--the room that during working hours, which were from ten to five, was occupied by the stenographer. True, the room opened on the back hallway and had a separate entrance from the courtyard in the rear, an entrance always used by the stenographer, but it was always locked by Peters, the butler, at night, and he, Billy Kane, had the only other key. David Ellsworth returned, and halted before Billy Kane's chair."No, I am not in my second childhood, Billy," he said quietly. "That letter was certainly not written without a purpose; and yet from every angle that I have been able to view it, except one, it would have been exactly that--without purpose. I believe it is the first...