Dramatists -- Fiction; Love stories; Mystery fiction
Miss Mayo's window was open. He could see that. He could see more than
that, and what he saw sent him rushing through the study and out into
the hall of the big apartment building, where he furiously rang the
elevator bell. He had not stopped for his hat and coat, but he had
caught a vision of Bangs's astonished face and half of his startled
exclamation, "What the dev--"
The elevator came and Laurie leaped into it.
"Down," he said briefly.
The operator was on his way up to the twelfth floor, but something in
the expression of his passenger made him change his plans. Also it
accelerated his movements. The car descended briskly to the ground
floor, from which point the operator was privileged to watch the
progress of the temperamental Mr. Devon, who had plunged through the
main entrance of the building and across the square without a word to
the hall attendants, or a backward glance.
As he reached the studio building Laurie recalled himself to a memory of
the conventions. He entered without undue haste, and sought the door of
the waiting lift. It was noon, and an operator he had not seen before
was on duty.
"Top floor," directed Laurie, and stepped into the car. The operator
hesitated. He did not remember this tenant, but he must belong to the
house, as he wore no hat or coat. Probably he was a new-comer, and had
run down-stairs to mail an important letter, as the old building held no
mail-chute. While these reflections passed slowly through his mind, his
car rose as slowly. To the mentally fuming young man at his side its
progress was intolerably deliberate. He held himself in, however, and
even went through the pantomime of pausing in the top-floor hall to
search a pocket as if for a latch-key.
Satisfied, the attendant started the elevator on its descent, and as it
sank from sight Laurie looked around him for Number Twenty-nine. He
discovered it in an eye-flash, on the door at the right. The next
instant he had reached this door and was softly turning the knob.
The door did not yield. He had not expected it to give, and he knew
exactly what he meant to do. He stepped back a few feet, then with a
rush hurled his shoulder against the wood with the full force of his
foot-ball training in the effort. The lock yielded, and under the force
of his own momentum the visitor shot into the room. Then, recovering his
equilibrium, he pushed the door into place and stood with his back
against it, breathing heavily and feeling rather foolish.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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