Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 126: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

By F. MORTON HOWARD SINGLE soft tap on the door dis- turbed the complete silence of close application in the private office of that old established firm, Stebbings & Mortimer, of Flaming Sword Lane, City. The junior partner frowned at the inter- ruption, but steadfastly continued his study of the big ledger on his desk. The senior partner, without raising his eyes from the mass of correspondence before him, me- chanically emitted that loud, inarticulate drone with which it was his habit to accord permission to enter. | Slowly, noiselessly the door opened some eighteen inches, and the face of a mild, middle-aged little man peered around it ito the room. Neither partner gave any recog- nition of his presence, and for a while he remained there, gazing in timid perplexity from one to the other of the two preoccu- pied gentlemen. With every moment of his wait his ex- pression deepened in dubiety until it became one almost of anxious apprehension. Un- able at last to bear the embarrassment of his position any longer, he stealthily with- drew his head, silently closed the door, and, after a period of dull hesitation in the pas- sage outside, summed up sufficient courage to rap for a second time with greater force and urgency. “Come in!” fussed the senior partner impatiently. “Oh, come in, do!” Again the door opened, and again the mild little face peered round it. “Well?” jerked the senior partner, glancing up. ‘ Oh, it’s you, Chedworth?” he observed not unkindly. ‘“ Come in!” 282 Comichbooks.;com