Black Curtain Read Online Free PDF

him until now for some strange reason. His address here, his name, and all other pertinent information about him were on file down where he had worked, accessible to the most casual inquiry.
     
    All through those vacant, staring hours in the park, that had never occurred to him. He had been an ostrich, burying its head while its tail plumes flaunted in the breeze.
     
    It was the inevitable next step, too. Agate Eyes had found the building he worked in; that was today. By tomorrow he would find the exact floor. Then the right door on that floor. And once he had found that, he would painlessly extract the information of where Townsend lived. The pursuit would suddenly overleap the distance he had imposed on it, strike home here. And from here there was no easy retreat possible. Here there was Virginia. Here he was rooted fast.
     
    He had just postponed the inevitable, gained a day or two at the most.
     
    There might still be time. Time, that ally of all frightened things, ever since there first was fear. Maybe they could be persuaded to withhold his address, shield him.
     
    He would have given anything to be able to get in touch with them then and there, get it over with; he would have felt that much safer before he went to bed and tried to sleep. This way he'd have an uneasy feeling that the wheels of pursuit were still grinding, somewhere unseen, all night long, while he lay in false security. He'd have to wait until the morning to reach them; there wasn't anyone down there after six. If he'd only thought of it in time, he'd had all afternoon long in which to do it, while he sat there idling in the park. He paced back and forth, as though trying to wear the night away, like a carpet is worn away by walking on it. But the evening's quarter hours went by no more quickly than if he'd been sitting patiently in a chair, and he saw that he was only making Virginia uneasy by his restlessness.
     
    There was one hope: if he couldn't reach them during the night to protect himself, neither could his nemesis reach them during the night to extract any information out of them.
     
    In the morning it was the first thing on his mind as his eyes opened--a held-back injunction from last consciousness, that flashed its way in like a ray of light when a door is first opened into a dark room. "Phone them fast, get to them before he does!"
     
    He could hardly wait to gulp his coffee, grab his hat, and get out.
     
    "But you're not late," Virginia tried to reassure him. "You're even five or ten minutes ahead of your usual time today."
     
    He threw her a half-truth across his shoulder, "I know, but there's a call I've got to make the very first thing!"
     
    He did it from the corner below. And, ironically, he was too early the first time. There was no answer.
     
    He stayed by the instrument, palpitating, drumming his fingers. Then he swung the dial wheel around again and this time was answered by the familiar voice of the telephone girl.
     
    There was a slight stiffness to her tone. Not of manner, but of posture, if such a thing can be visualized. As though she hadn't had time to take off her hat yet, and was leaning over the switchboard from the outside of the rail, rather than sitting before it at ease.
     
    "Hello. That you, Beverly? This is Frank Townsend."
     
    Her accents thawed to the proper intimate plane reserved for a fellow worker. "Oh, hello. What happened to you yesterday, Frank? You stayed out, I noticed. Weren't sick, I hope?"
     
    "I'm not coming in any more, Bev," he said.
     
    "Ah, I'm sorry to hear that, Frank," she lamented. "We'll all miss you. Boss know about it yet?"
     
    "I'm mailing him a letter," he improvised.
     
    "Well, lots of luck, Frank. And any time you're in the neighborhood, drop in and say hello. You know we'll always be glad to see you."
     
    He said, "Look, Beverly, I want you to do something for me, will you?"
     
    "Sure, Frank."
     
    "Please, under no circumstances, give out my home address. I mean,