The Apartment Next Door
By William Andrew Johnston
All at once, the man ahead paused suddenly and looked over the river. Between the Drive and the distance-dimmed lights of the Jersey shore, the grim figures of several gigantic steel-clad battleships rose like great silhouettes, their fighting tops lost in the shadows of the opposite hills. Beside them, obscure, with no lights visible, lay the great transports that, in a few hours or a few days–who knew–they would be convoying with their precious cargo of fighting men across the war-perilled Atlantic.
On the forward deck of one of these great battleships, the eyes of the man ahead were riveted. His shadower, evidently much concerned in his actions, crept slowly and stealthily forward, approaching nearer and still nearer without being observed. A dim light became visible on the warship’s deck and then vanished. Still, the man stood there watching, a puzzled, anxious look on his face. Quickly, the light reappeared–two flashes, a pause, two flashes, a pause, and then a single flash. It was such a light as might have been made by a pocket torch, a feeble ray barely strong enough to carry to the adjacent shore, a light that, if it had been flashed from some sheltered nook by the boat, davits might not even have attracted the attention of the officer on the bridge nor of the ship’s watchmen.
Manifestly, it was a signal intended for the eyes of someone on shore. A muttered imprecation escaped the lips of the watcher on the Drive. He stood there, straining his eyes toward the ship as if expecting a following signal, then he turned and gazed aloft at the windows of the apartment houses lining the driveway to see if some answering signal flashed back. And in the shadow of the buildings, hardly ten feet away but half sheltered by a doorway, stood his sinister pursuer, motionless but alert.
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William Andrew Johnston
William Andrew Johnston (1871–1929) was an American journalist, writer, and co-founder with George T. Delacorte Jr. of Dell Publishing.
Biography
Johnston was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 26, 1871, the son of William Andrew and Agnes (Parry) Johnston. He graduated with a Litt.D from Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) in 1891, where he was valedictorian. Soon after graduation, he moved to New York City and worked at the New York World newspaper for 27 years. In 1921, he co-founded Dell Publishing.
In 1927, he moved to Chicago and became vice president of public relations for Celotex Corporation. Johnston was married twice, first in 1896, to Hazel Minnette Williams of Hampshire, England, and second, in 1910, to Hattie Belle McCollum (1883-1963). of Lockport, New York. He had a son, George E. Johnston. He died in Chicago on February 16, 1929, at age 58. According to The New York Times, “most of Mr. Johnston’s books were written from his experience as a reporter.” He is best known for his books Limpy, the Boy Who Felt Neglected (1917), based on his disability, and The Fun of Being a Fat Man (1922), again based on his life experience, in reaction to a book by Henri Beraud called The Tragedy of Being Fat (Le Martyre de l’obèse).
He wrote a series of articles for Collier’s from 1925-26 on the theme “if I were a…”, such as “If I Were a Business Man”, “If I Were a Clergyman”, “If I Were a Doctor”, “If I Were a Lawyer”, “If I Were a Rich Man”, “If I Were Out of a Job”. He also wrote several detective stories and non-fiction.
William Andrew Johnston
