show the figure of
a man standing with his back
to the open door
Adapted from the passage:
In darkness the three detectives collided with one another going through the doorway into the dark hall.
Spade reached the stairs first.
There was a clatter of footsteps below him, but nothing could be seen until he reached a bend in the stairs.
Then enough light came from the street through the open front door to show the dark figure of a man standing with his back to the open door.
In the book, They Can Only Hang You Once by Dashiell Hammett, P. F. Collier & Son, New York 1932.
If your back is to the open door, you are looking out to the street and not behind you.
As the great Satchel Paige advised, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
The scary part here is, of course, that something is already in front of us, all around.
There is no escape.
No Haiku For You 