"You mean you call it special because it's a single," Kane asked.
The bellhops nodded.
"Why?" Kane insisted. "What's special about a single?"
"We only have one single here," the bellhops said. "We hope you are comfortable with us, Professor Kane."
"Look here! Why should you only have one single in this entire hotel? And what's so special about it?"
"This single is seldom demanded by guests," the bellhop said.
"I didn't demand it. I reserved a suite, or at least I understood that my friend, Phil Nordson, reserved a suite. I certainly didn't demand this!"
"But—but of course you did. We have to have a single when we're—not getting along well with ourselves."
Kane started for the door, but the two men backed out and shut it in his face. He tried the knob. The door was locked. He turned quickly and scanned the room, but there was no key visible. Then one of the curtains moved as he walked toward it, and he saw that the narrow window was barred.
As he swept the curtains aside to look out through the bars, and grabbed at the bars in a kind of instinctual gesture, a metal panel slid noiselessly across and shut out a flash of neon light.