THE HAND OF THE SHADOW
ARTHUR WILHELM lived on Long Island. His home was a pretentious mansion located not far from Flushing.
There was a driveway in back of the house. This vehicular entrance came in from a side road.
Late in the afternoon, a man came up the drive in a delivery truck. He took a package in the back gate. A servant signed for it. The package was addressed to Arthur Wilhelm.
The servant recognized the package. It bore the label of a large New York tobacco firm. It was a consignment of fresh cigars for the millionaire.
These boxes came in every week. This one had been delivered a day earlier than usual.
Wilhelm had a standing order with the tobacco shop, and the goods came by local express.
There was nothing significant in the early delivery of that package, but the package itself was important. No one, in all the household, was allowed to tamper with those packages.
The millionaire paid a high price for his imported cigars. He felt that this was his own special brand. He liked to see each package in its original wrapping.
So the servant entered Wilhelm’s private room and left the package on the desk. That was in strict accordance with instructions.