The Project Gutenberg EBook of Know Thy Neighbor, by Elisabeth R. Lewis

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Title: Know Thy Neighbor

Author: Elisabeth R. Lewis

Illustrator: Tom Beecham

Release Date: May 7, 2010 [EBook #32287]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Know Thy Neighbor

By ELISABETH R. LEWIS

Illustrated by Tom Beecham

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
February 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _The terrors that inhabit the night may be even more awful in
deceitful broad daylight!_]

[Illustration]

It began with the dead cat on the fire escape and ended with the green
monster in the incinerator chute, but still, it wouldn't be quite fair
to blame it all on the neighborhood....

The apartment house was in the heart of the district that is known as
"The Tenderloin"--that section of San Francisco from Ellis to Market and
east from Leavenworth to Mason Street. Not the best section.

To Ellen's mind, it was an unsavory neighborhood, but with apartments so
hard to get and this one only $38.00 a month and in a regular apartment
building with an elevator and all--well, as she often told the girls at
the office, you can't be too particular these days.

Nevertheless, it was an ordeal to walk up the two blocks from Market
Street, particularly at night when the noise of juke boxes dinned from
the garish bars, when the sidewalks spilled over with soldiers and
sailors, with peroxided, blowsy-looking women and the furtive gamblers
who haunted the back rooms of the innocent-appearing cigar stores that
lined the street. She walked very fast then, never looking to left or
right, and her heart would pound when a passing male whistled.

[Illustration]

But once inside the apartment house lobby, she relaxed. In spite of its
location, the place seemed very respectable. She seldom met anyone in