As he leaned against it, almost in a terror of suspense, he knew he heard again those little seemings of a presence a door's thickness away.

He did not hesitate.
Still holding the turned knob in his hand, he quickly crouched back and brought his flexed shoulder heavily against the door.

It flew open with a breaking sound, and, with a little gasp of triumph, he was in the room to confront its unknown occupant.
To his dismay, he saw no one.

He peered in bewilderment to the farther side of the room, where light struggled dimly in at the sides of a curtained window.

There was no sound, and yet he could acutely feel that presence; insistently his nerves tingled the warning of another's nearness.