The White Moll (1920). By Frank L. Packard: Novel, ( With a Female Protagonist ).

It was very shallow, scarcely three-quarters of an inch in depth, but it was quite long enough, and quite wide enough for its purpose! Inside, there lay a little pile of banknotes, banknotes of very large denomination-the one on top was a thousand-dollar bill. She reached in and took out the money-and then from Rhoda Gray's lips there came a little cry, the flashlight dropped from her hand and smashed to the floor, and she was clinging desperately to the edge of the escritoire for support. The shop was flooded with light. Over by the side wall, one hand still on the electric-light switch, the other holding a leveled revolver, stood a man." The White Moll is Packard's only novel with a female protagonist. It was adapted into a silent film in 1920................... Frank Lucius Packard (February 2, 1877 - February 17, 1942) was a Canadian novelist. Life: Frank L. Packard was born in Montreal, Quebec and educated at McGill University and the University of Liege.As a young man he worked as a civil engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. His experiences working on the railroad led to his writing many railroad stories, then to a series of mystery novels, the most famous of which featured a character called Jimmie Dale. Several of his novels were made into films. Frank Packard died in 1942 in Lachine, Quebec and was buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.