_O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES of 1923_ _O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD_ PRIZE STORIES _of_ 1923 CHOSEN BY THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS _Author of “A Handbook on Story Writing,” “Our Short Story Writers,” Etc._ _Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City of New York_ _Instructor in Story Writing, Columbia University_ (_Extension Teaching and Summer Session_) [Illustration: colophon] GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1924 COPYRIGHT, 1923, 1924, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright, 1922, 1923, by The McCall Company and The Pictorial Review Company. Copyright, 1923, by Harper & Brothers, The Curtis Publishing Company in the United States and Great Britain, McClure Publishing Company, New York; The Century Co., Pearson’s Magazine (The New Pearson’s), The Frank A. Munsey Company, P. F. Collier and Son Company in the United States and Great Britain, International Magazine Company, Consolidated Magazines Corporation (The Red Book Magazine.) PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. CONTENTS PAGE PRELUDE. By Edgar Valentine Smith 1 A FRIEND OF NAPOLEON. By Richard Connell 19 TOWERS OF FAME. By Elizabeth Irons Folsom 38 PHANTOM ADVENTURE. By Floyd Dell 46 THE DISTANT STREET. By Francis Edwards Faragoh 59 THE WAGER. By Isa Urquhart Glenn 75 CÉLESTINE. By James Hopper 92 WITCH MARY. By Genevieve Larsson 104 THE BAMBOO TRAP. By Robert S. Lemmon 120 THE HAT OF EIGHT REFLECTIONS. By James Mahoney 134 HOME-BREW. By Grace Sartwell Mason 159 DERRICK’S RETURN. By Gouverneur Morris 182 SHADOWED. By Mary Synon 193 THE ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL. By Booth Tarkington 211