The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
Between the car and the edge of the cliff which overhung the lake there
was a space of about a hundred and thirty feet, fairly level and covered
with straggly red clover. Jasper paced off this distance, returned to
the car, took his seat in a nervous, tentative way, and put her into
gear, starting on second speed and slamming her into third. The car
bolted toward the edge of the cliff. He instantly swung out on the
running board. Standing there, headed directly toward the sharp drop
over the cliff, steering with his left hand on the wheel, he shoved the
hand throttle up—up—up with his right. He safely leaped down from the
running board.
Of itself the car rushed forward, roaring. It shot over the edge of the
cliff. It soared twenty feet out into the air as though it were a
thick-bodied aëroplane. It turned over and over, with a sickening drop
toward the lake. The water splashed up in a tremendous noisy circle.
Then silence. In the twilight the surface of the lake shone like milk.
There was no sign of the car on the surface. The concentric rings died
away. The lake was secret and sinister and still. “Lord!” ejaculated
Jasper, standing on the cliff; then: “Well, they won’t find that for a
couple of years anyway.”
He returned to the suitcases. Squatting beside them he took from one the
wig and black garments of John Holt. He stripped, put on the clothes of
John, and packed those of Jasper in the bag. With the cases and the
motor-license plates he walked toward Rosebank, keeping in various
groves of maples and willows till he was within half a mile of the town.
He reached the stone house at the end of the willow walk, and sneaked in
the back way. He burned Jasper Holt’s clothes in the grate, melted down
the license plates in the stove, and between two rocks he smashed
Jasper’s expensive watch and fountain pen into an unpleasant mass of
junk, which he dropped into the cistern for rain water. The silver head
of the umbrella he scratched with a chisel till the engraved name was
indistinguishable.
He unlocked a section of the bookcase and taking a number of packages of
bills in denominations of one, five, ten and twenty dollars from one of
the suitcases he packed them into those empty candy boxes which, on the
shelves, looked so much like books. As he stored them he counted the
bills. They came to ninety-seven thousand five hundred and thirty-five
dollars.
The two suitcases were new. There were no distinguishing marks on them.
But taking them out to the kitchen he kicked them, rubbed them with
lumps of blacking, raveled their edges and cut their sides, till they
gave the appearance of having been long and badly used in traveling. He
took them upstairs and tossed them up into the low attic.
In his bedroom he undressed calmly. Once he laughed: “I despise those
pretentious fools—bank officers and cops. I’m beyond their fool law. No
one can catch me—it would take me myself to do that!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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