A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
How the prose reads.
On a dangerous night ride, a cavalry officer finds a missing trooper standing beside a fallen horse.
On a freezing Civil War night, soldiers borrow a blanket from an unidentified dead sergeant.
A tenant sees the former owner of his rented house in a room with no exit.
A widower notices that his wife's body has changed position after its long journey home.
A passenger feels an inexplicable bond with a young woman on an Atlantic crossing.
A fugitive meets a silent figure in a dark forest and follows him back toward the jail.
A boy sets out for water on a snowy night; his footprints end halfway to the spring.
A physician arrives after a sudden death and finds the family's account impossible to reconcile with the room.
Three grave robbers open a coffin on a stormy night and find its occupant sitting up.
A minister meets a silent peddler on a misty bridge, then returns to learn why the man was there.
Staley Fleming sees a dog beside his bed every night, but it vanishes when he sits up.
Neighbors keeping vigil beside a dead woman in her mountain cabin witness something they cannot explain.
A plantation owner vanishes while walking across an open field in view of several witnesses.
A corpse appears in a locked third-floor bedroom, and no one can identify it.
A missing farmer is seen miles from home just as his son becomes the chief murder suspect.
On a black, wind-lashed night, a cemetery watchman agrees to guide a lost pilgrim and begins to regret his kindness.
A police superintendent’s idea of justice changes each time a biting dog seems to belong to someone more powerful.
A frightened schoolboy’s failed Greek exam becomes a family crisis about poverty, ambition, and punishment.
Two peasants keep vigil beside a shrouded stranger while a nervous pilgrim discovers that faith offers little protection from fear.
An ailing bank manager meets a petitioner whose helplessness proves more exhausting than any official problem.
A drunken father asks his patient son for money, then confesses every lie without finding the strength to stop repeating them.
Penniless after a hospital stay, a nightclub dancer visits an old admirer and finds that ordinary clothes have changed their acquaintance.
A practical railway guard hires a matchmaker and explains, in exact detail, the wife required for his future happiness.
A magistrate questions a peasant who cannot understand why taking one railway nut for a fishing weight is a crime.
