"You Figgered on a Perfect Alibi"

"Foolproof."

By John Russell Fearn (1908-60).

First appearance: Vengeance Shorts #2 (1946).

Reprinted in Four in One Weird and Occult Shorts [1948?].

Short short story (6 pages as a PDF).

Online at Fadedpage (HERE).

     "No, not the executioner. This job is foolproof. See?"

The pen is supposed to be mightier than the sword; in this instance, it's far more eloquent . . .

Main characters:

~ Judge Rufus Langton:

  "If you kill me, they’ll find my body before you have a chance to—"

~ Joseph Gell:

  ". . . was transformed into a man of action. Tearing off his wet hat and mackintosh, he hung them on the fireplace so they dripped to the warm hearth. Then he removed his solitary glove and substituted rubber gloves on both hands, flexed his fingers for a moment."

~ Sheriff Ingleby:

  ". . . thin and angular, with a bald head fringed with white fluff, was sitting reading beside the glowing iron stove, pipe in mouth, glasses on nose. He looked up in surprise over his lenses . . ."

Resource:

- You've got to give John Russell Fearn credit for trying to combine crime and science fiction, even if the results were, shall we say, highly variable; a case in point is his story "The Mental Gangster" (HERE).

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