Markup View

Author: 69BookWorM69

Dec 13th 2011 at 9:05:03 AM

[[http://www.futrelle.com/stories/GrinningGod.html "The Grinning God"]] is a pair of short stories by May and Jacques Futrelle (hers is "Wraiths of the Storm" and his reply is "The House That Was", [[OlderThanTheyThink both 1907]]) that feature a crusty New Englander variant of the unhelpful and alarming gas station attendant. He lives above the store in the middle of nowhere and is reluctant to sell fuel at night, despite the driver's car being clearly out of gas, miles from the nearest big city. He won't put the driver up for the night despite the signs of an approaching storm. He tells the driver that the road to the next town is "straight 'cept where it bends." Only an offer to pay double prompts the man to finally sell the fuel at all.

The driver goes his way, and has a series of strange experiences. He comes to doubt his own sanity and act accordingly. It is up to Jacques Futrelle's Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen ("The Thinking Machine") to work out the answer, bringing the distraught man along on a re-enactment of the trip to show that it was all real. [[spoiler: The driver had turned and backtracked instead of going on toward his destination; the attendant tried to call after him but had his voice drowned out by the thunder and the roar of the engine.]]