The hand of God

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

78088

Title

The hand of God

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

In a sweltering Southern county, a sheriff faces a lynch mob demanding justice for a murder. As the crowd grows impatient, the sheriff discovers a discrepancy in the evidence that suggests divine intervention or a supernatural twist. He must use wit and courage to protect an innocent man from the mob's fury, revealing a deeper conspiracy involving the victim's death and the true killer's identity.

Summary up to 500 words

Set in the oppressive heat of a Southern county, Murray Leinster's "The Hand of God" dramatizes the tension between mob justice and the rule of law. The story centers on Sheriff, who guards a prisoner, Sam Blake, in a jail besieged by an angry mob demanding his immediate lynching. Sam is accused of murdering Kittinger, a man killed while filling his pipe on a store porch. The evidence appears overwhelming: Sam was found unconscious in a blacksmith shop with a discharged rifle and an empty shell nearby. The mob, including the victim's grieving relatives, believes Sam killed Kittinger, stumbled during his flight, and left the weapon behind. The Sheriff, initially skeptical of the mob's vigilante justice but protective of the law, struggles with the moral dilemma of defending a convicted murderer against a violent crowd. He attempts to delay the lynching by feigning weakness and hoping for a miracle, such as a storm or fire, to distract the mob. However, the situation escalates when a doctor sent to revive Sam fails to arrive in time. As the mob presses against the jail doors, the Sheriff prepares to shoot his way out to save Sam. Just then, he notices a critical detail: there are two empty shells at the crime scene, yet only one shot was heard. Realizing the evidence is flawed, he confronts the mob's leader, Pete Brown, who claims to have witnessed the shooting. The Sheriff exposes Pete's lie, revealing that Pete had previously shot his own uncle, Kittinger, and left the shell in Sam's gun to frame him. Pete had also drugged Sam and knocked him unconscious to ensure he took the blame. With the truth revealed, the Sheriff arrests Pete, silencing the mob and preventing a lynching. The story concludes with the Sheriff reflecting on the 'hand of God' that intervened through the discovery of the extra shell, restoring faith in justice over mob rule.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78088.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg78088.epub

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Categories

• Short Stories
• Western Fiction
• Mystery Fiction