35 pages • 1 hour read
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Huff gets on the train in Nirdlinger’s place with his foot bandaged, using Nirdlinger’s crutches, glasses, and hat to conceal his identity. A man named Jackson is smoking on the back observational platform, where Huff needs to stage Nirdlinger’s death. Huff convinces the man to go away by claiming Phyllis stowed his ticket in his suitcase, which Jackson offers to retrieve.
Once Jackson leaves, Huff leaps off the back of the train.
Huff waits in the dark for Phyllis. He cannot see her car and worries that she has abandoned him or got caught by the police. Eventually, Phyllis arrives and hauls her husband’s corpse up to the train tracks on her back. Huff is agitated and criticizes her as they leave her husband’s corpse on the tracks. The relationship between the two breaks down as they drive away from the scene of the crime. Phyllis demands silence while Huff insists on having the radio on for his alibi. The two get into a shouting match.
Huff arrives home to find that nobody called or knocked. He loses control of himself and has a nervous breakdown. He tries to repeat the Lord’s Prayer but forgets the words.
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By James M. Cain