000 02426cam a22003613u 4500
001 78409
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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aGardner, Erle Stanley,
_d1889-1970
245 1 4 _aThe surprise party
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2026
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from the December 25, 1929 issue of Clues magazine.
500 _aRelease date is 2026-04-10
508 _aPrepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net)
520 _aThe surprise party by Erle Stanley Gardner is a crime fiction short story written in the late 1920s. It follows a lone-wolf gangster known as the High Collar Kid who senses a setup and must outwit an underworld “surprise party.” The piece centers on deception, a honey trap, and a razor-edged battle of nerves on a rain-lashed night. The High Collar Kid spots trouble as he leaves his rooming house, then roars out of town in a storm, where he encounters a striking young woman walking alone. After he coaxes her into his car, she pulls a gun and forces him to drive—just as a trailing car with Pete Pelton and Smile Dugan closes in to take him for a “ride.” The Kid quietly lifts a rain-damp letter from the woman’s purse, learns her name and hotel, and later bluffs the gunmen that he has already dropped the letter in town where a constable saw, tying them to the plot. Rattled, they pause to “ditch” the girl; in the scuffle the Kid shields her, snatches her hidden gun, shoots Pete, and holds Dugan at bay. He speeds off with the woman and the incriminating note, having turned their trap against them with quick eyes, smooth talk, and a faster draw. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York, NY: Clues, Incorporated, 1929
653 _aShort stories
653 _aCriminals -- Fiction
653 _aThrillers (Fiction)
830 0 _aProduced from the December 25, 1929 issue of Clues magazine.
856 4 _uhttps://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/PU/CLU_1929_12_25.pdf
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78409
999 _c119129
_d119129