The Middle Toe of the Right Foot is a ghost story by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It was first published in The San Francisco Examiner on April 17, 1890, and was reprinted the following year as part of Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.
The plot was apparently inspired by the front page Examiner news story from November 14, 1888, which described an improbable duel with bowie knives in a suitably darkened room. A man named Manton has horribly killed his two children and his wife, the latter of whom lacked the middle toe of the right foot. Ten years later he returns much altered to the neighborhood; and, being secretly recognized, is provoked into a bowie-knife duel in the dark, to be held in the now-abandoned house where his crime was committed.
Narrator: Mark Bowen
Listening Length: 00:25:05
The plot was apparently inspired by the front page Examiner news story from November 14, 1888, which described an improbable duel with bowie knives in a suitably darkened room. A man named Manton has horribly killed his two children and his wife, the latter of whom lacked the middle toe of the right foot. Ten years later he returns much altered to the neighborhood; and, being secretly recognized, is provoked into a bowie-knife duel in the dark, to be held in the now-abandoned house where his crime was committed.
Narrator: Mark Bowen
Listening Length: 00:25:05
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