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The Smart Set/Volume 69/Issue 2/The Parthian Shot

From Wikisource
The Parthian Shot (1922)
by Dashiell Hammett

Extracted from Smart Set, October 1922, p. 82. Possibly Hammett's shortest short story.

3729275The Parthian Shot1922Dashiell Hammett


The Parthian Shot

By Dashiell Hammett

WHEN the boy was six months old Paulette Key acknowledged that her hopes and efforts had been futile, that the baby was indubitably and irremediably a replica of its father. She could have endured the physical resemblance, but the duplication of Harold Key’s stupid obstinacy—unmistakable in the fixity of the child’s inarticulate demands for its food, its toys—was too much for Paulette. She knew she could not go on living with two such natures! A year and a half of Harold’s domination had not subdued her entirely. She took the little boy to church, had him christened Don, sent him home by his nurse, and boarded a train for the West.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 62 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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