The hand of God by Murray Leinster
The hand of God by Murray Leinster is a crime fiction short story written in the early 20th century. It follows a small-town sheriff who stands between a lynch mob and an accused killer, probing a murder amid sweltering tension to test whether justice, not vengeance, will prevail. After Kittinger is shot outside the Bethel store, Sam Blake is found unconscious in a nearby blacksmith shop beside a fired rifle, and a
mob gathers to hang him. The sheriff stalls them and rechecks the evidence, noticing two spent shells though only one shot was heard. Sensing a frame-up, he admits two men to “verify” Blake’s condition; Pete Brown—the supposed eyewitness and Kittinger’s nephew—betrays himself by lying about seeing Blake awake in an empty cell. The sheriff then reconstructs the truth: Pete got Blake drunk, fired Blake’s gun without ejecting the shell, planted him in the shop, and then killed Kittinger himself, later pretending to witness the crime from his barbershop—a view blocked by packing crates, proving he could only have seen the shooting from the killer’s spot. The sheriff arrests Pete, disperses the mob, and recognizes that the real “hand of God” was careful observation, courage, and the law asserting itself. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Leinster, Murray, 1896-1975 |
|---|---|
| Title | The hand of God |
| Original Publication | New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. |
| Series Title | Produced from the July 25, 1930 issue of Short Stories magazine. |
| Credits | Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Western stories |
| Subject | Murder -- Fiction |
| Subject | Sheriffs -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78088 |
| Release Date | Mar 2, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 4933 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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