The Problem of Cell 13
Jacques Futrelle
 Like Futrelle's other short stories, "The Problem of Cell 13" features Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen as the main character, although most of the story is seen through the perspective of a prison warden. While in a scientific debate with two men, Dr. Charles Ransome and Alfred Fielding, Augustus, "The Thinking Machine", insists that nothing is impossible when the human mind is properly applied. To prove this, he agrees that he will take part in an experiment in which he will be incarcerated in a prison for one week and given the challenge of escaping. He achieves the goal with great ingenuity (and aid from his frequent confederate, newspaper reporter Hutchinson Hatch) and explains fully how he did it. Everyone around Augustus is amazed at his explanation, and they wholeheartedly believe his point that nothing is impossible, though the warden asks what would have happened if many of the key elements of Augustus's escape had not been present. Augustus smiles smugly and states that there were also two other ways out, and leaves it at that.