17) The Night Wire by H. F. Arnold

Plot:

Told by a night manager at newspaper in a western seacoast town, this is set in the days when news came in by telegraph. The narrator describes John Morgan as a “doubler,” that is, someone who can listen to two feeds and type their contents on two different typewriters. He doesn’t have to do this often. Nights are slow. On the night of the sixteenth, however, a second line opens, and John Morgan is doing his thing. The copy from the first machine is the usual stuff. The copy from the second draws the narrator’s attention.

First, it’s from a town called Xebico, a place the narrator has never heard of. It mentions a thick fog settling over the area, halting traffic. It’s unlike anything the weather bureau has seen before.

Thoughts:

This builds suspense nicely. The narrator and John Morgan don’t talk. The narrator just picks up the copy in neat stacks by the typewriters. The news comes in bits and pieces. What is happening? Is it just an unusual fog—annoying—or is something more sinister going on? Alternatively, is someone playing a prank?

The reader doesn’t know. The two characters in the story are divorced from the action at Xebico.

My own guess is since the Great War was so recent a memory, the fog might recall mustard gas, either consciously or not. The story’s creepiness would account for its continued popularity among generations with no memory of the horrors of that war. It was one of the most popular stories in Weird Tales and has been anthologized often since then.

I liked this short yarn, both for its archaic setting and for its action.

The story can be read here:

The story can be listened to here:


Bio: Henry Ferris Arnold (1902-1963) published at least three speculative fiction pieces, all in Weird Tales. His bio is the subject of much doubt, but what seems to be the case is that he was born in Galesburg, Illinois, graduated from Knox College, and served in the military in WWII. At some point in his life, he may or may not have worked in public relations for the movie business, as a realtor, and as a businessman. He spent the latter part of his life in Laguna Beach, California.


Title: “The Night Wire”
Author: Henry Ferris Arnold (1902-1963)
First published: Weird Tales, September 1926