Donald E. Westlake 47 min read

A handkerchief-masked man announces a holdup to twelve people in a bank, and something extraordinary is about to answer him.

Donald E. Westlake's 1961 story lines up its ordinary cast, the guard dozing, the boy with his mother, the stranger cashing a check, before an uncanny power intervenes. Sharp, witty psi-powered SF from a future crime-fiction master. Read it for a clever golden-age tale with Westlake's crisp setup and a satisfying twist.

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

47 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Bob Ritter