The hermit of Turkey Hollow : The story of an alibi, being an exploit of…
"The hermit of Turkey Hollow" by Arthur Cheney Train is a legal mystery novel written in the early 20th century. Set in a Mohawk Valley hamlet, it turns a backwoods murder into a study of circumstantial evidence, small-town passions, and the razor’s edge of an alibi. The story centers on the killing of a reclusive “hermit,” the swift accusation of Skinny the Tramp, and the wry, strategic defense mounted by attorney Ephraim
Tutt as a courtroom showdown builds around time, footprints, and a grandfather clock. The opening of the narrative sets a philosophical contrast between Skinny’s belief that nothing truly dies and the Hermit’s hard materialism, then grounds the tale in the dank woods of Turkey Hollow and its talkative neighboring town, Pottsville. After a storm, Skinny spots a rainbow seeming to end at the Hermit’s shanty and glimpses a crock of gold inside; moments later, lumberman Charlie Emerson hears a cry and a shot, finds the Hermit dying beside a smashed bean pot, and notices a gold coin in his hand. Skinny appears in town at four o’clock, breathless and muddy, and is soon hunted down and arrested, while the newly minted, unscrupulous district attorney, Squire Mason, seizes the case despite his conflicted role as Skinny’s trustee. The Sacred Camels fraternal lodge hires Ephraim Tutt, who suspects the timeline is the key; at trial, after Mason’s grandstanding, Tutt deftly draws from Emerson that the Hermit’s clock showed four o’clock when he lifted the dying man’s head—the very moment Skinny was seen in the grocery—planting a powerful alibi as the sheriff’s testimony begins. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Train, Arthur Cheney, 1875-1945 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 21016801 |
| Title | The hermit of Turkey Hollow : The story of an alibi, being an exploit of Ephraim Tutt, attorney & counselor at law |
| Original Publication | New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921. |
| Credits | an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction |
| Subject | Legal stories |
| Subject | Attorney and client -- Fiction |
| Subject | Law firms -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77895 |
| Release Date | Feb 9, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 178 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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