This is one of the earliest locked room tales, and it rivals even the best of Poe. I’m not surprised that, when pundits rank the best mysteries of all time, Futrelle’s short story is often found near the top of the list. The protagonist is Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, whose nickname is the Thinking Machine, and he boasts that no problem is too great for the properly trained human mind. Two friends challenge the Professor to prove his claim in an ingenious experiment. The Thinking Machine will be incarcerated in an isolated cell in a high security prison. He has exactly on week to escape. He succeeds, of course, and even toys with the warden and guards along the way.