The problem of Cell 13

"The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle is a mystery about the supremely logical Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, famously known as "The Thinking Machine," who faces an impossible bet: escaping the impenetrable Chisholm Prison's Cell 13. Challenged by skeptics to prove his claim that no cell can hold him, The Thinking Machine allows himself to be locked away, armed with nothing but his intellect; he meticulously assesses the prison, turning ordinary details into tools for his escape, all while his confidence unsettles the warden and confounds his observers, who underestimated the power of his mind against the supposedly inescapable prison.