The Town Where No One Got Off

While traveling by train, the aspirant writer Cogswell is challenged by an old salesman to get off the train and settle in a small town to lead a boring life. Cogswell asks the conductor to stop the train and arrives in a quiet town. He wanders through the town and finds hostile dwellers; further, he notes that an old man is following him. The man tells Cogswell that he has been waiting for twenty years for a stranger to commit the perfect crime. Cogswell replies that he has had the same feeling.