An Unfinished Race

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters", and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce".
"An Unfinished Race" is a short story. It was included in the collection Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories. A shoemaker one day gets a little too drunk and begins boasting of his athletic abilities. He claims he can run some forty miles and so is taken up on the offer by two men who follow him in a wagon. Several miles in, the man appears to trip over something and fall... What happens next? Read the story to find out.