How It Happened
"How It Happened" is a short story by the author Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in The Strand Magazine in September 1913. Doyle began writing it in the Victorian era.
Plot summary
The story is written in the first person; the narrator is a man who is met at the beginning of the story by his chauffeur, Perkins, at half-past eleven at the "little country station" while coming back from London. He wanted to try his new car, which had been delivered that day. He was warned that the gears were not of the same type he is used to but he insisted on driving. They "were just over the brow of" Claystall Hill, "one of the worst hills of England", when he lost all control on the speed of the car. He tried to bring the car back to his house "wheels whirring like a high wind" and did not jump even when advised to do so by Perkins. In the end, he managed to reach home but crashed into the park gate.The story ends with Perkins having injured his leg and the narrator meeting a dead friend, Stanley, who tells him that he himself died in the accident.