A Curious Experience by Mark Twain. Short summary

5 seconds

At Fort Trembula during the Civil War, 14-year-old Robert Wicklow is suspected of espionage. He is arrested and tortured. His accomplices are arrested. But it turns out he’s just a fool with fantasies.

1 minute

A story on behalf of the commandant of Fort Trembul, Connecticut, during the American Civil War.

A 14-year-old boy came to the commandant. He called himself Robert Wicklow and said that he was a Southerner but a supporter of the Northerners, and had escaped persecution with his uncle and aunt. So he decided to join the military.

The commandant decided to place him with the musicians. They began to complain about him — he prayed too much, he sang too much. He was forbidden to do that. Then the commandant began to receive complaints that the boy was writing secret notes, and that he was sneaking out and hiding things and communicating with the recruits.

The commandant and his aide kept an eye on Wicklow and discovered the spy reports. They arrested him and forced him to confess, even tortured him. He declared that the Southerners were preparing to take the fort, and confessed to many of the men they arrested, but refused to give the chief officer’s names or the passwords.

Then the boy escaped, and the commandant found out that he was just a fool from the village who imagined himself to be a spy of the Southerners, and everyone was arrested for nothing.