"The Middle Toe of the Right Foot", a ghost story by the writer and Civil War soldier Ambrose Bierce, was first published in The San Francisco Examiner in 1890.

A man named Manton had murdered his children, and his wife who lacked the middle toe of her right foot. A decade later, he returns to the area; and having been recognized, is provoked to a duel in the dark, to be held at the scene of the crime. When the time of the duel comes, no antagonist appears, and Manton stands alone in the haunted darkness. The next day, they found his corpse, throttled by terror, crouching in a corner. Three parallel lines of footprints in the dust on the floor lead to the body of the dead man....