The Scientific Circle

I am not sure if this story fits the bill on mathfiction - I am on the border but leaning toward it since the full arc of the story does use a mathematical fact - that there is no “front” or “back” to a circle. The story itself contains no math but has a “Professor Ward” whom his students call “Old Cube Root” so I suppose he is a math professor - but the story does not mention this - he is just “a man of science” and holds “a chair of natural science”. For health reasons, he sets out on a 3-month vacation in the Jalapa region of Mexico (he has no wife or other attachments. In a funny stereotype of a scientist / mathematician, it is written, “It is needless to add that Ward was never married and probably never will be. He would not know what to do with a wife. Probably such a thing as marrying has never occurred to him.”)

So of course, a bandit starts chasing him in a leisurely manner with none-too-good an intention. The professor is no match for him physically so devises a plan to walk a large circle and come up behind the bandit to shoot him. And so it turns out.

I liked the writing style even if there is no big development of plot or suspense or any such thing.