THE STORY: On a rocky hilltop in Spain four young American men, fighting for the Loyalist cause, face certain death if they remain to cover a retreat. King McCloud, their leader, surprises the others by deciding to pull out while he can still save himself. He orders the others to go, but they refuse, preferring to die than give in to tyranny and oppression. King flees, leaving the others to face the oncoming guns. The story concerns King’s wanderings and his efforts to assuage his conscious for his cowardice. On a wharf in Key Largo, he seeks the father and sister of one of his companions. Confession to them and their forgiveness will bring him peace, he thinks. There, in a swift-moving drama of gambling, treachery, and murder, he is again faced with the necessity of choosing between death and escape. This time he chooses death to save an innocent man and to protect the honor of the girl he had grown to love; and in dying, he wins his own victory.
This was the basis for the movie of the same name.
