The Duplicity of Hargraves The Duplicity of Hargraves "The Duplicity of Hargraves" is a short story by the American writer William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name: O. Henry. The story was featured in "The Junior Munsey", February 1902, and republished in the volume "Sixes and Sevens" (1911). Sixty-eight-year-old Major Pendleton Talbot and his practical spinster daughter Lydia move to Washington D.C. The Talbots have fallen from their aristocratic past in the South before the American Civil War and are now quite poor. The pair stay at a boarding house in the nation's capital. There they become acquainted with Henry Hopkins Hargraves,
USS William D. Porter (DD-579) Porter" which shot down balloons as well. "Porter", along with the other escort ships, also demonstrated a torpedo drill by simulating a launch at "Iowa". This drill suddenly went awry when a torpedo from mount #2 aboard "William D. Porter" discharged from its tube and headed toward "Iowa". "William D. Porter" attempted to signal "Iowa" about the incoming torpedo but, owing to orders to maintain radio silence, used a signal lamp instead. However, the destroyer first misidentified the direction of the torpedo and then relayed the wrong message, informing "Iowa" that "Porter" was backing up, rather than that a torpedo