The Ledge is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the July 1976 issue of Penthouse, and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
Synopsis[]
King employs a first person narrator and opens with the protagonist, Stan Norris, in the clutches of Cressner, a wealthy, cruel criminal overlord. Cressner intends to get revenge on Norris, who has been having an affair with Cressner's wife. Instead of killing him outright, Cressner reveals his penchant for striking wagers and offers a chilling ultimatum: if Norris is able to circumnavigate the 5-inch ledge surrounding the multi-story building which houses Cressner's penthouse, he can have Cressner's wife and $20,000. If Norris refuses, he'll be framed for heroin possession and never see his lover again. Cressner also reveals that he has done this to six others, three professional athletes who crossed his path and three ordinary people who got into serious debt with Cressner. Not once has Cressner lost the wager.
Seemingly without any other choice, Norris accepts the wager and proceeds to carefully make his way around the building's cold, windswept exterior. Norris encounters multiple obstacles, including an obstinate pigeon. Norris completes the harrowing ordeal, only to discover that Cressner had already murdered his wife.
Cressner slyly claims that he "never welches" on his bets, stating that the heroin has been removed from his car and gives him the large amount of cash. Mad with rage, Norris overpowers Cressner and his bodyguard and takes the bodyguard's gun, shooting Cressner and his bodyguard. Pleading with Norris, Cressner promises to give him as much as $10 million in a Swiss bank account.
Norris says that it is time Cressner got a taste of his own medicine of what he has done to others; proposing to spare his life if only he is able to complete a trip around the ledge. However, as Cressner starts out, Norris reveals to the reader that he has been known to "welsh" on bets, implying that he will kill Cressner even if he completes the task.