How is suspense created in the short story "How It Happened"?

How It Happened is a short story written by Arthur Conan
Doyle in 1918. The narrator is the one experiencing what occurs in the story, so he is
writing in first person. 

It starts off hinting
that it is night time and that the narrator is excited to drive his new car. However he
is not familiar with the new gear system to his Robur. So the reader wonders if there
are any consequences to the narrators decision when he refuses his chaffeurs offer to
driving him home. 

The car fails to function
properly throughout the story and forces the narrator to crash into his house
gates. 

The narrator fails to realize what has happened as
he stumbles to call Perkins, his chaffeur. Thankfully he is alive, but the crowd around
him does not seem to notice or hear the
narrator. 

In the last paragraph, the narrator
starts to talk to his long lost friend, Stanley. He suddenly realizes in the last couple
of lines that Stanley, is infact, dead. That is the point when Stanley tells the
narrator, that he is dead too. 

This story
conveys the message that it is unsafe to drive at night and with a car you are
unfamiliar with. It shows that sometimes, it is not always the best decision to take
risks and that you should always consider the likely consequences before making a final
decision.