Invited to the family seat--Pendragon Castle in North Wales--Batky receives a mysterious phone call warning him not to go; but he does and finds himself in a bizarre world of mysticism, romance, animal experimentation, and planned murder. His quest to solve the central mystery takes him down strange byways--old libraries and warehouse cellars, Welsh mountains, and underground tombs.

    Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the nineteenth-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.

    Lunt • (1926) • short story by Hugh Walpole [as by Sir Hugh Walpole]69 • The Islington Mystery • (1927) • short story by Arthur Machen81 • The Cosy Room • (1929) • short story by Arthur Machen87 • Opening the Door • (1931) • short story by Arthur Machen101 • Munitions of War • (1926) • short story by Arthur Machen107 • The Red Turret • (1931) • short story by Christine Campbell Thomson [as by Flavia Richardson]119 • When Glister Walked • (1928) • short story by Oscar Cook (variant of The Sacred Jars 1927)137 • Si Urag of the Tail • (1923) • short story by Oscar Cook153 • The Great White Fear • (1925) • short story by Oscar Cook169 • Boomerang • (1931) • short story by Oscar Cook181 • The Apple Tree • (1931) • short story by Elizabeth Bowen190 • Telling • (1927) • short story by Elizabeth Bowen201 • The Cat Jumps • (1929) • short story by Elizabeth Bowen213 • Crewe • (1929) • novelette by Walter de la Mare237 • A Recluse • (1926) • novelette by Walter de la Mare269 • Two Trifles • short story by Oliver Onions281 • The Smile of Karen • (1927) • novelette by Oliver Onions317 • "John Gladwin Says ..." • (1928) • short story by Oliver Onions331 • The Hanging of Alfred Wadham • (1928) • short story by E. F. Benson347 • As in a Glass Dimly • (1931) • short story by Shane Leslie359 • The Hospital Nurse • (1928) • short story by Shane Leslie369 • The Lord-in-Waiting • (1929) • short story by Shane Leslie389 • A Considerable Murder • (1928) • short story by Barry Pain401 • The Lovely Voice • (1927) • novelette by Cynthia Asquith419 • The Playfellow • (1929) • novelette by Cynthia Asquith443 • "God Grante That She Lye Stille" • (1931) • novelette by Cynthia Asquith475 • The Corner Shop • (1926) • short story by Cynthia Asquith493 • Shall We Join the Ladies? • (1928) • short fiction by J. M. Barrie513 • The Rocking-Horse Winner • (1926) • short story by D. H. Lawrence529 • The Lovely Lady • (1927) • novelette by D. H. Lawrence551 • Rats • (1929) • short story by M. R. James559 • The Killing-Bottle • (1927) • novelette by L. P. Hartley597 • The Travelling Grave • (1929) • novelette by L. P. Hartley619 • A Visitor from Down Under • (1926) • short story by L. P. Hartley637 • The Cotillon • (1931) • short story by L. P. Hartley659 • The Prince • (1928) • short story by W. B. Maxwell665 • The Last Man In • (1910) • short story by W. B. Maxwell685 • Dispossession • (1929) • short story by C. H. B. Kitchin703 • Beauty and the Beast • (1931) • novelette by C. H. B. Kitchin729 • Those Whom the Gods Love • (1929) • short story by Hilda Hughes737 • The Birthright • (1931) • short story by Hilda Hughes749 • The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain • [Christmas Books] • (1848) • novella by Charles Dickens837 • The Villa Désirée • (1921) • short story by May Sinclair851 • The Duenna • (1926) • short story by Marie Belloc Lowndes [as by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes]864 • The Unbolted Door • (1931) • short story by Marie Belloc Lowndes [as by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes]873 • The Apparition of Mrs. Veal • (1919) • short story by Daniel Defoe (variant of A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal the Next Day After Her Death to One Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September 1705 1706)881 • The Lost Tragedy • (1926) • short story by Denis Mackail899 • Spinster's Rest • (1926) • novelette by Clemence Dane925 • Circumstantial Evidence • (1928) • short story by Edgar Wallace941 • A Descent Into the Maelström? • (1841) • short story by Edgar Allan Poe957 • The Fall of the House of Usher • (1839) • novelette by Edgar Allan Poe975 • The Black Cat • (1843) • short story by Edgar Allan Poe987 • Twelve O'Clock • (1926) • short story by Charles Whibley995 • The Amorous Ghost • (1926) • short story by Enid Bagnold1003 • Pargiton and Harby • (1926) • short story by Desmond MacCarthy1019 • The Country of the Blind • (1904) • novelette by H. G. Wells1045 • The Spectre Bridegroom • (1819) • short story by Washington Irving1061 • Mr. Tallent's Ghost • (1926) • short story by Mary Webb1073 • The Buick Saloon • (1930) • short story by Ann Bridge1091 • The Horns of the Bull • (1931) • short story by W. S. Morrison1107 • The Man Who Came Back • (1931) • short story by William Gerhardi1113 • Our Feathered Friends • (1931) • short story by Philip MacDonald1125 • The Stranger • (1909) • short story by Ambrose Bierce1133 • The Yellow Cat • (1924) • short story by Michael Joseph1145 • My Adventure in Norfolk • (1924) • short story by A. J. Alan1155 • The Mysterious Mansion • non-genre • short story by Honoré de Balzac? (trans. of La Grande Bretèche 1832)1165 • The Stranger • (1927) • short story by Algernon Blackwood