Review of “The Night Wire” by H. F. Arnold Halloween Countdown

17) The Night Wire by H. F. Arnold

Plot:

Told by a night manager at newspaper in a western seacoast town, this is set in the days when news came in by telegraph. The narrator describes John Morgan as a “doubler,” that is, someone who can listen to two feeds and type their contents on two different typewriters. He doesn’t have to do this often. Nights are slow. On the night of the sixteenth, however, a second line opens, and John Morgan is doing his thing. The copy from the first machine is the usual stuff. The copy from the second draws the narrator’s attention.

First, it’s from a town called Xebico, a place the narrator has never heard of. It mentions a thick fog settling over the area, halting traffic. It’s unlike anything the weather bureau has seen before.

Thoughts:

This builds suspense nicely. The narrator and John Morgan don’t talk. The narrator just picks up the copy in neat stacks by the typewriters. The news comes in bits and pieces. What is happening? Is it just an unusual fog—annoying—or is something more sinister going on? Alternatively, is someone playing a prank?

The reader doesn’t know. The two characters in the story are divorced from the action at Xebico.

My own guess is since the Great War was so recent a memory, the fog might recall mustard gas, either consciously or not. The story’s creepiness would account for its continued popularity among generations with no memory of the horrors of that war. It was one of the most popular stories in Weird Tales and has been anthologized often since then.

I liked this short yarn, both for its archaic setting and for its action.

The story can be read here:

The story can be listened to here:

Bio: Henry Ferris Arnold (1902-1963) published at least three speculative fiction pieces, all in Weird Tales. His bio is the subject of much doubt, but what seems to be the case is that he was born in Galesburg, Illinois, graduated from Knox College, and served in the military in WWII. At some point in his life, he may or may not have worked in public relations for the movie business, as a realtor, and as a businessman. He spent the latter part of his life in Laguna Beach, California.

Title: “The Night Wire”
Author: Henry Ferris Arnold (1902-1963)
First published: Weird Tales, September 1926

Review of “The Golden Bough” by David H. Keller Halloween Countdown

16) The Golden Bough by David H. Keller

Plot:

Newlyweds Paul and Constance (Martin) Gallien are on a road trip through Europe to find the house in a forest that Constance dreamed of the first night they were married. Paul is “of royal blood,” something not important as it once was, but he apparently still has money. Constance’s background is not discussed.

Once they find the house and move in, Constance decides she really wants to stay. She makes Paul push his car off a cliff. They’re stranded at their dream house. But that’s okay.

Constance hears pipe-playing in the middle of the night and gets up out of bed while Paul sleeps to go dance with the piper. He convinces her to grow mistletoe over Paul’s side of the bed, watering it every day from a particular sacred pond.

Yeah, nothing weird about that.

Thoughts:

Granted, they’re in love, and Paul is willing to give Constance anything she wants—but just the practical problems that arise from stranding themselves in their dream house should make him think twice. What if one of them were hurt or got sick? What if Constance ran out of flour while baking? What if the stork dropped by? But “he’s in love” just doesn’t cut it. And hey— cars don’t grow on trees, ya know!

Because the author tells the reader the pipe-played interloper is Pan—not that it was a surprise—I don’t feel that I’m giving much away by mentioning it.

This is a downer of a little fairy tale. If a man is held in sway by love for a woman tragedy strikes because women are by nature without a lick of common sense or judgment, let alone concern for the well-being of others. The gods are capricious beings without feeling for human suffering or frailties.

The title refers to James Frazier’s work of the same title, first published in the late nineteenth century, treating comparative religions and mythologies.

While this at times strained credulity, it worked well enough, but brother, how depressing.

The story can be listened to here:

Bio: David H. Keller (1880-1966) was an American author, physician, and psychiatrist. According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE), his psychiatric practice focused on what was then called shell shock—better known as PTSD now—among those coming out of WWI and thereafter. Among his best-known stories is “The Revolt of the Pedestrians,” a 1928 story which posits people evolving to become one with their cars.

Title: “The Golden Bough”
Author: David H. Keller (1880-1966)
First published: Marvel Tales, Winter 1934

Review of “The Secret of Kralitz” by Henry Kuttner Halloween Countdown

15) The Secret of Kralitz by Henry Kuttner

Plot:

As his father was dying, he warned Franz, now the twenty-first Baron of Kralitz, that the House of Kralitz was cursed. He couldn’t tell him how it was cursed and warned him against trying to seek out the nature of the curse. When it was time for him to learn it, warders would come to him and lead him down to the cavern below the castle and reveal all.

The dying baron pointed out the ruins of an old monastery nearby. The first Baron Kralitz burned it. He had a falling out with the abbot who was sheltering a girl he wanted. The abbot cursed him and unborn generations.

Thoughts:

This horror tale is nicely gothic—old castle, ancient curse of uncertain make-up, a long trip down to the cavern beneath the castle, scary old dead things, etc. It’s often also classified as a Cthulhu tale perhaps because of a brief mention of the same. The cavern is crowded, and there’s a party going on.

While the ending might not be a surprise to the reader, poor old Franz is a bit slower in coming around.

IMseldomHO, it’s worth a single read. It’s better as a listen, though.

The story can be read here.

The story can be listened to here.

Bio: Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was an American author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. An early admirer of Weird Tales and H. P. Lovecraft, he corresponded with the author and had some stories published in the magazine. He was married to author C. L. Moore (“Shambleau”). The two often collaborated. Kuttner used many pseudonyms, including Lawrence O’Donnell and Lewis Padgett. One of the writers his later SF work influenced was Ray Bradbury.

Title: “The Secret of Kralitz”
Author: Henry Kuttner (1915-1958)
First published: Weird Tales, October 1936

Review of “Gabriel-Ernest” by Saki Halloween Countdown

14) “Gabriel-Ernest” by Saki

Plot:

On their way to the train station, the artist Cunninghan warns Van Cheele there is a wild beast in his woods. It’s the only thing he’s been able to say on the drive. Van Cheele has chattered the whole time.

“A stray fox or two and some resident weasels. Nothing more formidable,” Van Cheele says.

Not until they’re standing on the platform does he ask Cunningham, “What did you mean about a wild beast?”

“Nothing. My imagination. Here is the train.”

Later, while Van Cheele takes a walk through the woods, as was his habit. He comes across a boy of about sixteen sunning himself after an apparent swim. The boy is nude and unapologetic. Van Cheele talks to the boy and tells him he can’t live in the woods.

The next day, he finds the boy has turned up at his house, welcomed by his aunt as a poor boy who has lost his way and his memory. After all, Van Cheele told him he can’t live in the woods. The dog won’t go near him.

Thoughts:

It is apparent to the reader that the lost boy is a threat. Van Cheele sees him as a nuisance rather like a dog who digs in the yard. His aunt is completely blind to the danger the boy poses and merely wishes to take him under her wing. She even gives him a Christian name.

The satire practically screams; Van Cheele is too busy talking to hear Cunningham’s warning. Miss Van Cheele is convinced of her power to do good that she can’t see the menace. When the foreseeable tragedy strikes, the townspeople misunderstand it.

An underlying cruelty runs through the story as well, as if to say that these people are stupid and deluded enough to deserve what comes to them. Unfortunately, the victims (overlooking Van Cheele’s inconvenience) are all children.

This story is short and can easily be read in a single sitting with time left over to spare.

An audio version of the story can be heard here via Librivox.

Bio: H. H. Munro (1870-1916), who wrote under the pseudonym Saki, was a British author and journalist who is now best remembered for his epigrammatic short stories often satirizing the upper crust of British society. Many of his stories dealt with talking animals and few of them ended happily. Munro was gay at time when same-sex relations were considered a crime. Though he was over age, he enlisted for service in WWI and died in 1916 at the Battle of Ancre. Supposedly, his last words were, “Put that bloody cigarette out!”

Title: “Gabriel-Ernest”
Author: Saki (legal name Hector Hugh Munro) (1870-1916)
First published: The Westminster Gazette, May 29, 1909.

Review of “The Frontier Guards” by H. Russell Wakefield Halloween Countdown

13) “The Frontier Guards” by H. Russell Wakefield

Plot:

While playing golf, James Brinton asks his old friend William Lander about a charming little cottage they pass by.

Lander concedes that it’s charming on the outside, but it’s haunted by whole pack of ghosts who are lethal to those who rent it.

Over dinner, Lander gives his friend the particulars. The cottage, Pailton, has been rented five times in the last twelve years. Each time, someone died.

“It should be razed to the ground,” he concludes.

He has never set foot in the building.

Skeptic Brinton doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he’d like to see one. Would his old friend allow him to visit the cottage?

Lander won’t let him go alone. He’s a psychic and sees ghosts all the time. He recites a list of warnings, asking, “Still want to go?” Brinton accedes to each condition. The men agree to go after their round of golf the next day.

What could go wrong?

Thoughts:

This short tale is a set-up for two guys exploring a haunted house, where there are sure to be ghosts with bad attitudes who have killed innocent people before.

Lander gives Brinton (…and the reader) the history of the house, due warning that regular time and space don’t work there. He agrees to take his friend if only to show him ghosts are real, and then they can leave.

On the one hand, this is atmospheric with real danger for the characters. On the other, the reader is almost waiting for Brinton to take off screaming through the woods while Lander stands locking the door. “Yep. Told ya, pal.”

How serious is this? On the last page, the author pulls off an ending that lets you know. Unfortunately, it’s a little confusing. I had to read it a couple of times before it sank in. But it’s cool. It works.

audio version: via HorrorBabble: here.

Bio: H. Russell Wakefield (1888 or 1890-1964) was an English short-story writer, novelist, publisher, and civil servant chiefly remembered today for his ghost stories. He served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in France and the Balkans during WWI. M. R. James and Algernon Blackwood influenced his supernatural work. His short story collections include Imagine a Man in a Box (1931), A Ghostly Company (1935), and Strayers from Sheol (1961). He also wrote non-fiction and a few mystery novels.

Title: “The Frontier Guards”
Author: H. Russell Wakefield (1888 or 1890-1964)
First published: November 25, 1929

Review of “The Dream-Gown of the Japanese Ambassador” by Brander Matthews Halloween Countdown

12) “The Dream-Gown of the Japanese Ambassador” by Brander Matthews

Plot:

World traveler Cosmo Waynflete has just returned to New York, having amassed a collection of curiosities from nearly every corner of the globe. Exhausted, he dons the elaborately embroidered silk robe of the title—one he bought “in a little curiosity-shop in Nuremberg”—and stares into the sunlight hitting a crystal ball he found in a shop within sight of “Fugiyama.” He believes he sees people in the crystal ball. This strikes him as perfectly natural.

He finds himself among the people, no longer Cosmo Waynflete, but a samurai, seeking vengeance for the death of his beloved master. He lies, waiting… and finds himself no longer in Japan, but in ancient Persia, pursued by a dragon. If his steadfast horse were less attentive, it would have been curtains for Cosmo.

These two are just the beginning of Cosmo’s heroic visions/dreams. None of them is resolved.

Thoughts:

Half the fun of this story is Cosmos’s adventures. What is happening? What will happen? It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s one good yarn after another. By the time a friend arrives to wake Cosmo—interrupting one dream—it’s a letdown. That friend then goes on to give routine explanations for every adventure Cosmo had.

Spoilsport.

While this one was enjoyable, the ending was disappointing. A final trick tries to redeem the spirit of the piece. While it was cute, it didn’t quite make up for the letdown.

The story can be read here.

Bio: Brander Matthews (1852-1929) was an American essayist, drama critic, novelist, and first U.S. professor of dramatic literature. He was admitted to the bar but never practiced law. He was a professor of literature at Columbia University and a critic for The New York Times. His best remember novel is A Confident Tomorrow (1899). He also wrote biographies of French playwright Molière and English playwright Shakespeare.

Title: “The Dream-Gown of the Japanese Ambassador”
Author: Brander Matthews (1852-1929)
First published: Tales of Fantasy and Fact, 1896

Review of “His Unquiet Ghost” by Mary Noailles Murfree

11) “His Unquiet Ghost” by Mary Noailles Murfee

Plot:

A group of young men is hauling some, um, homemade brew packed in a “coffin-box” late at night when they happen across a party of “revenue-raiders.” The “rev-enuers” casually ask them what they’re hauling.

“What we-uns mus’ all be one day, stranger—a corpus.” They then name the deceased as one Watt Wyatt. At is happens, Watt is alive and well and one of their party. Needless to say, Watt is quite surprised.

Thoughts:

This is cute. The narration is written in standard English, but the dialogue is in dialect and takes a couple of seconds to decipher. The moonshiners play a cat-and-mouse game with some of the less discreet “rev-enuers,” while word of Watt’s “demise” spreads fast. Watt has to hide to avoid being spotted by people who know him. Even people who know him don’t seem to see him and don’t mind talking about him. The things they say are revealing to poor Watt.

He wanders to his “grave” (where his friends have buried their hooch) and sees Minta Elladine Biggs weeping by it. He didn’t realize she cared so much.

This is a cute story but not exactly profound.

The story can be read here:

Bio: Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922) was a descendant of Colonel Hardy Murfree, for whom Murfreesboro, TN, was named. After a fever at the age of four left her partially paralyzed—she had difficulty walking—she turned to books. While modern readers often consider her depiction of people as stereotyped, Murfree was considered one of the earliest “local color” writers.

Title: “His Unquiet Ghost”
Author: Mary Noailles Murfree (alias Charles Egbert Craddock) (1850-1922)
First published: The Raid of the Guerilla and Other Stories, May 1912

Review of “The Night Call” by Henry van Dyke Halloween Countdown

10) “The Night Call” by Henry van Dyke

Plot:

Doctor Leroy Carmichael has recently established his practice in New Jersey. The important people of town don’t quite take him seriously. One night, he receives a summons to attend a visiting “Baroness de Mortemer.” The Baron himself drives him to a house in obvious disrepair in a part of town Leroy doesn’t know.

The Baroness was once known as Jean Gordon, a local girl and an erstwhile Latin student of Leroy’s father. Leroy recalls that the elder Carmichael had fond memories of Jean, even if she didn’t finish school. She eloped…

Thoughts:

This is nice and atmospheric, with the middle of the night call to Leroy’s house, the Baron who says little about his wife’s condition, the sinister factotum who speaks only French, and the ruinous house—Jean Gordon’s legacy. The gothic air is intriguing, but I found the story ultimately unsatisfying.

The ending suggests magic in longing for home (even if one can never go back). It never ties the Baroness’ longing for home, late in life in delicate health, with Leroy, who knows her only by an inscription in a book. Certainly, she and her husband can afford better accommodations than the house they’re in now, never mind it being theirs free and clear.

The story can be read here.

Bio: Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) was an Dutch American author, poet, educator, and Presbyterian clergyman. He was a professor of English literature at Princeton from 1899 to 1923. In 1913, his friend and former classmate, Woodrow Wilson, appointed him Minister to the Netherlands and Luxemburg. He wrote about twelve books altogether, mostly on religious topics.

Title: “The Night Call”
Author: Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)
First published: The Unknown Quantity, 1912

Review of “Brickett Bottom” by Amyas Northcote Halloween Countdown

Plot:

Reverend Arthur Maydew takes a well-deserved vacation of sorts by swapping parishes with an elderly Mr. Roberts. His two daughters, Alice and Maggie, go with him.

Both girls are social and attractive. They like going for strolls in the area. On one of their walks, Alice comes upon an old-fashioned brick house with a lovely garden she hadn’t noticed before. In the poor light, near-sighted Maggie can’t be sure she sees anything. They decide to return later, but Maggie sprains her ankle and walking is out of the question for a while. Alice walks alone. She tells Maggie of meeting a friendly older woman with a lovely garden and an invitation to stop by the next day. She’ll be back at half past four at the latest.

She isn’t.

Thoughts:

Alice is twenty-six and Maggie twenty-four. Alice is described as “inclined to be absent-minded and emotional and to devote more of her thoughts and time to speculations of an abstract nature than her sister.” She later dreams of the cottage. Maggie wonders if she isn’t going a little crazy.

Maggie cautions her sister against accepting invitations from strangers. If the couple were “desirable or attractive neighbours,” Mr. Roberts would have told them.

This is a warning about defying social conventions. It concludes with stories of other young women (…no young men…) who have gone astray—some happily recovered, others never to be heard from again.

Nothing Alice does is evil or ill-intentioned, but she is unwary. At the same time, she is new to the area and doesn’t have all the information. The moral of the story is that she should have behaved better or at least heeded the advice of her sister.

Well, this was depressing all around.

The story can be read here:

An audio version can be heard here: (approximately 45 minutes)

Bio: Amyas Northcote (1864-1923) was a British writer, justice of the peace, and for a time, small businessman in Chicago. He came from an aristocratic family. His only known writing was collection of ghost stories, In Ghostly Company, published in 1921 shortly before his death.

Title: “Brickett Bottom”
Author: Amyas Northcote (1864-1923)
First published: In Ghostly Company, 1921

Review of “Three Spanish Ladies” by Walter E. Marconette Halloween Countdown

8) “Three Spanish Ladies” by Walter E. Marconette

Plot:

Finding himself at the Pearly Gates, a loyalist Spanish soldier, deceased during the Spanish Civil War, * explains how he left the land of the living in the presence of the three women he loved. Hey, being with one woman is bad enough, but three? The lethal shot solved his problems. He’d discover which woman loved him most by turning and seeing the one who came to him.

Oh, is he in for a surprise.

Thoughts:

This is what would be called a short-short now, barely more than a page long. It is cute, lightweight fare. Then again, if one is looking, one might find a gay joke (albeit a homophobic one), but a gay joke in a story from 1938—you know, before anyone acknowledged gay people existed in polite society? Or maybe it was intended with the idea that it would just fly over the heads of those who didn’t see it.

Or, I could be wrong.

This was a fun little piece.

The story can be read here.

Bio: Walter E. Marconette (1919-1988) was an editor, science fiction fan, and artist. He was a member of FAPA (Fantasy Amateur Press Association) and the SFL (Science Fiction League).

*The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was fought between—broadly speaking— the left-leaning Republican (“loyalists”) and the right-leaning Nationalists (“rebels”). The Nationalists prevailed, and the Nationalist leader Francisco Franco ruled Spain as dictator until his death in 1975.

Title: “Three Spanish Ladies”
Author: Walter E. Marconette (1919-1988)
First published: Spaceways #1 November 1938