of the thirteen stories included in this volume, "the gold wulfric," "the two carnegies," and "john cann's treasure" originally appeared in the pages of the cornhill; "the third time" and "the search party's find" are from longman's magazine; "harry's inheritance" first saw the light in the english illustrated; and "lucretia," "my uncle's will," "olga davidoff's husband," "isaline and i," "professor milliter's dilemma," and "in strict confidence," obtained hospitable shelter between the friendly covers of belgravia. my title-piece, "the beckoning hand," is practically new, having only been published before as the christmas supplement of a provincial newspaper. my thanks are due to messrs. smith and elder, longmans, macmillan, and chatto and windus for kind permission to reprint most of the stories here. if anybody reads them and likes them, let me take this opportunity (as an unprejudiced person) of recommending to him my other volume of "strange stories," which i consider every bit as gruesome as this one. should i succeed in attaining the pious ambition of the fat boy, and "making your flesh creep," then, as somebody once remarked before, "this work will not have been written in vain."

g. a.

the nook, dorking,

christmas day, 1886.