The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Various

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Uncanny Tales

Author: Various

Editor: C. Arthur Pearson

Release Date: September 13, 2008 [EBook #26606]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES ***

Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

UNCANNY TALES

LONDON
C. ARTHUR PEARSON, LIMITED
HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.
1916

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect
spellings have been retained. The oe ligature has been transcribed
as [oe].

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY 7

II. THE ARMLESS MAN 19

III. THE TOMTOM CLUE 33

IV. THE CASE OF SIR ALISTER MOERAN 43

V. THE KISS 63

VI. THE GOTH 73

VII. THE LAST ASCENT 88

VIII. THE TERROR BY NIGHT 97

IX. THE TRAGEDY AT THE "LOUP NOIR" 113

UNCANNY STORIES

I

THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY

Professor William James Maynard was in a singularly happy and contented
mood as he strolled down the High Street after a long and satisfactory
interview with the solicitor to his late cousin, whose sole heir he was.

It was exactly a month by the calendar since he had murdered this
cousin, and everything had gone most satisfactorily since. The fortune
was proving quite as large as he had expected, and not even an inquest
had been held upon the dead man. The coroner had decided that it was not
necessary, and the Professor had agreed with him.

At the funeral the Professor had been the principal mourner, and the
local paper had commented sympathetically on his evident emotion. This
had been quite genuine, for the Professor had been fond of his relative,
who had always been very goo